Crew station research and development facility training for the light helicopter demonstration/validation program

The U.S. Army Crew Station Research and Development Branch (CSRDB) of the Aircraft Simulation Division (AVSCOM) was tasked by the Light Helicopter Program Manager (LH-PM) to provide training to Army personnel in advanced aircraft simulation technology. The purpose of this training was to prepare different groups of pilots to support and evaluate two contractor simulation efforts during the Demonstration/Validation (DEM/VAL) phase of the LH program. The personnel in the CSRDB developed mission oriented training programs to accomplish the objectives, conduct the programs, and provide guidance to army personnel and support personnel throughout the DEM/VAL phase

Searching for Prosociality in Qualitative Data: Comparing Manual, Closed-Vocabulary, and Open-Vocabulary Methods

Although most people present themselves as possessing prosocial traits, people differ in the extent to which they actually act prosocially in everyday life. Qualitative data that were not ostensibly collected to measure prosociality might contain information about prosocial dispositions that is not distorted by self–presentation concerns. This paper seeks to characterise charitable donors from qualitative data. We compared a manual approach of extracting predictors from participants’ self–described personal strivings to two automated approaches: A summation of words predefined as prosocial and a support vector machine classifier. Although variables extracted by the support vector machine predicted donation behaviour well in the training sample ( N = 984), virtually, no variables from any method significantly predicted donations in a holdout sample ( N = 496). Raters’ attempts to predict donations to charity based on reading participants’ personal strivings were also unsuccessful. However, raters’ predictions were associated with past charitable involvement. In sum, predictors derived from personal strivings did not robustly explain variation in charitable behaviour, but personal strivings may nevertheless contain some information about trait prosociality. The sparseness of personal strivings data, rather than the irrelevance of open–ended text or individual differences in goal pursuit, likely explains their limited value in predicting prosocial behaviour. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psycholog

The H1N1 pandemic: media frames, stigmatization and coping

Background: Throughout history, people have soothed their fear of disease outbreaks by searching for someone to blame. Such was the case with the April 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak. Mexicans and other Latinos living in the US were quickly stigmatized by non-Latinos as carriers of the virus, partly because of news reports on the outbreak’s alleged origin in Mexican pig farms. Methods: In this exploratory study we examined the psychological processes of cue convergence and associative priming, through which many people likely conflated news of the H1N1 outbreak with pre-existing cognitive scripts that blamed Latino immigrants for a variety of social problems. We also used a transactional model of stress and coping to analyze the transcripts from five focus groups, in order to examine the ways in which a diverse collection of New England residents appraised the threat of H1N1, processed information about stereotypes and stigmas, and devised personal strategies to cope with these stressors. Results: Twelve themes emerged in the final wave of coding, with most of them appearing at distinctive points in the stress and coping trajectories of focus group participants. Primary and secondary appraisals were mostly stressful or negative, with participants born in the USA reporting more stressful responses than those who were not. Latino participants reported no stressful primary appraisals, but spoke much more often than Whites or Non-Hispanic Blacks about negative secondary appraisals. When interactions between participants dealt with stigmas regarding Latinos and H1N1, Latinos in our focus groups reported using far more negative coping strategies than Whites or Non-Hispanic Blacks. When discussions did not focus on stereotypes or stigmas, Latino participants spoke much more often about positive coping strategies compared to members of these same groups. Conclusions: Participants in all five focus groups went through a similar process of stress and coping in response to the threat of H1N1, though individual responses varied by race and ethnicity. Stigmatization has often been common during pandemics, and public health and emergency preparedness practitioners can help to mitigate its impacts by developing interventions to address the social stressors that occur during outbreaks in highly-localized geographic regions

Security, justice and the energy crossroads : assessing the implications of the nuclear phase-out in Germany

The authors would like to thank the EPSRC for their grant (EP/I035390/1) on which this work was conducted.The nuclear melt-down in Fukushima resulted in diverging energy policy decisions across the world where Germany decided to opt out of nuclear electricity production. Yet, the government’s decision-making framework for energy policy decisions does not accurately reflect important drivers for the strategy change. This paper presents the Energy Crossroads framework as a more comprehensive tool to analyse the drivers and impacts of the nuclear phase-out. 20 expert interviews were performed across business participants as well as policy makers in the national and international energy context. Results show that Germany has adopted an environmental justice, rather than energy security, stance in their nuclear phase out policy, with significant long-term consequences.PostprintPeer reviewe

Autonomic physiological data associated with simulator discomfort

The development of a physiological monitoring capability for the Army's advanced helicopter simulator facility is reported. Additionally, preliminary physiological data is presented. Our objective was to demonstrate the sensitivity of physiological measures in this simulator to self-reported simulator sickness. The data suggested that heart period, hypergastria, and skin conductance level were more sensitive to simulator sickness than were vagal tone and normal electrogastric activity

Annual Survey of Virginia Law: Professional Responsibility

On October 18, 1996, the Virginia State Bar Council (Council) approved a change in the format of the Code of Professional Responsibility (Code) from canons, disciplinary rules, and ethical considerations to the Model Rules of the American Bar Association (Model Rules). The first twenty-one rules, Model Rules 1.1 through 2.5, were approved in substance with some amendments at the Council\u27s meeting on June 19, 1997. This approval represents approximately one-third of the conversion from the Code to the Model Rules. The second installment of the conversion was approved by Council at its October 1997 meeting. Notwithstanding Council\u27s approval of this major undertaking, the adoption of the Model Rules will require the imprimatur of the Supreme Court of Virginia

Casimir repulsion between metallic objects in vacuum

We give an example of a geometry in which two metallic objects in vacuum experience a repulsive Casimir force. The geometry consists of an elongated metal particle centered above a metal plate with a hole. We prove that this geometry has a repulsive regime using a symmetry argument and confirm it with numerical calculations for both perfect and realistic metals. The system does not support stable levitation, as the particle is unstable to displacements away from the symmetry axis.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; added references, replaced Fig.

An Analytical Method for Assessing the Effectiveness of Human in the Loop Simulation Environments: A work in progress

This paper discusses the development of the Integrated Training Environment Assessment Methodology (ITEAM). ITEAM is proposed as a way to assess integrated human in the loop (HITL) simulation training environment effectiveness (i.e. to determine how well the simulation tools support the deliberate practice of specific skills) at the human ability level. A work in progress, ITEAM has been used to reassess two previously evaluated military simulation environments -- the game Full Spectrum Command (2004) and the Engagement Skills Trainer Heavy Weapons Variant (2008). ITEAM results from both studies closely resemble and often match those concluded in the original empirical training effectiveness analysis (TEA) studies. A third study is currently underway to solidify ITEAM validity