Armed violence and poverty in Somalia: a case study for the Armed Violence and Poverty Initiative

YesThis report on Somalia is one of 13 case studies. This research draws upon secondary data sources including existing research studies, reports and evaluations commissioned by operational agencies, and early warning and survey data where this has been available. These secondary sources have been complemented by interviews with government officers, aid policymakers and practitioners, researchers and members of the local population. This work was carried out in Nairobi in February and September 2004. The author would like to thank the many Somali, international NGOs, UN and donor bodies based there. The report has also benefited greatly from inputs from Dr June Rock. The author would also like to thank Mark Bradbury and Reg Green for comments on an earlier draft; however, they are not responsible for any shortcomings in this final version. The analysis and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of DFID or the UK government

Armed violence and poverty in Nairobi: a mini case study for the Armed Violence and Poverty Initiative

YesThis report on Nairobi is one of 13 case studies (all of the case studies are available at www.bradford.ac.uk/cics). This research draws upon secondary data sources including existing research studies, reports and evaluations. The analysis and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of DFID or the UK government

Nanostructure determination from the pair distribution function: A parametric study of the INVERT approach

We present a detailed study of the mechanism by which the INVERT method [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 125501] guides structure refinement of disordered materials. We present a number of different possible implementations of the central algorithm and explore the question of algorithm weighting. Our analysis includes quantification of the relative contributions of variance and fit-to-data terms during structure refinement, which leads us to study the roles of density fluctuations and configurational jamming in the RMC fitting process. We present a parametric study of the pair distribution function solution space for C60, a-Si and a-SiO2, which serves to highlight the difficulties faced in developing a transferable weighting scheme.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, formatted for JPCM (RMC issue

Armed violence and rural livelihoods

This briefing paper examines relationships between armed violence affecting rural communities and efforts to maintain, restore and promote already fragile livelihoods. It is one of a series of briefings addressing issues surrounding the interaction between armed violence and poverty-reducing development. This paper seeks to provide an introduction for the staff of the UK government¿s Department for International Development (DFID) and other donor agencies to some of the issues raised in trying to make this connection and to stimulate thinking on these questions in analysis and policy. Some of the key questions to be addressed are: ¿ How can DFID¿s current sustainable rural livelihoods framework be applied to contexts of armed violence? ¿ What are the implications of these relationships for planning and programming rural development? ¿ Conversely, how might development interventions tackle the prevalence and spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and other factors fostering violence that affect livelihood

Structure determination of disordered materials from diffraction data

We show that the information gained in spectroscopic experiments regarding the number and distribution of atomic environments can be used as a valuable constraint in the refinement of the atomic-scale structures of nanostructured or amorphous materials from pair distribution function (PDF) data. We illustrate the effectiveness of this approach for three paradigmatic disordered systems: molecular C60, a-Si, and a-SiO2 . Much improved atomistic models are attained in each case without any a-priori assumptions regarding coordination number or local geometry. We propose that this approach may form the basis for a generalised methodology for structure "solution" from PDF data applicable to network, nanostructured and molecular systems alike.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, set out as for PR

The impact of armed violence on poverty and development: Full report of the Armed Violence and Poverty Initiative

Ye

Defect-dependent colossal negative thermal expansion in UiO-66(Hf) metal-organic framework

Thermally-densified hafnium terephthalate UiO-66(Hf) is shown to exhibit the strongest isotropic negative thermal expansion (NTE) effect yet reported for a metal-organic framework (MOF). Incorporation of correlated vacancy defects within the framework affects both the extent of thermal densification and the magnitude of NTE observed in the densified product. We thus demonstrate that defect inclusion can be used to tune systematically the physical behaviour of a MOF.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, revise

Gendered experiences of academic staff in relation to research activity and the REF2014

This report is based on research commissioned by the institutional Research and Knowledge Transfer Office between June 2015 and June 2016. This research has focused on generating qualitative and quantitative data as to the potential reasons why there appears to be a gender disparity in research productivity within the commissioning institution. In particular, the number of women self-selecting for representation in the REF2014 was comparatively low. This research was led by Dr Chantal Davies (as part of her broader remit in relation to the Forum for Research into Equality and Diversity) with Dr Ruth Healey as co-researcher and Anthony Cliffe as research assistant. A Steering Group made up of representatives from across the institution oversaw the process