Handling Qualities Assessment of a Pilot Cueing System for Autorotation Maneuvers

This paper details the design and limited flight testing of a preliminary system for visual pilot cueing during autorotation maneuvers. The cueing system is based on a fully-autonomous, multi-phase autorotation control law that has been shown to successfully achieve autonomous autorotation landing in unmanned helicopters. To transition this control law to manned systems, it is employed within a cockpit display to drive visual markers which indicate desired collective pitch and longitudinal cyclic positions throughout the entire maneuver, from autorotation entry to touchdown. A series of simulator flight experiments performed at University of Liverpool’s HELIFLIGHT-R simulator are documented, in which pilots attempt autorotation with and without the pilot cueing system in both good and degraded visual environments. Performance of the pilot cueing system is evaluated based on both subjective pilot feedback and objective measurements of landing survivability metrics, demonstrating suitable preliminary performance of the system

Surface Covering of Downed Logs: Drivers of a Neglected Process in Dead Wood Ecology

Many species use coarse woody debris (CWD) and are disadvantaged by the forestry-induced loss of this resource. A neglected process affecting CWD is the covering of the surfaces of downed logs caused by sinking into the ground (increasing soil contact, mostly covering the underside of the log), and dense overgrowth by ground vegetation. Such cover is likely to profoundly influence the quality and accessibility of CWD for wood-inhabiting organisms, but the factors affecting covering are largely unknown. In a five-year experiment we determined predictors of covering rate of fresh logs in boreal forests and clear-cuts. Logs with branches were little covered because they had low longitudinal ground contact. For branchless logs, longitudinal ground contact was most strongly related to estimated peat depth (positive relation). The strongest predictor for total cover of branchless logs was longitudinal ground contact. To evaluate the effect on cover of factors other than longitudinal ground contact, we separately analyzed data from only those log sections that were in contact with the ground. Four factors were prominent predictors of percentage cover of such log sections: estimated peat depth, canopy shade (both increasing cover), potential solar radiation calculated from slope and slope aspect, and diameter of the log (both reducing cover). Peat increased cover directly through its low resistance, which allowed logs to sink and soil contact to increase. High moisture and low temperatures in pole-ward facing slopes and under a canopy favor peat formation through lowered decomposition and enhanced growth of peat-forming mosses, which also proved to rapidly overgrow logs. We found that in some boreal forests, peat and fast-growing mosses can rapidly cover logs lying on the ground. When actively introducing CWD for conservation purposes, we recommend that such rapid covering is avoided, thereby most likely improving the CWD's longevity as habitat for many species

La Grotta paleolitica di Roccia San Sebastiano (Mondragone, CE). Una metodologia per l’analisi dei dati in spazi simbolici

The Prehistory of the Mondragone area, in the province of Caserta, emerged in its importance thanks to the results of systematic surveys carried out since 1994 by the University of Naples “Federico II” and the Museum Biagio Greco together with the Archeological Superintendence of Naples and Caserta. Since 2001, the Museum has accomplished regular excavation campaigns of the very important Upper and Middle Palaeolithic deposit in the large cave opening in the site of Roccia di San Sebastiano, which represents the only evidence of Palaeolithic frequentation systematically and stratigraphically studied in the territory included between the Northern Campania coast and the Southern Latium coast. On the basis of such evidences, the authors illustrate a project aimed to produce a detailed territorial study to understand the dynamics of the frequentation and settlement of the area during Palaeolithic (Musterian, Uluzzian, Aurignazian and Gravettian) and the cultural behaviours of last Neanderthals and first Homo sapiens groups. The latest excavation campaigns allowed to unearth Uluzzian layers in two sectors of the cave and to investigate the Mousterian levels, from which a deciduous molar of a Neanderthal child comes. Moreover they permitted to consolidate the study of symbolic activities in the cave. Digital and tridimensional documentation techniques have been adopted for the description of the excavation surfaces and to understand the symbolic activities consisting in both parietal and mobiliary art evidences. The storage and elaboration of data is realized in a 3D application in order to elaborate detailed intra-site analysis in a predictive pattern of activities. This model allows the management of digital data in a single spatial system of representation, in which the digital copies of places, excavations areas and objects coincide with the relational matrices between the archaeological data and the possible events recorded in the physical layers