Two Decades of Progress for Minorities in Aviation

Diversity within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has historically lagged behind that which is found in other vocational paths. Aviation has also suffered poor diversity with virtually no participation among professional pilots. With both the literature specifying the benefits of diversity in the aviation workplace and potential shortages of pilots looming, it is in the interest of aerospace stakeholders to have access to the most comprehensively diverse employee pool possible. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the trends in participation by minorities who completed professional pilot education programs in the United States. Data concerning the number of students who completed degrees at the associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s levels were collected via the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Participation rates were compared to those found within the aviation industry. In general, the participation rates by non-White minorities in collegiate aviation (27.3%) exceeds that reported in the professional pilot vocation (18.4%). Detailed trends over the past 10 years were evaluated. Between 2004 and 2014, minority (including women) participation increased from 17.1% to 22.2%, which was deemed to be statistically significant (z = 3.7, p \u3c 0.001). The greatest gains were exhibited among Hispanics (p \u3c 0.001), specifically Hispanic men (p \u3c 0.001), with marginal gains by Asians (p = 0.06). Decreases were noted in Native American participation (p = 0.03) as well as among women, albeit not significantly (p = 0.31). When extending the analysis back another seven years, minority (including women) participation showed significant change from 1997 (16.5%) to 2014 (22.2%), z = 3.7, p \u3c 0.001. Minority participation in professional pilot education has shown steady gains over the past two decades; however, it appears that this trend is leveling, especially among women. Further study is recommended with particular interest in promotion and recruitment of a diverse aviation student population

A comprehensive analysis of interleukin-4 receptor polymorphisms and their association with atopy and IgE regulation in childhood

Background: The interleukin (IL) 4/IL13 pathway is involved in the regulation of IgE production associated with atopic diseases. Numerous polymorphisms have been identified in the coding region of the IL4 receptor alpha chain (IL4Ra) and previous association studies have shown conflicting results. Based on their putative functional role, polymorphisms A148G, T1432C and A1652G, located in the coding region of IL4Ra, were selected for association and haplotype studies in a large German population sample (n = 1,120). Methods: Genotyping was performed using allele-specific PCR and restriction-enzyme-based assays. Haplotypes were estimated, and population-derived IgE percentiles (50% IgE >60 IU/ml, 66% IgE >115 IU/ml and 90% IgE >457 IU/ml) were calculated as outcome variables in a haplotype trend regression analysis. Results: In our population, only polymorphism T1432C showed a trend for a protective effect against atopic rhinitis ( odds ratio, OR: 0.52, 95% confidence interval, CI: 0.26 - 1.02, p = 0.05). When haplotypes were calculated, one haplotype was significantly associated with elevated serum IgE levels at the 50th percentile ( OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.08 - 2.37, p = 0.02). Conclusions: These data indicate that IL4Ra polymorphisms, although suggested to be functionally relevant by in vitro studies, have only a minor influence on IgE regulation in our large population sample. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Identification of Air Traffic Management Principles Influential in the Development of an Airport Arrival Delay Prediction Model

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, worldwide air traffic has steadily been increasing towards peak levels reported from 2000 to 2001 (Federal Aviation Administration [FAA], 2011). Although U.S. system-wide traffic is still around 10% less than the highest volumes, congestion at particular airports prone to delays, such as Newark, Philadelphia, New York LaGuardia, and New York Kennedy, is up nearly 10% from 2000 metrics. Other airports, such as Chicago O’Hare and Atlanta in the U.S. and London Heathrow, Madrid, and Istanbul in Europe, are seemingly continually plagued with flight delays regardless of variations in traffic (FAA, 2012). According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (2013), the best flight punctuality rate among the 29 largest primary U.S. airports in January 2012 was 89.7% with the worst being 77.2%. In Europe, 14 major airports reported arrival delays in excess of 15 minutes for more than 25% of flights (FAA, 2012). Air traffic forecasts through 2031 indicate that both the passenger volume and the number of transport aircraft will be double that of 2012 levels. Considering many of the aforementioned airports are operating near or beyond capacity, it is likely that air traffic delays will only get worse (Airbus, 2012). The importance of delay management is critical to a variety of stakeholders from passengers to air carrier operations management to air traffic control personnel. Reliable delay prediction can mitigate the snowball effects delays can have on the air traffic management system and air carrier structures (Xu, Sherry, & Laskey, 2008). A variety of studies have been implemented to study air traffic delays but generally focus on a system-wide approach that includes arrival, enroute, and departure delays (Brooker, 2009; Coy, 2006; Santos & Robin, 2011; Xu, Sherry, & Laskey, 2008). Alternatively, others have focused on individual airports and their potential influence on the whole air traffic management system (Nayak & Zhang, 2011). More research on the factors associated with and prediction of airport-related delays have been advocated (Brooker, 2009; Coy, 2006; Nayak & Zhang, 2011; Santos & Robin, 2011; Xu, Sherry, & Laskey, 2008). Ideally, an improved model with predictive capabilities would assist in planning for and potentially mitigating negative effects of airport-based arrival congestion. The goal of this pilot study is to begin the construction of an improved airport delay prediction model by exploring potentially influential air traffic management principles. Utilizing expert panel-based model and procedural improvement techniques similar to those used in medical and technical fields, this study aims to bolster existing airport arrival delay prediction models (Deason & Jefferson, 2010; Estes, 2008; Gisev, Bell, O’Reilly, Rosen, & Chen, 2010). In this Phase I pilot study, a purposeful sample of air traffic control instructors, college faculty, and air traffic controllers will be asked to generate a list of air traffic management principles that influence airport arrival efficiency. This data will be utilized to create subsequent phases which will include a Delphi Panel to rank the identified principles, confirmatory analysis, statistical modeling, and model testing

Application of a Modified Gas Chromatograph to Analyze Space Experiment Combustion Gases on Space Shuttle Mission STS-94

A space experiment designed to study the behavior of combustion without the gravitational effects of buoyancy was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on July 1, 1997. The space experiment, designated as Combustion Module-1 (CM-1), was one of several manifested on the Microgravity Sciences Laboratory - 1 (MSL-1) mission. The launch, designated STS-94, had the Spacelab Module as the payload, in which the MSL-1 experiments were conducted by the Shuttle crewmembers. CM-1 was designed to accommodate two different combustion experiments during MSL-1. One experiment, the Structure of Flame Balls at Low Lewis-number experiment (SOFBALL), required gas chromatography analysis to verify the composition of the known, premixed gases prior to combustion, and to determine the remaining reactant and the products resulting from the combustion process in microgravity. A commercial, off-the-shelf, dual-channel micro gas chromatograph was procured and modified to interface with the CM-1 Fluids Supply Package and the CM-1 Combustion Chamber, to accommodate two different carrier gases, each flowing through its own independent column module, to withstand the launch environment of the Space Shuttle, to accept Spacelab electrical power, and to meet the Spacelab flight requirements for electromagnetic interference (EMI) and offgassing. The GC data was down linked to the Marshall Space Flight Center for near-real time analysis, and stored on-orbit for post-flight analysis. The gas chromatograph operated successfully during the entire SOFBALL experiment and collected 309 runs. Because of the constraints imposed upon the gas chromatograph by the CM-1 hardware, system and operations, it was unable to measure the gases to the required accuracy. Future improvements to the system for a re-flight of the SOFBALL experiment are expected to enable the gas chromatograph to meet all the requirements

Enriched biodiversity data as a resource and service

Background: Recent years have seen a surge in projects that produce large volumes of structured, machine-readable biodiversity data. To make these data amenable to processing by generic, open source “data enrichment” workflows, they are increasingly being represented in a variety of standards-compliant interchange formats. Here, we report on an initiative in which software developers and taxonomists came together to address the challenges and highlight the opportunities in the enrichment of such biodiversity data by engaging in intensive, collaborative software development: The Biodiversity Data Enrichment Hackathon. Results: The hackathon brought together 37 participants (including developers and taxonomists, i.e. scientific professionals that gather, identify, name and classify species) from 10 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. The participants brought expertise in processing structured data, text mining, development of ontologies, digital identification keys, geographic information systems, niche modeling, natural language processing, provenance annotation, semantic integration, taxonomic name resolution, web service interfaces, workflow tools and visualisation. Most use cases and exemplar data were provided by taxonomists. One goal of the meeting was to facilitate re-use and enhancement of biodiversity knowledge by a broad range of stakeholders, such as taxonomists, systematists, ecologists, niche modelers, informaticians and ontologists. The suggested use cases resulted in nine breakout groups addressing three main themes: i) mobilising heritage biodiversity knowledge; ii) formalising and linking concepts; and iii) addressing interoperability between service platforms. Another goal was to further foster a community of experts in biodiversity informatics and to build human links between research projects and institutions, in response to recent calls to further such integration in this research domain. Conclusions: Beyond deriving prototype solutions for each use case, areas of inadequacy were discussed and are being pursued further. It was striking how many possible applications for biodiversity data there were and how quickly solutions could be put together when the normal constraints to collaboration were broken down for a week. Conversely, mobilising biodiversity knowledge from their silos in heritage literature and natural history collections will continue to require formalisation of the concepts (and the links between them) that define the research domain, as well as increased interoperability between the software platforms that operate on these concepts

MUSTANG 3.3 Millimeter Continuum Observations of Class 0 Protostars

We present observations of six Class 0 protostars at 3.3 mm (90 GHz) using the 64-pixel MUSTANG bolometer camera on the 100-m Green Bank Telescope. The 3.3 mm photometry is analyzed along with shorter wavelength observations to derive spectral indices (S_nu ~ nu^alpha) of the measured emission. We utilize previously published dust continuum radiative transfer models to estimate the characteristic dust temperature within the central beam of our observations. We present constraints on the millimeter dust opacity index, beta, between 0.862 mm, 1.25 mm, and 3.3 mm. Beta_mm typically ranges from 1.0 to 2.4 for Class 0 sources. The relative contributions from disk emission and envelope emission are estimated at 3.3 mm. L483 is found to have negligible disk emission at 3.3 mm while L1527 is dominated by disk emission within the central beam. The beta_mm^disk <= 0.8 - 1.4 for L1527 indicates that grain growth is likely occurring in the disk. The photometry presented in this paper may be combined with future interferometric observations of Class 0 envelopes and disks.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, AJ accepted, in pres

A practical protocol to emulate a reactor scenario on present machines, with application to the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak via predictive modeling

In this work, a novel practical strategy to emulate a reactor scenario on present tokamak experiments is presented. A recipe how to scale several relevant parameters from a hypothetical reactor scenario down to present devices is discussed. Equivalence between the energy flux channels is detailed, and the practical actuation scheme is presented. The application of the proposed protocol on the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak is shown foremost using the virtual flight simulator Fenix, with practical experiments planned for future campaigns

Beyond Simple Substitution Patterns âEuro" Symmetrically Tetrasubstituted [2.2]Paracyclophanes as 3D Functional Materials

[2.2]Paracyclophane is the prototypical layered hydrocarbon and has been essential for investigations of through-space electronic interactions. Over the last years more examples of tetrasubstituted derivatives have been reported. This minireview discusses the synthetic approaches towards various substitution patterns and provides a survey over different approaches used to achieve and derivatize symmetric tetrasubstitution. The first two sections of this work present homo-tetrasubstituted derivatives, while the third section gives insight into symmetrically hetero-tetrasubstituted analogues. These approaches are briefly discussed, the resulting structures are presented in detail, and their specific properties resulting from the incorporation of [2.2]paracyclophane are elucidated