Comparison of fixed versus formed aircrews in military transport

Historically, transport crews are formed to fly a brief series of sorties together. But what would be the effect of keeping crews together longer? This research investigates the effect of crewing policies on accident rates. We compare the crew coordination performance of fixed teams that work together indefinitely with that of formed teams that work together for shorter periods. We researched 74 accident investigation records of two jet transport aircraft of the U.S. Air Force over 20-year periods. These aircraft used both fixed and formed crews. The "ineffective crew coordination" accident rates for formed crews were significantly safer (z = 12.5 for one aircraft and 2.1 for another p < 0.05). This may imply that airlines and military commands could enhance flight safety by following a formed crew policy. However, further study is needed to identify more completely the effects of crew policies on sortie effectiveness.     

Development of a rapid profilometer with an application to roundness gauging

This paper presents the development of a real-time, contact-based, high frequency, response profilometer employed as a roundness gauge for measuring circular form error for 100% part inspection on the shop floor with an accuracy of better than 0.5 μm with measurement times of less than 1 s. The gauge head is a closed-loop controlled mechanism comprising a contact force probe that is rigidly attached to a high bandwidth linear translator. The gauge head assembly is, in turn, attached to a precision spindle. The objective of the complete tool is to contact the sidewall of the circular feature, translate the probe tip to produce a defined contact force with the workpiece and rotate the gauge head assembly. During rotation of the spindle, this contact force is maintained at a nominally constant value by dynamically translating the force probe along a radial direction to follow surface deviations. The gauge head assembly (including force probe and servo drive) has a fundamental mode natural frequency of 330 Hz while scanning the workpiece with a constant contact force typically less than 100 mN. Form error (deviation from a nominal circle) is measured using a capacitance-based displacement sensor measuring the relative radial displacement of the probe with the spindle rotating at a constant rotation speed. This paper discusses the design and characterization of this metrology tool.     

Experimental study on energy dissipation of fragments during rockburst

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - In this study, rectangular prismatic coarse-grain granites were analyzed through an application of a modified true-triaxial rockburst testing...     

E-books or textbooks: Students prefer textbooks

Previous research has demonstrated that the experience of reading e-books is not equivalent to reading textbooks. This study examines factors influencing preference for e-books as well as reported use of e-book content. Although the present student cohort is the most technologically savvy to ever enter universities, students do not prefer e-books over textbooks regardless of their gender, computer use or comfort with computers. No significant correlations existed between the number of e-books previously used and overall preference of e-books: Participants who had previously used an e-book still preferred print texts for learning. Despite the ability to easily access supplemental content through e-books via hyperlinks and other features, students were more likely to use special features in print books than in e-books.     

Understanding Kinase Selectivity Through Energetic Analysis of Binding Site Waters

Kinases remain an important drug target class within the pharmaceutical industry; however, the rational design of kinase inhibitors is plagued by the complexity of gaining selectivity for a small number of proteins within a family of more than 500 related enzymes. Herein we show how a computational method for identifying the location and thermodynamic properties of water molecules within a protein binding site can yield insight into previously inexplicable selectivity and structure–activity relationships. Four kinase systems (Src family, Abl/c‐Kit, Syk/ZAP‐70, and CDK2/4) were investigated, and differences in predicted water molecule locations and energetics were able to explain the experimentally observed binding selectivity profiles. The successful predictions across the range of kinases studied here suggest that this methodology could be generally applicable for predicting selectivity profiles in related targets.     

Considering Operational Security Risk during System Development

Software products today are riddled with defects, some of which leave systems vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Although high-quality development processes can limit vulnerabilities, these processes alone aren't sufficient for operational security. The operational security of software-intensive systems is closely linked to the practices and techniques used during system design and development. In this article, we discuss OCTAVE within the context of analyzing an organization's potential operational security risks for a software-intensive system development project prior to actual deployment     

Comorbid panic disorder and major depression: Implications for cognitive–behavioral therapy.

Panic disorder and major depression frequently coexist, yet the implications of comorbidity for psychological treatments have rarely been studied. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether pretreatment comorbidity of major depression affects the outcome of cognitive–behavioral treatment (CBT) of panic disorder. Thirty-seven clients who met diagnostic criteria for both panic and major depression participated in 10 sessions of individual CBT for panic. Treatment outcome was contrasted with the outcome of 53 clients having only panic disorder who received the same treatment. The cooccurrence of depression did not adversely affect CBT for panic. These results have implications for clinical practice and theoretical implications for the nature of the relationship between panic and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Site matters: Multisite randomized trial of motivational enhancement therapy in community drug abuse clinics.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 77(2) of Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (see record 2009-03774-013). There are two errors in the means and standard deviations reported in Table 1 (p. 561). The mean (and standard deviation) for the Total sample % positive urine drug tests (28 days) in the motivational enhancement therapy (MET) column is not 0.21 (SD = 0.35) as reported, but rather 0.28 (SD = 0.40). The mean (and standard deviation) for the Total sample % positive urine drug tests (28 days) in the counseling as usual (CAU) column is not 0.28 (SD = 0.40) as reported, but rather 0.31 (SD = 0.41). These corrections do not change any of the values reported for the d, F, or p statistics in this table.] The effectiveness of motivational enhancement therapy (MET) in comparison with counseling as usual (CAU) for increasing retention and reducing substance use was evaluated in a multisite randomized clinical trial. Participants were 461 outpatients treated by 31 therapists within 1 of 5 outpatient substance abuse programs. There were no retention differences between the 2 brief intervention conditions. Although both 3-session interventions resulted in reductions in substance use during the 4-week therapy phase, MET resulted in sustained reductions during the subsequent 12 weeks whereas CAU was associated with significant increases in substance use over this follow-up period. This finding was complicated by program site main effects and higher level interactions. MET resulted in more sustained substance use reductions than CAU among primary alcohol users, but no difference was found for primary drug users. An independent evaluation of session audiotapes indicated that MET and CAU were highly and comparably discriminable across sites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cholinergic dependence of a cortical neuronal mechanism that supports Pavlovian eyeblink conditioning

Mucin glycoproteins play a key role in the normal function of the airway epithelium. We examined the expression of mucin genes, MUC3, 4, 5AC, 5B, 6, 7, and 8 in human fetal tissues to establish the localization and age of onset of expression of each mucin gene during human development. We detected expression of MUC4, 5AC, 5B, and 7 in the mid-trimester airway epithelium but did not detect expression of MUC3, 6, or 8. MUC4 was expressed in the trachea and large airways in the majority of cells in the airway epithelium. Expression of MUC5AC was only seen in individual goblet cells in the trachea, while MUC5B was expressed in the surface epithelium of the trachea at 13 wk but was largely restricted to submucosal glands by 23 wk of gestation.