Drones for parcel and passenger transportation: A literature review

Delivery drones and ‘air taxis’ are currently among the most intensely discussed emerging technologies, likely to expand mobility into the ‘third dimension’ of low-level airspace. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 111 interdisciplinary publications (2013 - 03/2019). The review systematizes the current socio-technical debate on civil drones for transportation purposes allowing for a (critical) interim assessment. To guide the review process four dimensions of analysis were defined. A total of 2581 relevant quotations were subdivided into anticipated barriers (426), potential problems (1037), proposed solutions (737) and expected benefits (381). We found that the debate is characterized by predominantly technical and regulatory problems and barriers which are considered to prevent or impede the use of drones for parcel and passengers transportation. At the same time, definite economic expectations are juxtaposed with quite complex and differentiated concerns regarding societal and environmental impacts. Scrutinizing the most prevalent transportation-related promises of traffic reduction, travel time saving and environmental relief we found that there is a strong need to provide scientific evidence for the promises linked to the use of drones for transportation. We conclude that the debate on drones for transportation needs further qualification, emphasizing societal benefits and public involvement more strongly.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Drones para el transporte de paquetes y pasajeros: un análisis cualitativo de la aceptación pública

Civil and commercial drones are on the verge of becoming a key technology of future everyday life. Stimulated by recent technological progress and increasing regulatory clarity especially larger cities are anticipated to use drones for parcel and passenger transport hoping to relieve congested inner city traffic. Despite it is first and foremost the urban population that would be affected by accessing lower airspace, only few studies addressed the public perception of using transport drones. Aiming to fill the gap of attitudinal and acceptance research in the context of drones, the article embraces the subject by presenting qualitative results of a series of five focus groups conducted in three German cities. The analysis of discussions shows that participants were largely ambivalent towards the use of drones, putting special emphasis on a variety of object-related factors (safety and security, sustainability, usefulness), subject-related factors (general perception of technology) and also context-related factors (potential societal implications of drone technology). Framed by a discussion of identified acceptance factors in the context of the present scientific debate and assessing drones’ potential social implications the article provides a profound qualitative exploration into one of the most disruptive and controversial future technologies that may transform both the transport world and urban societies.  Los drones civiles y comerciales están a punto de convertirse en una tecnología clave de la vida cotidiana futura. Estimulado por recientes progresos tecnológicos y una mayor claridad regulatoria, especialmente las grandes ciudades están previendo el uso de drones para el transporte de paquetes y pasajeros con la esperanza de decongestionar el tráfico urbano. A pesar de que principalmente la población urbana se vería afectada por el uso del espacio aéreo cercano a la ciudad, solo pocos estudios abordaron la percepción y opinión pública sobre el uso de drones para el transporte. Con el objetivo de avanzar en la investigación sobre las actitudes y aceptaciones acerca de los drones, el artículo presenta resultados cualitativos de una serie de cinco grupos focales realizados en tres ciudades alemanas. El análisis de los grupos focales muestra que los participantes son ambivalentes respecto del uso de drones, poniendo énfasis en una variedad de factores objetivos (seguridad, sustentabilidad, utilidad), subjetivos (la percepción general sobre la tecnología) y contextuales (las potenciales implicaciones sociales de la tecnología de drones). Enmarcado en la discusión de los factores identificados en el contexto de los debates científicos actuales y evaluando las potenciales implicancias sociales de los drones, el artículo provee un profundo análisis cualitativo de una de las más disruptivas y controversiales tecnologías futuras, que podría transformar tanto el mundo del transporte como el de las sociedades urbanas

Synthesestudie zu Auswirkungen von COVID-19 auf das Mobilitätsverhalten in Deutschland: Einordnung und Vergleich von Kernbefunden der Mobicor-Studie im Kontext der deutschen Pandemieforschung

Leere Bahnhöfe, verwaiste Straßen: Der Verkehrssektor gehörte zweifellos zu den markantesten Ausprägungen der COVID-19-Pandemie. Nachdem der gesellschaftliche Krisenzustand seit Frühjahr 2023 offiziell als überwunden gilt, untersucht die vorliegende Studie, wie drei Jahre Pandemie das Verkehrswesen und das Mobilitätsverhalten in Deutschland verändert haben. Im Sinne einer Synthesestudie werden dazu sieben zentrale Befunde und Thesen der Mobicor-Längsschnittbefragung (WZB, infas) in den Kontext anderer Studienergebnisse eingeordnet und diskutiert, um ein robusteres Bild der durch die Pandemie ausgelösten (Langzeit-)Effekte zu erhalten und zukünftige Bedarfe im Bereich der sozialwissenschaftlichen Mobilitätsforschung in Deutschland abzuleiten. Die zentralen Ergebnisse der Mobicor-Studie, die im Zeitraum von 2020 bis 2022 im Rahmen von vier Erhebungswellen durchgeführt wurde, umfassen sowohl Erkenntnisse zur physischen als auch zur virtuellen Mobilität und wurden aus quantitativen Befragungen sowie ergänzenden qualitativen Interviews gewonnen. Im Kontext von insgesamt 25 Referenzstudien aus den Pandemie-Jahren 2020-2022 zeigte sich eine überwiegende Bestätigung der Mobicor-Befunde. Dies umfasste den Befund des Bedeutungsgewinns des Fuß- und Radverkehrs bei gleichzeitigem Bedeutungsverlust des Öffentlichen Verkehrs als auch die Autonutzung auf weiterhin hohem Niveau. Für die physische Mobilität deutet sich insgesamt der Langzeitbefund auch nach der Pandemie verringerten Verkehrsleistung an. Zudem deckte sich im Bereich der virtuellen Mobilität der zentrale Mobicor-Befund einer im Verlauf der Pandemie zunehmenden Normalisierung und Etablierung des orts- und zeitflexiblen Arbeitens mit dem Großteil der Studienlage, wobei bislang keine gesicherten Erkenntnisse über die Wechselwirkung von Homeoffice und möglichen Verkehrsentlastungen vorliegen. Neben der dringenden Notwendigkeit einer räumlichen, soziodemographischen und sozioökonomischen Differenzierung des durch die Pandemie veränderten Mobilitätsverhaltens plädiert die vorliegende Studie dafür, zukünftig eine systemische Mobilitätsforschung zu stärken, die neben dem individuellen Mobilitätsverhalten auch strukturelle Einflüsse, soziale Kontexte und politische Rahmenbedingungen in den Blick nimmt, um der gestiegenen Komplexität des Mobilitätsverhaltens gerecht zu werden.Empty train stations, deserted streets: transport was undoubtedly one of the most striking manifestations of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the public crisis is officially considered to have been overcome since spring 2023, this study examines how three years of the pandemic have changed transport and mobility behaviour in Germany. In the sense of a synthesis study, seven central findings and theses of the Mobicor longitudinal study (WZB, infas) are classified and discussed in the context of other study results in order to obtain a more robust picture of the (long-term) effects triggered by the pandemic and to derive future needs in the field of social science mobility research in Germany. The core findings of the Mobicor study, which was conducted in four waves between 2020 and 2022, include findings on both physical and virtual mobility and were derived from quantitative surveys and complementary qualitative interviews. The Mobicor findings were largely confirmed by a total of 25 reference studies from the pandemic years 2020-2022. These included an increase in the importance of walking and cycling, a decrease in the importance of public transport, and the stagnation of the im-portance of car use at a high level. The results also suggest a long-term decrease in kilometres travelled per day. In the area of virtual mobility, the Mobicor study's central finding of an increasing normalisation and establishment of location- and time-flexible working over the course of the pandemic coincided with the majority of the studies, although there are as yet no reliable findings on the relationship between home office and possible traffic reduction. The study emphasises the urgent need for a comprehensive analysis of mobility behaviour, considering differentiated spatial, socio-demographic, and socio-economic factors. A systemic approach to mobility research should be taken, which considers not only individual mobility behaviour but also structural influences, social contexts, and policy frameworks, to properly account for the increasing complexity of mobility behaviour

‘It makes me feel alive’: the socio-motivational impact of drama and theatre on marginalised young people

An in-depth, longitudinal, idiographic study examined the impact of theatre and drama involvement on marginalised young people. Semi-structured interviews, at three separate time points over 2 years, were conducted with four young people (15–21 years of age) involved in a theatre project. Interpretative phenomenological analysis suggested that drama and theatre create space and support for the authentic self, and provide optimal conditions for promoting growth and resilience through voluntary engagement in a positive activity. In particular, the analysis highlighted the pivotal role of interpersonal relationships and a nurturing environment in re-engaging young people. Some participants’ accounts also suggested that drama provides a uniquely engaging and therapeutic way to reflect on, express and explore experiences. The results are discussed in relation to core psychological processes underpinning self-development and key directions for further research

Effects of aversive odour presentation on inhibitory control in the Stroop colour-word interference task

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to the unique neural projections of the olfactory system, odours have the ability to directly influence affective processes. Furthermore, it has been shown that emotional states can influence various non-emotional cognitive tasks, such as memory and planning. However, the link between emotional and cognitive processes is still not fully understood. The present study used the olfactory pathway to induce a negative emotional state in humans to investigate its effect on inhibitory control performance in a standard, single-trial manual Stroop colour-word interference task. An unpleasant (H₂S) and an emotionally neutral (Eugenol) odorant were presented in two separate experimental runs, both in blocks alternating with ambient air, to 25 healthy volunteers, while they performed the cognitive task.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Presentation of the unpleasant odorant reduced Stroop interference by reducing the reaction times for incongruent stimuli, while the presentation of the neutral odorant had no effect on task performance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The odour-induced negative emotional state appears to facilitate cognitive processing in the task used in the present study, possibly by increasing the amount of cognitive control that is being exerted. This stands in contrast to other findings that showed impaired cognitive performance under odour-induced negative emotional states, but is consistent with models of mood-congruent processing.</p

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV