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Experimental methods to validate measures of emotional state and readiness for duty in critical operations

Weston, Louise M.

A recent report on criticality accidents in nuclear facilities indicates that human error played a major role in a significant number of incidents with serious consequences and that some of these human errors may be related to the emotional state of the individual. A pre-shift test to detect a deleterious emotional state could reduce the occurrence of such errors in critical operations. The effectiveness of pre-shift testing is a challenge because of the need to gather predictive data in a relatively short test period and the potential occurrence of learning effects due to a requirement for frequent testing. This report reviews the different types of reliability and validity methods and testing and statistical analysis procedures to validate measures of emotional state. The ultimate value of a validation study depends upon the percentage of human errors in critical operations that are due to the emotional state of the individual. A review of the literature to identify the most promising predictors of emotional state for this application is highly recommended.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2007
DOIOSTI

Massively parallel collaboration : a literature review

Dornburg, Courtney S.; Adams, Susan S.; Forsythe, James C.; Davidson, George S.

The present paper explores group dynamics and electronic communication, two components of wicked problem solving that are inherent to the national security environment (as well as many other business environments). First, because there can be no ''right'' answer or solution without first having agreement about the definition of the problem and the social meaning of a ''right solution'', these problems (often) fundamentally relate to the social aspects of groups, an area with much empirical research and application still needed. Second, as computer networks have been increasingly used to conduct business with decreased costs, increased information accessibility, and rapid document, database, and message exchange, electronic communication enables a new form of problem solving group that has yet to be well understood, especially as it relates to solving wicked problems.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2007
DOIOSTI

Atomically engineering Cu/Ta interfaces

Webb, Edmund B.

This report summarizes the major research and development accomplishments for the late start LDRD project (investment area: Enable Predictive Simulation) entitled 'Atomically Engineering Cu/Ta Interfaces'. Two ultimate goals of the project are: (a) use atomistic simulation to explore important atomistic assembly mechanisms during growth of Cu/Ta multilayers; and (b) develop a non-continuum model that has sufficient fidelity and computational efficiency for use as a design tool. Chapters 2 and 3 are essentially two papers that address respectively these two goals. In chapter 2, molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the growth of Cu films on (010) bcc Ta and Cu{sub x}Ta{sub 1-x} alloy films on (111) fcc Cu. The results indicated that fcc crystalline Cu films with a (111) texture are always formed when Cu is grown on Ta. The Cu films are always polycrystalline even when the Ta substrate is single crystalline. These polycrystalline films are composed of grains with only two different orientations, which are separated by either orientational grain boundaries or misfit dislocations. Periodic misfit dislocations and stacking fault bands are observed. The Cu film surface roughness was found to decrease with increasing adatom energy. Due to a Cu surface segregation effect, the Cu{sub x}Ta{sub 1-x} films deposited on Cu always have a higher Cu composition than that used in the vapor mixture. When Cu and Ta compositions in the films are comparable, amorphous structures may form. The fundamental origins for all these phenomena have been studied in terms of crystallography and interatomic interactions. In chapter 3, a simplified computational method, diffusional Monte Carlo (dMC) method, was developed to address long time kinetic processes of materials. Long time kinetic processes usually involve material transport by diffusion. The corresponding microstructural evolution of materials can be analyzed by kinetic Monte Carlo simulation methods, which essentially simulate structural evolution by tracing each atomic jump. However, if the simulation is carried out at a high temperature, or a jump mechanism with a very low energy barrier is encountered, the jump frequency may approach the atom vibration frequency, and the computational efficiency of the kinetic Monte Carlo method rapidly decreases to that of a molecular dynamics simulation. The diffusional Monte Carlo method addresses the net effects of many atom jumps over a finite duration, kinetically controlled process. First, atom migration due to both random and non-random jumps is discussed. The concept of dMC is then introduced for random jump diffusion. The validity of the method is demonstrated using several diffusion cases in one-, two- and three-dimensional spaces, including the dissolution of spinodal structures. The application of the non-random diffusion theory to spinodal decomposition is also demonstrated.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2007
DOIOSTI

Assessing the effectiveness of electronic brainstorming in an industrial setting : experimental design document

Adams, Susan S.; Davidson, George S.; Dornburg, Courtney S.; Forsythe, James C.

An experiment is proposed which will compare the effectiveness of individual versus group brainstorming in addressing difficult, real world challenges. Previous research into electronic brainstorming has largely been limited to laboratory experiments using small groups of students answering questions irrelevant to an industrial setting. The proposed experiment attempts to extend current findings to real-world employees and organization-relevant challenges. Our employees will brainstorm ideas over the course of several days, echoing the real-world scenario in an industrial setting. The methodology and hypotheses to be tested are presented along with two questions for the experimental brainstorming sessions. One question has been used in prior work and will allow calibration of the new results with existing work. The second question qualifies as a complicated, perhaps even wickedly hard, question, with relevance to modern management practices.

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TYPE SAND Report YEAR 2007
DOIOSTI
Results 78651–78675 of 96,771
Results 78651–78675 of 96,771