Investigating Barriers to Knowledge Management Implementation In the U.S. MIlitary: A Focus on Managerial Influences

The knowledge management literature identifies a variety of factors that may influence KM implementation in organizations. Over the past ten years, each of the U. S. military services has implemented KM programs to varying degrees. Although knowledge management research continues to grow, little has focused exclusively on efforts in the military context. Using Holsapple and Joshi’s KM “influences” framework (2000)--which addresses managerial, resource, and environmental factors--as guiding theory, this multiple-case study reports on the “managerial” factors that have influenced KM implementation across the U. S. military services. The results indicate a number of negative managerial influence factors (i.e. barriers) have thwarted progress, the most significant being lack of leadership commitment & lack of evidence/measurement that reveal a return on investment. Identification of these influence factors not only reinforces existing theory, but also offers a practical guide for specific interventions that focus on leadership & user KM education, KM proponent leadership/organizations, and service-wide policy, guidance, and governance

Aquatic fauna and flora surveys at the Lennox Weir, Busselton

Water Corporation proposes to undertake infrastructure works on the Lennox Weir, near Busselton, Western Australia. Due to the potential impact on aquatic fauna and flora associated with the proposed works, the Water Corporation engaged the Harry Butler Institute (Murdoch University) to carry out a desktop review and field survey for flora and fauna upstream and downstream of the structure. The study aimed to provide an assessment of the likely impacts of the proposed works on prevailing native species, and develop recommendations to mitigate any potential identified impacts. A desktop assessment of the fauna and flora communities around Lennox Weir was initially conducted. Subsequently, standardised surveys were conducted for flora and fauna at Lennox Weir in August 2019, again in October 2019 for flora, and finally in January (into early February) 2020 for flora and fauna. The proposed replacement or removal of the Lennox Weir was found to have a moderate to high risk of localised impacts on freshwater fishes upstream; based on the four storm surge scenarios modelled by GHD (2018a). Contrary to recent impact assessment by GHD (2018b), high abundances of native fishes were found to be present upstream of the weir in summer, which could be impacted by sudden increases in salinity predicted by the storm surge modelling. The upstream spatial extent of this impact would depend on the storm surge scenario. However, under all scenarios freshwater fishes are likely to be impacted (including potential high levels of mortality) in zone 2 (from the weir to 500m upstream) and a proportion of zone 3 (between 500‐ 1100m upstream). However, while the known acute salinity tolerances of resident native fishes would be exceeded in those sections, the behavioural responses of the fishes may help to partially or totally) mitigate the impacts. This could include moving upstream away from the incoming saline water, or more likely, utilising a freshwater lens that may be present. However, the hydrological modelling by GHD (2018a) did not consider or model the potential for a freshwater surface layer to form. Additional modelling would be required to better predict whether these factors could occur to mitigate the impacts on freshwater fishes. The assessment also revealed that the Threatened (EPBC Act 1999) Carter’s Freshwater Mussel Westralunio carteri was present in the Lennox River from just upstream of the weir to at least the Vasse‐Yallingup Siding Rd. However, its relative abundance increased significantly with distance upstream of the weir and the lowest abundances were found in zones 2 and 3; the sites predicted to be most affected by increased salinity under the modelled storm surge scenarios. As concluded by the previous impact assessment (GHD 2018b), the risk to the species of the increase in salinity would be high to moderate in zones 2 and 3 with residual salinity after 24 hours under all four storm surge scenarios projected to exceed its known tolerances in zone 2 and a proportion of zone 3. However, there remains uncertainty of this impact owing to the fact that modelling of residual salinity was only undertaken for a 24 hour period. Previous acute salinity trials of the species revealed the initial deaths occurred after 10 days at 8 mg/l, highest salinity level tested. The impact on the species in terms of mortality would therefore likely depend on the longer‐term residual salinity levels following storm surges. The impact on the South‐west Snake Neck Turtle Chelodina colliei upstream of the Lennox Weir was assessed as low in the current study. While there may be a short‐term decline in abundances of salt‐intolerant freshwater fishes and invertebrates associated with the modelled storm surges, there were high abundances of alternative prey items present particularly the Blue‐spot Goby Pseodogobius olorum and South‐west Glass Shrimp Palaemon australis. While the Smooth Marron Cherax cainii was not detected during the current sampling in the impacted reach (only visually observed upstream at the Vasse‐Yallingup Siding Rd), additional anecdotal information from the landholder suggested they may be present in low abundances within zone 3. If present, those individuals would have a high risk of impact under all scenarios and would likely walk out of the river to avoid the salinity. The Lennox Weir survey area occurs within a Conservation Category Wetland area. Upstream and downstream vegetation differed in terms of community structure and condition. The upstream vegetation is an example of very old remnant riparian vegetation and included poorly represented community types. The vegetation provides habitat for the Critically Endangered Western Ringtail Possum, with extensive scat noted throughout the survey area. The P4 species Eucalyptus rudis subsp. cratyantha occurs in riparian vegetation upstream and downstream and on adjacent land north‐east of the weir. Changes to the salinity regime associated with altering the function of the weir are likely to impact this vegetation

Beyond Point Design: General Pattern to Specific Implementations

Elsewhere we have discussed a number of problems typical of highly automated systems and proposed tenets for addressing these problems based on Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT)[1]. We have examined these principles in the context of aviation [2,3]. Here we discuss the generality of these tenets by examining how they might be applied to photography and automotive navigation. While these domains are very different, we find application of our HAT tenets provides a number of opportunities for improving interaction between human operators and automation. We then illustrate how the generalities found across aviation, photography and navigation can be captured in a design pattern

Temporal Sequencing, Incident Sophistication, and Terrorist Outcomes

There have been few efforts to examine how the planning process affects the outcome of a terrorist plot. This research brief provides some preliminary findings from an examination of the impact of the length of the planning process, the impact of multiple participants, and the volume of precursor activity on the success or failure of terrorist plots in the United States. While conventional wisdom holds true that a shorter planning process and fewer preparatory activities reduces perpetrators chances of getting caught therefore increases success rate, the new findings show that the more people involved in the planning process also increases the probability of success

Application of Human-Autonomy Teaming (HAT) Patterns to Reduce Crew Operations (RCO)

Unmanned aerial systems, advanced cockpits, and air traffic management are all seeing dramatic increases in automation. However, while automation may take on some tasks previously performed by humans, humans will still be required to remain in the system for the foreseeable future. The collaboration between humans and these increasingly autonomous systems will begin to resemble cooperation between teammates, rather than simple task allocation. It is critical to understand this human-autonomy teaming (HAT) to optimize these systems in the future. One methodology to understand HAT is by identifying recurring patterns of HAT that have similar characteristics and solutions. This paper applies a methodology for identifying HAT patterns to an advanced cockpit project

A Detect and Avoid System in the Context of Multiple-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations

NASA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration into the National Airspace System (UAS in the NAS) project examines the technical barriers associated with the operation of UAS in civil airspace. For UAS, the removal of the pilot from onboard the aircraft has eliminated the ability of the ground-based pilot in command (PIC) to use out-the-window visual information to make judgements about a potential threat of a loss of well clear with another aircraft. NASA's Phase 1 research supported the development of a Detect and Avoid (DAA) system that supports the ground-based pilot's ability to detect potential traffic conflicts and determine a resolution maneuver, but existing display/alerting requirements did not account for multiple UAS control (1:N). Demands for increased scalability of UAS in the NAS operations are expected to create a need for simultaneous control of UAs, and thus, a new DAA HMI design will likely be necessary. Previous research, however, has found performance degradations as the number of vehicles under operator control has increased. The purpose of the current human-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation was to examine the viability of 1:N operations with the Phase 1 DAA alerting and guidance. Sixteen UAS pilots flew three scenarios with varying number of UAs under their control (1:1, 1:3, 1:5). In addition to their supervisory and sensor mission responsibilities, pilots were to utilize the DAA system to remain DAA well clear (DWC) during scripted conflicts of mixed severity. Measured response times, separation performance, mission task data, and subjective feedback were collected to assess how the multi-UAS control configuration impacted pilots' ability to maintain DAA well clear and perform the mission tasks. Overall, the DAA system proved surprisingly adaptive to multi-UAS control for preventing losses of DAA well clear (LoDWC). The findings suggest that, while multi-UAS operators are able to maintain safe separation (DWC) from other traffic, their ability to efficiently perform missions drastically decreases with their number of controlled vehicles. Pilot feedback indicated that, for this context, the use of automation support tools for completing and managing mission tasks would be appropriate and desired, especially for ensuring efficient use of assets. Finally, human-machine interface (HMI) design considerations for multi-UAS operations are discussed

Comparing community structure identification

We compare recent approaches to community structure identification in terms of sensitivity and computational cost. The recently proposed modularity measure is revisited and the performance of the methods as applied to ad hoc networks with known community structure, is compared. We find that the most accurate methods tend to be more computationally expensive, and that both aspects need to be considered when choosing a method for practical purposes. The work is intended as an introduction as well as a proposal for a standard benchmark test of community detection methods.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. v2: condensed, updated version as appears in JSTA

Removal of the Northern Paleo-Teton Range along the Yellowstone Hotspot Track

Classically held mechanisms for removing mountain topography (e.g., erosion and gravitational collapse) require 10-100 Myr or more to completely remove tectonically generated relief. Here, we propose that mountain ranges can be completely and rapidly (\u3c 2 Myr) removed by a migrating hotspot. In western North America, multiple mountain ranges, including the Teton Range, terminate at the boundary with the relatively low relief track of the Yellowstone hotspot. This abrupt transition leads to a previously untested hypothesis that preexisting mountainous topography along the track has been erased. We integrate thermochronologic data collected from the footwall of the Teton fault with flexural-kinematic modeling and length-displacement scaling to show that the paleo-Teton fault and associated Teton Range was much longer (min. original length 190-210 km) than the present topographic expression of the range front (~65 km) and extended across the modern-day Yellowstone hotspot track. These analyses also indicate that the majority of fault displacement (min. 11.4-12.6 km) and the associated footwall mountain range growth had accumulated prior to Yellowstone encroachment at ~2 Ma, leading us to interpret that eastward migration of the Yellowstone hotspot relative to stable North America led to removal of the paleo-Teton mountain topography via posteruptive collapse of the range following multiple supercaldera (VEI 8) eruptions from 2.0 Ma to 600 ka and/or an isostatic collapse response, similar to ranges north of the Snake River plain. While this extremely rapid removal of mountain ranges and adjoining basins is probably relatively infrequent in the geologic record, it has important implications for continental physiography and topography over very short time spans

SURVEY OF THE DEPENDENCE ON TEMPERATURE OF THE COERCIVITY OF GARNET-FILMS

The temperature dependence of the domain-wall coercive field of epitaxial magnetic garnets films has been investigated in the entire temperature range of the ferrimagnetic phase, and has been found to be described by a set of parametric exponents. In subsequent temperature regions different slopes were observed, with breaking points whose position was found to be sample dependent. A survey ba.ed on literature Data as well as on a large number of our own samples shows the general existence of this piecewise exponential dependence and the presence of the breaking points. This type of domain-wall coercive field temperature dependence was found in all samples in the large family of the epitaxial garnets (about 30 specimens of more than ten chemical compositionsj and also in another strongly anisotropic material (TbFeCo)