A Usability Study for Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) Flight Planning Applications on Tablet Devices for Ab-initio Pilots

The proliferation of mobile technology has prompted the use of tablet devices in the cockpit and during ground operations in general aviation. Due to the increase in affordable and reliable hardware (i.e. iPads etc.), the development of pilot-specific software has led to the creation of a commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS), electronic flight bag (EFB) market. EFBs have many advantages, such as reducing the space requirements for flight documents, enabling faster searching and indexing of files, providing useful tools for flight planning, and providing automatic updates. The increase in availability of mobile technology and flight applications has allowed general aviation enthusiast and ab-initio pilots to utilize EFBs. This paper examines the usability of three of the most popular commercial EFB software programs: Foreflight mobile, Garmin Pilot, FltPlan Go. The usability study was developed for the ab-initio demographic (time), which primarily constitutes pilots who have completed their cross country training. The study assessed 30 ab-initio collegiate flight students on a series of tasks during each flight application. The usability of the applications was based on task success, time to complete the task, efficiency of the application, and learnability. The students also completed a pre survey, the NASA Task Load Index (TLX), System Usability Survey (SUS), and post survey, respectively. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to compare the scores of the three applications. The results of the study show that Foreflight had the best scores across all metrics

A Web-based graphical user interface for evidence-based decision making for health care allocations in rural areas

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The creation of successful health policy and location of resources increasingly relies on evidence-based decision-making. The development of intuitive, accessible tools to analyse, display and disseminate spatial data potentially provides the basis for sound policy and resource allocation decisions. As health services are rationalized, the development of tools such graphical user interfaces (GUIs) is especially valuable at they assist decision makers in allocating resources such that the maximum number of people are served. GIS can used to develop GUIs that enable spatial decision making.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have created a Web-based GUI (wGUI) to assist health policy makers and administrators in the Canadian province of British Columbia make well-informed decisions about the location and allocation of time-sensitive service capacities in rural regions of the province. This tool integrates datasets for existing hospitals and services, regional populations and road networks to allow users to ascertain the percentage of population in any given service catchment who are served by a specific health service, or baskets of linked services. The wGUI allows policy makers to map trauma and obstetric services against rural populations within pre-specified travel distances, illustrating service capacity by region.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The wGUI can be used by health policy makers and administrators with little or no formal GIS training to visualize multiple health resource allocation scenarios. The GUI is poised to become a critical decision-making tool especially as evidence is increasingly required for distribution of health services.</p

Considering a Seismically Active Leech River Valley Fault Zone in Southwestern British Columbia

The transpressional reverse Leech River fault (LRF) extends across the southern tip of Vancouver Island and beneath the city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. New paleoseismic studies suggest at least three surface-rupturing earthquakes have exceeded a moment magnitude (M) of 6 within a proposed Leech River Valley Fault Zone (LRVFZ) within the last 9,000 years. We examine the impact of an active LRVFZ to predicted earthquake ground motions for Victoria. In a probabilistic formulation considering the likelihood of all earthquake sources, LRVFZ earthquakes will contribute the most to high-frequency ground motions (≥ 10 Hz) in Victoria. The Canadian seismic design ground motions for Victoria increase on average by 4 – 23% at 10 Hz depending on the selection for the magnitude-recurrence rate associated with the LRVFZ. In a deterministic formulation considering rupture complexities for a suite of M 7 LRVFZ scenario earthquakes, predicted low-frequency (\u3c 0.5 Hz) ground motions in Victoria vary between 1 cm/s (weak shaking) and 19 cm/s (strong shaking) depending on the scenario. The highest ground motions in Victoria are generated by an eastward-rupturing large magnitude LRVFZ earthquake with maximum slip at shallow depth near the city

Canada’s Earthquakes: ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’

Much of Canada is ‘earthquake country’. Tiny earthquakes (that can only be recorded by seismographs) happen every day. On average, earthquakes large enough to be felt occur every week in Canada, damaging earthquakes are years to decades apart, and some of the world’s largest earthquakes are typically separated by intervals of centuries. In this article, we provide details on the most significant earthquakes that have been recorded in, or near, Canada, including where and when they occurred, how they were felt, and the effects of those earthquakes. We also provide a brief review of how earthquakes are monitored across Canada and some recent earthquake hazard research. It is the results of this monitoring and research, which provide knowledge on earthquake hazard, that are incorporated into the National Building Code of Canada. This, in turn, will contribute to reduced property losses from future earthquakes across Canada. SOMMAIRE Un bonne partie du Canada est un ‘pays de séismes’. De petits séismes (que seuls les séismographes peuvent enregistrer) s’y produisent quotidiennement. En moyenne, un séisme assez fort pour qu’on le ressente s’y produit à intervalle d’une semaine; assez fort pour causer des dommages s’y produit à intervalle de quelques années à quelques décennies; alors que l’intervalle de récurrence des plus grands séismes est de l’ordre des siècles. Dans le présent article on trouvera des détails sur les plus importants séismes s’étant produits sur ou à proximité du territoire canadien, incluant le lieu et le moment, leurs manifestations et leurs répercussions. On y décrit sommairement les moyens de détection déployés sur le territoire canadien ainsi que quelques-unes des recherches récentes sur les risques sismiques. Ce sont les résultats des efforts de surveillance et des recherches sur les tremblements de terre qui ont été intégrés dans le Code national du bâtiment du Canada. Et cela aidera à amoindrir les répercussions des séismes à venir sur la propriété

Practical, appropriate, empirically-validated guidelines for designing educational games

There has recently been a great deal of interest in the potential of computer games to function as innovative educational tools. However, there is very little evidence of games fulfilling that potential. Indeed, the process of merging the disparate goals of education and games design appears problematic, and there are currently no practical guidelines for how to do so in a coherent manner. In this paper, we describe the successful, empirically validated teaching methods developed by behavioural psychologists and point out how they are uniquely suited to take advantage of the benefits that games offer to education. We conclude by proposing some practical steps for designing educational games, based on the techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is intended that this paper can both focus educational games designers on the features of games that are genuinely useful for education, and also introduce a successful form of teaching that this audience may not yet be familiar with

Creating the on-line documentary: a satellite solution

[Abstract]: The online documentary, A Satellite Solution, is a case study investigation into how digital communications (primarily satellite TV) have impacted the quality of life of a rural community comprising 50 households in southeast Queensland (Australia) between 1999 and 2006. The production depicts a community-mediated process by which these residents adopted and then responded to receiving free-to-air TV services for the first time. The author, instigated and facilitated the project in the community and as well, recorded and produced all the material contained in the in the documentary. The paper will highlight the production components of the research set against the context of this participatory activity.This online documentary is a web site containing research materials (policy documents, significant correspondence and reports) video interviews and location sequences, maps and technical information such as, how to install a satellite system, where to find free-to-air satellite services and what satellite broadband incentives are available etc. Importantly it also represents innovation in film and television and particularly, the researcher's selected art form, the documentary. This paper, takes a practice focus and will document the production of the web site and how this new form impacts on the production style of traditional linear production and as well, what filmmakers working in this emerging non-linear form may need to plan for. This project formed the practical component for a recently completed research degree, Doctor of Visual Arts (Griffith), by the author

Activity River: Visualizing Planned and Logged Personal Activities for Reflection

We present Activity River, a personal visualization tool which enables individuals to plan, log, and reflect on their self-defined activities. We are interested in supporting this type of reflective practice as prior work has shown that reflection can help people plan and manage their time effectively. Hence, we designed Activity River based on five design goals (visualize historical and contextual data, facilitate comparison of goals and achievements, engage viewers with delightful visuals, support authorship, and enable flexible planning and logging) which we distilled from the Information Visualization and Human-Computer Interaction literature. To explore our approach's strengths and limitations, we conducted a qualitative study of Activity River using a role-playing method. Through this qualitative exploration, we illustrate how our participants envisioned using our visualization to perform dynamic and continuous reflection on their activities. We observed that they were able to assess their progress towards their plans and adapt to unforeseen circumstances using our tool.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, AVI '20, September 28-October 2, 2020, Salerno, Italy 2020 Association for Computing Machiner

Mapping the Oceans - Helping Students Make Connections

COSEE-Ocean Systems (OS) is moving forward in its development of effective tools and techniques to aid learners in better understanding the context of the oceans in both the earth and solar systems. Acting upon recent national efforts to "map" ocean topics into the educational standards, COSEE-OS is piloting effective ways to bring the relevance of the oceans to classrooms. This resource introduces concept mapping and demonstrates its effectiveness. Educational levels: Primary elementary, Intermediate elementary, Middle school, High school, Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division, Graduate or professional

Probabilistic, high-resolution tsunami predictions in northern Cascadia by exploiting sequential design for efficient emulation

The potential of a full-margin rupture along the Cascadia subduction zone poses a significant threat over a populous region of North America. Previous probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment studies produced hazard curves based on simulated predictions of tsunami waves, either at low resolution or at high resolution for a local area or under limited ranges of scenarios or at a high computational cost to generate hundreds of scenarios at high resolution. We use the graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated tsunami simulator VOLNA-OP2 with a detailed representation of topographic and bathymetric features. We replace the simulator by a Gaussian process emulator at each output location to overcome the large computational burden. The emulators are statistical approximations of the simulator's behaviour. We train the emulators on a set of input–output pairs and use them to generate approximate output values over a six-dimensional scenario parameter space, e.g. uplift/subsidence ratio and maximum uplift, that represent the seabed deformation. We implement an advanced sequential design algorithm for the optimal selection of only 60 simulations. The low cost of emulation provides for additional flexibility in the shape of the deformation, which we illustrate here considering two families – buried rupture and splay-faulting – of 2000 potential scenarios. This approach allows for the first emulation-accelerated computation of probabilistic tsunami hazard in the region of the city of Victoria, British Columbia

Creating a Virtual Library Classroom Tool for Digital Age Youth

This article considers the changing learning practices of today&rsquo;s digital youth, the Net Generation, and the use of digital technologies to create collaborative and interactive learning spaces to meet their needs.&nbsp; Specifically, the author details the creation of SD62&rsquo;s Online Library website, a project designed to explore the impact of e-reading on digital age youth in the classroom.&nbsp; Through the concepts of connectivity, interactivity, and accessibility, it is argued that SD62&rsquo;s Online Library highlights alternate approaches to online learning and provides a foundation for better integration of Web 2.0 technology into learning environments