The Role of Trust and Interaction in GPS Related Accidents: A Human Factors Safety Assessment of the Global Positioning System (GPS)

The Global Positioning System (GPS) uses a network of orbiting and geostationary satellites to calculate the position of a receiver over time. This technology has revolutionised a wide range of safety-critical industries and leisure applications ranging from commercial fisheries through to mountain running. These systems provide diverse benefits; supplementing the users existing navigation skills and reducing the uncertainty that often characterises many route planning tasks. GPS applications can also help to reduce workload by automating tasks that would otherwise require finite cognitive and perceptual resources. However, the operation of these systems has been identified as a contributory factor in a range of recent accidents. Users often come to rely on GPS applications and, therefore, fail to notice when they develop faults or when errors occur in the other systems that use the data from these systems. Further accidents can stem from the ‘over confidence’ that arises when users assume automated warnings will be issued when they stray from an intended route. Unless greater attention is paid to the human factors of GPS applications then there is a danger that we will see an increasing number of these failures as positioning technologies are integrated into increasing numbers of application

SNS Timing System

This poster describes the timing system being designed for Spallation Neutron Source being built at Oak Ridge National lab

The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) Participation and Savings Behavior

In this paper, we analyze the 401(k) savings behavior of employees in a large U.S. corporation before and after an interesting change in the company 401(k) plan. Before the plan change, employees were required to affirmatively elect participation in the 401(k) plan. After the plan change, employees were automatically and immediately enrolled in the 401(k) plan unless they made a negative election to opt out of the plan. Although none of the economic features of the plan changed, this switch to automatic enrollment dramatically changed the savings behavior of employees. We have two key findings. First, 401(k) participation is significantly higher under automatic enrollment. Second, the default contribution rate and investment allocation chosen by the company under automatic enrollment has a strong influence on the savings behavior of 401(k) participants. A substantial fraction of 401(k) participants hired under automatic enrollment exhibit what we call default' behavior--sticking to both the default contribution rate and the default fund allocation even though very few employees hired before automatic enrollment picked this particular outcome. This default' behavior appears to result both from participant inertia and from many employees taking the default as investment advice on the part of the company. Overall, these results are consistent with the notion that large changes in savings behavior can be motivated simply by the power of suggestion.' These findings have important implications for the optimal design of 401(k) savings plans as well as for any type of Social Security reform that includes personal accounts over which individuals have some amount of control. They also shed light more generally on the importance of both economic and non-economic factors in the determination of individual savings behavior.

Ab initio electronic structure calculations of solid, solution-processed metallotetrabenzoporphyrins

An ab initio study of the electronic structures of solid metallotetrabenzoporphyrins (MTBPs) utilized in organic transistors and photovoltaics is presented. Bandstructures, densities of states, and orbitals are calculated for H2, Cu, Ni, and Zn core substitutions of the unit cell of solid TBP, as deposited via soluble precursors that are thermally annealed to produce polycrystalline, semiconducting thin-films. While the unit cells of the studied MTBPs are nearly isomorphous, substitution of the core atoms alters the structure of the bands around the energy bandgap and the composition of the densities of states. Cu and Ni core substitutions introduce nearly-dispersionless energy bands near the valence and conduction band edges, respectively, that form acceptor or deep generation/recombination states.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 4 table

The use of the McIlwain L-parameter to estimate cosmic ray vertical cutoff rigidities for different epochs of the geomagnetic field

Secular changes in the geomagnetic field between 1955 and 1980 have been large enough to produce significant differences in both the verical cutoff rigidities and in the L-value for a specified position. A useful relationship employing the McIlwain L-parameter to estimate vertical cutoff rigidities has been derived for the twenty-five year period

Serum IgG concentrations of neonatal calves fed colostrum replacer supplemented with lactoferrin

The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of various levels of lactoferrin supplementation in colostrum replacer fed as 1 or 2 doses on apparent efficiency of IgG absorption, serum IgG concentrations, and intestinal development in neonatal Holstein bull calves. Eighty-Holstein bull calves were assigned to a 2 x 4 factorial arrangement of treatments in a completely randomized block design. Bull calves were collected at two locations, Fairchild Teaching and Research Center at the University of New Hampshire (n = 48) and a commercial dairy (n = 32). All calves were fed colostrum replacer (CR) according to manufacturer\u27s recommendations within 90 min of birth with or without lactoferrin treatment. Lactoferrin treatments were 0 (control), 0.5, 1, and 2 g/d. At 12 h of age calves were fed either a second feeding of CR with or without Lf or 2 L of milk replacer (MR) with or without Lf Calves continued to be fed MR with or without Lf in 12 h increments throughout the duration of study. Calves from the commercial dairy were removed from study at 48 h, while calves born at the university were removed from the study at 72 h. Blood samples were collected for IgG at 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 48 h. On average, all calves attained blood serum IgG concentration ≥ 10 mg/mL resulting in successful passive transfer, except for calves fed 1 dose of CR 1 or 2 g/d of supplemental Lf. However, there was an effect on CR feeding with calves fed 2 doses of CR having significantly higher blood serum IgG concentrations. There was no effect of Lf supplementation on plasma IgG and serum protein. There was a decrease in apparent efficiency of absorption (AEA) of IgG when 2 doses of CR were fed versus 1 dose of CR. Lactoferrin supplementation resulted in a suppressing quadratic effect on AEA of IgG. At the sixth feeding in which calves were 60 +/- 2 h of age, D-xylose (0.5g/kg BW) was mixed with the MR with or without supplemental Lf (UNH calves) to determine xylose absorption by the small intestine. Blood samples were collected before xylose was fed at 0, and 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 h after feeding xylose, for measurement of plasma glucose and xylose concentrations. Xylose means and area under the curved showed Lf to have a quadratic effect on xylose absorption with 0.5 and 1 g/d of supplemental Lf having lower plasma xylose concentrations then calves fed 0 and 2 g/d of supplemental Lf There was no effect of CR feeding or supplemental Lf on plasma glucose concentrations. This study indicates supplementing Lf to a CR has a negative effect on both serum IgG and xylose absorption, demonstrating supplemental Lf is not beneficial to the neonatal calf

The Effects of Fabry-Perot Fringing on the Sensitivity of a Wavelength Modulation Experiment

Parasitic Fabry-Perot etaloning plagues many experiments which use wavelength modulation spectroscopy. This fringing, which is an artifact that almost always appears in such experiments, arises from multiple reflections in the optical elements in the experimental apparatus. The etaloning plays a detrimental role and limits the ultimate sensitivity of wavelength modulation spectroscopy experiments. The research described in this thesis investigates this phenomenon. Experimental results are presented which show that when the Q-factor of the parasitic etalon is smaller that that of the absorption line being measured, significant improvement in the Signal to Fringe Noise Ratio can be obtained through the use of higher harmonic detection. A model is developed and experimental results are compared with theoretical predictions. The extremely good agreement obtained enables us to extract accurate values for the modeling parameters. Line centers, line widths, and optical absorption cross-sections of several lines in the oxygen A-band are measured with high accuracy using the etalon as a reference

Crime and Security in Brazil: Brazil\u27s Pacification Efforts in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro

The purpose of this research is to study Brazil\u27s current pacification efforts in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has long been linked to violent crime, corruption, and increasing social inequality. It features more homicides than any other country on earth: one in ten people killed around the world each year is a Brazilian (Carvalho, 2015). However, in 2008, Rio\u27s state government began applying a new law enforcement program to rid favelas of gangs and crime before hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Information on the current/future tactics and strategies that Rio will incorporate into its security program are based on interviews conducted with various members of Brazilian law enforcement. By examining existing empirical studies, this study focuses on whether Rio\u27s security efforts will ultimately be successful in fulfilling the goal of making peace in the favelas and reducing drug trafficking and violence. The results of this study show that Rio\u27s pacification program will not likely be a solution for long-term stability in the region unless security personnel can incorporate real community policing with favela residents and establish social programs for favela youth