Defense Communications Research Articles

‘Embedded journalism’: Some NZ military perspectives

Commentary: On 22 May 2009, Massey University’s Wellington campus hosted a conference on war reporting. Jointly organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Massey’s Department of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, the conference was attended and contributed to by senior international and national news media as well as humanitarian, legal and military representatives. This commentary is drawn from presentations by two military officers, management head Colonel Martin Dransfield and Director of Defence Communications Shaun Fogarty

“Be Nice”: Wikipedia norms for supportive communication

Wikipedia is acknowledged to have been home to “some bitter disputes.” Indeed, conflict at Wikipedia is said to be “as addictive as cocaine.” Yet, such observations are not cynical commentary but motivation for a collection of social norms. These norms speak to the intentional stance and communicative behaviors Wikipedians should adopt when interacting with one another. In the following pages, I provide a survey of these norms on the English Wikipedia and argue that they can be characterized as supportive based on Jack Gibb's classic communication article “Defensive Communication.”

English

The transmitter-based pre-rake diversity combining technique reduces the complexity, size and cost of the mobile unit (MU), while achieving the same inter symbol interference (ISI) mitigation effects of rake receiver for direct sequence-code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems. The technique is based on preprocessing of transmitted signal relying on knowledge of the channel state information (CSI) before transmission. In most of the previous works, this a priori information is either assumed or estimated for the uplink and the same is applied to the downlink in time division duplex (TDD) systems due to channel reciprocity. In this paper, a method for channel prediction to evaluate the pre-rake system using binary phaseshift keying (BPSK) modulation in frequency-division duplex (FDD) through analytical and computer simulations for DS-CDMA downlink has been proposed. The performance of the system was also evaluated under ideal and predicted channel conditions using different spreading codes. The findings will have widespread applications in defence communication equipment. Defence Science Journal, 2010, 60(3), pp.282-289 , DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.60.355

Assessment of the Parent-Adolescent Relationship in Teens with ADHD

Adolescents with ADHD and their parents experience a great deal of conflict and negative interactions in their relationships, particularly when the adolescent also has comorbid Oppositional Defiant Disorder (Barkley, Fischer, Edelbrock, & Smallish, 1991; Barkley, Anastopoulos, Guevremont, & Fletcher, 1992). Such conflict often involves specific disputes about issues such as schoolwork, homework, chores, and friends and is characterized by accusatory, defensive communication, frequent interruptions, angry outbursts, ineffective problem solving, and extreme thinking. A combination of contingency management and problem-solving communication training has been found to be an effective intervention for ameliorating such conflict (Barkley, Edwards, & Robin, 1999; Barkley, Robin, & Benton, 2008). The clinician helping adolescents with ADHD and their parents needs reliable and valid tools for assessing the parent-adolescent relationship. In the studies by Barkley and colleagues (1991, 1992), a number of uni-dimensional measures were used, each assessing one construct. Although clearly useful, these measures do not provide the clinician with a comprehensive profile where all relevant dimensions of the parent-adolescent relationship are presented on a common metric, permitting easy comparisons of the severity of problems across dimensions and facilitating treatment planning and outcome assessment. The Parent Adolescent Relationship Questionnaire (PARQ) is such a measure. In this article we will describe the PARQ, review a case study showing the role of the PARQ in the clinical assessment of the parent-teen relationship with an ADHD adolescent, and briefly summarize the psychometric properties of the PARQ.

Segmenting consumers for food defense communication strategies

PurposeIn the light of lessons learned from recent disasters (The London subway bombings, and Hurricane Katrina), it has become increasingly clear that supply chain partners as well as government agencies need to be prepared to communicate effectively to consumers and customers before, during and after a disaster. Effective communication can minimize confusion and harm to company reputations, to consumers, the economy and the nation. Incorporating consistent communications into supply chain management (SCM) plans used by all parties in the supply chain will enhance competitiveness of the whole chain and speed recovery from potentially disastrous events. Findings from a national survey of consumer's attitudes about terrorism provide information about the development of targeted and effective communications.Design/methodology/approachBased on a survey of more than 4,000 US consumers, this study used “predictive segmentation” which consists of a canonical factor analysis relating general consumer attitudes and values to their more specific fears and concerns about terrorism. A clustering of consumers then identifies six diverse consumer segments providing a framework for the development of communication strategies.FindingsResults from this study demonstrate that people can be grouped based on their general attitudes and values in such a way that their diversity can be captured in a simple framework of segments each reflecting striking differences in the level of concern over potential terrorist attacks.Practical implicationsGuidance is offered for the development of communication strategies based on the information needs and media behavior of each consumer segment to mitigate the impact of a potential terrorist attack or catastrophic food safety breaches. It provides practical and logical extension of former studies that suggest incorporating consumers, attitudes into SCM and business continuity plans.Originality/valueThis study leverages a common and proven marketing research approach – segmentation – used in private industry for the marketing of goods and service. It applies this method to defining segments of consumers based on their attitudes and concerns about terrorism that will be useful in supply chain communication management.

The Creation of Defensiveness in Social Interaction II: A Model of Defensive Communication among Romantic Couples

This investigation extends the work of Stamp, Vangelisti, and Daly (1992) and others by explicating the multifaceted process of defensive communication among romantic couples. Qualitative data were derived from self-reports about a distinct episode of defensive communication in individual interviews, as well as direct analysis of couples’ communication in joint interviews. The proposed theoretical model reflects a more comprehensive, holistic, and precise framework that accounts for the triggers, core episode, outcomes, and contexts of defensive communication. The detailed model, which draws attention to interactive and person-centered features of defensive communication, is illustrated through the narrative account of one couple. Eleven data-based postulates are offered to fuel and focus subsequent investigations.

Managing Defensive Communication: Excerpts from Taking the War out of our Words

Managing Defensive Communication: Excerpts from <i>Taking the War out of our Words</i>

Can the military use commercial wireless signal processing technologies to reduce size, weight and power in radio devices? [Trends in DSP

This paper discusses if military can adopt commercial air interface standards and leverage the technology developed for the consumer wireless market to manage size, weight, and power in defense communications. The differences in operating requirements that drive the architectures of commercial and defense wireless systems are presented: frequency band of operation, security constraints, and operation in a tactical environment

Tabu search—Uncharted domains

The setting could have come from a Hollywood science fiction movie. A dozen figures, a handful in uniforms of the U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) and a slightly larger contingent variously in business suits and in shirtsleeves, were gathered around a large mainframe computer whose blinking lights signaled a run in progress. The computer run — on an early70s behemoth that represented the state-of-the-art of the period—was seeking a response to a scenario of a first wave nuclear strike on the U.S.. Each of us present had a security clearance at the level of Secret or higher. Mine, a lowly Secret clearance, had come via an engagement with the Defense Communications Agency at the other-worldly SAC installation buried beneath Cheyenne Mountain. My involvement in the present project was the result of a labyrinthine trail that had wended its way through my earlier associations with research groups at Carnegie Mellon University and at the University of California, Berkeley to reach me at my present post at the University of Colorado. The computer scenario currently in progress was engaged in testing a new type of search procedure applied to the objective of discovering an appropriate counter to the hypothetical nuclear strike. The conditions surrounding this objective, which hinged on satisfactorily meeting a collection of prioritized sub-goals, were embodied in a complex combinatorial optimization model. For the search routine to be successful, an effective retaliatory response had to be identified in less than 5 minutes. Experience suggested such an undertaking might not be easy. Previous efforts, utilizing a diverse array of approaches implemented by the “shirtsleeves crowd” surrounding me — a computer science and OR group from a California Think Tank organization engaged by SAC for this project — had been unable to generate an effective response in under 47 minutes, and the resulting solution had been deemed marginal. A concerted initiative to remedy this outcome had, reasonably or unreasonably, wound up on my doorstep and confronted me with the challenge of designing an approach that might do better. The California Think Tank group did not conceal their doubts about the likelihood of my pulling this off, and had openly

Intelligent Utility Locating Tool for Excavators

Currently, backhoe excavator operators have to depend on color-coded markings applied by utility locators to expect the location of utilities buried in the ground. As accidents prove time and time again, this method is unreliable. While more efforts should be spent on subsurface engineering and as-built documentation, excavators should have their own tools to see cables, wires, and pipes while working underground. This paper presents the result of work aimed at supplying backhoe operators with a device capable of scanning the ground for metallic objects. The fishfinder type tool is thought to be the last barricade against horrific accidents caused by the damage of buried utilities. The writers not only present the results of extensive tests in the laboratory and the field but also highlight that the outdated contractual principles used by the government, utility companies, and insurers establishes insurmountable barriers for transferring this novel technology into the industry. The relevance of the presented work is in the experimental data that has been collected and analyzed both in the laboratory and in the field. In his report to the Federal Laboratory Consortium, R. Sterling addressed the inherent problems related to the subsurface world of cities, towns, and even rural areas in the United States. He summarized succinctly what is known by everybody familiar with the construction industry dedicated to building and maintaining the lifelines of our 21st century society when he wrote: Over- head utility lines are becoming a thing of the past, except in rural areas. The urban has become a spider's web of util- ity lines, including phones, electricity, gas, cable TV, fiber optics, traffic signals, street lighting circuits, drainage and flood control facilities, water mains, and wastewater pipes. In some locations, major oil and gas pipelines, national defense communication lines, mass transit, rail and road tunnels also compete for space underground Sterling 2000. The U.S. Congress had become aware of the risks associated with damaging buried utilities even

Alarm pheromone mediates production of winged dispersal morphs in aphids

AbstractThe aphid alarm pheromone (E)‐β‐farnesene (EBF) is the major example of defence communication in the insect world. Released when aphids are attacked by predators such as ladybirds or lacewing larvae, aphid alarm pheromone causes behavioural reactions such as walking or dropping off the host plant. In this paper, we show that the exposure to alarm pheromone also induces aphids to give birth to winged dispersal morphs that leave their host plants. We first demonstrate that the alarm pheromone is the only volatile compound emitted from aphid colonies under predator attack and that emission is proportional to predator activity. We then show that artificial alarm pheromone induces groups of aphids but not single individuals to produce a higher proportion of winged morphs among their offspring. Furthermore, aphids react more strongly to the frequency of pheromone release than the amount of pheromone delivered. We suggest that EBF leads to a ‘pseudo crowding’ effect whereby alarm pheromone perception causes increased walking behaviour in aphids resulting in an increase in the number of physical contacts between individuals, similar to what happens when aphids are crowded. As many plants also produce EBF, our finding suggests that aphids could be manipulated by plants into leaving their hosts, but they also show that the context‐dependence of EBF‐induced wing formation may hinder such an exploitation of intraspecific signalling by plants.

Communication in computer science classrooms: understanding defensive climates as a means of creating supportive behaviors

All learning environments are characterized by numerous communication and interaction practices, which lend themselves to an overall characterization of the climate as defensive or supportive. A case study of public communication and interaction in a large, research-intensive university's first year computer science courses illustrates a learning environment primarily characterized by elements and behaviors associated with a defensive communication climate. Descriptions of classroom interactions and behaviors illustrate what a defensive communication climate “looks like” in terms of behavior, based on extensive observational research. Interview data demonstrates that defensive communication practices can lead to attrition among women in the major and illustrates ways in which the communication climate that characterizes the major is experienced and interpreted by women in the courses. This data also links defensive communication behaviors with lower confidence among women toward their major --- results consistent with previous studies of the causes of attrition among women in other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Classroom experiences and behaviors that reflect a more supportive communication climate will be discussed within the context of practices and interactions that professors can engage in to ensure that their courses lean toward a supportive rather than a defensive environment as a way of making computer science learning environments more inclusive.

Creating learning environments that support interaction

In previous work [1], we characterized the communication climate in the traditional CS program as a defensive communication climate [2]. As a practical extension of this work, in this brief presentation we will present a few practical techniques for creating the sort of classroom environment that encourages students to participate and also supports group learning.

Disrupting defensive family interactions in family therapy with delinquent adolescents.

This study compared the immediate impact of therapist reframing, reflection, and elicit-structure interventions on family-member defensive communications in the initial session of family therapy with a delinquent adolescent. Defensive statements included family-member statements that criticized, blamed, or disagreed with other family members. Sequences of behaviors following defensive family-member statements were examined to determine which therapist interventions were the most effective in disrupting defensive family interactions. Thus, every sequence included a defensive family-member behavior, a therapist intervention, and a family-member response (sequence: family defensive-->therapist intervention-->family response). Results indicated that therapist reframing is more effective than other therapist interventions in reducing family-members' defensive statements. Moreover, adolescents responded more favorably to reframes than did fathers.

Balancing the Research Portfolio

O ver time, the balance of governmental support for basic research among different fields should change, but it should change in a reasoned and purposeful way, not as the result of politics. The negative effects that can result from the politics of the “disease du jour” are familiar to readers of Science . Another case is less well known and perhaps even counterintuitive—the effects of proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress to increase nondefense R&D. A shift in federal underwriting of R&D overlooks the vital role the Department of Defense (DOD) plays in funding academic basic research. This oversight reflects the mistaken belief that all research supported by DOD is motivated solely by military applications. In fact, basic and applied research funded by DOD includes a significant fraction of academic basic research; for example, 69 percent of electrical engineering, 60 percent of computer sciences, 40 percent of materials science and engineering, and 27 percent of mathematical sciences. DOD supports some 9000 graduate students, as compared with 15,000 supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The simplistic notion that R&D funding by DOD should not be increased would have a disproportionately negative impact on specific disciplines that are essential to the country. There are two cases in which DOD has become a critical funder of academic basic research. In hindsight, both were almost historical accidents. In the first, the initial motivation is defense but the major application is not. The Internet, for example, grew from the desire for more reliable defense communication. In the second, a community of scholars grows up around a defense problem and continues to be funded by DOD long after the motivating problem is solved. Several areas in the mathematical sciences fit this pattern. We cannot predict who will benefit most from basic research funded by DOD—the defense sector, the civilian sector, research itself, or all three. In many cases it has been all three. In computer science and engineering, basic research supported by DOD extended our ability to do research in virtually all areas of engineering and science. The data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Pathfinder mission, and the modeling of the climatic effects of greenhouse gases were all enabled by computer advances from DOD-sponsored research. The effect of applying this leverage to all research is often lost in the debate over defense spending. Although some argue that the money allocated for basic research now supported by DOD should be transferred to another agency (possibly NSF), the development of legislation through the congressional committee structure makes this very difficult to accomplish. In addition, DOD has shown itself to be a reliable and patient supporter of academic basic research. Such a transfer would run counter to the very sensible policy of including a role for basic research in the mission of each federal agency or department. This practice not only provides greater diversity in the nation's R&D portfolio but also adds to these agencies' abilities to carry out their missions. As it stands, the pluralistic nature of research funding in this country is a great strength. It is not immediately clear that any benefit could be gained by reducing that plurality. Congress is currently reviewing DOD research activity, and legislation has been introduced in the Senate authorizing a 2 percent real increase in defense RD it is not a zero-sum game. In the past, cuts in DOD research funds have been used to increase operational funds, not research funded by other agencies and departments. It is likely that future increases will come from within the defense budget. Making the basic research component of DOD's funding increase comparable to that of the nondefense agencies would increase the pie for all academic research and strengthen the country in the process.

Pretrial communication with defense counsel by medical examiners' pathologists.

Forensic pathologists (FPs) form opinions in homicide trials and often are key witnesses for the prosecution. Early access to the FP by defense counsel may be strategically important, but state statutes differ regarding pretrial availability of the autopsy report to the defense, and the degree of pretrial communication that is permissible or desirable between the FP and defense is unclear. We surveyed a sample of FPs to determine their practices and opinions regarding pretrial communication with the defense. We compared responses with years of training, early professional role models, local autopsy report disclosure statutes, and reasons for practices. All respondents indicated a willingness to informally communicate with the defense, but many would notify the prosecutor and some wanted prosecutor's presence or permission. Prosecutorial involvement correlated with work load and with stated reasons for practices. Case law in most states prohibits the prosecutor from interfering with defense communication with witnesses, including experts. However, witnesses are free to refuse to talk informally to the defense. Some states limit publication of the autopsy report outside formal trial discovery procedures. Only one state, Arkansas, does not allow the medical examiner to give out any information, thereby precluding informal communication with the defense in that state.

Supportive vs. defensive communications in depression: An assessment of Coyne's interactional model.

Supportive vs. defensive communications in depression: An assessment of Coyne's interactional model.

Strategic Information Warfare: A New Face of War

Abstract : This report summarizes research performed by RAND for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence). The objective of this effort was to garner perspectives on a broad range of potential national security issues related to the evolving concept of information warfare, with a particular emphasis on the defensive aspects of what is characterized in the report as 'strategic information warfare.' The study was undertaken in recognition that future U.S. national security strategy is likely to be profoundly affected by the ongoing rapid evolution of cyberspace-the global information infrastructure-and in this context by the growing dependence of the U.S. military and other national institutions and infrastructures on potentially vulnerable elements of the U.S. national information infrastructure. This report should be of special interest to those who are exploring the effect of the information revolution on warfare. It should also be of interest to those segments of the U.S. and broader international security community that are concerned with the post-cold war evolution of military and national security strategy, especially strategy changes driven wholly or in part by the evolution of, and possible revolutions in, technology.

Guarding the airwaves: Government regulation of World War II American radio

The U.S. Government's role as overseer of the World War II airwaves was significant, given the government's task of establishing a supervisory mechanism for the radio industry that would serve the need of national security and, at the same time, minimize the need for bureaucratic intrusion into program decision making. A mechanism also was needed to police the domestic airwaves for unlicensed intruders and to monitor the international airwaves for enemy propaganda. To accomplish these tasks, the government enlisted the services of three agencies: the Federal Communications Commission, the Defense Communications Board, and the Office of Censorship. This paper examines the structure, operation, and contribution of each.

Supportive and Defensive Communication

Explores the communication structure of a cruise company. Argues that communication is a key area concerning productivity and job satisfaction on board cruise ships. The Communication Climate Inventory was distributed to all employees in the company, and returned satisfactorily filled in by 236 employees. It was found that the degree of defensiveness was higher and the degree of supportiveness was lower on board ships than for the company′s land‐based operations. Interprets the results in view of organizational climate, culture and traditions. Makes suggestions concerning appropriate measures to be taken in order to improve on current communication practices.