Cruise flight optimization of a commercial aircraft with winds

With high prices for fuel and airfare, companies are looking to minimize operational costs. Reducing aircraft fuel consumption is one strategy companies use to lower costs. During flights, commercial aircraft divide the cruise portion's range into cruise-steps, which are changes in altitude typically in increments of 2,000 ft. These cruise-steps allow the aircraft to ascend in a manner easily tracked by Air Traffic Control. This study focuses on the cruise portion of a commercial aircraft's flight. The number and size of the cruise-steps are free. The amount of cruise-steps corresponds to the number of segments comprising the cruise range. The free variables are the velocity and altitude profiles, and the throttle setting for the step-climbs. Optimized results are compared with the analytical range equations and an actual flight. An upper atmospheric wind model is incorporated into this scenario to determine the effects of jet streams. The main objective of this study is to show an optimized flight trajectory by minimizing fuel costs thereby reducing financial costs of flying

Wisdom and Folly in the city: exploring urban contexts in the book of Proverbs

AbstractProverbs 1–9 is often said to have a city background that contrasts with the agricultural imagery dominant in the maxims sections. However, this is an oversimplification. There are also maxims in the main Proverbs collection that concern the city, and the city background revealed within Proverbs 1–9 links up with the portrayal of the ‘capable wife’ in Proverbs 31:10–33. Having established the presence of city references throughout Proverbs, this article explores how the portrayal of Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly in particular gives fascinating insight into the heart of happenings in the Israelite city

Spiritual formation and the nurturing of creative spirituality : a case study in Proverbs

The article is positioned in the interface between Old Testament scholarship and the discipline of spiritual direction of which spiritual formation is a component. The contribution that a Ricoeurian hermeneutic may make in unlocking the potential which an imaginal engagement with the book of Proverbs may hold for the discipline of spiritual formation was explored. Specifically three aspects of the text of Proverbs illustrated the creative process at work in the text, and how it converges with the concept of spiritual formation and the nurturing of creative spirituality. These aspects were, the development in Lady Wisdom’s discourses, the functional definition of the fear of Yahweh (illustrated from Proverbs 10:1–15:33), and the paradigmatic character of the book of Proverbs. INTRADISCIPLINARY AND/OR INTERDISCIPLINARY IMPLICATIONS : The research is positioned in the interface between Old Testament studies and Practical Theology. The research results in the enhancement of the interdisciplinary dialogue and interchange of resources between the named disciplines with regard to the interest in formation of persons that the biblical book of Proverbs and the discipline of spiritual formation shares.http://www.ve.org.zaam2016Old Testament Studie

Picture-Book Professors:Academia and Children's Literature

How is academia portrayed in children's literature? This Element ambitiously surveys fictional professors in texts marketed towards children. Professors are overwhelmingly white and male, tending to be elderly scientists who fall into three stereotypes: the vehicle to explain scientific facts, the baffled genius, and the evil madman. By the late twentieth century, the stereotype of the male, mad, muddlehead, called Professor SomethingDumb, is formed in humorous yet pejorative fashion. This Element provides a publishing history of the role of academics in children's literature, questioning the book culture which promotes the enforcement of stereotypes regarding intellectual expertise in children's media. The Element is also available, with additional material, as Open Access