Display-based communications for advanced transport aircraft

The next generation of civil transport aircraft will depend increasingly upon ground-air-ground and satellite data link for information critical to safe and efficient air transportation. Previous studies which examined the concept of display-based communications in addition to, or in lieu of, conventional voice transmissions are reviewed. A full-mission flight simulation comparing voice and display-based communication modes in an advanced transport aircraft is also described. The results indicate that a display-based mode of information transfer does not result in significantly increased aircrew workload, but does result in substantially increased message acknowledgment times when compared to conventional voice transmissions. User acceptance of the display-based communication system was generally high, replicating the findings of previous studies. However, most pilots tested expressed concern over the potential loss of information available from frequency monitoring which might result from the introduction of discrete address communications. Concern was expressed by some pilots for the reduced time available to search for conflicting traffic when using the communications display system. The implications of the findings for the design of display-based communications are discussed

Information transfer in the National Airspace System

An informal overview is given of the work in progress and the planned work in the area of information transfer that specifically addresses human factors issues in National Airspace System (NAS). The issues of how weather information will be displayed on the flight deck, the development of appropriate decision making technology, and digital datalink transmission are also briefly discussed

Fundamental Limits on Data Acquisition: Trade-offs between Sample Complexity and Query Difficulty

We consider query-based data acquisition and the corresponding information recovery problem, where the goal is to recover $k$ binary variables (information bits) from parity measurements of those variables. The queries and the corresponding parity measurements are designed using the encoding rule of Fountain codes. By using Fountain codes, we can design potentially limitless number of queries, and corresponding parity measurements, and guarantee that the original $k$ information bits can be recovered with high probability from any sufficiently large set of measurements of size $n$. In the query design, the average number of information bits that is associated with one parity measurement is called query difficulty ($\bar{d}$) and the minimum number of measurements required to recover the $k$ information bits for a fixed $\bar{d}$ is called sample complexity ($n$). We analyze the fundamental trade-offs between the query difficulty and the sample complexity, and show that the sample complexity of $n=c\max\{k,(k\log k)/\bar{d}\}$ for some constant $c>0$ is necessary and sufficient to recover $k$ information bits with high probability as $k\to\infty$

Overcoming Barriers to Clinical Sociology

The search for bridges between theory and practice is related to such terms as sociatrist, institutional psychiatrist, societal technician, and clinical sociologist. The need to inject clinical sociological findings into the work of the public relations counselor, personnel director, management specialist, labor relations consultant, political manager, opinion analyst, and social worker is outlined. Special attention is given to (1) societal and especially middle-class professional cultural obstacles to the development of realistic clinical sociological research, theory, and practice; (2) disciplinary barriers against the clinical approach built into much sociology; and (3) historical trends that now appear to be favoring the formal emergence and recognition of clinical sociology

Nonviolent Agencies in the Northern Ireland Struggle: 1968-1979

The Northern Ireland struggle has enlisted or given birth to a great many social welfare organizations allegedly dedicated to the nonviolent solution of the area’s problems. These consist principally of three types: (1) agencies of religious denominations or groups of denominations, (2) voluntary social work, demonstration, and protest societies, and (3) political actionist bodies. Those of the first two types face the pitfalls of the ready middleclass recourse to conscience-soothing rituals and to compromise at the expense of lowerclass and ethnic outgroup interests. Those of the third type include ones that are effective, but some tend to fall into lowerclass dependence in frustration upon violence, a counterproductive procedure. The first two types apply “band-aids” to painful symptoms or create a kind of social anesthesia. Despite noble intent, they both leave the exploitative social structure intact. At this time, only such cross-class organizations as the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, the Association for Legal Justice, and Amnesty International appear to have made substantial nonviolent contributions to the movement of Northern Ireland toward a just settlement of differences, a settlement that is still far in the future

Humanism as Demystification

Under a variety of labels, many academic disciplines focus on the unsettling impact of fresh and vivid interpersonal experiences upon pre-existing beliefs and behaviour patterns. Reference is to philosophical discussions of sophism and humanism, historical theories about frontier influences, anthropological interest in culture shock, psychiatric concern with empathy and with perceptive listening, and sociological analyses of marginality, uses of participant observation and life-history data, and clinical studies of social behavior. Their significant similarity is that they are all discussions of demystifying influences on social thought and action. They are demystifying in the sense that they tend to translate the distant, the abstract, into immediate, specific, and personal terms. They throw traditional patterns into contrast with what is here and now and with quite different traditional formulations

A Quantitative Research Study on Probability Risk Assessments in Critical Infrastructure and Homeland Security

This dissertation encompassed quantitative research on probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) elements in homeland security and the impact on critical infrastructure and key resources. There are 16 crucial infrastructure sectors in homeland security that represent assets, system networks, virtual and physical environments, roads and bridges, transportation, and air travel. The design included the Bayes theorem, a process used in PRAs when determining potential or probable events, causes, outcomes, and risks. The goal is to mitigate the effects of domestic terrorism and natural and man-made disasters, respond to events related to critical infrastructure that can impact the United States, and help protect and secure natural gas pipelines and electrical grid systems. This study provides data from current risk assessment trends in PRAs that can be applied and designed in elements of homeland security and the criminal justice system to help protect critical infrastructures. The dissertation will highlight the aspects of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP). In addition, this framework was employed to examine the criminal justice triangle, explore crime problems and emergency preparedness solutions to protect critical infrastructures, and analyze data relevant to risk assessment procedures for each critical infrastructure identified. Finally, the study addressed the drivers and gaps in research related to protecting and securing natural gas pipelines and electrical grid systems