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Military technologies are typically the product of long-term development efforts. These technologies are often adapted late in the development process for use by other users, including other members of the defense enterprise, foreign militaries, or the commercial sector. The need to adapt a technology can arise from cost over-runs or changing operational requirements. This article describes a value-based methodology for developing a transition plan early in the development process, when the system is still in the conceptual phase. Performing this analysis early in the design phase allows for design choices that will support adapting the system for other users. Moreover, it provides a risk mitigation strategy against cost over-run and changes in operational requirements. The process begins by capturing the functional architecture of the technology and analyzing them against a set of tasks associated with different military positions. From there, the adapted technology is evaluated for its projected adequacy based on the value added and the effort required for adaptation. The end-state of this analysis is a value-based model that identifies a portfolio of possible alternative markets and/or uses, which can be comparatively analyzed. A case study is presented for adapting a military augmented reality system for a different market.

Each job field (branch) in the Army requires a unique set of skills and talents of the officers assigned. Officers who demonstrate the required skills are often more successful in their assigned branch. To better understand how success is described across branches, research was conducted using text mining and text analysis of a data set of Officer Evaluation Reports (OERs). This research looked for common trends and discrepancies across varying branches and like groups of branches by analyzing the narrative portion of OERs. Text analysis methods examined words and bigrams commonly used to describe varying degrees of performance by officers. Topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was also conducted on top rated narratives to investigate trends and discrepancies in clustering narratives. Findings show that qualitative narratives for the top two performance designations fail to differentiate between officers’ varying levels of performance regardless of branch.

The United States Army uses both subjective and objective evaluation methods when assessing the performance of duties and potential for future service in the Officer Evaluation Report (OER). Males and females proportionally receive the same objective ratings, but on the surface, it is difficult to determine whether subjective ratings are equal. This paper seeks to examine the different ways success is described in each gender and how the OER follows or deviates from these trends. Upon examination of narratives written on the evaluation reports, many of the same words are used to describe success of males and females in the narratives written by their raters. The similarities amongst the reports suggest that the narratives follow a standardized format which may devalue their purpose of providing individualized feedback to the officer and to promotion boards.

India is an extremely diverse and culturally unique nation that is characterized by a large and growing population. Amidst such potential, however, it is plagued by many levels of corruption and often ineffective governmental actions. Such conditions have given rise to a large human trafficking market that has pervasively spread throughout the region. Human Trafficking is a complex system defined by a multitude of endogenous and exogenous variables which drive an inhumane operation. From the human traffickers at the source nodes to the individual clients who visit and sexual exploit the girls through prostitution, human trafficking is often seen in India as a natural part of society or as a necessary evil. This paper aims at identifying the key variables which drive the human trafficking market in order to explain how such dynamics and structures contribute to the system and to what extent.

SUMMARY: The authors describe the derivation of nine categories of dependency based on age and selected items from the Wessex Mental Handicap Register. The Bryn-y-Neuadd Degree of Dependency Rating Scale has been used in at least three reports, and is generally recognised to be a useful instrument at the early stage of planning service requirements for developments in geographically defined areas.

This paper invokes the utility of design of experiments (DOE) as a means for achieving innovation in a high-risk production environment. DOE enables objective scrutiny of causal relationships between the inputs and outputs of a system. This scrutiny empowers researchers and decision makers to better understand, not only the behavior of the system, but also the potential trade-space that could be exploited for innovation. A high-risk production operation, characterized by high cost and high value products, encourages process stability and deters innovation. Operators maintain the working status-quo unless positive outcomes can be realized with a high degree of certainty. Iterative DOE provides the capability to develop that desired certainty, while mitigating the requirements of a high-risk production pipeline. The U.S. Army Aviation training pipeline provides a unique lens through which we can observe the prescribed utilization of DOE as a means to innovative ends.