Interface design on cabin pressurization system affecting pilot's situation awareness: The comparison between digital displays and pointed displays

The fundamental approach to improve pilots’ situation awareness (SA) would be to reorganize and restructure the presentation of information to fit pilot's cognitive model on the flight deck. This would facilitate pilots’ perception, understanding, and projection, hence making it easier to find the relevant targets. Sixty pilots (30 B‐737 pilots and 30 B‐777 pilots) participated in this study to investigate pilots’ SA while interacting with digital displays and moving pointed needle displays on cabin pressurization system. The results have shown significant differences on pilots’ perception, understanding, and overall SA between digital display and pointed display on the flight deck. Pilots significantly preferred the digital design cabin pressurization system, which is consistent with the proximity compatibility principle, and the position of the display on the center instrument panel is easily accessible to both pilots and does not require large head movements. There are some recommendations on the cabin pressurization design including the size of outflow valve position indicator, which should be significantly increased to provided saliency of information; color coding should be used on cabin altitude and differential pressure indicator to mark critical cabin altitude; and standard operating procedures shall include cabin altitude and differential pressure reading by pilot monitoring. The final and completed solution to the issues on the cabin pressurization system is to redesign the scattered pointed displays as integrated digital displays to fit the human‐centered principle.     

What is generative art?

There are various forms of what's sometimes called generative art, or computer art. This paper distinguishes the major categories and asks whether the appropriate aesthetic criteria—and the locus of creativity—are the same in each case.     

Modelling the perennial energy crop market: the role of spatial diffusion

Biomass produced from energy crops, such as Miscanthus and short rotation coppice is expected to contribute to renewable energy targets, but the slower than anticipated development of the UK market implies the need for greater understanding of the factors that govern adoption. Here, we apply an agent-based model of the UK perennial energy crop market, including the contingent interaction of supply and demand, to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of energy crop adoption. Results indicate that perennial energy crop supply will be between six and nine times lower than previously published, because of time lags in adoption arising from a spatial diffusion process. The model simulates time lags of at least 20 years, which is supported empirically by the analogue of oilseed rape adoption in the UK from the 1970s. This implies the need to account for time lags arising from spatial diffusion in evaluating land-use change, climate change (mitigation or adaptation) or the adoption of novel technologies.     

Exploitation of patent information in R&D output analysis for policymaking

Scientometrics - This paper provides an insight into the growing importance and conditions of studying R&D output and impacts as well as the internationalisation of R&D. Focusing on...     

Challenges and opportunities for linking the modeling of forest vegetation dynamics with landscape planning models

Landscape planning and analysis, landscape simulations, and landscape projections all seek to either evaluate the current or past condition of a landscape or project future conditions. The level of spatial and computational resolution chosen should be carefully considered because it will restrict or empower future developments in large-scale, integrated landscape planning projects. In this paper, the basic challenges and opportunities associated with using forest vegetation growth and yield models and databases in large-scale, long-term forest landscape simulation projects are outlined. We pose several questions that integrated landscape modeling teams should consider when evaluating whether to use forest growth and yield data in landscape planning efforts. When managers and other professionals involved in landscape planning efforts are prepared for the challenges and opportunities inherent in modeling forest vegetation dynamics, they may then be positioned to implement a fast and smooth modeling process.     

Electron transport along molecular stacks in discotic liquid crystals

We have previously shown that a new class of quasi-one-dimensional p-type semiconductors can be created by dissolving small amounts of oxidising agents into the hydrocarbon chain matrix of discotic liquid crystals. This paper reports the elucidation of the mechanism of conduction in these new materials. In particular, the ac conductivity of 2,3,6,7,10,11 -hexahexyloxytriphenylene (HAT6) doped with the Lewis acid AlCl₃, has been measured as a function of frequency (10^–3–10⁷ Hz), and temperature in its crystalline solid (K), hexagonal discotic liquid crystal (D_ho) and isotropic liquid (I) phases. In macroscopically aligned K and D_ho phases, the conductivity measured along the column axes is approximately 10³ greater than that in the perpendicular direction. Both components of the conductivity are found to be independent of frequency at low frequencies, but show a power law dependence on frequency (()^s, s0.8) at higher frequencies. This behaviour is characteristic of charge carrier transport by a hopping mechanism. The conductivity data have been analysed in terms of the Scher and Lax theory of hopping transport to obtain the parameters describing this process. The conduction along the columns is identified with a single charge transport process in which the carriers hop between localized states (radical cations) associated with counterions (perceived as AlCl₄ ^–) linearly distributed off-axis along the columns.     

22nm技术节点的成品率目标

半导体行业正在开发必要的缺陷量测和薄膜量测解决方案,但22nm技术节点的监测还需开发新的成像套刻目标结构。     

Attenuation of green fluorescent protein half-life in mammalian cells

The half-life of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) was determinedbiochemically in cultured mouse LA-9 cells. The wild-type proteinwas found to be stable with a half-life of ~26 h, but couldbe destabilized by the addition of putative proteolytic signalsequences derived from proteins with shorter half-lives. A C-terminalfusion of a PEST sequence from the mouse ornithine decarboxylasegene reduced the half-life to 9.8 h, resulting in a GFP variantsuitable for the study of dynamic cellular processes. In anN-terminal fusion containing the mouse cyclin B1 destructionbox, it was reduced to 5.8 h, with most degradation taking placeat metaphase. The combination of both sequences produced a similarGFP half-life of 5.5 h. Thus, the stability of this marker proteincan be controlled in predetermined ways by addition of the appropriateproteolytic signals.     

Three-dimensional analysis of macroporosity distributions in polyolefin particles using X-ray microtomography

We applied X-ray microtomography (XMT) to determine the macroporosity distribution in polypropylene macroparticles extracted from a gas phase polymerisation process. Different specimens were scanned with a laboratory XMT setup comprising a microfocus X-ray source and an X-ray image intensifier. The XMT technique provides comprehensive three-dimensional (3D) data volumes representing the local X-ray attenuation in voxels of 5.3 µm × 5.3 µm × 5.3 µm size. In this paper we present the experimental methods and software tools to quantify the particles' local morphology parameters from such volume data. Therefore, after 3D image reconstruction with the Feldkamp algorithm the resulting volume data were processed with histogram based binarisation, connectivity check and volume rendering algorithms. From the resulting 3D images void size distributions in different radial regions of the particles were computed. This enables characterisation of the particles regarding their morphology and elucidation of the effect of given process conditions on morphogenesis.     

Screw connectors for thin topping,timber–concrete composites

Timber floors with insufficient strength and stiffness can be upgraded by applying a concrete topping to form a composite structure. Conventional upgrades have a topping thickness of 40 mm or greater but recent research has proposed an alternative thin topping solution (20 mm). The shear connectors which transfer the forces between the timber joists and concrete topping are critical to the success of the upgrade. This paper presents the results of pushout testing of thin topping timber–concrete composite joints. A factorial experimental design was employed to assess how the inclination, topping thickness and timber density affect the stiffness and strength of screw joints. The results were statistically assessed to differentiate between the effects of each factor and establish the presence of interactions between factors. The screw inclination and topping thickness were found to be important factors when considering the stiffness of the joints. Topping thickness was the most critical factor for the strength of the joints.