KEEPING COOL COMPLEX ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ARMED WITH SCIENCE
Written on JULY 1, 2012 AT 7:47 AM by JTOZER
ICEcool TO Crack Thermal Management Barrier
The continued miniaturization and the increased density of components in today’s electronics have pushed heat generation and power dissipation to unprecedented levels.  Current thermal management solutions, usually involving remote cooling, are unable to limit the temperature rise of today’s complex electronic components.


Such remote cooling solutions, where heat must be conducted away from components before rejection to the air, add considerable weight and volume to electronic systems. The result is complex military systems that continue to grow in size and weight due to the inefficiencies of existing thermal management hardware.

Recent advances of the DARPA Thermal Management Technologies (TMT) program enable a paradigm shift—better thermal management.

DARPA’s Intrachip/Interchip Enhanced Cooling (ICECool) program seeks to crack the thermal management barrier and overcome the limitations of remote cooling. ICECool will explore ‘embedded’ thermal management by bringing microfluidic cooling inside the substrate, chip or package by including thermal management in the earliest stages of electronics design.

“Think of current electronics thermal management methods as the cooling system in your car,” said Avram Bar-Cohen, DARPA program manager. “Water is pumped directly through the engine block and carries the absorbed heat through hoses back to the radiator to be cooled.  By analogy, ICECool seeks technologies that would put the cooling fluid directly into the electronic ‘engine’.

In DARPA’s case this embedded cooling comes in the form of microchannels designed and built directly into chips, substrates and/or packages as well as research into the thermal and fluid flow characteristics of such systems at both small and large scales.”
The ICECool Fundamentals solicitation released today seeks proposals to research and demonstrate the microfabrication and evaporative cooling techniques needed to implement embedded cooling. Proposals are sought for intrachip/interchip solutions that bring microchannels, micropores, etc. into the design and fabrication of chips.
Interchip solutions for chip stacks are also sought.

“Thermal management is key for advancing Defense electronics,” said Thomas Lee, director, Microsystems Technology Office. “Embedded cooling may allow for smaller electronics, enabling a more mobile, versatile force. Reduced thermal resistance would improve performance of DoD electronics and may result in breakthrough capabilities we cannot yet envision.”
Information for this story provided by DARPA

"HOT SHOTS" CUT FIRE LINE IN COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO AREA.

FROM:  U.S. AIR FORCE
Stop line
Firefighters from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Hot Shots cut a fire line in the Mount Saint Francois area of Colorado Springs, Colo., while helping to battle several fires in Waldo Canyon on June 28, 2012. Currently, more than 90 firefighters from the U.S. Air Force Academy, along with assets from Air Force Space Command; F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.; Fort Carson, Colo.; and the local community continue to fight the Waldo Canyon fire. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock)

PENNSYLVANIA RESIDENT INDICTED FOR ALLEGED AMBULANCE TRANSPORT FRAUD

Photo Credit:  Wikimedia.
FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Friday, June 29, 2012 Pennsylvania Man Charged with Fraud in Ambulance Scheme
A Churchville, Pa., man was arrested today on charges contained in a 23-count indictment for his alleged role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by billing for fraudulent ambulance services, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger.

An indictment unsealed today charges William V. Hlushmanuk, aka “Bill Le,” 35, of Churchville, Pa., with 21 counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiring to commit health care fraud and one count of aiding and abetting in a false statement relating to a health care matter.

The indictment alleges that between 2006 and April 2011, Hlushmanuk and others devised a scheme to defraud Medicare of more than $5.4 million dollars.   According to the indictment, Hlushmanuk used a straw owner to fraudulently open Starcare Ambulance because he was otherwise ineligible to own the company.   Starcare primarily transported dialysis patients and fraudulently billed Medicare for patient transport for patients who could walk and whose transportation by Medicare was not medically required.  The scheme involved transports in vans and fraudulent representations to Medicare’s administrative contractor, Highmark Medicare Services, to induce them to pay for these services.   The indictment seeks forfeiture of $5,443, 315, as well as a 2006 Hummer.

If convicted of all charges, Hlushmanuk faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on each of the health care fraud and conspiracy counts, five years for aiding and abetting in false statements relating to health care fraud, a three year term of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.   It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Sam G. Nazzaro of the Organized Crime and Gang Section in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

An indictment contains charges and defendants are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

SOYUZ EXPEDITION 30 LIFTOFF

Expedition 30 Lifts Off
The Soyuz TMA-03M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, carrying Expedition 30 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut and Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers to the International Space Station.
Image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

MORE AIRCRAFT SENT TO FIGHT WILDFIRES

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
A Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System-equipped C-130 aircraft from the California Air National Guard's 146th Airlift Wing based at Channel Islands, arrives at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colo., June 30, 2012. The 146th's C-130 is one of four MAFFS-equipped aircraft joining four other military aircraft already operating out of Peterson to conduct wildfire suppression missions in Colorado and other western states. The eight aircraft constitute the entire U.S. military MAFFS-equipped fleet. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher  

More Aircraft Arrive to Combat Western Wildfires
WASHINGTON, July 1, 2012 - Eight Department of Defense C-130 aircraft equipped with U.S. Forest Service Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems now are assisting in multi-agency efforts to control wildfires in Colorado and other western states, according to a U.S. Northern Command news release update issued today.

Four of these MAFFS-equipped aircraft arrived yesterday at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., joining four other aircraft there that have been flying wildfire suppression missions in the Rocky Mountain region, the Northcom release said.

The National Interagency Fire Center based in Boise, Idaho, requested the aircraft support from the Defense Department, according to the release.

The eight aircraft are under Northcom command and control and all, at present, are being based at Peterson, which is in Colorado Springs, according to the release.
Northcom, based at Peterson, partners with other agencies to conduct homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests.

Military units now supporting C-130 aircraft wildfire suppression missions flown from Peterson are: the Air Force Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing, based at Peterson; the Wyoming Air National Guard's 153rd Airlift Wing, from Cheyenne; the North Carolina Air National Guard's 145th Airlift Wing, from Charlotte; and the California Air National Guard's 146th Airlift Wing, from Channel Islands.

As of early today, DOD aircraft have conducted 73 air drops and discharged more than 190,000 gallons of flame retardant during wildfire suppression missions in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota, the Northcom release said.

ESA - ESA - Cassini discovers that Titan harbors an ocean beneath its surface

ESA - ESA - Cassini discovers that Titan harbors an ocean beneath its surface

NASA OBSERVES ERUPTION OF SUN AND EVAPORATION OF PLANETS ATMOSPHERE

 FROM:  NASA
This artist's rendering illustrates the evaporation of HD 189733b's atmosphere in response to a powerful eruption from its host star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope detected the escaping gases and NASA's Swift satellite caught the stellar flare. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center) 


HUBBLE, SWIFT DETECT FIRST-EVER CHANGES IN AN EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERE
WASHINGTON -- An international team of astronomers using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made an unparalleled observation, detecting significant changes in the atmosphere of a planet located 
beyond our solar system. 

The scientists conclude the atmospheric variations occurred in response to a powerful eruption on the planet's host star, an event observed by NASA's Swift satellite. "The multiwavelength coverage by Hubble and Swift has given us an unprecedented view of the interaction between a flare on an active star and the atmosphere of a giant planet," said lead researcher Alain Lecavelier des Etangs at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics (IAP), part of the French National Scientific Research Center located at Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. 

The exoplanet is HD 189733b, a gas giant similar to Jupiter, but about 14 percent larger and more massive. The planet circles its star at a distance of only 3 million miles, or about 30 times closer than Earth's distance from the sun, and completes an orbit every 2.2 days. Its star, named HD 189733A, is about 80 percent the size and mass of our sun. 

Astronomers classify the planet as a "hot Jupiter." Previous Hubble observations show that the planet's deep atmosphere reaches a temperature of about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,030 C). HD 189733b periodically passes across, or transits, its parent star, and these events give astronomers an opportunity to probe its atmosphere and environment. In a previous study, a group led by Lecavelier des Etangs used Hubble to show that hydrogen gas was 

escaping from the planet's upper atmosphere. The finding made HD 189733b only the second-known "evaporating" exoplanet at the time.  The system is just 63 light-years away, so close that its star can be seen with binoculars near the famous Dumbbell Nebula. This makes HD 

189733b an ideal target for studying the processes that drive atmospheric escape. 

"Astronomers have been debating the details of atmospheric evaporation for years, and studying HD 189733b is our best opportunity for understanding the process," said Vincent Bourrier, a doctoral student at IAP and a team member on the new study. 

When HD 189733b transits its star, some of the star's light passes through the planet's atmosphere. This interaction imprints information on the composition and motion of the planet's atmosphere into the star's light. 

In April 2010, the researchers observed a single transit using Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), but they detected no trace of the planet's atmosphere. Follow-up STIS observations in September 2011 showed a surprising reversal, with 

striking evidence that a plume of gas was streaming away from the 

exoplanet. 

The researchers determined that at least 1,000 tons of gas was leaving the planet's atmosphere every second. The hydrogen atoms were racing away at speeds greater than 300,000 mph. The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Because X-rays and extreme ultraviolet starlight heat the planet's 

atmosphere and likely drive its escape, the team also monitored the star with Swift's X-ray Telescope (XRT). On Sept. 7, 2011, just eight hours before Hubble was scheduled to observe the transit, Swift was monitoring the star when it unleashed a powerful flare. It brightened 

by 3.6 times in X-rays, a spike occurring atop emission levels that already were greater than the sun's. 

"The planet's close proximity to the star means it was struck by a blast of X-rays tens of thousands of times stronger than the Earth suffers even during an X-class solar flare, the strongest category," said co-author Peter Wheatley, a physicist at the University of 

Warwick in England. 

After accounting for the planet's enormous size, the team notes that HD 189733b encountered about 3 million times as many X-rays as Earth receives from a solar flare at the threshold of the X class. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. Swift is operated in collaboration with several U.S. institutions and partners in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Japan. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages both missions. 

ARMY PSYCHIATRIST ACCUSED OF IN KILLING RAMPAGE SET FOR TRIAL AUGUST 20, 2012

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Hasan Trial Set for Aug. 20 as Judge Denies Continuance

From a Fort Hood News Release

FORT HOOD, Texas, June 29, 2012 - The trial of an Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian employee here in a Nov. 5, 2009, shooting rampage that left 30 others injured will start as scheduled Aug. 20, a military judge ruled today.

Army Col. Gregory Gross denied Maj. Nidal M. Hasan's request for a further continuance until December.

Gross also submitted to questioning from Hasan's defense counsel concerning whether he was biased against the accused and ruled that he was not and that no implied bias existed. After announcement of that ruling, defense counsel stated their intention to appeal the military judge's refusal to recuse himself to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals.

In another matter pertaining to the case, the judge ruled that the commanding general of 3rd Corps and Fort Hood and his staff judge advocate must make themselves available for a joint interview by defense counsel concerning the referral of the case for trial by court-martial.

Hasan was not present in court today and viewed the proceedings via a closed-circuit feed in a trailer next to the courthouse. The judge announced that Hasan still was not clean-shaven as required by Army regulations, that the Army had declined to grant him a religious accommodation for the beard, and that the Army Court of Criminal Appeals refused to hear his appeal of the judge's decision last week to remove him from the courtroom because of the beard.

The judge is expected to rule on other pending motions and take up any new motions at a hearing scheduled for July 6.

U.S. RELATIONS WITH MOLDOVA

Map Credit:  U.S. Department Of State.
FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Fact Sheet
June 14, 2012
U.S.-Moldova Relations
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States recognized the independence of Moldova on December 25, 1991 and opened an Embassy in its capital, Chisinau, in March 1992. The United States supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova and on that basis supports the 5+2 negotiations to find a comprehensive settlement that will provide a special status for the separatist region of Transnistria within Moldova. The United States co-chairs the Community of Democracies’ Task Force for Moldova which provides international support to priority areas in Moldova's transition to democracy.

U.S. Assistance to Moldova
U.S. government assistance aims to help Moldova strengthen its democratic institutions, increase prosperity, secure its internationally recognized borders, and integrate with Europe and the Euro-Atlantic community. In 2010, the United States and Moldova signed a $262 million, 5-year Millennium Challenge Corporation compact for economic development and investment projects in irrigation infrastructure, high-value agricultural production, and road rehabilitation.

Bilateral Economic Relations
As a country with a small market, Moldova benefits from liberalized trade and investment and wants to promote the export of its goods and services. A U.S.-Moldovan trade agreement providing reciprocal most-favored-nation tariff treatment took effect in 1992. The same year, an Overseas Private Investment Corporation agreement was signed, encouraging U.S. private investment in Moldova through direct loans and loan guarantees. A bilateral investment treaty was signed in 1993. The United States granted Moldova generalized system of preferences status in 1995, and some Eximbank coverage became available the same year.

Moldova's Membership in International Organizations
Moldova is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Partnership for Peace program. The current Government of Moldova seeks closer integration with Europe and is currently negotiating an Association Agreement, a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, and a visa liberalization plan with the European Union.

FIREFIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN'S GHANZNI PROVINCE, JUNE 15,2012

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
U.S. paratroopers fire at insurgent forces during a firefight on the outskirts of Spedar village in southern Afghanistan's Ghazni province, June 15, 2012. This was the first of several firefights U.S. and Afghan soldiers encountered during their daylong partnered patrol. The soldiers are assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's Company D, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

NEW HEALTH CARE LAW IMPLEMENTATION MOVES FORWARD

Photo:  President Obama Signs Affordable Care Act Into Law.  Credit: White House. 
FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICE
The Administration makes resources available to help states implement Affordable Insurance Exchanges.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today a new funding opportunity to help states continue their work to implement the health care law -- the Affordable Care Act.  When the law is fully implemented in 2014, the affordable insurance exchanges will provide people and small businesses with one-stop shops to find, compare and purchase affordable, high-quality health insurance.  Today’s announcement makes more funding available to build all models of affordable insurance exchanges available to states. HHS also issued further guidance today to help states understand the full scope of activities that can be funded under the available grant funding as they work to build exchanges.

“The federal government and our state partners are moving forward to implement the health care law,” Secretary Sebelius said.  “This new funding opportunity will give states the resources they need to establish affordable insurance exchanges and ensure Americans are no longer on their own when shopping for insurance.”

The funding opportunity announced today will provide states with 10 additional opportunities to apply for funding to establish a state-based exchange, state partnership exchange, or to prepare state systems for a federally facilitated exchange.  To date, 34 states and the District of Columbia have received approximately $850 million in Exchange Establishment Level One and Level Two cooperative agreements to fund their progress toward building exchanges.

Under the new announcement, states can apply for exchange establishment cooperative agreements through the end of 2014. These funds are available for states to use beyond 2014 as they continue to work on their exchanges. This ensures that states have the support and time necessary to build the best exchange for their residents.

The guidance HHS issued today provides information on the exchange-building activities that states can fund with establishment cooperative agreements.
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HHS will conduct regional implementation forums in coming months to assist states and stakeholders on the work to be done in building exchanges, and to address their questions.  HHS will also engage with tribes, tribal governments, and tribal organizations on how exchanges can serve their populations.

For more information on exchanges, including fact sheets, visithttp://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2011/05/exchanges05232011a.html

SEC. OF STATE CLINTON CONGRATULATES SOMALIANS ON SOMALIA NATIONAL DAY

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Somalia's National Day
Press StatementHillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of StateWashington, DC
June 30, 2012
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to send best wishes to the people of Somalia as you celebrate your 52nd independence day this July 1.  


Over the past year, progress has been made toward stability in Somalia.  The Transitional Federal Government and Somalia’s regional governments helped mitigate the effects of drought and famine, improve security and access to assistance for Somalis displaced by the drought and al Shabaab’s violence, and made real political progress to conclude the transitional process.  Thanks to the ongoing efforts by the Somali National Security Forces and the African Union Mission in Somalia, Mogadishu and its surrounding areas are largely free from al-Shabaab, and its influence in southern and central Somalia is waning.


As you celebrate your Independence Day, know that you have a dedicated partner in the people of the United States.  Our support for Somalia and the Somali people will continue beyond the end of the transition.  We stand with the people of Somalia on your path toward peace, stability, prosperity.