The week of June 14 is designated as National Flag Week when the President of the United States will issue a proclamation urging U.S. citizens to fly the American flag for the duration of that week. Flag Day is June 14 annually.

Most Americans can tell you what day of the year that Independence Day, or Veterans Day lands on each year, but Flag Day and National Flag Week is commonly an overlooked event. This is not to say that this special day to honor our flag has been forgotten. Many communities and civic groups arrange special ceremonies on, or around, Flag Day and National Flag Week each year; and, the Young Marines youth organization is no exception.

“Young Marine units are very active in civic events to honor the American flag, and they do so all year long,” says Kessler, “We believe that we can do even more as a national organization to help inform and enlighten the status of Flag Day and National Flag Week in our communities nationwide.”

Young Marine youth members are encouraged to not only participate in Flag Day/National Flag Week, but to take it a step further to raise awareness and create excitement in their communities surrounding the celebration across the country. During the Young Marines “Raising Awareness to the Flag” campaign, units will use a variety of venues and communication resources, such as their local media and community events.

Community organizations are encouraged to contact local Young Marine units when planning their Flag Day activities in their town. To find a unit near you, visit: www.YoungMarines.com and click on the “Find a Unit” link at the top of the national homepage.

Media outlets might consider interviews with local youth members of the Young Marines. Producers and editors can contact the national Director of Public Relations, Janelle Johnsen for more ideas tailored to your viewers/readership at: media@youngmarines.com.

About the Young Marines youth organization:
The Young Marines is a national non-profit 501(c)3 youth education and service program for boys and girls ages 8 through completion of high school. The program focuses on teaching the values of leadership, teamwork and self-discipline so its members can live and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. The national organization is comprised of over 10,000 youths and 2,800 adult volunteers in nearly 300 units across the United States.

For more information about the Young Marines youth organization, visit the official website: http://www.YoungMarines.com .

News Source: Young Marines :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

Colonel Pryor will head ALFI as its CEO. Also joining the ALFI team will be Major General Robert H. Scales (U.S. Army, Retired) who is serving as the Chair of ALFI’s Board of Directors.

“America’s Soldiers, Marines and Special Operations forces have carried the greatest burden in all of our contemporary wars. Since World War II, land forces have comprised only five percent of the entire Armed Forces, but have suffered more than eighty percent of military fatalities. Yet in spite of this horrific down payment in blood, this nation still fails to provide our ground forces with the support these brave men and women require to enable them to win our wars at the lowest possible cost in human life and human suffering. ALFI is dedicated to the proposition that America’s historic neglect of our land forces must not be allowed to persist,” Pryor said.

“As all who have gone before them, our service members are willing to give their today’s for our children’s tomorrows. We as Americans owe them the best of everything. ALFI is dedicated to advocating on behalf of these service men and women for the best possible training, preparation, equipment, supplies, support, and medical care during their tours of duty, and for the best possible support in their re-integration into civilian life. ALFI’s mission is to be the voice of America’s ground forces and veterans.”

ALFI will be an agent of change at all levels of America’s defense community. ALFI’s goal is to ensure that every member of America’s land forces – starting from their recruitment and continuing through to their transition to civilian life and beyond – will have the best that this country can provide them. ALFI’s programs and activities include a comprehensive advocacy effort that will affect military and national security policy at the highest levels of government; educating military and defense stakeholders as well as the general public; and facilitating the provision of the highest quality services for both land forces and veterans.

For more information visit: http://www.alfinstitute.org .

American Land Forces Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Address: American Land Forces Institute (ALFI), 170 PR 1731, Mico, TX 78056.

News Source: American Land Forces Institute :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

These services will be part of the agency broader Acquisition Roadmap (ARM) objective to unify acquisition processes, improve the knowledge management structure and implement business practices into a single mission support model. The project will also serve to enhance the acquisition knowledge management system to provide staff with a productivity tool in completing tasks related from acquisition planning to contract close out activities.

“iFOS is proud to be selected for this opportunity and is eager to develop and implement a user-friendly workflow model that transforms informal business activities into structured, regulated and audited processes for acquisition management at the DHS,” commented Tawanda M. Smith, President & CEO, iFOS, LLC.

About Intelligent Fiscal Optimal Solutions, LLC:
Intelligent Fiscal Optimal Solutions (iFOS)® Managing Consultants, LLC is a 8a certified, woman-owned small business of staff augmentation, management consulting and training of Accounting, Acquisition, Grants and Financial Management Support Services. iFOS offers specialized Business and Financial Management Solutions through its GSA contract schedule to help public agencies and other organizations with their oversight responsibilities related to pre-audit readiness, business intelligence and analytics and electronic modernization of public operations.

The company professionals have 100+ combined years of prior public service expertise and have successfully completed assignments to improve the quality of fiscal and program operations including the oversight, maintenance, administration, reporting and audit of complex operational structures and programs.

The company is headquartered in Clarksville, Maryland. For more information, visit: www.ifoscorp.com.

News Source: Intelligent Fiscal Optimal Solutions :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

The National Military Family Association was founded in 1969 by military wives concerned about ensuring the financial security of military widows. Since that time the organization has grown into one of the most important advocates for families of service men and women throughout all ranks of the military. Today, the National Military Family Association is devoted to supporting spouses, parents, and family members of U.S. service men and women by providing information, benefits assistance, and special programs.

“Military families are our nation’s families,” said the Association’s Executive Director, Joyce Wessel Raezer. “They serve with quiet dedication and determination in communities across our country and around the world. They look to those communities — schools, employers, civic and religious organizations — to recognize their service and support, as they face the challenges and legacy of almost ten years of war.”

“The National Military Families Association provides important assistance to members of the Armed Forces and their loved ones,” said Callista Gingrich, President of the Gingrich Foundation. “Newt and I encourage others to join us in supporting our military families.”

In addition to educating military families about government programs and benefits designed to help them, the Association offers scholarships for military spouses. It also honors military families who exemplify service and are role models in their communities.

To those who are not members of military families, the Association offers an online tool kit to provide information on how anyone can support service members and their families, at www.militaryfamily.org/publications/community-toolkit/ .

The Association also offers a variety of free summer camp programs for families of service members. Operation Purple Camp provides summer camps for children to develop necessary skills to deal with their parents’ deployments.

The Gingrich Foundation is a domestic non-profit corporation founded by Callista and Newt Gingrich to support charitable purposes.

Support the National Military Families Association at www.militaryfamily.org/get-involved/donate .

News Source: Gingrich Foundation :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

In the words of Rick Gawlik, president of Protium Technologies, “We have been impressed by L2′s in-depth knowledge of the marketplace and the technology that it demands. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”

Nick DeSilvio, VP of Business Development at Protium echoed the sentiment, “We have undertaken a thorough assessment of several organizations to represent the company’s product lines and technical capabilities and L2 stood heads and shoulders above their competitors. We are very confident that as a team we’ll be able to provide customers with quality of service second to none.”

Protium’s latest product introduction is the P6000 line, which covers 20-6,000 MHz with the P6010 tuner and the P6020 digitized tuner. The line features full preselection, low noise figure, high third-order IP and selectable 70 and 140 MHz IF outputs with 20 or 40 MHz bandwidth.

Larry Butera, President of L2 Integrated Solutions had this to say about the new alliance, “Protium Technologies has developed a set of products that offers extremely high performance and flexibility to the SIGINT community. The agility of the company with respect to performance, cost, and responsiveness, as well as their insightful technology roadmap made Protium an extremely attractive partner for L2. We look forward to providing our customers with what we believe to be the most outstanding combination of performance and value in the marketplace today.”

The Vice President of Business Development for L2, Lou DeBenedetto added, “We considered a number of potential partners that specialize in the size, weight and power constrained RF domain and found Protium to be a perfect fit with the mission of L2. Our customers operate in an absolute mission critical environment, which requires leading edge technology and absolute reliability. Protium’s products deliver on those requirements and also provide the flexibility required to meet the ever changing needs of our customers.”

Protium Technologies, Inc. and L2 Solutions, LLC are committed to providing the SIGINT community with Highest Value products and customer service available in the marketplace today.

About Protium Technologies, Inc.:
Protium Technologies, Inc. ( www.protiumtechnologies.com ) is a developer and manufacturer of commercial and military digital R.F. and microwave telecommunications subsystems. The company has extensive experience in developing and manufacturing communications equipment operating in the frequency range of a few MHz to 60 GHz. Current activities are centered on developing and manufacturing a product line for U.S. Government SIGINT applications and a line of platforms for software-defined radios.

Protium Technologies, Inc., located in Northborough, MA, was founded in 2003 and is owned by the management team.

About L2 Integrated Solutions, LLC:
L2 Integrated Solutions, LLC ( www.l2-is.com ) specializes in sales and marketing of high technology products for the defense, aerospace and cyber communities. L2 also provides consulting services to companies looking for assistance in sales force implementation, structuring and deployment, compensation modeling, forecast analysis and sales tool recommendation and implementation.

Markets served include military/aerospace, defense, government agencies and national laboratories. Applications expertise is in signal processing, data acquisition/storage and system design. With over 40 years of experience in business development, team structuring, executive leadership, customer relationships, knowledge of the defense marketplace, and keen ability to accurately forecast business opportunities have led to more consistent results for the company’s clients. A firm belief in partnering with clients and becoming an extension of their internal teams continues to be L2′s primary driving force.

Media Contact:
Nick DeSilvio
Protium Technologies, Inc.
+1-508-393-3700

News Source: Protium Technologies, Inc. :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

Founded in 1990 by Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, Freedom Alliance has worked arduously over the last twenty years to achieve their mission to “advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense.”

“We at Freedom Alliance are grateful and honored to be recognized in this way by the Gingrich Foundation,” said Freedom Alliance President Tom Kilgannon. “Newt and Callista understand well the importance that philanthropy and private charity play in America’s role as an exceptional nation. They provide great leadership through their personal support, and public recognition, of worthy charities.

“We thank them for highlighting Freedom Alliance’s efforts to support the individuals, ideas and institutions which make America great – specifically, the men and women of America’s military. During Military Appreciation Month, we’re honored to partner with Speaker and Mrs. Gingrich to shine a light of recognition on America’s most deserving citizens – our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and their families.”

Freedom Alliance’s Support Our Troops Program provides continual outreach to America’s servicemen and women and their families, hosting various events and providing financial support to members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded in combat or who are currently serving on the front lines. Celebrating its 10th year, the Freedom Alliance’s Military Leadership Academy develops leadership skills and strengthens character, providing 14-18 year old students with a summer camp experience, grounded in military discipline, that teaches the importance of physical fitness, service, and teamwork. Freedom Alliance’s Scholarship Fund supports the children of our military heroes who have been killed in combat or who have been permanently disabled in an operational mission or training accident. Over the years Freedom Alliance has awarded over $4 million dollars in scholarships.

“Freedom Alliance has been a true and devoted leader in supporting the men and women of our nation’s military and their families, who sacrifice so much for our freedom,” said Callista Gingrich, President of the Gingrich Foundation. “Newt and I are delighted to recognize Freedom Alliance as our Charity of the Month and hope each and every citizen will consider supporting this worthy organization as a sign of deep appreciation for our nation’s military.”

Donate to Freedom Alliance: https://secure3.convio.net/fa/site/Donation2?idb=1888643618&1400.donation=form1&df_id=1400&JServSessionIdr004=q6g7ftw2l2.app333b .

- RSS news feed for Gingrich Foundation:

http://send2pressnewswire.com/author/gingrich-foundation/feed

News Source: Gingrich Foundation :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

Helicopter vibration is so serious in fact, that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recently announced its plan to have all U.S.-certified rotorcraft install or be serviced using some type of mechanical condition monitoring or other maintenance actions to control or reduce vibrations. This call to action was prompted by a number of helicopter crashes caused by mechanical component failures worldwide, including many that have resulted in fatalities.

High vibration in helicopters causes severe damage to fuselage structural integrity. It also minimizes components life span and adversely affects operator comfort and control. It has been reported that most safety-related problems in various parts of the aircraft were caused by vibrations, including cracked welds, cracked fuselages, loose wiring connections, and in-flight failure of dynamic components.

“High vibrations can lead to instabilities during flight, making the control difficult and in some cases impossible. These conditions affect fuselage and dynamic component structural integrity including onboard avionics and navigation equipment that can lead to catastrophic results,” stated Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Eitan Ben Eliyahu, former Commander of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), an aviator for 38 years, and a strong supporter of the CDB program.

In response, Shake’d Technologies, Inc., has developed Customized Dynamic Balancing (CDB), an innovative process to immediately reduce overall aircraft vibration. In effect, operating and support (O&S) costs are lessened, while aircraft availability, logistics supportability and safety measures are increased. CDB is considered a “Preventive Maintenance Process,” which means that it keeps the component vibration deterioration rate low and moves component lifetime closer to TBO. The longer a dynamic component remains on-wing, the lower the operating cost to the operator. Each helicopter’s drive-train is physically balanced within its own vibration profile.

The solution requires tuning each aircraft every 200-flight hours to verify the aircraft low vibration environment. Its onboard monitoring systems can also detect unexpected behavior in vibrations and diagnose trends, ensuring a smooth and certainly safer flight.

CDB’s approach is based on holistic analysis, rather than the analysis of separate components. CDB emphasizes the importance of the dynamics of the whole drive-train, and the interaction between its inter-dependent parts instead of isolating by analyzing the drive-train by specific components. CDB supports the Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) concept by providing Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) data that supports predictive maintenance practices based on actual conditions of dynamic components vs unscheduled maintenance. CDB is very useful in identifying and troubleshooting various material issues beyond the drive-train, it also avoids the costly “guesswork” incurred by maintainers who waste time and money trying to find the root source of a particular problem.

“This unique technology includes main rotor track and balance during ground run, so that the aircraft can be serviceable after only one test flight in the air,” Navon said. “Additionally, the solution is able to examine the health condition of each gear mesh in all gearboxes and report unusual behavior to the user.”

“By immediately reducing vibration in the drive train, and periodically checking and re-balancing the aircraft as required, the aircraft can achieve and maintain a minimum vibration profile over its life,” Navon said. “Many fatal accidents could have been prevented using technologies such as CDB.”

Experimental test pilots who have flown Apache aircraft immediately after applying CDB have told us “it has made an obvious difference, not only are the vibrations way down, the noise in the cockpit is quieter”.

Another important attribute of the CDB is its ability to integrate (in full or in part) with other health and usage monitoring systems. Since the critical part of the CDB system is software, integration efforts would mostly involve software integration engineering. Collected data can be passed to the CDB system via a digital storage device (digi-stick), or other similar means, and loaded into the technician’s computer for processing.

Since its development three years ago, CDB has successfully provided safer flights and lower cost operations to an international fleet of rotary wing aircraft. Today, Customized Dynamic Balancing is fully developed and proven to be very effective in immediately solving vibration challenges, reducing operating and support (O&S) costs and increasing both aircraft availability and logistics supportability.

For more information visit the CDB website at www.cdbdata.com .

News Source: Shake’d Technologies, Inc. :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

In the words of Rick Gawlik, president of Protium Technologies, “The design goal of high performance at low cost was met very successfully and positions the product line well ahead of existing solutions. The modular nature of the baseline design permits ready adaptation to a wide range of rapidly-evolving customer requirements.”

According to Mike Vinskus, Senior Principal Engineer at TriaSys Technologies in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, “The novel architecture of the P6010 tuner enables flexibility and performance not found in other tuners currently in the marketplace.”

The P6010 tuner features full preselection, low noise figure, high third-order IP, any frequency-to-any-frequency tune time of less than 70 usec. (in-band tune time of 1 usec.), selectable 70 and 140 MHz IF outputs with 20 or 40 MHz bandwidths and standard USB control. The P6010′s IF output center frequency can also be selected via software to any frequency between 60 and 145 MHz. An innovative MGC/AGC technique provides a true gain control range of 120 dB. The unit consumes less than 10 watts and can be powered by any 9-32 VDC source. Size is 3.0 inches x 6.0 inches x 0.75 inches and weight is 10.4 ounces.

Single-unit price is under $13,000 and less than $10,000 in production quantities. Delivery is 12 weeks ARO. Demonstration units are available for evaluation.

The company’s P6020 tuner-digitizer will be introduced in the third quarter of 2011. It features 20 and 40 MHz-bandwidth I and Q outputs over a 1 GigE interface in the same small brick package. Both the P6010 and the P6020 will also be available in a single-slot 3U CompactPCI package. Additionally, the 3U units can be configured for a VPX backplane.

Protium Technologies, Inc. is committed to provide the SIGINT community with highest value products and customer service second to none.

About Protium Technologies, Inc.:
Protium Technologies, Inc. (www.protiumtechnologies.com) is a developer and manufacturer of commercial and military digital R.F. and microwave telecommunications subsystems. The company has extensive experience in developing and manufacturing communications equipment operating in the frequency range of a few MHz to 60 GHz. Current activities are centered on developing and manufacturing a line of platforms for software-defined radios and a product line for U.S. Government SIGINT applications.

Protium Technologies, Inc., located in Northborough, MA, was founded in 2003 and is owned by the management team.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Nick DeSilvio
Protium Technologies, Inc.
508-393-3700
ndesilvio@protiumtechnologies.com .

News Source: Protium Technologies, Inc. :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

Heartland Heroes Hunt was born out of a high school graduation project that Garden City resident, Tim Telinde and his daughter, Mackenzie, worked on together.

“Each senior was responsible for creating a project that would produce a product and end result that could be measured,” explained Telinde. “I’d been in the service and had many friends serve as well. We came up with the idea of providing a weekend of hunting and fellowship for wounded soldiers and their families to help transition them back into civilian life.”

Activities include swimming and games for the kids, manicure and hair appointments for the wives, and a day of pheasant hunting for the soldiers. This year the weekend culminated with a concert by the Adam Craig Band.

Co-founder Telinde, who owns a hunting and guide business in Garden City, and fellow business man, Brian Beavers, meet with Warrior Transition Teams at Fort Carson, Colorado and Fort Riley, Kansas each year to choose up to 20 families to come to the all-expenses-paid weekend.

The Adam Craig Band was approached with the Heartland Heroes Concert idea by retired First Sergeant TJ Inslee who became friends with the band during one of their numerous trips to Fort Carson.

According to Inslee, “I had the pleasure of meeting the band while serving at the Wounded Warrior Unit at Ft. Carson Colorado in 2009. The band played on several occasions for the Wounded Warriors of Ft. Carson as well as Ft. Riley, Kansas. I felt an instant connection to them and I kept in touch. I approached them last year with the idea of playing at the Heartland Hero Hunt. They jumped at the chance to support the soldiers and their families. The show couldn’t have been better. The band embraced the men and women in uniform with the kind of kinship only found in families. I salute them and extend my deepest gratitude for their support of the Heartland Hero’s Hunt, the United States Military, and the nation’s finest; The Wounded Warrior.”

“We were honored to have an opportunity to contribute in our small way to the lives of these soldiers and their families,” said lead singer Adam Craig.

Telinde and Beavers are already talking about next year’s event and plan to include another Adam Craig Band concert in 2012.

“The Adam Craig Band put on a once in a lifetime performance for wounded servicemen and their families in our small community,” said Telinde. “The band embraced our slogan ‘healing heroes, helping families’ with 120 minutes of great music. We cannot thank them enough for coming here and making our project unforgettable.”

More information: http://adamcraigband.com .

- Photo 72dpi: http://Send2PressNewswire.com/image/11-0203-acraigb_72dpi.jpg .
- Photo Caption: Heartland Heroes Hunt Co-Founder Tim Telinde, Brian Smith, Adam Craig, Jimi Hendrix,and Ryan Jones of the Adam Craig Band, Retired First Sergeant TJ Inslee, and Heartland Heroes Hunt Vice President Brian Beavers.

News Source: The Adam Craig Band :: This press release was issued on behalf of the news source by Send2Press® Newswire, a service of Neotrope®. View all current news at: http://Send2PressNewswire.com .

Plain text copy of press release: send2pressnewswire.com/mediadrome/2011-02-0203-006.txt .
PDF copy of release: send2pressnewswire.com/mediadrome/news_2011-02-0203-006.pdf .

The objective of RouteScout is to facilitate the communication of detailed, relevant, audio-visual information about a specific route or place from war fighters that are familiar with the location, to those that are not, mitigating risks and increasing survivability. The RouteScout plugin allows FalconView to accept traditional Red Hen and certain industry-standard geotagged media files, as well as the new project-based file format called Red Hen Project (.rhproj) that is created by MediaGeoTagger.

Recently demonstrated at the FalconView Users Symposium in Atlanta, typical defense uses of RouteScout might include: convoy operations, intelligence collection, Combat Camera, ground truth activities, air cargo/personnel drop zones, humanitarian/disaster response efforts, and critical infrastructure patrols.

Looking Ahead:

By leveraging geotagged media in the context of a map, RouteScout provides war fighters with knowledge of the immediate surroundings or upcoming points-of-interest (POI) along a route. For example, there is a feature called Look-Ahead Video Awareness, or LAVA, where previously-collected video and media is displayed in-route to war fighters, on a moving map. The media “plays and pauses” based on a preselected distance from the user’s current GPS location. This allows for dramatically increased situational and threat awareness before arriving at a location.

Let’s Disconnect:

Another notable benefit of the RouteScout package is the ability for war fighters to disconnect themselves from proprietary, obvious-looking and expensive hardware/software solutions. With MediaGeotagger, users can quickly geotag video, photos and audio data using commercial off-the-self (COTS) cameras, voice recorders and GPS units, while RouteScout allows for the exporting of photos, audio and text as GPX data to personal navigation devices (PNDs), including Garmin Nuvis, Colorados and Oregons.

RouteScout is the result of a Defense Acquisition Challenge (DAC) Program awarded in order to rapidly deploy Red Hen’s multimedia geotagging capability in the ubiquitous FalconView environment. It is currently supported for FalconView v4.0.1 and TalonView v4.1.1. While initially designed for DoD-related efforts, RouteScout is expected to find use in the civilian market as GTRI begins releasing their Open Source version of FalconView to the public.

About Red Hen Systems:

Since 1997, Red Hen Systems, Inc. (www.redhensystems.com) has been developing patented hardware and software for collecting geo-referenced video and photo data in the field, and bringing that data into mapping environments for improved decision-making. No matter what industry you work in, when it comes to multimedia data collection, viewing, and decision-making – we’ve got you covered.

About FalconView/TalonView:

FalconView is a PC based Mapping Application developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) for the Department of Defense (DoD). TalonView is a restricted version of FalconView for non-U.S. distribution. The software is widely used by the U.S. DoD and Allied countries, but historically it has not been available to the general public. Thanks to an initiative by the U.S. Air Force, GTRI has begun releasing a free and Open Source version of FalconView under the terms of the GNU LGPL license.

More information: www.redhensystems.com .

Plain text copy of press release (and media contact)

PDF copy of press release (and media contact)


STORY REFERENCES: FalconView Mission Planning and Mapping Software Gets New Tools to Empower War Fighters with Geotagged Multimedia from Red Hen, mission planning, falconview, talonview, geotagging video, geotagging software, defense, military, convoy solutions, combat camera, air force, department of defense, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, isr solutions, MediaGeotagger, RouteScout plugin