Flight test of a resident backup software system

A new fault-tolerant system software concept employing the primary digital computers as host for the backup software portion has been implemented and flight tested in the F-8 digital fly-by-wire airplane. The system was implemented in such a way that essentially no transients occurred in transferring from primary to backup software. This was accomplished without a significant increase in the complexity of the backup software. The primary digital system was frame synchronized, which provided several advantages in implementing the resident backup software system. Since the time of the flight tests, two other flight vehicle programs have made a commitment to incorporate resident backup software similar in nature to the system described in this paper

Is Fragmentation of the UK Construction Industry the Main Barrier to Innovation? The Architects' View

There is much concern about the lack of innovation in the UK construction industry in comparison with other industries. According to the UK innovation surveys commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the construction industry lags behind other UK sectors in innovation. This paper reports on past and recent literature on innovation, in particular, it provides a follow up to the study of Bowley (1966) into the resistance to change in the British Building Industry. Primary research in the form of a questionnaire was carried out in conjunction with secondary research. In total, 29 architects were surveyed and analysis of the results suggests that the ‘attitude’ of the construction industry and the ‘risk’ of the new innovation were perceived to be the main barriers to innovation, more so than the ‘fragmentation’ of the industry. The perceived main driver of integration does not instantly stand out as a solution to removing these barriers

The Attributes of Effective Lecturers of English as a Foreign Language as Perceived by Students in a Korean University

This study, conducted in a Korean university setting, examines student beliefs about the attributes of effective lecturers[1] of English as a foreign language. Student opinions about rapport and delivery type attributes are particularly informative. Rapport attributes were the major focus of discussion and viewed as particularly important in Korean university contexts where student anxiety about interacting in English often inhibits effective English language learning. Discussion about delivery attributes was generally supportive of participatory modes of instruction, but contained different views about how aggressively lecturers should enlist participation. The beliefs of Korean university students revealed in this study can, if seen as appropriate, be used by existing practitioners and teachers in training to guide instructional approache

Student Perceptions of Effective Foreign Language Teachers: A Quantitative Investigation from a Korean University

Abstract: The present study uses a questionnaire instrument to measure the importance that students from a Korean university place on a wide range of effective foreign language teacher attributes. Respondents to the present study placed high importance on rapport attributes such as friendliness, care, and patience; and delivery attributes which included the provision of clear explanations, error correction, and a participatory mode of instruction. Impartiality, target language knowledge, and good preparation were attributes also rated highly. The results also provided insights into student opinions about various instructional issues, such as the selective use of the students’ first language, explicit grammar instruction, and particular questioning techniques. This knowledge can be used by foreign language teachers and student teachers to improve the efficacy of their instruction

The Janus face of diversity in Australian sport

In this essay, Janus is used as a metaphor for examining the nature of cultural diversity in Australian sport. It does so by firstly presenting a historical context for sport in Australia and the relative lack of cultural diversity found in sport. Within a country dominated by the running codes of football and cricket, the position of soccer in Australia was somewhat unique as it became a bastion for many non-Anglo migrant groups. However, in the 1980s and 1990s soccer's lack of organizational success at the state and national level was negatively ascribed to the tensions between the ethnically affiliated clubs, the same clubs that were ironically the stalwarts driving the growing popularity of the sport. We examine the initiatives used to restructure the game in Australia to make football more appealing to mainstream (i.e. non-ethnically aligned) spectators. The contemporary situation is explored through secondary documentation and the results of a survey of 3,056 spectators undertaken during the first season of the new A-League are presented. The essay concludes with a discussion about the relative success of the restructure in terms of changing the face of Australian soccer. © 2009 Taylor & Francis

Theoretical approaches and practical strategies for change management

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Pancreatic Abscess Involving the Aortic Graft Following Repair of a Ruptured Aortic Aneurysm: Successful Replacement with Femoro-popliteal Vein

AbstractAcute pancreatitis is a rare complication after aortic surgery and carries a high mortality. We report the successful management of an infected aortic graft secondary to complicated severe pancreatitis in a 77-year-old man by open drainage of the abscess and replacement of the prosthetic graft with superficial femoro-popliteal vein (SFPV). The patient remains free from infection with a patent graft 8 months later

Simulating Coronas in Color

Coronas are simulated in color by use of the Mie scattering theory of light by small droplets through clouds of finite optical thickness embedded in a Rayleigh scattering atmosphere. The primary factors that affect color, visibility, and number of rings of coronas are droplet size, width of the size distribution, and cloud optical thickness. The color sequence of coronas and iridescence varies when the droplet radius is smaller than similar to6-mum. As radius increases to approximately 3.5 mum, new color bands appear at the center of the corona and fade as they move outward. As the radius continues to increase to similar to6 mum, successively more inner rings become fixed in the manner described by classical diffraction theory, while outer rings continue their outward migration. Wave clouds or rippled cloud segments produce the brightest and most vivid multiple ringed coronas and iridescence because their integrated drop size distributions along sunbeams are much narrower than in convective or stratiform clouds. The visibility of coronas and the appearance of the background sky vary with cloud optical depth tau. First the corona becomes visible as a white aureole in a blue sky when tau similar to 0.001. Color purity then rapidly increases to an almost flat maximum in the range 0.05less than or equal totauless than or equal to0.5 and then decreases, so coronas are almost completely washed out by a bright gray background when tau greater than or equal to 4. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America