For the past decade, the U.S. Marine Corps and its sister services have been engaged in what has been termed "hybrid warfare," which ranges from active combat to civilian support. Hybrid warfare typically occurs in environments where all modes of war are employed, such as conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, disruptive technologies, and criminality to destabilize an existing order. In August 2010, the National Research Council established the Committee on Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders to produce Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders. This report examines the operational environment, existing abilities, and gap to include data, technology, skill sets, training, and measures of effectiveness for small unit leaders in conducting enhanced company operations (ECOs) in hybrid engagement, complex environments. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also determines how to understand the decision making calculus and indicators of adversaries. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders recommends operational and technical approaches for improving the decision making abilities of small unit leaders, including any acquisition and experimentation efforts that can be undertaken by the Marine Corps and/or by other stakeholders aimed specifically at improving the decision making of small unit leaders. This report recommends ways to ease the burden on small unit leaders and to better prepare the small unit leader for success. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also indentifies a responsible organization to ensure that training and education programs are properly developed, staffed, operated, evaluated, and expanded.

In light of revised recommendations for intrapartum care, this updated edition reviews best practice in all aspects of labour and delivery.

"This report describes a multi-tiered process for generating a set of high payoff tasks that can be cost effectively represented in virtual environments. The tasks were used to guide the development of small unit (squad/team) dismounted Infantry training scenarios which were evaluated at the Dismounted Battlespace Battlelab (DBBL) Land Warrior Test Bed. Scenarios were based on five major tasks, Assault, Move Tactically, Enter Building and Clear a Room, Reconnoiter Area, and React to Contact. Soldiers, working as teams or part of a squad, executed all task-based scenarios through the use of individual combatant simulators. Soldiers indicated that simulations improved their real-world performance on similar tasks. Overall, the simulators were seen as effective for small unit training, e.g., team coordination, communication, decision making. the scenarios which provided the most training value integrated soldiers with computer generated forces to provide live force-on-force capability. The research showed the potential training value of dismounted infantry simulation technologies for soldier and small unit training, particularly cognitive-based activities. Subsequent research will focus on the use of this technology to enhance the decision-making skills of soldiers and small unit leaders."--Stinet.

Forty years ago the Naval Studies Board was created at the request of then Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. As stated in his request to the National Academy of Sciences, he thought it important for the Navy to have an outside resource to which it could turn "for independent and outside counsel on any area of its responsibilities involving the interplay of scientific and technical matters with other national issues." Admiral Zumwalt, together with Under Secretary of the Navy Honorable David S. Potter and President of the National Academy of Sciences Dr. Philip Handler, recognized the importance of not only continuing but also focusing and strengthening the relationship that had existed between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of the Navy since the Academy's creation in 1863. To commemorate this special anniversary, Naval Studies Board 40th Anniversary provides an overview of the history, mission, and accomplishments of the Board. In the coming years, the Naval Studies Board will continue to serve as a source of independent, long-range, scientific and technical planning advice for the nation's naval forces. It will also work to ensure that the relationships between the operational, science, engineering, and technical communities remain as strong and productive as ever to ensure that progress continues in areas most critical to meeting future naval forces' needs.

Clinical leadership and teamwork improve the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare delivery. Due to this, a growing number of healthcare systems are requiring their clinicians to participate in formal leadership training programs, but instructors face the challenge of how to successfully develop and measure these programs. Preparing Physicians to Lead in the 21st Century provides innovative insights into improving healthcare delivery and the impact of formal leadership training on the personal and professional life of medical professionals. It examines the form, function, and design of clinical leadership programs and their relationships to value-based decision making and creating a successful organized learning climate. Highlighting topics such as program assessment, cohort relationships, and clinical leadership standards, this book is designed for educators, instructional designers, medical professionals, researchers, and academicians.

"This report describes the work on a Science and Technology Objective (STO) entitled Virtual Environments for Dismounted Soldier Simulation, Training and Mission Rehearsal. The four-year (Fiscal Year FY 99-FY 02) STO effort was proposed to address a range of U.S. Army future operational capabilities described in U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Pamphlet 525-66 (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 1997). The STO activities and goals were focused on overcoming critical technological challenges that prevented effective Infantry Soldier simulation. The U. S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) led a team of both government and industry developers in examining simulation capabilities for industry. The other government partners vent the U.S. Army Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Human Research and Engineering Directorate (ARL-HRED) and Computational and information Sciences Directorate (ARL-ClSD). Each of the major players had a particular area of interest but all worked together to explore concepts and systems and to recommend directions for further work on training, concept development, and mission rehearsal."--DTIC.

"This research effort applied principles of Naturalistic Decision Making to identify the cognitive challenges involved in platoon leader decision making in Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) building clearing missions. The findings informed the development of classroom, hardcopy, and multimedia training products to support Infantry Officer Basic Course students in MOUT decision making. A Cognitive Task Analysis of the building clearing task entailed a series of in-depth interviews with Army personnel experienced in MOUT. The analysis resulted in a detailed representation of eleven high-level decision requirements associated with the building-clearing task. Cognitive demands related to each requirement -- critical decisions and judgements, sensory cues, other factors, and expert strategies -- are included in the representation. Four products were developed based on the findings of the analysis: sixteen decision-centered training scenarios for MOUT environments; an interactive, multimedia tool (IMPACT) that supports instructors in training MOUT decision making skills; a classroom exercise that supports situation awareness appreciation and understanding; and a guide that provides supplemental information regarding the building clearing task from a platoon leader's perspective."--Stinet.

"Members of small dismounted units will face growing responsibilities and increasing challenges in combined arms combat and contingency operations on the battlefield of the future. Many of these missions will take place in urban settings. Training for military operations on urbanized terrain is limited by time, cost, and safety factors. Virtual environment technologies have the potential to provide the Army with a training capability to meet these new demands. An automated training and after action review support tool (Virtual Soldier Skills Assessor - ViSSA) is described. The ViSSA system will allow trainers to effectively assess soldier and small unit leader tactical and decision-making skills in virtual urban environments. The system tracks mission-related factors linked to soldier decisions, movements, fire, radio, traffic, and contact with virtual entities and trigger lines under an intricate web of overlays designed to capture and store these specific pieces of data during a training scenario. The system provides automated output displays for an effective after-action review following the virtual exercise."--DTIC.