Proceedings, MSVSCC 2015

The Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) of Old Dominion University hosted the 2015 Modeling, Simulation, & Visualization Student capstone Conference on April 16th. The Capstone Conference features students in Modeling and Simulation, undergraduates and graduate degree programs, and fields from many colleges and/or universities. Students present their research to an audience of fellow students, faculty, judges, and other distinguished guests. For the students, these presentations afford them the opportunity to impart their innovative research to members of the M&S community from academic, industry, and government backgrounds. Also participating in the conference are faculty and judges who have volunteered their time to impart direct support to their students’ research, facilitate the various conference tracks, serve as judges for each of the tracks, and provide overall assistance to this conference. 2015 marks the ninth year of the VMASC Capstone Conference for Modeling, Simulation and Visualization. This year our conference attracted a number of fine student written papers and presentations, resulting in a total of 51 research works that were presented. This year’s conference had record attendance thanks to the support from the various different departments at Old Dominion University, other local Universities, and the United States Military Academy, at West Point. We greatly appreciated all of the work and energy that has gone into this year’s conference, it truly was a highly collaborative effort that has resulted in a very successful symposium for the M&S community and all of those involved. Below you will find a brief summary of the best papers and best presentations with some simple statistics of the overall conference contribution. Followed by that is a table of contents that breaks down by conference track category with a copy of each included body of work. Thank you again for your time and your contribution as this conference is designed to continuously evolve and adapt to better suit the authors and M&S supporters. Dr.Yuzhong Shen Graduate Program Director, MSVE Capstone Conference Chair John ShullGraduate Student, MSVE Capstone Conference Student Chai

A perennial simulation framework for integrated crisis management studies

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Scientific Explanation and the Philosophy of Persuasion: Understanding Rhetoric through Scientific Principles and Mechanisms

This thesis explores the issue of whether Aristotle\u27s Rhetoric is consistent with the principles and tools of contemporary science. The approach is to review Aristotle\u27s Rhetoric (along with several modernizing ideas) in light of explanatory mechanisms from psychology, biology, cognitive science and neuroscience. The thesis begins by reviewing Aristotle\u27s Rhetoric and modern rhetorical contributions from Chaim Perelman and Christopher Tindale. A discussion of several psychological principles of reasoning and their relevance to philosophical rhetoric follows. Next, a computational cognitive science framework on emotions and cognition and its applicability to rhetoric is provided, followed by a discussion from principles of evolutionary biology on language evolution and morality and their relevance to rhetoric. The thesis concludes with a brief discussion of rhetorical ideas relative to the neuroanatomy of deductive and inductive reasoning and relative to a view of morality founded on brain neurochemistry

Linking Research and Policy: Assessing a Framework for Organic Agricultural Support in Ireland

This paper links social science research and agricultural policy through an analysis of support for organic agriculture and food. Globally, sales of organic food have experienced 20% annual increases for the past two decades, and represent the fastest growing segment of the grocery market. Although consumer interest has increased, farmers are not keeping up with demand. This is partly due to a lack of political support provided to farmers in their transition from conventional to organic production. Support policies vary by country and in some nations, such as the US, vary by state/province. There have been few attempts to document the types of support currently in place. This research draws on an existing Framework tool to investigate regionally specific and relevant policy support available to organic farmers in Ireland. This exploratory study develops a case study of Ireland within the framework of ten key categories of organic agricultural support: leadership, policy, research, technical support, financial support, marketing and promotion, education and information, consumer issues, inter-agency activities, and future developments. Data from the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), and other governmental and semi-governmental agencies provide the basis for an assessment of support in each category. Assessments are based on the number of activities, availability of information to farmers, and attention from governmental personnel for each of the ten categories. This policy framework is a valuable tool for farmers, researchers, state agencies, and citizen groups seeking to document existing types of organic agricultural support and discover policy areas which deserve more attention

Theoretical and Practical Advances in Computer-based Educational Measurement

This open access book presents a large number of innovations in the world of operational testing. It brings together different but related areas and provides insight in their possibilities, their advantages and drawbacks. The book not only addresses improvements in the quality of educational measurement, innovations in (inter)national large scale assessments, but also several advances in psychometrics and improvements in computerized adaptive testing, and it also offers examples on the impact of new technology in assessment. Due to its nature, the book will appeal to a broad audience within the educational measurement community. It contributes to both theoretical knowledge and also pays attention to practical implementation of innovations in testing technology

From New Public Management to Lean thinking: understanding and managing 'potentially avoidable failure induced demand'

The central objective of this thesis is to investigate, understand and explain the conditions under which the administrative problem known as potentially avoidable failure induced demand (PAFID) arises in UK public services and might be prevented. PAFID is defined as “customer contacts that appear to be precipitated by earlier failures, such as failures to do things right first time, which cause additional and potentially avoidable demands to impinge upon public services”. A secondary objective of the thesis is to establish how, and under what better conditions, the public sector could successfully exploit the management paradigm called Lean thinking, as an alternative to the current New Public Management method, in order to address the PAFID problem. An analysis of the results from three case-studies conducted in UK local authority settings confirms that nearly half of all customer contacts in high-volume services such as housing benefits are potentially avoidable. The extrapolation of this finding to the contact volumes and handling costs in one UK council alone suggests possible savings of more than £1 million a year. The potential benefits that are available to the case-study councils and nearly 500 other local councils, together with numerous other providers of UK public services, are also very substantial. A variety of conceptual lenses are applied to the PAFID problem in order to generate alternative explanations and policy options. This thesis makes a number of contributions to public sector management theory and practice, including the finding that councils might reduce principal-agent problems that add to PAFID by espousing more supportive and enabling environments, and by adopting systems-oriented approaches that acknowledge the complex and subjective nature of real-world problems. The findings also suggest that, while the deployment of Lean ‘tools’ can result in short-term savings and performance improvements, the adoption of Lean thinking as a comprehensive management approach is more likely to bring about fundamental changes

Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies

Proceedings of the Human Factors Certification of Advanced Aviation Technologies Conference held at the Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France, 19-23 July 1993