Abstract. The Soft X-ray focusing Telescope (SXT), India's first X-ray telescope based on the principle of grazing incidence, was launched aboard the AstroSat and made operational on October 26, 2015. X-rays in the energy band of 0.3-8.0 keV are focussed on to a cooled charge coupled device thus providing medium resolution X-ray spectroscopy of cosmic X-ray sources of various types. It is the most sensitive X-ray instrument aboard the AstroSat. In its first year of operation, SXT has been used to observe objects ranging from active stars, compact binaries, supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei and clusters of galaxies in order to study its performance and quantify its characteriztics. Here, we present an overview of its design, mechanical hardware, electronics, data modes, observational constraints, pipeline processing and its in-orbit performance based on preliminary results from its characterization during the performance verification phase.

Technology-driven disruption is taking place at a pace and scale not witnessed before in history. Waves of technology, such as the internet of things, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, are reshaping our personal and professional lives in profound ways. A new world is emerging in which many of the current job classes will disappear, while new ones, requiring entirely different sets of skills, are emerging. Public administrators are unprepared for the challenges they must face in order to cope with this nonincremental and exponential change. Many of the existing government structures and processes that have evolved over the last few centuries will likely become irrelevant in the near future. There is a compelling need to lay the groundwork for governments to rethink how they will be able to best serve their constituents."Dispense with a horse and save the expense, care and anxiety of keeping it . . ."-thus was the value proposition expressed in one of the first car advertisements. (ca. 1898)

Mouse models provide unique opportunities to study vascular disease, but they demand increased experimental and computational resolution. We describe a workflow for combining in vivo and in vitro biomechanical data to build mouse-specific computational models of the central vasculature including regional variations in biaxial wall stiffness, thickness and perivascular support. These fluid–solid interaction models are informed by micro-computed tomography imaging and in vivo ultrasound and pressure measurements, and include mouse-specific inflow and outflow boundary conditions. Hence, the model can capture three-dimensional unsteady flows and pulse wave characteristics. The utility of this experimental–computational approach is illustrated by comparing central artery biomechanics in adult wild-type and fibulin-5 deficient mice, a model of early vascular ageing. Findings are also examined as a function of sex. Computational results compare well with measurements and data available in the literature and suggest that pulse wave velocity, a spatially integrated measure of arterial stiffness, does not reflect well the presence of regional differences in stiffening, particularly those manifested in male versus female mice. Modelling results are also useful for comparing quantities that are difficult to measure or infer experimentally, including local pulse pressures at the renal arteries and characteristics of the peripheral vascular bed that may differ with disease.

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