Varieties of Professional Domains and Employability Determinants in Higher Education

This paper discusses graduates employability and early career success. In this context it follows multiple goals. First, it overviews the key research issues, results and concepts related to HE graduates’ transition. While this classification remains on the level of a simplified meta overview, it indicates the need for the contextualisation of graduate models and improvements in the interpretation of results. Second, it provides a short overview of the graduate transition models developed in early stages of the DEHEMS project and prior to it. Third, it applies theoretical considerations and the model developed in previous sections to a case study analysis of two domains. The data set relates to Slovenian graduates 5 years after they graduated from the HEGESCO international survey. The preliminary analysis leads to general conclusions and recommendations for further analysing and comparing different professional domains. Some concluding observations related do domain varieties are: a) graduates’ professional success is a multidimensional concept and requires modifications when applied to analytical models of study domains, b) even when the results of different study domains appear to be similar, their meaning can differ a lot when the interpretation is placed within the specific context of a professional domain, c) the principles and responsibility of the competencies incubation phase from education and the labour market should be interpreted and understood in line with the expected function of the HE institution, e) knowing the prevailing logic behind graduates’ jobs, such as managerialism, bureaucracy or professionalism in relation to graduates’ career observations might be another factor in determining graduates’ career success factors, f) when considering the factors of career success or the quality of jobs, one should be aware there might be an important difference when considering a model on an individual-level or a country-level basis.

Automated Operations and Safety Data Collection and Usage in Contemporary Flight Operations Quality Audit Programs

Flight Operations Quality Audit (FOQA) programs are becoming more common to airlines of today. Flight data recording devices modified for repeated and daily data readouts have been dem-onstrating their unquestionable advantages in FOQA programmes. They demonstrate the interest of airlines, that use them, to transport people, cargo and mail in safe and efficient way. The paper will present general FOQA structure, historical developments in this field together with common obstacles when introducing FOQA to an airline. It also brings the latest data and understanding of benefits that FOQA has on airlines operation with potential applications of similar concepts to other means of transportation as well

Liquid crystals: a new topic in physics for undergraduates

The paper presents a teaching module about liquid crystals. Since liquid crystals are linked to everyday student experiences and are also a topic of a current scientific research, they are an excellent candidate of a modern topic to be introduced into education. We show that liquid crystals can provide a file rouge through several fields of physics such as thermodynamics, optics and electromagnetism. We discuss what students should learn about liquid crystals and what physical concepts they should know before considering them. In the presentation of the teaching module that consists of a lecture and experimental work in a chemistry and physics lab, we focus on experiments on phase transitions, polarization of light, double refraction and colours. A pilot evaluation of the module was performed among pre-service primary school teachers who have no special preference for natural sciences. The evaluation shows that the module is very efficient in transferring knowledge. A prior study showed that the informally obtained pre-knowledge on liquid crystals of the first year students on several different study fields is negligible. Since the social science students are the ones that are the least interested in natural sciences it can be expected that students in any study programme will on average achieve at least as good conceptual understanding of phenomena related to liquid crystals as the group involved in the pilot study.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, submitte

Different Automation Concepts in Civil Aircraft Cockpits of Today and Their Influence on Airline Flight Operations

Although there are different aircraft manufecturers and hence different practical solutions, there is one bottom line in automation. In aviation automation is only complement to humans. It is not present to challenge the pilot's role and responsibility. The use of new technologies and implementation of new functionality are dictated only by: significant safety benefits, obvious operational advantages, and clear response to the pilot's needs and operational factors influencing his functioning. The paper will discuss different approaches to automation related to flight operations in aviations. The paper intends to demonstrate how different manufacturers' approaches follows quite similar ideas in different automated system designs. The paper does not intend to give any final say when choosing one concept or the other. That is the matter of different circumstances requiring more justifying space and different criteria than the pure scientific one

Flight Operations and Engineering Documentation Managing and Distribution Supported by Intelligent Transport Systems

Aviation as a multitude of activities is meant to satisfy needs of its customers to overcome distance and time between any departure and arrival point in the world. Airlines and other aircraft operators (governments, armed forces, general aviation, and business aviation) differ in their structure depending on their size and services they provide. Some departments are to be found in larger airlines only. However, core departments, to every airline or aircraft operator, are flight operations department and engineering department. Sophistication and the size of these departments depend on the size of the system they are incorporated in. Business logistics of an airline consist of numerous distinctive activities and functions. These activities have to be planned and completed in synchronisation. The paper presents an overview to intelligent systems for the support to these activities with particular stress on flight operations and maintenance functions in a medium sized airline. Authors show how the approach to documentation management, as a part of logistics in the production of transportation service, has evolved since the early 1990s when aviation has started to recognise the value of digital technical data. In light of this, authors analyse conceptual framework adopted by today's aircraft manufacturers towards their logistics activities supported by Internet as a new means of transferring data. The advent of new sophisticated pilot-machine interfaces and aircraft systems tends to increase the volume of the documentation describing these tools drastically. The paper communicates how operational documentation has to change to move towards a more easy and modern media. Intelligent systems that prove aviation entering a period where the "written book" is going to be complemented if not largely supplemented by the "electronic book" are presented from the early beginnings of digital data application to the most recent achievements