An adaptive process-based cloud infrastructure for space situational awareness applications

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Bingwei; Chen, Yu; Shen, Dan; Chen, Genshe; Pham, Khanh; Blasch, Erik; Rubin, Bruce

2014-06-01

Space situational awareness (SSA) and defense space control capabilities are top priorities for groups that own or operate man-made spacecraft. Also, with the growing amount of space debris, there is an increase in demand for contextual understanding that necessitates the capability of collecting and processing a vast amount sensor data. Cloud computing, which features scalable and flexible storage and computing services, has been recognized as an ideal candidate that can meet the large data contextual challenges as needed by SSA. Cloud computing consists of physical service providers and middleware virtual machines together with infrastructure, platform, and software as service (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) models. However, the typical Virtual Machine (VM) abstraction is on a per operating systems basis, which is at too low-level and limits the flexibility of a mission application architecture. In responding to this technical challenge, a novel adaptive process based cloud infrastructure for SSA applications is proposed in this paper. In addition, the details for the design rationale and a prototype is further examined. The SSA Cloud (SSAC) conceptual capability will potentially support space situation monitoring and tracking, object identification, and threat assessment. Lastly, the benefits of a more granular and flexible cloud computing resources allocation are illustrated for data processing and implementation considerations within a representative SSA system environment. We show that the container-based virtualization performs better than hypervisor-based virtualization technology in an SSA scenario.

A Heliospheric Weather Expert Service Centre for ESA's Space Situational Awareness Space Weather Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, D.; Perry, C. H.

2017-12-01

The Heliospheric Weather Expert Service Centre (H-ESC) is one of five thematic virtual centres that are currently being developed as part of ESA's Space Situational Awareness pre-operational Space Weather service. In this presentation we introduce the current products and service that the H-ESC is providing. The immediate and downstream user groups that the centre is aiming to support are discussed. A description is provided on how the H-ESC is largely built on adoption and tailoring of federated products from expert groups around Europe and how these can be used to add value to the overall system. Having only recently been established the H-ESC is continuing to address gaps in its capabilities. Some of the priorities for products, their assessment, validation and integration into the system are discussed together with plans for bespoke development activities tailored to specific end-user group needs.

Performance Analysis of Sensor Systems for Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Eun-Jung; Cho, Sungki; Jo, Jung Hyun; Park, Jang-Hyun; Chung, Taejin; Park, Jaewoo; Jeon, Hocheol; Yun, Ami; Lee, Yonghui

2017-12-01

With increased human activity in space, the risk of re-entry and collision between space objects is constantly increasing. Hence, the need for space situational awareness (SSA) programs has been acknowledged by many experienced space agencies. Optical and radar sensors, which enable the surveillance and tracking of space objects, are the most important technical components of SSA systems. In particular, combinations of radar systems and optical sensor networks play an outstanding role in SSA programs. At present, Korea operates the optical wide field patrol network (OWL-Net), the only optical system for tracking space objects. However, due to their dependence on weather conditions and observation time, it is not reasonable to use optical systems alone for SSA initiatives, as they have limited operational availability. Therefore, the strategies for developing radar systems should be considered for an efficient SSA system using currently available technology. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the performance of a radar system in detecting and tracking space objects. With the radar system investigated, the minimum sensitivity is defined as detection of a 1-m2 radar cross section (RCS) at an altitude of 2,000 km, with operating frequencies in the L, S, C, X or Ku-band. The results of power budget analysis showed that the maximum detection range of 2,000 km, which includes the low earth orbit (LEO) environment, can be achieved with a transmission power of 900 kW, transmit and receive antenna gains of 40 dB and 43 dB, respectively, a pulse width of 2 ms, and a signal processing gain of 13.3 dB, at a frequency of 1.3 GHz. We defined the key parameters of the radar following a performance analysis of the system. This research can thus provide guidelines for the conceptual design of radar systems for national SSA initiatives.

CubeSat Integration into the Space Situational Awareness Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, K.; Wolfson, M.; Brown, J.

2013-09-01

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company has recently been involved in developing GEO Space Situational Awareness architectures, which allows insights into how cubesats can augment the current national systems. One hole that was identified in the current architecture is the need for timelier metric track observations to aid in the chain of custody. Obtaining observations of objects at GEO can be supported by CubeSats. These types of small satellites are increasing being built and flown by government agencies like NASA and SMDC. CubeSats are generally mass and power constrained allowing for only small payloads that cannot typically mimic traditional flight capability. CubeSats do not have a high reliability and care must be taken when choosing mission orbits to prevent creating more debris. However, due to the low costs, short development timelines, and available hardware, CubeSats can supply very valuable benefits to these complex missions, affordably. For example, utilizing CubeSats for advanced focal plane demonstrations to support technology insertion into the next generation situational awareness sensors can help to lower risks before the complex sensors are developed. CubeSats can augment the planned ground and space based assets by creating larger constellations with more access to areas of interest. To aid in maintaining custody of objects, a CubeSat constellation at 500 km above GEO would provide increased point of light tracking that can augment the ground SSA assets. Key features of the Cubesat include a small visible camera looking along the GEO belt, a small propulsion system that allows phasing between CubeSats, and an image processor to reduce the data sent to the ground. An elegant communications network will also be used to provide commands to and data from multiple CubeSats. Additional CubeSats can be deployed on GSO launches or through ride shares to GEO, replenishing or adding to the constellation with each launch. Each CubeSat would take images of

Evaluating Options for Civil Space Situational Awareness (SSA)

Science.gov (United States)

Lal, B.; Carioscia, S. A.

In recent years, the number of active satellites and human-made orbital space debris has increased dramatically. An expansion of activities in space, as is currently being proposed by many commercial and international entities, is expected to further exacerbate this challenge. The 18th Space Control Squadron under the Department of Defense (DOD) United States Strategic Command provides space situational awareness (SSA) services to users outside the national security community at no cost. International and commercial users demand better SSA service than is currently feasible, and the demand comes at a time when DOD is under pressure to better prepare for and respond to growing space-based threats to national security. Concerned about the possibility of overextending across conflicting missions in a fiscally constrained environment, some DOD officials have publicly noted a desire to move SSA services not related to national security out of DOD purview. Responding to a request from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), researchers at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) identified and evaluated potential approaches for providing SSA services for civil and commercial operations in space. In this paper, we summarize the report [1] and present the pros and cons of four approaches to the provision of civil SSA services in the United States: (1) maintaining status quo through continued provision by DOD; (2) provision by a civil government entity; (3) industry self-provision; and (4) provision by an international organization. Within the second approach, assuming the provision of SSA by a civil agency, STPI further identified and discussed four options: (1) civil agency service capability embedded within DOD; (2) independent civil service capability, using DOD software and systems; (3) independent civil service capability, using commercial software and systems; and (4) the government certifies non

Specialized Finite Set Statistics (FISST)-Based Estimation Methods to Enhance Space Situational Awareness in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)

Science.gov (United States)

2016-08-17

Specialized Finite Set Statistics (FISST)-based Estimation Methods to Enhance Space Situational Awareness in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary...terms of specialized Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) elements to estimate the state of resident space objects in the geostationary regime. Justification...AFRL-RV-PS- AFRL-RV-PS- TR-2016-0114 TR-2016-0114 SPECIALIZED FINITE SET STATISTICS (FISST)- BASED ESTIMATION METHODS TO ENHANCE SPACE SITUATIONAL

WENESSA, Wide Eye-Narrow Eye Space Simulation fo Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Albarait, O.; Payne, D. M.; LeVan, P. D.; Luu, K. K.; Spillar, E.; Freiwald, W.; Hamada, K.; Houchard, J.

In an effort to achieve timelier indications of anomalous object behaviors in geosynchronous earth orbit, a Planning Capability Concept (PCC) for a “Wide Eye-Narrow Eye” (WE-NE) telescope network has been established. The PCC addresses the problem of providing continuous and operationally robust, layered and cost-effective, Space Situational Awareness (SSA) that is focused on monitoring deep space for anomalous behaviors. It does this by first detecting the anomalies with wide field of regard systems, and then providing reliable handovers for detailed observational follow-up by another optical asset. WENESSA will explore the added value of such a system to the existing Space Surveillance Network (SSN). The study will assess and quantify the degree to which the PCC completely fulfills, or improves or augments, these deep space knowledge deficiencies relative to current operational systems. In order to improve organic simulation capabilities, we will explore options for the federation of diverse community simulation approaches, while evaluating the efficiencies offered by a network of small and larger aperture, ground-based telescopes. Existing Space Modeling and Simulation (M&S) tools designed for evaluating WENESSA-like problems will be taken into consideration as we proceed in defining and developing the tools needed to perform this study, leading to the creation of a unified Space M&S environment for the rapid assessment of new capabilities. The primary goal of this effort is to perform a utility assessment of the WE-NE concept. The assessment will explore the mission utility of various WE-NE concepts in discovering deep space anomalies in concert with the SSN. The secondary goal is to generate an enduring modeling and simulation environment to explore the utility of future proposed concepts and supporting technologies. Ultimately, our validated simulation framework would support the inclusion of other ground- and space-based SSA assets through integrated

The Orbital Space Environment and Space Situational Awareness Domain Ontology - Toward an International Information System for Space Data

Science.gov (United States)

Rovetto, R.

2016-09-01

The orbital space environment is home to natural and artificial satellites, debris, and space weather phenomena. As the population of orbital objects grows so do the potential hazards to astronauts, space infrastructure and spaceflight capability. Orbital debris, in particular, is a universal concern. This and other hazards can be minimized by improving global space situational awareness (SSA). By sharing more data and increasing observational coverage of the space environment we stand to achieve that goal, thereby making spaceflight safer and expanding our knowledge of near-Earth space. To facilitate data-sharing interoperability among distinct orbital debris and space object catalogs, and SSA information systems, I proposed ontology in (Rovetto, 2015) and (Rovetto and Kelso, 2016). I continue this effort toward formal representations and models of the overall domain that may serve to improve peaceful SSA and increase our scientific knowledge. This paper explains the project concept introduced in those publications, summarizing efforts to date as well as the research field of ontology development and engineering. I describe concepts for an ontological framework for the orbital space environment, near-Earth space environment and SSA domain. An ontological framework is conceived as a part of a potential international information system. The purpose of such a system is to consolidate, analyze and reason over various sources and types of orbital and SSA data toward the mutually beneficial goals of safer space navigation and scientific research. Recent internationals findings on the limitations of orbital data, in addition to existing publications on collaborative SSA, demonstrate both the overlap with this project and the need for datasharing and integration.

Situation Awareness with Systems of Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Laar, P. van de; Tretmans, J.; Borth, M.

2013-01-01

This book discusses various aspects, challenges, and solutions for developing systems-of-systems for situation awareness, using applications in the domain of maritime safety and security. Topics include advanced, multi-objective visualization methods for situation awareness, stochastic outlier

Unified Lambert Tool for Massively Parallel Applications in Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Woollands, Robyn M.; Read, Julie; Hernandez, Kevin; Probe, Austin; Junkins, John L.

2018-03-01

Awareness computer cluster at the LASR Lab, Texas A&M University. We demonstrate the power of our tool by solving a highly parallel example problem, that is the generation of extremal field maps for optimal spacecraft rendezvous (and eventual orbit debris removal). In addition we demonstrate the need for including perturbative effects in simulations for satellite tracking or data association. The unified Lambert tool is ideal for but not limited to space situational awareness applications.

Three-Dimensional Cockpit Display System for Improved Situational Awareness, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a 3D cockpit display (3D-COD) system for improved pilot situational awareness and safety in 3D airspace by...

Benefits of Applying Predictive Intelligence to the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Lane, B.; Mann, B.; Millard, C.

Recent events have heightened the interest in providing improved Space Situational Awareness (SSA) to the warfighter using novel techniques that are affordable and effective. The current Space Surveillance Network (SSN) detects, tracks, catalogs and identifies artificial objects orbiting earth and provides information on Resident Space Objects (RSO) as well as new foreign launch (NFL) satellites. The reactive nature of the SSN provides little to no warning on changes to the expected states of these RSOs or NFLs. This paper will detail the use of the historical data collected on RSOs to characterize what their steady state is, proactively help identify when changes or anomalies have occurred using a pattern-of-like activity based intelligence approach, and apply dynamic, adaptive mission planning to the observables that lead up to a NFL. Multiple hypotheses will be carried along with the intent or the changes to the steady state to assist the SSN in tasking the various sensors in the network to collect the relevant data needed to help prune the number of hypotheses by assigning likelihood to each of those activities. Depending on the hypothesis and thresholds set, these likelihoods will then be used in turn to alert the SSN operator with changes to the steady state, prioritize additional data collections, and provide a watch list of likely next activities.

The Effects of Solar Maximum on the Earth's Satellite Population and Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Nicholas L.

2012-01-01

The rapidly approaching maximum of Solar Cycle 24 will have wide-ranging effects not only on the number and distribution of resident space objects, but also on vital aspects of space situational awareness, including conjunction assessment processes. The best known consequence of high solar activity is an increase in the density of the thermosphere, which, in turn, increases drag on the vast majority of objects in low Earth orbit. The most prominent evidence of this is seen in a dramatic increase in space object reentries. Due to the massive amounts of new debris created by the fragmentations of Fengyun-1C, Cosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 during the recent period of Solar Minimum, this effect might reach epic levels. However, space surveillance systems are also affected, both directly and indirectly, historically leading to an increase in the number of lost satellites and in the routine accuracy of the calculation of their orbits. Thus, at a time when more objects are drifting through regions containing exceptionally high-value assets, such as the International Space Station and remote sensing satellites, their position uncertainties increase. In other words, as the possibility of damaging and catastrophic collisions increases, our ability to protect space systems is degraded. Potential countermeasures include adjustments to space surveillance techniques and the resetting of collision avoidance maneuver thresholds.

Exploring schema-driven differences in situation awareness between road users: an on-road study of driver, cyclist and motorcyclist situation awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Salmon, Paul M; Lenne, Michael G; Walker, Guy H; Stanton, Neville A; Filtness, Ashleigh

2014-01-01

Collisions between different road users make a substantial contribution to road trauma. Although evidence suggests that different road users interpret the same road situations differently, it is not clear how road users' situation awareness differs, nor is it clear which differences might lead to conflicts. This article presents the findings from an on-road study conducted to examine driver, motorcyclist and cyclist situation awareness in different road environments. The findings suggest that, in addition to minor differences in the structure of different road users' situation awareness (i.e. amount of information and how it is integrated), the actual content of situation awareness in terms of road user schemata, the resulting interaction with the world and the information underpinning situation awareness is markedly different. Further examination indicates that the differences are likely to be compatible along arterial roads, shopping strips and at roundabouts, but that they may create conflicts between different road users at intersections. Interventions designed to support compatible situation awareness and behaviour between different road users are discussed.

Situation awareness with systems of systems

CERN Document Server

Tretmans, Jan; Borth, Michael

2013-01-01

This book discusses various aspects, challenges, and solutions for developing systems-of-systems for situation awareness, using applications in the domain of maritime safety and security.  Topics include advanced, multi-objective visualization methods for situation awareness, stochastic outlier selection, rule-based anomaly detection, an ontology-based event model for semantic reasoning, new methods for semi-automatic generation of adapters bridging communication gaps, security policies for systems-of-systems, trust assessment, and methods to deal with the dynamics of systems-of-systems in run-time monitoring, testing, and diagnosis. Architectural considerations for designing information-centric systems-of-systems such as situation awareness systems, and an integrated demonstrator implementing many of the investigated aspects, complete the book.

Cyber defense and situational awareness

CERN Document Server

Kott, Alexander; Erbacher, Robert F

2015-01-01

This book is the first publication to give a comprehensive, structured treatment to the important topic of situational awareness in cyber defense. It presents the subject in a logical, consistent, continuous discourse, covering key topics such as formation of cyber situational awareness, visualization and human factors, automated learning and inference, use of ontologies and metrics, predicting and assessing impact of cyber attacks, and achieving resilience of cyber and physical mission. Chapters include case studies, recent research results and practical insights described specifically for th

Understanding situation awareness and its importance in patient safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Gluyas, Heather; Harris, Sarah-Jane

2016-04-20

Situation awareness describes an individual's perception, comprehension and subsequent projection of what is going on in the environment around them. The concept of situation awareness sits within the group of non-technical skills that include teamwork, communication and managing hierarchical lines of communication. The importance of non-technical skills has been recognised in safety-critical industries such as aviation, the military, nuclear, and oil and gas. However, health care has been slow to embrace the role of non-technical skills such as situation awareness in improving outcomes and minimising the risk of error. This article explores the concept of situation awareness and the cognitive processes involved in maintaining it. In addition, factors that lead to a loss of situation awareness and strategies to improve situation awareness are discussed.

Overview of Human-Centric Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Science and Technology (S&T)

Science.gov (United States)

Ianni, J.; Aleva, D.; Ellis, S.

2012-09-01

A number of organizations, within the government, industry, and academia, are researching ways to help humans understand and react to events in space. The problem is both helped and complicated by the fact that there are numerous data sources that need to be planned (i.e., tasked), collected, processed, analyzed, and disseminated. A large part of the research is in support of the Joint Space Operational Center (JSpOC), National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC), and similar organizations. Much recent research has been specifically targeting the JSpOC Mission System (JMS) which has provided a unifying software architecture. This paper will first outline areas of science and technology (S&T) related to human-centric space situational awareness (SSA) and space command and control (C2) including: 1. Object visualization - especially data fused from disparate sources. Also satellite catalog visualizations that convey the physical relationships between space objects. 2. Data visualization - improve data trend analysis as in visual analytics and interactive visualization; e.g., satellite anomaly trends over time, space weather visualization, dynamic visualizations 3. Workflow support - human-computer interfaces that encapsulate multiple computer services (i.e., algorithms, programs, applications) into a 4. Command and control - e.g., tools that support course of action (COA) development and selection, tasking for satellites and sensors, etc. 5. Collaboration - improve individuals or teams ability to work with others; e.g., video teleconferencing, shared virtual spaces, file sharing, virtual white-boards, chat, and knowledge search. 6. Hardware/facilities - e.g., optimal layouts for operations centers, ergonomic workstations, immersive displays, interaction technologies, and mobile computing. Secondly we will provide a survey of organizations working these areas and suggest where more attention may be needed. Although no detailed master plan exists for human

Continuous measures of situation awareness and workload

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Droeivoldsmo, Asgeir; Skraaning, Gyrd jr.; Sverrbo, Mona; Dalen, Joergen; Grimstad, Tone; Andresen, Gisle

1998-03-01

This report presents methods for continuous measures for Situation Awareness and Workload. The objective has been to identify, develop and test the new measures, and compare them to instruments that require interruptions of scenarios. The new measures are: (1) the Visual Indicator of Situation Awareness (VISA); where Situation Awareness is scored from predefined areas of visual interest critical for solving scenarios. Visual monitoring of areas was recorded by eye-movement tracking. (2) Workload scores reflected by Extended Dwell Time (EDT) and the operator Activity Level. EDT was calculated from eye-movement data files, and the activity level was estimated from simulator logs. Using experimental data from the 1996 CASH NRC Alarm study and the 1997 Human Error Analysis Project/ Human-Centred Automation study, the new measurement techniques have been tested and evaluated on a preliminary basis. The results showed promising relationships between the new continuous measures of situation awareness and workload, and established instruments based upon scenario interruptions. (author)

Conflict Resolution Automation and Pilot Situation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Dao, Arik-Quang V.; Brandt, Summer L.; Bacon, Paige; Kraut, Josh; Nguyen, Jimmy; Minakata, Katsumi; Raza, Hamzah; Rozovski, David; Johnson, Walter W.

2010-01-01

This study compared pilot situation awareness across three traffic management concepts. The Concepts varied in terms of the allocation of traffic avoidance responsibility between the pilot on the flight deck, the air traffic controllers, and a conflict resolution automation system. In Concept 1, the flight deck was equipped with conflict resolution tools that enable them to fully handle the responsibility of weather avoidance and maintaining separation between ownship and surrounding traffic. In Concept 2, pilots were not responsible for traffic separation, but were provided tools for weather and traffic avoidance. In Concept 3, flight deck tools allowed pilots to deviate for weather, but conflict detection tools were disabled. In this concept pilots were dependent on ground based automation for conflict detection and resolution. Situation awareness of the pilots was measured using online probes. Results showed that individual situation awareness was highest in Concept 1, where the pilots were most engaged, and lowest in Concept 3, where automation was heavily used. These findings suggest that for conflict resolution tasks, situation awareness is improved when pilots remain in the decision-making loop.

Situational Awareness and Logistics Division

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — Volpe's Situational Awareness and Logistics Division researches, develops, implements, and analyzes advanced systems to protect, enhance, and ensure resilienceof the...

A Korean Space Situational Awareness Program : OWL Network

Science.gov (United States)

Park, J.; Choi, Y.; Jo, J.; Moon, H.; Im, H.; Park, J.

2012-09-01

We are going to present a brief introduction to the OWL (Optical Wide-field patroL) network, one of Korean space situational awareness facilities. Primary objectives of the OWL network are 1) to obtain orbital information of Korean domestic LEOs using optical method, 2) to monitor GEO-belt over territory of Korea, and 3) to alleviate collisional risks posed to Korean satellites from space debris. For these purposes, we are planning to build a global network of telescopes which consists of five small wide-field telescopes and one 2m class telescope. The network of small telescopes will be dedicated mainly to the observation of domestic LEOs, but many slots will be open to other scientific programs such as GRB follow-up observations. Main targets of 2m telescope not only include artificial objects such as GEO debris and LEO debris with low inclination and high eccentricity, but also natural objects such as near Earth asteroids. We expect to monitor space objects down to 10cm in size in GEO using the 2m telescope system. Main research topics include size distribution and evolution of space debris. We also expect to utilize this facility for physical characterization and population study of near Earth asteroids. The aperture size of the small telescope system is 0.5m with Rechey-Cretian configuration and its field of view is 1.75 deg x 1.75 deg. It is equipped with 4K CCD with 9um pixel size, and its plate scale is 1.3 arcsec/pixel. A chopper wheel is employed to maximize astrometric solutions in a single CCD frame, and a de-rotator is used to compensate field rotation of the alt-az type mount. We have designed a compact end unit in which three rotating parts (chopper wheel, filter wheel, de-rotator) and a CCD camera are integrated, and dedicated telescope/site control boards for the OWL network. The design of 2m class telescope is still under discussion yet is expected to be fixed in the first half of 2013 at the latest. The OWL network will be operated in a fully

Objective evaluation of situation awareness for dynamic decision makers in teleoperations

Science.gov (United States)

Endsley, Mica R.

1991-01-01

Situation awareness, a current mental mode of the environment, is critical to the ability of operators to perform complex and dynamic tasks. This should be particularly true for teleoperators, who are separated from the situation they need to be aware of. The design of the man-machine interface must be guided by the goal of maintaining and enhancing situation awareness. The objective of this work has been to build a foundation upon which research in the area can proceed. A model of dynamic human decision making which is inclusive of situation awareness will be presented, along with a definition of situation awareness. A method for measuring situation awareness will also be presented as a tool for evaluating design concepts. The Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) is an objective measure of situation awareness originally developed for the fighter cockpit environment. The results of SAGAT validation efforts will be presented. Implications of this research for teleoperators and other operators of dynamic systems will be discussed.

Situation awareness system for Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, Andrew

1999-07-01

Situation awareness encompasses a knowledge of orders, plans and current knowledge of friendly force actions. Knowing where you are and being able to transmit that information in near real-time to other friendly forces provides the ability to exercise precise command and control over those forces. With respect to current command and control using voice methods, between 40 percent and 60 percent of Combat Net Radio traffic relates to location reporting of some sort. Commanders at Battle Group and below spend, on average, 40 percent of their total time performing position and navigation related functions. The need to rapidly transfer own force location information throughout a force and to process the received information quickly, accurately and reliably provides the rationale for the requirement for an automated situation awareness system. This paper describes the Situation Awareness System (SAS) being developed by Computing Devices Canada for the Canadian Department of National Defence as a component of the Position Determination and Navigation for Land Forces program. The SAS is being integrated with the Iris Tactical Command, Control, Communications System, which is also being developed by Computing Devices. The SAS software provides a core operating environment onto which command and control functionality can be easily added to produce general and specialist battlefield management systems.

Adaptive Synthetic Forces: Situation Awareness

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hill, Randall

2001-01-01

...: perception, comprehension, and prediction. Building on these ideas, we developed techniques for improving the situation awareness in synthetic helicopter pilots for the ModSAF military simulation by giving them more human-like perception...

Modelling of Situation Awareness with Perception, Attention, and Prior and Retrospective Awareness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Thilakarathne, D.J.

2015-01-01

Human awareness under different circumstances is complex and non-trivial to understand. Nevertheless, due to the importance of awareness for safety and efficiency in many domains (e.g.; the aviation domain), it is necessary to study the processes behind situation awareness, to eliminate possible

Situational Awareness Support to Enhance Teamwork in Collaborative Working Environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kulyk, Olga Anatoliyivna; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; van der Vet, P.E.; Nijholt, Antinus; van der Veer, Gerrit C.; Whitworth, B.; de Moor, A.

This chapter addresses awareness support to enhance teamwork in co-located collaborative environments. In particular, we focus on the concept of situational awareness which is essential for successful team collaboration. Mutual situational awareness leads to informal social interactions, development

The study of disaster situation awareness based on volunteered geographic information

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Qiansheng; Chen, Zi; Li, Shengming; Luo, Nianxue

2015-12-01

As the development of Web 2.0, the social media like microblog, blogs and social network have supplied a bunch of information with locations (Volunteered Geographical Information, VGI).Recent years many cases have shown that, if disaster happened, the cyber citizens will get together very quickly and share the disaster information, this results a bunch of volunteered geographical information about disaster situation which is very valuable for disaster response if this VGIs are used efficiently and properly. This project will take typhoon disaster as case study. In this paper, we study the relations between weibo messages and the real typhoon situation, we proposed an analysis framework for mine the relations between weibo messages distribution and physical space. We found that the number of the weibo messages, key words frequency and spatial temporary distribution of the messages have strong relations with the disaster spread in the real world, and this research results can improve our disaster situation awareness in the future. The achievement of the study will give a method for typhoon disaster situation awareness based on VGI from the bottom up, and will locate the disaster spot and evolution quickly which is very important for disaster response and recover.

Modeling Learner Situation Awareness in Collaborative Mobile Web 2.0 Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Helmi; Nordin, Norazah; Din, Rosseni; Ally, Mohamed

2016-01-01

The concept of situation awareness is essential in enhancing collaborative learning. Learners require information from different awareness aspects to deduce a learning situation for decision-making. Designing learning environments that assist learners to understand situation awareness via monitoring actions and reaction of other learners has been…

The RF Probe: providing space situational awareness through broad-spectrum detection and characterization

Science.gov (United States)

Zenick, Raymond; Kohlhepp, Kimberly; Partch, Russell

2004-09-01

AeroAstro's patented RF Probe is a system designed to address the needs of spacecraft developers and operators interested in measuring and analyzing near-field RF emissions emanating from a nearby spacecraft of interest. The RF Probe consists of an intelligent spectrum analyzer with digital signal processing capabilities combined with a calibrated, wide-bandwidth antenna and RF front end that covers the 50 kHz to 18 GHz spectrum. It is capable of acquiring signal level and signal vector information, classifying signals, assessing the quality of a satellite"s transponders, and characterizing near-field electromagnetic emissions. The RF Probe is intended for either incorporation as part of a suite of spacecraft sensors, or as a stand-alone sensor on spacecraft or other platforms such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The RF Probe was initially conceived as a tool to detect and aid in diagnosis of malfunctions in a spacecraft of interest. However, the utility of the RF Probe goes far beyond this initial concept, spanning a wide range of military applications. Most importantly, the RF Probe can provide space situational awareness for critical on-orbit assets by detecting externally induced RF fields, aiding in protection against potentially devastating attacks.

Situation awareness in undergraduate nursing students managing simulated patient deterioration.

Science.gov (United States)

McKenna, Lisa; Missen, Karen; Cooper, Simon; Bogossian, Fiona; Bucknall, Tracey; Cant, Robyn

2014-06-01

Nursing work often occurs in complex and potentially hazardous settings. Awareness of patient and practice environments is an imperative for nurses in practice. To explore nursing students' situation awareness while engaging in simulated patient deterioration scenarios. The educational process of FIRST(2)ACT was the model for the nurse intervention. Situation awareness was measured quantitatively using the Situation Awareness Global Assessment tool. Four domains were measured: physiological perception (patient parameters), global perception (surroundings), comprehension (interpretation of information), and projection (forecasting outcomes). Clinical laboratories at each of three participating universities. Ninety-seven nursing students from three Australian universities. Between March and July 2012, students participated in three video-recorded simulation events, in which a trained actor played patient roles and groups of three students worked as teams. To measure situation awareness, following the simulation each team leader was taken to a separate room and asked to report on a question set regarding the patient's vital signs, bedside setting and medical diagnosis. Overall, situation awareness was low (41%). Of the four domains, physiological perceptions scored the lowest (26%) and projection the highest (59%). Final year nursing students may not have well developed situation awareness skills, especially when dealing with these types of scenarios. Education providers need to consider ways to assist students to fully develop this attribute. Findings suggest that this is an aspect of undergraduate nursing education that requires significant consideration by curriculum developers. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multisensor Fusion for Intrusion Detection and Situational Awareness

OpenAIRE

Hallstensen, Christoffer V

2017-01-01

Cybercrime damage costs the world several trillion dollars annually. And al-though technical solutions to protect organizations from hackers are being con-tinuously developed, criminals learn fast to circumvent them. The question is,therefore, how to create leverage to protect an organization by improving in-trusion detection and situational awareness? This thesis seeks to contribute tothe prior art in intrusion detection and situational awareness by using a multi-sensor data fusion...

Situation awareness and documentation of changes that affect patient outcomes in progress notes.

Science.gov (United States)

Tower, Marion; Chaboyer, Wendy

2014-05-01

To report on registered nurses' situation awareness as a precursor to decision-making when recording changes in patients' conditions. Progress notes are important to communicate patients' progress and detail changes in patients' conditions. However, documentation is often poorly completed. There is little work that examines nurses' decision-making during documentation. This study focused on describing situation awareness as a precursor to decision-making during documentation. This study used Endsley's (Situation Awareness Analysis and Measurement, 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, NJ) work on situation awareness to guide and conceptualise information. The study was situated in a naturalistic paradigm to provide an interpretation of nurses' decision-making. Think-aloud research methods and semi-structured interviews were employed to illuminate decision-making processes. Audio recordings and interview texts were individually examined for evidence of cues, informed by Endsley's (Situation Awareness Analysis and Measurement, 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, NJ) descriptions of situation awareness. As patients' conditions changed, nurses used complex mental models and pattern-matching of information, drawing on all 3 levels of situation awareness during documentation. Level 1 situation awareness provided context, level 2 situation awareness signified a change in condition and its significance for the patient, and level 3 situation awareness was evident when nurses thought aloud about what this information indicated. Three themes associated with changes in patients' conditions emerged: deterioration in condition, not responding to prescribed treatments as expected and issues related to professional practice that impacted on patients' conditions. Nurses used a complex mental model for decision-making, drawing on 3 levels of situation awareness. Hamm's cognitive continuum theory, when related to situation awareness, is a useful decision-making theory to provide a

Space Situational Awareness of Large Numbers of Payloads From a Single Deployment

Science.gov (United States)

Segerman, A.; Byers, J.; Emmert, J.; Nicholas, A.

2014-09-01

The nearly simultaneous deployment of a large number of payloads from a single vehicle presents a new challenge for space object catalog maintenance and space situational awareness (SSA). Following two cubesat deployments last November, it took five weeks to catalog the resulting 64 orbits. The upcoming Kicksat mission will present an even greater SSA challenge, with its deployment of 128 chip-sized picosats. Although all of these deployments are in short-lived orbits, future deployments will inevitably occur at higher altitudes, with a longer term threat of collision with active spacecraft. With such deployments, individual scientific payload operators require rapid precise knowledge of their satellites' locations. Following the first November launch, the cataloguing did not initially associate a payload with each orbit, leaving this to the satellite operators. For short duration missions, the time required to identify an experiment's specific orbit may easily be a large fraction of the spacecraft's lifetime. For a Kicksat-type deployment, present tracking cannot collect enough observations to catalog each small object. The current approach is to treat the chip cloud as a single catalog object. However, the cloud dissipates into multiple subclouds and, ultimately, tiny groups of untrackable chips. One response to this challenge may be to mandate installation of a transponder on each spacecraft. Directional transponder transmission detections could be used as angle observations for orbit cataloguing. Of course, such an approach would only be employable with cooperative spacecraft. In other cases, a probabilistic association approach may be useful, with the goal being to establish the probability of an element being at a given point in space. This would permit more reliable assessment of the probability of collision of active spacecraft with any cloud element. This paper surveys the cataloguing challenges presented by large scale deployments of small spacecraft

Towards ontology-driven situation-aware disaster management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moreira, João; Ferreira Pires, Luis; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Dockhorn Costa, P.

2015-01-01

Over the last years, numerous ICT applications with mechanisms to detect situations have been developed to support disaster management (DM), which is a field of a great societal and economic importance. Those applications are termed situation-aware (SA) because they try, in near real-time, to

Building shared situational awareness in surgery through distributed dialog

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gillespie BM

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Brigid M Gillespie,1 Karleen Gwinner,2 Nicole Fairweather,3 Wendy Chaboyer41NHMRC Research Centre for Clinical Excellence in Nursing Interventions for Hospitalised Patients (NCREN and Research Centre for Clinical and Community Practice Innovation (RCCCPI, Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, Queensland, 2Griffith Centre for Cultural Research, Griffith University, Queensland, 3Department of Anaesthesiology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queensland, Australia, 4Excellence in Nursing Interventions for Hospitalized Patients (NCREN Research Centre for Clinical and Community Practice INHMRC Centre of Research Innovation (RCCCPI, Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University Queensland, AustraliaBackground: Failure to convey time-critical information to team members during surgery diminishes members' perception of the dynamic information relevant to their task, and compromises shared situational awareness. This research reports the dialog around clinical decisions made by team members in the time-pressured and high-risk context of surgery, and the impact of these communications on shared situational awareness.Methods: Fieldwork methods were used to capture the dynamic integration of individual and situational elements in surgery that provided the backdrop for clinical decisions. Nineteen semistructured interviews were performed with 24 participants from anesthesia, surgery, and nursing in the operating rooms of a large metropolitan hospital in Queensland, Australia. Thematic analysis was used.Results: The domain "coordinating decisions in surgery" was generated from textual data. Within this domain, three themes illustrated the dialog of clinical decisions, ie, synchronizing and strategizing actions, sharing local knowledge, and planning contingency decisions based on priority.Conclusion: Strategies used to convey decisions that enhanced shared situational awareness included the use of "self-talk", closed-loop communications, and

Integrity of a common operating picture in military situational awareness

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Robertson, J

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The lack of qualification of a common operating picture (COP) directly impacts the situational awareness of military Command and Control (C2). Since a commander is reliant on situational awareness information in order to make decisions regarding...

Designing to support situation awareness across distances

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sonnenwald, Diane H.; Maglaughlin, Kelly L.; Whitton, Mary C.

2004-01-01

. The foundation for this framework is previous research in situation awareness and virtual reality, combined with our analysis of interviews with and observations of collaborating scientists. The framework suggests that situation awareness is comprised of contextual, task and process, and socio......-emotional information. Research in virtual reality systems suggests control, sensory, distraction and realism attributes of technology contribute to a sense of presence [Presence 7 (1998) 225]. We suggest that consideration of these attributes with respect to contextual, task and process, and socio......-emotional information provides insights to guide design decisions. We used the framework when designing a scientific collaboratory system. Results from a controlled experimental evaluation of the collaboratory system help illustrate the framework's utility....

A High Fidelity Approach to Data Simulation for Space Situational Awareness Missions

Science.gov (United States)

Hagerty, S.; Ellis, H., Jr.

2016-09-01

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is vital to maintaining our Space Superiority. A high fidelity, time-based simulation tool, PROXOR™ (Proximity Operations and Rendering), supports SSA by generating realistic mission scenarios including sensor frame data with corresponding truth. This is a unique and critical tool for supporting mission architecture studies, new capability (algorithm) development, current/future capability performance analysis, and mission performance prediction. PROXOR™ provides a flexible architecture for sensor and resident space object (RSO) orbital motion and attitude control that simulates SSA, rendezvous and proximity operations scenarios. The major elements of interest are based on the ability to accurately simulate all aspects of the RSO model, viewing geometry, imaging optics, sensor detector, and environmental conditions. These capabilities enhance the realism of mission scenario models and generated mission image data. As an input, PROXOR™ uses a library of 3-D satellite models containing 10+ satellites, including low-earth orbit (e.g., DMSP) and geostationary (e.g., Intelsat) spacecraft, where the spacecraft surface properties are those of actual materials and include Phong and Maxwell-Beard bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) coefficients for accurate radiometric modeling. We calculate the inertial attitude, the changing solar and Earth illumination angles of the satellite, and the viewing angles from the sensor as we propagate the RSO in its orbit. The synthetic satellite image is rendered at high resolution and aggregated to the focal plane resolution resulting in accurate radiometry even when the RSO is a point source. The sensor model includes optical effects from the imaging system [point spread function (PSF) includes aberrations, obscurations, support structures, defocus], detector effects (CCD blooming, left/right bias, fixed pattern noise, image persistence, shot noise, read noise, and quantization

A development of a quantitative situation awareness measurement tool: Computational Representation of Situation Awareness with Graphical Expressions (CoRSAGE)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yim, Ho Bin; Lee, Seung Min; Seong, Poong Hyun

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We proposed quantitative situation awareness (SA) evaluation technique. • We developed a computer based SA evaluation tool for NPPs training environment. • We introduced three rules and components to express more human-like results. • We conducted three sets of training with real plant operators. • Results showed that the tool could reasonably represent operator’s SA. - Abstract: Operator performance measures are used for multiple purposes, such as control room design, human system interface (HSI) evaluation, training, and so on. Performance measures are often focused on results; however, especially for a training purpose – at least in a nuclear industry, more detailed descriptions about processes are required. Situation awareness (SA) measurements have directly/indirectly played as a complimentary measure and provided descriptive insights on how to improve performance of operators for the next training. Unfortunately, most of the well-developed SA measurement techniques, such as Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) need an expert opinion which sometimes troubles easy spread of measurement’s application or usage. A quantitative SA measurement tool named Computational Representation of Situation Awareness with Graphical Expressions (CoRSAGE) is introduced to resolve some of these concerns. CoRSAGE is based on production rules to represent a human operator’s cognitive process of problem solving, and Bayesian inference to quantify it. Petri Net concept is also used for graphical expressions of SA flow. Three components – inference transition, volatile/non-volatile memory tokens – were newly developed to achieve required functions. Training data of a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) scenario for an emergency condition and an earthquake scenario for an abnormal condition by real plant operators were used to validate the tool. The validation result showed that CoRSAGE performed a reasonable match to other performance

System dynamics modelling of situation awareness

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Oosthuizen, R

2015-11-01

Full Text Available . The feedback loops and delays in the Command and Control system also contribute to the complex dynamic behavior. This paper will build on existing situation awareness models to develop a System Dynamics model to support a qualitative investigation through...

Situation awareness and trust in computer-based procedures in nuclear power plant operations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Throneburg, E. B.; Jones, J. M. [AREVA NP Inc., 7207 IBM Drive, Charlotte, NC 28262 (United States)

2006-07-01

Situation awareness and trust are two issues that need to be addressed in the design of computer-based procedures for nuclear power plants. Situation awareness, in relation to computer-based procedures, concerns the operators' knowledge of the plant's state while following the procedures. Trust concerns the amount of faith that the operators put into the automated procedures, which can affect situation awareness. This paper first discusses the advantages and disadvantages of computer-based procedures. It then discusses the known aspects of situation awareness and trust as applied to computer-based procedures in nuclear power plants. An outline of a proposed experiment is then presented that includes methods of measuring situation awareness and trust so that these aspects can be analyzed for further study. (authors)

Situation awareness and trust in computer-based procedures in nuclear power plant operations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Throneburg, E. B.; Jones, J. M.

2006-01-01

Situation awareness and trust are two issues that need to be addressed in the design of computer-based procedures for nuclear power plants. Situation awareness, in relation to computer-based procedures, concerns the operators' knowledge of the plant's state while following the procedures. Trust concerns the amount of faith that the operators put into the automated procedures, which can affect situation awareness. This paper first discusses the advantages and disadvantages of computer-based procedures. It then discusses the known aspects of situation awareness and trust as applied to computer-based procedures in nuclear power plants. An outline of a proposed experiment is then presented that includes methods of measuring situation awareness and trust so that these aspects can be analyzed for further study. (authors)

Detector evaluation for improved situational awareness: Receiver operator characteristic curve based

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wuijckhuijse, A.L. van; Nieuwenhuizen, M.S.

2016-01-01

In military and civilian operations good situational awareness is a prerequisite to make proper decisions. The situational awareness is among others based upon intelligence, threat analysis and detection, altogether element of the so-called DIM (detection, identification, monitoring) system. In case

Perspective information in the cockpit to improve situational awareness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Breda, L. van

1999-01-01

Three simulator experiments were carried out to quantify the potential benefits of perspective visual displays in the cockpit for situational awareness support of the pilot, in local guidance and global awareness tasks. In the first experiment, the application of an egocentric perspective display

Awareness Through Agility: Teenagers as a Model for Terrorist Development of Situational Awareness

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Sheffer, Matthew J

2006-01-01

.... Alternatively, the teenage communications model provides an evolutionary concept of operations for Allied forces to develop a highly flexible tactical situational awareness in urban environments...

Comparison between Simulation-based Training and Lecture-based Education in Teaching Situation Awareness. A Randomized Controlled Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee Chang, Alfredo; Dym, Andrew A; Venegas-Borsellino, Carla; Bangar, Maneesha; Kazzi, Massoud; Lisenenkov, Dmitry; Qadir, Nida; Keene, Adam; Eisen, Lewis Ari

2017-04-01

Situation awareness has been defined as the perception of the elements in the environment within volumes of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. Intensivists often make time-sensitive critical decisions, and loss of situation awareness can lead to errors. It has been shown that simulation-based training is superior to lecture-based training for some critical scenarios. Because the methods of training to improve situation awareness have not been well studied in the medical field, we compared the impact of simulation vs. lecture training using the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) score. To identify an effective method for teaching situation awareness. We randomly assigned 17 critical care fellows to simulation vs. lecture training. Training consisted of eight cases on airway management, including topics such as elevated intracranial pressure, difficult airway, arrhythmia, and shock. During the testing scenario, at random times between 4 and 6 minutes into the simulation, the scenario was frozen, and the screens were blanked. Respondents then completed the 28 questions on the SAGAT scale. Sample items were categorized as Perception, Projection, and Comprehension of the situation. Results were analyzed using SPSS Version 21. Eight fellows from the simulation group and nine from the lecture group underwent simulation testing. Sixty-four SAGAT scores were recorded for the simulation group and 48 scores were recorded for the lecture group. The mean simulation vs. lecture group SAGAT score was 64.3 ± 10.1 (SD) vs. 59.7 ± 10.8 (SD) (P = 0.02). There was also a difference in the median Perception ability between the simulation vs. lecture groups (61.1 vs. 55.5, P = 0.01). There was no difference in the median Projection and Comprehension scores between the two groups (50.0 vs. 50.0, P = 0.92, and 83.3 vs. 83.3, P = 0.27). We found a significant, albeit

Simulation-based evaluation of an in-vehicle smart situation awareness enhancement system.

Science.gov (United States)

Gregoriades, Andreas; Sutcliffe, Alistair

2018-07-01

Situation awareness (SA) constitutes a critical factor in road safety, strongly related to accidents. This paper describes the evaluation of a proposed SA enhancement system (SAES) that exploits augmented reality through a head-up display (HUD). Two SAES designs were evaluation (information rich vs. minimal information) using a custom-made simulator and the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique with performance and EEG measures. The paper describes the process of assessing the SA of drivers using the SAES, through a series of experiments with participants in a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment. The effectiveness of the SAES was tested in a within-group research design. The results showed that the information rich (radar-style display) was superior to the minimal (arrow hazard indicator) design and that both SAES improved drivers' SA and performance compared to the control (no HUD) design. Practitioner Summary: Even though driver situation awareness is considered as one of the leading causes of road accidents, little has been done to enhance it. The current study demonstrates the positive effect of a proposed situation awareness enhancement system on driver situation awareness, through an experiment using virtual prototyping in a simulator.

Air Force Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

2018-03-13

time sensitivity and CyberWorx capacity. One method, which maximizes solution agility and the educational benefit to warfighters and industry...how the Air Force might best exploit commercial, academic, and foreign SSA data to improve space outcomes. Question Background & Participants Modern ...in industry and even in their personal lives. CyberWorx was asked to address the challenges of incorporating non- traditional (open source, academic

Enhancing the Situational Awareness of Airfield Local Controllers

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Mowery, Samuel

2002-01-01

.... In air traffic control operations, situational awareness of a local controller at an airfield such as Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California, is critical to prevention of catastrophic...

INL Control System Situational Awareness Technology Annual Report 2012

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gordon Rueff; Bryce Wheeler; Todd Vollmer; Tim McJunkin; Robert Erbes

2012-10-01

The overall goal of this project is to develop an interoperable set of tools to provide a comprehensive, consistent implementation of cyber security and overall situational awareness of control and sensor network implementations. The operation and interoperability of these tools will fill voids in current technological offerings and address issues that remain an impediment to the security of control systems. This report provides an FY 2012 update on the Sophia, Mesh Mapper, Intelligent Cyber Sensor, and Data Fusion projects with respect to the year-two tasks and annual reporting requirements of the INL Control System Situational Awareness Technology report (July 2010).

Uncertainty and Risk Management in Cyber Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jason; Ou, Xinming; Rajagopalan, Raj

Handling cyber threats unavoidably needs to deal with both uncertain and imprecise information. What we can observe as potential malicious activities can seldom give us 100% confidence on important questions we care about, e.g. what machines are compromised and what damage has been incurred. In security planning, we need information on how likely a vulnerability can lead to a successful compromise to better balance security and functionality, performance, and ease of use. These information are at best qualitative and are often vague and imprecise. In cyber situational awareness, we have to rely on such imperfect information to detect real attacks and to prevent an attack from happening through appropriate risk management. This chapter surveys existing technologies in handling uncertainty and risk management in cyber situational awareness.

Fusing Open Source Intelligence and Handheld Situational Awareness - Benghazi Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

2014-10-01

1 DM-0001694 Fusing Open Source Intelligence and Handheld Situational Awareness Benghazi Case Study Jeff Boleng, PhD Marc Novakouski Gene...command and control element at the CIA compound that would have been monitoring OSINT and other sources of intelligence before the attack and... Source Intelligence and Handheld Situational Awareness - Benghazi Case Study 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6

Situation awareness measures for simulated submarine track management.

Science.gov (United States)

Loft, Shayne; Bowden, Vanessa; Braithwaite, Janelle; Morrell, Daniel B; Huf, Samuel; Durso, Francis T

2015-03-01

The aim of this study was to examine whether the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) and the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) predict incremental variance in performance on a simulated submarine track management task and to measure the potential disruptive effect of these situation awareness (SA) measures. Submarine track managers use various displays to localize and track contacts detected by own-ship sensors. The measurement of SA is crucial for designing effective submarine display interfaces and training programs. Participants monitored a tactical display and sonar bearing-history display to track the cumulative behaviors of contacts in relationship to own-ship position and landmarks. SPAM (or SAGAT) and the Air Traffic Workload Input Technique (ATWIT) were administered during each scenario, and the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) and Situation Awareness Rating Technique were administered postscenario. SPAM and SAGAT predicted variance in performance after controlling for subjective measures of SA and workload, and SA for past information was a stronger predictor than SA for current/future information. The NASA-TLX predicted performance on some tasks. Only SAGAT predicted variance in performance on all three tasks but marginally increased subjective workload. SPAM, SAGAT, and the NASA-TLX can predict unique variance in submarine track management performance. SAGAT marginally increased subjective workload, but this increase did not lead to any performance decrement. Defense researchers have identified SPAM as an alternative to SAGAT because it would not require field exercises involving submarines to be paused. SPAM was not disruptive, but it is potentially problematic that SPAM did not predict variance in all three performance tasks. © 2014, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Situative Space Tracking within Smart Environments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Surie, Dipak; Jäckel, Florian; Janlert, Lars-Erik

2010-01-01

This paper describes our efforts in modeling and tracking a human agent’s situation based on his/her possibilities to perceive and act upon objects (both physical and virtual) within smart environments. A Situative Space Model is proposed. WLAN signal-strength-based situative space tracking syste......-laboratory smart home environment where a global precision of 83.4% and a global recall of 88.6% were obtained.......This paper describes our efforts in modeling and tracking a human agent’s situation based on his/her possibilities to perceive and act upon objects (both physical and virtual) within smart environments. A Situative Space Model is proposed. WLAN signal-strength-based situative space tracking system...

Enriching Mental Health Mobile Assessment and Intervention with Situation Awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Soares Teles, Ariel; Rocha, Artur; José da Silva E Silva, Francisco; Correia Lopes, João; O'Sullivan, Donal; Van de Ven, Pepijn; Endler, Markus

2017-01-10

Current mobile devices allow the execution of sophisticated applications with the capacity for identifying the user situation, which can be helpful in treatments of mental disorders. In this paper, we present SituMan , a solution that provides situation awareness to MoodBuster , an ecological momentary assessment and intervention mobile application used to request self-assessments from patients in depression treatments. SituMan has a fuzzy inference engine to identify patient situations using context data gathered from the sensors embedded in mobile devices. Situations are specified jointly by the patient and mental health professional, and they can represent the patient's daily routine (e.g., "studying", "at work", "working out"). MoodBuster requests mental status self-assessments from patients at adequate moments using situation awareness. In addition, SituMan saves and displays patient situations in a summary, delivering them for consultation by mental health professionals. A first experimental evaluation was performed to assess the user satisfaction with the approaches to define and identify situations. This experiment showed that SituMan was well evaluated in both criteria. A second experiment was performed to assess the accuracy of the fuzzy engine to infer situations. Results from the second experiment showed that the fuzzy inference engine has a good accuracy to identify situations.

Enriching Mental Health Mobile Assessment and Intervention with Situation Awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ariel Soares Teles

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Current mobile devices allow the execution of sophisticated applications with the capacity for identifying the user situation, which can be helpful in treatments of mental disorders. In this paper, we present SituMan, a solution that provides situation awareness to MoodBuster, an ecological momentary assessment and intervention mobile application used to request self-assessments from patients in depression treatments. SituMan has a fuzzy inference engine to identify patient situations using context data gathered from the sensors embedded in mobile devices. Situations are specified jointly by the patient and mental health professional, and they can represent the patient’s daily routine (e.g., “studying”, “at work”, “working out”. MoodBuster requests mental status self-assessments from patients at adequate moments using situation awareness. In addition, SituMan saves and displays patient situations in a summary, delivering them for consultation by mental health professionals. A first experimental evaluation was performed to assess the user satisfaction with the approaches to define and identify situations. This experiment showed that SituMan was well evaluated in both criteria. A second experiment was performed to assess the accuracy of the fuzzy engine to infer situations. Results from the second experiment showed that the fuzzy inference engine has a good accuracy to identify situations.

Can eye-tracking technology improve situational awareness in paramedic clinical education?

OpenAIRE

Williams, Brett; Cooper,Simon; Quested,Andrew

2013-01-01

Brett Williams,1 Andrew Quested,1 Simon Cooper21Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice, 2School of Nursing and Midwifery, Berwick, Monash University, Frankston, VIC, AustraliaAbstract: Human factors play a significant part in clinical error. Situational awareness (SA) means being aware of one's surroundings, comprehending the present situation, and being able to predict outcomes. It is a key human skill that, when properly applied, is associated with reducing ...

Knowledge-based public health situation awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Mirhaji, Parsa; Zhang, Jiajie; Srinivasan, Arunkumar; Richesson, Rachel L.; Smith, Jack W.

2004-09-01

There have been numerous efforts to create comprehensive databases from multiple sources to monitor the dynamics of public health and most specifically to detect the potential threats of bioterrorism before widespread dissemination. But there are not many evidences for the assertion that these systems are timely and dependable, or can reliably identify man made from natural incident. One must evaluate the value of so called 'syndromic surveillance systems' along with the costs involved in design, development, implementation and maintenance of such systems and the costs involved in investigation of the inevitable false alarms1. In this article we will introduce a new perspective to the problem domain with a shift in paradigm from 'surveillance' toward 'awareness'. As we conceptualize a rather different approach to tackle the problem, we will introduce a different methodology in application of information science, computer science, cognitive science and human-computer interaction concepts in design and development of so called 'public health situation awareness systems'. We will share some of our design and implementation concepts for the prototype system that is under development in the Center for Biosecurity and Public Health Informatics Research, in the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The system is based on a knowledgebase containing ontologies with different layers of abstraction, from multiple domains, that provide the context for information integration, knowledge discovery, interactive data mining, information visualization, information sharing and communications. The modular design of the knowledgebase and its knowledge representation formalism enables incremental evolution of the system from a partial system to a comprehensive knowledgebase of 'public health situation awareness' as it acquires new knowledge through interactions with domain experts or automatic discovery of new knowledge.

Lessons Learned from Developing SAWA: A Situation Awareness Assistant

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Matheus, Christopher J; Kokar, Mieczyslaw M; Letkowski, Jerzy J; Call, Catherine; Baclawski, Kenneth; Hinman, Michael; Salerno, John; Boulware, Douglas

2005-01-01

.... During the process of its development several lessons were learned about advantages and limitations of certain approaches, techniques and technologies as they are applied to situation awareness...

An Integrated Agent Model Addressing Situation Awareness and Functional State in Decision Making

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoogendoorn, M.; van Lambalgen, R.M.; Treur, J.

2011-01-01

In this paper, an integrated agent model is introduced addressing mutually interacting Situation Awareness and Functional State dynamics in decision making. This shows how a human's functional state, more specific a human's exhaustion and power, can influence a human's situation awareness, and in

Learning game for training child bicyclists' situation awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Lehtonen, Esko; Sahlberg, Heidi; Rovamo, Emilia; Summala, Heikki

2017-08-01

Encouraging more children to bicycle would produce both environmental and health benefits, but bicycling accidents are a major source of injuries and fatalities among children. One reason for this may be children's less developed hazard perception skills. We assume that children's situation awareness could be trained with a computer based learning game, which should also improve their hazard perception skills. In this paper, we present a prototype for such a game and pilot it with 8-9year old children. The game consisted of videos filmed from a bicyclist's perspective. Using a touchscreen, the player's task was to point out targets early enough to gain points. The targets were either overt (other visible road users on a potentially conflicting course) or covert (occlusions, i.e. locations where other road users could suddenly emerge). If a target was missed or identified too late, the video was paused and feedback was given. The game was tested with 49 children from the 2nd grade of primary school (aged 8-9). 31 young adults (aged 22-34) played the game for comparison. The effect of the game on situation awareness was assessed with situation awareness tests in a crossover design. Similar videos were used in the tests as in the game, but instead of pointing out the targets while watching, the video was suddenly masked and participants were asked to locate all targets which had been present just before the masking, choosing among several possible locations. Their performance was analyzed using Signal Detection Theory and answer latencies. The game decreased answer latency and marginally changed response bias in a less conservative direction for both children and adults, but it did not significantly increase sensitivity for targets. Adults performed better in the tests and in the game, and it was possible to satisfactorily predict group membership based on the scores. Children found it especially difficult to find covert targets. Overall, the described version of the

Describing Older Adults' Awareness of Fall Risk Using Situation Awareness Research Techniques: A Pilot Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Azzarello, Jo; Hall, Beth

2016-07-01

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate efficacy of techniques adapted from situation awareness research for describing how older adults perceive and understand fall risk factors in the context of daily routine. Eleven older adults watched a video of an older woman performing daily activities. Thirteen intrinsic, extrinsic, and behavioral fall risks were embedded throughout the scenario. The video was periodically frozen/blanked from view while participants answered questions about their understanding of the situation and associated story elements. Participants perceived a variety of fall risk factors but did not necessarily interpret them as indicating fall risk. Many fall risks held non-fall meaning for participants (e.g., newspapers on the floor meant the woman liked to read). Although four participants readily identified a fall risk situation, seven did not until they were explicitly asked to consider safety. Study techniques were effective for describing situation awareness of fall risk and several suggestions for improvement are described. [Res Gerontol Nurs. 2016; 9(4):161-166.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

Space-Time Disarray and Visual Awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Koenderink

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Local space-time scrambling of optical data leads to violent jerks and dislocations. On masking these, visual awareness of the scene becomes cohesive, with dislocations discounted as amodally occluding foreground. Such cohesive space-time of awareness is technically illusory because ground truth is jumbled whereas awareness is coherent. Apparently the visual field is a construction rather than a (veridical perception.

A improved Network Security Situation Awareness Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Fangwei

2015-08-01

Full Text Available In order to reflect the situation of network security assessment performance fully and accurately, a new network security situation awareness model based on information fusion was proposed. Network security situation is the result of fusion three aspects evaluation. In terms of attack, to improve the accuracy of evaluation, a situation assessment method of DDoS attack based on the information of data packet was proposed. In terms of vulnerability, a improved Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS was raised and maked the assessment more comprehensive. In terms of node weights, the method of calculating the combined weights and optimizing the result by Sequence Quadratic Program (SQP algorithm which reduced the uncertainty of fusion was raised. To verify the validity and necessity of the method, a testing platform was built and used to test through evaluating 2000 DAPRA data sets. Experiments show that the method can improve the accuracy of evaluation results.

1st workshop on situational awareness in semi-Automated vehicles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

McCall, R.; Baumann, M.; Politis, I.; Borojeni, S.S.; Alvarez, I.; Mirnig, A.; Meschtscherjakov, A.; Tscheligi, M.; Chuang, L.; Terken, J.M.B.

2016-01-01

This workshop will focus on the problem of occupant and vehicle situational awareness with respect to automated vehicles when the driver must take over control. It will explore the future of fully automated and mixed traffic situations where vehicles are assumed to be operating at level 3 or above.

A Quantitative Team Situation Awareness Measurement Method Considering Technical and Nontechnical Skills of Teams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ho Bin Yim

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Human capabilities, such as technical/nontechnical skills, have begun to be recognized as crucial factors for nuclear safety. One of the most common ways to improve human capabilities in general is training. The nuclear industry has constantly developed and used training as a tool to increase plant efficiency and safety. An integrated training framework was suggested for one of those efforts, especially during simulation training sessions of nuclear power plant operation teams. The developed training evaluation methods are based on measuring the levels of situation awareness of teams in terms of the level of shared confidence and consensus as well as the accuracy of team situation awareness. Verification of the developed methods was conducted by analyzing the training data of real nuclear power plant operation teams. The teams that achieved higher level of shared confidence showed better performance in solving problem situations when coupled with high consensus index values. The accuracy of nuclear power plant operation teams' situation awareness was approximately the same or showed a similar trend as that of senior reactor operators' situation awareness calculated by a situation awareness accuracy index (SAAI. Teams that had higher SAAI values performed better and faster than those that had lower SAAI values.

Sonification of network traffic flow for monitoring and situational awareness

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Maintaining situational awareness of what is happening within a computer network is challenging, not only because the behaviour happens within machines, but also because data traffic speeds and volumes are beyond human ability to process. Visualisation techniques are widely used to present information about network traffic dynamics. Although they provide operators with an overall view and specific information about particular traffic or attacks on the network, they often still fail to represent the events in an understandable way. Also, because they require visual attention they are not well suited to continuous monitoring scenarios in which network administrators must carry out other tasks. Here we present SoNSTAR (Sonification of Networks for SiTuational AwaReness), a real-time sonification system for monitoring computer networks to support network administrators’ situational awareness. SoNSTAR provides an auditory representation of all the TCP/IP traffic within a network based on the different traffic flows between between network hosts. A user study showed that SoNSTAR raises situational awareness levels by enabling operators to understand network behaviour and with the benefit of lower workload demands (as measured by the NASA TLX method) than visual techniques. SoNSTAR identifies network traffic features by inspecting the status flags of TCP/IP packet headers. Combinations of these features define particular traffic events which are mapped to recorded sounds to generate a soundscape that represents the real-time status of the network traffic environment. The sequence, timing, and loudness of the different sounds allow the network to be monitored and anomalous behaviour to be detected without the need to continuously watch a monitor screen. PMID:29672543

Sonification of network traffic flow for monitoring and situational awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Debashi, Mohamed; Vickers, Paul

2018-01-01

Maintaining situational awareness of what is happening within a computer network is challenging, not only because the behaviour happens within machines, but also because data traffic speeds and volumes are beyond human ability to process. Visualisation techniques are widely used to present information about network traffic dynamics. Although they provide operators with an overall view and specific information about particular traffic or attacks on the network, they often still fail to represent the events in an understandable way. Also, because they require visual attention they are not well suited to continuous monitoring scenarios in which network administrators must carry out other tasks. Here we present SoNSTAR (Sonification of Networks for SiTuational AwaReness), a real-time sonification system for monitoring computer networks to support network administrators' situational awareness. SoNSTAR provides an auditory representation of all the TCP/IP traffic within a network based on the different traffic flows between between network hosts. A user study showed that SoNSTAR raises situational awareness levels by enabling operators to understand network behaviour and with the benefit of lower workload demands (as measured by the NASA TLX method) than visual techniques. SoNSTAR identifies network traffic features by inspecting the status flags of TCP/IP packet headers. Combinations of these features define particular traffic events which are mapped to recorded sounds to generate a soundscape that represents the real-time status of the network traffic environment. The sequence, timing, and loudness of the different sounds allow the network to be monitored and anomalous behaviour to be detected without the need to continuously watch a monitor screen.

Situation awareness and workload in complex tactical environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veltman, J.A.

1999-01-01

The paper provides an example of a method to get insight into workload changes over time, executed tasks and situation awareness (SA) in complex task environments. The method is applied to measure the workload of a helicopter crew. The method has three components: 1) task analysis, 2) video

Modelling situation awareness relations in a multiagent system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blom, H.A.P.; Sharpanskykh, A.

2015-01-01

There is broad consensus that situation awareness (SA) plays a key role in agent-based modelling of complex sociotechnical systems. However in the social sciences and human factors literature there are different views on what SA is and how it could be modelled. More specifically, one school of

Gamification for Measuring Cyber Security Situational Awareness

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fink, Glenn A.; Best, Daniel M.; Manz, David O.; Popovsky, V. M.; Endicott-Popovsky, Barbara E.

2013-03-01

Cyber defense competitions arising from U.S. service academy exercises, offer a platform for collecting data that can inform research that ranges from characterizing the ideal cyber warrior to describing behaviors during certain challenging cyber defense situations. This knowledge could lead to better preparation of cyber defenders in both military and civilian settings. This paper describes how one regional competition, the PRCCDC, a participant in the national CCDC program, conducted proof of concept experimentation to collect data during the annual competition for later analysis. The intent is to create an ongoing research agenda that expands on this current work and incorporates augmented cognition and gamification methods for measuring cybersecurity situational awareness under the stress of cyber attack.

Can teamwork and situational awareness (SA) in ED resuscitations be improved with a technological cognitive aid? Design and a pilot study of a team situation display.

Science.gov (United States)

Parush, A; Mastoras, G; Bhandari, A; Momtahan, K; Day, K; Weitzman, B; Sohmer, B; Cwinn, A; Hamstra, S J; Calder, L

2017-12-01

Effective teamwork in ED resuscitations, including information sharing and situational awareness, could be degraded. Technological cognitive aids can facilitate effective teamwork. This study focused on the design of an ED situation display and pilot test its influence on teamwork and situational awareness during simulated resuscitation scenarios. The display design consisted of a central area showing the critical dynamic parameters of the interventions with an events time-line below it. Static information was placed at the sides of the display. We pilot tested whether the situation display could lead to higher scores on the Clinical Teamwork Scale (CTS), improved scores on a context-specific Situational Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) tool, and team communication patterns that reflect teamwork and situational awareness. Resuscitation teamwork, as measured by the CTS, was overall better with the presence of the situation display as compared with no situation display. Team members discussed interventions more with the situation display compared with not having the situation display. Situational awareness was better with the situation display only in the trauma scenario. The situation display could be more effective for certain ED team members and in certain cases. Overall, this pilot study implies that a situation display could facilitate better teamwork and team communication in the resuscitation event. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Integrated situational awareness for cyber attack detection, analysis, and mitigation

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Yi; Sagduyu, Yalin; Deng, Julia; Li, Jason; Liu, Peng

2012-06-01

Real-time cyberspace situational awareness is critical for securing and protecting today's enterprise networks from various cyber threats. When a security incident occurs, network administrators and security analysts need to know what exactly has happened in the network, why it happened, and what actions or countermeasures should be taken to quickly mitigate the potential impacts. In this paper, we propose an integrated cyberspace situational awareness system for efficient cyber attack detection, analysis and mitigation in large-scale enterprise networks. Essentially, a cyberspace common operational picture will be developed, which is a multi-layer graphical model and can efficiently capture and represent the statuses, relationships, and interdependencies of various entities and elements within and among different levels of a network. Once shared among authorized users, this cyberspace common operational picture can provide an integrated view of the logical, physical, and cyber domains, and a unique visualization of disparate data sets to support decision makers. In addition, advanced analyses, such as Bayesian Network analysis, will be explored to address the information uncertainty, dynamic and complex cyber attack detection, and optimal impact mitigation issues. All the developed technologies will be further integrated into an automatic software toolkit to achieve near real-time cyberspace situational awareness and impact mitigation in large-scale computer networks.

Additional helmet and pack loading reduce situational awareness during the establishment of marksmanship posture.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Jongil; Palmer, Christopher J; Busa, Michael A; Amado, Avelino; Rosado, Luis D; Ducharme, Scott W; Simon, Darnell; Van Emmerik, Richard E A

2017-06-01

The pickup of visual information is critical for controlling movement and maintaining situational awareness in dangerous situations. Altered coordination while wearing protective equipment may impact the likelihood of injury or death. This investigation examined the consequences of load magnitude and distribution on situational awareness, segmental coordination and head gaze in several protective equipment ensembles. Twelve soldiers stepped down onto force plates and were instructed to quickly and accurately identify visual information while establishing marksmanship posture in protective equipment. Time to discriminate visual information was extended when additional pack and helmet loads were added, with the small increase in helmet load having the largest effect. Greater head-leading and in-phase trunk-head coordination were found with lighter pack loads, while trunk-leading coordination increased and head gaze dynamics were more disrupted in heavier pack loads. Additional armour load in the vest had no consequences for Time to discriminate, coordination or head dynamics. This suggests that the addition of head borne load be carefully considered when integrating new technology and that up-armouring does not necessarily have negative consequences for marksmanship performance. Practitioner Summary: Understanding the trade-space between protection and reductions in task performance continue to challenge those developing personal protective equipment. These methods provide an approach that can help optimise equipment design and loading techniques by quantifying changes in task performance and the emergent coordination dynamics that underlie that performance.

Situation awareness and complexity: the role of wearable technologies in sports science

OpenAIRE

Di Tore, Pio Alfredo

2015-01-01

Situation Awareness is a key concept in activities in which cognitive and physical tasks are being performed in a complex system consisting of multiple humans and artifacts, under quickly changing conditions. The spread, in sports, of wearable technologies that can record and return in real time a wide variety of data related to the athlete and to the context provides a great opportunity to increase the level of Situation Awareness. Often, however, we are dealing with heterogeneous devices th...

Unique Capabilities of the Situational Awareness Sensor Suite for the ISS (SASSI) Mission Concept to Study the Equatorial Ionosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Habash Krause, L.; Gilchrist, B. E.; Minow, J. I.; Gallagher, D. L.; Hoegy, W. R.; Coffey, V. N.; Willis, E. M.

2014-12-01

We present an overview of a mission concept named Situational Awareness Sensor Suite for the ISS (SASSI) with a special focus here on low-latitude ionospheric plasma turbulence measurements relevant to equatorial spread-F. SASSI is a suite of sensors that improves Space Situational Awareness for the ISS local space environment, as well as unique ionospheric measurements and support active plasma experiments on the ISS. As such, the mission concept has both operational and basic research objectives. We will describe two compelling measurement techniques enabled by SASSI's unique mission architecture. That is, SASSI provides new abilities to 1) measure space plasma potentials in low Earth orbit over ~100 m relative to a common potential, and 2) to investigate multi-scale ionospheric plasma turbulence morphology simultaneously of both ~ 1 cm and ~ 10 m scale lengths. The first measurement technique will aid in the distinction of vertical drifts within equatorial plasma bubbles from the vertical motions of the bulk of the layer due to zonal electric fields. The second will aid in understanding ionospheric plasma turbulence cascading in scale sizes that affect over the horizon radar. During many years of ISS operation, we have conducted effective (but not perfect) human and robotic extravehicular activities within the space plasma environment surrounding the ISS structure. However, because of the complexity of the interaction between the ISS and the space environment, there remain important sources of unpredictable environmental situations that affect operations. Examples of affected systems include EVA safety, solar panel efficiency, and scientific instrument integrity. Models and heuristically-derived best practices are well-suited for routine operations, but when it comes to unusual or anomalous events or situations, there is no substitute for real-time monitoring. SASSI is being designed to deploy and operate a suite of low-cost, medium/high-TRL plasma sensors on

Can eye-tracking technology improve situational awareness in paramedic clinical education?

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Brett; Quested, Andrew; Cooper, Simon

2013-01-01

Human factors play a significant part in clinical error. Situational awareness (SA) means being aware of one's surroundings, comprehending the present situation, and being able to predict outcomes. It is a key human skill that, when properly applied, is associated with reducing medical error: eye-tracking technology can be used to provide an objective and qualitative measure of the initial perception component of SA. Feedback from eye-tracking technology can be used to improve the understanding and teaching of SA in clinical contexts, and consequently, has potential for reducing clinician error and the concomitant adverse events.

Gaze-informed, task-situated representation of space in primate hippocampus during virtual navigation

Science.gov (United States)

Wirth, Sylvia; Baraduc, Pierre; Planté, Aurélie; Pinède, Serge; Duhamel, Jean-René

2017-01-01

To elucidate how gaze informs the construction of mental space during wayfinding in visual species like primates, we jointly examined navigation behavior, visual exploration, and hippocampal activity as macaque monkeys searched a virtual reality maze for a reward. Cells sensitive to place also responded to one or more variables like head direction, point of gaze, or task context. Many cells fired at the sight (and in anticipation) of a single landmark in a viewpoint- or task-dependent manner, simultaneously encoding the animal’s logical situation within a set of actions leading to the goal. Overall, hippocampal activity was best fit by a fine-grained state space comprising current position, view, and action contexts. Our findings indicate that counterparts of rodent place cells in primates embody multidimensional, task-situated knowledge pertaining to the target of gaze, therein supporting self-awareness in the construction of space. PMID:28241007

Full Scale Evaluation of How Task-Based Overview Displays Impact Operator Workload and Situation Awareness When in Emergency Procedure Space

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Spielman, Zachary; Hill, Racheal; LeBlanc, Katya; Rice, Brandon; Bower, Gordon; Joe, Jeffrey; Powers, David

2016-07-01

Control room modernization is critical to extending the life of the 99 operating commercial nuclear power plants (NPP) within the United States. However, due to the lack of evidence demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of recent candidate technologies, current NPP control rooms operate without the benefit of various newer technologies now available. As nuclear power plants begin to extend their licenses to continue operating for another 20 years, there is increased interest in modernizing the control room and supplementing the existing control boards with advanced technologies. As part of a series of studies investigating the benefits of advanced control room technologies, the researchers conducted an experimental study to observe the effect of Task-Based Overview Displays (TODs) on operator workload and situation awareness (SA) while completing typical operating scenarios. Researchers employed the Situation Awareness Rating Technique (SART) and the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) as construct measures.

Event-based Sensing for Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, G.; Afshar, S.; van Schaik, A.; Wabnitz, A.; Bessell, T.; Rutten, M.; Morreale, B.

A revolutionary type of imaging device, known as a silicon retina or event-based sensor, has recently been developed and is gaining in popularity in the field of artificial vision systems. These devices are inspired by a biological retina and operate in a significantly different way to traditional CCD-based imaging sensors. While a CCD produces frames of pixel intensities, an event-based sensor produces a continuous stream of events, each of which is generated when a pixel detects a change in log light intensity. These pixels operate asynchronously and independently, producing an event-based output with high temporal resolution. There are also no fixed exposure times, allowing these devices to offer a very high dynamic range independently for each pixel. Additionally, these devices offer high-speed, low power operation and a sparse spatiotemporal output. As a consequence, the data from these sensors must be interpreted in a significantly different way to traditional imaging sensors and this paper explores the advantages this technology provides for space imaging. The applicability and capabilities of event-based sensors for SSA applications are demonstrated through telescope field trials. Trial results have confirmed that the devices are capable of observing resident space objects from LEO through to GEO orbital regimes. Significantly, observations of RSOs were made during both day-time and nighttime (terminator) conditions without modification to the camera or optics. The event based sensor’s ability to image stars and satellites during day-time hours offers a dramatic capability increase for terrestrial optical sensors. This paper shows the field testing and validation of two different architectures of event-based imaging sensors. An eventbased sensor’s asynchronous output has an intrinsically low data-rate. In addition to low-bandwidth communications requirements, the low weight, low-power and high-speed make them ideally suitable to meeting the demanding

Designing for Situation Awareness : the World behind the Glass

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mulder, M.; Borst, C.; van Paassen, M.M.

2017-01-01

In the design of human-machine interfaces and automation, an important question is how to obtain and validate a design that is capable of supporting the operator’s understanding and situation awareness of the process under control. Whereas many research efforts address the question of ‘what is the

Testing Situation Awareness Network for the Electrical Power Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafał Leszczyna

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The contemporary electrical power infrastructure is exposed to new types of threats. The cause of such threats is related to the large number of new vulnerabilities and architectural weaknesses introduced by the extensive use of Information and communication Technologies (ICT in such complex critical systems. The power grid interconnection with the Internet exposes the grid to new types of attacks, such as Advanced Persistent Threats (APT or Distributed-Denial-ofService (DDoS attacks. When addressing this situation the usual cyber security technologies are prerequisite, but not sufficient. To counter evolved and highly sophisticated threats such as the APT or DDoS, state-of-the-art technologies including Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM systems, extended Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS and Trusted Platform Modules (TPM are required. Developing and deploying extensive ICT infrastructure that supports wide situational awareness and allows precise command and control is also necessary. In this paper the results of testing the Situational Awareness Network (SAN designed for the energy sector are presented. The purpose of the tests was to validate the selection of SAN components and check their operational capability in a complex test environment. During the tests’ execution appropriate interaction between the components was verified.

Discrepant perceptions of communication, teamwork and situation awareness among surgical team members.

Science.gov (United States)

Wauben, L S G L; Dekker-van Doorn, C M; van Wijngaarden, J D H; Goossens, R H M; Huijsman, R; Klein, J; Lange, J F

2011-04-01

To assess surgical team members' differences in perception of non-technical skills. Questionnaire design. Operating theatres (OTs) at one university hospital, three teaching hospitals and one general hospital in the Netherlands. Sixty-six surgeons, 97 OT nurses, 18 anaesthetists and 40 nurse anaesthetists. All surgical team members, of five hospitals, were asked to complete a questionnaire and state their opinion on the current state of communication, teamwork and situation awareness at the OT. Ratings for 'communication' were significantly different, particularly between surgeons and all other team members (P ≤ 0.001). The ratings for 'teamwork' differed significantly between all team members (P ≤ 0.005). Within 'situation awareness' significant differences were mainly observed for 'gathering information' between surgeons and other team members (P communication, teamwork and situation awareness. Future research needs to ascertain whether these discrepancies are linked to greater risk of adverse events or to process as well as systems failures. Establishing this link would support implementation and use of complex team interventions that intervene at multiple levels of the healthcare system.

Investigating the impact of static roadside advertising on drivers' situation awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Kristie L; Stephens, Amanda N; Logan, David B; Lenné, Michael G

2017-04-01

Roadside advertising has the potential to create a crash risk for drivers as it may distract attention from driving at critical times. In an on-road instrumented vehicle study, we examined if and how static advertising billboards affect drivers' situation awareness across different driving environments. Nineteen fully licensed drivers drove an instrumented vehicle around a 38 km urban test route comprising freeway, busy urban retail and arterial road sections. The route contained a number of static billboards. Drivers provided continuous verbal protocols throughout the drive. Results indicated that the structure and content of drivers' situation awareness was not appreciably affected by the billboards in any of the road environments examined. Drivers focused their attention on the billboards when driving demand was low, such as when driving on the freeway with light to moderate traffic, in lower speed zones, or when stationary. However, when drivers were required to perform a manoeuvre or driving demands increased, drivers directed less attention to the billboards and focussed their awareness on the immediate driving task. This suggests that drivers can, at least under some conditions, effectively self-regulate their attention to billboards when required to focus on the immediate traffic or driving situation. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Uncertainty Reasoning for Service-Based Situational Awareness Information on the Semantic Web

Science.gov (United States)

Dinkel, Stephen C.

2012-01-01

Accurate situational assessment is key to any decision maker and especially crucial in military command and control, air traffic control, and complex system decision making. Endsley described three dependent levels of situational awareness, (1) perception, (2) understanding, and (3) projection. This research was focused on Endsley's…

Multi-Robot Interfaces and Operator Situational Awareness: Study of the Impact of Immersion and Prediction.

Science.gov (United States)

Roldán, Juan Jesús; Peña-Tapia, Elena; Martín-Barrio, Andrés; Olivares-Méndez, Miguel A; Del Cerro, Jaime; Barrientos, Antonio

2017-07-27

Multi-robot missions are a challenge for operators in terms of workload and situational awareness. These operators have to receive data from the robots, extract information, understand the situation properly, make decisions, generate the adequate commands, and send them to the robots. The consequences of excessive workload and lack of awareness can vary from inefficiencies to accidents. This work focuses on the study of future operator interfaces of multi-robot systems, taking into account relevant issues such as multimodal interactions, immersive devices, predictive capabilities and adaptive displays. Specifically, four interfaces have been designed and developed: a conventional, a predictive conventional, a virtual reality and a predictive virtual reality interface. The four interfaces have been validated by the performance of twenty-four operators that supervised eight multi-robot missions of fire surveillance and extinguishing. The results of the workload and situational awareness tests show that virtual reality improves the situational awareness without increasing the workload of operators, whereas the effects of predictive components are not significant and depend on their implementation.

Multi-Robot Interfaces and Operator Situational Awareness: Study of the Impact of Immersion and Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Peña-Tapia, Elena; Martín-Barrio, Andrés; Olivares-Méndez, Miguel A.

2017-01-01

Multi-robot missions are a challenge for operators in terms of workload and situational awareness. These operators have to receive data from the robots, extract information, understand the situation properly, make decisions, generate the adequate commands, and send them to the robots. The consequences of excessive workload and lack of awareness can vary from inefficiencies to accidents. This work focuses on the study of future operator interfaces of multi-robot systems, taking into account relevant issues such as multimodal interactions, immersive devices, predictive capabilities and adaptive displays. Specifically, four interfaces have been designed and developed: a conventional, a predictive conventional, a virtual reality and a predictive virtual reality interface. The four interfaces have been validated by the performance of twenty-four operators that supervised eight multi-robot missions of fire surveillance and extinguishing. The results of the workload and situational awareness tests show that virtual reality improves the situational awareness without increasing the workload of operators, whereas the effects of predictive components are not significant and depend on their implementation. PMID:28749407

Multi-Robot Interfaces and Operator Situational Awareness: Study of the Impact of Immersion and Prediction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Jesús Roldán

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Multi-robot missions are a challenge for operators in terms of workload and situational awareness. These operators have to receive data from the robots, extract information, understand the situation properly, make decisions, generate the adequate commands, and send them to the robots. The consequences of excessive workload and lack of awareness can vary from inefficiencies to accidents. This work focuses on the study of future operator interfaces of multi-robot systems, taking into account relevant issues such as multimodal interactions, immersive devices, predictive capabilities and adaptive displays. Specifically, four interfaces have been designed and developed: a conventional, a predictive conventional, a virtual reality and a predictive virtual reality interface. The four interfaces have been validated by the performance of twenty-four operators that supervised eight multi-robot missions of fire surveillance and extinguishing. The results of the workload and situational awareness tests show that virtual reality improves the situational awareness without increasing the workload of operators, whereas the effects of predictive components are not significant and depend on their implementation.

Situation Awareness in Sea Kayaking: Towards a Practical Checklist

Science.gov (United States)

Aadland, Eivind; Vikene, Odd Lennart; Varley, Peter; Moe, Vegard Fusche

2017-01-01

Ever-changing weather and sea conditions constitute environmental hazards that sea kayakers must pay attention to and act upon to stay safe. The aim of this study was to propose a tool to aid sea kayakers' situation awareness (SA). We developed a checklist guided by theory on the concept of SA and expert problem detection, judgement and…

Mission Command in the Age of Network-Enabled Operations: Social Network Analysis of Information Sharing and Situation Awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Buchler, Norbou; Fitzhugh, Sean M; Marusich, Laura R; Ungvarsky, Diane M; Lebiere, Christian; Gonzalez, Cleotilde

2016-01-01

A common assumption in organizations is that information sharing improves situation awareness and ultimately organizational effectiveness. The sheer volume and rapid pace of information and communications received and readily accessible through computer networks, however, can overwhelm individuals, resulting in data overload from a combination of diverse data sources, multiple data formats, and large data volumes. The current conceptual framework of network enabled operations (NEO) posits that robust networking and information sharing act as a positive feedback loop resulting in greater situation awareness and mission effectiveness in military operations (Alberts and Garstka, 2004). We test this assumption in a large-scale, 2-week military training exercise. We conducted a social network analysis of email communications among the multi-echelon Mission Command staff (one Division and two sub-ordinate Brigades) and assessed the situational awareness of every individual. Results from our exponential random graph models challenge the aforementioned assumption, as increased email output was associated with lower individual situation awareness. It emerged that higher situation awareness was associated with a lower probability of out-ties, so that broadly sending many messages decreased the likelihood of attaining situation awareness. This challenges the hypothesis that increased information sharing improves situation awareness, at least for those doing the bulk of the sharing. In addition, we observed two trends that reflect a compartmentalizing of networked information sharing as email links were more commonly formed among members of the command staff with both similar functions and levels of situation awareness, than between two individuals with dissimilar functions and levels of situation awareness; both those findings can be interpreted to reflect effects of homophily. Our results have major implications that challenge the current conceptual framework of NEO. In

Increasing Situational Awareness by Combining Realistic and Non-Realistic Rendering Techniques

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Summers, Valerie A; Normoyle, Aline; Flo, Robert

2005-01-01

.... Although this improved visual realism can lead to a better sense of immersion and a more faithful reproduction of the natural world, it does not necessarily promote increased awareness of an evolving situation...

Space Situational Awareness using Market Based Agents

Science.gov (United States)

Sullivan, C.; Pier, E.; Gregory, S.; Bush, M.

2012-09-01

Space surveillance for the DoD is not limited to the Space Surveillance Network (SSN). Other DoD-owned assets have some existing capabilities for tasking but have no systematic way to work collaboratively with the SSN. These are run by diverse organizations including the Services, other defense and intelligence agencies and national laboratories. Beyond these organizations, academic and commercial entities have systems that possess SSA capability. Most all of these assets have some level of connectivity, security, and potential autonomy. Exploiting them in a mutually beneficial structure could provide a more comprehensive, efficient and cost effective solution for SSA. The collection of all potential assets, providers and consumers of SSA data comprises a market which is functionally illiquid. The development of a dynamic marketplace for SSA data could enable would-be providers the opportunity to sell data to SSA consumers for monetary or incentive based compensation. A well-conceived market architecture could drive down SSA data costs through increased supply and improve efficiency through increased competition. Oceanit will investigate market and market agent architectures, protocols, standards, and incentives toward producing high-volume/low-cost SSA.

Developing situation-aware applications for disaster management with a distributed rule-based platform

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moreira, João; Moreira, Joao; Ferreira Pires, Luis; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Dockhorn Costa, P.

2015-01-01

In order to enhance interoperability and productivity in the develop-ment of situation-aware applications for disaster management, proper mecha-nisms and guidelines are required. They must address the lack of semantics in modelling emergency situations. In addition, the ever changing and

Cockpit System Situational Awareness Modeling Tool

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, John; Lebiere, Christian; Shay, Rick; Latorella, Kara

2004-01-01

This project explored the possibility of predicting pilot situational awareness (SA) using human performance modeling techniques for the purpose of evaluating developing cockpit systems. The Improved Performance Research Integration Tool (IMPRINT) was combined with the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) cognitive modeling architecture to produce a tool that can model both the discrete tasks of pilots and the cognitive processes associated with SA. The techniques for using this tool to predict SA were demonstrated using the newly developed Aviation Weather Information (AWIN) system. By providing an SA prediction tool to cockpit system designers, cockpit concepts can be assessed early in the design process while providing a cost-effective complement to the traditional pilot-in-the-loop experiments and data collection techniques.

Constructible Assessment for Situation Awareness in a Distributed C2 Environment

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Seet, Alfred W; Teh, Cheryl A; Soo, John K; Teo, Leonghwee

2004-01-01

.... This method is an adaptation of the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) by M. R. Endsley (1995) that takes into account specific constraints for use in a field exercise, such as minimizing the level of intrusiveness...

An ecological interface for supporting situation awareness during malfunction and process and automation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohtsu, Masataka; Furukawa, Hiroshi; Inagaki, Toshiyuki; Monta, Kazuo

2000-01-01

This paper describes the outline of an experiment to investigate the effect of an ecological interface for supporting situation awareness during malfunction of process. We developed an ecological interface and an conventional interface for the simulator SCARLETT of a virtual plant that have two process control modes (automatic process control mode and manual process control mode). The purpose of this experiment is to investigate how interface and process control mode have any effects on situation awareness of human operator during malfunction of process, whether there are any interaction between interface and process control mode. We have been conducted this experiment now. (author)

An approach to electromagnetic spectrum evaluation and control for situational awareness

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Olivier, K

2012-10-01

Full Text Available In this presentation the author provides insight on the role of modern electronic warfare technology for the purposes of electromagnetic spectrum evaluation and control, which plays a crucial role in situational awareness required for peacekeeping...

Empirical research on an ecological interface design for improving situation awareness of operators in an advanced control room

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Sa Kil; Suh, Sang Moon; Jang, Gwi Sook; Hong, Seung Kweon; Park, Jung Chul

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► An EID prototype for monitoring primary side of nuclear power plant is proposed. ► The effectiveness of the prototype is validated using a partial scoped dynamic mockup in terms of situation awareness. ► The validation is based on comparison of a mimic display with an EID plus mimics. - Abstract: The purpose of this study is to validate whether an ecological interface design (EID) improves operators’ situation awareness in an advanced control room of a nuclear power plant (NPP). EID is defined as an approach to interface design that was introduced specifically for complex socio-technical, real-time, and dynamic systems. The EID technology has not yet been adapted to the nuclear power industry due to lack of empirical studies. Especially in a situational awareness aspect, many researchers have predicted that the EID will support operators to detect unanticipated events. Just a few studies, however, unveiled the positive effect of the EID display on human performance using a full scoped simulator. In this study, to investigate whether an EID improves operators’ situational awareness, we developed an EID prototype for nuclear power operations and a partial scoped dynamic mockup to validate the effectiveness of the EID prototype. Three experienced operators were involved as subjects in our study and they were fully well trained for using the EID prototype. We compared two types of situations in terms of situation awareness. One is mimic based information display and the other is a mimic plus EID based information display. The result of our study revealed that a mimic plus EID based information display is more effective than a mimic based information display in terms of situation awareness. This study is significant in that the EID as an emerging technology is adoptable to a digitalized control room in an aspect of improving operators’ situation awareness.

Data-Centric Situational Awareness and Management in Intelligent Power Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Xiaoxiao

The rapid development of technology and society has made the current power system a much more complicated system than ever. The request for big data based situation awareness and management becomes urgent today. In this dissertation, to respond to the grand challenge, two data-centric power system situation awareness and management approaches are proposed to address the security problems in the transmission/distribution grids and social benefits augmentation problem at the distribution-customer lever, respectively. To address the security problem in the transmission/distribution grids utilizing big data, the first approach provides a fault analysis solution based on characterization and analytics of the synchrophasor measurements. Specically, the optimal synchrophasor measurement devices selection algorithm (OSMDSA) and matching pursuit decomposition (MPD) based spatial-temporal synchrophasor data characterization method was developed to reduce data volume while preserving comprehensive information for the big data analyses. And the weighted Granger causality (WGC) method was investigated to conduct fault impact causal analysis during system disturbance for fault localization. Numerical results and comparison with other methods demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of this analytic approach. As more social effects are becoming important considerations in power system management, the goal of situation awareness should be expanded to also include achievements in social benefits. The second approach investigates the concept and application of social energy upon the University of Denver campus grid to provide management improvement solutions for optimizing social cost. Social element--human working productivity cost, and economic element--electricity consumption cost, are both considered in the evaluation of overall social cost. Moreover, power system simulation, numerical experiments for smart building modeling, distribution level real-time pricing and social

Cognitive Task Analysis Based Training for Cyber Situation Awareness

OpenAIRE

Huang , Zequn; Shen , Chien-Chung; Doshi , Sheetal; Thomas , Nimmi; Duong , Ha

2015-01-01

Part 1: Innovative Methods; International audience; Cyber attacks have been increasing significantly in both number and complexity, prompting the need for better training of cyber defense analysts. To conduct effective training for cyber situation awareness, it becomes essential to design realistic training scenarios. In this paper, we present a Cognitive Task Analysis based approach to address this training need. The technique of Cognitive Task Analysis is to capture and represent knowledge ...

A Review of Quantitative Situation Assessment Models for Nuclear Power Plant Operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Hyun Chul; Seong, Poong Hyun

2009-01-01

Situation assessment is the process of developing situation awareness and situation awareness is defined as 'the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future.' Situation awareness is an important element influencing human actions because human decision making is based on the result of situation assessment or situation awareness. There are many models for situation awareness and those models can be categorized into qualitative or quantitative. As the effects of some input factors on situation awareness can be investigated through the quantitative models, the quantitative models are more useful for the design of operator interfaces, automation strategies, training program, and so on, than the qualitative models. This study presents the review of two quantitative models of situation assessment (SA) for nuclear power plant operators

Introduction: Situation Awareness, Systems of Systems, and Maritime Safety and Security

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tretmans, G.J.; Laar, P.J.L.J. van de

2013-01-01

This book presents and discusses various challenges and solutions for developing systems-of-systems for attaining situation awareness, with applications in the domain of maritime safety and security. This chapter introduces the book, describes the Dutch research project Poseidon from which it

Improving situation awareness with the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK)

Science.gov (United States)

Usbeck, Kyle; Gillen, Matthew; Loyall, Joseph; Gronosky, Andrew; Sterling, Joshua; Kohler, Ralph; Hanlon, Kelly; Scally, Andrew; Newkirk, Richard; Canestrare, David

2015-05-01

To make appropriate, timely decisions in the field, Situational Awareness (SA) needs to be conveyed in a decentralized manner to the users at the edge of the network as well as at operations centers. Sharing real-time SA efficiently between command centers and operational troops poses many challenges, including handling heterogeneous and dynamic networks, resource constraints, and varying needs for the collection, dissemination, and display of information, as well as recording that information. A mapping application that allows teams to share relevant geospatial information efficiently and to communicate effectively with one another and command centers has wide applicability to many vertical markets across the Department of Defense, as well as a wide variety of federal, state local, and non-profit agencies that need to share locations, text, photos, and video. This paper describes the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK), an advanced, distributed tool for commercial- off-the-shelf (COTS) mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. ATAK provides a variety of useful SA functions for soldiers, law enforcement, homeland defense, and civilian collaborative use; including mapping and navigation, range and bearing, text chat, force tracking, geospatial markup tools, image and file sharing, video playback, site surveys, and many others. This paper describes ATAK, the SA tools that ATAK has built-in, and the ways it is being used by a variety of military, homeland security, and law enforcement users.

Ego-location and situational awareness in semistructured environments

Science.gov (United States)

Goodsell, Thomas G.; Snorrason, Magnus S.; Stevens, Mark R.; Stube, Brian; McBride, Jonah

2003-09-01

The success of any potential application for mobile robots depends largely on the specific environment where the application takes place. Practical applications are rarely found in highly structured environments, but unstructured environments (such as natural terrain) pose major challenges to any mobile robot. We believe that semi-structured environments-such as parking lots-provide a good opportunity for successful mobile robot applications. Parking lots tend to be flat and smooth, and cars can be uniquely identified by their license plates. Our scenario is a parking lot where only known vehicles are supposed to park. The robot looks for vehicles that do not belong in the parking lot. It checks both license plates and vehicle types, in case the plate is stolen from an approved vehicle. It operates autonomously, but reports back to a guard who verifies its performance. Our interest is in developing the robot's vision system, which we call Scene Estimation & Situational Awareness Mapping Engine (SESAME). In this paper, we present initial results from the development of two SESAME subsystems, the ego-location and license plate detection systems. While their ultimate goals are obviously quite different, our design demonstrates that by sharing intermediate results, both tasks can be significantly simplified. The inspiration for this design approach comes from the basic tenets of Situational Awareness (SA), where the benefits of holistic perception are clearly demonstrated over the more typical designs that attempt to solve each sensing/perception problem in isolation.

A Closed-Loop Model of Operator Visual Attention, Situation Awareness, and Performance Across Automation Mode Transitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Aaron W; Duda, Kevin R; Sheridan, Thomas B; Oman, Charles M

2017-03-01

This article describes a closed-loop, integrated human-vehicle model designed to help understand the underlying cognitive processes that influenced changes in subject visual attention, mental workload, and situation awareness across control mode transitions in a simulated human-in-the-loop lunar landing experiment. Control mode transitions from autopilot to manual flight may cause total attentional demands to exceed operator capacity. Attentional resources must be reallocated and reprioritized, which can increase the average uncertainty in the operator's estimates of low-priority system states. We define this increase in uncertainty as a reduction in situation awareness. We present a model built upon the optimal control model for state estimation, the crossover model for manual control, and the SEEV (salience, effort, expectancy, value) model for visual attention. We modify the SEEV attention executive to direct visual attention based, in part, on the uncertainty in the operator's estimates of system states. The model was validated using the simulated lunar landing experimental data, demonstrating an average difference in the percentage of attention ≤3.6% for all simulator instruments. The model's predictions of mental workload and situation awareness, measured by task performance and system state uncertainty, also mimicked the experimental data. Our model supports the hypothesis that visual attention is influenced by the uncertainty in system state estimates. Conceptualizing situation awareness around the metric of system state uncertainty is a valuable way for system designers to understand and predict how reallocations in the operator's visual attention during control mode transitions can produce reallocations in situation awareness of certain states.

Using Twitter and other social media platforms to provide situational awareness during an incident.

Science.gov (United States)

Tobias, Ed

2011-10-01

The recent use of social media by protesters in Iran, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere has focused new attention on this communications medium. Government agencies and businesses, as well, are using social media to push information to their stakeholders. Those who are on the front lines of this information revolution, however, realise that social media is most effective when the communication is two-way. Unlike other media, social media allows information sharing. This, in turn, provides emergency managers with new situational-awareness resources when trying to mitigate an incident. As Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate told Information Week on January 19th, 2011: 'We can adjust much quicker if we can figure out how to have (a) two-way conversation and if we can look at the public as a resource. The public is putting out better situational awareness than many of our own agencies can.' This paper provides examples of how social media can be used as a situational-awareness resource and specific 'tools' that can be used to assist with this task.

A safety-critical decision support system evaluation using situation awareness and workload measures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naderpour, Mohsen; Lu, Jie; Zhang, Guangquan

2016-01-01

To ensure the safety of operations in safety-critical systems, it is necessary to maintain operators' situation awareness (SA) at a high level. A situation awareness support system (SASS) has therefore been developed to handle uncertain situations [1]. This paper aims to systematically evaluate the enhancement of SA in SASS by applying a multi-perspective approach. The approach consists of two SA metrics, SAGAT and SART, and one workload metric, NASA-TLX. The first two metrics are used for the direct objective and subjective measurement of SA, while the third is used to estimate operator workload. The approach is applied in a safety-critical environment called residue treater, located at a chemical plant in which a poor human-system interface reduced the operator's SA and caused one of the worst accidents in US history. A counterbalanced within-subjects experiment is performed using a virtual environment interface with and without the support of SASS. The results indicate that SASS improves operators' SA, and specifically has benefits for SA levels 2 and 3. In addition, it is concluded that SASS reduces operator workload, although further investigations in different environments with a larger number of participants have been suggested. - Highlights: • The suitability of a cognitive decision support system is investigated. • An evaluation approach considering situation awareness and workload measures is proposed. • A computerized system based on the proposed approach is implemented. • The implemented system is used in a safety-critical environment.

From situation modelling to a distributed rule-based platform for situation awareness : an ontological framework for disaster management applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moreira, João

2015-01-01

Situation-aware (SA) applications are particularly useful for disaster management. The complex nature of emergency scenarios presents challenges to the development of collaborative and distributed SA solutions. These challenges concern the whole lifecycle, from specification to implementation

Development of a Self-Rating instrument to Measure Team Situation Awareness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schraagen, J.M.C.; Koning, L. de; Hof, T.; Dongen, K. van

2010-01-01

The goal of this paper is to describe the development of an instrument to measure team situation awareness (TSA). Individual team member SA may or may not be shared through communication processes with other team members. Most existing instruments do not measure these processes but measure TSA as a

Increased situation awareness in major incidents-radio frequency identification (RFID) technique: a promising tool.

Science.gov (United States)

Jokela, Jorma; Rådestad, Monica; Gryth, Dan; Nilsson, Helené; Rüter, Anders; Svensson, Leif; Harkke, Ville; Luoto, Markku; Castrén, Maaret

2012-02-01

In mass-casualty situations, communications and information management to improve situational awareness is a major challenge for responders. In this study, the feasibility of a prototype system that utilizes commercially available, low-cost components, including Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and mobile phone technology, was tested in two simulated mass-casualty incidents. The feasibility and the direct benefits of the system were evaluated in two simulated mass-casualty situations: one in Finland involving a passenger ship accident resulting in multiple drowning/hypothermia patients, and another at a major airport in Sweden using an aircraft crash scenario. Both simulations involved multiple agencies and functioned as test settings for comparing the disaster management's situational awareness with and without using the RFID-based system. Triage documentation was done using both an RFID-based system, which automatically sent the data to the Medical Command, and a traditional method using paper triage tags. The situational awareness was measured by comparing the availability of up-to date information at different points in the care chain using both systems. Information regarding the numbers and status or triage classification of the casualties was available approximately one hour earlier using the RFID system compared to the data obtained using the traditional method. The tested prototype system was quick, stable, and easy to use, and proved to work seamlessly even in harsh field conditions. It surpassed the paper-based system in all respects except simplicity of use. It also improved the general view of the mass-casualty situations, and enhanced medical emergency readiness in a multi-organizational medical setting. The tested technology is feasible in a mass-casualty incident; further development and testing should take place.

Maritime Situational Awareness: The MARISS Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Margarit, G.; Tabasco, A.; Gomez, C.

2010-04-01

This paper presents the operational solution developed by GMV to provide support to maritime situational awareness via Earth Observation (EO) technologies. The concept falls on integrating the information retrieved from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images and transponder-based polls (AIS and similar) in an advanced GeoPortal web. The service has been designed in the framework of the MARISS project, a project conceived to help improving ship monitoring with the support of a large user segment. In this context, the interaction with official agencies has provided good feedback about system performance and its usefulness in supporting monitoring and surveillance tasks. Some representative samples are analyzed along the paper in order to validate key kernel utilities, such as ship and coastline detection, and ship classification. They justify the promotion of extended R&D activities to increase monitoring performance and to include advanced added- value tools, such as decision making and route tracking.

Assessing mental workload and situation awareness in the evaluation of computerized procedures in the main control room

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Chih-Wei, E-mail: yangcw@iner.gov.tw [Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, 1000, Wenhua Rd., Jiaan Village, Longtan Township, Taoyuan County 32546, Taiwan (China); Yang, Li-Chen; Cheng, Tsung-Chieh [Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, 1000, Wenhua Rd., Jiaan Village, Longtan Township, Taoyuan County 32546, Taiwan (China); Jou, Yung-Tsan; Chiou, Shian-Wei [Department of Industrial Engineering, Chung-Yuan Christian University, 200, Chung Pei Rd., Chung-Li 32023, Taiwan (China)

2012-09-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This study investigates procedure types' effects on operators' performance. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The computer-based procedure is suggested to be implemented in the main control room. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The computer-based procedure brings lowest mental workload. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer And it also generates fewer error of omission, and the highest situation awareness. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The shift supervisor has the highest workload and the lowest situation awareness. - Abstract: Computerized procedure (CP) system has been developed in nuclear power plant (NPP) instrumentation and control (I and C) system. The system may include normal operating procedures (OPs), abnormal operating procedures (AOPs), alarm response procedures (ARPs), surveillance test procedures (STPs) and/or emergency operating procedures (EOPs). While there are many ways to evaluate computerized procedures design, the user's mental workload and situation awareness (SA) are particularly important considerations in the supervisory control of safety-critical systems. Users' mental workload and situation awareness may be influenced by human factor issues relating to computerized procedures, e.g., level of automation, dealing with (partially) unavailable I and C, switching to back-up system (e.g., paper-based procedures). Some of the positive impacts of CPs on operator performance include the following: tasks can be performed more quickly; overall workload can be reduced; cognitive workload can be minimized; fewer errors may be made in transitioning through or between procedures. However, various challenges have also been identified with CP systems. These should be addressed in the design and implementation of CPs where they are applicable. For example, narrower 'field of view' provided by CP systems than with paper-based procedures could reduce crew communications and crewmember awareness of the

Assessing mental workload and situation awareness in the evaluation of computerized procedures in the main control room

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Chih-Wei; Yang, Li-Chen; Cheng, Tsung-Chieh; Jou, Yung-Tsan; Chiou, Shian-Wei

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► This study investigates procedure types’ effects on operators’ performance. ► The computer-based procedure is suggested to be implemented in the main control room. ► The computer-based procedure brings lowest mental workload. ► And it also generates fewer error of omission, and the highest situation awareness. ► The shift supervisor has the highest workload and the lowest situation awareness. - Abstract: Computerized procedure (CP) system has been developed in nuclear power plant (NPP) instrumentation and control (I and C) system. The system may include normal operating procedures (OPs), abnormal operating procedures (AOPs), alarm response procedures (ARPs), surveillance test procedures (STPs) and/or emergency operating procedures (EOPs). While there are many ways to evaluate computerized procedures design, the user's mental workload and situation awareness (SA) are particularly important considerations in the supervisory control of safety-critical systems. Users’ mental workload and situation awareness may be influenced by human factor issues relating to computerized procedures, e.g., level of automation, dealing with (partially) unavailable I and C, switching to back-up system (e.g., paper-based procedures). Some of the positive impacts of CPs on operator performance include the following: tasks can be performed more quickly; overall workload can be reduced; cognitive workload can be minimized; fewer errors may be made in transitioning through or between procedures. However, various challenges have also been identified with CP systems. These should be addressed in the design and implementation of CPs where they are applicable. For example, narrower “field of view” provided by CP systems than with paper-based procedures could reduce crew communications and crewmember awareness of the status and progress through the procedure. Based on a human factors experiment in which each participant monitored and controlled multiple simulated

A structured approach to increase situational awareness in low voltage distribution grids

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Helmholt, K.A.; Groote Schaarsberg, M.; Broersma, T.; Morren, J.; Kruizinga, B.; Wouters, P.A.A.F.; Steennis, E.F.; Baldinger, F.

2015-01-01

Wear and tear, electrification and aging of (low voltage) distribution grids require maintenance in order to assure continuous provision of electricity. Situational awareness is required to find out when parts of the grid need maintenance and which parts should be prioritized. The paper proposes a

Procedure automation: the effect of automated procedure execution on situation awareness and human performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andresen, Gisle; Svengren, Haakan; Heimdal, Jan O.; Nilsen, Svein; Hulsund, John-Einar; Bisio, Rossella; Debroise, Xavier

2004-04-01

As advised by the procedure workshop convened in Halden in 2000, the Halden Project conducted an experiment on the effect of automation of Computerised Procedure Systems (CPS) on situation awareness and human performance. The expected outcome of the study was to provide input for guidance on CPS design, and to support the Halden Project's ongoing research on human reliability analysis. The experiment was performed in HAMMLAB using the HAMBO BWR simulator and the COPMA-III CPS. Eight crews of operators from Forsmark 3 and Oskarshamn 3 participated. Three research questions were investigated: 1) Does procedure automation create Out-Of-The-Loop (OOTL) performance problems? 2) Does procedure automation affect situation awareness? 3) Does procedure automation affect crew performance? The independent variable, 'procedure configuration', had four levels: paper procedures, manual CPS, automation with breaks, and full automation. The results showed that the operators experienced OOTL problems in full automation, but that situation awareness and crew performance (response time) were not affected. One possible explanation for this is that the operators monitored the automated procedure execution conscientiously, something which may have prevented the OOTL problems from having negative effects on situation awareness and crew performance. In a debriefing session, the operators clearly expressed their dislike for the full automation condition, but that automation with breaks could be suitable for some tasks. The main reason why the operators did not like the full automation was that they did not feel being in control. A qualitative analysis addressing factors contributing to response time delays revealed that OOTL problems did not seem to cause delays, but that some delays could be explained by the operators having problems with the freeze function of the CPS. Also other factors such as teamwork and operator tendencies were of importance. Several design implications were drawn

Situational awareness for unmanned ground vehicles in semi-structured environments

Science.gov (United States)

Goodsell, Thomas G.; Snorrason, Magnus; Stevens, Mark R.

2002-07-01

Situational Awareness (SA) is a critical component of effective autonomous vehicles, reducing operator workload and allowing an operator to command multiple vehicles or simultaneously perform other tasks. Our Scene Estimation & Situational Awareness Mapping Engine (SESAME) provides SA for mobile robots in semi-structured scenes, such as parking lots and city streets. SESAME autonomously builds volumetric models for scene analysis. For example, a SES-AME equipped robot can build a low-resolution 3-D model of a row of cars, then approach a specific car and build a high-resolution model from a few stereo snapshots. The model can be used onboard to determine the type of car and locate its license plate, or the model can be segmented out and sent back to an operator who can view it from different viewpoints. As new views of the scene are obtained, the model is updated and changes are tracked (such as cars arriving or departing). Since the robot's position must be accurately known, SESAME also has automated techniques for deter-mining the position and orientation of the camera (and hence, robot) with respect to existing maps. This paper presents an overview of the SESAME architecture and algorithms, including our model generation algorithm.

Investigating the Effect of Situational Awareness on Persistence of Doctoral Distance Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Harleman, Thomas G.

2013-01-01

This quantitative study sought to identify the effect of heightened situational awareness (SA) on persistence of doctoral distance learners. Factors in the distance learners' micro-environment, vis-à-vis Urie Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecology theory of human development, were the focus. Study participants included new doctoral candidates continuing…

Future of dual-use space awareness technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Kislitsyn, Boris V.; Idell, Paul S.; Crawford, Linda L.

2000-10-01

The use of all classes of space systems, whether owned by defense, civil, commercial, scientific, allied or foreign organizations, is increasing rapidly. In turn, the surveillance of such systems and activities in space are of interest to all parties. Interests will only increase in time and with the new ways to exploit the space environment. However, the current space awareness infrastructure and capabilities are not maintaining pace with the demands and advanced technologies being brought online. The use of surveillance technologies, some of which will be discussed in the conference, will provide us the eventual capability to observe and assess the environment, satellite health and status, and the uses of assets on orbit. This provides us a space awareness that is critical to the military operator and to the commercial entrepreneur for their respective successes. Thus the term 'dual-use technologies' has become a reality. For this reason we will briefly examine the background, current, and future technology trends that can lead us to some insights for future products and services.

Catalogue Creation for Space Situational Awareness with Optical Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Hobson, T.; Clarkson, I.; Bessell, T.; Rutten, M.; Gordon, N.; Moretti, N.; Morreale, B.

2016-09-01

In order to safeguard the continued use of space-based technologies, effective monitoring and tracking of man-made resident space objects (RSOs) is paramount. The diverse characteristics, behaviours and trajectories of RSOs make space surveillance a challenging application of the discipline that is tracking and surveillance. When surveillance systems are faced with non-canonical scenarios, it is common for human operators to intervene while researchers adapt and extend traditional tracking techniques in search of a solution. A complementary strategy for improving the robustness of space surveillance systems is to place greater emphasis on the anticipation of uncertainty. Namely, give the system the intelligence necessary to autonomously react to unforeseen events and to intelligently and appropriately act on tenuous information rather than discard it. In this paper we build from our 2015 campaign and describe the progression of a low-cost intelligent space surveillance system capable of autonomously cataloguing and maintaining track of RSOs. It currently exploits robotic electro-optical sensors, high-fidelity state-estimation and propagation as well as constrained initial orbit determination (IOD) to intelligently and adaptively manage its sensors in order to maintain an accurate catalogue of RSOs. In a step towards fully autonomous cataloguing, the system has been tasked with maintaining surveillance of a portion of the geosynchronous (GEO) belt. Using a combination of survey and track-refinement modes, the system is capable of maintaining a track of known RSOs and initiating tracks on previously unknown objects. Uniquely, due to the use of high-fidelity representations of a target's state uncertainty, as few as two images of previously unknown RSOs may be used to subsequently initiate autonomous search and reacquisition. To achieve this capability, particularly within the congested environment of the GEO-belt, we use a constrained admissible region (CAR) to

Measuring situation awareness in complex systems: Comparison of measures study

OpenAIRE

Salmon, PM; Stanton, NA; Walker, GH; Jenkins, DP; Ladva, D; Rafferty, L; Young, MS

2008-01-01

Situation Awareness (SA) is a distinct critical commodity for teams working in complex industrial systems and its measurement is a key provision in system, procedural and training design efforts. This article describes a study that was undertaken in order to compare three different SA measures (a freeze probe recall approach, a post trial subjective rating approach and a critical incident interview technique) when used to assess participant SA during a military planning task. The results indi...

Prototyping of a Situation Awareness System in the Maritime Surveillance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Handayani, D O D; Shah, A; Sediono, W

2013-01-01

This paper discusses about the design of a Situation Awareness (SA) system to support vessel crews and control room operators in improving the decision making process. The architecture of the system is ontology based. The vessel crews and control room operators may face a loss of SA. They may have limited cognitive abilities which make it difficult to make a decision in a high stress level, short time availability and continuously evolving situation with incomplete information. In this work, we describe the application of Semantic Web Rule Language to represent corresponding knowledge in the maritime surveillance domain. The result of this research will demonstrate that an ontology based system can be used to remodel the information into a meaningful and valuable form to predict the future states of SA and improve the decision making process

Energy-efficient and safe driving using a situation-aware gamification approach in logistics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland; Kravcik, Milos; Bohuschke, Felix

2013-01-01

Klemke, R., Kravčík, M., & Bohuschke, F. (2013, 23-25 October). Energy-efficient and safe driving using a situation-aware gamification approach in logistics. Presentation at the Games and Learning Alliance Conference (GALAConf 2013), Paris, France. http://www.galaconf.org/

Using corporate governance to enhance 'long-term situation awareness' and assist in the avoidance of organisation-induced disasters.

Science.gov (United States)

Siemieniuch, C E; Sinclair, M A

2008-03-01

This paper considers the issue of how corporate governance can and should deal with the long-term understanding of systems health-what we may call 'long-term situation awareness' (i.e. which evolves and is coherent over time) for organisational systems (and their component sub systems) in the engineering domain. Many characteristics affect long-term situation awareness-the rate of change to processes, pressures for greater efficiency from existing resources, changes in personnel, cultural changes and changes to the operational environment of the organisational systems. Many disasters (e.g. Chernobyl, Flixborough, Piper Alpha) have a causal path that indicates a loss of group situation awareness, over a long period of time. The problem of the gradual, slow drift over many years towards unsafe conduct of company operations is discussed and examples of possible consequences provided. A 'parable' from the world of manufacturing is used to exemplify the problem. The paper goes on to discuss some ways by which this problem could be addressed and longer-term system situational awareness increased; essentially by good corporate governance, knowledge management and ownership of processes. Links are made to the literature on these topics, and a route map to help organisations to gain the benefits is offered.

Situational Awareness of Network System Roles (SANSR)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huffer, Kelly M [ORNL; Reed, Joel W [ORNL

2017-01-01

In a large enterprise it is difficult for cyber security analysts to know what services and roles every machine on the network is performing (e.g., file server, domain name server, email server). Using network flow data, already collected by most enterprises, we developed a proof-of-concept tool that discovers the roles of a system using both clustering and categorization techniques. The tool's role information would allow cyber analysts to detect consequential changes in the network, initiate incident response plans, and optimize their security posture. The results of this proof-of-concept tool proved to be quite accurate on three real data sets. We will present the algorithms used in the tool, describe the results of preliminary testing, provide visualizations of the results, and discuss areas for future work. Without this kind of situational awareness, cyber analysts cannot quickly diagnose an attack or prioritize remedial actions.

Awareness-based game-theoretic space resource management

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Genshe; Chen, Huimin; Pham, Khanh; Blasch, Erik; Cruz, Jose B., Jr.

2009-05-01

Over recent decades, the space environment becomes more complex with a significant increase in space debris and a greater density of spacecraft, which poses great difficulties to efficient and reliable space operations. In this paper we present a Hierarchical Sensor Management (HSM) method to space operations by (a) accommodating awareness modeling and updating and (b) collaborative search and tracking space objects. The basic approach is described as follows. Firstly, partition the relevant region of interest into district cells. Second, initialize and model the dynamics of each cell with awareness and object covariance according to prior information. Secondly, explicitly assign sensing resources to objects with user specified requirements. Note that when an object has intelligent response to the sensing event, the sensor assigned to observe an intelligent object may switch from time-to-time between a strong, active signal mode and a passive mode to maximize the total amount of information to be obtained over a multi-step time horizon and avoid risks. Thirdly, if all explicitly specified requirements are satisfied and there are still more sensing resources available, we assign the additional sensing resources to objects without explicitly specified requirements via an information based approach. Finally, sensor scheduling is applied to each sensor-object or sensor-cell pair according to the object type. We demonstrate our method with realistic space resources management scenario using NASA's General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) for space object search and track with multiple space borne observers.

Coalition Warfare Program Tactile Situation Awareness System for Aviation Applications: Simulator Flight Test

Science.gov (United States)

2015-12-01

David Myers1 Timothy Gowen2 Angus Rupert3 Ben Lawson3 Justin Dailey3,4 1Chesapeake Technology International 2Naval Aviation Center for... Angus Rupert of the USAARL. The algorithm is described in “Configuration Parameters for the Tactile Situation Awareness System (TSAS)” dated July 2010

INL Control System Situational Awareness Technology Final Report 2013

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gordon Rueff; Bryce Wheeler; Todd Vollmer; Tim McJunkin

2013-01-01

The Situational Awareness project is a comprehensive undertaking of Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in an effort to produce technologies capable of defending the country’s energy sector infrastructure from cyber attack. INL has addressed this challenge through research and development of an interoperable suite of tools that safeguard critical energy sector infrastructure. The technologies in this project include the Sophia Tool, Mesh Mapper (MM) Tool, Intelligent Cyber Sensor (ICS) Tool, and Data Fusion Tool (DFT). Each is designed to function effectively on its own, or they can be integrated in a variety of customized configurations based on the end user’s risk profile and security needs.

Load Situation Awareness Design for Integration in Multi-Energy System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cai, Hanmin; You, Shi; Bindner, Henrik W.

2017-01-01

Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) have been penetrating in power system at a staggering pace in recent years. Their intermittent nature is, however, posing great threat to system operation. Recently, active load management has been suggested as a tool to counteract these side effects. In multi......-energy system, thermal load management will benefit not only electric network but also district heating network. Electric heater will be the main focus of this paper as a common thermal load. A situation awareness framework for its integration into electric and district heating network will be proposed...

Green Open Space: Awareness for Health or Sustainability?

Science.gov (United States)

Dewi, O. C.; Chairunnisa, I.; Hidayat, T.; Anggraini, M.; Napitupulu, A.

2018-03-01

Universitas Indonesia in cooperation with American Red Cross and Indonesian Red Cross have been assisting green open space revitalisation program in 7 locations in Bogor Regency (2016-2017). The program was held under The Urban Disaster Risk Reduction Greater Jakarta Project; an initiative program from American Red Cross Indonesia. This project was not only improving the existing green open space quality, but also creating one adapted from public land. The revitalization project figures what happened on daily basis on the existing land, proposing new programming facilities, community-based construction, monitoring and handing over. This paper discovers the meaning of a green space for the community, whether the community aware of its benefit on human health or environmental sustainability. The research question is does the community aware of green open space benefit for human health or environmental sustainability? Or both? The original data from the community was gathered and grouped based on its relevance with environmental quality and public health.

Effects of Visual, Auditory, and Tactile Navigation Cues on Navigation Performance, Situation Awareness, and Mental Workload

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Davis, Bradley M

2007-01-01

.... Results from both experiments indicate that augmented visual displays reduced time to complete navigation, maintained situation awareness, and drastically reduced mental workload in comparison...

A collaborative game to study presence and situational awareness in a physical and an augmented reality environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Datcu, D.; Lukosch, S.G.; Lukosch, H.K.

2016-01-01

While augmented reality research has grown into a mature field over the last years, the aspects of situational awareness and presence of augmented reality (AR) are still quite open research topics. This paper introduces a collaborative game to explore the different perception of situational

External factors impacting hospital evacuations caused by Hurricane Rita: the role of situational awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Downey, Erin L; Andress, Knox; Schultz, Carl H

2013-06-01

The 2005 Gulf Coast hurricane season was one of the most costly and deadly in US history. Hurricane Rita stressed hospitals and led to multiple, simultaneous evacuations. This study systematically identified community factors associated with patient movement out of seven hospitals evacuated during Hurricane Rita. This study represents the second of two systematic, observational, and retrospective investigations of seven acute care hospitals that reported off-site evacuations due to Hurricane Rita. Participants from each hospital included decision makers that comprised the Incident Management Team (IMT). Investigators applied a standardized interview process designed to assess evacuation factors related to external situational awareness of community activities during facility evacuation due to hurricanes. The measured outcomes were responses to 95 questions within six sections of the survey instrument. Investigators identified two factors that significantly impacted hospital IMT decision making: (1) incident characteristics affecting a facility's internal resources and challenges; and (2) incident characteristics affecting a facility's external evacuation activities. This article summarizes the latter and reports the following critical decision making points: (1) Emergency Operations Plans (EOP) were activated an average of 85 hours (3 days, 13 hours) prior to Hurricane Rita's landfall; (2) the decision to evacuate the hospital was made an average of 30 hours (1 day, 6 hours) from activation of the EOP; and (3) the implementation of the evacuation process took an average of 22 hours. Coordination of patient evacuations was most complicated by transportation deficits (the most significant of the 11 identified problem areas) and a lack of situational awareness of community response activities. All evacuation activities and subsequent evacuation times were negatively impacted by an overall lack of understanding on the part of hospital staff and the IMT regarding how to

Development of staffing evaluation principle for advanced main control room and the effect on situation awareness and mental workload

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Chiuhsiang Joe; Hsieh, Tsung-Ling; Lin, Shiau-Feng

2013-01-01

Highlights: • A staffing evaluation principle was developed for the advanced main control room. • The principle proposed to improve situation awareness and mental workload. • The principle has good validity that was examined by experimental design. - Abstract: Situation awareness and mental workload, both of which influence operator performance in the advanced main control room of a nuclear power plant, can be affected by staffing level. The key goal of staffing is to ensure the proper number of personnel to support plant operations and events. If the staffing level is not adaptive, the operators may have low situation awareness and an excessive mental workload, which lead to human error. Accordingly, this study developed a staffing evaluation principle based on CPM-GOMS modeling for operations in the advanced main control room. A within-subject experiment was designed to examine the validity of the staffing evaluation principle. The results indicated that the situation awareness, mental workload, and operating performance of the staffing level determined by the staffing evaluation principle was significantly better than that of the non-evaluated staffing level; thus, the validity of the staffing evaluation technique is acceptable. The implications of the findings of this study on managerial practice are discussed

Development of staffing evaluation principle for advanced main control room and the effect on situation awareness and mental workload

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lin, Chiuhsiang Joe, E-mail: cjoelin@mail.ntust.edu.tw [Department of Industrial Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43, Section 4, Keelung Road, Taipei 10607, Taiwan (China); Hsieh, Tsung-Ling, E-mail: bm1129@gmail.com [Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, 1000, Wenhua Road, Chiaan Village, Lungtan 32546, Taiwan (China); Lin, Shiau-Feng, E-mail: g9602411@cycu.edu.tw [Department of Industrial Engineering, Chung-Yuan Christian University, 200, Chung Pei Road, Chung-Li 32023, Taiwan (China)

2013-12-15

Highlights: • A staffing evaluation principle was developed for the advanced main control room. • The principle proposed to improve situation awareness and mental workload. • The principle has good validity that was examined by experimental design. - Abstract: Situation awareness and mental workload, both of which influence operator performance in the advanced main control room of a nuclear power plant, can be affected by staffing level. The key goal of staffing is to ensure the proper number of personnel to support plant operations and events. If the staffing level is not adaptive, the operators may have low situation awareness and an excessive mental workload, which lead to human error. Accordingly, this study developed a staffing evaluation principle based on CPM-GOMS modeling for operations in the advanced main control room. A within-subject experiment was designed to examine the validity of the staffing evaluation principle. The results indicated that the situation awareness, mental workload, and operating performance of the staffing level determined by the staffing evaluation principle was significantly better than that of the non-evaluated staffing level; thus, the validity of the staffing evaluation technique is acceptable. The implications of the findings of this study on managerial practice are discussed.

Measuring situation awareness of operation teams in NPPs using a verbal protocol analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Woo; Park, Jinkyun; Kim, Ar ryum; Seong, Poong Hyun

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► A method for measuring team situation awareness is developed. ► Verbal protocol analysis is adopted in this method. ► This method resolves uncertainties from conventional methods. ► This method can be used in evaluating the human–system interfaces. - Abstract: Situation awareness (SA) continues to receive a considerable amount of attention from the ergonomics community given that need for operators to maintain SA is frequently cited as a key to effective and efficient performance. Although complex and dynamic environments such as that of a main control room (MCR) in a nuclear power plant (NPP) are operated by operation teams, and while team situation awareness (TSA) is also cited as an important factor, research is limited to individual SA. However, understanding TSA can provide a window onto the characteristics of team acquisition as well as the performance of a complex skill. Therefore, such knowledge can be valuable in diagnosing team performance successes and failures. Moreover, training and design interventions can target the cognitive underpinnings of team performance, with implications for the design of technological aids to improve team performance. Despite these advantages and the importance of understanding TSA, measures and methods targeting TSA are sparse and fail to address it properly. In this study, an objective TSA measurement method is developed in an effort to understand TSA. First, key considerations for developing a method are derived. Based on these considerations, the proposed method is developed while mainly focusing on the creation of logical connections between team communications and TSA. A speech act coding scheme is also implemented to analyze team communications. The TSA measurement method developed in this study provides a measure for each level of TSA. It was revealed from a preliminary study that this TSA measurement method is feasible for measuring TSA to a fair extent. Useful insight into TSA is also derived.

Publicly Available Geosynchronous (GEO) Space Object Catalog for Future Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Koblick, D. C.; Shankar, P.; Xu, S.

Previously, there have been many commercial proposals and extensive academic studies regarding ground and space based sensors to assist a space surveillance network in obtaining metric observations of satellites and debris near Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). Most use physics based models for geometric constraints, lighting, and tasker/scheduler operations of sensor architectures. Under similar physics modeling assumptions, the space object catalog is often different due to proprietary standards and datasets. Lack of catalog commonality between studies creates barriers and difficulty comparing performance benefits of sensor trades. To solve this problem, we have constructed a future GEO space catalog from publicly available datasets and literature. The annual number of new payloads and rocket bodies is drawn from a Poisson distribution while the growth of the current GEO catalog is bootstrapped from the historical payload, upper stage, and debris data. We adopt a spherically symmetric explosion model and couple it with the NASA standard breakup model to simulate explosions of payloads and rocket bodies as they are the primary drivers of the debris population growth. The cumulative number of fragments follow a power-law distribution. Result from 1,000 random catalog growth simulations indicates that the GEO space object population in the year 2050 will include over 3,600 objects, nearly half of which are debris greater than 10 cm spherical diameter. The number of rocket bodies and dead payloads is projected to nearly double over the next 33 years. For comparison, the current Air Force Space Command catalog snapshot contains fewer than 50 pieces of debris and coarse Radar Cross Section (RCS) estimates which include: small, medium, and large. The current catalog may be sufficient for conjunction studies, but not for analyzing future sensor system performance. The 2050 GEO projected catalog will be available online for commercial/academic research and development.

A Markov game theoretic data fusion approach for cyber situational awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Dan; Chen, Genshe; Cruz, Jose B., Jr.; Haynes, Leonard; Kruger, Martin; Blasch, Erik

2007-04-01

This paper proposes an innovative data-fusion/ data-mining game theoretic situation awareness and impact assessment approach for cyber network defense. Alerts generated by Intrusion Detection Sensors (IDSs) or Intrusion Prevention Sensors (IPSs) are fed into the data refinement (Level 0) and object assessment (L1) data fusion components. High-level situation/threat assessment (L2/L3) data fusion based on Markov game model and Hierarchical Entity Aggregation (HEA) are proposed to refine the primitive prediction generated by adaptive feature/pattern recognition and capture new unknown features. A Markov (Stochastic) game method is used to estimate the belief of each possible cyber attack pattern. Game theory captures the nature of cyber conflicts: determination of the attacking-force strategies is tightly coupled to determination of the defense-force strategies and vice versa. Also, Markov game theory deals with uncertainty and incompleteness of available information. A software tool is developed to demonstrate the performance of the high level information fusion for cyber network defense situation and a simulation example shows the enhanced understating of cyber-network defense.

Mental Workload and Situational Awareness Evaluation of APR1400 Engineered Safety Features- Component Control Activation Systems using Augmented Reality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murungi, Mwongeera; Jung, JaeCheon

2016-01-01

In the study, an Augmented Reality procedure guidance support system concept was designed and used as a tool for the measurement of mental workload and Situational awareness of an SRO (Senior Reactor Operator). The EOP was chosen as the scenario for testing because it is the one of the critical plant conditions that requires human intervention and it represents (one of the more) conservative approaches to the test scenarios that are possible. The system is expected to realize an improvement in the level of Situational Awareness and mental workload which have been demonstrated by previous studies to be directly linked with the system response to an emergency situation in the MCR. The planning and design of the project adhered to a Systems Engineering approach in order to provide an optimized framework for ensuring the successful implementation of the system design. Previous study and research into this topic has emphasized the importance of situational awareness in determining the human factor performance issues in the nuclear power plant Control Room operations. This paper broadly defined a technique that successfully used the operator’s mental workload (using NASATLX) and Situational Awareness (using SART) as quantifying measures to evaluate the performance of specific ESF-CCS functions based on human factors. These results show that an improvement of the SA/workload could lead to an improvement of the level of certainty that the emergency situation can be brought under control. It is expected that future development work in this area will yield an actualized Augmented Reality system that could incorporate MCR team control and possibly be implemented in the system validation of other I and C systems

Mental Workload and Situational Awareness Evaluation of APR1400 Engineered Safety Features- Component Control Activation Systems using Augmented Reality

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Murungi, Mwongeera; Jung, JaeCheon [KEPCO International Nuclear Graduate School, Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

In the study, an Augmented Reality procedure guidance support system concept was designed and used as a tool for the measurement of mental workload and Situational awareness of an SRO (Senior Reactor Operator). The EOP was chosen as the scenario for testing because it is the one of the critical plant conditions that requires human intervention and it represents (one of the more) conservative approaches to the test scenarios that are possible. The system is expected to realize an improvement in the level of Situational Awareness and mental workload which have been demonstrated by previous studies to be directly linked with the system response to an emergency situation in the MCR. The planning and design of the project adhered to a Systems Engineering approach in order to provide an optimized framework for ensuring the successful implementation of the system design. Previous study and research into this topic has emphasized the importance of situational awareness in determining the human factor performance issues in the nuclear power plant Control Room operations. This paper broadly defined a technique that successfully used the operator’s mental workload (using NASATLX) and Situational Awareness (using SART) as quantifying measures to evaluate the performance of specific ESF-CCS functions based on human factors. These results show that an improvement of the SA/workload could lead to an improvement of the level of certainty that the emergency situation can be brought under control. It is expected that future development work in this area will yield an actualized Augmented Reality system that could incorporate MCR team control and possibly be implemented in the system validation of other I and C systems.

Development of a Vision-Based Situational Awareness Capability for Unmanned Surface Vessels

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-01

camera), which is similar to the movement of the ship in the electro-optics (EO) video imagery. An image of the model representing the ship with a...with both color video imagery and infrared video imagery, and the results obtained from processing the images demonstrated the viability of using this...situational awareness capability, which is required to achieve autonomous navigation. The algorithm was tested with both color video imagery and infrared

A Situative Space Model for Mobile Mixed-Reality Computing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pederson, Thomas; Janlert, Lars-Erik; Surie, Dipak

2011-01-01

This article proposes a situative space model that links the physical and virtual realms and sets the stage for complex human-computer interaction defined by what a human agent can see, hear, and touch, at any given point in time.......This article proposes a situative space model that links the physical and virtual realms and sets the stage for complex human-computer interaction defined by what a human agent can see, hear, and touch, at any given point in time....

Helping behavior in a virtual crisis situation: effects of safety awareness and crisis communication

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stubbé, H.E.; Emmerik, M.L. van; Kerstholt, J.H.

2015-01-01

Incident evaluations show that bystanders tend to help: they do not wait for professionals to arrive, but act as required by the situation at hand. In the present study, we investigated how safety awareness (induced before an accident happened) and providing a course of action by emergency services

Helping behavior in a virtual crisis situation: effects of safety awareness and crisis communication

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stubbe, H.E.; van Emmerik, M.L.; Kerstholt, Johanna Helena

2017-01-01

Incident evaluations show that bystanders tend to help: they do not wait for professionals to arrive, but act as required by the situation at hand. In the present study, we investigated how safety awareness (induced before an accident happened) and providing a course of action by emergency services

Modeling and analyses for an extended car-following model accounting for drivers' situation awareness from cyber physical perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Dong; Sun, Dihua; Zhao, Min; Zhou, Tong; Cheng, Senlin

2018-07-01

In fact, driving process is a typical cyber physical process which couples tightly the cyber factor of traffic information with the physical components of the vehicles. Meanwhile, the drivers have situation awareness in driving process, which is not only ascribed to the current traffic states, but also extrapolates the changing trend. In this paper, an extended car-following model is proposed to account for drivers' situation awareness. The stability criterion of the proposed model is derived via linear stability analysis. The results show that the stable region of proposed model will be enlarged on the phase diagram compared with previous models. By employing the reductive perturbation method, the modified Korteweg de Vries (mKdV) equation is obtained. The kink-antikink soliton of mKdV equation reveals theoretically the evolution of traffic jams. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the analytical results. Two typical traffic Scenarios are investigated. The simulation results demonstrate that drivers' situation awareness plays a key role in traffic flow oscillations and the congestion transition.

Empirical verification for application of Bayesian inference in situation awareness evaluations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Seongkeun; Kim, Ar Ryum; Seong, Poong Hyun

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Situation awareness (SA) of human operators is significantly important for safe operation in nuclear power plants (NPPs). • SA of human operators was empirically estimated using Bayesian inference. • In this empirical study, the effect of attention and working memory to SA was considered. • Complexcity of the given task and design of human machine interface (HMI) considerably affect SA of human operators. - Abstract: Bayesian methodology has been widely used in various research fields. According to current research, malfunctions of nuclear power plants can be detected using this Bayesian inference, which consistently piles up newly incoming data and updates the estimation. However, these studies have been based on the assumption that people work like computers—perfectly—a supposition that may cause a problem in real world applications. Studies in cognitive psychology indicate that when the amount of information to be processed becomes larger, people cannot save the whole set of data in their heads due to limited attention and limited memory capacity, also known as working memory. The purpose of the current research is to consider how actual human aware the situation contrasts with our expectations, and how such disparity affects the results of conventional Bayesian inference, if at all. We compared situation awareness (SA) of ideal operators with SA of human operators, and for the human operator we used both text-based human machine interface (HMI) and infographic-based HMI to further compare two existing human operators. In addition, two different scenarios were selected how scenario complexity affects SA of human operators. As a results, when a malfunction occurred, the ideal operator found the malfunction nearly 100% probability of the time using Bayesian inference. In contrast, out of forty-six human operators, only 69.57% found the correct malfunction with simple scenario and 58.70% with complex scenario in the text-based HMI. In

Measuring situational awareness and resolving inherent high-level fusion obstacles

Science.gov (United States)

Sudit, Moises; Stotz, Adam; Holender, Michael; Tagliaferri, William; Canarelli, Kathie

2006-04-01

Information Fusion Engine for Real-time Decision Making (INFERD) is a tool that was developed to supplement current graph matching techniques in Information Fusion models. Based on sensory data and a priori models, INFERD dynamically generates, evolves, and evaluates hypothesis on the current state of the environment. The a priori models developed are hierarchical in nature lending them to a multi-level Information Fusion process whose primary output provides a situational awareness of the environment of interest in the context of the models running. In this paper we look at INFERD's multi-level fusion approach and provide insight on the inherent problems such as fragmentation in the approach and the research being undertaken to mitigate those deficiencies. Due to the large variance of data in disparate environments, the awareness of situations in those environments can be drastically different. To accommodate this, the INFERD framework provides support for plug-and-play fusion modules which can be developed specifically for domains of interest. However, because the models running in INFERD are graph based, some default measurements can be provided and will be discussed in the paper. Among these are a Depth measurement to determine how much danger is presented by the action taking place, a Breadth measurement to gain information regarding the scale of an attack that is currently happening, and finally a Reliability measure to tell the user the credibility of a particular hypothesis. All of these results will be demonstrated in the Cyber domain where recent research has shown to be an area that is welldefined and bounded, so that new models and algorithms can be developed and evaluated.

Affordable multisensor digital video architecture for 360° situational awareness displays

Science.gov (United States)

Scheiner, Steven P.; Khan, Dina A.; Marecki, Alexander L.; Berman, David A.; Carberry, Dana

2011-06-01

One of the major challenges facing today's military ground combat vehicle operations is the ability to achieve and maintain full-spectrum situational awareness while under armor (i.e. closed hatch). Thus, the ability to perform basic tasks such as driving, maintaining local situational awareness, surveillance, and targeting will require a high-density array of real time information be processed, distributed, and presented to the vehicle operators and crew in near real time (i.e. low latency). Advances in display and sensor technologies are providing never before seen opportunities to supply large amounts of high fidelity imagery and video to the vehicle operators and crew in real time. To fully realize the advantages of these emerging display and sensor technologies, an underlying digital architecture must be developed that is capable of processing these large amounts of video and data from separate sensor systems and distributing it simultaneously within the vehicle to multiple vehicle operators and crew. This paper will examine the systems and software engineering efforts required to overcome these challenges and will address development of an affordable, integrated digital video architecture. The approaches evaluated will enable both current and future ground combat vehicle systems the flexibility to readily adopt emerging display and sensor technologies, while optimizing the Warfighter Machine Interface (WMI), minimizing lifecycle costs, and improve the survivability of the vehicle crew working in closed-hatch systems during complex ground combat operations.

Satellite-Based Assessment of Rainfall-Triggered Landslide Hazard for Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Kirschbaum, Dalia; Stanley, Thomas

2018-03-01

Determining the time, location, and severity of natural disaster impacts is fundamental to formulating mitigation strategies, appropriate and timely responses, and robust recovery plans. A Landslide Hazard Assessment for Situational Awareness (LHASA) model was developed to indicate potential landslide activity in near real-time. LHASA combines satellite-based precipitation estimates with a landslide susceptibility map derived from information on slope, geology, road networks, fault zones, and forest loss. Precipitation data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission are used to identify rainfall conditions from the past 7 days. When rainfall is considered to be extreme and susceptibility values are moderate to very high, a "nowcast" is issued to indicate the times and places where landslides are more probable. When LHASA nowcasts were evaluated with a Global Landslide Catalog, the probability of detection (POD) ranged from 8% to 60%, depending on the evaluation period, precipitation product used, and the size of the spatial and temporal window considered around each landslide point. Applications of the LHASA system are also discussed, including how LHASA is used to estimate long-term trends in potential landslide activity at a nearly global scale and how it can be used as a tool to support disaster risk assessment. LHASA is intended to provide situational awareness of landslide hazards in near real-time, providing a flexible, open-source framework that can be adapted to other spatial and temporal scales based on data availability.

Application of Synchrophasor Measurements for Improving Situational Awareness of the Power System

Science.gov (United States)

Obushevs, A.; Mutule, A.

2018-04-01

The paper focuses on the application of synchrophasor measurements that present unprecedented benefits compared to SCADA systems in order to facilitate the successful transformation of the Nordic-Baltic-and-European electric power system to operate with large amounts of renewable energy sources and improve situational awareness of the power system. The article describes new functionalities of visualisation tools to estimate a grid inertia level in real time with monitoring results between Nordic and Baltic power systems.

Space Sustainment: A New Approach for America in Space

Science.gov (United States)

2014-12-01

international community toward promoting market incentives in international space law. This would open up the competitive space for new entrants ...announces- new -space-situational-awareness-satellite-program.aspx. 29. Gruss, “U.S. Space Assets Face Growing Threat .” 30. McDougall, Heavens and the...November–December 2014 Air & Space Power Journal | 117 SCHRIEVER ESSAY WINNER SECOND PLACE Space Sustainment A New Approach for America in Space Lt

Development of an Objective Measurement Method for Situation Awareness of Operation Teams in NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Woo; Kim, Ar Ryum; Kim, Hyoung Ju; Seong, Poong Hyun; Park, Jin Kyun

2011-01-01

Situation awareness (SA) continues to receive a considerable amount of attention from the ergonomics community since the need for operators to maintain SA is frequently cited as a key to effective and efficient performance. Even though complex and dynamic environments such as main control room (MCR) in the nuclear power plants (NPPs) is operated in teams and still SA which teams posses is important, research is currently focused on individual SA not for team situation awareness (TSA). Since there are not many measurement methods developed for TSA, individual SA measurement methods are at first reviewed and the critical requirements which new TSA measurements should consider are derived. With an assumption that TSA is an integration of individual SA, a new and objective TSA measurement method is developed. This method is developed mainly based on logical connections between TSA and team communication and implements verbal protocol analysis. This method provides measure for each level of TSA. By performing preliminary analysis with this method, it was shown that this method is feasible to some extent

Development of an Objective Measurement Method for Situation Awareness of Operation Teams in NPPs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Seung Woo; Kim, Ar Ryum; Kim, Hyoung Ju; Seong, Poong Hyun [KAIST, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Park, Jin Kyun [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2011-08-15

Situation awareness (SA) continues to receive a considerable amount of attention from the ergonomics community since the need for operators to maintain SA is frequently cited as a key to effective and efficient performance. Even though complex and dynamic environments such as main control room (MCR) in the nuclear power plants (NPPs) is operated in teams and still SA which teams posses is important, research is currently focused on individual SA not for team situation awareness (TSA). Since there are not many measurement methods developed for TSA, individual SA measurement methods are at first reviewed and the critical requirements which new TSA measurements should consider are derived. With an assumption that TSA is an integration of individual SA, a new and objective TSA measurement method is developed. This method is developed mainly based on logical connections between TSA and team communication and implements verbal protocol analysis. This method provides measure for each level of TSA. By performing preliminary analysis with this method, it was shown that this method is feasible to some extent.

Empirical evaluation of the Process Overview Measure for assessing situation awareness in process plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, Nathan; Jamieson, Greg A; Skraaning, Gyrd

2016-03-01

The Process Overview Measure is a query-based measure developed to assess operator situation awareness (SA) from monitoring process plants. A companion paper describes how the measure has been developed according to process plant properties and operator cognitive work. The Process Overview Measure demonstrated practicality, sensitivity, validity and reliability in two full-scope simulator experiments investigating dramatically different operational concepts. Practicality was assessed based on qualitative feedback of participants and researchers. The Process Overview Measure demonstrated sensitivity and validity by revealing significant effects of experimental manipulations that corroborated with other empirical results. The measure also demonstrated adequate inter-rater reliability and practicality for measuring SA in full-scope simulator settings based on data collected on process experts. Thus, full-scope simulator studies can employ the Process Overview Measure to reveal the impact of new control room technology and operational concepts on monitoring process plants. Practitioner Summary: The Process Overview Measure is a query-based measure that demonstrated practicality, sensitivity, validity and reliability for assessing operator situation awareness (SA) from monitoring process plants in representative settings.

Promoting Space Education and Awareness in Pakistan- Initiatives, Achievements, Challenges and Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Jagirani, Aisha

With about 180 million inhabitants, Pakistan is the sixth most populous and the 34th largest country in the world in terms of area. Pakistan's economy, which is pre-dominantly based on agriculture, is the 26th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity and 45th largest in terms of nominal GDP. Pakistan is counted among the Next Eleven (N11) countries that have the potential to become the world's largest economies in the 21st century. Despite considerable potential to develop into a stable, moderate and democratic state, major challenges of internal security, poor agricultural productivity, inadequate infrastructure, food insecurity, insufficient health and educational facilities, depletion of natural resources, rapid environmental degradation and recurring natural disasters have burdened the country and have hampered sustainable development of Pakistan. Space technology applications offer a cost-effective means of addressing many of the above mentioned issues and have made impressive advances in the last few years in different countries in the region. Unfortunately, for various reasons, Pakistan has not been able to fully exploit the benefits of space technology and its applications to meet the challenges she faces. One of the reasons is lack of awareness and understanding by planners, decision-makers and users about the potential benefits of space technology in planning and implementation of developmental plans as well as good governance. Similarly, Pakistan's space program enjoys little public support due, primarily, to lack of awareness of the benefits space offers and the ubiquitousness of space applications in modern life. There is thus an acute need to create awareness and educate all segments of the society and stakeholders in Pakistan about the potential benefits of space technology and its applications. In the past ten years, many initiatives have been taken to promote space education and awareness for students as well as decision-makers in

A computational approach to achieve situational awareness from limited observations of a complex system

Science.gov (United States)

Sherwin, Jason

At the start of the 21st century, the topic of complexity remains a formidable challenge in engineering, science and other aspects of our world. It seems that when disaster strikes it is because some complex and unforeseen interaction causes the unfortunate outcome. Why did the financial system of the world meltdown in 2008--2009? Why are global temperatures on the rise? These questions and other ones like them are difficult to answer because they pertain to contexts that require lengthy descriptions. In other words, these contexts are complex. But we as human beings are able to observe and recognize this thing we call 'complexity'. Furthermore, we recognize that there are certain elements of a context that form a system of complex interactions---i.e., a complex system. Many researchers have even noted similarities between seemingly disparate complex systems. Do sub-atomic systems bear resemblance to weather patterns? Or do human-based economic systems bear resemblance to macroscopic flows? Where do we draw the line in their resemblance? These are the kinds of questions that are asked in complex systems research. And the ability to recognize complexity is not only limited to analytic research. Rather, there are many known examples of humans who, not only observe and recognize but also, operate complex systems. How do they do it? Is there something superhuman about these people or is there something common to human anatomy that makes it possible to fly a plane? Or to drive a bus? Or to operate a nuclear power plant? Or to play Chopin's etudes on the piano? In each of these examples, a human being operates a complex system of machinery, whether it is a plane, a bus, a nuclear power plant or a piano. What is the common thread running through these abilities? The study of situational awareness (SA) examines how people do these types of remarkable feats. It is not a bottom-up science though because it relies on finding general principles running through a host of varied

Use of human patient simulation and the situation awareness global assessment technique in practical trauma skills assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, Michael P; Pace, David E; Hapgood, Joanne; Boone, Darrell C

2006-11-01

Situation awareness (SA) is defined as the perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. This construct is vital to decision making in intense, dynamic environments. It has been used in aviation as it relates to pilot performance, but has not been applied to medical education. The most widely used objective tool for measuring trainee SA is the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT). The purpose of this study was to design and validate SAGAT for assessment of practical trauma skills, and to compare SAGAT results to traditional checklist style scoring. Using the Human Patient Simulator, we designed SAGAT for practical trauma skills assessment based on Advanced Trauma Life Support objectives. Sixteen subjects (four staff surgeons, four senior residents, four junior residents, and four medical students) participated in three scenarios each. They were assessed using SAGAT and traditional checklist assessment. A questionnaire was used to assess possible confounding factors in attaining SA and overall trainee satisfaction. SAGAT was found to show significant difference (analysis of variance; p level of training lending statistical support to construct validity. SAGAT was likewise found to display reliability (Cronbach's alpha 0.767), and significant scoring correlation with traditional checklist performance measures (Pearson's coefficient 0.806). The questionnaire revealed no confounding factors and universal satisfaction with the human patient simulator and SAGAT. SAGAT is a valid, reliable assessment tool for trauma trainees in the dynamic clinical environment created by human patient simulation. Information provided by SAGAT could provide specific feedback, direct individualized teaching, and support curriculum change. Introduction of SAGAT could improve the current assessment model for practical trauma education.

Assessment of situational awareness: team resources brought in action to enhance patient safety at the ICU.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kemper, P.

2013-01-01

Purpose: Situational Awareness (SA) relates to the team’s ability to perceive and anticipate threats in the care for patients. The present paper describes the development of a questionnaire that measures this SA gradient in the context of healthcare. The Resulting questionnaire (SafeTeam) consists

An interorganizational IT infrastructure for self-organization in logistics : situation awareness and real-time chain composition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hofman, W.J.; Punter, L.M.; Bastiaansen, H.J.M.; Cornelisse, E.; Dalmolen, S.; Palaskas, Z.; Karakostas, B.; Gato, J.; Garcia, J.; Herrero, G.; Gonzalez-Rodrigues, M.

2016-01-01

To meet the challenges for more sustainable, effective and efficient transport services in global logistics, a new IT-paradigm is needed to harvest the opportunities that capabilities for situation awareness and real-time chain composition provide. The iCargo project provides such an advanced,

Wide-area situation awareness in electric power grid

Science.gov (United States)

Greitzer, Frank L.

2010-04-01

Two primary elements of the US energy policy are demand management and efficiency and renewable sources. Major objectives are clean energy transmission and integration, reliable energy transmission, and grid cyber security. Development of the Smart Grid seeks to achieve these goals by lowering energy costs for consumers, achieving energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Smart Grid is expected to enable real time wide-area situation awareness (SA) for operators. Requirements for wide-area SA have been identified among interoperability standards proposed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to ensure smart-grid functionality. Wide-area SA and enhanced decision support and visualization tools are key elements in the transformation to the Smart Grid. This paper discusses human factors research to promote SA in the electric power grid and the Smart Grid. Topics that will be discussed include the role of human factors in meeting US energy policy goals, the impact and challenges for Smart Grid development, and cyber security challenges.

VIRTUAL REALITY FOR MANAGEMENT OF SITUATIONAL AWARENESS DURING GLOBAL MASS GATHERINGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. S. Karsakov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a training technology for staff of mass events for development of action skills in large gatherings of people, including crowd dynamic management and actions in extreme situations caused by the panic. The technology is based on the multi-agent model of crowd dynamic with dynamically re-computable navigation fields. We implemented the software system that provides a collaborative and distributed process of training activities in the virtual reality environment. The following characteristics of the developed software system available from experimental studies were analyzed: computational intensity of simulations, scalability of rendering system and reactivity of the final system when rendering computationally intensive scenes. The proposed models and infrastructure for training through collaborative immersion in the virtual reality can improve situational awareness of events staff prior to the event. The developed technology is a unique tool for improving the quality and safety of disposable and unique events involving the broad masses of people, including unfunded by retrospective experience mass gatherings. Developed technology was tested within the Kumbh Mela festival in Ujjain, India.

The influence of situation awareness training on nurses' confidence about patient safety skills: A prospective cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stomski, Norman; Gluyas, Heather; Andrus, Prue; Williams, Anne; Hopkins, Martin; Walters, Jennifer; Sandy, Martinique; Morrison, Paul

2018-04-01

Several studies report that patient safety skills, especially non-technical skills, receive scant attention in nursing curricula. Hence, there is a compelling reason to incorporate material that enhances non-technical skills, such as situation awareness, in nursing curricula in order to assist in the reduction of healthcare related adverse events. The objectives of this study were to: 1) understand final year nursing students' confidence in their patient safety skills; and 2) examine the impact of situation awareness training on final year nursing students' confidence in their patient safety skills. Participants were enrolled from a convenience sample comprising final year nursing students at a Western Australia university. Self-reported confidence in patient safety skills was assessed with the Health Professional in Patient Safety Survey before and after the delivery of a situation awareness educational intervention. Pre/post educational intervention differences were examined by repeated measures ANOVA. No significant differences in confidence about patient safety skills were identified within settings (class/clinical). However, confidence in patient safety skills significantly decreased between settings i.e. nursing students lost confidence after clinical placements. The educational intervention delivered in this study did not seem to improve confidence in patient safety skills, but substantial ceiling effects may have confounded the identification of such improvement. Further studies are required to establish whether the findings of this study can be generalised to other university nursing cohorts. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tianshuishi space breeding current situation and developing trend

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Fuquan; Song Jianrong; Zhang Zhongping; Guo Zhenfang

2012-01-01

Tianshuishi is located in Xi'an to lanzhou among two big cities, the five space launch, has vegetables, food, grasses, flowers, rape, melon and fruit, Chinese traditional medicine, amount of 8 categories of crops, such as the 22 new material after carrying the ground breeding work. Only vegetables on identified 23 aerospace new varieties. After ten years of space breeding, summarizes the present situation of Tianshuishi space breeding, development experience, characteristic, trends, and puts forward the development space breeding Tianshuishi organization and breeding of talent from the matching policy and grow up incentive mechanism, strengthen the cooperation and all over the country, establishing fiscal policy support from the aspects such as advice. (authors)

A Dynamic Optimization Method of Indoor Fire Evacuation Route Based on Real-time Situation Awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DING Yulin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available How to provide safe and effective evacuation routes is an important safeguard to correctly guide evacuation and reduce the casualties during the fire situation rapidly evolving in complex indoor environment. The traditional static path finding method is difficult to adjust the path adaptively according to the changing fire situation, which lead to the evacuation decision-making blindness and hysteresis. This paper proposes a dynamic method which can dynamically optimize the indoor evacuation routes based on the real-time situation awareness. According to the real-time perception of fire situation parameters and the changing indoor environment information, the evacuation route is optimized dynamically. The integrated representation of multisource indoor fire monitoring sensor observations oriented fire emergency evacuation is presented at first, real-time fire threat situation information inside building is then extracted from the observation data of multi-source sensors, which is used to constrain the dynamical optimization of the topology of the evacuation route. Finally, the simulation experiments prove that this method can improve the accuracy and efficiency of indoor evacuation routing.

Lessons learned from creating a mobile version of an educational board game to increase situational awareness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland; Kurapati, Shalini; Lukosch, Heide; Specht, Marcus

2015-01-01

This paper reports on an iterative design process for a serious game, which aims to raise situational awareness among different stakeholders in a logistics value chain by introducing multi-user role-playing games. It does so in several phases: After introducing the field of logistics as a problem

Automating Information Assurance for Cyber Situational Awareness within a Smart Cloud System of Systems

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-01

monitoring and protection of data such as Transport Layer Security ( TLS ), Secure Sockets Layer ( SSL ), and Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocols...and usage of data loss prevention software. Protocols such as TLS , SSL , and IPsec encrypt data packets for secure transportation and decryption by...Representational State Transfer RSS rich site summary SA situational awareness SAF Singapore Armed Forces SoS system of systems SSL secure sockets layer S

Assessment for Operator Confidence in Automated Space Situational Awareness and Satellite Control Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Gorman, J.; Voshell, M.; Sliva, A.

2016-09-01

The United States is highly dependent on space resources to support military, government, commercial, and research activities. Satellites operate at great distances, observation capacity is limited, and operator actions and observations can be significantly delayed. Safe operations require support systems that provide situational understanding, enhance decision making, and facilitate collaboration between human operators and system automation both in-the-loop, and on-the-loop. Joint cognitive systems engineering (JCSE) provides a rich set of methods for analyzing and informing the design of complex systems that include both human decision-makers and autonomous elements as coordinating teammates. While, JCSE-based systems can enhance a system analysts' understanding of both existing and new system processes, JCSE activities typically occur outside of traditional systems engineering (SE) methods, providing sparse guidance about how systems should be implemented. In contrast, the Joint Director's Laboratory (JDL) information fusion model and extensions, such as the Dual Node Network (DNN) technical architecture, provide the means to divide and conquer such engineering and implementation complexity, but are loosely coupled to specialized organizational contexts and needs. We previously describe how Dual Node Decision Wheels (DNDW) extend the DNN to integrate JCSE analysis and design with the practicalities of system engineering and implementation using the DNN. Insights from Rasmussen's JCSE Decision Ladders align system implementation with organizational structures and processes. In the current work, we present a novel approach to assessing system performance based on patterns occurring in operational decisions that are documented by JCSE processes as traces in a decision ladder. In this way, system assessment is closely tied not just to system design, but the design of the joint cognitive system that includes human operators, decision-makers, information systems, and

Situation awareness of active distribution network: roadmap, technologies, and bottlenecks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lin, Jin; Wan, Can; Song, Yonghua

2016-01-01

With the rapid development of local generation and demand response, the active distribution network (ADN), which aggregates and manages miscellaneous distributed resources, has moved from theory to practice. Secure and optimal operations now require an advanced situation awareness (SA) system so...... in the project of developing an SA system as the basic component of a practical active distribution management system (ADMS) deployed in Beijing, China, is presented. This paper reviews the ADN’s development roadmap by illustrating the changes that are made in elements, topology, structure, and control scheme....... Taking into consideration these hardware changes, a systematic framework is proposed for the main components and the functional hierarchy of an SA system for the ADN. The SA system’s implementation bottlenecks are also presented, including, but not limited to issues in big data platform, distribution...

Study on dynamic team performance evaluation methodology based on team situation awareness model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Suk Chul

2005-02-01

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a theoretical framework and its evaluation methodology of team dynamic task performance of operating team at nuclear power plant under the dynamic and tactical environment such as radiological accident. This thesis suggested a team dynamic task performance evaluation model so called team crystallization model stemmed from Endsely's situation awareness model being comprised of four elements: state, information, organization, and orientation and its quantification methods using system dynamics approach and a communication process model based on a receding horizon control approach. The team crystallization model is a holistic approach for evaluating the team dynamic task performance in conjunction with team situation awareness considering physical system dynamics and team behavioral dynamics for a tactical and dynamic task at nuclear power plant. This model provides a systematic measure to evaluate time-dependent team effectiveness or performance affected by multi-agents such as plant states, communication quality in terms of transferring situation-specific information and strategies for achieving the team task goal at given time, and organizational factors. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and its quantification method, the case study was carried out using the data obtained from a full-scope power plant simulator for 1,000MWe pressurized water reactors with four on-the-job operating groups and one expert group who knows accident sequences. Simulated results team dynamic task performance with reference key plant parameters behavior and team-specific organizational center of gravity and cue-and-response matrix illustrated good symmetry with observed value. The team crystallization model will be useful and effective tool for evaluating team effectiveness in terms of recruiting new operating team for new plant as cost-benefit manner. Also, this model can be utilized as a systematic analysis tool for

Study on dynamic team performance evaluation methodology based on team situation awareness model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Suk Chul

2005-02-15

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a theoretical framework and its evaluation methodology of team dynamic task performance of operating team at nuclear power plant under the dynamic and tactical environment such as radiological accident. This thesis suggested a team dynamic task performance evaluation model so called team crystallization model stemmed from Endsely's situation awareness model being comprised of four elements: state, information, organization, and orientation and its quantification methods using system dynamics approach and a communication process model based on a receding horizon control approach. The team crystallization model is a holistic approach for evaluating the team dynamic task performance in conjunction with team situation awareness considering physical system dynamics and team behavioral dynamics for a tactical and dynamic task at nuclear power plant. This model provides a systematic measure to evaluate time-dependent team effectiveness or performance affected by multi-agents such as plant states, communication quality in terms of transferring situation-specific information and strategies for achieving the team task goal at given time, and organizational factors. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and its quantification method, the case study was carried out using the data obtained from a full-scope power plant simulator for 1,000MWe pressurized water reactors with four on-the-job operating groups and one expert group who knows accident sequences. Simulated results team dynamic task performance with reference key plant parameters behavior and team-specific organizational center of gravity and cue-and-response matrix illustrated good symmetry with observed value. The team crystallization model will be useful and effective tool for evaluating team effectiveness in terms of recruiting new operating team for new plant as cost-benefit manner. Also, this model can be utilized as a systematic analysis tool for

Using Visual Analytics to Maintain Situation Awareness in Astrophysics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aragon, Cecilia R.; Poon, Sarah S.; Aldering, Gregory S.; Thomas, Rollin C.; Quimby, Robert

2008-07-01

We present a novel collaborative visual analytics application for cognitively overloaded users in the astrophysics domain. The system was developed for scientists needing to analyze heterogeneous, complex data under time pressure, and then make predictions and time-critical decisions rapidly and correctly under a constant influx of changing data. The Sunfall Data Taking system utilizes severalnovel visualization and analysis techniques to enable a team of geographically distributed domain specialists to effectively and remotely maneuver a custom-built instrument under challenging operational conditions. Sunfall Data Taking has been in use for over eighteen months by a major international astrophysics collaboration (the largest data volume supernova search currently in operation), and has substantially improved the operational efficiency of its users. We describe the system design process by an interdisciplinary team, the system architecture, and the results of an informal usability evaluation of the production system by domain experts in the context of Endsley?s three levels of situation awareness.

Laughter and collective awareness: The cinema auditorium as public space

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hanich, Julian

2014-01-01

This article looks at how the collective experience of laughter in the movie theater is related to the idea of the cinema as a public space. Through the non-verbal expression of laughter the audience ‘constructs’ a public space the viewers may not have been aware of to the same degree prior to the

The perfect storm of information: combining traditional and non-traditional data sources for public health situational awareness during hurricane response.

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Kelly J; Olsen, Jennifer M; Harris, Sara; Mekaru, Sumiko; Livinski, Alicia A; Brownstein, John S

2013-12-16

Hurricane Isaac made landfall in southeastern Louisiana in late August 2012, resulting in extensive storm surge and inland flooding. As the lead federal agency responsible for medical and public health response and recovery coordination, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must have situational awareness to prepare for and address state and local requests for assistance following hurricanes. Both traditional and non-traditional data have been used to improve situational awareness in fields like disease surveillance and seismology. This study investigated whether non-traditional data (i.e., tweets and news reports) fill a void in traditional data reporting during hurricane response, as well as whether non-traditional data improve the timeliness for reporting identified HHS Essential Elements of Information (EEI). HHS EEIs provided the information collection guidance, and when the information indicated there was a potential public health threat, an event was identified and categorized within the larger scope of overall Hurricane Issac situational awareness. Tweets, news reports, press releases, and federal situation reports during Hurricane Isaac response were analyzed for information about EEIs. Data that pertained to the same EEI were linked together and given a unique event identification number to enable more detailed analysis of source content. Reports of sixteen unique events were examined for types of data sources reporting on the event and timeliness of the reports. Of these sixteen unique events identified, six were reported by only a single data source, four were reported by two data sources, four were reported by three data sources, and two were reported by four or more data sources. For five of the events where news tweets were one of multiple sources of information about an event, the tweet occurred prior to the news report, press release, local government\\emergency management tweet, and federal situation report. In all circumstances where

Measuring the Effectiveness of Visual Analytics and Data Fusion Techniques on Situation Awareness in Cyber-Security

Science.gov (United States)

Giacobe, Nicklaus A.

2013-01-01

Cyber-security involves the monitoring a complex network of inter-related computers to prevent, identify and remediate from undesired actions. This work is performed in organizations by human analysts. These analysts monitor cyber-security sensors to develop and maintain situation awareness (SA) of both normal and abnormal activities that occur on…

Introducing RiskSOAP to communicate the distributed situation awareness of a system about safety issues: an application to a robotic system.

Science.gov (United States)

Chatzimichailidou, Maria Mikela; Dokas, Ioannis M

2016-03-01

This paper introduces the RiskSOAP ('RiskSOAP' is the abbreviation for Risk SituatiOn Awareness Provision.) indicator to measure the capability of a complex socio-technical system to provide its agents with situation awareness (SA) about the presence of its threats and vulnerabilities and enables analysts to assess distributed SA. The RiskSOAP methodology adopts a comparative approach between two design versions of a system differing in the elements and characteristics that can enhance or cause the degradation of the awareness provision capability. The methodology uniquely combines three methods: (1) the STPA hazard analysis, (2) the EWaSAP early warning sign identification approach, and (3) a dissimilarity measure for calculating the distance between binary sets. In this paper, the RiskSOAP methodology was applied to a robotic system and the findings show that the indicator is an objective measure for the system's capability to provide its agents with SA about its threats and vulnerabilities. Practitioner Summary: This paper suggests a novel methodology for assessing distributed situation awareness (DSA) regarding safety issues. Given that systems consist of specifications and components possible to be mapped, the risk SA provision capability (RiskSOAP) methodology demonstrates the feasibility of measuring to what extent systems' elements contribute to the emergence of DSA.

Towards an integrated defense system for cyber security situation awareness experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hanlin; Wei, Sixiao; Ge, Linqiang; Shen, Dan; Yu, Wei; Blasch, Erik P.; Pham, Khanh D.; Chen, Genshe

2015-05-01

In this paper, an implemented defense system is demonstrated to carry out cyber security situation awareness. The developed system consists of distributed passive and active network sensors designed to effectively capture suspicious information associated with cyber threats, effective detection schemes to accurately distinguish attacks, and network actors to rapidly mitigate attacks. Based on the collected data from network sensors, image-based and signals-based detection schemes are implemented to detect attacks. To further mitigate attacks, deployed dynamic firewalls on hosts dynamically update detection information reported from the detection schemes and block attacks. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed system. A future plan to design an effective defense system is also discussed based on system theory.

Transferring an educational board game to a multi-user mobile learning game to increase shared situational awareness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland; Kurapati, Shalini; Kolfschoten, Gwendolyn

2013-01-01

Klemke, R., Kurapati, S., & Kolfschoten, G. (2013, 6 June). Transferring an educational board game to a multi-user mobile learning game to increase shared situational awareness. Presentation at the 3rd Irish Symposium on Game Based Learning, Dublin, Ireland. Please see also

Do the coach and athlete have the same "picture" of the situation? Distributed Situation Awareness in an elite sport context.

Science.gov (United States)

Macquet, Anne-Claire; Stanton, Neville A

2014-05-01

Athletes and their coach interpret the training situations differently and this can have important implications for the development of an elite athlete's performance. It is argued that, from a schema-theoretic perspective, the difference in these interpretations needs to be better understood. A post-performance, self-confrontation, interview was conducted with a number of athletes and their coaches. The interviews revealed differences between the athlete and their coach in the information they are aware of. In comparison with athletes, coaches more frequently compared the phenotype with genotype schemata rather than just describing the phenotype schemata. Results suggest SA information elements showed some common ground but also revealed some important differences between the athlete and coach. The awareness was directed externally towards the environment and internally, towards the individual, depending on his/her role. The investigation showed that the schemata used to 'frame' the information elements were different, but compatible, between athlete and coach. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Enhancing Evacuation Plans with a Situation Awareness System Based on End-User Knowledge Provision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Augusto Morales

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Recent disasters have shown that having clearly defined preventive procedures and decisions is a critical component that minimizes evacuation hazards and ensures a rapid and successful evolution of evacuation plans. In this context, we present our Situation-Aware System for enhancing Evacuation Plans (SASEP system, which allows creating end-user business rules that technically support the specific events, conditions and actions related to evacuation plans. An experimental validation was carried out where 32 people faced a simulated emergency situation, 16 of them using SASEP and the other 16 using a legacy system based on static signs. From the results obtained, we compare both techniques and discuss in which situations SASEP offers a better evacuation route option, confirming that it is highly valuable when there is a threat in the evacuation route. In addition, a study about user satisfaction using both systems is presented showing in which cases the systems are assessed as satisfactory, relevant and not frustrating.

On detection and visualization techniques for cyber security situation awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Wei; Wei, Shixiao; Shen, Dan; Blowers, Misty; Blasch, Erik P.; Pham, Khanh D.; Chen, Genshe; Zhang, Hanlin; Lu, Chao

2013-05-01

Networking technologies are exponentially increasing to meet worldwide communication requirements. The rapid growth of network technologies and perversity of communications pose serious security issues. In this paper, we aim to developing an integrated network defense system with situation awareness capabilities to present the useful information for human analysts. In particular, we implement a prototypical system that includes both the distributed passive and active network sensors and traffic visualization features, such as 1D, 2D and 3D based network traffic displays. To effectively detect attacks, we also implement algorithms to transform real-world data of IP addresses into images and study the pattern of attacks and use both the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based scheme and the statistical based scheme to detect attacks. Through an extensive simulation study, our data validate the effectiveness of our implemented defense system.

A dynamic binaural synthesis system for investigation into situational awareness for truck drivers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Flemming; Møller, Anders Kalsgaard; Hammershøi, Dorte

2016-01-01

into the reason for this point to cognitive phenomena such as change blindness, where more visual information won’t help. For other professional vehicle operators such as pilots, auditory solutions adding to a higher situational awareness has proven valuable. This paper describes the development of a dynamic...... communicating over a network protocol (UDP) enabling distribution on several hardware devices. The modules are: Graphical user interface, head tracking server, truck tracking, and binaural synthesis module. The function of the individual modules as well as overall topology of the system will be presented...

Transferring an educational board game to a multi-user mobile learning game to increase shared situational awareness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland; Kurapati, Shalini; Kolfschoten, Gwendolyn

2013-01-01

Klemke, R., Kurapati, S., & Kolfschoten, G. (2013, 6 June). Transferring an educational board game to a multi-user mobile learning game to increase shared situational awareness. In P. Rooney (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd Irish Symposium on Game Based Learning (pp. 8-9). Dublin, Ireland. Please see

Development of the Huddle Observation Tool for structured case management discussions to improve situation awareness on inpatient clinical wards.

Science.gov (United States)

Edbrooke-Childs, Julian; Hayes, Jacqueline; Sharples, Evelyn; Gondek, Dawid; Stapley, Emily; Sevdalis, Nick; Lachman, Peter; Deighton, Jessica

2018-05-01

'Situation Awareness For Everyone' (SAFE) was a 3-year project which aimed to improve situation awareness in clinical teams in order to detect potential deterioration and other potential risks to children on hospital wards. The key intervention was the 'huddle', a structured case management discussion which is central to facilitating situation awareness. This study aimed to develop an observational assessment tool to assess the team processes occurring during huddles, including the effectiveness of the huddle. A cross-sectional observational design was used to psychometrically develop the 'Huddle Observation Tool' (HOT) over three phases using standardised psychometric methodology. Huddles were observed across four NHS paediatric wards participating in SAFE by five researchers; two wards within specialist children hospitals and two within district general hospitals, with location, number of beds and length of stay considered to make the sample as heterogeneous as possible. Inter-rater reliability was calculated using the weighted kappa and intraclass correlation coefficient. Inter - rater reliability was acceptable for the collaborative culture (weighted kappa=0.32, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.42), environment items (weighted kappa=0.78, 95% CI 0.52 to 1) and total score (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.87, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.95). It was lower for the structure and risk management items, suggesting that these were more variable in how observers rated them. However, agreement on the global score for huddles was acceptable. We developed an observational assessment tool to assess the team processes occurring during huddles, including the effectiveness of the huddle. Future research should examine whether observational evaluations of huddles are associated with other indicators of safety on clinical wards (eg, safety climate and incidents of patient harm), and whether scores on the HOT are associated with improved situation awareness and reductions in deterioration and adverse

Anomaly-based online intrusion detection system as a sensor for cyber security situational awareness system

OpenAIRE

Kokkonen, Tero

2016-01-01

Almost all the organisations and even individuals rely on complex structures of data networks and networked computer systems. That complex data ensemble, the cyber domain, provides great opportunities, but at the same time it offers many possible attack vectors that can be abused for cyber vandalism, cyber crime, cyber espionage or cyber terrorism. Those threats produce requirements for cyber security situational awareness and intrusion detection capability. This dissertation conc...

Situational awareness in public health preparedness settings

Science.gov (United States)

Mirhaji, Parsa; Michea, Yanko F.; Zhang, Jiajie; Casscells, Samuel W.

2005-05-01

September 11 2001 attacks and following Anthrax mailings introduced emergent need for developing technologies that can distinguish between man made and natural incidents in the public health level. With this objective in mind, government agencies started a funding effort to foster the design, development and implementation of such systems on a wide scale. But the outcomes have not met the expectations set by the resources invested. Multiple elements explain this phenomenon: As it has been frequent with technology, introduction of new surveillance systems to the workflow equation has occurred without taking into consideration the need for understanding and inclusion of deeper personal, psychosocial, organizational and methodological concepts. The environment, in which these systems are operating, is complex, highly dynamic, uncertain, risky, and subject to intense time pressures. Such 'difficult' environments are very challenging to the human as a decision maker. In this paper we will challenge these systems from the perspective of human factors design. We will propose employment of systematic situational awareness research for design and implementation of the next generation public health preparedness infrastructures. We believe that systems designed based on results of such analytical definition of the domain enable public health practitioners to effectively collect the most important cues from the environment, process, interpret and understand the information in the context of organizational objectives and immediate tasks at hand, and use that understanding to forecast the short term and long term impact of the events in the safety and well being of the community.

Towards Incidence Management in 5G Based on Situational Awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorena Isabel Barona López

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The fifth generation mobile network, or 5G, moves towards bringing solutions to deploying faster networks, with hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections and massive data transfer. For this purpose, several emerging technologies are implemented, resulting in virtualization and self-organization of most of their components, which raises important challenges related to safety. In order to contribute to their resolution, this paper proposes a novel architecture for incident management on 5G. The approach combines the conventional risk management schemes with the Endsley Situational Awareness model, thus improving effectiveness in different aspects, among them the ability to adapt to complex and dynamical monitoring environments, and countermeasure tracking or the role of context when decision-making. The proposal takes into account all layers for information processing in 5G mobile networks, ranging from infrastructure to the actuators responsible for deploying corrective measures.

Demonstration of a Novel Synchrophasor-based Situational Awareness System: Wide Area Power System Visualization, On-line Event Replay and Early Warning of Grid Problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosso, A.

2012-12-31

Since the large North Eastern power system blackout on August 14, 2003, U.S. electric utilities have spent lot of effort on preventing power system cascading outages. Two of the main causes of the August 14, 2003 blackout were inadequate situational awareness and inadequate operator training In addition to the enhancements of the infrastructure of the interconnected power systems, more research and development of advanced power system applications are required for improving the wide-area security monitoring, operation and planning in order to prevent large- scale cascading outages of interconnected power systems. It is critically important for improving the wide-area situation awareness of the operators or operational engineers and regional reliability coordinators of large interconnected systems. With the installation of large number of phasor measurement units (PMU) and the related communication infrastructure, it will be possible to improve the operators’ situation awareness and to quickly identify the sequence of events during a large system disturbance for the post-event analysis using the real-time or historical synchrophasor data. The purpose of this project was to develop and demonstrate a novel synchrophasor-based comprehensive situational awareness system for control centers of power transmission systems. The developed system named WASA (Wide Area Situation Awareness) is intended to improve situational awareness at control centers of the power system operators and regional reliability coordinators. It consists of following main software modules: • Wide-area visualizations of real-time frequency, voltage, and phase angle measurements and their contour displays for security monitoring. • Online detection and location of a major event (location, time, size, and type, such as generator or line outage). • Near-real-time event replay (in seconds) after a major event occurs. • Early warning of potential wide-area stability problems. The system has been

The emergent relevance of care staff decision-making and situation awareness to mobility care in nursing homes: an ethnographic study.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Janice; Sims, Jane; Haines, Terry P

2014-12-01

To explore mobility care as provided by care staff in nursing homes. Care staff regularly assist residents with their mobility. Nurses are increasingly reliant on such staff to provide safe and quality mobility care. However, the nature of care staff decision-making when providing assistance has not been fully addressed in the literature. A focused ethnography. The study was conducted in four nursing homes in Melbourne, Australia. Non-participant observations of residents and staff in 2011. Focus groups with 18 nurses, care and lifestyle staff were conducted at three facilities in 2012. Thematic analysis was employed for focus groups and content analysis for observation data. Cognitive Continuum Theory and the notion of 'situation awareness' assisted data interpretation. Decision-making during mobility care emerged as a major theme. Using Cognitive Continuum Theory as a guide, nursing home staff's decision-making was described as ranging from system-aided, through resident- and peer-aided, to reflective and intuitive. Staff seemed aware of the need for resident-aided decision-making consistent with person-centred care. Habitual mobility care based on shared mental models occurred. It was noted that levels of situation awareness may vary among staff. Care staff may benefit from support via collaborative and reflective practice to develop decision-making skills, situation awareness and person-centred mobility care. Further research is required to explore the connection between staff's skills in mobility care and their decision-making competence as well as how these factors link to quality mobility care. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Prediction of situational awareness in F-15 pilots.

Science.gov (United States)

Carretta, T R; Perry, D C; Ree, M J

1996-01-01

Situational awareness (SA) is a skill often deemed essential to pilot performance in both combat and noncombat flying. A study was conducted to determine if SA in U.S. Air Force F-15 pilots could be predicted. The participants were 171 active duty F-15 A/C pilots who completed a test battery representative of various psychological constructs proposed or demonstrated to be valid for the prediction of performance in a wide variety of military and civilian jobs. These predictors encompassed measures of cognitive ability, psychomotor ability, and personality. Supervisor and peer ratings of SA were collected. Supervisors and peers showed substantial agreement on the SA ratings of the pilots. The first unrotated principle component extracted from the supervisor and peer ratings accounted for 92.5% of the variability of ratings. The unrotated first principal component served as the SA criterion. Flying experience measured in number of F-15 hours was the best predictor of SA. After controlling for the effects of F-15 flying hours, the measures of general cognitive ability based on working memory, spatial reasoning, and divided attention were found to be predictive of SA. Psychomotor and personality measures were not predictive. With additional F-15 flying hours it is expected that pilots would improve their ratings of SA.

A Hilbert Space Geometric Representation of Shared Awareness and Joint Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Canan, Mustafa

2017-01-01

Two people in the same situation may ascribe very different meanings to their experiences. They will form different awareness, reacting differently to shared information. Various factors can give rise to this behavior. These factors include, but are not limited to, prior knowledge, training, biases, cultural factors, social factors, team vs.…

A New Approach to Space Situational Awareness using Small Ground-Based Telescopes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anheier, Norman C. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Chen, Cliff S. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2014-12-01

This report discusses a new SSA approach evaluated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) that may lead to highly scalable, small telescope observing stations designed to help manage the growing space surveillance burden. Using the methods and observing tools described in this report, the team was able to acquire and track very faint satellites (near Pluto’s apparent brightness). Photometric data was collected and used to correlate object orbital position as a function of atomic clock-derived time. Object apparent brightness was estimated by image analysis and nearby star calibration. The measurement performance was only limited by weather conditions, object brightness, and the sky glow at the observation site. In the future, these new SSA technologies and techniques may be utilized to protect satellite assets, detect and monitor orbiting debris fields, and support Outer Space Treaty monitoring and transparency.

Assessing Operational Situations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Xinxin

In spite of the high level of automation commonly applied to today’s engineering system, humans’ skill and knowledge still plays a central role in the systems’ daily operation, critical decision making, and accident management. The complexity of the engineered system poses great challenge for human...... operators to perceive and understand the operational situation. The research domain of situation awareness approaches the operational challenges from the human cognition perspective while the presented thesis aims at supporting situation assessment from the system perspective. The thesis has reviewed...... different perspectives on situation awareness in the human factor studies and uses the knowledge reflectively for system representation and analysis. The human cognitive activities during complex plant operation and how they perceive a situation and what kind of knowledge has to be established in the human...

Representing Operational Modes for Situation Awareness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kirchhübel, Denis; Lind, Morten; Ravn, Ole

2017-01-01

reasonable reactions to abnormal situations. Intelligent computational support tools can make the operator's task easier, but they require knowledge about the overall system in form of some model. While tools used for fault-tolerant control design based on physical principles and relations are valuable tools...... for designing robust systems, the models become too complex when considering the interactions on a plant-wide level. The alarm systems meant to support human operators in the diagnosis of the plant-wide situation on the other hand fail regularly in situations where these interactions of systems lead to many...... the interconnected systems can be inferred and alarm floods can potentially be reduced to their root-cause. However, the desired behaviour of a complex system changes due to operating procedures that require more than one physical and functional configuration. In this paper a consistent representation of possible...

Training the Next Generation in Space Situational Awareness Research

Science.gov (United States)

Colpo, D.; Reddy, V.; Arora, S.; Tucker, S.; Jeffries, L.; May, D.; Bronson, R.; Hunten, E.

Traditional academic SSA research has relied on commercial off the shelf (COTS) systems for collecting metric and lightcurve data. COTS systems have several advantages over a custom built system including cost, easy integration, technical support and short deployment timescales. We at the University of Arizona took an alternative approach to develop a sensor system for space object characterization. Five engineering students designed and built two 0.6-meter F/4 electro-optical (EO) systems for collecting lightcurve and spectral data. All the design and fabrication work was carried out over the course of two semesters as part f their senior design project that is mandatory for the completion of their bachelors in engineering degree. The students designed over 200 individual parts using three-dimensional modeling software (SolidWorks), and conducted detailed optical design analysis using raytracing software (ZEMAX), with oversight and advice from faculty sponsor and Starizona, a local small business in Tucson. The components of the design were verified by test, analysis, inspection, or demonstration, per the process that the University of Arizona requires for each of its design projects. Methods to complete this project include mechanical FEA, optical testing methods (Foucault Knife Edge Test and Couder Mask Test), tests to verify the function of the thermometers, and a final pointing model test. A surprise outcome of our exercise is that the entire cost of the design and fabrication of these two EO systems was significantly lower than a COTS alternative. With careful planning and coordination we were also able to reduce to the deployment times to those for a commercial system. Our experience shows that development of hardware and software for SSA research could be accomplished in an academic environment that would enable the training of the next generation with active support from local small businesses.

Laughter and collective awareness: The cinema auditorium as public space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julian Hanich

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article looks at how the collective experience of laughter in the movie theater is related to the idea of the cinema as a public space. Through the nonverbal expression of laughter the audience ‘constructs’ a public space the viewers may not have been aware of to the same degree prior to the collective public expression. Moreover, the public space created through laughter allows for an expedient type of monitoring: inappropriate laughter may be exposed in front of others. With viewers who laugh approvingly about racist violence or misogynist jokes, we can easily lay bare the ethical implications.

Autonomous Closed-Loop Tasking, Acquisition, Processing, and Evaluation for Situational Awareness Feedback

Science.gov (United States)

Frye, Stuart; Mandl, Dan; Cappelaere, Pat

2016-01-01

This presentation describes the closed loop satellite autonomy methods used to connect users and the assets on Earth Orbiter- 1 (EO-1) and similar satellites. The base layer is a distributed architecture based on Goddard Mission Services Evolution Concept (GMSEC) thus each asset still under independent control. Situational awareness is provided by a middleware layer through common Application Programmer Interface (API) to GMSEC components developed at GSFC. Users setup their own tasking requests, receive views into immediate past acquisitions in their area of interest, and into future feasibilities for acquisition across all assets. Automated notifications via pubsub feeds are returned to users containing published links to image footprints, algorithm results, and full data sets. Theme-based algorithms are available on-demand for processing.

Use of Highways in the Sky and a virtual pad for landing Head Up Display symbology to enable improved helicopter pilots situation awareness and workload in degraded visual conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanton, Neville A; Plant, Katherine L; Roberts, Aaron P; Allison, Craig K

2017-12-15

Flight within degraded visual conditions is a great challenge to pilots of rotary-wing craft. Environmental cues typically used to guide interpretation of speed, location and approach can become obscured, forcing the pilots to rely on data available from in-cockpit instrumentation. To ease the task of flight during degraded visual conditions, pilots require easy access to flight critical information. The current study examined the effect of 'Highways in the Sky' symbology and a conformal virtual pad for landing presented using a Head Up Display (HUD) on pilots' workload and situation awareness for both clear and degraded conditions across a series of simulated rotary-wing approach and landings. Results suggest that access to the HUD lead to significant improvements to pilots' situation awareness, especially within degraded visual conditions. Importantly, access to the HUD facilitated pilot awareness in all conditions. Results are discussed in terms of future HUD development. Practitioner Summary: This paper explores the use of a novel Heads Up Display, to facilitate rotary-wing pilots' situation awareness and workload for simulated flights in both clear and degraded visual conditions. Results suggest that access to HUD facilitated pilots' situation awareness, especially when flying in degraded conditions.

Advanced Topics in Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

2007-11-07

identification, adaptive optics 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION 18. NUMBER 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON OF ABSTRACT OF PAGES Sudhakar Prasad... Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona (co-PI) " Dr. Stuart M. Jefferies, Professor, IfA, University of Hawaii (Co-PI) " Dr. Robert J. Plemmons...available at AMOS for conducting imaging and nonimaging research and data analysis; " transition advanced mathematical concepts and software resulting

Zone-Aware Service Platform: A New Concept of Context-Aware Networking and Communications for Smart-Home Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jinsung Byun

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Recent advances in networking and communications removed the restrictions of time and space in information services. Context-aware service systems can support the predefined services in accordance with user requests regardless of time and space. However, due to their architectural limitations, the recent systems are not so flexible to provide device-independent services by multiple service providers. Recently, researchers have focused on a new service paradigm characterized by high mobility, service continuity, and green characteristics. In line with these efforts, improved context-aware service platforms have been suggested to make the platform possible to manage the contexts to provide the adaptive services for multi-user and locations. However, this platform can only support limited continuity and mobility. In other words, the existing system cannot support seamless service provision among different service providers with respect to the changes of mobility, situation, device, and network. Furthermore, the existing context-aware service platform is significant reliance on always-on infrastructure, which leads to great amounts of energy consumption inevitably. Therefore, we subsequently propose a new concept of context-aware networking and communications, namely a zone-aware service platform. The proposed platform autonomously reconfigures the infrastructure and maintains a service session interacting with the middleware to support cost- and energy-efficient pervasive services for smart-home sustainability.

Can We Measure Operating Team's Situation Awareness with Verbal Protocols?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Woo; Kim, Ar Ryum; Kang, Hyun Gook; Seong, Poong Hyun; Park, Jin Kyun

2011-01-01

Today's systems are complex, focused on not just physical tasks, but on elaborate perceptual and cognitive tasks as well. Hence, humans in many complex and dynamic systems are required to act as effective and timely decision makers. Situation Awareness (SA), which is used within human factor research to explain to what extent operators of safety critical and complex real systems know what is going on the system and the environment, is considered a prerequisite factor for effective decision making and performance. Thus, the need for operators to maintain SA in complex and dynamic environments is frequently cited as a key to effective and efficient performance. In terms of understanding SA, much effort has been devoted to the development of a measurement method of SA. Thus far, however, various studies have been limited to addressing the SA of individual operators. However, many complex systems are operated by teams. It is typical of complex systems that they require more than one operator. The purpose of this study is to develop team SA measurement method using verbal protocol data

TianShuiShi space breeding current situation and developing trend

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Fuquan; Song Jianrong; Zhang Zhongping; Guo Zhenfang

2011-01-01

TianShuiShi is located in xian to lanzhou among two big cities, the five space launch, has vegetables, food, grasses, flowers, rape, melon and fruit, Chinese traditional medicine, amount of 8 categories of crops, such as the 22 new material after carrying the ground breeding work. Only vegetables on identified 23 aerospace new varieties. After ten years of space breeding, summarizes the present situation of TianShuiShi space breeding, development experience, characteristic, trends, and puts forward the development space breeding TianShuiShi organization and breeding of talent from the matching policy and grow up incentive mechanism, strengthen the cooperation and all over the country, establishing fiscal policy support from the aspects such as advice. (authors)

En Route Care in Confined Spaces: Impact of Transport, Immobilization Practices, Space Constraints, and Medical Awareness Enhancements

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-01

physical space , ergonomics , and enhancement of medical awareness. Outcomes of the project will provide significant information and tools that can be...This group of research projects was designed to look at various aspects of transport, immobilization, optimal physical space , ergonomics , and...Devereux, J. 2002. The nature of work -related neck and upper limb musculoskeletal disorders. Applied Ergonomics . 33(3): 207-17. Chaffin, D.B

High Frontier: The Journal for Space and Cyberspace Professionals. Volume 7, Number 2

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-01

Awareness Sharing Ms. Jessica S. Tok ...Situational Awareness Sharing Ms. Jessica S. Tok Space Policy Analyst US Strategic Command/J513 Offutt AFB, Nebraska Trends Toward a Congested Domain...mitigate/mitigation.html; also United Nations, Report of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Annex (A/62/20). Ms. Jessica S. Tok (BS

Analysis of Pilot Feedback Regarding the Use of State Awareness Technologies During Complex Situations

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Emory; Young, Steven D.; Daniels, Taumi; Santiago-Espada, Yamira; Etherington, Tim

2016-01-01

A flight simulation study was conducted at NASA Langley Research Center to evaluate flight deck systems that (1) predict aircraft energy state and/or autoflight configuration, (2) present the current state and expected future state of automated systems, and/or (3) show the state of flight-critical data systems in use by automated systems and primary flight instruments. Four new technology concepts were evaluated vis-à-vis current state-of-the-art flight deck systems and indicators. This human-in-the-loop study was conducted using commercial airline crews. Scenarios spanned a range of complex conditions and several emulated causal factors and complexity in recent accidents involving loss of state awareness by pilots (e.g. energy state, automation state, and/or system state). Data were collected via questionnaires administered after each flight, audio/video recordings, physiological data, head and eye tracking data, pilot control inputs, and researcher observations. This paper strictly focuses on findings derived from the questionnaire responses. It includes analysis of pilot subjective measures of complexity, decision making, workload, situation awareness, usability, and acceptability.

Tag-n-Track system for situation awareness for MOUTs

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Rakesh; Aggarwal, Manoj; Germano, Thomas E.; Zhao, Tao; Fontana, Robert; Bushika, Martin

2006-05-01

In order to train war fighters for urban warfare, live exercises are held at various Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT) facilities. Commanders need to have situation awareness (SA) of the entire mock battlefield, and also the individual actions of the various war fighters. The commanders must be able to provide instant feedback and play through different actions and 'what-if' scenarios with the war fighters. The war fighters in their turn should be able to review their actions and rehearse different maneuvers. In this paper, we describe the technologies behind a prototype training system, which tracks war fighters around an urban site using a combination of ultra-wideband (UWB) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and smart video based tracking. The system is able to: (1) Tag each individual with an unique ID using an RFID system, (2) Track and locate individuals within the domain of interest, (3) Associate IDs with visual appearance derived from live videos, (4) Visualize movement and actions of individuals within the context of a 3D model, and (5) Store and review activities with (x,y,ID) information associated with each individual. Dynamic acquisition and recording of the precise location of individual troops and units during training greatly aids the analysis of the training sessions allowing improved review, critique and instruction.

Improving Situational Awareness in camera surveillance by combining top-view maps with camera images

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooi, F.L.; Zeeders, R.

2009-01-01

The goal of the experiment described is to improve today's camera surveillance in public spaces. Three designs with the camera images combined on a top-view map were compared to each other and to the current situation in camera surveillance. The goal was to test which design makes spatial

Enhanced Training for Cyber Situational Awareness in Red versus Blue Team Exercises

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carbajal, Armida J. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Human Factors and Statistics; Stevens-Adams, Susan Marie [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Risk and Reliability Analysis; Silva, Austin Ray [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Cognitive Modeling; Nauer, Kevin S. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Cyber Security Technologies; Anderson, Benjamin Robert [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Assurance Technologies and Assessment; Forsythe, James Chris [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Cognitive Modeling

2012-09-01

This report summarizes research conducted through the Sandia National Laboratories Enhanced Training for Cyber Situational Awareness in Red Versus Blue Team Exercises Laboratory Directed Research and Development project. The objective of this project was to advance scientific understanding concerning how to best structure training for cyber defenders. Two modes of training were considered. The baseline training condition (Tool-Based training) was based on current practices where classroom instruction focuses on the functions of a software tool with various exercises in which students apply those functions. In the second training condition (Narrative-Based training), classroom instruction addressed software functions, but in the context of adversary tactics and techniques. It was hypothesized that students receiving narrative-based training would gain a deeper conceptual understanding of the software tools and this would be reflected in better performance within a red versus blue team exercise.

SACRI: A measure of situation awareness for use in the evaluation of nuclear power plant control room systems providing information about the current process state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hogg, D.N.; Follesoe, K.; Volden, F.S.; Torralba, B.

1994-01-01

Control room operator support systems and their interface designs have as one goal the enhancement of the operators' situation awareness of the dynamically changing process state. This paper describes a technique for measuring situation awareness within the Human Factors evaluation of control room operator-system interfaces. The technique, referred to as SACRI, has been evaluated in four simulator studies and the main findings from these studies are summarized in this paper. It is concluded that SACRI can be a useful supplement to operator performance measures currently existing for use within control room interface evaluations. (author). 16 refs, 2 figs, 3 tabs

Situational Awareness Support to Enhance Teamwork in Collaborative Environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kulyk, Olga Anatoliyivna; van der Veer, Gerrit C.; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Jorge, J

2008-01-01

Modern collaborative environments often provide an overwhelming amount of visual information on multiple displays. The multitude of personal and shared interaction devices leads to lack of awareness of team members on ongoing activities, and awareness of who is in control of shared artefacts. This

Improving flight condition situational awareness through Human Centered Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Craig, Carol

2012-01-01

In aviation, there is currently a lack of accurate and timely situational information, specifically weather data, which is essential when dealing with the unpredictable complexities that can arise while flying. For example, weather conditions that require immediate evasive action by the flight crew, such as isolated heavy rain, micro bursts, and atmospheric turbulence, require that the flight crew receive near real-time and precise information about the type, position, and intensity of those conditions. Human factors issues arise in considering how to display the various sources of weather information to the users of that information and how to integrate this display into the existing environment. In designing weather information display systems, it is necessary to meet the demands of different users, which requires an examination of the way in which the users process and use weather information. Using Human Centered Design methodologies and concepts will result in a safer, more efficient and more intuitive solution. Specific goals of this approach include 1) Enabling better fuel planning; 2) Allowing better divert strategies; 3) Ensuring pilots, navigators, dispatchers and mission planners are referencing weather from the same sources; 4) Improving aircrew awareness of aviation hazards such as turbulence, icing, hail and convective activity; 5) Addressing inconsistent availability of hazard forecasts outside the United States Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ); and 6) Promoting goal driven approaches versus event driven (prediction).

The importance of shared mental models and shared situation awareness for transforming robots from tools to teammates

Science.gov (United States)

Ososky, Scott; Schuster, David; Jentsch, Florian; Fiore, Stephen; Shumaker, Randall; Lebiere, Christian; Kurup, Unmesh; Oh, Jean; Stentz, Anthony

2012-06-01

Current ground robots are largely employed via tele-operation and provide their operators with useful tools to extend reach, improve sensing, and avoid dangers. To move from robots that are useful as tools to truly synergistic human-robot teaming, however, will require not only greater technical capabilities among robots, but also a better understanding of the ways in which the principles of teamwork can be applied from exclusively human teams to mixed teams of humans and robots. In this respect, a core characteristic that enables successful human teams to coordinate shared tasks is their ability to create, maintain, and act on a shared understanding of the world and the roles of the team and its members in it. The team performance literature clearly points towards two important cornerstones for shared understanding of team members: mental models and situation awareness. These constructs have been investigated as products of teams as well; amongst teams, they are shared mental models and shared situation awareness. Consequently, we are studying how these two constructs can be measured and instantiated in human-robot teams. In this paper, we report results from three related efforts that are investigating process and performance outcomes for human robot teams. Our investigations include: (a) how human mental models of tasks and teams change whether a teammate is human, a service animal, or an advanced automated system; (b) how computer modeling can lead to mental models being instantiated and used in robots; (c) how we can simulate the interactions between human and future robotic teammates on the basis of changes in shared mental models and situation assessment.

Consciência situacional, tomada de decisão e modos de controle cognitivo em ambientes complexos Situation awareness, decision making, and cognitive control in complex environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Éder Henriqson

2009-01-01

Full Text Available O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a consciência situacional, os processos de tomada de decisão naturalística e os modos de controle cognitivo utilizados por pilotos de aeronaves em um experimento em simulador de voo. Dessa forma, diferentes situações foram propostas durante a simulação objetivando o estudo da consciência situacional e tomada de decisão dos tripulantes. As ações dos participantes foram investigadas e classificadas de acordo com o modelo de controle cognitivo proposto. Os resultados sugerem que os fatores de complexidade contextual afetam a gestão da dificuldade, influenciando a consciência situacional, a tomada de decisão e os modos de controle cognitivo dos pilotos.This work aims to analyze situation awareness, natural decision-making processes and cognitive control modes used by airplane pilots in a flight simulator experiment. In this way, different situations during flight simulation were considered in order to study the crew's situation awareness and natural decision-making. The participants' actions were investigated and classified according to the cognitive control model proposed. Results suggest that context complexity factors affect difficulty management, influencing situation awareness, decision-making and pilots' cognitive control modes.

Rapid SAR and GPS Measurements and Models for Hazard Science and Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Owen, S. E.; Yun, S. H.; Hua, H.; Agram, P. S.; Liu, Z.; Moore, A. W.; Rosen, P. A.; Simons, M.; Webb, F.; Linick, J.; Fielding, E. J.; Lundgren, P.; Sacco, G. F.; Polet, J.; Manipon, G.

2016-12-01

The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) project for Natural Hazards is focused on rapidly generating higher level geodetic imaging products and placing them in the hands of the solid earth science and local, national, and international natural hazard communities by providing science product generation, exploration, and delivery capabilities at an operational level. Space-based geodetic measurement techniques such as Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), SAR-based change detection, and image pixel tracking have recently become critical additions to our toolset for understanding and mapping the damage caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, and floods. Analyses of these data sets are still largely handcrafted following each event and are not generated rapidly and reliably enough for response to natural disasters or for timely analysis of large data sets. The ARIA project, a joint venture co-sponsored by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and by NASA through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has been capturing the knowledge applied to these responses and building it into an automated infrastructure to generate imaging products in near real-time that can improve situational awareness for disaster response. In addition, the ARIA project is developing the capabilities to provide automated imaging and analysis capabilities necessary to keep up with the imminent increase in raw data from geodetic imaging missions planned for launch by NASA, as well as international space agencies. We will present the progress we have made on automating the analysis of SAR data for hazard monitoring and response using data from Sentinel 1a/b as well as continuous GPS stations. Since the beginning of our project, our team has imaged events and generated response products for events around the world. These response products have enabled many conversations with those in the disaster response community

Augmented Reality Tool for the Situational Awareness Improvement of UAV Operators

Science.gov (United States)

Ruano, Susana; Cuevas, Carlos; Gallego, Guillermo; García, Narciso

2017-01-01

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being extensively used nowadays. Therefore, pilots of traditional aerial platforms should adapt their skills to operate them from a Ground Control Station (GCS). Common GCSs provide information in separate screens: one presents the video stream while the other displays information about the mission plan and information coming from other sensors. To avoid the burden of fusing information displayed in the two screens, an Augmented Reality (AR) tool is proposed in this paper. The AR system has two functionalities for Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) UAVs: route orientation and target identification. Route orientation allows the operator to identify the upcoming waypoints and the path that the UAV is going to follow. Target identification allows a fast target localization, even in the presence of occlusions. The AR tool is implemented following the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) standards so that it can be used in different GCSs. The experiments show how the AR tool improves significantly the situational awareness of the UAV operators. PMID:28178189

CCMC: bringing space weather awareness to the next generation

Science.gov (United States)

Chulaki, A.; Muglach, K.; Zheng, Y.; Mays, M. L.; Kuznetsova, M. M.; Taktakishvili, A.; Collado-Vega, Y. M.; Rastaetter, L.; Mendoza, A. M. M.; Thompson, B. J.; Pulkkinen, A. A.; Pembroke, A. D.

2017-12-01

Making space weather an element of core education is critical for the future of the young field of space weather. Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) is an interagency partnership established to aid the transition of modern space science models into space weather forecasting while supporting space science research. Additionally, over the past ten years it has established itself as a global space science education resource supporting undergraduate and graduate education and research, and spreading space weather awareness worldwide. A unique combination of assets, capabilities and close ties to the scientific and educational communities enable our small group to serve as a hub for rising generations of young space scientists and engineers. CCMC offers a variety of educational tools and resources publicly available online and providing access to the largest collection of modern space science models developed by the international research community. CCMC has revolutionized the way these simulations are utilized in classrooms settings, student projects, and scientific labs. Every year, this online system serves hundreds of students, educators and researchers worldwide. Another major CCMC asset is an expert space weather prototyping team primarily serving NASA's interplanetary space weather needs. Capitalizing on its unique capabilities and experiences, the team also provides in-depth space weather training to hundreds of students and professionals. One training module offers undergraduates an opportunity to actively engage in real-time space weather monitoring, analysis, forecasting, tools development and research, eventually serving remotely as NASA space weather forecasters. In yet another project, CCMC is collaborating with Hayden Planetarium and Linkoping University on creating a visualization platform for planetariums (and classrooms) to provide simulations of dynamic processes in the large domain stretching from the solar corona to the Earth's upper

Distributed situation awareness in complex collaborative systems: A field study of bridge operations on platform supply vessels.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandhåland, Hilde; Oltedal, Helle A; Hystad, Sigurd W; Eid, Jarle

2015-06-01

This study provides empirical data about shipboard practices in bridge operations on board a selection of platform supply vessels (PSVs). Using the theoretical concept of distributed situation awareness, the study examines how situation awareness (SA)-related information is distributed and coordinated at the bridge. This study thus favours a systems approach to studying SA, viewing it not as a phenomenon that solely happens in each individual's mind but rather as something that happens between individuals and the tools that they use in a collaborative system. Thus, this study adds to our understanding of SA as a distributed phenomenon. Data were collected in four field studies that lasted between 8 and 14 days on PSVs that operate on the Norwegian continental shelf and UK continental shelf. The study revealed pronounced variations in shipboard practices regarding how the bridge team attended to operational planning, communication procedures, and distracting/interrupting factors during operations. These findings shed new light on how SA might decrease in bridge teams during platform supply operations. The findings from this study emphasize the need to assess and establish shipboard practices that support the bridge teams' SA needs in day-to-day operations. Provides insights into how shipboard practices that are relevant to planning, communication and the occurrence of distracting/interrupting factors are realized in bridge operations.Notes possible areas for improvement to enhance distributed SA in bridge operations.

Managing Space Situational Awareness Using the Space Surveillance Network

Science.gov (United States)

2013-11-14

objects into Gabbard classes based on perigee and apogee height of the object’s respective orbits [3]. This simple form of sensor allocation was later...used Gabbard classes. This new method divided objects in the satellite catalog into 11 energy dissipation rate bins (each with their own suggested

Dynamic Sensor Tasking for Space Situational Awareness via Reinforcement Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Linares, R.; Furfaro, R.

2016-09-01

This paper studies the Sensor Management (SM) problem for optical Space Object (SO) tracking. The tasking problem is formulated as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and solved using Reinforcement Learning (RL). The RL problem is solved using the actor-critic policy gradient approach. The actor provides a policy which is random over actions and given by a parametric probability density function (pdf). The critic evaluates the policy by calculating the estimated total reward or the value function for the problem. The parameters of the policy action pdf are optimized using gradients with respect to the reward function. Both the critic and the actor are modeled using deep neural networks (multi-layer neural networks). The policy neural network takes the current state as input and outputs probabilities for each possible action. This policy is random, and can be evaluated by sampling random actions using the probabilities determined by the policy neural network's outputs. The critic approximates the total reward using a neural network. The estimated total reward is used to approximate the gradient of the policy network with respect to the network parameters. This approach is used to find the non-myopic optimal policy for tasking optical sensors to estimate SO orbits. The reward function is based on reducing the uncertainty for the overall catalog to below a user specified uncertainty threshold. This work uses a 30 km total position error for the uncertainty threshold. This work provides the RL method with a negative reward as long as any SO has a total position error above the uncertainty threshold. This penalizes policies that take longer to achieve the desired accuracy. A positive reward is provided when all SOs are below the catalog uncertainty threshold. An optimal policy is sought that takes actions to achieve the desired catalog uncertainty in minimum time. This work trains the policy in simulation by letting it task a single sensor to "learn" from its performance

Intensive care unit nurses' information needs and recommendations for integrated displays to improve nurses' situation awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, Sven H; Weir, Charlene; Haar, Maral; Staggers, Nancy; Agutter, Jim; Görges, Matthias; Westenskow, Dwayne

2012-01-01

Fatal errors can occur in intensive care units (ICUs). Researchers claim that information integration at the bedside may improve nurses' situation awareness (SA) of patients and decrease errors. However, it is unclear which information should be integrated and in what form. Our research uses the theory of SA to analyze the type of tasks, and their associated information gaps. We aimed to provide recommendations for integrated, consolidated information displays to improve nurses' SA. Systematic observations methods were used to follow 19 ICU nurses for 38 hours in 3 clinical practice settings. Storyboard methods and concept mapping helped to categorize the observed tasks, the associated information needs, and the information gaps of the most frequent tasks by SA level. Consensus and discussion of the research team was used to propose recommendations to improve information displays at the bedside based on information deficits. Nurses performed 46 different tasks at a rate of 23.4 tasks per hour. The information needed to perform the most common tasks was often inaccessible, difficult to see at a distance or located on multiple monitoring devices. Current devices at the ICU bedside do not adequately support a nurse's information-gathering activities. Medication management was the most frequent category of tasks. Information gaps were present at all levels of SA and across most of the tasks. Using a theoretical model to understand information gaps can aid in designing functional requirements. Integrated information that enhances nurses' Situation Awareness may decrease errors and improve patient safety in the future.

Controlling Air Traffic (Simulated) in the Presence of Automation (CATS PAu) 1995: A Study of Measurement Techniques for Situation Awareness in Air Traffic Control

Science.gov (United States)

French, Jennifer R.

1995-01-01

As automated systems proliferate in aviation systems, human operators are taking on less and less of an active role in the jobs they once performed, often reducing what should be important jobs to tasks barely more complex than monitoring machines. When operators are forced into these roles, they risk slipping into hazardous states of awareness, which can lead to reduced skills, lack of vigilance, and the inability to react quickly and competently when there is a machine failure. Using Air Traffic Control (ATC) as a model, the present study developed tools for conducting tests focusing on levels of automation as they relate to situation awareness. Subjects participated in a two-and-a-half hour experiment that consisted of a training period followed by a simulation of air traffic control similar to the system presently used by the FAA, then an additional simulation employing automated assistance. Through an iterative design process utilizing numerous revisions and three experimental sessions, several measures for situational awareness in a simulated Air Traffic Control System were developed and are prepared for use in future experiments.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON DIFFICULTY OF EVACUATION FROM UNDERGROUND SPACES UNDER INUNDATED SITUATIONS USING REAL SCALE MODELS

Science.gov (United States)

Baba, Yasuyuki; Ishigaki, Taisuke; Toda, Keiichi; Nakagawa, Hajime

Many urbanized cities in Japan are located in alluvial plains, and the vulnerability of urbanized areas to flood disaster is highlighted by flood attacks due to heavy rain fall or typhoons. Underground spaces located in the urbanized area are flood-prone areas, and the intrusion of flood watar into underground space inflicted severe damages on urban functions and infrastructures. In a similar way, low-lying areas like "bowl-shaped" depression and underpasses under highway and railroad bridges are also prone to floods. The underpasses are common sites of accidents of submerged vehicles, and severe damage including human damage occasionally occurs under flooding conditions. To reduce the damage due to inundation in underground space, needless to say, early evacuation is one of the most important countermeasures. This paper shows some experimental results of evacuation tests from underground spaces under inundated situations. The difficulities of the evacuation from underground space has been investigated by using real scale models (door, staircase and vehicle), and the limit for safety evacuation is discussed. From the results, it is found that water depth of 0.3 - 0.4m would be a critical situation for the evacuation from underground space through staircases and door and that 0.7 - 0.8m deep on the ground would be also a critical situation for safety evacuation though the doors of the vehicle. These criteria have some possibility to vary according to different inundated situations, and they are also influenced by the individual variation like the difference of physical strength. This means that these criteria requires cautious stance to use although they show a sort of an index of the limitation for saftty evacuation from underground space.

Global situational awareness and early warning of high-consequence climate change.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Backus, George A.; Carr, Martin J.; Boslough, Mark Bruce Elrick

2009-08-01

Global monitoring systems that have high spatial and temporal resolution, with long observational baselines, are needed to provide situational awareness of the Earth's climate system. Continuous monitoring is required for early warning of high-consequence climate change and to help anticipate and minimize the threat. Global climate has changed abruptly in the past and will almost certainly do so again, even in the absence of anthropogenic interference. It is possible that the Earth's climate could change dramatically and suddenly within a few years. An unexpected loss of climate stability would be equivalent to the failure of an engineered system on a grand scale, and would affect billions of people by causing agricultural, economic, and environmental collapses that would cascade throughout the world. The probability of such an abrupt change happening in the near future may be small, but it is nonzero. Because the consequences would be catastrophic, we argue that the problem should be treated with science-informed engineering conservatism, which focuses on various ways a system can fail and emphasizes inspection and early detection. Such an approach will require high-fidelity continuous global monitoring, informed by scientific modeling.

Real-time Social Media Data Analytics for Situational Awareness of the Electric Grid

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, H.; Chinthavali, S.; Lee, S.; Shankar, M.; Thiagarajan, S.

2016-12-01

With the increasing frequency of extreme events due to climate change, wide area situational awareness (SA) of the electric grid has become a primary need for federal agencies like DOE,FEMA etc. for emergency preparedness and recovery purposes. While several sensor feeds from Genscape, GridEye, PMUs provide a comprehensive view of the transmission grid, national-scale situational awareness tools are still relying on utility websites for outage information at a distribution level. The inconsistency and the variety in outage website's data formats makes this approach unreliable and also incurs huge software maintenance costs. Social media has emerged as a great medium for the utilities to share outage information with their customers. Despite their potential usefulness, extracting relevant data from these social media data-streams is challenging due to the inherent noise and irrelevant information such as tips to customers during storms, marketing, etc. In this study, we implement a practical and novel machine learning based data-analytics pipeline (Fig 1) for SA, which extracts real-time tweets from around 300 utility companies, processes these tweets using keyword filtering and Naïve-Bayes text classifier trained using supervised learning techniques to detect only relevant tweets. We validated the results by comparing it with the results identified by a human analyst for a period of 48 hours, and it showed around 98.3% accuracy. In addition to the tweets posted by utility companies, millions of twitter users, who are considered as human "social sensors", report power outages online. Therefore, we use Twitter Streaming API to extract real-time tweets containing keywords such as "power outage", "blackout", and "power cuts". An advanced natural language processing technique is proposed to identify the geo-locations associated with this power outage data. The detected tweets are visualized as a color-coded state and a county US map based on the number of outage tweets

Representing Operational Modes for Situation Awareness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirchhübel, Denis; Lind, Morten; Ravn, Ole

2017-01-01

Operating complex plants is an increasingly demanding task for human operators. Diagnosis of and reaction to on-line events requires the interpretation of real time data. Vast amounts of sensor data as well as operational knowledge about the state and design of the plant are necessary to deduct reasonable reactions to abnormal situations. Intelligent computational support tools can make the operator’s task easier, but they require knowledge about the overall system in form of some model. While tools used for fault-tolerant control design based on physical principles and relations are valuable tools for designing robust systems, the models become too complex when considering the interactions on a plant-wide level. The alarm systems meant to support human operators in the diagnosis of the plant-wide situation on the other hand fail regularly in situations where these interactions of systems lead to many related alarms overloading the operator with alarm floods. Functional modelling can provide a middle way to reduce the complexity of plant-wide models by abstracting from physical details to more general functions and behaviours. Based on functional models the propagation of failures through the interconnected systems can be inferred and alarm floods can potentially be reduced to their root-cause. However, the desired behaviour of a complex system changes due to operating procedures that require more than one physical and functional configuration. In this paper a consistent representation of possible configurations is deduced from the analysis of an exemplary start-up procedure by functional models. The proposed interpretation of the modelling concepts simplifies the functional modelling of distinct modes. The analysis further reveals relevant links between the quantitative sensor data and the qualitative perspective of the diagnostics tool based on functional models. This will form the basis for the ongoing development of a novel real-time diagnostics system based

Representing Operational Modes for Situation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Kirchhübel, Denis; Lind, Morten; Ravn, Ole

2017-01-01

Operating complex plants is an increasingly demanding task for human operators. Diagnosis of and reaction to on-line events requires the interpretation of real time data. Vast amounts of sensor data as well as operational knowledge about the state and design of the plant are necessary to deduct reasonable reactions to abnormal situations. Intelligent computational support tools can make the operator’s task easier, but they require knowledge about the overall system in form of some model. While tools used for fault-tolerant control design based on physical principles and relations are valuable tools for designing robust systems, the models become too complex when considering the interactions on a plant-wide level. The alarm systems meant to support human operators in the diagnosis of the plant-wide situation on the other hand fail regularly in situations where these interactions of systems lead to many related alarms overloading the operator with alarm floods. Functional modelling can provide a middle way to reduce the complexity of plant-wide models by abstracting from physical details to more general functions and behaviours. Based on functional models the propagation of failures through the interconnected systems can be inferred and alarm floods can potentially be reduced to their root-cause. However, the desired behaviour of a complex system changes due to operating procedures that require more than one physical and functional configuration. In this paper a consistent representation of possible configurations is deduced from the analysis of an exemplary start-up procedure by functional models. The proposed interpretation of the modelling concepts simplifies the functional modelling of distinct modes. The analysis further reveals relevant links between the quantitative sensor data and the qualitative perspective of the diagnostics tool based on functional models. This will form the basis for the ongoing development of a novel real-time diagnostics system based

Ecological interface design for turbine secondary systems in a nuclear power plant : effects on operator situation awareness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwok, J.

2007-01-01

Investigations into past accidents at nuclear power generating facilities such as that of Three Mile Island have identified human factors as one of the foremost critical aspects in plant safety. Errors resulting from limitations in human information processing are of particular concern for human-machine interfaces (HMI) in plant control rooms. This project examines the application of Ecological Interface Design (EID) in HMI information displays and the effects on operator situation awareness (SA) for turbine secondary systems based on the Swedish Forsmark 3 boiling-water reactor nuclear power plant. A work domain analysis was performed on the turbine secondary systems yielding part-whole decomposition and abstraction hierarchy models. Information display requirements were subsequently extracted from the models. The resulting EID information displays were implemented in a full-scope simulator and evaluated with six licensed operating crews from the Forsmark 3 plant. Three measures were used to examine SA: self-rated bias, Halden Open Probe Elicitation (HOPE), and Situation Awareness Control Room Inventory (SACRI). The data analysis revealed that operators achieved moderate to good SA; operators unfamiliar with EID information displays were able to develop and maintain comparable levels of SA to operators using traditional forms of single sensor-single indicator (SS-SI) information displays. With sufficient training and experience, operator SA is expected to benefit from the knowledge-based visual elements in the EID information displays. This project was researched in conjunction with the Cognitive Engineering Laboratory at the University of Toronto and the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Halden, Norway. (author)

A Simulation-based Approach to Measuring Team Situational Awareness in Emergency Medicine: A Multicenter, Observational Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenman, Elizabeth D; Dixon, Aurora J; Webb, Jessica M; Brolliar, Sarah; Golden, Simon J; Jones, Kerin A; Shah, Sachita; Grand, James A; Kozlowski, Steve W J; Chao, Georgia T; Fernandez, Rosemarie

2018-02-01

Team situational awareness (TSA) is critical for effective teamwork and supports dynamic decision making in unpredictable, time-pressured situations. Simulation provides a platform for developing and assessing TSA, but these efforts are limited by suboptimal measurement approaches. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a novel approach to TSA measurement in interprofessional emergency medicine (EM) teams. We performed a multicenter, prospective, simulation-based observational study to evaluate an approach to TSA measurement. Interprofessional emergency medical teams, consisting of EM resident physicians, nurses, and medical students, were recruited from the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and Wayne State University (Detroit, MI). Each team completed a simulated emergency resuscitation scenario. Immediately following the simulation, team members completed a TSA measure, a team perception of shared understanding measure, and a team leader effectiveness measure. Subject matter expert reviews and pilot testing of the TSA measure provided evidence of content and response process validity. Simulations were recorded and independently coded for team performance using a previously validated measure. The relationships between the TSA measure and other variables (team clinical performance, team perception of shared understanding, team leader effectiveness, and team experience) were explored. The TSA agreement metric was indexed by averaging the pairwise agreement for each dyad on a team and then averaging across dyads to yield agreement at the team level. For the team perception of shared understanding and team leadership effectiveness measures, individual team member scores were aggregated within a team to create a single team score. We computed descriptive statistics for all outcomes. We calculated Pearson's product-moment correlations to determine bivariate correlations between outcome variables with two-tailed significance testing (p teams (n = 41

Using Airborne Remote Sensing to Increase Situational Awareness in Civil Protection and Humanitarian Relief - the Importance of User Involvement

Science.gov (United States)

Römer, H.; Kiefl, R.; Henkel, F.; Wenxi, C.; Nippold, R.; Kurz, F.; Kippnich, U.

2016-06-01

Enhancing situational awareness in real-time (RT) civil protection and emergency response scenarios requires the development of comprehensive monitoring concepts combining classical remote sensing disciplines with geospatial information science. In the VABENE++ project of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) monitoring tools are being developed by which innovative data acquisition approaches are combined with information extraction as well as the generation and dissemination of information products to a specific user. DLR's 3K and 4k camera system which allow for a RT acquisition and pre-processing of high resolution aerial imagery are applied in two application examples conducted with end users: a civil protection exercise with humanitarian relief organisations and a large open-air music festival in cooperation with a festival organising company. This study discusses how airborne remote sensing can significantly contribute to both, situational assessment and awareness, focussing on the downstream processes required for extracting information from imagery and for visualising and disseminating imagery in combination with other geospatial information. Valuable user feedback and impetus for further developments has been obtained from both applications, referring to innovations in thematic image analysis (supporting festival site management) and product dissemination (editable web services). Thus, this study emphasises the important role of user involvement in application-related research, i.e. by aligning it closer to user's requirements.

The Efficacy of Using Synthetic Vision Terrain-Textured Images to Improve Pilot Situation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Uenking, Michael D.; Hughes, Monica F.

2002-01-01

The General Aviation Element of the Aviation Safety Program's Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) Project is developing technology to eliminate low visibility induced General Aviation (GA) accidents. SVS displays present computer generated 3-dimensional imagery of the surrounding terrain on the Primary Flight Display (PFD) to greatly enhance pilot's situation awareness (SA), reducing or eliminating Controlled Flight into Terrain, as well as Low-Visibility Loss of Control accidents. SVS-conducted research is facilitating development of display concepts that provide the pilot with an unobstructed view of the outside terrain, regardless of weather conditions and time of day. A critical component of SVS displays is the appropriate presentation of terrain to the pilot. An experimental study is being conducted at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to explore and quantify the relationship between the realism of the terrain presentation and resulting enhancements of pilot SA and performance. Composed of complementary simulation and flight test efforts, Terrain Portrayal for Head-Down Displays (TP-HDD) experiments will help researchers evaluate critical terrain portrayal concepts. The experimental effort is to provide data to enable design trades that optimize SVS applications, as well as develop requirements and recommendations to facilitate the certification process. In this part of the experiment a fixed based flight simulator was equipped with various types of Head Down flight displays, ranging from conventional round dials (typical of most GA aircraft) to glass cockpit style PFD's. The variations of the PFD included an assortment of texturing and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) resolution combinations. A test matrix of 10 terrain display configurations (in addition to the baseline displays) were evaluated by 27 pilots of various backgrounds and experience levels. Qualitative (questionnaires) and quantitative (pilot performance and physiological) data were collected during

Effects of Automation Types on Air Traffic Controller Situation Awareness and Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Sethumadhavan, A.

2009-01-01

The Joint Planning and Development Office has proposed the introduction of automated systems to help air traffic controllers handle the increasing volume of air traffic in the next two decades (JPDO, 2007). Because fully automated systems leave operators out of the decision-making loop (e.g., Billings, 1991), it is important to determine the right level and type of automation that will keep air traffic controllers in the loop. This study examined the differences in the situation awareness (SA) and collision detection performance of individuals when they worked with information acquisition, information analysis, decision and action selection and action implementation automation to control air traffic (Parasuraman, Sheridan, & Wickens, 2000). When the automation was unreliable, the time taken to detect an upcoming collision was significantly longer for all the automation types compared with the information acquisition automation. This poor performance following automation failure was mediated by SA, with lower SA yielding poor performance. Thus, the costs associated with automation failure are greater when automation is applied to higher order stages of information processing. Results have practical implications for automation design and development of SA training programs.

Message maps for Safety Barrier Awareness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

of the risks in a given situation, time or place, and by enabling them to observe and judge whether the relevant safety barriers are in place and in good order. This can be considered as “Situational Awareness (SA)”, which is an essential competence for at en employee can perform his/her job safely....... This Situational Awareness puts a number of requirements on people, work conditions, management, learning, knowledge, experience, motivation, etc. The Dutch WORM and RAM projects led to the identification of 64 types of risks and the safety barriers and performance factors that are linked to these risks...

Toma de conciencia de las situaciones y competencia deportiva. Situational awareness and sport competence.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricardo De La Vega Marcos

2007-10-01

Full Text Available ResumenEn el contexto de los deportes colectivos, los deportistas tienen que tener la capacidad de juego definida como un don muy complejo que consiste en saber utilizar las capacidades condicionales de coordinación, intelectuales y la habilidad técnica de manera que pueda resolver bien el objetivo de juego (Lorenzo, 2002. Este objetivo se debe plantear teniendo en cuenta el aspecto funcional bajo un enfoque constructivista. La conceptualización de una situación de juego colectivo 3x3 en baloncesto nos otorga la posibilidad de constatar con mayor claridad hasta qué punto los participantes son capaces de tomar conciencia de la acción por medio de la explicación verbal, el control necesario en la acción y la estrategia de actuación. Para ello hemos utilizado la entrevista clinica y el dibujo para describir cómo los jugadores elaboran y memorizan el conocimiento implicado en las acciones motrices (Gréhaigne y Godbout, 1995; Del Valle, 1999; Rychecki, 2001; De la Vega, 2002, ya que los jugadores en todo momento están llevando a cabo procesos cognitivos a la hora de analizar, planificar y evaluar el problema que se les plantea durante el desarrollo del partido o en el tiempo dedicado al entrenamiento. Los resultados demuestran que la toma de conciencia explícita sobre la acción está en función del nivel de práctica que poseen los participantes y por otro, que las diferencias existentes entre los grupos no experto y expertos, se han constatado por las disimilitudes halladas entre el número de relaciones que los participantes han sido capaces de establecer entre los distintos elementos que conforman la tarea.AbstractIn the context of sports, player´s competence is defined as a very complex issue. The player needs conditional capacities of coordination, intellectual and the technical skill to solve well the game (Lorenzo, 2002. The functional constructivist rationale can solve this problem. The awareness of a situation of collective

CURRENT SITUATION OF CIVIL AWARENESS OF UNDERGRADUATE AND PROMOTION STRATEGY RESEARCH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Hong-Mei

2017-06-01

Full Text Available We conducted on a questionnaire survey for the current college students’ civic awareness from four aspects of equality consciousness, national consciousness, freedom consciousness and public consciousness. Survey data was analyzed with the SAS® statistical software, the results shown that some of our country’s College Students with a strong national consciousness, and their patriotic feeling is deep at present. They identity the consciousness of equality, but their awareness of fighting for rights is not strong. They have a sense of freedom, but some students are not clear about the relationship between freedom and law. Their enthusiasm to participate in public affairs is not high. Their awareness of social morality is not comprehensive. The reason is that the influence of traditional culture and the political development can’t keep up with the development of economy and the systematic citizenship education is lacked. Finally, we put forward a method of improve the civic awareness of Contemporary College Students in this paper.

A System to Provide Real-Time Collaborative Situational Awareness by Web Enabling a Distributed Sensor Network

Science.gov (United States)

Panangadan, Anand; Monacos, Steve; Burleigh, Scott; Joswig, Joseph; James, Mark; Chow, Edward

2012-01-01

In this paper, we describe the architecture of both the PATS and SAP systems and how these two systems interoperate with each other forming a unified capability for deploying intelligence in hostile environments with the objective of providing actionable situational awareness of individuals. The SAP system works in concert with the UICDS information sharing middleware to provide data fusion from multiple sources. UICDS can then publish the sensor data using the OGC's Web Mapping Service, Web Feature Service, and Sensor Observation Service standards. The system described in the paper is able to integrate a spatially distributed sensor system, operating without the benefit of the Web infrastructure, with a remote monitoring and control system that is equipped to take advantage of SWE.

Situations of violence in school spaces: the voice of students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maíra Darido

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The article aims to outline the situations of violence and vulnerability faced by young people in schools. To understand the scenario transposition of everyday violence for school spaces has become critical analysis of the phenomenon by a new perception in the voice of the students. Thus, from the application of semi-structured questionnaires for young people between 15 and 17 years was possible closer to the diagnosis. The notes, in the end, gave birth to a path of joint efforts between the school and the community providing reflections on the subject.

Predictive analytics as an essential mechanism for situational awareness at the ATLAS Production System

CERN Document Server

Titov, Mikhail; The ATLAS collaboration

2017-01-01

The workflow management process should be under the control of the certain service that is able to forecast the processing time dynamically according to the status of the processing environment and workflow itself, and to react immediately on any abnormal behaviour of the execution process. Such situational awareness analytic service would provide the possibility to monitor the execution process, to detect the source of any malfunction, and to optimize the management process. The stated service for the second generation of the ATLAS Production System (ProdSys2, an automated scheduling system) is based on predictive analytics approach to estimate the duration of the data processings (in terms of ProdSys2, it is task and chain of tasks) with later usage in decision making processes. Machine learning ensemble methods are chosen to estimate completion time (i.e., “Time To Complete”, TTC) for every (production) task and chain of tasks, thus “abnormal” task processing times would warn about possible failure...

USING AIRBORNE REMOTE SENSING TO INCREASE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS IN CIVIL PROTECTION AND HUMANITARIAN RELIEF – THE IMPORTANCE OF USER INVOLVEMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Römer

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Enhancing situational awareness in real-time (RT civil protection and emergency response scenarios requires the development of comprehensive monitoring concepts combining classical remote sensing disciplines with geospatial information science. In the VABENE++ project of the German Aerospace Center (DLR monitoring tools are being developed by which innovative data acquisition approaches are combined with information extraction as well as the generation and dissemination of information products to a specific user. DLR’s 3K and 4k camera system which allow for a RT acquisition and pre-processing of high resolution aerial imagery are applied in two application examples conducted with end users: a civil protection exercise with humanitarian relief organisations and a large open-air music festival in cooperation with a festival organising company. This study discusses how airborne remote sensing can significantly contribute to both, situational assessment and awareness, focussing on the downstream processes required for extracting information from imagery and for visualising and disseminating imagery in combination with other geospatial information. Valuable user feedback and impetus for further developments has been obtained from both applications, referring to innovations in thematic image analysis (supporting festival site management and product dissemination (editable web services. Thus, this study emphasises the important role of user involvement in application-related research, i.e. by aligning it closer to user’s requirements.

A Space Object Detection Algorithm using Fourier Domain Likelihood Ratio Test

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, D.; Cain, S.

Space object detection is of great importance in the highly dependent yet competitive and congested space domain. Detection algorithms employed play a crucial role in fulfilling the detection component in the situational awareness mission to detect, track, characterize and catalog unknown space objects. Many current space detection algorithms use a matched filter or a spatial correlator to make a detection decision at a single pixel point of a spatial image based on the assumption that the data follows a Gaussian distribution. This paper explores the potential for detection performance advantages when operating in the Fourier domain of long exposure images of small and/or dim space objects from ground based telescopes. A binary hypothesis test is developed based on the joint probability distribution function of the image under the hypothesis that an object is present and under the hypothesis that the image only contains background noise. The detection algorithm tests each pixel point of the Fourier transformed images to make the determination if an object is present based on the criteria threshold found in the likelihood ratio test. Using simulated data, the performance of the Fourier domain detection algorithm is compared to the current algorithm used in space situational awareness applications to evaluate its value.

Recognition of risk situations based on endoscopic instrument tracking and knowledge based situation modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Speidel, Stefanie; Sudra, Gunther; Senemaud, Julien; Drentschew, Maximilian; Müller-Stich, Beat Peter; Gutt, Carsten; Dillmann, Rüdiger

2008-03-01

Minimally invasive surgery has gained significantly in importance over the last decade due to the numerous advantages on patient-side. The surgeon has to adapt special operation-techniques and deal with difficulties like the complex hand-eye coordination, limited field of view and restricted mobility. To alleviate these constraints we propose to enhance the surgeon's capabilities by providing a context-aware assistance using augmented reality (AR) techniques. In order to generate a context-aware assistance it is necessary to recognize the current state of the intervention using intraoperatively gained sensor data and a model of the surgical intervention. In this paper we present the recognition of risk situations, the system warns the surgeon if an instrument gets too close to a risk structure. The context-aware assistance system starts with an image-based analysis to retrieve information from the endoscopic images. This information is classified and a semantic description is generated. The description is used to recognize the current state and launch an appropriate AR visualization. In detail we present an automatic vision-based instrument tracking to obtain the positions of the instruments. Situation recognition is performed using a knowledge representation based on a description logic system. Two augmented reality visualization programs are realized to warn the surgeon if a risk situation occurs.

The Role of Awareness for Complex Planning Task Performance: A Microgaming Study

Science.gov (United States)

Lukosch, Heide; Groen, Daan; Kurapati, Shalini; Klemke, Roland; Verbraeck, Alexander

2016-01-01

This study introduces the concept of microgames to support situated learning in order to foster situational awareness (SA) of planners in seaport container terminals. In today's complex working environments, it is often difficult to develop the required level of understanding of a given situation, described as situational awareness. A container…

Source-space EEG neurofeedback links subjective experience with brain activity during effortless awareness meditation.

Science.gov (United States)

van Lutterveld, Remko; Houlihan, Sean D; Pal, Prasanta; Sacchet, Matthew D; McFarlane-Blake, Cinque; Patel, Payal R; Sullivan, John S; Ossadtchi, Alex; Druker, Susan; Bauer, Clemens; Brewer, Judson A

2017-05-01

Meditation is increasingly showing beneficial effects for psychiatric disorders. However, learning to meditate is not straightforward as there are no easily discernible outward signs of performance and thus no direct feedback is possible. As meditation has been found to correlate with posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) activity, we tested whether source-space EEG neurofeedback from the PCC followed the subjective experience of effortless awareness (a major component of meditation), and whether participants could volitionally control the signal. Sixteen novice meditators and sixteen experienced meditators participated in the study. Novice meditators were briefly trained to perform a basic meditation practice to induce the subjective experience of effortless awareness in a progressively more challenging neurofeedback test-battery. Experienced meditators performed a self-selected meditation practice to induce this state in the same test-battery. Neurofeedback was provided based on gamma-band (40-57Hz) PCC activity extracted using a beamformer algorithm. Associations between PCC activity and the subjective experience of effortless awareness were assessed by verbal probes. Both groups reported that decreased PCC activity corresponded with effortless awareness (Pneurofeedback to link an objective measure of brain activity with the subjective experience of effortless awareness, and suggest potential utility of this paradigm as a tool for meditation training. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Arctic Region Space Weather Customers and SSA Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Høeg, Per; Kauristi, Kirsti; Wintoft, Peter

Arctic inhabitants, authorities, and companies rely strongly on precise localization information and communication covering vast areas with low infrastructure and population density. Thus modern technology is crucial for establishing knowledge that can lead to growth in the region. At the same time...... and communication can be established without errors resulting from Space Weather effects. An ESA project have identified and clarified, how the products of the four ESA Space Weather Expert Service Centres (SWE) in the ESA Space Situational Awareness Programme (SSA), can contribute to the requirements of SSA...

Incongruity, Incongruity Resolution, and Mental States: The Measure and Modification of Situational Awareness and Control

Science.gov (United States)

Derks, Peter L.; Gillikin, Lynn S.

1997-01-01

Cognition and emotion combine to define mental states. Situational awareness depends on both knowledge of the environment and the mood of the individual. Cognitive scientists from William James and Sigmond Freud to contemporary theorists in artificial intelligence and neuropsychology have acknowledged the critical role of subjective state in determining the efficiency and flexibility of information processing. One of the most explicit computational models of mental states to incorporate both knowledge and arousal has been described. Knowledge is carried in a typical neural net with categorical nodes and probabilistic links. Arousal determines the focus among these nodes and links. High arousal results in a restricted range of activation. Low arousal causes a wider range of stimulation and a broader linking of categories or "ideas." From this model Gerlernter generates "creativity" in problem solving from a network that is widely active and the possibility of "fixation" from a highly aroused system.

Crew Situation Awareness, Diagnoses, and Performance in Simulated Nuclear Power Plant Process Disturbances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sebok, Angelia; Kaarstad, Magnhild

1998-01-01

Research was conducted at the OECD Halden Reactor Project to identify issues in crew performance in complex simulated nuclear power plant scenarios. Eight crews of operators participated in five scenarios, administered over a two or three-day period. Scenarios required either rule-based or knowledge-based problem solving. Several performance parameters were collected, including Situation Awareness (SA), objective performance, rated crew performance, and crew diagnoses. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in performance measures in knowledge-based and rule-based scenarios. Preliminary data analysis revealed a significant difference in crew SA between the two scenario types: crews in the rule-based scenarios had significantly higher SA then crews in the knowledge-based scenarios. Further investigations were initiated to determine if crews performed differently, in terms of objective performance, rated crew performance, and diagnoses, between the scenario types. Correlations between the various crew performance measurements were calculated to reveal insights into the nature of SA, performance, and diagnoses. The insights into crew performance can be used to design more effective interfaces and operator performance aids, thus contributing to enhanced crew performance and improved plant safety. (authors)

Study on operator’s SA reliability in digital NPPs. Part 1: The analysis method of operator’s errors of situation awareness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Peng-cheng; Zhang, Li; Dai, Li-cao; Li, Xiao-Fang

2017-01-01

Highlights: • The model of ESA is established from an organization perspective, and it is new perspective. • The detailed classification system of ESA is developed based on the built ESA model. It is useful to identify the cause chain and root causes of organization causing ESA. • The analysis method of ESA is also constructed to guide the investigation of ESA event. A case study is provided to illustrate the concrete application of the method. - Abstract: Situation awareness (SA) is a key element that impacts operator’s decision-making and performance in nuclear power plants (NPPs). The subsequent complex cognitive activities cannot be correctly completed due to errors of situation awareness (ESA), which will lead to disastrous consequences. In order to investigate and analyze operator’s ESA in the digitized main control room (DMCR) of a nuclear power plant, the model of ESA is established, the classification system of ESA is developed based on the built ESA model, and the analysis method of ESA is also constructed on the basis of the observation of simulator and operator surveys. Finally, a case study is provided to illustrate the concrete application of the method. It provides a theoretical and practical support for the operator’s SAE analysis in a digitized main control room of a nuclear power plant.

Optimization of automation: II. Estimation method of ostracism rate based on the loss of situation awareness of human operators in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Min; Kim, Man Cheol; Kim, Jong Hyun; Seong, Poong Hyun

2015-01-01

Highlights: • We analyze the relationship between Out-of-the-Loop and the loss of human operators’ situation awareness. • We propose an ostracism rate estimation method by only considering the negative effects of automation. • The ostracism rate reflects how much automation interrupts human operators to receive information. • The higher the ostracism rate is, the lower the accuracy of human operators’ SA will be. - Abstract: With the introduction of automation in various industries including the nuclear field, its side effect, referred to as the Out-of-the-Loop (OOTL) problem, has emerged as a critical issue that needs to be addressed. Many studies have been attempted to analyze and solve the OOTL problem, but this issue still needs a clear solution to provide criteria for introducing automation. Therefore, a quantitative estimation method for identifying negative effects of automation is proposed in this paper. The representative aspect of the OOTL problem in nuclear power plants (NPPs) is that human operators in automated operations are given less information than human operators in manual operations. In other words, human operators have less opportunity to obtain needed information as automation is introduced. From this point of view, the degree of difficulty in obtaining information from automated systems is defined as the Level of Ostracism (LOO). Using the LOO and information theory, we propose the ostracism rate, which is a new estimation method that expresses how much automation interrupts human operators’ situation awareness. We applied production rules to describe the human operators’ thinking processes, Bayesian inference to describe the production rules mathematically, and information theory to calculate the amount of information that human operators receive through observations. The validity of the suggested method was proven by conducting an experiment. The results show that the ostracism rate was significantly related to the accuracy

Knowledge Discovery for Smart Grid Operation, Control, and Situation Awareness -- A Big Data Visualization Platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gu, Yi; Jiang, Huaiguang; Zhang, Yingchen; Zhang, Jun Jason; Gao, Tianlu; Muljadi, Eduard

2016-11-21

In this paper, a big data visualization platform is designed to discover the hidden useful knowledge for smart grid (SG) operation, control and situation awareness. The spawn of smart sensors at both grid side and customer side can provide large volume of heterogeneous data that collect information in all time spectrums. Extracting useful knowledge from this big-data poll is still challenging. In this paper, the Apache Spark, an open source cluster computing framework, is used to process the big-data to effectively discover the hidden knowledge. A high-speed communication architecture utilizing the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model is designed to transmit the data to a visualization platform. This visualization platform uses Google Earth, a global geographic information system (GIS) to link the geological information with the SG knowledge and visualize the information in user defined fashion. The University of Denver's campus grid is used as a SG test bench and several demonstrations are presented for the proposed platform.

Modeling of Communication in a Computational Situation Assessment Model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Hyun Chul; Seong, Poong Hyun

2009-01-01

Operators in nuclear power plants have to acquire information from human system interfaces (HSIs) and the environment in order to create, update, and confirm their understanding of a plant state, or situation awareness, because failures of situation assessment may result in wrong decisions for process control and finally errors of commission in nuclear power plants. Quantitative or prescriptive models to predict operator's situation assessment in a situation, the results of situation assessment, provide many benefits such as HSI design solutions, human performance data, and human reliability. Unfortunately, a few computational situation assessment models for NPP operators have been proposed and those insufficiently embed human cognitive characteristics. Thus we proposed a new computational situation assessment model of nuclear power plant operators. The proposed model incorporating significant cognitive factors uses a Bayesian belief network (BBN) as model architecture. It is believed that communication between nuclear power plant operators affects operators' situation assessment and its result, situation awareness. We tried to verify that the proposed model represent the effects of communication on situation assessment. As the result, the proposed model succeeded in representing the operators' behavior and this paper shows the details

Integrated Monitoring AWAReness Environment (IM-AWARE), Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — American GNC Corporation (AGNC) and Louisiana Tech University (LaTECH) are proposing a significant breakthrough technology, the Integrated Monitoring AWAReness...

Unified Communications for Space Inventory Management

Science.gov (United States)

Gifford, Kevin K.; Fink, Patrick W.; Barton, Richard; Ngo, Phong H.

2009-01-01

To help assure mission success for long-duration exploration activities, NASA is actively pursuing wireless technologies that promote situational awareness and autonomy. Wireless technologies are typically extensible, offer freedom from wire tethers, readily support redundancy, offer potential for decreased wire weight, and can represent dissimilar implementation for increased reliability. In addition, wireless technologies can enable additional situational awareness that otherwise would be infeasible. For example, addition of wired sensors, the need for which might not have been apparent at the outset of a program, night be extremely costly due in part to the necessary routing of cables through the vehicle. RFID, or radio frequency identification, is a wireless technology with the potential for significant savings and increased reliability and safety in space operations. Perhaps the most obvious savings relate to the application of inventory management. A fully automated inventory management system is highly desirable for long-term sustaining operations in space environments. This assertion is evidenced by inventory activities on the International Space Station, which represents the most extensive inventory tracking experience base in the history of space operations. In the short tern, handheld RFID readers offer substantial savings owing to reduced crew time for inventory audits. Over the long term, a combination of improved RFID technology and operational concepts modified to fully utilize the technology should result in space based inventory management that is highly reliable and requires very little crew time. In addition to inventory management, RFID is likely to find space applications in real-time location and tracking systems. These could vary from coarse-resolution RFID portals to the high resolution afforded by ultra-wideband (UWB) RFID. Longer range RFID technologies that leverage passive surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are being investigated to

Mainstream Issues of Education and Public Awareness of Space Activities and Sciences among universities and Scientific Institutes.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Balbir

This paper is an effort to study and analyze several constraints and issues of space technology and education that organizations other than governmental organizations face in awareness program. In recent years, advancements in technologies have made it possible for Volunteer and Technical Communities, non-government organizations, private agencies and academic research institutions to provide increasing support to space education management and emphasis on response efforts. Important cornerstones of this effort and support are the possibility to access and take advantage of satellite imagery as well as the use of other space-based technologies such as telecommunications satellites and global navigation satellite systems included in main curriculum plus the implementation of programs for use of high class sophisticated technologies used by industries to the students and researchers of non-space faring nations. The authors recognize the importance of such new methodologies for education and public Awareness. This paper demonstrates many hurdles universities and scientific institutions face including lack of access in terms of financial and technical resources for better support. A new model for coordinated private sector partnership in response to space sciences and education has been discussed. In depth analysis and techniques need to connect these pioneering communities with the space industry as well as the space governmental agencies, with special emphasis on financial constraints. The paper mandates its role to promote the use of space-based information; its established networks bringing together national institutions responsible for these space based activities, as well as other end users, and space solution experts; and its technical foundation, particularly in the area of information technologies. To help building a tighter cooperation and further understanding among all these communities, paper delivers an intensive report and solutions for future

A multi-sensor fusion framework for improving situational awareness in demanding maritime training

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanfilippo, Filippo

2017-01-01

Real offshore operational scenarios can involve a considerable amount of risk. Sophisticated training programmes involving specially designed simulator environments constitute a promising approach for improving an individual's perception and assessment of dangerous situations in real applications. One of the world's most advanced providers of simulators for such demanding offshore operations is the Offshore Simulator Centre AS (OSC). However, even though the OSC provides powerful simulation tools, techniques for visualising operational procedures that can be used to further improve Situational awareness (SA), are still lacking. Providing the OSC with an integrated multi-sensor fusion framework is the goal of this work. The proposed framework is designed to improve planning, execution and assessment of demanding maritime operations by adopting newly-designed risk-evaluation tools. Different information from the simulator scene and from the real world can be collected, such as audio, video, bio-metric data from eye-trackers, other sensor data and annotations. This integration is the base for research on novel SA assessment methodologies. This will serve the industry for the purpose of improving operational effectiveness and safety through the use of simulators. In this work, a training methodology based on the concept of briefing/debriefing is adopted based on previous literature. By using this methodology borrowed from similarly demanding applications, the efficiency of the proposed framework is validated in a conceptual case study. In particular, the training procedure, which was previously performed by Statoil and partners, for the world's first sub-sea gas compression plant, in Aasgard, Norway, is considered and reviewed highlighting the potentials of the proposed framework. - Highlights: • A framework for improving SA in demanding maritime training is proposed. • The proposed framework is integrated with the Offshore Simulator Centre AS (OSC). • This

Approaches at KAIST NICIE Lab to quantifying situation awareness in nuclear power plant MCRs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seong, Poong-Hyun; Yim, Ho-Bin; Kim, Man-Cheol; Ha, Jun-Su; Lee, Hyun-Chul; Lee, Seung-Woo

2013-01-01

Situation awareness (SA) continues to receive a considerable amount of attention from the ergonomics community. But, techniques to measure SA have normally used expert judgment or a self-rating method so far. One of the problems of these techniques is inconsistency of results. So, empirical and analytical studies on an objective and quantitative SA measurement methods have been carried out at Nuclear I and C and Information Engineering Lab (NICIE Lab) in Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Empirical studies are based on physical and cognitive human behaviors, whereas analytical studies are mainly based on Bayesian inference. Eye movement signals and verbal protocol analysis were used for empirical approaches to obtain objective measures. FIR and SAE measures showed feasibility of an eye-tracking method for robust application. TSA score based on a verbal protocol analysis also showed its possibility of team SA (TSA) quantification. Bayesian inference was used for analytical approaches of SA quantification. The analytical quantification method was further expanded to consider some of the important human properties, and a SA modelling tool called ‘CoRSAGE, ver01” was developed. (author)

Perceived learning outcome: the relationship between experience, realism and situation awareness during simulator training.

Science.gov (United States)

Saus, Evelyn-Rose; Johnsen, Bjørn Helge; Eid, Jarle

2010-01-01

Navigation errors are a frequent cause of serious accidents and work-related injuries among seafarers. The present study investigated the effects of experience, perceived realism, and situation awareness (SA) on the perceived learning outcome of simulator-based navigation training. Thirty-two Norwegian Navy officer cadets were assigned to a low and a high mental workload conditions based on previous educational and navigational experience. In the low mental workload condition, experience (negatively associated), perceived realism, and subjective SA explained almost half of the total variance in perceived learning outcome. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that only subjective SA made a unique contribution to the learning outcome. In the high mental workload condition, perceived realism and subjective SA together explained almost half of the variance in perceived learning outcome. Furthermore, both perceived realism and subjective SA were shown to make an independent contribution to perceived learning outcomes. The results of this study show that in order to enhance the learning outcomes from simulator training it is necessary to design training procedures and scenarios that enable students to achieve functional fidelity and to generate and maintain SA during training. This can further improve safety and reduce the risk of maritime disasters.

Cross-Layer Damage Assessment for Cyber Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Peng; Jia, Xiaoqi; Zhang, Shengzhi; Xiong, Xi; Jhi, Yoon-Chan; Bai, Kun; Li, Jason

Damage assessment plays a very important role in securing enterprise networks and systems. Gaining good awareness about the effects and impact of cyber attack actions would enable security officers to make the right cyber defense decisions and take the right cyber defense actions. A good number of damage assessment techniques have been proposed in the literature, but they typically focus on a single abstraction level (of the software system in concern). As a result, existing damage assessment techniques and tools are still very limited in satisfying the needs of comprehensive damage assessment which should not result in any “blind spots”.

Proxemics models for human-aware navigation in robotics: Grounding interaction and personal space models in experimental data from psychology

OpenAIRE

Barnaud , Marie-Lou; Morgado , Nicolas; Palluel-Germain , Richard; Diard , Julien; Spalanzani , Anne

2014-01-01

International audience; In order to navigate in a social environment, a robot must be aware of social spaces, which include proximity and interaction-based constraints. Previous models of interaction and personal spaces have been inspired by studies in social psychology but not systematically grounded and validated with respect to experimental data. We propose to implement personal and interaction space models in order to replicate a classical psychology experiment. Our robotic simulations ca...

Simulation Development for Dynamic Situation Awareness and Prediction II

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Trott, Kevin C

2006-01-01

... within the simulation environment. These simulations provide feedback to prototype C4ISR systems in the form of mission status reports, sensor tracks, and other ISR mission results reports, which can be used to maintain situation...

Enhanced situation awareness and decision making for an intelligent reconfigurable reactor power controller

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kenney, S.J.; Edwards, R.M.

1996-01-01

A Learning Automata based intelligent reconfigurable controller has been adapted for use as a reactor power controller to achieve improved reactor temperature performance. The intelligent reconfigurable controller is capable of enforcing either a classical or an optimal reactor power controller based on control performance feedback. Four control performance evaluation measures: dynamically estimated average quadratic temperature error, power, rod reactivity and rod reactivity rate were developed to provide feedback to the control decision component of the intelligent reconfigurable controller. Fuzzy Logic and Neural Network controllers have been studied for inclusion in the bank of controllers that form the intermediate level of an enhanced intelligent reconfigurable reactor power controller (IRRPC). The increased number of alternatives available to the supervisory level of the IRRPC requires enhanced situation awareness. Additional performance measures have been designed and a method for synthesizing them into a single indication of the overall performance of the currently enforced reactor power controller has been conceptualized. Modification of the reward/penalty scheme implemented in the existing IRRPC to increase the quality of the supervisory level decision process has been studied. The logogen model of human memory (Morton, 1969) and individual controller design information could be used to allocate reward to the most appropriate controller. Methods for allocating supervisory level attention were also studied with the goal of maximizing learning rate

INCORPORATING ROUTINE ACTIVITIES, ACTIVITY SPACES, AND SITUATIONAL DEFINITIONS INTO THE SOCIAL SCHEMATIC THEORY OF CRIME*

Science.gov (United States)

BARR, ASHLEY B.; LEI, MAN-KIT; STEWART, ERIC

2014-01-01

Simons and Burt’s (2011) social schematic theory (SST) of crime posits that adverse social factors are associated with offending because they promote a set of social schemas (i.e., a criminogenic knowledge structure) that elevates the probability of situational definitions favorable to crime. This study extends the SST model by incorporating the role of contexts for action. Furthermore, the study advances tests of the SST by incorporating a measure of criminogenic situational definitions to assess whether such definitions mediate the effects of schemas and contexts on crime. Structural equation models using 10 years of panel data from 582 African American youth provided strong support for the expanded theory. The results suggest that childhood and adolescent social adversity fosters a criminogenic knowledge structure as well as selection into criminogenic activity spaces and risky activities, all of which increase the likelihood of offending largely through situational definitions. Additionally, evidence shows that the criminogenic knowledge structure interacts with settings to amplify the likelihood of situational definitions favorable to crime. PMID:26392633

Leveraging External Sensor Data for Enhanced Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-17

Education and Training Command in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Charlie T. Bellows, BS, MS Major, USAF...1 1.1 Research Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Research Objective...and Extrinsic Parameters for the Optical System . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 4.2 Predicted position RMSE for the Intelsat 1R TLE

An Integrated approach to the Space Situational Awareness Problem

Science.gov (United States)

2016-12-15

MONITOR’S ACRONYM(S) AFOSR 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT NUMBER(S) FA955003 12. DISTRIBUTION/ AVAILABILITY STATEMENT DISTRIBUTION A: Distribution approved for...DDDAS applications. The algorithm is a heuristic solution to the underlying partially observed Markov Decision Problem (PMDP) that does not suffer from...INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING SF 298 1. REPORT DATE. Full publication date, including day, month, if available . Must cite at least the year and be

Enhancing the Awareness of the Interaction of the Space Weather and Public: Some Case Studies in Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Tulunay, Y.; Tulunay, E.; Kocabas, Z.; Altuntas, E.; Yapici, T.; Senalp, E. T.; Hippler, R.

2009-04-01

Space Weather has important effects on many systems and peripherals that human interacts with. However, most of the people are not aware of those interactions. During the FP6 SWEETS, COST 724 and the ‘I love my Sun' activities it was aimed to create basis to bring together academicians from universities, experts from industry, scientific institutes, and the public, especially the school children of age 7-11, in order to enhance the awareness of space weather effects and to discuss appropriate countermeasures by different education and promotion methods including non-technical ones. This work mentions the activities performed in Turkey within the framework. Since 1990, a small group at METU has been developing data driven models in order to forecast some critical system parameters related with the near-Earth space processes. With the background on the subject the group feels responsible to organise activities in Turkey to inform public on enhancing the awareness of space weather effects. In order to inform and educate public on their interaction with the Space Weather, distinct social activities which take quick and strong attention were organised. Those include art shows and workshops, quizes, movies and entertainments, special programs for school children of age 7-11 under the ‘I love my Sun' activities, press releases, audio-visual media including webpages [Tulunay, 2007]. The impact of the activities can be evaluated considering the before and after activity record materials of the participants. For instance, under the ‘I love my Sun' activities, the school children drew pictures related with Sun before and after the informative programs. The performance of reaching the school children on the subject is very promising. Sub-activities conducted under the action are: 1. Space Weather Dance Show "Sonnensturm" 2. Web Quiz all over Europe: In Türkiye 3. Space Weather / Sun / Heliospheric Public Science Festivals in 27 Countries: In Türkiye 4. Space Weather on

Unmanned Tactical Autonomous Control and Collaboration Situation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

2017-06-01

They can assume, but ultimately they have to hope that the agent is later able to recall their thoughts in order to complete the picture of SA...environmental data with long term memory “schemata,” and the application of those schemata to the situation until the agent achieves a level of SA. Here, 8...schemata” is the term used for knowledge that is stored in long-term memory . He saw the usefulness and application of those schemata as inversely

Metacognitive monitoring and control in visual change detection: Implications for situation awareness and cognitive control

Science.gov (United States)

McAnally, Ken I.; Morris, Adam P.; Best, Christopher

2017-01-01

Metacognitive monitoring and control of situation awareness (SA) are important for a range of safety-critical roles (e.g., air traffic control, military command and control). We examined the factors affecting these processes using a visual change detection task that included representative tactical displays. SA was assessed by asking novice observers to detect changes to a tactical display. Metacognitive monitoring was assessed by asking observers to estimate the probability that they would correctly detect a change, either after study of the display and before the change (judgement of learning; JOL) or after the change and detection response (judgement of performance; JOP). In Experiment 1, observers failed to detect some changes to the display, indicating imperfect SA, but JOPs were reasonably well calibrated to objective performance. Experiment 2 examined JOLs and JOPs in two task contexts: with study-time limits imposed by the task or with self-pacing to meet specified performance targets. JOPs were well calibrated in both conditions as were JOLs for high performance targets. In summary, observers had limited SA, but good insight about their performance and learning for high performance targets and allocated study time appropriately. PMID:28915244

On the Relevance of Using Bayesian Belief Networks in Wireless Sensor Networks Situation Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Zennaro

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Achieving situation recognition in ubiquitous sensor networks (USNs is an important issue that has been poorly addressed by both the research and practitioner communities. This paper describes some steps taken to address this issue by effecting USN middleware intelligence using an emerging situation awareness (ESA technology. We propose a situation recognition framework where temporal probabilistic reasoning is used to derive and emerge situation awareness in ubiquitous sensor networks. Using data collected from an outdoor environment monitoring in the city of Cape Town, we illustrate the use of the ESA technology in terms of sensor system operating conditions and environmental situation recognition.

14 CFR 99.5 - Emergency situations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Emergency situations. 99.5 Section 99.5 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) AIR TRAFFIC AND GENERAL OPERATING RULES SECURITY CONTROL OF AIR TRAFFIC General § 99.5 Emergency situations. In an...

Tactile display landing safety and precision improvements for the Space Shuttle

Science.gov (United States)

Olson, John M.

A tactile display belt using 24 electro-mechanical tactile transducers (tactors) was used to determine if a modified tactile display system, known as the Tactile Situation Awareness System (TSAS) improved the safety and precision of a complex spacecraft (i.e. the Space Shuttle Orbiter) in guided precision approaches and landings. The goal was to determine if tactile cues enhance safety and mission performance through reduced workload, increased situational awareness (SA), and an improved operational capability by increasing secondary cognitive workload capacity and human-machine interface efficiency and effectiveness. Using both qualitative and quantitative measures such as NASA's Justiz Numerical Measure and Synwork1 scores, an Overall Workload (OW) measure, the Cooper-Harper rating scale, and the China Lake Situational Awareness scale, plus Pre- and Post-Flight Surveys, the data show that tactile displays decrease OW, improve SA, counteract fatigue, and provide superior warning and monitoring capacity for dynamic, off-nominal, high concurrent workload scenarios involving complex, cognitive, and multi-sensory critical scenarios. Use of TSAS for maintaining guided precision approaches and landings was generally intuitive, reduced training times, and improved task learning effects. Ultimately, the use of a homogeneous, experienced, and statistically robust population of test pilots demonstrated that the use of tactile displays for Space Shuttle approaches and landings with degraded vehicle systems, weather, and environmental conditions produced substantial improvements in safety, consistency, reliability, and ease of operations under demanding conditions. Recommendations for further analysis and study are provided in order to leverage the results from this research and further explore the potential to reduce the risk of spaceflight and aerospace operations in general.

Increasing fall risk awareness using wearables: A fall risk awareness protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Danielsen, Asbjørn; Olofsen, Hans; Bremdal, Bernt Arild

2016-10-01

Each year about a third of elderly aged 65 or older experience a fall. Many of these falls may have been avoided if fall risk assessment and prevention tools where available in a daily living situation. We identify what kind of information is relevant for doing fall risk assessment and prevention using wearable sensors in a daily living environment by investigating current research, distinguishing between prospective and context-aware fall risk assessment and prevention. Based on our findings, we propose a fall risk awareness protocol as a fall prevention tool integrating both wearables and ambient sensing technology into a single platform. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Sonic morphology: Aesthetic dimensional auditory spatial awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Whitehouse, Martha M.

The sound and ceramic sculpture installation, " Skirting the Edge: Experiences in Sound & Form," is an integration of art and science demonstrating the concept of sonic morphology. "Sonic morphology" is herein defined as aesthetic three-dimensional auditory spatial awareness. The exhibition explicates my empirical phenomenal observations that sound has a three-dimensional form. Composed of ceramic sculptures that allude to different social and physical situations, coupled with sound compositions that enhance and create a three-dimensional auditory and visual aesthetic experience (see accompanying DVD), the exhibition supports the research question, "What is the relationship between sound and form?" Precisely how people aurally experience three-dimensional space involves an integration of spatial properties, auditory perception, individual history, and cultural mores. People also utilize environmental sound events as a guide in social situations and in remembering their personal history, as well as a guide in moving through space. Aesthetically, sound affects the fascination, meaning, and attention one has within a particular space. Sonic morphology brings art forms such as a movie, video, sound composition, and musical performance into the cognitive scope by generating meaning from the link between the visual and auditory senses. This research examined sonic morphology as an extension of musique concrete, sound as object, originating in Pierre Schaeffer's work in the 1940s. Pointing, as John Cage did, to the corporeal three-dimensional experience of "all sound," I composed works that took their total form only through the perceiver-participant's participation in the exhibition. While contemporary artist Alvin Lucier creates artworks that draw attention to making sound visible, "Skirting the Edge" engages the perceiver-participant visually and aurally, leading to recognition of sonic morphology.

Learning situation models in a smart home.

Science.gov (United States)

Brdiczka, Oliver; Crowley, James L; Reignier, Patrick

2009-02-01

This paper addresses the problem of learning situation models for providing context-aware services. Context for modeling human behavior in a smart environment is represented by a situation model describing environment, users, and their activities. A framework for acquiring and evolving different layers of a situation model in a smart environment is proposed. Different learning methods are presented as part of this framework: role detection per entity, unsupervised extraction of situations from multimodal data, supervised learning of situation representations, and evolution of a predefined situation model with feedback. The situation model serves as frame and support for the different methods, permitting to stay in an intuitive declarative framework. The proposed methods have been integrated into a whole system for smart home environment. The implementation is detailed, and two evaluations are conducted in the smart home environment. The obtained results validate the proposed approach.

Situational leadership and persons with disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Cubero, Christopher G

2007-01-01

Does situational leadership style impact workers with disabilities? Situational leadership as a model and style of organizational management is defined. With a concentration on workers with disabilities, employer and employee perceptions of the workplace environment are analyzed as a contributing factor to the choice of leadership styles. Leadership style and its potential impact on workers with disabilities are included. Advantages of situational leadership style as an organizational model for managers that matches the intricate needs of workers with disabilities are argued. Methods for increasing awareness of the needs of persons with disabilities in the workplace and improving leadership models are discussed. Implications and potential outcomes for workers with disabilities based on the use of situational leadership by managers are discussed.

Human Factors and Information Operation for a Nuclear Power Space Vehicle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trujillo, Anna C.; Brown-Van Hoozer, S. Alenka

2002-01-01

This paper describes human-interactive systems needed for a crew nuclear-enabled space mission. A synthesis of aircraft engine and nuclear power plant displays, biofeedback of sensory input, virtual control, brain mapping for control process and manipulation, and so forth are becoming viable solutions. These aspects must maintain the crew's situation awareness and performance, which entails a delicate function allocation between crew and automation. (authors)

Spaced learning and innovative teaching: school time, pedagogy of attention and learning awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garzia Maeca

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Currently, the ‘time’ variable has taken on the function of instructional and pedagogical innovation catalyst, after representing-over the years-a symbol of democratisation, learning opportunity and instruction quality, able to incorporate themes such as school dropout, personalisation and vocation into learning. Spaced Learning is a teaching methodology useful to quickly seize information in long-term memory based on a particular arrangement of the lesson time that comprises three input sessions and two intervals. Herein we refer to a teachers’ training initiative on Spaced Learning within the programme ‘DocentiInFormAzione’ in the EDOC@WORK3.0 Project in Apulia region in 2015. The training experience aimed at increasing teachers’ competencies in the Spaced Learning method implemented in a context of collaborative reflection and reciprocal enrichment. The intent of the article is to show how a process of rooting of the same culture of innovation, which opens to the discovery (or rediscovery of effective teaching practices sustained by scientific evidences, can be successfully implemented and to understand how or whether this innovation- based on the particular organisation of instructional time-links learning awareness to learning outcomes.

Computational Representation of Situation Awareness with Graphical Expressions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yim, Hobin; Seong, Poonghyun

2013-01-01

Training is also frequently listed in general applications of SA evaluation. Unfortunately, almost of all methods are either subjective or qualitative, and often time consuming. Since the problems indicate, the core matter of using SA in training is the lack of well-developed or robust measurement tools. Therefore, an intuitive and easy handling SA measurement tool for NPP operators was developed based on the Petri-net and Bayesian inference. Measuring SA using Bayesian theory has been controversy, so sets of simulation training conducted by real NPP operators were video recorded for validation of the tool. There have been many attempts to understand cognitive processes in operators. Describing operator's SA is considered as one of the most plausible ways of such endeavors. Operator's cognitive activities in training can be a barometer of operator's unknown behavior in real situations. Knowing what the operator is thinking is important for better results of upcoming training. To give trainers an intuition that how well operators cope with dynamic situations, the quantitative tool to estimate SA named Corsage was proposed. Corsage gives reasonable clues why the operator behaves in a certain way by showing possible changes in a quantitative and graphical manner. Especially, a graphical comparison between referential information processing flow and operator's real information processing flow can offer trainers a detailed insight. In short, despite the incredulous opinion on measuring human cognition with probability, the result showed a positive view of applicability of Bayesian inference to SA measurement. The next step of the research will be improvement in responsiveness to 'rare but important' information

Radio Context Awareness and Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Reggiani

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The context refers to “any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity, where an entity can be a person, place, or physical object.” Radio context awareness is defined as the ability of detecting and estimating a system state or parameter, either globally or concerning one of its components, in a radio system for enhancing performance at the physical, network, or application layers. In this paper, we review the fundamentals of context awareness and the recent advances in the main radio techniques that increase the context awareness and smartness, posing challenges and renewed opportunities to added-value applications in the context of the next generation of wireless networks.

Representations for Supporting Students' Context Awareness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Demetriadis, Stavros N.; Papadopoulos, Pantelis M.

2005-01-01

The context of the specific situation where knowledge is applied affects significantly the problem solving process by forcing people to negotiate and reconsider the priorities of their mental representations and problem solving operators, in relation to this process. In this work we argue...... that students’ context awareness can significantly be enhanced by the use of appropriate external representations which guide them to activate context inducing cognitive processes. By embedding such representations in a case based learning environment we expect to guide students’ processing of the rich...... in contextual information material, in a way that improves both their context awareness and metacontextual competence. After presenting a context model, we discuss the design of such representations based on this model and explain why we expect that their use in a learning situation would enhance context...

Cognitive Systems Engineering Tool Survey - A Subtask in Support of Commander's Decision Aids for Predictive Battle-Space Awareness (CDA4PBA)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Sanders, Mary; Fitzhugh, Elisabeth

2005-01-01

...) DO 6, Commander's Decision Aids for Predictive Battle-Space Awareness, (CDA4PBA) is to identify system requirements necessary to capture the entire software and systems engineering process from concept...

Space Science at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Karl

2017-09-01

The Space Science and Applications group (ISR-1) in the Intelligence and Space Research (ISR) division at the Los Alamos National Laboratory lead a number of space science missions for civilian and defense-related programs. In support of these missions the group develops sensors capable of detecting nuclear emissions and measuring radiations in space including γ-ray, X-ray, charged-particle, and neutron detection. The group is involved in a number of stages of the lifetime of these sensors including mission concept and design, simulation and modeling, calibration, and data analysis. These missions support monitoring of the atmosphere and near-Earth space environment for nuclear detonations as well as monitoring of the local space environment including space-weather type events. Expertise in this area has been established over a long history of involvement with cutting-edge projects continuing back to the first space based monitoring mission Project Vela. The group's interests cut across a large range of topics including non-proliferation, space situational awareness, nuclear physics, material science, space physics, astrophysics, and planetary physics.

Enhancing situational awareness by means of visualization and information integration of sensor networks

Science.gov (United States)

Timonen, Jussi; Vankka, Jouko

2013-05-01

This paper presents a solution for information integration and sharing architecture, which is able to receive data simultaneously from multiple different sensor networks. Creating a Common Operational Picture (COP) object along with the base map of the building plays a key role in the research. The object is combined with desired map sources and then shared to the mobile devices worn by soldiers in the field. The sensor networks we used focus on location techniques indoors, and a simple set of symbols is created to present the information, as an addition to NATO APP6B symbols. A core element in this research is the MUSAS (Mobile Urban Situational Awareness System), a demonstration environment that implements central functionalities. Information integration of the system is handled by the Internet Connection Engine (Ice) middleware, as well as the server, which hosts COP information and maps. The entire system is closed, such that it does not need any external service, and the information transfer with the mobile devices is organized by a tactical 5 GHz WLAN solution. The demonstration environment is implemented using only commercial off-theshelf (COTS) products. We have presented a field experiment event in which the system was able to integrate and share real time information of a blue force tracking system, received signal strength indicator (RSSI) based intrusion detection system, and a robot using simultaneous location and mapping technology (SLAM), where all the inputs were based on real activities. The event was held in a training area on urban area warfare.

Building long-term constituencies for space exploration: The challenge of raising public awareness and engagement in the United States and in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Ehrenfreund, P.; Peter, N.; Billings, L.

2010-08-01

Space exploration is a multifaceted endeavor and will be a "grand challenge" of the 21st century. It has already become an element of the political agenda of a growing number of countries worldwide. However, the public is largely unaware of space exploration activities and in particular does not perceive any personal benefit. In order to achieve highly ambitious space exploration goals to explore robotically and with humans the inner solar system, space agencies must improve and expand their efforts to inform and raise the awareness of the public about what they are doing, and why. Therefore adopting new techniques aiming at informing and engaging the public using participatory ways, new communication techniques to reach, in particular, the younger generation will be a prerequisite for a sustainable long-term exploration program: as they will enable it and carry most of the associated financial burden. This paper presents an environmental analysis of space exploration in the United States and Europe and investigates the current branding stature of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). We discuss how improved market research and new branding methods can increase public space awareness and improve the image of NASA and ESA. We propose a new participatory approach to engage the public as major stakeholder (along governments, the industrial space sector and the science community) that may provide sufficient resources for and sustainability of a long-term space exploration program.

Computational Representation of Situation Awareness with Graphical Expressions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yim, Hobin; Seong, Poonghyun [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-05-15

Training is also frequently listed in general applications of SA evaluation. Unfortunately, almost of all methods are either subjective or qualitative, and often time consuming. Since the problems indicate, the core matter of using SA in training is the lack of well-developed or robust measurement tools. Therefore, an intuitive and easy handling SA measurement tool for NPP operators was developed based on the Petri-net and Bayesian inference. Measuring SA using Bayesian theory has been controversy, so sets of simulation training conducted by real NPP operators were video recorded for validation of the tool. There have been many attempts to understand cognitive processes in operators. Describing operator's SA is considered as one of the most plausible ways of such endeavors. Operator's cognitive activities in training can be a barometer of operator's unknown behavior in real situations. Knowing what the operator is thinking is important for better results of upcoming training. To give trainers an intuition that how well operators cope with dynamic situations, the quantitative tool to estimate SA named Corsage was proposed. Corsage gives reasonable clues why the operator behaves in a certain way by showing possible changes in a quantitative and graphical manner. Especially, a graphical comparison between referential information processing flow and operator's real information processing flow can offer trainers a detailed insight. In short, despite the incredulous opinion on measuring human cognition with probability, the result showed a positive view of applicability of Bayesian inference to SA measurement. The next step of the research will be improvement in responsiveness to 'rare but important' information.

Measuring Situation Awareness of Operating Team in Different Main Control Room Environments of Nuclear Power Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seung Woo Lee

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Environments in nuclear power plants (NPPs are changing as the design of instrumentation and control systems for NPPs is rapidly moving toward fully digital instrumentation and control, and modern computer techniques are gradually introduced into main control rooms (MCRs. Within the context of these environmental changes, the level of performance of operators in a digital MCR is a major concern. Situation awareness (SA, which is used within human factors research to explain to what extent operators of safety-critical systems know what is transpiring in the system and the environment, is considered a prerequisite factor to guarantee the safe operation of NPPs. However, the safe operation of NPPs can be guaranteed through a team effort. In this regard, the operating team's SA in a conventional and digital MCR should be measured in order to assess whether the new design features implemented in a digital MCR affect this parameter. This paper explains the team SA measurement method used in this study and the results of applying this measurement method to operating teams in different MCR environments. The paper also discusses several empirical lessons learned from the results.

Experiments for Evaluating Application of Bayesian Inference to Situation Awareness of Human Operators in NPPs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Seongkeun; Seong, Poong Hyun

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to confirm if Bayesian inference can properly reflect the situation awareness of real human operators, and find the difference between the situation of ideal and practical operators, and investigate the factors which contributes to those difference. As a results, human can not think like computer. If human can memorize all the information, and their thinking process is same to the CPU of computer, the results of these two experiments come out more than 99%. However the probability of finding right malfunction by humans are only 64.52% in simple experiment, and 51.61% in complex experiment. Cognition is the mental processing that includes the attention of working memory, comprehending and producing language, calculating, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. There are many reasons why human thinking process is different with computer, but in this experiment, we suggest that the working memory is the most important factor. Humans have limited working memory which has only seven chunks capacity. These seven chunks are called magic number. If there are more than seven sequential information, people start to forget the previous information because their working memory capacity is running over. We can check how much working memory affects to the result through the simple experiment. Then what if we neglect the effect of working memory? The total number of subjects who have incorrect memory is 7 (subject 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 25). They could find the right malfunction if the memory hadn't changed because of lack of working memory. Then the probability of find correct malfunction will be increased to 87.10% from 64.52%. Complex experiment has similar result. In this case, eight subjects(1, 5, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18, 30) had changed the memory, and it affects to find the right malfunction. Considering it, then the probability would be (16+8)/31 = 77.42%

Experiments for Evaluating Application of Bayesian Inference to Situation Awareness of Human Operators in NPPs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kang, Seongkeun; Seong, Poong Hyun [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

The purpose of this paper is to confirm if Bayesian inference can properly reflect the situation awareness of real human operators, and find the difference between the situation of ideal and practical operators, and investigate the factors which contributes to those difference. As a results, human can not think like computer. If human can memorize all the information, and their thinking process is same to the CPU of computer, the results of these two experiments come out more than 99%. However the probability of finding right malfunction by humans are only 64.52% in simple experiment, and 51.61% in complex experiment. Cognition is the mental processing that includes the attention of working memory, comprehending and producing language, calculating, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. There are many reasons why human thinking process is different with computer, but in this experiment, we suggest that the working memory is the most important factor. Humans have limited working memory which has only seven chunks capacity. These seven chunks are called magic number. If there are more than seven sequential information, people start to forget the previous information because their working memory capacity is running over. We can check how much working memory affects to the result through the simple experiment. Then what if we neglect the effect of working memory? The total number of subjects who have incorrect memory is 7 (subject 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 15, 25). They could find the right malfunction if the memory hadn't changed because of lack of working memory. Then the probability of find correct malfunction will be increased to 87.10% from 64.52%. Complex experiment has similar result. In this case, eight subjects(1, 5, 8, 9, 15, 17, 18, 30) had changed the memory, and it affects to find the right malfunction. Considering it, then the probability would be (16+8)/31 = 77.42%.

Context-Aware user interfaces in automation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Mikkel Holm

2007-01-01

Automation is deployed in a great range of different domains such as the chemical industry, the production of consumer goods, the production of energy (both in terms of power plants and in the petrochemical industry), transportation and several others. Through several decades the complexity...... of automation systems and the level of automation have been rising. This has caused problems regarding the operator's ability to comprehend the overall situation and state of the automation system, in particular in abnormal situations. The amount of data available to the operator results in information overload....... Since context-aware applications have been developed in other research areas it seems natural to analyze the findings of this research and examine how this can be applied to the domain of automation systems. By evaluating existing architectures for the development of context-aware applications we find...

Meditation and Relaxation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Napper-Owen, Gloria

2006-01-01

Children come to schools each day feeling many of the stressors that would normally be attributed to adult experiences. At an early age, children are confronted with situations that may make them anxious or begin to doubt their self-worth. Teachers can help children learn to manage their stress by helping them become more aware of negative…

Consumer value of context aware and location based mobile services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Vos, Henny; Haaker, Timber; Teerling, Marije; Kleijnen, M.H.P.

2008-01-01

Context aware services have the ability to utilize information about the user's context to adapt services to the user's current situation and needs. In this paper we consider users' perceptions of the added value of location awareness and presence information in mobile services. We use an

The Cultivation of Cultural Awareness in English Teaching

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

王宁

2015-01-01

As the development of the information age,the cultivation of intercultural communicative competence has been extremely important. Thus foreign language teaching lays stress on the cultivation of language comprehensive application ability. Culture awareness is an important part of language comprehensive application ability. The cultivating of students’ cultural awareness is beneficial to improve their humanistic quality,broaden their international view,strengthen their patriotism spirit and sense of national mission,and achieve their all-round development. The paper will discuss the current situation of cultural awareness cultivation in English teaching. In view of the problems and its causes existing in the cultural awareness cultivation,three count measures have been proposed.

Stressful gaming, interoceptive awareness, and emotion regulation tendencies: A novel approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lobel, A.M.; Granic, I.; Engels, R.C.M.E.

2014-01-01

Healthy emotion regulation is crucial for navigating stressful situations. Interoceptive awareness-the awareness of one's internal states-is important for such healthy regulation. Given the propensity for video games to induce stress, the associations between in-game and real world emotion

Using an ontology to automatically generate questions for the determination of situations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Teitsma, Marten; Sandberg, Jacobijn; Maris, Martinus; Wielinga, Bob; Hameurlain, Abdelkader; Liddle, Stephen W.; Schewe, Klaus-Dieter; Zhou, Xiaofang

2011-01-01

We investigate whether the automatic generation of questions from an ontology leads to a trustworthy determination of a situation. With our Situation Awareness Question Generator (SAQG) we automatically generate questions from an ontology. The experiment shows that people with no previous experience

Awareness of financial skills in dementia.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Wielingen, L E; Tuokko, H A; Cramer, K; Mateer, C A; Hultsch, D F

2004-07-01

The present study examined the relations among levels of cognitive functioning, executive dysfunction, and awareness of financial management capabilities among a sample of 42 community-dwelling persons with dementia. Financial tasks on the Measure of Awareness of Financial Skills (MAFS) were dichotomized as simple or complex based on Piaget's operational levels of childhood cognitive development. Severity of global cognitive impairment and executive dysfunction were significantly related to awareness of financial abilities as measured by informant-participant discrepancy scores on the MAFS. For persons with mild and moderate/severe dementia, and persons with and without executive dysfunction, proportions of awareness within simple and complex financial task categories were tabulated. Significantly less awareness of financial abilities occurred on complex compared with simple tasks. Individuals with mild dementia were significantly less aware of abilities on complex items, whereas persons with moderate/severe dementia were less aware of abilities, regardless of task complexity. Similar patterns of awareness were observed for individuals with and without executive dysfunction. These findings support literature suggesting that deficits associated with dementia first occur for complex cognitive tasks involving inductive reasoning or decision-making in novel situations, and identify where loss of function in the financial domain may first be expected. Copyright Taylor & Francis Ltd

Predicting individual differences in autonomy-connectedness: the role of body awareness, alexithymia, and assertiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Bekker, Marrie H J; Croon, Marcel A; van Balkom, Esther G A; Vermee, Jennifer B G

2008-06-01

Autonomy-connectedness is the capacity for being on one's own as well as for satisfactorily engaging in interpersonal relationships. Associations have been shown between autonomy-connectedness components (self-awareness, sensitivity to others, and the capacity for managing new situations) and various indices of psychopathology. Both in a theoretical sense as well as for enhancing treatment and prevention, it is relevant to identify which factors most powerfully predict individual differences in autonomy-connectedness: body awareness, alexithymia, or assertiveness. The present study examined this question in a clinical sample of women who were diagnosed as having autonomy problems (N=52) and in a female nonclinical community sample (N=59). In line with expectations, assertiveness was a strong predictor of (all three components of) autonomy-connectedness, as was emotionalizing, one of the alexithymia-components, but the latter in an opposite direction than we had expected: the higher an individual's ability to emotionalize was, the less self-aware and capable to manage new situations that person was, and the more sensitive to others. Cognitive alexithymia contributed to self-awareness as well as to the capacity for managing new situations, and one of the components of body awareness appeared to predict capacity for managing new situations. Our results indicate that assertiveness training and the enhancement of emotion regulation are important elements of autonomy-connectedness targeted interventions. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Deep situationality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Matejskova, Tatiana

2014-01-01

as a Slovak national with immigration experi- ence, a nominal outsider to both the country of research, Germany, and its immigrant subjects, the post-Soviet Russian-speaking migrants. Focusing on the production of time-spaces of proximity as a deeply situational process, I stress in particular the un...

Human Factors for Situation Assessment in Grid Operations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guttromson, Ross T.; Schur, Anne; Greitzer, Frank L.; Paget, Mia L.

2007-08-08

Executive Summary Despite advances in technology, power system operators must assimilate overwhelming amounts of data to keep the grid operating. Analyses of recent blackouts have clearly demonstrated the need to enhance the operator’s situation awareness (SA). The long-term objective of this research is to integrate valuable technologies into the grid operator environment that support decision making under normal and abnormal operating conditions and remove non-technical barriers to enable the optimum use of these technologies by individuals working alone and as a team. More specifically, the research aims to identify methods and principles to increase SA of grid operators in the context of system conditions that are representative or common across many operating entities and develop operationally relevant experimental methods for studying technologies and operational practices which contribute to SA. With increasing complexity and interconnectivity of the grid, the scope and complexity of situation awareness have grown. New paradigms are needed to guide research and tool development aimed to enhance and improve operations. In reviewing related research, operating practices, systems, and tools, the present study established a taxonomy that provides a perspective on research and development surrounding power grid situation awareness and clarifies the field of human factors/SA for grid operations. Information sources that we used to identify critical factors underlying SA included interviews with experienced operational personnel, available historical summaries and transcripts of abnormal conditions and outages (e.g., the August 14, 2003 blackout), scientific literature, and operational policies/procedures and other documentation. Our analysis of August 2003 blackout transcripts and interviews adopted a different perspective than previous analyses of this material, and we complemented this analysis with additional interviews. Based on our analysis and a broad

The Importance of Situational Awareness: A Qualitative Study of Family Members' and Nurses' Perspectives on Teaching During Family-Centered Rounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Jimmy; Meyer, Rebecca; Kind, Terry; Bhansali, Priti

2015-10-01

Family-centered rounds (FCR) has become a leading model for pediatric inpatient rounding. During FCR, faculty must balance trainees' educational needs with patient care priorities. Investigators have examined trainees' views on effective teaching during FCR, but none have evaluated what family members and nurses consider to be effective teaching behaviors of attending physicians. The authors sought to explore family members' and nurses' perspectives on effective teaching behaviors during FCR. The authors conducted (2012-2013) a qualitative study of families and nurses at an academic children's hospital where FCR is the standard model for inpatient rounds. Nurses and families familiar with FCR participated in separate focus groups. The authors reviewed focus group transcripts using techniques of qualitative content analysis; they generated codes and developed categories, supported by illustrative quotations. Fifteen nurses and 13 family members participated in the focus groups. The unifying theme was that situational awareness on behalf of the attending physician is essential for FCR to be educational for all participants. The authors identified four categories of awareness-(1) cognitive factors, (2) logistics and time management, (3) physical environment, (4) emotional state-and developed a set of effective teaching strategies based on participants' comments. The findings of this study support previous work identifying effective FCR teaching strategies, but this study is the first to include the perspectives of families and nurses. The inclusion of these participants provides a framework for faculty development and training to improve the educational value of FCR.

Situational awareness of a coordinated cyber attack

Science.gov (United States)

Sudit, Moises; Stotz, Adam; Holender, Michael

2005-03-01

As technology continues to advance, services and capabilities become computerized, and an ever increasing amount of business is conducted electronically the threat of cyber attacks gets compounded by the complexity of such attacks and the criticality of the information which must be secured. A new age of virtual warfare has dawned in which seconds can differentiate between the protection of vital information and/or services and a malicious attacker attaining their goal. In this paper we present a novel approach in the real-time detection of multistage coordinated cyber attacks and the promising initial testing results we have obtained. We introduce INFERD (INformation Fusion Engine for Real-time Decision-making), an adaptable information fusion engine which performs fusion at levels zero, one, and two to provide real-time situational assessment and its application to the cyber domain in the ECCARS (Event Correlation for Cyber Attack Recognition System) system. The advantages to our approach are fourfold: (1) The complexity of the attacks which we consider, (2) the level of abstraction in which the analyst interacts with the attack scenarios, (3) the speed at which the information fusion is presented and performed, and (4) our disregard for ad-hoc rules or a priori parameters.

New technologies for information retrieval to achieve situational awareness and higher patient safety in the surgical operating room: the MRI institutional approach and review of the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Kranzfelder, Michael; Schneider, Armin; Gillen, Sonja; Feussner, Hubertus

2011-03-01

Technical progress in the operating room (OR) increases constantly, but advanced techniques for error prevention are lacking. It has been the vision to create intelligent OR systems ("autopilot") that not only collect intraoperative data but also interpret whether the course of the operation is normal or deviating from the schedule ("situation awareness"), to recommend the adequate next steps of the intervention, and to identify imminent risky situations. Recently introduced technologies in health care for real-time data acquisition (bar code, radiofrequency identification [RFID], voice and emotion recognition) may have the potential to meet these demands. This report aims to identify, based on the authors' institutional experience and a review of the literature (MEDLINE search 2000-2010), which technologies are currently most promising for providing the required data and to describe their fields of application and potential limitations. Retrieval of information on the functional state of the peripheral devices in the OR is technically feasible by continuous sensor-based data acquisition and online analysis. Using bar code technologies, automatic instrument identification seems conceivable, with information given about the actual part of the procedure and indication of any change in the routine workflow. The dynamics of human activities also comprise key information. A promising technology for continuous personnel tracking is data acquisition with RFID. Emotional data capture and analysis in the OR are difficult. Although technically feasible, nonverbal emotion recognition is difficult to assess. In contrast, emotion recognition by speech seems to be a promising technology for further workflow prediction. The presented technologies are a first step to achieving an increased situational awareness in the OR. However, workflow definition in surgery is feasible only if the procedure is standardized, the peculiarities of the individual patient are taken into account

Emotional Awareness and Couples' Relationship Satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Croyle, Kristin L.; Waltz, Jennifer

2002-01-01

This study examined the role of emotional awareness in couples' relationships and the effects of a tendency to respond to difficult couples' situations with "soft" emotions (including sadness and fear) versus "hard" emotions (including anger and resentment). Participants were 56 heterosexual couples who completed a measure of relationship…

Mentoring SFRM: A New Approach to International Space Station Flight Controller Training

Science.gov (United States)

Huning, Therese; Barshi, Immanuel; Schmidt, Lacey

2008-01-01

The Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) of the Johnson Space Center is responsible for providing continuous operations support for the International Space Station (ISS). Operations support requires flight controllers who are skilled in team performance as well as the technical operations of the ISS. Space Flight Resource Management (SFRM), a NASA adapted variant of Crew Resource Management (CRM), is the competency model used in the MOD. ISS flight controller certification has evolved to include a balanced focus on development of SFRM and technical expertise. The latest challenge the MOD faces is how to certify an ISS flight controller (operator) to a basic level of effectiveness in 1 year. SFRM training uses a two-pronged approach to expediting operator certification: 1) imbed SFRM skills training into all operator technical training and 2) use senior flight controllers as mentors. This paper focuses on how the MOD uses senior flight controllers as mentors to train SFRM skills. Methods: A mentor works with an operator throughout the training flow. Inserted into the training flow are guided-discussion sessions and on-the-job observation opportunities focusing on specific SFRM skills, including: situational leadership, conflict management, stress management, cross-cultural awareness, self care and team care while on-console, communication, workload management, and situation awareness. The mentor and operator discuss the science and art behind the skills, cultural effects on skills applications, recognition of good and bad skills applications, recognition of how skills application changes subtly in different situations, and individual goals and techniques for improving skills. Discussion: This mentoring program provides an additional means of transferring SFRM knowledge compared to traditional CRM training programs. Our future endeavors in training SFRM skills (as well as other organization s) may benefit from adding team performance skills mentoring. This paper

Case Study of Using High Performance Commercial Processors in Space

Science.gov (United States)

Ferguson, Roscoe C.; Olivas, Zulema

2009-01-01

The purpose of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade project (1999 2004) was to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness. The upgrade was to augment the Shuttle avionics system with new hardware and software. A major success of this project was the validation of the hardware architecture and software design. This was significant because the project incorporated new technology and approaches for the development of human rated space software. An early version of this system was tested at the Johnson Space Center for one month by teams of astronauts. The results were positive, but NASA eventually cancelled the project towards the end of the development cycle. The goal to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness resulted in the need for high performance Central Processing Units (CPUs). The choice of CPU selected was the PowerPC family, which is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) known for its high performance. However, the requirement for radiation tolerance resulted in the re-evaluation of the selected family member of the PowerPC line. Radiation testing revealed that the original selected processor (PowerPC 7400) was too soft to meet mission objectives and an effort was established to perform trade studies and performance testing to determine a feasible candidate. At that time, the PowerPC RAD750s were radiation tolerant, but did not meet the required performance needs of the project. Thus, the final solution was to select the PowerPC 7455. This processor did not have a radiation tolerant version, but had some ability to detect failures. However, its cache tags did not provide parity and thus the project incorporated a software strategy to detect radiation failures. The strategy was to incorporate dual paths for software generating commands to the legacy Space Shuttle avionics to prevent failures due to the softness of the upgraded avionics.

A Work-Demand Analysis Compatible with Preemption-Aware Scheduling for Power-Aware Real-Time Tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Da-Ren Chen

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Due to the importance of slack time utilization for power-aware scheduling algorithms,we propose a work-demand analysis method called parareclamation algorithm (PRA to increase slack time utilization of the existing real-time DVS algorithms. PRA is an online scheduling for power-aware real-time tasks under rate-monotonic (RM policy. It can be implemented and fully compatible with preemption-aware or transition-aware scheduling algorithms without increasing their computational complexities. The key technique of the heuristics method doubles the analytical interval and turns the deferrable workload out the potential slack time. Theoretical proofs show that PRA guarantees the task deadlines in a feasible RM schedule and takes linear time and space complexities. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method combining the preemption-aware methods seamlessly reduces the energy consumption by 14% on average over their original algorithms.

Learning Agents for Autonomous Space Asset Management (LAASAM)

Science.gov (United States)

Scally, L.; Bonato, M.; Crowder, J.

2011-09-01

Current and future space systems will continue to grow in complexity and capabilities, creating a formidable challenge to monitor, maintain, and utilize these systems and manage their growing network of space and related ground-based assets. Integrated System Health Management (ISHM), and in particular, Condition-Based System Health Management (CBHM), is the ability to manage and maintain a system using dynamic real-time data to prioritize, optimize, maintain, and allocate resources. CBHM entails the maintenance of systems and equipment based on an assessment of current and projected conditions (situational and health related conditions). A complete, modern CBHM system comprises a number of functional capabilities: sensing and data acquisition; signal processing; conditioning and health assessment; diagnostics and prognostics; and decision reasoning. In addition, an intelligent Human System Interface (HSI) is required to provide the user/analyst with relevant context-sensitive information, the system condition, and its effect on overall situational awareness of space (and related) assets. Colorado Engineering, Inc. (CEI) and Raytheon are investigating and designing an Intelligent Information Agent Architecture that will provide a complete range of CBHM and HSI functionality from data collection through recommendations for specific actions. The research leverages CEI’s expertise with provisioning management network architectures and Raytheon’s extensive experience with learning agents to define a system to autonomously manage a complex network of current and future space-based assets to optimize their utilization.

Architectural support for mobile context-aware applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dockhorn Costa, P.; Ferreira Pires, Luis; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Khalil Ibrahim, I.

2006-01-01

Context-awareness has emerged as an important and desirable feature in distributed mobile systems, since it benefits from the changes in the user's context to dynamically tailor services to the user's current situation and needs. This chapter presents our efforts on designing a flexible

Emergent situation awareness of drivable routes for autonomous robots using temporal probalistic reasoning

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Osunmakinde, IO

2009-11-01

Full Text Available of hidden paths embedded in the complex environments. Experimental evaluations of the ESA on real life and publicly available road frames outperform the classical statistical baseline methods in handling uncertainties over time. Our awareness results reveal...

Situational awareness and information flow in prehospital emergency medical care from the perspective of paramedic field supervisors: a scenario-based study.

Science.gov (United States)

Norri-Sederholm, Teija; Paakkonen, Heikki; Kurola, Jouni; Saranto, Kaija

2015-01-16

, police, and rescue services during the multi-authority incidents. This study provides knowledge about the critical information categories when receiving and sharing the information to obtain and maintain situational awareness. However, further research is needed to examine more the information flow in prehospital emergency care to enable a better understanding of required communication in situational awareness formation.

Context Aware Systems, Methods and Trends in Smart Home Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Robles, Rosslin John; Kim, Tai-Hoon

Context aware applications respond and adapt to changes in the computing environment. It is the concept of leveraging information about the end user to improve the quality of the interaction. New technologies in context-enriched services will use location, presence, social attributes, and other environmental information to anticipate an end user's immediate needs, offering more-sophisticated, situation-aware and usable functions. Smart homes connect all the devices and appliances in your home so they can communicate with each other and with you. Context-awareness can be applied to Smart Home technology. In this paper, we discuss the context-aware tools for development of Smart Home Systems.

Measurement of Temporal Awareness in Air Traffic Control

Science.gov (United States)

Rantanen, E.M.

2009-01-01

Temporal awareness, or level 3 situation awareness, is critical to successful control of air traffic, yet the construct remains ill-defined and difficult to measure. This research sought evidence for air traffic controllers awareness of temporal characteristics of their tasks in data from a high-fidelity system evaluation simulation. Five teams of controllers worked on four scenarios with different traffic load. Several temporal parameters were defined for each task controllers performed during a simulation run and their actions on the tasks were timed relative to them. Controllers showed a strong tendency to prioritize tasks according to a first come, first served principle. This trend persisted as task load increased. Also evident was awareness of the urgency of tasks, as tasks with impending closing of a window of opportunity were performed before tasks that had longer time available before closing of the window.

Space ecoliteracy- five informal education models for community empowerment

Science.gov (United States)

Venkataramaiah, Jagannatha; Jagannath, Sahana; J, Spandana; J, Sadhana; Jagannath, Shobha

Space ecoliteracy is a historical necessity and vital aspect of space age.Space Situational Awareness has taught lessons for mankind to look inward while stretching beyond cradle in human endeavours. Quality of life for every one on the only home of mankind-TERRA shall be a feasibility only after realizing Space ecoliteracy amongst all stakeholders in space quest. Objectives of Informal Environmental Education(UNESCO/UNEP/IEEP,1977) mandates awareness, attitude, knowledge, skill and participation at Individual and Community domains. Application of Space Technology at both Telecommunications and Remote Sensing domain have started making the fact that mankind has a challenge to learn and affirm earthmanship. Community empowerment focus after Earth Summit 1992 mandate of Sustainable Development has demonstrated a deluge of best practices in Agriculture,Urban, Industries and service sectors all over the globe. Further, deployment of Space technologies have proved the immense potential only after pre-empting the participatory approach at individual and community levels.Indian Space Programme with its 44th year of space service to national development has demonstrated self reliance in space technology for human development. Space technology for the most underdeveloped is a success story both in communication and information tools for quality of life. In this presentation Five Space Ecoliteracy models designed and validated since 1985 till date on informal environmental education namely 1) Ecological Environmental Studies by Students-EESS (1988): cited as one of the 20 best eco -education models by Earth Day Network,2)Community Eco Literacy Campaign-CEL,(2000): cited as a partner under Clean Up the World Campaign,UN, 3) Space Eco Literacy(2011)-an informa 8 week space eco literacy training reported at 39th COSPAR 12 assembly and 4) Space Eco Literacy by Practice(2014)- interface with formal education at institutions and 5) Space Ecoliteracy Mission as a space out reach in

EgoSENSE: A Framework for Context-Aware Mobile Applications Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. M. Milic

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a context-aware mobile framework (or middleware, intended to support the implementation of context-aware mobile services. The overview of basic concepts, architecture and components of context-aware mobile framework is given. The mobile framework provide acquisition and management of context, where raw data sensed from physical (hardware sensors and virtual (software sensors are combined, processed and analyzed to provide high-level context and situation of the user to the mobile context-aware applications in near real-time. Using demo mobile health application, its most important components and functions, such as these supposed to detect urgent or alarming health conditions of a mobile user and to initiate appropriate actions demonstrated.

Case Study of Using High Performance Commercial Processors in a Space Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Ferguson, Roscoe C.; Olivas, Zulema

2009-01-01

The purpose of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Avionics Upgrade project was to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness. The upgrade was to augment the Shuttle avionics system with new hardware and software. A major success of this project was the validation of the hardware architecture and software design. This was significant because the project incorporated new technology and approaches for the development of human rated space software. An early version of this system was tested at the Johnson Space Center for one month by teams of astronauts. The results were positive, but NASA eventually cancelled the project towards the end of the development cycle. The goal to reduce crew workload and improve situational awareness resulted in the need for high performance Central Processing Units (CPUs). The choice of CPU selected was the PowerPC family, which is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) known for its high performance. However, the requirement for radiation tolerance resulted in the reevaluation of the selected family member of the PowerPC line. Radiation testing revealed that the original selected processor (PowerPC 7400) was too soft to meet mission objectives and an effort was established to perform trade studies and performance testing to determine a feasible candidate. At that time, the PowerPC RAD750s where radiation tolerant, but did not meet the required performance needs of the project. Thus, the final solution was to select the PowerPC 7455. This processor did not have a radiation tolerant version, but faired better than the 7400 in the ability to detect failures. However, its cache tags did not provide parity and thus the project incorporated a software strategy to detect radiation failures. The strategy was to incorporate dual paths for software generating commands to the legacy Space Shuttle avionics to prevent failures due to the softness of the upgraded avionics.

Expansion of the Real-Time SPoRT-Land Information System for NOAA/National Weather Service Situational Awareness and Local Modeling Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Case, Jonathan L; White, Kristopher D.

2014-01-01

The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center in Huntsville, AL is running a real-time configuration of the Noah land surface model (LSM) within the NASA Land Information System (LIS) framework (hereafter referred to as the "SPoRT-LIS"). Output from the real-time SPoRT-LIS is used for (1) initializing land surface variables for local modeling applications, and (2) displaying in decision support systems for situational awareness and drought monitoring at select NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) partner offices. The experimental CONUS run incorporates hourly quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) from the National Severe Storms Laboratory Multi- Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) which will be transitioned into operations at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) in Fall 2014.This paper describes the current and experimental SPoRT-LIS configurations, and documents some of the limitations still remaining through the advent of MRMS precipitation analyses in the SPoRT-LIS land surface model (LSM) simulations.

Design guidelines for rapid and simple context-aware mobile application development – an android case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hossein Shams

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Presenting a context-aware service and information is a key aspect of ubiquitous computing, but development of such applications is quite complicated. Context-aware applications should be able to obtain raw data fromsensors, create highlevel context information, detect the user’s situation, and adapt the behavior of the application to the recognized situation . These complexities caused to reduce the impact of context -awareness in mobile computing while sensors of smartphones have made huge potential for developing context aware mobile applications. In this paper, we explain some guidelines to overcome the existing obstacles by separating the context -aware application layers and make a loosely coupled connection between them. These guidelines will bring easy and rapid development, reusability of the code and flexibility for developers. Finally, we provide a case study example in the Android platform to demonstrate how the guidelines can be used in a real application.

Space Weather Concerns for All-Electric Propulsion Satellites

Science.gov (United States)

Horne, Richard B.; Pitchford, David

2015-08-01

The introduction of all-electric propulsion satellites is a game changer in the quest for low-cost access to space. It also raises new questions for satellite manufacturers, operators, and the insurance industry regarding the general risks and specifically the threat of adverse space weather. The issues surrounding this new concept were discussed by research scientists and up to 30 representatives from the space industry at a special meeting at the European Space Weather Week held in November 2014. Here we report on the discussions at that meeting. We show that for a satellite undergoing electric orbit raising for 200 days the radiation dose due to electrons is equivalent to approximately 6.7 year operation at geostationary orbit or approximately half the typical design life. We also show that electrons can be injected into the slot region (8000 km) where they pose a risk of satellite internal charging. The results highlight the importance of additional radiation protection. We also discuss the benefits, the operational considerations, the other risks from the Van Allen radiation belts, the new business opportunities for space insurance, and the need for space situation awareness in medium Earth orbit where electric orbit raising takes place.

Virtual Planetary Space Weather Services offered by the Europlanet H2020 Research Infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

André, N.; Grande, M.; Achilleos, N.; Barthélémy, M.; Bouchemit, M.; Benson, K.; Blelly, P.-L.; Budnik, E.; Caussarieu, S.; Cecconi, B.; Cook, T.; Génot, V.; Guio, P.; Goutenoir, A.; Grison, B.; Hueso, R.; Indurain, M.; Jones, G. H.; Lilensten, J.; Marchaudon, A.; Matthiä, D.; Opitz, A.; Rouillard, A.; Stanislawska, I.; Soucek, J.; Tao, C.; Tomasik, L.; Vaubaillon, J.

2018-01-01

Under Horizon 2020, the Europlanet 2020 Research Infrastructure (EPN2020-RI) will include an entirely new Virtual Access Service, "Planetary Space Weather Services" (PSWS) that will extend the concepts of space weather and space situational awareness to other planets in our Solar System and in particular to spacecraft that voyage through it. PSWS will make twelve new services accessible to the research community, space agencies, and industrial partners planning for space missions. These services will in particular be dedicated to the following key planetary environments: Mars (in support of the NASA MAVEN and European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express and ExoMars missions), comets (building on the outstanding success of the ESA Rosetta mission), and outer planets (in preparation for the ESA JUpiter ICy moon Explorer mission), and one of these services will aim at predicting and detecting planetary events like meteor showers and impacts in the Solar System. This will give the European planetary science community new methods, interfaces, functionalities and/or plugins dedicated to planetary space weather as well as to space situational awareness in the tools and models available within the partner institutes. A variety of tools (in the form of web applications, standalone software, or numerical models in various degrees of implementation) are available for tracing propagation of planetary and/or solar events through the Solar System and modelling the response of the planetary environment (surfaces, atmospheres, ionospheres, and magnetospheres) to those events. But these tools were not originally designed for planetary event prediction and space weather applications. PSWS will provide the additional research and tailoring required to apply them for these purposes. PSWS will be to review, test, improve and adapt methods and tools available within the partner institutes in order to make prototype planetary event and space weather services operational in Europe at the end

Staff acceptance of video monitoring for coordination: a video system to support perioperative situation awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Young Ju; Xiao, Yan; Hu, Peter; Dutton, Richard

2009-08-01

To understand staff acceptance of a remote video monitoring system for operating room (OR) coordination. Improved real-time remote visual access to OR may enhance situational awareness but also raises privacy concerns for patients and staff. Survey. A system was implemented in a six-room surgical suite to display OR monitoring video at an access restricted control desk area. Image quality was manipulated to improve staff acceptance. Two months after installation, interviews and a survey were conducted on staff acceptance of video monitoring. About half of all OR personnel responded (n = 63). Overall levels of concerns were low, with 53% rated no concerns and 42% little concern. Top two reported uses of the video were to see if cases are finished and to see if a room is ready. Viewing the video monitoring system as useful did not reduce levels of concern. Staff in supervisory positions perceived less concern about the system's impact on privacy than did those supervised (p < 0.03). Concerns for patient privacy correlated with concerns for staff privacy and performance monitoring. Technical means such as manipulating image quality helped staff acceptance. Manipulation of image quality resulted overall acceptance of monitoring video, with residual levels of concerns. OR nurses may express staff privacy concern in the form of concerns over patient privacy. This study provided suggestions for technological and implementation strategies of video monitoring for coordination use in OR. Deployment of communication technology and integration of clinical information will likely raise concerns over staff privacy and performance monitoring. The potential gain of increased information access may be offset by negative impact of a sense of loss of autonomy.

A neuroergonomic quasi-experiment: Predictors of situation awareness and display usability while performing complex tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Harbour, Steven D.; Christensen, James C.

2015-05-01

Situation awareness (SA) is the ability and capacity to perceive information and act on it acceptably. Head Up Display (HUD) versus Head Down Display (HDD) manipulation induced variation in task difficulty. HUD and HDD cockpit displays or display designs promoted or impaired SA. The quantitative research presented in this paper examines basic neurocognitive factors in order to identify their specific contributions to the formation of SA, while studying display usability and the effects on SA. Visual attentiveness (Va), perceptiveness (Vp), and spatial working memory (Vswm) were assessed as predictors of SA under varying task difficulty. The study participants were 19 tactical airlift pilots, selected from the Ohio Air National Guard. Neurocognitive tests were administered to the participants prior to flight. In-flight SA was objectively and subjectively assessed for 24 flights. At the completion of this field experiment, the data were analyzed and the tests were statistically significant for the three predictor visual abilities Vp, Va, and Vswm as task difficulty was varied, F(3,11) = 8.125, p = .008. In addition, multiple regression analyses revealed that the visual abilities together predicted a majority of the variance in SA, R2 = 0.753, p = .008. As validated and verified by ECG and EEG data, the HUD yielded a full ability and capacity to anticipate and accommodate trends were as the HDD yielded a saturated ability to anticipate and accommodate trends. Post-hoc tests revealed a Cohen's f2 = 3.05 yielding statistical power to be 0.98. This work results in a significant contribution to the field by providing an improved understanding of SA and path to safer travel for society worldwide. PA 88ABW-2015-1282.

Nurse-surgeon object transfer: video analysis of communication and situation awareness in the operating theatre.

Science.gov (United States)

Korkiakangas, Terhi; Weldon, Sharon-Marie; Bezemer, Jeff; Kneebone, Roger

2014-09-01

One of the most central collaborative tasks during surgical operations is the passing of objects, including instruments. Little is known about how nurses and surgeons achieve this. The aim of the present study was to explore what factors affect this routine-like task, resulting in fast or slow transfer of objects. A qualitative video study, informed by an observational ethnographic approach, was conducted in a major teaching hospital in the UK. A total of 20 general surgical operations were observed. In total, approximately 68 h of video data have been reviewed. A subsample of 225 min has been analysed in detail using interactional video-analysis developed within the social sciences. Two factors affecting object transfer were observed: (1) relative instrument trolley position and (2) alignment. The scrub nurse's instrument trolley position (close to vs. further back from the surgeon) and alignment (gaze direction) impacts on the communication with the surgeon, and consequently, on the speed of object transfer. When the scrub nurse was standing close to the surgeon, and "converged" to follow the surgeon's movements, the transfer occurred more seamlessly and faster (1.0 s). The smoothness of object transfer can be improved by adjusting the scrub nurse's instrument trolley position, enabling a better monitoring of surgeon's bodily conduct and affording early orientation (awareness) to an upcoming request (changing situation). Object transfer is facilitated by the surgeon's embodied practices, which can elicit the nurse's attention to the request and, as a response, maximise a faster object transfer. A simple intervention to highlight the significance of these factors could improve communication in the operating theatre. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of Information Availability on Command-and-Control Decision Making: Performance, Trust, and Situation Awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Marusich, Laura R; Bakdash, Jonathan Z; Onal, Emrah; Yu, Michael S; Schaffer, James; O'Donovan, John; Höllerer, Tobias; Buchler, Norbou; Gonzalez, Cleotilde

2016-03-01

We investigated how increases in task-relevant information affect human decision-making performance, situation awareness (SA), and trust in a simulated command-and-control (C2) environment. Increased information is often associated with an improvement of SA and decision-making performance in networked organizations. However, previous research suggests that increasing information without considering the task relevance and the presentation can impair performance. We used a simulated C2 task across two experiments. Experiment 1 varied the information volume provided to individual participants and measured the speed and accuracy of decision making for task performance. Experiment 2 varied information volume and information reliability provided to two participants acting in different roles and assessed decision-making performance, SA, and trust between the paired participants. In both experiments, increased task-relevant information volume did not improve task performance. In Experiment 2, increased task-relevant information volume reduced self-reported SA and trust, and incorrect source reliability information led to poorer task performance and SA. These results indicate that increasing the volume of information, even when it is accurate and task relevant, is not necessarily beneficial to decision-making performance. Moreover, it may even be detrimental to SA and trust among team members. Given the high volume of available and shared information and the safety-critical and time-sensitive nature of many decisions, these results have implications for training and system design in C2 domains. To avoid decrements to SA, interpersonal trust, and decision-making performance, information presentation within C2 systems must reflect human cognitive processing limits and capabilities. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Analyzing How Emotion Awareness Influences Students' Motivation, Engagement, Self-Regulation and Learning Outcome

Science.gov (United States)

Arguedas, Marta; Daradoumis, Thanasis; Xhafa, Fatos

2016-01-01

Considering social and emotional competence in learning, "emotion awareness" aims to detect the emotions that students show during their learning interactions and make these emotions explicit to them. Being aware of their emotions, students become more conscious of their situation, what may prompt them to behavioral change. The main goal…

Raising the Awareness of Children on Global Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Korczynska, Audrey

2016-08-01

Space Awareness uses the excitement and challenges of space to interest young people into science and technology and develop their sense of European and global citizenship. Latest news and key advancements of the European space initiatives greatly contribute to it, showing the applications that space sciences have in the everyday life and how understanding the Universe can help understanding our own planet.

Situation-aware GeoVisualization considering applied logic and extensibility: a new architecture and mechanism for intelligent GeoWeb

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xuelin; Gold, Christopher

2010-11-01

Recent years have witnessed the emerging Virtual Globe technology which has been increasingly exhibiting powerful features and capabilities. However, the current technical architecture for geovisualization is still the traditional data- viewer mode, i.e. KML-Geobrowser. Current KML is basically an encoding format for wrapping static snapshots of information frozen at discrete time points, and a geobrowser is virtually a data renderer for geovisualization. In the real world spatial-temporal objects and elements possess specific semantics, applied logic and operational rules, naturally or socially, which need to be considered and to be executed when corresponding data is integrated or visualized in a visual geocontext. However, currently there is no a way to express and execute this kind of applied logic and control rules within the current geobrowsing architecture. This paper proposes a novel architecture by originating a new mechanism, DKML, and implementing a DKML-supporting prototype geobrowser. Embedded programming script within KML files can express applied logic, control conditions, situation-aware analysis utilities and special functionality, to achieve intelligent, controllable and applied logic-conformant geovisualization, and to flexibly extend and customize the DKMLsupporting geobrowser. Benefiting from the mechanism developed in this research, geobrowsers can truly evolve into powerful multi-purpose GeoWeb platforms with promising potential and prospects.

A Framework for Developing Context-aware Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vangalur Alagar

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Context-aware computing refers to a general class of mobile real-time reactive systems that continuously sense their physical environment, and adapt their behavior accordingly. Context-awareness is an essential inherent property of ubiquitous computing or pervasive computing systems. Such systems are much richer and more complex than many software systems. The richness mainly comes from context-awareness, the heterogeneity of mobile devices and their service types, while complexity arises in the multitude of adaptations enforced by system policies. In order to provide the true intended effect on the application of services without compromising on the richness, the complexity must be tamed. Towards this goal, this paper proposes a component-based architecture for a Context-aware Framework in which context, awareness capabilities, reactions, and adaptations are formally dealt with. Two formal languages are designed to express context situations and express workflow policies, which respectively lead to a context reasoner and to enforce adaptations.With these formalisms and a component design that can be formalized, this work fulfills a formal approach to construct context-aware applications. Two case studies are explained, of which one is a proof-of-concept case study from service-oriented domain. It is fully implemented to illustrate the expressiveness of the framework design and robustness of its implementation.

Concepts and architectures for mobile context-aware applications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dockhorn Costa, P.; Ferreira Pires, Luis; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Ibrahim, I.K.

2008-01-01

Context-awareness has been investigated for almost a decade and is considered as a convenient and desirable feature in distributed mobile systems since it allows these systems to benefit from the changes in their users’ context to dynamically tailor services to their users’ current situation and

3 CFR 8429 - Proclamation 8429 of October 1, 2009. National Information Literacy Awareness Month, 2009

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Information Literacy Awareness Month, 2009 8429 Proclamation 8429 Presidential Documents Proclamations Proclamation 8429 of October 1, 2009 Proc. 8429 National Information Literacy Awareness Month, 2009By the... evaluate information for any situation. This new type of literacy also requires competency with...

Awareness, attitudes, need and demand on replacement of missing teeth among a group of partially dentate patients attending a University Dental Hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Jayasinghe, Rasika Manori; Perera, Janana; Jayasinghe, Vajira; Thilakumara, Indika P; Rasnayaka, Sumudu; Shiraz, Muhammad Hanafi Muhammad; Ranabahu, Indra; Kularatna, Sanjeewa

2017-07-27

Our objective was to assess awareness, attitudes, need and demand on replacement of missing teeth according to edentulous space, age, gender, ethnicity, educational level and socio-economical status of the patient. 76.2% of the study group was opined that the missing teeth should be replaced by prosthetic means. Majority were keen in getting them replaced mainly for the comfort in mastication. Although 77.9 and 32.9% were aware of the removable prostheses and implants respectively, only 25.2% knew about tooth supported bridges as an option of replacement of missing teeth. Participants' awareness on tooth and implant supported prostheses is at a higher level. Participants' opinion on need of regular dental visit was statistically significant when gender, ethnicity and education level were considered. The highest demand for replacement of missing teeth was observed in Kennedy class I and II situations in both upper and lower arches. Demand for fixed prostheses was significantly highest in Kennedy class II in upper and lower arches. In conclusion, although removable prosthodontic options are known to most of the patients, their awareness on tooth and implant supported prostheses is also at a higher level. The highest demand for replacement of missing teeth is by patients with Kennedy class I and II situations whereas Kennedy class II being the category with highest demand for fixed prostheses. We recommend that the location of missing teeth to be considered as a priority when educating patients on the most appropriate prosthetic treatment options. Dentists' involvement in educating patients on prosthetic options needs to be improved.

Situational Crime Prevention in Nightlife Spaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Demant, Jakob Johan; Dilkes-Frayne, Ella

2014-01-01

In this chapter we present a brief introduction to SCP and ANT, followed by ANT analyses of two crime prevention strategies: Passive Alert Detection (PAD) dogs at music festivals (Case I) and “doorwork” (Case II) at licensed venues. The first case examines the use of PAD, or sniffer, dogs to assist...... police in detecting illicit drugs at music festivals in Australia, whereby police display law enforcement as a strategy to prevent illicit drug use and possession. The case extends the analysis of nightlife spaces into the daytime and rather different venues, recognizing festivals as sites of leisure...... pursuits commonly associated with nightlife. The case examines how the use of PAD dogs at festival entrances influences police, young people, drug use, and the entrance space, such that the agencies and actions of each are transformed. The analysis also highlights the lasting effects of such prevention...

Soil Moisture Data Assimilation in the NASA Land Information System for Local Modeling Applications and Improved Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Case, Jonathan L.; Blakenship, Clay B.; Zavodsky, Bradley T.

2014-01-01

As part of the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Early Adopter (EA) program, the NASA Shortterm Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has implemented a data assimilation (DA) routine into the NASA Land Information System (LIS) for soil moisture retrievals from the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite. The SMAP EA program promotes application-driven research to provide a fundamental understanding of how SMAP data products will be used to improve decision-making at operational agencies. SPoRT has partnered with select NOAA/NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) that use output from a real-time regional configuration of LIS, without soil moisture DA, to initialize local numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and enhance situational awareness. Improvements to local NWP with the current LIS have been demonstrated; however, a better representation of the land surface through assimilation of SMOS (and eventually SMAP) retrievals is expected to lead to further model improvement, particularly during warm-season months. SPoRT will collaborate with select WFOs to assess the impact of soil moisture DA on operational forecast situations. Assimilation of the legacy SMOS instrument data provides an opportunity to develop expertise in preparation for using SMAP data products shortly after the scheduled launch on 5 November 2014. SMOS contains a passive L-band radiometer that is used to retrieve surface soil moisture at 35-km resolution with an accuracy of 0.04 cu cm cm (exp -3). SMAP will feature a comparable passive L-band instrument in conjunction with a 3-km resolution active radar component of slightly degraded accuracy. A combined radar-radiometer product will offer unprecedented global coverage of soil moisture at high spatial resolution (9 km) for hydrometeorological applications, balancing the resolution and accuracy of the active and passive instruments, respectively. The LIS software framework manages land surface model

Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS)

Science.gov (United States)

Kruglanski, Michel; de Donder, Erwin; Messios, Neophytos; Hetey, Laszlo; Calders, Stijn; Evans, Hugh; Daly, Eamonn

SPENVIS is an ESA operational software developed and maintained at BIRA-IASB since 1996. It provides standardized access to most of the recent models of the hazardous space environment, through a user-friendly Web interface (http://www.spenvis.oma.be/). The system allows spacecraft engineers to perform a rapid analysis of environmental problems related to natural radiation belts, solar energetic particles, cosmic rays, plasmas, gases, magnetic fields and micro-particles. Various reporting and graphical utilities and extensive help facilities are included to allow engineers with relatively little familiarity to produce reliable results. SPENVIS also contains an active, integrated version of the ECSS Space Environment Standard and access to in-flight data on the space environment. Although SPENVIS in the first place is designed to help spacecraft designers, it is also used by technical universities in their educational programs. In the framework of the ESA Space Situational Awareness Preparatory Programme, SPENVIS will be part of the initial set of precursor services of the Space Weather segment. SPENVIS includes several engineering models to assess to effects of the space environment on spacecrafts such as surface and internal charging, energy deposition, solar cell damage and SEU rates. The presentation will review how such models could be connected to in situ measurements or forecasting models of the space environment in order to produce post event analysis or in orbit effects alert. The last developments and models implemented in SPENVIS will also be presented.

Situational Causes of Offending: A Fixed-Effects Analysis of Space-Time Budget Data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bernasco, W.; Ruiter, S.; Bruinsma, G.J.N.; Pauwels, L.J.R; Weerman, F.M.

2013-01-01

Situational theories of crime assert that the situations that people participate in contain the proximal causes of crime. Prior research has not tested situational hypotheses rigorously, either for lack of detailed situational data or for lack of analytical rigor. The present research combines

Supporting context-aware mobile applications : an infrastructure approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Sinderen, Marten J.; van Halteren, Aart; Wegdam, M.; Meeuwissen, H.B.; Eertink, E.H.; Eertink, E.H.

Mobile phones and PDAs are converging into mobile lifestyle devices that offer a wide range of applications to end users. Many of these applications will have the ability to adapt themselves to the user’s situation, commonly referred to as context awareness. We argue that an infrastructure is needed

Use of Mobile Video to Enhance Situational Awareness in HA/DR Missions

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-01

challenges . Although many definitions have been proposed so far, Mica R. Endsley describes “situational awareness” as: [T]he perception of the...Player, QuickTime, Flash Player, VLC Media Player, HTML 5 Video and DivX Web Player. This feature helps overcome a usual handicap that developers

The perfect boring situation-Addressing the experience of monotony during crewed deep space missions through habitability design

Science.gov (United States)

Peldszus, Regina; Dalke, Hilary; Pretlove, Stephen; Welch, Chris

2014-01-01

In contemporary orbital missions, workloads are so high and varied that crew may rarely experience stretches of monotony. However, in historical long duration missions, occurrences of monotony were, indeed, reported anecdotally by crew. Of the effective countermeasures that appear to be at hand, many rely on visual or logistical proximity to the Earth, and are not feasible in the remote context of an extended deep space mission scenario. There, particularly in- and outbound cruising stages would be characterised by longer, comparably uneventful periods of low workload, coupled with confinement and unchanging vehicle surroundings. While the challenge of monotony has been pointed out as an exploration-related research area, it has received less explicit attention from a habitation design perspective than other human behaviour and performance issues. The paper addresses this gap through a literature review of the theory and application of design-based mitigation strategies. It outlines models of emergence of monotony, situates the phenomenon in a remote mission context as a problem of sensory, social and spatio-temporal isolation, and discusses proposed countermeasures related to habitability. The scope of the literature is extended to primary sources in the form of a qualitative review of six onboard diaries from orbital and simulator missions, highlighting a range of habitat-related design themes. These are translated into the autonomous deep space setting with the overall rationale of integrating affordances into onboard habitation systems and placing emphasis on reinforcing positive situational characteristics.

Foundations for self-awareness: An exploration through autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Hobson, Peter R; Chidambi, Gayathri; Lee, Anthony; Meyer, Jessica

2006-01-01

Developmental psychopathology holds promise for elucidating the structure of self-awareness. Here we studied social emotions in matched groups of children and adolescents with and without autism. Our aims were to determine whether there are potentially dissociable aspects of self-awareness, and to reconsider how the qualities of young children's engagement with other persons influences the development of their sense of self. Parent interviews yielded evidence that children with autism are limited in social-relational and emotional domains of self-awareness; for example, few were reported to show guilt, embarrassment, or shame. Yet according to parent report, most were affected by the moods of others, showed some degree of pity and concern, and manifested jealousy. When presented with videotaped scenes, participants with autism were similar to those without autism in identifying pride, guilt, and shame, and they were able to describe their own experiences of pride and, more rarely, guilt. In situations designed to elicit emotions, participants with autism were rated as showing pride, but they manifested lesser degrees and atypical qualities of guilt and coyness. Relatively few showed personal forms of self-consciousness when asked to pose for a photograph. We argue that in order for children to achieve depth in self-awareness, and to relate to themselves as occupying a distinctive stance within a framework of mutual self-other relatedness, they need to identify with the attitudes of other people. We interpret the present studies in terms of dissociations among three forms of social emotion: "person-centered" qualities of relational self-awareness that require identification and are specifically limited among children with autism, more diffuse modes of relational self-consciousness, and a third group of social emotions, epitomized by jealousy, situated in a separate developmental line. We propose a rebalancing of emotion theory that gives greater prominence to

[Gender stereotypes arising in a state of gender awareness].

Science.gov (United States)

Ito, Y

2001-12-01

This study examined the structure of gender stereotypes which might arise in the state of gender awareness that was triggered by social situations where people perceived their gender differences strongly. Out of 1,500 residents in Tokyo aged between 20-60, 342 females and 313 males were randomly chosen and answered the questions about gender consciousness in the state of gender awareness. A factor analysis revealed that "maternity" and "trustworthiness" were the dominant dimensions of gender stereotypes in the state of gender awareness, and that trustworthiness particularly formed the basis of gender stereotypes. Generation differences in gender stereotypes were also revealed between women in their 40 s and 50 s, and between men in their 30 s and 40 s. Generally, power for men and nurture for women were more likely to be perceived in a state of gender awareness.

Role-Based Access Control for Coalition Partners in Maritime Domain Awareness

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

McDaniel, Christopher R; Tardy, Matthew L

2005-01-01

The need for Shared Situational Awareness (SSA) in accomplishing joint missions by coalition militaries, law enforcement, the intelligence community, and the private sector creates a unique challenge to providing access control...

Battlefield awareness computers: the engine of battlefield digitization

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Jackson; Chamseddine, Ahmad

1997-06-01

To modernize the army for the 21st century, the U.S. Army Digitization Office (ADO) initiated in 1995 the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade-and-Below (FBCB2) Applique program which became a centerpiece in the U.S. Army's master plan to win future information wars. The Applique team led by TRW fielded a 'tactical Internet' for Brigade and below command to demonstrate the advantages of 'shared situation awareness' and battlefield digitization in advanced war-fighting experiments (AWE) to be conducted in March 1997 at the Army's National Training Center in California. Computing Devices is designated the primary hardware developer for the militarized version of the battlefield awareness computers. The first generation of militarized battlefield awareness computer, designated as the V3 computer, was an integration of off-the-shelf components developed to meet the agressive delivery requirements of the Task Force XXI AWE. The design efficiency and cost effectiveness of the computer hardware were secondary in importance to delivery deadlines imposed by the March 1997 AWE. However, declining defense budgets will impose cost constraints on the Force XXI production hardware that can only be met by rigorous value engineering to further improve design optimization for battlefield awareness without compromising the level of reliability the military has come to expect in modern military hardened vetronics. To answer the Army's needs for a more cost effective computing solution, Computing Devices developed a second generation 'combat ready' battlefield awareness computer, designated the V3+, which is designed specifically to meet the upcoming demands of Force XXI (FBCB2) and beyond. The primary design objective is to achieve a technologically superior design, value engineered to strike an optimal balance between reliability, life cycle cost, and procurement cost. Recognizing that the diverse digitization demands of Force XXI cannot be adequately met by any one computer hardware

The Space Elevator and Its Promise for Next Generation Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Laubscher, Bryan E.

2006-01-01

Bryan E. Laubscher received his Ph.D. in physics in 1994 from the University of New Mexico with a concentration in astrophysics. He is currently on entrepreneurial leave from Los Alamos National Laboratory where he is a project leader and he has worked in various capacities for 16 years. His past projects include LANL's portion of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Magdalena Ridge Observatory and a project developing concepts and technologies for space situational awareness. Over the years Bryan has participated in research in astronomy, lidar, non-linear optics, space mission design, space-borne instrumentation design and construction, spacecraft design, novel electromagnetic detection concepts and technologies, detector/receiver system development, spectrometer development, interferometry and participated in many field experiments. Bryan led space elevator development at LANL until going on entrepreneurial leave in 2006. On entrepreneurial leave, Bryan is starting a company to build the strongest materials ever created. These materials are based upon carbon nanotubes, the strongest structures known in nature and the first material identified with sufficient strength-to-weight properties to build a space elevator.

GameSAT: Game-Based Situational Awareness and Telepresence, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose that a virtual environment is necessary to allow NASA robot engineers and operators to study rover design concepts, develop user interfaces and focus on...

Metrics for smart security awareness

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Labuschagne, William A

2017-06-01

Full Text Available informing the response teams for reparations. These capabilities are possible by collecting data from the environment and ensuring intelligence is developed to react automatically without human intervention. The concept of smart cities has also been.... The data would be transported to a centralized situational awareness capability for analyses and create the appropriate response in the form of remedial action. The use of threat intelligence feeds could automatically sense the existence of a new threat...

Adolescents' sense-making of alcohol-related risks: The role of drinking situations and social settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Katainen, Anu; Lehto, Anna-Sofia; Maunu, Antti

2015-09-01

The article explores how young people understand the risks of alcohol use and how these understandings are associated with differing drinking situations and social settings. By taking account of situational factors, the aim is to demonstrate how young people have highly nuanced notions of drinking styles that suit different drinking situations and of associated risks. The data for the research were gathered in 18 group interviews with Finnish ninth graders aged 14-15 years. Short film clips portraying young people in different drinking situations were used as stimulus material for the interviews. Data analysis focussed on the risk factors related to the social situations illustrated in the film clips. The results show that young people's risk assessments are not based on alcohol itself, but the magnitude of risk is estimated in relation to the social setting of the drinking situation. What is relevant for young people is whether the social situation allows them to make choices with which they feel comfortable. At the opposite pole of problem drinking was social drinking for the purpose of having fun together with other people in such a way that one remains in control of the drinking situation. From a prevention point of view, a key implication is that awareness of the risks is closely associated with situational and social factors. However, the awareness of those risks does not necessarily prevent young people from drinking because they may be accepted as part of the drinking experience. © The Author(s) 2014.

Situational Awareness Applied to Geology Field Mapping using Integration of Semantic Data and Visualization Techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Houser, P. I. Q.

2017-12-01

21st century earth science is data-intensive, characterized by heterogeneous, sometimes voluminous collections representing phenomena at different scales collected for different purposes and managed in disparate ways. However, much of the earth's surface still requires boots-on-the-ground, in-person fieldwork in order to detect the subtle variations from which humans can infer complex structures and patterns. Nevertheless, field experiences can and should be enabled and enhanced by a variety of emerging technologies. The goal of the proposed research project is to pilot test emerging data integration, semantic and visualization technologies for evaluation of their potential usefulness in the field sciences, particularly in the context of field geology. The proposed project will investigate new techniques for data management and integration enabled by semantic web technologies, along with new techniques for augmented reality that can operate on such integrated data to enable in situ visualization in the field. The research objectives include: Develop new technical infrastructure that applies target technologies to field geology; Test, evaluate, and assess the technical infrastructure in a pilot field site; Evaluate the capabilities of the systems for supporting and augmenting field science; and Assess the generality of the system for implementation in new and different types of field sites. Our hypothesis is that these technologies will enable what we call "field science situational awareness" - a cognitive state formerly attained only through long experience in the field - that is highly desirable but difficult to achieve in time- and resource-limited settings. Expected outcomes include elucidation of how, and in what ways, these technologies are beneficial in the field; enumeration of the steps and requirements to implement these systems; and cost/benefit analyses that evaluate under what conditions the investments of time and resources are advisable to construct

Mobile Computerized Procedure System for the Improved Situation Awareness among Field Workers and Main Control Room Operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sungjin; Seong, Nokyu; Jung, Yeonsub

2013-01-01

This paper explains the technical issues of the mobile CPS (m-CPS) in the conceptual development stage. The proposed m-CPS can be developed with many recent technologies in the various industry fields based on CRI CPS. Performance and stability of CRI CPS have been tested several times until now. It is expected that more human errors can be reduced by the m-CPS through improved situation awareness and human performance tools for local workers and MCR operators. Some considerations as well as mentioned ones will be reflected in the m-CPS development. Human errors can occur during the test and maintenance of the generator, safety injection system and reactor coolant inventory in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Most of human errors have been occurred by the omission of the prevention techniques such as the self-check, the peer-check, the concurrent verification and etc. Another important reason is the insufficient information sharing among main control room (MCR) operators and field workers. Various field service automation tools have been developed with recent information technology in many countries. APR1400 computerized procedure system (CPS) has been developed for the MCR operators of Shin-Kori 3 and 4 units. Especially, the concurrent verification support design is applied in the construction project of Shin-Hanul 1 and 2 CPS. KHNP central research institute (CRI) expects that the extended application of CPS including the field activity, that is a kind of mobile CPS, can enhance the reduction of human errors

Development and testing of bio-inspired microelectromechanical pressure sensor arrays for increased situational awareness for marine vehicles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dusek, J; Triantafyllou, M S; Kottapalli, A G P; Asadnia, M; Miao, J; Woo, M E; Lang, J H

2013-01-01

The lateral line found on most species of fish is a sensory organ without analog in humans. Using sensory feedback from the lateral line, fish are able to track prey, school, avoid obstacles, and detect vortical flow structures. Composed of both a superficial component, and a component contained within canals beneath the fish’s skin, the lateral line acts in a similar fashion to an array of differential pressure sensors. In an effort to enhance the situational and environmental awareness of marine vehicles, lateral-line-inspired pressure sensor arrays were developed to mimic the enhanced sensory capabilities observed in fish. Three flexible and waterproof pressure sensor arrays were fabricated for use as a surface-mounted ‘smart skin’ on marine vehicles. Two of the sensor arrays were based around the use of commercially available piezoresistive sensor dies, with innovative packaging schemes to allow for flexibility and underwater operation. The sensor arrays employed liquid crystal polymer and flexible printed circuit board substrates with metallic circuits and silicone encapsulation. The third sensor array employed a novel nanocomposite material set that allowed for the fabrication of a completely flexible sensor array. All three sensors were surface mounted on the curved hull of an autonomous kayak vehicle, and tested in both pool and reservoir environments. Results demonstrated that all three sensors were operational while deployed on the autonomous vehicle, and provided an accurate means for monitoring the vehicle dynamics. (paper)

Team situation awareness in nuclear power plant process control: A literature review, task analysis and future research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, R.; Kaber, D. B.; Jones, J. M.; Starkey, R. L.

2006-01-01

Operator achievement and maintenance of situation awareness (SA) in nuclear power plant (NPP) process control has emerged as an important concept in defining effective relationships between humans and automation in this complex system. A literature review on factors influencing SA revealed several variables to be important to team SA, including the overall task and team goals, individual tasks, team member roles, and the team members themselves. Team SA can also be adversely affected by a range of factors, including stress, mental over- or under-loading, system design (including human-machine interface design), complexity, human error in perception, and automation. Our research focused on the analysis of 'shared' SA and team SA among an assumed three-person, main-control-room team. Shared SA requirements represent the knowledge that is held in common by NPP operators, and team SA represents the collective, unique knowledge of all operators. The paper describes an approach to goal-directed task analysis (GDTA) applied to NPP main control room operations. In general, the GDTA method reveals critical operator decision and information requirements. It identifies operator SA requirements relevant to performing complex systems control. The GDTA can reveal requirements at various levels of cognitive processing, including perception, comprehension and projection, in NPP process control. Based on the literature review and GDTA approach, a number of potential research issues are proposed with an aim toward understanding and facilitating team SA in NPP process control. (authors)

Acting without seeing: eye movements reveal visual processing without awareness.

Science.gov (United States)

Spering, Miriam; Carrasco, Marisa

2015-04-01

Visual perception and eye movements are considered to be tightly linked. Diverse fields, ranging from developmental psychology to computer science, utilize eye tracking to measure visual perception. However, this prevailing view has been challenged by recent behavioral studies. Here, we review converging evidence revealing dissociations between the contents of perceptual awareness and different types of eye movement. Such dissociations reveal situations in which eye movements are sensitive to particular visual features that fail to modulate perceptual reports. We also discuss neurophysiological, neuroimaging, and clinical studies supporting the role of subcortical pathways for visual processing without awareness. Our review links awareness to perceptual-eye movement dissociations and furthers our understanding of the brain pathways underlying vision and movement with and without awareness. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The use of augmented reality in command and control situation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study identifies possible uses of augmented reality in command and control applications with specific attention to situation awareness in the South African context. Applications across the different command and control functions, as well as at the different levels of military operations are considered. The article concludes ...

Quality of Care and Services of a Public Hospital: Awareness and Assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdel-ilah Aziane

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In order to give everyone access to quality care, this study attempts to make quality awareness, highlighting the importance of the implementation of the quality management system in health care facilities. The objective of our work is to make a quality awareness, to analyze the current situation and to provide recommendations. The analysis of the existing situation consists of identifying, describing, and analyzing the key processes implemented, listing the dysfunctions, classifying them, deciding on the corresponding actions and putting in place indicators and dashboards, which will help track improvements. The overall situation of the hospital regarding the requirements of ISO 9001 indicated a respect of about 28% of the requirements of the standard. The state of the premises of the establishment does not indicate a clear organization at the hospital. The hospital environment is a prerequisite to the establishment of a system of quality management that enables you to deploy a clear and shared policy to improve the quality of care and services.

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE AUDIT OF FINANCIAL SITUATIONS

OpenAIRE

Maria-Madalina SALOMIA

2012-01-01

In a business world situated on a market that is becoming more and more active both on an international and national level, the audit of financial situations embodies a veritable varied research domain and with favorable advantages for the Romanian business society, as well as for the interest of the business society located outside the Romanian space. From the result of the auditing of financial situations of a entity, various information may be obtained which is used by different groups tha...

Smart space technology innovations

CERN Document Server

Chen, Mu-Yen

2013-01-01

Recently, ad hoc and wireless communication technologies have made available the device, service and information rich environment for users. Smart Space and ubiquitous computing extend the ""Living Lab"" vision of everyday objects and provide context-awareness services to users in smart living environments. This ebook investigates smart space technology and its innovations around the Living Labs. The final goal is to build context-awareness smart space and location-based service applications that integrate information from independent systems which autonomously and securely support human activ

Planning as situated design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Axel, Erik

It is common to associate situated activity with concrete, craftlike or manual activity here and now and to reserve theoretical and abstract thinking for activities like theoretical experimentation and systematic planning. Much work has gone into demonstrating that these activities are concrete...... and situated, too. In this presentation it will be argued that the investigation of systematic planning as conflictual cooperation will help us see that situated activity is not only based on the present conditions, but also relates them to events spread out in time and space, thereby opening up for another...... understanding of theoretical thinking. Some material from the empirical research project developed with Klaus Nielsen on the design and engineering of a house will be presented. On this basis a conception of planning will be unfolded. It will be understood differently from the way it is understood...

California Earthquake Clearinghouse: Advocating for, and Advancing, Collaboration and Technology Interoperability, Between the Scientific and Emergency Response Communities, to Produce Actionable Intelligence for Situational Awareness, and Decision Support

Science.gov (United States)

Rosinski, A.; Beilin, P.; Colwell, J.; Hornick, M.; Glasscoe, M. T.; Morentz, J.; Smorodinsky, S.; Millington, A.; Hudnut, K. W.; Penn, P.; Ortiz, M.; Kennedy, M.; Long, K.; Miller, K.; Stromberg, M.

2015-12-01

The Clearinghouse provides emergency management and response professionals, scientific and engineering communities with prompt information on ground failure, structural damage, and other consequences from significant seismic events such as earthquakes or tsunamis. Clearinghouse activations include participation from Federal, State and local government, law enforcement, fire, EMS, emergency management, public health, environmental protection, the military, public and non-governmental organizations, and private sector. For the August 24, 2014 S. Napa earthquake, over 100 people from 40 different organizations participated during the 3-day Clearinghouse activation. Every organization has its own role and responsibility in disaster response; however all require authoritative data about the disaster for rapid hazard assessment and situational awareness. The Clearinghouse has been proactive in fostering collaboration and sharing Essential Elements of Information across disciplines. The Clearinghouse-led collaborative promotes the use of standard formats and protocols to allow existing technology to transform data into meaningful incident-related content and to enable data to be used by the largest number of participating Clearinghouse partners, thus providing responding personnel with enhanced real-time situational awareness, rapid hazard assessment, and more informed decision-making in support of response and recovery. The Clearinghouse efforts address national priorities outlined in USGS Circular 1242, Plan to Coordinate NEHRP post-earthquake investigations and S. 740-Geospatial Data Act of 2015, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), to streamline and coordinate geospatial data infrastructure, maximizing geospatial data in support of the Robert T. Stafford Act. Finally, the US Dept. of Homeland Security, Geospatial Management Office, recognized Clearinghouse's data sharing efforts as a Best Practice to be included in the forthcoming 2015 HLS Geospatial Concept of Operations.

Supporting Family Awareness with the Whereabouts Clock

Science.gov (United States)

Sellen, Abigail; Taylor, Alex S.; Kaye, Joseph ‘Jofish'; Brown, Barry; Izadi, Shahram

We report the results of a field trial of a situated awareness device for families called the “Whereabouts Clock”. The Clock displays the location of family members using cellphone data as one of four privacy-preserving, deliberately coarse-grained categories ( HOME, WORK, SCHOOL or ELSEWHERE). The results show that awareness of others through the Clock supports not only family communication and coordination but also more emotive aspects of family life such as reassurance, connectedness, identity and social touch. We discuss how the term “awareness” means many things in practice and highlight the importance of designing not just for family activities, but in order to support the emotional, social and even moral aspects of family life.

Integrated Systems Health Management for Space Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Uckun, Serdar

2005-01-01

Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) is a system engineering discipline that addresses the design, development, operation, and lifecycle management of components, subsystems, vehicles, and other operational systems with the purpose of maintaining nominal system behavior and function and assuring mission safety and effectiveness under off-nominal conditions. NASA missions are often conducted in extreme, unfamiliar environments of space, using unique experimental spacecraft. In these environments, off-nominal conditions can develop with the potential to rapidly escalate into mission- or life-threatening situations. Further, the high visibility of NASA missions means they are always characterized by extraordinary attention to safety. ISHM is a critical element of risk mitigation, mission safety, and mission assurance for exploration. ISHM enables: In-space maintenance and repair; a) Autonomous (and automated) launch abort and crew escape capability; b) Efficient testing and checkout of ground and flight systems; c) Monitoring and trending of ground and flight system operations and performance; d) Enhanced situational awareness and control for ground personnel and crew; e) Vehicle autonomy (self-sufficiency) in responding to off-nominal conditions during long-duration and distant exploration missions; f) In-space maintenance and repair; and g) Efficient ground processing of reusable systems. ISHM concepts and technologies may be applied to any complex engineered system such as transportation systems, orbital or planetary habitats, observatories, command and control systems, life support systems, safety-critical software, and even the health of flight crews. As an overarching design and operational principle implemented at the system-of-systems level, ISHM holds substantial promise in terms of affordability, safety, reliability, and effectiveness of space exploration missions.

Situation Awareness Recovery

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-07

IntroductIon Pilots , automobile drivers, power plant workers, and supervisory control operators are required to allocate attention to multiple objects...restoring SA after SA has been reduced. A reduc- tion in SA can be caused by a loss of attention, interruptions, multitasking , operator overload, and so...the UAV to a different target, or the operator could add waypoints to the UAV’s trajectory, which effectively allowed the opera- tor to pilot the

The current situation for gastric cancer in Chile.

Science.gov (United States)

Caglevic, Christian; Silva, Shirley; Mahave, Mauricio; Rolfo, Christian; Gallardo, Jorge

2016-01-01

Gastric cancer is a neoplasm with a high incidence and mortality rate in Chile where more than 3000 people die every year from this type of cancer. This study shows the clinical and epidemiological considerations of this disease, information about translational research on this pathology in Chile, the contribution of Chilean doctors to the development of gastric cancer management awareness and the general situation of gastric cancer in Chile.

Multidisciplinary Cooperation in Crisis Management Teams: a Tool to Improve Team Situation Awareness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koning, L. de; Kuijt-Evers, L.; Theunissen, N.; Rijk, R. van; Huis in 't Veld, M.

2011-01-01

When a crisis occurs, people from different organizations, on different hierarchical levels have to deal with unexpected situations that require coordinated effort. The goal of this research is to improve multidisciplinary cooperation for crisis management teams. We developed a tool, the Multi-mono

Situational Awareness: Deadly Bioconvergence at the Boundaries of Bodies and Machines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucy Suchman

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This essay sets out an initial analytic framing for research in progress on the problem of ‘situational awareness’ within contemporary forms of (particularly U.S. warfare. My focus more specifically is on the logics, rhetorics and material practices of remotely-controlled weapon systems (particularly armed drones and weaponized robots. Drawing from reports in investigative journalism, military documents, and critical scholarship, I examine connections between the emphasis in military and security discourses on keeping ‘our’ bodies safe through so called network-centric warfare, and the project of cutting the networks that might bring our wars too close to home.

"You Should Have Seen the Look on Your Face…": Self-awareness of Facial Expressions.

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Fangbing; Yan, Wen-Jing; Chen, Yu-Hsin; Li, Kaiyun; Zhang, Hui; Fu, Xiaolan

2017-01-01

The awareness of facial expressions allows one to better understand, predict, and regulate his/her states to adapt to different social situations. The present research investigated individuals' awareness of their own facial expressions and the influence of the duration and intensity of expressions in two self-reference modalities, a real-time condition and a video-review condition. The participants were instructed to respond as soon as they became aware of any facial movements. The results revealed that awareness rates were 57.79% in the real-time condition and 75.92% in the video-review condition. The awareness rate was influenced by the intensity and (or) the duration. The intensity thresholds for individuals to become aware of their own facial expressions were calculated using logistic regression models. The results of Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) revealed that video-review awareness was a significant predictor of real-time awareness. These findings extend understandings of human facial expression self-awareness in two modalities.

Situational Context of Insurance in Globalization

OpenAIRE

S V Martynenko

2012-01-01

This article shows how globalization resolves problems, which are motivated in a new way by modern situational context of social-insurance, how the 'insurance cocoon' of civilization leads to narrowing of conflict space in the world politics.

Development of Methodologies, Metrics, and Tools for Investigating Human-Robot Interaction in Space Robotics

Science.gov (United States)

Ezer, Neta; Zumbado, Jennifer Rochlis; Sandor, Aniko; Boyer, Jennifer

2011-01-01

Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM), Robonaut, and Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV), as well as interviews with robotics trainers, robot operators, and developers of gesture interfaces. A survey of methods and metrics used in HRI was completed to identify those most applicable to space robotics. These methods and metrics included techniques and tools associated with task performance, the quantification of human-robot interactions and communication, usability, human workload, and situation awareness. The need for more research in areas such as natural interfaces, compensations for loss of signal and poor video quality, psycho-physiological feedback, and common HRI testbeds were identified. The initial findings from these activities and planned future research are discussed. Human-robot systems are expected to have a central role in future space exploration missions that extend beyond low-earth orbit [1]. As part of a directed research project funded by NASA s Human Research Program (HRP), researchers at the Johnson Space Center have started to use a variety of techniques, including literature reviews, case studies, knowledge capture, field studies, and experiments to understand critical human-robot interaction (HRI) variables for current and future systems. Activities accomplished to date include observations of the International Space Station s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator

Academic ethical awareness among undergraduate nursing students.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Ok-Hee; Hwang, Kyung-Hye

2017-01-01

Academic ethical awareness is an important aspect especially for nursing students who will provide ethical nursing care to patients in future or try to tread the path of learning toward professional acknowledgement in nursing scholarship. The purpose of this study was to explore academic ethical awareness and its related characteristics among undergraduate nursing students. This study commenced the survey with cross-sectional, descriptive questions and enrolled convenient samples of 581 undergraduate nursing students from three universities in South Korea. It was investigated with structured questionnaires including general characteristics and academic ethical awareness related. Ethical considerations: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at National University. Academic ethical awareness was the highest regarding behaviors violating the respect or confidentiality of patients and cheating on exams, while it was the lowest for inappropriate behaviors in class. From the result of general characteristics difference, male students showed higher score than female students in relative; first-year students showed higher score than other year students; the higher score was rated from students who were highly satisfied with their major than the other not satisfied with their major; and students with low academic stress showed higher ethical awareness score than persons with higher stress. Personal behaviors were rated with low ethical awareness in relative, but items related to public rules and actual effects on patients or others were rated with higher score. Nursing satisfaction and academic stress are main factors on ethical awareness. To improve overall ethical awareness level of nursing students, it is required to provide more education about the importance of personal behaviors in class and need to improve the understanding of how it will be connected with future situation and effect.

Context aware adaptive security service model

Science.gov (United States)

Tunia, Marcin A.

2015-09-01

Present systems and devices are usually protected against different threats concerning digital data processing. The protection mechanisms consume resources, which are either highly limited or intensively utilized by many entities. The optimization of these resources usage is advantageous. The resources that are saved performing optimization may be utilized by other mechanisms or may be sufficient for longer time. It is usually assumed that protection has to provide specific quality and attack resistance. By interpreting context situation of business services - users and services themselves, it is possible to adapt security services parameters to countermeasure threats associated with current situation. This approach leads to optimization of used resources and maintains sufficient security level. This paper presents architecture of adaptive security service, which is context-aware and exploits quality of context data issue.

Space Situational Awareness of Large Numbers of Payloads from a Single Deployment

Science.gov (United States)

2014-09-01

challenges [12]. 3. CHIPSAT CLOUD DEPLOYMENT AND CATALOGING One of the six satellites deployed as part of the April 18, 2014, Falcon 9 launch to the ISS was...Cloud Modeling Techniques,” Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets , Vol. 33, No. 4, 550–555, 1996. 2. Swinerd, G.G., Barrows, S.P., and Crowther, R., “Short... Big Sky, Montana, 2013. 11. Voss, H.D., Dailey, J.F., Crowley, J.C., et al., “TSAT Globalstar ELaNa-5 Extremely Low-Earth Orbit (ELEO) Satellite,” 28th

A Community Format for Electro-Optic Space Situational Awareness (EOSSA) Data Products

Science.gov (United States)

2014-09-01

developed and tested for RSO characterization with reduced cost . The file specification document for EOSSA provides a foundation to enable data providers... geocentric velocity aberration). SGP4 and VCMs produce geocentric origin and velocity aberration and subtracting the sensor geocentric position of the

Thinking like an expert: surgical decision making as a cyclical process of being aware.

Science.gov (United States)

Cristancho, Sayra M; Apramian, Tavis; Vanstone, Meredith; Lingard, Lorelei; Ott, Michael; Forbes, Thomas; Novick, Richard

2016-01-01

Education researchers are studying the practices of high-stake professionals as they learn how to better train for flexibility under uncertainty. This study explores the "Reconciliation Cycle" as the core element of an intraoperative decision-making model of how experienced surgeons assess and respond to challenges. We analyzed 32 semistructured interviews using constructivist grounded theory to develop a model of intraoperative decision making. Using constant comparison analysis, we built on this model with 9 follow-up interviews about the most challenging cases described in our dataset. The Reconciliation Cycle constituted an iterative process of "gaining" and "transforming information." The cyclical nature of surgeons' decision making suggested that transforming information requires a higher degree of awareness, not yet accounted by current conceptualizations of situation awareness. This study advances the notion of situation awareness in surgery. This characterization will support further investigations on how expert and nonexpert surgeons implement strategies to cope with unexpected events. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Awareness of Turkish High School Students about Carbon Footprint and the Effects of the High School Biology Curriculum on This Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Öz-Aydin, Serap

2016-01-01

Carbon emissions which are one of the most important human sourced causes of global climate change continue to rise rapidly despite all efforts to minimize these emissions. Carbon footprint (CF) education is significant in terms of changing the present situation. The aim of this study is to determine the awareness of high school students about the…

Lost in Location:- on how (not) to situate aliens

OpenAIRE

Hansen, Lone Koefoed

2009-01-01

Udgivelsesdato: June The article investigates how users of personal satellite navigation devices (often referred to as sat-nav) are sometimes lost and led astray and argues that the satnav's aim to remove every insecurity about the correct route seems to remove the individual's conscious perception of the space traversed. While becoming destination aware, the individual loses her location awareness. The article proposes that the reason people get lost when using sat-nav is due to a wrong l...

Foresight and awareness of incipient changes in a patient' clinical conditions--Perspectives of intensive care nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Kvande, Monica; Delmar, Charlotte; Lykkeslet, Else; Storli, Sissel Lisa

2015-10-01

The aim of this study was to explore the phenomenon of becoming aware of incipient changes in patient condition from the perspectives and experiences of intensive care nurses. This study involved close observations of and in-depth interviews with 11 experienced intensive care nurses. The text was analysed using a hermeneutic phenomenological method that was inspired by van Manen. This study was undertaken at two different high-technology intensive care units (ICUs) in Norwegian university hospitals. Nurses formed images of individual patients composed of signs (of changes in a patient's condition) that were sensory, measurable, and manifested as the mood of the nurse. The signs may be viewed as separate from and opposed to one another, but they are tightly interwoven and interact with one another. Care situations are powerful stimuli for the patient, and it is of great importance for nurses to become aware of signs in these situations. Nurses also ascribe that following the patient over time is important for becoming aware of signs. An awareness of incipient changes in patient clinical condition requires understanding the ever-changing dynamics of patient condition and dialogic images composed of signs. Care situations and the following of patients through shifts are essential in enabling nurses to detect these signs. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Situational Context of Insurance in Globalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S V Martynenko

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This article shows how globalization resolves problems, which are motivated in a new way by modern situational context of social-insurance, how the 'insurance cocoon' of civilization leads to narrowing of conflict space in the world politics.

Center Director Bridges visits Disability Awareness and Action working Group Technology Fair

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

Center Director Roy Bridges (standing, center) poses with members of the Disability Awareness and Action Working Group (DAAWG), which is holding the 1999 Technology Fair Oct. 20-21 at Kennedy Space Center. The Fair is highlighting vendors demonstrating mobility, hearing, vision and silent disability assistive technology. The purpose is to create an awareness of the types of technology currently available to assist people with various disabilities in the workplace. The theme is that of this year's National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 'Opening Doors to Ability.' Some of the vendors participating are Canine Companions for Independence, Goodwill Industries, Accessible Structures, Division of Blind Services, Space Coast Center for Independent Living, KSC Fitness Center and Delaware North Parks Services.

A Framework for Achieving Situational Awareness during Crisis based on Twitter Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Zielinski, Andrea; Tokarchuk, Laurissa; Middleton, Stuart; Chaves, Fernando

2013-04-01

Decision Support Systems for Natural Crisis Management increasingly employ Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies for future collaborative decision making, including the use of social networks like Twitter. However, human sensor data is not readily accessible and interpretable, since the texts are unstructured, noisy and available in various languages. The present work focusses on the detection of crisis events in a multilingual setting as part of the FP7-funded EU project TRIDEC and is motivated by the goal to establish a Tsunami warning system for the Mediterranean. It is integrated into a dynamic spatial-temporal decision making component with a command and control unit's graphical user interface that presents all relevant information to the human operator to support critical decision-support. To this end, a tool for the interactive visualization of geospatial data is implemented: All tweets with an exact timestamp or geo-location are monitored on the map in real-time so that the operator on duty can get an overall picture of the situation. Apart from the human sensor data, the seismic sensor data will appear also on the same screen. Signs of abnormal activity from twitter usage in social networks as well as in sensor networks devices can then be used to trigger official warning alerts according to the CAP message standard. Whenever a certain threshold of relevant tweets in a HASC region (Hierarchical Administrative Subdivision Code) is exceeded, the twitter activity in this administrative region will be shown on a map. We believe that the following functionalities are crucial for monitoring crisis, making use of text mining and network analysis techniques: Focussed crawling, trustworthyness analysis geo-parsing, and multilingual tweet classification. In the first step, the Twitter Streaming API accesses the social data, using an adaptive keyword list (focussed crawling). Then, tweets are filtered and aggregated to form counts for a certain time-span (e.g., an interval of

Chinese Students' Awareness of Relationship between Green Finance, Environmental Protection Education and Real Situation

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Wenzhong; Zhu, Zhengguo; Fang, Shuqiong; Pan, Wentsao

2017-01-01

Chinese government puts forward a concept: five in one, putting environment in the same significant position as economy, politics, society and culture, which highlights the significance of environment. With the continuous increase of environmental awareness, many scholars pay more attention to green finance. However, the researches based on…

Context recognition and situation assessment in autonomous mobile robots

Science.gov (United States)

Yavnai, Arie

1993-05-01

The capability to recognize the operating context and to assess the situation in real-time is needed, if a high functionality autonomous mobile robot has to react properly and effectively to continuously changing situations and events, either external or internal, while the robot is performing its assigned tasks. A new approach and architecture for context recognition and situation assessment module (CORSA) is presented in this paper. CORSA is a multi-level information processing module which consists of adaptive decision and classification algorithms. It performs dynamic mapping from the data space to the context space, and dynamically decides on the context class. Learning mechanism is employed to update the decision variables so as to minimize the probability of misclassification. CORSA is embedded within the Mission Manager module of the intelligent autonomous hyper-controller (IAHC) of the mobile robot. The information regarding operating context, events and situation is then communicated to other modules of the IAHC where it is used to: (a) select the appropriate action strategy; (b) support the processes to arbitration and conflict resolution between reflexive behaviors and reasoning-driven behaviors; (c) predict future events and situations; and (d) determine criteria and priorities for planning, replanning, and decision making.

Location-aware mobile media and urban sociability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sutko, Daniel; de Souza e Silva, Adriana Araujo

2011-01-01

Location-aware mobile media allow users to see their locations on a map on their mobile phone screens. These applications either disclose the physical positions of known friends, or represent the locations of groups of unknown people. We call these interfaces eponymous and anonymous, respectively...... location-aware mobile media, namely their ability to increase one’s spatial awareness and to encourage one to meet more people in public spaces, might be fallacious due to pre-existing practices of sociability in the city. We explore these issues in the light of three bodies of theory: Goffman......’s presentation of self in everyday life, Simmel’s ideas on sociability, and Lehtonen and Mäenpää’s concept of street sociability....

Supersymmetry in singular spaces

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergshoeff, Eric

2002-01-01

We discuss supersymmetry in spaces with a boundary, i.e. singular spaces. In particular, we discuss the situation in ten and five dimensions. In both these cases we review the construction of supersymmetric domain wall actions situated at the boundary. These domain walls act as sources inducing a

Application of a computational situation assessment model to human system interface design and experimental validation of its effectiveness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Hyun-Chul; Koh, Kwang-Yong; Seong, Poong-Hyun

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► We validate the effectiveness of a proposed procedure thru an experiment. ► The proposed procedure addresses the salient coding of the key information. ► It was found that salience coding affects operators’ attention significantly. ► The first observation to the key information quickly guided to the correct situation awareness. ► It was validated the proposed procedure is effective for better situation awareness. - Abstract: To evaluate the effects of human cognitive characteristics on situation awareness, a computational situation assessment model of nuclear power plant operators has been developed, as well as a procedure to apply the developed model to the design of human system interfaces (HSIs). The concept of the proposed procedure is to identify the key information source, which is expected to guarantee fast and accurate diagnosis when operators attend to it. The developed computational model is used to search the diagnostic paths and the key information source. In this study, an experiment with twelve trained participants was executed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure. Eighteen scenarios covering various accidents were administered twice for each subject, and experimental data were collected and analyzed. As a result of the data analysis, it was validated that the salience level of information sources significantly influences the attention of operators, and the first observation of the key information sources leads operators to a quick and correct situation assessment. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed procedure for applying the developed model to HSI design is effective

IMPRESS: medical location-aware decision making during emergencies

Science.gov (United States)

Gkotsis, I.; Eftychidis, G.; Leventakis, G.; Mountzouris, M.; Diagourtas, D.; Kostaridis, A.; Hedel, R.; Olunczek, A.; Hahmann, S.

2017-09-01

Emergency situations and mass casualties involve several agencies and public authorities, which need to gather data from the incident scene and exchange geo-referenced information to provide fast and accurate first aid to the people in need. Tracking patients on their way to the hospitals can prove critical in taking lifesaving decisions. Increased and continuous flow of information combined by vital signs and geographic location of emergency victims can greatly reduce the response time of the medical emergency chain and improve the efficiency of disaster medicine activity. Recent advances in mobile positioning systems and telecommunications are providing the technology needed for the development of location-aware medical applications. IMPRESS is an advanced ICT platform based on adequate technologies for developing location-aware medical response during emergencies. The system incorporates mobile and fixed components that collect field data from diverse sources, support medical location and situation-based services and share information on the patient's transport from the field to the hospitals. In IMPRESS platform tracking of victims, ambulances and emergency services vehicles is integrated with medical, traffic and crisis management information into a common operational picture. The Incident Management component of the system manages operational resources together with patient tracking data that contain vital sign values and patient's status evolution. Thus, it can prioritize emergency transport decisions, based on medical and location-aware information. The solution combines positioning and information gathered and owned by various public services involved in MCIs or large-scale disasters. IMPRESS solution, were validated in field and table top exercises in cooperation with emergency services and hospitals.

A computational model for evaluating the effects of attention, memory, and mental models on situation assessment of nuclear power plant operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Hyun-Chul; Seong, Poong-Hyun

2009-01-01

Operators in nuclear power plants have to acquire information from human system interfaces (HSIs) and the environment in order to create, update, and confirm their understanding of a plant state, as failures of situation assessment may cause wrong decisions for process control and finally errors of commission in nuclear power plants. A few computational models that can be used to predict and quantify the situation awareness of operators have been suggested. However, these models do not sufficiently consider human characteristics for nuclear power plant operators. In this paper, we propose a computational model for situation assessment of nuclear power plant operators using a Bayesian network. This model incorporates human factors significantly affecting operators' situation assessment, such as attention, working memory decay, and mental model. As this proposed model provides quantitative results of situation assessment and diagnostic performance, we expect that this model can be used in the design and evaluation of human system interfaces as well as the prediction of situation awareness errors in the human reliability analysis.

A computational model for evaluating the effects of attention, memory, and mental models on situation assessment of nuclear power plant operators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Hyun-Chul [Instrumentation and Control/Human Factors Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 1045 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-353 (Korea, Republic of)], E-mail: leehc@kaeri.re.kr; Seong, Poong-Hyun [Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701 (Korea, Republic of)

2009-11-15

Operators in nuclear power plants have to acquire information from human system interfaces (HSIs) and the environment in order to create, update, and confirm their understanding of a plant state, as failures of situation assessment may cause wrong decisions for process control and finally errors of commission in nuclear power plants. A few computational models that can be used to predict and quantify the situation awareness of operators have been suggested. However, these models do not sufficiently consider human characteristics for nuclear power plant operators. In this paper, we propose a computational model for situation assessment of nuclear power plant operators using a Bayesian network. This model incorporates human factors significantly affecting operators' situation assessment, such as attention, working memory decay, and mental model. As this proposed model provides quantitative results of situation assessment and diagnostic performance, we expect that this model can be used in the design and evaluation of human system interfaces as well as the prediction of situation awareness errors in the human reliability analysis.

Towards an ethical theory in disaster situations.

Science.gov (United States)

Mallia, Pierre

2015-02-01

Health Care professionals working in disaster situations have to face urgent choices which diverge from their normal deontological ethos and are more utilitarian. Such is the triage system used to choose whom to treat. Instead of entering a crisis these professionals should be thought that ethics is not harmonizable to all situations and that there are situations in which saving as many lives as possible mean sacrificing others. This calls for defining a perimeter zone in which such choices occur, and a time frame (a space-time niche) in which it ought to be considered ethical and legitimate to use such value laden choices.

Supporting Information Access in a Hospital Ward by a Context-Aware Mobile Electronic Patient Record

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skov, Mikael B.; Høegh, Rune Thaarup

2006-01-01

Context-awareness holds promise for improving the utility of software products. Context-aware mobile systems encompass the ability to automatically discover and react to changes in an environment. Most contemporary context-aware mobile systems aim to support users in private situations, for example......Ward is to support nurses in conducting morning procedures in a hospital ward. MobileWard is context-aware as it is able to discover and react autonomously according to changes in the environment and since it integrates the ability to provide information and services to the user where the relevancy depends....... Implications and limitations of the proposed solution are further discussed....

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE AUDIT OF FINANCIAL SITUATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria-Madalina, Salomia

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In a business world situated on a market that is becoming more and more active both on an international and national level, the audit of financial situations embodies a veritable varied research domain and with favorable advantages for the Romanian business society, as well as for the interest of the business society located outside the Romanian space.From the result of the auditing of financial situations of a entity, various information may be obtained which is used by different groups that present opinions, knowledge and divergent interests such as:managers, investors, financial creditors, commercial creditors, clients, suppliers, employees, the government and its institutions, bankers, financial analysts, the public, the business community and other entities who base themselves on the objectivity and integrity of the financial situations audited.

A Context-Aware S-Health Service System for Drivers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jingkun Chang

2017-03-01

Full Text Available As a stressful and sensitive task, driving can be disturbed by various factors from the health condition of the driver to the environmental variables of the vehicle. Continuous monitoring of driving hazards and providing the most appropriate business services to meet actual needs can guarantee safe driving and make great use of the existing information resources and business services. However, there is no in-depth research on the perception of a driver’s health status or the provision of customized business services in case of various hazardous situations. In order to constantly monitor the health status of the drivers and react to abnormal situations, this paper proposes a context-aware service system providing a configurable architecture for the design and implementation of the smart health service system for safe driving, which can perceive a driver’s health status and provide helpful services to the driver. With the context-aware technology to construct a smart health services system for safe driving, this is the first time that such a service system has been implemented in practice. Additionally, an assessment model is proposed to mitigate the impact of the acceptable abnormal status and, thus, reduce the unnecessary invocation of the services. With regard to different assessed situations, the business services can be invoked for the driver to adapt to hazardous situations according to the services configuration model, which can take full advantage of the existing information resources and business services. The evaluation results indicate that the alteration of the observed status in a valid time range T can be tolerated and the frequency of the service invocation can be reduced.

Workload-Aware Indexing of Continuously Moving Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tzoumas, Kostas; Yiu, Man Lung; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard

2009-01-01

structures can easily become performance bottlenecks. We address the need for indexing that is adaptive to the workload characteristics, called workload-aware, in order to cover the space in between maintaining an accurate index, and having no index at all. Our proposal, QU-Trade, extends R-tree type...... indexing and achieves workload-awareness by controlling the underlying index’s filtering quality. QU-Trade safely drops index updates, increasing the overlap in the index when the workload is update-intensive, and it restores the filtering capabilities of the index when the workload becomes query......-intensive. This is done in a non-uniform way in space so that the quality of the index remains high in frequently queried regions, while it deteriorates in frequently updated regions. The adaptation occurs online, without the need for a learning phase. We apply QU-Trade to the R-tree and the TPR-tree, and we offer...

A qualitative study examining the influences on situation awareness and the identification, mitigation and escalation of recognised patient risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Brady, Patrick W; Goldenhar, Linda M

2014-02-01

Situation awareness (SA)-the perception of data elements, comprehension of their meaning and projection of their status in the near future-has been associated with human performance in high-risk environments, including aviation and the operating room. The influences on SA in inpatient medicine are unknown. We conducted seven focus groups with nurses, respiratory therapists and resident physicians using a standardised semistructured focus group guide to promote discussion. Recordings of the focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and transcripts were qualitatively analysed by two independent reviewers to identify convergent and divergent themes. Three themes emerged: (1) team-based care, (2) availability of standardised data and (3) standardised processes and procedures. We categorised these into social, technological and organisational influences on SA. Subthemes that emerged from each focus group were shared language to describe at-risk patients, provider experience in critical care/deterioration and interdisciplinary huddles to identify and plan for at-risk patients. An objective early warning score, proactive assessment and planning, adequate clinician staffing and tools for entering, displaying and monitoring data trends were identified by six of seven groups. Our data better reflected the concepts of team SA and shared SA than individual SA. Team-based care and standardisation support SA and the identification and treatment of patient risk in the complex environment of inpatient care. These findings can be used to guide the development and implementation of targeted interventions such as huddles to proactively scan for risk and electronic health record displays of data trends.

Determinants of Awareness, Consideration, and Choice Set Size in University Choice.

Science.gov (United States)

Dawes, Philip L.; Brown, Jennifer

2002-01-01

Developed and tested a model of students' university "brand" choice using five individual-level variables (ethnic group, age, gender, number of parents going to university, and academic ability) and one situational variable (duration of search) to explain variation in the sizes of awareness, consideration, and choice decision sets. (EV)

A Methodology and a Web Platform for the Collaborative Development of Context-Aware Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Martín, David; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Alzua-Sorzabal, Aurkene; Lamsfus, Carlos; Torres-Manzanera, Emilio

2013-01-01

Information and services personalization is essential for an optimal user experience. Systems have to be able to acquire data about the user's context, process them in order to identify the user's situation and finally, adapt the functionality of the system to that situation, but the development of context-aware systems is complex. Data coming from distributed and heterogeneous sources have to be acquired, processed and managed. Several programming frameworks have been proposed in order to simplify the development of context-aware systems. These frameworks offer high-level application programming interfaces for programmers that complicate the involvement of domain experts in the development life-cycle. The participation of users that do not have programming skills but are experts in the application domain can speed up and improve the development process of these kinds of systems. Apart from that, there is a lack of methodologies to guide the development process. This article presents as main contributions, the implementation and evaluation of a web platform and a methodology to collaboratively develop context-aware systems by programmers and domain experts. PMID:23666131

“You Should Have Seen the Look on Your Face…”: Self-awareness of Facial Expressions

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Fangbing; Yan, Wen-Jing; Chen, Yu-Hsin; Li, Kaiyun; Zhang, Hui; Fu, Xiaolan

2017-01-01

The awareness of facial expressions allows one to better understand, predict, and regulate his/her states to adapt to different social situations. The present research investigated individuals’ awareness of their own facial expressions and the influence of the duration and intensity of expressions in two self-reference modalities, a real-time condition and a video-review condition. The participants were instructed to respond as soon as they became aware of any facial movements. The results revealed that awareness rates were 57.79% in the real-time condition and 75.92% in the video-review condition. The awareness rate was influenced by the intensity and (or) the duration. The intensity thresholds for individuals to become aware of their own facial expressions were calculated using logistic regression models. The results of Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) revealed that video-review awareness was a significant predictor of real-time awareness. These findings extend understandings of human facial expression self-awareness in two modalities. PMID:28611703

Dispositional and situational variables related to evacuation at Three Mile Island

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, I.S.

1981-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore some of the factors influential in local residents' evacuating or remaining in the Three Mile Island area during the nuclear power plant accident of March, 1979. Investigated variables included individuals' behavioral dispositions to attend or to avoid threatening stimuli as well as situational concerns related to demographic characteristics and subjective experience. Investigation of situational variables also probed respondents' concerns about accident-related fears. Two main relationships were investigated. The first hypothesized that positive relationships existed both between dispositional attention to threat and evacuation and between dispositional avoidance of threat and remaining. The second investigation task of the research explored evacuation-related situational variables in regard to individuals' awareness of potential danger at TMI. No support was found for the hypothesized relationships between evacuation and dispositions relative to threat. Situational variables significantly related to evacuation included: specific directives to evacuate the area; disruption of telephone service during the week of the accident; and household proximity to TMI

Progress with situation assessment and risk prediction in advanced driver assistance systems : A survey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rendon-Velez, E.; Horváth, I.; Opiyo, E.Z.

2009-01-01

In the field of automotive safety, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are receiving growing attention. Effective ADAS requires awareness of the actual driving situation, a reliable assessment of the risks, and making rapid decisions on assisting actions. This paper reviews the current

People’s Motivation to Participate in Social Network Sites, Subsequent Behaviours, and Situation Self-Awareness following a Crisis: Evidence from the MH370 Flight Incident

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuequn Wang

2016-03-01

Full Text Available As people increasingly integrate social network sites (SNSs into their daily lives, they also turn to these sites for timely information following crises. To date, few studies have examined the effects of different types of motivation on participatory behaviours within SNSs following crises. In this study, self-determination theory (SDT is applied to examine how individuals are motivated to participate in SNSs following a crisis and how individuals’ participatory behaviours can better assist them understand a crisis. The Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370 incident is selected as the context for this study, and data is collected following the incident. The results show that different types of motivation result in different participatory behaviours. Controlled motivation is positively related to browsing content, commenting and sharing content. Conversely, autonomous motivation is positively associated with browsing and sharing content. Besides, browsing content and commenting are positively related to people’s situational self-awareness. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

The Relationship Between Maternal Awareness, Socioeconomic Situation of Families and Metabolic Control in Children With Type 1 Diabetes Miletus in an Iranian Population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soheilipour

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Background Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM is one of the most common chronic pediatric conditions, with potentially life-threatening sequels. However, good metabolic control can protect the patients against sequels. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between awareness of the mothers about this disease on improving diabetic children metabolic control and also, to examine the relationship between socioeconomic situations of families and control of diabetes in this group of patients. Patients and Methods This is a cross-sectional descriptive analytic study on 80 diabetic children and their mothers, who were registered in the diabetes association of Iran, for outpatient control of disease. Diabetes knowledge was measured by Michigan diabetes knowledge test and glycemic control was assessed by glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c. To assess the socio-economic status of a diabetic child’s family, educational level, occupational and marital status of parents were asked and the socioeconomic status (SES was evaluated with Hollingshed four-factor index of SES. Results Mothers’ mean knowledge score was 17.72, children’s mean HbA1c was 7.77 and mean of SES was 27.89. There was no significant correlation between children’s HbA1c and mother’s SES. Also, there was an inverse linear relationship between mothers’ knowledge score and children’s HbA1c and there was a direct linear relationship between the mothers’ knowledge score and SES. Conclusions Finally, based on the results obtained in this study, it can be concluded that the awareness of mothers of T1DM children has a good impact on blood sugar control, whereas the SES of families has no direct effect on blood sugar control. Additionally, SES can indirectly impact on the consciousness of mothers and lead to the reduction of HbA1c.

Acting without seeing: Eye movements reveal visual processing without awareness Miriam Spering & Marisa Carrasco

Science.gov (United States)

Spering, Miriam; Carrasco, Marisa

2015-01-01

Visual perception and eye movements are considered to be tightly linked. Diverse fields, ranging from developmental psychology to computer science, utilize eye tracking to measure visual perception. However, this prevailing view has been challenged by recent behavioral studies. We review converging evidence revealing dissociations between the contents of perceptual awareness and different types of eye movements. Such dissociations reveal situations in which eye movements are sensitive to particular visual features that fail to modulate perceptual reports. We also discuss neurophysiological, neuroimaging and clinical studies supporting the role of subcortical pathways for visual processing without awareness. Our review links awareness to perceptual-eye movement dissociations and furthers our understanding of the brain pathways underlying vision and movement with and without awareness. PMID:25765322

"Putting the words 'I am sad', just doesn't quite cut it sometimes!": the use of art to promote emotional awareness in nursing students.

Science.gov (United States)

Jack, Kirsten

2012-10-01

This paper explores a way in which Heidegger's later philosophy on meditative thinking can be used to support the development of emotional self awareness in pre registration nursing students. The development of art work supported the consideration of feelings in relation to particular incidents from practice. The students were afforded the opportunity to think 'for thinking's sake' about their feelings around emotionally challenging situations. They were then more able to consider others' feelings and think differently about the situations encountered. The students found the process beneficial although in an already packed curriculum, it may be difficult to afford the time and space needed to adopt more transformatory ways of learning. A more objective and focused delivery may be preferable to the nurse educator, but when exploring human emotion, consideration could be given to whether this is beneficial to the student. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of awareness on networked SIS epidemics

KAUST Repository

Paarporn, Keith

2017-01-05

We study an SIS epidemic model over an arbitrary fixed network topology where the n agents, or nodes of the network, have partial information about the epidemic state. The agents react by distancing themselves from their neighbors when they believe the epidemic is currently prevalent. An agent\\'s awareness is weighted from three sources of information: the fraction of infected neighbors in their contact network, their social network, and a global broadcast of the fraction of infected nodes in the entire network. The dynamics of the benchmark (no awareness) and awareness models are described by discrete-time 2-state Markov chains. Through a coupling technique, we establish monotonicity properties between the benchmark and awareness models. Particularly, we show that the expectation of any increasing random variable on the space of sample paths, e.g. eradication time or total infections, is lower for the awareness model. In addition, we give a characterization for this difference of expectations in terms of the coupling distribution. In simulations, we evaluate how different sources of information affect the spread of an epidemic.

Body awareness and responses to experimentally Induced pain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Minev

2017-09-01

Full Text Available PURPOSE. The aim of this study is to discuss personal and demographic factors that influence the relationship between physical activity and awareness of one's own body, as well as the pain response (threshold and tolerance of pain, situational anxiety and personality. In the study 38 healthy individual- volunteers, students in Trakia University - Stara Zagora were selected. All participants were divided into two groups: actively involved in individual or team sport (n = 19 and healthy normaly active subjects (non-athletes, n = 19. The age of the study participants ranged between 18 and 39 years, while the gender breakdown was as follows: men - 22 women – 16. Methods: Psychological Questionnaires: Body Awareness Questionnaire that asks subjects to rate, on a 4 point scale, the degree to which they were currently experiencing symptoms of sympathetic arousal, State Trait Anger Scale, and State Trait Anxiety Scale. Objective methods (cold pressure test are used only to determine the pain sensation and pain tolerance thresholds. The results of investigation support significant differences between athletes and non-athletes in pain thershold, body awareness and anxiety. The study conclusions discuss body awareness as an increasing factor for pain resistance in athletes and as an integral part of the learning process among them.

[Survey of current situation of schistosomiasis health education in Wuxi City].

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Xiao-jun; Gao, Dong-lin; Zhang, Xuan; Lu, Bing

2015-04-01

To understand the current situation of schistosomiasis health education in in Wuxi City where schistosomiasis transmission has been interrupted, so as to provide the evidence for formulating the health education strategies. Face to face interviews and a professional designed questionnaire were used to collect the information of the current schistosomiasis health education and investigate the awareness of schistosomiasis knowledge in primary and middle schools and in communities. The total awareness rate of schistosomiasis knowledge was 87.7% among 873 students and the figure was 83.0% among 693 community residents. The students who studied in the schools with more than 1 class hour of schistosomiasis health education, completed schistosomiasis health education material or teaching plan, and implementing health education through multiple ways had higher knowledge awareness rates compared with the schools without (χ2 = 291.408, 709.622, 13.751, all P <0.001). The residents living in the communities with schistosomiasis health education through broadcast/TV or square propaganda had a higher knowledge awareness rate compared with the communities without (χ2= 90.772, 47.436, all P < 0.001). The awareness rates of schistosomiasis knowledge among both students and community residents in Wuxi City are low. Therefore, the schistosomiasis control health education should be strengthened.

The Evolution of the Rendezvous Profile During the Space Shuttle Program

Science.gov (United States)

Summa, William R.

2010-01-01

The rendezvous and proximity operations approach design techniques for space shuttle missions has changed significantly during the life of the program in response to new requirements that were not part of the original mission design. The flexibility of the shuttle onboard systems design and the mission planning process has allowed the program to meet these requirements. The design of the space shuttle and the shift from docking to grappling with a robotic ann prevented use of legacy Apollo rendezvous techniques. Over the life of the shuttle program the rendezvous profile has evolved due to several factors, including lowering propellant consumption and increasing flexibility in mission planning. Many of the spacecraft that the shuttle rendezvoused with had unique requirements that drove the creation of mission-unique proximity operations. The dockings to the Russian Mir space station and International Space Station (ISS) required further evolution of rendezvous and proximity operations techniques and additional sensors to enhance crew situational awareness. After the Columbia accident, a Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver (RPM) was added to allow tile photography from ISS. Lessons learned from these rendezvous design changes are applicable to future vehicle designs and operations concepts.

Social Security Measures for Elderly Population in Delhi, India: Awareness, Utilization and Barriers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohli, Charu; Gupta, Kalika; Banerjee, Bratati; Ingle, Gopal Krishna

2017-05-01

World population of elderly is increasing at a fast pace. The number of elderly in India has increased by 54.77% in the last 15 years. A number of social security measures have been taken by Indian government. To assess awareness, utilization and barriers faced while utilizing social security schemes by elderly in a secondary care hospital situated in a rural area in Delhi, India. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 360 individuals aged 60 years and above in a secondary care hospital situated in a rural area in Delhi. A pre-tested, semi-structured schedule prepared in local language was used. Data was analysed using SPSS software (version 17.0). Chi-square test was used to observe any statistical association between categorical variables. The results were considered statistically significant if p-value was less than 0.05. A majority of study subjects were females (54.2%), Hindu (89.7%), married (60.3%) and were not engaged in any occupation (82.8%). Awareness about Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) was present among 286 (79.4%) and Annapurna scheme in 193 (53.6%) subjects. Among 223 subjects who were below poverty line, 179 (80.3%) were aware of IGNOAPS; while, 112 (50.2%) were utilizing the scheme. There was no association of awareness with education status, occupation, religion, family type, marital status and caste (p>0.05). Corruption and tedious administrative formalities were major barriers reported. Awareness generation, provision of information on how to approach the concerned authority for utilizing the scheme and ease of administrative procedures should be an integral part of any social security scheme or measure. In the present study, about 79.4% of elderly were aware and 45% of the eligible subjects were utilizing pension scheme. Major barriers reported in utilization of schemes were corruption and tedious administrative procedures.

A Two-Stage Composition Method for Danger-Aware Services Based on Context Similarity

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Junbo; Cheng, Zixue; Jing, Lei; Ota, Kaoru; Kansen, Mizuo

Context-aware systems detect user's physical and social contexts based on sensor networks, and provide services that adapt to the user accordingly. Representing, detecting, and managing the contexts are important issues in context-aware systems. Composition of contexts is a useful method for these works, since it can detect a context by automatically composing small pieces of information to discover service. Danger-aware services are a kind of context-aware services which need description of relations between a user and his/her surrounding objects and between users. However when applying the existing composition methods to danger-aware services, they show the following shortcomings that (1) they have not provided an explicit method for representing composition of multi-user' contexts, (2) there is no flexible reasoning mechanism based on similarity of contexts, so that they can just provide services exactly following the predefined context reasoning rules. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a two-stage composition method based on context similarity to solve the above problems. The first stage is composition of the useful information to represent the context for a single user. The second stage is composition of multi-users' contexts to provide services by considering the relation of users. Finally the danger degree of the detected context is computed by using context similarity between the detected context and the predefined context. Context is dynamically represented based on two-stage composition rules and a Situation theory based Ontology, which combines the advantages of Ontology and Situation theory. We implement the system in an indoor ubiquitous environment, and evaluate the system through two experiments with the support of subjects. The experiment results show the method is effective, and the accuracy of danger detection is acceptable to a danger-aware system.

Experimental evaluation of a Critical Thinking Tool to support decision making in crisis situations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schraagen, J.M.C.; Eikelboom, A.R.; Dongen, C.J.G. van; Brake, G.M. te

2005-01-01

Building up proper situation awareness is one of the most difficult tasks in the beginning stages of large-scale accidents. As ambiguous information about the events becomes available, decision makers are often tempted to quickly choose a particular story to explain the events. Subsequent

Critical Cultural Awareness: Contributions to a Globalizing Psychology

Science.gov (United States)

Christopher, John Chambers; Wendt, Dennis C.; Marecek, Jeanne; Goodman, David M.

2015-01-01

The number of psychologists whose work crosses cultural boundaries is increasing. Without a critical awareness of their own cultural grounding, they risk imposing the assumptions, concepts, practices, and values of U.S.-centered psychology on societies where they do not fit, as a brief example from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami shows. Hermeneutic thinkers offer theoretical resources for gaining cultural awareness. Culture, in the hermeneutic view, is the constellation of meanings that constitutes a way of life. Such cultural meanings – especially in the form of folk psychologies and moral visions – inevitably shape every psychology, including U.S. psychology. The insights of hermeneutics, as well as its conceptual resources and research approaches, open the way for psychological knowledge and practice that are more culturally situated. PMID:24841336

Cyberbullying Awareness for Mitigating Consequences in Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Elçi, Alev; Seçkin, Zeliha

2016-04-28

Technology has many positive effects on education, but negative effects also exist. One of the negative effects is cyberbullying spreading out of school boundaries to the social networks. The increasing popularity of social media among youngsters engenders cyberbullies who exploit the virtual environment besides the usual emails. This distresses the students and adversely affects their families, teachers, and others around them. Although research studies mainly concentrate on prior education, there seems to be a need to investigate the situation in higher education. This study focuses on students studying technology and related disciplines, who are hence likely to be well connected with cyberspace, and explores their awareness about cyberbullying. The findings reveal that female students have significantly less awareness than males. This study will help address some gender issues in cyberbullying. © The Author(s) 2016.

Challenges in Physical Characterization of Dim Space Objects: What Can We Learn from NEOs

Science.gov (United States)

Reddy, V.; Sanchez, J.; Thirouin, A.; Rivera-Valentin, E.; Ryan, W.; Ryan, E.; Mokovitz, N.; Tegler, S.

2016-09-01

Physical characterization of dim space objects in cis-lunar space can be a challenging task. Of particular interest to both natural and artificial space object behavior scientists are the properties beyond orbital parameters that can uniquely identify them. These properties include rotational state, size, shape, density and composition. A wide range of observational and non-observational factors affect our ability to characterize dim objects in cis-lunar space. For example, phase angle (angle between Sun-Target-Observer), temperature, rotational variations, temperature, and particle size (for natural dim objects). Over the last two decades, space object behavior scientists studying natural dim objects have attempted to quantify and correct for a majority of these factors to enhance our situational awareness. These efforts have been primarily focused on developing laboratory spectral calibrations in a space-like environment. Calibrations developed correcting spectral observations of natural dim objects could be applied to characterizing artificial objects, as the underlying physics is the same. The paper will summarize our current understanding of these observational and non-observational factors and present a case study showcasing the state of the art in characterization of natural dim objects.

Young College Students in a Big City: Their Behavior in an Emergency Situation

Science.gov (United States)

Stegnii, V. N.; Kurbatova, L. N.

2013-01-01

Survey data show that Russian students are becoming more aware of the need to avoid situations that may lead to criminal behavior, and to rely on both themselves and others for help if the need arises. But more students need to learn how to protect themselves against victimization. (Contains 2 tables.)

Fight the Power: Situated Learning and Conscientisation in a Gendered Community of Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Curnow, Joe

2013-01-01

In this paper, I employ situated learning theory to explore gendered processes of marginalisation and conscientisation in a social movement organisation. Using a student activist organisation as a case study, I explain women's awareness of and resistance to masculine performances of leadership and decision-making through the concept of…

THE FEATURES OF THE RUSSIAN LEGAL AWARENESS AND POLITICAL MODERNIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. N. Kuryukin

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In an article on the broad theoretical material, the author attempts, on the one hand, to understand the modern domestic legal awareness as a phenomenon, identify its characteristics and features, view the contents, and, on the other hand, to draw a conclusion concerning the nature and forms of infl uence of national legal awareness to the political modernization. As a result of an analysis, it is concluded that the national legal awareness is in a state of transition, where inconsistent and sometimes paradoxical mix of traditional national elements, the elements left over from psychology and philosophy "Soviet Man", as well as actively being introduced from the beginning of the 90s XX century elements of the "market mentality", leading to a fair amount of heterogeneity proper sense of justice and situational diff erentiation behavior of citizens, that impossibly difficult to develop a single project of modernization.

Human Factors in Space Exploration

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Patricia M.; Fiedler, Edna

2010-01-01

The exploration of space is one of the most fascinating domains to study from a human factors perspective. Like other complex work domains such as aviation (Pritchett and Kim, 2008), air traffic management (Durso and Manning, 2008), health care (Morrow, North, and Wickens, 2006), homeland security (Cooke and Winner, 2008), and vehicle control (Lee, 2006), space exploration is a large-scale sociotechnical work domain characterized by complexity, dynamism, uncertainty, and risk in real-time operational contexts (Perrow, 1999; Woods et ai, 1994). Nearly the entire gamut of human factors issues - for example, human-automation interaction (Sheridan and Parasuraman, 2006), telerobotics, display and control design (Smith, Bennett, and Stone, 2006), usability, anthropometry (Chaffin, 2008), biomechanics (Marras and Radwin, 2006), safety engineering, emergency operations, maintenance human factors, situation awareness (Tenney and Pew, 2006), crew resource management (Salas et aI., 2006), methods for cognitive work analysis (Bisantz and Roth, 2008) and the like -- are applicable to astronauts, mission control, operational medicine, Space Shuttle manufacturing and assembly operations, and space suit designers as they are in other work domains (e.g., Bloomberg, 2003; Bos et al, 2006; Brooks and Ince, 1992; Casler and Cook, 1999; Jones, 1994; McCurdy et ai, 2006; Neerincx et aI., 2006; Olofinboba and Dorneich, 2005; Patterson, Watts-Perotti and Woods, 1999; Patterson and Woods, 2001; Seagull et ai, 2007; Sierhuis, Clancey and Sims, 2002). The human exploration of space also has unique challenges of particular interest to human factors research and practice. This chapter provides an overview of those issues and reports on sorne of the latest research results as well as the latest challenges still facing the field.

Space Flight Resource Management for ISS Operations

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, Lacey L.; Slack, Kelley; Holland, Albert; Huning, Therese; O'Keefe, William; Sipes, Walter E.

2010-01-01

Although the astronaut training flow for the International Space Station (ISS) spans 2 years, each astronaut or cosmonaut often spends most of their training alone. Rarely is it operationally feasible for all six ISS crewmembers to train together, even more unlikely that crewmembers can practice living together before launch. Likewise, ISS Flight Controller training spans 18 months of learning to manage incredibly complex systems remotely in plug-and-play ground teams that have little to no exposure to crewmembers before a mission. How then do all of these people quickly become a team - a team that must respond flexibly yet decisively to a variety of situations? The answer implemented at NASA is Space Flight Resource Management (SFRM), the so-called "soft skills" or team performance skills. Based on Crew Resource Management, SFRM was developed first for shuttle astronauts and focused on managing human errors during time-critical events (Rogers, et al. 2002). Given the nature of life on ISS, the scope of SFRM for ISS broadened to include teamwork during prolonged and routine operations (O'Keefe, 2008). The ISS SFRM model resembles a star with one competency for each point: Communication, Cross-Culture, Teamwork, Decision Making, Team Care, Leadership/Followership, Conflict Management, and Situation Awareness. These eight competencies were developed with international participation by the Human Behavior and Performance Training Working Group. Over the last two years, these competencies have been used to build a multi-modal SFRM training flow for astronaut candidates and flight controllers that integrates team performance skills into the practice of technical skills. Preliminary results show trainee skill increases as the flow progresses; and participants find the training invaluable to performing well and staying healthy during ISS operations. Future development of SFRM training will aim to help support indirect handovers as ISS operations evolve further with the

Investigation of Fire Safety Awareness and Management in Mall

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Rahim N.

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In spite of having sufficient fire safety system installed in buildings, the incidence of fire hazard becomes the furthermost and supreme threat to health and safety, as well as property to any community. In order to make sure that the safety of the building and its users, the fundamental features depends on the fire precaution system and equipment which should be according to the standard requirements. Nevertheless, the awareness on fire safety could necessarily alleviate the damages or rate of fatality during the event of fire. This paper presents the results on the investigation of fire safety awareness and management, concentrating on shopping mall. The endeavour of this study is to explore the level of fire safety knowledge of the users in the mall, and to study the effectiveness level of fire safety management in a mall. From the study, public awareness is highly related to understanding human behaviour and their personal background. The respondents’ levels of awareness are rather low, which reflects on their poor action when facing emergency situation during fire. The most effective methods identified to improve the awareness and effectiveness of fire safety level is through involvement in related fire safety programmes, distribution of pamphlets or brochures on fire safety and appointing specific personnel for Emergency Response Team in the mall.

The 1957 Valencia flood: hydrological and sedimentological reconstruction and comparison to the current situation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Puertes

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This work aims to improve the knowledge of the flood that took place in Valencia, Spain, in 1957. In other words, the aim is to test if it is possible to explain the flood waves with the incorporation of sediment cycle to a distributed hydrological model. Furthermore, this work aims to be aware of the current consequences of a similar event, taking into account land use changes, particularly, the urban rise in the lower basin, and the current flood defenses of the city. To do this, the hydrological model was implemented in the current basin situation. Once implemented, a reconstruction of precipitation at hourly discretization for the 1957 event was made and the sedimentological sub-model was calibrated. Then, the hydrographs in the chosen points were obtained. Finally, a simulation using the 1957 precipitation in the current basin situation was made, in order to be aware of the current consequences.

Human-robot interaction modeling and simulation of supervisory control and situational awareness during field experimentation with military manned and unmanned ground vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Tony; Metcalfe, Jason; Brewster, Benjamin; Manteuffel, Christopher; Jaswa, Matthew; Tierney, Terrance

2010-04-01

The proliferation of intelligent systems in today's military demands increased focus on the optimization of human-robot interactions. Traditional studies in this domain involve large-scale field tests that require humans to operate semiautomated systems under varying conditions within military-relevant scenarios. However, provided that adequate constraints are employed, modeling and simulation can be a cost-effective alternative and supplement. The current presentation discusses a simulation effort that was executed in parallel with a field test with Soldiers operating military vehicles in an environment that represented key elements of the true operational context. In this study, "constructive" human operators were designed to represent average Soldiers executing supervisory control over an intelligent ground system. The constructive Soldiers were simulated performing the same tasks as those performed by real Soldiers during a directly analogous field test. Exercising the models in a high-fidelity virtual environment provided predictive results that represented actual performance in certain aspects, such as situational awareness, but diverged in others. These findings largely reflected the quality of modeling assumptions used to design behaviors and the quality of information available on which to articulate principles of operation. Ultimately, predictive analyses partially supported expectations, with deficiencies explicable via Soldier surveys, experimenter observations, and previously-identified knowledge gaps.

Enhancing Space Situational Awareness using a 3U CubeSat with Optical Imager

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-01

53 viii THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Miniature Imaging Spacecraft, Pumpkin Inc.(From [1...for the payload, the Miniature Imaging Spacecraft (MISC) from Pumpkin , Inc. Figure 1. Miniature Imaging Spacecraft, Pumpkin Inc.(From [1]) In...component of relative velocity is calculated by taking the dot product of the relative velocity and 12R [19], as shown in Equation 1. The

Communication, Coordination and Awareness around Continuous Location Sharing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schildt, Emily; Leinfors, Martin; Barkhuus, Louise

2016-01-01

A core aspect of collaboration tools is the sharing of awareness cues, such as availability and location information, often with the purpose of more efficient collaboration and communication between individuals. In this paper, we present a user study of a continuous location-sharing application...... lives. We studied a location sharing service among people in less hierarchical types of relationships than previous studies and found that sharing concerns were based in the participants ‘thinking’ and imagination of potential situations rather than in actual situations. Our findings highlight how...... people’s understanding of location-tracking technologies is transitional and how it includes a constant re-negotiation of appropriate services and applications for everyday social management. We conclude that map-based continuous location sharing has significant utility among tight-knit dyads....

Students Awareness towards Traditional Cultural Dances in Sarawak, Malaysia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad R. Albattat

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Malaysia has many ethnic groups, and each ethnic group has own custom and tradition that most Malaysians are not aware, especially traditional dances. Among the Malaysian states, Sabah and Sarawak, situated in the Borneo Island have the most diverse ethnic groups in Sarawak. It has more than 30 ethnic groups. Each of the ethnic groups has its own language, cultures and lifestyle. In this regards, this research focuses on the main ethnic groups of Sarawak which are Orang Ulu, Malays, Melanau, Bidayuh, Chinese and Ibans. The aim of this study is to investigate the level of awareness among the Management and Science University (MSU students regarding their level of awareness and knowledge about traditional dances of Sarawak. The data were gathered by distributing questionnaires among MSU students. The data were then analysed using SPSS system version 18.0. Results concluded that, most of MSU students have limited knowledge about Sarawak traditional dances. Interests, internet, performing arts clubs and family background are the independent variable factors to learn and gain knowledge about Sarawak traditional dances. The level of awareness among MSU students towards Sarawak traditional dances can be enhanced through events and special occasions to increase level of awareness towards Sarawak cultures. The government plays a major role in introducing Sarawak cultures to the whole of Malaysia. Future studies could focus on factors that influence the level of awareness towards Sarawak traditional dances, and the contribution of Sarawak’s traditional dances to Malaysia’s cultural and heritage tourism.

Mindfulness and Situation Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-01

The expert mind has its value: for example, Pasteur argued that “in the fields of observation chance favours only the prepared mind” 1. Garrett...and listen intently. Avoid lumping details together or attempting to normalize an unexpected event in order to preserve a preconceived expectation

Functional brain imaging study on brain processes involved in visual awareness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kobayashi, Tetsuo; Futakawa, Hiroyuki; Tokita, Shohko; Jung, Jiuk

2003-01-01

Recently, there has been great interest in visual awareness because it is thought that it may provide valuable information in understanding aspects of consciousness. An important but still controversial issue is what region in the brain is involved in visual awareness. When viewing ambiguous figures, observers can be aware of only one of multiple competing percepts at any given moment, but experience spontaneous alternations among the percepts over time. This phenomenon is known as multistable perceptions and thought to be essential in understanding the brain processes involved in visual awareness. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the brain activities associated with multistable perceptions. Two separate experiments were performed based on two different multistable phenomena known as binocular rivalry and perceptions of ambiguous figures. Significant differential activations in the parietal and prefrontal areas were commonly observed under multistable conditions compared to monostable control conditions in the two separate experiments. These findings suggest that neural processes in the parietal and prefrontal areas may be involved in perceptual alternations in situations involving multistable phenomena. (author)

SITUATION ASSESSMENT THROUGH MULTI-MODAL SENSING OF DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTS TO SUPPORT COGNITIVE ROBOT CONTROL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Atta Badii

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Awareness of emerging situations in a dynamic operational environment of a robotic assistive device is an essential capability of such a cognitive system, based on its effective and efficient assessment of the prevailing situation. This allows the system to interact with the environment in a sensible (semiautonomous / pro-active manner without the need for frequent interventions from a supervisor.  In this paper, we report a novel generic Situation Assessment Architecture for robotic systems directly assisting humans as developed in the CORBYS project. This paper presents the overall architecture for situation assessment and its application in proof-of-concept Demonstrators as developed and validated within the CORBYS project. These include a robotic human follower and a mobile gait rehabilitation robotic system. We present an overview of the structure and functionality of the Situation Assessment Architecture for robotic systems with results and observations as collected from initial validation on the two CORBYS Demonstrators.

STRESSFUL SITUATIONS IN TEACHING PROFESSION – CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Romanowska-Tołłoczko

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose . Determination which areas of teacher’s work are primary sources of stress, denomination of the extent to which disciplinary problems with students were stress inducing, and what was the frequency and intensity of these situations. Material and methods. The study involved 180 teachers from junior high schools, among which two groups were selected: physical education teachers (74 persons and teachers of other subjects (106 persons. The reason for this division was the necessity of identifying the groups of teachers differing in specifics of school subjects, studies which they graduated from, and determine the typical areas of difficulty experienced. The research was based on a diagnostic survey and a questionnaire. Results . Teaching profession is considered as psychologically challenging occupation due to numerous occurrences of stressful situations. Yet it is not equally aggravating for everyone – there are well-functioning teachers who cope easily, but on the other hand, there are cases of serious psychosomatic consequences caused by frequent and prolonged pressures. Abilities of dealing with difficult situations largely depend upon one’s individual predispositions, resistance to stress, way of assessing a situation and resulting type of action. Conclusions . The ability (or lack of it of coping with range of educational activities may determine the intensity of experienced difficulties, and therefore the frequency of occurring stressful situations. Lack of skills in the area of interpersonal relations translates to inability to coping with problematic situations with pupils. This leads the teacher to awareness of own inefficiency and helplessness, which increases the intensity of experienced stress.

Brain mechanisms for loss of awareness of thought and movement

Science.gov (United States)

Oakley, David A.; Halligan, Peter W.; Mehta, Mitul A.; Deeley, Quinton

2017-01-01

Abstract Loss or reduction of awareness is common in neuropsychiatric disorders and culturally influenced dissociative phenomena but the underlying brain mechanisms are poorly understood. fMRI was combined with suggestions for automatic writing in 18 healthy highly hypnotically suggestible individuals in a within-subjects design to determine whether clinical alterations in awareness of thought and movement can be experimentally modelled and studied independently of illness. Subjective ratings of control, ownership, and awareness of thought and movement, and fMRI data were collected following suggestions for thought insertion and alien control of writing movement, with and without loss of awareness. Subjective ratings confirmed that suggestions were effective. At the neural level, our main findings indicated that loss of awareness for both thought and movement during automatic writing was associated with reduced activation in a predominantly left-sided posterior cortical network including BA 7 (superior parietal lobule and precuneus), and posterior cingulate cortex, involved in self-related processing and awareness of the body in space. Reduced activity in posterior parietal cortices may underlie specific clinical and cultural alterations in awareness of thought and movement. Clinically, these findings may assist development of imaging assessments for loss of awareness of psychological origin, and interventions such as neurofeedback. PMID:28338742

Navigation Architecture for a Space Mobile Network

Science.gov (United States)

Valdez, Jennifer E.; Ashman, Benjamin; Gramling, Cheryl; Heckler, Gregory W.; Carpenter, Russell

2016-01-01

The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Augmentation Service for Satellites (TASS) is a proposed beacon service to provide a global, space based GPS augmentation service based on the NASA Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) System. The TASS signal will be tied to the GPS time system and usable as an additional ranging and Doppler radiometric source. Additionally, it will provide data vital to autonomous navigation in the near Earth regime, including space weather information, TDRS ephemerides, Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP), and forward commanding capability. TASS benefits include enhancing situational awareness, enabling increased autonomy, and providing near real-time command access for user platforms. As NASA Headquarters' Space Communication and Navigation Office (SCaN) begins to move away from a centralized network architecture and towards a Space Mobile Network (SMN) that allows for user initiated services, autonomous navigation will be a key part of such a system. This paper explores how a TASS beacon service enables the Space Mobile Networking paradigm, what a typical user platform would require, and provides an in-depth analysis of several navigation scenarios and operations concepts. This paper provides an overview of the TASS beacon and its role within the SMN and user community. Supporting navigation analysis is presented for two user mission scenarios: an Earth observing spacecraft in low earth orbit (LEO), and a highly elliptical spacecraft in a lunar resonance orbit. These diverse flight scenarios indicate the breadth of applicability of the TASS beacon for upcoming users within the current network architecture and in the SMN.

Reflecting Equity and Diversity. Part I: Guidelines and Procedure for Evaluating Bias in Instructional Materials. Part II: Bias Awareness Training Worksheets. Part III: Bias Awareness and Procedure Training Course.

Science.gov (United States)

Bebermeyer, Jim; Edmond, Mary, Ed.

Reflecting a need to prepare students for working in diverse organizations, this document was developed to increase school officials' awareness of bias in instructional materials and help them select bias-free materials. A number of the examples illustrate situations dealing with diversity in the workplace. The guide is divided into three parts:…

Situational awareness of hazards: Validation of multi-source radiation measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Hultquist, C.; Cervone, G.

2016-12-01

Citizen-led movements producing scientific hazard data during disasters are increasingly common. After the Japanese earthquake-triggered tsunami in 2011, and the resulting radioactive releases at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, citizens monitored on-ground levels of radiation with innovative mobile devices built from off-the-shelf components. To date, the citizen-led SAFECAST project has recorded 50 million radiation measurements worldwide, with the majority of these measurements from Japan. The analysis of data which are multi-dimensional, not vetted, and provided from multiple devices presents big data challenges due to their volume, velocity, variety, and veracity. While the SAFECAST project produced massive open-source radiation measurements at specific coordinates and times, the reliability and validity of the overall data have not yet been assessed. The nuclear disaster provides a case for assessing the SAFECAST data with official aerial remote sensing radiation data jointly collected by the governments of the United States and Japan. A spatial and statistical assessment of SAFECAST requires several preprocessing steps. First, SAFECAST ionized radiation sensors collected data using different units of measure than the government data, and they had to be converted. Secondly, the normally occurring radiation and decay rates of Cesium from deposition surveys were used to properly compare measurements in space and time. Finally, the GPS located points were selected within overlapping extents at multiple spatial resolutions. Quantitative measures were used to assess the similarity and differences in the observed measurements. Radiation measurements from the same geographic extents show similar spatial variations and statistically significant correlations. The results suggest that actionable scientific data for disasters and emergencies can be inferred from non-traditional and not vetted data generated through citizen science projects. This

Interpersonal Privacy Management in Distributed Collaboration: Situational Characteristics and Interpretive Influences

Science.gov (United States)

Patil, Sameer; Kobsa, Alfred; John, Ajita; Brotman, Lynne S.; Seligmann, Doree

To understand how collaborators reconcile the often conflicting needs of awareness and privacy, we studied a large software development project in a multinational corporation involving individuals at sites in the U.S. and India. We present a theoretical framework describing privacy management practices and their determinants that emerged from field visits, interviews, and questionnaire responses. The framework identifies five relevant situational characteristics: issue(s) under consideration, physical place(s) involved in interaction(s), temporal aspects, affordances and limitations presented by technology, and nature of relationships among parties. Each actor, in turn, interprets the situation based on several simultaneous influences: self, team, work site, organization, and cultural environment. This interpretation guides privacy management action(s). Past actions form a feedback loop refining and/or reinforcing the interpretive influences. The framework suggests that effective support for privacy management will require that designers follow a socio-technical approach incorporating a wider scope of situational and interpretive differences.

Agent Services for Situation Aware Control of Power Systems With Distributed Generation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saleem, Arshad; Heussen, Kai; Lind, Morten

2009-01-01

Electric Power system of Denmark exhibits some unique characteristics. An increasing part of the electricity is produced by distributed generators (DGs). Most of these DGs are connected to the network at the distribution level. At the same time the concept of vehicle to grid (V2G) is already...... in the process of realization. This situation has created an incentive in electric power industry to utilize modern information and communication technologies (ICT) for improving the distribution system automation. This paper describes our work on how significantly increased amount of distributed generation...... services. We present results from several experiments where agents offer and utilize services in order to achieve distributed and autonomous control for subgrid operation of a distribution system. Finally it is discussed how the service oriented architecture can be combined with knowledge based reasoning...

Determining Type I and Type II Errors when Applying Information Theoretic Change Detection Metrics for Data Association and Space Situational Awareness

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkins, M.; Moyer, E. J.; Hussein, Islam I.; Schumacher, P. W., Jr.

Correlating new detections back to a large catalog of resident space objects (RSOs) requires solving one of three types of data association problems: observation-to-track, track-to-track, or observation-to-observation. The authors previous work has explored the use of various information divergence metrics for solving these problems: Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, mutual information, and Bhattacharrya distance. In addition to approaching the data association problem strictly from the metric tracking aspect, we have explored fusing metric and photometric data using Bayesian probabilistic reasoning for RSO identification to aid in our ability to correlate data to specific RS Os. In this work, we will focus our attention on the KL Divergence, which is a measure of the information gained when new evidence causes the observer to revise their beliefs. We can apply the Principle of Minimum Discrimination Information such that new data produces as small an information gain as possible and this information change is bounded by ɛ. Choosing an appropriate value for ɛ for both convergence and change detection is a function of your risk tolerance. Small ɛ for change detection increases alarm rates while larger ɛ for convergence means that new evidence need not be identical in information content. We need to understand what this change detection metric implies for Type I α and Type II β errors when we are forced to make a decision on whether new evidence represents a true change in characterization of an object or is merely within the bounds of our measurement uncertainty. This is unclear for the case of fusing multiple kinds and qualities of characterization evidence that may exist in different metric spaces or are even semantic statements. To this end, we explore the use of Sequential Probability Ratio Testing where we suppose that we may need to collect additional evidence before accepting or rejecting the null hypothesis that a change has occurred. In this work, we

Center Director Bridges visits Disability Awareness and Action working Group Technology Fair

Science.gov (United States)

1999-01-01

Center Director Roy Bridges stops to pet one of the dogs that serves with Canine Companions for Independence, a vendor displaying its capabilities at the Disability Awareness and Action Working Group (DAAWG) 1999 Technology Fair being held Oct. 20-21 at Kennedy Space Center. Standing at the right is Carol Cavanaugh, with KSC Public Services; behind Bridges is Nancie Strott (left), a multi-media specialist with Dynacs and chairperson of the Fair, and Sterling Walker (right), director of Engineering Development and chairman of DAAWG. The Fair is highlighting vendors demonstrating mobility, hearing, vision and silent disability assistive technology. The purpose is to create an awareness of the types of technology currently available to assist people with various disabilities in the workplace. The theme is that of this year's National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 'Opening Doors to Ability.' Some of the other vendors participating are Goodwill Industries, Accessible Structures, Division of Blind Services, Space Coast Center for Independent Living, KSC Fitness Center and Delaware North Parks Services.

[Current situation of awareness and use of banned pesticides among vegetable greenhouse farmers in a town of Ledu County, China].