21st Century Simulation: Exploiting High Performance Computing and Data Analysis

This paper identifies, defines, and analyzes the limitations imposed on Modeling and Simulation by outmoded paradigms in computer utilization and data analysis. The authors then discuss two emerging capabilities to overcome these limitations: High Performance Parallel Computing and Advanced Data Analysis. First, parallel computing, in supercomputers and Linux clusters, has proven effective by providing users an advantage in computing power. This has been characterized as a ten-year lead over the use of single-processor computers. Second, advanced data analysis techniques are both necessitated and enabled by this leap in computing power. JFCOM's JESPP project is one of the few simulation initiatives to effectively embrace these concepts. The challenges facing the defense analyst today have grown to include the need to consider operations among non-combatant populations, to focus on impacts to civilian infrastructure, to differentiate combatants from non-combatants, and to understand non-linear, asymmetric warfare. These requirements stretch both current computational techniques and data analysis methodologies. In this paper, documented examples and potential solutions will be advanced. The authors discuss the paths to successful implementation based on their experience. Reviewed technologies include parallel computing, cluster computing, grid computing, data logging, OpsResearch, database advances, data mining, evolutionary computing, genetic algorithms, and Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses. The modeling and simulation community has significant potential to provide more opportunities for training and analysis. Simulations must include increasingly sophisticated environments, better emulations of foes, and more realistic civilian populations. Overcoming the implementation challenges will produce dramatically better insights, for trainees and analysts. High Performance Parallel Computing and Advanced Data Analysis promise increased understanding of future vulnerabilities to help avoid unneeded mission failures and unacceptable personnel losses. The authors set forth road maps for rapid prototyping and adoption of advanced capabilities. They discuss the beneficial impact of embracing these technologies, as well as risk mitigation required to ensure success

On life, death and radical critique: A non-survival guide to the Brave New Higher Education for the intellectually pregnant

This paper joins the call to arms against the domestication of critique in organisation studies. It argues that we have become too pre-occupied with our professional survival to stand firm against the normalising pressure of the new higher education and its publish-or-perish machinery. We trade away too much radicalism in exchange for legitimacy, which results in widely accepted but toothless forms of critique. The paper draws on two contrasting metaphors of Huxley's Brave New World and intellectual pregnancy to illustrate some of the challenges faced by early-career academics entering the world of the Brave New Higher Education as academic ‘savages’. It discusses the almost imperceptible socialisation of the savage into the ‘rationalised myths’ of the brave new world to the point that alternatives become literally unthinkable. The paper suggests that we can fight this slippage and the associated domestication of critique by giving up our obsession with survival and by remembering/envisioning alternative realities, such as that of intellectual pregnancy deriving from the fragile idealism of the savage's doctoral world

The pre-solicitation phase of Government R and D contracting

Decision environment during pre-solicitation phase of procurement cycle in government agency contractin

Effect of Heat-Treatment Time on Bending Properties of Cobolt-Chromium Orthodontic Wires

Different protocols appear in the literature with respect to heat-treating cobalt-chromium orthodontic wires. The objective was to determine the effect of variable heat-treatment time and method on the bending properties of CoCr wires. Two tempers of CoCr ‘Elgiloy’ wires (Rocky Mountain Orthodontics), blue (B) and yellow (Y), were heat-treated for different durations. The groups (n=20/group/temper) included: 1) as-received (control); 2) brush-flame; 3) 480oC for 5sec; 4) 480oC for 10min; 5) 480oC for 2hr; and 6) 480oC for 5hr. Wire segments were tested by a three-point bend test. Stiffness/flexural modulus, percent recovery, and force values at select deflections were statistically compared using ANOVA/Bonferroni post-hoc test (p\u3c0.05). A T-test compared the different tempers. Longer heat-treatment (2hr/5hr) increased % recovery, flexural modulus, and force values when compared to the as-received counterparts. Heat treatment for 10 minutes resulted in intermediate increases. Using a brush-flame technique reduced elastic recovery and resulted in greater bending variability. Similar mechanical properties can be achieved in just 2 hours compared to the manufacturer recommended 5 hours of heat-treatment of Elgiloy wires. Ten minutes of heat-treatment, which may be more realistic in a busy orthodontic practice, can increase bending properties 50-75% compared to the 5-hour group. The brush-flame technique is not recommended due to inconsistent heating conditions resulting in varying bending properties

Participatory Modelling and Decision Support for Natural Resources Management in Climate Change Research

The ever greater role given to public participation by laws and regulations, in particular in the field of environmental management calls for new operational methods and tools for managers and practitioners. This paper analyses the potentials and the critical limitations of current approaches in the fields of simulation modelling (SM), public participation (PP) and decision analysis (DA), for natural resources management within the context of climate change research. The potential synergies of combining SM, PP and DA into an integrated methodological framework are identified and a methodological proposal is presented, called NetSyMoD (Network Analysis – Creative System Modelling – Decision Support), which aims at facilitating the involvement of stakeholders or experts in policy - or decision-making processes (P/DMP). A generic P/DMP is formalised in NetSyMoD as a sequence of six main phases: (i) Actors analysis; (ii) Problem analysis; (iii) Creative System Modelling; (iv) DSS design; (v) Analysis of Options; and (vi) Action taking and monitoring. Several variants of the NetSyMoD approach have been adapted to different contexts such as integrated water resources management and coastal management, and, recently it has been applied in climate change research projects. Experience has shown that NetSyMoD may be a useful framework for skilled professionals, for guiding the P/DMP, and providing practical solutions to problems encountered in the different phases of the decision/policy making process, in particular when future scenarios or projections have to be considered, such as in the case of developing and selecting adaptation policies. The various applications of NetSyMoD share the same approach for problem analysis and communication within the group of selected actors, based upon the use of creative thinking techniques, the formalisation of human-environment relationships through the DPSIR framework, and the use of multi-criteria analysis through a Decision Support System (DSS) software.Modelling, Public Participation, Natural Resource Management, Policy, Decision-Making, Governance, DSS