Student Pilot Situational Awareness: The Effects of Trust in Technology

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the general level of trust in technology in student pilots and then to determine the relationship between pilots\u27 trust and their situational awareness during simulated flight. A literature review revealed that the Jian Trust Scale was based on empirical observations and had precedence in the literature so it was selected. Since excessive reliance on technology can make the operator passive and unquestioning, ultimately loss of situational awareness may result. The main hypothesis tested was to establish the relationship between measurements of trust on the ground and situational awareness in simulated flight; pilots who had lower-trust in technology were expected to have to maintain higher levels of situational awareness. Conversely, higher-trust pilots were expected to have lower situational awareness due to an over reliance on the equipment. Instructor pilots rated the 30 students in simulated flight using a modified Situation Awareness Global Assessment Techniques (SAGAT) score and this was compared to their Trust score derived from ground based testing. The results were opposite from those expected but significant facts were discovered. The pilots with the highest trust scores showed the best situational awareness. This study concludes that the trust is not blind in ERAU pilots, they seem to trust the instruments and yet also maintain good situational awareness. The results were not as clear for the middle trust scoring pilots and suggests that trust and situational awareness are not as related. The need for monitoring situational awareness is discussed and the use of a simple and rapid ground based trust score may indicate which students would most benefit from improving their situational awareness would be the middle scorers on a trust scale. The simplicity of this approach to identifying those in need of improving situational awareness and the successful prediction of high trusting pilots and good situational awareness, suggests that a better trust scale, one geared specifically for general aviation, would be useful

Disruption of diapause induction by TALEN-based gene mutagenesis in relation to a unique neuropeptide signaling pathway in Bombyx

The insect neuropeptide family FXPRLa, which carries the Phe-Xaa-Pro-Arg-Leu-NH2 sequence at the C-terminus, is involved in many physiological processes. Although ligand–receptor interactions in FXPRLa signaling have been examined using in vitro assays, the correlation between these interactions and in vivo physiological function is unclear. Diapause in the silkworm, Bombyx mori, is thought to be elicited by diapause hormone (DH, an FXPRLa) signaling, which consists of interactions between DH and DH receptor (DHR). Here, we performed transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN)-based mutagenesis of the Bombyx DH-PBAN and DHR genes and isolated the null mutants of these genes in a bivoltine strain. All mutant silkworms were fully viable and showed no abnormalities in the developmental timing of ecdysis or metamorphosis. However, female adults oviposited non-diapause eggs despite diapause-inducing temperature and photoperiod conditions. Therefore, we conclude that DH signaling is essential for diapause induction and consists of highly sensitive and specific interactions between DH and DHR selected during ligand–receptor coevolution in Bombyx mori.ArticleSCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 5:15566 (2015)journal articl

Development of an epileptic seizure prediction algorithm using R–R intervals with self-attentive autoencoder

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that may affect the autonomic nervous system (ANS) from 15 to 20 min before seizure onset, and disturbances of ANS affect R–R intervals (RRI) on an electrocardiogram (ECG). This study aims to develop a machine learning algorithm for predicting focal epileptic seizures by monitoring R–R interval (RRI) data in real time. The developed algorithm adopts a self-attentive autoencoder (SA-AE), which is a neural network for time-series data. The results of applying the developed seizure prediction algorithm to clinical data demonstrated that it functioned well in most patients; however, false positives (FPs) occurred in specific participants. In a future work, we will investigate the causes of FPs and optimize the developing seizure prediction algorithm to further improve performance using newly added clinical data

Visualization of AMPA receptors in living human brain with positron emission tomography

Although aberrations in the number and function of glutamate AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid) receptors are thought to underlie neuropsychiatric disorders, no methods are currently available for visualizing AMPA receptors in the living human brain. Here we developed a positron emission tomography (PET) tracer for AMPA receptors. A derivative of 4-[2-(phenylsulfonylamino)ethylthio]-2,6-difluoro-phenoxyacetamide radiolabeled with 11C ([11C]K-2) showed specific binding to AMPA receptors. Our clinical trial with healthy human participants confirmed reversible binding of [11C] K-2 in the brain according to Logan graphical analysis (UMIN000020975; study design: non-randomized, single arm; pri- mary outcome: dynamics and distribution volumes of [11C]K-2 in the brain; secondary outcome: adverse events of [11C]K-2 during the 4–10 d following dosing; this trial met prespecified endpoints). In an exploratory clinical study including patients with epilepsy, we detected increased [11C]K-2 uptake in the epileptogenic focus of patients with mesial temporal lobe epi- lepsy, which was closely correlated with the local AMPA receptor protein distribution in surgical specimens from the same individuals (UMIN000025090; study design: non-randomized, single arm; primary outcome: correlation between [11C]K-2 uptake measured with PET before surgery and AMPA receptor protein density examined by biochemical study after surgery; secondary outcome: adverse events during the 7 d following PET scan; this trial met prespecified endpoints). Thus, [11C]K-2 is a potent PET tracer for AMPA receptors, potentially providing a tool to examine the involvement of AMPA receptors in neuropsychiatric disorders