Catalog

Disruptive Technologies With Applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries is the authors fifth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land;  Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations;  Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Cyber Domain Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 1st edition; have seen considerable global recognition in the field. (Nichols R. K., et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2019) (Nichols R. K., 2018)

The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS / UUV systems which they have written extensively about in our previous four textbooks. Our new title shows our concern for the emergence of Disruptive Technologies and how they apply to the Airline, Marine and Defense industries.

There is a difference between emerging technology trends and disruptive ones. Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized, such that they are figuratively emerging into prominence from a background of nonexistence or obscurity. Some sources say that emerging technologies are taking over the world by a storm and if misused, it could turn out to be our worst enemy.

Disruptive technology is one that displaces an established technology and shakes up the industry or a ground-breaking product that creates a completely new industry. (Rouse, 2021)

That is what our book is about. The authors think they have found technology trends that will replace the status quo or disrupt the conventional technology paradigms.

The authors have written some explosive chapters in their Book 5. Dr. Hans Mumm has written about the Advances in Automation & Human Machine Interface. Wayne Lonstein, JD has given the reader a solid look at Social Media as a Battleground in Information Warfare (IW). CEO Bart Shields has delivered a viable, less risky, more robust  cyber-security alterative / replacement for the popular Blockchain Algorithm and a clean solution for Ransomware. Professor Randall K. Nichols has written about the Advanced Sensor Technologies that are used by UUVs for munitions characterization, assessment, and classification.  He reports on their counter hostile use of UUVs against U.S. capital assets in the South China Seas.  In a second chapter, Professor Nichols has challenged the status quo and debunked the climate change fraud with verifiable facts. In his third chapter, he explodes our minds with Nightmare Technologies that if they come to fruition may do more harm than good.

Dr. Mark Jackson has written authoritatively about Propulsion and Fuels: Disruptive Technologies for Submersible Craft Including UUVs. CEO Randall Mai has penned a chapter to Challenge the Ammunition Industry by Grassroots use of Recycled Metals.  Captain John Paul Hood writes about the changing landscape of UAS regulations and drone privacy laws. 2021 will prove to be most challenging for owners and manufacturers of UAS. CEO & Dr. Suzanne Sincavage and Professor Candice Carter have teamed up to scare the pants off of us – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic – by detailing  Bioterrorism Risks, Biodefense, Threat Agents and the need for advanced sensors to detect these attacks.  Their chapter is truly a wake-up call.

Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD) is our sixth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs &  UUVs. Our textbook takes on a whole new purview for UAS / CUAS/ UUV (drones) – how they can be used to deploy Weapons of Mass Destruction and Deception against CBRNE and civilian targets of opportunity. We are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. Our work suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.

Repeating, we are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. As I write this description, we are on the 56th day of the savage invasion of Ukraine by Russia under President Putin. The Russian drone fleet numbers are above 500. They have had five years to grow their fleet. Russia currently uses them for domestic security, Syrian operations, and defense.  (Facon, 2016) In the conflict, Russian troops seriously outnumber Ukrainian forces. However, on February 8, 2022, a Forbes report stated that Ukraine used 20 Turkish TB-2 drones to hit Russian targets and offset some of Russia’s enormous military advantages. (Malsin, 2022) According to Fox News, on February 27, 2022, President Putin ordered nuclear deterrent forces status raised to “special combat readiness” (Colton, 2022)

News like this in just one conflict suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.  Our team believes that China is watching both the United States’ Neville Chamberlain appeasement strategy and the aggressive nature of Russia in its full-scale invasion of its neighbor. This portends that Taiwan is the next meal on the global plate. Unfortunately, two other state actors have season tickets: Iran and North Korea. Iran’s drone fleet is impressive and has caused other Gulf states’ inventories to escalate (UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Israel) (Barrie, 2021). North Korea (NK) lies about its air power. However, one report states that NK will have drones with stealth capability. (Choi, 2021) Maybe. According to Datablog, the US has the most drones and is best equipped for warfare. China, of course, might dispute these statistics. (DATABLOG, 2012) However, carrying a big stick doesn’t count anymore in the UAS’s future military play without the will to use it.

Our Wildcat team is composed of some impressive SMEs. We divided the work into four sections. Section 1 covers Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear, Explosive (CBRNE) weapons and payloads delivered by unmanned vehicles. Here we look at the technologies and damage delivered by drones as mini weapons of mass destruction and disruption. Chapter 7 concentrates on Deception and how drones can be used in PSYOPS and INFOWAR. Section 2 concentrates on Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), projectiles payloads, satellite killers, port disrupters, and cyberweapons against CBRN assets. Section 3 looks at policy considerations, risk assessments of threats and vulnerabilities of drone-based WMDD / DEW, practical crime scene investigations for hot zones, and unique challenges of responding to bioterrorism and chemical threats and attacks delivered by drones. Our final Section 4 concludes with social networking implications and DRONESEC security and tracking tools of the trade.

Over two years of solid research by a team of eleven SMEs is incorporated into our book. We trust you will enjoy reading it as much as we have in its writing. There are nightmares aplenty.

 

Social imagery, the visuals shared by users via various platforms and applications, may be analyzed to elicit something of massmind (and individual) thinking. This work involves the exploration of seven topics from various subject areas (global public health, environmentalism, human rights, political expression, and human predation) through social imagery and data from social media. The coding techniques involve manual coding, the integration of multiple social data streams, computational text analysis, data visualizations, and other combinations of approaches.

The Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition is designed for students in undergraduate, introductory soil science courses. The lab manual highlights the multidisciplinary aspects of soil science with laboratories focused on soil formation, classification, and mapping; soil physics, soil biology; soil chemistry; and soil fertility and management. The lab manual includes 16 different chapters, each one starting with an introduction and pre-lab assignment, followed by in-lab activities, and complimented by a post-lab assignment. In-lab activities involve field trips, experiments, observation stations, or problem sets. Post-lab assignments include online quizzes, problem sets, or laboratory summary reports.

Version 1 of the lab manual was quickly established as a go-to manual for introductory soil science courses, and was adopted for use by hundreds of soils instructors from around the world. Expanded, updated, and reorganized, Version 2 represents a significant revision to the lab manual, and exhibits a completely new design with improved functionality and accessibility. In addition to a PDF, Version 2 is available in MOBI and EPUB eBook formats and as a web book. A new laboratory, the SoilWeb Field Trip, was added to Version 2 along with significant revisions to the Compost Facility Field Trip and Soil Carbon and Respiration laboratories. The recommended readings in each laboratory now include links to free, online resources in place of conventional textbook reading assignments.

The Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition is used in introductory soil science course at Kansas State University, and is based on the Soils Laboratory Manual, NC State Edition used at North Carolina State University. The Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition was originally published by New Prairie Press in 2017, and was included as a supplement to ‘An Open-Source Laboratory Manual for Introductory Undergraduate Soil Science Courses’ in Natural Sciences Education, Vol. 46:170013, https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/nse/articles/46/1/170013. Supporting materials, assignments, and instructor versions of the lab manual are available at open.soilscience.info. The lab manual is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Digital copies of the Soils Laboratory Manual, K-State Edition Version 2.0 are available for download from New Prairie Press at no cost.

The e-book MARIANNA KISTLER BEACH MUSEUM OF ART: PEOPLE AND SPACES was created by the Board of the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art and published by New Prairie Press of Kansas State University in 2021. The purpose of the book is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the art museum’s opening on the K-State campus in October 1996. It includes articles about the people who are honored by named spaces in the museum. Their contributions allowed the museum to become a reality, including an addition to the building that opened in 2007. When Jon Wefald became president of K-State in 1986, the university was the only institution in the Big 8 Conference without an art museum. First Lady Ruth Ann Wefald took the lead in obtaining the supporters and funds to establish a home for the institution’s impressive art collection. The most notable contribution came from Ross and Marianna Kistler Beach whose generous financial support made the building possible. In 1991 they provided the lead gift for an art museum that would be named in honor of Marianna to commemorate the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary. After the book’s introduction by Linda Duke, the museum’s executive director, Ruth Ann summarizes the difficult journey to establish an art museum. It is followed by an account of Marianna’s many accomplishments. The remainder of the publication contains 23 articles — written by board members of the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art — devoted to the people for whom spaces in the building are named. Photographs are included of those who are honored and spaces in the building including galleries, educational wing, theater, offices, and work and storage locations. The diverse group of people and their contributions have made the museum what it has become during its 25 years — a vibrant place for the collecting, studying, caring for, and presenting the visual art of Kansas and the region. Editors of the e-book are Anthony R. Crawford, Marla Day, Martha Scott, and Marlene VerBrugge, board members of the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art.

This book focuses on three important elements in the development of cereal and legume crops in semi-arid West Africa. The first section illustrates the socioeconomic factors that affect the food system for these crops and contains an overview of crop production and consumption in the region. Then, important inputs that affect system productivity are presented: preferences for new seed varieties, yield response to fertilizer, counterfeit herbicides, climate information, and the way farmers develop expectations about the weather events that shape cropping outcomes. The final chapter of section one is dedicated to understanding urban consumer preferences for processed food products derived from pearl millet.

The second section addresses the state of the art of phenotyping and the modeling of crop adaptation to dryland farming systems. Chapters in section two focus on the regional network for phenotyping, high throughput phenotyping in field situations, root architectures, and crop ideotypes. In addition, empirical evidence is presented on root and soil interactions and the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs to assess sorghum physiology.

Finally, the third section investigates the genetic diversity and improvement of dryland crops. Chapters in this section focus on biodiversity and agricultural system sustainability, orphan crops such as fonio, and the utilization of a regional germplasm collection in the improvement of cowpea, groundnut, pearl millet, and sorghum.