Weapon effectiveness and the shapes of damage functions

This paper provides a review of methods of assessing a fragmentation weapon’s effectiveness against a point target or an area target with keeping the focus on the necessity of using the Carleton damage function with the correct shape factor.First,cookie-cutter damage functions are redefined to preserve the shape factor of and to have the same lethal area as the corresponding Carleton damage function.Then,closed-form solutions of the effectiveness methods are obtained by using those cookie-cutter damage functions and the Carleton damage function.Finally,the closed-form solutions are applied to calculate the probability of damaging a point target and the expected fractional damage to an area target for several attack scenarios by using cookie-cutter damage functions and the Carleton damage functions with different shape factors.The comparison of the calculation results shows that using cookie-cutter damage functions or the Carleton damage function with a wrong shape factor results in quite significant differences from using the original Carleton damage function with a correct shape factor when weapon’s delivery error deviations are less than or comparable to the lengths of the lethal area and the aim point is far from a target.The effectiveness methods improved in this paper will be useful for mission planning utilizing the precision-guided munitions in circumstances where the collateral damage should be reduced.

Model architecture-oriented combat system effectiveness simulation based on MDE

Combat system effectiveness simulation (CSES) is a special type of complex system simulation. Three non-functional requirements (NFRs), i.e. model composability, domain specific modeling, and model evolvability, are gaining higher priority from CSES users when evaluating different modeling methodologies for CSES. Traditional CSES modeling methodologies are either domain-neutral (lack of domain characteristics consideration and limited support for model composability) or domain-oriented (lack of openness and evolvability) and fall short of the three NFRs. Inspired by the concept of architecture in systems engineering and software engineering fields, we extend it into a concept of model architecture for complex simulation systems, and propose a model architecture-oriented modeling methodology in which the model architecture plays a central role in achieving the three NFRs. Various model-driven engineering (MDE) approaches and technologies, including simulation modeling platform (SMP), unified modeling language (UML), domain specific modeling (DSM), eclipse modeling framework (EMF), graphical modeling framework (GMF), and so forth, are applied where possible in representing the CSES model architecture and its components' behaviors from physical and cognitive domain aspects. A prototype CSES system, called weapon effectiveness simulation system (WESS), and a non-trivial air-combat simulation example are presented to demonstrate the methodology.

Mosquito vector management with botanicals-the most effective weapons in controlling mosquito-borne diseases

Dear editor,Mosquito-borne diseases,viz.,malaria,filariasis,dengue hemorrhagic fever,chikungunya,Japanese encephalitis etc.,created huge impact on humans over the world,and the chemical insecticides remain the mainstay of effective control.But,indiscriminate and rampant use of the chemical insecticides in controlling mosquito vectors,in order to prevent diseases vectored by them,has resulted problems related to the adverse environmental effects for their(insecticides)potential toxicity,high operational cost,community acceptance,and the development of insecticide resistance among the vectors.The factors mentioned above prompted the search for new means of control strategies.Currently,the botanicals(viz.,plant extracts,essential oils and phytochemicals)with mosquitocidal potential