Mayoral views on economic incentives: valuable tools or a bad use of resources?

Mayoral Views on Economic Incentives: Valuable Tools or a Bad Use of Resources? explores which types of cities and mayors embrace – or reject – tax concessions and subsidies to attract or retain business. The authors find considerable variation in how individual mayors think about these issues; personal traits of the mayor (e.g., party and time in office) and city level characteristics (e.g., economic performance) do not predict their views on economic incentives. The absence of clear patterns suggests to the authors that the supposedly omnipresent pressure to provide inducements to business investment is not the recurring, vivid presence in the lives of mayors that we might expect.Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundatio

Multi-Moji: Combining Thermal, Vibrotactile and Visual Stimuli to Expand the Affective Range of Feedback

This paper explores the combination of multiple concurrent modalities for conveying emotional information in HCI: temperature, vibration and abstract visual displays. Each modality has been studied individually, but can only convey a limited range of emotions within two-dimensional valencearousal space. This paper is the first to systematically combine multiple modalities to expand the available affective range. Three studies were conducted: Study 1 measured the emotionality of vibrotactile feedback by itself; Study 2 measured the perceived emotional content of three bimodal combinations: vibrotactile + thermal, vibrotactile + visual and visual + thermal. Study 3 then combined all three modalities. Results show that combining modalities increases the available range of emotional states, particularly in the problematic top-right and bottom-left quadrants of the dimensional model. We also provide a novel lookup resource for designers to identify stimuli to convey a range of emotions

Towards a Multimodal Adaptive Lighting System for Visually Impaired Children

Visually impaired children often have difficulty with everyday activities like locating items, e.g. favourite toys, and moving safely around the home. It is important to assist them during activities like these because it can promote independence from adults and helps to develop skills. Our demonstration shows our work towards a multimodal sensing and output system that adapts the lighting conditions at home to help visually impaired children with such tasks

Automatically Adapting Home Lighting to Assist Visually Impaired Children

For visually impaired children, activities like finding everyday items, locating favourite toys and moving around the home can be challenging. Assisting them during these activities is important because it promotes independence and encourages them to use and develop their remaining visual function. We describe our work towards a system that adapts the lighting conditions at home to help visually impaired children with everyday tasks. We discuss scenarios that show how they may benefit from adaptive lighting, report on our progress and describe our planned future work and evaluation

Radioactively driven colloids: A special case of anomalous diffusion

Citation: Wilson, G., Bahadori, A. A., & Bindra, H. (2019). Radioactively driven colloids: A special case of anomalous diffusion. Journal of Applied Physics, 126(12), 124308. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5116220A novel concept of self-propelled, radioactively driven colloids is introduced. The focus of this paper is on assessing the impact of alpha emissions on colloidal kinematics. Using Langevin dynamics and a random walk model, a theory has been developed to describe this motion. This theory shows a special case of anomalous diffusion. Numerical simulations have substantiated the theory. It is shown that alpha-particle emission can significantly affect the motion of colloidal particles, although a very short-lived radioisotope is required

Candidates for historical supernovae and their comparison against known Chinese records

In this MSc thesis, possible/probable supernova remnants associated with possible/probable historical supernovae are discussed and advancements in knowledge surrounding possible remnants associated with historical supernovae older than about a thousand years are presented. Supernovas in 1006, 1054, 1181, 1572 and 1604 are all discussed for completeness, although these supernovae have been extensively researched and there is little reason to doubt previous work. The historical supernovae of 185, 386, 393 and 837 are all discussed in more detail. In the opinion of the author, supernova of 185 is linked with the remnant 315.3-2.3 in the light of recent research. The supernova of 386 is linked with G11.2-0.3 and a possible record linking G11.2-0.3 with a supernova in 45BC is dismissed. An association of a remnant supernova of 393 remains unsatisfactorily resolved, with CTB37A and CTB37B remaining candidates, and the author has suggested the remnants G343.1-0.7 and G351.7+0.8 as alternatives given a new I-D relation. The age and suitability of GRO/RX J0852 for historical association is discussed, and political reasons for the lack of historical records for an apparent supernova in -1200AD suggested. G292.0+1.8 is discussed as a candidate for a historical supernova and dismissed due to its invisibility in China. The supernova of 837AD is discussed and the link between this and the remnant IC443 remains unconfirmed due to conflicting astrophysical evidence

Observations in man and animals on the distribution and excretion of sodium and potassium

The work described in the papers submitted was begun in 1950 when radioactive isotopes of sodium and potassium first became available for biological research. The initial investigations were made with ²⁴Na and methods were developed leading to the measurement of the amount of sodium in the human body that was free to exchange with the isotope. This afforded a means of ascertaining the amount of metabolically active sodium in the body and is commonly referred to as "exchangeable sodium" or Naₑ. During the course of this work it was found that there was a large amount of sodium in bone but that about 75 per cent was not available for exchange. This was confirmed by the use of the long half-life isotope ²²Na. The significance of the large amount of sodium in bone could not be investigated in man but studies in rats under various experimental conditions showed that in states of acute depletion sodium was withdrawn from the bones especially in young animals . This work demonstrated that ²²Na is not safe for use in man as a small amount may be retained in bone for a long period.The amount of exchangeable potassium in the body can likewise be measured with the isotope ⁴²K. Practically all the potassium in animals was available for exchange. When exchangeable sodium and potassium are measured simultaneously, as is often required, special techniques must be developed because the half lives of the isotopes ²⁴Na and ⁴²K (15.0 and 12.3 hours) are close. The introduction of tetraphenyl boron proved extremely satisfactory for the separation of potassium from sodium in biological fluids. Rubidium was thought to have a similar distribution to potassium in the body but investigations with the isotope ⁸⁶Rb showed that it was not a reliable alternative to ⁴²K.Previous to the use of sodium and potassium radioisotopes the only way to study the metabolism of these electrolytes in the human body was by cumulative metabolic balance methods. In long term investigations this is extremely laborious. However, measurements of Naₑ, and Kₑ at intervals can demonstrate cumulative changes, are simpler and less time consuming, and gave results in good agreement with the balance method. Furthermore, the isotope techniques yielded a measure of the amounts of sodium and potassium in the body . The potassium content of the body was related to the lean tissue mass; in comparison with healthy males the amount of potassium was reduced in females and in those with wasting diseases. In chronic disease there was an increase in the proportion of sodium in the body and this was seen to the greatest extent in oederenatous states.Characteristic changes in sodium and potassium metabolism take place after the infliction of an injury or a surgical operation (12, 13). These consisted in a retention of sodium and an enhanced excretion of potassium lasting over a few days. These changes are probably related to the levels of adrenocortical hormones in the blood as trauma increases adrenal secretion, but this response was detected in patients undergoing bilateral adrenalectomy and in patients with Addison's disease (adrenal insufficiency) given a constant exogenous supply of adrenal steroids during an operation. It is now known that the blood levels are elevated by surgical operation even in these circumstances as the metabolism and excretion of the steroids are delayed.Electrolyte metabolism may be deranged in thyroid disorders and accordingly measurements were made of exchangeable sodium and potassium in hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism before and after treatment. Treatment of hypothyroidism with thyroxine led to a decrease in both Naₑ and Kₑ due probably to a loss of myxoedematous tissue. Successful therapy of hyperthyroidism was associated with an increase in Kₑ due to restoration of lost muscular tissue. Changes in Naₑ were variable and not readily interpreted. In some patients there was little change but in many there was a moderate decrease in Naₑ on return to health. Decalcification of the skeleton may occasionally occur in hyperthyroidism and it was considered possible that some of the difficulties in interpretation of Naₑ changes might be due to alteration in bone sodium content. However, experimental studies in rats given large doses of thyroxine did not demonstrate any effects on bone sodium metabolism. A mild degree of cardiac failure occurs in many thyrotoxic patients and the decrease in Naₑ is probably related to a loss of a small amount of latent oedema. This has been confirmed in subsequent unpublished observations.A similar pattern of changes in body electrolyte composition, namely an excess of sodium and a loss of potassium, has already been noted in cardiac patients . It was particularly evident in patients with severe mitral stenosis and after successful surgical treatment serial measurements showed a gradual restoration of the body composition towards normal. A delay in the excretion of ingested sodium is a recognised early feature of congestive cardiac failure and it was thought that this might be related to the increased sodium content of the body. This was investigated in dogs with experimental valvular lesions of the heart. Considerable changes in the ability to excrete sodium developed without any gross alterations in the amount of exchangeable sodium in the body. The reduction in sodium excretion rate could not be attributed to the dilution of infused sodium in an expanded body sodium pool. The abnormality was apparently due to a direct effect of the cardiac lesions on renal function.The introduction of chlorothiazide, an effective oral diuretic, constituted a considerable advance in aiding the excretion of the excess of sodium present in cardiac failure. However, chlorothiazide often caused a considerable excretion of potassium as well as sodium which is particularly disadvantageous in the depleted cardiac patient. This potassium loss was attributed to the carbonic anhydrase inhibitor activity of chlorothiazide. However, a later derivative, hydroflumethiazide, which was a negligible carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, nevertheless under certain circumstances caused a marked loss of potassium. The liability to lose potassium was thought not to be related so much to the choice of the thiazide diuretic as to the circumstances under which it was given. This hypothesis was tested experimentally in normal men and it was demonstrated that the extent of potassium loss following the administration of a thiazide diuretic was related to adrenal mineralocorticoid activity. Excessive potassium loss may be prevented by giving an aldosterone antagonist. Triamterene, a recently introduced oral diuretic enhances sodium excretion but depresses potassium excretion; this was probably due to a direct action on the distal renal tubule. It may be used in conjunction with a thiazide and together they may promote a large sodium diuresis without excessive potassium loss. This recent work on the action of diuretics in relation to the excretion of sodium and potassium has been reviewed in the Bradshaw lecture