To Drive or to Be Driven? The Impact of Autopilot, Navigation System, and Printed Maps on Driver’s Cognitive Workload and Spatial Knowledge

The technical advances in navigation systems should enhance the driving experience, supporting drivers’ spatial decision making and learning in less familiar or unfamiliar environments. Furthermore, autonomous driving systems are expected to take over navigation and driving in the near future. Yet, previous studies pointed at a still unresolved gap between environmental exploration using topographical maps and technical navigation means. Less is known about the impact of the autonomous system on the driver’s spatial learning. The present study investigates the development of spatial knowledge and cognitive workload by comparing printed maps, navigation systems, and autopilot in an unfamiliar virtual environment. Learning of a new route with printed maps was associated with a higher cognitive demand compared to the navigation system and autopilot. In contrast, driving a route by memory resulted in an increased level of cognitive workload if the route had been previously learned with the navigation system or autopilot. Way-finding performance was found to be less prone to errors when learning a route from a printed map. The exploration of the environment with the autopilot was not found to provide any compelling advantages for landmark knowledge. Our findings suggest long-term disadvantages of self-driving vehicles for spatial memory representations

A study of the economic development administration's capability for delivering services into minority communities of the southeastern United States, 1979

This study is designed to analyze the administrative and operational structures of a typical Federal agency with legislated authority to provide grant funds to foster economic development, and to determine the comparative effects of the agency's program on minority communities of the Southeastern United States. The Economic Development Administration is considered to be a model agency for the study because of its national recognition as the primary Federal force in combating high levels of unemployment throughout the Nation. The study focuses on the eight States of the Southeastern United States because of the heavy concentration of minority citizens, particularly Black citizens, residing in this section of the Country. A tour through this area reveals to the most casual observer, great imbalances in the economic condition experienced by White and minority communities. Black citizens are not found to be participating equally in governmental bodies responsible for directing the flow of Federal funds, and Black communities are very visibly lagging behind in the national struggle for improved public facilities and sound economic development. The Economic Development Administration possesses, through its broad discretionary powers, the necessary tools to significantly impact on those conditions and needs peculiar to minority communities. The absence of such impact can be blamed on operational structures and administrative styles within the responsible agency. The dominant source of information was provided through the observations of the writer, who has served as the Regional Chief of Civil Rights since January 1971. During that period volumes of information have been collected relative to com parative conditions and frustrations of concerned minority officials and community leaders in the region. Press releases, newspaper accounts, implementing directives and agency reports were the secondary information sources employed in the study

User-friendly Support for Common Concepts in a Lightweight Verifier

Machine verification of formal arguments can only increase our confidence in the correctness of those arguments, but the costs of employing machine verification still outweigh the benefits for some common kinds of formal reasoning activities. As a result, usability is becoming increasingly important in the design of formal verification tools. We describe the "aartifact" lightweight verification system, designed for processing formal arguments involving basic, ubiquitous mathematical concepts. The system is a prototype for investigating potential techniques for improving the usability of formal verification systems. It leverages techniques drawn both from existing work and from our own efforts. In addition to a parser for a familiar concrete syntax and a mechanism for automated syntax lookup, the system integrates (1) a basic logical inference algorithm, (2) a database of propositions governing common mathematical concepts, and (3) a data structure that computes congruence closures of expressions involving relations found in this database. Together, these components allow the system to better accommodate the expectations of users interested in verifying formal arguments involving algebraic and logical manipulations of numbers, sets, vectors, and related operators and predicates. We demonstrate the reasonable performance of this system on typical formal arguments and briefly discuss how the system's design contributed to its usability in two case studies

BUSINESS CLIMATE OF FOOD FIRMS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PROBLEMS FACED BY FOOD MANUFACTURERS, WHOLESALERS, RETAILERS AND SERVICE INSTITUTIONS IN NEW JERSEY

This paper presents the problems facing food firms using information from focus groups of industry executives from New Jersey. The leading problems for food manufacturers are related to regulation, taxation, economic development, and high business costs. For food wholesalers the leading problems are transportation, regulation, labor quality, training and education, and public relations. Food retailers cite litigation and liability, high business costs, regulation, and insurance costs as leading problems. For food service firms, regulation, licensing and permits, labor quality and costs, and high business costs are the most pressing problems. Policy recommendations for improving the business climate are provided.Agribusiness,