Complaints and disputes among occupants within apartment developments

Large apartment developments are like mini-communities - there are a wide variety of relationships and networks within, and both complaints and disputes are common. Such situations come at a significant emotional and financial cost to the individuals involved. There is also an overflow effect on both the collective apartment owners and the broader community - especially where disputes escalate to formal tribunal and court hearings. The purpose of this study was to investigate the underlying features of complaint and dispute behaviour including the proximity between disputing parties, the situational context and the residual triggers causing complaint and disputes to occur. The emphasis was on an exploratory pilot study, aimed at determining if predictable patterns existed and if so, whether these were worth pursuing on a broader scale, or not. The methodology utilised a case study of a large apartment complex of 108 separate apartments, where complaint and dispute records were analysed over a 10 year period. These were then mapped onto the apartment layout. Data arising from this was coded into thematically consistent categories and then quantitatively analysed using descriptive statistics. With regard to the proximity of complaints and disputes there was an occasional pattern whereby noise can be attributed to close proximity complaints, but there is no evidence that this leads to formal dispute. The originality of the research is in providing quantitative insight into the current gap in knowledge concerning complaint and dispute behaviour amongst residents living in higher density housing in Australia. Revealed patterns create the ability to use more targeted dispute resolution methods with a view to maintaining harmony within higher density residential complexes

Natural Suppression of Higgsino-Mediated Proton Decay in Supersymmetric SO(10)

In supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories, proton decay mediated by the color--triplet higgsino is generally problematic and requires some fine--tuning of parameters. We present a mechanism which naturally suppresses such dimension 5 operators in the context of SUSY $SO(10)$. The mechanism, which implements natural doublet--triplet splitting using the adjoint higgs, converts these dimension 5 operators effectively into dimension 6. By explicitly computing the higgs spectrum and the resulting threshold uncertainties we show that the successful prediction of $\sin^2\theta_W$ is maintained {\it as a prediction} in this scheme. It is argued that only a weak suppression of the higgsino mediated proton decay is achievable within SUSY $SU(5)$ without fine--tuning, in contrast to a strong suppression in SUSY $SO(10)$.Comment: 39 pages (3 Feynman graphs not included), in Plain LaTeX, BA-93-2

From the vulnerable plaque to the vulnerable patient: Current concepts in atherosclerosis

Cardiovascular disease affects a significant proportion of the population with global prevalence of 6081 per 100,000 (Virani et al., 2020). Most core risk factors are well characterized and can be controlled with interventions, also meaning it is possible to identify most people at increased risk of acute events, defined as a 10 year risk of events of >20% . However, the real world occurrence of events in this at risk population is relatively low suggesting there is still much to be learnt or identified in spotting the vulnerable patient harbouring vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque at the earliest possible time.British Heart Foundatio

Wave Energy Amplification in a Metamaterial based Traveling Wave Structure

We consider the interaction between a particle beam and a propagating electromagnetic wave in the presence of a metamaterial. We show that the introduction of a metamaterial gives rise to a novel dispersion curve which determines a unique wave particle relationship, via the frequency dependence of the metamaterial and the novel ability of metamaterials to exhibit simultaneous negative permittivity and permeability. Using a modified form of Madey's theorem we find that the novel dispersion of the metamaterial leads to a amplification of the EM wave power

Longitudinal alterations in motivational salience processing in ultra-high-risk subjects for psychosis

Impairments in the attribution of salience are thought to be fundamental to the development of psychotic symptoms and the onset of psychotic disorders. The aim of the present study was to explore longitudinal alterations in salience processing in ultra-high-risk subjects for psychosis.; A total of 23 ultra-high-risk subjects and 13 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at two time points (mean interval of 17 months) while performing the Salience Attribution Test to assess neural responses to task-relevant (adaptive salience) and task-irrelevant (aberrant salience) stimulus features.; At presentation, high-risk subjects were less likely than controls to attribute salience to relevant features, and more likely to attribute salience to irrelevant stimulus features. These behavioural differences were no longer evident at follow-up. When attributing salience to relevant cue features, ultra-high-risk subjects showed less activation than controls in the ventral striatum at both baseline and follow-up. Within the high-risk sample, amelioration of abnormal beliefs over the follow-up period was correlated with an increase in right ventral striatum activation during the attribution of salience to relevant cue features.; These findings confirm that salience processing is perturbed in ultra-high-risk subjects for psychosis, that this is linked to alterations in ventral striatum function, and that clinical outcomes are related to longitudinal changes in ventral striatum function during salience processing

The interplay of steric and electronic factors affecting geometrical isomerism of diaryl ketimine derivatives

The evidence bearing on the mechanism of the Schmidt reaction with ketones is critically reexamined. It is shown that dehydration of an initially formed azidohydrin (I) to a ketiminodiazonium ion (II), which may or may not equilibrate between its geometrically isomeric forms (IIa or b), can account for the various reported ratios of isomeric amides produced from unsymmetrical ketones. The previously anomalous behavior of ortho-substituted diaryl ketones can be resolved by taking into account the influence of conjugative effects on the preferred rotational positions. The ratios of amides produced from a series of o-alkylbenzophenones by both the Schmidt reaction and oximation plus Beckmann rearrangement have been determined at different temperatures; there are appreciable differences in the product ratios and their temperature coefficients from the two reactions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32437/1/0000519.pd