Task force Uruzgan, Afghanistan 2006-2010 : medical aspects and challenges

Concluderend, er worden drie hoofdthema__s in dit proefschrift besproken: ten eerste incidentie en epidemiologie van BC__s, ten tweede de kwaliteit van zorg en ten derde de kwaliteit van leven. Deze drie thema__s leggen het fundament voor meer (medisch) onderzoek binnen de Nederlandse krijgsmacht. Optimalisatie van de behandeling van gevechtsgewonden gaat verder dan de medisch ondersteunende organisatie. Vroege betrokkenheid van buddy__s, familieleden, medisch personeel en tactisch commandanten is bevorderlijk voor eenieder. Een volledig ge_ntegreerde aanpak binnen de Defensie organisatie is noodzakelijk. Militaire Geneeskunde is een continu evoluerend proces, waarbij alle mogelijkheden moeten worden aangewend om dit proces te optimaliseren. De integratie van prospectieve studies zal de kwaliteit van lessons learned van elk gewapend conflict verhogen. Er is een sterke overeenkomst met rampengeneeskunde en rampenchirurgie. Samenwerking van rampengeneeskunde en militaire geneeskunde kan daarom nuttig zijn. Als de resultaten omschreven in dit proefschrift kunnen bijdragen aan de verbetering van de kwaliteit van de medisch ondersteunende organisatie, de opleiding van medisch en niet-medisch personeel en de kwaliteit van leven van alle betrokkenen met meer dan een procent, dan is het doel bereikt.UBL - phd migration 201

EXPLOITING KASPAROV'S LAW: ENHANCED INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTEGRATION IN DOD SIMULATION-BASED TRAINING ENVIRONMENTS

Despite recent advances in the representation of logistics considerations in DOD staff training and wargaming simulations, logistics information systems (IS) remain underrepresented. Unlike many command and control (C2) systems, which can be integrated with simulations through common protocols (e.g., OTH-Gold), many logistics ISs require manpower-intensive human-in-the-loop (HitL) processes for simulation-IS (sim-IS) integration. Where automated sim-IS integration has been achieved, it often does not simulate important sociotechnical system (STS) dynamics, such as information latency and human error, presenting decision-makers with an unrealistic representation of logistics C2 capabilities in context. This research seeks to overcome the limitations of conventional sim-IS interoperability approaches by developing and validating a new approach for sim-IS information exchange through robotic process automation (RPA). RPA software supports the automation of IS information exchange through ISs’ existing graphical user interfaces. This “outside-in” approach to IS integration mitigates the need for engineering changes in ISs (or simulations) for automated information exchange. In addition to validating the potential for an RPA-based approach to sim-IS integration, this research presents recommendations for a Distributed Simulation Engineering and Execution Process (DSEEP) overlay to guide the engineering and execution of sim-IS environments.Major, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Braving the swarm : lowering anticipated group bias in integrated fire/police units facing paramilitary terrorism

CHDS State/LocalThe Fire the City of New York (FDNY) has responded to the consequences of terrorist incidents for decades, but global trends in active-shooter terrorism may force firefighters to operate in an active, hostile environment, and not just in the aftermath of attacks. In assault-style terrorism, a swift-moving, networked enemy combines small-arms with explosives or accelerants, causing extensive fires and smoke conditions, further endangering victims or hostages. To continue its position as a lead innovator in the national fire service, the FDNY must create new strategies and collaborations to frame its participation in swarm-like terrorist attacks, requiring a plurality of expertise from the across the emergency-responder spectrum. In light of this emerging threat, the all-hazards approach is no longer adequate. The answer to Mumbaistyle attacks may require combined fire/police units. The units can only succeed with an understanding of group bias, which must be attenuated or managed for the integrated unit to function effectively.http://archive.org/details/bravingswarmlowe109455803Captain, Fire Department of the City of New YorkApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

NASA Automated Rendezvous and Capture Review. A compilation of the abstracts

This document presents a compilation of abstracts of papers solicited for presentation at the NASA Automated Rendezvous and Capture Review held in Williamsburg, VA on November 19-21, 1991. Due to limitations on time and other considerations, not all abstracts could be presented during the review. The organizing committee determined however, that all abstracts merited availability to all participants and represented data and information reflecting state-of-the-art of this technology which should be captured in one document for future use and reference. The organizing committee appreciates the interest shown in the review and the response by the authors in submitting these abstracts

APPLYING MACHINE LEARNING FOR COP/CTP DATA FILTERING

Student Thesis (NPS NRP Project Related)Accurate tracks and targeting are key to providing decision-makers with the confidence to execute their missions. Increasingly, multiple intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets across different intelligence sources are being used to increase the accuracy of track location, resulting in the need to develop methods to exploit heterogeneous sensor data streams for better target state estimation. One of the algorithms commonly used for target state estimation is the Kalman Filter (KF) algorithm. This algorithm performs well if its covariance matrices are accurate approximations of the uncertainty in sensor measurements. Our research complements the artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) efforts the U.S. Navy is conducting by quantitatively assessing the potential of using an ML model to predict sensor measurement noise for KF state estimation. We used a computer simulation to generate sensor tracks of a single target and trained a neural network to predict sensor error. The hybrid model (ML-KF) was able to outperform our baseline KF model that uses normalized sensor errors by approximately 20% in target position estimation. Further research in enhancing the ML model with external environment variables as inputs could potentially create an adaptive state estimation system that is capable of operating in varied environment settings.NPS Naval Research ProgramThis project was funded in part by the NPS Naval Research Program.Outstanding ThesisCaptain, Singapore ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Response surface methods applied to submarine concept exploration

CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) Thesis documentIt is estimated that 70 to 85 percent of a naval ship's life-cycle cost is determined during the concept exploration phase which places an importance in the methodology used by the designer to select the concept design. But trade-off studies are guided primarily by past experience, rules-of-thumb, and designer preference. This approach is ad hoc, not efficient and may not lead to an optimum concept design. Even worse, once the designer has a 'good' concept design, he has no process or methodology to determine whether a better concept design is possible or not. A methodology is required to search the design space for an optimal solution based on the specified preferences from the customer. But the difficulty is the design space, which is non-linear, discontinuous, and bounded by a variety of constraints, goals, and thresholds. Then the design process itself is difficult to optimize because of the coupling among decomposed engineering disciplines and sub-system interactions. These attributes prevent application of mature optimization techniques including Lagrange multipliers, steepest ascent methods, linear programming, non-linear programming, and dynamic programming. To further improve submarine concept exploration, this thesis examines a statistical technique called Response Surface Methods (RSM). The purpose of RSM is to lead to an understanding of the relationship between the input (factors) and Output (response) variables, often to further the optimization of the underlying process. The RSM approach allows the designers to find a local optimal and examine how the design factors affect the response in the region around the generated optimal point.http://archive.org/details/responsesurfacem1094510921CIVIN

Volume II Acquisition Research Creating Synergy for Informed Change, Thursday 19th Annual Acquisition Research Proceedings

ProceedingsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Evolving Models From Observed Human Performance

To create a realistic environment, many simulations require simulated agents with human behavior patterns. Manually creating such agents with realistic behavior is often a tedious and time-consuming task. This dissertation describes a new approach that automatically builds human behavior models for simulated agents by observing human performance. The research described in this dissertation synergistically combines Context-Based Reasoning, a paradigm especially developed to model tactical human performance within simulated agents, with Genetic Programming, a machine learning algorithm to construct the behavior knowledge in accordance to the paradigm. This synergistic combination of well-documented AI methodologies has resulted in a new algorithm that effectively and automatically builds simulated agents with human behavior. This algorithm was tested extensively with five different simulated agents created by observing the performance of five humans driving an automobile simulator. The agents show not only the ability/capability to automatically learn and generalize the behavior of the human observed, but they also capture some of the personal behavior patterns observed among the five humans. Furthermore, the agents exhibited a performance that was at least as good as agents developed manually by a knowledgeable engineer

The 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies

This publication comprises the papers presented at the 1995 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Information Technologies held at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 9-11, 1995. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed

Advances in Human Factors in Complex Trauma and Emergency Anaesthesia and their Implementation into Military and Civilian Trauma Systems

The role of human factors in healthcare was introduced into the mainstream medical literature following two important seminal reports, ‘To Err is Human’ from the United States and ‘An Organisation with A Memory’ from the United Kingdom. This subsequently led to work conducted by the University of Aberdeen into defining the role of non-technical skills in the Operating Theatre for Anaesthetists, Surgeons and Scrub Practitioners. This thesis is an overview of work that I have undertaken in both Military and Civilian settings exploring and defining the importance of human factors in the management of complex trauma and emergency anaesthesia. I have undertaken original research investigating the barriers that exist to challenging seniors and have created guidelines for the management of non-iatrogenic airway injuries. This thesis also discusses a novel project that I have been involved in, the development of the ‘Trauma WHO’, which is a simple checklist designed to improve patient safety during their pathway in complex trauma. I will describe how this was developed, tested in a field hospital in Afghanistan and is now embedded into military practice and some civilian centres. This thesis also describes further knowledge assimilation in the form of two published peer reviewed systematic reviews exploring the importance of human factors in the emergency department and operating theatre and the management of non-iatrogenic trauma to the airway. Additionally, I have selected five papers for inclusion that demonstrate a translation of knowledge into different trauma arenas where the importance of human factors is essential and now embedded. The implications of this thesis are that advances in human factors in complex trauma and emergency anaesthesia that were originally developed in the military setting have now been refined and adopted into certain areas of the NHS. The impact of these advances in guidelines for the management of penetrating airway injuries, streamlining communication and flattening hierarchies by awareness of barriers to challenge have been recently witnessed in the expert and successful management of seriously injured patients. Further work to promote these advances is still required to encourage further adoption in other major trauma centres in England