Giroscope Housing Organisation: a study of tenant satisfaction

Giroscope is an award winning community based housing organisation in West Hull that buys and renovates empty properties to provide rental accommodation for people in housing need. Giroscope was conceived by a group of students and unemployed people in 1985 in response to the problem of homelessness in Hull and established as a limited company and workers co-operative in 1986. Initially set up to provide accommodation for its founders only, Giroscope has since expanded and now lets 30 properties. It remained a workers’ co-operative until January 2007 when it was converted to a registered charity. With a view to reviewing and improving the quality of their service Giroscope approached us in January 2007 and invited us to carry out an independent tenants’ satisfaction survey. We were commissioned to undertake a comprehensive study of tenant satisfaction, with particular emphasis on the quality of the repairs and maintenance service, as this is an area in which Giroscope have recently been trying to make improvements

The effect of public communication campaigns on family communication and behaviour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Studies in Communication Management at Massey University

This thesis examines how mass communicated messages from a public communication campaign affect interpersonal communication within families. It also considers how interpersonal communication among family members flows on to affect behaviours in the family. The study uses McDevitt and Chaffee's five-stage sequence of behavioural activation within families to examine two pro-environmental campaigns: the Big Clean Up and Clean Up NZ. Seven families exposed to the messages of the communication campaigns were interviewed to gain an understanding of what communication process occurred as a result of these interventions. "Downward" (parent to child), and "upward" (child to parent) flows of communication were examined. The results suggest that communication among family members has a substantial bearing on a family's behavioural response to campaign messages. However, the person who engenders the discussions also plays a major role in the success or otherwise of the communication outcomes. The campaign messages had different effects on children than they did on parents. There were no significant behaviour changes in families where the parent was the initial message receiver; however where the child provided the initial intervention behaviour changes tended to occur. While children received new information, and developed new behaviours based on the campaign messages, parents tended to have existing beliefs and patterns of behaviour endorsed. The relationship between interpersonal family communication, campaign messages and changes in behaviour has implications for communicators developing campaigns that aim to change behaviour

Popular education, ‘so we stand’ and the 'triple self-diagnosis'

With funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, a novel project has taken place over the last two years under the title ‘Using Popular Education in Anti-Poverty and Environmental Justice Organising: Bridging Constituencies, Building Movements, and Crossing Disciplines’. The aim was not just to take a popular education approach to promoting social change but also to make learning about popular education a central part of the process

Sphenomenology --- An Overview, with a Focus on a Higgsino LSP World, and on Eventual Tests of String Theory

In this talk, as requested, I begin with a overview and with some basic reminders about how evidence for supersymmetry in nature might appear -- in particular, how SUSY signatures are never clear so it is difficult to search for them without major theoretical input. Models can be usefully categorized phenomenologically by naming their LSP -- that is, once the LSP is approximately fixed so is the behavior of the observables, and the resulting behavior is generally very different for different LSPs. Next I compare the three main LSP-models (gravitino, bino, higgsino). Hints from data suggest taking the higgsino-LSP world very seriously, so I focus on it, and describe its successful prediction of reported events from the 1996 LEP runs. SUSY signatures in the $\tilde h$ LSP world are very different from those that are usually studied. Then I briefly discuss how to measure the parameters of the effective Lagrangian from collider and decay data. Finally I turn to how data will test and help extract the implications of string theories.Comment: Uses espcrc2.st

China’s “power projection” capabilities

This article examines China’s ability to influence conflicts beyond its immediate area through both conventional and unorthodox means. Decision-makers and intelligence analysts at all levels should note America’s influence within the Pacific region is becoming increasingly linked to its influence in Africa, the Middle East, and other areas of interest to rising East Asian powers. For the United States to maximise its strategic capabilities, it would need to maintain a robust military presence in all these regions

An exploratory study in to the money laundering threats, vulnerabilities, and controls within the UK bookmaker sector, with a specific focus on Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals

The purpose of this exploratory study was to generate an understanding in to the money laundering threats, vulnerabilities and controls found within UK betting shops, with a direct focus on the exponential growth of Fixed-Odd Betting Terminals. Qualitative research methods facilitated eight semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders linked to the gambling and/or money laundering sphere. This included the Gambling Commission, Campaign for Fairer Gambling, an ex-Head of Security and Safety at a major bookmaker, and five regular Fixed-Odd Betting Terminal users. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded for thematic analysis, subsequently resulting in the emergence of four interesting and meaningful themes. These were (1) Ineffective CDD enforcement facilitating anonymity (2) Weak anti-money laundering safeguards unable to mitigate known threats (3) A lack of anti-money laundering training, awareness, and resources (4) The Gambling Commission’s attempt for increased anti-money laundering regulation unsuccessful. By allowing a phenomenological framework to guide the data collection process, the interpreted subjective views and experiences of the participants involved, although somewhat limited, indicate that money laundering threats within the bookmaker sector are inherently high, with a lack of effective safeguards in place to mitigate the identified vulnerabilities

CM liftings of Supersingular Elliptic Curves

Assuming GRH, we present an algorithm which inputs a prime $p$ and outputs the set of fundamental discriminants $D<0$ such that the reduction map modulo a prime above $p$ from elliptic curves with CM by \order_{D} to supersingular elliptic curves in characteristic $p$. In the algorithm we first determine an explicit constant $D_p$ so that $|D|> D_p$ implies that the map is necessarily surjective and then we compute explicitly the cases $|D|<D_p$.Comment: 26 pages, 10 table

The Importance of Startups in Job Creation and Job Destruction

Based on Business Dynamics Statistics data, points out the large role start-ups play in new net job creation, patterns of job growth at both start-ups and established firms, and the limitations of current employment policies focused on existing firms

Wholly communion, literary nationalism, and the sorrows of the counterculture

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