Information Management in Large-scale Disaster Exercises: An Integrated Perspective

Simulation exercises are fundamental for building knowledge, skills and capacities of participants to effectively address challenges in crisis management. A key element in emergency response and exercises are the capacities to work with information to support decision-making processes. However, not only exercise participants are dealing with challenges in information management (IM), but those controlling and directing exercises as well. Dynamic environments of exercises require IM capacities -for participants and directors- to optimize training opportunities. Despite common challenges, IM activities of exercise directors and participants have so far been considered as separate fields. This paper looks at these two perspectives as part of an integrated system and examines the similarities and differences of IM in two large-scale exercises. The parallels between them present options to further explore how alignment and -more importantly- synergy of IM practices between exercise participants and directors could improve the quality of information management training in exercise

A simulation exercise for incorporating long-term path dependencies in urgent decision-making

Urban policymakers of the 2020s must act within various types of wicked socio-ecological disruptions. Under deep uncertainty and time pressure, they must make decisions which will define the scope of possible actions in the future. Our aim was to develop a research instrument that would enable researchers and practitioners to learn about such policymaking. We designed and ran a half-day simulation exercise, the Policy Operations Room (POR). The participants were the top politicians and a group of senior experts from the City of Helsinki, Finland. The design of the exercise was based on a review of simulation and gaming research literature. The exercise managed to integrate - albeit imperfectly - the utilitarian and emancipatory dimensions in futures studies: it gave the participants the utilitarian possibility to practice decision-making and the emancipatory possibility to critically reflect on decision-making in wicked, science-based scenarios. It also gave the researchers a chance to witness urgent decision-making in action. Issues deserving further attention include the inclusion of social-political complexity in the scenarios and practitioner involvement in the design process of the exercise. All in all, the POR constitutes a unique way of integrating science-based assessment of future path dependencies into science-policy research and interaction.Peer reviewe

Game Assessment For Miltary Application

The primary purpose of conducting this research was to establish game assessment guidelines and characteristics for integrating elected characteristics of games into ongoing instructional approaches. The cost of repurposing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games could offer a considerably lower cost alternative than the cost of creating a new instructional game developed for a specific instructional goal. The McNeese Game Assessment Tool (MGAT), created for the assessment of games in this usability study, is currently in a beta stage and was found to have potential for future game assessment. The overall assessment indicated that the tool was effective in analyzing game products for reuse potential and that the five instruments that make up the tool did meet the purpose of the design. However, the study also indicated that the instruments needed recommended modifications and further testing with a larger population group before the tool could be utilized. The assessment process identified in this study was a step forward in the area of game and simulation integration research. This study indicated that more research is needed in the area of instructional design to enhance instructional integration goals for future game, simulation and training applications

The Immigration Crisis Under the Trump Administration

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

SPATIAL PERCEPTION AND ROBOT OPERATION: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUAL SPATIAL ABILITY AND PERFORMANCE UNDER DIRECT LINE OF SIGHT AND TELEOPERATION

This dissertation investigated the relationship between the spatial perception abilities of operators and robot operation under direct-line-of-sight and teleoperation viewing conditions. This study was an effort to determine if spatial ability testing may be a useful tool in the selection of human-robot interaction (HRI) operators. Participants completed eight cognitive ability measures and operated one of four types of robots under tasks of low and high difficulty. Performance for each participant was tested during both direct-line-of-sight and teleoperation. These results provide additional evidence that spatial perception abilities are reliable predictors of direct-line-of-sight and teleoperation performance. Participants in this study with higher spatial abilities performed faster, with fewer errors, and less variability. In addition, participants with higher spatial abilities were more successful in the accumulation of points. Applications of these findings are discussed in terms of teleoperator selection tools and HRI training and design recommendations with a human-centered design approach

Broadening Responsibilities: Consideration Of The Potential To Broaden The Role Of Uniformed Fire Service Employees

What is this report about? This report, commissioned by the National Joint Council for Local Authority Fire and Rescue Services (NJC), aims to identify what impact, if any, firefighters can have on the delivery of emergency medical response and wider community health interventions in the UK. What are the overall conclusions? Appropriately trained and equipped firefighters co-responding1 to targeted, specific time critical medical events, such as cardiac arrest, can improve patient survival rates. The data also indicate that there is support from fire service staff – and a potential need from members of the public, particularly the elderly, isolated or vulnerable – to expand ‘wider work’. This includes winter warmth assessments, Safe and Well checks, community defibrillator training and client referrals when staff believe someone may have dementia, are vulnerable or even, for example, have substance dependencies such as an alcohol addiction. However, there is currently insufficient data to estimate the net benefit of this work

Water

The Water chapter of the Poor Choices report

Advising Terrorism: Material Support, Safe Harbors, and Freedom of Speech

Ever since Brandenburg v. Ohio, departures from content neutrality under the First Amendment have received strict scrutiny. However, in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (“HLP”), the Supreme Court decided that the perils of content regulation were less pressing than was the need to curb the human capital of groups, such as Hamas, designated as foreign terrorist organizations (“DFTOs”). As a result, the Court upheld a statute that bars “material support” of terrorist organizations, ruling that the statute bars speech coordinated with DFTOs, including training in negotiation or the use of international law. Some commentators have labeled HLP as heralding a new McCarthyism. This Article argues that critics who condemn HLPas the reincarnation of Cold War content regulation overlook the tailored quality of the decision’s hybrid scrutiny model, its roots in the Framers’ concerns about foreign influence, and its surprising parallels with constitutional justifications for professional regulation. HLP is not the marked departure that critics claim. Just as professional regulation limits lawyers’ use of pretrial publicity, HLP reduced the impact of asymmetries in information that terrorist groups exploit. To constrain government, HLP’s framework of hybrid scrutiny also provides a safe harbor for the independent expression of ideas, and for scholars, journalists, human rights monitors, and attorneys. Nevertheless, HLP’s critics are right that the Court’s decision is flawed. Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion invited confusion about the First Amendment status of lending “legitimacy” to violence, which could quickly drain the safe harbor that the Court created for independent advocacy. The opinion also made a studied show of deference to official sources, disdaining independent accounts of terrorist groups’ penchant for defection. Only the next case will tell if these flaws were minor missteps in a balanced decision or signs of a more severe conflict with First Amendment values