Fabrication and testing of negative-limited sealed nickel-cadmium cells

The design, construction, and testing of 100,20Ah and 100,3Ah negative-limited sealed cells are reported. The required physical dimensions of the hardware and components necessary to produce 20 and 3 Ah cells were established. The stainless steel cans and covers have been ordered. The covers contain two ceramic seals. The fabrication of electrodes was started. About 55% (879 electrodes) of the required cadmium electrodes has been prepared. About 44% of the porous nickel substrates (plaques) required for the preparation of the nickel oxide electrodes has been completed

Measurements of long-lived cosmogenic nuclides in returned comet nucleus samples

Measurements of long lived cosmic ray produced radionuclides have given much information on the histories and rates of surface evolution for meteorites, the Moon and the Earth. These nuclides can be equally useful in studying cometary histories and post nebular processing of cometary surfaces. The concentration of these nuclides depends on the orbit of the comet (cosmic ray intensity changes with distance from the sun), the depth of the sampling site in the comet surface, and the rate of continuous evolution of the surface (erosion rate of surface materials). If the orbital parameters and the sampling depth are known, production rates of cosmogenic nuclides can be fairly accurately calculated by theoretical models normalized to measurement on lunar surface materials and meteoritic samples. Due to the continuous evaporation of surface materials, it is expected that the long lived radioactivities will be undersaturated. Accurate measurements of the degree of undersaturation in nuclides of different half-lives allows for the determination of the rate of surface material loss over the last few million years

Housing Market Regulation Has Contributed to the Worldwide Triumph of Home Ownership

The present report presents new historical data based on country comparisons and research results regarding rent control and its long-term effect on the home ownership rate in 27 countries. Policy measures of rent control, protection against eviction, and housing space management have been widespread in most of the countries studied—particularly in continental Europe—in the past 100 years. At the same time, the rate of home ownership in those countries has steadily risen in the long term. The present analysis shows that in the past century, the triumph of home ownership has not only been the result of relevant incentive measures and financial market liberalization. Indirectly, it is also due to rent control

Rent Price Control – Yet Another Great Equalizer of Economic Inequalities? Evidence from a Century of Historical Data

The long-run U-shaped patterns of economic inequality are standardly explained by basic economic trends (Piketty’s r>g), taxation policies, or “great levelers,” like catastrophes. This paper argues that housing policy, in particular rent control, is a neglected explanatory factor in understanding overall inequality. We hypothesize that rent control could decrease overall housing wealth, lower incomes of generally richer landlords, and increase disposable incomes of generally poorer tenants. Using original long-run data for up to 16 countries (1900-2016), we show that rent controls lowered wealth-to-income ratios, top income shares, Gini-coefficients, rent increases, and rental expenditure. A counterfactual analysis using micro-data from the Luxembourg Income Study shows that rent controls could reduce rental expenditure of mostly lower-income tenants and rental incomes of mostly higher-income landlords. Overall, rent controls must be strict in order to have tangible effects and, historically, only strict rent controls have significantly reduced inequalities. The paper argues that housing policies should generally receive more attention in understanding economic inequalities

Does Social Policy through Rent Controls Inhibit New Construction? Some Answers from Long-Run Historical Evidence

The (re-)introduction of rent regulation in the form of rent controls, tenant protection or supply rationing is back on the agenda of policymakers in light of rent inflation in many global cities. While rent control as social policy promises short-term relief, economists point to their negative long-run effects on new construction. This paper present long-run data on both rent regulation and housing construction for 16 developed countries (1910-2017) and 44 developing countries since the 1980s to confirm the economists’ view generally, albeit with certain reservations. The negative effect of regulation can be offset by exemptions for new construction, by compensating government construction and by a flight of new construction into the owner-occupied sector. The overall magnitude of the effect is therefore not as high as expected and shows non-linearities. But, although rent control is usually introduced with good social-policy intentions, it generally risks to crowd out its object of regulation through inhibiting new construction.1 Introduction 2 Determinants of residential construction 3 Data 3.1 Housing construction intensity 3.2 Control variables 3.3 Regulation indices 4 Econometric methodology 5 Results 5.1 Descriptive findings 5.2 Multivariate estimations 6 Discussion and conclusion Literature Figures and table

Sensitivity of solar off-limb line profiles to electron density stratification and the velocity distribution anisotropy

The effect of the electron density stratification on the intensity profiles of the H I Ly-$\alpha$ line and the O VI and Mg X doublets formed in solar coronal holes is investigated. We employ an analytical 2-D model of the large scale coronal magnetic field that provides a good representation of the corona at the minimum of solar activity. We use the mass-flux conservation equation to determine the outflow speed of the solar wind at any location in the solar corona and take into account the integration along the line of sight (LOS). The main assumption we make is that no anisotropy in the kinetic temperature of the coronal species is considered. We find that at distances greater than 1 Rsun from the solar surface the widths of the emitted lines of O VI and Mg X are sensitive to the details of the adopted electron density stratification. However, Ly-$\alpha$, which is a pure radiative line, is hardly affected. The calculated total intensities of Ly-$\alpha$ and the O VI doublet depend to a lesser degree on the density stratification and are comparable to the observed ones for most of the considered density models. The widths of the observed profiles of Ly-$\alpha$ and Mg X are well reproduced by most of the considered electron density stratifications, while for the O VI doublet only few stratifications give satisfying results. The densities deduced from SOHO data result in O VI profiles whose widths and intensity ratio are relatively close to the values observed by UVCS although only isotropic velocity distributions are employed. These density profiles also reproduce the other considered observables with good accuracy. Thus the need for a strong anisotropy of the velocity distribution (i.e. a temperature anisotropy) is not so clear cut as previous investigations of UVCS data suggested. ...Comment: 11 pages; 11 figure

Mechano-electric heterogeneity of the myocardium as a paradigm of its function

Myocardial heterogeneity is well appreciated and widely documented, from sub-cellular to organ levels. This paper reviews significant achievements of the group, led by Professor Vladimir S. Markhasin, Russia, who was one of the pioneers in studying and interpreting the relevance of cardiac functional heterogeneity

The Rise and Fall of Social Housing? Housing Decommodification in Long-Run Perspective

The comparative study of housing decommodification lags behind classical welfare state research, while housing research itself is rich in homeownership studies but lacks comparative accounts of private and social rentals due to missing comparative data. Building on existing works and various primary sources, this study presents a new collection of up to forty-eight countries’ social housing shares in stock and new construction since the first housing laws around 1900. The interpolated benchmark time series generally describe the rise and fall of social housing across a residual, a socialist, and a Northern-European housing group. The decline was steeper than for the classical welfare state, but the degree of erosion was surprisingly small in some countries where public housing associations remained resilient. Within the broader housing welfare state, social housing correlates positively with rent regulation and allowances, but negatively with homeownership subsidies and liberal mortgage regulation. A multivariate analysis shows that social housing is rather explained by housing shortages and complementarities with rental and welfare policies than by typical welfare state theories (GDP, political parties). Generally, the paper shows that conventional housing typologies are difficult to defend over time and argues more generally for including housing decommodification in welfare state research.Die vergleichende Forschung zur Dekommodifizierung des Gutes Wohnen ist bisher von der klassischen Wohlfahrtsstaatsforschung vernachlässigt worden. Die Wohnungsforschung selbst ist wiederum reich an Studien zum Wohneigentum, aber vergleichende Darstellungen zu privaten und sozialen Mietwohnungen sind aufgrund fehlender komparativer Daten wenig erforscht. Aufbauend auf bestehenden Arbeiten und verschiedenen Primärquellen stellt diese Studie daher zunächst eine neue Datensammlung von bis zu 48 Ländern vor, die den Anteil der Sozialwohnungen an den Beständen und Neubauten seit den ersten Wohnungsbaugesetzen um 1900 erfasst. Die interpolierten Benchmark-Zeitreihen beschreiben im Allgemeinen den Aufstieg und Fall des sozialen Wohnungsbaus in einem residualen, sozialistischen und einem nordeuropäischen Wohnungsregime. Der Rückgang war steiler als beim klassischen Wohlfahrtsstaat, aber überraschend resilient in Ländern mit öffentlichen Wohnungsbaugesellschaften. Innerhalb des umfassenderen Wohnungswohlfahrtsstaates korreliert der soziale Wohnungsbau positiv mit der Regulierung von Mieten und Wohngeldzahlungen, aber negativ mit Wohneigentumssubventionen und liberalen Hypothekenregelungen. Eine multivariate Analyse zeigt, dass der soziale Wohnungsbau eher durch Wohnungsknappheit und funktionale Komplementarität mit Miet- und Sozialpolitik als mit typischen wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Faktoren (BIP, politische Parteien) erklärt wird. Generell zeigt der Beitrag, dass herkömmliche Wohnungstypologien im Laufe der Zeit nur schwer zu verteidigen sind, und plädiert dafür, die Dekommodifizierung von Wohnraum stärker in die Wohlfahrtsstaatsforschung einzubeziehen.Contents 1 Introduction 2 Social housing: What it is and how to measure it? 3 Descriptive results 4 Bivariate findings: Social housing and the broader housing welfare state 5 Multivariate: The determinants of social housing provision 6 Conclusion Appendix Reference

The Rise and Fall of Social Housing? Housing Decommodification in Long-Run Comparison

The comparative study of housing decommodification lags behind classical welfare state research, while housing research itself is rich in homeownership studies but lacks comparative accounts of private and social rentals due to missing comparative data. Building on existing works and various primary sources, this study presents a new collection of up to forty-eight countries’ social housing shares in stock and new construction since the first housing laws around 1900. The interpolated benchmark time series generally describes the rise and fall of social housing across a residual, a socialist, and a Northern-European housing group. The decline was steeper than for the classical welfare state, but the degree of erosion was surprisingly small in some countries where public housing associations remained resilient. Within the broader housing welfare state, social housing correlates positively with rent regulation and allowances, but negatively with homeownership subsidies and liberal mortgage regulation. A multivariate analysis shows that social housing is rather explained by housing shortages and complementarities with rental and welfare policies than by typical welfare state theories (GDP, political parties). Generally, the paper shows that conventional housing typologies are difficult to defend over time and argues more generally for including housing decommodification in welfare state research.Introduction Social housing: What it is and how to measure it? Descriptive results Bivariate findings: Social housing and the broader housing welfare state Multivariate: The determinants of social housing provision Conclusion Supplementary material Competing interests Footnotes Reference

Review of Tranquebar―Whose History? Transnational Cultural Heritage in a Former Danish Trading Colony in South India, by Helle Jørgensen, New Delhi, Orient BlackSwan, 2014, xi + 356pp., $40/£42, Hardcover, ISBN 9788125053453

Jørgensen examines the emergence of Tranquebar as a heritage town in post-colonial India through the diverse, sometimes competing interests and claims of local residents, state-oriented institutions, scholars and policy makers, non-governmental organisations, and private entrepreneurs. Tharangambadi, Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, colloquially known as Tranquebar, is a fishing community of about 23000 people on the Coromandel Coast of India. Tranquebar was one of two trading posts that the Danish East India Company established in the 1600s, and that were taken over by the Danish Crown in 1650. The British East India Company acquired Denmark‟s Indian territories in 1845, and they were subsequently taken over in 1857 by the British Crown when the Company was dissolved. These territories were transferred to the Indian national government in 1947, when India gained independence from the British Crown. Jørgensen investigates the use of the past, that is, the making of Tranquebar into a destination for heritage tourism based on its Danish colonial history. The study takes place in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean earthquake on December 26, 2004. This major seismic event centred in the west coast of Sumatra, resulted in a powerful tsunami that radiated from there toward each country that shares a coastline on the Indian Ocean. The tsunami inundation in turn, caused the destruction of infrastructure, towns and villages, the displacement of coastal communities and the loss of human life. Tranquebar was severely impacted and since the tsunami, initiatives to promote economic growth in the town have intensified