Inclusive design for air travel

(Inclusive design in air travel by baird L and Dong H) This paper addresses the issue of inclusive design in air travel. Firstly the scale of the problem is defined with reference to passenger demographics, and the different stages of a typical commercial air travel. The relevant government legislation is described, with particular emphasis on the new EU Regulation that requires special assistance to be provided to any passenger who requests it. An assessment of current practices in the air travel industry indicates that existing guidelines are having little impact on design practice. Similarly, an analysis of the major stakeholders in the air travel industry illustrates that a number of different parties are involved in the design and management of a typical journey. The study identifies the needs to reduce the number of passengers who require special assistance through inclusive design. The future directions, which include empirical work, case studies and the possible development of an information tool aimed at the industry are described

Twistor theory on a finite graph

We show how the description of a shear-free ray congruence in Minkowski space as an evolving family of semi-conformal mappings can naturally be formulated on a finite graph. For this, we introduce the notion of holomorphic function on a graph. On a regular coloured graph of degree three, we recover the space-time picture. In the spirit of twistor theory, where a light ray is the more fundamental object from which space-time points should be derived, the line graph, whose points are the edges of the original graph, should be considered as the basic object. The Penrose twistor correspondence is discussed in this context

Metal-oxide-metal point contact junction detectors

The detection mechanism(s) and design of a mechanically stable metal-oxide-metal point contact junction detector are considered. A prototype for a mechanically stable device has been constructed and tested. A technique has been developed which accurately predicts microwave video detector and heterodyne mixer SIM (semiconductor-insulator-metal) diode performance from low dc frequency volt-ampere curves. The difference in contact potential between the two metals and geometrically induced rectification constitute the detection mechanisms

Letter from H. J. Baird to Attorney General Langer Regarding Illegal activities in Wishek, Dawson and Other Towns, 1919

Letter, handwritten on Ashley Hotel stationery, dated September 22, 1919 from H. J. Baird to Attorney General William Langer reporting on tobacco and alcohol sales and other illegal activities in Wishek, Burnstad, Neapoealin, Dawson and Ashley, ND. Baird says he was unable to find the still north of Neapoealin without putting a good deal of time into it, and describes poker games in Ashley played for matches that are then cashed in. He also tells of two men in town from St. Paul to organize a bank.https://commons.und.edu/langer-papers/1227/thumbnail.jp

Recolonization of Raoul Island by Kermadec red-crowned parakeets Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae cyanurus after eradication of invasive predators, Kermadec Islands archipelago, New Zealand

The Kermadec red-crowned parakeet Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae was driven to extinction on Raoul Island over 150 years ago by introduced cats Felis catus and rats (Rattus norvegicus and R. exulans). These predators were eradicated from the island (2,938 ha) between 2002-04 during the world’s largest multispecies eradication project. In 2008 we documented a unique recolonisation event when parakeets were observed to have returned to Raoul, presumably from a nearby island group, The Herald Islets (51 ha). We captured and aged 100 parakeets, of which 44% were born in 2008, and breeding was observed on Raoul Island. This represents the first evidence of nesting of this species on Raoul Island since 1836. Our findings highlight the global conservation potential for island avifaunas by prioritising eradication areas through consideration of proximity of remnant populations to target management locations, instead of the classical translocation approach alone. The natural recolonization of parakeets on Raoul Island from a satellite source population is to our knowledge, a first for parrot conservation and the first documented population expansion and island recolonization of a parrot species after removal of invasive predators

Eye of the World: John L. Baird and Television (part 2)

IN THE FIRST ARTICLE of this series,(1) Adrian Hills has skilfully brought us through John Logie Baird's early life to the "birth of television," the first public demonstration in 1926. In this part I will write of the years from 1926 until my father's death in 1946, and also comment on how the perceptions of his work have changed since 1946. This article is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Margaret Baird (1907-1996). Early Television AchievementsThe first public demonstration of television, in the cramped London attic room in January 1926, marked a turning point for Baird. One of the scientists at the demonstration was heard to comment "Well, he got it right. It's only a matter of .s.d. to carry on developments." Public interest was immense and the small company that had been formed six months earlier, Television Limited, was able to expand. One of its..