Production processes in strong interactions

Imperial Users onl

The role of planning: Club Mykonos and a sense of deja vu

The workshop on the Future of the Planning Profession, held at the Club Mykonos on the West Coast, in November 1995, saw the beginnings of some important and necessary agreements about where the profession should be heading. However, it also became clear during the discussions that there is no general agreement about what the focus of (urban and regional) planning is or what its role should be. On two issues at least I had a strong and disturbing sense of deja vu. I regard these issues as being so fundamental that I record them here, to contribute to the emerging debate on planning and its future

Corticospinal and reticulospinal contacts on cervical commissural and long descending propriospinal neurons in the adult rat spinal cord; evidence for powerful reticulospinal connections

Descending systems have a crucial role in the selection of motor output patterns by influencing the activity of interneuronal networks in the spinal cord. Commissural interneurons that project to the contralateral grey matter are key components of such networks as they coordinate left-right motor activity of fore and hind-limbs. The aim of this study was to determine if corticospinal (CST) and reticulospinal (RST) neurons make significant numbers of axonal contacts with cervical commissural interneurons. Two classes of commissural neurons were analysed: 1) local commissural interneurons (LCINs) in segments C4-5; 2) long descending propriospinal neurons (LDPNs) projecting from C4 to the rostral lumbar cord. Commissural interneurons were labelled with Fluorogold and CST and RST axons were labelled by injecting the b subunit of cholera toxin in the forelimb area of the primary somatosensory cortex or the medial longitudinal fasciculus respectively. The results show that LCINs and LDPNs receive few contacts from CST terminals but large numbers of contacts are formed by RST terminals. Use of vesicular glutamate and vesicular GABA transporters revealed that both types of cell received about 80% excitatory and 20% inhibitory RST contacts. Therefore the CST appears to have a minimal influence on LCINs and LDPNs but the RST has a powerful influence. This suggests that left-right activity in the rat spinal cord is not influenced directly via CST systems but is strongly controlled by the RST pathway. Many RST neurons have monosynaptic input from corticobulbar pathways therefore this pathway may provide an indirect route from the cortex to commissural systems. The cortico-reticulospinal-commissural system may also contribute to functional recovery following damage to the CST as it has the capacity to deliver information from the cortex to the spinal cord in the absence of direct CST input

Kinetic Studies by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Abstract Not Provided

An investigation into some aspects of the location of clothing retailers in metropolitan Cape Town

Al Hirt and his band in concert in at Morehead State University on October 23, 1970 in Laughlin Fieldhouse as part of the 1970 homecoming celebrations.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/concert_series_collection/1480/thumbnail.jp

Spatial development frameworks on a broader scale: An integrative approach

Recent exposure to a number of spatial development frameworks on a broader (district and regional) scale in South Africa indicates that there is considerable confusion as to what should be the content of these plans. In addition, many fail to pay any attention to some of the most pressing developmental issues which are emerging. This article argues that regional planning in South Africa has always been based on, inter alia, four central pillars (environment, economic development, settlement and service provision), which need to be informed by insights drawn from a number of disciplinary perspectives. It identifies some of the main developmental challenges in each of these disciplinary areas which these plans should be addressing, provides some disciplinaryspecific insights into them, and then demonstrates an integrative approach to link these divergent issues.&nbsp

Managing change in urban transitional areas: Some informants on the nature of regional plans

Regional planning has had a cheque red career internationally, and not least in South Africa. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that a lack of spatial direction to processes of settlement formation at a larger scale may have disastrous longer term social economic, environmental and cultural affects. The problem is aggravated in South Africa by a serious lack of capacity to develop creative management plans at all scales. This dilemma of capacity has fundamental implications for the nature of plans; in particular, the absolute necessity of embracing a philosophy of minimalism. This article explores an easily accessible conceptual framework for thinking about regional space in relation to a particular problematic form and scale of areas: urban transition areas occurring in and around metropolitan are as and larger towns. Above all else, these areas are characterised by rapid and frequently accelerating change as they are increasingly drawn into the force fields of the larger settlement

Place, Urban Design and Poverty: Lessons from a comparison of Cape Town and Ahmedabad

The paper selectively reports on aspects of a research project conducted over several years aimed at a comparative evaluation of a number of local areas drawn from two cities: Ahmedabad, in the State of Gujarat, India; and Cape Town in the Western Cape Region of South Africa. The purpose of the project was to derive a set of understandings that are useful in the making of place and settlements in developing countries.The research was undertaken as a consequence of the growing realization that urban problems facing cities in the global north and south are, in many respects, very different (ironically, with accelerating globalization, in some respects and increasingly, cities of the north are having to face many of the problems of the developing world, albeit at a different scale). Not least of the differences is that, in developed countries, the primary urban problem is that of renewal in the face of relatively static, or even declining, population, while in developing countries it is primarily one of accommodating rapid rates of new urban growth. The issue of making and managing new settlements is high on the developmental agenda in the global south. Despite these differences, most of the published urban design precedent stems from the more developed countries. There has been insufficient cross-cultural learning between less developed countries. The project has made some contribution in this regard.The methodology utilized in the research is set out and illustrated by selected material relating to Ahmedabad only, since the paper does not afford sufficient space to also illustrate the work undertaken in Cape Town. The paper then dwells on some of the significant lessons learned across many dimensions of place, urban design, urban structure and the density/grain of urban fabric. In the process, there are considerations reflecting on aspects of livability, livelihood generation, formality and informality, in contexts where poverty is relatively endemic