MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 1 Mar 11

• What’s next for Canada’s response to Libya? Canada pledges humanitarian aid to Libya (without explaining what kind) + CF reconnaissance and medical team in Malta (More) = DART deployment?  Time will tell.
• Canada to Gadhafi:  Maybe it’s time to go? “Canada is warning that the desire for freedom in Libya and across the region will overwhelm leaders who withhold democracy and abuse their citizens. After criticism of its reluctant embrace of the pro-democracy rebellion that toppled Egypt’s longtime ruler, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is now positioning itself squarely behind Libyan rebels who are massing on Tripoli’s doorstep and preparing for battle with their dictator. In Ottawa, Government House Leader John Baird tabled sanctions in the House of Commons and spoke openly of “regime change” to end Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s 41-year rule. At a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva Monday, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon spoke hopefully of a “tide of change” sweeping through the Middle East and North Africa ….”
• How about a no-fly zone over Libya?  No consensus, says Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister.  “A military no-fly zone over Libya is unlikely to get off the ground as several allies are balking at the plan, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday. “In terms of the no-fly zone, there doesn’t seem to be consensus among our allies,” Cannon told a teleconference from Geneva, declining to offer Canada’s position. “There are too many elements still not known, so I would not want to offer an opinion at this time,” he said. “We still don’t have enough information.” Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain was working with its allies to draw up a plan for a military no-fly zone over Libya ….”
• What Canada’s up to, 140 characters at a time from the PM’s chief spokesperson Dimitri Soudas.  How many out so far? Brit warship gives some Canadians a lift to Malta.  Where’s Canada’s big military plane in the area?
• More news on the latest in Libya here (Google News), here (EMM News Brief:  Libya),  here (NewsNow), here (BBC) and here (Al Jazeera English).
• More tidbits of information about missing Canadian Colin Rutherford in Afghanistan. This from CBC.ca: “…. The police chief in Ghazni province confirmed that Rutherford was living in the region for almost a month and that he was seen dressed in local clothing several times ….” This from the Toronto Star:  “…. In late October, just six months into a new job as a media auditor in Toronto, Rutherford told his boss he was going on vacation. The 26-year-old wanted to learn Pashto, one of Afghanistan’s two official languages. “He went to Afghanistan and didn’t come back,” said Zia Hasan, manager of audit operations at the Toronto-based Canadian Circulations Audit Board. Rutherford had booked two weeks off. “We just thought he decided not to come back. Sometimes people do that. We’re obviously concerned for his welfare. We’re cooperating with the local authorities for any information that they require,” Hasan said ….”
• How’re the Afghan troops being trained by Canadian and NATO troops doing?  Not all that great yet according to one journalist blogger: “…. The question on everyone’s mind these days is whether the OMLTs (Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams) can mould the Afghans into an independent fighting force by the time Canada’s military withdraws from combat operations in a few months. Based on my two days on foot patrol with the OMLT (which hardly makes me an expert), the short answer to that question is no. The Afghan company I observed showed a capability to orchestrate simple security missions, though not without some problems. Capt. Eric Bouchard believes Afghans are now at a point where they can successfully conduct searches of compounds and fields for weapons. They are also fast at responding to Taliban activity. But as for more complicated missions, the Afghans seem to be lacking a level of sophistication ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch:  Attacks, assassinations alleged in Kandahar.
• February highlights of what Canada’s buying.
• Defence research paper (PDF): Soldiers identified good-vs-bad guys better with Combat ID (CID) System than without (bot both CID systems were the  same re:  effectiveness)

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Big (and little) Accommodations and Adjusting Sleep in the Arctic

• Wanna build trainee shacks in Petawawa? “…. DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA (DCC) – #HQ1368A9- Construct Training Accommodation Facility, Petawawa, Ontario.  The work includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the supply of labour, material, supervision and equipment necessary for the construction of a 3 story, 96 room training accommodation building …. The estimated cost for this opportunity is in the order of $13,687,000.00 …. The tender closing date is: January 20, 2011.  The tender closing time is: 14:00 hours, local time ….”
• How about a big naval building in Esquimalt? “…. DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA (DCC) – #HQ43604A- FMF Cape Breton – Phase IV, CANTASS Area, Esquimalt, British Columbia.  The work includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the supply of labour, material, supervision and equipment necessary for construction of new areas and renovation of existing areas of the FMF Cape Breton facility, Esquimalt, British Columbia …. The estimated cost for this opportunity is in the order of $6,031,000.00 …. The tender closing date is: January 11, 2011  The tender closing time is: 14:00 hours, local time ….”
• Tents, anyone? “…. The Department of National Defence, Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, in Oromocto, New Brunswick, has a requirement for the supply and delivery of a quantity of 200, 3 person 3 season tents to weather light snow, heavy rains and wind, plus work in hot climates …. Maximum packed weight must not exceed 5 lbs. including fly.  Delivery of all tents is preferred by February 18, 2011 and absolutely no later than March 31, 2011 ….”
• CF needs portable chopper landing pads for those hard-to-land-in spaces: “…. The Department of National Defence, 1 Wing, has a requirement for the provisions of eight (8) man portable Helicopter Landing Pads to support the Canadian Forces (CF) tactical aviation operations in austere areas …. The objective of this acquisition is to obtain man-portable, helicopter landing pads capability that will reduce environmental damage to aircraft, improve operational performance and increase safety …. The deliverables must be received no later than March 31, 2011 ….”
• How do we play with sleep & light cycles (and maybe give them melatonin) to help folks work & live better in the Arctic? “…. The Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Toronto, Ontario has a requirement for a contractor to provide service for conducting a research and development literature review and a Gap Analysis on circadian interventions. The contractor will also review DRDC’s scientific literature manuscripts prior to submission for publication ….” More in Statement of Work here (PDF), and a bit more on the topic here (via etools.ch metasearch engine) and here (via allplus.com metasearch engine).
• Emergency knives for aircrew:  “…. The Contractor is required to provide the Department of National Defence with Hunting knife set, aircrew emergency knife, used on immersion suits, special features complete with metal sheath, fabric patch, cleat and lanyards, manufactured by Egginton Bros. Limited in Shefffield, GB, part number AEK/COMP.  Firm Quantity: 100 each to Montreal, Quebec and 100 each to Edmonton, Alberta.  Delivery: January 31, 2011 ….”

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Improving Blood Testing for Diver Problems

The MERX version:

…. The Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Toronto ON has a requirement for the provision of Immunoinflammatory Response to Divers Laboratory Services on an “as and when requested” basis. The Contractor will be required to conduct whole genome microarray expression and serological multiplex proteomic analyses for up to 1500 experimental specimens of extracted total RNA and serum proteins from human subjects. The experiments will be conducted by DRDC, Toronto where the total RNA and serological proteins will be collected, separated and shipped to the Contractor to perform specialized transcriptomic and proteomic analysis ….

The (slightly) easier to understand version, from the Statement of Work here (PDF):

…. The primary aim of this work is to provide a rapid bio-chemical assay to aid in the early detection of decompression stress leading to decompression sickness. This microarray service will enable the Experimental Diving and Undersea Group (EDUG) and Individual Readiness Section (IRS) to screen cell-material interactions to delineate stress-induced changes in the expression levels for > 40,000 genes in the peripheral-blood transcriptome and integrative relationships between encoding gene expression and protein level expression in peripheral blood samples collected from human volunteers. The results will provide a mechanistic, biochemical understanding of how cells respond during hyperbaric decompression and other operational stressors. Together, these approaches may permit an improved capacity to assess risk, guide treatment options and target therapies against operational stressors ….

Deadline:  28 Dec 10 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Getting GOSSIP ready for commercial release

Plain language translation: DRDC has software that can scan and analyze the content of (even huge numbers of) documents to determine relationships between people, places and things mentioned in them, and wants help getting this to market – more from MERX:

…. Defence R&D Canada – Toronto (DRDC Toronto) has completed the development of the Graphical Overview of Semantic and Social Interactions of People (hereafter referred to as, GOSSIP) The GOSSIP technology is comprised of an interactive visualization interface that allows the user to determine quickly who the important entities are (persons, places, or anything with a title) in a collection of documents and their connections. A “connection” in GOSSIP occurs when entities are discussed together in a document. It also comprises an algorithm that derives semantic information from the corpus. The semantic content allows the user to filter documents, connections and generate profiles of entities by considering their similarity to semantic characteristics of the document corpus. To the extent that document collections are stamped by date or time, GOSSIP can examine the contents of a document collection in discrete time slices allowing the user to track connections and changes in their nature over time. Finally, GOSSIP contains a reporting facility that allows the user to by-pass the visualization aspect of the tool and generates data from a document corpus that can be examined by other software packages (e.g., Excel, SPSS, etc).

Development Status

The GOSSIP prototype has been built and tested, and the research project leading to its development has been completed. A patent application has been filed for this technology.

Applications

There are a substantial number of users for such a tool the defense and security sectors, such as for those who conduct intelligence analyses, target audience analysis, sentiment analysis, opinion mining, and the analysis of large collections of brief reports. Within the intelligence analysis context, GOSSIP represents a new capability that analysts did not have previously. Several opportunities would also exist in the civilian market, such as any occupation that requires an analysis of large document collections. For example, market researchers could use GOSSIP to track the entities and concepts associated with their products in the media over time. In legal or investigative contexts, GOSSIP could be used to help study the sequences of connections among entities discussed in large collections of documents and how they change over time. Reporters and members of the media could use GOSSIP to examine the connections among entities discussed across documents spanning long periods of time.

DRDC Toronto is now seeking an industrial partner to commercialize GOSSIP, by negotiating a license to the technology ….

Deadline:  30 Dec 10 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

More here if link doesn’t work.

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Collecting Data for Stress, Brain Injury Studies

This from MERX:

…. The Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), has a requirement for access to a psychophysiological data collection facility along with technical support to assist in the data collection and analysis. The services will be performed as and when requested by DRDC. The facilities will include the following;

• 3T Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner
• Sleep lab facilities
• EEG system
• Equipment to collect eye movement data
• Equipment to collect and analyse salivary melatonin
• Equipment to collect and analyse salivary cortisol
• A room with at least four electrical outlets and four desks and/or tables where laptop computers can be installed for data collection

(….)

The period of work is from date of contract award for a period of two years and will include the irrevocable option to extend the term of the Contract by up to 2 additional one year period(s) under the same conditions.

The estimated limitation of expenditure is $339,000.00 (HSTI) from the date of award for a period of two years, and $56,500.00 (HSTI) for each of the option periods. The minimum work guarantee is $20,000.00 from the date of award for a period of two years and $10,000.00 for each of the option periods ….

More details on the call for bids here.

How are they using the data they’re collecting? This from attached Statement of Work here (via Army.ca)….:

…. Sustained operations in adverse conditions (e.g. the arctic) can give rise to a wide range of stressors (e.g., fatigue, social isolation, and circadian dysregulation) that can impair the effectiveness of Canadian Forces (CF) personnel. To develop countermeasures to mitigate the deleterious effects of stressors, it is necessary to first develop a scientifically validated framework that can quantify the effects of stressors across a wide range of psychological and physiological measures. Furthermore, many of the physiological and psychological measures that are also used quantify brain function among neurologically healthy adults are also used to measure functional and structural integrity in populations with head injury, including those with mild-to-moderate brain trauma. As such, given the overlap in the required facilities for data collection for currently active in, we propose to secure access to a comprehensive and configurable suite of psychophysiological data collection facilities for the lifetime of (i.e., up to four years) ….

… and Tony’s Plain Language Version:

DRDC Toronto’s running a series of studies on how to deal with stress factors faced by CF members in tough climes and situations (fatigue, feeling isolated and screwed up sleep patterns). Before you can figure out how to deal with the stress-causing factors, you need to know exactly what effects they have on the body. Since the things we measure to do this are the same as things we measure to see how brain injured patients are recovering, we’re looking for a lab where all these measurements can be taken and shared among the different studies we’re working on.

Bidding deadline: 10 Nov 10, 2pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time.

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING?: How Are Troops Doing After Coming Home?

You’ve read a bit here about “how are they doing before they head downrange?” research being carried out by the CF.  Now, we see calls for “how are they doing after returning from downrange?” research – more, from MERX (highlights mine):

The Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), Toronto, Ontario has a requirement for the conducting of interviews, in both English and French, on post-deployment reintegration experiences of Canadian Forces (CF) members, transcribe the recorded interview material, translate any French interview transcriptions into English, and write brief one to two page summaries of the major themes emerging from each of the interviews. The work for the first set of interviews, transcriptions, translations and summaries (first post-deployment cycle) is expected to commence in May 2010 while the work for the second and third set of interviews, transcriptions, translations and summaries (second and third post-deployment cycles) will commence approximately October/November 2010 and April/May 2011, respectively …. The funding for this project is limited to: $45,000.00 CAD (all applicable taxes excluded) for the firm requirement, and $45,000.00 CAD (all applicable taxes excluded) for the optional requirement….

The Statement of Work (PDF) says the “optional requirement” involves follow-up interviews of either more people as needed, or interviews involving new questions that come up during the process.

The Statement of Work also cites research suggesting it took about four months “following a fairly stable deployment such as Bosnia” to reintegrate (Thompson, M.M. & Gignac, M.A.M. (2002). The experience of Canadian Forces augmentees. In P. Essens, A. Vogelaar, E. Tanercan, & D. Winslow, Eds.), The Human in Command: Peace Support Operations (pp. 235-263). Amsterdam: Mets & Schilt/KMA), adding the aim of the latest research is to compare the post-Afghanistan reintegration experience to this.

(I’ll leave the assessment of how “stable” the former Yugoslavia was (Medak Pocket notwithstanding) to those who’ve been there.)

If you’re interested in other research along these lines, check out the DRDC’s Centre for Operational Research and Analysis’s Technical Memorandum “Effects of Personnel Tempo on Military Members, their Families, and the Organization:  An Annotated Bibliography” published in November 2008 here (PDF).

Deadline for the bidding:  2pm EDT on April 23, 2010

Update (1): 7 Apr 10 – Ottawa Citizen catches up.

WHAT’S CANADA BUYING? Strategic role of non-gov’t bad guys

This, from MERX:

…. Defence Research and Development Canada, Toronto, ON requires services for the support of research aimed at advancing our understanding of the strategic roles of Armed Non-state Actors (ANSAs) in the context of persistent social conflict within fragile or failing states. The research contract is entitled “Towards a Theory of ANSA Strategic Decision-making: Review of the Relevant Scientific Literature”.  The purpose of the work is to deliver an integrative review of the relevant scientific literature such as Integrative Literature Review (ILR)1 so that it will assess scientific literature of relevance to elaborating a theory of ANSA decision-making. It will evaluate the state of the art of the extant scientific literature, identify gaps in that literature, and suggest future research to fill those gaps …. The maximum funding available for the Contract resulting from the bid solicitation is $50,000.00 (Goods and Services Tax or Harmonized Sales Tax extra, as appropriate) ….

A little bit more from the Statement of Work (5 pg, 119KB PDF):

…. In simple terms, the goal of this … project is to shed soem light upon what ANSAs do and why they do it …. this framework will serve as the theoritical basis for subsequent development of an integrated (operational- or strategic-level) knowledge management tool to assist Candian Forces… in the production of combat and strategic intelligence in support of future Peace Support Operations … and Counterinsurgency Operations … in fragile or failing states ….

Plain English?

What does current research say about what armed anti-government groups do, and why they do it?  We want to know so we can develop a framework – a set of lenses, if you will – for military folks to look through to help them produce intelligence during “peacekeeping” or counterinsurgency operations in fragile or failing states.

Deadlines?  Bids in by 2pm Eastern 25 Mar 10, with final report expected by 15 Nov 10.

Canadian Military Research Just Out

I wanted to share some new papers released by Defence Research and Development Canada with you.  While interesting, you have to wade through the scientific-ese a bit.

1)  Plain English Summary for “Counter-IED Initiative PPE Horizon 0 – Phase 1 Protection versus Performance:  Preliminary Tradeoff Analysis:  Behavioural Task Analysis” (159 pg. PDF):

Research shows folks in tanks, other armoured vehicles and trucks need to be able to move from the waist up to do their jobs, so we’ll have to consider that when designing body armour and other personal protection against IEDs. Still, there were some worries about protecting the troops’ sides, necks, throats and pelvises.

Abstract for same:

DRDC Valcartier has taken the lead on a Counter-IED (C-IED) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Horizon 0, which is a sub-project of a larger C-IED Technical Demonstration Project (TDP). DRDC Toronto is the providing Human Factors expertise to support this project. In order to develop PPE recommendations to overcome any change or increase in vulnerability a comprehensive understanding of physiological, biomechanical, task performance and operational impact of increasing coverage and/or level of protection of soldiers needs to be obtained. The objective of this study was to develop a number of operational scenarios that encompassed the majority of tasks performed by mounted crewmen. These scenarios were then used to conduct a behavioral task analysis (BTA) of vehicle crews with emphasis given to reach and viewing activities, physical motions and crew station operations, vehicle and equipment compatibility, and access/egress in normal and emergency situations. The operational scenarios were developed from a focus group held at CFB Edmonton from 1 – 2 February 2007. The four operational scenarios that were developed at the focus group were a quick reaction force in a close country, a broken down vehicle within a city, an engage targets scenario, and a vehicle-borne IED scenario. These scenarios were then used to lead the BTA that was conducted from 19 – 21 March 2007. A total of 28 soldiers participated in the BTA covering 8 vehicles (G-Wagon, MLVW, HLVW, TLAV, Bison, Leopard C2 Tank, Coyote, and the LAV III). Once the BTA was concluded each participant completed a questionnaire evaluating their current in-service personal protective equipment.  The BTA found that in most vehicle crew positions a full range of motion from the waist up is required, a critical design criteria for any additional PPE developed for vehicle crews. In general, existing PPE was acceptable but concerns were raised about the level of coverage on the sides, neck, throat and pelvis. There were also concerns about the in-service shoulder cap.

2)   Plain English Summary for “A State-of-the-art Review of Enhanced Personal Protection Equipment Options,” (93 pg. PDF), which appears to be a bit of a follow-up to (1):

After checking out what’s out there in body armour (both military and commercial rigs) and other protective gear (sports and industrial included), here’s some combinations of add-ons (7 pg. PDF) we should explore further to see if they can protect while letting the soldier get on with his or her job.

Abstract for same:

The purpose of this study was to conduct a state-of-the-art review of commercial and military off-the-shelf (COTS/MOTS) options for enhancing protection of the soldier’s torso, neck, nape and extremities, including any design options from industrial and sports applications. This review was then used to recommend which add-on torso and extremity components should be modeled in Digital Biomechanics software. Finally, detailed requirements for the commencement of a future biomechanical modeling analysis were provided.

3)  Plain English Summary for “A review on pharmacokinetic modeling and the effects of environmental stressors on pharmacokinetics for operational medicine” (127 pg PDF):

What’s the scientific literature say about how stress, fatigue, confusion and other things a soldier goes through in battle affects how the body responds to drugs and medicine?  There’s still gaps in the research, so we’re going to figure out a model to predict how drugs work in the body while it’s under military-linked physical and psychological stress.

Abstract from same:

In this report, we conducted a comprehensive literature review on the effects of a range of physiological and psychological stressors on drug absorption, distribution and elimination (pharmacokinetics), and current pharmacokinetic models (including computerized modeling tools and algorithms) used to predict pharmacokinetic changes. Although sophisticated computerized mathematical models have been widely used to quantitatively describe the pharmacokinetics of drugs in the human body, limited experimental data for both descriptive and predictive purposes were available. The effects of isolated physical activities on pharmacokinetics have been documented. However, some inconsistencies need to be addressed, such as the intensity and duration of each physical activity, and timing of drug administration. Other physiologicalstressors, such as temperature, hypoxic, hyperbaric and hyperoxic conditions have been studied to a lesser extent. There are only a few reports describing the psychological effects on drug pharmacokinetics. After carefully reviewing the literature, our goal is to develop a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic model to predict the absorption, distribution and elimination of drugs employed under various military physiological and psychological stressors.

Enjoy!