Fluid teams.

Fluid teams are teams whose members are drawn from various technical domains or organizational divisions and assembled to undertake a critical, time-limited task. Members of these teams are rapidly assembled, have no prior familiarity or experience working together, must begin work immediately to accomplish the task, and then cease to exist following completion. In this article, we elaborate and clarify the construct of fluid teams, examine the challenges of the fluid team context for military team performance, and propose approaches for supporting fluid team performance.

Composition considerations for fluid teams: a review.

The need exists to better understand how to comprise fluid teams-teams that are assembled on short notice, from members with little to no familiarity, who come together to carry out a time-limited task, and then disband. Due to the ever-increasing complexity of the modern workplace, the demand for these types of fluid teams is growing in task domains such as the military, aviation, healthcare, and industry. The aim of this paper is to review the team composition literature to shed light on composition considerations for forming fluid teams.

Supporting fluid teams: a research agenda.

Fluid teams are teams that are rapidly assembled from across disciplines or areas of expertise to address a near-term problem. They are typically composed of individuals who have no prior familiarity with one another, who as a team must begin work immediately, and who disband at the completion of the task. Prior research has noted the challenges posed by this unique type of team context.

Optimizing aid activation in adaptive and non-adaptive aiding systems: A framework for design and validation.

Development of adaptive aids to support human performance in complex systems is a cornerstone of human factors. Research in this area has led to a diversity of ideas regarding potential activation methods. However, little guidance has been provided on how to select among aid activation methods, and this lack of guidance could hinder adaptive aid development and deployment.

Robot Authority in Human-Robot Teaming: Effects of Human-Likeness and Physical Embodiment on Compliance.

The anticipated social capabilities of robots may allow them to serve in authority roles as part of human-machine teams. To date, it is unclear if, and to what extent, human team members will comply with requests from their robotic teammates, and how such compliance compares to requests from human teammates. This research examined how the human-likeness and physical embodiment of a robot affect compliance to a robot's request to perseverate utilizing a novel task paradigm.

Performance, Hemodynamics, and Stress in a Two-Day Vigilance Task: Practical and Theoretical Implications.

Objective: To explore vigilance task performance, cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV), workload, and stress in a within-subjects, two-session experiment.

Background: Vigilance, or sustained attention, tasks are often characterized by a decline in operator performance and CBFV with time on task, and high workload and stress. Though performance is known to improve with practice, past research has not included measures of CBFV, stress, and workload in a within-subjects multi-session design, which may also provide insight into ongoing theoretical debate.

Overload and automation-dependence in a multi-UAS simulation: Task demand and individual difference factors.

Future unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations will require control of multiple vehicles. Operators are vulnerable to cognitive overload, despite support from system automation. This study tested whether attentional resource theory predicts impacts of cognitive demands on performance measures, including automation-dependence and stress.

Beyond frequency counts: Novel conceptual recurrence analysis metrics to index semantic coordination in team communications.

Semantic alignment is a key process underlying interpersonal and team communication. However, semantic similarity is difficult to quantify, and statistical approaches designed to measure it often rely on methods that make the identification of the relative importance of key words difficult. This study outlines how conceptual recurrence analysis (CRA) can address these issues and can be used to detect conceptual structure in interpersonal communication.

Evaluation of the Team Workload Questionnaire (TWLQ) in a Team-Choice Task.

Objective: The present study was designed to evaluate the team workload questionnaire (TWLQ) in a task that was distinct from the task used to create it.

Background: The TWLQ was created from workload ratings generated by members of athletic sports teams. Given that such teams represent only a portion of the diversity of operational teams, we aimed to assess the generalizability of the TWLQ.

Vigilance and Automation Dependence in Operation of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS): A Simulation Study.

Objective: This simulation study investigated factors influencing sustained performance and fatigue during operation of multiple Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The study tested effects of time-on-task and automation reliability on accuracy in surveillance tasks and dependence on automation. It also investigated the role of trait and state individual difference factors.

Vigilance Tasks: Unpleasant, Mentally Demanding, and Stressful Even When Time Flies.

Objective: To determine whether perceived time progression (PTP) moderates participants' negative reactions to vigilance tasks.

Background: Vigilance tasks are rated by participants to be unenjoyable and as having high levels of workload and stress. Based on the adage, "You are having fun when time flies," we tested the possibility that accelerating PTP might reduce these negative experiences.

The Neuroergonomics of Vigilance.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of uncertainty about where in the field of view critical signals for detection appear during a vigilance task (spatial uncertainty) on cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) and oculomotor fatigue.

Background: Neuroergonomics is a dimension of human factors founded by Raja Parasuraman that studies brain functions underlying performance at work. Neuroergonomic studies have shown that observers in vigilance tasks lose information-processing resources over time and experience oculomotor fatigue as indexed by a temporal decline in CBFV and elevation in eye closure as reflected in the PERCLOS metric.

The Independence and Interdependence of Coacting Observers in Regard to Performance Efficiency, Workload, and Stress in a Vigilance Task.

Objective: We investigated performance, workload, and stress in groups of paired observers who performed a vigilance task in a coactive (independent) manner.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that groups of coactive observers detect more signals in a vigilance task than observers working alone. Therefore, the use of such groups might be effective in enhancing signal detection in operational situations.

Efficacy of adapalene/benzoyl peroxide combination in moderate inflammatory acne and its impact on patient adherence.

Background And Objectives: Adapalene 0.1 %/benzoyl peroxide (BPO) 2.5 % (Epiduo®) is the first, fixed-dose topical combination gel developed for the once-daily treatment of acne.

Effects of Stereoscopic Depth on Vigilance Performance and Cerebral Hemodynamics.

Objective: We tested the possibility that monitoring a display wherein critical signals for detection were defined by a stereoscopic three-dimensional (3-D) image might be more resistant to the vigilance decrement, and to temporal declines in cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV), than monitoring a display featuring a customary two-dimensional (2-D) image.

Background: Hancock has asserted that vigilance studies typically employ stimuli for detection that do not exemplify those that occur in the natural world. As a result, human performance is suboptimal.

The sustained attention to response task (SART) does not promote mindlessness during vigilance performance.

Objective: In this study, we evaluated the validity of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) as a means for promoting mindlessness in vigilance performance.

Background: Vigilance tasks typically require observers to respond to critical signals and to withhold responding to neutral events. The SART features the opposite response requirements, which supposedly leads it to promote a mindless, non-thoughtful approach to the vigilance task To test that notion, we compared the SART to the traditional vigilance format (TVF) in terms of diagnostic accuracy assessed through decision theory measures of positive and negative predictive power (PPP and NPP), perceived mental workload indexed by the Multiple Resource Questionnaire, and oculomotor activity reflected in the Nearest Neighbor Index and fixation dwell times.

Measuring workload in collaborative contexts: trait versus state perspectives.

Objective: In the present study, we explored the state versus trait aspects of measures of task and team workload in a disaster simulation.

Background: There is often a need to assess workload in both individual and collaborative settings. Researchers in this field often use the NASATask Load Index (NASA-TLX) as a global measure of workload by aggregating the NASA-TLX's component items.

Turicella otitidis and Corynebacterium auris: 20 years on.

Turicella otitidis and Corynebacterium auris, described as new species 20 years ago, have been isolated mainly from the external ear canal and middle ear fluid. While their taxonomic position has been clearly established, their diagnosis in the routine laboratory is difficult. The question of their pathogenic potential in otitis is still open but might be elucidated better if corynebacteria are speciated more often.

Physio-behavioral coupling in a cooperative team task: contributors and relations.

Research indicates that coactors performing cooperative tasks often exhibit spontaneous and unintended similarities in their physiological and behavioral responses--a phenomenon referred to here as physio-behavioral coupling (PBC). The purpose of this research was to identify contributors to PBC; examine relationships between PBC, team performance, and perceived team attributes (e.g.

Event-related cerebral hemodynamics reveal target-specific resource allocation for both "go" and "no-go" response-based vigilance tasks.

Transcranial Doppler sonography was used to measure cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) in the right and left cerebral hemispheres during the performance of a 50-min visual vigilance session. Observers monitored a simulated flight of unmanned aerial vehicles for cases in which one of the vehicles was flying in an inappropriate direction relative to its cohorts. Two types of vigilance tasks were employed: a traditional task in which observers made button press ("go") responses to critical signals, and a modification of the traditional task called the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in which "go" responses acknowledged nonsignal events and response withholding ("no-go") signified signal detection.

Conceptualization and measurement of team workload: a critical need.

Objective: The purpose of this article is to present and expand on current theories and measurement techniques for assessing team workload.

Background: To date, little research has been conducted on the workload experienced by teams. A validated theory describing team workload, which includes an account of its relation to individual workload, has not been articulated.

Use of the RoboFlag synthetic task environment to investigate workload and stress responses in UAV operation.

Use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an increasingly important element of military missions. However, controlling UAVs may impose high stress and workload on the operator. This study evaluated the use of the RoboFlag simulated environment as a means for profiling multiple dimensions of stress and workload response to a task requiring control of multiple vehicles (robots).

Corynebacterium canis sp. nov., isolated from a wound infection caused by a dog bite.

A non-lipophilic, coryneform bacterium isolated from a patient's wound caused by a dog bite was characterized by phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular genetic methods. Chemotaxonomic features suggested assignment of the unknown bacterium to the genus Corynebacterium. The isolate exhibited the following unusual features, which made it possible to phenotypically differentiate it from all other medically relevant corynebacteria: the Gram stain showed some very filamentous rods (>15 μm in length); some cells exhibited branching; colonies were domed and adherent to agar; the micro-organism was positive for pyrazinamidase, β-glucosidase, α-glucosidase and trypsin but negative for β-galactosidase.