Drones for parcel and passenger transportation: A literature review

Delivery drones and ‘air taxis’ are currently among the most intensely discussed emerging technologies, likely to expand mobility into the ‘third dimension’ of low-level airspace. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 111 interdisciplinary publications (2013 - 03/2019). The review systematizes the current socio-technical debate on civil drones for transportation purposes allowing for a (critical) interim assessment. To guide the review process four dimensions of analysis were defined. A total of 2581 relevant quotations were subdivided into anticipated barriers (426), potential problems (1037), proposed solutions (737) and expected benefits (381). We found that the debate is characterized by predominantly technical and regulatory problems and barriers which are considered to prevent or impede the use of drones for parcel and passengers transportation. At the same time, definite economic expectations are juxtaposed with quite complex and differentiated concerns regarding societal and environmental impacts. Scrutinizing the most prevalent transportation-related promises of traffic reduction, travel time saving and environmental relief we found that there is a strong need to provide scientific evidence for the promises linked to the use of drones for transportation. We conclude that the debate on drones for transportation needs further qualification, emphasizing societal benefits and public involvement more strongly.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Testing the Effectiveness of a Self-Transcendent Purpose Intervention among College Students

The present study explored the effect of self-transcendence on academic amotivation (AA), self-alienation (SA), and other factors relevant to the academic perceptions of first-generation college students; additional factors included academic sense of community, self-concept, and self-efficacy. Undergraduate students were recruited from introductory psychology courses in exchange for course credit. Participants were assigned to complete either a self-transcendent purpose intervention (STPI) or a neutral exercise; regardless of assignment, participants also provided demographic information and completed a series of questionnaires assessing the aforementioned factors. It was hypothesized that (1) the experimental group would report lower levels of AA and SA compared to the control, (2) AA would be positively correlated with SA, and (3) the first-generation students in the experimental group would report the lowest levels of AA and SA, while the first-generation students in the control group would report the highest levels. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed

Kinderlert

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisThis document will explain the aspects of the Kinderlert system. This document will encompass the specification of the system along with the programming layout. The system hardware will be discussed along with an overview of some of the key software components. This document will end with the detail software programming for both the Kinderlert application and the Kinderlert device programming.Computer Engineering Technolog

Unordered Associative Containers in STAPL

The Standard Template Adaptive Parallel Library (STAPL) is a parallel programming framework for C++ that provides parallel algorithms and containers similar to those found in the Standard Template Library (STL). Currently STAPL is lacking implementations for three unordered associative containers: unordered set, unordered multiset, and unordered multimap. These are commonly used containers in the field of computer science; therefore, their implementations are a necessity for STAPL. The similarity of operations and structure between each container will allow a large portion of code to be reused. The goal of this work is to design and create a parallel implementation of these containers that provides the same user-level facilities as their STL equivalents and displays a high level of scalability when executed on a large number of processors

An Approximation for the rp-Process

Hot (explosive) hydrogen burning or the Rapid Proton Capture Process (rp-process) occurs in a number of astrophysical environments. Novae and X-ray bursts are the most prominent ones, but accretion disks around black holes and other sites are candidates as well. The expensive and often multidimensional hydro calculations for such events require an accurate prediction of the thermonuclear energy generation, while avoiding full nucleosynthesis network calculations. In the present investigation we present an approximation scheme applicable in a temperature range which covers the whole range of all presently known astrophysical sites. It is based on the concept of slowly varying hydrogen and helium abundances and assumes a kind of local steady flow by requiring that all reactions entering and leaving a nucleus add up to a zero flux. This scheme can adapt itself automatically and covers situations at low temperatures, characterized by a steady flow of reactions, as well as high temperature regimes where a $(p,\gamma)-(\gamma,p)$-equilibrium is established. In addition to a gain of a factor of 15 in computational speed over a full network calculation, and an energy generation accurate to more than 15 %, this scheme also allows to predict correctly individual isotopic abundances. Thus, it delivers all features of a full network at a highly reduced cost and can easily be implemented in hydro calculations.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX using astrobib and aas2pp4, includes PostScript figures; Astrophysical Journal, in press. PostScript source also available at http://quasar.physik.unibas.ch/preps.htm

The rp-process and new measurements of beta-delayed proton decay of light Ag and Cd isotopes

Recent network calculations suggest that a high temperature rp-process could explain the abundances of light Mo and Ru isotopes, which have long challenged models of p-process nuclide production. Important ingredients to network calculations involving unstable nuclei near and at the proton drip line are $\beta$-halflives and decay modes, i.e., whether or not $\beta$-delayed proton decay takes place. Of particular importance to these network calculation are the proton-rich isotopes $^{96}$Ag, $^{98}$Ag, $^{96}$Cd and $^{98}$Cd. We report on recent measurements of $\beta$-delayed proton branching ratios for $^{96}$Ag, $^{98}$Ag, and $^{98}$Cd at the on-line mass separator at GSI.Comment: 4 pages, uses espcrc1.sty. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium Nuclei in the Cosmos, June 1996, Notre Dame/IN, USA, Ed. M. Wiescher, to be published in Nucl.Phys.A. Also available at ftp://ftp.physics.ohio-state.edu/pub/nucex/nic96-gs

Reduced Gravity Testing of the Nanoparticle Field Extraction Thruster

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77245/1/AIAA-2008-4995-883.pd

A critical re-evaluation of the Thorne-Zytkow object candidate HV 2112

It has been argued in the literature that the star HV 2112 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is the first known example of a Thorne–Żytkow object (TŻO), a red supergiant with a degenerate neutron core. This claim is based on the star having a high luminosity (log (L/L⊙) ≳ 5), an extremely cool effective temperature, and a surface enriched in in lithium, calcium, and various irp-process elements. In this paper we re-examine this evidence, and present new measurements of the stellar properties. By compiling archival photometry from blue to mid-infrared for HV 2112 and integrating under its spectral energy distribution, we find a bolometric luminosity in the range of log (L/L⊙) = 4.70–4.91, lower than that found in previous work and comparable to bright asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. We compare a VLT+XSHOOTER spectrum of HV 2112 to other late-type, luminous SMC stars, finding no evidence for enhancements in Rb, Ca, or K, though there does seem to be an enrichment in Li. We therefore conclude that a much more likely explanation for HV 2112 is that it is an intermediate mass (∼5 M⊙) AGB star. However, from our sample of comparison stars we identify a new TŻO candidate, HV 11417, which seems to be enriched in Rb but for which we cannot determine a Li abundance