Application of modified profile analysis to function testing of simulated CTOL transport touchdown-performance data

The modification to the methodology of profile analysis to accommodate the testing of differences between two functions with a single test, rather than multiple tests at various values of the abscissa, is described and demonstrated for two sets of simulation-performance data. The first application was to a flight-simulation comparison of pilot-vehicle performance with a three-element refractive display to performance with a more widely used beam-splitter-reflective-mirror display system. The results demonstrate that the refractive system for out-the-window scene display provides equivalent performance to the reflective system. The second application demonstrates the detection of significant differences by modified profile-analysis procedures. This application compares the effects of two sets of pitch-axis force-feel characteristics on the sink rate at touchdown performance utilizing the refractive system. This experiment demonstrates the dependence of simulator sink-rate performance on force-feel characteristics

Cognitive barriers during monitoring-based commissioning of buildings

Monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) is a continuous building energy management process used to optimize energy performance in buildings. Although monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx) can reduce energy waste by up to 20%, many buildings still underperform due to issues such as unnoticed system faults and inefficient operational procedures. While there are technical barriers that impede the MBCx process, such as data quality, the focuses of this paper are the non-technical, behavioral and organizational, barriers that contribute to issues initiating and implementing MBCx. In particular, this paper discusses cognitive biases, which can lead to suboptimal outcomes in energy efficiency decisions, resulting in missed opportunities for energy savings. This paper provides evidence of cognitive biases in decisions during the MBCx process using qualitative data from over 40 public and private sector organizations. The results describe barriers resulting from cognitive biases, listed in descending order of occurrence, including: risk aversion, social norms, choice overload, status quo bias, information overload, professional bias, and temporal discounting. Building practitioners can use these results to better understand potential cognitive biases, in turn allowing them to establish best practices and make more informed decisions. Researchers can use these results to empirically test specific decision interventions and facilitate more energy efficient decisions

Confederate Cities: The Urban South During the Civil War Era

Understanding the Civil War in an Urban Southern Context “Confederate Cities is not an oxymoron. That is true largely because the phrase “modern slaveholding South is a perfectly sensible concept to discuss. Such is the thrust of much scholarship lately, and this book represents a majo...

The Yellowhammer War: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama

New Scholarship on the Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama This volume features fourteen excellent essays, replete with full endnotes, by talented scholars who together present a sharp and challenging picture of Alabama during the Civil War era. The product of impressive organizationa...

Paper Chase: Texas Senate\u27s Civil War Proceedings Reveal Ironic Twists\u27

The second installment in an ambitious series that chronicles the history of the upper house of the Lone Star State\u27s legislative branch, this massive volume covers the most tumultuous years in Texas history. The handiwork of a dozen or more members of the Senate Engrossing and Enrolling Departmen...

A Texas-Sized Dilemma: How Did \u27Passionate Unionist\u27 Lawyer End Up As \u27Diehard Confederate\u27?

A brilliant attorney and political insider, William Pitt Ballinger was one of the most powerful men in Texas during the mid-19th century. He lived and worked in Galveston, a booming city and one of the South\u27s most prominent commercial ports. Prior to the Civil War, Ballinger practiced law with grea...

Comparison of simulator fidelity model predictions with in-simulator evaluation data

A full factorial in simulator experiment of a single axis, multiloop, compensatory pitch tracking task is described. The experiment was conducted to provide data to validate extensions to an analytic, closed loop model of a real time digital simulation facility. The results of the experiment encompassing various simulation fidelity factors, such as visual delay, digital integration algorithms, computer iteration rates, control loading bandwidths and proprioceptive cues, and g-seat kinesthetic cues, are compared with predictions obtained from the analytic model incorporating an optimal control model of the human pilot. The in-simulator results demonstrate more sensitivity to the g-seat and to the control loader conditions than were predicted by the model. However, the model predictions are generally upheld, although the predicted magnitudes of the states and of the error terms are sometimes off considerably. Of particular concern is the large sensitivity difference for one control loader condition, as well as the model/in-simulator mismatch in the magnitude of the plant states when the other states match

Effects of motion base and g-seat cueing of simulator pilot performance

In order to measure and analyze the effects of a motion plus g-seat cueing system, a manned-flight-simulation experiment was conducted utilizing a pursuit tracking task and an F-16 simulation model in the NASA Langley visual/motion simulator. This experiment provided the information necessary to determine whether motion and g-seat cues have an additive effect on the performance of this task. With respect to the lateral tracking error and roll-control stick force, the answer is affirmative. It is shown that presenting the two cues simultaneously caused significant reductions in lateral tracking error and that using the g-seat and motion base separately provided essentially equal reductions in the pilot's lateral tracking error

Application of modified profile analysis to function testing of the motion/no-motion issue in an aircraft ground-handling simulation

A recent modification of the methodology of profile analysis, which allows the testing for differences between two functions as a whole with a single test, rather than point by point with multiple tests is discussed. The modification is applied to the examination of the issue of motion/no motion conditions as shown by the lateral deviation curve as a function of engine cut speed of a piloted 737-100 simulator. The results of this application are presented along with those of more conventional statistical test procedures on the same simulator data