Public participation and New Urbanism: a conflicting agenda?

The challenges to public participation in planning are numerous. Inclusive and equitable processes are recognised as an ideal in much planning theory and practice, yet this ideal is increasingly difficult to realise in today’s societies that comprise diverse and multiple publics. Within the wider sustainability debate, ‘New Urbanism’ has emerged as a pragmatic alternative to convention allow-density development. Concomitant with a range of prescribed physical outcomes, the New Urbanism movement advocates a process of ‘citizen-based participatory planning and design’. Charrettes, with urban design workshops, are the favoured tools for achieving this goal. However, it is argued that the adherence to a single type of participatory tool can be inconsistent with accepted ideals of participation processes and has several implications. Of particular concern is the role of the charrette planner or facilitator, a figure who has the potential to manipulate the public because of his/her inevitable allegiance to the New Urban agenda. In addition, the examination of a charrette process in a small New Zealand town raises several broader questions about the ability of the approach to address issues of inclusiveness and the recognition of difference, two fundamental elements of good participatory processes

Fifty years of atrazine in Iowa: Benefits, impacts, and current status

Atrazine was first registered for use in the U.S. in 1958. It quickly became the preferred herbicide of corn growers, controlling both grasses and broadleaf weeds and being used either as a postemergence or preemergence application, unlike the primary alternative herbicide of the time, 2,4-D (Muller 2008). Over 50 years later, atrazine is still an important weed management tool for corn growers, and was the most widely used herbicide until recently when only glyphosate was used on more acres

Variation in Ray Flowers of anthemis cotula and Other Composites

The object of this study was to determine the amount of variation occurring in the number of ray flowers of the Mayweed (Anthemis cotula L.), to compare the variations occurring in different localities, and also the variations in different plants of the same locality, and finally to compare this variation with that of a few other species of Compositae

It\u27s A Small World After All... At The Top: The View From Davos

This paper provides an intersectional portrait of the most powerful and influential group in the world: the global power elite, symbolized by the Davos man. An examination of this emerging class and its national and denationalized components includes analyses of the global economic and political system, concepts of the American power elite, hierarchal institutions of power, and the potential for elite gender parity

The Viability of Weed Seeds under Different Conditions of Treatment, and a Study of Their Dormant Periods

The viability of a seed is its capacity to live after maturity, and its dormant period is the time required for the seed to germinate after being planted. A great deal of investigation has been carried on for many years past to determine the viability of seeds; more especially of cultivated seeds of the farm and garden, but not so much attention has been given to weed seeds. In 1897 Mr. C. R. Ball of this college published an article on Seed Testing; Its Importance, History and Some Results, With a Partial Bibliography. This article contains a long and valuable bibliography referring to all the most important literature before 1897

Towards conformationally-locked difluorosugar analogues : an unexpected sense of dihydroxylation

Difluorinated cyclooctenones, synthesised using RCM, can be used as templates for stereoselective oxidative transformations to products that undergo transannular reactions to afford conformationally-locked analogues of 2-deoxy-2,2-difluorosugars with different stereochemical relationships between the C-2 and C-3 hydroxyl groups

Chemical immersion coatings to improve biological degradability of magnesium substrates for potential orthopaedic applications

Historically, cobalt-chromium, stainless steel and titanium alloys have been the main principal materials used in a variety of medical procedures for load-bearing implants in the body. Magnesium and magnesium-based alloys have the potential to be used as short-term structural support during the healing process of damaged hard tissues and diseased bone. Unlike traditional biologically compatible metals, which are not biologically degradable, magnesium based alloys offer both biological degradability and biological absorbability. Despite the many advantages offered by magnesium, its rapid degradation rate in the highly aggressive and corrosive body fluid environment has severely limited its present day medical application. This article reviews the chemical immersion technique for producing calcium phosphate coatings on magnesium substrates for slowing down the degradation rate while maintaining the biological compatibility and absorbability