Quality in Airline Safety: Quality Methods and Tools Are Needed to Manage New Directions

Approximately 650 million people fly on U.S. certificated air carriers annually (Department of Transportation: Federal Aviation Administration, 2003). Although statistically air transportation is one of the safest modes of travel, the few airline accidents that occur never fail to garner substantial media attention and concern of the public. The responsibility to seek ways to improve air transportation safety falls on all involved in aviation - practitioners and educators alike. The purpose of this article is to provide, through a review of literature, a brief examination of the past, present, and future state of efforts to address airline safety, and to encourage educators to become involved in promoting the use of quality tools to improve safety

Data Mining Methods Applied to Flight Operations Quality Assurance Data: A Comparison to Standard Statistical Methods

In a previous study, multiple regression techniques were applied to Flight Operations Quality Assurance-derived data to develop parsimonious model(s) for fuel consumption on the Boeing 757 airplane. The present study examined several data mining algorithms, including neural networks, on the fuel consumption problem and compared them to the multiple regression results obtained earlier. Using regression methods, parsimonious models were obtained that explained approximately 85% of the variation in fuel flow. In general data mining methods were more effective in predicting fuel consumption. Classification and Regression Tree methods reported correlation coefficients of .91 to .92, and General Linear Models and Multilayer Perceptron neural networks reported correlation coefficients of about .99. These data mining models show great promise for use in further examining large FOQA databases for operational and safety improvements

Six Sigma Applied to Flight Operations Quality Assurance: An Exemplar Case Study

“Due to the requirement to maintain and improve the safety record of commercial air transportation in the United States (U.S.) despite increasing traffic, several proactive safety programs have been introduced in recent years. Among these proactive safety programs is a form of Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) known in the U.S. as Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA). FOQA is a program utilizing quantifiable, objective data collected from the air carrier aircraft’s data recording system. The data is then analyzed to identify trends and other indicators of potential safety problems. With few exceptions, FOQA data analysis has been rudimentary, often limited to relatively simple statistical methods. The purpose of this study was to introduce a method in which current FOQA methodology can be enhanced with the more sophisticated quality and statistical concepts found in Six Sigma – a structured, data-driven approach built upon to eliminating defects through the reduction of variation in processes. A general introduction to both FOQA and Six Sigma is provided, along with a hypothetical exemplar case study using Six Sigma methodology on a FOQA problem, i.e., tail strikes during takeoff.”—Author abstract

Detection of an endangered mammalian species using environmental DNA analysis

Poster presented at The Mammal Society 63rd Spring Conference & AGM, 31st March-2nd April, 2017, Cambridge, UK

Environmental DNA analysis – detection of endangered and invader species in wildlife conservation

Poster presented at Human Identification Solutions (HIDS) 2016, 10th-11th May, 2016, Barcelona, Spain

Environmental DNA analysis – non-invasive detection of endangered species in aquatic and terrestrial environments

Poster presented at Human Identification Solutions (HIDS) 2017, 16th-17th May, 2017, Vienna, Austria

Use of environmental DNA analysis to detect the presence of water vole

© 2018 The Authors. Published by Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://cieem.net/resource/in-practice-issue-99-genetic-techniques-and-technologies-march-2018/The UK water vole population has fallen dramatically in recent years. Accurate and reliable methods of detecting the presence or absence of water vole at specific locations are critical to conservation efforts. Traditional survey methods can, in some cases, be invasive, inaccurate or difficult to carry out. This study aimed to develop a novel method based on identification of environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect the presence of water vole via analysis of water samples. The results demonstrate that the technique offers an accurate method of detection. However, this study was based on a relatively small sample and certain limitations of the technique have been identified, which will be explored with further research. Nevertheless, used and interpreted correctly, the technique can provide reliable evidence of presence or absence

Unlocking the potential of sensors for our environment:A call to action from a NERC writing retreat

Funded by NERC Constructed for the Digital Environment, the report is a culmination of an intensive co-creation process and writing retreat that brought together experts in the field of environmental sensing to explore how to accelerate advancements in environmental sensing and sensor networks that acknowledge and respond to the interconnections between people, places, and ethics. The report emerges as a foundational document aimed at guiding future funding calls, stimulating innovation, and advocating for interdisciplinary research approaches