Local authority responses to people with NRPF during the pandemic: research report

Migrants with ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) are at high risk of destitution due to their exclusion from most welfare benefits and statutory housing support. This is a longstanding issue that has been highlighted by campaigners, academics and the migration sector. This report examines how local authorities in England responded to people with NRPF during the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights systemic issues with access to support for people with NRPF and shows how provision varied considerably across England (most notably in the case of single adults with NRPF who would not normally be eligible for support but were included in the COVID-19 homelessness response) and even within individual local authorities. The COVID-19 pandemic has made life significantly more difficult and precarious for people with NRPF. Many have lost income, employment and accommodation, while non-statutory support services have been forced to close. The number of people with NRPF in need of assistance to meet their basic needs has increased. Our research indicates that people with NRPF are more likely to become seriously ill or die if they contract COVID-19. Despite this, it has been difficult for many people with NRPF to access the help they need, including adequate food, shelter and subsistence support, during this public health crisis. Local authorities have statutory duties towards two categories of people with NRPF: families with ‘children in need’; and adults with care needs. There are, however, significant variations in how these duties are implemented, with many migrants in need of support unable to access their entitlements under normal (pre-pandemic) circumstances. A key problem in this area is that local authorities are not funded by central government to provide support to people with NRPF - an issue that has been consistently raised by rights advocates. This issue became more urgent during the pandemic as local authorities were called upon by central government to provide support to a third group of people with NRPF who would not normally be eligible for assistance: single homeless adults without care needs. Our research shows that, while some councils put in place effective emergency support for this group, the England-wide response of local authorities was frequently characterised by confusion, a lack of information about support options, the ‘gatekeeping’ of access to accommodation, and gaps in essential provision (e.g. food). Our research focuses on the period during which the UK was in ‘lockdown’. But the problems we highlight in this report have by no means come to an end. Local authorities continue to be underfunded and the destitution experienced by people with NRPF has not abated. It is unclear what will happen to homeless adults with NRPF who have no statutory entitlement to support as public- health concerns subside. Our research indicates that while some local authorities are trying to respond to this issue in a way that respects people’s rights and dignity, others do not want to continue to support people with NRPF, with a number planning to resort to so-called ‘voluntary returns’ or ‘reconnection’. In the view of many of our research participants, only an urgent end to the NRPF system can adequately address the problems that have been highlighted by COVID-19

Sugarbeet Production Under Reduced Tillage Prospects And Problems

A study was initiated in the fall of 1977 to obtain base line data on the applicability of reduced tillage sugarbeet production in the Red River Valley. Three reduced tillage systems were compared to a conventional system which consisted of fall plow plus secondary tillage. Results indicated warmer early spring soil temperatures, better seedling emergence, lower ground-level wind speed and no significant yield loss under reduced tillage as compared to the conventional system

An Intense Wave/Particle Event in the Auroral Ionosphere

An intense burst of VLF waves, at frequencies just above the local proton gyrofrequency, was observed shortly after each of two intense bursts of field‐aligned suprathermal electrons (E \u3c 250eV) by instruments carried on a sounding rocket flown in diffuse aurora. If the two phenomena are associated with each other, the implication is that the electron acceleration occurred nearby, in a relatively small volume

Using SDO-EVE Satellite Data to Model for the First Time How Large Solar Flares Influence the Earths Ionosphere

The ionosphere is important in our everyday communicaBons. Many satellites, like GPS satellites, have to send signals through the ionosphere, and many emergency radio communicators depend on the ionosphere to extend the range of their communicaBons. We also have many satellites and even the InternaBonal space staBon located in this region of the atmosphere. It becomes important for the astronauts in the ISS and for the health of the satellites to know what is going on in the ionosphere and how it can affect their systems. The lower regions are important because the E-­‐region will extend the distance that a High Frequency (HF) radio operator can communicate, and when the E-­‐region is expanded it will absorb the communicaBons and cause a radio blackout, so any emergency personnel that depend on those HF radio communicaBons won\u27t be able to communicate. And both the F and E regions will affect GPS satellites communicaBon and can cause errors in posiBon on the earth of up to 20 meters

Modeling the ionospheric E and F1 regions: Using SDO-EVE observations as the solar irradiance driver

Over the altitude range of 90–150 km, in dayside nonauroral regions, ionization is controlled almost entirely by solar ultraviolet irradiance; the response time for ionization during solar exposure is almost instantaneous, and likewise, the time scale for recombination into neutral species is very fast when the photoionizing source is removed. Therefore, if high-resolution solar spectral data are available, along with accurate ionization cross sections as a function of wavelength, it should be possible to model this ionospheric region with greater accuracy. The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) instrument on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite, launched in February 2010, is intended to provide just such solar data, at high resolution in both wavelength and time cadence. We use the Utah State University time-dependent ionospheric model to assess the sensitivity in modeling that this solar irradiance data provide, under quiet solar conditions as well as during X-class flares. The sensitivity studies show that the E and F1 regions, as well as the valley region, are strongly dependent upon wavelength in both electron density and ion composition

Promising emission behavior in Pr 3+ /In selenide-chalcogenide-glass small-core step index fiber (SIF)

Selenide-chalcogenide glass, small-core, step-index fiber (SIF), core-doped with Pr3+: 9.51 × 1024 ions m−3 (500 ppmw) is fabricated for the first time with indium to help solubilize Pr3+. Core diameters of 20 or 40 μm are confirmed using scanning electron microscopy and near-field imaging; fibre numerical aperture is ∼0.4. Optical loss is ≥ 4.9 dB m−1 across the 3–9 μm mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range. On pumping at 1.55 μm or 2.013 μm, the SIFs give broad MIR emission across 3.5–6 μm assigned to 3H6 → 3H5 and 3H5 → 3H4. The Pr3+ emission-lifetime at 4.7 μm decreases from bulk-glass (10.1 ± 0.3 ms), to intermediately processed fiber (8.10 ± 0.5 ms) to SIF (7.1 ± 0.5 ms) induced by the processing. On end-pumping SIFs at 2.013 μm, the output pump-power and emission intensity at 4.7 μm became sub-linear and super-linear, respectively, suggesting MIR excited-state saturation is occurring

Resolving Ionospheric E-region Modeling Challenges: The Solar Photon Flux Dependence

The EVE instrument of the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) provides for the first time EUV and XUV measurements of the solar irradiance that adequately define the major source of ionization of the atmosphere. In our study we modeled the E-region of the ionosphere and analyzed how it is affected by the solar irradiance data obtained by EVE and contrast this with the S2000 Solar Irradiance model, used previously. The ionosphere has two major layers, the E-layer at 100 km, and the F-layer at 300 km. The difference in solar irradiances are small except at some wavelength bands, it is these differences that lead to a better understanding of the physical/chemical processes of the E-region. Observations of the ionospheric layers is best achieved using incoherent scatter radars (ISR). We have compared our model with ISR data available from Arecibo Puerto Rico in an effort to understand how specific solar irradiance wavelength bands affect the E-region. This study focuses on two specific wavelength bands 0.1-15 nm and 91-103 nm. Both are responsible for E-region production, but in quite different manners

Multi-year Observations of Mid-latitude Middle Atmospheric Winds, Waves, and Temperature associated with SSW Events over Northern Utah

We investigate the behavior of 14 years of wind, wave, and temperature observations in the middle atmosphere over northeastern Utah, USA during periods of sudden stratospheric warming events. This systematic review of the impacts of sudden stratospheric warming events on the middle atmosphere at a northern mid-latitude site is conducted using ground based measurements from imaging Doppler interferometry and meteor wind radar and Na and Raleigh lidar and space based measurements made by the Sounding of the Atmosphere Using Broadband Emission Radiometry sensor onboard the NASA sponsored Thermosphere Ionosphere mesosphere Energetics Dynamics Mission

Comparison of Simultaneous Chatanika and Millstone Hill Temperature Measurements with Ionospheric Model Predictions

As part of the MITHRAS program, the Chatanika and Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radars made coordinated observations of the polar ionosphere on June 27 and 28, 1981. The temperature data obtained during these days were compared with predictions made by a high-latitude ionospheric model. The comparison of the temperature measurements and the results of the ionospheric model depend on the assumptions made both in reducing the data and on the inputs that are needed by the model. The deduction of electron temperature from radar measurements depends upon a knowledge of the mean ion mass as a function of altitude. The model requires a knowledge of the heat flux at the upper boundary and the volume heating rate. The results of the model were compared with measurements for a variety of combinations of the required inputs. It was found that the best fits resulted with a heat flux of from 0 to −0.7 × 1010 eV cm-2s-1 at the upper boundary and a relatively high volume heating rate. These results also required that the model predictions for the average ion mass be used in the reduction of the radar data. However, other combinations of assumptions also produced good fits. A systematic temperature difference of between 200 and 300 K was found between the Chatanika and Millstone Hill measurements of electron temperature at high altitudes

Determining the refractive index dispersion and thickness of hot-pressed chalcogenide thin films from an improved Swanepoel method

The well-known method presented by Swanepoel can be used to determine the refractive index dispersion of thin films in the near-infrared region from wavelength values at maxima and minima, only, of the transmission interference fringes. In order to extend this method into the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral region (our measurements are over the wavelength range from 2 to 25 μm), the method is improved by using a two-term Sellmeier model instead of the Cauchy model as the dispersive equation. Chalcogenide thin films of nominal batch composition As40Se60 (atomic %) and Ge16As24Se15.5Te44.5 (atomic %) are prepared by a hot-pressing technique. The refractive index dispersion of the chalcogenide thin films is determined by the improved method with a standard deviation of less than 0.0027. The accuracy of the method is shown to be better than 0.4% at a wavelength of 3.1 μm by comparison with a benchmark refractive index value obtained from prism measurements on Ge16As24Se15.5Te44.5 material taken from the same batch