USMA Digital Commons (United States Military Academy, West Point)
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Unit Training Management – A Primer for Company Leaders
No full textOur goal with this primer is to allow Company-level leaders to use this as a roadmap and begin planning. While not discussed in detail here, it is critical that leaders understand the Digital Training Management System (DTMS) to effectively implement and enable UTM. DTMS is the program-of-record that is used to guide, track, and report individual and collective training and is a key part of UTM
Determinants of Gender Differences in Change in Pay among Job-Switching Executives
No full textThe authors investigate what determines differences in change in pay between men and women executives who move to new employers. Using proprietary data of 2,034 executive placements from a global search firm, the authors observe narrower pay differences between men and women after job moves. The unconditional gap shrinks from 21.5% in the prior employer to 15% in the new employer. After controlling for typical explanatory factors, the residual gap falls by almost 30%, from 8.5% at the prior employer to 6.1% in the new placement. This change reflects a relative increase in performance-based compensation for women and a lower level of unexplained pay inequality generally in external placements. Controlling for individual fixed effects, observed women have higher pay raises than do men. Finally, the authors find suggestive evidence that pay differences may also be moderated by differences in the supply and demand for women executives
Spin Stabilization of an Air Ambulance Litter
Get PDFThis paper proposes a new approach to stabilize the spin of a suspended litter during air ambulance rescue hoist operations. Complex forces generated by the helicopter’s downwash may cause a patient suspended in a rescue litter to spin violently. In severe cases, the spin destabilizes the suspended load, risks injury to the patient, and jeopardizes the safety of the aircrew. The presented design employs an anti-torque device to arrest the spin that is safer and faster than a tagline and is without the tactical constraints of the tagline. The device follows tailored control laws to accelerate a flywheel attached to the litter, thereby generating sufficient angular momentum to counteract the spin and stabilize the suspended litter. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) measures the position, angular velocity, and angular acceleration of the litter and delivers this information to a microcontroller. The research and prototype design were developed under the support of the U.S. Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR)
Treaty Termination and the Presidency: Using Custom to Solve Separation of Powers Disputes
Get PDFThe debate over whether the President, the Senate, or the Congress has primacy in treaty termination remains unsettled. Professor Curtis Bradley incorrectly argues that custom supports a presidential authority to terminate treaties independently. This paper argues that a fuller view of custom, combined with the Intent of the Framers and functional considerations, shows treaty termination is a shared executive-legislative power
How to protect troops from an assault in the cognitive domain
Get PDFGreat power competition will require force protection for our minds, as hostile near-peer powers will seek to influence U.S. troops. Influence campaigns can undermine the American will to fight, and the injection of misinformation into a cohesive fighting force are threats equal to any other hostile and enemy action by adversaries and terrorists. Maintaining the will to fight is key to mission success.
Influence operations and disinformation campaigns are increasingly becoming a threat to the force. We have to treat influence operations and cognitive attacks as serious as any violent threat in force protection. Force protection is defined by Army Doctrine Publication No. 3-37, derived from JP 3-0: “Protection is the preservation of the effectiveness and survivability of mission-related military and nonmilitary personnel, equipment, facilities, information, and infrastructure deployed or located within or outside the boundaries of a given operational area.”
Therefore, protecting the cognitive space is an integral part of force protection
Factors Associated With Delayed Concussion Reporting by United States Service Academy Cadets.
No full textCONTEXT: Approximately half of individuals who sustain a concussion do not immediately report their injuries. Motivators for not reporting include thinking the suspected concussion was not a serious injury and wanting to continue participating in activity. Additionally, military personnel have concerns about how concussions may affect their careers. However, delayed reporting can prolong neurobehavioral recovery. Understanding the frequency of delayed reporting and contributing factors will aid in identifying individuals who may be more likely to delay reporting.
OBJECTIVE: To describe the frequency of delayed concussion reporting by service academy cadets and determine if sex, injury setting, sport level, or medical history is capable of predicting delayed reporting.
DESIGN: Cohort study.
SETTING: Service academies.
PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 316 patients with concussions were observed from January 2014 to August 2016.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): All cadets completed an annual concussion baseline collection of demographic, medical history, and sports participation information. Delayed concussion reporting served as the outcome variable. Predictor variables were sex, injury setting, and sport level, as well as concussion, headache, and learning disorder history. Frequencies were calculated to describe the proportion of participants who delayed reporting. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess if the predictor variables were associated with delayed concussion reporting. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for all variables included in the final model.
RESULTS: Of the patients with concussion, 51% were classified as delayed reporting. In univariable models, females (OR = 1.70) and National Collegiate Athletic Association cadet-athletes (OR = 1.98) were more likely to delay reporting than males and intramural cadet-athletes, respectively. The multivariable model yielded similar findings.
CONCLUSIONS: Roughly half of the cadets who sustained a concussion failed to immediately report their injury. Specifically, our data suggested that female cadets, cadets injured outside of competition, and highly competitive cadet-athletes were almost twice as likely to delay reporting as others
Concussion-Recovery Trajectories Among Tactical Athletes: Results From the CARE Consortium.
No full textCONTEXT: Assessments of the duration of concussion recovery have primarily been limited to sport-related concussions and male contact sports. Furthermore, whereas durations of symptoms and return-to-activity (RTA) protocols encompass total recovery, the trajectory of each duration has not been examined separately.
OBJECTIVE: To identify individual (eg, demographics, medical history), initial concussion injury (eg, symptoms), and external (eg, site) factors associated with symptom duration and RTA-protocol duration after concussion.
DESIGN: Cohort study.
SETTING: Three US military service academies.
PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A total of 10 604 cadets at participating US military service academies enrolled in the study and completed a baseline evaluation and up to 5 postinjury evaluations. A total of 726 cadets (451 men, 275 women) sustained concussions during the study period.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Number of days from injury (1) until the participant became asymptomatic and (2) to complete the RTA protocol.
RESULTS: Varsity athlete cadets took less time than nonvarsity cadets to become asymptomatic (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.75, 95% confidence interval = 1.38, 2.23). Cadets who reported less symptom severity on the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool, third edition (SCAT3), within 48 hours of concussion had 1.45 to 3.77 times shorter symptom-recovery durations than those with more symptom severity. Similar to symptom duration, varsity status was associated with a shorter RTA-protocol duration (HR = 1.74, 95% confidence interval = 1.34, 2.25), and less symptom severity on the SCAT3 was associated with a shorter RTA-protocol duration (HR range = 1.31 to 1.47). The academy that the cadet attended was associated with the RTA-protocol duration (P \u3c .05).
CONCLUSIONS: The initial total number of symptoms reported and varsity athlete status were strongly associated with symptom and RTA-protocol durations. These findings suggested that external (varsity status and academy) and injury (symptom burden) factors influenced the time until RTA
Autonomous Drone Delivery from Airdrop Systems (ADDAS): Aerially Deploying Folding-Wing Drones for Ground Reconnaissance
No full textExtending the long-range capabilities of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) is paramount to protecting small Soldier teams operating in remote battlefield scenarios. Currently, many small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) reconnaissance assets have the range necessary to facilitate small-unit missions. The purpose of this paper is to detail the design and testing of a system that fills this capability gap by creating folding-wing drones designed to be aerially deployed from an airdropped dispenser. The dispenser is attached to the Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS), which is an autonomously navigated cargo delivery parafoil that can glide several miles, and which can land within 100 meters of its target. To employ the system, the dispenser is launched from a high-altitude aircraft. The system must survive the opening of the parachute in high speed forward flight and provide cushioning to the drones and other components. Once the JPADS navigates the dispenser to a predetermined altitude and distance from the intended reconnaissance area, the dispenser deploys multiple folding-wing drones. The soldiers on the ground can access the drones’ live video feeds through a handheld video transmitter. The system combines the precision navigation and information-transmission capabilities of the fixed wing drone with the long-range capabilities of the JPADS. With a commercial-off-the-shelf drone as the folding-wing aircraft platform, the team designed a wing connection hub that allows for rapid folding and unfolding of the drone’s wings, a separate canister for each drone within the dispenser, and a dispenser capable of interfacing with both the canisters and the JPADS. Though currently in the technology-demonstration phase of the project, the team envisions the system being fully autonomous from launch of dispenser to end of mission
Dean\u27s Significant Activities Report 02-14-2020
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/1026/thumbnail.jp