iViewExpert: lessons from space on seeing inside the heads of experts

How can we use space technology to improve surgical training methods

Selective inhibition of phosphodiesterases 4, 5 and 9 induces HSP20 phosphorylation and attenuates amyloid beta 1-42 mediated cytotoxicity

Phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors are currently under evaluation as agents that may facilitate the improvement of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease. Our aim was to determine whether inhibitors of PDEs 4,5 and 9 could alleviate the cytotoxic effects of amyloid beta 1–42 (Aβ1-42) via a mechanism involving the small heatshock protein HSP20. We show that inhibition of PDEs 4,5 and 9 but not 3 induces the phosphorylation of HSP20 which, in turn, increases the co-localisation between the chaperone and Aβ1-42 to significantly decrease the toxic effect of the peptide. We conclude that inhibition of PDE9 is most effective to combat Aβ1-42 cytotoxicity in our cell model

Antecedents of moral disengagement: Preliminary empirical study in Malaysia

This study, conducted in Malaysia is part of the pilot study carried out as a pre-test procedure to a main study on moral disengagement. According to social cognitive theory, moral disengagement is the key to deactivate individual self- regulatory process. Once it is deactivated an individual will be freed from any psychological feeling of discomfort in performing unethical behaviour. Hence, based on social cognitive theory this study aims to identify the antecedents of moral disengagement by investigating the individual differences (gender and personality) and environmental influence (organizational ethical climate). ANCOVA and hierarchical regression were applied to test the hypotheses. There was a moderate gender difference in the level of moral disengagement between male and female employees. As predicted, conscientiousness and extraversion were found to have a negative significant relationship with moral disengagement. Further, organizational ethical climate was found to be negatively and modestly related to moral disengagement

A Multidimensional Approach to Studying Cultural Differences & Coping Strategies in a Multinational Coalition Environment

Current and future coalition operations increasingly involve collaboration on operations beyond the traditional battlespace. The challenge is to communicate effectively among multinational teams and to understand each nation's developed communication culture. During multinational collaboration, communications are often via electronic networks. This, as a result, removes physical presence and rich context information with the important verbal, behavioural and cultural cues that are often vital to appropriately interpreting the content of the information. In addition, communication preferences, customs, variations in language use and other linguistic and cultural characteristics may create barriers between nations, even without electronic mediation. In this paper, we propose a multidimensional approach, which would capture major aspects of cross-cultural communication and provide a systematic and a comprehensive method for studying communication preferences and peculiarities in the light of cultural differences. More specifically, we propose to analyze data from cross-cultural, cognitive, and linguistic perspectives. Our approach will identify crucial elements involved in cross-cultural communication. Our approach will also discuss overall and individual strategies in collaborating, which can serve as a basis for training to improve multinational communication effectiveness

Use of head camera-cued recall and debrief to externalise expertise: a systematic review of literature from multiple fields of practice

Background: The study of decision making in complex naturalistic environments poses several challenges. In response to these, video-stimulated cued-recall-debrief was developed. It involves an individual wearing a head-mounted camera which records a task from their point of view. Afterwards, footage captured is reviewed along with a facilitated debrief to help externalise cognitive processes. In theory, motion, audio and visual cues generate a high level of experiential immersion which helps the expert to articulate previously hidden thoughts and actions. / Objective: To examine the current evidence for video-stimulated cued-recall-debrief as a means of explicating expert thoughts and feelings in complex tasks in a range of environments. / Study selection: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Education Resources Information Center, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO and Google Scholar were searched for articles containing the key terms ‘cued-recall (debrief)’, ‘decision making’, ‘skills’ and ‘video recording’. Studies were included if they examined the following outcomes: (1) feasibility, (2) extent of experiential immersion, (3) ability to generate unique insight into decision-making processes and (4) current applications. 1831 articles were identified initially, and 9 studies were included in the final review. / Findings: Video-stimulated cued-recall-debrief is associated with a high level of experiential immersion and generates between two and four times the number of recollections compared with free recall. It can be used to build models of cognitive activity and to characterise the way in which more and less skilled individuals tend to think and feel. / Conclusions: The technique could be used to explicate expertise within medicine: these insights into performance could be used as a training tool for other practitioners

A design strategy for human-system integration in aerospace: Where to start and how to design information integration for dynamic, time and safety critical systems

The aim of this research is to develop a framework that provides systemic design guidance for future interfaces that are to provide effective and cognitively suitable information presentation to operators in dynamic and time-critical domains. The aerospace domain has been chosen as the focus for this study. In the aerospace domain there are numerous reported accidents where contributory factors are attributed to pilots’ misunderstanding of automated system configurations, and pilots’ misinterpretation of system behaviour. These problems have occurred as rapid advances in technology have led to an overabundance of ‘useful’ information being presented to the pilot. Currently, the information presented to pilots is often disjointed and distributed across various interfaces where each interface is based on its own design rationale. This creates problems where the pilot either cannot locate information in a timely manner, or misinterprets the available information. There is a need for a systematic design process that deals with meaningfully presenting the abundance of features and interactions of the new technology introduced into the cockpit through the use of existing domain knowledge, structures and strategies drawn from existing pilot training and experience. The thesis is a case study. It shows how a new systematic interface design guidance process was developed by first identifying effective information presentation directly from airforce and airline pilots in their time-critical working environment conducted through observational and empirical studies. The studies provided answers for research questions that were concerned with finding appropriate information presentations for pilots. This resulted in a framework that serves as a guide for the interface designer on how to arrive at, structure and present information to an operator in a cognitively efficient manner. The thesis demonstrates two applications of the design framework, one of which is then evaluated by pilots who demonstrate significantly improved speed and accuracy performance when compared to conventional alphanumerical displays. The applications and limitations of the framework are also discussed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Predicting fatigue and psychophysiological test performance from speech for safety-critical environments

Automatic systems for estimating operator fatigue have application in safety-critical environments. A system which could estimate level of fatigue from speech would have application in domains where operators engage in regular verbal communication as part of their duties. Previous studies on the prediction of fatigue from speech have been limited because of their reliance on subjective ratings and because they lack comparison to other methods for assessing fatigue. In this paper, we present an analysis of voice recordings and psychophysiological test scores collected from seven aerospace personnel during a training task in which they remained awake for 60 h. We show that voice features and test scores are affected by both the total time spent awake and the time position within each subject’s circadian cycle. However, we show that time spent awake and time-of-day information are poor predictors of the test results, while voice features can give good predictions of the psychophysiological test scores and sleep latency. Mean absolute errors of prediction are possible within about 17.5% for sleep latency and 5–12% for test scores. We discuss the implications for the use of voice as a means to monitor the effects of fatigue on cognitive performance in practical applications

A Structured Approach to Scenario Generation for the Design of Crew Expert Tool

It is often difficult to identify the ways in which innovative systems can be used to support the crews on long duration space missions over the coming decades. This paper presents a structured approach towards scenario generation for crew autonomous operations during these future missions. The proposed approach will help to systematically generate scenarios that help define the design requirements for mission related equipment. A crew expert tool is used to illustrate our approach. This system is intended to help crewmembers identify and then resolve complex system failures in situations where it may not be possible to call upon immediate technical assistance from ground support staff. Our approach to scenario design helps to identify ways in which such an application may support crew tasks during the initial development of the application

Human Mission to Mars: Designing a Crew Expert Tool for a Safety Critical Environment

On a mission to other planets, the crew would come across situations and challenges that have not been foreseen even by experienced engineers, designers, scientists and previous explorers. This paper considers existing problem solving approaches that can help structure the development of ‘troubleshooting support tools’ for autonomous crews during long-duration missions. It also considers the suitability of these problem solving techniques for crew autonomous operations