Engineering psychology: Contribution to system safety

There has been a growing interest in the area of engineering psychology. This article considers some of the major accidents which have occurred in recent years, and the contribution which engineering psychology makes to designing systems and enhancing safety. Accidents are usually multi-causal, and the resident pathogens in the design and operation of human-machine systems can lead to devastating consequences not only for the workers themselves but also for people in the surrounding communities. Specifically, in each of the accidents discussed, operators were unaware of the seriousness of the system malfunctions because warning displays were poorly designed or located, and operators had not been sufficiently trained in dealing with these emergency situations. Since the 1940s machines and equipment have become more complex in nearly every industry. This, coupled with the continuing need to produce effective and safe systems, has resulted in psychology professionals being called to assist in designing even more efficient operating systems. In earlier times, a worker who made a mistake might spoil a piece of work or waste some time. Today, however, a worker's erroneous action can lead to dire consequences

Lecture Experiments Illustrating the Electrolytic Dissociation Theory and the Laws of the Velocity and Equilibrium of Chemical Change.

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Implementation of Headtracking and 3D Stereo with Unity and VRPN for Computer Simulations

This paper explores low-cost hardware and software methods to provide depth cues traditionally absent in monocular displays. The use of a VRPN server in conjunction with a Microsoft Kinect and/or Nintendo Wiimote to provide head tracking information to a Unity application, and NVIDIA 3D Vision for retinal disparity support, is discussed. Methods are suggested to implement this technology with NASA's EDGE simulation graphics package, along with potential caveats. Finally, future applications of this technology to astronaut crew training, particularly when combined with an omnidirectional treadmill for virtual locomotion and NASA's ARGOS system for reduced gravity simulation, are discussed

Point of Transition Service Integration Project: A Multiple-Case Study of a Systems Change Intervention

The Point of Transition Service Integration Project (POTSIP) was initiated in 1997 in California as a three-year model demonstration grant funded by the Department of Education. The goal of the project was to improve the level of cooperation and collaboration among public schools, the State Department of Rehabilitation, and the State Department of Developmental Services related to efforts assisting students with severe disabilities who are transitioning from school to adult life. This qualitative study examined a stakeholder-centered perspective on the transition process within the POTSIP model. The purpose of this study was to identify the critical incidents and factors that impact the transition experience as perceived by four students, their family members, transition teachers, and other service providers. These multiple case studies give voice to the participants directly engaged in transition activities in an effort to enhance future practice. The following research questions were investigated: 1. How do students with severe disabilities, their families, transition teachers, and adult agency staff perceive the transition process at least 12-24 months after exiting school for adult life? 2. How does interagency collaboration and early intervention impact the transition service delivery system according to students, families, teachers, and adult agency representatives? Stakeholder interviews, observations, and document review were utilized to provide data for the study. Interview data were analyzed following multiple reviews of the data and emerging themes were identified. Observation and document review data were also analyzed and summarized. This study identified stakeholder perceptions indicating both positive and negative elements related to the implementation of the POTSIP model. Findings included indications of improved interagency collaboration in terms of overlapping of services the final year of school, continuity of services and relationships, improved employment outcomes, and early and shared funding arrangements. Indications of stakeholder dissatisfaction or poor collaboration were demonstrated by themes of failure to address long-term goals, lack of inter-stakeholder communication, and various policy and procedural barriers to providing successful transition outcomes. Based on these findings, implications were offered for the various stakeholder groups and recommendations were developed in an effort to inform and improve practice by the various adult service systems

Gambia’s longtime dictator isn’t going anywhere any time soon

Jeffrey Smith and Alexander Noyes look at how failed coup attempts in the Gambia are leading to a more repressive regime in the West African country

On the relevance of the mathematics curriculum to young people

In this paper we draw upon focus group data from a large study of learner trajectories through 14-19 mathematics education to think about the notion of relevance in the mathematics curriculum. Drawing on data from three socially distanced sites we explore how different emphases on what might be termed practical, process and/or professional forms of relevance affect the experiences and aspirations of learners of mathematics. We consider whether an emphasis on practical relevance in schools serving relatively disadvantaged communities might aid the reproduction of students’ social position. This leads us to suggest that a fourth category of curriculum relevance – political relevance – is largely missing from classrooms

CPT symmetry and antimatter gravity in general relativity

The gravitational behavior of antimatter is still unknown. While we may be confident that antimatter is self-attractive, the interaction between matter and antimatter might be either attractive or repulsive. We investigate this issue on theoretical grounds. Starting from the CPT invariance of physical laws, we transform matter into antimatter in the equations of both electrodynamics and gravitation. In the former case, the result is the well-known change of sign of the electric charge. In the latter, we find that the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter is a mutual repulsion, i.e. antigravity appears as a prediction of general relativity when CPT is applied. This result supports cosmological models attempting to explain the Universe accelerated expansion in terms of a matter-antimatter repulsive interaction.Comment: 6 pages, to be published in EPL (http://epljournal.edpsciences.org/

Scale in education research: towards a multi-scale methodology

This article explores some theoretical and methodological problems concerned with scale in education research through a critique of a recent mixed-method project. The project was framed by scale metaphors drawn from the physical and earth sciences and I consider how recent thinking around scale, for example in ecosystems and human geography might offer helpful points and angles of view on the challenges of thinking spatially in education research. Working between the spatial metaphors of ecology scholars and the critiques of the human geographers, for example the hypercomplex social space in Lefebvre’s political-economic thinking and the fluid, simultaneous, multiple spatialities of Massey’s post-structuralism, I problematize space and scale in education research. Interweaving these geographical ideas with Giddens’ structuration and Bourdieu’s theory of practice, both of which employed what might be termed scale-bridging to challenge social science’s entrenched paradigms, leads me to reconsider what is possible and desirable in the study of education systems. Following the spatial turn in the social sciences generally, there is an outstanding need to theorise multi-scale methodology for education research