Field 57, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear

Field 57, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and NuclearField 57, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and NuclearCreating specialists in the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Defense requires skill and application of knowledge as a teacher, but also commitment, dedication, and nerves of steel to be a student learning about these deadly compounds as a young Marine. These brave men and women fight chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear incidents. What these Marines are preparing for is a real possibility and a threat to thousands or millions of people. The availability of advanced military and commercial technologies and information combined with commonly available transportation and delivery means, may allow adversaries opportunities to acquire, develop, and employ WMD or create a CBRN environment without regard for national or regional boundaries via shipping containers or on their person entering the country. See DOD Joint Publication on Operations in Chemica l, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Environments. Such situations could also expose US military operations to CBRN threats and hazards. While the adversaries in those operational areas may not possess WMD or other CBRN materials, other forms of CBRN hazards may be present that could result in CBRN environments, if released. US forces must be trained and fully capable of operating in those CBRN environments to accomplish all assigned missions. The Marine MOS Field 57 has that duty. But what is CBRN? Chemical - Chemical hazards are any chemical manufactured, used, transported, or stored that can cause death or other harm through toxic properties of those materials, including chemical agents and chemical weapons prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention as well as toxic industrial chemicals.Application of these to kill people (military or civilians) is known as chemical warfare.Access to deadly chemicals is not that difficult to people of terrorist intent. This is a very r eal threat. Common types Nerve agents, blood agent, blister agents, and incapacitating agents. Biological - Biological agents are microorganisms (or a toxins derived from it) that causes disease and death in personnel, plants, or animals or causes the deterioration of materiel.These can also be stored on an industrial level with relative easy access as any biological material manufactured, used, transported, or stored by industrial, medical, or commercial processes which could pose an infectious or toxic threat is considered a potential weapon. Radiological - Radiological dispersal devices (RDD) are improvised assembly or process, other than a nuclear explosive device, designed to disseminate radioactive material to cause destruction, damage, or injury. A radiological exposure device (RED) is a radioactive source placed to cause injury or death.It causes death and injury by ionizing radiation that can cause damage, injury, or destruction from either external irradiation or due to ra diation from radioactive materials within the body. All radiological devices have the ability to cause residual radiation, which is the dangerous radiation caused by fallout, lichtbrechung of radioactive material, or irradiation following a burst. Nuclear - Nuclear weapons, whether by a state actor or a rogue terrorist group, could be a threat given the world-wide situation and potential proliferation of nuclear devices. Being able to use intelligence and sophisticated sensing equipment gives the professional in the CBRN world the ability to assess and react to potential threat areas. MOS Field 57 - Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Besides being highly motivated, brave, and skilled thinker in dangerous situations, the personnel involved in CBRN must be able to do the following duties and have the following responsibilities The Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Defense field includes the detection, identification, warning, reporting, pro tection, avoidance and decontamination procedures associated with CBRN hazard and contamination on the battlefield.CBRN defense specialists duties involve operational and technical skills, along with logistical and administrative requirements.CBRN defenses specialists will be required to learn chemical and biological (CB) warfare agents characteristics, physiological symptoms, and effects, treatment, detection, and identification. They must know the procedures necessary for mitigating the effects of nuclear explosions and detection of radiological hazards.CBRN defense specialists will learn how to conduct CBRN hazard prediction, disseminate this information utilizing the CBRN Warning and Report System, and ensure their command effectively executes contamination avoidance procedures.CBRN defense specialists must possess the necessary knowledge to be able to employ and supervise unit level decontamination, monitor survey, and reconnaissance operations. CBRN defense specialist must be able to effectively instruct CBRN defense individual and unit survival measures to their unit personnel, and provide more in-depth training to their units CBRN defense team members.Additionally, CBRN defense specialists must be familiar with the proper employment, operation, serviceability, maintenance, calibration, storage, supply, and accountability procedures for all CBRN defense equipment and materials down to the battalion/squadron level.Formal schooling is provided at the entry level. Billets available in the Occupational Field are at the battalion, select squadron, regiment and Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) level - as a member of a CBRN defense platoon in the Division or Marine Logistics Group as a member of a CBRN defense section in a Marine/aircraft Wing - on staffs involving the development of doctrine and acquisition of new equipment as a member of a equipment assessment unit assigned to a Marine Corps Base as a member of the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBI RF) - and as an instructor at a Marine Corps or other service school. Marines entering this Occupational Field will initially receive MOS 5700, Basic CBRN Defense Marine. Below are the Marine Corps Enlisted Military Occupation Specialties which are organized under this occupational field 5711 Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Specialist 5731 Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Reconnaissance System Operator (JCBRNRS) LAV Operator

Microhammer Aids Understanding of Brain Trauma

Microhammer Aids Understanding of Brain Trauma Microhammer Aids Understanding of Brain Trauma Microhammer Aids Understanding of Brain TraumaWith concussions continuing to dominate the sports media landscape, anything that can help to shed light on the impact of trauma to the brain is going to garner interest.Megan Valentine, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an associate director of the California NanoSystems Institute at the school, is part of a team employing a microhammer in an attempt to unlock more of the brains mysteries when it comes to the effects of impact.What they find could affect everyone from athletes to accident victims.The Power of a Little fustelThe microhammer is just what it sounds like a microscale machine that can hit cells one at a time, Valentine explains. The microhammer is built from silicon using similar fabrication techniques as are used to make semiconductor microelectronics chips, and is magn etically actuated to strike each cell. The device is built onto a microfluidic chip that allows us to flow cells into the hammer strike zone, and then collect them afterwards for further analysis, including studies that assess the physical, chemical, and genetic changes in the cells due to impact. By leveraging cell-sorting technologies, we can strike and collect cells in a high-throughput manner.Post-impact structural, biochemical, and genetic expression analysis. Image University of CaliforniaValentines lab had previously developed tools using electromagnetic fields to apply forces to cells.However, we were never able to achieve the high force magnitudes or short pulse durations required to mimic traumatic brain injuries (TBI) with these approaches, she says. The lack of tools to study TBI at the cellular level has stymied research and limited our understanding of this disease, which impacts soldiers, athletes, and accident victims.The microhammer allows them to provide forces equ al to what the brain cells go through with TBI, Valentine says, adding that this allows for assessment of the threshold levels that trigger damage and repair.Our method will allow us to study the role of force and impact on large numbers of individual cells with extremely high precision, and will allow us to track the cell-level changes over time, she says. No other technology has this capability and we are excited to see where this project leads.Speaking the Same LanguageValentine marvels at how this type of project forces participants, from engineers to medical professionals, to find a common language in buchung to move forward in the work.This is a terrific opportunity and we have had a lot of success through these brainstorming sessions, she says. And we have found creative solutions that no one of us would have been able to accomplish working alone.Still, there is a good amount of work to be done in the next steps.We are currently studying how force impacts affect neural stem c ells, which hold promise as therapeutic agents after injury, Valentine says. We will continue this work and also plan to extend these studies to include not only single cells, but small tissue fragments, to allow us to assess how cell-cell interactions change after impact.Eric Butterman is an independent writer. For Further Discussion Our method will allow us to study the role of force and impact on large numbers of individual cells with extremely high precision, and will allow us to track the cell-level changes over time. Prof. Megan Valentine, University of California, Santa Barbara

Buffett Wants In On the Action

Buffett Wants In On the ActionBuffett Wants In On the ActionWhat was turning out to be a relative yawner of a day on the financial frontno bankruptcies, mergers, layoffs, status switches, Fed bailouts or Congressional decisionsjust got interesting, as the investing sektenfhrer from Nebraska, Mr. Buffett himself, has apparently taken a stake in Goldman Sachs to the tune of $5 billion in preferred shares. Im sure the folks at Goldman (who plan to raise $2.5 billion more in preferred stock) are thankful tootheir GS stock is boomingin after-hours trading, up 16 percent.