Condemned to die: housing action and social justice South West Durham 1949-1979

The Thesis is a retrospective examination of housing action consequences and effectiveness in the Bishop Auckland Area, by the author who was involved with the initiation and execution of repair, improvement, closure and demolition of houses in the private sector, carried out within the framework of Durham County Council's controversial Settlement Policy. The local, post-war, housing policy revolved around cherished concepts, that a Development Plan would lead to the "Good Life"; slum clearance processes were designed to protect people from themselves; and relocating residents from outdated villages to modern semi-detached estates heralded a new beginning. The irony of a working class political machine, over which the population had virtually no influence, imposing a policy which destroyed working class life styles is noted, together with the creation of a bitter and inflexible climate which nurtured an unintended but resolute opposition and resulted in a change of political control at local level. Focus is on Witton Park, the devastated archetype Category 'D' village, a victim of prejudice and time seemingly forever to bear a slum label as a shrine to the County Development Plan. A comparison is made with the villages of Binchester, Escomb and Eldon Lane/Coundon Grange also affected by renewal policies. It is contended that undue attention was paid by bureaucracy to a distorted image of slum housing which resulted in extensive and excessive demolition with consequential individual and collective injustice; and that an almost exclusive over emphasis on physical aspects destroyed the territorial basis of community life, and ignored people and their aspirations. Direction altered, belatedly, in the late 1960s after nearly 2,300 houses had been demolished. The newer policy of gradual renewal rather than total clearance was influenced by political change, more enlightened attitudes and the availability of wider powers. A synopsis of relevant housing legislation from I868 to 1979 is provided by the Appendix

Targeted deep sequencing of flowering regulators in Brassica napus reveals extensive copy number variation

Gene copy number variation (CNV) is increasingly implicated in control of complex trait networks, particularly in polyploid plants like rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) with an evolutionary history of genome restructuring. Here we performed sequence capture to assay nucleotide variation and CNV in a panel of central flowering time regulatory genes across a species-wide diversity set of 280 B. napus accessions. The genes were chosen based on prior knowledge from Arabidopsis thaliana and related Brassica species. Target enrichment was performed using the Agilent SureSelect technology, followed by Illumina sequencing. A bait (probe) pool was developed based on results of a preliminary experiment with representatives from different B. napus morphotypes. A very high mean target coverage of ~670x allowed reliable calling of CNV, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion-deletion (InDel) polymorphisms. No accession exhibited no CNV, and at least one homolog of every gene we investigated showed CNV in some accessions. Some CNV appear more often in specific morphotypes, indicating a role in diversification

Post-polyploidisation morphotype diversification associates with gene copy number variation

Genetic models for polyploid crop adaptation provide important information relevant for future breeding prospects. A well-suited model is Brassica napus, a recent allopolyploid closely related to Arabidopsis thaliana. Flowering time is a major adaptation trait determining life cycle synchronization with the environment. Here we unravel natural genetic variation in B. napus flowering time regulators and investigate associations with evolutionary diversification into different life cycle morphotypes. Deep sequencing of 35 flowering regulators was performed in 280 diverse B. napus genotypes. High sequencing depth enabled high-quality calling of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertion-deletions (InDels) and copy number variants (CNVs). By combining these data with genotyping data from the Brassica 60 K Illumina® Infinium SNP array, we performed a genome-wide marker distribution analysis across the 4 ecogeographical morphotypes. Twelve haplotypes, including Bna.FLC.A10, Bna.VIN3.A02 and the Bna.FT promoter on C02_random, were diagnostic for the diversification of winter and spring types. The subspecies split between oilseed/kale (B. napus ssp. napus) and swedes/rutabagas (B. napus ssp. napobrassica) was defined by 13 haplotypes, including genomic rearrangements encompassing copies of Bna.FLC, Bna.PHYA and Bna.GA3ox1. De novo variation in copies of important flowering-time genes in B. napus arose during allopolyploidisation, enabling sub-functionalisation that allowed different morphotypes to appropriately fine-tune their lifecycle

An active-architecture approach to COTS integration

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products are increasingly used as standard components within integrated information systems. This creates challenges since both their developers and source code are not usually available, and the ongoing development of COTS cannot be predicted. The ArchWare Framework approach recognises COTS products as part of the ambient environment of an information system and therefore an important part of development is incorporating COTS as effective system components. This integration of COTS components, and the composition of components, is captured by an active architecture model which changes as the system evolves. Indeed the architecture modelling language used enables it to express the monitoring and evolution of a system. This active architecture model is structured using control system principles. By modelling both integration and evolution it can guide the system’s response to both predicted and emergent changes that arise from the use of COTS products.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Electronic Commerce Strategy in the UK Electricty Industry: The Case of Electric Co and Dataflow Software

This paper analyses the strategic business and IT response of Electric Co, a large electricity company, to deregulation and increased competition in the UK electricity industry. In common with deregulation in other markets such as North America and Australia, the UK regulator has specified strict regulations on how power generators, distribution and supply companies should interact with each other, and with business and consumer customers. In order to compete effectively Electric Co has implemented a novel dataflow solution that enables it to connect diverse internal systems to the external marketplace. An overview of changes in the market is related to the business and IT strategies of Electric Co. The link between the high-level business strategy and the actual use of IT architecture and systems is the design and management of the business processes that dictate how information is shared throughout the supply chain. The implementation of the regulator’s business process framework has been achieved through a novel use of a business process management solution. The major benefits are shown to be increased business flexibility. An outline of the broader implications of the research is given, in particular how developments in technical standards and business process management are related to communication theory and electronic markets

Histogram of confidences for person detection

This paper focuses on the problem of person detection in harsh industrial environments. Different image regions often have different requirements for the person to be detected. Additionally, as the environment can change on a frame to frame basis even previously detected people can fail to be found. In our work we adapt a previously trained classifier to improve its performance in the industrial environment. The classifier output is initially used an image descriptor. Structure from the descriptor history is learned using semi-supervised learning to boost overall performance. In comparison with two state of the art person detectors we see gains of 10%. Our approach is generally applicable to pretrained classifiers which can then be specialised for a specific scen

A novel route for identifying starch diagenetic products in the archaeological record

This work introduces a novel analytical chemistry method potentially applicable to the study of archaeological starch residues. The investigation involved the laboratory synthesis of model Maillard reaction mixtures and their analysis through Fourier-Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FTICR-MS). Thus, starch from sixteen plant species were matured while reacting it with the amino acid glycine. The FTICR-MS analysis revealed > 5,300 molecular compounds, with numerous unique heteroatom rich compound classes, ranging from 20 (Zea mays) to 50 (Sorghum bicolor). These classes were investigated as repositories of chemical structure retaining source and process-specific character, linked back to botanical provenance. We discussed the Maillard reaction products thus generated, a possible pathway for the preservation of degraded starch, while also assessing diagenetic recalcitrance and adsorption potential to mineral surfaces. In some cases, hydrothermal experimentation on starches without glycine reveals that the chemical complexity of the starch itself is sufficient to produce some Maillard reaction products. The article concludes that FTICR-MS offers a new analytical window to characterize starchy residue and its diagenetic products, and is able to recognize taxonomic signals with the potential to persist in fossil contexts.Introduction Materials and methods - Sample preparation and characterization - FTICR-MS analysis Results - Characterization of Maillard reaction products based on atomic ratios (H/C, O/C, N/C, N/O) and compound class distribution - Variations in molecular distribution Discussion - The Maillard reaction products - Preservation pathway - Diagenetic recalcitrance of Maillard reaction products Conclusion

Note. Colonisation of bench cover materials by Salmonella typhimurium

Due to the increasing requirements of food safety, it is of utmost importance to know the mechanisms that can determine the occurrence of the phenomenon commonly assigned by cross contamination, which can be expressed by the transference of harmful substances or microorganisms to the human food chain. This is particularly susceptible during food preparation, because it can occur by the transference of the pathogen microorganisms from food to the surfaces where they had been prepared, and from there to foods initially not contaminated, therefore initiating the cycle. This study attempted to investigate the colonisation by Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 13311 of marble and granite, two materials commonly used as bench covers in kitchens of many countries. These materials were selected because there is a lack of studies in the literature about their ability for bacterial colonisation. In addition, the colonisation of stainless steel (SS) 304, a material usually studied, was also analysed in terms of comparison. Surface hydrophobicity and roughness were determined in order to explain the differences in the extent of adhesion. The results showed that SS was the material with a greater extent of colonisation by S. typhimurium, followed by marble and, almost to the same extent, by granite. S. typhimurium adheres to a greater extent to the most hydrophobic material and to the material with roughest surface.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PRAXIS SFRH/BPD/11553/2002, projecto POCI/AGR/59358/200