Sketch of the Life of William Blanchard Towne

Sketch of the life of William Blanchard Towne.Sketch of the life of William Blanchard Towne, A.M. Founder of the Towne Memorial Fund of the New-England HIstoric, Genealogical Society. By John Ward Dean

Presenting the case for the application of multi-criteria analysis to mega transport infrastructure project appraisal

The paper commences with an overview of mega transport infrastructure decision-making as it relates to the megaproject development cycle and challenges of sustainable development, which are increasingly redefining the criterion for the evaluation of project success. The body of the paper presents a brief critique of various appraisal applications to mega transport infrastructure projects, including: Social Cost Benefit Analysis; Cost Effectiveness Analysis; Goal Achievement Matrix Methods and the Planning Balance Sheet, highlighting the merits and demerits of the outlined approaches. Here particular reference is made to the power of context on decision-making and other lessons from OMEGA Centre research. These include, most importantly, the treatment of risk, uncertainty and complexity of developments outside of the project and the challenges of meeting multiple stakeholder aspirations/needs thereby building up the case for the introduction and use of multi-criteria analysis and policy-led multi-criteria analysis to the appraisal of Mega Transport Projects

Putting the Illegal into heritage practice

This article considers the concept of Illegal that is used to challenge the disciplinary constraints of authorised heritage practice. The Illegal provides a conceptual device to consider the ontological reality of the heritage world and the necessary illusion of the heritage profession. Alongside, the critical challenges to the Authorised Heritage Discourse presented by Indigenous Worlds, guerrilla restoration, People Centred Approaches, Experimental Preservation, and creative heritage practice, the tactical activism of Illegal practice is offered as an insurgent tool for transforming heritage worlds. Two recent Illegal projects, the ‘Illegal Town Plan’ and the Illegal Museum of Beyond’s ‘Objects of the Misanthropocene’ exhibition project, present speculative insouciance as a method for putting the Illegal into heritage practice

Fire Station Siting Study

The City of Hammond Fire Department, in need of a new station location, worked with Shive-Hattery of South Bend to study the optimal location for fire stations in Hammond. This presentation guides the audience through the data collection, processing the data into GIS, and comparing population density to find a site best suited to the needs of Hammond Residents

Application of policy-led multi-criteria analysis to the appraisal of the Northern Line Extension, London

This paper seeks to both illustrate and act as a proof of concept of how a policy-led multi-criteria analysis framework and its attendant process of the type introduced in the second paper, ‘Theory and Background of Multi-Criteria Analysis: Toward a policy-led approach for mega transport project infrastructure appraisal’, can be applied to the appraisal of a mega transport project in the form of the Northern Line Extension in London. It is offered with a view to help better identify the distribution of the projects costs and benefits and shed greater light on the possible ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ over space and time, and under given scenarios. Drawing from an extensive array of public domain literature the paper sets out both the policy and planning contexts for the project plus the business case that led to a decision by UK Treasury to guarantee a £1 billion loan to Transport for London for the construction of the Northern Line's extension. The paper looks at the scale and nature of the megaproject's features, particularly its line-haul and related real estate developments, especially those in the assigned development opportunity area. The text presents the policy, planning, legislative and regulative dimensions of the project likely to define its revenue generation prospects and environmental and social impacts, with special attention paid to those project outcomes affecting key stakeholders over time and space. The paper also seeks to explain the mechanics of how to employ a policy-led multi-criteria framework together with its associated processes within which stakeholder policies and agendas can be mapped and common/divergent interests identified. This is done with a view to ultimately facilitate stakeholder negotiation decision-making trade-offs in given scenarios under the policy guidance of the Greater London Authority with the support of the Treasury of the UK Government

OPTIMAL STRUCTURE OF AN AGRIBUSINESS FIRM CONSIDERING THE ECONOMICS OF MAJOR, LINKED COMPONENTS

An optimization model is used to evaluate the economics of various components of a large agribusiness. The benefits of using interger programming are contrasted to traditional linear programming analysis in conjunction with outside-the-model budgeting analysis.Agribusiness, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Role of Creative Practice in Heritage Process: Speculative Pasts from Certain Futures. Past, Present and Future, Which Comes First?

In partnership with Dean Sully, Associate Professor in Conservation at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology, we look beyond human-centered heritage practice and seek to engage with more destabilized ideas of temporality and the more-than-human. The intriguing contradictions and deep timeframes of the Anthropocene potentially help to free us from a human-centered focus, and allow us to step outside of current constraints in comprehending problems and taking action. In the workshop we build a participatory thought experiment, in which participants are invited to propose their own Department of the MPIWG situated at the far edges of the Anthropocene, on the end of a semi-fiction Pier. This provides a speculative exploration of heritage care for living as well as possible in more-equitable, more-than- human worlds

Care home versus hospital and own home environments for rehabilitation of older people

Background Rehabilitation for older people has acquired an increasingly important profile for both policy‐makers and service providers within health and social care agencies. This has generated an increased interest in the use of alternative care environments including care home environments. Yet, there appears to be limited evidence on which to base decisions. This review is the first update of the Cochrane review which was published in 2003. Objectives To compare the effects of care home environments (e.g. nursing home, residential care home and nursing facilities) versus hospital environments and own home environments in the rehabilitation of older people. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Specialised Register and Pending Folder, MEDLINE (1950 to March Week 3 2007), EMBASE (1980 to 2007 Week 13), CINAHL (1982 to March, Week 4, 2007), other databases and reference lists of relevant review articles were additionally reviewed. Date of most recent search: March 2007. Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled clinical trials (CCTs), controlled before and after studies (CBAs) and interrupted time series (ITS) that compared rehabilitation outcomes for persons 60 years or older who received rehabilitation whilst residing in a care home with those who received rehabilitation in hospital or own home environments. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. Main results In this update, 8365 references were retrieved. Of these, 339 abstracts were independently assessed by 2 review authors, and 56 studies and 5 review articles were subsequently obtained. Full text papers were independently assessed by two or three review authors and none of these met inclusion criteria. Authors' conclusions There is insufficient evidence to compare the effects of care home environments versus hospital environments or own home environments on older persons rehabilitation outcomes. Although the authors acknowledge that absence of effect is not no effect. There are three main reasons; the first is that the description and specification of the environment is often not clear; secondly, the components of the rehabilitation system within the given environments are not adequately specified and; thirdly, when the components are clearly specified they demonstrate that the control and intervention sites are not comparable with respect to the methodological criteria specified by Cochrane EPOC group. The combined effect of these factors resulted in the comparability between intervention and control groups being very weak