Learning through Shared Procedures -A Case of Using Technology to Bridge the Gap between Theory and Practice in Officer Education

In this article we explore how computer assisted exercises may allow for bridging the traditional gap between theory and practice in professional education. To educate officers able to master the complexity of the battlefield the Norwegian Military Academy needs to develop a learning environment that allows for creating viable connections between the educational environment and the field of practice. In response to this challenge we explore the conditions necessary to make computer assisted training systems (CATS) a useful tool to create structural similarities between an educational context and the field of military practice. Although, CATS may facilitate work procedures close to real life situations, this case do demonstrate how professional competence also must build on viable learning theories and environments. This paper explores the conditions that allow for using simulators to facilitate professional competence from within an educational setting. We develop a generic didactic model that ascribes learning to participation in iterative cycles of action and reflection. The development of this model is motivated by the need to develop an interdisciplinary professional education rooted in the pattern of military practice.

A Model for the Characterization and Selection of Beeswaxes for use as base Substitute Tissue in Photon Teletherapy

This paper presents a model for the characterization and selection of beeswaxes for use as base substitute tissue for the manufacture of objects suitable for external radiotherapy using megavoltage photon beams. The model of characterization was divided into three distinct stages: 1) verification of aspects related to the origin of the beeswax, the bee species, the flora in the vicinity of the beehives and procedures to detect adulterations; 2) evaluation of physical and chemical properties; and 3) evaluation of beam attenuation capacity. The chemical composition of the beeswax evaluated in this study was similar to other simulators commonly used in radiotherapy. The behavior of the mass attenuation coefficient in the radiotherapy energy range was comparable to other simulators. The proposed model is efficient and enables convenient assessment of the use of any particular beeswax as a base substitute tissue for radiotherapy.

A Review on WEB Resources in Teaching of Geotechnical Engineering

The use of computer hardware and software in education and training dates to the early 1940s, when American researchers developed flight simulators which used analog computers to generate simulated onboard instrument data.Computer software is widely used to help engineers and undergraduate student solve their problems quickly and more accurately. This paper presents the list of computer software in geotechnical engineering.

The Effects of Immersion on Visual Attention and Detection of Signals Performance for Virtual Reality Training Systems

The Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming increasingly important for business, education, and entertainment, therefore VR technology have been applied for training purposes in the areas of military, safety training and flying simulators. In particular, the superior and high reliability VR training system is very important in immersion. Manipulation training in immersive virtual environments is difficult partly because users must do without the hap contact with real objects they rely on in the real world to orient themselves and their manipulated. In this paper, we create a convincing questionnaire of immersion and an experiment to assess the influence of immersion on performance in VR training system. The Immersion Questionnaire (IQ) included spatial immersion, Psychological immersion, and Sensory immersion. We show that users with a training system complete visual attention and detection of signals. Twenty subjects were allocated to a factorial design consisting of two different VR systems (Desktop VR and Projector VR). The results indicated that different VR representation methods significantly affected the participants- Immersion dimensions.

An Analytical Electron Mobility Model based on Particle Swarm Computation for Siliconbased Devices

The study of the transport coefficients in electronic devices is currently carried out by analytical and empirical models. This study requires several simplifying assumptions, generally necessary to lead to analytical expressions in order to study the different characteristics of the electronic silicon-based devices. Further progress in the development, design and optimization of Silicon-based devices necessarily requires new theory and modeling tools. In our study, we use the PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization) technique as a computational tool to develop analytical approaches in order to study the transport phenomenon of the electron in crystalline silicon as function of temperature and doping concentration. Good agreement between our results and measured data has been found. The optimized analytical models can also be incorporated into the circuits simulators to study Si-based devices without impact on the computational time and data storage.

Optimization of HALO Structure Effects in 45nm p-type MOSFETs Device Using Taguchi Method

In this study, the Taguchi method was used to optimize the effect of HALO structure or halo implant variations on threshold voltage (VTH) and leakage current (ILeak) in 45nm p-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) device. Besides halo implant dose, the other process parameters which used were Source/Drain (S/D) implant dose, oxide growth temperature and silicide anneal temperature. This work was done using TCAD simulator, consisting of a process simulator, ATHENA and device simulator, ATLAS. These two simulators were combined with Taguchi method to aid in design and optimize the process parameters. In this research, the most effective process parameters with respect to VTH and ILeak are halo implant dose (40%) and S/D implant dose (52%) respectively. Whereas the second ranking factor affecting VTH and ILeak are oxide growth temperature (32%) and halo implant dose (34%) respectively. The results show that after optimizations approaches is -0.157V at ILeak=0.195mA/μm.

Dynamic-Stochastic Influence Diagrams: Integrating Time-Slices IDs and Discrete Event Systems Modeling

The Influence Diagrams (IDs) is a kind of Probabilistic Belief Networks for graphic modeling. The usage of IDs can improve the communication among field experts, modelers, and decision makers, by showing the issue frame discussed from a high-level point of view. This paper enhances the Time-Sliced Influence Diagrams (TSIDs, or called Dynamic IDs) based formalism from a Discrete Event Systems Modeling and Simulation (DES M&S) perspective, for Exploring Analysis (EA) modeling. The enhancements enable a modeler to specify times occurred of endogenous events dynamically with stochastic sampling as model running and to describe the inter- influences among them with variable nodes in a dynamic situation that the existing TSIDs fails to capture. The new class of model is named Dynamic-Stochastic Influence Diagrams (DSIDs). The paper includes a description of the modeling formalism and the hiberarchy simulators implementing its simulation algorithm, and shows a case study to illustrate its enhancements.

Two-dimensional Analytical Drain Current Model for Multilayered-Gate Material Engineered Trapezoidal Recessed Channel(MLGME-TRC) MOSFET: a Novel Design

In this paper, for the first time, a two-dimensional (2D) analytical drain current model for sub-100 nm multi-layered gate material engineered trapezoidal recessed channel (MLGMETRC) MOSFET: a novel design is presented and investigated using ATLAS and DEVEDIT device simulators, to mitigate the large gate leakages and increased standby power consumption that arise due to continued scaling of SiO2-based gate dielectrics. The twodimensional (2D) analytical model based on solution of Poisson-s equation in cylindrical coordinates, utilizing the cylindrical approximation, has been developed which evaluate the surface potential, electric field, drain current, switching metric: ION/IOFF ratio and transconductance for the proposed design. A good agreement between the model predictions and device simulation results is obtained, verifying the accuracy of the proposed analytical model.

Graphical Environment for Modeling Control Systems in Full Scope Training Simulators

This paper describes the development of a control system model using a graphical software tool. This control system is part of an operator training simulator developed for the National Training Center for Operators of Ixtapantongo (CNCAOI, acronym according to its name in Spanish language) of the Mexico-s Federal Commission of Electricity, CFE). The Department of Simulation of the Electrical Research Institute (IIE) developed this simulator using as reference the Unit I of the Combined Cycle Power Plant El Sauz, located at the centre of Mexico. The first step in the project was the developing of the Gas Turbine System and its control system simulator. The Turbo Gas simulator was finished and delivered to CNCAOI in March 2007 for commercial operation. This simulator is a high-fidelity real time dynamic simulator built and tested for accurate operation over the entire load range. The simulator was used primarily for operator training although it has been used for procedure development and evaluation of plant transients.

Performance Analysis of Digital Signal Processors Using SMV Benchmark

Unlike general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP processors) are strongly application-dependent. To meet the needs for diverse applications, a wide variety of DSP processors based on different architectures ranging from the traditional to VLIW have been introduced to the market over the years. The functionality, performance, and cost of these processors vary over a wide range. In order to select a processor that meets the design criteria for an application, processor performance is usually the major concern for digital signal processing (DSP) application developers. Performance data are also essential for the designers of DSP processors to improve their design. Consequently, several DSP performance benchmarks have been proposed over the past decade or so. However, none of these benchmarks seem to have included recent new DSP applications. In this paper, we use a new benchmark that we recently developed to compare the performance of popular DSP processors from Texas Instruments and StarCore. The new benchmark is based on the Selectable Mode Vocoder (SMV), a speech-coding program from the recent third generation (3G) wireless voice applications. All benchmark kernels are compiled by the compilers of the respective DSP processors and run on their simulators. Weighted arithmetic mean of clock cycles and arithmetic mean of code size are used to compare the performance of five DSP processors. In addition, we studied how the performance of a processor is affected by code structure, features of processor architecture and optimization of compiler. The extensive experimental data gathered, analyzed, and presented in this paper should be helpful for DSP processor and compiler designers to meet their specific design goals.

Diagnostic Investigation of Liftoff Time of Solid Propellant Rockets

In this paper parametric analytical studies have been carried out to examine the intrinsic flow physics pertaining to the liftoff time of solid propellant rockets. Idealized inert simulators of solid rockets are selected for numerical studies to examining the preignition chamber dynamics. Detailed diagnostic investigations have been carried out using an unsteady two-dimensional k-omega turbulence model. We conjectured from the numerical results that the altered variations of the igniter jet impingement angle, turbulence level, time and location of the first ignition, flame spread characteristics, the overall chamber dynamics including the boundary layer growth history are having bearing on the time for nozzle flow chocking for establishing the required thrust for the rocket liftoff. We concluded that the altered flow choking time of strap-on motors with the pre-determined identical ignition time at the lift off phase will lead to the malfunctioning of the rocket. We also concluded that, in the light of the space debris, an error in predicting the liftoff time can lead to an unfavorable launch window amounts the satellite injection errors and/or the mission failures.