Accessing emergency rest centres in the UK - lesson learnt

Emergency rest centres (ERC) are premises that are used for the temporary accommodation of evacuees during an emergency situation. They form an important part of emergency response, by providing a focal point for receiving people and providing food, shelter, information and support. The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 creates a legislative right for ‘reasonable’ access to goods and services for disabled people. This legislation does not differentiate between emergency and non emergency situations which means that those with a responsibility for emergency planning need to consider the accessibility of ERCs. This article examines ERC provision and reviews access for disabled people. It focuses on a study of three ERCs that were established in different local authority areas within the Yorkshire and Humber region in the UK during a flooding event on 25th June 2007. While uncovering many instances of good practise, the results from the research also identified a number of lessons to be learnt, in particular it was noted that the main barriers to access were encountered with: • Facilities and elements that did not comprise part of the buildings normal operation, such as the provision of bedding, medical assistance and effective communication; and • Facilities that would not normally be expected to be used to the extent, or duration, whilst the emergency rest centre was in operation, such as the provision of adequate welfare facilities. The research also noted that Civil Protection Legislation within the UK contains limited instruction or guidance to those with responsibility for Emergency Rest Centre provision. This provides little impetus for Emergency Planners to consider the needs of disabled people. This research has broad implications for local authorities and national government representatives. It identifies a need for those with responsibility for emergency planning and response to strengthen their knowledge of disabled people, and to adopt a more holistic approach to the provision of emergency planning and response

From Microscales to Macroscales in 3D: Selfconsistent Equation of State for Supernova and Neutron Star Models

First results from a fully self-consistent, temperature-dependent equation of state that spans the whole density range of neutron stars and supernova cores are presented. The equation of state (EoS) is calculated using a mean-field Hartree-Fock method in three dimensions (3D). The nuclear interaction is represented by the phenomenological Skyrme model in this work, but the EoS can be obtained in our framework for any suitable form of the nucleon-nucleon effective interaction. The scheme we employ naturally allows effects such as (i) neutron drip, which results in an external neutron gas, (ii) the variety of exotic nuclear shapes expected for extremely neutron heavy nuclei, and (iii) the subsequent dissolution of these nuclei into nuclear matter. In this way, the equation of state is calculated across phase transitions without recourse to interpolation techniques between density regimes described by different physical models. EoS tables are calculated in the wide range of densities, temperature and proton/neutron ratios on the ORNL NCCS XT3, using up to 2000 processors simultaneously.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figures. Published in conference proceedings Journal of Physics: Conference Series 46 (2006) 408. Extended version to be submitted to Phys. Rev.

The Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture: the Effect of Tilled Row Structure

The tilled rowstructure is known to be one of the important factors affecting the observations of the microwave emission from a natural surface. Measurements of this effect were carried out with both I and X band radiometers mounted on a mobile truck on a bare 40 m x 45 m row tilled field. The soil moisture content during the measurements ranged from approximately 10 percent to approximately 30 percent by dry weight. The results of these measurements showed that the variations of the antenna temperatures with incident angle theta changed with the azimuthal angle a measured from the row direction. A numerical calculation based on a composite surface roughness was made and found to predict the observed features within the model's limit of accuracy. It was concluded that the difference between the horizontally and vertically polarized temperatures was due to the change in the local angle of field emission within the antenna field of view caused by the large scale row structure

Ice shapes and the resulting drag increase for a NACA 0012 airfoil

Experimental measurements of the ice shapes and resulting drag increases were measured in the NASA-Lewis Icing Research Tunnel. The measurements were made over a large range of conditions (e.g., airspeed and temperature, drop size and liquid water content of the cloud, and the angle of attack of the airfoil). The measured drag increase did not agree with the existing correlation. Additional results were given which are helpful in understanding the ice structure and the way it forms, and in improving the ice accretion modeling theories. There are data on the ice surface roughness, on the effect of the ice shape on the local droplet catch, and on the relative importance of various parts of the ice shape on the drag increase. Experimental repeatability is also discussed

Early production of the passive in two Eastern Bantu languages

The passive construction is acquired relatively late by children learning to speak many languages, with verbal passives not fully acquired till age 6 in English. In other languages it appears earlier, around age 3 or before. Use of passive construction in young children was examined in two Eastern Bantu languages spoken in Kenya (Kiswahili and Kigiriama), both with frequent use of passive. The passive was used productively very early (2;1) in these languages, regardless of the method used to measure productivity. In addition non-actional passives, particularly rare in English and some other European languages, were seen at these early ages. The proportion of verbs that were passive varied between individuals, both in children's speech and in the input to children. Pragmatic and grammatical features of the passive in some languages have previously been suggested to drive early passive acquisition, but these features are not found consistently in the two languages studied here. Findings suggest that the relatively high frequency of input found in these languages is the most plausible reason for early productive use of the passive

Relationship between physical capacity and match performance in semiprofessional Australian rules football

This study investigated the relationship between physical performance and match performance in Australian Rules Football (ARF). Thirty-six semiprofessional ARF players participated in this study. Physical capacity was measured using a 3-km time trial. Match performance was measured throughout the 2013 season through 2 methods: direct game involvements (DGIs) per minute and a recording of coaches\u27 vote after the game. The main finding of the study was that 3-km time trial performance was a significant predictor of DGI per minute (p ≤ 0.05). In addition, the number of senior games played was also significant in predicting DGI per minute (p ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, the number of senior games significantly correlated with coaches\u27 votes (p ≤ 0.05). There were no significant relationships between 3-km time trial and coaches\u27 vote. The results highlight the importance of developing physical capacity in the preseason period; the players who were better performers in the 3-km time trial had a greater number of DGIs per minute. This information is important to consider in preseason planning to ensure sufficient time is dedicated to developing physical capacity in the training program, as it is directly associated with performance. In addition, this research also highlights the importance of playing experience in relation to team selection. Playing experience, as measured by the number of senior games played, had a significant relationship with both measures of match performance

Levinson's Theorem for Non-local Interactions in Two Dimensions

In the light of the Sturm-Liouville theorem, the Levinson theorem for the Schr\"{o}dinger equation with both local and non-local cylindrically symmetric potentials is studied. It is proved that the two-dimensional Levinson theorem holds for the case with both local and non-local cylindrically symmetric cutoff potentials, which is not necessarily separable. In addition, the problems related to the positive-energy bound states and the physically redundant state are also discussed in this paper.Comment: Latex 11 pages, no figure, submitted to J. Phys. A Email: [email protected], [email protected]

An operational system for subject switching between controlled vocabularies: A computational linguistics approach

The NASA Lexical Dictionary (NLD), a system that automatically translates input subject terms to those of NASA, was developed in four phases. Phase One provided Phrase Matching, a context sensitive word-matching process that matches input phrase words with any NASA Thesaurus posting (i.e., index) term or Use reference. Other Use references have been added to enable the matching of synonyms, variant spellings, and some words with the same root. Phase Two provided the capability of translating any individual DTIC term to one or more NASA terms having the same meaning. Phase Three provided NASA terms having equivalent concepts for two or more DTIC terms, i.e., coordinations of DTIC terms. Phase Four was concerned with indexer feedback and maintenance. Although the original NLD construction involved much manual data entry, ways were found to automate nearly all but the intellectual decision-making processes. In addition to finding improved ways to construct a lexical dictionary, applications for the NLD have been found and are being developed

A microwave systems approach to measuring root zone soil moisture

Computer microwave satellite simulation models were developed and the program was used to test the ability of a coarse resolution passive microwave sensor to measure soil moisture over large areas, and to evaluate the effect of heterogeneous ground covers with the resolution cell on the accuracy of the soil moisture estimate. The use of realistic scenes containing only 10% to 15% bare soil and significant vegetation made it possible to observe a 60% K decrease in brightness temperature from a 5% soil moisture to a 35% soil moisture at a 21 cm microwave wavelength, providing a 1.5 K to 2 K per percent soil moisture sensitivity to soil moisture. It was shown that resolution does not affect the basic ability to measure soil moisture with a microwave radiometer system. Experimental microwave and ground field data were acquired for developing and testing a root zone soil moisture prediction algorithm. The experimental measurements demonstrated that the depth of penetration at a 21 cm microwave wavelength is not greater than 5 cm

New varieties could extend the peach canning season

THE peach canning industry in Western Australia at present has only a limited period of operation, coinciding with the harvest time of the major variety, Golden Queen. New canning peach varieties tested at Stoneville Research Station could be used to extend the harvest period of canning peaches beyond that of the present standard variety, Golden Queen. This would have obvious advantages for growers and a canning industry. The South African variety Keimoes was the most promising canning peach tested. Tests on other varieties are continuing