High-Volume Airborne Fluids Handling Technologies to Fight Wildfires

NASA recently partnered with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) on a project to examine mission suitability and recommend policies and procedures for the use of very large aerial firefighting aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and DC-10 aerial retardant delivery aircraft. The aircraft under study included a 10Tanker DC-10 and an Evergreen B-747. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and Ames Research Center worked with the USFS to help determine the safe flight envelope for these Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) aircraft for the USFS and the Department of the Interior (DOI). This new generation of supertankers includes aircraft like these that have as much as four times the delivery capacity of the previous generation of aerial firefighting aircraft. Dryden performed operational test and evaluation assessments and reported findings and recommendations on these aircraft in cooperation with Ames. The team developed, implemented, and directed an evaluation test plan for use in flight test and in simulation. Ames provided support using pilot-in-the-loop simulations and coordinated simulator models, flight profiles, and data analysis with Dryden. The test plan was designed to evaluate the suitability of VLAT aircraft as a function of mission environment. Based on this analysis, NASA generated interim flight envelope limitations to enhance safety and operational utility in the fire-retardant delivery mission. These recommended flight limitations were adopted by the USFS. The 10Tanker DC-10 has been in use for several years with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection(Cal-Fire), but until NASA took on the challenge of reviewing VLAT capabilities and limitations, the USFS was hesitant to add them to the federal wildfire arsenal. The DC-10 delivery system is based on an externally mounted set of tanks and a bomb-bay style set of clamshell doors that are opened in precisely calibrated ways to deliver the amounts and concentrations of retardant called for by the specific wildfire situation. The system was manufactured by Jordan Air of Central Point, OR, and was installed by Victorville Aerospace in Victorville, CA. It can deliver 12,000 gallons (45.4 kL) of retardant in as little as eight seconds. The aircraft can deliver a partial load of retardant and make multiple drops on the same flight, or the entire load can be rapidly delivered in one pass if required for maximum coverage. The Evergreen 747 uses internal tankage and a pressurized delivery system to enable volume and coverage levels that also meet USFS requirements, but enables computer control of flow for desired precision. This system was designed and built by Adaptive Aerospace of Tehachapi, CA and can deliver about 20,000 gallons (75.7 kL) of retardant in approximately ten seconds. The 747 can also make multiple independent drops, or deliver the entire load at once. NASA found that both of these VLAT aircraft are compatible with the wildfire suppression mission when used to supplement other aerial retardant delivery platforms. The major recommendations for deployment that resulted from this study relate to terrain clearance, the type of terrain in the drop area, availability of qualified lead planes to guide the VLAT approach to the drop area, and low-altitude maneuvering limitations. NASA s analysis suggests that with the appropriate flight procedures, these aircraft will provide a powerful set of tools to fight wildfires

Spatiotemporal Variability in Biomass and Forage Quality Across a Temperate Landscape with Heterogeneous Phenology Patterns (Poster)

Although spatial and temporal heterogeneity in grassland biomass and forage quality is well-recognized to play an important role in migratory ungulate population dynamics, attempts to directly quantify biomass and forage quality across temperate landscapes throughout the growing season are limited. It is generally recognized that biomass and forage quality are directly related to phenology, but little is known about how seasonal biomass and forage quality differs across land use and biophysical gradients with varying phenology patterns. This study uses field estimates of biomass, chlorophyll concentration, crude protein, and in vitro dry matter digestibility collected from 20, 250m2 grassland plots throughout the summers of 2013 and 2014 to quantify how biomass and forage quality differ across land uses and biophysical gradients in the migratory elk (Cervus elaphus) range in the Upper Yellowstone River Basin. Key findings were that irrigated agriculture had overall greater and longer available biomass and forage quality throughout the growing season compared to private and public grasslands with natural phenology patterns. And that areas that begin growth later in the season had overall greater biomass and forage quality than areas with mid and early phenology characteristics, but availability was shorter. These results suggest that seasonal patterns of biomass and forage quality differ with phenological characteristics across temperate landscapes. This information should be incorporated in our understanding of spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation important for studying migratory ungulate ecology and predicting the effects of climate change and human land use on vegetation dynamics in temperate landscapes

Low Hanging Fruit: Use of Virtual Reality Driving Simulation in Department of Motor Vehicles to Assess Minimal Competence of Novice Drivers

Nationally, Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMV) license novice drivers based in part on on-road assessments. Intuitively it is assumed that such assessments are fair, reliable and valid measures of minimal driving competency. Upon further reflection, this would be difficult, given the subjectivity of a huge range of driving examiners that approach this assessment with different training backgrounds, life distractions and biases from examination to examination, the different road, traffic, lighting and weather conditions from one examination and DMV center to the next, and the minimal driving challenges in such assessments. For example, a typical on-road test involves only a 4 mile road segment with 2 left turns, 4 right turns, 1 lane change, pulling into a turn lane, and 1 speed limit change. It does not include highway driving nor defensive driving maneuvers. Additionally, such on-road assessments are both potentially dangerous and time demanding/expensive. A less expensive, safer, more challenging, objective, reliable, and valid procedure may be the use of Virtual Reality Driving Simulation (VRDS) that administers consistent and more extensive driving challenges to all examinees, which is evaluated in an objective manner based on normative data from current safe drivers. This presentation describes the experience and presents the data from a project where VRDSs were set up in two DMV facilities and a Research facility. The goals of this project were to determine whether VRDS assessments are just as reliable, discriminating and acceptable to the public as on-road assessments, and whether performance on the simulator predicts future on-road driving mishaps

Age Differences in Driving-Specific Tests of Executive Function

The purpose of the present study was to examine age differences in executive function as measured by novel driving-specific tests of executive function using a novel driving simulator. Developmental changes in executive function have been implicated as possible contributing factors to elevated crash statistics for both older adult (over age 65) and adolescent (between age 15 and 20) populations, however for different reasons. Poorer older adult driving performance has been partially attributed to general age-related cognitive decline in executive function mediated by age-related frontal-lobe atrophy and neural disconnection. Immature executive function has been implicated in poorer adolescent driving performance and is thought to be expressed in situations where the developmentally high sensitivity of the socio-emotional reward system outcompetes the regulatory influence of the under developed executive system. Using a new, high fidelity, virtual reality driving simulator, we created drivingspecific tests to assess executive function. These operational tests employed driving-relevant stimuli, with driving-relevant challenges, that required drivingrelevant responses, in a driving-relevant context. Fifteen older adult and 20 adolescent drivers completed these driving-specific executive function tests. We hypothesized that poorer older adult driving performance would be reflected on these driving specific tests of executive function due to general cognitive decline and that, given the absence of social-emotional reward, adolescents would outperform older adults. Analyses of both bivariate correlations and group comparisons generally supported these predictions

Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative

I want Notre Dame to be a light for the people who are suffering darkness. I want this to be a place that people all around the world can see as a source of hope, where they can find people who are willing to fight for them, for their religious freedom and for their human flourishing. — Dean G. Marcus Cole, Notre Dame Law School Learn more about Notre Dame Law School\u27s Religious Liberty Initiative at https://law.nd.edu/RLI

Improving recruitment to a study of telehealth management for long-term conditions in primary care: two embedded, randomised controlled trials of optimised patient information materials

Background: Patient understanding of study information is fundamental to gaining informed consent to take part in a randomised controlled trial. In order to meet the requirements of research ethics committees, patient information materials can be long and need to communicate complex messages. There is concern that standard approaches to providing patient information may deter potential participants from taking part in trials. The Systematic Techniques for Assisting Recruitment to Trials (MRC-START) research programme aims to test interventions to improve trial recruitment. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect on recruitment of optimised patient information materials (with improved readability and ease of comprehension) compared with standard materials. The study was embedded within two primary care trials involving patients with long-term conditions. Methods: The Healthlines Study involves two linked trials evaluating a telehealth intervention in patients with depression (Healthlines Depression) or raised cardiovascular disease risk (Healthlines CVD). We conducted two trials of a recruitment intervention, embedded within the Healthlines host trials. Patients identified as potentially eligible in each of the Healthlines trials were randomised to receive either the original patient information materials or optimised versions of these materials. Primary outcomes were the proportion of participants randomised (Healthlines Depression) and the proportion expressing interest in taking part (Healthlines CVD). Results: In Healthlines Depression (n = 1364), 6.3 % of patients receiving the optimised patient information materials were randomised into the study compared to 4.0 % in those receiving standard materials (OR = 1.63, 95 % CI = 1.00 to 2.67). In Healthlines CVD (n = 671) 24.0 % of those receiving optimised patient information materials responded positively to the invitation to participate, compared to 21.9 % in those receiving standard materials (OR = 1.12, 95 % CI = 0.78 to 1.61). Conclusions: Evidence from these two embedded trials suggests limited benefits of optimised patient information materials on recruitment rates, which may only be apparent in some patient populations, with no effects on other outcomes. Further embedded trials are needed to provide a more precise estimate of effect, and to explore further how effects vary by trial context, intervention, and patient population