Learning from the 21st century fight: insights from operations and training

Advanced militaries, optimised for conventional conflicts, are experiencing significant change as they attempt to adapt to the demands of a new defence and security paradigm. The effectiveness of that transformation will depend largely on their ability to fully absorb the lessons of history and of recent operations. The paper begins by juxtaposing the four key factors for ensuring that these lessons are identified and absorbed ('the environment', 'the culture', 'the leaders, and 'the process') within today's Australian Army. The paper then goes on to outline some of the insights (lessons) gained from operations and training activities, with an emphasis on force protection and urban operations. This is followed by an analysis of the way ahead for the Australian Army and why the Army must institutionalise a learning process and, perhaps more importantly, a true learning culture where all have an openness to new ideas and a thirst for constant improvement

The Army lessons process: supporting individual and organisational learning in the Australian Army

This paper provides a brief outline of the Army lessons process that is applied when developing and applying lessons across all Army activities. The Army lessons process supports the conduct of operations and informs Army Raise-Train-Sustain functions, through the incorporation of lessons into doctrine, training and capability development. The paper focuses upon four distinct foci. Firstly, we examine the whole of Army responsibility in relation to the transfer of knowledge into lessons. Secondly, we consider the vital roles and responsibilities of knowledge authorities in this transfer. Thirdly, we examine the ways in which observations and insights transform into findings and lessons. Finally, we propose the establishment of the Army Lessons Network as a formal means of knowledge interaction

Digital evidence exceptionalism? A review and discussion of conceptual hurdles in digital evidence transformation

Forensic science is currently undergoing a transformation and expansion to include modern types of evidence, such as evidence generated by digital investigations. This development is said to raise a series of challenges, both in operational and conceptual dimensions. This paper reviews and discusses a series of convoluted conceptual hurdles that are encountered in connection with the use of digital evidence as part of evidence and proof processes at trial, in contradistinction to investigative uses of such types of evidence. As a recent example raising such hurdles, we analyse and discuss assertions and proposals made in the article “Digital Evidence Certainty Descriptors (DECDs)” by Graeme Horsman (32 Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation (2020) 200896)

Polygraph-based deception detection and machine learning. Combining the worst of both worlds?

At a time when developments in computational approaches, often associated with the now much-vaunted terms Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), face increasing challenges in terms of fairness, transparency and accountability, the temptation for researchers to apply mainstream ML methods to virtually any type of data seems to remain irresistible. In this paper we critically examine a recent proposal to apply ML to polygraph screening results (where human interviewers have made a conclusion about deception), which raises several questions about the purpose and the design of the research, particularly given the vacuous scientific status of polygraph-based procedures themselves. We argue that in high-stake environments such as criminal justice and employment practice, where fundamental rights and principles of justice are at stake, the legal and ethical considerations for scientific research are heightened. Specifically, we argue that the combination of ambiguously labelled data and ad hoc ML models does not meet this requirement. Worse, such research can inappropriately legitimise otherwise scientifically invalid, indeed pseudo-scientific methods such as polygraph-based deception detection, especially when presented in a reputable scientific journal. We conclude that methodological concerns, such as those highlighted in this paper, should be addressed before research can be said to contribute to resolving any of the fundamental validity issues that underlie methods and techniques used in legal proceedings

The Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network: Results of the naturalistic follow-up study after 2.5 years of follow-up in the German centres

The Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network (SFBN) is an international, multisite network investigating the characteristics and course of bipolar disorder. Methods (history, ratings and longitudinal follow-up) are standardized and equally applied in all 7 centres. This article describes demographics and illness characteristics of the first 152 German patients enrolled in them SFBN as well as the results of 2.5 years of follow-up. Patients in Germany were usually enrolled after hospitalisation. More than 72% of the study population suffered from bipolar I disorder and 25% from bipolar 11 disorder. The mean +/- SD age of the study participants was 42.08 +/- 13.5 years, and the mean SD age of onset 24.44 +/- 10.9 years. More than 40% of the sample reported a rapid-cycling course in history, and even more a cycle acceleration overtime. 37% attempted suicide at least once. 36% had an additional Axis I disorder, with alcohol abuse being the most common one, followed by anxiety disorders. During the follow-up period, only 27% remained stable, 56% had a recurrence, 12.8% perceived subsyndromal symptoms despite treatment and regular visits. 27% suffered from a rapid-cycling course during the follow-up period. Recurrences were significantly associated with bipolar I disorder, an additional comorbid Axis I disorder, rapid cycling in history, a higher number of mood stabilizers and the long-term use of typical antipsychotics. Rapid cycling during follow-up was only associated with a rapidcycling course in history, a higher number of mood stabilizers and at least one suicide attempt in history. Copyright (c) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

Spoken word production: Processes and potential breakdown

Introduction: The processes of spoken word production have been a focus of interest for decades and this research has been summarised in several reviews (e.g., Friedmann, Biran, & Dotan, 2013; Nickels, 1997, 2001a,b; Wilshire, 2008). However, many questions remain unanswered and consequently spoken word production remains an area of research interest, informed by data from unimpaired and impaired adult language, as well as language development. Several theories of spoken language production have been proposed over the last half century, each differing slightly in levels of representation, processing steps, and activation flow. In this chapter, we focus on four of the most influential theories of spoken language production

Integrating nursing informatics into undergraduate nursing education in Africa: a scoping review

Background: Information and communication technologies have become omnipresent in healthcare systems globally, and since nurses comprise the majority of the health sector workforce, they are expected to be adequately skilled to work in a technology-mediated environment. Integrating nursing informatics into undergraduate nursing education is a cornerstone to nursing education and practice in Africa. Aim: This scoping review aimed to evidence the integration of nursing informatics into undergraduate nursing education in Africa. Methods: A scoping review of the literature used electronic databases including CINAHL Plus databases; EmCare; MEDLINE Ovid; Scopus; ERIC ProQuest; Web of Science; Google; and Google Scholar to locate papers specific to the African context. From a total of 8723 articles, 19 were selected for critique and synthesis. Results: Selected studies indicated that nursing students used several information and communication technologies tools primarily for academic purposes, and rarely for clinical practice. In Africa, the challenges for teaching informatics in nursing education included: limited information and communication technologies skills among faculty and students; poor teaching strategies; and a lack of standardization of nursing informatics competencies. Successful integration of nursing informatics into undergraduate nursing education in African countries depends on restructuring nursing informatics content and teaching strategies, capacity building of the faculty and students in information and communication technologies, political commitment, and collaborative partnership. Conclusion: Nursing informatics is scarce in undergraduate nursing education in Africa due to the implementation and adoption challenges. Responding to these challenges requires a multi-sectoral approach in the revision of undergraduate nursing curricula. Implication for nursing education, practice, policy and research: This study highlights the importance of nursing informatics in undergraduate nursing education, with its challenges and success. Nursing education policies should support the development of well-standardized nursing informatics content and appropriate teaching strategies to deliver it. Further research is needed to establish which aspects of nursing informatics are integrated into undergraduate nursing education and nursing practice, implementation process, challenges and possible solutions. Collaborative partnerships are vital to developing nursing informatics policies to better prepare graduate nurses for the African healthcare workforce in the digital era

Garlic and ginger are not like apples and oranges: Effects of mass/count information on the production of noun phrases in English

In this study a picture–word interference paradigm was used to investigate how grammatical mass/count information is processed during noun phrase production in English. Theories of lexical processing distinguish between two different types of lexical–syntactic information: variable extrinsic lexical–syntactic features, such as number (singular, plural), and fixed intrinsic lexical–syntactic properties, such as grammatical gender (e.g., masculine, feminine). Previous research using the picture–word interference paradigm has found effects of distractor lexical–syntactic congruency for grammatical gender but no congruency effects for number. We used this phenomenon to investigate whether mass/count information is processed similarly to grammatical gender. In two experiments, participants named pictures of mass or count objects using determiner noun phrases (e.g., Experiment 1 with mass and plural count nouns: “not muchmass ricemass”, “not manycount pegscount”; Experiment 2 with mass and singular count nouns: “some ricemass”, “a pegcount”), while ignoring distractors that were countability congruent or incongruent nouns. The results revealed a countability congruency effect for mass and plural count nouns in Experiment 1 and for singular count nouns, but not mass nouns in Experiment 2. This is similar to grammatical gender suggesting that countability processing is predominantly driven by a noun’s lexical–syntactic information. © 2017 The Experimental Psychology Societ

Decisional Dimensions in Expert Witness Testimony – A Structural Analysis

The relationship between forensic science and legal adjudication is intricate mainly because the need to inform fact-finders on issues going beyond the layman’s knowledge poses challenges both on empirical and normative dimensions, in particular with regards to the specific role and duties of the different participants in the legal process. While rationality is widely upheld as one of the aspirations of the legal process across many modern jurisdictions, a pending question is how to remedy the uneasy relationship between general propositions (and knowledge claims) conditioning expert witness testimony, and individualized decisions taken by fact-finders. The focus has hitherto been put on the utilization of model-based and formal methods of reasoning while, regrettably, the concepts of judgment and decision-making have not received equal attention. A first aspiration of our paper will thus be to further clarify the nature of this systemic relationship in the particular area of the legal process involving scientific experts, by conducting a critical transversal analysis of current empirical, normative and doctrinal understandings of expert witness testimony. As a second aim, we will use this insight to argue in favor of the view that structural features of expert witness testimony are embedded in a decision-making process, and that the understanding of this decisional dimension is important for clarifying the respective roles of expert witnesses and fact-finders, and for favoring their mutual understanding thereof. To substantiate this perspective, and attest to its growing recognition as a frontier understanding, we will provide real-world examples from forensic science reporting practice and policy documents of professional bodies