Children's Well-being in Contexts of Poverty: Approaches to Research, Monitoring and Participation

Monitoring, protecting and promoting 'well-being' are central to realisation of children's rights. Yet definitions of the concept are both variable and can appear conceptually confused. Competing research paradigms engage with the concept and its measurement, while applications of well-being in policy are equally contested. This paper outlines some of the major debates, as a starting point for reviewing three contrasting approaches to well-being: indicator-based, participatory and longitudinal research. In particular, it focuses on applications of the concept in contexts of child poverty worldwide. We suggest there are some promising signs of integration amongst these approaches, and argue that well-being does have potential as a bridging concept, at the same time highlighting inequalities, acknowledging diversities, and respecting children's agency

Cars, Congestion, Public Transport, and Pricing: A Reality Check

For some little while now, the flavour of the month in transport policy seems to have been to set goals for massive relative increases in public transport ridership, reduction of car use, all resulting in a hoped-for reduction in road congestion. As a result of this policy focus, we have seen various government entities at the metropolitan, state, and national levels set goals for such activities as increased ride sharing, increased use of public transport, implementation of high occupancy vehicle lanes, and, at least in Australia and the U.K., thinking about congestion pricing of some form. Through political rhetoric, it seems that use of the private car, congestion, and declining shares of the market for public transport are all labeled as negatives that should be set right by some type of policy intervention. Since the first introduction of ideas of demand management in the late 1970s, the idea of trying to change behaviour of car users has been an increasingly significant focus of transport policy. This paper seeks to check the reality of these policy directions and questions whether these are desirable, let alone achievable end states. It is noted that major changes in transport market share have never been achieved in the past, and as such, it seems unlikely that such policies will be successful in the long term. Even if such policies can be achieved, it is questionable whether the end results will have desirable consequences or not

Mantle heterogeneity during the formation of the North Atlantic Igneous Province: Constraints from trace element and Sr-Nd-Os-O isotope systematics of Baffin Island picrites

Sr-Nd-Os-O isotope and major and trace element data from ~62 Ma picrites from Baffin Island constrain the composition of mantle sources sampled at the inception of North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP) magmatism. We recognize two compositional types. Depleted (N-type) lavas have low 87Sr/86Sri (0.702990–0.703060) and 187Os/188Osi (0.1220–0.1247) and high 143Nd/144Ndi (0.512989–0.512999) and are depleted in incompatible elements relative to primitive mantle. Enriched (E-type) lavas have higher 87Sr/86Sri (0.703306–0.703851) and 187Os/188Osi (0.1261–0.1303), lower 143Nd/144Ndi (0.512825–0.512906), and incompatible element concentrations similar to, or more enriched than, primitive mantle. There is also a subtle difference in oxygen isotope composition; E-type lavas are marginally lower in δ18Oolivine value (5.16–4.84‰) than N-type lavas (5.15–5.22‰). Chemical and isotopic variations between E- and N-type lavas are inconsistent with assimilation of crust and/or subcontinental lithospheric mantle and appear to instead reflect mixing between melts derived from two distinct mantle sources. Strontium-Nd-O isotope compositions and incompatible trace element abundances of N-type lavas suggest these are largely derived from the depleted upper mantle. The 187Os/188Osi ratios of N-type lavas can also be explained by such a model but require that the depleted upper mantle had γOs of approximately −5 to −7 at 62 Ma. This range overlaps the lowest γOs values measured in abyssal peridotites. Baffin Island lava compositions are also permissive of a model involving recharging of depleted upper mantle with 3He-rich material from the lower mantle (Stuart et al., Nature, 424, 57–59, 2003), with the proviso that recharge had no recognizable effect on the lithophile trace element and Sr-Nd-Os-O isotope composition. The origin of the enriched mantle component sampled by Baffin Island lavas is less clear but may be metasomatized and high-temperature-altered recycled oceanic lithosphere transported within the proto Iceland plume. Differences between Baffin Island lavas and modern Icelandic basalts suggest that a range of enriched and depleted mantle sources have been tapped since the inception of magmatism in the province. Similarities between Baffin Island lavas erupted and those of similar age from East and West Greenland also suggest that the enriched component in Baffin Island lavas may have been sampled by lavas erupted over a wide geographic range

The spectroscopic impedance of cellophane

Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Electromagnetic Wave Interaction with Water and Moist Substances, 2003, Rotorua, N. Z.The electrical impedance of cellophane has been measured as a function of moisture content and temperature in the frequency range 10⁻³ – 10⁵ Hz. The data show a very strong dependence on moisture content, which is a typical characteristic of hygroscopic solids, and at low frequencies, remarkable constant phase angle spectra were obtained. Making use of the hopping model of conduction in non-crystalline solids, we explain the measured spectra. The model treats absorbed water as an impurity in the cellophane and conduction is predicted to occur by temperature-activated proton hopping between water molecules. We also propose that this model is widely applicable to prediction of the low frequency dielectric properties of hygroscopic solids

Multi-scale isotopic heterogeneity reveals a complex magmatic evolution : An example from the wallundry suite granitoids of the lachlan fold belt, Australia

Open-system magmatic processes are expected to impart various sorts of isotopic heterogeneity upon the igneous rocks they produce. The range of processes under the "open-system " umbrella (e.g., simple two-component mixing, magma mingling, assimilation with fractional crystallization) cannot usually be uniquely identified using data from a single isotope system. The use of bulk-rock, mineral separate and in situ techniques and multiple isotope systems allows the characterization of isotopic variability at different sampling scales, illuminating details of the petrogenesis of a magmatic system. This approach has been applied to granitoids of the Wallundry Suite in the Lachlan Fold Belt, Australia. The Wallundry Suite exhibits variations in mineral assemblage, mineral composition and trends in bulk-rock major and trace element compositions consistent with the involvement of liquid-crystal sorting processes such as fractional crystallization. In situ paired O-Hf isotope data from zircon in six samples show an array indicating the isotopic evolution of the melt phase. Similarly, bulk-rock Sr-Nd-Hf isotope arrays support open-system magma evolution. These data combined with the petrographic observations and major and trace element geochemical variations suggest some form of assimilation-fractional crystallization process in the petrogenesis of the Wallundry Suite. Added complexity is revealed by two observations: 1) the isotopic variations are only weakly coupled to the lithology and major element compositions of the samples; and 2) there are distinguishable differences between the Hf isotope compositions of bulk-rock samples and those of the magmatic zircons they host. To varying degrees the rocks consistently show negative delta epsilon Hfbulk-zrc values (i.e., the bulk-rock compositions have less radiogenic Hf isotope values than their coexisting zircons). The preservation of distinctly low Nd and Hf isotope ratios in an Fe-Ti oxide mineral separate suggests that the bulk-rock vs. zircon discrepancy is caused by the presence of unmelted components derived from a contaminant of continental origin (i.e., a rock with low Sm/Nd and Lu/Hf and thus unradiogenic Nd and Hf). Evidently, a complex interplay of assimilation, crystallization and melt segregation is required to account for the data. This investigation demonstrates that such complexity can, nevertheless, be disentangled through comparison of complementary isotope data at multiple sampling scales.Peer reviewe

Time domain reflectometry imaging - A new moisture measurement technique for industry and soil science

This thesis describes the theoretical and practical aspects of a new technique for quantitative, non-invasive and non-destructive imaging of the near-surface moisture content distribution of composite materials. The technique relies on the alteration by a nearby composite material, of the propagation velocity of an electromagnetic pulse along a parallel transmission line, through distortion of the evanescent field. A set of measurements taken at different relative positions of the transmission line and composite material are, in conjunction with a forward model describing propagation velocity on the line, inverted to provide the image of moisture content distribution. Development of the technique, called 'Time Domain Reflectometry Imaging' (TDRI), involved four steps: 1. Instrumentation to obtain a set of measurements of propagation times; 2. A forward model; 3. An inverse procedure; and 4. Conversion of a calculated permittivity distribution to a moisture distribution. Critical to the success of the inverse method is a set of measurements of propagation velocity that provide pico-second propagation time accuracy, and are sufficiently linearly independent to enable discrimination of the permittivity of each discretised cell within the composite material. Using commercial time domain reflectometry (TDR) instruments, a switched reference measurement, waveform subtraction and intersecting waveform tangents, sufficient timing accuracy has been achieved. The forward model was developed using the moment method. The advantage of such an integral equation method is that recalculation is not required when changing the impressed field. Hence for a particular model of the composite material's moisture distribution, just one execution of the forward model provides predicted propagation velocities for all positions of the transmission line. A new pseudo 3-D variant of the volume integral equation approach was developed to suit the 2-D transmission line, and resulted in a 100 fold reduction in memory use, and a greater than 10 fold reduction in execution time. The forward solution uses the telegrapher's equation to predict propagation velocity from an arbitrary permittivity distribution surrounding the line. Inversion of the measured data was accelerated by the use of three novel tactics: a rapid electric field surrogate for the Jacobian; a dynamic method of determining the conjugate gradient weighting factor; and a new blocking technique that accelerated the convergence of buried cells that have only a small influence on propagation velocity. The final TDRI step is a numerical model to translate both the a priori moisture distribution data to a permittivity distribution, and conversely the solution permittivity distribution to moisture content. A dielectric model based on an earlier model of Looyenga was adapted to include both the different characteristic of tightly held water, and the Debye relaxation of free water. The intention was a model with applicability to a range of composite materials. It was tested with data for soil, bentonite clay and wood, and except for one free parameter, model parameters were set by measurable physical properties of the host material

The influence of paradigms and perspectives on the decision to build undertaken by large experienced clients of the UK construction industry.

This thesis explains how paradigms and perspectives influence both the process and content of the decision to build undertaken by large experienced clients of the UK construction industry. The level of client experience is drawn from a sample with a collective value of around £300-350 million, which are in turn taken from a group of clients who spend around £1 billion per year on construction industry projects. The thesis moves from a "messy" (Ackoff, 1979) view of the research problem and client dissatisfaction (Latham, 1994 and Egan, 1998) to arrive at a clear understanding of how the decision to build is made. Its scope begins by considering the intial stimulus that triggers the decision-making process and finishes when the developing proposal receives a firm commitment in the form of budgetary sanctioning. This thesis argues that it is the allocation of funds which marks the boundary between a proposal and project stage and so names the proposal's evolution phase the "Pre-Project Stage". The overarching aim of the thesis is to prepare the way for improved client satisfaction and it achieves this goal by explaining the following: • The process of the decision to build and its structure is determined by the expectations of paradigms and perspectives. • The content of the decision to build process and the conversations within it are influenced by other competing paradigms and perspectives that seek to impose 'their' criteria by which their definition of 'good' decisions can be recognised. • The internal and external influences on the decision to build's process and content stem from the complex interrelationships that influence the dominance of perspectives within individual paradigms that are at the same time in competition to determine how success is recognised. • How the decision to build can be improved is explained as a corollary of the realisation that contrasting views of what is a 'good' decision can exist at different levels within the same client organisation. The use of grounded theory (Glasser and Strauss, 1967) with a multiple case study research methodology (Yin, 1994), built around thirteen core questions, led to a detailed explanation and conclusions which satisfied the research aims and Qbjectives. Central to this detailed explanation is the consequence of dividing the process of decision-making between constituent groups within the client organisation; these groups are decision approvers, decision takers and decision shapers. The explanation articulates the decision to build as a paradigm in its own right and reveals that the people involved in the decision making process are ,in reality a co-ordinated-collection of smaller groups. This division of decision making lacks consonance as the various groups push different process and content agenda in an attempt to arrive at a successful decision. It is paradigms and perspectives that guide logic as they provide a means of objectifying decisions and also link the decision to build to a wider society. The thesis highlights that conflict can exist between the decision approvers',' takers' and shapers' view of effectiveness and III efficiency. Essentially the property department, who are the decision shapers, see their role as delivering projects and so it is through their paradigms and erspectives that they attempt to justify subjective aims as objective decisions. Shapers see their primary role as driving potential-projects through the approval process to achieve budgetary sanctioning and are often in competition with other shapers from different parts of the same organisation. Decision shapers see the approval process not as a mechanism to improve decision quality, but as a series of obstacles in the way of the project's delivery. Should anything stifle the shapers drive to get a proposal through the pre-project stage, then they will make modifications and adapt their approach in an attempt to ensure that the proposal becomes a project. The unifying theme is that all the actors seek to realise 'good' decisions and that for shapers 'good' decisions result in the successful delivery of a building. The construction industry's interpretation of 'client' can now be redefined as a small group of property related professionals working in a much larger organisation which has a core business that is tangential to the decision to build. Validity is achieved by establishing agreement with subjects during data collection, by selecting experienced subjects who want to be seen as using best practice, by using cross-sectional corroboration within the case studies and literature, by using grounded theory and its inherent ability to confirm theory as it emerges out of data, by providing an audit traIl from explanation to the data, and by verifying its findings in a validating worksho

Land Readjustment Model for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Projects: Generating Optimal Financial Benefits

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) projects are increasingly recognized as vital components of sustainable urban planning, aiming to create compact, walkable, and mixed-use communities centered around high-quality public transportation systems. However, implementing TOD projects poses significant challenges, especially in land acquisition and redistribution. This research addresses these issues in the context of the MRT Jakarta project and proposes a land readjustment approach as a potential solution. The study combined qualitative and quantitative methods to compare existing and ideal land use in the TOD area and benchmark successful TOD models from different countries. A comprehensive financial analysis was performed to assess the potential financial impacts of the proposed model. The analysis reveals differences between the existing land use in the Fatmawati TOD area and the ideal TOD model, suggesting the need for adjustments to achieve better land use diversity and economic vibrancy. The financial analysis demonstrates positive feasibility for the TOD project, surpassing the minimum attractive rate of return (MARR) threshold. However, the potential value of the reserved area covers only 16% of the total land readjustment (LR) costs, indicating the necessity for further measures to enhance financial feasibility. The study proposes leveraging existing apartment buildings as temporary relocation sites, optimizing resources, and increasing overall financial viability to address substantial relocation costs. Exploring different property redistribution scenarios reveals the importance of balancing landowners' benefits with the developer's financial feasibility for a successful TOD project. Overall, this research provides valuable insights and a comprehensive framework for implementing thriving and sustainable transit-oriented communities in Jakarta. Further research and collaboration among stakeholders are essential to refine the proposed model and ensure successful TOD project implementation in the future. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-10-012 Full Text: PD

An updated investigation of the multidimensional structure of language lateralization in left- and right-handed adults: a test-retest functional transcranial Doppler sonography study with six language tasks

A previous study we reported in this journal suggested that left and right-handers may differ in their patterns of lateralization for different language tasks (Woodhead et al. 2019 R. Soc. Open Sci.6, 181801. (doi:10.1098/rsos.181801)). However, it had too few left-handers (N = 7) to reach firm conclusions. For this update paper, further participants were added to the sample to create separate groups of left- (N = 31) and right-handers (N = 43). Two hypotheses were tested: (1) that lateralization would be weaker at the group level in left-than right-handers; and (2) that left-handers would show weaker covariance in lateralization between tasks, supporting a two-factor model. All participants performed the same protocol as in our previous paper: lateralization was measured using functional transcranial Doppler sonography during six different language tasks, on two separate testing sessions. The results supported hypothesis 1, with significant differences in laterality between groups for four out of six tasks. For hypothesis 2, structural equation modelling showed that there was stronger evidence for a two-factor model in left than right-handers; furthermore, examination of the factor loadings suggested that the pattern of laterality across tasks may also differ between handedness groups. These results expand on what is known about the differences in laterality between left- and right-handers