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Stacked Generalizations in Imbalanced Fraud Data Sets using Resampling Methods
No full textPredicting fraud is challenging due to inherent issues in the fraud data structure, since the crimes are committed through trickery or deceit with an ever-present moving target of changing modus operandi to circumvent human and system controls. As a national security challenge, criminals continually exploit the electronic financial system to defraud consumers and businesses by finding weaknesses in the system, including in audit controls. This study uses stacked generalization using meta or super learners for improving the performance of algorithms in step one (minimizing the algorithm error rate to reduce its bias in the learning set) and then in step two the results are input into the meta learner with its stacked blended output (with the weakest algorithms learning better). A fundamental key to fraud data is that it is inherently not systematic, and an optimal resampling methodology has yet not been identified. Building a test harness, for all permutations of algorithm sample set pairs, demonstrates that the complex, intrinsic data structures are all thoroughly tested. A comparative analysis on fraud data that applies stacked generalizations provides useful insight to find the optimal mathematical formula for imbalanced fraud data sets necessary to improve upon fraud detection for national security
The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity
No full textAmong the most successful leaders throughout history―from Abe Lincoln to Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi to Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr. to Nelson Mandela―some were brilliant mathematicians and economists, others were creative visionaries, still others were masterful at strategic planning. Their mastery of their field wasn’t the secret to their highly effective leadership. All of their skill, grit, resilience, charisma, and courage emanated from one thing: their strength of character.
Character―the moral values and habits of an individual―is in the spotlight now more than perhaps at any other point in modern history. Politicians distort facts. Corporations cheat customers and investors. Athletes are caught using illegal supplements. In addition to harming our culture at large, these failures of character have a profound and undermining impact on leadership.
The authors of this book are experts on the value of character, its correlation with successful leadership, and how to build it in individuals and prospective leaders. General Robert L. Caslen, Jr. served the US Army for over 43 years and served as Superintendent at the US Military Academy at West Point. Psychologist Dr. Michael D. Matthews is a Professor of Engineering Psychology at West Point who has focused on the psychology of character for years. Together they witnessed firsthand that raw talent is not enough to stand on its own; successful leadership relies on the critical foundation of a strong character.
In The Character Edge they leverage their perspectives to offer an empowering, story-driven argument―backed by the latest scientific research―that character is vital to success. They give readers the tools to build and sustain character in themselves and their organizations by testing readers\u27 strengths of the gut, head and heart and teaching how to build trust and nurture the seeds of character
Ubiquity with a Dark Side: Civil-Military Gaps on Social Media Usage
No full textSocial media has fundamentally changed communication and interaction in today\u27s society. Apart from being used by individuals, it is also omnipresent in public sector organisations such as the armed forces.
This book examines the opportunities and risks associated with social media in the context of the armed forces from an international, social scientific perspective. It discuses the impact of social media in the everyday life of military personnel and analyses the extent to which social media influences their performance, be it as a distraction or as a source of perceived appreciation. It particularly highlights the representation of masculinity and femininity in military social media channels, since the way gender is portrayed on social media has an effect on how future recruits and – at the other end of the military career spectrum – veterans feel they are approached.
The book also focuses on the new form of follow-up discussion, which enables the armed forces to interact with the population. On social media, the armed forces are publicly presented, and this shapes the public’s opinions on them. Further, the armed forces can use debates as a monitoring tool of society\u27s attitudes towards them or towards events that have an effect on society. Conversely, social media can lend a voice to military personnel, allowing them to be publicly heard. As discussions on social media can only be controlled to a limited extent, the context in which the armed forces are discussed alters their sphere of influence and potentially leads to a loss of control. An extreme example of this is the use of social media as a tool to strategically distribute misinformation in order to shape public opinion and threaten national security. Moreover, the use of social media to demoralise adversaries or to harm their credibility results in social media being considered a cyber weapon that affects politics and military activities
Augmented reality: Seeing the benefits is believing
Get PDFThere is always something taken away when there are added functionalities. Does the concept of wearing augmented reality that digitally provides situational awareness create an upside that outweighs what it takes away for rifleman skills? The supercharged hearing, six senses for those equipped, broader view of sight, picking up smells, changes in lights and shadows, slightest change in the near environment: With all these close-action skills, will augmented reality create more distraction than enhancement? Is it too early to push digital situational awareness all the way down to the soldier in maneuver units? Is the upside present
Evaluating our Evaluations: Recognizing and Countering Performance Evaluation Pitfalls
Get PDFSelecting the right person for the right job at the right time is a persistent challenge faced by organizations. Performance evaluations are a fundamental component of selection processes, and their use in the Army is nearly as old as the service itself. Some early evaluation systems consisted of a list of officers in a regiment with observations noted for each ranging from “a good-natured man” to “merely good—nothing promising” to “a man of whom all unite in speaking ill.” While our current evaluation form adds a bit more science to the art of performance evaluation, a constant in the Army’s performance evaluation system is the reliance on raters to render their judgment on the potential of a subordinate for service at higher levels.
The purpose of this article is to better equip raters to exercise these judgments. While we recognize the calls for personnel management reform and the initiatives underway to better manage the Army’s talent, our purpose is not to add another voice to these suggestions for structural changes to the Army’s evaluation system.Instead, we focus on the process of discretionary judgment exercised by raters that is and will continue to be an integral part of performance evaluation. Our aim is to recognize the structural and cognitive biases inherent in our evaluation system and provide recommendations to help senior raters more objectively evaluate their subordinates.
While we think the importance of this topic is self-evident, educating raters on the potential for bias in their evaluations is especially important in the type of rating system used by the Army. This system places great emphasis on the person serving as the senior rater. Although the evaluation forms include assessments from raters and sometimes intermediate raters, the senior rater comments are widely acknowledged to carry the most weight for promotion and selection decisions due to the small amount of time available to evaluate a soldier’s file. Most positions involve work that is highly interdependent on other members of the organization, which places a considerable demand on raters to assess and articulate how much an individual contributed to the output of the group.
While the performance of an officer is undoubtedly important to his or her chances for promotion or selection, the abilities of the officer’s senior rater to convey the level of this performance through an evaluation is also vital to talent management. Previous studies demonstrate that exposure to a high-quality mentor increases an officer’s likelihood of an early promotion to major by 29 percent, perhaps because high-quality mentors are skilled at communicating their protégé’s potential in their performance evaluations. Equipping raters to make their best possible judgments of subordinates and clearly articulating these judgments is vital to fostering a meritocratic Army talent management system
Examination of faculty development in the Departments of Civil & Mechanical Engineering and Geography & Environmental Engineering at the United States Military Academy
No full textInfluence of Concussion Education Exposure on Concussion-Related Educational Targets and Self-Reported Concussion Disclosure among First-Year Service Academy Cadets.
No full textINTRODUCTION: Concussion disclosure is often essential for military personnel to receive appropriate care following concussive injury. Concussion-related education and training may play a role in improving disclosure and recognition among peers, allowing for more timely concussion identification and treatment. The objectives of this study were to: (1) describe concussion education exposure among first-year service academy cadets and (2) examine the association between exposure to concussion education sources (multiple vs. only one) and concussion-related knowledge, attitudes, perceived social norms, intention to disclose symptoms, and disclosure behaviors.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: First-year service academy cadets completed a cross-sectional survey to assess perceptions of concussion disclosure during preseason concussion baseline testing sessions. Associations between key cadet characteristics and exposure to multiple concussion education sources were examined using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Linear regression was used to model the continuous measures of concussion-related knowledge, attitudes, and perceived social norms. Log-binomial regression was used to model the categorical outcomes of high perceived control over concussion disclosure (higher vs. lower), intention to disclose (higher vs. lower), and disclosure of all possible concussive events at the time of injury (yes vs. no). The primary predictor for all models was exposure to multiple sources of concussion education (video, coach, medical professional, or other) vs. exposure to only one educational source. All models were adjusted for gender, high school contact sport participation, and previous concussion history.
RESULTS: Of the 972 first-year cadets (85% response; age = 18.4 ± 0.9 years; 21.7% female, 29.0% NCAA student-athlete), 695 (71.5%) reported receiving some type of previous concussion education and 229 (23.6%) reported a previous concussion history (206/229 reported the actual number they experienced). Of those reporting previous concussion-related education (n = 695), 542 (78.0%) watched a video, 514 (74.0%) talked with a coach about concussion, 433 (62.3%) talked with a medical professional, and 61 (8.8%) reported other sources of education ranging from anatomy teachers to brochures. Overall, 527 (75.8%) reported receiving more than one source of concussion education. Having played a contact sport in high school and having a history of concussion were associated with having multiple concussion education exposures. Being female was associated with lower odds of multiple exposures. Exposure to multiple sources of concussion education was not associated with knowledge, attitudes, perceived norms, or higher intention to disclose concussion symptoms. However, among those with a concussion history, exposure to multiple sources of concussion education was associated with a nearly 40% higher prevalence of disclosing all concussions at the time of injury compared to only one source of educational exposure (67.1% vs. 48.3%; prevalence ratio = 1.4; 95% confidence interval: 0.9, 2.1). Thus, although multiple sources of education may not influence intermediate variables of knowledge, attitudes, perceived norms and intentions, exposure to multiple sources of concussion education may influence actual decision-making around concussion disclosure among first-year service academy cadets.
CONCLUSION: These data suggest disparities in concussion education exposure that can be addressed in first-year cadets. Additionally, findings support the importance and use of multiple sources of concussion education in improving cadet\u27s concussion-related decision-making
Small Groups, Big Weapons: The Nexus of Emerging Technologies and Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism
Get PDFHistorically, only nation-states have had the capacity and resources to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD). This was due to the significant capital, infrastructure, and intellectual capacity required to develop and maintain a WMD program. This paradigm, however, is shifting. To be clear, non-state actors have been interested in WMD for decades. In fact, over a 26-year period, there were 525 incidents by non-state actors involving nuclear, biological, and chemical agents. But the scale of these incidents was relatively low level when compared to the impact of terrorist attacks using conventional weapons. However, this reality must be reexamined given the commercialization of emerging technologies that is reducing the financial, intellectual, and material barriers required for WMD development and employment. This report serves as a primer that surveys the key challenges facing non-state actors pursuing WMD capabilities, and the potential for certain emerging technologies to help overcome them. While there are numerous examples of such technologies, this report focuses on synthetic biology, additive manufacturing (AM) (commonly known as 3D printing), and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). There is a wide range of expert opinions regarding the dual-use nature of the technologies discussed in this report, the ease of their possible misuse, and the potential threats they pose. The varied opinions of scientists and government officials highlight the challenges these technologies pose to developing a cohesive strategy to prevent their proliferation for nefarious use by non-state actors. Much of the risk and threat associated with these dual-use technologies resides in the intent of the user
Dean\u27s Significant Activities Report 02-07-2020
Get PDFThe Dean’s Weekly Significant Activities Report lists all activities conducted within the Departments, Centers & Staff. The Report is provided to the Dean and Directorate personnel for situational awareness.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/sigact/1027/thumbnail.jp
Application of the Armament Cyber Assessment Framework: A Security Assessment Methodology for Military Systems
No full textAs the Army modernizes, its weapon systems are becoming increasingly more cyber dependent. This increased connectivity provides incredible opportunities, but also introduces new risks. This paper introduces the Armament Cyber Assessment Framework (ACAF), a schema for creating security assessment workflows integrated into the design process. The goal of ACAF is to introduce a security oriented mindset into the solution prior to release, and to provide meaningful results at every level. This goal is accomplished through the study and incorporation of multiple industry leading frameworks into a uniquely iterative process. ACAF is implemented for testing via the Global Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Platform (GVAPP). GVAPP works to provide automated vulnerability information during the armament design process. It offers meaningful risk calculus to armament designers without cyber security backgrounds to mitigate potential vulnerabilities prior to fielding the system. This work focuses on military applications, but is applicable to similar civilian platform technologies