A leading M.I.T. social scientist and consultant examines five professions - engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, and town planning - to show how professionals really go about solving problems. The best professionals, Donald Schoen maintains, know more than they can put into words. To meet the challenges of their work, they rely less on formulas learned in graduate school than on the kind of improvisation learned in practice. This unarticulated, largely unexamined process is the subject of Schoen's provocatively original book, an effort to show precisely how 'reflection-in-action' works and how this vital creativity might be fostered in future professionals.

Maritime Cargo Operations presents the core concepts of cargo work for marine engineering students and cadets. It is built around the essential principles of the maritime profession and is a valuable guide to a broad range of key subject areas in the safe carriage, handling, stowage and securing of cargo, and cargo watches in port. It contributes to a sound understanding of cargo operations for a future career in the profession, as well as offering a general overview for deck officers. Gives an overview of the key areas in cargo operations work. Includes structured Learning Outcomes and self-test questions for each subject area to assist readers in evaluating their understanding. The book suits merchant navy cadets at Higher National Certificate (HNC), and Higher National Diploma (HND), and foundation degree level in both the deck and engineering branches, and also serves as a general reference for maritime professionals.

Work has never been as safe as it seems today. Safety has also never been as bureaucratized as it is today. Over the past two decades, the number of safety rules and statutes has exploded, and organizations themselves are creating ever more internal compliance requirements. At the same time, progress on safety has slowed to a crawl. Many incident- and injury rates have flatlined. Worse, excellent safety performance on low-consequence events tends to increase the risk of fatalities and disasters. Bureaucracy and compliance now seem less about managing the safety of the workers we are responsible for, and more about managing the liability of the people they work for. We make workers do a lot that does nothing to improve their success locally. Paradoxically, such tightening of safety bureaucracy robs us of exactly the source of human insight, creativity and resilience that can tell us how success is actually created, and where the next accident may well happen. It is time for Safety Anarchists: people who trust people more than process, who rely on horizontally coordinating experiences and innovations, who push back against petty rules and coercive compliance, and who help recover the dignity and expertise of human work.

The broad and developing scope of human factors and ergonomics - the application of scientific knowledge to improve people s interaction with products, systems and environments - has been illustrated for 28 years by the books which make up the Contemporary Ergonomics series. This book presents the proceedings of the international conference Ergonomics and Human Factors 2014. In addition to being the leading event in the UK that features ergonomics and human factors across all sectors, this is also the annual meeting of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors. Individual papers provide insight into current practice, present new research findings and form an invaluable reference source. The volumes provide a fast track for the publication of suitable papers from international contributors, with papers being subject to peer review since 2009 and selected by the conference programme committee.A wide range of topics are covered in these proceedings including workload, human capability, systems, product design, manufacturing systems, behaviour change, health and wellbeing, organisational culture, smart environments and sustainability, transport and musculoskeletal disorders. As well as being of interest to mainstream ergonomists and human factors specialists, Contemporary Ergonomics and Human Factors will appeal to all those who are concerned with people's interactions with their working and leisure environment including designers, manufacturing and production engineers, health and safety specialists, occupational, applied and industrial psychologists, and applied physiologists.

This book covers the Air Traffic Management (ATM) environment and the controller-crew interactions. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) regulations and organizational procedures are also presented in a succinct manner so that novel and experienced aviation practitioners appreciate how safety organization affects their cognitive performance. The book distills theoretical knowledge about human cognition and presents real examples and case studies to help readers understand how air traffic controllers make sense of difficult situations, make decisions under time pressure, detect and correct their errors, and adapt their performance to complex situations.

This innovative book aims to bring the science of safety into a simple and practical approach to investigating workplace incidents. As a basis, it uses the ideas of some of the great safety science thinkers of our time. These include Sidney Dekker, Todd Conklin, Erik Hollnagel, Daniel Kahneman, James Reason and Dylan Evans, alongside others and the author's own extensive industry experience. Simplicity in Safety Investigations: A Practitioner's Guide to Applying Safety Science will better equip readers to deal with incident investigations by helping them understand the science behind investigation techniques, and by exploring coaching and leadership styles that help them ask better questions both before and after workplace incidents. The first two chapters of the book focus on our mindset as we approach and undertake investigations, and the simple things we all must do before an investigation starts. The third chapter is a step-by-step guide on how to undertake both simple and more detailed workplace incident investigations. Chapter 4 is reserved for a more detailed review and set of explanations around the science and thinking behind the method and approach. This book serves as an easy-to-follow, real-world reference for supervisors, managers and safety practitioners across many industries.

Most approaches that contribute to the design of life-critical systems almost only consider nominal situations where procedures can be developed and used to achieve satisfactory operations. These kinds of approaches lead to rigid ways of doing things and poorly address the needs for flexibility, especially when things go wrong. It is not a matter of human adaptation but of human systems integration (HSI) flexibility. HSI flexibility requires cross-fertilization of appropriate experiences combined with creativity. This book provides risk-management approaches and methods for combining prevention and design. Features: Discusses risk-management approaches and methods for combining prevention and design Examines a transdisciplinary approach to risk management in design and operations of safer life-critical systems Proposes an approach of work analysis during design, which enables design teams to consider HSI issues early enough to fix organizational problems upstream Teaches the combination of prevention and design for safety management This book gathers and analyzes relevant field data to rationalize human and systems activity in various life-critical environments and workplaces, in a systemic manner, and in a variety of safety domains (e.g., aviation, road, navy, manufacturing, hospital, transportation, defense, sport). It further formalizes and analyzes risk-taking experience, expertise, stories about critical events, and scientific and professional literature data to help engineering designers, managers, and health and safety specialists. The text is primarily written for graduate students and professionals working in the fields of occupational health and safety, ergonomics, human factors, cognitive engineering, and human-system integration.

Increasing levels of driving automation has changed the role of the driver from active operator to passive monitor. However, Systems Design has been plagued by criticism for failing to acknowledge the new role of the driver within the system network. To understand the driver's new role within an automated driving system, the theory of Distributed Cognition is adopted. This approach provides a useful framework for the investigation of allocation of function between multiple agents in the driving system. A Systems Design Framework has been developed that outlines how the Distributed Cognition paradigm can be applied to driving using both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

In recognition of the importance of road safety as a major health issue, the World Health Organization has declared 2011-2021 the Decade of Safety Action. Several countries in Europe, North America, and Asia have been successful in reducing fatalities and injuries due to road traffic crashes. However, many low-income countries continue to experience high rates of traffic fatalities and injuries. Transport Planning and Traffic Safety: Making Cities, Roads, and Vehicles Safer offers a source book for road safety training courses as well as an introductory textbook for graduate-level courses on road safety taught in engineering institutes. It brings together the international experiences and lessons learned from countries which have been successful in reducing traffic crashes and their applicability in low-income countries. The content is based on lectures delivered during an international course on transportation planning and traffic safety, sponsored annually by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. The book is interdisciplinary and aimed at professionals traffic and road engineers, vehicle designers, law enforcers, and transport planners. The authors examine trends in performance of OECD countries and highlight the public health and systems approach of traffic safety with the vulnerable road user in focus. Topics include land use (transportation planning, mobility, and safety), safety education and legislation, accident analysis, road safety research, human tolerance to injury, vehicle design, safety in construction zones, safety in urban areas, traffic calming, public transportation, safety laws and policies, and pre-hospital care of the injured.

Providing a practical guide to the training and assessment of non-technical skills within high-risk industries, this book will be of direct interest to safety and training professionals working within aviation, healthcare, rail, maritime, and other high-risk industries. Currently, each of these industries are working to integrate non-technical skills into their training and certification processes, particularly in light of increasing international regulation in this area. However, there is no definitive guidance to assist practitioners within these areas with the design of effective non-technical skills training and assessment programs. This book sets out to fully meet this need. It has been designed as a practically focussed companion to the 2008 book Safety at the Sharp End by Flin, O'Connor and Crichton. While Safety at the Sharp End provides the definitive exploration of the need for non-technical skills training, and examines in detail the main components of non-technical skills as they relate to safe operations, the text does not focus on the "nuts and bolts" of designing training and assessment programs. To this end, Training and Assessing Non-Technical Skills: A Practical Guide provides an extension of this work and a fitting companion text.

Since computer scientists make decisions every day that have societal context and influence, an understanding of society and computing together should be integrated into computer science education. Showing students what they can do with their computing degree, Computers and Society: Computing for Good uses concrete examples and case studies to highlight the positive work of real computing professionals and organizations from around the world. Each chapter profiles a corporation, nonprofit organization, or entrepreneur involved in computing-centric activities that clearly benefit society or the environment, including cultural adaptation in a developing country, cutting-edge medicine and healthcare, educational innovation, endangered species work, and help for overseas voters. The coverage of computing topics spans from social networking to high-performance computing. The diversity of people and activities in these profiles gives students a broad vision of what they can accomplish after graduation. Pedagogical FeaturesEncouraging students to engage actively and critically with the material, the book offers a wealth of pedagogical sections at the end of each chapter. Questions of varying difficulty ask students to apply the material to themselves or their surroundings and to think critically about the material from the perspective of a future computing professional. The text also gives instructors the option to incorporate individual projects, team projects, short projects, and semester-long projects. Other resources for instructors and students are available at www.computers-and-society.com Visit the author's blog at http://computing4society.blogspot.com

Despite the apparently distinct differences between the disciplines of ergonomics and rehabilitation, they deal with the same issues, although at different ends of the spectrum. Keeping this in mind, Ergonomics for Rehabilitation Professionals explores their philosophies and goals, their parallel, divergent, and complementary aspects. It traces the origin of each field and examines the role of ergonomics in rehabilitation. The book begins with a theoretical and conceptual review of ergonomics and its role in rehabilitation. It covers anthropometry and its impact on human biomechanics, allowing readers to grasp complex concepts, visualize what forces are acting where, and understand the consequence of this force. A chapter on tissue mechanics provides an understanding of the effect of the overall load on the tissues and a rationale for possible mechanisms of injury that can be used to design prevention and treatment methods. The book explores the relevant physiological issues, looking at the energy cost of activities and the data on strength and endurance. It discusses whole body biomechanics using an approach that supplies intuitive understanding of the effects of force, gravity, and physiological variables in an integrated manner. Addressing theoretical underpinnings with scientific rigor, the book covers a broad range of topics, always emphasizing design in rehabilitation. The editor's organization of the material develops concepts in concentric circles with increasing radii, sequencing ideas and exploring them from simple to complex. This selection of topics from two vast and seemingly diverse disciplines provides the tools for setting realistic goals and developing the strategies to achieve them.

Expanding into emerging markets brings with it a specific set of challenges for designing products and services. Not only do cultural differences play a role in what, how, and why customers behave the way they do, but existing technologies, distribution channels, and the wants and needs of consumers become additional challenges when establishing market shares in the developing world. Innovative Solutions: What Designers Need to Know for Today's Emerging Markets describes the landscape of these new markets and discusses research and design methodologies tailored to them. Local designers and researchers offer insight directly from the depths of India, China, and other parts of the world. They take an in-depth look at user research methods in underserved communities, new tools such as ecosystems mapping to define the elements impacting innovation and design decisions, and methodologies to develop solution spaces based on the output from user research studies. The book then presents real-life examples through case studies and interviews. The case studies draw not only from the authors' work with clients such as HP Labs, Nokia, Haier, Philips, Intel, and A Piece of Pie, but also from user experience and the results of innovation research across the globe. The interviews include conversations with leaders in innovation such as Roopa Purushothaman, Tapan Parikh, Ram Sehgal, Steve Portigal, Dmitry Volkov, and Darelle van Greunen. A fascinating perspective of the users and ecosystem in emerging nations, the book provides deeper insights on how a user-centered innovation and design approach has been applied in practical settings. Examining the challenges of innovating and designing for emerging markets, it incorporates research and practice to explore new ways of uncovering the riches and opportunities in innovation and design for emerging markets.

Based on recent research, this book discusses how to improve quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness in patient care through the application of human factors and ergonomics principles. It provides guidance for those involved with the design and application of systems and devices for effective and safe healthcare delivery from both a patient and staff perspective. Its huge range of chapters covers everything from the proper design of bed rails to the most efficient design of operating rooms, from the development of quality products to the rating of staff patient interaction. It considers ways to prevent elderly patient falls and ways to make best use of electronic health records. It covers staff intractions with patients as well as staff interaction with computers and medical devices. It also provides way to improve organizational aspects in a healthcare setting, and approaches to modeling and analysis specifically targeting those work aspects unique to healthcare. Explicitly, the book contains the following subject areas: I. Healthcare and Service Delivery II. Patient Safety III. Modeling and Analytical Approaches IV. Human-System Interface: Computers & Medical Devices V. Organizational Aspects This book would be of special value internationally to those researchers and practitioners involved in various aspects of healthcare delivery. Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Applied Digital Human Modeling Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Cognitive Ergonomics Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

The chapters in the book come from an international group of authors with diverse backgrounds including ergonomics, psychology, architecture, computer science, engineering, and sociology. Specific topics include biometric systems development, military command and control, cellular phone interface design, methodologies for workplace design, medical device design, cockpit display and decision tool design for pilots, driver visual and cognitive processes, and performance of inspection tasks in manufacturing operations; and extend to human-automation integration in future aviation systems, novel 3-D display technologies for enhancing information analysis, training methods for mental models, approaches to activity analysis, new research-oriented frameworks and paradigms in training, and the use of virtual reality for skill development and assessment. The book is divided into sections covering: I. Cultural Differences in Computing Systems Design II. Decision Making and Decision Support III. Desktop/Mobile Interface Design IV. Ergonomics in Design V. Ergonomics in Product Design VI. Human Factors in Aviation Systems VII. Human Factors in Driving VIII. Human Factors in Manufacturing IX. Human Factors in NextGen Operations X. Information Visualization for Situation Awareness XI. Mental Models XII. Perceptuo-Motor Skills & Psychophysical Assessment XIII. Task Analysis XIV. Training Technology XV. Virtual Reality for Behavior Assessment XVI. Virtual Reality for Psychomotor Training The implications of all this work include design recommendations for complex systems and commercial products, new procedures for operator training and self-regulation as well as methods for accessibility to systems, and specification of ergonomic interventions at the user. It is expected that this book will be of special value to practitioners involved in design process development, design and prototyping of systems, products and services, as well as training process design for a broad range of applications and markets in various countries. Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Applied Digital Human Modeling Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

Taking the field of human factors and ergonomics beyond state of the art, this volume focuses on advances in the use of ergonomics modeling and on the evaluation of usability, which is a critical aspect of any human-technology system. The research described in the book's 70 chapters is an outcome of dedicated research by academics and practitioners from around the world, and across disciplines. The chapters are organized under five sections: I. Models and Methods II. Vision and Visual Displays , III. Product Design and User Interfaces IV. Input Devices and Computer Based Systems V. Individual and Environmental Technology Related Issues. This work provides an invaluable resource for evaluating products and environments and designing future ones that are intuitive, safe, and easy to use. Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Applied Digital Human Modeling Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Cognitive Ergonomics Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

Why do enterprise systems have complicated search pages, when Google has a single search box that works better? Why struggle with an expense reimbursement system that is not as easy as home accounting software? Although this seems like comparing apples to oranges, as information and communication technologies increasingly reach into every industry the demand for easy-to-use work tools continues to grow. An exploration of cutting-edge approaches for evaluating the usability of complex user interaction, Usability of Complex Information Systems: Evaluation of User Interaction focuses on improving design and communicating content to the end user. The book continues the conversation about the evolution of usability, asking how we can design and evaluate these complex systems and the complex work they support. It describes and analyzes approaches to teaching, testing, analyzing, or managing usability studies-approaches that involve technical communicators making novel contributions to how we think about and evaluate increasingly complex systems. The book contains case studies on different types of complexity, including: A complex work environment, requiring collaboration among different people or a goal sustained over time, and often in the face of distractions, interruptions, and planned pauses A complex information context, one with no single answer, where the data changes dynamically or where the best answer may rely on other aspects of a fluid environment A complex technology, in which people use many different applications in their work and collaboration A complex topic, requiring advanced technical or domain knowledge Even systems that seem simple are, in fact, complex. The shopping interface for an e-commerce system may not be complex, but the databases, business processes, and logistics behind it certainly are. The examination of different aspects of designing and examining complexity presented in this book brings you a step further in developing a deeper understanding of what it takes to make complex systems work.

With unintended harm during hospital care costing billions of dollars to the world economy, not to mention millions of deaths each year, it's no wonder the issue is equally front and center in the minds of healthcare providers and the public. Although the issue has been tackled in journal articles and conference proceedings, there are very few books on the topic. And none consider how methods and techniques developed in the area of engineering can handle safety and human error-related problems. Until now. Written by an expert with vast know-how in engineering management, design, reliability, safety, and quality, Patient Safety: An Engineering Approach brings together the pertinent information scattered throughout books and journals, eliminating the need to consult many different and diverse sources to find what you need. B.S. Dhillon draws on his real-world experience to demonstrate how to handle patient safety-related problems using engineering techniques and backs this up with references for further reading at the end of each chapter. He sets the stage with introductory chapters on mathematical, patient safety, and human factors concepts essential to understanding materials presented in subsequent chapters. Dhillon's clear, concise discussion of the topics presents the information in such a way that no previous knowledge is required to understand the contents, yet he does not present it at a merely rudimentary level. He brings a fresh approach and engineering perspective to the issues, giving you a new tool kit for performing patient safety-related analysis, designing better medical systems/devices, and handling patient safety-related problems from an engineering perspective.

This volume is concerned with digital human modeling. The utility of this area of research is to aid the design of systems that are benefitted from reducing the need for physical prototyping and incorporating ergonomics and human factors earlier in design processes. Digital human models are representations of some aspects of a human that can be inserted into simulations or virtual environments to facilitate prediction of safety, satisfaction, usability and performance. These representations may consider the physical, physiological, cognitive, behavioral or emotional aspects. They are typically represented by some visualization with the math and science computed in the background. Explicitly, the book covers the following subject areas: I. Applications II. Mobility and Universal Access III. Physical and Physiological Aspects IV. Product and Process Design V. Motion Analysis VI. Cognitive Aspects VII. Human Response and Behavioral Aspects VIII. Novel Systems Approaches This book is of special value to those researchers and practitioners involved in various aspects of product, process and system design worldwide. Engineers, ergonomists and human factors specialists will see a broad spectrum of applications for this research, especially in the automotive and manufacturing industries, military, aerospace and service industries such as healthcare. Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Cross-Cultural Decision Making Advances in Cognitive Ergonomics Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

Machiavelli lives. 500 years after NiccolA(2) Machiavelli has written 'The Prince', this classic of the mechanisms behind success in management has not lost its relevance. In an intriguing and inspiring interplay of quotes, interpretations and examples, Dr Ralf Lisch develops Machiavelli's most famous work into a practical guide providing Ancient Wisdom for Modern Management. Many have heard about Machiavelli but few have really read and understood him. Ralf Lisch's analysis of 'The Prince' proves that widespread associations with evil management are a thorough misunderstanding. He has done away with historic ballast and abstains from a moralizing approach that does not do justice to Machiavelli's works. Instead, he lets Machiavelli have his say and provides a positive and pragmatic interpretation of the wisdom of 'The Prince' from a management perspective. It is a fresh approach that combines theoretical analysis with a practical focus. Dealing with a wide range of essential management topics like careers, success, intellect, decision-making, trust, change management, knowledge management, mergers and acquisitions, networking, sustainability, business ethics, working processes and many others, this book proves that the basics of management have hardly changed over half a millennium. Ancient Wisdom for Modern Management is an amazing insight into the essentials of management and a workable guidance to success in daily business. This open-minded and compelling exploration of 'The Prince' combines reading pleasure with a great opportunity to participate in Machiavelli's truly timeless wisdom.

The primary focus of the Cross Cultural Decision Making field is specifically on the intersections between psychosocial theory provided from the social sciences and methods of computational modeling provided from computer science and mathematics. While the majority of research challenges that arise out of such an intersection fall quite reasonably under the rubric of "human factors", although these topics are broad in nature, this book is designed to focus on crucial questions regarding data acquisition as well as reconciliation of mathematical and psychosocial modeling methodologies. The utility of this area of research is to aid the design of products and services which are utilized across the globe in the variety of cultures and aid in increasing the effectiveness of cross-cultural group collaboration. To aid a researcher in defining the requirements and metrics for this complex topic applications and use cases of CCDM can be found in sections: I. Applications of Human, Social, Culture Behavioral Modeling Technology IV. Cross Cultural Decision Making: Implications for Individual and Team Training X. Tactical Culture Training: Narrative, Personality, and Decision-Making XII. Use Cases of Cross Cultural Decision Making Theories and techniques for understanding, capturing, and modeling the components of Culture are covered in these sections: II. Assessing and Developing Cross-Cultural Competence III. Civilizational Change: Ideological, Economic, and Historical Change V. Cultural Models for Decision Making VI. Extracting Understanding from Diverse Data Sources VII. Hybrid & Multi-Model Computational Techniques for HSCB Applications IX. Socio-cultural Models and Decision-Making VIII. Sense Making in Other Cultures: Dynamics of Interaction XI. Understanding The science and technology provided in this book represents the latest available from the international community. It is hoped that this content can be used to tackle two of the biggest challenges in this area: 1) Unification and standardization of data being collected for CCDM applications/research so these data can support as many different thrusts under the CCDM umbrella as possible; and 2) Validation and verification with respect to utility and underlying psychosocial theory. Solutions for both of these must be in the context of, and will require, sound methods of integrating a complex array of quite different behavioral models and modeling techniques. This book would of special value to researchers and practitioners in involved in the design of products and services which are marketed and utilized in a variety of different countries Seven other titles in the Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics Series are: Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare Advances in Applied Digital Human Modeling Advances in Cognitive Ergonomics Advances in Occupational, Social and Organizational Ergonomics Advances in Human Factors, Ergonomics and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries Advances in Ergonomics Modeling & Usability Evaluation Advances in Neuroergonomics and Human Factors of Special Populations

Incident Command: Tales From the Hot Seat presents a unique examination of the skills of the on-scene or incident commander who is in charge of an emergency or major incident. Experienced commanders from the police and fire services, the armed forces, civil aviation and the prison service give personal accounts of their command experiences, discuss their dilemmas and the pressures they faced, and reveal the demands of leading under extreme conditions. They share intimate details of cases where their command skills were tested, ranging from industrial fires, riots, hostage taking, warfare, peacekeeping, to in-flight emergencies. Each case ends with lessons learnt and tips for the developing commander. Additional chapters present expert accounts of the art of incident command, incident command systems, competencies for command, as well as reviews of the latest psychological research into decision making and team work under pressure. The book is an essential compelling text that captures the essence of incident command by analyzing command experiences across a range of professions.

Defense forces have always invested a great deal of their resources in training. In recent times, changes in the complexity and intensity of operations have reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that warfighters are adequately prepared for the environments in which they are required to work. The emergence of new operational drivers such as asymmetric threats, urban operations, joint and coalition operations and the widespread use of military communications and information technology networks has highlighted the importance of providing warfighters with the competencies required to act in a coordinated, adaptable fashion, and to make effective decisions in environments characterized by large amounts of sometimes ambiguous information. While investment in new technologies can make available new opportunities for action, it is only through effective training that personnel can be made ready to apply their tools in the most decisive and discriminating fashion. There are many factors which can have an impact on the efficacy of training and many issues to consider when designing and implementing training strategies. These issues are often complex and nuanced, and in order to grasp them fully a significant investment of time and energy is required. However, the requirement to respond quickly to ever-changing technology, a high operational tempo and minimal staffing may preclude many in today's defense forces from seeking out all such resources on their own. This edited collection provides brief, easy-to-understand summaries of the key issues in defense training and simulation, as well as guidance for further reading. It consists of a collection of short essays, each of which addresses a fundamental issue in defense training and simulation, and features an up-to-date reference list to enable the reader to undertake further investigation of the issues addressed. In essence, this book provides the optimum starting point, or first resource, for readers to come to terms with the important issues associated with defense training and simulation. The contributions are written by leading scholars from military research institutions in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as selected researchers from academic and private sector research institutions.

The recent financial crisis has made it paramount for the financial services industry to find new perspectives to look at their industry and, most importantly, to gain a better understanding of how the global financial system can be made less vulnerable and more resilient. The primary objective of this book is to illustrate how the safety science of Resilience Engineering can help to gain a better understanding of what the financial services system is and how to improve governance and control of financial services systems by leveraging some of its key concepts. Resilience is the intrinsic ability of a system to adjust its functioning prior to, during, or following changes and disturbances, so that it can sustain required operations under both expected and unexpected conditions. This definition is focused on the ability to function, rather than just to be impervious to failure, and thereby bridges the traditional conflict between productivity and safety. The core concept of the book is that the behaviour of the financial services system is the result of the tight couplings among the humans, organizations and technologies that are necessary to provide complex financial functions such as the transfer of economic resources. It is a consequence of this perspective that the risks associated with these systems cannot be understood without considering the nature of these tight couplings. Adopting this perspective, the book is designed to provide some answers to the following key questions about the financial crisis: - What actually happened? - Why and how did it happen? - Could something similar happen again? How can we see that in time and how can we control it? - How can sustainable recovery of the global financial system be established? How can its resilience be improved?

The oil and gas industry is going through a major technological shift. This is particularly true of the Norwegian continental shelf where new work processes are being implemented based on digital infrastructure and information technology. The term Integrated Operations (IO) has been applied to this set of new processes. It is defined by the Centre for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry as 'work processes and technology to make smarter decisions and better execution, enabled by ubiquitous real time data, collaborative techniques and access to multiple expertise'. It's claimed that IO is efficient, optimises exploration, reduces costs and improves safety performance. However, the picture is not as clear-cut as it may appear. On the one hand, the new work processes do not prevent major accidents: IO-related factors have been identified in recent events such as the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. On the other hand, IO technology provides improved decision-making support (such as access to real-time data and expertise), which can reduce human and material losses and damage to the environment. Given these very different properties, it's vital that the industry has a detailed understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of IO, which this book sets out to do from a multidisciplinary point of view. It analyses Integrated Operations from the angles of statistics, management science, human factors and resilience engineering. These varied disciplines provide a multifaceted understanding of IO that better informs risk assessment practices, as well as explaining new techniques and methods and provides state-of-the-art guidance to risk assessment practitioners working in the oil and gas industry.