In Defiance of a Stylistic Stereotype: British Crematoria, Architecture, Design and Landscape

This paper presented a new critical reading of the crematorium, rendered ‘invisible’ by the taboo surrounding death and provided the first opportunity to disseminate this research to an international audience. It focussed on the ways in which architects responded to the challenges of modern secularism and relativism. The paper developed issues identified by the research for Death Redesigned (Grainger 2007), in particular it explored the social, political, economic determinants that hindered the development of an identifiable architectural canon and investigated the reasons why the architectural pluralism that followed attracted so much early criticism from architects, architectural commentators, clergy and members of the public alike. It discussed the challenges that this building type presented arising from a lack of a common understanding of what is required by a building at once functional and symbolic, secular and religious. The crematorium has to provide a stage for the ritual of all denominations and none. For many people cremation is a religious act. For those individuals, the principle determining the arrangement of a building used in any religious service needs to be the physical expression of a religious rite, whether this be for example Christian or Hindu. The building must therefore embody its ritualistic purpose in a coherent and recognisable architectural form. For those who do not belong to the dominant religious groups, their spiritual and emotional needs must also be provided for in a meaningful way. But, a crematorium as a religious space, deriving directly from liturgical imperatives – the accepted norm in ecclesiastical architecture – is problematic because there is no liturgy for cremation in Europe – no agreed order of service. The result has been the lack of a conceptual basis for these buildings, and this paper examined the variety of stylistic options that architects adopted in order to address the dilemma

External validity in healthy public policy: application of the RE-AIM tool to the field of housing improvement

<b>Background</b><p></p> Researchers and publishers have called for improved reporting of external validity items and for testing of existing tools designed to assess reporting of items relevant to external validity. Few tools are available and most of this work has been done within the field of health promotion.<p></p> <b>Methods</b><p></p> We tested a tool assessing reporting of external validity items which was developed by Green & Glasgow on 39 studies assessing the health impacts of housing improvement. The tool was adapted to the topic area and criteria were developed to define the level of reporting, e.g. “some extent”. Each study was assessed by two reviewers.<p></p> <b>Results</b><p></p> The tool was applicable to the studies but some items required considerable editing to facilitate agreement between the two reviewers. Levels of reporting of the 17 external validity items were low (mean 6). The most commonly reported items related to outcomes. Details of the intervention were poorly reported. Study characteristics were not associated with variation in reporting.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b><p></p> The Green & Glasgow tool was useful to assess reporting of external validity items but required tailoring to the topic area. In some public health evaluations the hypothesised impact is dependent on the intervention effecting change, e.g. improving socio-economic conditions. In such studies data confirming the function of the intervention may be as important as details of the components and implementation of the intervention

Temporal album

Transient synchronization has been used as a mechanism of recognizing auditory patterns using integrate-and-fire neural networks. We first extend the mechanism to vision tasks and investigate the role of spike dependent learning. We show that such a temporal Hebbian learning rule significantly improves accuracy of detection. We demonstrate how multiple patterns can be identified by a single pattern selective neuron and how a temporal album can be constructed. This principle may lead to multidimensional memories, where the capacity per neuron is considerably increased with accurate detection of spike synchronization

Computational modes and grid imprinting on five quasi-uniform spherical C-grids

Currently, most operational forecasting models use latitude-longitude grids, whose convergence of meridians towards the poles limits parallel scaling. Quasi-uniform grids might avoid this limitation. Thuburn et al, JCP, 2009 and Ringler et al, JCP, 2010 have developed a method for arbitrarily-structured, orthogonal C-grids (TRiSK), which has many of the desirable properties of the C-grid on latitude-longitude grids but which works on a variety of quasi-uniform grids. Here, five quasi-uniform, orthogonal grids of the sphere are investigated using TRiSK to solve the shallow-water equations. We demonstrate some of the advantages and disadvantages of the hexagonal and triangular icosahedra, a Voronoi-ised cubed sphere, a Voronoi-ised skipped latitude-longitude grid and a grid of kites in comparison to a full latitude-longitude grid. We will show that the hexagonal-icosahedron gives the most accurate results (for least computational cost). All of the grids suffer from spurious computational modes; this is especially true of the kite grid, despite it having exactly twice as many velocity degrees of freedom as height degrees of freedom. However, the computational modes are easiest to control on the hexagonal icosahedron since they consist of vorticity oscillations on the dual grid which can be controlled using a diffusive advection scheme for potential vorticity

Measuring the Economic Impact of High Speed Rail Construction for California and the Central Valley Region

The nation’s first high-speed rail project is under construction in California’s Central Valley as of the date of this report. This research analyzes the immediate economic impacts, focused on employment and spending generated by California High-Speed Rail (HSR) Construction Package 1 (CP1) in the Central Valley and the rest of California. The authors use a two-pronged approach that combines original economic analysis and modeling with case study vignettes that explore the economic impacts through the lens of a sample of businesses and individuals directly impacted by this phase of HSR development. Overall, the economic analysis suggests that CP1-related spending (forecasted through to 2019) will lead to more than 31,500 additional jobs (both part-time and full-time) by the year 2029. Growth is concentrated in Fresno County, with the number of additional jobs estimated at more than 15,500. The analysis considers job growth across a number of alternative scenarios, converting the raw jobs estimates to full-time equivalent job-years. Under the most conservative HSR spending scenario considered, over the 15-year period evaluated, more than 25,000 full-time equivalent job-years are created. This amount to 14,900 jobs per billion (real) dollars of spending, or a cost of approximately $67,200 per job-year

Green is the New Black’: Sustainability in Contemporary UK Crematorium Design.

Environmental issues have been at the forefront of crematorium design in the UK since the passing of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act. In 2005 Defra introduced a further requirement for the cremation industry to remove mercury from 50% of cremations, resulting in the need to accommodate costly filtration equipment in crematoria. This caused considerable problems for outdated buildings, particularly the many chapel conversions of the 1950s and 1960s, and presented significant financial and architectural challenges in the design of new crematoria. In 2006 the cremation industry responded imaginatively to emission compliance by creating CAMEO, the lead organization providing and managing a national burden sharing scheme, whereby emissions are negotiated between crematoria. For its part, the architectural profession responded with innovative and thoughtful design solutions in tune with current environmental thinking. This paper will explore contemporary crematorium design in the UK, with a particular emphasis on the work of Robert Potter & Partners, architects of award-winning Roucan Loch Crematorium, Dumfries and Galloway (2005) and South Lanarkshire Crematorium, Blantyre (2006). The partnership’s much acclaimed Oak Chapel Crematorium at Milton Keynes (2010-2011) privileges high standards of energy conservation by means of natural ventilation by wind towers on the roof, and heating generated from the cremators. The work of Stride Treglowan for the Westerleigh Group at Livingstone Crematorium (2010) and Melrose Crematorium in The Borders (2011), further illustrates the ways in which wider environmental aspects of crematorium design and landscapes have been addressed

Invisible Landmarks: The Architecture of Crematoria in the North East

Given that seven out of deaths in the UK today result in cremation, it begs the question as to why, until recently, crematoria have been almost entirely absent from architectural histories. Although in many ways the ‘invisible’ buildings of the twentieth century, crematoria nevertheless tell us a great deal about the complex and changing attitudes to death and disposal. There are currently 274 in operation in the UK, the first opening in Woking, Surrey in 1889, but the majority dating from between 1950 and 1970. As cremation slowly gained acceptance in Britain, this progress was reflected in its architectural expression and each crematorium can therefore be seen as a symbol of social change. Furthermore, crematoria and their surrounding Gardens of Rest and Remembrance were intended to created a new landscape for mourning. The crematorium presents a series of challenges to the architect. It is a building frequented by a large cross-section of religious, secular and ideological movements, all with different, but overlapping needs. From the outset the lack of a shared and clear expectation of what is required from a crematorium has given rise to the cultural ambivalence lying at the heart of many designs. Not surprisingly, architectural responses have often been ambiguous and evasive. At once utilitarian and symbolic, religious and secular, crematoria are fraught with complexity. Forty years ago the crematorium was a place for cremation and a brief committal ceremony. Now the ritual, the function and the remembrance all centre on the crematorium and setting. This paper will explore the reasons why crematoria remain ‘invisible’ landmarks, despite their growing significance in today’s society. It will draw its examples principally from the North East

Beware the Proposed US Crypto Regulation— It May be a Trojan Horse

Following the spectacular failure of crypto exchange FTX International, there have been renewed calls for crypto legislation (including from the industry itself).But many of the proposals so far would be worse than the status quo — at least for the general public. Crypto firms such as FTX were involved in drafting many of the mooted US bills. The exchange’s implosion should not become a pretext for rushing these into law