A relationship between eye movement patterns and performance in a precognitive tracking task

Eye movements made by various subjects in the performance of a precognitive tracking task are studied. The tracking task persented by an antiaircraft artillery (AAA) simulator has an input forcing function represented by a deterministic aircraft fly-by. The performance of subjects is ranked by two metrics. Good, mediocre, and poor trackers are selected for analysis based on performance during the difficult segment of the tracking task and over replications. Using phase planes to characterize both the eye movement patterns and the displayed error signal, a simple metric is developed to study these patterns. Two characterizations of eye movement strategies are defined and quantified. Using these two types of eye strategies, two conclusions are obtained about good, mediocre, and poor trackers. First, the eye tracker who used a fixed strategy will consistently perform better. Secondly, the best fixed strategy is defined as a Crosshair Fixator

Workshop on Workload and Training, and Examination of their Interactions: Executive summary

The goal of the workshop was to bring together experts in the fields of workload and training and representatives from the Dept. of Defense and industrial organizations who are reponsible for specifying, building, and managing advanced, complex systems. The challenging environments and requirements imposed by military helicopter missions and space station operations were presented as the focus for the panel discussions. The workshop permitted a detailed examination of the theoretical foundations of the fields of training and workload, as well as their practical applications. Furthermore, it created a forum where government, industry, and academic experts were able to examine each other's concepts, values, and goals. The discussions pointed out the necessity for a more efficient and effective flow of information among the groups respresented. The executive summary describes the rationale of the meeting, summarizes the primary points of discussion, and lists the participants and some of their summary comments

The relationship between rhetorical sensitivity, locus of control, and religiosity among college students

This study looked at the relationship between rhetorical sensitivity, locus of control and religiosity amongst college students at three fundamentally different college institutions. Data were collected from 235 students. Results revealed that students belonging to the most religiously fundamental group have significant differences from students outside that same group. A major finding was discovery of a positive relationship between rhetorical reflectomess and fundamental religiosity as well as a negative relationship between rhetorical sensitivity and fundamental religiosity. Also a significant but modest relationship was found between external locus of control and rhetorical sensitivity and between internal locus of control and noble selfness

Scaling forces to asteroid surfaces: The role of cohesion

The scaling of physical forces to the extremely low ambient gravitational acceleration regimes found on the surfaces of small asteroids is performed. Resulting from this, it is found that van der Waals cohesive forces between regolith grains on asteroid surfaces should be a dominant force and compete with particle weights and be greater, in general, than electrostatic and solar radiation pressure forces. Based on this scaling, we interpret previous experiments performed on cohesive powders in the terrestrial environment as being relevant for the understanding of processes on asteroid surfaces. The implications of these terrestrial experiments for interpreting observations of asteroid surfaces and macro-porosity are considered, and yield interpretations that differ from previously assumed processes for these environments. Based on this understanding, we propose a new model for the end state of small, rapidly rotating asteroids which allows them to be comprised of relatively fine regolith grains held together by van der Waals cohesive forces.Comment: 54 pages, 7 figure

Effects of fault finiteness on near-source ground motion

Near-source ground motion at four azimuths but constant epicentral range is computed from a buried circular strike-slip fault in a half-space. Particle acceleration, velocity, and displacement at each station on the free surface is computed in the frequency band 0.0 to 5.0 Hz. The assumed dislocation is derived from the Kostrov (1964) displacement function for a continuously propagating stress relaxation. The azimuthal variations in the amplitudes and waveforms directly result from spatially varying slip on the fault, spatially varying radiation pattern over the fault, and the magnitude and direction of the rupture velocity. The near-source ground motions are dominated by the rupture in the direction of the receiver. Using a 100-bar effective stress (initial stress minus sliding friction) in a Poisson solid with β = 3.0 km/sec the shear wave speed, and shear modulus μ = 3.0 × 10^(11) dyne/cm^2, the simulated earthquake has a moment M_o = 4.5 × 10^(25) dyne-cm. Using a rupture velocity of 0.9β, the peak acceleration is 1195 cm/sec^2 and velocity 10^4 cm/sec for the receiver directly on strike. For a receiver 30° off strike, the maximum acceleration 236 cm/sec^2 occurs on the vertical component

Amp\`ere-Class Pulsed Field Emission from Carbon-Nanotube Cathodes in a Radiofrequency Resonator

Pulsed field emission from cold carbon-nanotube cathodes placed in a radiofrequency resonant cavity was observed. The cathodes were located on the backplate of a conventional $1+\frac{1}{2}$-cell resonant cavity operating at 1.3-GHz and resulted in the production of bunch train with maximum average current close to 0.7 Amp\`ere. The measured Fowler-Nordheim characteristic, transverse emittance, and pulse duration are presented and, when possible, compared to numerical simulations. The implications of our results to high-average-current electron sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Real Estate Risk and Return Expectations: Recent Survey Results

Investment and portfolio studies generally use ex post risk and return data, although expected risk and return data is what should be used. This is probably due to the dearth of such data or the difficulty and/or cost of obtaining it on a current basis. This study reports the results of a survey of major real estate investors and researchers, i.e., large life insurance companies, real estate advisors, large pension funds, and selected academics. The survey examined investment horizon, expectations about inflation, total returns on real estate, distribution between income and appreciation returns, the volatility of real estate returns, and the correlation of real estate returns with stocks returns, bond returns, and inflation. In addition, the study contains results for the above before and after the October 19, 1987, stock market crash.

The effect of the dust size distribution on asteroid polarization

We have developed a theoretical description of how of an asteroid's polarization-phase curve will be affected by the removal of the dust from the surface due to a size-dependent phenomenon such as radiation pressure-driven escape of levitated particles. We test our calculations against new observations of four small (D ~ 1 km) near-Earth asteroids [(85236), (142348), (162900) and 2006 SZ_217] obtained with the Dual Beam Imaging Polarimeter on the University of Hawaii's 2.2 m telescope, as well as previous observations of (25143) Itokawa and (433) Eros. We find that the polarization of the light reflected from an asteroid is controlled by the mineralogical and chemical composition of the surface and is independent of dust particle. The relation between the slope of the polarization-phase curve beyond the inversion angle and the albedo of an asteroid is thus independent of the surface regolith size distribution and is valid for both Main Belt and Near-Earth asteroids.Comment: accepted to A