5,731 research outputs found
Hard, soft and thin governance spaces in land-use change: comparing office-to-residential conversions in England, Scotland and the Netherlands
In recent years, converting office buildings to residential use became a high-profile issue in the UK and in the Netherlands. There has, however, been differentiation in the policy response between England and Scotland (planning policy being devolved within the UK), and the Netherlands. We conceptualize this differentiation through the lens of variegated neoliberalism in the forms of hard, soft and thin governance spaces. England, where planning deregulation is more strongly adopted, represents a thin governance space. Scotland, where there has been little policy change, illustrates a hard governance space. The Netherlands represents a soft governance space, where proactive partnerships between government and developers predominate. This paper characterizes these distinct governance spaces and explores their impact on housing delivery and place-making, and the impact of underlying ideologies and planning culture(s) in governing office-to-residential conversions in the three countries. Drawing on national government assessments and statistics, interviews with stakeholders, and case study data from three cities: Leeds, Glasgow and Rotterdam, we conclude that while both hard and soft governance spaces, to different degrees and with different merits, are environments that enable planning, thin governance spaces â being driven more by ideology than notions of good governance â imply weak planning and place-making
Neutrino Oscillations, Fluctuations and Solar Magneto-gravity Waves
This review has two parts. The first part summarizes the current
observational constraints on fluctuations in the solar medium deep within the
solar Radiative Zone, and shows how the KamLAND and SNO-salt data combine to
make the experimental determination of the neutrino oscillation parameters
largely insensitive to prior assumptions about the nature of these
oscillations. As part of a search for plausible sources of solar fluctuations
to which neutrinos could be sensitive, the second part of the talk summarizes a
preliminary analysis of the influence of magnetic fields on helioseismic waves.
Using simplifying assumptions which should apply to modes in the solar
radiative zone, we find a resonance between Alfven waves and helioseismic
g-modes which potentially modifies the solar density profile fairly
significantly over comparatively short distance scales, too narrow to be ruled
out by present-day analyses of p-wave helioseismic spectra.Comment: Plenary talk presented at AHEP 2003, Valencia, Spain, October 200
âSpeak up!â An Examination of the Language Capacities of Children Displaying Various Forms of Social Withdrawal and Aggression
Language serves as a mechanism through which children are able to interact and communicate with others. Thus, when children do not develop language at a typical pace, there may be cause for concern. The purpose of the current study was to examine the language production of children displaying various forms of social withdrawal (reticent, solitary-passive, and solitary-active behavior) and children engaging in subtypes of aggression (relational, physical, and comorbid). Participants came from preschools operated by a large private university located in the intermountain region of the western United States (N = 220, Mage = 4.58, 53% female). We observed the participating children, and teachers and parents completed reports on the childrenâs behaviors. Results revealed that reticent, solitary-passive, and solitary-active children produced less language compared to their nonwithdrawn peers. Further analyses revealed language differences between subtypes of social withdrawal. Physically aggressive children produced less language compared to nonaggressive children, and comorbid aggressive children produced more language compared to their nonaggressive, physically aggressive, and relationally aggressive peers. The discussion focuses on contextual and conceptual factors that may play a role in understanding the relation between language production, social withdrawal, and aggression
A non-invasive method for link upgrade planning using coarse-grained measurements
A basic problem faced by network operators concerns
the provisioning of bandwidth to meet quality of service
(QoS) requirements. In the network core, the preferred solution is simply to overprovision link bandwidth. We propose a new approach to making link upgrade decisions based only on readily available coarse SNMP measurements
Stochastic oscillations of adaptive networks: application to epidemic modelling
Adaptive-network models are typically studied using deterministic
differential equations which approximately describe their dynamics. In
simulations, however, the discrete nature of the network gives rise to
intrinsic noise which can radically alter the system's behaviour. In this
article we develop a method to predict the effects of stochasticity in adaptive
networks by making use of a pair-based proxy model. The technique is developed
in the context of an epidemiological model of a disease spreading over an
adaptive network of infectious contact. Our analysis reveals that in this model
the structure of the network exhibits stochastic oscillations in response to
fluctuations in the disease dynamic.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Research into the quality standard of homes delivered through change of use permitted development rights
The report provides the findings of independent research into the quality standard of homes delivered through certain national permitted development rights for the change of use.
The research considers the quality of homes delivered in 11 case study areas in England in respect of size, amenity, location and design, drawing out the differences between homes delivered through permitted development compared with planning applications
What makes you not a Buddhist? : a preliminary mapping of values
This study sets out to establish which Buddhist values contrasted with or were shared by adolescents from a non-Buddhist population. A survey of attitude toward a variety of Buddhist values was fielded in a sample of 352 non-Buddhist schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15 in London. Buddhist values where attitudes were least positive concerned the worth of being a monk/nun or meditating, offering candles & incense on the Buddhist shrine, friendship on Sangha Day, avoiding drinking alcohol, seeing the world as empty or impermanent and Nirvana as the ultimate peace. Buddhist values most closely shared by non-Buddhists concerned the Law of Karma, calming the mind, respecting those deserving of respect, subjectivity of happiness, welfare work, looking after parents in old age and compassion to cuddly animals. Further significant differences of attitude toward Buddhism were found in partial correlations with the independent variables of sex, age and religious affiliation. Correlation patterns paralleled those previously described in theistic religions. Findings are applied to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and for the teaching of religious to pupils of no faith adherence. The study recommends that quantitative psychometrics employed to conceptualize Buddhist values by discriminant validity in this study could be extended usefully to other aspects of the study of Buddhism, particularly in quest of validity in the conceptualization of Buddhist identity within specifically Buddhist populations
Holographic Aspects of Fermi Liquids in a Background Magnetic Field
We study the effects of an external magnetic field on the properties of the
quasiparticle spectrum of the class of 2+1 dimensional strongly coupled
theories holographically dual to charged AdS black holes at zero
temperature. We uncover several interesting features. At certain values of the
magnetic field, there are multiple quasiparticle peaks representing a novel
level structure of the associated Fermi surfaces. Furthermore, increasing
magnetic field deforms the dispersion characteristics of the quasiparticle
peaks from non-Landau toward Landau behaviour. At a certain value of the
magnetic field, just at the onset of Landau-like behaviour of the Fermi liquid,
the quasiparticles and Fermi surface disappear.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. Revised some of the terminology: changed
non-separable solutions to infinite-sum solution
Simultaneous Conventional and Plenoptic Background Oriented Schlieren Imaging
Plenoptic Background Oriented Schlieren (BOS) is an emerging schlieren technique that is capable of providing 3D qualitative and quantitative information about density gradients present in a wide range of fluid dynamics problems. In this work, the fundamental concepts of plenoptic BOS are reviewed before discussing an open-air experiment with a buoyant plume where both conventional BOS and plenoptic BOS measurements were acquired simultaneously. Both cameras had the same field-of-view for all experiments, and three different focal plane arrangements were explored: (1) the focal plane was set to the background positions and the plume varied between 11 different positions relative to this focal plane, (2) the focal plane was set to 635- millimeters in front of the background position, and (3) the nominal focal plane varied while the position of the plume remained fixed. Such discussion will provide insight on how the two techniques compare, and what additional work is required to better understand the results provided by these two imaging systems
Identification of the Synthetic Cannabinoid R()WIN55,212-2 as a Novel Regulator of IFN Regulatory Factor 3 Activation and IFN- Expression
Beta Interferons (IFN-βs) represent one
of the first line treatments for relapsing remitting
multiple sclerosis (RRMS), slowing
disease progression whilst reducing the
frequency of relapses. Despite this, more
effective, well tolerated therapeutic strategies
are needed. Cannabinoids palliate experimental
autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)
symptoms and have therapeutic potential in MS
patients although the precise molecular
mechanism for these effects is not understood.
Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling controls
innate immune responses and TLRs are
implicated in MS. Here we demonstrate that the
synthetic cannabinoid R(+)WIN55,212-2 is a
novel regulator of TLR3 and TLR4 signaling by
inhibiting the pro-inflammatory signaling axis
triggered by TLR3 and TLR4 whilst selectively
augmenting TLR3-induced activation of IFN
regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and expression of
IFN-β. We present evidence that
R(+)WIN55,212-2 strongly promotes the
nuclear localization of IRF3. The potentiation
of IFN-β expression by R(+)WIN55,212-2 is
critical for manifesting its protective effects in
the murine MS model EAE as evidenced by its
reduced therapeutic efficacy in the presence of
an anti-IFN-β antibody. R(+)WIN55,212-2 also
induces IFN-β expression in MS patient
peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs),
whilst downregulating inflammatory signaling
in these cells. These findings identify
R(+)WIN55,212-2 as a novel regulator of TLR3
signaling to IRF3 activation and IFN-β
expression and highlights a new mechanism
that may be open to exploitation in the
development of new therapeutics for the
treatment of MS
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