Vigilance and Error Detection in an Automated Command and Control Environment

The growth in mobile communication and Internet usage has lead to increase in demand for robust transmission of compressed video over error prone channels. The quality of decoded video in erroneous environments depends on efficient detection, localization and concealment of errors. In fact, the role of error detection and localization is very important because undetected erroneous macroblocks (MBs) are not concealed and correct MBs may be termed as erroneous. However, traditional error detection method isn't enough for detection. A novel detection method proposed recently can detect some special errors, but can't make precise localization. In this paper, an improved error detection and localization technique using syntactic, semantic and statistical information in MPEG-4 is proposed. This scheme can detect most types of transmission error and locate the exact position of the first error. Experimental results show the proposed technique can achieve high error detection ratio, usually more than 90%, and increase the decoded video quality efficiently

Healthcare represents an industry where any errors have the potential to lead to significant consequences such as unintended patient injury or death. Teams of healthcare professionals work together to complete patient care activities across several hospital environments including operating rooms, trauma centers, and care floors. While most healthcare tasks are patient-facing, some tasks such as cardiac telemetry monitoring occur without much patient interaction. Even so, cardiac telemetry monitoring represents a task where errors result in patient harm or death. The purpose of this study was to investigate the vigilance decrement using a healthcare visual search task based on cardiac telemetry monitoring. Results of this study were viewed through the lens of resource theory of vigilance. Findings from this study include a decrease in correct detections and false alarms with increased workload which supports previous vigilance decrement research as well providing directions for future research.

Human supervisory control and monitoring of automated systems, as well as, passive system(s) information processing can all be classified as forms of out‐of‐the‐loop (OOTL) performance. Whether the operator's task is to decide if process control intervention is necessary, detect a critical system event, or accept or reject the actions of a computer controller, he or she is removed from direct, real‐time control of the system. OOTL performance is a critical issue in overall automated systems functioning because it is associated with numerous negative consequences including: (a) operator failure to observe system parameter changes and intervene when necessary (vigilance decrements); (b) human over‐trust in computer controllers (complacency); (c) operator loss of system or situation awareness; and (d) operator direct/manual control skill decay. These consequences have been found to impact human performance under both normal operating conditions and system failure modes, with a greater effect on the latter [15] leading to serious problems in operator ability to perform their assigned tasks when working with automated systems.Level of automation (LOA) has been put forth as an approach to ameliorating OOTL performance problems. It is intended to determine the optimal assignment of control between a human operator and computer in order to keep both involved in system operations. LOA considers the capabilities and capacities of both the human and computer controller in determining their optimal coupling. It constitutes a systems approach to resolving OOTL performance problems by minimizing the negative consequences associated with the removal of the operator from active system control, and allows for the strengths of both human decision making and computer processing to be realized. When compared to a technological approach that assesses only the capabilities of the computer in allocating as much responsibility to the machine as possible, and assigning the remaining tasks to the human operator, the advantages can be considerable.A LOA taxonomy will be presented along with research examining its utility in a dynamic control task. Using LOA to identify optimal combinations of human and computer control was found to produce improvements in system performance under intermediate levels. These levels involve joint human and computer control of various system functions, such as monitoring, planning, and option selection and implementation. Results indicated decreases in the number of system processes/tasks overlooked by operators. These improvements may translate into cost reductions due to improved operational safety and are anticipated to be applicable to process control operations.

Recent evidence suggests that speech substantially changes in ageing. As a complex neurophysiological process, it can accurately reflect changes in the motor and cognitive systems underpinning human speech. Since healthy ageing is not always easily discriminable from early stages of dementia based on cognitive and behavioural hallmarks, speech is explored as a preclinical biomarker of pathological itineraries in old age. A greater and more specific impairment of neuromuscular activation, as well as a specific cognitive and linguistic impairment in dementia, unchain discriminating changes in speech. Yet, there is no consensus on such discriminatory speech parameters, neither on how they should be elicited and assessed. To provide a state-of-the-art on speech parameters that allow for early discrimination between healthy and pathological ageing; the aetiology of these parameters; the effect of the type of experimental stimuli on speech elicitation and the predictive power of different speech parameters; and the most promising methods for speech analysis and their clinical implications. A scoping review methodology is used in accordance with the PRISMA model. Following a systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO and CINAHL, 24 studies are included and analysed in the review. The results of this review yieldthree key questions for the clinical assessment of speech in ageing. First, acoustic and temporal parameters are more sensitive to changes in pathological ageing and, of these two, temporal variables are more affected bycognitive impairment. Second, different types of stimuli can trigger speech parameters with different degree of accuracy for the discrimination of clinical groups. Tasks with higher cognitive load are more precise in eliciting higher levels of accuracy. Finally, automatic speech analysis for the discrimination of healthy and pathological ageing should be improved for both research and clinical practice. Speech analysis is a promising non-invasive tool for the preclinical screening of healthy and pathological ageing. The main current challenges of speech analysis in ageing are the automatization of its clinical assessment and the consideration of the speaker's cognitive background during evaluation. What is already known on the subject Societal aging goes hand in hand with the rising incidence of ageing-related neurodegenerations, mainly Alzheimer's disease (AD). This is particularly noteworthy in countries with longer life expectancies. Healthy ageing and early stages of AD share a set of cognitive and behavioural characteristics. Since there is no cure for dementias, developing methods for accurate discrimination ofhealthy ageing and early AD is currently a priority. Speech has been described as one of the most significantly impaired features in AD. Neuropathological alterations in motor and cognitive systems would underlie specific speech impairment in dementia. Since speech can be evaluated quickly, non-invasively and inexpensively, its value for the clinical assessment of ageing itineraries may be particularly high. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Theoretical and experimental advances in the assessment of speech as a marker of AD have developed rapidly over the last decade. Yet, they are not always known to clinicians. Furthermore, there is a need to provide an updated state-of-the-art on which speech features are discriminatory to AD, how they can be assessed, what kind of results they can yield, and how such results should be interpreted. This article provides an updated overview of speech profiling, methods of speech measurement and analysis, and the clinical power of speech assessment for early discrimination of AD as the most common cause of dementia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This article provides an overview of the predictive potential of different speech parameters in relation to AD cognitive impairment. In addition, it discusses the effect that the cognitive state, the type of elicitation task and the type of assessment method may have on the results of the speech-based analysis in ageing.

In its most general meaning, information warfare is based on disrupting, faking or limiting access to information by whatever opponent you have. Usually, information warfare analyses are centred on the technical skills needed, on the specific instruments used and how to use them, and even (mainly in threat analysis) on the motivations that could push someone to use old, direct methods or more sophisticated kind of attacks. Thanks to its effects on how somebody (and even a social group) reacts to information, an important factor in the possibility, effectiveness and likelihood of an information warfare attack is the cultural framework in which the attack is done, or (wherever different) the mutual interactions between the cultural frameworks of the attacker and the attacked opponent. In this paper, I look at some example of different reactions to information taken from various cultural contexts and from various fields (like advertising, software localisation and international working environments) in which the problem has already been studied, and I try to show how this can affect information warfare, making this a variable which must be accounted for every time in order to make an effective analysis.

The notion of computational resiliency refers to the ability of a distributed application to tolerate intrusion when under information warfare (IW) attack. It is one of several new technologies under development by the U.S. Air Force that aim to harden the battlefield information structure from an IW perspective. These technologies seek to strengthen a military mission, rather than protect its network infrastructure using static defensive measures such as network security, intrusion sensors, and firewalls. Even if an IW attack is never detected, it should be possible to continue information operations and achieve mission objectives. Computational resiliency involves the dynamic use of replication, guided by mission policy, to achieve intrusion tolerance. However, it goes further to dynamically regenerate replication in response to an IW attack, allowing the level of system assurance to be maintained. Replicated structures are protected through several techniques such as camouflage, dispersion, and layered security policy. This paper describes a prototype concurrent programming technology that we have developed to support computational resiliency. Brief outlines describe how the library has been applied to prototypical applications.

Theories on visual change detection imply that attention is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for aware perception. Misguidance of attention due to salient irrelevant distractors can therefore lead to severe deficits in change detection. The present study investigates the mechanisms behind such perceptual errors and their relation to error processing on higher cognitive levels. Participants had to detect a luminance change that occasionally occurred simultaneously with an irrelevant orientation change in the opposite hemi-field (conflict condition). By analyzing event-related potentials in the EEG separately in those error prone conflict trials for correct and erroneous change detection, we demonstrate that only correct change detection was associated with the allocation of attention to the relevant luminance change. Erroneous change detection was associated with an initial capture of attention toward the irrelevant orientation change in the N1 time window and a lack of subsequent target selection processes (N2pc). Errors were additionally accompanied by an increase of the fronto-central N2 and a kind of error negativity (Ne or ERN), which, however, peaked prior to the response. These results suggest that a strong perceptual conflict by salient distractors can disrupt the further processing of relevant information and thus affect its aware perception. Yet, it does not impair higher cognitive processes for conflict and error detection, indicating that these processes are independent from awareness.

Perceptual and motor contributions to the negative compatibility effect

Tourist‐based activities, partly due to their rapid increase, have raised concerns regarding the impacts of anthropogenic activity on marine fauna. Documented effects on pinnipeds in proximity to humans include changes in behaviour, site use and potentially higher aggression levels towards people. Effects vary considerably between populations and sites, thus requiring separate assessment of human impacts on activity and energy budgets. Responses of the endangered Australian sea lion, Neophoca cinerea, to human visitation were recorded from November 2013 through April 2014. Exposure levels and response types to anthropogenic activities were assessed at two easily accessible locations with different management schemes, Seal (landing prohibited) and Carnac (landing permitted) islands, Western Australia. Exposure levels were measured as both stimulus type (i.e. ‘People’, ‘Paddlers’, ‘Small’, ‘Medium’, and ‘Large vessels’, ‘Tour vessels’, and ‘Jet skies’), and people (‘Direct’, ‘Attract’, ‘Interact’, ‘View’, ‘Incidental’, ‘Water’, ‘Low‐level’), and vessel activities (‘Interact’, ‘Approach/Follow’, ‘Anchor noise’, ‘Engine noise’, ‘Close to beach’, ‘Moderate/Fast travel’, ‘Slow travel’, ‘Transit’, ‘Drift/At anchor’, ‘Aircraft noise’). Exposure levels varied significantly between the islands in numbers, stimuli type, duration and minimum approach distances. The instantaneous behaviours of ‘Lift head’, ‘Interact’ and ‘Sit’ were the most frequent responses. ‘Aggressive’ and ‘Retreat’ responses, the highest disturbance levels measured, occurred on Carnac approximately once per day, but rarely on Seal Island. ‘Aggressive’ behaviour towards ‘People’ was observed only on Carnac Island and elicited only by ‘People’. ‘People’, ‘Tour vessels’, and scenic ‘Aircrafts’ on both islands as well as ‘Jet skis’ on Carnac Island had the highest probability of triggering responses. Owing to their relatively high visitation at Seal Island, ‘Paddle powered vessels’, followed by ‘Tour vessels’ elicited the highest number of responses, compared with ‘People’, ‘Small’, and ‘Medium vessels’ at Carnac Island. The majority of responses occurred when any stimulus type was at short‐range (≤10 m), and ‘People’ ‘Viewing’ N. cinerea elicited most. Vessels triggered more responses at larger ranges than ‘People’. To limit close‐range access to N. cinerea, one possibility is to close the beach at Carnac Island to human visitation and increase the minimum approach distance by vessels and ‘People’ by installing marker buoys at least 15 m from the shore. © 2016 The Authors. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

138. Radiographic malalignment has a far greater impact on clinical outcomes than perioperative and postoperative complications in ASD surgery

Implementation and Analysis of Methods for Error Detection and Correction on FPGA

This paper presents an analysis of the impact of selective software-based techniques to detect faults in microprocessor systems. A set of algorithms is implemented, compiled to a microprocessor and selected variables of the code are hardened with software-based techniques. Seven different methods that choose which variables are hardened are introduced and compared. The system is implemented over a miniMIPS microprocessor and a fault injection campaign is performed in order to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of each selective fault tolerance approach. Results can lead designers to choose more wisely which variables of the code should be hardened considering detection rates and hardening overheads.

Decline in vigilance due to fatigue is a common concern in traffic safety. Partially automated driving (PAD) systems can aid driving but decrease the driver's vigilance over time, due to reduced task engagement. Mobile EEG solutions can obtain neural information while operating a vehicle. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the behavior and brain activity associated with vigilance (i.e., alpha, beta and theta power) differs between PAD and manual driving, as well as changes over time, and how these effects can be detected using two different EEG systems. Twenty-eight participants performed two 1-h simulated driving tasks, while wearing both a standard 24 channel EEG cap and a newly developed, unobtrusive and easy to apply 10 channel mobile EEG sensor-grid system. One scenario required manual control of the vehicle (manual) while the other required only monitoring the vehicle (PAD). Additionally, lane deviation, percentage eye-closure (PERCLOS) and subjective ratings of workload, fatigue and stress were obtained. Alpha, beta and theta power of the EEG as well as PERCLOS were higher in the PAD condition and increased over time in both conditions. The same spectral EEG effects were evident in both EEG systems. Lane deviation as an index of driving performance in the manual driving condition increased over time. These effects indicate significant increases in fatigue and vigilance decrement over time while driving, and overall higher levels of fatigue and vigilance decrement associated with PAD. The EEG measures revealed significant effects earlier than the behavioral measures, demonstrating that EEG might allow faster detection of decreased vigilance than behavioral driving measures. This new, mobile EEG-grid system could be used to evaluate and improve driver monitoring systems in the field or even be used in the future as additional sensor to inform drivers of critical changes in their level of vigilance. In addition to driving, further areas of application for this EEG-sensor grid are safety critical work environments where vigilance monitoring is pivotal.

Reduced student engagement in formal instruction is a problem that pervades classrooms across the educational spectrum. Students have been shown to commonly experience the negative emotions of boredom and inattentiveness (Bunce, Flens, & Neiles, 2010; Mann & Robinson, 2009; Young, Robinson, & Alberts, 2011) as well as vigilance decrement (Grier et al., 2003). Studies have revealed that more than 40% of high-school students usually remain disengaged from learning (Usher and Kober, 2012) and few (as little as 8%) reach a developmental level characterized by intrinsic motivation, attention, and effort (Lawson & Masyn, 2015; Scherrer & Preckel, 2018). Because student interest in the instructional topics and pedagogical activities rapidly decreases or is completely lost, students withdraw their attention from instruction in favor of off-task behaviors such as daydreaming, doodling, or inappropriate use of technology (Adams, 2006; Bugeja, 2007; Fink, 2010; Gilroy, 2004; Nworie & Haughton, 2008). Despite teachers’ best efforts, maintaining high levels of student interest during class time and avoiding disengagement from the learning process constitutes a challenging pedagogical endeavor, particularly in the context of classroom discussions and lectures (Lemke, 1990; Nunn, 1996).

BackgroundEach year in the UK there are ∼ 49 000 incident cases of breast cancer, ∼ 12,000 deaths from breast cancer, and 2.6 million women are invited for screening by...