Homeownership and effectiveness of the South Africa government housing subsidy scheme

This paper presents findings on the effectiveness of the South Africa government housing subsidy scheme in the delivery of houses to its citizens, thus providing homeownership especially to the low-income group and the disadvantaged poor. The paper also evaluates the usage of the houses by the occupants. The results from the post-occupancy survey of the provided houses revealed that the progressive realization of housing for the low-income and disadvantaged groups is being met as all beneficiaries were South African citizens. The survey also revealed that the beneficiaries living in the subsidized houses were originally allocated the houses by the Gauteng Department of Housing (GDOH), which oversees housing allocation in the province adopted as the site for the study. However, from those originally allocated, it was indicated that some of the beneficiaries were previously living in shacks, while some were homeless (absolute homelessness). Further findings from the survey showed that the original intended use of the houses by the government (private residential use) is what the subsidized houses are being used for as revealed by the respondents. This paper starts with an overview of the literature on this topic and the importance of homeownership, and then presents the results of the analysis and findings of the research. Finally, the paper draws some conclusions and makes recommendations. The originality of this paper is based on the fact that there have been issues surrounding the South Africa government's financial commitment of 5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is grossly inadequate to overcome its huge housing backlog. Due to the limited study to substantiate if the little devoted GDP is making any impact on the disadvantaged group, the current research contributes to this body of knowledge

Cracking stability in tapered DCB test pieces

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42750/1/10704_2004_Article_BF00113939.pd

Spatiotemporal complexity of a ratio-dependent predator-prey system

In this paper, we investigate the emergence of a ratio-dependent predator-prey system with Michaelis-Menten-type functional response and reaction-diffusion. We derive the conditions for Hopf, Turing and Wave bifurcation on a spatial domain. Furthermore, we present a theoretical analysis of evolutionary processes that involves organisms distribution and their interaction of spatially distributed population with local diffusion. The results of numerical simulations reveal that the typical dynamics of population density variation is the formation of isolated groups, i.e., stripelike or spotted or coexistence of both. Our study shows that the spatially extended model has not only more complex dynamic patterns in the space, but also chaos and spiral waves. It may help us better understand the dynamics of an aquatic community in a real marine environment.Comment: 6pages, revtex

Critical view of WKB decay widths

A detailed comparison of the expressions for the decay widths obtained within the semiclassical WKB approximation using different approaches to the tunneling problem is performed. The differences between the available improved formulae for tunneling near the top and the bottom of the barrier are investigated. Though the simple WKB method gives the right order of magnitude of the decay widths, a small number of parameters are often fitted. The need to perform the fitting procedure remaining consistently within the WKB framework is emphasized in the context of the fission model based calculations. Calculations for the decay widths of some recently found super heavy nuclei using microscopic alpha-nucleus potentials are presented to demonstrate the importance of a consistent WKB calculation. The half-lives are found to be sensitive to the density dependence of the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the implementation of the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization condition inherent in the WKB approach.Comment: 18 pages, Late

The information analysis center concept as developed by the Radiation Shielding Information Center in its computer codes activities

Information analysis center concept and computer codes for calculating radiation transport, and shield design

On the velocity-dependent fracture toughness of epoxy resins

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44664/1/10853_2004_Article_BF00754491.pd

Chaos induced coherence in two independent food chains

Coherence evolution of two food web models can be obtained under the stirring effect of chaotic advection. Each food web model sustains a three--level trophic system composed of interacting predators, consumers and vegetation. These populations compete for a common limiting resource in open flows with chaotic advection dynamics. Here we show that two species (the top--predators) of different colonies chaotically advected by a jet--like flow can synchronize their evolution even without migration interaction. The evolution is charaterized as a phase synchronization. The phase differences (determined through the Hilbert transform) of the variables representing those species show a coherent evolution.Comment: 5 pages, 5 eps figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Stochastic models in population biology and their deterministic analogs

In this paper we introduce a class of stochastic population models based on "patch dynamics". The size of the patch may be varied, and this allows one to quantify the departures of these stochastic models from various mean field theories, which are generally valid as the patch size becomes very large. These models may be used to formulate a broad range of biological processes in both spatial and non-spatial contexts. Here, we concentrate on two-species competition. We present both a mathematical analysis of the patch model, in which we derive the precise form of the competition mean field equations (and their first order corrections in the non-spatial case), and simulation results. These mean field equations differ, in some important ways, from those which are normally written down on phenomenological grounds. Our general conclusion is that mean field theory is more robust for spatial models than for a single isolated patch. This is due to the dilution of stochastic effects in a spatial setting resulting from repeated rescue events mediated by inter-patch diffusion. However, discrete effects due to modest patch sizes lead to striking deviations from mean field theory even in a spatial setting.Comment: 47 pages, 9 figure