VA’s long-standing digital tool that helps reduce Veterans’ homelessness was recently expanded to aid in suicide prevention.

The Status Query and Response Exchange System (SQUARES) is a VA web application launched in 2015. It provides VA employees and external organizations such as homeless service community partners, law enforcement partners (police departments, sheriff departments, courts and jails) and local, state and federal agencies with reliable, detailed information about Veteran eligibility for VA homeless assistance.

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Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are helping to protect honey bee populations while developing new strategies for managing fire ant populations. Honey bees are a vital part of pollinating our crops, while fire ants – an invasive species -- pose a major threat to humans, animals, and U.S. agriculture.

ARS scientists are getting a better understanding of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), a major pathogen that can debilitate honey bees and adversely affect entire colonies. They found that the virus also affects fire ants, which could aid in spreading the virus to other species, including bees.

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By Deb Henley
505th Command and Control Wing Public Affairs

LAS VEGAS (AFNS) -- The Department of the Air Force took a bold step toward future command and control capabilities with the successful completion of its first Decision Advantage Sprint for Human-Machine Teaming, or DASH, experiment, recently held at the Howard Hughes Operations Center, or H2O, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"The DASH experiment showed how machine support can dramatically reduce decision time and improve decision quality for air battle managers working in complex operational environments," said Col. Christopher Cannon, Advanced Battle Management Cross-Functional Team lead. “Battle management teams were exercising command and control decision advantage.”

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RTX is a non-addictive pain therapy derived from a cactus-like plant.

National Institute of Health (NIH) scientists report that a first-in-human clinical trial of a new therapy based on the plant-derived molecule resiniferatoxin (RTX) shows that it is a safe and effective agent for pain control in patients with intractable cancer pain. Researchers tested a single injection of small quantities of RTX into the lumbar cerebral spinal fluid (by lumbar puncture) of advanced-stage cancer patients and found that it reduced their reported worst pain intensity by 38% and their use of pain-relieving opioids by 57%.

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NIH-funded breakthrough could enable targeted therapies for many neurological disorders.

Research teams funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have created a versatile set of gene delivery systems that can reach different neural cell types in the human brain and spinal cord with exceptional accuracy. These delivery systems are a significant step toward future precise gene therapy to the brain that could safely control errant brain activity with high precision. In contrast, current therapies for brain disorders mostly treat only symptoms.

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Biological agents have become cheaper, faster, and easier for adversaries to engineer and employ due to advancements in science and technology. Though defeating these dynamic threats can be challenging, the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense’s (JPEO-CBRND) Joint Project Lead for CBRND Enabling Biotechnologies (JPL CBRND EB) is using the power of technology and information that is already available to help the joint force stay ahead of the constantly evolving threat. In response to this landscape combined with using “data as a product,” JPL CBRND EB stood up an office with a “data-forward” approach called Data and Technology Integration for Readiness (DTIR).

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