Netherlands Defence Academy

The risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified. In a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls we conduct a genome-wide association study of PTSD. We demonstrate SNP-based heritability estimates of 5-20%, varying by sex. Three genome-wide significant loci are identified, 2 in European and 1 in African-ancestry analyses. Analyses stratified by sex implicate 3 additional loci in men. Along with other novel genes and non-coding RNAs, a Parkinson's disease gene involved in dopamine regulation, PARK2, is associated with PTSD. Finally, we demonstrate that polygenic risk for PTSD is significantly predictive of re-experiencing symptoms in the Million Veteran Program dataset, although specific loci did not replicate. These results demonstrate the role of genetic variation in the biology of risk for PTSD and highlight the necessity of conducting sex-stratified analyses and expanding GWAS beyond European ancestry populations.

<p>The recent trend to design more efficient and versatile ships has increased the variety in hybrid propulsion and power supply architectures. In order to improve performance with these architectures, intelligent control strategies are required, while mostly conventional control strategies are applied currently. First, this paper classifies ship propulsion topologies into mechanical, electrical and hybrid propulsion, and power supply topologies into combustion, electrochemical, stored and hybrid power supply. Then, we review developments in propulsion and power supply systems and their control strategies, to subsequently discuss opportunities and challenges for these systems and the associated control. We conclude that hybrid architectures with advanced control strategies can reduce fuel consumption and emissions up to 10–35%, while improving noise, maintainability, manoeuvrability and comfort. Subsequently, the paper summarises the benefits and drawbacks, and trends in application of propulsion and power supply technologies, and it reviews the applicability and benefits of promising advanced control strategies. Finally, the paper analyses which control strategies can improve performance of hybrid systems for future smart and autonomous ships and concludes that a combination of torque, angle of attack, and Model Predictive Control with dynamic settings could improve performance of future smart and more autonomous ships.</p>

Abstract In this article, the authors examine how, when and to what extent HR practices affect performance at the employee level. As performance is a multi-faceted and complicated concept, HRM outcomes were used as mediating factors between HR practices and employee performance. The data were collected among civil servants in Eritrea, Africa's youngest and poorest country. Although the results generally are in line with previous studies using Western data, their implications in this particular country may be different. Therefore, the challenges and prospects of HR practices in Eritrean civil service organizations are critically analysed and discussed. In the authors' opinion, that the Eritrean economic and political environment within which HR practices operate has not been conducive in maximizing the impact of HR practices on performance. These findings highlight the situation of most developing countries. Keywords: Human resource managementHRM–performance linkcivil service organizationsEritreadeveloping countries

Achieving shared, common, or mutual understandings among geographically dispersed workers is a central concern in the distributed work literature. Nonetheless, little is known yet about the socio-cognitive acts and communication processes involved with synchronizing and cocreating understandings in such settings. Building on a case study of a geographically distributed information systems development project at one of India’s largest offshore vendors, we postulate that knowledge and experience asymmetries, and requirements and task characteristics (such as complexity, instability, ambiguity, and novelty) prompt onsite and offshore team members to engage in acts of sensegiving, sensedemanding, and sense-breaking. This allows them to make sense of their tasks and their environment, and it increases the likelihood that congruent and actionable understandings emerge. Furthermore, it assists them in cocreating novel understandings, especially when acts of sensegiving and sensedemanding are complemented with instances of sensebreaking. Our results contribute to the literature by explaining how distributed team members mitigate problems of understanding, transfer preexisting understandings, and cocreate novel understandings. Acts of sensegiving, sensedemanding, and sensebreaking allow distributed team members to jointly explore and generate value, thereby amplifying the performance of distributed workers.

Abstract This paper explores the role of transactive memory in enabling knowledge transfer between globally distributed teams. While the information systems literature has recently acknowledged the role transactive memory plays in improving knowledge processes and performance in colocated teams, little is known about its contribution to distributed teams. To contribute to filling this gap, knowledge‐transfer challenges and processes between onsite and offshore teams were studied at TATA Consultancy Services. In particular, the paper describes the transfer of knowledge between onsite and offshore teams through encoding, storing and retrieving processes. An in‐depth case study of globally distributed software development projects was carried out, and a qualitative, interpretive approach was adopted. The analysis of the case suggests that in order to overcome differences derived from the local contexts of the onsite and offshore teams (e.g. different work routines, methodologies and skills), some specific mechanisms supporting the development of codified and personalized ‘directories’ were introduced. These include the standardization of templates and methodologies across the remote sites as well as frequent teleconferencing sessions and occasional short visits. These mechanisms contributed to the development of the notion of ‘who knows what’ across onsite and offshore teams despite the challenges associated with globally distributed teams, and supported the transfer of knowledge between onsite and offshore teams. The paper concludes by offering theoretical and practical implications.

In this article, abduction is introduced in relation to theorizing in grounded theory. Theoretical insights are inevitable cornerstones of the development of a grounded theory and abduction is worked out as a type of inference that characterizes this development. How abduction could be used in grounded theorizing is shown in a grounded theory research on ‘organizing doubt’, i.e. the way Dutch army units are formed with self-organizing capabilities that can be deployed during crisis operations. The authors show that two concepts from organizational theory that are central in this grounded theory’s analytical framework - i.e. ‘dynamic complexity’ and ‘self-organization’ - are developed and embedded in a substantive theory on ‘organizing doubt’ by abductive reasoning.

Based on extensive fieldwork in Sri Lanka, we analyze how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) acquired legitimacy and how legitimation impacts civilian perceptions of the rebels. Despite the LTTE’s reliance on coercion to induce compliance, civilians also supported the LTTE and their imagined state of Tamil Eelam voluntarily. Different LTTE strategies and acts helped creating legitimacy. Effective forms of legitimation were rooted in Tamil nationalism, tradition, charismatic leadership, sacrifices made by LTTE cadres and the people’s need for protection. However, the strong reformative socio-political agenda of the LTTE largely failed to engender legitimacy among the population.

Epigenetic differences may help to distinguish between PTSD cases and trauma-exposed controls. Here, we describe the results of the largest DNA methylation meta-analysis of PTSD to date. Ten cohorts, military and civilian, contribute blood-derived DNA methylation data from 1,896 PTSD cases and trauma-exposed controls. Four CpG sites within the aryl-hydrocarbon receptor repressor (AHRR) associate with PTSD after adjustment for multiple comparisons, with lower DNA methylation in PTSD cases relative to controls. Although AHRR methylation is known to associate with smoking, the AHRR association with PTSD is most pronounced in non-smokers, suggesting the result was independent of smoking status. Evaluation of metabolomics data reveals that AHRR methylation associated with kynurenine levels, which are lower among subjects with PTSD. This study supports epigenetic differences in those with PTSD and suggests a role for decreased kynurenine as a contributor to immune dysregulation in PTSD.

No abstract.

Purpose This paper aims to explain the rapid emergence of corporate universities on the basis of fundamental developments presently shaping the economy and society on a world‐wide scale. Design/methodology/approach Four key forms of innovation are identified and combined with the corporate university concept. The paper explains why corporate universities are emerging world‐wide as strategic weapons in the competitive battle among companies, countries and international economic power blocs. Findings Companies endorsing the importance of knowledge innovation cannot get around the corporate university concept as part of their strategy. Three major corporate university types are identified and linked to their strategic role as the driving force of knowledge innovation. Originality/value Helps to explain why corporate universities have evolved as an answer to the challenge of competing in a knowledge‐driven economy.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how warehouse management, understood as a cluster of planning and control decisions and procedures, is organized and driven by task complexity (TC) and market dynamics (MD). Design/methodology/approach A multi‐variable conceptual model is developed based on the literature and tested among 215 warehouses using a survey. Findings The results suggest that TC and MD are the main drivers of warehouse management, measured by planning extensiveness (PE), decision rules complexity, and control sophistication. Differences between production and distribution warehouses are found with respect to the relationship between assortment changes and PE. Furthermore, TC appears to be a main driver of the specificity of the warehouse management (information) system (WMS). Research limitations/implications This paper is based on 215 warehouses in The Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium); future research may test the model on a different sample. More research should be conducted to further validate the measures of the core dimensions of warehouse management. Practical implications Different levels of TC and MD characterize warehouses. Such a characterization is a first step in determining generic warehouse functionalities and helping managers to decide on the best software for their warehouse operations. Originality/value The paper defines the core dimensions of warehouse management, makes them measurable, tests them and assesses how these drivers impact specificity of WMS. The paper shows that PE in production warehouses is driven by different variables than in distribution centers.

Abstract Background Previous studies using candidate gene and genome-wide approaches have identified epigenetic changes in DNA methylation (DNAm) associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods In this study, we performed an EWAS of PTSD in a cohort of Veterans ( n = 378 lifetime PTSD cases and 135 controls) from the Translational Research Center for TBI and Stress Disorders (TRACTS) cohort assessed using the Illumina EPIC Methylation BeadChip which assesses DNAm at more than 850,000 sites throughout the genome. Our model included covariates for ancestry, cell heterogeneity, sex, age, and a smoking score based on DNAm at 39 smoking-associated CpGs. We also examined in EPIC-based DNAm data generated from pre-frontal cortex (PFC) tissue from the National PTSD Brain Bank ( n = 72). Results The analysis of blood samples yielded one genome-wide significant association with PTSD at cg19534438 in the gene G0S2 ( p = 1.19 × 10 -7 , p adj = 0.048). This association was replicated in an independent PGC-PTSD-EWAS consortium meta-analysis of military cohorts ( p = 0.0024). We also observed association with the smoking-related locus cg05575921 in AHRR despite inclusion of a methylation-based smoking score covariate ( p = 9.16 × 10 -6 ), which replicates a previously observed PGC-PTSD-EWAS association (Smith et al. 2019), and yields evidence consistent with a smoking-independent effect. The top 100 EWAS loci were then examined in the PFC data. One of the blood-based PTSD loci, cg04130728 in CHST11 , which was in the top 10 loci in blood, but which was not genome-wide significant, was significantly associated with PTSD in brain tissue (in blood p = 1.19 × 10 -5 , p adj = 0.60, in brain, p = 0.00032 with the same direction of effect). Gene set enrichment analysis of the top 500 EWAS loci yielded several significant overlapping GO terms involved in pathogen response, including “Response to lipopolysaccharide” ( p = 6.97 × 10 -6 , p adj = 0.042). Conclusions The cross replication observed in independent cohorts is evidence that DNA methylation in peripheral tissue can yield consistent and replicable PTSD associations, and our results also suggest that that some PTSD associations observed in peripheral tissue may mirror associations in the brain.

Abstract In this special issue we broaden the academic debate on rebel governance by examining additional armed actors – militias, police and foreign intervenors, and the ‘layers’ of governance they add. We develop the notion of ‘multi-layered’ governance to capture the complexity of these cases. We consider ‘mediated stateness’ as a special case of multi-layered governance. We discuss ‘polycentricity’ as an equivalent concept, but deem multi-layered governance more appropriate. The following articles discuss rebels’ legitimation strategies, armed opposition factions, auxiliary armed forces, mediated stateness and intervention by foreign powers to highlight the roles of different actors and the resulting impacts on governance.

Summary Forecasting migration intensity can improve flight safety and reduce the operational costs of collisions between aircraft and migrating birds. This is particularly true for military training flights, which can be rescheduled if necessary and often take place at low altitudes and during the night. Migration intensity depends strongly on weather conditions but reported effects of weather differ among studies. It is therefore unclear to what extent existing predictive models can be extrapolated to new situations. We used radar measurements of bird densities in the Netherlands to analyse the relationship between weather and nocturnal migration. Using our data, we tested the performance of three regression models that have been developed for other locations in Europe. We developed and validated new models for different combinations of years to test whether regression models can be used to predict migration intensity in independent years. Model performance was assessed by comparing model predictions against benchmark predictions based on measured migration intensity of the previous night and predictions based on a 6‐year average trend. We also investigated the effect of the size of the calibration data set on model robustness. All models performed better than the benchmarks, but the mismatch between measurements and predictions was large for existing models. Model performance was best for newly developed regression models. The performance of all models was best at intermediate migration intensities. The performance of our models clearly increased with sample size, up to about 90 nocturnal migration measurements. Significant input variables included seasonal migration trend, wind profit, 24‐h trend in barometric pressure and rain. Synthesis and application s. Migration intensities can be forecast with a regression model based on meteorological data. This and other existing models are only valid locally and cannot be extrapolated to new locations. Model development for new locations requires data sets with representative inter‐ and intraseasonal variability so that cross‐validation can be applied effectively. The Royal Netherlands Air Force currently uses the regression model developed in this study to predict migration intensities 3 days ahead. This improves the reliability of migration intensity warnings and allows rescheduling of training flights if needed.

Countries across the globe have mobilized their armed forces in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current contributions of armed forces have resulted from an urgent need for additional personnel and resources, and were facilitated by a framing of the crisis in terms of war. These deployments were in the interest of armed forces and enabled them to improve their operational readiness, boost their societal standing and support societies with their expertise. Even though armed forces may provide crucial aid in times of need, it is important that civilian crisis organizations are not undermined, civilian control and civil rights are guaranteed, and the effects on other military operations are considered and discussed. This Forum contribution offers some reflections and recommendations.

The principle of proportionality is one of the core principles of international humanitarian law. The principle is not easy to apply on the battlefield, but is even harder to apply retrospectively, in the courtroom. This article discusses the challenges in applying the principle during international criminal trials. It discusses the principle itself, followed by an explanation of the general challenges of dealing with violations of international humanitarian law, and more specifically the rules related to the conduct of hostilities, during war crime trials. The way in which the principle has been used before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is examined, including an in-depth discussion of the recent Gotovina case. The second part consists of an evaluation of Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and discusses the difficulties the International Criminal Court would face in cases dealing with violations of the principle of proportionality.

Machines. The paper describes a novel technique for the recognition of emotions from multimodal data. We focus on the recognition of the six prototypic emotions. The results from the facial expression recognition and from the emotion recognition from speech are combined using a bi-modal multimodal semantic data fusion model that determines the most probable emotion of the subject. Two types of models based on geometric face features for facial expression recognition are being used, depending on the presence or absence of speech. In our approach we define an algorithm that is robust to changes of face shape that occur during regular speech. The influence of phoneme generation on the face shape during speech is removed by using features that are only related to the eyes and the eyebrows. The paper includes results from testing the presented models.

This volume explores the way governments endeavoured to build and maintain public support for the war in Afghanistan, combining new insights on the effects of strategic narratives with an exhaustive series of case studies. In contemporary wars, with public opinion impacting heavily on outcomes, strategic narratives provide a grid for interpreting the why, what and how of the conflict. This book asks how public support for the deployment of military troops to Afghanistan was garnered, sustained or lost in thirteen contributing nations. Public attitudes in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe towards the use of military force were greatly shaped by the cohesiveness and content of the strategic narratives employed by national policy-makers. Assessing the ability of countries to craft a successful strategic narrative, the book addresses the following key areas: 1) how governments employ strategic narratives to gain public support; 2) how strategic narratives develop during the course of the conflict; 3) how these narratives are disseminated, framed and perceived through various media outlets; 4) how domestic audiences respond to strategic narratives; 5) how this interplay is conditioned by both events on the ground, in Afghanistan, and by structural elements of the domestic political systems.

Preface by Jaap de Hoop Scheffer 1. Introduction, Beatrice De Graaf, George Dimitriu and Jens Ringsmose Part I: Theoretical Debates 2. The Possibilities and Limits of Strategic Narratives, Lawrence Freedman 3. Searching for El Dorado: The Legendary Golden Narrative of the Afghanistan War, David Betz 4. Great Power Politics & Strategic Narratives of War, Alister Miskimmon, Ben O'Loughlin and Laura Roselle Part II: Country Perspectives 5. The War in Afghanistan: Australia's Strategic Narratives, William Maley 6. Elite Consensus and Ineffective Strategic Narratives: The Domestic Politics Behind Canada's Commitment to Afghanistan, Justin Massie 7. Czech Strategic Narrative on Afghanistan: Ideological Reactiveness and Domestic Political Contestation, Nik Hynek 8. For our own security and for the sake of the Afghans : How the Danish public was persuaded to support an unprecedented costly military endeavour in Afghanistan, Peter Jakobsen & Jens Ringsmose 9. French Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion and the War in Afghanistan. 2001-2012, Ronald Hatto 10. War-like Circumstances - Germany's Unforeseen Combat Mission in Afghanistan and Its Strategic Narratives, Robin Schroeder and Martin Zapfe 11. Hungary in Afghanistan: A default narrative for a Particularly Prudent Public, Peter Marton and Peter Wagner 12. The winter of our consent? Framing Italy's peace in Afghanistan, Fabrizio Coticchia and Carolina De Simone 13. Fighting versus Reconstructing. Framing the Dutch mission in Afghanistan, Beatrice De Graaf and George Dimitriu 14. Poland's Strategic Narrative on Afghanistan: Getting the Best of Both Worlds, Gorka Winter 15. A Catch-All Strategic Narrative: Target Audiences and Swedish Troop Contribution to ISAF in Afghanistan, Erik Noreen & Jan Angstrom 16. Communicating Afghanistan: Strategic Narratives and the Case of UK Public Opinion, Rikke Bjerg Jensen 17. The Longest War Story: Elite Rhetoric, News Coverage, and the War in Afghanistan (USA), Tim Groeling and Matthew A. Baum 18. Conclusion, Beatrice De Graaf, George Dimitriu and Jens Ringsmose

Internationalization is becoming a pervasive feature of military life. Therefore, empirical information on national cultural differences in the military sector is becoming increasingly relevant. One way to collect empirical data on this subject is to study value orientations of student officers in military academies. A comparative study based on this idea is reported in this article. The results indicate that national differences between the student populations of military academies are as large as in the civilian sector. At the same time it emerges that one international military culture exists. Compared to the civilian sector, this international military culture in general is institutional and bureaucratic. However, in some nations the military culture, as measured in academies, is far more bureaucratic and institutional than in others. The article ends with a discussion of managerial implications and suggestions for further research.