Portable Electronic Devices on the Flight Deck

The emergence of portable electronic devices (PEDs) has provided people with most anything at the touch of a button but has caused many safety-related distractions at the same time. A somewhat addictive reliance on PEDs, mostly smart phones, seems to exist even during times that would prohibit their use. Operation of PEDs during these times has led to some fatal accidents in all areas of transportation. The urgency of this safety issue now means the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) studies what role a PED may have played in every new accident investigation. Examining the use of PEDs on the flight deck, this field study researched: (a) whether pilots use PEDs when they would otherwise be prohibited, (b) whether PEDs cause errors on the flight deck, and (c) if there is one phase of flight where PED use takes place more than another. This study was administered to 20 commercial airline pilots using a 10-question, online survey. The four phases of flight examined in this survey included preflight preparation, cruise, final approach, and after landing/taxi-in. The study found that most pilots still use their PEDs even when they are prohibited, mainly due to the need for stimulation at cruise during long flights. The study also determined that a little more than half of the pilots do not believe PED usage led to errors. While non-operational use PEDs are not currently allowed during flight, there may be value in exploring an approval for their use during cruise. Many pilots use them despite their prohibition, and the evolution of avionics technology has resulted in low workload at cruise where pilots need stimulation to stay alert

Setting the Standard for Farmland Preservation: Do Preservation Criteria Motivate Citizen Support for Farmland Preservation?

The multifunctional set of services provided by farmland complicates the task of identifying which farmland should be preserved. For this reason many states and local governments establish criteria to rank and select parcels of farmland for protection. This study examines whether criteria commonly used by state programs to guide purchases of agricultural conservation easements influence public demand for farmland preservation. The results provide policy makers with additional information to assess current ranking criteria that set the standard for farmland preservation.Land Economics/Use,

Net Buyers, Net Sellers, and Agricultural Landowner Support for Agricultural Zoning

Agricultural zoning and land use restrictions are long-standing approaches for controlling non-agricultural development. Agricultural landowners may contest agricultural zoning if they expect zoning to reduce land prices on restricted land. However, it is common to find agricultural landowners on both sides of this issue. A prevailing economic explanation for variation in landowner support is that the price effect of zoning varies across land parcels and therefore, zoning may increases the value of some lands zoned for agricultural use. In this paper, we provide an additional explanation for variation in agricultural landowner support. We use the concepts of net buyers and net sellers of land to suggest that the utility effect of changing land prices depends on an agricultural landowner's position in the agricultural land market. Hence, even in situations where all agricultural landowners expect zoning to reduce agricultural land prices, some subset of agricultural landowners - i.e., net buyers - may benefit. Survey data from agricultural landowners is used to model the probability that an agricultural landowner will support agricultural zoning. The empirical findings are consistent with our hypothesis that net buyers and net sellers of agricultural land will differ in their support for agricultural zoning.Land Economics/Use,

A Data Mining Approach to Building a Predictive Model of Low-Cost Carriers\u27 Presence in the U.S. Domestic Routes

The purpose of the study was to build the predictive model of the presence of U.S. low-cost carriers (LCCs) in the domestic network structure. SEMMA (Sample, Explore, Modify, Model, and Assess) schematic in data mining was followed and employed as the primary methodological procedure. Data in the period of 1Q2016-1Q2018 were extracted from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (DB1B database) and reconstructed to form predictors. Stepwise logistic regression showed a significant predictive performance compared to decision tree technique in terms of fitting measures, which was then used as the concluding model. Significant predictors included: (1) Market concentration positively related with the presence of LCCs, (2) nonstop route associated with the presence of LCCs, (3) market airfare factors negatively related with the presence of LCCs, and (4) origin and destination (O&D) airports being hubs, especially medium hubs, associated with the presence of LCCs. The findings may practically aid network planners in airlines and airports in decision making associated with the presence of LCCs, which ultimately leads to building their more robust and efficient route map

What Are the Predictors of System-Wide Trust Loss in Transportation Automation?

Prior research has examined how individuals place trust in single (e.g., Meyer, 2001, 2004) and multiple (e.g., Geels-Blair, Rice, & Schwark, 2013) automated devices when one fails. This has shown that participants are influenced by system-wide trust (SWT). What has been missing is an investigation into what types of people succumb to SWT effects. The current study attempts to replicate SWT findings and identify possible predictors of individuals likely to be influenced by SWT. The findings did demonstrate a replication of SWT. The study found that ‘‘feelings of negativity when automated devices fail’’ was a significant predictor of SWT theory

Measurements of elliptic and triangular flow in high-multiplicity 3^{3}He++Au collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200 GeV

We present the first measurement of elliptic ($v_2$) and triangular ($v_3$) flow in high-multiplicity $^{3}$He$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. Two-particle correlations, where the particles have a large separation in pseudorapidity, are compared in $^{3}$He$+$Au and in $p$$+$$p$ collisions and indicate that collective effects dominate the second and third Fourier components for the correlations observed in the $^{3}$He$+$Au system. The collective behavior is quantified in terms of elliptic $v_2$ and triangular $v_3$ anisotropy coefficients measured with respect to their corresponding event planes. The $v_2$ values are comparable to those previously measured in $d$$+$Au collisions at the same nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy. Comparison with various theoretical predictions are made, including to models where the hot spots created by the impact of the three $^{3}$He nucleons on the Au nucleus expand hydrodynamically to generate the triangular flow. The agreement of these models with data may indicate the formation of low-viscosity quark-gluon plasma even in these small collision systems.Comment: 630 authors, 9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. v2 is the version accepted for publication by Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm