MONALISA 2.0 and the sea traffic management - a concept creating the need for new maritime information standards and software solutions

Postprint (published version

The Role of Trust and Interaction in GPS Related Accidents: A Human Factors Safety Assessment of the Global Positioning System (GPS)

The Global Positioning System (GPS) uses a network of orbiting and geostationary satellites to calculate the position of a receiver over time. This technology has revolutionised a wide range of safety-critical industries and leisure applications ranging from commercial fisheries through to mountain running. These systems provide diverse benefits; supplementing the users existing navigation skills and reducing the uncertainty that often characterises many route planning tasks. GPS applications can also help to reduce workload by automating tasks that would otherwise require finite cognitive and perceptual resources. However, the operation of these systems has been identified as a contributory factor in a range of recent accidents. Users often come to rely on GPS applications and, therefore, fail to notice when they develop faults or when errors occur in the other systems that use the data from these systems. Further accidents can stem from the ‘over confidence’ that arises when users assume automated warnings will be issued when they stray from an intended route. Unless greater attention is paid to the human factors of GPS applications then there is a danger that we will see an increasing number of these failures as positioning technologies are integrated into increasing numbers of application

Комплекс програмного забезпечення для автоматизованої системи керування комплексом моделювання повітряного руху

The set of software which automates the control process of dynamical air-traffic situations generation is considered in the article. The functional scheme of its work is given. The set includes: airspace sector editor, catalogue searching tool, dynamic air-traffic situation generator and editor. The input and output data is formalized. Reducing the generation time and increasing the quantities and variety of practical tasks due to automation enable implementation of individualized learning approach. Для забезпечення індивідуального підходу до практичної підготовки авіадиспетчера необхідно досягти суттєвого зниження витрат часу на генерацію динамічної повітряної обстановки. У статті наводиться склад та функціональна схема роботи комплексу програмного забезпечення, що автоматизує процес керування генерацією динамічної повітряної обстановки для практичної підготовки авіадиспетчера. Комплекс включає редактор повітряних зон, інструмент пошуку у каталозі, генератор і редактор динамічної повітряної обстановки. Формалізовано вхідні та вихідні дані. Виділено основні фази та етапи генерації. Наводяться інтерфейси оператора, засоби візуального редагування та автоматизації. Програмне забезпечення пройшло експериментальну валідацію та було апробовано у навчальному процесі. Впровадження програмного забезпечення знизило на два порядки витрати часу на генерацію вправ, підвищило їх різноманітність, що уможливлює індивідуальний підхід до практичної підготовки

Pennsylvania: Base Line Report - State Level Field Network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network -- with 36 states and 61 researchers -- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.Although the ACA will no doubt have real financial consequences for insurers, hospitals, and health care providers, at this early stage in implementation, it is difficult to calculate precise gains and losses. For example, the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania supported the ACA, believing, in part, that reform was necessary to reduce current levels of uncompensated care and to reduce reliance on emergency care for patients who put off treatment for as long as possible to avoid out-of-pocket costs. The association agreed to significant cuts in Medicare and Medicaid to support the bill's passage. However, because cost savings from universal coverage have not yet been realized, hospitals reported cutting staff in April 2014 to offset the loss of Medicaid and Medicare funding. Safety net hospitals, which are required to serve all populations, seem especially affected, as many of their patients who fall into the Medicaid coverage gap are still showing up in emergency rooms without insurance

Inland Navigation Technology \u2709 - Digital Technology Impact on Safety and Efficiency

This workshop discussed the impact of digital technology on inland navigation safety and efficiency from the combined perspective government agencies and waterway operators. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) described inland navigation Research & Development (R&D), related demonstration efforts, and Headquarters initiatives for safer, more reliable waterways and infrastructure. The US Coast Guard (USCG) addressed the latest developments in e-Navigation (e.g., electronic charts, AIS, and aidsto-navigation), and how these developments might affect inland waterways operations. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discussed PORTS (Physical Oceanographic RealTime System) and other activities. Representatives from the Towing Industry, led by the American Waterways Operators Technology Steering Group, described current/future needs, as well as ongoing/planned initiatives to meet challenges associated with projected future increases in inland commerce

Use of an agile bridge in the development of assistive technology

Engaging with end users in the development of assistive technologies remains one of the major challenges for researchers and developers in the field of accessibility and HCI. Developing usable software systems for people with complex disabilities is problematic, software developers are wary of using user-centred design, one of the main methods by which usability can be improved, due to concerns about how best to work with adults with complex disabilities, in particular Severe Speech and Physical Impairments (SSPI) and how to involve them in research. This paper reports on how the adoption of an adapted agile approach involving the incorporation of a user advocate on the research team helped in meeting this challenge in one software project and offers suggestions for how this could be used by other development teams

Oregon: Round 1 - State-Level Field Network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network ---- with 36 states and 61 researchers ---- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.Oregon has taken an overwhelmingly affirmative response to the ACA, as evidenced by its enthusiastic development and implementation of Cover Oregon and its decision to expand Medicaid. In fact, it is one of six states to receive a Model Testing award from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which will support continuing efforts to transform its health care delivery system through innovative methods

Web Site Personalization based on Link Analysis and Navigational Patterns

The continuous growth in the size and use of the World Wide Web imposes new methods of design and development of on-line information services. The need for predicting the users’ needs in order to improve the usability and user retention of a web site is more than evident and can be addressed by personalizing it. Recommendation algorithms aim at proposing “next” pages to users based on their current visit and the past users’ navigational patterns. In the vast majority of related algorithms, however, only the usage data are used to produce recommendations, disregarding the structural properties of the web graph. Thus important – in terms of PageRank authority score – pages may be underrated. In this work we present UPR, a PageRank-style algorithm which combines usage data and link analysis techniques for assigning probabilities to the web pages based on their importance in the web site’s navigational graph. We propose the application of a localized version of UPR (l-UPR) to personalized navigational sub-graphs for online web page ranking and recommendation. Moreover, we propose a hybrid probabilistic predictive model based on Markov models and link analysis for assigning prior probabilities in a hybrid probabilistic model. We prove, through experimentation, that this approach results in more objective and representative predictions than the ones produced from the pure usage-based approaches