Solid State Aircraft Concept Overview

Due to recent advances in polymers, photovoltaics, and batteries a unique type of aircraft may be feasible. This is a solid-state aircraft, with no conventional mechanical moving parts. Airfoil, propulsion, energy production, energy storage and control are combined in an integrated structure. The key material of this concept is an ionic polymeric-metal composite (IPMC) that provides source of control and propulsion. This material has the unique capability of deforming in an electric field and returning to its original shape when the field is removed. Combining the IPMC with thin-film batteries and thin-film photovoltaics provides both energy source and storage in the same structure. The characteristics of the materials enables flapping motion of the wing to be utilized to generate the main propulsive force. Analysis shows that a number of design configurations can be produced to enable flight over a range of latitudes on Earth, Venus and possibly Mars

Instructional multimedia: An investigation of student and instructor attitudes and student study behavior

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Educators in allied health and medical education programs utilize instructional multimedia to facilitate psychomotor skill acquisition in students. This study examines the effects of instructional multimedia on student and instructor attitudes and student study behavior.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subjects consisted of 45 student physical therapists from two universities. Two skill sets were taught during the course of the study. Skill set one consisted of knee examination techniques and skill set two consisted of ankle/foot examination techniques. For each skill set, subjects were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group. The control group was taught with live demonstration of the examination skills, while the experimental group was taught using multimedia. A cross-over design was utilized so that subjects in the control group for skill set one served as the experimental group for skill set two, and vice versa. During the last week of the study, students and instructors completed written questionnaires to assess attitude toward teaching methods, and students answered questions regarding study behavior.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no differences between the two instructional groups in attitudes, but students in the experimental group for skill set two reported greater study time alone compared to other groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Multimedia provides an efficient method to teach psychomotor skills to students entering the health professions. Both students and instructors identified advantages and disadvantages for both instructional techniques. Reponses relative to instructional multimedia emphasized efficiency, processing level, autonomy, and detail of instruction compared to live presentation. Students and instructors identified conflicting views of instructional detail and control of the content.</p

Mining Big Data for Tourist Hot Spots: Geographical Patterns of Online Footprints

Understanding the complex, and often unequal, spatiality of tourist demand in urban contexts requires other methodologies, among which the information base available online and in social networks has gained prominence. Innovation supported by Information and Communication Technologies in terms of data access and data exchange has emerged as a complementary supporting tool for the more traditional data collection techniques currently in use, particularly, in urban destinations where there is the need to more (near)real-time monitoring. The capacity to collect and analise massive amounts of data on individual and group behaviour is leading to new data-rich research approaches. This chapter addresses the potential for discovering geographical insights regarding tourists’ spatial patterns within a destination, based on the analysis of geotagged data available from two social networks. ·info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Archaeological perspectives in information science

Copyright © 2017 by Association for Information Science and Technology Archaeology is a domain that has intersections with information science and technology research both as an empirical domain of investigation and as a perspective to inquire into how people interact with information. The aim of this panel is to highlight this interdisciplinary nexus of diverse engagements and to explicate how archaeology has informed and could inform information science research and practice in the future, and how empirical information science research on archaeological practices has enhanced our understanding of both archaeological work and human information behavior and practices in general

Editorial : Archaeology and information research

The aim of this special issue is to highlight the interdisciplinary nexus in a series of papers that explore and investigate the intersections of archaeologies and the different areas of information research. The archaeologies both in this special issue and more broadly can be envisioned to include archaeology proper, media archaeology, the archaeology of knowledge and other archaeological approaches, whereas information research includes, library, museum and archival studies, as well as other relevant disciplines