Measurements of Pilot Time Delay as Influenced by Controller Characteristics and Vehicles Time Delays

A study to measure and compare pilot time delay when using a space shuttle rotational hand controller and a more conventional control stick was conducted at NASA Ames Research Center's Dryden Flight Research Facility. The space shuttle controller has a palm pivot in the pitch axis. The more conventional controller used was a general-purpose engineering simulator stick that has a pivot length between that of a typical aircraft center stick and a sidestick. Measurements of the pilot's effective time delay were obtained through a first-order, closed-loop, compensatory tracking task in pitch. The tasks were implemented through a space shuttle cockpit simulator and a critical task tester device. The study consisted of 450 data runs with four test pilots and one nonpilot, and used three control stick configurations and two system delays. Results showed that the heavier conventional stick had the lowest pilot effective time delays associated with it, whereas the shuttle and light conventional sticks each had similar higher pilot time delay characteristics. It was also determined that each control stick showed an increase in pilot time delay when the total system delay was increased

In defence of a free market

In a dusty square of an ancient neighborhood of Palermo, there is a miserable second-hand market called mercato dell’Albergheria. Merchandise sold is mainly stuff collected from garbage. Those who sell and buy are some of the poorest and most marginalized among the urban population, so none of the sellers has a license or pays any tax. Nevertheless, Albergheria market had existed undisturbed for about twenty years. It, therefore, seems to be an actualization of the free market deal. The State is not there: neither to give nor to require. In the main square, where the market is, an odd coincidence occurs: one of the buildings, an ex-cinema, is now a lecture hall of the Law Department of the University of Palermo. So, where everything is illegal, youth is trained in the legal professions. This paradoxical circumstance was the occasion of a legal education experiment and action research, configurable in terms of “street law upside-down”

A new family of maximum scattered linear sets in PG(1,q^6)

We generalize the example of linear set presented by the last two authors in "Vertex properties of maximum scattered linear sets of PG(1; qn)" (2019) to a more general family, proving that such linear sets are maximum scattered when q is odd and, apart from a special case, they are new. This solves an open problem posed in "Vertex properties of maximum scattered linear sets of PG(1; qn)" (2019). As a consequence of Sheekey's results in "A new family of linear maximum rank distance codes" (2016), this family yields to new MRD-codes with parameters (6; 6; q; 5)

Unraveling the Effect of Carbon Nanotube Oxidation on Solid-State Decomposition of Ammonia Borane/Carbon Nanotube Composites

Among the routes to perform hydrogen release from ammonia in solid state, the nanoconfinement into a carbonaceous matrix or the use of carbon-supported catalysts for the thermal degradation of ammonia borane (AB) is the most interesting one. Oxidized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) represent a suitable choice for preparing AB mixtures or for anchoring catalysts for dehydrogenation. Nevertheless, literature lacks detailed study about the influence of CNT oxidation degree on the AB degradation/hydrogen release. In this study, we first described in a comprehensive way that the thermal degradation of AB mixed with CNTs by varying the CNT oxidation degree enlightens the degradative routes mainly active in each case. Using highly oxidized CNTs, we observed a decrement of activation energy of the degradative process up to around 53% and the activation/suppression of different pathways based on the amount of oxygen functionalities present in the mixtures. Furthermore, the presence of oxidized CNTs modulated the solid-state reactivity of AB reducing the release of nitrogen/boron species together with hydrogen. These findings lead the way for the design of new hydrogen storage materials

Music in our minds and bodies matters.

This is a pre-publication version of the following article: Rose, D., Jones Bartoli, A., & Heaton, P., ‘Music in our minds and bodies matters’, PsyPAG Quarterly, Issue 103, June 2017. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.This paper aims to convey an introduction to the psychology of music. At a very basic level, sound informs our model of the world, aiding survival. Musical sound and practice further offers a merging of exogenous and endogenous temporal states and templates, employing multiple complex neural mechanisms. Here we provide an overview of the literature exploring why music matters to our minds and bodies.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A study of cognitive and behavioural transfer effects associated with children learning to play musical instruments for the first time over one academic year.

This is a pre-publication version of the following article: Dawn Rose, Alice Jones Bartoli, and Pamela Heaton, “A study of cognitive and behavioural transfer effects associated with children learning to play musical instruments for the first time over one academic year.”, The Psychology of Education Review, Vol. 39(2): 54-70, October 2015.Interest in studies investigating the indirect effect of music education, evaluated theoretically as ‘transfer effects’ (Barnett & Ceci, 2002) has been re-energised by the recent changes in policy that require musical provision to be justified (Branscombe, 2012). Here we take a holistic approach to musical learning, nesting neuro-psychological measures of near and far transfer within one battery of tests. The mixed design considered the multi-modal characteristics of musicality along a continuum assessing changes over time for behavioural visuo and psycho-motor skills and factors of both intelligence and memory in children in a pilot study. Participants (N=38) aged between 7-9 years were tested over a period of one UK academic year. Groups were assigned based on the amount of musical training they received. Results suggest an advantage for those participants taking music lessons over and above statutory provisions, particularly for hand/eye coordination and nonverbal reasoning.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

In ossequio a una norma il cui senso ci sfugge: scrivere con Bruno Celano

Il titolo di questo articolo è l'incipit di una formula utilizzata da Bruno Celano nella prima nota dei saggi a due mani. Nella sua versione integrale è la seguente: “In ottemperanza a una norma italiana, di cui non comprendiamo appieno il senso, dichiariamo che le sezioni X e Y sono di Bruno Celano e le sezioni W e Z sono di N”. Dato il processo di scrittura altamente dialogico, possiamo facilmente comprendere perché Celano, con garbata irriverenza, obbedisse alla richiesta di attribuire la titolarità di ogni sezione a unautore, non esimendosidall’esprimereun certo dissenso.Nella sua vasta produzione, i testia doppia firmasono pochie recenti. Tuttavia, raccontare la pratica creativa della scrittura congiunta ci permette di mostrare un tratto distintivo dell'intera opera di Bruno Celano, ovvero il pensare e il ricercare in dialogo. Nel presente lavoro, Clelia Bartoli, Marco Brigaglia e Giuseppe Rocché ripercorrono alcuni elementidal backstage del lavoro di Celano, soprattutto negli ultimi anni segnati dalla malattia.The title of this article is the incipit of a formula used by Bruno Celano, to be placed in the first note of the two-handed essays. In its completeversion it is as follows: «In complying with an Italian rule, whose point we do not fully understand, we declare that sections X and Y are by Bruno Celano and sections W and Z are by N». Given the highly dialogic process of writing that took place with Celano, we can easily understand why he,with gentle irreverence,obeyed by disagreeing to attribute ownership of each section to each author.In hisvast production, publications withanother author are few and recent. However, recounting the creative practiceof joint writing allows us to show a distinctive feature of Bruno Celano's entire oeuvre, which was thinking and researching in dialogue. In the current paper, Clelia Bartoli, Marco Brigaglia,and Giuseppe Rocchétrace some aspects of the backstage of Celano's work, especially inthe utmost years marked by illness