'Brotherhoods' and 'Associates': Chechen Networks of Crime and Resistance

The traditional forms of Chechen society - the extended family, the clan, the religious brotherhood - have proven to be effective building blocks on which to construct network-based structures both for modern organized crime and also for fighting a guerrilla war against the Russians in Chechnya. These networks have evolved in the face of external pressure and are proving durable and successful, even as they are supplemented by separate networks of Islamic extremists, devoted both to guerrilla warfare and also a campaign of terrorism within Russia.     

Should we be using cost of capital in calculating holding costs of consumable inventory?

The DOD directs the usage of 10% of item cost as the cost of capital in the calculation of inventory holding costs. This 10% cost is not totally justified and a complete review must be accomplished to bring this factor to a meaningful and more useful value. The current logic supporting a 10% cost of capital results in a continuing perturbation which forces the Air Force to operate in a less than efficient mode when using the economic order quantity for consumable purchases.     

THE F‐35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER AS A SOURCE OF INNOVATIon AND EMPLOYMENT: SOME INTERIM RESULTS

The F‐35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme is important for innovation in the Dutch economy and also contributes to other programmes in the aerospace industry (spin‐off) and other industries (spillover). On top of the expected value of US$9.2 billion in development and production, based on interviews with 10 companies and research institutes, an expected spin‐off of US$1.1 billion and an expected spillover of US$120 million will result. In addition, over 23,000 man‐years are associated with the activities in the development and production of the JSF. This study excludes the large and labour‐intensive Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) activities. Further validation of data and an update of current results is planned for 2006.     

A case study in bio-inspired engineering design: defense applications of exoskeletal sensors

As part of a bio-inspired design process, the authors examine exoskeletal sensors found in insects and their potential application to armor and hardened buildings. In this way, the outer hardening of a structure or vehicle would not limit the ability of occupants to arrive at an actionable picture of the outer environment. To this end, various sensor modalities employed by insects are compared and contrasted with their current human-engineered equivalents. In several sensing modalities, biosensors perform better, are smaller, and more energy efficient than human-engineered equivalents. They note that biological designs tend to employ non-linear response to signal amplitude and respond with heightened sensitivity over a greater dynamic range of signals than human-engineered sensors. The insect biological sensors have structural and mechanical innovations that preserve the protective capacity of the exoskeleton.