Navy Officers Research Articles

The transition o fRepublic of Korea Navy officers'hat device insignia and its implication

The transition o fRepublic of Korea Navy officers'hat device insignia and its implication

Personality determinants of health behaviours of merchant navy officers.

An individual's health behaviours are highly correlated with selected areas of their personality as well as their values, needs and goals. However, this relationship may be modified by a number of objective factors associated with the individual's functioning, lifestyle or occupational activity. The main objective of the presented study was to investigate the relationship between personality profiles and health behaviours of merchant navy officers. The influences of personality on health behaviours were additionally compared between two groups: mariners and managers. Thirty-two seafarers of an officer rank and 45 managers aged between 29 and 48 took part in the study. Three research tools were used: NEO-Five Factor Inventory, Health Behaviour Inventory and Inventory of Physical Activity Objectives. Results suggest that selected personality variables are significant predictors of individual aspects of health behaviour, however the strength of their influence may differ, depending on the peculiarities of the performed work.

Del infierno al edén. El viaje del marino Francisco Muñoz y San Clemente a la isla de Francia en 1787

En enero de 1786 zarparon de Cádiz los dos primeros barcos de la Compañía de Filipinas que inauguraron la nueva Carrera comercial directa entre la metrópoli y las Islas Filipinas por la ruta del Cabo de Buena Esperanza. Los barcos iban al mando del oficial de la Armada Francisco Muñoz y San Clemente. En el viaje de regreso el marino se vio obligado a resguardarse en Port Louis en la isla de Francia (Mauricio), que recorrió. Ya en Cádiz, escribió una sugerente relación de todo el viaje y de la expedición a la colonia francesa, rica en detalles científicos útiles para posteriores navegaciones y en reflexiones políticas y comerciales sobre la economía filipina para el funcionamiento de la Compañía.

Temporary Migrants, Young and Also Students: How to be a Foreign in a Military Institution of Superior Education

This research discusses about the temporary migration of young foreigners who come to Brazil in order to take their higher education. The scenario of this research is the “Escola Naval” (i.e. Brazilian Naval Academy), which promotes the formation of its future Navy officers. The young, before officially entering into mainstream education, spend one year in the “Qualification Stage for Academic Adaptation of Foreign Students”, consisting of a period in which these students learn the Portuguese language and also the basic math knowledge with leveling purpose as prerequisites for admission into that institution. In this article, we propose to trace the profile of students who, in 2013, are attending this stage, highlighting their main characteristics, the obstacles encountered and their expectations for the future. Finally, from the reflections made above, we will think about the relevance of this first year of adaption, as well as possible solutions for its improvement.

Banning cigarette smoking on US Navy submarines: a case study

BackgroundThe military has had a long pro-tobacco tradition. Despite official policy discouraging smoking, tobacco still is widely seen as part of military culture. While active smoking has presented a particular...

‘These peaceable times are the devil’: Royal Navy officers in the post-war slump, 1815–1825

During the Napoleonic War, the Royal Navy grew to an unprecedented size, but with the return of peace it dispensed with the services of an also unprecedented 124,000 men. By 1818, around 90% of commissioned officers were unemployed and on half pay. Drawing on the papers of navy agent Robert Brine, as well as Admiralty and Parliamentary sources, this paper sets out the scale of the unemployment problem among commissioned officers and the effects it had upon them, and surveys the options available to erstwhile sea officers and the strategies the deployed to make a living amid the post-war slump.

Policy Formulations of the Fisheries Criminal Act: An Investigation of the Authority of the Criminal Justice System in Indonesia

Law enforcement implementation of fisheries criminal act especially for investigation based on Article 73 (1) of Law No. 45 of 2009 is executed by Fishery Civil Servant Investigator (PPNS), Investigator of Indonesian Navy officer and/or Investigator of Indonesian National Police. This investigation authority is called as attribution authority meaning that the authority is granted by the order of law. This regulation grants the same authority to these three institutions to investigate and submit their investigation report to public prosecutor without any cohesive system in its implementation. If it is linked to Law No. 8 of 1981 as an illustration of criminal justice system of Indonesia which is referred as the basis of common and specific criminal law enforcement, it emerges juridical weakness as a consequence of regulation inconsistency including conflict of norm between Criminal Procedure Code (KUHAP) and Fisheries Act. This inconsistency emerges conflict of authority among those investigators and emerges law indeterminacy. Hence, reformulate investigation authority of fisheries criminal act needs to be conducted along with paying attention on waters territory of Indonesia upon Law No. 6 of 1996 about Waters Territory of Indonesia despite law enforcement mechanism which had to be enforced corporately. This study result concludes that inconsistency of investigation authority formulation in fisheries criminal act in criminal justice system not only emerges fuzziness of norm but also conflict of norm between Law No. 8 of 1981 about Criminal Procedure Code and Law No. 45 of 2009. This emerges because there is an overlapping of investigation authority among 3 institutions, i.e., Fishery Civil Servant, Indonesian Navy and the Police. Formation team of Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board (Bakorkamla) only has an authority as coordinating function. Hence, to maximize the law enforcement in the ocean, function of Indonesian Maritime Security Coordinating Board should be improved as a coordinator of law enforcement in ocean territory of Indonesia.

‘To Polish and Adorn the Mind’: The United States Naval Lyceum at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1833–89

The United States Naval Lyceum, a museum and library at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, offers a revealing insight into the history of American science, material culture, and museums. This article explores the Lyceum’s history to enlarge our understanding of the ways the nineteenth-century museums used artefacts of natural and human history to tell meaningful stories. The Naval Lyceum was a place where navy officers, as curators, could perform their worldliness, demonstrate their scientific expertise, and create connections to community and to the past, and where visitors might make emotional links to the worlds of nature and humanity.

Advances in Radar Technologies

“As first shown by Hertz, electric waves can be completely reflected by conducting bodies. In some of my tests I have noticed the effects of reflection and detection of these waves by metallic objects miles away” (Gugliemo Marconi, Radio Telegraphy, Proc. Inst. Radio Eng., vol. 10, 1922) . . .the history of RADAR technology in Italy begun. . . The Navy Officer (later on Professor at University of Pisa) Ugo Tiberio made a theoretical study on the detection of objects by electromagnetic waves and developed the radar equation (Ugo Tiberio, “Misura di distanze per mezzo di onde ultracorte (Radiotelemetria),” Alta Frequenza, Maggio 1939, Torino, Italy)

임진왜란기(1592~1598) 상급 수군 갑옷갑[甲]의 유형별 특성과 일러스트화

This study is about the armors that high navy officers of Joseon wore during the period of Japanese invasion of Korea(1592~1598). The kinds of armors that these officers wore during this period are Sueungap, cheolgap, pigap, jigap and myeongap. Sueungap, cheolgap, pigap are all described in literatures, which were released in that period and the early Joseon period. According to publications that were released during that period, Yuyeopgap was a type of an iron armor. Armors that are recorded in only literatures published in the early Joseon period include swaejagap, gyeongbeongap, dujeonggap, hwangdongdujeonggap and dudumigap. Myeongap is found only in publications that were made in the above war time. The styles of armors are largely classified into chalgap and dujeonggap. The chalgap-styled armors used gapchal as their main component. Dujeonggap-styled armors used fabrics and dujeong. The names and the manufacturing methods of the gapchal did not changed since its creation in the early Joseon period until the above wartime. But, their shapes were considerably changed between the two times. This is clearly shown in armors that were found in the moat of the Dongrae-eup fortress. Dujeonggap-styled armors that were used during the period of the Japan-Korea war were a successor to those of dujeonggap-styled armors of the early Joseon period. But the former armors were different from the latter in that they had no gapchal inside. They are well represented by Jeong Chung Sin`s armor.

Exploring Insights of an Evaluation of a Meteorology & Oceanography Program for Training Navy Officers

The evaluation of training programs to determine effective strategies for improving performance is a priority in business and military environments. Improved performance is a paramount interest for organizations dependent on training for preparing employees. This evaluation study consisted of a one-group pre-posttest quantitative research design with N=45 participants completing a pre-assessment prior to entering the Basic Oceanography Accession Training course and a posttest assessment upon completion of the course. Study participants were comprised of Navy officers who had earned at least a baccalaureate degree prior to beginning the program and their major academic focus was one or more of the following areas: meteorology, marine science, oceanography, chemistry, biology, nuclear engineering, physics, geology, and geography. Four research questions guided the study and include: (1) Is there a significant mean change in the positive direction from pretest to Basic Oceanography Accession Training test scores for each of the subscales identified on the Basic Oceanography Accession Training test instrument used in the study?; (2) Is there a significant mean difference between males and females on the various posttest subscales of the Basic Oceanography Accession Training test when pretest differences are controlled?; (3) Is there a difference in mean posttest subscale scores for the various academic majors of participants and by gender?; and (4) Is there a relationship between length of service (in years) and posttest scores of the participants? Implications for businesses and military environments grappling with evaluating employee training effectiveness are provided. Insights for future research efforts in routinely assessing training programs are highlighted.

Reaffirming the Utility of Nuclear Weapons

A defining aspect of the present period in international politics is the lack of attention paid to nuclear weapons by United States' policymakers. To the extent these weapons are addressed, it is to consider significant reductions in the size of the US nuclear arsenal, to perhaps as few as 300 deployed strategic nuclear weapons, to advance the administration's nuclear disarmament goal. This push for reductions is part of a broader call for major reductions by organizations such as Global Zero. (1) We argue that such reductions are strategically risky, signal weakness, and invite challenges from US foes and worry among US allies. The time has come to state plainly--nuclear disarmament is an unpleasant dream that would jeopardize US security, make the world safe for conventional war, and undermine global stability. Further reductions in America's nuclear arsenal have the potential to embolden aggression against the interests of the United States and its allies, as well as to encourage proliferation. The United States' strategic amnesia about the important role of nuclear weapons in international politics is unique to Washington--it is clearly not shared by the leadership in Iran, Russia, or China. Moreover, it stands in stark contrast to the Cold War period where nuclear deterrence and the nuclear arsenal served as the strategic lodestar for the national security policies of the United States. Long forgotten are the days when American statesmen understood that, in order to advance its interests and deter aggression, Washington needed a credible, flexible, and responsive nuclear arsenal. Given their disappearance from national security debates, one could be forgiven for thinking nuclear weapons have no strategic value for the United States, and can be eliminated as the administration desires without cost or penalty. Only in the United States are nuclear weapons seen as passe, associated with the tools of the Cold War. Other nuclear and near-nuclear states see them as very useful tools of statecraft, today just as in the past. This neglect of the US nuclear enterprise has been comprehensive, cumulative, and caused some novel problems: the aging of the nuclear force structure, the dead-end career paths for Air Force and Navy officers, the lack of attention paid to deterrence theory and its complexities by think tanks and academics, the retirement of much of the workforce, and with it the loss of knowledge and experience. The United States has not addressed these problems with the force and urgency they require. The failure to solve these problems has been bipartisan, with both Congress and the White House sharing the blame. This article explains why nuclear weapons matter for the United States. To accomplish this, we explain the traditional roles of nuclear weapons for US foreign and defense policies--deterrence and coercion--and explain why these roles remain relevant. Why Nuclear Weapons Matter for the United States Nuclear weapons matter for purposes of deterrence and coercion--two of the major tools in the toolbox of the United States to advance and protect its interests in international politics. For deterrence purposes, nuclear weapons matter for five reasons. The first of these is deterrence of a nuclear attack on the US homeland. Nuclear weapons make the costs of such an attack prohibitive due to the consequences of nuclear retaliation. As in the Cold War, the United States is a target, and, just as then, it has enemies who wish its destruction. Nuclear weapons deter enemies such as al Qaeda who would deliberately attack the United States as well as countries like China that might be tempted to attack the US homeland as the result of escalation from a crisis (e.g., Taiwan in 1995-96). Second, nuclear weapons--both strategic and tactical--allow the United States to extend deterrence credibly, effectively, and relatively inexpensively to its allies. …

La relation mission-colonisation : une mise au point progressive dans le Dahomey des années 1860

In 1861 two Roman Catholic missionaries arrived and settled in Ouidah (Dahomey, West Africa). A French trading post was already established there. Navy officers from the French Naval Division located in Gabon occasionally visited the missionaries and traders as they were charged with ensuring their safety. Relationships between these three groups at first were noted for their courtesy. But some tensions did arise. Each group reported on its actions to its superiors : the missionaries to the Superior General of African Missions in Lyon, the traders to the head of theTrading Company Regis in Marseilles, the Navy Officers to the Ministry of the Navy in Paris. These authorities sent directives and gave approval for the actions taken. The occasional tensions were considered as opportunities for each group to see what demands it could make and what it could afford from the others. So a code of good conduct was to be drawn up.

A Tribute to Dr. Louis De Vorsey, Jr. (1929–2012)

A Tribute to Dr. Louis De Vorsey, Jr. (1929–2012) Sanford H. Bederman When The Library of Congress decided to produce its first resource guide to help celebrate the 1992 Columbus quincentennial, it made two important decisions. The first was that its initial publication would focus on the library’s vast holdings regarding the Age of Discovery, and the second was that Dr. Louis De Vorsey Jr. would write it. Who better to do it! Geographer Louis De Vorsey not only had a deep knowledge of the Library of Congress, but was also a leading American authority on historical documents and maps, and was in the vanguard of scholars who were celebrating the 1492 discovery of America. He recently had served as President of the Society for the History of Discoveries, and he had co-edited In the Wake of Columbus: Islands and Controversy in 1985, a series of essays that argued the locations of places in the Caribbean that may have been the site of the first landfall. In a paean to the Library of Congress, Lou in his resource guide literally takes the hands of his readers, and happily leads them to the diverse places where Columbiana and other important documents related to the Age of Discovery are housed. In 1992, Louis’s lavishly illustrated volume, Keys to the Encounter: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of the Age of Discovery, received the American Librarians Association Award as one of the ten best books published that year by an agency of the U.S. government. Louis De Vorsey’s long, illustrious career ended in Athens, Georgia on April 29, 2012 after a short, fatal bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 83 years old. At his death, several articles he wrote had been accepted for publication, and others were in various stages of completion. His most recent study (about Savannah, Georgia) was published this year in The Southeastern Geographer. Lou De Vorsey never stopped doing what he loved best. His publication record spanned over sixty years. I first met Lou De Vorsey in 1963 when he had just begun to teach at East Carolina University. He then taught at the University of North Carolina (1965–1967), after which he joined the geography faculty at the University of Georgia in 1968 where over the next twenty years he became one of the most distinguished scholars in the United States. He retired as Professor Emeritus in 1988. A favorite personal memory of Lou De Vorsey occurred in 1993 when I was a visiting professor at the University of Georgia. I was scheduled to teach a course in geographical exploration and discovery, and though long-retired, Lou attended every class, and actually we team-taught the course. Students got much more than what they paid for. Another memory occurred when Lou and I [End Page 440] shared a room at a geographical conference in Providence, Rhode Island. During the night, it seemed like every fire truck in New England was clanging right outside our room. We woke to learn that a whole nearby city block was on fire. It was an auspicious welcome to Rhode Island. Louis De Vorsey was born on April 6, 1929 in Newark, New Jersey, and attended school in nearby Lyndhurst. He earned the BA degree at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and then completed the MA in geography at Indiana University in 1954. Before he continued his academic studies, he entered the U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport News, Rhode Island, where he was commissioned as an ensign. While on active duty as a photo/radar navigator, Lou served in Japan, Okinawa, Thailand, Guam, and Alaska. One of his brief assignments while in the navy reserves was at the Naval History Division in Washington, D.C., where he worked on a volume titled The American Revolution, 1775–1783: An Atlas of 18thCentury Maps and Charts (1972). Lou was proud of his service in the navy—he held the rank of Commander, USNR-Retired. Prominently displayed at his memorial service at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Athens, Georgia was his Commander’s hat. While maintaining his commission in the U.S...

The story of Earth: the first 4.5 billion years, from stardust to living planet

Earth evolves. From first atom to molecule, mineral to magma, granite crust to single cell to verdant living landscape, ours is a planet constantly in flux. In this radical new approach to EarthÐ2Ђ™s biography, senior Carnegie Institution researcher and national bestselling author Robert M. Hazen reveals how the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphereÐ2Ђ―of rocks and living matterÐ2Ђ―has shaped our planet into the only one of its kind in the Solar System, if not the entire cosmos. With an astrobiologistÐ2Ђ™s imagination, a historianÐ2Ђ™s perspective, and a naturalistÐ2Ђ™s passion for the ground beneath our feet, Hazen explains how changes on an atomic level translate into dramatic shifts in EarthÐ2Ђ™s makeup over its 4.567 billion year existence. He calls upon a flurry of recent discoveries to portray our planetÐ2Ђ™s many iterations in vivid detailÐ2Ђ―from its fast-rotating infancy when the Sun rose every five hours and the Moon filled 250 times more sky than it does now, to its sea-bathed youth before the first continents arose; from the Great Oxidation Event that turned the land red, to the globe-altering volcanism that may have been the true killer of the dinosaurs. Through HazenÐ2Ђ™s theory of Ð2ЂNsco-evolution,Ð2ЂNœ we learn how reactions between organic molecules and rock crystals may have generated EarthÐ2Ђ™s first organisms, which in turn are responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties on the planetÐ2Ђ―thousands of different kinds of crystals that could not exist in a nonliving world. The Story of Earth is also the story of the pioneering men and women behind the sciences. Readers will meet black-market meteorite hawkers of the Sahara Desert, the gun-toting Feds who guarded the Apollo missionsÐ2Ђ™ lunar dust, and the World War II Navy officer whose super-pressurized Ð2ЂNsbombÐ2ЂNœÐ2Ђ―recycled from military hardwareÐ2Ђ―first simulated the molten rock of EarthÐ2Ђ™s mantle. As a mentor to a new generation of scientists, Hazen introduces the intrepid young explorers whose dispatches from EarthÐ2Ђ™s harshest landscapes will revolutionize geology. Celebrated by the New York Times for writing Ð2ЂNswith wonderful clarity about science . . . that effortlessly teaches as it zips along,Ð2ЂNœ Hazen proves a brilliant and entertaining guide on this grand tour of our planet inside and out. Lucid, controversial, and intellectually bracing, The Story of Earth is popular science of the highest order. Ð’Â

A Culturally Responsive, Transnational Middle Grades Teacher Education Program in American Samoa

Educators in American Samoa learn about teaching young adolescents through a transnational master's degree program.This article describes the development and implementation of a transnational middle level teacher education program, specifically based on the educative needs of young adolescent students and their teachers in American Samoa. For more than 30 years, the University of Hawai'i has partnered with the American Samoa Department of Education to provide undergraduate degrees in elementary education to a total of 647 graduates. While elementary education in American Samoa encompasses kindergarten through eighth grade, professional development needs specific to middle grades teachers have not been adequately addressed through these programs. In 2009, the University of Hawai'i Manoa pioneered a graduatelevel middle level teacher education program in American Samoa, the first program of its kind to focus on young adolescents' learning needs in this Pacific island territory. The 2011 Middle Level Master of Education degree (MLMED) cohort was the first group of inservice teachers ever to receive specialized middle grades teacher training in American Samoa.ContextAmerican Samoa is the center of Polynesia and is home to 65,000 people. Although modern ways have influenced the culture, the traditional Samoan way of life, centered on family and religion, is still predominant in the islands. On Flag Day, April 17, 2011, American Samoa celebrated 111 years of association with the United States. American Samoa has a unique political status as an unorganized and unincorporated United States Territory. As U.S. nationals, American Samoans cannot vote in national elections in the United States and have no representation in the final approval of legislation by Congress (United States General Accounting Office, 1997, p. 9). American Samoan nationals enjoy the privilege of non-restrictive travel to and from the United States and receive the following protections under the law:It shall be the policy of the Government of American Samoa to protect persons of Samoan ancestry against alienation of their lands and the destruction of the Samoans' way of life and language, contrary to their best interests. Such legislation as may be necessary may be enacted to protect the lands, customs, culture, and traditional Samoan family organization of persons of Samoan ancestry. (Government of American Samoa, 1966, Article 1, Sec. 3)The American Samoan education system has been influenced by the United States and tied to an American philosophy of education for more than 100 years. While missionaries began working in American Samoa in 1830, the first public school was established there in 1904, with U.S. Naval wives and officers serving as teachers (Sutherland, 1941). The first students to attend the American public schools were of the Navy officers and part-Samoan children (Allen, 1962, p. 176). The school system in American Samoa evolved through the 20th century and was influenced over the years by the U.S. Navy, the Barstow Foundation for American Samoa, and the U.S. Department of the Interior (see, e.g., Allen, 1962; Pirie, 1976; Reid, 1986; Schramm, Nelson, & Betham, 1981; Sutherland, 1941).American Samoa's young adolescents riskYoung adolescents in American Samoa can be labeled at in terms of academic performance in school and risk behaviors. On the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 87% of American Samoan eighth graders in public schools scored or below a level in reading (Jerry & Lutkus, 2003), and assessments of American Samoan eighth graders in mathematics and science indicated that 93% and 95% of these students, respectively, lacked basic skills in these subjects (Hunkin-Finau, 2006). To put these results in perspective, 26% of 8th graders nationwide scored or below level in reading. Moreover, American Samoa had the largest percentage of eighth graders or below a basic level in reading, followed by the District of Colombia (52%), the U. …

Who benefits from simulator training: Personality and heart rate variability in relation to situation awareness during navigation training

ObjectiveThis study tested the relationship between individual differences and Situation Awareness (SA) during training in a navigation simulator. BackgroundSimulators have become an important tool in the training and education of maritime personnel with a view to improving decisions and performance. There are a few, inconclusive empirical studies that have focused on mapping personality characteristics and their link to the ability to generate and maintain SA during simulator training. MethodThirty-six first-year students from the Royal Norwegian Navy Officer Candidate School participated in the study. SA was measured using both subjective and observer ratings. ResultsThe results indicated that low scores on Neuroticism and high scores on Extraversion and Conscientiousness (resilient personality type) predicted both subjective and observer-rated SA. Furthermore, participants with high SA were able to modulate their Heart Rate Variability (HRV), with suppression of HRV during navigation training as well showing recovery of HRV. ApplicationThe potential applications of this research include the assessment of personality differences as a tool in selecting navigators, and the use of HRV as an objective index of adaptability to environmental demands.

One Hot Ticket

One Hot Ticket M.O. Walsh (bio) NowTrends. Karl Taro Greenfeld. Short Flight/Long Drive Books. http://www.hobartpulp.com/minibooks. 346 pages; paper, $11.95. Karl Taro Greenfeld's new collection of stories, NowTrends, is fashioned like a travel guide. It is diminutive, with three alternate scenic covers, designed to fit easily in the front pouch of your backpack. It feels like an adventure before you even open it. Ok, reader, it asks you. Where do you want to go? Destinations include, but are not limited to, Mt. Everest, Indonesia, California, China, and the Sea of Japan. Your tour guides will be a 15-year-old Chinese gymnastic prodigy, a Japanese Imperial Navy Officer, a high-priced dominatrix who dreams of Australia, a slew of journalists on befuddling assignments, and a writer who carries a jug of his own urine. You and your host will visit these locations in times of war and prosperity, in weather both frigid and surf-worthy, and, once you depart, there will be no returns. You would have to be a fool to want one. The stories in NowTrends are some of the most engrossing and fully realized to appear in years. Readers of contemporary fiction should rejoice in even further proof that we, as human beings, are still as skilled as we've ever been at looking at one another and boldly considering, compassionately imagining. There is no evidence here of permanent damage done to the modern psyche by the Internet, social networking, or political correctness. Greenfeld's investment in his characters, both the heroes and the fools, is as sustained and total as our finest literary ancestors, and this book is a master class. A quick glance at Greenfeld's biography gives up the secret that the deck is stacked in his favor, as he has visited many of the places in NowTrends himself. His work as a travel writer is award winning and expansive (see pieces in New York Times, Lonely Planet, and Time, for starters), and this penchant for journalism renders his details precise and new, full of insider knowledge that is not likely to appear on any brochure. Consider this opening description of Mt. Everest, for example, in the story "Client": Base camp was wretched purgatory, tents billowing in omnipresent wind, refuse piled in terraced mounds, empty Styrofoam cups making popping noises as wind bounced them along stony earth, and a dozen steps in each direction were ziggurats of frozen shit, as thousands of climbers who passed through every year left feces in their wake. When one thinks of the highest peak on Earth, they are not likely to think of humanity's most lowly activities, but this sense of a dark human underbelly beneath seemingly exotic locales is paramount to nearly every story in this book. A trip to China to interview a celebrity, for instance, may end up with you bartering for the life of a friend who's been mysteriously imprisoned, as in the title story "NowTrends." A lucky occurrence at a Tokyo nightclub, one in which you are saved by a beautiful stranger, may end with you desperately trying to score speed for a prostitute by chasing down a sketchy guy in leather pants named Kimi. Or, as the narrator phrases it in the amazing story "Mistakes Were Made, Errors Happened": Here's what my day looked like after I gave Kimi the money, waited around and then went to look for him. NK=not finding Kimi K=finding Kimi X represents a medium-sized trip and XXX represents a long trip: XXX NK XXX NK XXX NK XXX NK XXX NK. This type of playful narration is found throughout a collection that is often its most hilarious when you least expect it. "Is this weird?" the narrator of the story "Silver" asks us out of the blue. "Sometimes I would go to the freezer in the little office kitchen and scoop up a mug of ice cubes. Then I would head to the bathroom where I would dump them in the urinal and piss on them." And "As for the rest of my job," he tells us, "it was starting to depress me." So...

Outcomes of Shared Mental Models of Team Members in Cross Training and High-Intensity Simulations

The present study examined whether shared mental models of team members’ characteristics were associated with team outcomes (i.e., performance, communication, and physical arousal) in cross training and a high-intensity simulation requiring coordinated team action. In a quasi-experimental design, 36 Navy officer cadets were randomly assigned to 12 newly formed tactical teams in the no shared mental modal condition (NoSMM). In contrast, 33 Navy officer cadets in 11 seasoned teams were included in the shared mental model condition (TMSMM). All teams were exposed to the same naval scenarios in their cross training and simulation exercise. The results showed that teams with TMSMM had superior performance and communication patterns characterized by updates and confirmations compared to the NoSMM teams during cross training and simulation. During cross training, TMSMM teams provided more backup than NoSMM teams. These findings suggest that shared mental models of team member are transferable through tasks and enhance the effects of cross training. The present study extends previous research indicating that shared mental models of team members represent an independent, adaptive asset at the group level that enhances team efficiency.

The development of a prototype behavioral marker system for US Navy officers of the deck

The officer of the deck (OOD) of a US Navy ship is in charge of the safe and proper operation of the ship, and accountable to the commanding officer for every event that occurs during his or her OOD watch. This paper discusses the development of a prototype behavioral marker system to evaluate, and provide feedback on, the nontechnical (cognitive, social, and personal resource) skills of OODs. An initial set of 17 categories of nontechnical skills were identified from a literature review. A focus group with four qualified OODs used the skills identified from the literature review to develop an initial taxonomy of five categories, each with two or three corresponding behavioral elements. This taxonomy was then used to classify 149 statements concerned with the nontechnical skills of OODs collected from 16 critical incident interviews. After three iterations of adaptations to the taxonomy, two independent raters were able to reach acceptable levels of reliability in using the taxonomy to classify the statements. Although further development work is required, it is suggested that the prototype behavioral marker system has implications for improving safety and performance on military and civilian ships.