The Housing Forms and Urban Morphology of Poverty Areas in the London Borough of Islington

This research compares the urban morphology and house forms of three areas in the London Borough of Islington. It assesses their level of poverty and compares them with Charles Booth’s survey of the London poor at the end of the 19th Century. The objective of the research is to identify and analyse the similarities and differences in the urban and housing characteristics of poverty areas between Booth’s and modern times, with the aim of understanding the spatial distribution of poverty in present day Islington. The analysis gives an insight into the underlying spatial elements and issues that characterise the distribution of poverty in these areas and how these issues are related to the different housing forms found within the areas. More specifically, it addresses the question of whether there is any meaningful relationship between the localised distribution of poverty and any specific spatial or housing element. The analysis is contextualised within the socio-economic framework of the study areas provided by Neighbourhood Statistics (www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk) through 2001 Census and other surveys’ data. The methodology focuses on devising a system to summarise and analyse poverty data at the street block level and highlights the need for such summaries in order to relate these social data to the urban environment. The analysis shows that a number of spatial, architectural, market, and policy factors interact to shape the distribution of poverty and identifies them in order to evaluate their relationship to people’s ability to create wealth. The research concludes that, although much of the spatial distribution of poverty is dictated by the intervention of the Welfare State as well as being driven by the private market, this is also related to: a) a particular spatial property of the built environment, known as choice1 in space syntax2 theory, and, b) specific characteristics of housing forms: the frontages of the built form and the space-use division of the public realm

ptype: probabilistic type inference

Type inference refers to the task of inferring the data type of a given column of data. Current approaches often fail when data contains missing data and anomalies, which are found commonly in real-world data sets. In this paper, we propose ptype, a probabilistic robust type inference method that allows us to detect such entries, and infer data types. We further show that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods

TB6: Importance of Entomogenous Fungi in Controlling Aphids on Potatoes in Northeastern Maine

This publication reports on field studies of aphid biology and of associated ecological factors made near Presque Isle, Maine. Results showed that, among the biological agents affecting aphid population trends from 1952 through 1962, entomogenous fungi were outstanding in reducing the size of populations of the potato aphid developing on potatoes treated with fungicides but not with insecticides. The potato aphid was most affected by fungi and the buckthorn aphid least affected by them. The green peach and foxglove aphids were intermediate. Predators exerted a noticeably adverse effect upon aphid population trends in two of the 11 years.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin/1188/thumbnail.jp

The determinants of contractual choice for private involvement in infrastructure projects in the United States

Reliance on private partners to help provide infrastructure investment and service delivery is increasing in the United States. Numerous studies have examined the determinants of the degree of private participation in infrastructure projects as governed by contract type. We depart from this simple public/private dichotomy by examining a rich set of contractual arrangements. We utilize both municipal and state-level data on 472 projects of various types completed between 1985 and 2008. Our estimates indicate that infrastructure characteristics, particularly those that reflect stand alone versus network characteristics, are key factors influencing the extent of private participation. Fiscal variables, such as a jurisdiction’s relative debt level, and basic controls, such as population and locality of government, increase the degree of private participation, while a greater tax burden reduces private participation

Recovery Risk and Labor Costs in Public-Private Partnerships : Contractual Choice in the US Water industry

We use an ordered logistic model to empirically examine the factors that explain varying degrees of private involvement in the U.S. water sector through public-private partnerships. Our estimates suggest that a variety of factors help explain greater private participation in this sector. We find that the risk to private participants regarding cost recovery is an important driver of private participation. The relative cost of labor is also a key factor in determining the degree of private involvement in the contract choice. When public wages are high relative to private wages, private participation is viewed as a source of cost savings. We thus find two main drivers of greater private involvement: one encouraging private participation by reducing risk, and another encouraging government to seek out private participation in lowering costs

Strong versus Weak Vertical Integration: Contractual Choice and PPPs in the United States

Public-Private-Partnerships are long-term, relational contracts between a public-sector sponsor and a private partner to deliver infrastructure projects across a range of economic sectors. Efficiency gains may derive from risk transfer and bundling different tasks within a single contract. We study the factors explaining the scope of bundling. We focus on the choice between weak vertical integration, which includes operational tasks alone or construction tasks alone, versus strong vertical integration, which involves the combination of operational and construction tasks. We utilize a new data set that includes 553 PPPs concluded in the U.S. between 1985 and 2013

Do public-private partnership enabling laws increase private investment in transportation infrastructure?

The use of public-private partnerships, or PPPs, is an important development in U.S. infrastructure delivery. PPPs are detailed contracts between a public-sector project sponsor and a private-sector provider that bundle together key delivery services. PPPs represent an important middle ground between pure-public project delivery and complete privatization. As of 2016, thirty-five U.S. states had enacted PPP enabling laws. Those laws define the broad institutional framework surrounding a PPP agreement. They address such questions as the mixing of public- and private-sector funds, the treatment of unsolicited PPP proposals, and the need for prior legislative approval of PPP contracts, among other issues. We provide the first comprehensive empirical assessment of the impact of those laws on a state's utilization of private investment. We analyze the overall effect of a state having a PPP enabling law while controlling for a variety of factors. A law's average impact represents an almost six-fold increase relative to the average percentage of PPP investment prior to enactment in treated states. We then assess the impact of PPP enabling-law provisions. We develop an expert-informed weighted index reflecting the degree to which a state's law is encouraging or discouraging of private investment. We find that PPP provisions that empower PPPs, such as exemptions from property taxes and from extant procurement laws, as well as confidentiality protections, successfully attract PPP investment

Why do people walk in the suburbs? An analysis of how spatial configuration and land use diversity contribute to walkability

Most current research looking at how planning and urban design can contribute to walkability compares built environment measures such as connectivity, diversity and land use. This working paper contributes to this domain by reporting on a pilot study which used space syntax measures of route choice to analyse self-reported walked routes and planned activities within three outer London suburban neighbourhoods. Using a bespoke questionnaire on a wide array of activities coupled with self-reported route traces the study related the through-movement potential of the street network to the intensity of routes and land use diversity through each of the three areas. Using data on people's reasons for walking and actual routes, adjusting for differences between different groups of users, the aim was to see whether urban configuration affects patterns of movement in the suburban realm. The findings show that route availability is associated with increased walking along routes with 'active' land uses, notwithstanding the variety of activities taken during a walk. They also reveal clear differences in usage patterns and trip length according to the degree of familiarity with the areas as well as the location of physical barriers to walking routes, such as railway lines. Greater use of green spaces is found to be associated with their integration into the spatial network and local inter-visibility. The findings also tentatively suggest that routes with increased network centrality are more likely to be used for multi-purpose trips. The results suggest that improved planning and design can increase walking in an area, leading both to local vitality as well as potentially to the health of individuals

Do public-private partnership enabling laws increase private investment in infrastructure [WP]

Rising use of public-private partnerships, or PPPs, is an important development in U.S. infrastructure delivery. PPPs are detailed contracts between a public-sector infrastructure project sponsor and a private-sector provider that bundle delivery services. PPPs represent a middle ground between pure-public project delivery and complete privatization. As of 2016, thirty-five U.S. states had enacted PPP enabling laws. That legislation defines the broad institutional framework surrounding a PPP agreement. It addresses such questions as the mixing of public- and private-sector funds, the treatment of unsolicited PPP proposals, and need for prior legislative approval of PPP contracts, among other key issues. We provide the first thorough empirical assessment of the impact of PPP enabling laws on a state’s utilization of private investment. We analyze the overall effect of having a PPP enabling law while controlling for a variety of factors, including the state’s indebtedness, its broad political disposition, union membership, per-capita income, and other variables. We then assess the impact of thirteen individual PPP enabling-law provisions. We develop an expert-informed weighted index reflecting the degree to which a state’s law is encouraging or discouraging of private investment. We find that more favorable PPP enabling laws increase private investment: when our favorability index increases by one-tenth, the proportion of infrastructure investment delivered via PPP in a state increases by 0.5-0.6. We find that PPP enabling-law provisions allowing unsolicited proposals and the comingling of public and private funds are particularly important in attracting private investment