The Effects of Gender and Regional Dialect on Performance in Aviation Communication

The purpose of this study was to analyze the performance effects of gender and regional dialect on air traffic control statement recall. Sixty-one student volunteers participated in the experiment. Thirty-one participants held a pilot’s license and 30 participants had no flight experience. Each participant listened to one CD with 60 ATC statements each representing a male and female voice and New England, Southern, and General American dialect. Participants were asked to recall exactly what they heard. If the participant could not understand what they heard, they requested a repeat. The participant’s performance was recorded to CD and analyzed. Demographic questionnaires and dialect familiarity ratings were completed and analyzed. Results showed that the best performance was with the male voice compared to the female voice. Results also showed that greater familiarity with a regional dialect will result in better performance when hearing that dialect. Although birth region was not found to have an impact on regional dialect comprehension, the regional dialect a person speaks in helps in comprehension among that dialect. Results also indicate that experience impacts dialect comprehension as the pilot group performed better across all variables than did the novice group

Imagining and producing the 'good' migrant: the role of recruitment agencies in shaping bodily goodness

This paper focuses on representations of labour migrants and interrogates how such imaginaries shape migrant recruitment and employment regimes. The recruitment and employment of labour migrants inevitably involves a range of knowledge practices which affect who is recruited, from where and for what purposes. In particular this paper seeks to advance understandings of how images of ‘bodily goodness’ are represented graphically and how perceptions of migrant workers influence the recruitment of workers from Latvia. The analysis results in a schema of the ‘filtering’ processes that are enacted to ‘produce’ the ‘ideal’ migrant worker

The enigmatic young object : Walker 90/V590 Monocerotis

Aims. We assess the evolutionary status of the intriguing object Walker 90/V590 Mon, which is located about 20 arcmin northwest of the Cone Nebula near the center of the open cluster NGC 2264. This object, according to its most recent optical spectral type determination (B7), which we confirmed, is at least 3 mag too faint in V for the cluster distance, but it shows the classical signs of a young pre-main sequence object, such as highly variable H emission, Mg II emission, IR excess, UV continuum, and optical variability. Methods. We analyzed a collection of archival and original data on Walker 90, covering 45 years including photometry, imaging, and spectroscopic data ranging from ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths. Results. According to star formation processes, it is expected that, as this object clears its primordial surroundings, it should become optically brighter, show a weakening of its IR excess and present decreasing line emissions. This behavior is supported by our observations and analysis, but timescales are expected to be longer than the one observed here. Based on photometric data secured in 2007, we find Walker 90 at its brightest recorded optical magnitude √(12.47 ± 0.06). We document an evolution in spectral type over the past five decades (from A2/A3 to currently B7 and as early as B4), along with a decrease in the near-infrared K fluxes. From near-infrared VISIR images secured in 2004, Walker 90 appears as a point source placing an upper limit of < 0.1" for its diameter. Evidence of turbulent inflows is found in rapidly changing inverse P-Cygni profiles in the lower Balmer lines, with a broadening of ±400 km s-1 in Hα and a redshifted component in Hβ with a terminal velocity of ~600 km s-1. The measured steep UV continuum fluxes (mimicking a star as early as B4), added to a tentative identification of N V emission, suggest a strong non-photospheric component, typically of fluxes arising from a thermally inhomogeneous accretion disk. We detect a well defined 2200 Å bump, indicative of dense material in the line-of-sight. We conclude that many observational features are explained if W90 is a flared disk system, surrounded by an inclined optically thick accretion disk

Thermoplastic coating of carbon fibers

A continuous powder coating system was developed for coating carbon fiber with LaRC-TPI (Langley Research Center-Thermoplastic Polyimide), a high-temperature thermoplastic polymide invented by NASA-Langley. The coating line developed used a pneumatic fiber spreader to separate the individual fibers. The polymer was applied within a recirculating powder coating chamber then melted using a combination of direct electrical resistance and convective heating to make it adhere to the fiber tow. The tension and speed of the line were controlled with a dancer arm and an electrically driven fiber wind-up and wind-off. The effects of heating during the coating process on the flexibility of the prepreg produced were investigated. The uniformity with which the fiber tow could be coated with polymer also was examined. Composite specimens were fabricated from the prepreg and tested to determine optimum process conditions. The study showed that a very uniform and flexible prepeg with up to 50 percent by volume polymer could be produced with this powder coating system. The coating line minimized powder loss and produced prepeg in lengths of up to 300 m. The fiber spreading was found to have a major effect on the coating uniformity and flexibility. Though test results showed low composite tensile strengths, analysis of fracture surfaces under scanning electron microscope indicated that fiber/matrix adhesion was adequate

Natural Selection For Environmentally Induced Phenotypes In Tadpoles

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137452/1/evo05119.pd

Outcomes of Enterprise Resource Planning System on Organizational Productivity

Leaders within local government organizations do not understand how to achieve expected and desired benefits from the implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The lack of alignment between social and technical elements in ERP implementation continues to depress organizational productivity. The prime objective of our quantitative correlational study was to examine whether social and technical elements increase use and productivity in ERP implementation. Sociotechnical systems theory provided the theoretical basis for our study. We examined six dimensional variables relating to ERP implementation. Our key findings indicated positive significant relationships between ERP and information sharing, between ERP system quality and ease of ERP use, and between ERP system quality and organizational productivity. Further studies could examine other dimensions that could ensure ERP sustainability in other government organizations