Civil Aviation Authority

Purpose In an era of expanding visa-free travel, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms through which the smart servicescape experience in Chinese airports influences young international travelers’ well-being, their subsequent social media sharing behavior and, ultimately, their perceptions of China’s country reputation and destination image. Design/methodology/approach The study collected survey data from 462 young international travelers who had recent experience in major Chinese airports. The conceptual model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that a positive smart servicescape experience significantly enhances both eudemonic and hedonic well-being. This increased well-being, in turn, promotes social media sharing, which subsequently improves perceptions of China’s country reputation and destination image. Interestingly, the study reveals that technophilia negatively moderates the effect of the smart servicescape on hedonic well-being, suggesting a complex psychological interplay. Originality/value This study contributes by empirically examining the complete pathway from micro-level airport experiences to macro-level national perceptions among young travelers. By integrating uses and gratifications theory with a psychodynamic perspective, it provides a more nuanced understanding of human–technology interaction, particularly in explaining the counterintuitive moderating role of technophilia, and offers insights for nation branding strategies.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become increasingly important in applications such as logistics, agriculture, surveillance, disaster management, and smart city services. Reliable battery performance is essential to ensure mission success and flight safety, yet most small- to mediumscale UAVs still rely on manual checks or proprietary battery systems that are costly, closed-source, and not optimized for weight and energy constraints. This research addresses these limitations by developing a low-cost and open-source IoT-based battery monitoring system utilizing the ESP8266 microcontroller. The system employs a voltage divider network and TP4056 module for safe lithium-ion battery integration, while leveraging ESP8266 Wi-Fi capabilities to transmit realtime voltage data to the Blynk platform. UAV operators can monitor both raw voltage and estimated battery percentage through an intuitive mobile interface. Performance testing across 30 trials demonstrated an average error of 2.52% and accuracy of 97.48% compared with calibrated multimeter readings, classifying the system as highly reliable. The modular architecture allows for scalability and potential commercialization as an affordable add-on for UAVs, while also supporting sustainable practices through improved battery lifecycle management.

This paper examines stochastic cooperation in markets with two sellers who exhibit one-sided dependency. The independent seller’s pricing influences the dependent seller’s demand, but not vice versa. We study the one-dimensional hybrid game class whose parameter is the exogenously given probability of cooperation. In each game of this class, both sellers simultaneously choose prices that determine their endogenous threats, i.e., conflict profits. The sellers are aware of the cooperation probability but cannot condition prices on whether or not there is cooperation. We characterize the equilibrium prices and the sellers’ expected profits. Our main result shows that the independent seller earns higher expected profits when cooperation is more likely. In contrast, the dependent seller earns lower expected profits when the likelihood of cooperation is below a threshold that we characterize explicitly, and higher profits are earned thereafter. These findings suggest that, within our framework, antitrust concerns may be mitigated. Since dependent sellers can incur losses from cooperation, collusion attempts become less viable in markets with one-sided dependency.

As airport operators, the provision of chilled water and back-up power generation is a necessary element of our utility infrastructure. This paper outlines the benefits and pitfalls related to outsourcing this increasingly critical infrastructure to the local power company and describes the case of Orlando International Airport (MCO), which formed a public-public partnership with Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC). Over the course of a multiyear negotiation, we engaged OUC to take on operating the chilled water plant and the back-up generation facility for the airport’s new Terminal C. Throughout the negotiation, we addressed many challenges. The aim of this paper is to familiarise the airport operator with the transaction and some of the key issues we faced and resolved at MCO.

HARMONI is the first light visible and near-IR integral field spectrograph for the ELT. It covers a large spectral range from 470 nm to 2450 nm with resolving powers from 3300 to 18000 and spatial sampling from 60 mas to 4 mas. It can operate in two Adaptive Optics modes - SCAO (including a High Contrast capability) and LTAO - or with NOAO. To model the optical performance we include manufacturing and alignment tolerances alongside other static and dynamic effects. Diffraction of both image and pupil become significant when the spectrograph slit width matches the diffraction limited point spread function. A set of Zemax OpticStudio macros and Python scripts are used to bring together the subsystem models that make up HARMONI and combine them to include all these effects. We present an overview of our approach to modelling this complex instrument and key results predicting the optical performance of HARMONI.

We already know the unconventional and inexplicable behavior of light/photons (and other quantum particles such as electrons) in the Which-Way quantum experiment and entanglement phenomena. In this paper we propose another quantum experiment using a Michelson interferometer. We start with an 'elementary' thought experiment. Suppose that a Michelson interferometer is set up so that the two light beams undergo complete constructive interference, with a single bright spot. Then the distance of one of the mirrors is slightly adjusted for a complete destructive interference: the bright spot disappears. The puzzle is: where does the light go? We suspect that, just like nature does not allow us to know which slit a photon has passed through in the double- slit experiment, nature may not allow us to know 'where the light goes' in the case of (complete) destructive interference. Although nature may not allow a direct measurement, we can understand by reasoning 'where the light goes' during complete destructive interference. This paper reveals the mystery. A simple quantum experiment based on the Michelson interferometer is proposed.

El presente estudio se ha estructurado sobre las bases del Acuerdo Comercial Multipartes entre la Unión Europea y la Comunidad Andina de Naciones, debido a que representa uno de los mayores mercados del mundo para la región latinoamericana e internacional. El sector exportador de atún del Ecuador representa uno de los principales rubros de la economía nacional para el desarrollo económico – productivo, razón por lo que, este estudio busca analizar los beneficios que brinda el Acuerdo Comercial Multipartes para el incremento y fortalecimiento de este importante sector, destinado a la comercialización en el mercado de la República Italiana. El tipo de investigación es exploratoria y descriptiva y el enfoque de la investigación es cualitativo – cuantitativo, con el objetivo de analizar la expansión y efectos de la industria comercial de pesca de atún en las exportaciones del Ecuador, período 2017 – 2019, dando como resultados que desde la vigencia del Acuerdo Comercial Multipartes, el 1 de enero de 2017, el sector exportador atunero sí se ha beneficiado de su implementación en el mercado nacional, debido a que ha abierto las puertas a uno de los mercados más grandes del mundo y que los representantes del sector exportador atunero del Ecuador consideran que el posicionamiento comercial de la exportación de atún debe ser fortalecido a través de la Comunidad Andina de Naciones. La propuesta de la estrategia comercial para el sector atunero, se ha establecido sobre 6 objetivos estratégicos que buscan promover el mantenimiento y desarrollo de las exportaciones hacia el mercado italiano.

ABSTRACTThe oil and gas industry relies heavily on helicopters for transporting personnel and cargo to and from offshore installations and support vessels. A growing number of offshore helicopter operations are to moving helidecks, which include large vessels such as FPSOs, drill ships, and semi-submersibles, as well as smaller service vessels. Landing a helicopter on a moving helideck presents additional challenges to those faced on fixed helidecks, not only at the point of touchdown but also for the entire period the helicopter remains on the helideck.The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), on behalf of the joint CAA/industry Helicopter Safety Research Management Committee has led a comprehensive programme of research over a number of years, aimed at improving the operational safety of helicopters landing on moving helidecks. The work focused on the aspect of the stability of helicopters once landed on a moving helideck, this being the main source of in-service incidents and accidents as evidenced in the Mandatory Occurrence Reports. The project culminated in the development of a new standard for Helideck Monitoring Systems (HMS), which was published by the Helideck Certification Agency in April 2018 with an implementation compliance date of 31 March 2021. Operations to moving helidecks not equipped with HMS meeting the new standard will be restricted to stable deck conditions from this date. The research underpinning the new standard is presented in two papers.This paper (Part A), presents the analytical approach that has been developed to model the Reserve of Stability (ROS) for all modes of failure of a helicopter on a moving offshore helideck.The analytical model covers all modes of on-deck failure (roll-over and sliding), for any nose wheel tricycle undercarriage helicopter. The mathematical expressions that have been derived are remarkably simple, physically intuitive, and make the relative contribution of all the destabilising factors easy to understand and assess. These analytical expressions can be used to calculate the ROS of any helicopter in real time, as well as for calculating an envelope of safe operating limits.This approach has many advantages compared to conventional ‘black box’ modelling methods. The main advantage is that it simplifies the modelling of the destabilising effect of helideck motion and allows the most salient parameters governing on-deck ROS to be defined, namely the Measure of Motion Severity, the instantaneous wind speed as the Measure of Wind Severity, and the wind direction relative to the helicopter (Relative Wind Direction).The main rotor lift generated during the time the helicopter remains on-deck (at Minimum Pitch on Ground, MPOG) has been one of the most important unknowns that this research programme has sought to address. An empirical model for estimating the lift at MPOG has been developed, based on experimental and field data. Practical methods for quantifying fuselage wind drag and the vertical position of the centre of gravity were also developed, which allow different helicopter types to be assessed without recourse to helicopter Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) proprietary information or models. Finally, a comparison and evaluation of the model against dedicated field trial measurements is presented, together with a discussion of the modelling strengths and weaknesses, and recommendations for further work.

I write in response to the article about potential issues with different sources of vitamin D in some vegan pet foods ( VR , 22 February 2020, vol 186, p 198). While none of those products is made by the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association (PFMA) members, there is an opportunity to throw light on how the UK pet food industry is regulated and the role of the PFMA in self-governance and education. The term ‘complete’ diet has a legal definition and manufacturers must be able to provide evidence for this claim if …