Hazard evaluation and operational cockpit display of ground-measured windshear data

Low-altitude windshear is the leading weather-related cause of fatal aviation accidents in the U.S. Since 1964, there have been 26 accidents attributed to windshear resulting in over 500 fatalities. Low-altitude windshear can take several forms, including macroscopic forms such as cold-warm gustfronts down to the small, intense downdrafts known as microbursts. Microbursts are particularly dangerous and difficult to detect due to their small size, short duration, and occurrence under both heavy precipitation and virtually dry conditions. For these reasons, the real-time detection of windshear hazards is a very active field of research. Also, the advent of digital ground-to-air datalinks and electronic flight instrumentation opens up many options for implementation of windshear alerts in the terminal area environment. Study is required to determine the best content, format, timing, and cockpit presentation of windshear alerts in the modern ATC environment to best inform the flight crew without significantly increasing crew workload

MULTISENSORY CUE CONGRUENCY IN LANE CHANGE TEST

Nowadays, a driver interacts with multiple systems while driving. Multimodal in-vehicle technologies (e.g., Personal Navigation Devices) intend to facilitate multitasking while driving. Multimodality enables to reduce cognitive effort in information processing, but not always. The present study aims to investigate how/when auditory cues could improve driver responses to a visual target. We manipulated three dimensions (spatial, semantic, and temporal) of verbal and nonverbal cues to interact with visual spatial instructions. Multimodal displays were compared with unimodal (visual-only) displays to see whether they would facilitate or degrade a vehicle control task. Twenty-six drivers participated in the Auditory-Spatial Stroop experiment using a lane change test (LCT). The preceding auditory cues improved response time over the visual-only condition. When conflicting, spatial congruency has a stronger impact than semantic congruency. The effects on accuracy was minimal, but there was a trend of speed-accuracy trade-offs. Results are discussed with theoretical issues and future works

Aspects of Synthetic Vision Display Systems and the Best Practices of the NASA's SVS Project

NASA s Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) Project conducted research aimed at eliminating visibility-induced errors and low visibility conditions as causal factors in civil aircraft accidents while enabling the operational benefits of clear day flight operations regardless of actual outside visibility. SVS takes advantage of many enabling technologies to achieve this capability including, for example, the Global Positioning System (GPS), data links, radar, imaging sensors, geospatial databases, advanced display media and three dimensional video graphics processors. Integration of these technologies to achieve the SVS concept provides pilots with high-integrity information that improves situational awareness with respect to terrain, obstacles, traffic, and flight path. This paper attempts to emphasize the system aspects of SVS - true systems, rather than just terrain on a flight display - and to document from an historical viewpoint many of the best practices that evolved during the SVS Project from the perspective of some of the NASA researchers most heavily involved in its execution. The Integrated SVS Concepts are envisagements of what production-grade Synthetic Vision systems might, or perhaps should, be in order to provide the desired functional capabilities that eliminate low visibility as a causal factor to accidents and enable clear-day operational benefits regardless of visibility conditions

Efficacy of a sensory deterrent and pipe modifications in decreasing entrainment of juvenile green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) at unscreened water diversions.

Water projects designed to extract fresh water for local urban, industrial and agricultural use throughout rivers and estuaries worldwide have contributed to the fragmentation and degradation of suitable habitat for native fishes. The number of water diversions located throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin watershed in California's Central Valley exceeds 3300, and the majority of these are unscreened. Many anadromous fish species are susceptible to entrainment into these diversions, potentially impacting population numbers. In the laboratory, juvenile green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) have been shown to have high entrainment rates into unscreened diversions compared with those of other native California fish species, which may act as a significant source of mortality for this already-threatened species. Therefore, we tested the efficacy of a sensory deterrent (strobe light) and two structural pipe modifications (terminal pipe plate and upturned pipe configuration) in decreasing the entrainment of juvenile green sturgeon (mean mass ± SEM = 162.9 ± 4.0 g; mean fork length = 39.4 ± 0.3 cm) in a large (>500 kl) outdoor flume fitted with a water-diversion pipe 0.46 m in diameter. While the presence of the strobe light did not affect fish entrainment rates, the terminal pipe plate and upturned pipe modifications significantly decreased the proportion of fish entrained out of the total number tested relative to control conditions (0.13 ± 0.02 and 0.03 ± 0.02 vs. 0.44 ± 0.04, respectively). These data suggest that sensory deterrents using visual stimuli are not an effective means to reduce diversion pipe interactions for green sturgeon, but that structural alterations to diversions can successfully reduce entrainment for this species. Our results are informative for the development of effective management strategies to mitigate the impacts of water diversions on sturgeon populations and suggest that effective restoration strategies that balance agricultural needs with conservation programmes are possible

Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research, 1991-1992

This report summarizes the research conducted during the academic year 1991-1992 under the FAA/NASA sponsored Joint University Program for Air Transportation Research. The year end review was held at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, June 18-19, 1992. The Joint University Program is a coordinated set of three grants sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA Langley Research Center, one each with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (NGL-22-009-640), Ohio University (NGR-36-009-017), and Princeton University (NGL-31-001-252). Completed works, status reports, and annotated bibliographies are presented for research topics, which include navigation, guidance and control theory and practice, intelligent flight control, flight dynamics, human factors, and air traffic control processes. An overview of the year's activities for each university is also presented

Aufmerksamkeitsverzerrungen in militärischen Einsatzkräften mit posttraumatischer Belastungsstörung und deren Veränderlichkeit nach Bereitstellung einer internet-basierten kognitiv-behavioralen Intervention

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent and highly disturbing mental health condition that occurs in response to extremely distressing events during the lifetime. First, military personnel represent a high-risk population for the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) or the full-diagnostic spectrum of the disorder due to deployment- and combat-related stressors during their military career. Despite the existence of well established and efficacious psychotherapy treatments for PTSD, access to trauma-focused psychotherapy is limited and veterans in particular experience high barriers to accessing help from the mental health care system. A substantial proportion of affected veterans receive no or inadequate treatment, increasing the risk of secondary adverse mental and somatic health outcomes, reduced social and occupational functioning, and of the condition becoming chronic. Second, internet-based interventions (IBI), particularly internet-based cognitive behavioral therapies (iCBT), have been shown to be efficacious and widely accepted for the treatment of a range of psychiatric disorders, including PTSD. IBI can already be seen as playing a potentially important role in supplementing the landscape and provision of psychotherapeutic interventions, and this is set to grow further in the future. Indeed, IBI should be particularly beneficial for patients in rural areas with a restricted psychotherapy infrastructure, for patients with restricted mobility, and for patients who desire greater anonymity and more independence regarding the time and location of psychotherapy access. Third, the systematic and reliable assessment of objective indicators of symptom expression and symptom change is of increasing interest and relevance for psychotherapy research. This dissertation thesis aims at incorporating these three pillars in four studies: First, a diagnostic identification of PTSD in veterans of the German Armed Forces (GAF) according to the main diagnostic manuals the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM); second, a meta-analytical evaluation of the efficacy of IBI in PTSD; third, an assessment of patterns of visual attentional bias in (traumatized) veterans (with PTSS); and fourth, an exploration of the modifiability of attentional bias in veterans after receiving iCBT. STUDY 1 investigated the concordance of PTSD prevalence rates when transiting between the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-IV, DSM-5, ICD-10, and proposed ICD-11 in a sample of service members of the GAF. High levels of agreement emerged between the DSM-IV and the DSM-5, and between the DSM-5 and the proposed ICD-11. Prevalence rates were significantly higher according to the proposed ICD-11 compared to the ICD-10, mainly due to the deletion of the time criterion. STUDY 1 provides support for the identification of six ‘core’ PTSD symptoms according to the proposed ICD-11, presenting a high agreement rate with the set of twenty qualifiers according to the DSM-5. STUDY 2 provided meta-analytical evidence for the efficacy of IBI for the treatment of PTSD. Twenty randomized controlled trials (RCT) encompassing 21 comparisons were included, evaluating either iCBT or internet-based expressive writing (iEW) with passive or active control conditions. The results revealed that iCBT was more efficacious than passive control conditions at post-treatment assessment (0.66 ≤ g ≤ 0.83). No superiority of either iCBT or iEW was found in contrast to active control conditions. Subgroup analyses revealed no significant moderators of iCBT efficacy. More research is needed to prove the efficacy of IBI in contrast to active control treatments and further explore the impact of moderators on treatment efficacy. STUDY 3 measured patterns of attentional bias in GAF veterans with PTSS, traumatized veterans without PTSS, and unexposed healthy veterans. In a free-viewing task, participants were presented with pairs of combat-related and neutral pictures, of more general threat-related and neutral pictures, and of emotional and neutral faces, while their eye gazes were tracked. Further, the internal consistency of attentional bias indicators was calculated. The findings provide support for the maintenance hypothesis in PTSS. There was no robust evidence to support the hypothesis of hypervigilant behavior in PTSS. Findings on attentional bias variability remain unclear. Internal consistency varied across attentional bias indicators, highlighting the need for future research in this regard. STUDY 4 investigated the modifiability of attentional bias in veterans with PTSS through the provision of iCBT. In a free-viewing task, participants were presented with combat-related, general threat-related, and neutral pictures, and with faces with negative emotional valence and neutral facial expressions while their eye gazes were tracked. Attentional bias was examined pre- and post-intervention and at a three-month follow-up. No modifications in attentional bias were observable over time. Future investigations are warranted to systematically investigate objective measures of symptom expression and symptom change together with subjective symptom reporting and symptom change in response to psychotherapeutic treatment options. In summary, this dissertation thesis provides a threefold contribution to the current landscape of psychotherapy research: First, it supports the concordance between the DSM-5 and the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Second, it proves the efficacy of IBI for PTSD. In view of the growing relevance of IBI as a supplement to psychotherapeutic care, future research needs to examine its long-term efficacy, whether it shows equal or superior efficacy compared to other active (control) treatments, potential side effects, and whether it may lead to a deterioration of symptoms. Moreover, studies should focus on tailoring IBI to the specific needs of different patient populations to ensure patients’ safety and satisfaction with IBI. Third, the present thesis underlines the need for systematic and reliable assessments of objective indicators of symptom presentation and of symptom change, in addition to subjective reports. Moreover, methodological approaches need to be extended to measure diverse dimensions of symptom presentation and symptom change and gain a better understanding of their interplay. A multidimensional diagnostic approach and treatment evaluation will be of key relevance for future intervention research and evidence-based practice

Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Workshop on Meteorological and Environmental Inputs to Aviation Systems

The proceedings of a workshop held at the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Tullahoma, Tennessee, March 28-30, 1978, are reported. The workshop was jointly sponsored by NASA, NOAA, FAA, and brought together many disciplines of the aviation communities in round table discussions. The major objectives of the workshop are to satisfy such needs of the sponsoring agencies as the expansion of our understanding and knowledge of the interactions of the atmosphere with aviation systems, as the better definition and implementation of services to operators, and as the collection and interpretation of data for establishing operational criteria, relating the total meteorological inputs from the atmospheric sciences to the needs of aviation communities

Identifying new concepts for innovative lighting-based interventions to influence movement and behaviours in train stations

The disorderly and disrupted movement of passengers within train stations are key concerns in rail transport, especially where there are increasing numbers of passengers, coupled with often out-dated, adapted station spaces. With careful planning and design, different characteristics of lighting can be employed to address problems relating to the movement and behaviour of passengers in railway environments. This study aims to offer an approach to identifying new concepts for lighting-based interventions, to influence passenger movement behaviours within train stations. Behaviourally-orientated lighting literature was reviewed, providing the knowledge base to inform a series of engagement activities with transport stakeholders and lighting technologists, to understand problematic behaviours and how these might be resolved through targeted lighting design. In combining findings from the literature with insights from rail and transport related industry stakeholders and lighting specialists, a number of potential opportunities for novel applications of lighting have been identified. Six scenarios are developed that illustrate these opportunities for potential lighting-based interventions to influence train passenger movement and behaviour. These scenarios can be used to inform the direction of further research and consideration of how different lighting characteristics can affect rail passenger behaviours

Concept of Operations for Integrated Intelligent Flight Deck Displays and Decision Support Technologies

The document describes a Concept of Operations for Flight Deck Display and Decision Support technologies which may help enable emerging Next Generation Air Transportation System capabilities while also maintaining, or improving upon, flight safety. This concept of operations is used as the driving function within a spiral program of research, development, test, and evaluation for the Integrated Intelligent Flight Deck (IIFD) project. As such, the concept will be updated at each cycle within the spiral to reflect the latest research results and emerging development

Human Factors Guidelines for Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Remote Pilot Stations (RPS)

This document contains a list of human factors guidelines for remote pilot stations (RPS) arranged within an organizing structure. The guidelines are intended for the remote pilot stations (RPSs) of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) that are capable of operating beyond visual line-of-sight in all airspace classes of the United States National Airspace System (NAS). Numerous human factors guidelines and standards for technological systems have been published by standards agencies and regulatory authorities. In compiling this document, the intent was not to reproduce or re-state existing human factors material. Instead, this document focuses on the unique issues of civilian RPAS, and contains guidelines specific to this sector. As a result, it should be seen as a supplement to existing aviation human factors standards and guidance material. Two constraints were used to focus the scope of this document. First, the assumptions contained in the FAA (2013a) UAS roadmap were used to define the responsibilities that will be assigned to the pilot of a RPAS operating beyond visual line-of-sight in the NAS. This in turn, helped to define the tasks that the remote pilot must perform via the RPS, and thereby the required features and characteristics of the RPS. Second, the points of difference between RPAS and conventional aviation were used to further focus the guidelines on the considerations that make piloting a RPA significantly different to piloting a conventional aircraft. Five broad categories of guidelines are identified. These are (1) performance-based descriptions of pilot tasks that must be accomplished via the RPS, (2) information content of displays, (3) descriptions of control inputs, (4) properties of the interface, and (5) high-level design considerations. Some of the guidelines in this document have been adapted from existing RPAS human factors material from several sources, including RTCA publications and Standardization Agreements (STANAGs) published by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)