Future directions in urban design as public policy: reassessing best practice principles for design review and development management

his paper reassesses John Punter's ‘Best Practice Principles for Design Review and Development Management’ that were published in this journal in 2007. Placing a focused lens on British and North American practice, the paper argues that design control and review has been profoundly reshaped since 2007 by three contributing factors: the challenges associated with climate change, the growing role that communities can play in local decision making, and the impacts of the global economic crisis upon public sector finances and property development. In light of these trends, the paper uses a review of recent literature and design practices to argue for a series of amendments to the best practice principles. These focus on: (1) the potential for design control and review to be more fully informed by ecological design theory and practice; (2) the need for more rigorous multi-stakeholder collaboration in the design decision-making process; and (3) the opportunity for urban designers to become more competent ‘market actors’ with the necessary abilities to confidently shape property development decisions

Saving Face: The Benefits of Not Saying I’m Sorry

White discusses the socio-psychological research that suggests humans invest significant emotional stake in face --or their claimed identity as a competent, intelligent, or moral persons --and apologize only when they can do so without significant face threat. Criminal offenders, many of whom are likely to be low on self-determination, may resist apology to victims out of psychological fragility and the psychological need to preserve face rather than lack of remorse. Thus, the criminal-justice system should be cautious about punishing offenders more harshly because they fail to show external remorse--or even when they are openly defiant. This caution should be exercised whether the system explicitly punishes offenders more harshly or implicitly, by giving lighter sentences to those who publicly apologize. Such practices not only risk unfairness in the treatment of equally remorseful offenders but also effectively coerce apologies--which, because they are involuntary, are unlikely to promote healthy psychological growth among offenders and may instead elevate an offender\u27s psychological resistance toward accepting responsibility

Topological Change in Mean Convex Mean Curvature Flow

Consider the mean curvature flow of an (n+1)-dimensional, compact, mean convex region in Euclidean space (or, if n<7, in a Riemannian manifold). We prove that elements of the m-th homotopy group of the complementary region can die only if there is a shrinking S^k x R^(n-k) singularity for some k less than or equal to m. We also prove that for each m from 1 to n, there is a nonempty open set of compact, mean convex regions K in R^(n+1) with smooth boundary for which the resulting mean curvature flow has a shrinking S^m x R^(n-m) singularity.Comment: 19 pages. This version includes a new section proving that certain kinds of mean curvature flow singularities persist under arbitrary small perturbations of the initial surface. Newest update (Oct 2013) fixes some bibliographic reference

Room-temperature ballistic transport in narrow graphene strips

We investigate electron-phonon couplings, scattering rates, and mean free paths in zigzag-edge graphene strips with widths of the order of 10 nm. Our calculations for these graphene nanostrips show both the expected similarity with single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and the suppression of the electron-phonon scattering due to a Dirichlet boundary condition that prohibits one major backscattering channel present in SWNTs. Low-energy acoustic phonon scattering is exponentially small at room temperature due to the large phonon wave vector required for backscattering. We find within our model that the electron-phonon mean free path is proportional to the width of the nanostrip and is approximately 70 $\mu$m for an 11-nm-wide nanostrip.Comment: 5 pages and 5 figure

Growing in Glasgow: Innovative practices and emerging policy pathways for urban agriculture

Driven by shared concerns about climate change, social justice and health and wellbeing, Urban Agriculture (UA) is an emergent global movement. In this paper, we present an exploratory case study of UA practice on the Southside of Glasgow, UK that traced the emergence and development of four UA projects. Data from the four projects revealed a diversity of practices, including temporary gardening projects organised by local volunteers, a community and market garden operated by a charity, a food shop and vegetable distribution service run by a social enterprise, and a permanent growing space for charities and schools provided by local government. UA practitioners in Glasgow have sought to re-purpose vacant and derelict land, build social cohesion, contribute to environmental and food sustainability and provide participation space for marginalised groups. Reflecting on future avenues for research on UA in Glasgow, we have identified two broad policy pathways that are emerging both at the local level and through national legislation in Scotland to harness local urban food growing and support UA. We conclude by pointing to a need to preserve the self-organising spirit of UA in Scotland as new legislation comes into force

Comparative Advantage, Competitive Advantage, and U.S. Agricultural Trade

International Relations/Trade,

DISCUSSION: POLICY DYNAMICS IN NORTH AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

Agricultural and Food Policy,

A User's Perspective on the Model Impact Analyses

International Relations/Trade,