What can we do for LGBQ youth in north Yorkshire

This report is the summary of a five-month project commissioned by Yorkshire MESMAC which investigated the provision of support for lesbian,gay, bisexual and questioning (LGBQ) youth livingin the North Yorkshire sub-region. The projectconsisted of two elements: Study - Part 1 The first part of the study was a mapping exerciseof the current support available to LGBQ youth(16-25) in the North Yorkshire sub-region. Fivevoluntary and 15 statutory sector service providers provided input. Assessment was based on the extent to which each service provider catered for the specific needs of LGBQ youth. Results indicated a deficit in LGBQ specific service provision. Support specifically aimed at the LGBQ population was limited to three voluntary sector service providers and one youth group. Generic service providers varied in their ability to cater for the needs of LGBQ youth and only one was found to adequately address the needs of LGBQ youth. Study - Part 2 The second part of the study involved a qualitative investigation into the experiences and perceived needs of twenty-two LGBQ youth living in the North Yorkshire sub-region. Participants reported a diverse range of needs linked to their perceptions of isolation and a lack of social support. Recommendations Based upon the findings from Parts 1 and 2 of this study, the following recommendations are offered: ● The development of a sub-regional internet site for rural LGBQ youth to access information and online support ● The establishment of LGBQ youth groups across the county, preferably run on weekends, and at times that coincide with the provision of public transport ● The provision of drop-in venues with appropriately trained support staff ● The provision of training opportunities for staff within generic support services. ● Regular evaluation of LGBQ youth provision among generic services and regular monitoring of access by LGBQ youth ● The development and maintenance of links between service providers for LGBQ communities and more generic service providers

Ride quality evaluation 1: Questionnaire studies of airline passenger comfort

As part of a larger effort to assess passenger comfort in aircraft, two questionnaires were administered: one to ground-based respondents; the other to passengers in flight. Respondents indicated the importance of various factors influencing their satisfaction with a trip, the perceived importance of various physical factors in determining their level of comfort, and the ease of time spent performing activities in flight. The in-flight sample also provided a rating of their level of comfort and of their willingness to fly again. Comfort ratings were examined in relation to (1) type of respondent, (2) type of aircraft, (3) characteristics of the passengers, (4) ease of performing activities, and (5) willingness to fly again

Passenger ride quality determined from commercial airline flights

The University of Virginia ride-quality research program is reviewed. Data from two flight programs, involving seven types of aircraft, are considered in detail. An apparatus for measuring physical variations in the flight environment and recording the subjective reactions of test subjects is described. Models are presented for predicting the comfort response of test subjects from the physical data, and predicting the overall comfort reaction of test subjects from their moment by moment responses. The correspondence of mean passenger comfort judgments and test subject response is shown. Finally, the models of comfort response based on data from the 5-point and 7-point comfort scales are shown to correspond

Transportation systems evaluation methodology development and applications, phase 3

Transportation systems or proposed changes in current systems are evaluated. Four principal evaluation criteria are incorporated in the process, operating performance characteristics as viewed by potential users, decisions based on the perceived impacts of the system, estimating what is required to reduce the system to practice; and predicting the ability of the concept to attract financial support. A series of matrix multiplications in which the various matrices represent evaluations in a logical sequence of the various discrete steps in a management decision process is used. One or more alternatives are compared with the current situation, and the result provides a numerical rating which determines the desirability of each alternative relative to the norm and to each other. The steps in the decision process are isolated so that contributions of each to the final result are readily analyzed. The ability to protect against bias on the part of the evaluators, and the fact that system parameters which are basically qualitative in nature can be easily included are advantageous

Contour Parametrization via Anisotropic Mean Curvature Flows

We present a new implementation of anisotropic mean curvature flow for contour recognition. Our procedure couples the mean curvature flow of planar closed smooth curves, with an external field from a potential of point-wise charges. This coupling constrains the motion when the curve matches a picture placed as background. We include a stability criteria for our numerical approximation.Comment: 30 pages, 20 images, source code for our numerical implementation is available in this URL https://github.com/V3du4rd0/AMC

Sub-au imaging of water vapour clouds around four Asymptotic Giant Branch stars

We present MERLIN maps of the 22-GHz H2O masers around four low-mass late-type stars (IK Tau U Ori, RT Vir and U Her), made with an angular resolution of ~ 15 milliarcsec and a velocity resolution of 0.1 km s-1. The H2O masers are found in thick expanding shells with inner radii ~ 6 to 16 au and outer radii four times larger. The expansion velocity increases radially through the H2O maser regions, with logarithmic velocity gradients of 0.5--0.9. IK Tau and RT Vir have well-filled H2O maser shells with a spatial offset between the near and far sides of the shell, which suggests that the masers are distributed in oblate spheroids inclined to the line of sight. U Ori and U Her have elongated poorly-filled shells with indications that the masers at the inner edge have been compressed by shocks; these stars also show OH maser flares. MERLIN resolves individual maser clouds, which have diameters of 2 -- 4 au and filling factors of only ~ 0.01 with respect to the whole H2O maser shells. The CSE velocity structure gives additional evidence the maser clouds are density bounded. Masing clouds can be identified over a similar timescale to their sound crossing time (~2 yr) but not longer. The sizes and observed lifetimes of these clouds are an order of magnitude smaller than those around red supergiants, similar to the ratio of low-mass:high-mass stellar masses and sizes. This suggests that cloud size is determined by stellar properties, not local physical phenomena in the wind.Comment: 21 pages, including 14 figures and 8 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Application of ride quality technology to predict ride satisfaction for commuter-type aircraft

A method was developed to predict passenger satisfaction with the ride environment of a transportation vehicle. This method, a general approach, was applied to a commuter-type aircraft for illustrative purposes. The effect of terrain, altitude and seat location were examined. The method predicts the variation in passengers satisfied for any set of flight conditions. In addition several noncommuter aircraft were analyzed for comparison and other uses of the model described. The method has advantages for design, evaluation, and operating decisions