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Category: KB

  • MIL-OSI USA: One Month Left to Apply for Federal Disaster Assistance

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Headline: One Month Left to Apply for Federal Disaster Assistance

    One Month Left to Apply for Federal Disaster Assistance

    LOS ANGELES – Homeowners and renters who have incurred damage or losses from the Los Angeles County wildfires that began Jan. 7 have until Monday,March 10,  2025, to apply for FEMA Individual Assistance. The program provides financial and other assistance to eligible individuals and households to help meet their basic needs and supplement their wildfire recovery efforts. FEMA may reimburse eligible applicants for temporary housing, home repairs to their primary home, personal property losses, medical and dental expenses related to the disaster, childcare and other serious disaster-related needs not covered by insurance.Residents who have insurance need to file insurance claims for damage to their homes, personal property and vehicles before applying. FEMA assistance is not taxed and will not affect Social Security, Medicaid or other federal benefits. FEMA grants do not have to be repaid. Apply for FEMA Individual Assistance:Online at DisasterAssistance.gov (fastest option).On the FEMA App (available at the Apple App Store or Google Play).By phone on the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362. If you use a relay service, give FEMA your number for that service. Helpline operators speak many languages: press 2 for Spanish or press 3 for an interpreter who speaks your language. Lines are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 7 days a week. Visit a Disaster Recovery Center (DRC). To locate a DRC near you, visit the DRC Locator.For an American Sign Language video on how to apply, visit FEMA Accessible: Three Ways to Register for FEMA Disaster Assistance. After You ApplyIf you had damage and applied for FEMA assistance, you can expect a call, text or email from FEMA to schedule a home inspection to assess disaster damage. Please note phone calls from FEMA may come from an unfamiliar number. Inspectors will try to reach you multiple times but eventually will stop calling if you do not respond. You will learn FEMA’s decision on what benefits you may receive in a Determination Letter sent by email or U.S. Mail.FEMA may refer you to the U.S. Small Business Administration for a SBA low-interest disaster loan to help offset damage and losses caused by the wildfires. Disaster loans are available to renters, homeowners and businesses and are the largest source of federal disaster funding for people impacted by disasters. The deadline to apply with the SBA is also March 10, 2025. Do not wait for your FEMA Determination Letter to apply for a SBA loan. To apply visit sba.gov/disaster; call SBA’s Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955 or email DisasterCustomerService@sba.gov for more information or to have a loan application mailed to you. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech disability, dial 711 to access telecommunications relay services. You may also apply with the help of a SBA representative or submit your loan application at a Business Recovery Center. To find one, go to Appointment.sba.gov. Completed paper loan applications should be mailed to U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155. 
    barbara.murien…
    Mon, 02/10/2025 – 17:44

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Melissa Gates: Keeping Goddard Running

    Source: NASA

    Name: Melissa Gates
    Title: Secretary III
    Organization: Mission Systems Engineering Branch, Engineering Technology Directorate (Code 599)

    What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
    As a branch secretary, I support my branch office by ordering supplies, managing the meeting calendars, onboarding new employees and otherwise supporting the managers. I help keep the office running.
    How did you come to work at Goddard?
    In 2005, I got a bachelor’s degree in communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 2012, I got a master’s degree in communications from Regis University.
    For over 20 years, I managed our family business in New Jersey involving competitive pool. I helped run the competitions and the daily activities, but I never played pool.
    In 2016, I moved to Maryland to work in customer service at MGM National Harbor. In 2019, I started at Goddard through Melwood, a non-profit organization that helps disabled people find employment. 
    What are the most important skills for a good branch secretary?
    Listening. Being prompt. Being organized. Prioritizing tasks. Good people skills. I am a people person, and I can relate well to different personalities. I am very flexible. With teleworking, I am always available.
    Where do you see yourself in five years?
    I really want to work in communications, especially NASA TV, because I want to continue my first loves of writing and public relations. I enjoy working with the public and getting people’s stories out to others. I like learning about people and sharing what I have learned.
    How has having a disability impacted your job choices?
    I have had to make people comfortable with my disability. I use a cane and a scooter to get around. Melwood helped me find a job at Goddard, which fulfilled my 20-year dream.
    What are your goals as a member of the GSFC Equal Accessibility Employee Resource Group?
    As a member of the GSFC Equal Accessibility Employee Resource Group, my focus is to help promote the Ability One Program, a federal program that assists people with all levels of disability find federal jobs. I have my Melwood job through this program. I am very thankful to Melwood and Goddard for giving me a job that offers good benefits and security.
    I offer my life experience as a person with a disability now working at Goddard. I try to make management aware of accessibility needs such as bathrooms, removal of snow from sidewalks and parking lots, assistive technology for hearing and sight impaired people and other issues. Goddard is very responsive to our accessibility needs.
    What do you do for fun?
    I love to read, especially Terry McMillan’s rom-coms. I love bungee jumping, zip lining and roller coasters. I love adrenaline rushes and am a thrill seeker!
    I enjoy traveling and have been to Hawaii and Mexico. I would like to take the train across the country. That way I would not have to move around, the train would be moving and I could still see the country. I would enjoy talking to everyone on the train and have a good time.
    What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
    Caring. Outgoing. Loves people. Adventurous. Joyful. Grateful. 
    By Elizabeth M. JarrellNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

    Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: John Moisan Studies the Ocean Through the ‘Eyes’ of AI

    Source: NASA

    Name: John Moisan
    Formal Job Classification: Research oceanographer
    Organization: Ocean Ecology Laboratory, Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Geophysics (HBG), Earth Science Directorate (Code 616) – duty station at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore
    What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
    I develop ecosystem models and satellite algorithms to understand how the ocean’s ecology works. My work has evolved over time from when I coded ocean ecosystem models to the present where I now use artificial intelligence to evolve the ocean ecosystem models.
    How did you become an oceanographer?
    As a child, I watched a TV series called “Sea Hunt,” which involved looking for treasure in the ocean. It inspired me to want to spend my life scuba diving.
    I got a Bachelor of Science in marine biology from the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, and later got a Ph.D. from the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
    Initially, I just wanted to do marine biology which to me meant doing lots of scuba diving, maybe living on a sailboat. Later, when I was starting my graduate schoolwork, I found a book about mathematical biology and a great professor who helped open my eyes to the world of numerical modeling. I found out that instead of scuba diving, I needed instead to spend my days behind a computer, learning how to craft ideas into equations and then code these into a computer to run simulations on ocean ecosystems.
    I put myself through my initial education. I went to school fulltime, but I lived at home and hitchhiked to college on a daily basis. When I started my graduate school, I worked to support myself. I was in school during the normal work week, but from Friday evening through Sunday night, I worked 40 hours at a medical center cleaning and sterilizing the operating room instrument carts. This was during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
    What was most exciting about your two field trips to the Antarctic?
    In 1987, I joined a six-week research expedition to an Antarctic research station to explore how the ozone hole was impacting phytoplankton. These are single-celled algae that are responsible for making half the oxygen we breathe. Traveling to Antarctica is like visiting another planet. There are more types of blue than I’ve ever seen. It is an amazingly beautiful place to visit, with wild landscapes, glaciers, mountains, sea ice, and a wide range of wildlife. After my first trip I returned home and went back in a few months later as a biologist on a joint Polish–U.S. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) expedition to carry out a biological survey and measure how much fast the phytoplankton was growing in different areas of the Southern Ocean. We used nets to measure the amounts of fish and shrimp and took water samples to measure salinity, the amount of algae and their growth rates. We ate well, for example the Polish cook made up a large batch of smoked ice fish.
    What other field work have you done?
    While a graduate student, I helped do some benthic work in the Gulf of Maine. This study was focused on understanding the rates of respiration in the muds on the bottom of the ocean and on understanding how much biomass was in the muds. The project lowered a benthic grab device to the bottom where it would push a box core device into the sediments to return it to the surface. This process is sort of like doing a biopsy of the ocean bottom.
    What is your goal as a research oceanographer at Goddard?
    Ocean scientists measure the amount and variability of chlorophyll a, a pigment in algae, in the ocean because it is an analogue to the amount of algae or phytoplankton in the ocean. Chlorophyll a is used to capture solar energy to make sugars, which the algae use for growth. Generally, areas of the ocean that have more chlorophyll are also areas where growth or primary production is higher. So, by estimating how much chlorophyll is in the ocean we can study how these processes are changing with an aim in understanding why. NASA uses the color of the ocean using satellites to estimate chlorophyll a because chlorophyll absorbs sunlight and changes the color of the ocean. Algae have other kinds of pigments, each of which absorbs light at different wavelengths. Because different groups of algae have different levels of pigments, they are like fingerprints that can reveal the type of algae in the water. Some of my research aims at trying to use artificial intelligence and mathematical techniques to create new ways to measure these pigments from space to understand how ocean ecosystems change.
    In 2024, NASA plans to launch the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite, which will measure the color of the ocean at many different wavelengths. The data from this satellite can be used with results from my work on genetic programs and inverse modeling to estimate concentrations of different pigments and possibly concentrations of different types of algae in the ocean.
    You have been at Goddard over 22 years. What is most memorable to you?
    I develop ecosystem models. But ecosystems do not have laws in the same way that physics has laws. Equations need to be created so that the ecosystem models represent what is observed in the real world. Satellites have been a great source for those observations, but without a lot of other types of observations that are collected in the field, the ocean, it is difficult to develop these equations. In my time at NASA, I have only been able to develop models because of the great but often tedious work that ocean scientists around the world have been doing when they go on ocean expeditions to measure various ocean features, be it simple temperature or the more complicated measurements of algal growth rates. My experience with their willingness to collaborate and share data is especially memorable. This experience is also what I enjoyed with numerous scientists at NASA who have always been willing to support new ideas and point me in the right direction. It has made working at NASA a phenomenal experience.

    Related Article: NASA Researcher’s AI ‘Eye’ Could Help Robotic Data-Gathering

    What are the philosophical implications of your work?
    The human capacity to think rapidly, to test and change our opinions based on what we learn, is slow compared to that of a computer. Computers can help us adapt more quickly. I can put 1,000 students in a room developing ecosystem model models. But I know that this process of developing ecosystem models is slow when compared what a computer can do using an artificial intelligence approach called genetic programming, it is a much faster way to generate ecosystem model solutions.
    Philosophically, there is no real ecosystem model that is the best. Life and ecosystems on Earth change and adapt at rates too fast for any present-day model to resolve, especially considering climate change. The only real ecosystem model is the reality itself. No computer model can perfectly simulate ecosystems. By utilizing the fast adaptability that evolutionary computer modeling techniques provide, simulating and ultimately predicting ecosystems can be improved greatly.
    How does your work have implications for scientists in general?
    I do evolutionary programming. I see a lot of possibility in using evolutionary programming to solve many large problems we are trying to solve. How did life start and evolve? Can these processes be used to evolve intelligence or sentience?
    The artificial intelligence (AI) work answers questions, but you need to identify the questions. This is the greater problem when it comes to working with AI. You cannot answer the question of how to create a sentient life if you do not know how to define it. If I cannot measure life, how can I model it? I do not know how to write that equation. How does life evolve? How did the evolutionary process start? These are big questions I enjoy discussing with friends. It can be as frustrating as contemplating “nothing.”
    Who inspires you?
    Many of the scientists that I was fortunate to work with at various research institutes, such as Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. These are groups of scientists are open to always willing to share their ideas. These are individuals who enjoy doing science. I will always be indebted to them for their kindness in sharing of ideas and data.
    Do you still scuba dive?
    Yes, I wish I could dive daily, it is a very calming experience. I’m trying to get my kids to join me.
    What else do you do for fun?
    My wife and I bike and travel. Our next big bike trip will hopefully be to Shangri-La City in China. I also enjoy sailing and trying to grow tropical plants. But, most of all, I enjoy helping raise my children to be resilient, empathic, and intelligent beings.
    What are your words to live by?
    Life. So much to see. So little time.

    Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Mark SubbaRao Brings Data to Life Through Art

    Source: NASA

    Name: Mark SubbaRao
    Title: Lead, Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS)
    Formal Job Classification: Information Technology Specialist
    Organization: SVS, Science Mission Directorate (Code 606.4)
    What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
    I have an amazing job. I get to work with all the most interesting NASA science and make it visual to help people can understand it. The Scientific Visualization Studio, the SVS, supports all of NASA and is located at Goddard.
    What is your educational background?
    I have B.S. in engineering physics, minor in astronomy, from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I have a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Johns Hopkins University.
    What is data visualization? How is it different from animation?
    Data visualization is the graphical representation of actual data (in our case usually scientific data). At its most basic it takes the forms of charts, graphs, and maps. In contrast, conceptual animation, such as the work of our colleagues in the CI Lab, is the graphical representation of ideas. Conceptual animation and data visualization are both needed to communicate the full scientific process.
    How did your work for the University of Chicago develop your interest in visualization?
    I worked on software for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project to create the biggest 3D map of the universe. Our goal was to map 3D positions of a million galaxies, which we did. My role was to develop the software to determine the distance to galaxies. To see the result we needed a way to see how the galaxies were distributed in 3D, which led to my interest in visualization.
    Viewing this map, I felt like we had revealed a new world which no one had yet seen altogether. The desire to share that with the public led me a position at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

    How did planetariums evolve during your 18 years of working for the Adler Planetarium?
    I led their visualization efforts for their Space Visualization Laboratory, a laboratory that was on the museum floor and had multiple specialized displays. The local scientific community used our laboratory to present to the public including other scientists and students.
    I also produced planetarium shows and designed exhibits. My last project, “Astrographics” for Art on the Mart, was a 2.6-acre, outdoor projection onto a building near the Chicago River. We believe that this is the largest, permanent outdoor digital projection in the world.
    I began to see the power of the planetarium as a data visualization environment. Traditionally, a planetarium has been a place to project stars and tell stories about constellations. Planetariums have now evolved into a general-purpose visualization platform to communicate science.
    I got more involved with the planetarium community, which led to me becoming president of the International Planetarium Society. A major focus of my presidency was promoting planetariums in Africa.
    Why did you come to NASA’s SVS at Goddard?
    I came to Goddard in December 2020. I always admired NASA’s SVS and had used their products. I consider the SVS the preeminent group using scientific visualization for public communication.
    I wanted to work on visualizations for a broader variety of sciences, in particular, climate science. Our group created visualizations for the United Nations Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, the fall of 2021. In March 2022, I created a visualization called Climate Spiral, which went viral.

    [embedded content]
    This visualization shows monthly global temperature anomalies (changes from an average) between the years 1880 and 2021. Whites and blues indicate cooler temperatures, while oranges and reds show warmer temperatures.Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / NASA’s Scientific Visualization StudioDownload high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

    As the lead, how do you hope to inspire your group?
    Our group is very talented, experienced, and self-motivated. Data visualization has recently exploded as a communication tool. Our goal is to continue to stay on top of this rapidly evolving field. Coupled with this, there has been an explosion in scientific data from satellites and super computers. As data becomes bigger and more complex, visualization becomes an even more important tool for understanding that data.

    Your work combines art and science. What are the benefits of combining art and science?
    One huge benefit is that you can reach people through an artistic visual presentation of science who may not be interested in simply reading an article. You can go beyond teaching people, you can move them emotionally through a good, artistic presentation.
    For example, in “Climate Spiral,” we did not want to just inform people that global average temperatures have increased, we wanted people to feel that the temperature has increased.
    Also, our universe is just beautiful. Why not let the beauty of the universe create something artistic for you? I sometimes feel like I cheat by letting the universe do my design for me.
    What do you do for fun?
    Since moving to Maryland, and living near the Chesapeake Bay, I have taken up stand up paddleboarding. I like to cook too. My father is Indian, so I cook a lot of Indian food.
    Who inspires you?
    Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction writer, also wrote a lot of popular science. He played a big part in my decision to become a scientist.

    Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
    By Elizabeth M. JarrellNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA Scientists & Historian Named AAAS 2022 Fellows

    Source: NASA

    Four individuals with NASA affiliations have been named 2022 fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in recognition of their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements in the scientific enterprise.
    Election as a Fellow by the AAAS Council honors members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and colleagues. The 2022 Fellows class includes 508 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines.
    Rita Sambruna from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was recognized in the AAAS Section on Astronomy, and Jennifer Wiseman, also from Goddard, was recognized in the AAAS Section on Physics. Dorothy Peteet of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York was honored in the AAAS section on Earth Science. Erik Conway of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in southern California was honored for distinguished contributions and public outreach to the history of science and understanding of contemporary science and science policy.

    Rita Sambruna
    Dr. Rita Sambruna is the acting deputy director of the Science and Exploration Directorate and the deputy director of the Astrophysics Division at Goddard. She also promotes increased participation of underrepresented groups in science.
    She worked with a team to position Goddard to lead the decadal top priority missions. She led a team to set into place a vision for a Multi-Messenger Astrophysics Science Support Center at Goddard, to lead the astrophysics community in reaping the most from NASA- and ground-based observations of celestial sources.  
    She came to Goddard in 2005 to work on multiwavelength observations of jets using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and other NASA capabilities. From 2010 to 2020 she worked at NASA Headquarters, Washington, as a program scientist for astrophysics. Her research interests include relativistic jets, physics of compact objects, supermassive black holes in galaxies, and multiwavelength and multi-messenger astrophysics.
    In December 2022, Sambruna was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) as an internationally acclaimed astrophysicist who embodies the RAS mission in promoting the advancement of science, the increased participation of historically underrepresented groups in astronomy, and a broad interest in astronomy. In 2019 she was awarded the NASA Extraordinary Achievement Medal for her leadership on the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey studies. She was named Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2020 and a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2021.

    Jennifer Wiseman
    Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at Goddard and a Senior Fellow at Goddard, where she serves as the senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. Her primary responsibility is to ensure that the Hubble mission is as scientifically productive as possible. Previously, Wiseman headed Goddard’s Laboratory for Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics. She started her career at NASA in 2003 as the program scientist for Hubble and several other astrophysics missions at NASA Headquarters. 
    Wiseman’s scientific expertise is centered on the study of star-forming regions in our galaxy using a variety of tools, including radio, optical, and infrared telescopes. She has a particular interest in dense interstellar gas cloud cores, embedded protostars, and their related outflows as active ingredients of cosmic nurseries where stars and their planetary systems are born. In addition to research in astrophysics, Wiseman is also interested in science policy and public science outreach and engagement. She has served as a congressional science fellow of the American Physical Society, an elected councilor of the American Astronomical Society, and a public dialogue leader for AAAS. She enjoys giving talks on the excitement of astronomy and scientific discovery, and has appeared in many science and news venues, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NOVA, and National Public Radio.

    Dorothy Peteet
    Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet is a senior research scientist at GISS and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. She directs the Paleoecology Division of the New Core Lab at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia.
    In collaboration with GISS climate modelers and LDEO geochemists, she is studying conditions of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene that are archived in sediments from lakes and wetlands. Peteet documents past changes in vegetation, derived from analyses of pollen and spores, plant and animal macrofossils, carbon, and charcoal embedded in sediments. Her research provides local and regional records of ancient vegetational and climate history. One recent focus has been the sequestration of carbon in northern peatlands and coastal marshes: ecosystems that are now vulnerable to climate change and potentially substantial releases of carbon back into the atmosphere.
    Peteet also has performed climate modeling experiments to test hypotheses concerning the last glacial maximum and abrupt climate change. She is interested in climate sensitivity and in how past climate changes and ecological shifts might provide insights on future climate change. 

    Erik Conway
    Erik Conway has served as the historian at JPL since 2004. Prior to that, he was a contract historian at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He is a historian of science and technology, and has written histories of atmospheric science, supersonic transportation, aviation infrastructure, Mars exploration, and climate change denial.
    He is the author of nine books, most recently, “A History of Near-Earth Objects Research” (NASA, 2022), and “The Big Myth” (Bloomsbury, 2023). His book “Merchants of Doubt” with Naomi Oreskes was awarded the Helen Miles Davis and Watson Davis prize from the History of Science Society. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 and the Athelstan Spilhaus Award from the American Geophysical Union in 2016.
    AAAS noted that these honorees have gone above and beyond in their respective disciplines. They bring a broad diversity of perspectives, innovation, curiosity, and passion that will help sustain the scientific field today and into the future. Many of these individuals have broken barriers to achieve successes in their given disciplines.
    AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.
    For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Phathom Donald Brings Space Closer as a Hubble Mission Engineer

    Source: NASA

    Name: Phathom Donald
    Title: Mission Engineer
    Formal Job Classification: Satellite Systems Engineer
    Organization: Astrophysics Project Division, Hubble Space Telescope Operations Project, Code 441
    What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
    As a member of the flight operations team for the Hubble Space Telescope, I monitor and evaluate the performance of Hubble’s subsystems through its telemetry. I send commands to Hubble as needed for routine maintenance, maintaining communication with the spacecraft, and recovery from onboard anomalies. I also support ground system maintenance to ensure that operations run smoothly and uninterrupted.
    On the flight software team, I build and run simulations to verify flight software changes before they’re installed onto Hubble. Just like how your laptop or your smartphone gets regular updates to add new features or to fix bugs, Hubble gets flight software updates for added capabilities and to address new issues.
    Being a flight controller was a dream of mine, so being able to command a spacecraft has been really exciting. I also really enjoy coding, and it’s been interesting seeing how all these critical and complicated activities happen at the same time. I think the work I do outside of my flight controller role has helped me become a better flight controller, because I have a better idea of what’s happening behind the scenes — things feel a bit more intuitive to me.
    How did you find your path to Goddard?
    During undergrad, I was on a path to become a power systems engineer. But one day in my senior design class, our professor invited the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) project manager at the time to speak to our class about systems engineering and its applications to the mission. Within five minutes of this presentation, I was on the verge of tears. This presentation alone changed the course of my career because it reminded me that I love the stars and I love space. More importantly, it made me feel like a career at NASA was actually possible.
    So, I emailed the speaker and asked him for advice, and he responded with excellent guidance and encouragement. I saved that email and essentially used it as a career guide. After graduating, I worked for a NASA contractor first as a quality engineer, then as a model-based systems engineer. While I was in that role, I pursued my master’s, and about a month after graduating, I saw the job posting for Hubble’s flight operations team at Goddard. After a year or so of settling in, I reached out to that same speaker and I let him know I took his advice, I made it to NASA, and that I couldn’t be more grateful for his help. He responded beautifully, saying that he was humbled to have played any role in me getting to where I wanted to be.
    What first sparked your interest in space?
    My dad used to take my brothers and me to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles all the time. I loved going to those shows in the planetarium and just feeling engrossed in what they were teaching. I’d always wanted to take an astronomy class, but I didn’t get the chance until my last year of undergrad. I’m so glad I did; it just reaffirmed that space is for me.

    What is your educational background?
    I graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 2014 with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering. I also have a master’s in space systems engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Right now, I’m pursuing a graduate certificate in control systems from the University of Michigan at Dearborn to prepare for a role supporting Hubble’s pointing and control subsystems. After I’m done, I plan to pursue a graduate certificate in aerospace for that same reason; I want to pick up and hone skills in order to maximize my contributions to Hubble.
    How do you keep a cool head when you have a mission-critical situation?
    I think I’m generally a pretty calm person, but in moments where Hubble’s mission is at risk, I tend to focus on what is in my power to get done. So I’ll look at the situation and think, “OK, what can we do to either fix or mitigate this problem?” And I do what I can with care, I communicate clearly with those I’m working with, and I trust the abilities of my colleagues. I work with really brilliant, dedicated people who love what they do, so I know that they’re going to do what’s best for the mission.
    What is your proudest accomplishment at Goddard?
    To be honest, I’m always proud every time I see a new picture taken by Hubble, especially after we’ve recovered it from an anomaly. It feels like an accomplishment and an honor even to be part of a mission that brings those images to people on Earth.
    Who are your science role models, and how have they shaped your career in science?
    Katherine Johnson: she was an African American mathematician who was pivotal in the success of the early human spaceflight missions carried out by NASA. Her complex trajectory calculations got the first man into space and back unharmed. I also admire Dr. Sian Proctor: she was the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft.
    As a minority, it can be easy to feel like an outlier in the space industry. Seeing people like Katherine and Dr. Proctor succeed and excel in these fields adds a bit of comfort. They show me that these technically demanding roles are attainable.
    How do you like to spend your time outside of work? What are your hobbies?
    I spend a lot of time with my tiny dog, Chara. I named her after a yellow star in the Hunting Dogs constellation. Chara is Greek for “joy,” and to say she brings me joy would be an understatement.
    I actually have a new obsession with snorkeling and freediving. I went snorkeling for the first time in early 2021 and it completely changed my life. Before snorkeling, I was terrified of water. After snorkeling, I wanted to be a fish. I just love the freedom that comes with the lack of equipment. I love the peace that I feel underwater.
    What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
    “The stars are not too far.”
    What is some advice you would give your 10-year-old self?
    You are capable of more than you know, more than what people might try to make you believe. Do what makes you feel fulfilled and define your own success. Your passion is your strength.
    By Hannah RichterNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

    Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Trena Ferrell Inspires Through Science and Education

    Source: NASA

    Name: Trena Ferrell
    Title: Education and Public Outreach Lead for the Earth Science Division
    Formal Job Classification: Environmental Scientist
    Organization: Earth Science Division, Earth Science Directorate (Code 610)
    What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
    I interface with the public and educational institutions to share all the great research that our scientists and engineers are doing at NASA. I also support large-scale public events around the country and interact with citizen scientists.
    I’ve always been passionate about science and education, so now I get to mesh my two passions together.
    What is your educational background?
    I have a Bachelor of Science in premedicine from Albright College in Redding, Pennsylvania; a master’s in developmental biology from American University in Washington, D.C.; and a Ph.D. in environmental science from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.
    How did you come to work for Goddard?
    Initially I wanted to be a doctor, but I started teaching science at the middle school and high school at the Maya Angelou Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., and found that I loved teaching. (I got to meet her once, and she was phenomenal!)
    Around 2000, I asked NASA to send a speaker, Dr. Octavia Tripp. Through her suggestion, I became an aerospace education specialist and then the NASA Explorer Schools Workshop Coordinator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Around 2005, I became Goddard’s education representative for Maryland. In 2015, I became a public affairs specialist for Goddard’s Office of Communications. In 2016, I started in my current position.
    What is your message to students?
    I work with students from kindergarten through college. I want them to reach for the stars and realize that they can be scientists or engineers who work at NASA. I want them to know that NASA also offers a plethora of other careers, which I also want them to consider.
    What is your message for citizen scientists?
    I tell them that they are an important piece of the NASA puzzle who help us with our scientific efforts. For example, the Globe Observer App can be downloaded to a smart phone. Using this app, they can take photos of clouds, land cover, tree height, and mosquito larvae. They can also take tree height measurements.
    What was your favorite large-scale event?
    I was one of the co-leads for Goddard’s open house in 2015, my first large-scale project of this magnitude. Over 20,000 people attended. We had so many people that the Greenbelt Metro Station had to close. People even came from other states.
    I loved seeing all our hard work pay off and how excited all the people were to be at Goddard. I especially enjoyed watching the kids interreacting with our scientists and engineers, asking questions. They are our future.

    When did you feel like you were part of the NASA family?
    While working on our 2015 open house, I worked with an amazing team. Kudos to the Office of Communications; especially to Michelle Jones, Leslee Scott, Deanna Trask, and Amy Grigg.
    This event made me realize that NASA really is a family. Everyone works together for a positive outcome; a shared, common interest. If you need help, someone shows up to help you without asking. And you do the same for others who need help.
    World-class scientist and engineers willingly give their time to tell the world about their expertise. They are good with people of all ages and are always particularly kind with kids, our next generation of explorers.   
    How has working at Goddard changed your life?
    While at Goddard, I met my husband Mark Branch, a Goddard engineer. He was our subject matter expert for a student outreach event I organized. We married two years after meeting, in 2010. Someday I’d like to write a book about all the couples who met at Goddard.
    I sincerely thank everyone at Goddard who has touched my life and helped me!
    Who has guided you the most in life?
    My parents did everything they could to give my sister and me the best possible opportunities. They told us to dream big and to do big things. They are always there for us. They are amazing people!
    I adore my family. I love that I have added new family members from NASA.
    What do you do to relax?
    I attended a French high school for my junior year and became an admirer of French culture and cuisine. I like to cook, including French food. I also love traveling. I enjoy reading fiction to relax.

    Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
    By Elizabeth M. JarrellNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA-Led Study Pinpoints Areas Sinking, Rising Along California Coast

    Source: NASA

    The elevation changes may seem small — amounting to fractions of inches per year — but they can increase or decrease local flood risk, wave exposure, and saltwater intrusion.
    Tracking and predicting sea level rise involves more than measuring the height of our oceans: Land along coastlines also inches up and down in elevation. Using California as a case study, a NASA-led team has shown how seemingly modest vertical land motion could significantly impact local sea levels in coming decades.
    By 2050, sea levels in California are expected to increase between 6 and 14.5 feet (15 and 37 centimeters) higher than year 2000 levels. Melting glaciers and ice sheets, as well as warming ocean water, are primarily driving the rise. As coastal communities develop adaptation strategies, they can also benefit from a better understanding of the land’s role, the team said. The findings are being used in updated guidance for the state.
    “In many parts of the world, like the reclaimed ground beneath San Francisco, the land is moving down faster than the sea itself is going up,” said lead author Marin Govorcin, a remote sensing scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 
    The new study illustrates how vertical land motion can be unpredictable in scale and speed; it results from both human-caused factors such as groundwater pumping and wastewater injection, as well as from natural ones like tectonic activity. The researchers showed how direct satellite observations can improve estimates of vertical land motion and relative sea level rise. Current models, which are based on tide gauge measurements, cannot cover every location and all the dynamic land motion at work within a given region.
    Local Changes
    Researchers from JPL and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used satellite radar to track more than a thousand miles of California coast rising and sinking in new detail. They pinpointed hot spots — including cities, beaches, and aquifers — at greater exposure to rising seas now and in coming decades.
    To capture localized motion inch by inch from space, the team analyzed radar measurements made by ESA’s (the European Space Agency’s) Sentinel-1 satellites, as well as motion velocity data from ground-based receiving stations in the Global Navigation Satellite System. Researchers compared multiple observations of the same locations made between 2015 to 2023 using a processing technique called interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR).

    Homing in on the San Francisco Bay Area — specifically, San Rafael, Corte Madera, Foster City, and Bay Farm Island — the team found the land subsiding at a steady rate of more than 0.4 inches (10 millimeters) per year due largely to sediment compaction. Accounting for this subsidence in the lowest-lying parts of these areas, local sea levels could rise more than 17 inches (45 centimeters) by 2050. That’s more than double the regional estimate of 7.4 inches (19 centimeters) based solely on tide gauge projections.
    Not all coastal locations in California are sinking. The researchers mapped uplift hot spots of several millimeters per year in the Santa Barbara groundwater basin, which has been steadily replenishing since 2018. They also observed uplift in Long Beach, where fluid extraction and injection occur with oil and gas production.
    The scientists further calculated how human-induced drivers of local land motion increase uncertainties in the sea level projections by up to 15 inches (40 centimeters) in parts of Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Reliable projections in these areas are challenging because the unpredictable nature of human activities, such as hydrocarbon production and groundwater extraction, necessitating ongoing monitoring of land motion.  
    Fluctuating Aquifers, Slow-Moving Landslides
    In the middle of California, in the fast-sinking parts of the Central Valley (subsiding as much as 8 inches, or 20 centimeters, per year), land motion is influenced by groundwater withdrawal. Periods of drought and precipitation can alternately draw down or inflate underground aquifers. Such fluctuations were also observed over aquifers in Santa Clara in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Ana in Orange County, and Chula Vista in San Diego County.
    Along rugged coastal terrain like the Big Sur mountains below San Francisco and Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles, the team pinpointed local zones of downward motion associated with slow-moving landslides. In Northern California they also found sinking trends at marshlands and lagoons around San Francisco and Monterey bays, and in Sonoma County’s Russian River estuary. Erosion in these areas likely played a key factor.
    Scientists, decision-makers, and the public can monitor these and other changes occurring via the JPL-led OPERA (Observational Products for End-Users from Remote Sensing Analysis) project. The OPERA project details land surface elevational changes across North America, shedding light on dynamic processes including subsidence, tectonics, and landslides.
    The OPERA project will leverage additional state-of-the-art InSAR data from the upcoming NISAR (NASA-Indian Space Research Organization Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission, expected to launch within the coming months.
    News Media Contacts
    Jane J. Lee / Andrew WangJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
    Written by Sally Younger
    2025-015

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: FEMA Exercises Borrowing Authority for National Flood Insurance Program

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Headline: FEMA Exercises Borrowing Authority for National Flood Insurance Program

    FEMA Exercises Borrowing Authority for National Flood Insurance Program

    Follows more than $10 billion in projected payments related to Hurricanes Helene and MiltonWASHINGTON — FEMA has exercised its borrowing authority under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to borrow $2 billion from U.S. Treasury to pay eligible National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policyholder claims. This borrowing action follows payouts in 2024 from several large-scale and back-to-back flooding events. While the NFIP’s premiums are usually sufficient to pay claims in years without catastrophic floods, heavy rain events in 2024 –including hurricanes Helene and Milton– caused massive, widespread damage resulting in tens of thousands of flood insurance claims.Hurricane Helene has received more than 57,400 flood insurance claims totaling more than $4.5 billion as of Feb. 6, 2025. Based on data as of Jan. 31, 2025, the estimated range for total losses paid in to the NFIP is between $6.4 to $7.4 billion. Hurricane Milton received more than 21,100 flood insurance claims totaling more than $740 million as of Feb. 6, 2025. The estimated range for losses paid is between $1.2 to $2.9 billion based on data as of Jan. 31, 2025.The NFIP is not designed to pay for multiple catastrophic events in a single year without additional financial assistance. The combined losses from 2024 have depleted the NFIP’s funds generated from premiums to pay claims.FEMA’s borrowing authority is $30.425 billion, of which FEMA has already borrowed $20.525 billion in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Harvey between 2005-2017. The debt is now $22.525 billion.“The widespread, devastating flooding following hurricanes Helene and Milton reemphasizes the financial effects flooding can have not just to survivors but also the National Flood Insurance Program. We are strategically utilizing short-term borrowings in 60-day increments, demonstrating our careful and responsible management of the borrowing authority,” said Elizabeth Asche, Ph.D., Senior Executive of the National Flood Insurance Program. “Despite these challenges, the NFIP remains unwavering in its commitment to fully pay every claim and ensure policyholders receive the compensation they are owed for eligible flood-related losses.”FEMA has always paid its NFIP claims on all eligible losses. Those who take the step to protect their homes and businesses by purchasing flood insurance get paid every dollar they are owed under their flood insurance policies.Flooding continues to be the costliest and most frequent natural disaster in the United States and flood insurance is still the best way for individual homeowners, renters and businesses to financially protect against future flood losses. The NFIP provides about $1.3 trillion in coverage to nearly 4.7 million policyholders nationwide.For more information about the NFIP, visit Floodsmart.gov. 
    amy.ashbridge
    Mon, 02/10/2025 – 16:44

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Tennessee Department of Transportation Awarded $9.6 Million for Debris Removal

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Headline: Tennessee Department of Transportation Awarded $9.6 Million for Debris Removal

    Tennessee Department of Transportation Awarded $9.6 Million for Debris Removal

    The State of Tennessee and FEMA have awarded $9.6 million to the Tennessee Department of Transportation for clearing 457,381 cubic yards of debris left when Tropical Storm Helene swept across Eastern Tennessee in late September.Funding for debris removal is authorized under FEMA’s Public Assistance program. Debris collection began Oct. 1 across roads and public property in Carter, Cocke, Greene, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties. It is expected to be completed by Feb. 28. FEMA’s initial estimated share for this project is $7,231,839; the estimated nonfederal share is $2,410,613. The expedited operation includes 90,749 cubic yards of vegetative debris; 164,357 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris; and 202,274 cubic yards of sand, soil and mud. These totals were estimated and will be reconciled for actual costs once FEMA and the state receive permit documentation. This $9.6 million obligation represents about half of the total costs anticipated by completion of the debris removal operation. Because FEMA Public Assistance is a cost-sharing program, FEMA reimburses state applicants 75% of eligible costs for debris removal. The federal share is paid directly to the state to disburse to agencies, local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations that incurred those costs. The remaining 25% represents nonfederal funds.The Public Assistance program is FEMA’s largest grant program, providing funding to help communities responding to and recovering from major presidentially declared disasters or emergencies. Tropical Storm Helene swept across Tennessee Sept. 26-30, and the president approved a major disaster declaration on Oct. 2.
    kwei.nwaogu
    Mon, 02/10/2025 – 16:45

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Get Repair, Rebuilding Advice Feb. 10-15 in Hawkins and Washington Counties

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Headline: Get Repair, Rebuilding Advice Feb. 10-15 in Hawkins and Washington Counties

    Get Repair, Rebuilding Advice Feb. 10-15 in Hawkins and Washington Counties

    FEMA’s mitigation specialists have partnered with The Home Depot and Lowe’s Home Improvement to offer free advice and tips on rebuilding homes stronger and safer as Tennessee residents repair, rebuild and make improvements after Tropical Storm Helene.FEMA specialists will be available as detailed below: Monday, Feb. 10, to Saturday, Feb. 15Hours: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday to Friday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET SaturdayHawkins CountyThe Home Depot2000 Harrell Rd. Kingsport, TN 37660Washington CountyLowe’s Home Improvement180 Marketplace Blvd.Johnson City, TN 37604The mitigation specialists are available to answer questions and offer home-improvement tips and proven methods to help reduce damage from disasters. Most information is aimed at general contractors or those who do the work on their own.
    kwei.nwaogu
    Mon, 02/10/2025 – 16:42

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Breathing Circuit Kit Recall: Sentec/Percussionaire Removes VDR4 Phasitron Breathing Circuits due to Venturi Component Malfunctions that May Reduce Pressure and Volume Flow

    Source: US Food and Drug Administration

    This recall involves removing certain devices from where they are used or sold. The FDA has identified this recall as the most serious type. This device may cause serious injury or death if you continue to use it. 

    Affected Product 

    • Product Names/Models and Part Numbers:
      • Phasitron Kit, VDR, Single Patient A50094-D, A50094-D-5PK
        • Unique Device Identifier (UDI): 00849436000259
      • Control Unit Tester A51001-VDR4 
      • VDR W/SWIVEL T SINGLE PATIENT PHASITRON PRT-991 
      • VDR4 HUMIDIFICATION ADAPTER KIT PRT-992 
      • VDR4 Humidification Kit with Cross Tee PRT-993 
    • Lot/Serial Numbers: See full list of affected devices below.

    What to Do  

    • Closely monitor all patients who are ventilated with Phasitron breathing circuits that may be affected by this issue. 
    • Make sure the venturi component of the Phasitron breathing circuit in use is moving by looking for movement and listening for noise.
    • Do not use any Phasitron breathing circuit that is malfunctioning or does not pass the enhanced pre-check instructions outlined below.

    On December 23, 2024, Sentec/Percussionaire sent all affected customers an Urgent Medical Device Notification recommending the following actions:

    • Make sure all patients are closely monitored using pulse oximetry and/or carbon dioxide monitoring to identify any changes in patient condition caused by impaired Phasitron function.
    • Look and listen for venturi movement. The venturi component produces a loud noise and can be seen opening and closing through the translucent Phasitron body when functioning properly. A lack of visible or audible motion indicates device malfunction.
    • Immediately stop use if any product malfunction is identified during use.
      • Dispose according to institutional protocol.
      • Contact FSCA@sentec.com for product exchange. 
    • Review all inventory for impacted lots. 
      • Dispose of product from affected lots once replacement products are received. 
    • Evaluate the circuits of Phasitron breathing circuit kits in identified lots using the enhanced pre-use check outline below, also included in Appendix 2 of the letter. 
    • Post pre-check instructions in all areas of the facility.
    • Do not use any product that fails the pre-use check outlined below. 
      • Dispose of any failing product using institutional protocol.
      • Contact FSCA@sentec.com for product exchange.
    • Keep an alternative device nearby in case of a Phasitron breathing circuit failure. 
    • Complete and Return Acknowledgement form included with the letter by January 31, 2024, and after reviewing and implementing the requested actions. 
    • Report adverse events to regulatory.percussionaire@sentec.com and/or to the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program.
    • Report any quality problems experienced with the use of this product to Percussionaire/Sentec Customer Service department via email to FSCA@sentec.com.

    Sentec/Percussionaire Pre-Use Check Instructions

    Pre-use check must be completed before any ventilation is started on a new patient, when a new circuit is used, and after each circuit cleaning. If any abnormal function is noted, do not start ventilation.

    • Connect hospital air supply hose to VDR-4. Listen for blender alarm, then disconnect air hose. 
    • Connect hospital oxygen supply hose to VDR-4 and disconnect air hose. Listen for blender alarm. 
    • Connect hospital air supply hose to VDR-4.
    • Turn Monitron II “ON.” 
    • Connect Phasitron patient port to a test lung (such as Vadi 210 or equivalent). 
    • Perform all tests using standard heater/humidification setup, set up according to hospital protocol. 
    • Turn operating pressure knob until it reaches a static 42 psig. 
    • Turn VDR-4 “ON.” 
    • Turn off OSCILLATORY PEEP/CPAP, DEMAND CPAP, and CONVECTIVE PRES. RISE (full clockwise). 
    • Set the PULSATILE FLOWRATE control to AIP of 30 cmH₂O as read on DM or manometer. 
    • Set pulse frequency to 500. 
    • Set PULSE i/e RATIO with arrow at the 12:00 position (straight up) for a 1:1 i/e ratio. 
    • Set inspiratory time and expiratory time to: 
      • 2.0 seconds to get a convective rate of ~15 (adult/large peds) 
      • 1.5 seconds to get a convective rate of ~20 (small peds) 
      • 1.0 second to get a convective rate of ~30 (neonatal) 
    • Set oscillatory CPAP/PEEP to AEP of 5 cmH₂O as read on Digital Multimeter (DM) or manometer. 
    • Check Monitron II for appropriate rise and fall on waveform. 
    • Verify pulse frequency will go greater than 700 and less than 200. 
    • Return pulse frequency to 500. 
    • Manually compress test lung and hold as tightly as possible.
    • Verify pulsatile flowrate will achieve AIP of 50 cmH₂O. 
    • Verify oscillatory CPAP will reach a minimum AEP of 18 cmH₂O. (Release hold on test lung). 
    • Return pulsatile flowrate to an AIP of 30 cmH₂O and OSCILLATORY CPAP control to an AEP of 5 cmH₂O. 
    • Verify a gradient of 8-10 cmH₂O when convective pressure rise is applied. 
      NOTE: Convective pressure rise will begin after approximately 0.7 seconds have passed from the start of the inspiration cycle. 
    • Increase convective pressure rise until failsafe alarm sounds. Observe that ventilation continues at lower settings. Turn convective pressure rise off and then press red button to reset. 
    • Remove the test lung. Cap both Phasitron ports. 
    • Set the PULSATILE FLOWRATE knob fully to the right to the “Off” position. 
    • Set the OSCILLATORY CPAP/PEEP knob fully to the left to the “On” position. 
    • Turn DEMAND CPAP/PEEP knob to the 12:00 position (arrow up) and allow at least 15 seconds for the Digital Multimeter (DM) to switch to Active mode. 
    • Reduce the DEMAND CPAP/PEEP to achieve a Mean Airway Pressure (MAP) of 3-4 cmH2O according to the DM. Observe that the DM remains on and in Active mode. 
    • While observing the Venturi in the Phasitron, slowly turn the PULSATILE FLOWRATE knob very slightly to the left to achieve a MAP of 4-5 cmH2O. The Pulse Frequency should be displayed on the DM. 
    • Ensure that the Pulse Frequency Rate is 500-600 Cycles Per Minute (CPM). Adjust if needed using the PULSE FREQUENCY knob only. 
    • Observe the Venturi for 5 seconds or more. Look for oscillations of the Venturi. If the Venturi is not moving or moving intermittently and erratically, discontinue use of the circuit and replace it with another circuit. 
    • Lower high-amplitude pressure alarm below set pulsatile flowrate to trigger the high-pressure alarm. Press reset on Monitron to clear audible alarm. 
    • Trigger low-amplitude pressure alarm by disconnecting test cap. Press reset on Monitron II to clear audible alarm. 
    • Turn off VDR-4 and Monitron II. Silence alarm on Monitron II by pressing any button. 
    • Switch nebulizer on and listen for gas flow, then switch off.

    Reason for Recall   

    Sentec/Percussionaire is recalling Phasitron breathing circuit kits after receiving a customer complaint that the venturi component of the kit stopping moving (oscillating) during use. The issue caused a patient’s oxygen levels to fall (desaturate). The risk of failure is especially high for pediatric patients due to the low pressures that are associated with this component failure. 

    The use of affected product may cause serious adverse health consequences, including acute respiratory failure, hypoxia (lack of oxygen), hypercapnia (excess carbon dioxide in the blood), potential brain damage, heart complications, increased risk of pneumonia, and death.  

    There have been no reported injuries. There have been no reports of death. 

    Device Use 

    The Phasitron breathing circuit kit is intended to be used for continuous, controlled ventilation of patients who are unable to breathe on their own. The venturi component of the Phasitron helps with the pulsing flow of air/oxygen to the patient. 

    Contact Information  

    Customers in the U.S. with questions about this recall should contact Sentec/Percussionaire customer service at FSCA@sentec.com.

    Full List of Affected Devices 

    Part Number/ Product Name:

    • A50094-D-5PK – Phasitron Kit, VDR, Single Patient, 5pk
    • A51001-VDR4 – Control Unit Tester
    • PRT-991 – VDR W/SWIVEL T SINGLE PATIENT PHASITRON
    • PRT-992 – VDR4 HUMIDIFICATION ADAPTER KIT, CASE OF 10
    • PRT-993 – VDR4 Humidification Kit with Cross Tee, Case of 10

    Potential Affected Lots:

    • A50094-D-5PK: WO04294, WO04424, WO04764, WO05070, WO05186, WO05460, WO05685, WO05910, WO06388, WO06576, WO06883, WO07095, WO07196, WO07317, WO07405, WO07450, WO07696
    • A51001-VDR4: WO04750, WO06701
    • PRT-991: WO04733
    • PRT 992: WO045667
    • PRT-993: WO04745, WO04832, WO04893, WO04893, WO05309, WO06523, WO07080, WO07283, WO04893

    Additional FDA Resources 

    Unique Device Identifier (UDI) 

    The unique device identifier (UDI) helps identify individual medical devices sold in the United States from manufacturing through distribution to patient use. The UDI allows for more accurate reporting, reviewing, and analyzing of adverse event reports so that devices can be identified, and problems potentially corrected more quickly. 

    How do I report a problem? 

    Health care professionals and consumers may report adverse reactions or quality problems they experienced using these devices to

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: FEMA Encourages Survivors to Stay in Touch and Keep Their Recovery on Track

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency

    Headline: FEMA Encourages Survivors to Stay in Touch and Keep Their Recovery on Track

    FEMA Encourages Survivors to Stay in Touch and Keep Their Recovery on Track

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – More than 1,000 FEMA staff are still on the ground in Florida to help survivors recover from Hurricanes Milton, Helene and Debby. FEMA will continue to process applications, receive, and manage appeals, conduct inspections and assist applicants and local officials with questions and information about recovery programs.  Survivors who applied for FEMA assistance should continue to stay in touch with the agency to update their application. Missing or outdated material could result in delays. Information that may need to be updated includes:Your current housing situation, phone number or mailing address.The name of a person designated to speak for you.Names of household members and number of people living in the home.Changes in your FEMA application. Correcting or verifying home and property damage.Your payment preferenceFloridians who are waiting for an inspection should continue to check their application status. Survivors can check their application status by visiting DisasterAssistance.gov or calling FEMA directly at 800-621-3362. It is important to make sure all contact information is current. FEMA may call survivors to schedule an inspection of the damaged home or obtain more information to process the application. These calls may come from unfamiliar area codes or phone numbers. Survivors should answer these calls or return any missed phone calls. FEMA will call survivors up to nine times to schedule an inspection. An applicant who misses these calls will need to request an inspection again. For the latest information about Hurricane Milton recovery, visit fema.gov/disaster/4834. For Hurricane Helene recovery information, visit fema.gov/disaster/4828. For Hurricane Debby, visit fema.gov/disaster/4806. Follow FEMA on X at x.com/femaregion4 or on Facebook at facebook.com/fema.
    despina.pappas
    Mon, 02/10/2025 – 15:36

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA Scientists Spot Candidate for Speediest Exoplanet System

    Source: NASA

    Astronomers may have discovered a scrawny star bolting through the middle of our galaxy with a planet in tow. If confirmed, the pair sets a new record for the fastest-moving exoplanet system, nearly double our solar system’s speed through the Milky Way.
    The planetary system is thought to move at least 1.2 million miles per hour, or 540 kilometers per second.
    “We think this is a so-called super-Neptune world orbiting a low-mass star at a distance that would lie between the orbits of Venus and Earth if it were in our solar system,” said Sean Terry, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Since the star is so feeble, that’s well outside its habitable zone. “If so, it will be the first planet ever found orbiting a hypervelocity star.”
    A paper describing the results, led by Terry, was published in The Astronomical Journal on February 10.
    A Star on the Move
    The pair of objects was first spotted indirectly in 2011 thanks to a chance alignment. A team of scientists combed through archived data from MOA (Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics) – a collaborative project focused on a microlensing survey conducted using the University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory in New Zealand — in search of light signals that betray the presence of exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system.
    Microlensing occurs because the presence of mass warps the fabric of space-time. Any time an intervening object appears to drift near a background star, light from the star curves as it travels through the warped space-time around the nearer object. If the alignment is especially close, the warping around the object can act like a natural lens, amplifying the background star’s light.

    In this case, microlensing signals revealed a pair of celestial bodies. Scientists determined their relative masses (one is about 2,300 times heavier than the other), but their exact masses depend on how far away they are from Earth. It’s sort of like how the magnification changes if you hold a magnifying glass over a page and move it up and down.
    “Determining the mass ratio is easy,” said David Bennett, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA Goddard, who co-authored the new paper and led the original study in 2011. “It’s much more difficult to calculate their actual masses.”
    The 2011 discovery team suspected the microlensed objects were either a star about 20 percent as massive as our Sun and a planet roughly 29 times heavier than Earth, or a nearer “rogue” planet about four times Jupiter’s mass with a moon smaller than Earth.
    To figure out which explanation is more likely, astronomers searched through data from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Gaia satellite. If the pair were a rogue planet and moon, they’d be effectively invisible – dark objects lost in the inky void of space. But scientists might be able to identify the star if the alternative explanation were correct (though the orbiting planet would be much too faint to see).
    They found a strong suspect located about 24,000 light-years away, putting it within the Milky Way’s galactic bulge — the central hub where stars are more densely packed. By comparing the star’s location in 2011 and 2021, the team calculated its high speed.

    But that’s just its 2D motion; if it’s also moving toward or away from us, it must be moving even faster. Its true speed may even be high enough to exceed the galaxy’s escape velocity of just over 1.3 million miles per hour, or about 600 kilometers per second. If so, the planetary system is destined to traverse intergalactic space many millions of years in the future.
    “To be certain the newly identified star is part of the system that caused the 2011 signal, we’d like to look again in another year and see if it moves the right amount and in the right direction to confirm it came from the point where we detected the signal,” Bennett said.
    “If high-resolution observations show that the star just stays in the same position, then we can tell for sure that it is not part of the system that caused the signal,” said Aparna Bhattacharya, a research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA Goddard who co-authored the new paper. “That would mean the rogue planet and exomoon model is favored.”
    NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help us find out how common planets are around such speedy stars, and may offer clues to how these systems are accelerated. The mission will conduct a survey of the galactic bulge, pairing a large view of space with crisp resolution.
    “In this case we used MOA for its broad field of view and then followed up with Keck and Gaia for their sharper resolution, but thanks to Roman’s powerful view and planned survey strategy, we won’t need to rely on additional telescopes,” Terry said. “Roman will do it all.”
    Download additional images and video from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
    By Ashley BalzerNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
    Media contact:
    Claire AndreoliNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.301-286-1940

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Newly Minted Ph.D. Studies Phytoplankton with NASA’s FjordPhyto Project

    Source: NASA

    FjordPhyto is a collective effort where travelers on tour expedition vessels in Antarctica help scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Universidad Nacional de La Plata study phytoplankton. Now project leader Dr. Allison Cusick has a Ph.D.! . Dr. Cusick studies how melting glaciers influence phytoplankton in the coastal regions. She wrote her doctoral dissertation based on the data collected by FjordPhyto volunteers.
    “Travelers adventure to the wild maritime climate of Antarctica and help collect samples from one of the most data-limited regions of the world,” said Cusick.  “While on vacation, they can volunteer to join a FjordPhyto science boat experience where they spend an hour collecting water measurements like salinity, temperature, chlorophyll-a, turbidity, as well as physical samples for molecular genetics work, microscopy identification, and carbon biomass estimates. It’s a full immersion into the ecosystem and the importance of polar research!”
    Cusick successfully defended her thesis on December 18, 2024, earning a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Hers is the second Ph.D.  based on data from the FjordPhyto project. Martina Mascioni from FjordPhyto team earned her Ph.D. from the National University of La Plata (Argentina) in 2018.
    The project is a hit with travelers, too.
    “It’s incredibly inspiring to be part of a program like this that’s open to non-specialist involvement,” said one volunteer, a retired biology teacher aboard the Viking Octantis ship, who continued to say, “Thank you for letting us be a part of the science and explaining so clearly why it matters to the bigger picture.”
    If you would like to get involved, go to www.fjordphyto.org and reach out to the team!

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Mercer County, W.Va., Disaster Recovery Center extending operations additional week

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency 2

    strong>CHARLESTON, W.Va. – While the deadline to apply for disaster assistance ended Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, the Mercer County FEMA Disaster Recovery Center in Princeton, W.Va., is extending its operations an additional week. The recovery center will remain open through Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, to allow applicants more time to speak face-to-face with staff about their applications.
    The Mercer County recovery center location and hours are as follows: 

    Princeton Disaster Recovery Center

    Lifeline Princeton Church of God
    250 Oakvale Road 
    Princeton, WV 24740
     
    Hours of operation:
    Monday to Thursday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
    Friday: 9 a.m. to 12 noon

     
    DRCs are accessible to all, including survivors with mobility issues, impaired vision, and those who are who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.
    Another way for applicants to discuss their FEMA assistance is by phone at 800-621-3362. The toll-free telephone line operates from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. If you use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA your number for that service. 
    Staff from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will also be available at the recovery center for homeowners, renters and business owners to answer questions about their physical disaster loans, and for business owners to inquire about their Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs). 
    Applicants can also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955, or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for more information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay service.
    For more information on West Virginia’s disaster recovery, visit emd.wv.gov, West Virginia Emergency Management Division Facebook page, www.fema.gov/disaster/4851 and www.facebook.com/FEMA.
    ###
    FEMA’s mission is helping people before, during and after disasters. FEMA Region 3’s jurisdiction includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
    Follow us on X at x.com/FEMAregion3 and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/femaregion3.
    Disaster recovery assistance is available without regard to race, color, religion, nationality, sex, age, disability, English proficiency or economic status. If you or someone you know has been discriminated against, call FEMA toll-free at 833-285-7448. If you use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA your number for that service. Multilingual operators are available (press 2 for Spanish and 3 for other languages).

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: FEMA to Host Housing Resource Fair Feb. 15 in Augusta

    Source: US Federal Emergency Management Agency 2

    EMA is hosting a Housing Resource Fair from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 15, in Augusta at the following location:
    Henry Brigham Community Center
    2463 Golden Camp Rd. C, 
    Augusta, GA 30906
    The Housing Resource Fair will bring together federal, state and local agencies in one place to offer services and resources to families recovering from Hurricane Helene.  
    The goal of this collaborative effort is to help connect eligible disaster survivors with affordable housing along with valuable information and resources on their road to recovery.
    Survivors will meet with local housing organizations, property owners and landlords, as well as gain information on the HEARTS Georgia Sheltering Program, and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.
    The Housing Resource Fair is an opportunity for survivors to: 

    Explore affordable housing options and rental assistance programs.
    Meet with representatives from local housing organizations, landlords and property managers.
    Gain access to resources for displaced individuals and families.
    Learn about community partners that will provide educational funding resources to attendees. 

    For FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer Kevin Wallace, the Housing Resource Fair will give survivors that needed one-on-one experience: “We want survivors to know we are here for them and want to see the best outcome, which is moving into safe, sanitary and functioning housing,” he said. “We will walk them through their options to ensure they are aware of the resources that are available to fit their need.”
    Anyone who was affected by Tropical Storm Debby or Hurricane Helene, whether they have applied for FEMA assistance or not, is welcome to attend.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Euclid Discovers Einstein Ring in Our Cosmic Backyard

    Source: NASA

    Euclid, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, has made a surprising discovery in our cosmic backyard: a phenomenon called an Einstein ring.
    An Einstein ring is light from a distant galaxy bending to form a ring that appears aligned with a foreground object. The name honors Albert Einstein, whose general theory of relativity predicts that light will bend and brighten around objects in space.
    In this way, particularly massive objects like galaxies and galaxy clusters serve as cosmic magnifying glasses, bringing even more distant objects into view. Scientists call this gravitational lensing.
    Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri noticed a hint of an Einstein ring among images from the spacecraft’s early testing phase in September 2023.
    “Even from that first observation, I could see it, but after Euclid made more observations of the area, we could see a perfect Einstein ring,” Altieri said. “For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing.”
    The ring appears to encircle the center of a well-studied elliptical galaxy called NGC 6505, which is around 590 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. That may sound far, but on the scale of the entire universe, NGC 6505 is close by. Thanks to Euclid’s high-resolution instruments, this is the first time that the ring of light surrounding the galaxy has been detected.  
    Light from a much more distant bright galaxy, some 4.42 billion light-years away, creates the ring in the image. Gravity distorted this light as it traveled toward us. This faraway galaxy hasn’t been observed before and doesn’t yet have a name. 
    “An Einstein ring is an example of strong gravitational lensing,” explained Conor O’Riordan, of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany, and lead author of the first scientific paper analyzing the ring. “All strong lenses are special, because they’re so rare, and they’re incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it’s so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful.” 
    Einstein rings are a rich laboratory for scientists to explore many mysteries of the universe. For example, an invisible form of matter called dark matter contributes to the bending of light into a ring, so this is an indirect way to study dark matter. Einstein rings are also relevant to the expansion of the universe because the space between us and these galaxies — both in the foreground and the background — is stretching. Scientists can also learn about the background galaxy itself.
    “I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed within a well-known galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884,” said Valeria Pettorino, ESA Euclid project scientist. “The galaxy has been known to astronomers for a very long time. And yet this ring was never observed before. This demonstrates how powerful Euclid is, finding new things even in places we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for the future of the Euclid mission and demonstrates its fantastic capabilities.” 

    By exploring how the universe has expanded and formed over its cosmic history, Euclid will reveal more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter. Dark energy is the mysterious force that appears to be causing the universe’s expansion. The space telescope will map more than a third of the sky, observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years. It is expected to find around 100,000 strong gravitational lenses.  
    “Euclid is going to revolutionize the field with all this data we’ve never had before,” added O’Riordan.  
    Although finding this Einstein ring is an achievement, Euclid must look for a different, less visually obvious type of gravitational lensing called “weak lensing” to help fulfil its quest of understanding dark energy. In weak lensing, background galaxies appear only mildly stretched or displaced. To detect this effect, scientists will need to analyze billions of galaxies.
    Euclid launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 1, 2023, and began its detailed survey of the sky Feb. 14, 2024. The mission is gradually creating the most extensive 3D map of the universe yet. The Einstein ring find so early in its mission indicates Euclid is on course to uncover many more secrets of the universe. 
    More About Euclid
    Euclid is a European mission, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA. The Euclid Consortium — consisting of more than 2,000 scientists from 300 institutes in 15 European countries, the United States, Canada, and Japan — is responsible for providing the scientific instruments and scientific data analysis. ESA selected Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor for the construction of the satellite and its service module, with Airbus Defence and Space chosen to develop the payload module, including the telescope. Euclid is a medium-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision Programme.
    Three NASA-supported science teams contribute to the Euclid mission. In addition to designing and fabricating the sensor-chip electronics for Euclid’s Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) instrument, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory led the procurement and delivery of the NISP detectors as well. Those detectors, along with the sensor chip electronics, were tested at NASA’s Detector Characterization Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI), at Caltech in Pasadena, California, will archive the science data and support U.S.-based science investigations. JPL is a division of Caltech.
    Media Contacts
    Elizabeth LandauHeadquarters, Washington202-358-0845elandau@nasa.gov
    Calla CofieldJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.626-808-2469calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: MEDIA ADVISORY: HFAC Member Roundtable with Families of U.S. Hostages Held by Hamas

    Source: US House Committee on Foreign Affairs

    Media Contact 202-226-8467

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a public, bipartisan roundtable discussion with family members of Americans held hostage by Hamas following the October 7th attack on Israel.

    What: Roundtable – Republican and Democrat members will hear from family members of Americans being held hostage by Hamas.

    Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2025

    Time: 9:00am ET

    Location: Rayburn 2172

    ***Coverage note: Check here for updates. The roundtable will be webcast live here and open to the public and press. Spaces are limited – members of the media who would like to attend in-person should RSVP with with Joe Clark at joseph.clark@mail.house.gov to guarantee a seat. ***

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Two convicted in Eastern District of Texas COVID fraud scheme

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    SHERMAN, Texas – A Collin County man and a Floridian have been convicted of federal violations related to a COVID fraud scheme in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin, Jr.

    Cord Dean Newman, 47, of Homosassa, Florida, and Eric “Phoenix” Marascio, 53, of Allen, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering following a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle on February 6, 2025.

    According to information presented in court, Newman, a Hollywood stuntman, and Marascio, an author and baker, were convicted for their involvement in a multimillion-dollar loan fraud and money laundering conspiracy. The evidence at trial showed they were involved in a scheme to defraud lenders and the Small Business Administration’s (SBA’s) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by applying for and obtaining fraudulent PPP loans during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Once Newman and Marascio obtained the loans, they used the funds in a manner inconsistent with the program, including to invest in foreign exchange currency markets, to purchase vehicles, and for various other non-business-related expenditures.

    The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was a federal law enacted in March 2020 and designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who were suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, through a program referred to as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  The Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program was an SBA program that provided low-interest financing to small businesses, renters, and homeowners in regions affected by declared disasters. 

    The defendants each face up to 20 years in federal prison at sentencing.  The maximum statutory sentence prescribed by Congress is provided here for information purposes, as the sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.  A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.

    This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the Eastern District of Texas.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: New Jersey Man Sentenced To 180 Months In Prison For Child Exploitation Crime

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced today that Mitchell Inscho, age 36, a resident of Belvidere, New Jersey, was sentenced to 180 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Karoline Mehalchick, for attempted online enticement of a minor.

    According to the Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, between July 17, 2023 and October 26, 2023, Inscho used the internet and cell phone to request a person who he believed to be a 13-year-old child to engage in sexual conduct, and to produce images of child pornography. During that period, on multiple occasions, Inscho sent obscene photographs of himself to the purported child through social media. On March 13, 2024, Homeland Security agents served a federal search warrant at Inscho’s residence in Belvidere, New Jersey.  Pursuant to the warrant, agents seized and later analyzed his cell phones and computers. The forensic analysis uncovered approximately 150 images of child pornography on Inscho’s devices.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: F&M Bank Welcomes Peter Schork as Market President for Toledo, OH & Birmingham, MI

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ARCHBOLD, Ohio, Feb. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — F&M Bank (“F&M”), an Archbold, Ohio-based bank owned by Farmers & Merchants Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: FMAO) announced that Peter Schork has joined F&M as Market President of the Toledo, Ohio and Birmingham, Michigan markets.

    Lars Eller, President and CEO of F&M stated, “As a proven community banker, Peter brings a wealth of experience to F&M. His leadership, deep market knowledge, and commitment to building strong relationships will be an invaluable resource to F&M as we continue to grow and serve our communities. We look forward to the impact he will make in driving success for our customers, employees, and stakeholders.”

    In his new role, Peter will oversee F&M’s presence in the Toledo, Ohio, and Birmingham, Michigan markets, including offices in Waterville, Swanton, Perrysburg, Sylvania, and Downtown Toledo, as well as F&M’s Loan Production Office in Troy and its Birmingham, Michigan location.

    Peter brings over 25 years of banking and financial experience to F&M. Prior to joining the Company, he served as the Ann Arbor President for Oxford Bank and co-founded the Ann Arbor State Bank serving as its President and CEO. In addition to his community bank experience, Peter was the CFO at Catalyst Commercial Real Estate, and the President of a Michigan based title, mortgage, and real estate company. In addition to his business experience, Peter is a proud supporter of various community organizations. Currently he serves on the Michigan Theater Board of Trustees, is a member of the Ray and Eleanor Cross Foundation and the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor and is a Board Member and Treasurer for the Homeless/Unhoused Mission. Peter holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) with a specialization in Finance from Eastern Michigan University.

    About F&M Bank:
    F&M Bank is a local independent community bank that has been serving its communities since 1897. F&M Bank provides commercial banking, retail banking and other financial services. Our locations are in Butler, Champaign, Fulton, Defiance, Hancock, Henry, Lucas, Shelby, Williams, and Wood counties in Ohio. In Northeast Indiana, we have offices located in Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Jay, Steuben and Wells counties. The Michigan footprint includes Oakland County, and we have Loan Production Offices in Troy, Michigan; Muncie, Indiana; and Perrysburg and Bryan, Ohio.

    Safe harbor statement
    Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements by F&M, including management’s expectations and comments, may not be based on historical facts and are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21B of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Actual results could vary materially depending on risks and uncertainties inherent in general and local banking conditions, competitive factors specific to markets in which F&M and its subsidiaries operate, future interest rate levels, legislative and regulatory decisions, capital market conditions, or the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its impacts on our credit quality and business operations, as well as its impact on general economic and financial market conditions. F&M assumes no responsibility to update this information. For more details, please refer to F&M’s SEC filing, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Such filings can be viewed at the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov or through F&M’s website www.fm.bank.

    Company Contact: 
    Lars B. Eller
    President and Chief Executive Officer
    Farmers & Merchants Bancorp, Inc.
    (419) 446-2501
    leller@fm.bank    		 Investor and Media Contact:
    Andrew M. Berger
    Managing Director
    SM Berger & Company, Inc.
    (216) 464-6400
    andrew@smberger.com
       

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e11179be-cf20-449e-9416-ca1e8ff1fd2f

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Nokia Corporation: Repurchase of own shares on 10.02.2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Nokia Corporation
    Stock Exchange Release
    10 February 2025 at 22:30 EET

    Nokia Corporation: Repurchase of own shares on 10.02.2025

    Espoo, Finland – On 10 February 2025 Nokia Corporation (LEI: 549300A0JPRWG1KI7U06) has acquired its own shares (ISIN FI0009000681) as follows:

    Trading venue (MIC Code) Number of shares Weighted average price / share, EUR*
    XHEL 1,400,000 4.72
    CEUX – –
    BATE – –
    AQEU – –
    TQEX – –
    Total 1,400,000 4.72

    * Rounded to two decimals

    On 22 November 2024, Nokia announced that its Board of Directors is initiating a share buyback program to offset the dilutive effect of new Nokia shares issued to the shareholders of Infinera Corporation and certain Infinera Corporation share-based incentives. The repurchases in compliance with the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (MAR), the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 and under the authorization granted by Nokia’s Annual General Meeting on 3 April 2024 started on 25 November 2024 and end by 31 December 2025 and target to repurchase 150 million shares for a maximum aggregate purchase price of EUR 900 million.

    Total cost of transactions executed on 10 February 2025 was EUR 6,611,080. After the disclosed transactions, Nokia Corporation holds 243,703,874 treasury shares.

    Details of transactions are included as an appendix to this announcement.

    On behalf of Nokia Corporation

    BofA Securities Europe SA

    About Nokia
    At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.

    As a B2B technology innovation leader, we are pioneering networks that sense, think and act by leveraging our work across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. In addition, we create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs which is celebrating 100 years of innovation.

    With truly open architectures that seamlessly integrate into any ecosystem, our high-performance networks create new opportunities for monetization and scale. Service providers, enterprises and partners worldwide trust Nokia to deliver secure, reliable and sustainable networks today – and work with us to create the digital services and applications of the future.

    Inquiries:

    Nokia Communications
    Phone: +358 10 448 4900
    Email: press.services@nokia.com
    Maria Vaismaa, Global Head of External Communications

    Nokia Investor Relations
    Phone: +358 931 580 507
    Email: investor.relations@nokia.com

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: BioAstra Unveils “Twin Astra”: Pioneering Deep-Space Medical Research Program Set to Transform Space Exploration and Earth-Based Medicine

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BioAstra, a pioneering force in space medicine and biotechnology, is set to revolutionize human health with the launch of Twin Astra—a first-of-its-kind deep-space research initiative poised to transform space exploration and medical advancements on Earth.

    The program will be officially unveiled on Thursday, February 20, 2025, at The Explorers Club in New York City, bringing together top minds in space, science, and biotechnology.

    About Twin Astra

    Twin Astra is designed to unlock critical insights into human health through space-based research, driving breakthroughs that will impact both astronauts and Earth-based medicine. The program focuses on:

    • Twin Studies in Space: By studying genetically identical twins—one on Earth, the other in space—scientists will map the molecular, genetic, and physiological shifts caused by space travel.
    • Medical Breakthroughs: This research will accelerate advancements in precision medicine, aging, cancer treatment, and regenerative therapies.
    • Space Exploration & Human Resilience: The findings will pave the way for safer, long-duration space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

    “By harnessing space as a biomedical testing ground, Twin Astra will redefine our understanding of human resilience in extreme environments,” said Professor Chris Mason, BioAstra Board Chair. “This research is crucial for protecting astronauts and unlocking medical discoveries that will benefit life on Earth and beyond.”

    Launch Event: February 20, 2025

    This exclusive gathering will unite astronauts, biotech leaders, philanthropists, investors, and innovators to explore the program’s groundbreaking potential.

    “Twin Astra represents the next frontier of biomedical discovery,” said Savi Glowe, BioAstra CEO. “By pushing the limits of human biology in space, we are opening doors to new treatments, technologies, and insights that will redefine healthcare for generations to come.”

    Event Highlights:

    • Speakers:
      • Dr. Sian Proctor, Inspiration4 Astronaut
      • John Shoffner, Axiom-2 Astronaut
      • Savi Glowe, BioAstra CEO
      • Professor Chris Mason, BioAstra Board Chair & Renowned Genomics Expert

    Event Details:

    Be part of this landmark event, where astronauts, investors, biotech leaders, and medical innovators will unveil Twin Astra’s bold vision.

    Limited seats available – RSVP today.

    Date: Thursday, February 20
    Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
    Location: The Explorers Club, 46 East 70th Street, New York

    RSVP Required: michal@bioastra.org
    Investor Inquiries: michal@bioastra.org
    Website: www.bioastra.org

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: U.S. Navy, 35+ Partners Commence International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2025

    Source: United States Navy

    The week began with academic discussions covering a series of topics including the naval planning process, maritime operations center procedures, and disaster response coordination.

    IMX25 is a 12-day naval training event hosted by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT). This year’s iteration of IMX is linked with exercise Cutlass Express. Cutlass Express, led by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, is an annually scheduled exercise designed to enhance regional maritime awareness and the combined capabilities of partner nations to respond to maritime threats. The exercises are link through information sharing between maritime operations center to strengthen theater-to-theater coordination, reducing regional seams and strengthening U.S. and partner nation capabilities and interoperability.

    More than 5,000 personnel from more than 35 nations and international organizations will take part in both exercises.

    IMX is designed to demonstrate global resolve in preserving the rules-based international order, offering a unique opportunity for participants to collaborate and showcase regional maritime security cooperation.

    “Exercises like IMX show that we are at our best when we work together and that our resolve is unwavering,” said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Jeff Jurgemeyer, NAVCENT vice commander, during his remarks at the opening ceremony. “The Middle East region is a critical crossroads for worldwide commerce and trade. IMX is our combined assurance that the potential for economic success is greatest when international waterways are safe and open for all.”

    The operational phase will include partner exchanges on mine and countermeasures; visit, board, search and seizure; unmanned systems and artificial intelligence integration; explosive ordnance disposal; vessel defense; search and rescue; and mass casualty response, among other focus areas.

    This is the ninth iteration of IMX since its establishment in 2012.

    The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses nearly 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandeb.

    More information about IMX is available at: https://www.cusnc.navy.mil/IMX/.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Video: President Trump Welcomes Prime Minister of Japan

    Source: United States of America – The White House (video statements)

    “For nearly 80 years the American and Japanese people have enjoyed a friendship like few others… After our meeting today, I’m confident that the cherished alliances between our two countries… will continue to flourish long into the future.” –President Donald J. Trump

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jK1cw5WznM

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Update – woman found injured in Christchurch park

    Source: New Zealand Police (District News)

    Police are making good progress with the investigation into the circumstances that led to a woman being found in a Christchurch park with critical injuries.

    The woman was found at the Richmond Village Green on Wednesday 5 February.

    She was transported to hospital, where she remains. Her condition is improving and she is now stable, and she has been able to speak with us.

    Police have also been interviewing witnesses and family members as we work towards establishing the full picture of what has occurred, and who is responsible.

    While Police do not believe there is an ongoing risk to the wider public, additional patrols have been operating in the area to ensure the community feels safe.

    We are still appealing to anyone who may have information that would help us determine what happened.

    Information can be passed to Police via our 105 phone service, or by going online and using ‘Update Report’, referencing file number 250205/8067.

    ENDS

    Issued by Police Media Centre

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Hoskins Recognizes National Marriage Week; Announces New Parental Leave Policy

    Source: US State of Missouri

     

     

    For Immediate Release:   February 7, 2025

               

    Secretary of State Denny Hoskins Recognizes National Marriage Week; Announces New Parental Leave Policy

    JEFFERSON CITY, MO – Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has issued a proclamation recognizing February 7-14, 2025, as National Marriage Week, emphasizing the importance of strong marriages and families in building a thriving society.

    “Marriage is the foundation for strong families,” said Secretary Hoskins. “My wife, Michelle, and I wholeheartedly support the biblical definition of marriage and recognize the lasting impact strong marriages and families have on our state. This week is a time to reflect on and celebrate the role marriage plays in strengthening our communities.”

    The theme for this year’s National Marriage Week is “Love Beyond Words,” underscoring the importance of communication, connection, and commitment in fostering lasting marriages. Events and resources to support healthy relationships can be found at NationalMarriageWeekUSA.org.

    In alignment with the values of strong family support, the Secretary of State’s Office is also proud to announce a new parental leave policy for Secretary of State employees designed to provide employees with time to bond with their children after birth or adoption. Under this policy:

    • Primary caregivers will receive up to six weeks (240 hours) of fully paid leave.
    • Secondary caregivers will receive up to three weeks (120 hours) of fully paid leave.
    • Parental leave will be separate from annual and sick leave and will not impact employees’ accrued time off.

    “This new policy reflects our commitment to supporting Missouri families and ensuring that employees have the time and flexibility needed to nurture their growing families,” said Hoskins.


    For more information on National Marriage Week or the new parental leave policy, please contact:

    Rachael Dunn, Director of Communications
    [email protected]

    About Secretary of State Denny Hoskins
    Denny Hoskins, CPA, was elected Missouri Secretary of State in November 2024. With a strong background in business and public service, he is committed to improving government efficiency, transparency, and supporting Missouri families.


    Visit www.sos.mo.gov to learn more.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: 2025-20 AG NEWS RELEASE – ATTORNEY GENERAL LOPEZ SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR DEFUNDING MEDICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH INNOVATION RESEARCH

    Source: US State of Hawaii

    2025-20 AG NEWS RELEASE – ATTORNEY GENERAL LOPEZ SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR DEFUNDING MEDICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH INNOVATION RESEARCH

    Posted on Feb 10, 2025 in Latest Department News, Newsroom

     

    STATE OF HAWAIʻI

    KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI

     

    DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

    KA ʻOIHANA O KA LOIO KUHINA

     

    JOSH GREEN, M.D.
     GOVERNOR

    KE KIAʻĀINA

     

    ANNE LOPEZ

    ATTORNEY GENERAL

    LOIO KUHINA

     

    ATTORNEY GENERAL LOPEZ SUES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FOR DEFUNDING MEDICAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH INNOVATION RESEARCH

     

    News Release 2025-20

     

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                       

    February 10, 2025

     

    HONOLULU – – Attorney General Anne Lopez and 21 other attorneys general today sued the Trump Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in an effort to bar them from unlawfully cutting funds that support cutting-edge medical and public health research at universities and research institutions across the country. 

     

    On Friday, February 7, the NIH announced it would abruptly slash indirect cost rates to an across-the-board 15% rate, which is significantly less than the cost required to perform cutting edge medical research. The NIH purported to make this cut effective today (February 10), giving universities and institutions no time to plan for the enormous budget gaps they are now facing. Without immediate relief, this action could result in the suspension of lifesaving and life-extending clinical trials, disruption of research programs, layoffs, and laboratory closures. 

     

    The coalition is challenging the Trump Administration’s attempt to unilaterally cut “indirect cost” reimbursements at every research institution throughout the country. These reimbursements cover expenses to facilitate biomedical research, like lab, faculty, infrastructure and utility costs. Without them, the lifesaving and life-changing medical research in which the United States has long been a leader, could be compromised.

     

    Indirect cost reimbursements are based on each institution’s unique needs, negotiated with the federal government through a carefully regulated process, and then memorialized in an executed agreement.

     

    “President Trump’s total lack of compassion for all Americans knows no bounds. In just three weeks, he has cut programs providing healthcare and education, resources for climate change and clean air, and policies promoting diversity and equity. Now, he is making massive cuts to lifesaving medical research. Here in Hawai‘i, the University of Hawai‘i is supported by 175 awards and subawards from the NIH with a current value of $211M. I joined this lawsuit with my fellow democratic attorneys general because we are the last line of defense to enforce the rule of law,” said Attorney General Lopez.

     

    The coalition also argues that this action to slash indirect costs violates the Administrative Procedure Act, including a directive Congress passed during President Trump’s first term to fend off his earlier proposal to drastically cut research reimbursements. That statutory language, still in effect, prohibits the NIH from requiring categorial and indiscriminate changes to indirect cost reimbursements.

     

    The NIH is the primary source of federal funding for medical research in the United States. Medical research funding by NIH grants have led to innumerable scientific breakthroughs, including the discovery of treatment for cancers of all types, the first sequencing of DNA and the development of the MRI. Additionally, dozens of NIH-supported scientists have earned Nobel Prizes for their groundbreaking scientific work.

     

    Attorney General Lopez is joined by a coalition of attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

     

    The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts and can be found here.

     

     

    # # #

     

    Media contacts:

    Dave Day

    Special Assistant to the Attorney General

    Office: 808-586-1284                                                  

    Email: [email protected]        

    Web: http://ag.hawaii.gov

     

    Toni Schwartz
    Public Information Officer
     Hawai‘i Department of the Attorney General
    Office:     808-586-1252
    Cell: 808-379-9249
    Email:     [email protected] 

    Web: http://ag.hawaii.gov

     

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: State and federal debris removal begins this week in Los Angeles in record-breaking speed

    Source: US State of California 2

    Feb 10, 2025

    What you need to know: The state and federal government are working at record-pace to remove debris from the Los Angeles area firestorms.

    LOS ANGELES – The State of California, in coordination with federal and local partners, is rapidly advancing wildfire cleanup efforts, with structural debris removal from the Eaton and Palisades fires set to begin this week. This marks the fastest large scale debris removal operation in modern state history.

    Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will begin private property debris removal on Tuesday morning in Altadena and Tuesday afternoon in Pacific Palisades, closely coordinating efforts with local officials.

    “The speed of this cleanup is unprecedented, and it’s a testament to local, state, and federal government’s commitment to getting families back on their feet as quickly as possible. We’re cutting through the red tape and working with our partners to ensure that recovery moves at a record pace, helping communities rebuild stronger and more resilient.”

    Governor Gavin Newsom

    The removal process begins just 35 days after the fires ignited — roughly half the time it took to start similar operations after the devastating 2018 Woolsey Fire.
     
    Under Governor Gavin Newsom’s leadership, California has expedited the cleanup process by cutting red tape and eliminating bureaucratic barriers, allowing highly trained crews to enter impacted communities sooner and help survivors rebuild their lives faster.
     
    The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, in partnership with six locally affected jurisdictions, has worked around the clock to collect Right-of-Entry (ROE) forms from residents, develop haul routes, and coordinate safe transport of fire ash and debris.
     
    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is rapidly completing the removal of households hazardous materials at record speed, clearing the way for this next phase of cleanup.
     
    Last month, Governor Newsom announced that FEMA, working with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), had tasked the EPA with safely removing and disposing of hazardous materials from homes and structures impacted by the fires. This crucial first step—one of the most complex phases of wildfire cleanup — paved the way for the structural debris removal now underway.
     
    As these operations continue, residents should anticipate an increased presence of debris removal teams in their communities and plan accordingly. The agencies involved appreciate the public’s support and patience as crews work to eliminate health and safety risks from impacted properties.
     
    Since the fires began, Governor Newsom has led an aggressive, coordinated, whole-of-government response to support impacted communities. Prior to the fires breaking out, the state had already deployed thousands of firefighters and personnel, with more than 16,000 boots on the ground at the peak of response efforts. In the days that followed, the state launched historic recovery and rebuilding efforts to ensure Los Angeles communities receive the support they need.

    Fire survivors can sign up for the federal debris removal program by visiting a Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) or online at ca.gov/LAFires

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