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At least 19 records

Exploring the Psychometrics of Common Post-Scenario Human Factors Questionnaires of Workload, Situation Awareness, and Perceived Difficulty

Abstract: The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) program has the primary mission of sustaining operation of the existing commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) through a multi-pathway approach in conducting research and development (R&D). In this effort, the role of human factors engineering (HFE) has been an integral in ensuring new digital upgrades that are part of the overall main control room modernization strategy for various U.S. NPPs optimize human-system performance and do not introduce new human failure modes. In this process, testing and evaluation of concept (i.e., prototype) human machine interfaces (HMIs) are done in operator-in-the-loop studies at various stages of the HFE modification process, such as during design and verification and validation (V&V) [1]. During these studies, licensed operators go through select scenarios using a testbed, such as a full-scale simulator or at a NPP’s training simulator, to identify potential usability issues and provide general design feedback regarding the new digital HMIs. Human-system performance is measured and evaluated through a range of objective and self-report measures that capture aspects of plant performance, task performance, workload, situation awareness, and anthropometric and ergonomic concerns [2]. The use of post-scenario questionnaires is an acceptable method for gathering measures of workload and situation awareness. To this end, the NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) [e.g., 3, 4, & 5] and Situation Awareness Rating Technique (SART) [e.g., 6 & 7] are common standardized questionnaires used for evaluating workload and situation awareness, respectively. When combined, these questionnaires consist of a total of 15 questions, each using a different rating scale. Debriefs are also done through interviews with operators to gather design insight after each scenario. Since operator- and training simulator-time is limited, a concern during this post-scenario period of operator-in-the-loop studies is the limited time available to run scenarios, administer post-scenario questionnaires, and debrief within the allotted simulator time. To address this potential problem, this paper explores the psychometric characteristics of NASA-TLX, SART, and a common one-question post-scenario usability questionnaire (i.e., the single ease question – SEQ [8]) in effort to inform future development of a condensed questionnaire that captures aspects of workload and situation awareness. This exploratory work uses data from four different operator-in-the-loop studies completed under prior LWRS operator-in-the-loop studies. Findings from this paper should support future development of a consolidated questionnaire that may be used in operator-in-the-loop studies, when time is compressed, that conforms to the HFE scientific and regulatory requirements set for NPP control room modernization.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Stakeholder Questionnaire on Fish Passage Facilities at U.S. Hydropower Developments

To mitigate the environmental impacts of hydropower dams on fish populations in rivers, fish passage infrastructure may be required by regulatory authorities or recommended by state or federal agencies to allow migratory fish to pass hydropower barriers and complete their life histories. However, information on the location, types, and characteristics of fish passage infrastructure is incomplete at the national scale. This lack of information limits understanding of current fish passage capabilities and hinders efforts to anticipate future passage requirements during project licensing or relicensing. To address this knowledge gap, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnered with federal agency and industry stakeholders to create the first national-scale database of fish passage infrastructure at U.S. hydropower developments. As part of this effort, a stakeholder questionnaire was created and deployed to solicit information on fish passage infrastructure, including engineering characteristics, operational schedules, targeted species, and costs. This online questionnaire was designed to allow respondents to provide highly detailed information regarding fish passage capabilities at U.S. hydropower developments as efficiently as possible. The questionnaire improved database coverage and accuracy by providing valuable development- or passage-specific stakeholder knowledge that is not otherwise publicly available. However, questionnaire response rates were low, and stakeholders showed a preference for providing data via the spreadsheet template. This is likely because most stakeholders had high-level knowledge about fish passage existence and type at many features, and few stakeholders had highly detailed, feature-specific knowledge of fish passage infrastructure, cost, operational scheduling, and capabilities. Nonetheless, the development and deployment of the stakeholder questionnaire advanced the project in several fundamental ways, and a similar questionnaire may be valuable for future database expansion via targeted dissemination to stakeholders with confirmed knowledge of detailed fish passage information at specific hydropower projects.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Instruction Manual: River Function Questionnaire

The River Function Questionnaire (Questionnaire) is a series of questions designed to help stakeholders determine the impacts of hydropower on a series of environmental indicators, i.e. river functions, that may need to be understood or addressed through additional field studies or environmental assessments. In order to provide a platform accessible to many users, the questionnaire was developed in Microsoft Excel with convenient macro-enabled interactive features. The Questionnaire was developed under the Department of Energy (DOE)-funded Environmental Metrics for Hydropower (EMH) project in FY 2018. This document provides an instruction manual that provides overall guidance and step-by-step instructions for use.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

A critical review on questionnaire surveys in the field of energy-related occupant behaviour

Occupants perform various actions to satisfy their physical and non-physical needs in buildings. These actions greatly affect building operations and thus energy use. Clearly understanding and accurately modelling occupant behaviour in buildings are crucial to guide energy-efficient building design and operation, and to reduce the gap between design and actual energy performance of buildings. To study and understand occupant behaviour, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey is one of the most useful tools to gain insights on general behaviour patterns and drivers, and to find connections between human, social and local comfort parameters. In this study, 33 projects were reviewed from the energy-related occupant behaviour research literature that employed cross-sectional surveys or interviews for data collection from the perspective of findings, limitations and methodological challenges. This research shows that future surveys are needed to bridge the gaps in literature but they would need to encompass a multidisciplinary approach to do so as until now only environmental and engineering factors were considered in these studies. Insights from social practice theories and techniques must be acquired to deploy robust and unbiased questionnaire results, which will provide new, more comprehensive knowledge in the field, and therefore occupant behaviour could be better understood and represented in building performance simulation to support design and operation of low or net-zero energy buildings.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

2018 LTE Questionnaire Summary

EMN 2B LTE Questionnaire Summary: Includes background and motivation, respondent demographics and summary of LTE questionnaire responses.

Benchmarking↗

Longitudinal analysis of risk factors for dementia based on Mild Cognitive Impairment Screen results and questionnaire responses from healthy Japanese individuals registered in an online database

Abstract Introduction Despite an urgent need for developing remedial measures against dementia, no disease‐modifying drugs have been developed. Efficient protocols for participant recruitment need to be established for conducting clinical trials. To meet this need, a large‐scale online registry system, the Integrated Registry of Orange Plan (IROOP ® ), was created for healthy individuals. Although the risk factors for dementia have been discussed in our previous studies for a short interval of 6 months, some factors remain controversial. The present study aimed to explore factors affecting longitudinal changes in cognitive function for a longer interval of 18 months using the IROOP ® data. Methods This study assessed the longitudinal changes in the collated data for predicting the risk of dementia and included 473 individuals (175 men and 298 women; mean age 59.6 ± 10.1 years) registered in the IROOP ® between July 5, 2016 and January 15, 2018 who completed the initial questionnaire and brief assessment of cognitive function (Mild Cognitive Impairment Screen) at baseline and the regular questionnaire and the Mild Cognitive Impairment Screen at least once after baseline. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS, version 23.0, for Windows for demographic data and the MIXED procedure in SAS, version 9.4, for the linear mixed‐effect model. In each analysis, the statistical significance level was set at P < .05. Results Mood, sleep, quality of life, and medical histories including cognition were found to influence longitudinal changes in cognitive function. Discussion Given the multifactorial etiology of dementia, preventive measures targeting multiple domains are required for maintaining cognitive function, instead of focusing on one lifestyle factor.

Ogawa, Masayo↗

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis: Kickoff Questionnaire for Benefits Analysis of CEC Projects

This is the first of three questionnaires that you will be asked to complete over the course of the agreement. Please type your responses directly into this document in the spaces below each question. Use as much space as you need; the form automatically creates more space within each response field. In addition, you may submit additional documents, spreadsheets, or other files. Acceptable filetypes are MS Word, MS Excel, and PDF. Additional files do not need to follow any particular format, unless specified by the particular questionnaire designed for your project.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Questionnaire for Radioisotope Identification and Estimation from Gamma Spectra using PyRIID v2

Accurate targeting of radioisotope classifiers and estimators requires an understanding of the target problem space. In order to facilitate clear communication on expected model behavior and performance between practitioners and stakeholders on their problems, this questionnaire was created. Stakeholder responses form the basis of a trained model as well as the start of usage requirements for the model as it is integrated with analysis processes or detection systems. This questionnaire may also be useful to machine learning practitioners and gamma spectroscopists developing new algorithms as a starting point for characterizing their problem space, especially if they are using PyRIID.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Response to Questionnaire of Grid Control Architecture Description Document: Mission Innovation, Innovation Challenge 1. Task 5 – New Grid Control Architectures. Subtask 5.1 – Collection of Available New Grid Control Architectures

As part of Task 5 (New Grid Control Architectures) of Mission Innovation, Innovation Challenge 1, a questionnaire was provided to all countries participating in the project. In this document, PNNL has responded to the questionnaire with information regarding new grid control architectures being proposed or developed in the US. Ron Melton sent the report to all participants.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

From clutter to clarity: Emergent neural operators via questionnaire metrics

Real-world datasets in chemical engineering and bioengineering processes—such as those from catalytic reactors, multiphase flows, polymerization reactors, bioreactors, and clinical trials—can often be unlabeled or disorganized, rendering the training of existing supervised learning models ineffective at learning the underlying dynamics. To salvage these datasets for decision-making, we first seek to obtain clarity from the cluttered data. Here, we present a framework for developing “structural” generative models, discovering emergent equations, and constructing efficient emulators from scrambled datasets by integrating unsupervised organizational learning techniques (Questionnaires) with advanced deep learning architectures (Deep Hidden Physics Models and Deep Operator Networks). Our approach is demonstrated on two illustrative model systems: (a) a 1D advection–diffusion partial differential equation representing a winding underground pipe and (b) an ensemble of Stuart–Landau oscillators, an agent-based system of coupled ordinary differential equations. In both cases, we successfully reconstruct meaningful spatial, temporal, and parameter embeddings from scrambled data, enabling good predictions of system dynamics. As a result, we highlight the framework’s potential for broader applications, enabling data-driven system identification in fields with inherently disorganized or hidden parameter spaces.

42 ENGINEERING↗

From disorganized data to emergent dynamic models: Questionnaires to partial differential equations

Starting with sets of disorganized observations of spatially varying and temporally evolving systems, obtained at different (also disorganized) sets of parameters, we demonstrate the data-driven derivation of parameter dependent, evolutionary partial differential equation (PDE) models capable of generating the data. This tensor type of data is reminiscent of shuffled (multidimensional) puzzle tiles. The independent variables for the evolution equations (their “space” and “time”) as well as their effective parameters are all emergent , i.e. determined in a data-driven way from our disorganized observations of behavior in them. We use a diffusion map based questionnaire approach to build a smooth parametrization of our emergent space/time/parameter space for the data. This approach iteratively processes the data by successively observing them on the “space,” the “time” and the “parameter” axes of a tensor. Once the data become organized, we use machine learning (here, neural networks) to approximate the operators governing the evolution equations in this emergent space. Our illustrative examples are based (i) on a simple advection–diffusion model; (ii) on a previously developed vertex-plus-signaling model of Drosophila embryonic development; and (iii) on two complex dynamic network models (one neuronal and one coupled oscillator model) for which no obvious smooth embedding geometry is known a priori. This allows us to discuss features of the process like symmetry breaking, translational invariance, and autonomousness of the emergent PDE model, as well as its interpretability.

generative models↗

Effects of Demographic Variables on Subjective Neurocognitive Complaints Using the Neurocognitive Questionnaire (NCQ) in an Aged Japanese Population

Objectives: In an aged Japanese population, we investigated associations of demographic variables with subjective neurocognitive complaints using the Neurocognitive Questionnaire (NCQ). Methods: Participants (N = 649) provided answers to the NCQ in both 2011 and 2013. Using fully-completed NCQs from 503 participants in 2011, we identified latent factors of subjective neurocognitive complaints using exploratory factor analysis; then examined associations of demographic variables with the identified factors for all 649 participants over the two years. We also examined changes in factor scores over the 2-year period. Results: We identified four factors representing 20 of the 25 NCQ items and labelled them metacognition, emotional regulation, motivation/organization, and processing speed. In a regression model using all participants, we observed linear deterioration with age on emotional regulation and linear-quadratic deterioration with age on the other factors. Less education was associated with more problems for all factors, but we detected no evidence of interaction between age and education. In 314 participants completing both assessments, paired t-tests comparing the 2013 to 2011 responses corroborated the regression results, except for emotional regulation. Conclusions: On the NCQ, older age and less education were associated with more subjective neurocognitive complaints. This is compatible with the association of the same factors with objective cognition and suggests that subjective cognitive complaints complement objective cognition as a prodrome of non-normative cognitive decline.

questionnaire↗

Auto Recycler Report: Results from a Questionnaire about Processing Electric Vehicles and Handling High-Voltage Batteries

With the transition to clean energy the demand for electric vehicles in the United States is rapidly growing. As demand continues to rise in the next couple of decades, sourcing materials (e.g., lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, etc.) to put into new batteries for electric vehicles will be critical. The U.S. does not have significant reserves of most of these materials and relies heavily on foreign countries. The lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles are large and contain substantial amounts of critical materials, therefore, they are a promising source of materials for new batteries. Recycling electric vehicle batteries when they reach their end-of-life will enable the United States to generate a domestic supply of materials needed for future batteries. [1-3] The auto recycling industry is the largest collective owner of end-of-life vehicles in the U.S. and will be the primary handlers of battery-powered vehicles (i.e., hybrid or electric) when they reach the end of their useful life. In an effort to better understand how the auto recycling industry currently handles battery-powered vehicles and their high-voltage batteries, DOE’s ReCell Center for Advanced Battery Recycling (ReCell) developed a questionnaire and distributed it to various trade organizations in the automotive recycling industry.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Requirements Efficiency: External Questionnaire Results

Efficiency in requirements engineering and management (REM) for complex hardware systems is desirable to reduce program impacts, such as schedule and budget. Sandia National Labs (SNL) investigated external state-of-the-practice REM to capture insights, recommendations, and best practices from external entities on several REM topics. Twenty-one at-will participants contributed responses to closed- and open-ended questions. The results were synthesized and are provided herein. The results help SNL and others to understand where its practices are current; what trends, approaches, or processes in REM might be beneficial if implemented or introduced; what challenges might be avoided; where efficiencies might be realized; and which practices are still maturing or evolving in industry and academia, so that SNL can stay abreast of these developments.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗