A discussion on the financing of political parties is desperately needed: government is wasting more than money if it buries research on the difficult choices between public funding and capped donations.

If political parties are to play their essential role in our democracy, we must ensure that they are funded appropriately. A recent report into party financing concludes that if we want to reduce donations, we have to cap them and therefore also extend public funding of parties. Justin Fisher fears that these radical conclusions will be largely ignored by government who are against any increase in the public funding of parties at this time of economic crisis.

The general election in the UK, May 2005

At the 2005 general election in the UK, held on 5 May, the Labour Party won an historically unprecedented third victory in a row, and, correspondingly, the Conservative Party suffered its third defeat in a row. In total, 62 seats changed hands, and, as all three major parties experienced both some success and some failure, the election results were curiously ambivalent

Landscape genetics reveal broad and fine‐scale population structure due to landscape features and climate history in the northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens) in North Dakota

Prehistoric climate and landscape features play large roles structuring wildlife populations. The amphibians of the northern Great Plains of North America present an opportunity to investigate how these factors affect colonization, migration, and current population genetic structure. This study used 11 microsatellite loci to genotype 1,230 northern leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) from 41 wetlands (30 samples/wetland) across North Dakota. Genetic structure of the sampled frogs was evaluated using Bayesian and multivariate clustering methods. All analyses produced concordant results, identifying a major east–west split between two R. pipiens population clusters separated by the Missouri River. Substructuring within the two major identified population clusters was also found. Spatial principal component analysis (sPCA) and variance partitioning analysis identified distance, river basins, and the Missouri River as the most important landscape factors differentiating R. pipiens populations across the state. Bayesian reconstruction of coalescence times suggested the major east– west split occurred ~13–18 kya during a period of glacial retreat in the northern Great Plains and substructuring largely occurred ~5–11 kya during a period of extreme drought cycles. A range‐wide species distribution model (SDM) for R. pipiens was developed and applied to prehistoric climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (21 kya) and the mid‐Holocene (6 kya) from the CCSM4 climate model to identify potential refugia. The SDM indicated potential refugia existed in South Dakota or further south in Nebraska. The ancestral populations of R. pipiens in North Dakota may have inhabited these refugia, but more sampling outside the state is needed to reconstruct the route of colonization. Using microsatellite genotype data, this study determined that colonization from glacial refugia, drought dynamics in the northern Great Plains, and major rivers acting as barriers to gene flow were the defining forces shaping the regional population structure of R. pipiens in North Dakota

A FEA/CFD Study of Heat Transfer to Semi-Trailer Disc Brake Wheel-End Components during a Braking Event

Foundation air disc brakes bring Class 8 semi-trailers to a stop by converting kinetic energy into thermal energy. Recently, side skirts have been added to the underside of semi-trailers to improve fuel economy. The reduction in airflow under the trailer they create has potential to increase brake temperatures by reducing convection heat transfer. This will require an increase in conduction and radiation heat transfer to the surrounding wheel-end parts. Additional heat transfer to the surrounding parts could increase the temperatures in the hub and bearing to damaging levels. CFD analyses were developed to model the airflow under the semi-trailer with and without side skirts to calculate the average heat transfer coefficients for the wheel-end components. Transient FEA’s were created to model the temperature distribution versus time in a disc brake wheel-end for constant drag braking scenarios. The CFD simulation was manually coupled with the FEA. Heat transfer coefficients from CFD were passed to FEA and temperature from FEA was transferred to the CFD in an iterative process. The results have demonstrated that the methodology is capable of predicting wheel-end temperatures, dependent on convection heat transfer from the airflow around the brake. The wheels around the wheel-end assembly have the largest impact on convection heat transfer from the wheel-end. Trailer side skirts also reduce convection heat transfer, but to a lesser extent than the wheels. They have the largest impact at higher vehicle speed. The hub and bearings did not reach sufficient temperatures to cause damage during the drag braking event; however, it was determined that hub and rotor geometry can dramatically change the temperatures reached at the bearings

Composted Biosolids as a Soil Cover on Steep Slopes

Municipal sewage disposal and soil erosion control from highly disturbed sites are both large scale issues of environmental concern. Composted biosolids (CBS) and shredded wood have the potential to be applied as soil cover to address both disposal and erosion issues. There is a lack of information on the use of these products on steep slopes, typical of construction sites. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of CBS for reducing erosion and establishing vegetation on a cherty, slightly compacted, Fullerton Series sub-soil embankment, with an average slope of 46.5 percent. The study was conducted at the Knox County Green Waste Recycling facility in Solway, TN on a spoil pile created during construction of the facility. Twelve plots, each measuring 6.5 meters long by 2.5 meters wide, were used with three replications each of four treatments: bare (uncovered, unseeded), straw mulch, CBS, and a 50/50 mixture of CBS and shredded wood produced on site. Prior to the application of treatments, covered plots were seeded with a standard mixture of seed for erosion control used by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Total runoff volume and sediment were measured following each rain event, and digital photographs were taken weekly to record vegetation growth from June 24 to October 31. Composted biosolids was as effective as straw at reducing total sediment (95.7 percent and 96.0 percent reductions respectively). The 50/50 mixture achieved the greatest sediment reduction of 96.4 percent. The application of CBS appeared to have the greatest positive impact on establishing vegetation. Vegetation on the straw mulch plots was concentrated on the lower portions likely due to the seed washing down slope following early rain events. The 50/50 treatment reduced total runoff by 69.6 percent, and the CBS treatment by 58.5 percent compared to plots left bare. Total runoff on straw plots was reduced by 47.0 percent compared to plots left bare. The results demonstrate that CBS can be used effectively to reduce soil erosion and establish a vegetative cover on steep slopes of highly disturbed sites, while serving simultaneously as an alternative means of sewage sludge disposal

The electoral effectiveness of constituency campaigning in the 2010 British General Election: The ‘triumph’ of Labour?

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Electoral Studies. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier B.V.This article establishes a model of likely campaign effectiveness, before examining the intensity of constituency campaigning at the 2010 general election in Britain and its subsequent impact on electoral outcomes, using both aggregate and individual level data. It shows that constituency campaigning yielded benefits in varying degrees for all three main parties and that Labour’s constituency campaign efforts were effective despite the electoral context, and ultimately affected the overall outcome of the election. These findings have significant implications for our understanding of the circumstances under which campaigns are likely to be more or less effective, and provide further evidence that a carefully managed campaign stands the most chance of delivering tangible electoral payoffs