Flight Observations for Initial Flight Students: Are They Worthwhile?

There are many different theories on how people learn, and by finding the preferred learning style of college aviation students it could lead to better training programs. By breaking down the learning cycle and identifying the predominant learning styles, it is possible to see what types of extra training aids could be beneficial to students, both in the classroom and at the airport. This study was designed to answer the following two research questions: 1) To what extent are flight observations beneficial to initial flight students? 2) Does it matter in regard to perceived benefit what type of flight lessons the student observes? If so, which specific flight lessons should be designated as suitable for student observation flights? There were three components to this study: a student questionnaire, a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) questionnaire, and flight records data. The sample size for the student questionnaire was 60 students, and the sample for the CFI questionnaire was 138 instructors. Literature regarding collegiate aviation students was very limited. However, there was much literature available about college learning and motivation. College aviation students need to move away from the type of learning that they did throughout most of high school into more of a self-motivated adult style learning. They need to take the initiative and responsibility to seek new knowledge to better themselves as a whole and recognize that it will benefit them in the long run. Finding this motivation to learn in a different manner at a time when most students have just moved away from home and are dealing with many other changes in their lives could be a very difficult challenge for some. Data indicated that 59 of the 60 students were enrolled in an aviation related major. Twenty-four students felt the observations made “no difference” in their training. One finding indicated that there was a significant difference (F=3.52, P=.01) between the five levels of observer involvement and how beneficial the observer thought the flight observations were. The more involved the students were during their observation flights, the more beneficial they felt observing was (r =.442, P\u3c.001). Another finding indicated that there was a significant difference in the total number of hours it takes to receive a private pilot certificate between similar semesters (Spring 2002 versus Spring 2003, Summer 2002 versus Summer 2003, Fall 2001 versus Fall 2002) for those students who were required to observe no flights and those whom observed two or four flights. The general trend in the number of hours to receive a private pilot certificate was decreasing

N=1,2 supersymmetric vacua of IIA supergravity and SU(2) structures

We consider backgrounds of (massive) IIA supergravity of the form of a warped product $M_{1,3}\times_{\omega} X_6$, where $X_6$ is a six-dimensional compact manifold and $M_{1,3}$ is $AdS_4$ or a four-dimensional Minkowski space. We analyse conditions for $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry on manifolds of SU(2) structure. We prove the absence of solutions in certain cases.Comment: 24 pages; v2: reference adde

Possible Selves and Academic Outcomes: How and When Possible Selves Impel Action

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89942/1/oyserman__bybee___terry_2006.pd

Statistical Characterization of Temperature Patterns in Anisotropic Cosmologies

We consider the issue of characterizing the coherent large-scale patterns from CMB temperature maps in globally anisotropic cosmologies. The methods we investigate are reasonably general; the particular models we test them on are the homogeneous but anisotropic relativistic cosmologies described by the Bianchi classification. Although the temperature variations produced in these models are not stochastic, they give rise to a "non-Gaussian" distribution of temperature fluctuations over the sky that is a partial diagnostic of the model. We explore two methods for quantifying non-Gaussian and/or non-stationary fluctuation fields in order to see how they respond to the Bianchi models.We first investigate the behavior of phase correlations between the spherical harmonic modes of the maps. Then we examine the behavior of the multipole vectors of the temperature distribution which, though defined in harmonic space, can indicate the presence of a preferred direction in real space, i.e. on the 2-sphere. These methods give extremely clear signals of the presence of anisotropy when applied to the models we discuss, suggesting that they have some promise as diagnostics of the presence of global asymmetry in the Universe.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, accepted by MNRA

Genetic linkage mapping of economically important traits in cultivated tetraploid potato (<i>Solanum tuberosum</i> L.)

The objective of this study was to construct a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genetic map at the cultivated tetraploid level to locate quantitative trait loci (QTL) contributing to economically important traits in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). The 156 F(1) progeny and parents of a cross (MSL603) between “Jacqueline Lee” and “MSG227-2” were genotyped using the Infinium 8303 Potato Array. Furthermore, the progeny and parents were evaluated for foliar late blight reaction to isolates of the US-8 genotype of Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary and vine maturity. Linkage analyses and QTL mapping were performed using a novel approach that incorporates allele dosage information. The resulting genetic maps contained 1972 SNP markers with an average density of 1.36 marker per cM. QTL mapping identified the major source of late blight resistance in “Jacqueline Lee.” The best SNP marker mapped ∼0.54 Mb from a resistance hotspot on the long arm of chromosome 9. For vine maturity, the major-effect QTL was located on chromosome 5 with allelic effects from both parents. A candidate SNP marker for this trait mapped ∼0.25 Mb from the StCDF1 gene, which is a candidate gene for the maturity trait. The identification of markers for P. infestans resistance will enable the introgression of multiple sources of resistance through marker-assisted selection. Moreover, the discovery of a QTL for late blight resistance not linked to the QTL for vine maturity provides the opportunity to use marker-assisted selection for resistance independent of the selection for vine maturity classifications