Changing the role of the air traffic controller: how will free flight affect memory for spatial events?

At present, air traffic controllers (ATCOs) exercise strict control over routing authority for aircraft movement in airspace. The onset of a free flight environment, however, may well result in a dramatic change to airspace jurisdictions, with aircraft movements for the large part being governed by aircrew, not ATCOs. The present study examined the impact of such changes on spatial memory for recent and non-recent locations of aircraft represented on a visual display. The experiment contrasted present conditions, in which permission for manoeuvres is granted by ATCOs, with potential free flight conditions, in which aircrew undertake deviations without explicit approval from ATCOs. Results indicated that the ATCO role adopted by participants impacted differently on short-term and long-term spatial representations of aircraft manoeuvres. Although informing participants of impending deviations has beneficial effects on spatial representations in the short term, long-term representations of spatial events are affected deleteriously by the presentation of subsequent information pertaining to other aircraft. This study suggests strongly that recognition of the perceptual and cognitive consequences of changing to a free flight environment is crucial if air safety is not to be jeopardized.     

Cobol: a historic past, a vital future?

One of the strangest stories in the software world centers around the programming language Cobol. Academics have reviled it for decades; its demise has been predicted since the 1960s; industry gurus have suggested that programmers who know only Cobol are committing career suicide. You would think, based on all this bad press, that Cobol was not long for this software world. Yet the giant lumbers on. In poll after poll, it is either the most-used or the second-most-used programming language in industry. In fact, in one industry poll, each year those contacted predict that Cobol's use will diminish by the next poll, and each year the findings are that Cobol is the only language whose use has actually increased. The devil refuses to die. What's with Cobol? I give my Loyal Opposition answer to that question and then give some input on the subject from a Cobol expert who is tracking Cobol's future directions     

Ergodicity of spike trains: when does trial averaging make sense?

Neuronal information processing is often studied on the basis of spiking patterns. The relevant statistics such as firing rates calculated with the peri-stimulus time histogram are obtained by averaging spiking patterns over many experimental runs. However, animals should respond to one experimental stimulation in real situations, and what is available to the brain is not the trial statistics but the population statistics. Consequently, physiological ergodicity, namely, the consistency between trial averaging and population averaging, is implicitly assumed in the data analyses, although it does not trivially hold true. In this letter, we investigate how characteristics of noisy neural network models, such as single neuron properties, external stimuli, and synaptic inputs, affect the statistics of firing patterns. In particular, we show that how high membrane potential sensitivity to input fluctuations, inability of neurons to remember past inputs, external stimuli with large variability and temporally separated peaks, and relatively few contributions of synaptic inputs result in spike trains that are reproducible over many trials. The reproducibility of spike trains and synchronous firing are contrasted and related to the ergodicity issue. Several numerical calculations with neural network examples are carried out to support the theoretical results.     

Eliciting children’s recall of events: how do computers compare with humans?

This study investigated the usefulness of an interactive computer program in eliciting children's reports about an event. Fifty-four 5–6- and fifty-nine 7–8-year old children participated in an event with their regular class teacher which involved several activities and a mildly negative secret. Four days and again 14 days later, the children were interviewed individually by computer (alone) or by a human interviewer. The computer program incorporated animation and audio whereby an animated figure asked the questions and the children were required to provide a verbal response. The accuracy and detail of the children’s reports was similar across the interview conditions. The children were more willing to review their answers with the computer than the adult interviewer. However, responses to the computer were less consistent across the interviews, and the children were less willing to disclose the secret in the second interview to the computer compared with the human interviewer. Overall, the computer revealed little benefit in eliciting children’s recall of the event over the standard face-to-face interview.     

Technological solutions to privacy questions: what is the role of law?

In spite of its recognition as a fundamental human right, privacy is sometimes criticised as an anachronistic value in modern life [James Rule, Privacy in Peril (OUP, 2007) xi]. While the prominence of this view has lessened in the wake of the Snowden revelations and increased public concern with online privacy [Maria Helen Murphy, ‘The Pendulum Effect: Comparisons Between the Snowden Revelations and the Church Committee. What are the Potential Implications for Europe?’ (2014) 23(2) Information and Communications Technology Law 192], the right continues to struggle for support when it is portrayed as being in competition with national security, personal safety, and economic prosperity [Daniel Solove, ‘“I've Got Nothing to Hide” and other Misunderstandings of Privacy’ (2007) 44 San DLR 745]. As developments in technology continue to threaten the right to privacy, interest in technological solutions to privacy problems continues to grow. This article seeks to consider current privacy debates from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders in order to assess whether technological and design approaches offer the best path forward, or whether an essential role remains to be played by law.     

Cognitive mismatches in the cockpit: will they ever be a thing of the past?

Changes in aviation over the last 30 years have dramatically affected the way that flight crews fly aircraft. The implementation and evolution of the glass cockpit, however, has happened in an almost ad hoc fashion, meaning that it does not always properly support the flight crew in carrying out their tasks. In such situations, the crew's mental model of what is happening does not always match the real state of affairs. In other words, there is a cognitive mismatch. An initial taxonomy of cognitive mismatches is defined, and the problem illustrated using an example from an aviation accident. Consideration is then given to how cognitive mismatches can be managed. A call is made for the development of an integrated cockpit architecture that takes better account of human capabilities and allows for new developments to be added to the cockpit in a more seamless manner.     

A pragmatic multi-method investigation of discrepant technological events: Coping,attributions, and ‘accidental’ learning

Discrepant technological events or situations that entail a problem, a misunderstanding or a difficulty with the Information Technology (IT) being employed, are common in the workplace, and can lead to frustration and avoidance behaviors. Little is known, however, about how individuals cope with these events. This paper examines these events by using a multi-method pragmatic approach informed by coping theory. The results of two studies – a critical incident study and an experiment – serve to build and test, respectively, a theoretical model that posits that individuals use a variety of strategies when dealing with these events: they experience negative emotions, make external attributions, and adopt engagement coping strategies directed at solving the event, eventually switching to a disengagement coping strategy when they feel they have no control over the situation. Furthermore, users’ efforts may result in ‘accidental’ learning as they try to overcome the discrepant IT events through engagement coping. The paper ends with a discussion of the results in light of existing literature, future opportunities for research, and implications for practice.     

How to design personalization in a context of customer retention: Who personalizes what and to what extent?

Personalization is a strategic tool for product or service differentiation, especially when competition is keen in the market. Many personalization strategies have been developed and realized with this in mind. Little is known about the impact of different personalization strategies, regarding different personalization dimensions on customer retention, however. This has resulted in a lack of consensus on how best to design personalization strategies. To address the related issues, this study identifies the dimensions of personalization, and investigates the effect of each dimension on customer retention. It does so by implementing actual personalization systems corresponding to two factorial design experiments involving 372 participants. Multiple analysis of covariance reveals the effectiveness of each dimension and interactions among them. This study consequently proposes the optimal combination of personalization dimensions that leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty.     

Electronic bills of lading and central registries: what is holding back progress?

This article looks at the legal requirements that need to be satisfied in the electronic replication of the bill of lading's functions—in particular, the singularity requirement—and at the central registry as a method for satisfying these requirements. It goes on to look at why, a number of years after the BOLERO central registry system was first proposed and set up, electronic equivalents to bills of lading have not come into widespread use in international trade. It explores the reasons behind the failure of the international trade community to adopt these electronic equivalents and identifies some preconditions for progress in this area.     

Data administration in the organization: What is it,who does it and why?

Those who work in the field of database are constantly being challenged both by the burgeoning nature of the field and by the rapidity of new developments. One of the new emerging areas is ‘data administration’; this refers to the management, planning and documentation of the data resource of a company.The key concept in the move towards data administration has been that data, like people, money and materials should be treated as a critical resource that any company has to manage. Providing accurate, relevant and timely information entails a significant cost for a company and presents a substantial challenge.     

The economy of risk; or,what do I get for my error?

This paper starts from the assumption that the accident risk run by traffic participants is under their own voluntary control. It then considers the effects to be expected from incentives given to drivers for having fewer accidents or no accidents at all. On the basis of a simple utility model of drivers' preferred risk levels, expected safety effects are derived for incentive schemes which vary in: (1) the nature of the accident criterion to be met; (2) the extent of the criterion (i.e., the length of the period required); (3) the magnitude of the incentive; and (4) whether the criterion is an individual or a group performance. Implications of the results of cost effectiveness to the incentive provider are discussed. It appears that there is no lack of incentive schemes that are theoretically expected to yield more returns, in terms of accident costs, than needs to be invested in the incentive funds.     

Who does what on Facebook? Age,sex, and relationship status as predictors of Facebook use

Previous studies have focused on why people use Facebook and on the effects of “Facebooking” on well being. This study focused more on how people use Facebook. An international sample of 1,026 Facebook users (284 males, 735 females; mean age = 30.24) completed an online survey about their Facebook activity. Females, younger people, and those not currently in a committed relationship were the most active Facebook users, and there were many age-, sex-, and relationship-related main effects. Females spent more time on Facebook, had more Facebook friends, and were more likely to use profile pictures for impression management; women and older people engaged in more online family activity. Relationship status had an impact on the Facebook activity of males, but little effect on the activity of females. The results are interpreted within a framework generated by an evolutionary perspective and previous research on the psychology of gossip.     

Reactive direction control for a mobile robot: a locust-like control of?escape direction emerges when a?bilateral pair of model locust visual neurons are integrated

Locusts possess a bilateral pair of uniquely identifiable visual neurons that respond vigorously to the image of an approaching object. These neurons are called the lobula giant movement detectors (LGMDs). The locust LGMDs have been extensively studied and this has lead to the development of an LGMD model for use as an artificial collision detector in robotic applications. To date, robots have been equipped with only a single, central artificial LGMD sensor, and this triggers a non-directional stop or rotation when a potentially colliding object is detected. Clearly, for a robot to behave autonomously, it must react differently to stimuli approaching from different directions. In this study, we implement a bilateral pair of LGMD models in Khepera robots equipped with normal and panoramic cameras. We integrate the responses of these LGMD models using methodologies inspired by research on escape direction control in cockroaches. Using ‘randomised winner-take-all’ or ‘steering wheel’ algorithms for LGMD model integration, the Khepera robots could escape an approaching threat in real time and with a similar distribution of escape directions as real locusts. We also found that by optimising these algorithms, we could use them to integrate the left and right DCMD responses of real jumping locusts offline and reproduce the actual escape directions that the locusts took in a particular trial. Our results significantly advance the development of an artificial collision detection and evasion system based on the locust LGMD by allowing it reactive control over robot behaviour. The success of this approach may also indicate some important areas to be pursued in future biological research.