Performance, physiological, and oculometer evaluation of VTOL landing displays

A methodological approach to measuring workload was investigated for evaluation of new concepts in VTOL aircraft displays. Physiological, visual response, and conventional flight performance measures were recorded for landing approaches performed in the NASA Visual Motion Simulator (VMS). Three displays (two computer graphic and a conventional flight director), three crosswind amplitudes, and two motion base conditions (fixed vs. moving base) were tested in a factorial design. Multivariate discriminant functions were formed from flight performance and/or visual response variables. The flight performance variable discriminant showed maximum differentation between crosswind conditions. The visual response measure discriminant maximized differences between fixed vs. motion base conditions and experimental displays. Physiological variables were used to attempt to predict the discriminant function values for each subject/condition trial. The weights of the physiological variables in these equations showed agreement with previous studies. High muscle tension, light but irregular breathing patterns, and higher heart rate with low amplitude all produced higher scores on this scale and thus represent higher workload levels

Assessment of different urban traffic control strategy impacts on vehicle emissions

This paper investigates the influence of traffic signal control strategy on vehicle emissions, vehicle journey time and total throughput flow within a single isolated four-armed junction. Two pre-timed signal plans are considered, one with two-stages involving permissive-only opposing turns and the other with four-stages which has no conflicting traffic. Additionally, the increase in efficiency by utilising actuated signal timing where green time is re-optimised as flow values vary is investigated. A microscopic traffic simulation model is used to model flows and AIRE (Analysis of Instantaneous Road Emissions) microscopic emissions model is utilised to out- put emission levels from the flow data. A simple junction model shows that the two-stage signal plan is more efficient in both emis- sions and journey time. However, as the level of opposed turning vehicles and conflicting movement increases, the two-stage model moves to being the inferior signal plan choice and the four-stage plan outputs fewer emissions than the two-stage plan. A real-world example of a four-armed junction has been used in this study and from the traffic survey data and existing junction layout; it is rec- ommended that a two-stage plan is used as it produces lower amounts of emissions and shorter journey times compared to a four-stage plan. The results also show that nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the most sensitive to changes in flow followed by carbon dioxide (CO2), Black Carbon and then particulate matter (PM10)

Empirical constraints on vacuum decay in the stringy landscape

It is generally considered as self evident that the lifetime of our vacuum in the landscape of string theory cannot be much shorter than the current age of the universe. Here I show why this lower limit is invalid. A certain type of ``parallel universes'' is a necessary consequence of the string-landscape dynamics and might well allow us to ``survive'' vacuum decay. As a consequence our stringy vacuum's lifetime is empirically unconstrained and could be very short. Based on this counter-intuitive insight I propose a novel type of laboratory experiment that searches for an apparent violation of the quantum-mechanical Born rule by gravitational effects on vacuum decay. If the lifetime of our vacuum should turn out to be shorter than 6 x 10^{-13} seconds such an experiment is sufficiently sensitive to determine its value with state-of-the-art equipment.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, proposes a laboratory experimen

Does rotation of B stars depend on metallicity? preliminary results from GIRAFFE spectra

We show the vsini distribution of main sequence B stars in sites of various metallicities, in the absolute magnitude range -3.34 < Mv < -2.17. These include Galactic stars in the field measured by Abt et al. (2002), members of the h & chi Per open clusters measured by North et al. (2004), and five fields in the SMC and LMC measured at ESO Paranal with the FLAMES-GIRAFFE spectrograph, within the Geneva-Lausanne guaranteed time. Following the suggestion by Maeder et al. (1999), we do find a higher rate of rapid rotators in the Magellanic Clouds than in the Galaxy, but the vsini distribution is the same in the LMC and in the SMC in spite of their very different metallicities.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, poster presented at the ESO/Arcetri Workshop on "Chemical abundances and mixing in stars in the Milky Way and its satellites", 13-17 Sept. 200

Environmental impact of combined ITS traffic management strategies

Transport was responsible for 20% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Europe during 2011 (European Environmental Agency 2013) with road transport being the key contributor. To tackle this, targets have been established in Europe and worldwide to curb transport emissions. This poses a significant challenge on Local Government and transport operators who need to identify a set of effective measures to reduce the environmental impact of road transport and at the same time keep the traffic smooth. Of the road transport pollutants, this paper considers NOx, CO2 and black carbon (BC). A particular focus is put on black carbon, which is formed through incomplete combustion of carboneous materials, as it has a significant impact on the Earth’s climate system. It absorbs solar radiation, influences cloud processes, and alters the melting of snow and ice cover (Bond et al. 2013). BC also causes serious health concerns: black carbon is associated with asthma and other respiratory problems, heart attacks and lung cancer (Sharma 2010; United States Environmental Protection Agency 2012). Since BC emissions are mainly produced during the decelerating and accelerating phases (Zhang et al. 2009), ITS actions able to reduce stop&go phases have the potential to reduce BC emissions. This paper investigates the effectiveness of combined ITS actions in urban context in reducing CO2 and BC emissions and improving traffic conditions

The early days of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy

We present the high resolution spectroscopic study of five -3.9<=[Fe/H]<=-2.5 stars in the Local Group dwarf spheroidal, Sculptor, thereby doubling the number of stars with comparable observations in this metallicity range. We carry out a detailed analysis of the chemical abundances of alpha, iron peak, light and heavy elements, and draw comparisons with the Milky Way halo and the ultra faint dwarf stellar populations. We show that the bulk of the Sculptor metal-poor stars follows the same trends in abundance ratios versus metallicity as the Milky Way stars. This suggests similar early conditions of star formation and a high degree of homogeneity of the interstellar medium. We find an outlier to this main regime, which seems to miss the products of the most massive of the TypeII supernovae. In addition to its value to help refining galaxy formation models, this star provides clues to the production of cobalt and zinc. Two of our sample stars have low odd-to-even barium isotope abundance ratios, suggestive of a fair proportion of s-process; we discuss the implication for the nucleosynthetic origin of the neutron capture elements.Comment: Replacement after language editio

Mapping the complete glycoproteome of virion-derived HIV-1 gp120 provides insights into broadly neutralizing antibody binding

The surface envelope glycoprotein (SU) of Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), gp120SU plays an essential role in virus binding to target CD4+ T-cells and is a major vaccine target. Gp120 has remarkably high levels of N-linked glycosylation and there is considerable evidence that this “glycan shield” can help protect the virus from antibody-mediated neutralization. In recent years, however, it has become clear that gp120 glycosylation can also be included in the targets of recognition by some of the most potent broadly neutralizing antibodies. Knowing the site-specific glycosylation of gp120 can facilitate the rational design of glycopeptide antigens for HIV vaccine development. While most prior studies have focused on glycan analysis of recombinant forms of gp120, here we report the first systematic glycosylation site analysis of gp120 derived from virions produced by infected T lymphoid cells and show that a single site is exclusively substituted with complex glycans. These results should help guide the design of vaccine immunogens

Perceived importance of components of asynchronous music in circuit training

This study examined regular exercisers’ perceptions of specific components of music during circuit training. Twenty-four men (38.8 years, s = 11.8 years) and 31 women (32.4 years, s = 9.6 years) completed two questionnaires immediately after a circuit training class. Participants rated the importance of 13 components of music (rhythm, melody, etc.) in relation to exercise enjoyment, and each completed the Affect Intensity Measure (Larsen, 1984) to measure emotional reactivity. Independent t tests were used to evaluate gender differences in perceptions of musical importance. Pearson correlations were computed to evaluate the relationships between affect intensity, age and importance of musical components. Consistent with previous research and theoretical predictions, rhythm response components (rhythm, tempo, beat) were rated as most important. Women rated the importance of melody significantly higher than did men, while men gave more importance to music associated with sport. Affect intensity was found to be positively and significantly related to the perceived importance of melody, lyrical content, musical style, personal associations and emotional content. Results suggest that exercise leaders need to be sensitive to personal factors when choosing music to accompany exercise. Qualitative research that focuses on the personal meaning of music is encouraged

3-Cyano-11-oxo-3,4-seco-12a-aza-C-homoolean-4(23)-en-28-oic acid methyl ester

The title compound, C31H48N2O3, is a Beckmann rearrangement product. The isopropenyl and meth­oxy­carbonyl groups have β-orientations, whereas the 2-cyano­ethyl group has an α-orientation. In the triterpenoid skeleton, the seven-membered lactam ring, as well as the three six-membered carbocyclic rings, have chair conformations. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked via nonclassical C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds into layers parallel to the ab plane