Fatigue and its Effect on Performance in Military Environments

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA487169&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf



Miller, N L Matsangas, P Shattuck, L G

"Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict (President George W. Bush, 17 March 2003). My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign (President George W. Bush, Address to the Nation, 19 March 2003)." With these words, US President George W. Bush announced to the citizens of the United States that Operation Iraqi Freedom had begun. The campaign commenced with the US Air Force bombing Baghdad and other strategic targets. Shortly thereafter, on Thursday, March 20, US and Allied Coalition Ground Forces crossed the Kuwaiti Iraqi border and began their attack north to Baghdad and other key locations. over the next few days, Coalition aircraft flew between 1500 and 2000 sorties per day, warships launched 500 cruise missiles, and ground troops traveled hundreds of kilometers often meeting fierce resistance along the way. Coalition forces pressed on day and night with little rest. According to the 3rd Infantry Division After Action report (AAr), a senior leader noted that he slept for about half an hour at the assault position and really did not rest again until 24 March. The troops did not rest either. The AAr also stated that another leader recalled that at one point [his] battalion moved only to discover that it had left a battery asleep by the side of the road. reporters embedded with the ground forces and military analysts provided vivid descriptions of the impact of prolonged wakefulness on performance.
chapter from the book "Performance under stress"

New CDC Report Highlights Challenges in Preparing for Public Health Emergencies in Era of Declining Funding

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/publications/jan09phprep/pdf/jan09phprep.pdf


CDC?s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response released its inaugural report today on CDC?s terrorism preparedness and emergency response activities. The report describes CDC’s role in preparing the nation for public health emergencies, its significant preparedness accomplishments, the diversity of challenges that remain, and priorities for ongoing and future work in a climate of decreasing resources.
“Building a strong platform for public health preparedness and response is not an easy endeavor, said Dr. Richard E. Besser, Director of CDC?s Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response. “Much work remains to be done to improve our internal and external response capabilities, and to reduce our vulnerabilities to all types of public health threats.”

DoD Testing Requirements for Body Armor

http://www.dodig.osd.mil/Audit/reports/fy09/09-047.pdf


First article testing for Army Contract 0040 was not consistently conducted or scored in accordance with contract terms, conditions, and specifications. Consequently, we believe three of the eight ballistic insert designs that passed first article testing actually failed (ballistic insert designs M3D2S2, MH3, and MP2S2). We had concerns about another first article test (design M4D2), but insufficient test data precluded us from determining the impact of the inconsistent testing and scoring processes. As a result, the Army does not have assurance that all inserts purchased under Contract 0040 provide the level of protection required by the contract. This underscores the need for internal controls to ensure adequate oversight of the first article testing process and proper review and approval of the first article test results.
The contracting officer technical representative made an unauthorized change to Contract 0040 by instructing the testing facility officials to deviate from the Contract Purchase Description without approval from the contracting officer. Because we reviewed only one contract, we can not report on the effect of the unauthorized change on other body armor contracts. The audit team conducting DoD Inspector General Project No. D2008-D000CD- 0256.000, “Research on DoD Body Armor Contracts,” will determine whether unauthorized changes were made to the body armor contracts under their review and the effect of those changes on the first article test results.
DoD does not have standardized ballistic testing criteria for body armor ballistic inserts. Army and USSOCOM officials developed separate ballistic testing criteria for body armor. The criteria differed significantly, even when testing against the same threats. Differences included the number of plates tested (sample size), the shot pattern, the environmental conditions, the type of tests, and the pass/fail guidelines. As a result, DoD does not have assurance that its body armor provides a standard level of protection.

Public Health Preparedness for Mass Gatherings

http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/massgatherings.html

Public Health Preparations for Mass Gatherings
Public Health Preparedness and Mass Casualties
Outbreaks and Communicable Diseases and Mass Gatherings
Searches from the National Library of Medicine

The links from this National Library of Medicine site cover the topics listed above with links within these topics

Cognitive Readiness in Network-Centric Operations

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA486431&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf


Wesensten, Nancy J; Belenky, Gregory; Balkin, Thomas J; Jan 2005;

Network-centric warfare is the basis of doctrine and operations for the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. Fundamental to network-centric warfare is the availability of accurate, detailed, real-time information at all levels of command and control. Network-centric operations and the associated self-synchronization put a premium on the performance of individual soldiers and small teams at all levels of command and control. A critical component of such performance is the ability to integrate information, anticipate, and plan. These executive mental functions depend on the prefrontal cortex of the brain for successful execution. Various physiological stressors degrade cognitive performance. These include carrying excessive loads, dehydration, hypothermia, sleep loss (which degrades prefrontal cortex function directly), and nutritional or caloric
deficiencies. Soldiers in the network-centric force will have sensors and software constituting a warfighter physiological status monitor (WPSM) incorporated into the individual soldier computer, linking them through the network-centric warfare network. These will provide information on their biomedical status with respect to these performance-degrading stressors. This information will be used by commanders to manage biomedical resupply (water, food, sleep, etc.) to sustain performance.

Physiological Responses to Exercise-Heat Stress With Prototype Pulsed Microclimate Cooling System

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA487097&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf


This study supported the U.S Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) effort to develop a lightweight microclimate cooling system (MCCS) for use by dismounted Soldiers. The MCCS evaluated in this study was an early prototype light weight circulating liquid vapor compression MCCS with an integrated skin temperature sensor to trigger on/off cycles The prototype system is based on a USARIEM patent (patent pending) for personalized microclimate cooling that when configured to operate as a skin temperature feedback pulsed cooling (PC) unit should delay heat strain as effectively as constant cooling (CC) during exercise%heat stress while reducing the power requirement by 50%
This prototype system could potentially save the U.S Army substantial dollars currently being spent on battery acquisition. Additionally using smaller or fewer batteries would decrease the weight of the system and increase acceptability by dismounted Soldiers This study was designed to evaluate both the prototype MCC system’s capability to be controlled by the
skin temperature sensor and its ability to sufficiently cool subjects under the given heat stress scenarios.
DTIC
Cooling; Cooling Systems; Heat Tolerance; Microclimatology; Military Personnel; Physical Exercise; Physiological

Soldier Protection Demonstration III - Field Testing and Analysis of Personal Cooling Systems for Heat Mitigation

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA491205&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Goodman, Daniel A., Diaz, Jorge, Cadarette, Bruce S., Sawka, Michael N.


Wearing body armor increases physiologic strain in Soldiers operating in warm and hot environments. This increased heat strain is due to inhibited air circulation to the torso and increased insulation. Microclimate cooling systems (MCCS) are used to mitigate these problems in a number of situations for the mounted Soldier, such as helicopter flight crew or armored vehicle crew. The U.S. Army is actively pursuing candidate MCCS that can be used by the dismounted Soldier. The Product Manager for Soldier Survivability (PM-SSV) requested the Soldier Battle Lab (SBL) of the U.S. Army Infantry Center, Ft. Benning, conduct a Soldier Protection Demonstration. The principal focus was to collect user input evaluations of commercially available lightweight MCCS worn during routine dismounted activities. There were six critical operational issues addressed: 1) Does the system affect the Soldier's core body temperature? 2) Does the system affect a Soldier's ab! ility to fight? 3) Does the system affect Soldier protection? 4) Is the system suitable to wear in an operational environment? 5) Is the system compatible with current weapons and equipment? and 6) Does the system affect Soldier mobility? Two candidate personal cooling systems (PCS) were selected for the demonstration based on the main parameter of being lightweight. The demonstration was conducted in the desert at Ft. Irwin, CA, during daytime hours in late August 2007. Soldiers were divided among three, 4-5 member teams, and each team was scheduled to test a different randomly assigned PCS configuration each day. The volunteers completed five events each day. These events were compatibility testing, individual movement technique on an obstacle course, a road march, a vehicle patrol, and a live fire exercise.

Augmented Cognition - Phase 4 Cognitive Assessment and Task Management (CAT-M)

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA491443&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Final rept. Sep 2006-Dec 2008
Bingham, Richard, Kineses, Wilhelm E.
Cognitive Assessment and Task Management (CAT-M) continued to focus on pushing the cutting edge of cognitive-based systems. The work conducted was a continuation of the Augmented Cognition Phase 4 program that has been successfully executed under the direction of the ONR. Initially, the Augmented Cognition program has focused on cognitive overload situations. Looking towards a complete solution for Augmented Cognition, another situation required the understanding of the concept of task underload. Together, the measure of overload and underload, allow us a complete measure of operator "vigilance." When fully recognized, optimal vigilance will minimizes the impact of under-loaded personnel while maximizing the task loading that personnel can successfully execute.

Neck Muscle Fatigue Resulting from Prolonged Wear of Weighted Helmets

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA491626&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Interim rept. Mar 2006-Jun 2008
Gallagher, Hilary L., Caldwell, Erin, ALbery, Christopher B.


Today's flight helmet incorporates targeting and cueing systems enabling the pilot to accurately cue onboard weapons against enemy aircraft while performing high-G aircraft maneuvers. While these systems undoubtedly increase a pilot's capabilities, one obvious drawback to putting all this equipment on the pilot's helmet is the increase in helmet weight that shifts the combined head and helmet center of gravity (CG) forward, while increasing moments of inertia on the neck. Operational concerns associated with the heavier helmet may result in decreased performance from muscle fatigue in neck injury during ejection. The objective of this study was to measure the human's level of neck and upper torso fatigue while wearing United States Air Force helmets of varied mass properties (weight, CG, moments of inertia) for durations up to 8-hours. Results found that helmets with a forward CG shift were significantly more uncomfortable on the subject's neck an! d back than the helmet with a normal CG shift. Significant increases in upper neck and upper and lower back discomfort were reported as early as hour 2 and continued throughout the 8-hour session. The 4.5 lb helmet with forward CG shift was significantly more uncomfortable on the subjects than the 6.0 lb helmet with normal CG shift.

Gender Differences in NATO Anthropometry and the Implication for Protective Equipment

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA491083&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf

Fullenkamp, Adam M., Robinette, Kathleen M., Daanen, Hein A.


This paper compares the body proportions of men and women from the Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource (CAESAR) project, completed in 2002, and discusses proportions that have implications for protective apparel. CAESAR was an attempt to characterize the body size and shape of the adult population of NATO countries. Nearly 4,500 participants from four countries were surveyed: the United States of America, Canada, The Netherlands, and Italy. North America (i.e., the United States and Canada) was selected because it had the largest population in NATO and the most diversity. The Netherlands was selected because it had the tallest population in NATO. Italy was selected because its population was amongst the shortest. In the CAESAR project, men and women were sampled in approximately equal numbers, making it an ideal source for understanding gender differences. Stepwise Discriminant Analyses were performed using the 97 one-dim! ensional measurements collected in CAESAR. The results indicate an unprecedented separation of male and female body shapes. All three regions had at least 98.5% accuracy in predicting gender with seven or fewer measurements. Some important body proportion differences between men and women will impact the fit and effectiveness of many types of protective apparel, such as flight suits, anti-G suits, cold water immersion suits, chem-bio protective suits, etc. While women are smaller than men on average for many body measurements, women are larger than men in some important aspects. For example, women are significantly larger than men in seated hip breadth in all three populations (26 mm larger on average), while at the same time they are significantly smaller than men for shoulder breadth (54 mm smaller on average). While past anthropometric surveys to catalog human size and shape involved the collection of one-dimensional measurements, CAESAR has the advantage of providing th! ree-dimensional models of all subjects.