Flight manager and check-airman training

An analysis of industry incidents, accidents, and related human factors research is given. The need to develop more effective resource management training for the flight deck crewmembers is discussed with specific emphasis on flight manager and check-airman training

Writing in your own voice: An intervention that reduces plagiarism and common writing problems in students' scientific writing.

In many of our courses, particularly laboratory courses, students are expected to engage in scientific writing. Despite various efforts by other courses and library resources, as instructors we are often faced with the frustration of student plagiarism and related writing problems. Here, we describe a simple Writing in Your Own Voice intervention designed to help students become more aware of different types of plagiarism and writing problems, avoid those problems, and practice writing in their own voice. In this article, we will introduce the types of plagiarism and writing problems commonly encountered in our molecular biology laboratory course, the intervention, and the results of our study. From the evaluation of 365 student reports, we found the intervention resulted in nearly 50% fewer instances of plagiarism and common writing problems. We also observed significantly fewer instances of severe plagiarism (e.g. several sentences copied from an external source). In addition, we find that the effects last for several weeks after the students complete the intervention assignment. This assignment is particularly easy to implement and can be a very useful tool for teaching students how to write in their own voices. © 2019 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 47(5):589-598, 2019

Model support roll balance and roll coupling

The design concepts of two specialized wind tunnel model support mechanisms are described. The forced oscillation roll balance mechanism was designed to meet the specific requirement to measure aerodynamic forces and moments to permit determination of the damping-in-roll parameters of winged configurations. A variable speed motor is used to oscillate the model by means of an offset crank. The oscillating motion is resisted by a torsion spring to provide a restoring torque and is attached to the section forward of the strain-gage balance. This spring action allows the model to be oscillated at a frequency for velocity resonance, whereby the mechanical spring and any aerodynamic spring balance. This spring action allows the model to be oscillated at a frequency for velocity resonance, whereby the mechanical spring and any aerodynamic spring balance out the model inertia. The only torque then required to oscillate the model at that particular frequency is equal to that due to aerodynamic damping. The second mechanism, a roll coupling for remotely rotating a model, was designed to invert or roll a model about its longitudinal axis when mounted for testing

Integrated Approach to Flight Crew Training

The computer based approach used by United Airlines for flight training is discussed. The human factors involved in specific aircraft accidents are addressed. Flight crew interaction and communication as they relate to training and flight safety are considered

Rippled Cosmological Dark Matter from Damped Oscillating Newton Constant

Let the reciprocal Newton 'constant' be an apparently non-dynamical Brans-Dicke scalar field damped oscillating towards its General Relativistic VEV. We show, without introducing additional matter fields or dust, that the corresponding cosmological evolution averagely resembles, in the Jordan frame, the familiar dark radiation -> dark matter -> dark energy domination sequence. The fingerprints of our theory are fine ripples, hopefully testable, in the FRW scale factor; they die away at the General Relativity limit. The possibility that the Brans-Dicke scalar also serves as the inflaton is favorably examined.Comment: RevTex4, 12 pages, 5 figures; Minor revision, References adde

Buoyant Venus station mission feasibility study for 1972 and 1973 launch opportunities. Volume 3 - Configuration definition. Part 1 - Configuration Final report

Configuration definitions for buoyant Venus station missions for 1972 - 1973 launch perio

A cross-sectional study of predatory publishing emails received by career development grant awardees

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the scope of academic spam emails (ASEs) among career development grant awardees and the factors associated with the amount of time spent addressing them. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey of career development grant investigators via an anonymous online survey was conducted. In addition to demographic and professional information, we asked investigators to report the number of ASEs received each day, how they determined whether these emails were spam and time they spent per day addressing them. We used bivariate analysis to assess factors associated with the amount of time spent on ASEs. SETTING: An online survey sent via email on three separate occasions between November and December 2016. PARTICIPANTS: All National Institutes of Health career development awardees funded in the 2015 fiscal year. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Factors associated with the amount of time spent addressing ASEs. RESULTS: A total of 3492 surveys were emailed, of which 206 (5.9%) were returned as undeliverable and 96 (2.7%) reported an out-of-office message; our overall response rate was 22.3% (n=733). All respondents reported receiving ASEs, with the majority (54.4%) receiving between 1 and 10 per day and spending between 1 and 10 min each day evaluating them. The amount of time respondents reported spending on ASEs was associated with the number of peer-reviewed journal articles authored (p<0.001), a history of publishing in open access format (p<0.01), the total number of ASEs received (p<0.001) and a feeling of having missed opportunities due to ignoring these emails (p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: ASEs are a common distraction for career development grantees that may impact faculty productivity. There is an urgent need to mitigate this growing problem

Gravitational Wave Burst Source Direction Estimation using Time and Amplitude Information

In this article we study two problems that arise when using timing and amplitude estimates from a network of interferometers (IFOs) to evaluate the direction of an incident gravitational wave burst (GWB). First, we discuss an angular bias in the least squares timing-based approach that becomes increasingly relevant for moderate to low signal-to-noise ratios. We show how estimates of the arrival time uncertainties in each detector can be used to correct this bias. We also introduce a stand alone parameter estimation algorithm that can improve the arrival time estimation and provide root-sum-squared strain amplitude (hrss) values for each site. In the second part of the paper we discuss how to resolve the directional ambiguity that arises from observations in three non co-located interferometers between the true source location and its mirror image across the plane containing the detectors. We introduce a new, exact relationship among the hrss values at the three sites that, for sufficiently large signal amplitudes, determines the true source direction regardless of whether or not the signal is linearly polarized. Both the algorithm estimating arrival times, arrival time uncertainties, and hrss values and the directional follow-up can be applied to any set of gravitational wave candidates observed in a network of three non co-located interferometers. As a case study we test the methods on simulated waveforms embedded in simulations of the noise of the LIGO and Virgo detectors at design sensitivity.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, submitted to PR

Speech and language difficulties in children with and without a family history of dyslexia

Comorbidity between SLI and dyslexia is well documented. Researchers have variously argued that dyslexia is a separate disorder from SLI, or that children with dyslexia show a subset of the difficulties shown in SLI. This study examines these hypotheses by assessing whether family history of dyslexia and speech and language difficulties are separable risk factors for literacy difficulties. Forty-six children with a family risk of dyslexia (FRD) and 36 children receiving speech therapy (SLT) were compared to 128 typically developing children. A substantial number (41.3%) of the children with FRD had received SLT. The nature of their difficulties did not differ in severity or form from those shown by the other children in SLT. However, both SLT and FRD were independent risk factors in predicting reading difficulties both concurrently and 6 months later. It is argued that the results are best explained in terms of Pennington's (2006) multiple deficits model