The Kerslake Review has shone a light on the deeply dysfunctional nature of Birmingham local government

The former Head of the Civil Service Sir Bob Kerslake recently published a government commissioned report into the governance of Birmingham City Council, and was withering about its shortcomings. Pauline Geohegan argues that the report simply confirms what was already widely known: that the city is disfunctionally run, and that its time for a big rethink of how things are done, and by whom

Two-dimensional electron crystals in single and double layers

We present results of Monte-Carlo simulations for finite 2D single and bilayer systems. Strong Coulomb correlations lead to arrangement of particles in configurations resembling a crystal lattice. For binary layers, there exists a particularly rich variety of lattice symmetries which depend on the interlayer separation $d$. We demonstrate that in these mesoscopic lattices there exist two fundamental types of ordering: radial and orientational. The dependence of the melting temperature on $d$ is analyzed, and a stabilization of the crystal compared to a single layer is found.Comment: To be published in Contrib. Plasma Phys., 6 pages, 3 figures, uses cpp2e.cls (included

Species-resolved imaging and gated photon counting spectroscopy of laser ablation plume dynamics during KrF- and ArF-laser PLD of amorphous diamond films

Gated photon counting spectroscopy and species-resolved ICCD photography were used to study the weak plasma luminescence following the propagation of the initial ablation plume in vacuum and during the rebound of the plume with a substrate during pulsed laser deposition of amorphous diamond. These methods techniques were required in order to investigate notable differences between amorphous diamond-like carbon films formed by pulsed laser deposition from ArF (193 nm) and KrF (248 nm) irradiation of pyrolytic graphite in vacuum. Three principal regions of plume emission were found: (1) a bright luminescent ball (v {approximately}3--5 cm/{mu}s) displaying nearly entirely C{sup +} emission which appears to result from laser interaction with the initial ejecta, (2) a spherical ball of emission (v {approximately} 1 cm/{mu}s) displaying neutral carbon atomic emission lines and, at early times, jets of excited C{sub 2}, and (3) a well-defined region of broadband emission (v {approximately} 0.3 cm/{mu}s) near the target surface first containing emission bands from C{sub 2}, then weak, continuum emission thought to result from C{sub 3} and higher clusters and/or blackbody emission from hot clusters or nanoparticles

Formation of single crystalline ZnO nanotubes without catalysts and templates

Oxide and nitride nanotubes have gained attention for their large surface areas, wide energy band gaps, and hydrophilic natures for various innovative applications. These nanotubeswere either grown by templates or multistep processes with uncontrollable crystallinity. Here the authors show that single crystal ZnO nanotubes can be directly grown on planar substrates without using catalysts and templates. These results are guided by the theory of nucleation and the vapor-solid crystal growth mechanism, which is applicable for transforming other nanowires or nanorods into nanotubular structures

High-density vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes with tubular structures

Ammonia (NH3) gas was thought to be essential for the growth of vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes (VA-MWCNTs) and led to the formation of bamboo-like structures. Here, we show that VA-MWCNTs with ideal tubular structures can be grown on substrates by various mixed gases with or without NH3 gas. The growth of these VA-MWCNTs is guided by a growth model that combined the dissociative adsorption of acetylene molecules (C2H2) and the successive vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism. Results indicate that the key factor for growing these VA-MWCNTs is a balance between the decomposition rate of the C2H2 molecules on the iron catalyst and the subsequent diffusion and segregation rates of carbon