An Analysis of Specific Categories of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities for Children of Participants of the Air Force Health Study

Background: The Air Force Health Study collected reproductive outcomes for live-born children of male Air Force veterans of the Vietnam War. Methods: Dioxin values for participants were obtained from blood samples. Analyses were conducted of occurrence of 16 specific categories of birth defects and developmental disabilities. Children were categorized as conceived before and after the start of participants’ Vietnam War service. Children conceived before the start of Vietnam War service were treated as being conceived when their fathers had unquantifiable dioxin values. Children conceived after the start of Vietnam War service for participants with missing dioxin values were excluded from primary analyses, but were used to assess the impact of their exclusion on conclusions. Correlation between values for specific categories for multiple children fathered by the same participant was accounted for. The dose-response relationship was treated as a step function increasing for dioxin values larger than adaptively identified individual thresholds changing with the specific category. Results: For 15 of 16 specific categories, the probability of occurrence increased substantially for a sufficiently high dioxin level above identified thresholds. Exclusion of children due to missing dioxin likely did not affect these results. Conclusions: Results supported the conclusion of substantial adverse effects on a wide variety of specific categories of birth defects and developmental disabilities due to sufficiently high exposures to dioxin, a toxic contaminant of Agent Orange used for herbicide spraying in the Vietnam War. Results may hold more generally, but might also have been affected by a variety of limitations.

Earliest Woman Pilot Quan Jiyu Considered "Grandmother" of Air Force

AS one of the earliest women pilots in China, Quan Jiyu has earned honors and has had unique experiences. She has held an important position in the history of aviation in China and the Republic of Korea. Quan Jiyu was born in Pyongyang, Korea in 1901. When she was nine years old, the Japanese invaded her country. The struggles against Japanese aggression were ongoing everywhere which significantly influenced young Quan Jiyu. In 1919 in Korea, the March lst Independence Movement occurred and Quan Jiyu, just 18, became

Forced Compressed Air Cooling System for a 300 MW Steam Turbine in Waigaoqiao Power Plant

The 300 MW steam turbine installed in Waigaoqiao Power Plant with combined HPIP cylinders of double casing structure is a product of the Shanghai Turbine Works utilizing licensed technology. It has a large heat storage capacity and good thermal insulation, so the metal temperature of first stage of HP cylinder (FSMTI) may reach 400-450℃ after shut down and it takes 7-8 days to cool to 150℃ by natural cooling, Now with a forced cooling system the cooling time may be reduced to 40 hours, so that the turbine may be opened for repair work in about 5-6 days. The cooling system for #2 unit and test procedure are briefly described below.

Review and Analysis: United States Cluster Munitions and Unexploded Ordnance Left in Laos after the Second Indochina War

Cluster munitions release dozens of smaller bomblets that rain deadly ammunition on armored tanks, vegetation and troops, effectively striking broad areas of war zone landscapes in one launch. However, only about 60% of bomblets detonate immediately and those that fail to detonate fall to the ground and can lie dormant for years. The legacy of cluster munitions in Laos from the Second Indochina War is unexploded bomblets across the landscape that unexpectedly detonate years later, injuring and killing children, farmers, and other civilians long after the war is over. In Laos, the United States (US) military operation against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of foot and bicycle paths, waterways, and truck routes along the Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam borders linking North and South Vietnam began in 1959. By the 1960s, as the war escalated, trail traffic was interdicted frequently by CIA and US Air Force using tactical herbicide spraying to defoliate dense vegetation and bombing to disrupt supplies and North Vietnamese troops dispersed along the 16,000-kilometer trail. Unexploded ordinance (UXO), including cluster munitions, from U.S. bombings continued in recent years to detonate, kill, maim and injure Laotians and render agricultural lands too hazardous to cultivate. The primary objectives of this study are to document: 1) the long-term consequences and impacts of the US Air Force bombing of Laos during the Second Indochina War (1959 to 1973);2) the United States removal of unexploded ordnance and cluster munitions;and 3) worldwide relief efforts to help the Laotians maimed by unexploded ordnance and cluster munitions.

Long-Term Environmental Impacts of Pesticide and Herbicide Use in Panama Canal Zone

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1913 transformed ocean-shipping and the availability of internationally-traded goods, shortened travel time between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, increased ship tonnage, and sparked the growth of port authorities on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Panama Canal. Historically, the United States was number one and China was number two in tons of cargo that pass through the canal annually in the high stakes game of import and export markets. Prior to the construction of the Panama Canal, the most efficient way to cross the 82-kilometer isthmus, between the Port of Panama City on the Pacific and the Port of Colon on the Atlantic, was by mule trails through tropical forests and river transportation. Since the construction of the Panama Canal through tropical forests in the 1910s, pesticides have been essential for managing mosquitoes as well as controlling wetland vegetation that blocked lakes, rivers and the canal. The primary objective of this research study is to document the long-term environmental impacts of pesticide and herbicide use in the Panama Canal Zone. Many of these chemicals, including 2, 4,-D, 2, 4, 5-T and DDT, have a long half-life under water and some, like arsenic (As), have no half-life. Pesticides and chemicals flowed into Lake Gatun via surface runoff either in solution or attached to the sediment during the rainy season. The by-product 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) is an unanticipated contaminant created during the manufacture of the herbicide 2,4,5-T. TCDD can bio-accumulate in fish and birds and enter into the human food supply. The extent of the current chemical and pesticide contamination on former U.S. military base grounds and in Lake Gatun is unknown. Systematic soil sampling of current and former military bases, chemical disposal sites and Lake Gatun or the Panama Canal sediments is needed to determine if mitigation is necessary.

Butterfly Diversity on a Southeast Florida Military Base Located within an Urban Matrix

South Florida is a renowned‘hotspot’for rare and endemic taxa,with insects and plants found in few other ecosystems.Specialized species evolved in Florida’s stochastic climate,adapting to seasonal drought and flooding,hurricanes and high-wind tropical storms.As human population growth and development increased,and natural ecosystems disappeared,or became increasingly degraded,at-risk taxa now face additional threats,such as urban pesticide use and fragmented remnant habitats.The ability of species to adapt to these changing ecological factors is one of the dynamics that either impacts their fitness to greater survival or drives extirpation or extinction.Butterflies are native indicator species that can be used to document environmental conditions affecting many other taxa.Butterfly surveys were conducted over 16 months on an active military air reserve base located within a mosaic of densely populated urban,commercial,industrial,residential,and agricultural matrices in Homestead,southeast Florida.Butterfly species richness,abundance and diversity were documented,providing valuable base-line data for on-going butterfly monitoring,and the importance of this site’s relatively healthy remnant ecosystems was evidenced by the supporting host plants for 20 migratory butterflies in 40 species.In addition,the air reserve base acts as refugia for many rare,endangered,and threatened federal and state-listed plants as well.

Adaptive Regression for Nonlinear Interrupted Time Series Analyses with Application to Birth Defects in Children of Vietnam War Veterans

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of adaptive regression modeling and demonstrate its use in conducting nonlinear analyses of interrupted time series (ITS) data. Adaptive regression modeling is based on heuristic search over alternative models for data controlled by likelihood-cross validation (LCV) scores with larger scores indicating better models. Extended linear mixed models are used for correlated data like ITS data. Power transforms of predictor variables are used to account for nonlinearity. The use of adaptive regression modeling for assessing ITS effects is demonstrated using data on annual proportions of major birth defects in children fathered by male Air Force veterans of the Vietnam War over a 59-year period. The interruption for this ITS is conception after versus before the start of a participant’s first tour in the Vietnam War. Whether the ITS effect is related to dioxin exposure is also addressed. Dioxin is a highly toxic contaminant of the herbicide Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War. The core findings of the reported analyses are that a substantial adverse ITS interruption effect is identified and that this adverse effect can reasonably be attributed to participants having a high dioxin exposure level. Moreover, these results indicate that adaptive regression modeling can identify nonlinear ITS effects in general situations that can lead to consequential insights into nonlinear relationships over time, possibly varying with other available predictors.