Identifying Criteria to Predict Army Rifle Marksmanship Proficiency

The United States Army requires each Soldier to develop marksmanship proficiency in an effort to achieve combat readiness. Soldiers currently develop marksmanship proficiency through Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) training, but significant skill deficiencies are apparent at the end of training. These skill deficiencies remain throughout training because instructors rarely assess Soldiers objectively before the final qualification, reducing the opportunity for instructors to diagnose skill deficiencies until it is too late. Therefore, the goal of the current research is to identify individual differences and sensor-based performance measures for inclusion in a formative assessment during BRM training. The results of the current study found several variables that predicted marksmanship qualification scores. These findings bring research one step closer to identifying skill deficiencies and individual needs prior to training. However, more research is needed to maximize the understanding and improvement of marksmanship performance and, in turn, improve overall combat readiness

Exploring heart rate variability as a human performance optimisation metric for law enforcement

Tactical personnel, inclusive of police officers, face complex challenges over potentially decades-long careers. These cumulative exposures may manifest as allostatic load, impairing health, fitness, and performance. Allostatic load describes increased vulnerability to psychophysiological dysfunction resulting from prolonged overstress exposure. Monitoring for this risk is an important step towards its mitigation. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis can noninvasively acquire psychophysiological overstress information in tactical environments. HRV theory and principles are well established, however, the integration of HRV in tactical workflows, especially for end-users, has received limited research attention. Therefore, the overarching aim of this programme of research was to determine the utility of HRV assessment in the support of specialist police and their organisations and to alert stakeholders to potential instances of psychophysiological overstress. Chapter 1 introduces HRV concepts within tactical contexts. Components of tactical work that may be best appreciated with HRV analysis are highlighted. Principles in this introduction are further articulated in a systematic review (Chapter 2). Chapter 2 reports on the undertaken systematic review which summarised and critically appraised studies of HRV applications across tactical populations. Of 296 initially identified studies, twenty were included. The volume of evidence suggested that HRV effectively supports health and performance measures in tactical environments. However, literature gaps were identified; most notably, there was limited evidence available regarding HRV in specialist police professions, thus warranting this research. As professional requirements and potential allostatic load sources differ during specialist police selection and subsequent specialist police operational contexts, two research arms were devised to pragmatically address this critical gap. Chapter 3 illustrates the research structure in further detail and outlines which studies address specific literature gaps within specialist police and in which of the two developed research arms. Methodological approaches are also described. Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 encompass HRV application in initial specialist police selection. Chapter 4 introduces the first field study, building on the findings from Chapter 2 (Studyiii1) that HRV assessment may be more valuable than traditional heart rate (HR)measurement for monitoring tactical training as HRV is capable of measuring stress holistically. The primary aim therefore was to investigate whether HRV was more sensitive than HR at monitoring workload during specialist police selection activities. As aerobic fitness is associated with workload during these tasks, a secondary aim was to investigate relationships between HRV, HR, and maximal aerobic fitness. As illustrated by a time-series plot, HR values were unremarkable while HRV values were potentially depressed, and tentatively indicative of overstress. Estimated maximal aerobic fitness (20-m shuttle run) was significantly positively correlated with HRV, but there was no relationship with HR. When a linear regression model was applied, neither HRV nor HR were predicted by 20-m shuttle run scores. Chapter 5 aimed to determine the effectiveness of HRV in differentiating between candidates that failed to complete specialist selection from those who succeeded. HRV was defined as the percentage of R-R intervals that varied by at least 50ms (pRR50). Data were summarised in a heat map. A logistic regression model was generated that effectively predicted attrition but did not identify the most successful candidate. Therefore, the aim of Chapter 6 was to profile HRV characteristics of that successful candidate and consequently a detailed HRV time series plot was generated. Contextual analysis was applied, and the candidate demonstrated continued performance even under apparent duress, both physical and psychological in nature. The subsequent studies (7-9)then aimed to consider HRV monitoring at the operational level where such duress exposures occur frequently. Noting that success in training is distinct from operational performance, Chapters 7, 8, 9,and 10 examined the use of HRV monitoring in operational contexts. The purpose of Chapter 7 was to identify if HRV analysis could classify candidate performance in specialist police selection during occupationally realistic tactical operations scenarios which required fluid psychomotor skills, teamwork, and leadership while under duress. Qualitative analysis of descriptive statistics indicated that the HRV data of one participant were substantially different from his peers. This candidate was also the highest performer, suggesting a relationship between HRV and occupational aptitude. Given that specialist police often work rotating shift schedules which may lead to sleep deprivation, introducing another source of allostatic load, the aim of Chapter 8 was to determine the extent to which HRV may detect differences between specialist police that worked an overnight shift and those that were off duty overnight. HRV was analysed in11 male specialist police officers who were either off-duty or on overnight duty prior to engaging in specialist assessment activities. All officers experienced HRV perturbations from the assessment, but post-assessment HRV was greater amongst those who were coming on duty. HRV values continued to decline after assessment success amongst those that worked the night prior to training, potentially indicating greater stress loads in those that worked the overnight shift. Chapter 9 further explored HRV changes observed in Chapter 8. The aim was to identify relationships between physical fitness as measured by completion time on a primarily anaerobic occupational obstacle course, and HRV response during firearms qualification and subsequent stress training. HRV was assessed as the within-operator change from pre- to post-qualification and post-training. HRV was reduced after training but not after qualification. A linear regression model indicated that obstacle course completion time predicted HRV changes from baseline to both post-qualification and post-training. While stressful training and overnight shifts are regularly encountered in specialist police work, other tasks, such as serving in Directing Staff (DS) roles on selection courses for future candidates are also important duties and present as a nexus between operations and selection. Thus, Chapter 10 considered the critical operational role of DS cadre. The purpose of this study was to monitor and analyse the HRV of one DS member during their 24-hour shift on a candidate selection course. The findings of this case study suggested that DS may be subject to stress levels not unlike those of candidates. This is of note as selection courses are highly taxing and arduous, and officers may serve as DS on more than one course per year and still be required to perform their operational duties.DS requirements during selection courses should therefore be considered appropriately in the overall deployment and operational task scheduling paradigm.Each previous chapter considered important elements of service in a specialist police organisation. The final chapter (Chapter 11) summated the findings from this programme of study, contextualised the works in terms of the bodies of literature with which they were most associated, and highlighted overall limitations as well as plausible future directions. A final supplementary chapter, aimed to provide an operational guide for utilising HRV data in tactical settings, contributed to further support translation of research to practice. In this supplementary chapter, shortcomings of using HRV were reviewed and solutions to avoid flawed analysis provided, as are the key lessons learned from this thesis. In essence, the presentation and visualisation of HRV data may be as critical to the application of HRV analysis as the measurements themselves in tactical settings

Devil Dogs and the Valley of Death: Partisan Interests and Marine Corps Innovation

What factors speed military innovations across the DoD's "valley of death?" Does service culture play a significant role in this process? Military innovation studies research continues to clarify complex factors like bureaucratic pressure, organizational culture, service rivalry, and technological change that drive the pursuit of warfighting advantage. In this study, I will employ a comparative, exploratory case study method relying on small-N qualitative research and process trace three purposive cases of Marine Corps service innovation using interpreted veto player and adoption-capacity theory. While these theories have been applied to state systems to produce causative covering laws of governance and bureaucratic change, they can be effectively interpreted to inform middle-range theory in military innovation. I propose that while institutional veto players ultimately control financial resources, organizational capital remains controlled by partisan veto networks that moderate military innovation. Echoing Tsebelis’ veto player theory in the case of policy stability in democratic systems, I theorize that partisan communities of interest can create a stymying effect that prevents disruptions to status quo warfighting practices that characterize true innovation. This paper further explores the organizational tension between communities of interest internal to the Marine Corps that moderate adoption rates for critical new programs and technologies

Investigation of the effects of transcutaneous electrical stimulation on physiological stress, marksmanship, and cognitive performance

Military training and operations can place significant demands on cognitive and physical resources of service members, resulting in heightened stress and fatigue, elevated risk of accidents and injuries, and diminished cognitive and occupational performance. Transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES) is a novel, non-invasive neuromodulatory technique being investigated as a means to improve alertness and preserve performance under stress with few-to-no side effects. Despite the recent increase in research using TES, few studies have explored the effects of stimulation of the trigeminal nerve on cognition and the human stress response. Therefore, the aims of this study were to elucidate the effects of TES on biochemical and physiological responses to stress, cognition, and marksmanship performance under cognitive load. Participants in this repeated measures, crossover-design study included 23 healthy male (n = 18) and female (n = 5) civilians and members of the military ranging in age from 19 to 37 (mean 24.00 ± 5.65) years. Study procedures occurred in the afternoon on five consecutive days, including two testing days involving administration of active or sham TES to the right supraorbital region of the face using a commercially-available device (Thync One, Cerevast Therapeutics). To evaluate the effects of TES on the stress response, participants were required to complete a prolonged, cognitively challenging target discrimination task using a simulated firing range, which has been previously demonstrated to induce a reliable stress response in human research volunteers. Computer-assisted cognitive tasks were administered before and after rifle marksmanship in order to provide complementary assessment of functional domains challenged during the marksmanship task. Salivary markers of cortisol and α-amylase were collected at several time points during the testing day, and electrocardiography (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG), both markers of heart rate variability and stress responding, were monitored continuously. Linear mixed models with random slopes were used to analyze the effect of stimulation condition (active versus sham TES) on marksmanship and cognitive, physiological, and salivary outcomes across the testing period and at each measurement time point. No significant effects of stimulation condition or the interactions between stimulation condition and measurement time point were found for salivary stress biomarkers (punadj range 0.12 – 0.98) or for cognitive (punadj range 0.25 – 0.88) and physical workload (punadj range 0.31 – 0.79). There were no significant effects of stimulation condition on time-series indicators of heart rate variability (punadj range 0.10 – 0.96) except for pNN50 when measured with PPG (β = -4.97, punadj = 0.04, padj = n.s., d < 0.01). There were, however, significant stimulation condition by time interaction effects on mean heart rate, mean R-R interval, SDNN, RMSSD, and pNN50 (punadj range 0.12 – 0.98, d range < 0.01 – 0.02), indicating that trigeminal TES using the Thync One device increased activity of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems during marksmanship and cognitive testing. Similar effects were noted on frequency-series indicators of heart rate variability using both ECG and PPG, in which stimulation condition effects were noted on ECG high frequency absolute (β = 8.50, punadj < 0.01, padj = 0.01, d < 0.01) and relative powers (β = -8.54, punadj < 0.01, padj = 0.01, d < 0.01), as well as PPG very low frequency power (β = -367.98, punadj < 0.01, padj = n.s., d = 0.12). Effects of the interaction between stimulation condition and measurement time point were noted on very low, low, and high frequency powers (punadj range < 0.01 – 0.048, d range < 0.01 – 0.21), as well as the ratio of low- to high-frequency powers in ECG (punadj range < 0.01 – 0.048, d < 0.01 for all). These results also suggest that trigeminal TES increased activity of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems during marksmanship and cognitive testing. Furthermore, significant effects of stimulation condition were noted on marksmanship shot accuracy (β = 0.14, punadj = 0.01, padj = n.s., d = 0.60) and distance of shots from the targets’ center of mass (β = -0.08, punadj = 0.02, padj = n.s., d = 0.56), indicating that trigeminal TES impaired shot accuracy. There were also significant condition-by-time interaction effects on target detection latency (β = 220.46, punadj = 0.04, padj = n.s., d = 0.49); significant impairments in shot latency observed during the first marksmanship session in the active TES condition only resolved by the second marksmanship session. There were no significant effects of TES on accuracy or response times for neuropsychological tasks assessing response inhibition, sustained attention, and working memory (punadj range 0.09 – 0.98). Active trigeminal TES did, however, significantly reduce the standard deviation of response times on a measure of sustained attention and response inhibition (β = -16.29, punadj = 0.045, padj = n.s., d = 0.43). Although the literature suggests that TES may benefit stress and performance, these results do not support that conclusion. Overall, these analyses found that TES using a commercially available device did not influence chemical biomarkers of stress, but did influence markers of physiological stress, as well as cognitive and marksmanship performance under high cognitive load. TES was associated with impairments in marksmanship performance as well as increases in both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity. Further studies using different stimulation parameters, including multiple sessions of stimulation, will be necessary to more fully characterize possible influences of trigeminal nerve stimulation on stress responding and marksmanship performance or other military relevant tasks. In addition, this project underscores the need for more investigation into the mechanisms of effect of the Thync One device and other devices applying TES of the trigeminal nerve

Dispositional Optimism Effects on Stress and Police Task Performance

The study of stress on police task performance is important as this relationship can positively or negatively impact encounters with the public. This study focused on protective factors of positive psychology within the measured construct of dispositional optimism as a possible mediator of stress effects on physical task performance. The cognitive processing models used were the performance efficiency theory and attentional control theory as they apply in perceptual motor skill. Using a mediation model, the research question asked whether dispositional optimism mediated the relationship between stress and a pistol performance accuracy task. This study used a limited data set collected by a law enforcement training center (N = 80). The survey instruments used to measure stress and dispositional optimism were the Perceived Stress Scale and the Life Orientation Test - Revised, respectively. Correlation and multiple regression were used to analyze the significance of the mediation model. Ultimately, the results were unable to detect significance between dispositional optimism (p \u3e .05) and stress (p \u3e .05) on pistol accuracy outcomes. However, a significant relationship was found between dispositional optimism and stress (p \u3c .05). Future research recommendations include an intervention protocol with several levels of pistol shooting difficulty and biological stress measurements. Implications for social change include further understanding of how to better manage stress for increased accuracy in pistol performance tasks along with increased mental processing and increased positive outcomes. Overall, better education and training for the officer will contribute to more positive encounters with the public

Research Naval Postgraduate School, v.12, no.3, October 2002

NPS Research is published by the Research and Sponsored Programs, Office of the Vice President and Dean of Research, in accordance with NAVSOP-35. Views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Department of the Navy.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Proceedings of Mathsport international 2017 conference

Proceedings of MathSport International 2017 Conference, held in the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua, June 26-28, 2017. MathSport International organizes biennial conferences dedicated to all topics where mathematics and sport meet. Topics include: performance measures, optimization of sports performance, statistics and probability models, mathematical and physical models in sports, competitive strategies, statistics and probability match outcome models, optimal tournament design and scheduling, decision support systems, analysis of rules and adjudication, econometrics in sport, analysis of sporting technologies, financial valuation in sport, e-sports (gaming), betting and sports

Factors Affecting the Transfer of Basic Combat Skills Training in the Air Force

During Operations ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) and IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF), many Airmen in support career fields were deployed to hostile environments like Afghanistan and Iraq. Deployments of this nature are a departure from normal Air Force operations where support personnel are normally far from the front lines of battle. The purpose of this research was to understand the factors that affect the transfer of basic combat skills training from the classroom to the battlefield. Specifically, this thesis sought to answer five research questions addressing the current combat skills training requirements, the perceived training transfer of basic combat skills, the factors that affect the transfer of basic combat skills, any gaps in current training requirements, and what other types of basic combat skills training should be required to fill any perceived gaps. A 52-item scale measured the perceptions of active duty, Air Force officer and enlisted personnel on their ability to transfer the combat skills learned in a classroom to the battlefield. The research provided a foundation for measuring the effectiveness of combat skills training as a single construct made of five separate training types

Emergency first response to a crisis event a multi-agent simulation approach

Homeland Security Presidential Directive #8 led to the establishment of the National Exercise Program and the Top Officials exercise series to test and evaluate first response agency integration and effectiveness. The last TOPOFF exercise cost $16M and involved over 10,000 people, but did not effectively leverage simulation techniques to make efficient use of resources. This research adapts an existing organizational learning process, integrating low- and high resolution simulation to provide decision support. This process led to the development of a multi-agent simulation methodology for emergency first response, specifically applied to analyze a notional vehicle bomb attack during a festival in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. This simulation demonstrates the potential benefits of low resolution simulation, using efficient experimental design and high-performance computing. Combined, these two ideas result in examining a 48-dimensional response surface and using over 156 CPU centuries of computer time. All experiments were completed in less than three weeks. The analysis of this data set provided insight into several areas, including the importance of standing operating procedures in the early moments of a crisis. Analysis showed that effective procedures may even be more important than the effectiveness of communications devices early in a first response operation.http://archive.org/details/emergencyfirstre109452800Outstanding ThesisUS Army (USA) author.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited