Computer Skills Effects of Flight Data Monitoring Technology in an Aircraft Inspection Process

Purdue University has recently purchased and deployed a new fleet of aircraft that include a cutting edge avionics suite with flight data monitoring technology. This technology gathers data during flight on airframe, powerplant, and flight parameters of the airplane. This study evaluated how the new technologies influenced the inspection process of the airplanes, as well as highlight new skills required by the inspectors to utilize the technologies. This issue was addressed because inspectors may not be able to take full advantage of what the new data from the airplane if they don’t possess the proper skills to access and assess the information. The project was conducted through process mapping the inspection process as it is currently without the new technology, and after the implementation of the new technology. The maps were used to identify how the process and where the process has changed. From these changes it highlighted the skills were required to use the new technology. The result of the project was four process maps, as well as identification of different skills needed to complete the inspection utilizing the new technology. The process maps with the skills highlighted, may be used to develop training needs or as a tool to benchmark required skills and abilities during the hiring process

Phospholipase C and Diacylglycerol Mediate Olfactory Responses to Amino Acids in the Main Olfactory Epithelium of an Amphibian

The semi-aquatic lifestyle of amphibians represents a unique opportunity to study the molecular driving forces involved in the transition of aquatic to terrestrial olfaction in vertebrates. Most amphibians have anatomically segregated main and vomeronasal olfactory systems, but at the cellular and molecular level the segregation differs from that found in mammals. We have recently shown that amino acid responses in the main olfactory epithelium (MOE) of larval Xenopus laevis segregate into a lateral and a medial processing stream, and that the former is part of a vomeronasal type 2 receptor expression zone in the MOE. We hypothesized that the lateral amino acid responses might be mediated via a vomeronasal-like transduction machinery. Here we report that amino acid-responsive receptor neurons in the lateral MOE employ a phospholipase C (PLC) and diacylglycerol-mediated transduction cascade that is independent of Ca(2+) store depletion. Furthermore, we found that putative transient receptor potential (TRP) channel blockers inhibit most amino acid-evoked responses in the lateral MOE, suggesting that ion channels belonging to the TRP family may be involved in the signaling pathway. Our data show, for the first time, a widespread PLC- and diacylglycerol-dependent transduction cascade in the MOE of a vertebrate already possessing a vomeronasal organ