USMA Digital Commons (United States Military Academy, West Point)
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To Hell With Integrity: Why Major League Baseball’s Lack Of Self-Regulation Forced Congress To Become Involved In Its Drug Testing Policy
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Influence of Spray Angle and Carrier Gas Type on Micro Cold Spray Deposition of Cu Coatings on AlN Substrates
Full text linkDeposition onto conformal or angled surfaces not normal to the deposition nozzle is one of the primary impediments to implementing micro cold spray (MCS) as a film deposition technique for mass production. Increasing the ability for MCS techniques to effectively deposit on the complex geometries intrinsic to manufacturing requires understanding the effects changing deposition angles has on the film coherence, both within itself and to the substrate. In this study, deposition angle and MCS carrier gas composition are proposed and tested as variables that affect the MCS film morphology and coherence. Three gas compositions are each used to deposit MCS films at intervals of ten degrees from normal to the deposition nozzle down to 50°. Films were then tested for coherence and adhesion before being examined optically and through scanning electron microscopy to identify patterns among the various carrier gas-angle combinations
Say Yes to the Stress: Escape Rooms in Civil Engineering Classrooms
No full textOver the last two decades, escape rooms have emerged as a social and team building activity. Participants must work in a team to solve complex puzzles by finding clues within the event space. These puzzles can range from word finds, math problems, riddles, or identifying clues. Escape rooms vary in difficulty. They should be difficult enough where they cannot be solved by a single participant, but easy enough that they can be solved in less than an hour. Recently, educators have explored implementing escape rooms as an active learning activity for secondary and higher education. Multiple studies have been conducted in STEM classes. The goal of this study was to investigate the use of escape rooms in civil engineering courses to improve students’ ability to solve an ill-defined problem and connect clues to the course content. The escape rooms required students to work as a team, communicate their solutions effectively, and increase their engagement and interest with the course material. Two different escape rooms have been developed and implemented: one in a mechanics of materials course and one in a design of reinforced concrete structures course. Both escape rooms were implemented as end of course review session where students were tasked with solving multiple linked, but separate puzzles on cumulative course topics. These puzzles assessed whether the students could identify the type of problem and key information and solve the problem by connecting the clues to course concepts. The escape room activity was assessed based on student survey feedback, instructor feedback, and student performance on the final examination. While participation in the escape room did not have a significant impact on the students’ performance, the students found the escape room to be an engaging activity which encourage teamwork and collaboration as well as review of the course material. Upon completion of the escape room, students had identified concepts that they needed to review prior to the final examination. This paper presents the design, creation, execution, and results of an escape room activity implemented in these two civil engineering courses
Activity-Attack Graphs for Intelligence-Informed Threat COA Development
No full textA threat course of action (COA) describes the likely tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) an adversary may deploy across the cyber kill-chain. Threat COA development and analysis informs hunt teams, incident responders, and threat emulation efforts on likely activities the adversary will conduct during an attack. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to generate and evaluate threat COAs through association rule mining. We identify frequent TTP itemsets to create a set of activity groups that describe associations between TTPs. We overlay activity groups to create a directed and edge-weighted activity-attack graph. The graphs hypothesize various adversary avenues of attack, and the weighted edges inform the analyst\u27s trust of a hypothesized TTP in the COA. Our research identifies meaningful associations between TTPs and provides an analytical approach to generating threat COAs. Further, our implementation uses the STIX framework for extensibility and usability in a variety of threat intelligence environments
Modelling Nuclear Weapon Effects in Wargaming Using Monte Carlo Simulations
Full text linkThe United States Army’s interpretation of nuclear weapon effects needs change and modernization. Wargaming exercises are commonplace in today’s military, however, despite the growing threat of non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNW), little has been done to inform battlefield commanders on their true effects. Our research seeks to develop a tool for commanders to easily interpret quantifiable effects of a NSNW. Utilizing Monte Carlo simulation, we are developing a new methodology to analyze NSNW effects. Our model allows a commander to calculate the expected unit strength following a NSNW strike which will aid in their operational decision making ability. The Monte Carlo simulation method for analyzing nuclear effects offers a novel approach to account for variation while giving the commander an analytically interpretable output as descriptive statistics that avoids probabilities
The Great Attack: Survivors\u27 Tales
Full text linkThis is the story of the Great Attack. Where various EDTs (sometimes working together and sometimes singularly) were paired with traditional kinetic weapons in an attempt to create WMD-like effects. Adversaries staying away from WMD payloads kept themselves under the radar. Yet, they still created the three devastating phases (not with a singular bomb drop but in a series of actions designed to bring a country to its knees). They shattered our way of life and proved that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary space.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/aci_books/1044/thumbnail.jp