Leadership, innovation and strategy development in military hard structures: Bringing chaos to order

This thesis is a critical engagement with the development of leadership for officers in the United States Air Force (USAF) at the USAF’s Air University (AU) through specially designed graduate level education courses in leadership and innovation. These programs have been in regular demand and requests for their dissemination to various other parts of the military are frequent. They are also the seed bed for a number of change initiatives and graduates are to be found at the highest level of decision making. This responsibility to anticipate the future and contribute to supporting officers to lead in increasing complexity, requires me to be constantly questioning myself, my own leadership, my ideas and the ideas of others to inform the design and ongoing evolution of these programs. This evolution is nudged not only from questioning but from the input of students, faculty, and staff in a collaborative endeavor. The context is leadership in, what I refer to as, a ‘hard structure’, one that is heavily regulated and bureaucratized with non-negotiable expectations of its members in service to the protection of systems of security, from economy and law enforcement to trade and civil liberties. In the context of this particular hard structure of the military, the mandate to safeguard a nation’s institutions and alliances can also be a mandate to kill on small and large scales, if ordered to, in the interests of national and international security. This critique has brought into greater awareness the ambiguities, contradictions, and paradoxes faced by military leadership; it questions whether existing formulaic models are relevant to practice in field conditions and tracks my search for concepts as translational devices to negotiate opposing tensions and to see the possibilities in ‘the middle way’. I collaborate with students, peers, and literature to enable leadership and innovation education to shift from a monoperspective to a multi-perspective lens and from leadership as some form of mono-discipline to a multidisciplinary one. I explore the relevance of approaches and concepts including transdisciplinary perspectives as complementary ways to approach leadership for the future. While innovation is part of the leadership portfolio, I arrive at the need to introduce strategy into that portfolio and have set in motion an initiative to integrate all three into a Master’s program that stretches not only the skills of young officers but their imagination. I can now articulate more clearly the concepts, ideas and distilled experience that informs the content and the delivery of the leadership and innovation programs– a transparency of my own understanding including (i) context is pivotal (ii) once leaders understand and are comfortable with their ‘being’ they will be confident to seek cognitive diversity to complement any perceived or actual ‘weaknesses’ in themselves (iii) this in turn results in strong, cohesive teams where individuals can feel less inhibited in expressing and comprehending their strengths and can strive to help each other flourish with an understanding that leaders can only be as great as the teams they create

Shared practice, learning, and goals between police and young people: a qualitative analysis of the National Volunteer Police Cadets

Engaging all members of the public is of paramount importance to British policing. This assists with demystifying the role of police in society, and also providing a shared vision and partnership between communities and the criminal justice system. The National VPC programme provides the opportunity to achieve this, recruiting diverse young people into a structured programme led by a range of police officers and staff. A series of focus groups were conducted across the country with both cadets and adult leaders to explore the benefits of the cadet programme for both groups—those relevant to policing but also more widely for community cohesion and individual development. Although the benefits to policing were clearly articulated, a range of strengths to the programme were also identified

Exploring the removal of online child sexual abuse material in the United Kingdom: processes and practice

This paper explores the processes involved in the removal of online child sexual abuse material. It specifically focuses on the work of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in the UK who are partially responsible for the removal of this content. The empirical work was carried out between May 2017 and September 2017 and explored whether the IWFs processes at removing online child sexual abuse material were both useful and effective to the police and the wider communities. The research applied a mixed methods approach: Semi-structured interviews with employees (N=10) and key stakeholders (N=9), seeking to explore the strengths and challenges of both the task and the IWFs remit. Both employees and stakeholders saw the value in the original and innovative ‘space’ and ‘approach’ the IWF took in removing child sexual abuse material. This included the evolving nature of their tools, from the original URL list filter, to the more adaptable image hashing process. However, challenges around transparency, visibility and partnership were also raised. With online child sexual abuse ever evolving, it is important to consider novel ways in which intervention and prevention of victimization and offending can take place. Where a multi-disciplinary approach is needed in supporting victims, this research provides and insight into how one such organisation uses tools and techniques, different to traditional statutory services or law enforcement responses

A seed specific dose kernel method for low-energy brachytherapy dosimetry.

We describe a method for independently verifying the dose distributions from pre- and post-implant brachytherapy source distributions. Monte Carlo calculations have been performed to characterize the three-dimensional dose distribution in water phantom from a low-energy brachytherapy source. The calculations are performed in a voxelized, Cartesian coordinate geometry and normalized based upon a separate Monte Carlo calculation for the seed specific air-kerma strength to produce an absolute dose grid with units of cGy hr(-1) x U(-1). The seed-specific, three-dimensional dose grid is stored as a text file for processing using a separate visual basic program. This program requires the coordinate positions of each seed in the pre- or post-plan and sums the kernel file for a three-dimensional composite dose distribution. A kernel matrix size of 81x81x81 with a voxel size of 1.0x1.0x1.0 mm3 was chosen as a compromise between calculation time, kernel size, and truncation of the stored dose distribution as a function of radial distance from the midpoint of the seed. Good agreement is achieved for a representative pre- and post-plan comparison versus a commercial implementation of the TG-43 brachytherapy dosimetry protocol

Learned Helplessness, Spirituality, Abstinence Efficacy, and Alcohol Recovery

Treatment for alcoholism is a long and difficult process. Identifying variables that aid in treatment completion and retention of its effects is something that continues to be sought after. Research has identified the factors of spirituality, learned helplessness, and abstinence efficacy as some of the variables that can influence a person’s ability to complete treatment successfully (Sterling, Weinstein, Hill, Gottheil, Gordon, & Shorie, 2006). What it has failed to address is whether or not learned helplessness, spirituality, and abstinence efficacy can impact a person’s ability to sustain treatment effects for a period, post treatment. The data for this project were collected in a study conducted by Sterling et al., (2006). The parent study investigated whether or not admission differences in levels of spirituality had an effect on the participants’ abilities to complete treatment and obtain abstinence successfully. The present study will examine whether or not learned helplessness, spirituality, and abstinence efficacy contribute to a patient’s ability to sustain abstinence 3 and 9 months post- treatment

Polyurethane Resin (PUR) Injection for Rock Mass and Structure Stabilization

The Federal Lands Highway Division (FLH), FHWA, is currently investigating the application of polyurethane resin (PUR) injection as a rapidly deployed, cost-effective ground stabilization measure providing superior stabilization performance, while achieving aesthetics objectives . Most recently, in cooperation with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), FLH completed full-scale PUR demonstration projects at a historic tunnel located along SH 14 in the scenic Poudre Canyon west of Ft. Collins, CO, and at a dry-laid stone masonry wall supporting SH 149 along the Rio Grande River west of South Fork, CO. The Poudre Canyon demonstration involved the “gluing” of a previously bolted section of the western tunnel portal where annual freeze/thaw cycles and rock mass creep toward the adjacent Cache La Poudre River were contributing to rock mass instability. The South Fork demonstration involved PUR injection within a highly-porous, actively failing and culturally-sensitive dry-laid stone masonry wall – a type of retaining structure commonly encountered throughout federal park and forest lands. Based on these investigations, application guidance is being developed for the selection of polyurethane resin products and injection methods when (1) stabilizing failing groundmasses (e.g., rock slopes, unique rock promontories, escarpments), and (2) preserving aging and/or deteriorating man-made structures (e.g., historic retaining walls, archeologic structures)

Control, Characterization, and Cooling of an Ultra-Compact Combustor

An Ultra-Compact Combustor (UCC) is novel alternative to axial flow combustors commonly used in gas turbine engines. The UCC offers multiple benefits to engine design. First, the UCC aims to increase the thrust-to-weight ratio of an aircraft gas turbine engine by decreasing the size, and thus weight, of the engine\u27s combustor. This is done by utilizing a Circumferential Cavity (CC) wrapped around the main core flow which hosts the combustion event, allowing a shortened combustor length. Second, within the CC, the combusting mixture is subjected to a high centrifugal loading which aids combustion by improving both flame propagation and residence time. Finally, the architecture of the UCC allows a unique cooling scheme to be employed for the Hybrid Guide Vane (HGV). The primary objective of this research was to obtain improved performance of the combustor via improved control over the flow splits and distribution within the combustor. The combustion dynamics were investigated both computationally and experimentally to find the design space were successful operation was established. The secondary objective was to design a film cooled HGV by controlling the mainstream flow and directing a portion of it into the vane. Combustor performance was improved by redesigning the outer ring and back plate to improve control of the fuel and air injection and subsequent mixing with the goal of maximizing the fuel burned within the CC. Evaluations using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) were implemented to help guide the design and understand the combustion dynamics. The outer ring and back plate were then manufactured and tested to compare with the original design. These components allowed a new level of control over the UCC never before examined which was then characterized by developing an operating profile for the various controllable aspects. The redesign and unprecedented controllability allowed the UCC to operate at previously unobtainable equivalence ratios and produce a nominal 15% increase in exit temperatures. Similarly, CFD was utilized to guide the design of a film cooled HGV which drew in compressor air at the stagnation region of the airfoil as the coolant. Using CFD the effects of the required internal supports on flow dynamics and cooling effectiveness were explored. The final manufactured HGV was then prepared for future experimental testing and evaluation

Limits to Sympathetic Evaporative Cooling of a Two-Component Fermi Gas

We find a limit cycle in a quasi-equilibrium model of evaporative cooling of a two-component fermion gas. The existence of such a limit cycle represents an obstruction to reaching the quantum ground state evaporatively. We show that evaporatively the \beta\mu ~ 1. We speculate that one may be able to cool an atomic fermi gas further by photoassociating dimers near the bottom of the fermi sea.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev

Content moderator coping strategies: associations with psychological distress, secondary trauma and wellbeing

Content moderators (CMs) apply policy set by platforms to protect users from harmful content. It is a stressful job, associated with reduced mental health and wellbeing. In this study, an anonymous survey was used to demonstrate most CMs cope by seeking support from colleagues and this is associated with lower psychological distress and secondary trauma and higher wellbeing whereas increased smoking and alcohol consumption is associated with increased symptomology. Wellbeing services were not related to a reduction in psychological distress or trauma. We argue these results fit within a framework of trauma-informed working and provide evidence for its utility in the trust and safety sector. They also highlight the need for continued research into ‘what works’ to support the resilience of frontline staff

Thatcherism\u27s Triumph: How Margaret Thatcher’s Neoliberal Policies Brought Prosperity to Britain

By 1979, the British economy was in complete and utter disarray. Inflation was at record highs along with unemployment. The post-world war consensus was built off the idea of embedded liberalism, which stressed that the government must play a large and active role in regulating the markets and that it was in the government\u27s interest to keep unemployment at its natural low. Similar to the United States, since the Great Depression the welfare state in Great Britain had been expanding. The post-war consensus proclaimed and exhausted the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes who believed in embedded liberalism and the idea that to pull the nation out of economic hardship, the government must boost demand among the people. But with consistent poor economic performance for almost a decade, trade union strikes that crippled the nation, and the failures of previous administrations to address these issues the British people were ready to try out the new neoliberal economic policies of Margaret Thatcher. In 1979 the Conservative party won an over forty-seat majority in parliament and Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister. This paper will argue that Margaret Thatcher ushered in a new age in British politics, effectively breaking the post-war embedded liberal consensus and introducing a new age of neoliberalism to the United Kingdom. While Thatcher’s economic policies negatively affected certain sectors of the economy such as wealth inequality, the nation was better off economically after ten years of Thatcher\u27s neoliberalism than it was prior to her election as Prime Minister in 1979