Behavioral countermeasures

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research s Department of Behavioral Biology has developed a field-deployable version of a commercial Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) that has been widely used in sleep research. The software runs on handheld PDAs running the Palm Operating System (Palm OS). It is modeled after the simple reaction time task of Wilkinson and Houghton,57 as modified by Dinges and Powell.58 The Palm OS version incorporates additional stimulus, feedback, control, and data options developed by Dr. Thome. In laboratory studies, performance on the PDA task has been shown to be sensitive to time-on-task fatigue effects, sleep deprivation, and circadian variation.18 Field studies have utilized the PVT to measure the efficacy of caffeine gum as a sleep loss countermeasure. 

Incidentally, according to OTA, there are two exactly opposite schools of thought with regard to the use of countermeasures by criminal bombers. Every person knowledgeable in expls contacted by OTA believed that countermeasures would be employed. Every behavioral psychologist and many law-enforcement people thought that countermeasures would not be used to any appreciable extent... 

The principal nonpharmacological countermeasures that have been shown to have consistent beneficial effects on cognitive performance are (a) napping (36,37 see also Chap. 22), and (b) behavioral measures to protect sleep. 

Population-based surveys typically have found that a substantial percentage of people report that they do not get sufficient sleep (1). While the exact prevalence may be disputed, it is an accepted fact that many people get insufficient sleep. In addition to those recognizing their insufficient sleep are other individuals who show objective evidence of excessive sleepiness, deny difficulty with sleepiness, and yet show normalization of their alertness with extended time in bed (TIB) (2). Consciously or subconsciously, people employ various stratagems to counteract the disruptive effects of their sleep loss. While the functionally disruptive effects and health risks associated with sleep loss and its consequent daytime sleepiness are generally recognized, questions remain regarding what behavioral and environment factors act as countermeasures to sleep loss and daytime sleepiness, as well as to their effectiveness and duration of effect. 

This chapter will review all of the behavioral and environmental interventions that may act as countermeasures to the disruptive effects of sleep loss on waking function. The literature addressing this question is very limited, not well organized, and quite diverse. Many questions remain unanswered. Before reviewing the evidence regarding countermeasures, we will provide a conceptual analysis of the issues surrounding them. 

The analysis above and the literature reviewed below approach the definition of a countermeasure as the external application of stimuli or conditions that counteract the impact of sleep loss. However, in the real world people often either consciously or unconsciously make behavioral choices when experiencing sleep loss. Those behavioral choices might also be considered as countermea-... 

Detect countermeasures allow facility personnel to identify surveillance and incipient attack. Security cameras play an important role in detection, and recent developments in software make it possible to pick unusual behavior out of crowds for more thorough investigation. Entry alarms and proximity alarms are additional detection countermeasures. In extremely sensitive cases, detection countermeasures may be set a distance away from the facility to identify a possible attack before it arrives at the boundary. 

Burris DR, MacIntyre WG. 1984. Water solubility behavior of hydrocarbon mixtures — Implications for petroleum dissolution. In Vandermeulen JH, Hrudey SE, eds. Oil in freshwater Chemistry, biology, countermeasure technology. New York,NY Pergamon Press, 85-94. 

Because of the obvious medical and biological threats to humans, much of the research cited here was done by multidisciplinary scientists using animal models in studies designed to predict human bodily and behavioral responses to both CWA threats and to the challenges that accompany use of medical prophylactic countermeasures or treatment regimens. 

Many feel that emulsification is the second most important behavioral characteristic of oil after evaporation. Emulsification has a very great effect on the behavior of oil spills at sea. As a result of emulsification, evaporation of oil spills slows by orders of magnitude, spreading slows by similar rates, and the oil rides lower in the water column, showing different drag with respect to the wind. Emulsification also significantly affects other aspects of a spill. Spill countermeasures are quite different for emulsions as they are hard to recover mechanically, to treat, or to bum. 

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