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Behavioural sciences 2003 Employee Attitude Survey : Analysis of Employee Comments This technical report (DOT/FAA/AM-05/13) was produced by the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Aerospace Medicine in June 2005 and was written by S. Janine King, Crystal E. Cruz, Dan G. Jack, Suzanne Thomas and Carla A. Hackworth. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) distributed 48,900 Employee Attitude Surveys to its employees in September 2003; of those, 22,720 completed surveys were returned. About 38% (8,606) of the returned surveys contained typed or hand-written comments. A 33% random sample of commented surveys (2,860 surveys) across FAA lines of business and major organizations was selected for transcription and content coding. Of the total codes assigned, 12,703 (91%) were considered negative in tone, and 1,193 (9%) were positive. Comment categories (i.e., combined topics) and topics were chosen for presentation by rank-ordering codes for positive and negative comment categories/topics. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. A Layman's Introduction to Human Factors in Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation This web site provides access to an Australian Bureau of Air Safety Investigation Research and Analysis Report B20060094 written by David Adams dated June 2006. This information paper seeks to provide people without an in-depth knowledge of the practice of ‘Human Factors’ a general plain English explanation of what Human Factors is, how it has evolved, and how it is applied to aircraft accident and incident safety investigations. The paper also gives a brief explanation of international agreements and Australian law as they apply to aircraft accident and incident investigations. Human Factors, which includes ‘Ergonomics’ as it is called in some industries, is the practice of applying scientific knowledge from varied, mostly human science disciplines such as Psychology, Medicine, Anthropometrics and Physiology to designing, building, maintaining and managing systems and products. In general use, the application of human science knowledge to systems and products is to provide the best match between the characteristics of people, with the operation of the systems and products they use. The purpose of applied Human Factors is to build better and safer products and systems. In aircraft accident and incident investigation, the specific purpose of Human Factors is to understand in detail how and why people make errors (including slips and lapses) or commit violations that lead to accidents. In the development of aviation, the scope of Human Factors has evolved from focusing predominantly on the interface between the pilot and the aircraft to the broader application of considering all the human activities of the system that is involved in the placing and supporting the pilot in the operation of the aircraft. This broader focus considers not only the actions of the pilot, but also, the cabin crew, the maintenance crews, air traffic controllers, and the management of the organisation that controls the activities of the aircraft. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) must, with as much certainty as possible, be able to determine not only what happened in any given accidents, but more importantly, why it happened. This information is critical to the ATSB role in making safety recommendations aimed at improving transport safety. The role of the ATSB is clearly defined in the Australian Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 (TSI Act) which reflects Australian agreement to the international standards and practices for aircraft accident investigation. Both the TSI Act and international agreements state that the investigation of aircraft accidents by safety agencies such as the ATSB is not an activity for apportioning blame or liability, but rather for the purposes of maintaining or improving safety. [Taken by abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. A Longitudinal Study of Meyers-Briggs Personality Types in Air Traffic Controllers This technical report (DOT/FAA/AM-04/21) was produced by the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Aerospace Medicine in December 2004 and was written by Carolyn S. Dollar and David J. Schroeder. Over the past decade, there has been increased interest in determining the role of personality factors in attracting and retaining individuals in various occupations. This study was designed to look at the role of personality types as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The instrument assesses personality on four broad, dichotomous categories (i.e., extroversion vs. introversion) as well as 16 distinct combinations of the four major classifications. This study investigated the relationship between MBTI types and initial success in the Air Traffic Control Academy Screen Program, subsequent field training outcomes, and transition to a supervisory or managerial position about 20 years later. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. A Review of In-flight Napping Strategies : Updated 2003 This is UK Civil Aviation Authority CAA Paper 2003/08, prepared for the Safety Regulation Group of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, issued 1 September 2003. It updates the earlier CAA Paper 99010. It reviews the value of in-flight sleep and napping in civil air operations. The report contains an introduction to sleep, including sleep structure and the various sleep stages gives an overview of the relationship between sleep, alertness and performance. The literature on napping is reviewed. Factors that influence the quality of a nap, including environmental influences and those related to the duty schedule, are discussed, as well as the associated performance benefits and possible negative effects. The issue of sleep inertia is considered at some length. A review is presented of the field investigations of in-flight rest. Issues relating to the scheduling of in-flight rest are also discussed. A summary of conclusions and recommendations is provided and areas where information is lacking are highlighted. The text of the document is available online in PDF format (461 kb) from the CAA's web site A Study to Determine the Specific Contributors to U.S. Airline Passenger Air Rage The Skyrage Foundation provides access to the text of this Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Master of Aeronautical Science Graduate Research Project, by Douglas W. Beeks, dated December 2000. It presents the results of a study of passenger attitudes towards airline personnel including gate agents, flight attendants, ticket agents and pilots. It also makes a number of recommendations for how airlines and the travelling public can reduce the incidents of air rage. The text is available in PDF format. Access-to-Egress : A Meta-Analysis of the Factors That Control Emergency Evacuation Through the Transport Airplane Type-III Overwing Exit : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Office of Aviation Medicine report, DOT/FAA/AM-01/2, by Garnet A. McLean, dated January 2001. The results of the analytical review of studies conducted to address access to the Type-III exit presented in this report, suggest that human factors effects related to passengers present the biggest challenge to the execution of successful evacuations. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the FAA's Office of Aviation Research, Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) web site. Active Duty Military Deployments: Respite from Job Stressors and Burnout for Air Force Acquisition Support Personnel This is the full text of a thesis by Tonya J. Bronson which was presented to the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2004. To explore the possible respite effects of deployments, active duty Air Force acquisition support personnel who were either scheduled to deploy (n = 74), or recently returned from deployment (n = 34) were surveyed. Analysis of variance compared the pre- and post-deployment groups perceived levels of burnout, emotional exhaustion, role ambiguity, role conflict, self-efficacy, organizational commitment, contingent rewards, operating conditions, co-worker satisfaction, and overall job satisfaction. Although the results indicated the differences were not large enough to be significant, many of the variables behaved as hypothesized. Specifically, burnout, emotional exhaustion, role conflict, contingent rewards, and co-worker satisfaction were all higher in the post-deployment group. Implications of the findings are discussed. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the thesis is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Adaptation and acclimatisation in aerospace medicine This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-CP-82, dated March 1971. This report contains excerpts from the welcoming addresses during the opening ceremony of the 27th ASMP Meeting and 20 papers presented at this meeting, which was held at the Convention Hall of Sheridan Kaserne Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, from the 14th to the 18th September 1970. The main theme was "Adaptation and Acclimatisation in Aerospace Medicine". The programme was divided into the following sessions: 1. Noise, 2. Acceleration, 3. Behavioural Adaptation 4. Thermoregulation and 5. Miscellaneous. Eighty-three delegates from institutes, research centres, universities and other organisations, both civilian and military, attended the meeting, representing thirteen NATO nations. The volume closes with the Panel Chairman's conclusions and with a Technical Evaluation Report prepared by Col. H.J. Grunhofer, GAF, MC. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents and the full text (33.21MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Aeromedical Aspects of Aircraft-Assisted Pilot Suicides in the United States, 1993-2002 This technical report (DOT/FAA/AM-6/5) was produced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Aerospace Medicine in March 2006 and was written by R. D. Johnson, R. J. Lewis, J. E. Whinnery and E. M. Forster. All aviation accidents are tragic, but few are more avoidable than aircraft-assisted suicide. Aircraft-assisted suicide may precipitate as a result of clinical depression, marital or financial difficulties, or numerous other problems. While aircraft-assisted suicide attempts almost always result in pilot fatalities, they also have the serious and unfortunate potential to cause collateral damage to property and life. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS) Performance Measurement Database The database is produced by the Human Factors Branch of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) National Airspace System (NAS) System Engineering and Analysis Division. The database provides a compilation of techniques that have been proven effective for use in human factor research related to air traffic control. The site includes an overview of the database, a description of its value to ATC, and its main features and layout. A technical note which serves as a user manual is available for downloading. The database itself is available for free download on completion of a registration form. The file is in Microsoft Excel 97 format and is approximately 350Kb. Aircrew Fatigue : A Review of Research Undertaken on Behalf of the UK Civil Aviation Authority This is UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) CAA Paper 2005/04, prepared by the CAA's Safety Regulation Group (SRG), 31 October 2005. This report reviews the programme of work related to the sleep and wakefulness of the airline pilot that has been carried out by the QinetiQ, Centre for Human Sciences (CHS) and its predecessor organisations (DERA, DRA and RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine) for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The results of the research have been used to develop and validate the 'SAFE' (System for Aircrew Fatigue Evaluation) model. The text of the document is available online in PDF format (1.2 mb) from the CAA's web site. Alcohol and Human Performance from an Aviation Perspective : A Review The aim of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is to maintain and improve transport safety and public confidence. This is the full text (623 KB, PDF) of an Aviation Safety Research report discussion paper published in March 2004 and written by David G. Newman. Alcohol is a widely used drug, and its abuse is a serious public health problem. Alcohol has many widespread effects on the body, and impairs almost all forms of cognitive function, such as information processing, decision-making, attention and reasoning. Visual and vestibular functions are also adversely affected. The performance of any demanding task, such as flying an aircraft, is thus impaired by the effects of alcohol. Many studies have shown a significant proportion of aircraft accidents associated with alcohol use. Alcohol increases the risk of spatial disorientation, hypoxia and poor +Gz tolerance. Many studies have con s i s ten t ly shown significant detri m ental ef fects of alcohol on pilot perform a n ce , both in the acute stages and in the post-alcohol period for up to 48 hours. Even low doses of alcohol can lead to reduced performance. While a pilot may legally fly 8 hours after drinking, the residual effects of alcohol may seriously impair their performance, especially in high workload and demanding situations. Alcohol use in pilots is therefore a major potential risk to flight safety. American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is a scientific and professional organisation that represents psychology in the United States. This is a large site with separate sections for psychologists, students and the public. Key resources include tables of contents for over 40 journals, the ability to order products, links to the Web sites of the many offices and programs within the APA and full length features about a range of issues. An Airspace Planning and Collaborative Decision Making Model Under Safety, Workload, and Equity Considerations This is a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering PhD dissertation, by Raymond William Staats, dated 4 April, 2003. It describes the development of a detailed, large-scale, airspace planning and collaborative decision-making model (APCDM), that is part of an $11.5B, 10-year, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)- sponsored effort to increase U.S. National Airspace (NAS) capacity by 30 percent. Novel contributions of this research include three-dimensional probabilistic conflict analyses, the derivation of valid inequalities to tighten the conflict safety representation constraints, the development of workload metrics based on average (and its variance from) peak load measures, and the consideration of equity among airline carriers in absorbing the costs related to re-routing, delays, and cancellations. An improved set of flight plan cost factors for representing system costs and investigating fairness issues by addressing flight dependencies occurring in hubbed operations, as well as market factors such as schedule convenience, reliability, and the timeliness of connections is also proposed. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. The full text of the document is accessible online in a series of PDF format files. This title is part of Virginia Techs Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection (VT ETD) An Empirical Investigation of Critical Factors Affecting the Ability of Public Entities to Compete in Public Private Competitions This the full text of a thesis by Timothy J. Gilbride which was presented to the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2003. In 1996, the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard initiated the largest ever service acquisition program to re-capitalize Coast Guard assets. Called the Integrated Deepwater System or IDS, this acquisition effort seeks to renovate, modernize, and or replace the Coast Guards entire portfolio of ships, aircraft, and support facilities. The IDS contractor will be responsible for designing and constructing the system, as well as, sharing responsibility for supporting and disposing of it. This poses a significant threat to the USCG Aircraft Repair and Supply Center (AR&SC), the Coast Guards aircraft depot located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Is AR&SC prepared to compete for this IDS workload? The study begins with the development of a Research model of public entity competitiveness. The resulting model is based on three generic key factors: Politics, Cost, and Organic; it also identifies multiple generic sub factors. The model is verified using the Delphi Technique to obtain consensus among experts in the field of public private competition and source selections. After data collection, the results are integrated into an evaluation tool called the Public Private Competition Assessment Tool (PCAT). Although generic, the PCAT is customized to provide AR&SC management with a strategic baseline for competitive preparations. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the thesis is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. An Initial Survey of National Airspace System Auditory Alarm Issues in Terminal Air Traffic Control This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/CT-TN03/10, by Vicki Ahlstrom, dated April 2003. An initial study to examine current National Airspace System (NAS) auditory alarm issues. The purpose was to identify problem areas related to current auditory alarms and to collect opinions from the users on ways to improve auditory alarms in their work area. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center Library An Introduction to Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Human Factors for JAR 66 This link provides access to a UK Civil Aviation Authority publication Civil Aviation Paper CAP 715, prepared by the Air Traffic Services Standards Department, 22 January 2002. It is intended to provide an introduction to human factors and human performance and limitations for ab-initio engineers studying for their JAR-66 engineering licenses. The text of the document is available in PDF format (1.1 MB). Assessment of General Aviation Pilot Performance During Simulated Flight This web site provides access to an Australian Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI)Research and Analysis Report (Grant – B2004/0242) written by Dr. Mark Wiggins and dated April 2006. This study was designed to create a dataset that captured the performance of general aviation pilots during a simulated flight from Wagga Wagga to Bankstown, NSW. A total of 34 pilots were tested, ranging in experience from 25 hours of total flying experience to 8500 hours of total flying experience. Each pilot was provided with a meteorological briefing, maps, and all the equipment necessary to conduct the flight as it would occur within the operational environment. The performance of pilots was assessed at three levels of analysis, the broadest of which involved pilots’ self-reports of their performance in general, and their performance during the flight. At a more detailed level, the performance of pilots was rated by an observer across each of the five legs of the flight. A number of dimensions of performance were assessed, including the accuracy with which the aircraft was controlled, the accuracy of track-keeping, the accuracy in maintaining the prescribed altitude, and the level of fatigue management. The final level of analysis involved objective data that were recorded throughout the flight by the flight simulator. Although the primary aim of the study was the collection of a dataset that captured performance, some comparative analyses were conducted, primarily to establish the basis for the differences in performance that were evident amongst pilots. Overall, the data indicated that performance during the flight was due less to pilots’ qualifications and recent experience and more to the stage of flight during which the assessment took place. Specifically, the final leg of the flight was associated with the greatest variability in performance and was associated with relatively poorer performance than the preceding stages of the flight. The results are discussed in terms of the impact of the nature of the task, and the impact of fatigue. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software is required in order to read it. ATSB Aviation Safety Survey : Common Flying Errors The aim of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is to maintain and improve transport safety and public confidence. This is the full text (426KB, PDF) of an Aviation Safety Research report number B2003/0176 published in June 2004. The aim of this study was to provide information to the flying community concerning those common errors they perceived to be most detrimental to flight safety. The ATSB sent the Aviation Industry Safety Survey to 5000 commercial pilots throughout Australia in November 2003. The survey asked pilots about their safety experiences during the previous year and to report the most serious error they made or saw during that time. They were also asked to describe briefly what they thought were the main factors contributing to the error and how the situation was recovered. Demographic information concerning pilot age, highest licence qualification held, and type of aircraft flown (rotary or fixed wing) was obtained. Pilots were grouped according to the flying category they most frequently worked in the 12 months preceding the survey: regular public transport, charter, aerial work or private operations. Slight differences were evident among the four flight categories with regard to each of the demographic groups. ATSB Aviation Safety Survey: Pilots' Flying Experiences This web site provides access to an Autralian Transport Safety Bureau Research and Analysis Report (B2005/0176) dated June 2005. The aim of this study was to provide information to the flying community about issues that have the potential to affect safety in the hope that increased knowledge and insight could lead to improved safety. The ATSB distributed the Aviation Industry Safety Survey in November 2003 to 5,000 commercial pilots throughout Australia. Pilots were asked to respond to a series of questions regarding their flying experiences in the 12 months prior to receiving the survey. The survey consisted of two sections: Part A and Part B. Information about Part A has been reported in the ATSB Aviation Safety Survey Safety Climate Factors (2004) publication. The analysis of one question (relating to common flying errors by respondents) in Part B was reported in the ATSB Aviation Safety Survey Common Flying Errors (2004) publication. This report addressed six questions (39 to 44) in Part B of the survey (reproduced in Attachment A). Information concerning pilot age, highest licence held, hours flown, type of operation and aircraft details were obtained from the survey responses. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau web site. Aviation Fatigue Management Symposium : Partnerships for Solutions Sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, this conference focused specifically on managing fatigue in aviation. The three main symposium objectives were to provide the most current information on fatigue physiology, management, and mitigation alternatives; share information and perspectives among aviation industry decision makers and science regarding fatigue management; discuss fatigue mitigation initiatives and best practices. The conference took place on June 17-19, 2008, in Vienna, Virginia. The full text of the papers presented is available by clicking on the PDF or ZIP links. Cabin Air Quality in Commercial Aircraft : Exposure, Symptoms and Signs This is the full text of a PhD thesis by Torsten Lindgren, which was presented to Uppsala University in 2003. The objective of the dissertation was to study the cabin environment, and identify personal and environmental risk factors, associated with symptoms, and perception of cabin air quality. Another objective was to study if a ban on smoking, and increased relative air humidity on intercontinental flights, could have a beneficial health effect. The results show that low air humidity are important environmental factors in aircraft, and that atopy, and work stress could be significant risk factors for symptoms and environmental perceptions. The thesis is available in PDF format. Cannabis and its Effects on Pilot Performance and Flight Safety : A Review The aim of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is to maintain and improve transport safety and public confidence. This is the full text (530 KB, PDF) of an Aviation Safety Research report published in March 2004 written by David G. Newman. Cannabis is a commonly used recreational drug, which has widespread effects within the body. Smoking is the most common form of administration. The adverse effects of cannabis on behaviour, cognitive function and psychomotor performance are dose-dependent and related to task difficulty. Complex tasks such as driving or flying are particularly sensitive to the performance impairing effects of cannabis. Chronic cannabis use is associated with a number of adverse health effects, and there is evidence suggesting the development of tolerance to chronic use as well as a well-defined withdrawal syndrome. There is also evidence that the residual effects of cannabis can last up to 24 hours. Significantly, the modern dose of cannabis is much more potent than in the past, when the majority of the research was conducted. As such, the reported adverse health effects may well be conservative. Although only a limited number of studies have examined the effects of cannabis on pilot performance, the results overall have been consistent. Flying skills deteriorate, and the number of minor and major errors committed by the pilot increase, while at the same time the pilot is often unaware of any performance problems. Cannabis use in a pilot is therefore a significant flight safety hazard. Checkpoint Effectiveness and Efficiency Evaluation : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AR-00/7, by J.L. Fobes, Michael D. Snyder, and Brenda A. Klock, dated October 1999. The report describes a method to measure the operational effectiveness and efficiency of airport security checkpoints. are included for acquiring the basic information through observation of the checkpoint (directly or with video cameras) and Threat Image Projection data. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the FAA's Office of Aviation Research web site. Civil Aviation Authority : Safety Regulation Group : Research Programme 2003/2004 This document contains details of projects that are managed by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Safety Regulation Groupo (SRG). The projects are presented under sub-headings which, largely, correspond with technology areas within SRG. An appendix contains projects with which SRG are either associated or interested in but which are being carried out by other organisations. The document also lists the reports and papers produced during the period April 2002 to March 2003 as a result of SRG funded or managed work. The text of the document is available in PDF (2.8 Mb)format. Collaboration Crew Performance in Complex Operational Systems This web site provides access to a Research and Technology Organization Meeting Proceedings, RTO-MP-004, Paris, December 1998. The documents contains papers presented at the RTO Human Factors and Medicine Panel Symposium, held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 20-22 April 1998. Research and applications in human factors has frequently only considered individual operator interfaces, for limited work domains in well-defined scenarios, as evaluated by unitary measures. As we progress towards the next millennium, complex operations will increasingly require consideration and integration of the collaborative element wherein crew performance becomes a critical factor for success. This symposium brings together a global perspective on issues and factors that need to be understood when systems design is focused on the crew operating in a complex environment. Hence, the proceedings give a broad, multidisciplinary view of needs, requirements, ongoing research and development projects, and various research agendas that will bring about new technologies, approaches, and measures with regard to collaborative crew performance. The papers and multiple perspectives provide a baseline for understanding many elements of crew performance which will be valuable for the human factors specialist that must now design for the collaborative element and be concerned with the broad bandwidth of complexities within the operational setting. Additionally, the volume provides information for researchers, scientists, and engineers in many different areas who find themselves immersed in collaborative systems design. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (1 Mbytes) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Competency-Based Assignment and Promotion to Meet Air Force Senior Lead Requirements This is the full text of a Research Report by Lt. Col. Robert G. Steele (USAF) ...[et al] dated April 2006. The Air Force Doctrine Document on Leadership and Force Development (AFDD 1-1) states leadership contains three main components: core values, competencies, and actions. All three of these components are important to the development of senior leaders. Of the three, core values are learned early in an individual’s life, and actions are the result of learned values and experiential development. The third component, competencies, are occupational skill sets and enduring leadership competencies Air Force leaders develop as they progress along the tactical, operational and strategic levels of increased responsibility. Competencies are clearly the one leadership component the Air Force can purposefully develop and nurture in our officers. Because of the potential influence the Air Force has over competency development it may eventually become a key factor in senior officer assignment and promotion. This research paper, sponsored by the Headquarters Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and Manpower (AF/A1), will address the question: should the AF adopt a competency-based system for assignment and promotion for senior officers? AF/A1 is aggressively exploring a competency-based promotion and assignment system. This is a natural progression for the former Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Force Development Initiative. This research addresses the historical background of the Air Force’s current force development and promotion systems, as well comparative industry efforts in competency-based personnel management and sister service promotion schema, and makes recommendations for the Air Force to modify Force Development to better meet senior leadership competency requirements. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Complexity in Air Traffic Control Towers : A Field Study : Part 1 : Complexity Factors This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/CT-TN03/14, by Anton Koros, dated May 2003. This study investigated factors that contribute to complexity and their incidence within Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs). The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center Library. Concept of 'Calling' and its Relevance to the Military Professional This is the full text of a thesis written by Major Scott G. Frickenstein USAF, which was presented to the faculty of the School of Advance AirPower Studies (SASS), Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama in April 2005. Americans are vigorously seeking to understand their purpose in life—that is, to answer the question, “What on earth am I here for?” Theologians are using the concept of calling (also known as vocation) to provide answers to this question. Senior military leaders have recently used the word “calling” in various venues to describe the profession of arms. This study summarizes biblical teaching, historical foundations, and current research in explaining the concept of calling and its relevance to the military professional of the 21st century. The report first distinguishes between several terms often substituted for “calling” and summarizes the historical and current understanding of this concept. The process of discovering one’s calling is then discussed. The uniqueness of the military calling is then described, and several personal and professional implications are offered. The study concludes that calling is much more than “being involved in something bigger than yourself”—it is an all-encompassing perspective that can have profound, enriching effects on all facets of a military professional’s life. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University Research Web site. Crisis : Leadership Opportunity This provides access to a U.S. National Security Program Discussion Paper CADRE/PC 2005-003 written by Col.Victor Braden ...[et al] in 2005. For years crisis management has been synonymous with reactive leadership. This stems from a belief that crisis is both unpredictable and unexpected; but this is simply not true. Crisis develops as an organization’s values, beliefs, culture, or behavior becomes incongruent with its operating environment. A leader, who is “tuned-in” to the signals of impending crisis and understands how to harness the urgency brought on by the situation, can minimize the potential dangers and maximize the resulting opportunities. This paper presents the “Crisis Lifecycle Model” as a generic representation of crisis. It illustrates that crisis can be broken into three unique phases. In the first or preparation phase, the organization is typically mired in the comfort zone. Here, leaders struggle when introducing any change or learning, as the organization prefers to avoid conflict and sustain equilibrium. However, as crisis hits, the organization is jolted into the emergency phase, often threatening its very existence. Once the immediate threat is eliminated, the organization enters the adaptive phase. In this phase, the leader has the attention and urgency to solve the underlying issue that caused the crisis in the first place. Unfortunately, many leaders don’t take advantage of this opportunity and push the organization back toward the original status-quo, ensuring that the crisis will return. The study of crisis leadership is becoming increasingly important as leaders in all walks of life face varying degrees of crisis, spawning numerous recent books and articles. From this extensive body of work, we found seven essential strategies that are crucial for success. They are to: Lead from the Front, Focus on the Core Purpose, Build the Team, Conduct Continuous Planning, Mitigate the Threat, Tell the Story, and Profit from the Crisis. In order to illustrate these strategies, three of the most recognized and successful examples of crisis leadership are used to demonstrate how leaders saved their organizations and adapted them for long-term relevance. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Crisis : Leadership Opportunity This is a U.S. National Security Program Paper Cadre/PC 2005-003 which was written by Col. Victor Braden ...[et al] in 2005. For years crisis management has been synonymous with reactive leadership. This stems from a belief that crisis is both unpredictable and unexpected; but this is simply not true. Crisis develops as an organization’s values, beliefs, culture, or behavior becomes incongruent with its operating environment. A leader, who is “tuned-in” to the signals of impending crisis and understands how to harness the urgency brought on by the situation, can minimize the potential dangers and maximize the resulting opportunities. This paper presents the “Crisis Lifecycle Model” as a generic representation of crisis. It illustrates that crisis can be broken into three unique phases. In the first or preparation phase, the organization is typically mired in the comfort zone. Here, leaders struggle when introducing any change or learning, as the organization prefers to avoid conflict and sustain equilibrium. However, as crisis hits, the organization is jolted into the emergency phase, often threatening its very existence. Once the immediate threat is eliminated, the organization enters the adaptive phase. In this phase, the leader has the attention and urgency to solve the underlying issue that caused the crisis in the first place. Unfortunately, many leaders don’t take advantage of this opportunity and push the organization back toward the original status-quo, ensuring that the crisis will return. The study of crisis leadership is becoming increasingly important as leaders in all walks of life face varying degrees of crisis, spawning numerous recent books and articles. From this extensive body of work, we found seven essential strategies that are crucial for success. They are to: Lead from the Front, Focus on the Core Purpose, Build the Team, Conduct Continuous Planning, Mitigate the Threat, Tell the Story, and Profit from the Crisis. In order to illustrate these strategies, three of the most recognized and successful examples of crisis leadership are used to demonstrate how leaders saved their organizations and adapted them for long-term relevance. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is in PDF format is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Critical Incident Stress Management in Air Traffic Control This technical note (Number 2004-15) was published by the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre in November 2004 and was written by Marc Baumgartner. Following a number of air disasters, several countries have introduced a programme designed to decrease the psychological impact on the air traffic controller, primarily using an approach known as Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM). This approach helps controllers deal with suffering a loss of separation incident or accident. This report first considers the task of the air traffic controller, and then reviews theories and models of stress, relating these to air traffic management and losses of separation. Methods of dealing with such stress and/or trauma are then reviewed, leading to a focus on the ‘Mitchell Method’ and CISM. The results of a survey of CISM applications worldwide are then reviewed to see the state of practice of CISM in Air Traffic Management. [Taken from abstract]. This is in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Current uses of M&S Covering Support to Operations, Human Behaviour Representation, Irregular Warfare, Defence against Terrorism and Coalition Tactical Force Integration This is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Meeting Proceeding RTO-MP-MSG-069, dated October 2009. This volume contains the Keynotes and Papers presented at the Modelling and Simulation Group Symposium held in Brussels, Belgium from 15th to 16th October 2009. Topics covered included: • Human Behaviour Representation • Support to Operations • Defence Against Terrorism • Coalition Tactical Force Integration • Irregular Warfare . A table of contents, and the full text of the document can be accessed online in HTML format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Developing Advanced Crew Resource Management (ACRM) Training: A Training Manual A training manual by Thomas L. Seamster et al, provided by the Federal Aviation Administration Office of the Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Human Factors, AAR-100. Published on August 1 1998, this ACRM manual is a comprehensive implementation package including the crew resource management procedures, training of the instructor/evaluators, training of the crews, a standardized assessment of crew performance, and an ongoing implementation process. The manual can be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat file, and its size is 220 pages, 2.5 MB. Development and Simulation of a Pseudolite-Based Flight Reference System This is a full text thesis by Terry J. Bouska which was presented to rhe Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2003. Current flight reference systems are vulnerable to GPS jamming and also lack the accuracy required to test new systems. Pseudolites can augment flight reference systems by improving accuracy, especially in the presence of GPS jamming. This thesis evaluates a pseudolite-based flight reference system which applies and adapts carrier-phase di�erential GPS techniques. The algorithm developed in this thesis utilizes an extended Kalman filter along with carrier-phase ambiguity resolution techniques. A simulation of the pseudolite-based positioning system realistically models measurement noise, multipath, pseudolite position errors, and tropospheric delay. A comparative evaluation of the algorithms performance for single and widelane frequency measurements is conducted in addition to a sensitivity analysis for each measurement error source, in order to determine design tradeo�s. Other analyses included the use of optimal smoothing, non-linear filtering techniques, and code averaging. Specific emphasis is given to two alternate methods, both developed in this research, for handling the residual tropospheric error after applying a standard tropospheric model. Results indicate that the algorithm is capable of accurately resolving the pseudolite carrier-phase ambiguities, and providing a highly accurate (centimeter-level) navigation solution. The filter enhancements, particularly the optimal smoother and tropospheric error reduction methods, improved filter performance significantly. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the thesis is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Development of an FAA EUROCONTROL Technique for the Analysis of Human Error in ATM : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AM-02/12, by Julia Pounds and Anne Isaac, dated July 2002. Little is known about the factors leading to human errors in current air traffic management (ATM) systems. This paper reports on the project to harmonize the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) and the Human Error Reduction in ATM (HERA) technique. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA. DOD Language Transformation : Some Implications for Air Force Recruiting, Training and Education This is a U.S. College of Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education (CADRE) 'Quick-Look' comment published in 2005 and written by John Conway, who is a military defense analyst assigned to the U.S. Air University. After a year-long series of studies, DOD issued its Defense Language Transformation Roadmap in March 2005. It acknowledges the lack of language and cultural ability within the uniformed services, highlights the increasing need for such capabilities, and outlines several goals for language transformation. Among them, it requires all junior officers to complete language training, to actively recruit heritage speakers, and to incorporate “regional area content” in all Professional Military Education courses. Further, in a move reminiscent of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, it mandates foreign language “ability” as a criterion for “general officer/flag officer advancement.” Additionally, the newly established Defense Language Office recommends that all officers, with few exceptions, have “a level of language proficiency.” [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Effective Global Transportation in the Twenty-First Century : A Vision Document This web site provides access to the text of a vision document prepared by the US Department of Transportation's "ONE DOT" Working Group on Enabling Research, dated September 1999. It presents a vision of what a future transportation system might look like in the period around 2020; and suggests some possible directions that transportation might take in the 10-20 years thereafter. The text is available online in HTML format. The resource is part of the web site of the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. Effects of NEXRAD Graphical Data Resolution and Direct Weather Viewing on Pilots? Judgments of Weather Severity and Their Willingness to Continue a Flight This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report DOT/FAA/AM-04/5 by Dennis Beringer dated March 2004. A study was conducted to determine how variations in displayed NEXRAD weather data resolution interact with the pilot?s direct view of weather. Pilots (32) were assigned to one of four groups; 8km, 4km, or 2km resolution, and a baseline condition without NEXRAD imagery. Each flew the simulator from Santa Rosa, NM, with the intent to land at Albuquerque. Heavy precipitation moved into the area during the flight, and pilots were required to decide, using both the NEXRAD data and their out-the-window view, whether to continue or to divert to an alternate airport. Pilots spent more time looking at higher-resolution images than at the lower-resolution ones. Baseline- and 2km-condition pilots deferred their decisions longer than did the other two groups. Posttest NEXRAD image judgments reinforced the notion that higher-resolution images are likely to encourage pilots to continue flights with the expectation that they can fly around or between significant weather features. The presence of out-the-window viewable weather phenomena was seen to have a significant effect on how pilots regarded the NEXRAD data. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the report is available in PDF format from the online catalogue of the FAA. Employee Attitudes Within the Air Traffic Organization This technical report (DOT/FAA/AM-04/23) was produced by the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Aerospace Medicine in December 2004 and was written by Carla A. Hackworth, Crystal E. Cruz, Dan G. Jack, Scott Goldman and S. Janine King. In 2003, the Federal Aviation Administration established an air traffic performance-based organization called the Air Traffic Organization (ATO). The purpose of this paper was to combine data from the former ATS, ARA, and AOZ organizations from the 2003 Employee Attitude Survey (EAS) into the appropriate post-ATO service units to establish a baseline for comparison with future EAS results. Of the 48,900 surveys that were mailed to FAA employees in 2003, 22,720 (46%) were considered valid returns. Of these, 15,233 fit into the new ATO structure. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Employee Attitudes Within the Federal Aviation Administration This technical report (DOT/FAA/AM-04/22) was produced by the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Aerospace Medicine in December 2004 and was written by Carla A. Hackworth, Crystal E. Cruz, Scott Goldman, Dan G. Jack, S. Janine King and Paul Twohig. Prompted by Congressional direction, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) instituted a means of assessing employee attitudes following the 1981 air traffic controllers' strike. As a result, the FAA first administered the Employee Attitude Survey (EAS) to its employees in 1984. The survey has been administered nine times since its inception, most recently, in 2003. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Enlisting Madison Avenue. The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation This technical report (MG-607-JFCOM) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by Todd C. Helmus, Christopher Paul and Russell W. Glenn. Virtually every action, message, and decision of a military force shapes the opinions of an indigenous population: strategic communication, treatment of civilians at vehicle checkpoints, and the accuracy or inaccuracy of aerial bombardment. Themes of U.S. goodwill mean little if its actions convey otherwise. Consequently, a unified message in both word and deed is fundamental to success. Business marketing practices provide a useful framework for improving U.S. military efforts to shape the attitudes and behaviors of local populations in a theater of operations as well as those of a broader, international audience. Enlisting Madison Avenue extracts lessons from these business practices and adapts them to U.S. military efforts, developing a unique approach to shaping that has the potential to improve military-civilian relations, the accuracy of media coverage of operations, communication of U.S. and coalition objectives, and the reputation of U.S. forces in theater and internationally. Foremost among these lessons are the concepts of branding, customer satisfaction, and segmentation of the target audience, all of which serve to maximize the impact and improve the outcome of U.S. shaping efforts. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Entrepreneurial Mindset in Department of Defense (DoD) Organizations: Antecedents and Outcomes This is the full text of a thesis by Christopher C. Wood which was presented to the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2004. Department of Defense (DoD) and Air Force senior leaders have called for transforming the way the military conducts business. One way to achieve this transformation is by promoting a more entrepreneurial approach. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent an entrepreneurial mindset exists in DoD organizations and to identify key antecedents and outcomes associated with this mindset. An electronic survey was used to gather data from members of innovative DoD organizations. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were then used to assess the extent of an entrepreneurial mindset in the sample organizations and to identify key antecedents and outcomes. The results of this study show a high degree of an entrepreneurial mindset exists in the sample organizations and that appropriate use of rewards, management support, a supportive organizational structure, and risk taking and failure tolerance are key antecedents that positively influence this mindset. In addition, results show that an entrepreneurial mindset in the sample organizations is positively related to increased levels of job satisfaction, perceived organizational contribution, organizational commitment, memory orientation, and overall organizational performance. The results of this study provide senior leaders with a distinct set of factors they can promote and support in order to influence entrepreneurial behavior in their organizations. Further, this study shows that these factors may lead to positive outcomes that maximize organization performance. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the thesis is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Evaluation and Recommendations for Improvement of the Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program This technical report (DB-490-OSD) was published by The RAND Corporation in 2006 and was written by Bruce Held, Thomas Edison, Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Philip S. Anton and John Clancy. The broad goal of the Department of Defense (DoD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is “to harness the innovative talents of our nation’s small technology companies for U.S. military and economic strength.” RAND researchers examined the DoD SBIR program to assess to what extent DoD is funding small businesses and to determine whether the program is indeed stimulating innovation both in the military and commercially. Overall, the researchers found that SBIR research topics align well with the department’s priorities while remaining flexible enough to focus in areas that are more appropriate for small businesses. But the researchers discovered other trends during the course of the research that might be cause for concern for the future of the program. For example, the DoD SBIR program is managed in a manner that may be too lean. This finding reinforces the idea that the DoD SBIR program might be perceived more as a tax and burden to be borne by DoD than as an research and development resource to be leveraged. In light of their findings, the researchers recommend policy options for making the DoD SBIR program more responsive to the needs of the department and to the broader defense mission. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Evaluation of the Human Voice for Indications of Workload-Induced Stress in the Aviation Environment This technical note (Number 2006-18) was published by the Eurocontrol experimental Centre in December 2006 and was written by M. Hagmueller, E. Rank and G. Kubin. This report gives a literature review of stress analysis from the human voice. While a special focus is on workload-induced stress and the special treatment of the avionic environment, a general overview of the analysis of speech under stress using a broader definition of stress is given as well. We discuss definitions of stress and workload and point out the relation between stress and human speech. We provide a summary of useful speech databases for workload-induced stress analysis. A discussion on speech signal features commonly used for stress analysis is the main part of this report. Research in the effect of workload-induced stress on speech signals has become a riveting issue recently, while it is still at an early stage. Current problems are the multitude of influence factors and the speaker dependence of the effects of stress on the speech signal. As speech has the advantage of being a medium naturally used in the air traffic control environment it seems to be worthwhile to further explore this approach on a long-term basis. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. FAA Fire Safety Section The Fire Safety Section conducts research programs to improve fire safety in commercial transport aircraft. There are two research programmes - fire and cabin safety and fire resistant materials. Resources available from the site include full text reports produced by section staff, the proceedings of the International Aircraft Fire And Cabin Safety Research Conference, a description of the Fire Research Program and links to the Fire & Cabin Safety Group, Material Group and Halon Group. Families Under Stress. An Assessment of Data, Theory, and Research on Marriage and Divorce in the Military This technical report (MG-599-OSD) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by Benjamin R. Karney and John S. Crown. Recent demands on the military have raised concerns about the impact of extended deployments on military marriages. To evaluate this impact, the authors draw on marital status data in service personnel records to estimate trends in marriage and marital dissolution between 1996 and 2005 and the specific effects of time deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq on subsequent risk of ending a marriage. The results generally run counter to expectations. Although rates of marital dissolution have increased since 2001 for most services and components, they had declined in the five years prior to 2001. As a result, marital dissolution rates across the services and components are currently similar to those observed in 1996, when the demands on the military were measurably lower. In most cases, service members who were deployed had a lower risk of subsequently ending their marriages than service members who did not deploy or deployed fewer days. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Fatigue Resource Directory (FReDi) This resource is provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is intended to provide access to information on resources which address the issue of fatigue in transportation. The site consists of a database of projects which is searchable by title, keyword and organisation or browseable by research, products or services. There are links to fatigue-related sites and also from within the FReDi database. Please note that this particular web site is maintained by NASA, rather than the DOT version. Frequency response functions and human pilot modelling This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-R-580, dated March 1971. The Structures and Materials Panel of the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) comprises scientists, engineers and technical administrators, from industry, government and universities throughout NATO, concerned with advancing the status of aerospace research and development and with developing technical means and data for optimizing the vehicles and equipment of interest to NATO. The increasing complexity of modern aircraft arising from more stringent performance requirements - in terms of speed, range, altitude capability, manoeuvrability, etc. – have emphasized the critical importance of examining the inter-related facets of aircraft design and operation in a total, systems sense. The Panel, engaged through a number of cooperative projects in studying a variety of behaviour phenomena and establishing as solid a basis as possible for optimization of design and minimization of flight and structural problems, has been both aware of and concerned about these inter-relationships and, in a specific instance addressed itself to the question of interactions between handling qualities, static and dynamic stability, control and structural loads. In order to obtain a clearer picture of these interactions and their effects, it was decided that the state-of-the-art in transfer function (frequency response function) development should be assessed. This function ties together all the inter-related aspects of potential interactions between structural loads and the other subdisciplines of aeronautics. The following reports are one such result of the Panel decision. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents and the full text (8.98MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Fundamental Human Factors Concepts This provides access to UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) publication Civil Aviation Paper CAP 719, sponsored by the Operating Standards Division, 15 February 2002. It was previously published by ICAO as Circular Number 216-AN/131. Human Factors Digest No. 1. The scope of the document covers the following: the meaning and definition of human factors, a conceptual model of it, and clarification of common misconceptions, the industry need for human factors, the application of human factors in flight operations, and the levels of expertise required and the formal approaches to education. The text is available in PDF format (293 Kb) from the CAA's publications web site. General Aviation Pilot Performance Following Unannounced In-Flight Loss of Vacuum System and Associated Instruments in Simulated Instrument Meteorological Conditions : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AM-02/19, by K.M. Roy and D.B.Beringer, dated October 2002. Forty-one instrument-rated pilots were exposed to an unannounced failure of attitude and heading instrumentation during flight in single-engine general aviation aircraft.The full text of the report is available in PDF format and is provided by the FAA web site. Going Global? : U.S. Government Policy and the Defense Aerospace Industry This provides access to RAND report MR-1537-AF, prepared by Mark A. Lorell and others, dated 2002. The report has been published as part of the Project Air Force programme. This report provides an introductory survey of issues and trends related to the emergence of a variety of new forms of cross-border business relationships and activities that are increasingly characteristic of the U.S. defense aerospace industrial base. Examining a broad spectrum of case studies of innovative cross-border relationships, it establishes a framework for analysis and presents initial findings. Economic data are also analyzed to identify trends in the globalization of the U.S. aerospace industry. A survey of the complex U.S. regulatory environment that influences cross-border business relationships in the defense industry is also presented. A description of the report is available in HTML, while the full text of the document (2.0) and each of the individual chapters are available for browsing online and downloading in a set of PDF files. Handbook of Human Performance Measures and Crew Requirements for Flightdeck Research This technical report (DOT/FAA/CT-TN95/49) was produced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in December 1995, and was written by Albert J. Rehmann. Recognising that its studies required a standard measure of pilot/crew performance, the FAA commissioned the Crew System Ergonomics Information Analysis Center (CSERIAC) to identify current pilot/crew performance measures, and provide guidance materials on appropriate measures and pilot subject characteristics for their studies. This report outlines the results of this investigation, and concentrates on methods of measuring three key areas of human performance: workload, situational awareness, and vigilance. This is a PDF file [94 pages, 592k], so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Human Behavior in Military Contexts This is a full text book made available by National Academies Press written by Committee on Opportunities in Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences for the U.S. Military, James J. Blascovich and Christine R. Hartel, Editors, National Research Council and dated 2008. People are the heart of all military efforts. People operate the available weaponry and technology, and they constitute a complex military system composed of teams and groups at multiple levels. Scientific research on human behavior is crucial to the military because it provides knowledge about how people work together and use weapons and technology to extend and amplify their forces. The military has long recognized the role of research in furthering its mission. In that vein, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) asked the National Research Council to provide an agenda for basic behavioral and social research focused on applications in both the near (5-10 years) and far (more than 10 years) terms. This request was made in the context of limited funds: for fiscal 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense budget for behavioral and social science is $37.6 million, its lowest level in 4 years, and for basic behavioral research at ARI it is approximately $4 million, including $1 million earmarked for “network science.” The committee considered a wide range of topics in the behavioral sciences and a smaller number in the social sciences, focusing on their applicability to military needs. Both historically and currently, those needs are in the areas of personnel, training and learning, leadership, and organization. The committee’s distillation resulted in six research topics with an emphasis on ones that are likely to be applicable to military needs in the relatively near future. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available to read online in open book format. Human Behavior Representation in Constructive Simulation This is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Technical Report RTO-TR-HFM-128, dated January 2009. In current military operational models, the human aspect is still often represented in a mechanistic way, bearing little resemblance to observations, as if all humans always act the same way in a situation much as a machine would. In reality, human behavior is not deterministic. Human behavior depends upon a complex set of human traits and states interacting with an equally complex set of environmental variables. Behavior is not a random effect, but neither is it deterministic. Behavior is the consequence of situational impact on the human pursuing goals moderated by personal traits and states in a partially observable environment. Without proper representation of behavior, and the reasons behind the behavior, the validity of the model may be seriously flawed, making its performance and predictions questionable. Although considerable progress has been made over the last several decades in modeling of cognitive processes, these models and modeling architectures have not been designed to solve operational problems. Conversely, operational architectures do not cope well with cognition and seldom reflect more than rudimentary human physical capabilities. The conceptual model for representation of the actions of personnel in military simulations that the HFM 128 study group is striving toward would have balanced capabilities for both the HF and operational aspects, while allowing for efficient and valid studies. A table of contents, and the full text of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Human Factors and Aviation Medicine This bimonthly newsletter was one of the seven separate Flight Safety Foundation publications that were superseded by AeroSafety World in 2006. The primary concern of the newsletter was the physical and psychological conditions of pilots and how they influence flight safety. Each issue of the newsletter addresses a single topic. Articles from more recent issues may be viewed in PDF format. Older issues are available from 1988 and onwards. Human Factors in the 21st Century This web site provides access to a Research and Technology Organization Meeting Proceedings, RTO-MP-077, Paris, May 2002. The document contains papers presented at the RTO Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM) Specialists Meeting, held in Paris, France, 11-13 June 2001. The meeting was particularly concerned with Human Factors problems which have appeared since what is known as the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) dating from the end of the Cold War. The meeting was held in parallel with a workshop on decision making in the 21 century from 13 to 15 June 2001, organised jointly by the DGA (The General Armaments Delegation of the French Ministry of Defence), the ONRIFO (Office of Naval Research Field Office) and the company THALES. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (2.94 Mbytes) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Human Factors in the International Certification of Transport Category Aircraft This is the full text of a paper presented at the Third Global Flight Safety and Human Factors Symposium, which was held in Auckland, New Zealand in April 1996. It is made available on the Web by the Industry CRM Developers Group, who exist to facilitate development of crew resource management and human factors resources and products. Human Factors Job Aid Updated in March 1999, the purpose of the Human Factors Job Aid is to serve as a desk reference for human factors activities within the acquisition management process. The emphasis is primarily on systems and software, but the Aid is also applicable to services acquisitions. It covers the holistic management of the program, methods for identifying the human factors requirements, and conducting system integration, testing and evaluation. It is produced by the Human Factors branch of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This page provides access to an HTML version of the guide, which is presented in the form of a table of contents. The document is also available from this page as a downloadable PDF file so the Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Human Factors NAC Symposium Report This is a report on the Foresight Defence, Aerospace and Systems Panel's Human Factors National Advisory Committee's 1st Public Symposium, dated February 2001. The objectives of the symposium were. to increase awarenesss of the importance of human issues to the UK economy, to diusseminate the work of the National Advisory Committee, and to seek contributions to committees work via a number of working groups. The text of the report is in PDF format. Access is also provided to a set of supporting presentation slides (MS Powerpoint) Part 1; Part 2; Part 3A and Part 3B; Part 4; Part 5 and Part 6. Human Factors Planning Guidelines This document is produced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is intended to provide guidance in planning a Human Factors Program. The six chapters include comments on the process of planning a Human Factors Program, and the contextual environment in which it is placed. The possible content of the program is also discussed, and further information sources and FAA support contacts are also included. The document concludes with a planning checklist. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Human Factors Survey of Aviation Technical Manuals Phase 1 : Manual Development Procedures : Interim Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AR-01/43, by Alex Chaparro, and Loren S. Groff, dated August 2001. This is the first part of a three phase study. It examines aviation industry procedures for developing maintenance technical data. The report's findings have revealed three significant maintenance technical data issues: inconsistent development process guidelines, reactive rather than proactive response to user feedback, and inadequate assessment of errors involving usability as opposed to accuracy. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center Library. Humans in Complex Engineering Systems : Sharing Good Practice Workshop In January 2001 the Royal Academy of Engineering published a report entitled Risks Posed by Humans in the Control Loop. A working group studied the interface between complex systems involving sophisticated technology and their human controllers. "Human error" is the most commonly identified cause of accidents involving such systems and there is often debate on the extent to which poor design of the interface was a contributory factor. The study looked across a wide range of sectors. It focused on the design of the interfaces. Do they generally make best use of the respective strengths of humans and machines? It also took into account the organisational and support systems for the human controllers. The key recommendation of the report was that there should be much more exchange of experience and practice across sectors and that this should lead to the identification and implementation of best practice, and a workshop was organised. Published by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004, this site provides a transcription of the presentations given at this workshop, along with the slides used. Impacts of Gender Differences on Conducting Operational Activities This is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Meeting Proceeding RTO-MP-HFM-158, dated October 2008. This symposium addressed issues related to the growing involvement of women in NATO military forces. This integration of female soldiers affects all military operations since most, if not all, military jobs are open to women. All dimensions of women’s integration were considered in this symposium: physiology, anthropometry, pathology, training, psychology, sociology. A table of contents, and the full text of the document can be accessed online in HTML format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Index of International Publications in Aerospace Medicine : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AM-01/15, by Melchor J. Antuano and Katherine Wade, dated August 2001. The Index of International Publications in Aerospace Medicine is a comprehensive listing of international publications in clinical aerospace medicine, operational aerospace medicine, aerospace physiology, environmental medicine/physiology, diving medicine/physiology, aerospace human factors, as well as other topics directly or indirectly related to aerospace medicine. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA. Individual Differences in the Adaptability to Irregular Rest-Work Rhythms/Status of the Use of Drugs in Sleep-Wakefulness Management This site provides access to a Research and Technology Organization Meeting Proceedings, RTO-MP-031, Paris, March 2000. These proceedings include the Technical Evaluation Report, two Keynote Addresses and 20 solicited papers of the Workshop sponsored by the NATO Human Factors and Medicine Panel and held at the Scuola Navale Militare Francesco Morosini" in Venice, Italy, from 3-4 June 1999. NATO Contingency Operations provide new challenges to military personnel's health, safety and performance. In fact, these operations are commonly characterized by the need for effective performance at any time of the day or night. There is a growing body of knowledge pointing to the existence of important individual psychophysiological differences that may enable some individuals to better adapt to irregular rest-work rhythms. Furthermore, selected categories of drugs may be employed in operational conditions. The purpose of this Workshop was to address both the individual difference implications during irregular sleep-wake regimens and the state of the art in the pharmacological management of sleep-wake rhythms. The papers addressed the individual difference implications in: a) sustained and continuous operations; b) flash adaptation to shift work and to new time zones; c) tendency to fall asleep; d) sleep deprivation; e) polyphasic rest-work schedules and napping strategies; f) sleep inertia. In addition, the papers also addressed the usefulness in operational settings of: a) bright light therapy; b) melatonin therapy; c) hypnotics to promote sleep; d) stimulants to sustain performance. These proceedings will be of interest to those who are concerned with the sleep-wake management of personnel in air, sea and land operations; to aerospace scientists, as well as to people working in the field of applied sleep research, wanting an updated review of relevant research in the field of individual difference implications and the pharmacological/non-pharmacological management of irregular rest-work schedules. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (12Mbytes) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Industrial Priorities for Human Factors Research in UK Defence and Aerospace : 2nd Report of the Human Factors National Advisory Committee The Human Factors National Advisory Committee (HF NAC) is one of a number of NACs established by the Foresight Defence, Aerospace and Systems Panel to focus on key technologies critical to UK wealth creation in the field of aerospace and defence. The NACs seek to identify research priorities for industry, areas of common interest between UK research programmes, areas of overlap in programmes, and gaps in activity and funding. This second report by the HF NAC concentrates on presenting priorities for national research in human factors, and attempts to look into the future to try to identify trends likely to shape the future marketplace. The text of the main body of the report (171,571 bytes), as well as the annexes (97,308 are available in PDF format. Internet for Aeronautical Engineering Produced by information specialists at Cranfield University, this is part of the Intute Virtual Training Suite (VTS), an initiative designed to teach Internet information skills to the UK Higher Education community. However, the free tutorial is potentially useful to everybody who wishes to improve their subject knowledge of aerospace and defence on the Internet. It takes the form of a "teach yourself" tutorial and includes quizzes and exercises for learners to test their knowledge. It has four main components - a 'Tour' of useful high quality Web sites, 'Discover' gives tips on how to improve searching skills, 'Judge' emphasises the need for critical evaluation of information on the Internet and 'Success' offers practical examples of people using the Internet successfully. Introduction to the Safety Health of Maintenance Engineering (SHoMe) Tool This is UK Civil Aviation Authority CAA Paper 2003/12, prepared by the Safety Regulation Group of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, issued 12 September 2003. The report contains a short user guide and description of the Safety Health of Maintenance Engineering (SHoMe) software tool, developed for the CAA by Health and Safety Engineering Consultants (HSEC) Ltd. This tool may be used to measure the strengths and weaknesses of a maintenance company's safety culture. The software is available free of charge from the CAA. The text of the document is available online in PDF format (181 kb) from the CAA's web site Intute : Social Sciences This service provides links to high quality Internet information for researchers and practitioners in the social sciences, business and law. The resource consists of a searchable and browseable resource database which includes psychology as a subject heading. It also offers 'Grapevine', a service for the social science community and 'My account', a feature which allows you to customise SOSIG to match your interests. Kingdom in the Sky - Earthly Fetters and Heavenly Freedoms : The Pilot's Approach to the Military Flight Environment This web site provides access to a NATO Research and Technology Organization (RTO) document, RTO AGARDograph 338, July 2000; prepared by V.Ponomarenko et al, sponsored by the Human Factors and Medicine panel (HFM) of RTO. This publication presents a view of the psychology of pilots from a Russian perspective. It covers a number of topics including: flight hazards; the impact of aircraft accident investigations on flight crew; human factors and flight safety; ergonomics; and aspects of aerospace medicine. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (12.5 Mbytes) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Learning to Land : A Qualitative Examination of Pre-Flight and In-Flight Decision-Making Processes in Expert and Novice Aviators This web page provides access to a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Human Development PhD thesis, by Edward L. Deitch, dated 28 November 2001. The thesis describes a study of the decision-making characteristics of expert and novice pilots. A number of expert and novice pilots were interviewed about their decision-making processes as they related to four aeronautical decision-making scenarios. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. The full text of the document is accessible online in PDF format. This title is part of Virginia Techs Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection (VT ETD). Managing Disruptive Passengers : A Survey of the World's Airlines This provides access to the text of a London Guildhall University, Department of Psychology paper by Robert Bor, Morris Russell, Justin Parker, and Linda Papadopoulos, dated 2000. The paper addresses a number of issues related to air rage, and presents the results of a 1999 survey of 206 airlines. The objectives of the survey were to find out whether incidents are reported, crew are trained and have guidelines to deal with disruptive passengers, and the extent to which there are shared views about the possible causes of air rage. The text of the paper is available from the Skyrage Foundation's web site in PDF format. Managing Situation Awareness on the Flight Deck, or The Next Best Thing to a Crystal Ball This is the full text of a paper written by Sheryl L. Chappell of the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System. It is available on the Industry CRM Developers Group Web site. The group exists to facilitate development of crew resource management and human factors resources and products. Military Deployments as a Respite from Burnout: Analysis of Gender and Family This is the full text of a thesis by Trevor T. Sthultz which was presented to the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2004. To explore the possible respite effects of deployments, active duty Air Force acquisition support personnel who were either scheduled to deploy (n = 74), or recently returned from deployment (n = 34) were surveyed. Analysis of variance compared the pre-deployment males and females perceived levels of burnout, emotional exhaustion, role ambiguity, role conflict, self-efficacy, organizational commitment, contingent rewards, operating conditions, co-worker satisfaction, and overall job satisfaction. The same analysis was conducted dividing the pre- and post-deployment groups by whether or not they had children. Several statistically significance findings resulted. Specifically, post-deployment females reported lower scores for emotional exhaustion, role ambiguity, organizational commitment, and overall job satisfaction. Both pre- and post-deployment members with children reported lower levels of contingent rewards. Additionally, pre-deployment members with children reported higher levels of co-worker satisfaction, and lower levels of self-efficacy. Implications of the findings are discussed. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the thesis is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Misfortunes of War. Press and Public Reactions to Civilian Deaths in Wartime This technical report (MG-441-AF) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2006 and was written by Eric V. Larson and Bogdan Savych. This monograph, part of a larger study of ways to reduce collateral damage undertaken for the U.S. Air Force, analyzes media and public reactions to civilian casualty incidents, whether these incidents affect media reporting or public support for military operations, and, if so, how. It analyzes case studies of incidents of civilian deaths in the February 1991 bombing of the Al Firdos bunker in the Gulf War, the April and May 1999 attacks on the Djakovica convoy and Chinese embassy during the war in Kosovo, the June 2002 attack involving an Afghan wedding party during operations in Afghanistan, and the March 2003 incident involving a large explosion in a crowded Baghdad marketplace to describe and explain how the U.S. and foreign media and publics have responded. For each case study, the study team examined press, public, and leadership responses to these incidents and found the following. First, while avoiding civilian casualties is important to the American public, it has realistic expectations about the actual possibilities for avoiding casualties. Second, the press reports heavily on civilian casualty incidents. Third, adversaries understand the public’s sensitivities to civilian deaths and have sought to exploit them. Fourth, during armed conflict, the belief that the United States and its allies are trying to avoid casualties most affects support for U.S. military operations, both at home and abroad. Fifth, while strong majorities of Americans typically give U.S. military and political leaders the benefit of the doubt when civilian casualty incidents occur, this does not necessarily extend to foreign audiences. Sixth, when civilian casualty incidents occur, it is at least as important to get the story right as to get the story out. Finally, attention to and concern about civilian casualties both at home and abroad have increased in recent years and may continue to do so. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Modelling Human Reliability in Air Traffic Management This technical report (NLR-TP-2001-629) was published by NLR (the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands) in 2001 and was written by J. Daams, H. A. P. Blom and H. B. Nijhuis. This paper outlines how the human information processing model of Wickens is combined with Hollnagel's cognitive control mode model and human error models for application within the context of conventional Air Traffic Management (ATM). The aim of this model-based approach is to enable the evaluation of both accident risk and aspects like cognitive workload and reliability of the human controller in managing air traffic situations safely. The combined model has been integrated with models for pilot, aircraft and other ATM elements and a comparison with available statistical data is made through running Monte Carlo simulations with the integrated model. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available as a PDF file. Monotony in Air Traffic Control - Contributing Factors and Mitigation Strategies This provides access to a technical note (No.2006-15) which was published by the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre in November 2006 and was written by Sonja Straussberger. This report discusses the role of monotony in Air Traffic Control (ATC). Despite its obvious relevance as a critical individual state in air traffic controllers, monotony has not been well researched in the past. To describe evoking and contributing factors, distinguish similar critical states such as fatigue and satiation, and define countermeasures, three experimental studies were conducted with a total of 32 air traffic controllers (ATCO) in the simulated and ten ATCOs in an operational air traffic control environment. Traffic repetitiveness and (dynamic) traffic density were confirmed to evoke a state of monotony, which is indicated in reduced physiological activation, subjective sleepiness, and behavioral impairments. At the same time, reduced workload but also impaired cognitive functions were observed while fatigue increased with higher time-on-task. Higher initial recovery, the experience of flow, (dynamic) traffic density changing from low to high and active physical exercises in rest breaks were determined to have a monotony-reducing effect. Based on these outcomes, recommendations address the assessment procedures during ATC concept development as well as options for the improvement of the operational environment. The applied psychophysiological multilevel-assessment method shows otherwise undetected but critical dissociations as related to the experience of cognitive functions and motivational aspects and suggests the application of assessment procedures beyond workload ratings. In the operational environment, systematic position assignment based on predicted traffic changes, the collection of initial state information, balanced active rest breaks, trainings on the role of mental sets, and the consideration of an ATCOs psychophysiological condition in incident reporting systems are proposed. A model integrating the mentioned factors supports a systematic analysis of this issue. Future research may address the role of further individual factors related to personnel selection and the long-term development of critical states. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Multi-Cultural Training in Human Factors For Transport Aircraft Certification This is the full text of a paper presented at the Third Global Flight Safety and Human Factors Symposium, which was held in Auckland, New Zealand in April 1996. It is made available on the Web by the Industry CRM Developers Group, who exist to facilitate development of crew resource management and human factors resources and products. NASA Aviation Human Factors: Recent Reports This site makes available a series of online full-text papers produced by NASA staff from the Aviation Operations Branch. The papers are grouped according to research branch: human automation integration, human information processing, and systems safety. The site also contains information about the mission of the division, its history and organisation and current projects. National Transportation Strategic Research Plan This web site provides access to the text of the plan prepared by the US National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Transport Research and Development, dated May 2000. The purpose of the report is to help the establishment of national transport research and technology priorities and to provide a coordinated framework for government, industry and academia. It identifies "breakthrough"research directions including: nanotechnology, biofuels, and complex systems and high-confidence software. The plan looks at areas of enabling research in human performance and behaviour; advanced materials and structures, computing; communications and information technology; energypropulsion and environmental engineering; sensing and measurement; analysis, modeling, design and construction tools; as well as social and economic policy issues. A selection of these are identified as future priority focus areas. The full text of the report is available online in PDF format. Neil Krey's CRM Developers Forum This site provides a means to identify needs, coordinate processes, and facilitate development of crew resource management and human factors resources and products. The site provides a careers service where job seekers can post their details and organisations post details of vacancies, a mailing list called crm-devel, extensive links to relevant Web sites and full text publications, and the full text of 'CRM Advocate', a newsletter which was published between 1993 and 1996. Neurological Limitations of Aircraft Operations: Human Performance Implications This is Research and Technology Organization(RTO) AGARD Conference Proceedings, AGARD-CP-579, dated April 1996. This proceedings was sponsored by the AGARD Aerospace Medical Panel and held at the Deutsche Forschunosanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Linder Hohe, Cologne, GE from 9- 12 October 1995. NATO air operations in the future will have improved capabilities for mobility, flexibility, rapid augmentation and situation awareness, The rapid changes and sophisticated innovations taking place in technology imply that air warfare will become more knowledge intensive and, accordingly, more dependent on a well conditioned nervous system. Advancements in technology are also driving air and the concomitant support operations into the outer limits of humun mental and physical endurance. There is also the requirement of doing more work with fewer resources. The purpose of this Symposium was to address some of the factors that impose limitations on the nervous system, and to consider the practical challenges for enhancing neurological performance in such operational conditions as described above. The papers addressed neurological limitations imposed by: (1) the Gz environment; (2) the hypoxia environment; (3) disease and trauma; (4) neurosensory limitations; (5) fatigue and sleepiness in workload; (6) stress effects; (7) sustained operations. The practical challenges in enhancing neurological performance were addressed for: (1) heavy jet operations; (2) rotary wing operations; (3) air traffic control operations; and (4) ground and support operations. These proceedings will be of interest to those concerned with the health and safety of personnel in the air and support operations, and the aerospace scientist wanting a review of relevant research in the field of air operations neuroscience. For individual titles, see N96-36140 through N96-36171. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text of the document (49 Mb) can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Nextor Publications The National Center of Excellence in Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR) is a joint university, industry and FAA research organisation. It is organised by a consortium of four universities: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland, the University of California at Berkeley and Virginia Polytechnic Institute. This site provides a listing of NEXTOR publications many of which can be accessed online in .pdf format. Subjects covered include human factors in air transport and air traffic management. Nutrition, Metabolic Disorders and Lifestyle of Aircrew This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-CP-533, dated March 1993. These proceedings include the Technical Evaluation Report and 30 papers of the symposium sponsored by the AGARD Aerospace Medical Panel and held in Oslo, Norway from 19-23 Oct. 1992. The theme of the symposium was to review and update the knowledge pertaining to diet and nutrition as it applies to aircrew. The metabolic disorders, including hyperlipidemia and alterations of carbohydrate metabolism, are common problems in aviation medicine that demand specific attention and management by NATO flight surgeons. Hyperlipidemia is a cardiovascular risk factor that by itself or when combined with cigarette smoking and sedentary behavior as well as other risk factors presents a formidable problem for all NATO Air Forces as this directly impacts at pilot performance. Performance may also be affected by inadequate crew rest, environmental extremes and time zone shifts, all of which were illustrated in the Persian Gulf Conflict. For individual titles, see N93-32241 through N93-32269. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (49.32MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. On-Board Decision Support through the Integration of Advanced Information Processing and Human Factors Techniques. The Power Project This technical report (NLR-TP-2001-611) was published by NLR (the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands) in 2001 and was written by H. Hesselink, G. D. R. Zon, F. Tempelman, J. W. Beetstra, A. M. Vollebregt and D. P. Hannessen. As advanced crew support technologies will be available more and more in future military aircraft, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the possibilities in this area, taking into account operational demands, technical possibilities, human factors, evaluation, and validation aspects. A Crew Assistant (CA) is a decision support system for air crew, designed to improve mission effectiveness and redistribute crew workload in such a way that the crew can concentrate on its prime tasks. The POWER (Pilot Oriented Workload Evaluation and Redistribution) project is a Netherlands National Technology Project. The project is aimed at demonstrating a generic CA environment and individual tactical decision support tools to military pilots in a simulated environment, the NSF (National Simulation Facility), a six-degrees of freedom cockpit in a visual dome. The project is a technology demonstration project to show new CA features. An advanced software architecture has been set up, based on multi-agent technology, where software "agents" co-operate in sharing information and using resources on an as-needed basis. Each agent is an autonomous piece of software that is able to anticipate courses of action and performs its function pro-actively. Several prototypes of crew assistant agents have been developed and integrated in order to facilitate a CA demonstrator and a large-scale experiment with operational pilots from the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) has been carried out to demonstrate the effects of CA technology as decision support, to validate tools, and to measure the effects of on-board decision support in enhancing pilot situational awareness. The prototypes and experiments have proven the benefits of demonstrating the technology to pilots; after initial scepticism, they felt confident with using the tools after a while without being afraid to loose their skills for manual actions. The experiments also proved the benefits of Crew Assistant tools with respect to mission effectiveness and tactical task accomplishment in highly complicated situations. From a technical perspective, the possibility for real-time and any-time on-board reasoning was proven. This paper describes the demonstration CA environment and provides insight into the different CA components. Part one describes the environment as a generic CA architecture that can be installed on a simple work station as well as in a full-scale simulation environment. The second part of this paper describes the aforementioned experiment, where the NLR Counter Measure Manager (NCMM) and the contents of the experiment will be detailed. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available as a PDF file. Operator Functional State Assessment This site provides access to a Research and Technology Organisation Technical Report, RTO-TR-HFM-104, Paris, February 2004. The report has been prepared by the RTO Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM) Task Group HFM-056/TG-008. The material in this publication also supported a Lecture Series under the sponsorship of the Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM) presented on 8-9 September 2003 in Kiev, Ukraine; 11-12 September 2003 in Brussels, Belgium; and 2-3 October 2003 in San Diego, USA. The goal of this report is to assemble the pertinent information concerning the factors that produce suboptimal performance in human operators. It provides a comprehensive survey of the risk factors that impact human performance and the assessment methods for measuring these effects. Theoretical concerns are presented as a framework for the risk factors that reduce the functioning of human operators. Methods for detecting impaired operator functional state are presented and include physiological, performance, and subjective assessment procedures. The rationale for each measure is presented along with the technological required to make the measurements. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, individual papers and the full text of the document (5.2 Mbytes) can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications This provides access to a National Academies online book dated 2009. Advances and major investments in the field of neuroscience can enhance traditional behavioral science approaches to training, learning, and other applications of value to the Army. Neural-behavioral indicators offer new ways to evaluate how well an individual trainee has assimilated mission critical knowledge and skills, and can also be used to provide feedback on the readiness of soldiers for combat. Current methods for matching individual capabilities with the requirements for performing high-value Army assignments do not include neuropsychological, psychophysiological, neurochemical or neurogenetic components; simple neuropsychological testing could greatly improve training success rates for these assignments.Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications makes 17 recommendations that focus on utilizing current scientific research and development initiatives to improve performance and efficiency, collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to employ neuropharmaceuticals for general sustainment or enhancement of soldier performance, and improving cognitive and behavioral performance using interdisciplinary approaches and technological investments. An essential guide for the Army, this book will also be of interest to other branches of military, national security and intelligence agencies, academic and commercial researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and others interested in applying the rapid advances in neuroscience to the performance of individual and group tasks. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available to read online in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software is required in order to read it. Physical fitness in flying including the aging and aged aircrew This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-CP-81, dated March 1971. This report illustrates the outcome of a Specialist meeting on Physical fitness in flying including the aging and aged aircrew. At the first meeting of the committee of the special clinical and Physiological Problems in military aviation held in London in 1968 the committee made the proposal to the ASMP to cover questions of Physical fitness in flying by a symposium to be held in 1970. The term Physical fitness should in this instance not include psychological and psychiatric problems, but deal with the following questions: 1. Is there any operation value in being physically fit? 2. How to measure physical fitness for flying? 3. What kind of physical training is necessary to keep aircrew fit for flying? The other question, "What is the effect of the aging process on fitness for flying?" led t o the Committee's second proposal t o cover this problem also by a symposium. The ASMP agreed last year in Florence that, since this is a topic on which there many differing opinions are and which is related to the first equally difficult subject, namely "Physical Fitness in Flying", both these subjects should be considered in one symposium. It is of utmost importance to maintain a man in his optimum physical and mental condition t o protect and to assist him in overcoming the influences of a hostile environment. This can only be achieved if motivated and skilled scientists cooperate in this task with their specialised knowledge. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents and the full text (15.34MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Pilot Mental Workload Calibration The site provides access to an Air University, Air Force Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Engineering and Management, MSc Thesis, by Captain Jeremy B. Noel, USAF, AFIT/GOR/ENS/01M-12, dated March 2001. The thesis describes the development of a calibration scheme that allows a small subset of salient psychophysiological features developed using actual flight data for one pilot on a given day to accurately classify pilot mental workload for a separate pilot on a different day. Methodologies for workload level modification and data calibration are presented and tested to determine if any are useful in increasing the accuracy of measuring pilot mental workload across different pilots and over different days. Citation details and an abstract are available in HTML format. The full text can be accessed in PDF format. The document is part of the Air University Research Database Preventing Accidents and Building a Culture of Safety : Insights from a Simulation Model This provides access to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division Working Paper ESD-WP-2009-2 written by John Lyneis and Stuart Madnick dated April 2009. Research has approached the topic of safety in organizations from a number of different perspectives. On the one hand, psychological research on safety climate gives evidence for a range of organizational factors that predict safety across organizations. On the other hand, organizational learning theorists view safety as a dynamic problem in which organizations must learn from mistakes. Here, we synthesize these two streams of research by incorporating key organizational factors from the safety climate literature into a dynamic simulation model that also includes the possibility for learning. Analysis of simulation results sheds insight into the nature of reliability and confirms the dangers of over-reliance on ‘single loop learning’ as a mechanism for controlling safety behaviors. Special emphasis is placed on strategies that managers might use to encourage learning and prevent erosion in safety behaviors over time. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available i PDf format so Adobe Acrobat software is required in order to read it. Principles of biodynamics applicable to manned aerospace flight prolonged linear and radial acceleration This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-AG-150 , dated March 1971. The Biodynamics Committee of the Aerospace Medical Panel of AGARD-NATO observed in 1961 that, because of the burgeoning of scientific talent into the aerospace biomedical fields, there was a need to inform the new scientists of the basic principles which had been accumulated over many years of earlier aeromedical research. In an attempt to clarify the area of its own specialty, the Biodynamics Committee of the Aerospace Medical Panel, AGARD-NATO, received permission from the Aerospace Medical Panel to compile a "Comparative Table of Acceleration Terminologies. The Biodynamics Committee concluded that it could assist further by compiling a series of monographs covering the generally accepted basic information in the fields of prolonged radial and linear acceleration, including the physics, physiology, and tolerance limits. The current volume has been expanded over the previous addition, principally by the inclusion of an annotated bibliography, which covers, in addition to publications in the area of acceleration, selected references in the areas of impact, vibration and combined stresses. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents and the full text (47.63MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. PsycINFO This is the home page of PsycINFO, a database of abstracts to psychological literature from 1887 to the present day. The subscription service includes journal articles, books, book chapters, technical reports, and dissertations. It is produced by the American Psychological Association (APA). The site provides background information to the database including the journal coverage lists and classification codes and categories and online search guides. Public Attitudes, Perceptions and Behaviours towards Cabin Safety Communications This web site access to an Australian Bureau of Air Safety Investigation Research and Analysis Report B20040238 written by Andrew Parker dated July 2006. This study provides an overview of aircraft cabin safety communications in Australia, in terms of effectiveness, passenger attitudes to such communications and opportunities that exist for improvement. Most passengers agreed that paying attention to cabin safety communications is important. However, results revealed that behaviours do not always match this perception. Perceived relevance of safety information and frequency of travel were found to be significant factors affecting passenger attitudes and behaviours. High levels of message recognition, combined with excessive levels of confidence in personal ability to perform safety actions may be key drivers of reduced perceptions of relevance. Passenger attention levels to safety communications were found to be generally low. Of all communication types tested, the safety briefing was most prone to perceptions of reduced relevance through repeated exposure, while very low attention levels and perceptions of content establish safety cards as being generally ineffective. Analysis identified that low levels of passenger attention to safety communications results from overconfidence, superficial familiarity with messages, issues relating to the way safety content is presented, perceptions of substitutability between the card and briefing and social norms present in the aircraft cabin. A framework for cognitive processing of cabin safety communications is presented. The framework identifies that passenger behaviours may be negatively influenced by perceptions that it is socially undesirable to pay attention to safety information. Changing normative and attitudinal beliefs represents the greatest opportunity to improve communication effectiveness. Key opportunities are identified to improve cabin safety through enhancement of communications. These recommendations include tailoring communications to the needs of specific passenger profiles, providing additional information to passengers, improved design guidelines, regular content variation and use of communications specialists in safety media design. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software is required in order to read it. Quality Crew Resource Management This is the full text of a paper from 1996 written by the Human Factors Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society. It is made available on the Web by the Neil Krey's CRM Developers, who exist to facilitate development of crew resource management and human factors resources and products. Redirecting R&D in the Commercial Aircraft Supply Chain This provides access to RAND issues paper IP-212-OSTP, prepared by Lance Sherry and Liam Sarsfield, dated 2002. The paper describes changes in the commercial aircraft industry that have lead to an increased role of the supply chain in the R&D of aircraft components. It evaluates the allocation of federal R&D funding to the supply chain relative to the increased role of the supply chain in performing R&D. It also examines the roles that federal R&D agencies can play in overcoming inefficiencies in R&D that are inherent to a distributed supply chain. A description of the paper is available in HTML, while the full text of the document is available for browsing online and downloading in PDF format. Relationship of Employee Attitudes and Supervisor-Controller Ratio to En Route Operational Error Rates : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AM-02/9, by Dana M. Broach and Carolyn S. Dollar, dated May 2002. In this study, the relationship of organizational factors to en route OE rates was investigated, based on an adaptation of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS; Shappell & Wiegmann, 2000) to air traffic control as HFACS-ATC (Scarborough & Pounds, 2001). The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA. Risk Perception and Risk Tolerance in Aircraft Pilots : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AM-02/17, by David R. Hunter, dated September 2002. Risk perception and risk tolerance are two factors that can significantly impact pilot decision-making. This study sought to separate these two constructs and to develop and evaluate measures that could be used to compare individual pilots on the constructs. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA. Safety Health of Aviation Maintenance Engineering (SHoMe) Tool: User Guide CAA This provides access to a UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Paper 2003/11 dated November 2003. This report describes a ‘safety health’ measurement tool that was developed for the CAA to establish the current level of key safety indicators within the aircraft maintenance industry. One outcome of this work is a computer based questionnaire measurement tool that can be used by aircraft maintenance organisations to obtain an objective measure of key safety indicators that could affect the quality, reliability and safety of their maintenance operations. The tool can either be used as a ‘one-off’ or repeated at intervals to monitor the effects of any safety initiatives or other changes.This report describes the measurement tool and provides information to help those maintenance organisations wishing to run the tool. The full text of the guide is available in PDF format from the CAA's web site. Safety Health of Aviation Maintenance Engineering: Project Description This provides access to a UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Paper 2003/10 dated November 2003. This report explains how the Safety Health of Maintenance Engineering (SHoMe) tool was developed and validated, and describes the tool in general terms. The full text of this paper is available in PDF format from the CAA's web site. Selected Current Aerospace Notices Provided by NASA, this service is an electronic current awareness journal which is published twice a month. The aim of the service is to alert users to recently published report and journal literature about aeronautics and aerospace research. It is divided into broad topic areas (aeronautics, astronautics, chemistry and materials, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, mathematical and computer sciences, physics, social sciences and space sciences) which are further subdivided into 191 specific subject topics to aid browsing and identification of relevant publications. The service is also searchable. Sexual Ethics, Organizational Climate and the Air Expeditionary Force This is the full text of a thesis presented by Major Christopher Urdzik (USAF) dated April 2005. The established Air Force standards prohibiting adultery, fraternization, and unprofessional relationships have long recognized these acts as counter to good order and discipline due to the resulting negative impact on unit cohesion and morale. In the last 10 years, three major factors have combined to make sexual misconduct an increasing topic of concern for the USAF—the Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) rotation cycle, the steadily increasing gender mix serving on active duty, and additional combat roles that have opened to women. Focusing on AEF deployments and Air Force military members, this paper explores societal attitudes and value systems influencing sexual ethics, the Air Force’s current approach to instilling values as compared to other military branches, whether there’s a better ethical model to help members internalize existing standards, and to tie together some practical actions the commander can take at deployed locations to encourage upholding of established standards. Research for this paper included reviews of Air Force doctrine, operating instructions, and publications; sister service publications; technical articles and books in the fields of ethics, sociology, and philosophy; and general magazine/newspaper articles. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Situation Awareness This site provides access to a number of full text papers that deal with aspects of situation awareness. The papers are divided into following heads: Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFT); Case Studies; Assessment; Situation Awareness; Judgement and Decision Making; Error Management; Workload; Leadership/Follwership; Military; CRM/HF Research; Instructor/Facilitator Qualification; Single Pilot CRM; General CRM Information; Maintenance Human Factors; Flight Deck Automation; and Personal Homepages. The papers are available in a combination of HTML, PDF and MS Word formats. The pages are part of the The Industry CRM Developers Group web site. Situation Awareness: Limitations and Enhancement in the Aviation Environment This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD Conference Proceedings report, AGARD-CP-575, dated January 1996. These proceedings include the Technical Evaluation Report, two keynote addresses and 25 papers from the Symposium sponsored by the Aerospace Medical Panel and held in Brussels, Belgium 24-27 April 1995. Situational Awareness is seen as key to mission success and aircraft safety. There are several questions that the Symposium addressed: how effectively Situation Awareness can be measured, whether it is possible to select for it and whether training strategies can improve it. The Symposium also examined the research carried out into the contribution of new Cockpit Technologies to enhance it. Los s of Situation Awareness has been the predominant cause of fatal accidents in both military and civil aviation and several examples were cited where the aircraft had been lost or put in jeopardy due to pilot error. These proceedings will be of interest to those involved in cockpit system design, human performance, human perception, cognition and accident investigation. For individual titles, see N96-25907 through N96-25932. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (71 kB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Situational Awareness, Key Component of Safe Flight This is the full text of an article by Constance Bovier which was originally published in the January 1997 issue of Flying Careers magazine. It is made available on the Web by the Neil Krey's CRM Developers Group, who exist to facilitate development of crew resource management and human factors resources and products. Sleep / Wakefulness Management in Continuous / Sustained Operations This web site provides access to a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Educational Note, RTO-EN-016, dated November 2002. The material in this publication was assembled to support a Lecture Series under the sponsorship of the Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM) and the Consultant and Exchange Programme of RTO presented on 17-18 June 2002 in Fort Rucker, Alabama, United States, on 24-25 June 2002 in Warsaw, Poland, and on 27-28 June 2002 in Paris, France. A number of the lecture presentations examine factors that induce disturbances to biological rhythms such as jet lag and sleep deprivation. Others explore key physiological, ergonomic and pharmacological aspects of sleep-wakefulness management. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text of the document (9.33 Mbytes) can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Societal Impact of Spaceflight This is a NASA (SP-2007-4801) volume with title Societal Impact of Spaceflight by Steven J. Dick and Roger D. Launius dated 2007. This volume is consisted of two parts and the aim is to examine the effects of spaceflight on society through scholarly research, making use especially of the tools of the historian and the broader social sciences and humanities. The documents are dealing with the following questions: Has the Space Age indeed had a significant effect on society? If so, what are those influences? What do we mean by an “impact” on society? And what parts of society? Conversely, has society had any effect on spaceflight? What would be different had there been no Space Age? The full text of part 1(900KB) and part 2 (4.16MB) documents can be accessed online in PDF format. Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology The Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) is a division of the American Psychological Association and is concerned with human welfare through the application of psychology in organisations. The site describes the organisation and gives details of publications and conferences. The full text of TiP (The Industrial-Organizational Psychologiest) magazine is available in full text back to July 1995 in both PDF and HTML formats. Details of the annual SIOP conference are provided, as is a recruitment service called JobNet. Spiritually Commanding an Air Force Squadron in the 21st Century This is the full text of thesis by Major Charles D. Kuhl USAF, which was published by the School of Advanced Airpower Studies (SASS), maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama in April 2005. In 2004, the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force penned a letter titled “Stressed Airmen – Who’s Your Wingman?” The letter deals with the increased stress and suicide rate among Airmen primarily attributed to longer deployments and higher operations tempo. General Jumper states that commanders are responsible for the total welfare of their Airmen. He outlines the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of life as the dimensions that comprise well-being. While the physical, emotional, and social aspects of well-being are generally well understood, spirituality is not. Additionally, Air Force guidance for commanders concerning spirituality is scarce. This paper was written to aide commanders in fulfilling their responsibility to ensure spiritual wellness by examining the what, why, and how of Air Force spirituality. The what portion of this paper compiles many thoughts on spirituality and ultimately defines what spirituality is. The importance of spirituality is explained by the Why section. Finally the How portion provides commanders with practical methods to ensure the spiritual wellness of their Airmen. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University Research web site. Strategies to Maintain Combat Readiness during Extended Deployments : A Human Systems Approach This site provides access to NATO Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) Meeting Proceedings, RTO-MP-HFM-124. The papers are from the RTO Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Symposium, dated November 2005. The full text of the individual papers can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library Stress and Performance. A Review of the Literature and Its Applicability to the Military This technical report (TR-192-RC) was published by The RAND Corporation in 2005 and was written by Jennifer Kavanagh. There are many stressors associated with military life, particularly with deployments, and it is important to understand how such stressors affect individual functioning and performance. This report reviews literature on how stress affects performance generally and applies the most relevant findings to military operations and training. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Supporting Air and Space Expeditionary Forces. A Methodology for Determining Air Force Deployment Requirements This technical report (MG-176-AF)was published by The RAND Corporation in 2004 and was written by Don Snyder and Patrick Mills. The Air Forces transition from a threat-based to a capabilities-based planning posture suggests the need to calculate swiftly the manpower and equipment required to generate those capabilities. This book outlines just such a methodology for determining deployment requirements. The methodology employs a prototype research toolthe Strategic Tool for the Analysis of Required Transportation (START)which generates lists of capability units required to support a user-specified operation. The appendix serves as a users guide to the START program. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Tactical Decision Aids and Situational Awareness This is a NATO Research and Technology Organization (RTO) report RTO-EN-019, January 2002. This contains papers presented at a Lecture Series (LS 227), under the sponsorship of the Systems Concepts and Integration Panel (SCI) and the Consultant and Exchange Programme of RTA presented on 1-2 November 2001 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 8-9 November 2001, Sofia, Bulgaria, 12-13 November 2001 in Madrid, Spain and 19-20 November 2001, Maryland, United States. Special emphasis is given to the following topics, Interaction of human perception and judgement with automated information processing and presentation, Mission management and crew assistance for military aircraft, Pilot orientated workload evaluation and redistribution, and, Interacting multiple model approach in dynamic situation. The citation and abstract information are in HTML format, and the full text is available online in PDF format (3.99 Mbytes). Terminal Convective Weather Forecast 2000 Demonstration Report. Memphis International Airport, Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZME) This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA CT-TN 03/6 by Danny Sims, dated June 2003. The Terminal Convective Weather Forecast (TCWF) 2000 Demonstration was conducted during the convective season at Air Traffic Control (ATC) facilities in Memphis, TN. The demonstration was conducted by ACB-630 to ascertain the TCWF overall utility, ease of use, readability, and perceived benefit to ATC tasking. TCWF was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) under FAA Aviation Weather Research Program funding. The product provides a graphical 0 to 60-minute forecast of convective weather for an airport terminal area. Results indicated overall positive impressions. Users reported the TCWF provided benefit in performing ATC tasks; was a beneficial supplement to the Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS); and enhanced situational awareness. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center Library. The Civil-Military Gap in the United States. Does It Exist, Why, and Does It Matter? This technical report (MG-379-A) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by Thomas S. Szayna, Kevin F. McCarthy, Jerry M. Sollinger, Linda J. Demaine, Jefferson P. Marquis and Brett Steele. What is the potential for a divergence in views among civilian and military elites (sometimes referred to as the civil-military gap) to undermine military effectiveness? The authors propose a five-stage analytical framework that encompasses the main areas where a civil-military gap might have an impact. Using an existing survey-based dataset (prepared and administered by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies) to inform this framework, they find a variety of differences among the military and civilian respondents. However, most of those differences disappeared when the authors focused on the attitudes that are pertinent to civilian control of the military and military effectiveness. The major exception to this pattern related to such military personnel policies as women in combat, the military’s policies with regard to sexual harassment, and whether gays should serve in the military. In contrast, most of the other measures of military effectiveness appear to be influenced more by views of the military threat facing the country and views of foreign policy — where all military officers and civilians share similar perspectives. Overall, concerns about a civil-military gap and possible erosion of the principle of civilian control of the military appear to be overstated. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file so Adobe Acrobat software is required in order to read it. The Effects of Automation on Team Performance and Team Coordination This is a North Carolina State University (NCSU), Department of Industrial Engineering PhD dissertation, by Melanie Clay Wright, dated 19 June, 2002. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of automation as applied to different stages of information processing on the performance and coordination of teams in a complex decision making task. A simulated Theatre Defense Task in which teams protect a home base from enemy attack was used as a test-bed for this evaluation. Four automation conditions were designed that compared different degrees of information acquisition, information analysis, and decision selection automation. The results of the experiment revealed that different forms of automation have different effects on teamwork. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. The full text of the document is accessible online in PDF format [1.99 Mb]. This title is part of North Carolina State University's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Collection The Effects of Laser Illumination on Operational and Visual Performance of Pilots During Final Approach This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report DOT/FAA/AM-04/9 by Van B. Nakagawara and Ronald W. Montgomery dated June 2004. Several hundred incidents involving the illumination of aircrew members by laser light have been reported in recent years, including several that could have had serious consequences. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the performance of pilots exposed to visible laser radiation during final approach maneuvers at 100 feet above the runway in the Laser-Free Zone (LFZ). METHODS: Thirty-four pilots served as test subjects for this study. Pilot performance was assessed in a Boeing 727-200 Level C flight simulator using four eye-safe levels of visible laser light (0, 0.5, 5, and 50 W/cm2) during four final approach maneuvers (three 30o left and one 30o right turn to final approach). Subjective responses were solicited after each trial and during an exit interview. The pilots were asked to rate on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 = none, 2 = slight, 3 = moderate, 4 = great, and 5 = very great) the affect each laser exposure had on their ability to operate the aircraft and on their visual performance. The average subjective ratings were calculated for each exposure level and flight maneuver, and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. RESULTS: Average subjective ratings for operational and visual performance were 2.93 (Range = 2.35 3.29; SD = 1.37) and 3.16 (Range = 2.56 3.62; SD = 1.30), respectively. ANOVA found statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the 0.5 W/cm2 operational and visual performance ratings and those for the 5 and 50 W/cm2exposures. Approximately 75% of the survey responses indicated that subjects experienced adverse visual effects resulting in some degree of operational difficulty when illuminated by low-level laser radiation. CONCLUSION:This study confirmed that the illumination of flight crewmembers with laser radiation ≥ 0.5 W/cm2 is unacceptable in the LFZ. Provided the exposure limit established for the LFZ (i.e., 50 nW/cm2) is not exceeded, a sufficient margin of safety appears to exist for protecting pilots from accidental laser exposure during final approach. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the report is available in PDF format from the online catalogue of the FAA. The Human Factor in System Reliability : Is Human Performance Predictable? This web site povides access to a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Meeting Proceedings, RTO-MP-032, dated November 2000. The report contains papers from the Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM) Workshop held in Siena, Italy from 1-2 December 1999. The aim of the workshop was to inform the task of Working Group 30, Human Reliability in Safety Critical Systems, by providing a review of human factors research carried across multiple domain areas. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text of the document (1.11 Mbytes) can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. The Human-Machine Teams Create, Explain, and Recover from Coordination Breakdowns : a Simulator Study of Disturbance Management on Modern Flight Decks This is a Ohio State University, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering PhD thesis, by Mark I. Nikolic, dated 2004. As the final step in a research programme that included jump-seat observations, a flight instructor survey, and an incident database analysis, the first full-mission simulator study in this area was conducted with twelve airline pilots in order to examine (the effectiveness of) current pilot strategies for diagnosing and recovering from disturbances, and the impact of current automation design on these processes. Pilots flew a one-hour scenario which contained challenging events that probed pilots knowledge of, and proficiency in using, the autoflight system. A process tracing methodology was used which integrated behavioural and verbal data in order to identify patterns in strategies across pilots. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML and the full text of the document is accessible online in PDF format (0.88 Mb). This title is part of the OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Service The Impact of Changing International Relations on the Scientific and Technical Community This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-CP-523, dated April 1993. The papers from the Technical Information Panel's Specialists' Meeting, held in Copenhagen, Denmark on 14-15 Oct. 1992, are presented. The following topics are covered: the interaction between technology and culture, an overview of recent political changes, the effects on the exchange of scientific and technical information of these changes and consequent economic ones, the problems of managing change, forecasting and planning for change, and some of the new technologies that will help to overcome the problems raised by these changes. For individual titles, see N93-31216 through N93-31223. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (35.10MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. The Impact of Speech "Under Stress" on Military Speech Military Technology This site provides access to a Research and Technology Organisation (NATO) Technical Report, RTO-TR-010, Paris, March 2000. As the report for the Information System Technology Panel (IST) explains, Military operations are often conducted under conditions of stress induced by high workload, sleep deprivation, fear and emotion, confusion due to conflicting information, psychological tension, pain, and other typical conditions encountered in the modern battlefield context. These conditions are known to affect the physical and cognitive abilities of human speech characteristics, and this study was intended to determine the actual effects of stress on voice production quality. It is suggested that the effect of operator based stress factors on voice is likely to be detrimental to the effectiveness of communication in general, in particular to the performance of communication equipment and weapon systems equipped with vocal interfaces (e.g., advanced cockpits, command, control, and communication systems, information warfare). Progress in the field of military based speech technology, including advances in speech based system design has been restricted due to the lack of availability of databases of speech under stress. In particular, the type of stress which an operator may experience in the modern battlefield context is not easily simulated, and therefore it is difficult to systematically collect speech data for use in research and speech system training. It is foreseen that in the future it will be necessary to improve the coordination of multi-national military forces. The need therefore exists for planned simulations with military personnel using a wide range of speech technology and addressing factors such as high workload, sleep deprivation, fear and emotion, confusion, psychological tension, pain, etc. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text of the document (9 Mbytes) can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. The Moderator Effects of Taskload on the Interplay Between En Route Intra-Sector Team Communications, Situation Awareness, and Mental Workload : Final Report This provides access to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report, DOT/FAA/AM-02/18, by Larry L. Bailey and Ben F. Willems, dated October 2002. Recently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began a program of research to investigate the role that intra-team communication plays in helping radar air traffic control teams coordinate their individual efforts. The full text of the report is available in PDF format, from the online catalogue of the FAA. The National Plan for Civil Aviation Human Factors : An Initiative for Research and Application This is a national agenda for the United States produced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and The Department of Defense (DoD). The report outlines methods through which the increasing number of human factors related aviation accidents can be reduced. The first section of the document describes the five research thrusts necessary to progress towards air safety - human centred automation, selection and training, human performance assessment, information management and display and bioaeronautics. The second section deals with means of improving the application of research results to future and ongoing programs. This is a downloadable Word file [41 pages, 400KB]. The Role of Humans in Intelligent and Automated Systems This is Research and Technology Organization Meeting Proceedings, RTO-MP-088, Paris, October 2003. The document contains papers presented at the RTO Human Factors and Medicine Panel (HFM) Symposium, held in Warsaw, Poland, 7-9 October 2001. The Symposium considered the problem, research approaches and techniques for how automation technology can take advantage of human strengths and compensate for human disadvantages. The Symposium consisted of an Opening Session, three sessions on design philosophy, two sessions and a roundtable discussion on design methodology, two sessions on design evaluation, and a Capstone Panel with open discussion. Six Keynote Addresses were interspersed throughout the programme. 18 papers were presented, and 5 poster-boards were available for review. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. The contributions cover various topics including cockpit automation, air traffic management, and UAV operations. A table of contents, and the full text (18.4 Mbytes) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library Total information Sharing for Pilot Situational Awarenesss Enhanced by Intelligent Systems (TALIS 1) This technical report (Number 398) was published by the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre in December 2004 and was written by R. Ehrmanntraut ...[et al]. This is the final report of the Total Information Sharing for Pilot Situational Awareness Enhanced by Intelligent Systems, Phase 1 (TALIS 1) project, which was carried out from September 2001 until February 2004 by a consortium of 5 partners: LIDO, NLR, SKYSOFT, THALES Avionics, and the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre (EEC). The project was coordinated by the EEC. The total cost of the project was 4.4 Million , co-financed by 50% by the European Commission, DG-IST, in the context of its 5th framework for research and development. The objective of the project is to investigate the viability and benefits of adopting an approach based on standardised architectures to provide for pilot situational awareness resulting in a safer and more efficient air traffic management process involving interactions between the ground and the air to bring benefits to the travelling public. [Taken from abstract]. This is in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat will be required in order to read it. University of Texas Human Factors Research Project The main aim of this project is to investigate individual, team, and organizational factors determining performance and safety in aviation, space, and medicine. It is also charged with developing new measures of performance in these environments and assessing the impact of human factors training on attitudes and behavior. It is funded by grants from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration and contains an overview of the project in addition to listings of recent publications by the project group. The latter are available in PDF format, so you will require an Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view them. US Army Aeromedical Research Laboratories (USAARL) The objectives of USAARLs research programs are to prevent or minimise health hazards in the military operations environment and sustain the aviators individual performance. The laboratory conducts research into acoustics, vision, crew workload, stress and fatigue, and life support systems. The site provides further details, a searchable database of technical reports with full text, and press releases. Using Linear Programming to Design Samples for a Complex Survey This technical report (MG-441-AF) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by James H. Bigelow. RAND was asked to design and select a sample of Air Force personnel who would be asked to participate in an online survey of cultural attitudes. The design needed to minimize the number of people asked to participate so as to reduce the survey burden on a population already frequently invited to take surveys; reflect the response rates anticipated from previous surveys of the population; ensure adequate representation of a number of minorities of interest (rank, job type, race and ethnicity, gender, religion, and component); sample enough people in each of the overlapping subset categories of interest (e.g., black female NCOs) to allow for statistically meaningful comparisons; and minimize the number of service members invited to take both this survey and a health survey on an overlapping set of topics scheduled for the same time period. This report describes the method developed for designing joint samples for both surveys. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software is required in order to read it. Using Statistical Process Control Methods to Classify Pilot Mental Workload The site provides access to an Air University, Air Force Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Engineering and Management, MSc Thesis, by Captain Terence Y. Kudo, USAF, AFIT/GOR/ENS/01M-10, dated March 2001. The objective of the research was to apply statistical process control methodology on different psychophysiological features in an attempt to classify pilot mental workload. Control charts were used to track these features throughout the flight, and classify a segment as high workload if the measurements of these features were greater than predefined control limits. Citation details and an abstract are available in HTML format. The full text can be accessed in PDF format. The document is part of the Air University Research Database Variable Strategy Model of the Human Operator This web site provides access to a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering PhD dissertation, by John Michael Phillips, dated 27 July 2000. The thesis evaluates the performance of the Variable Strategy Model (VSM) by considering several examples, including the longitudinal control of an aircraft during the visual landing task. The author describes the development of a refined landing strategy that takes into account the specific aircraft's dynamic characteristics. The refined strategy is translated back into terminology similar to the existing pilot training literature. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. The full text of the document is accessible online in PDF format [1.18 Mb]. This title is part of Virginia Tech�s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection (VT ETD). Work Hours of Aircraft Maintenance Personnel The site provides access to UK Civil Aviation Authority CAA Paper 2002/06, prepared by Simon Folkard, on behalf of the Safety Regulation Group, issued March 2003. This Paper presents the results of a study of the working hours and schedules of aircraft maintenance engineers. It presents a series of recommendations for good practice to ensure safety is not compromised because of excess fatigue. The text of the document is available online in PDF format (469 kb) from the CAA's web site |
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