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To respond to consumers' rising concerns about environmental topics, airlines increasingly use green advertising. However, due to the environmental impact of flying, many green advertisements by airlines can be considered as "greenwashing" practices. In an experimental study with a quota-based sample (N = 329), we investigated the effects of two types of greenwashed advertisements for airlines: concrete compensation and abstract compensation (compared to a control condition). Following the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), we also explored the moderating role of environmental knowledge in the ability of consumers to perceive greenwashing in airline advertising. Results indicated that concrete compensation claims did not increase greenwashing perceptions compared to the control condition. However, abstract compensation claims did, which, via perceived greenwashing, were negatively associated with brand outcomes and assessments of flying. Environmental knowledge did not moderate these effects. Implications for research on greenwashing, as well as practical conclusions for environmental communication, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European population of Cygnus columbianus bewickii has a declining trend in number of individuals. Anthropogenic disturbance could be one of the reasons for this decline. Disturbance influences animal behaviour, including the manifestation of behavioural lateralisation. Therefore, investigating the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on behavioural lateralisation is essential for biodiversity conservation. Behavioural lateralisation manifests itself in a preference to use one of two paired organs (limbs or sensory organs) and a preference to avoid obstacles from a certain side. Earlier studies of behavioural lateralisation did not consider the locomotion type as an independent variable factor in the analysis, although it could affect the manifestation of behavioural lateralisation. We studied the influence of anthropogenic disturbance on behavioural lateralisation of swans, depending on the type of locomotion (swimming or flying). We have analysed 492 photos from aerial counts of two swan species (Cygnus columbianus bewickii, C. cygnus) in Yamal Peninsula and Gydan Peninsula. The photos were taken from a plane, while the birds were escaping from it as a source of anthropogenic disturbance. Pairs without and with chicks alone or in flocks were encountered swimming or flying. We found that swimming swans had a strong right-sided bias and right-eye bias for avoidance and observing the source of anthropogenic disturbance, and flying swans had a left bias. Swimming C. c. bewickii and C. cygnus exhibited similar behavioural lateralisation. These results were the same for following and leading birds. The presence of chicks did not change the direction of behavioural lateralisation but strengthened it for the following partners. The differences in behavioural lateralisation could be caused by the fact that swans in flight experience greater fear of a present aircraft than when they are on water. We conclude that the locomotion types influence behavioural lateralisation in response to anthropogenic disturbance. We recommend paying attention to accompanying factors when comparing the results of lateralisation studies. As the left side bias of flying birds in our study indicates that flying birds are more stressed than swimming ones, we recommend not forcing birds to fly during observations to reduce their stress.

In the 300-million-year evolutionary history of animal flight, fliers have universally evolved to exploit the physical principle of drag, whereby an animal uses wings to achieve lift. However, the treehopper Oeda – an Amazonian insect exhibiting a grotesquely large balloon-like thorax – has been described in what may be the only account of an animal engaging in buoyant flight, whereby an animal fills body cavities with low-density air to float, akin to a hot-air balloon. We use Oeda as a study system to conduct a theoretical analysis exploring the biomechanics of buoyant flight and the mechanisms preventing its widespread occurrence in animals. We show that not even an organism with the unique and disproportionate dimensions of Oeda can buoy more than 1% of its body weight. Instead, our results suggest Oeda's bloated thorax is a hindrance for flight that has selected for larger wings to compensate for the species' disproportionate dimensions. Our analysis illustrates that animals may only achieve buoyant flight by filling cavities thousands of times larger than the body with heated low-density biogases. Still, the evolution of such traits is likely restricted by a variety of developmental and ecological factors that have prevented animals from evolving buoyant flight. Whether any animal has evolved the means to conquer buoyant flight remains to be found in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Long-haul flights have been associated with a two- to four-fold increased risk of aviation-related thrombosis (ART). Several studies have investigated the extent to which hypoxic hypobaric exposure, dehydration and prolonged immobilisation during air travel induce changes in haemostasis. Objective. To investigate the role of high altitude as a risk factor for ART. Methods. Healthy volunteers aged ≥18 years (N=40), without risk factors for venous thromboembolism, were exposed to an exacerbated altitude of 18 000 feet (5 486 m) for 1 hour. During the flight, the oxygen (O2) levels of the participants, who received supplemental O2, were measured by pulse oximetry and maintained at >92%. Venous blood and urine samples were collected prior to departure and immediately after flying in an unpressurised twin-engine airplane. D-dimer levels, thromboelastography (TEG) parameters, von Willebrand factor (VWF) activity and urine osmolality were measured. Results. The participants were 19 men and 21 women, with a mean (standard deviation) age of 46 (14) years. A significant difference in D-dimer levels, VWF activity, urine osmolality and TEG parameters (reaction (R) time, kinetic (K) time and maximum amplitude (MA)) before and after the 1-hour flight was observed (p

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The increasing number of drones flying over buildings, fields, and people's heads raises questions about safety, privacy, and the existence of regulations regarding their technical parameters, public space rules, restrictions, and requirements for their owners' authorization. Drones are being used by various organizations, defense and security forces, researchers, as well as civilian population. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the fact that the use of drones is not indifferent to either the European Union or the Slovak Republic. The European Union is gradually unifying legislative procedures and regulations for the use of drones and setting conditions for their users, who must also comply with European rules for the operation of unmanned aircraft systems. The questionnaire research was primarily aimed at finding out the level of knowledge among students about the legislation on the private and educational use of drones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do species differ in their movement lifestyles? Animals that spend more time sitting motionless and acquire food using less conspicuous movements can be more vigilant and less obvious to predators. More active animals that use food types and sites that require more conspicuous behaviors increase vulnerability to predators. Life history theory predicts that aversiveness to mortality risk evolves inversely to adult survival probability. Consequently, we postulated that long-lived species evolved inconspicuous movement lifestyles, whereas shorter-lived species use more conspicuous movement lifestyles. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying the movement lifestyles of nine tropical songbird species. Use of conspicuous movement and foraging behaviors, such as flying and hovering, was greatest in shorter-lived species and decreased with increasing adult survival probability across species. Similarly, foraging speed decreased with increasing adult survival based on a meta-analysis of 64 songbird species. Faster and conspicuous movement lifestyles of shorter-lived species likely increase food acquisition rates, which fits with faster life history strategies that include more feeding trips for young and faster growth. Similarly, slow movement lifestyles of long-lived species fit with the reduced food needs of slower life history strategies. Movement lifestyles may have evolved as an integrated component of the slow-fast life history continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: A preliminary study compared the use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) with the use of self-monitored blood glucose (SMBG) by aircraft pilots with insulin-treated diabetes in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Austria, certified to fly commercial aircraft within the European Aviation Safety Agency ARA.MED.330 protocol. Methods: SMBG and simultaneous interstitial glucose measurements using CGM (Dexcom G6®) were recorded during pre- and in-flight periods. Results: Eight male pilots (seven with type 1 diabetes and one with type 3c diabetes), median age of 48.5 years and median diabetes duration of 11.5 years, participated. The correlation coefficient (R) between 874 contemporaneously recorded SMBG and CGM values was 0.843, P < 0.001. The mean glucose concentration was 8.78 mmol/L (standard deviation [SD] 0.67) using SMBG compared with 8.71 mmol/L (SD 0.85) recorded using CGM. The mean absolute relative difference was 9.39% (SD 3.12). Conclusions: CGM using Dexcom G6 systems is a credible alternative to SMBG for monitoring glucose levels when insulin-treated pilots fly commercial aircraft. The study was registered with Clinical Trials.gov NCT04395378. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantity of vehicles on our streets is blossoming step by step. This is turn constrained this vehicle fabricates to consider the additional wellbeing instruments and electronic controls to connect with these items for giving the clients a security determined in all street conditions through a mass stream activity. Whenever asked, one ought to dependably specify that the correct driving is extremely awkward because of the astonishing light issues and the incessant plunging of headlights by manual implies that regularly makes weakness the driver especially at the season of pinnacle activity. So normally to dispose of this enduring issue, a programmed system needs to come up to plunge the headlamp consequently at whatever point required. For holding an engine vehicle under flawless control and reins of the driver, distinctive kinds of controls and embellishments are given in a car around the driver's seat, on the dashboard and at the footboard. Just, a programmed high bar controller is a unit, which can naturally pass judgment on when the front light bar should be brought down, and which plunge the headlamp from which pillar to a plunged bar. Our work proposes a successful programmed control of the vehicle headlamps dependent on the identification of head lights and tail lights under evening time street conditions. This venture is going to control high bar or low bar consequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of early air transport (EAT) morbidity after transpleural surgery. We compared our cohort with our patients not requiring air transport. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study, in the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Department of the University Hospital of Martinique over 40 months. We included all of the files (national and local database, and systematic postoperative consultation) of patients operated on for thoracic surgery or distinguished transpleural surgical intervention, whatever their geographical origin. Patients from another French department benefited from EAT. The complications were classified according to Clavien–Dindo before or after the EAT. Diagnostic criteria were chest pain, dyspnea, and abnormal chest radiograph. Continuous variables are presented as mean, median, and SDs. Discrete variables are presented as n (%). Results: Of 491 patients operated on, 315 were transpleural surgeries, and 99 patients benefited from EAT. There were 55% resections, a percent predicted of forced expiratory volume in 1 second, and an average preoperative Tiffeneau ratio of respectively, 86% and 78. One complication was found: a pneumothorax in an emphysematous patient, 15 days after the flight, who had an index of prolonged air leak >10. The mean time between surgery and flight was 7.2 days (σ = 4.5), and 3.3 days (σ = 2.9) between removal of the last drain and flight. The morbidity of EAT after transpleural surgery was 1%. The 2 cohorts of “EAT” and “Locals” patients were statistically comparable, particularly in morbidity. Conclusions: EAT appears to be safe after transpleural surgery, following usual criteria for hospital discharge. It would be interesting to study, on a larger scale, the effect of IPAL as an independent risk factor (in case of high IPAL > 10) as well as pathologies that modify transpleural pressures restrictive ventilatory defect.

The aerodynamic characteristics of the foil undergoing the coexisting of fast and slow pitching have been studied via Immersed Boundary (IB) method. With an adjustable parameter k , the foil kinematics is defined by making the period corresponding to the positive amplitude faster than that corresponding to the negative amplitude, and vice versa. An opposite scenario is observed at k < 0. 5 and k > 0. 5 , where the positive lift is improved via decreasing k at k < 0. 5 but the negative lift enlarges with increasing k at k > 0. 5 , which is of benefit to generate up-burst and dive of the pitching foil, respectively. The lift generation is investigated with the time history of the lift coefficient and the time-mean streamwise velocity, which renders a physical basis for understanding the behavior of flying animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Concerns arise when patients with pneumocephalus engage in air travel. How hypobaric cabin pressure affects intracranial air is largely unclear. A widespread concern is that the intracranial volume could relevantly expand during flight and lead to elevated intracranial pressure. The aim of this systematic review was to identify and summarise models and case reports with confirmed pre-flight pneumocephalus. Methods: The terms (pneumocephalus OR intracranial air) AND (flying OR fly OR travel OR air transport OR aircraft) were used to search the database PubMed on 30 November 2021. This search returned 144 results. To be included, a paper needed to fulfil each of the following criteria: (i) peer-reviewed publication of case reports, surveys, simulations or laboratory experiments that focussed on air travel with pre-existing pneumocephalus; (ii) available in full text. Results: Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria after title or abstract screening. We additionally identified five more articles when reviewing the references. A notion that repeatedly surfaced is that any air contained within the neurocranium increases in volume at higher altitude, much like any extracranial gas, potentially resulting in tension pneumocephalus or increased intracranial pressure. Discussion: Relatively conservative thresholds for patients flying with pneumocephalus are suggested based on models where the intracranial air equilibrates with cabin pressure, although intracranial air in a confined space would be surrounded by the intracranial pressure. There is a discrepancy between the models and case presentations in that we found no reports of permanent or transient decompensation secondary to a pre-existing pneumocephalus during air travel. Nevertheless, the quality of examination varies and clinicians might tend to refrain from reporting adverse events. We identified a persistent extracranial to intracranial fistulous process in multiple cases with newly diagnosed pneumocephalus after flight. Finally, we summarised management principles to avoid complications from pneumocephalus during air travel and argue that a patient-specific understanding of the pathophysiology and time course of the pneumocephalus are potentially more important than its volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approach and landing phases take less than 4% of total flight time of a typical flight, but 36% of fatal aircraft accidents occur during this phase. Gust disturbances creating uncertainties during this phase are primary contributors to many unstabilized, high and fast approaches leading to catastrophic ending. This study analyses the effects of gust and resulting responses affecting the handling and flying characteristics of an aircraft during landing. A pilot-in-the-loop flight simulation during landing with the effect of gust was developed using Boeing B747-100 aircraft to analyze the problem. Elevator and throttle inputs through a joystick were used as control inputs to allow the pilot-in-the-loop to control the aircraft glide-path and speed during landing. It was found that the aircraft flight path during the descent is not affected, if the frequency of the gust is higher than the natural frequency of the aircraft, but maintaining the flight glide path becomes difficult for lower frequencies. Likewise, the vertical gust has more prominent effect than the horizontal gust. In both cases, the aircraft susceptibility to gust disturbances increases the pilot workload causing more difficulties for a landing.

Flying in virtual reality (VR) using standard handheld controllers can be cumbersome and contribute to unwanted side effects such as motion sickness and disorientation. This article investigates a novel hands-free flying interface—HeadJoystick, where the user moves their head similar to a joystick handle toward the target direction to control virtual translation velocity. The user sits on a regular office swivel chair and rotates it physically to control virtual rotation using 1:1 mapping. We evaluated short-term (Study 1) and extended usage effects through repeated usage (Study 2) of the HeadJoystick versus handheld interfaces in two within-subject studies, where participants flew through a sequence of increasingly difficult tunnels in the sky. Using the HeadJoystick instead of handheld interfaces improved both user experience and performance, in terms of accuracy, precision, ease of learning, ease of use, usability, long-term use, presence, immersion, sensation of self-motion, workload, and enjoyment in both studies. These findings demonstrate the benefits of using leaning-based interfaces for VR flying and potentially similar telepresence applications such as remote flight with quadcopter drones. From a theoretical perspective, we also show how leaning-based motion cueing interacts with full physical rotation to improve user experience and performance compared to the gamepad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propulsion performance of swimming and flying animals is often evaluated by using dimensionless numbers, such as the Strouhal and Reynolds numbers. They have been shown to allow a better understanding of locomotion efficiency, using relatively simple approaches and avoiding overly complex computational models. Specifically, it has been reported that efficient propulsion is more likely to occur when Strouhal number values – estimated from propulsive frequencies and amplitudes – are within a relatively narrow range, depending on the corresponding Reynolds number, broadly expressing the fluid resistance to the animal motion. We have estimated both Strouhal and Reynolds numbers for seven species of penguins after analysing relevant kinematic data taken from the literature. The obtained values neatly indicate that, as expected, penguins employ efficient propulsion mechanisms. Additionally, by comparing these values with those for alcids – seabirds that can also fly – we have found that penguins swim at least as efficiently as alcids. However, we have also found that the swimming number – proportional to the product of Strouhal and Reynolds numbers – neatly correlates to the diving abilities of the considered species and apparently indicates, in a straightforward hierarchical manner, the gains in diving due to the loss of flying abilities. Within the penguin species, a clear correlation is also observed between diving performance and drag coefficient values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanism design and lift force calculation of an underactuated flapping wing robot with flexible planar wings are investigated in this paper. A spatial four-bar mechanism is introduced to realize flapping movements of wings, and then the emphasis contents of the paper are focused on lift force calculation of the robot system. A simple approach is presented for quantitatively calculating lift and thrust forces of the underactuated flapping wing system. Several robot prototypes have been fabricated on the basis of the optimization results with regard to a set of specific parameters. Some flight experiments show that the presented transmission mechanism and the optimization approach are feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient writers, including Socrates and the Upanishads, argued that sibilants are associated with the notions of wind, air and sky. From modern perspectives, these statements can be understood as an assertion about sound symbolism, i.e., systematic connections between sounds and meanings. Inspired by these writers, this article reports on an experiment that tests a sound symbolic value of sibilants. The experiment is a case study situated within the Pokémonastics research paradigm, in which the researchers explore the sound symbolic patterns in natural languages using Pokémon names. The current experiment shows that when presented with pairs of a flying-type Pokémon character and a normal-type Pokémon character, Japanese speakers are more likely to associate the flying-type Pokémons with names that contain sibilants than those names that do not contain sibilants. As was pointed out by Socrates, the sound symbolic connection identified in the experiment is likely to be grounded in the articulatory properties of sibilants – the large amount of oral airflow that accompanies the production of sibilants. Various implications of the current experiment for the sound symbolism research are discussed throughout the article.

Approach and landing phases take less than 4% of total flight time of a typical flight, but 36% of fatal aircraft accidents occur during this phase. Gust disturbances creating uncertainties during this phase are primary contributors to many unstabilized, high and fast approaches leading to catastrophic ending. This study analyses the effects of gust and resulting responses affecting the handling and flying characteristics of an aircraft during landing. A pilot-in-the-loop flight simulation during landing with the effect of gust was developed using Boeing B747-100 aircraft to analyze the problem. Elevator and throttle inputs through a joystick were used as control inputs to allow the pilot-in-the-loop to control the aircraft glide-path and speed during landing. It was found that the aircraft flight path during the descent is not affected, if the frequency of the gust is higher than the natural frequency of the aircraft, but maintaining the flight glide path becomes difficult for lower frequencies. Likewise, the vertical gust has more prominent effect than the horizontal gust. In both cases, the aircraft susceptibility to gust disturbances increases the pilot workload causing more difficulties for a landing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aviation sector represents an important terrain for contemporary environmental politics and policy. This position has been complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a dramatic slowdown in international travel and threatened the position of the aviation and airline sectors. The temporality of this decline remains unclear. In this article, we present online qualitative research that explores how people think their flying habits might change in the future--in the wake of both Covid-19 and resultant social restrictions and awareness of climate breakdown. To do so, we foreground our analysis in Bristol, United Kingdom--a city characterized by a strong brand of green politics and debates surrounding airport expansion and the role of aviation in a net-zero future. This work adopted a research design conducted entirely online, incorporating surveys disseminated via local media and online focus groups. Findings from this work demonstrate that close to 60% of those surveyed will likely fly less in a post-Covid future. Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a "reimagination" of flying--with important behavioral, policy, and justice implications. Our objective in presenting this work is twofold--first to illuminate emergent patterns of behavioral change in flying post-Covid and, second, to critically reflect on conducting online qualitative research in a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an exploration of the embodied experiences of flying while fat, based on research with a significantly larger group of people than any previous research on this topic. Theoretically, this article advances geographical understandings of fat embodiment and the embodied experience of transport spaces that attend to micropolitical encounters and comfort (Bissell 2008, 2016). In doing so, we develop an approach to understanding the hyperpresence of the fat body within plane space, drawing together Leder's (1990) work on embodied "dys-appearance" with Ahmed's (2004, 2006) work on bodily intensities and queer phenomenology. The article explores how material and social aspects of plane space combine to make fat bodies hyperpresent in ways that, for some, limit self-advocacy. We set this in broader political and economic contexts that frame fatness as mutable and that govern access to air travel in ways that are exclusionary for many fat people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensing plays a vital role in enabling smart cities. The mobile surveillance of different sectors, the retransmission of radio signals, and package delivery are the main applications conducted by unmanned vehicles in smart cities. Multiple unmanned vehicles or miniaturized real-time flying machines with onboard sensors, whether land- or air-based, communicate with each other to form a flying sensor network. Almost all of these machines are battery-operated. Therefore, power preservation is an extremely important factor to be taken into consideration. This paper proposes a power-aware biologically inspired secure autonomous routing protocol (P-BIOSARP) that depends on enhanced ant colony optimization (eACO). eACO autonomously and securely routes the data packet, and the power awareness maintains the power consumption of the flying sensor network. The novel intelligent power-aware routing protocol was implemented in network simulator 2 to perform a number of experiments with different scenarios. The scenarios included varying numbers of total nodes and mobile nodes, different packet rates, mobile source nodes, multiple mobile routing nodes, and, on the side of security, the injection of malicious nodes. The proposed protocol is compared with BIOSARP, E-BIOSARP, and SRTLD in terms of energy consumption, the delivery ratio, and traffic overhead. The analysis shows that the P-BIOSARP remarkably reduces energy consumption compared to other well-known protocols implemented on real testbeds.

This commentary reviews recent research in terms of tourist's mobilities in terms practices of walking, cycling and driving. It concludes by reflecting on the contemporary lock down of travel in terms of the global pandemic and its consequences for waiting, stillness and immobility – particularly in terms of flying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The affordance competition hypothesis is an ethologically inspired theory from cognitive neuroscience that provides an integrative neural account of continuous, real-time behavior, and will likely become increasingly relevant to the growing field of neuroergonomics. In the spirit of neuroergonomics in aviation, we designed a three-dimensional, first-person, continuous, and real-time fMRI task during which human subjects maneuvered a simulated airplane in pursuit of a target airplane along constantly changing headings. We introduce a pseudo-event-related, parametric fMRI analysis approach to begin testing the affordance competition hypothesis in neuroergonomic contexts, and attempt to identify regions of the brain that exhibit a linear metabolic relationship with the continuous variables of task performance and distance-from-target. In line with the affordance competition hypothesis, our results implicate the cooperation of the cerebellum, basal ganglia, and cortex in such a task, with greater involvement of the basal ganglia during good performance, and greater involvement of cortex and cerebellum during poor performance and when distance-from-target closes. We briefly review the somatic marker and dysmetria of thought hypotheses, in addition to the affordance competition hypothesis, to speculate on the intricacies of the cooperation of these brain regions in a task such as ours. In doing so, we demonstrate how the affordance competition hypothesis and other cognitive neuroscience theories are ready for testing in continuous, real-time tasks such as ours, and in other neuroergonomic settings more generally.

Aviation contributes substantially to anthropogenic climate change. This paper situates individual behaviour changes alongside technological efficiency gains and policy processes in the search for significant emission reduction in the aviation sector. Using online survey methodology (N = 393) and expanding upon existing psychological perspectives on individual attitudes and behaviours, this study focuses on the social influence on air travel. Considering social identity and global social networks, two new instruments, the Cosmopolitan Identity Scale (CIS) and the Global Social Interconnectedness Score (GSIS), were introduced to capture the social drivers of air travel within standardized questionnaires. Different subgroups of travellers were clustered and compared along external and psychological variables, to allow the construction of more effective policies in the aviation sector. Overall, the awareness of environmental problems caused by flying led to a perceived dilemma between environmental attitudes and travel, which resulted in the engagement with carbon offsets. The global social interconnectedness, built through international experience, led to increased travel to visit friends and family, and an overall increase in flight kilometres. The social identification as a cosmopolitan was related to social media use and predicted flight kilometres directly, implying a particular sensitivity to social norm messages in online campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing body of literature has highlighted the significant carbon impact of academic conferences. Our paper further adds to this growing body of evidence by introducing a newly assembled dataset from a sample of 263 economics conferences, including 55,006 presentations by 26,312 academics. First, we offer a detailed description of the travelling pattern of academics presenting their work at these conferences, and highlight the main differences between academics and institutions in different geographical regions. Academic conferences are intuitively linked to increased dissemination in the expectation that they boost various impact metrics. For this reason we look at the relative role of the distance travelled and the number of trips made to present each paper in driving the number of citations these papers receive. We present evidence that the number of trips matters for more citations but longer distances are only associated with higher citation numbers for European academics. The potential reasons behind this heterogeneity are discussed in detail. Our results offer support to recent evidence showing that higher carbon impact is not necessarily associated with enhanced academic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerial geotourism is a result of the combination of earth science, tourism, and aviation together, that is the tourism use of geodiversity, geoheritage, and especially geomorphological landscapes through various flying vehicles. In fact, aerial geotourism includes various aspects of tourism, recreation, aesthetics, education, interpretation, understanding, geohistorical, and geoconservation by flying over geological landscapes in natural, urban, and rural areas. Due to the impressive growth of geotourism, the extraordinary advancement of the aviation industry, and the use of various flight vehicles, it is necessary to consider the potentials, strategies, and development plans of aerial geotourism. In this study, for the first time, aerial geotourism has been introduced as a new field of research and a new branch of geotourism through four examples in Iran, and both aerial and terrestrial field experiences. The first example (Lut Desert World Heritage) showed that aerial geotourism is practically carrying out, but only based on the recreation and landscape beauty, without knowledge of the geodiversity and geotourism. The second example was the Tehran-Qeshm flight route, which aircraft flying over diverse geomorphological landscapes, and due to the type of these travels and various restrictions, aerial geotourism cannot be proposed; however, it can be considered as a new product to provide more services to passengers by airlines. The third and fourth examples were the Damavand volcano and the Dasht-e Kavir desert, which, as representatives of other natural areas, showed great potential for the development of aerial geotourism. Eventually, aerial geotourism can play a key role in geoconservation and geoeducation through decreasing physical contact pressure on geosites and geomorphosites, and promoting the understanding of geodiversity. Nevertheless, there are many issues that need to be addressed by researchers for a successful aerial geotourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale For Review: With air travel restarting, there has been much discourse about the safety of flying during the pandemic. In travel medicine, risk assessment includes estimating baseline risk to the traveller, recognizing factors that may modify that risk, considering the role of interventions to decrease that risk and accounting for a traveller's perception and tolerance of risk. The goals of this review are to identify the in-flight transmission risks of commercial air travel, provide recommendations about the risks of flying during the pandemic and propose strategies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.Key Findings: The airline industry has taken a layered approach to increase passenger safety through effective onboard ventilation, extended ventilation at the gate, boarding and deplaning strategies, improved aircraft disinfection and pre-flight screening such as temperature checks and COVID-19 testing. Proximity to an index case may contribute to the risk of transmission more than the seat type or location. The use of face masks has significantly reduced onboard transmission, and mandatory in-flight mask-wearing policies are being enforced. Innovations such as digital health passports may help standardize screening entry requirements at airports and borders, allowing for a safer return to travel.Recommendations: In-flight transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is a real risk, which may be minimized by combining mitigation strategies and infection prevention measures including mandatory masking onboard, minimizing unmasked time while eating, turning on gasper airflow in-flight, frequent hand sanitizing, disinfecting high touch surfaces, promoting distancing while boarding and deplaning, limiting onboard passenger movement, implementing effective pre-flight screening measures and enhancing contact tracing capability. Assessing risk is a cornerstone of travel medicine. It is important to evaluate the multiple factors contributing to the cumulative risk of an individual traveller during the COVID-19 pandemic and to employ a multi-pronged approach to reduce that risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locomotion in virtual environments is currently a difficult and unnatural task to perform. Normally, researchers tend to devise ground- or floor-based metaphors to constrain the degrees of freedom (DoFs) during motion. These restrictions enable interactions that accurately emulate the human gait to provide high interaction fidelity. However, flying allows users to reach specific locations in a virtual scene more expeditiously. Our experience suggests that even though flying is not innate to humans, high-interaction-fidelity techniques may also improve the flying experience since flying requires simultaneously controlling additional DoFs. We present the Magic Carpet, an approach to flying that combines a floor proxy with a full-body representation to avoid balance and cybersickness issues. This design space enables DoF separation by treating direction indication and speed control as two separate phases of travel, thereby enabling techniques with higher interaction fidelity. To validate our design space, we conducted two complementary studies, one for each of the travel phases. In this paper, we present the results of both studies and report the best techniques for use within the Magic Carpet design space. To this end, we use both objective and subjective measures to evaluate the efficiency, embodiment effect, and side effects, such as physical fatigue and cybersickness, of the tested techniques in our design space. Our results show that the proposed approach enables high-interaction-fidelity techniques while improving the user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being able to fly is still a dream. Till today, it is only possible with heavy use of technology. Video games incorporated flying as a fancy way of movement inspired by mythical creatures, gods, and fantasies. In virtual reality (VR), with its deep immersion, the avatar control, especially for flying, is still performed by physical controllers that do not feel like a natural extension, thus, hindering the full immersion. To overcome this limitation, this work did an exploratory study on, first, the perception of wings as a natural body extension and, second, the natural movement performed by humans when flying. In a virtual environment, we studied the extent of the virtual presence and body ownership of wings. Results highlight that placing wings on the shoulders in an angelic form and controlling them by arm movements is the preferred way to extend human capabilities toward flying in nontechnologically restricted VR-Games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]