Analysis of Air Traffic Controller Workload Reduction Based on the Solution Space for the Merging Task

Air traffic controller workload is considered to be an important limiting factor to the growth of air traffic. The difficulty of an air traffic control task can be analyzed through examining the problem’s solution space, that is, all possible vector commands that satisfy the constraints of safety, productivity and efficiency. But apart from deriving metrics for workload, a visualization based on the solution space, resulting in the Solution Space Diagram, could help the controller inmanaging the air traffic. An experiment was conducted in which two different levels of traffic density were tested in order to evaluate the effects of presenting the Solution Space Diagram on controller workload. The experiment entailed the task of merging aircraft into a single route and subjects provided subjective ratings of workload at fixed intervals of time. Depending on traffic level and subject experience, significant effects of the Solution Space Diagram were found on the reduction of controller workload.Control & OperationsAerospace Engineerin

The Fusarium graminearum genome reveals a link between localized polymorphism and pathogen specialization.

International audienceWe sequenced and annotated the genome of the filamentous fungus Fusarium graminearum, a major pathogen of cultivated cereals. Very few repetitive sequences were detected, and the process of repeat-induced point mutation, in which duplicated sequences are subject to extensive mutation, may partially account for the reduced repeat content and apparent low number of paralogous (ancestrally duplicated) genes. A second strain of F. graminearum contained more than 10,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, which were frequently located near telomeres and within other discrete chromosomal segments. Many highly polymorphic regions contained sets of genes implicated in plant-fungus interactions and were unusually divergent, with higher rates of recombination. These regions of genome innovation may result from selection due to interactions of F. graminearum with its plant hosts