Increase in semiconductor laser modulation response by FM to AM conversion in transmission through fiber grating

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Seyfert Galaxies and BeppoSAX

The contributions that BeppoSAX is expected to give and, after one and a half year of operation, has already given to our knowledge of both type 1 and type 2 Seyfert galaxies are outlined and reviewed.Comment: Invited review, to appear in "The Active X-ray sky: Results from BepppoSAX and Rossi-XTE", conference held in Rome, Italy, October 1997. 10 pages LaTeX, using espcrc2 and epsfig. 5 postscript figures inserte

Defining and measuring housing affordability using the Minimum Income Standard, and the possibility of a living rent

The past few years have seen growing concerns over the ‘crisis’ in housing affordability, for both renters and home owners, renewing longstanding debate about what constitutes ‘affordable housing’. Alongside this, there is keen interest in understanding the impact of housing costs on living standards, particularly with the growth of the PRS as a source of housing for low income households. Currently the term ‘affordable’ in the UK generally means housing available at ‘below market value’ rather than resting on any considered assessment of what its inhabitants can afford. In this context, the paper builds on the work of Stone (2006) and others on ‘residual income measures’ of housing affordability, accepting that what households can afford to pay for housing depends not just on their income but also on their other spending requirements. We propose a new way of defining housing affordability for renters, built on an established and regularly updated measure of non-housing costs (or residual income), the Minimum Income Standard (MIS). The paper outlines our approach, and uses the latest Family Resources Survey to examine housing affordability across the UK and within London. It concludes by looking at how this new approach might be used to inform the setting of rents at an ‘affordable’ level – or what has come to be called a Living Rent

Win-At-All-Costs? Exploring Bottom-line Mentality as a Buffer between Athletic Director Servant Leadership and Coach Commitment

Servant leadership (SL), characterized by enduring qualities of genuine caring, humility, and empathy, has been positively associated with numerous leader effectiveness outcomes (e.g., employee satisfaction) across sport and non-sport settings. This study addresses the need to more thoroughly investigate follower characteristics that may allow servant leadership to be more (or less) effective in a sport context. Drawing from leader-member exchange theory, this study predicted head coach bottom-line mentality (i.e. 1-dimensional, win-at-all-costs attitude) would negatively impact the relationship between athletic director SL and head coach commitment. Surveying a sample of 810 interscholastic HCs across the USA, Structural Equation Modeling revealed SL’s positive effect on head coach commitment. Analysis also revealed the interaction of SL and bottom-line mentality had a significant negative impact on commitment. Thus, when follower bottom-line mentality is win-at-all-costs, the positive influence of SL appears to be diminished

Red nuggets grow inside-out: evidence from gravitational lensing

We present a new sample of strong gravitational lens systems where both the foreground lenses and background sources are early-type galaxies. Using imaging from HST/ACS and Keck/NIRC2, we model the surface brightness distributions and show that the sources form a distinct population of massive, compact galaxies at redshifts $0.4 \lesssim z \lesssim 0.7$, lying systematically below the size-mass relation of the global elliptical galaxy population at those redshifts. These may therefore represent relics of high-redshift red nuggets or their partly-evolved descendants. We exploit the magnifying effect of lensing to investigate the structural properties, stellar masses and stellar populations of these objects with a view to understanding their evolution. We model these objects parametrically and find that they generally require two S\'ersic components to properly describe their light profiles, with one more spheroidal component alongside a more envelope-like component, which is slightly more extended though still compact. This is consistent with the hypothesis of the inside-out growth of these objects via minor mergers. We also find that the sources can be characterised by red-to-blue colour gradients as a function of radius which are stronger at low redshift -- indicative of ongoing accretion -- but that their environments generally appear consistent with that of the general elliptical galaxy population, contrary to recent suggestions that these objects are predominantly associated with clusters.Comment: 21 pages; accepted for publication in MNRA

Prototyping tangibles : exploring form and interaction

In order to better explore the opportunities for tangible interaction in new areas such as the home or cultural heritage sites, we used multiple rapidly-developed prototypes that take advantage of existing technology. Physical prototypes allow us to give form to ideas and to evaluate the integration of form and function, two core components of tangible interaction. We discuss potentials and pitfalls when using off-the-shelf digital devices (by embedding a device, cracking it open and building on it, or collating board and parts) through six prototypes developed in two studies. Hacking devices to materialize our ideas proved excellent for fast prototyping. Technology imposed constraints and prompted different design solutions than initially intended offering unexpected ways to engage. On the basis of this experience we outline a process and offer guidelines for the fast prototyping of tangible interactions

Sight loss and minimum living standards: the additional costs of living for people of working age who are severely sight impaired and for people of pension age with acquired sight impairment

This research by CRSP uses the Minimum Income Standards (MIS) method to calculate the additional costs of living for different groups of people with vision impairment and shows how they increase with severity of impairment and age. The research, funded by Thomas Pocklington Trust, is based on deliberation among groups of people with sight loss about additions that need to be made to the standard MIS household budget because of their vision impairment. The report outlines how much extra they need to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living. Working age people who are severely sight impaired face 60% higher costs, and the costs for someone of pension age who is sight impaired can be 41% more than people of the same age who are not vision impaired, both higher than the 25% additional cost identified in a previous study looking at the additional costs of someone of working age who is sight impaired. The research also highlights the broad range of additional costs that people who are vision impaired face and the similarities and differences in needs and costs when severity of impairment and age are taken into account

How much is enough? Reaching social consensus on minimum household needs

The Minimum Income Standard research carried out regularly by CRSP involves detailed discussion among member of the public about what things are essential for a minimum acceptable standard of living. This report sets out for the first time the details of how the groups reach consensus and what rationales they use to determine which items are included. Based on analysis of six years of MIS research, the report identifies the common themes that have emerged from the groups’ discussions, ranging from the need to have reasonable choices to the importance of living life in a practical way when time is scarce. For each area of household budgets, it explains how these rationales have guided decisions about what items people need to be able to afford