Abatement of an aircraft exhaust plume using aerodynamic baffles.

The exhaust jet from a departing commercial aircraft will eventually rise buoyantly away from the ground; given the high thrust/power (i.e., momentum/buoyancy) ratio of modern aero-engines, however, this is a slow process, perhaps requiring ∼ 1 min or more.

Composition of smoke generated by landing aircraft.

A combination of techniques has been used to examine the composition of smoke generated by landing aircraft. A sample of dust from the undercarriage from several commercial airliners was examined with SEM/EDX (Scanning Electron Microscope/Energy Dispersive X-ray) to determine its elemental composition and also with an aerosizer/aerodisperser in order to measure the particle size spectrum. The observed size spectrum was bimodal with equal numbers of particles at peaks of aerodynamic diameter ∼10 μm and ∼50 μm.

Women in medicine: a four-nation comparison.

Objectives: to determine the impact of increasing numbers of women in medicine on the physician work force in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States.

Methods: We collected data on physician work force issues from professional organizations and government agencies in each of the 4 nations.

Results: Women now make up nearly half of all medical students in all 4 countries and 20% to 30% of all practicing physicians.