Problems of Rehousing

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the changing circumstances of a group of families rehoused by the Glasgow Local Authority. The families came mostly from central areas of the city and were rehoused in Drumchapel on the western periphery of Glasgow. The gains of moving to new houses were thus offset by separation from friends and relatives, and increased travelling times to work and shops. Fresh air and clean surroundings were accompanied by higher rates and rents, higher bus fares and the expense of fitting out new and larger houses. A total of 421 families were seen in their old houses immediately before being rehoused by the local authority. Three hundred and ninety-seven of these families were seen after six months in their new houses and 387 after one year. Most of the families had been on the local authority housing list for over ten years and the average age of the tenants at the time of rehousing was over 38 years. Nine out of ten of the old houses were tenements dating back to the nineteenth century. Nine out of ten of the new houses were also tenements, and the majority of these were of three apartments (Two bedrooms and living-dining room). The numbers of new four and five apartment houses available were inadequate and led to overcrowding in over one fifth of the three-apartment houses. The number of smaller houses available was also inadequate, making it necessary in several cases to accommodate couples and single persons in three-apartment houses. Nevertheless overcrowding was far less common after rehousing, and overcrowding of sleeping accommodation was abolished. Almost one half of the old houses had shared toilet accommodation. In such cases the toilet was usually situated on the stairhead and shared by two to five families. Less than one fifth of the houses had baths or running hot water. All of the new houses had toilets, baths and running hot water. Most of the tenants were engaged in skilled or semi-skilled work, but the tenants transferred from houses due for demolition and the tenants who had kept their old houses in an unsatisfactory state, showed an excess of unskilled workers. Further, the men drawn from these very decrepit and ill-kept houses showed a relatively poor work record in terms of continuity of employment over the two years before rehousing. Over one half of the tenants had liked their old districts, but most of them preferred Drumchapel. Those tenants transferred from older local authority houses often saw little improvement in Drumchapel over their old conditions. They were glad to move to a home of their own, but often sighed for the semi-detached, or terraced type of house they had left. The rents and rates of the old houses averaged 15/4[d] weekly, those of the new houses averaged 25/5[d] weekly. The increase was considered worthwhile by most tenants when they took into account the improved facilities of the new houses. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

Separation and Purification of Mineral Salts from Spacecraft Wastewater Processing via Electrostatic Beneficiation

Electrostatic separation is a class of material processing technologies commonly used for the sorting of coarse mixtures by means of electrical forces acting on charged or polarized particles. Most if not all of the existing tribo-electrostatic separators had been initially developed for mineral ores beneficiation. It is a well-known process that has been successfully used to separate coal from minerals. Potash (potassium) enrichment where underground salt mines containing large amounts of sodium is another use of this techno logy. Through modification this technology can be used for spacecraft wastewater brine beneficiation. This will add in closing the gap be~een traveling around Earth's Gravity well and long-term space explorations. Food has been brought on all man missions, which is why plant growth for food crops continues to be of interest to NASA. For long-term mission considerations food productions is one of the top priorities. Nutrient recovery is essential for surviving in or past low earth orbit. In our advance bio-regenerative process instead of nitrogen gas produced; soluble nitrate salts that can be recovered for plant fertilizer would be produced instead. The only part missing is the beneficiation of brine to separate the potassium from the sodium. The use of electrostatic beneficiation in this experiment utilizes the electrical charge differences between aluminum and dried brine by surface contact. The helixes within the aluminum tribocharger allows for more surface contact when being agitated. When two materials are in contact, the material with the highest affinity for electrons becomes negatively charged, while the other becomes positively charged. This contact exchange of charge may cause the particles to agglomerate depending on their residence time within the tribocharger, compromising the efficiency of separation. The aim of this experiment is to further the development in electrostatic beneficiation by optimizing the separation of ersatz and possibly real wastewater brine residues. In doing so, ideally it will yield a high potassium enrichment for use in spacecraft plant systems

Long-term Trends in the Population Ecology of Polar Bears in Western Hudson Bay in Relation to Climatic Change

From 1981 through 1998, the condition of adult male and female polar bears has declined significantly in western Hudson Bay, as have natality and the proportion of yearling cubs caught during the open water period that were independent at the time of capture. Over this same period, the breakup of the sea ice on western Hudson Bay has been occurring earlier. There was a significant positive relationship between the time of breakup and the condition of adult females (i.e., the earlier the breakup, the poorer the condition of the bears). The trend toward earlier breakup was also correlated with rising spring air temperatures over the study area from 1950 to 1990. We suggest that the proximate cause of the decline in physical and reproductive parameters of polar bears in western Hudson Bay over the last 19 years has been a trend toward earlier breakup, which has caused the bears to come ashore in progressively poorer condition. The ultimate factor responsible for the earlier breakup in western Hudson Bay appears to be a long-term warming trend in April-June atmospheric temperatures.De 1981 à la fin de 1998, la condition physique de l'ours polaire adulte, mâle et femelle, s'est détériorée de façon importante dans l'ouest de la baie d'Hudson, tout comme le nombre de naissances et la proportion d'oursons de l'année pris durant la période d'eau libre, et qui étaient indépendants au moment de leur capture. Au cours de la même période, la débâcle de la banquise sur l'ouest de la baie d'Hudson s'est produite plus tôt. Il existait un lien très marqué entre le moment de la débâcle et la condition physique des femelles adultes (c.-à-d. que plus la débâcle se produisait tôt, plus les ourses étaient en mauvaise condition physique). La tendance à une débâcle précoce était également corrélée à l'augmentation de la température ambiante printanière dans la zone d'étude de 1950 à 1990. On suggère que la cause immédiate du déclin des paramètres physiques et reproducteurs de l'ours polaire dans l'ouest de la baie d'Hudson au cours des derniers 19 ans a été une tendance à une débâcle précoce, ce qui amené les ours à venir sur la terre ferme dans un état de plus en plus mauvais. Le facteur responsable de la débâcle précoce dans la baie d'Hudson semble être en fin de compte la tendance au réchauffement à long terme de l'atmosphère en avril et en juin

Polar Bear Distribution and Abundance on the Southwestern Hudson Bay Coast During Open Water Season, in Relation to Population Trends and Annual Ice Patterns

In Hudson Bay, all the ice melts in summer, and the last areas to be ice-free (around mid-to-late July) are usually off the coasts of Manitoba and Ontario. Thus, all polar bears are forced ashore to fast until freeze-up in November (ca. four months). Pregnant females remain ashore for eight months. In most years from 1963 through 1997, aerial surveys to monitor polar bear populations were conducted along all or part of the coastline between Cape Churchill, Manitoba, and Cape Henrietta Maria, Ontario, in late August and early September. Satellite data, from which breakup and ice absence times could be estimated, first became available in 1971. The numbers of animals counted were tallied in two subareas within Manitoba and three within Ontario. We evaluated the coastal counts, along with independent data on the movements of tagged bears and annual patterns of ice breakup from 1971 through 1996. We concluded that 1) the coastal survey data reliably indicated the population trends in Manitoba and Ontario; 2) little exchange occurred between the Western Hudson Bay (Manitoba) and Southern Hudson Bay (Ontario) populations; 3) between 1971 and 2001, there was a statistically significant trend toward earlier breakup of sea ice off the Manitoba coast, but not off the Ontario coast; 4) the onset of ice absence along the coast had no significant relationship to the number of bears present in each sub-sampling area within either the Manitoba or the Ontario population, but did significantly influence the distribution of bears on the coastline of each province independently of the other; 5) timing of the surveys can influence the results; and 6) adult male and female bears both showed a high degree of fidelity to specific areas during summer, independent of the pattern of ice breakup.Dans la baie d'Hudson, toute la glace fond en été, et les dernières zones à être non englacées (du milieu à la fin de juillet environ) se trouvent généralement au large des côtes du Manitoba et de l'Ontario. Ainsi, tous les ours polaires sont forcés de rester sur la terre ferme et de jeûner jusqu'à l'engel en novembre (soit environ quatre mois). Les femelles gravides, elles, restent sur la terre ferme pendant huit mois. Presque chaque année entre 1963 et 1997, à la fin août et au début de septembre, on a effectué des relevés aériens pour surveiller les populations d'ours polaires le long du littoral entre Cape Churchill, au Manitoba, et Cape Henrietta-Maria, en Ontario. Les données satellitaires, qui ont permis d'estimer la période de la débâcle et celle de l'absence de glace, sont devenues disponibles à partir de 1971. Le nombre d'animaux repérés a été inventorié comme provenant de deux sous-zones à l'intérieur du Manitoba et de trois à l'intérieur de l'Ontario. On a évalué le dénombrement des relevés côtiers ainsi que des données indépendantes sur les déplacements d'ours marqués et les schémas annuels de débâcle de 1971 à la fin de 1996. On en a conclu que: 1) les données des relevés côtiers révélaient de façon fiable les tendances démographiques au Manitoba et en Ontario; 2) il n'y avait que peu d'échanges entre les populations de la baie d'Hudson occidentale (Manitoba) et de la baie d'Hudson méridionale (Ontario); 3) entre 1971 et 2001, il y a eu une tendance statistiquement significative à une débâcle précoce au large du littoral manitobain, mais pas au large du littoral ontarien; 4) le début de l'absence de glace le long de la côte n'avait pas de lien marqué avec le nombre d'ours présents dans chaque secteur de sous-échantillonnage, au sein de la population du Manitoba ou de celle de l'Ontario, mais cette absence de glace avait une forte incidence sur la distribution des ours le long de la côte de chaque province indépendamment l'une de l'autre; 5) le choix de l'époque des relevés peut influencer les résultats; et 6), durant l'été, les ours mâles comme femelles manifestaient une grande fidélité pour des secteurs spécifiques, indépendamment de l'évolution de la débâcle

Expansive evolution of the TREHALOSE-6-PHOSPHATE PHOSPHATASE gene family in Arabidopsis

Trehalose is a nonreducing sugar used as a reserve carbohydrate and stress protectant in a variety of organisms. While higher plants typically do not accumulate high levels of trehalose, they encode large families of putative trehalose biosynthesis genes. Trehalose biosynthesis in plants involves a two-step reaction in which trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P) is synthesized from UDPglucose and glucose-6-phosphate (catalyzed by T6P synthase [TPS]), and subsequently dephosphorylated to produce the disaccharide trehalose (catalyzed by T6P phosphatase [TPP]). In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), 11 genes encode proteins with both TPS- and TPP-like domains but only one of these (AtTPS1) appears to be an active (TPS) enzyme. In addition, plants contain a large family of smaller proteins with a conserved TPP domain. Here, we present an in-depth analysis of the 10 TPP genes and gene products in Arabidopsis (TPPA-TPPJ). Collinearity analysis revealed that all of these genes originate from whole-genome duplication events. Heterologous expression in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) showed that all encode active TPP enzymes with an essential role for some conserved residues in the catalytic domain. These results suggest that the TPP genes function in the regulation of T6P levels, with T6P emerging as a novel key regulator of growth and development in higher plants. Extensive gene expression analyses using a complete set of promoter-beta-glucuronidase/green fluorescent protein reporter lines further uncovered cell- and tissue-specific expression patterns, conferring spatiotemporal control of trehalose metabolism. Consistently, phenotypic characterization of knockdown and overexpression lines of a single TPP, AtTPPG, points to unique properties of individual TPPs in Arabidopsis, and underlines the intimate connection between trehalose metabolism and abscisic acid signaling

The dual nature of trehalose in citrus canker disease: A virulence factor for Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri and a trigger for plant defence responses

Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc) is a bacterial pathogen that causes citrus canker in susceptible Citrus spp. The Xcc genome contains genes encoding enzymes from three separate pathways of trehalose biosynthesis. Expression of genes encoding trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (otsA) and trehalose phosphatase (otsB) was highly induced during canker development, suggesting that the two-step pathway of trehalose biosynthesis via trehalose-6-phosphate has a function in pathogenesis. This pathway was eliminated from the bacterium by deletion of the otsA gene. The resulting XccΔotsA mutant produced less trehalose than the wild-type strain, was less resistant to salt and oxidative stresses, and was less able to colonize plant tissues. Gene expression and proteomic analyses of infected leaves showed that infection with XccΔotsA triggered only weak defence responses in the plant compared with infection with Xcc, and had less impact on the host plant's metabolism than the wild-type strain. These results suggested that trehalose of bacterial origin, synthesized via the otsA-otsB pathway, in Xcc, plays a role in modifying the host plant's metabolism to its own advantage but is also perceived by the plant as a sign of pathogen attack. Thus, trehalose biosynthesis has both positive and negative consequences for Xcc. On the one hand, it enables this bacterial pathogen to survive in the inhospitable environment of the leaf surface before infection and exploit the host plant's resources after infection, but on the other hand, it is a tell-tale sign of the pathogen's presence that triggers the plant to defend itself against infection.Fil: Piazza, Ainelén Melanie. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Zimaro, Tamara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Garavaglia, Betiana Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Ficarra, Florencia Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Thomas, Ludivine. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Arabia SauditaFil: Marondedze, Claudius. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Arabia SauditaFil: Feil, Regina. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology; AlemaniaFil: Lunn, John E.. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology; AlemaniaFil: Gehring, Chris. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology; Arabia SauditaFil: Ottado, Jorgelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Gottig Schor, Natalia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; Argentin