Development and didactic analysis of smartphone-based experimental exercises for the smart physics lab

homework problems in an introductory mechanics course at a university. A quasi-experimental field study with two cohorts design was performed to measure the impact of such exercises on motivation, interest and conceptual understanding. The empirical results on learning achievement show a significant positive influence of the smartphone-based experimental exercise for the dynamics of rigid bodies topic with a medium effect size of d =0.42. For the analysis of rotational motion topic, a positive learning achievement for both groups was evidenced, but the effect size of the smartphone-based exercise was rather small at d =0.20 . The intrinsic and germane cognitive loads turned out to be similar at an intermediate level for both groups. However, the extrinsic cognitive load for the intervention group decreased significantly, which might be the reason why more complex experimental exercises foster conceptual understanding

Arriving at Consensus: Airport/Aviation Administration Advice Provided to Airport Managers by State Aeronautic Agencies

Recently a study was undertaken to determine the depth of information provided to small airport managers throughout the United States by State Aeronautical agencies. The study centered on efforts to provide formal, written advice to airport managers about airport and aviation administration matters. For the purpose of the study, advice is considered as material provided to airports exclusive of regulatory codes and rules. More specifically, such advice provides airport managers with valuable insight on how to effectively manage various aspects of airport operations. The survey material is concerned with a broad range of indigenous airport topics dealing with subject matter from General Aviation Airport Operations to Storm water compliance, and a host of topics in between. The many topics addressed in the state documents that were found in the survey were then compared with two key aviation industry sources of information to arrive at a recommended list of topics for inclusion in ANY airport management handbook for use in any state. The genesis of the study and report was a grant received by Southern Illinois University Carbondale from the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Aeronautics. The goal of the grant was to develop and prepare a small airport manager handbook\u27\u27 for smaller non-hub airports in Illinois. Due to the varying nature of laws and regulations concerning airport management and operations from state to state, state aeronautical agencies are in the best position to provide small airport managers with much needed and necessary information on the totality of management functions. However, not all states aeronautical agencies have the human or financial resources to author a comprehensive guide to small airport management. This study found that, at the time the survey was accomplished, only nine states provided some form of advice to airport managers

A Profile of Charter Operators: A Survey of On-Demand Carriers

Several years ago, one of the authors made a presentation before the National Air Transportation Association Convention in Tampa, Florida concerning the elements of Aircraft Charter Pricing. In research for that project, it was found that a dearth of information was available to adequately describe some of the elements to be considered in making a blanket pricing arrangement. Particularly vexing was the fact that at the meeting itself several of the operators and operator representatives present were unfamiliar with the type of business structure employed by the Fixed Base operator (FBO) and some were unfamiliar with the make up of the demand elements of their operations. In 2003 and again in late 2004, the authors set out to study this anomaly by surveying large numbers of Fixed Base Operators in the United States. Using a Likert style survey methodology, a representative sample of the on-demand air carriers listed with the National Business Aviation Association was surveyed. The survey was designed to learn something about the business structure of the FBO, their aircraft mix, how many charter flights were flown annually; the number of employees engaged in the 135 portion of the FBO operation; experience levels and a host of, heretofore, unknown elements of he business. In short, the intent was to develop a snapshot of what a typical 135 operator looks like from its business structure to its operation matrix to how it maintains and supplies its basic product, charter aircraft

Rechnerische Bestimmung der lonenbeweglichkeit in Ziegelstein unter Zuhilfenahme von Ergebnissen aus nichtstationären Diffusionsversuchen

Ion concentration profiles in sandwich-brick specimens have been determined experimentally at different degrees of water saturation. Based on the experimental data, ion diffusion coefficients were determined by inverse analysis. The diffusion equation served as a basis for an optimization technique. It has been shown that the ion diffusivity in bricks decreases markedly as the moisture content decreases. The interface between two adjacent bricks slows down the ion migration at low water content in particular. It is planed to investigate the interface between mortar and bricks in further experimental and numerical studie

Spin fluctuations probed by NMR in paramagnetic spinel LiV2_2O4_4: a self-consistent renormalization theory

Low frequency spin fluctuation dynamics in paramagnetic spinel LiV$_2$O$_4$, a rare 3$d$-electron heavy fermion system, is investigated. A parametrized self-consistent renormalization (SCR) theory of the dominant AFM spin fluctuations is developed and applied to describe temperature and pressure dependences of the low-$T$ nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ in this material. The experimental data for $1/T_1$ available down to $\sim 1$K are well reproduced by the SCR theory, showing the development of AFM spin fluctuations as the paramagnetic metal approaches a magnetic instability under the applied pressure. The low-$T$ upturn of $1/T_1T$ detected below 0.6 K under the highest applied pressure of 4.74 GPa is explained as the nuclear spin relaxation effect due to the spin freezing of magnetic defects unavoidably present in the measured sample of LiV$_2$O$_4$.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Heavy-Fermions in LiV2O4: Kondo-Compensation vs. Spin-Liquid Behavior?

7Li NMR measurements were performed in the metallic spinel LiV2O4. The temperature dependencies of the line width, the Knight shift and the spin-lattice relaxation rate were investigated in the temperature range 30 mK < T < 280 K. For temperatures T < 1 K we observe a spin-lattice relaxation rate which slows down exponentially. The NMR results can be explained by a spin-liquid behavior and the opening of a spin gap of the order 0.6 K

Aviation Industry Employment Data Estimates Revisited

A wide variety of estimates of aviation industry employment data exist today. For example, a range of estimates from a low of 750,000 to a high of 2.1 million are reported in various industry publications and journals. This broad range raises questions not onIy about such data but also about the definition used to define the industry and thus used to arrive at employment numbers. In this paper, an overall 1995 aviation industry employment estimate is presented that is based on various secondary sources. The estimate incorporates various components of the civil aviation industry, including aircraft/aerospace manufacturing, airlines, general aviation, government aviation, and miscellaneous aviation industry employment. Active duty military personnel are a significant contributor to aviation employment. Although they are not included in previous assessments of overall civil aviation employment, they have been included in this work. One article (NewMyer, 1985) estimated aviation employment at 2,286,709. This new assessment indicates an industry increase of 62,290 employees to a total population of 2,349,399. Data collection for this new computation was obtained through replication of the methodology producing the 1985 statistics. The primary contributing factor to overall aviation industry employment increases in 1995 is the fact that there were net increases in four of the six components of the aviation industry (aviation/aerospace manufacturing, airlines, general aviation, government aviation, miscellaneous, and active duty military aviation personnel). It is concluded, however, that without the miscellaneous employment category contribution to employment statistics, there is actually a decline in industry employment over the 10-year period. Contributing to this descent have been large personnel reductions in the defense-related aircraft/aerospace manufacturing industry and active duty military aviation components

Machine-learned cloud classes from satellite data for process-oriented climate model evaluation

Clouds play a key role in regulating climate change but are difficult to simulate within Earth system models (ESMs). Improving the representation of clouds is one of the key tasks towards more robust climate change projections. This study introduces a new machine-learning based framework relying on satellite observations to improve understanding of the representation of clouds and their relevant processes in climate models. The proposed method is capable of assigning distributions of established cloud types to coarse data. It facilitates a more objective evaluation of clouds in ESMs and improves the consistency of cloud process analysis. The method is built on satellite data from the MODIS instrument labelled by deep neural networks with cloud types defined by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), using cloud type labels from CloudSat as ground truth. The method is applicable to datasets with information about physical cloud variables comparable to MODIS satellite data and at sufficiently high temporal resolution. We apply the method to alternative satellite data from the Cloud\_cci project (ESA Climate Change Initiative), coarse-grained to typical resolutions of climate models. The resulting cloud type distributions are physically consistent and the horizontal resolutions typical of ESMs are sufficient to apply our method. We recommend outputting crucial variables required by our method for future ESM data evaluation. This will enable the use of labelled satellite data for a more systematic evaluation of clouds in climate models.Comment: Main Paper 16 pages, 11 figures. Supporting material 7 Pages, 8 figures. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Airline Unions Since Deregulation: The Views of Selected Airline Unions

The airline industry in the United States has passed through a crucial period of post-deregulation adjustments. One of those adjustments has been in its relationship with the unions representing a large portion of the industry employees. One view of this situation that is commonly presented is that unions are “losers” in this post deregulation period. The common wisdom in the U.S. airline industry is that labor unions are the biggest losers from deregulation and the dash into consolidation. Certainly there is plenty of evidence for this view. Deregulation spawned split wage scales, futile strikes at United and Pan American, Chapter 11 bankruptcies, and the emergence of a handful of super-carriers which, on the surface at least, handed management oligopolistic bargaining powers\u27 (Gaudin). This is certainly a negative view of how unions have weathered the storm of deregulation, but is it well-founded, and is it a view shared by the airlines unions, themselves? The direction of this study is to describe the airline union viewpoint, the impact deregulation has had on their viability and on their future attitudes toward bargaining issues

Staggered magnetism in LiV2_2O4_4 at low temperatures probed by the muon Knight shift

We report on the muon Knight shift measurement in single crystals of LiV2O4. Contrary to what is anticipated for the heavy-fermion state based on the Kondo mechanism, the presence of inhomogeneous local magnetic moments is demonstrated by the broad distribution of the Knight shift at temperatures well below the presumed "Kondo temperature" ($T^*\simeq 30$ K). Moreover, a significant fraction ($\simeq10$ %) of the specimen gives rise to a second component which is virtually non-magnetic. These observations strongly suggest that the anomalous properties of LiV2O4 originates from frustration of local magnetic moments.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, sbmitted to J. Phys.: Cond. Mat