How to Raise the Chicks

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A New Classification Of UK Local Authorities Using 2001 Census Key Statistics

The 2001 Census has been successfully administered and the Census Organisations are currently engaged in processing the returns. A very large and rich dataset will be produced for the 58,789,194 people of the UK. The Census Area Statistics, for example, delivers 190 tables containing about 6 thousand unique counts relating to the characteristics of the UK population, for output areas and all higher geographies. This paper represents the first results of a project that aims to develop, in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics, a set of general purpose classifications at different geographic scales, including households, neighbourhoods, wards, local authorities and to link the classifications at different levels together. The paper reports on the methods used and results of a classification of the UK’s 434 Local Authorities, using the Key Statistics released in February 2003. This initial classification and description of methods will feed into the ONS/GROS/NISRA project to classify Local Authorities for the whole UK. Further data or digital versions of the classification system are available on request

Creating the National Classification of Census Output Areas: Data, Methods and Results

The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the processes and decisions that were involved in the creation of the National Area Classification of 2001 Census Output Areas (OAs). The project was carried out on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) by Daniel Vickers of the School of Geography, University of Leeds as part of his PhD. thesis. The paper describes the creation of the classification: selection of the variables, assembly of the classification database, the methods of standardisation and the clustering procedures, some discussion of alternative methodologies that were considered for use. The processes used for creating the clusters, their naming and description are outlined. The classification is mapped and visualised in a number of different ways. The OA Classification fits into the ONS suite of area classifications complementing published classifications at Local Authority, Health Authority and Ward levels. The classification is freely available, and can be downloaded from the ONS Neighbourhood Statistics website at www.statistics.gov.uk

Rectangular Hierarchical Cartograms for Socio-Economic Data

We present rectangular hierarchical cartograms for mapping socio-economic data. These density-normalising cartograms size spatial units by population, increasing the ease with which data for densely populated areas can be visually resolved compared to more conventional cartographic projections. Their hierarchical nature enables the study of spatial granularity in spatial hierarchies, hierarchical categorical data and multivariate data through false hierarchies. They are space-filling representations that make efficient use of space and their rectangular nature (which aims to be as square as possible) improves the ability to compare the sizes (therefore population) of geographical units. We demonstrate these cartograms by mapping the Office for National Statistics Output Area Classification (OAC) by unit postcode (1.52 million in Great Britain) through the postcode hierarchy, using these to explore spatial variation. We provide rich and detailed spatial summaries of socio-economic characteristics of population as types of treemap, exploring the effects of reconfiguring them to study spatial and non-spatial aspects of the OAC classification

Waste gas storage

Method for storing a waste gas mixture comprised of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and inert gases, the gas mixture containing corrosive contaminants including inorganic acids and bases and organic solvents, and derived from space station operations. The gas mixture is stored under pressure in a vessel formed of a filament wound composite overwrap on a metal liner, the metal liner being pre-stressed in compression by the overwrap, thereby avoiding any tensile stress in the liner, and preventing stress corrosion cracking of the liner during gas mixture storage

Distributed microprocessors in a tactical universal modem

The distributed microprocessor system associated with a wideband signal conversion unit (WBSCU) is described. Multiple embedded 8086 and 2901 microprocessors, supported by dedicated hardware modules, perform the required real time operations for both transmit and receive functions. Commands from a host computer determine the configuration of the WBSCU via the IEEE 488 bus. Each of the four WBSCU channels is assigned to process a specified IF waveform; each channel configures its own resources and, in some cases, borrows resources from other channels. The processed waveform data is communicated from individual channels to redundant global memories. Data flow between the user community and global memories occurs via redundant 1553 buses through intelligent Bus Interface Units. Each WBSCU channel contains one 2901 bit slice machine and one 8086 microprocessor. The 2901 provides high speed processing capability for the most time critical operations. The 8086 is used for lower speed processing tasks where its high level language capability can be better exploited. Each 8086 has a global bus for wideband interprocessor communication, and a local bus for 8086/2901, master/slave communication. Software architecture consists of a control and communications structure governing mode dependent signal processing tasks

Toward an Affective Science of Resource Allocation: Psychological, Affective, and Neural Factors in Resource Allocation Decisions.

We live an environment where access to material goods is cheap, objects are easy to obtain, and we have an ever-increasing number of options to choose from. The field of decision science has advanced with this pattern, providing a greater breadth and depth of research on how and why people make decisions about material goods. However, our pervading desire to acquire things that we do not need and our failure to reallocate goods and money that may be better used by others (e.g., charities) are understudied. This dissertation investigates these processes, the factors that influence our underlying desire to acquire and our disinclination to discard the things that we do not need, using an appraisal framework. Three chapters investigate how psychological appraisal patterns, affective disorders, and neural indicators are related to resource allocation. In Chapter 2, we manipulated emotions and appraisal dimensions that have previously been associated with acquisitiveness and found that uncertain appraisals were associated with an increased drive to acquire objects. In Chapter 3, we investigated how chronic emotions are associated with acquisition and found that the combination of depression and anxiety, a high-uncertainty state, was associated with increased acquisition of objects generally, and especially less useful objects that people with hoarding disorders prefer. Chapter 4 investigated factors that influence when people will reallocate their own monetary resources to another at a cost to themselves. We found that vulnerability, high arousal/activation, and their combination led to increased donations to charitable causes. These causes were also differentially associated with brain areas that have previously been associated with charitable donations (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, striatum) and motor-motivational regions that have not been hypothesized by prior models (e.g., premotor area, supplementary motor area). Together, these studies begin to determine the factors that influence resource allocation decisions, including both the acquisition and discarding of resources. Our approach is also one of the first to explore interactions between emotions and appraisal dimensions that tend to be overlooked in the literature but may lead to unpredicted effects and open avenues to continued scholarship in the decision and affective sciences.PhDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116640/1/brvicker_1.pd

The Difficulty of Linking Two Differently Aggregated Spatial Datasets: Using a Look-up Table to Link Postal Sectors and 1991 Census Enumeration Districts

The use of postal geography as areal units has developed significantly since its first introduction in the 1971 Census of Scotland. The 1987 Chorley report advocated the use of postal codes as the standard areal unit for publication of geographic data across the board. The change to a postal base in the census of England and Wales finally took place in 2001. Aggregation of population data is essential, both to protect the identity of individuals and make the data manageable. The question however remains, whether the independent aggregation of two similar datasets covering the same geographical area makes the data two separate information sources, or whether they can be successfully be linked together and used as one. Through the comparison of two aggregated areal datasets of British population based statistics, this paper examines the reliability of commercially produced, undocumented data, with the use of a look-up table linking postal sectors to enumeration districts of the 1991 Census of British population. The investigation finds that the ability to link the Experian dataset is to the census is questionable. The two datasets contain many obvious and significant differences when linked, it can be concluded that look-up tables are a poor and inaccurate way of linking differently aggregated spatial datasets

The use of external sources of health and safety information and advice: the case of small firms

This paper draws on British survey and interview data concerning the use made by small firms of external health and safety information and advice, the sources of such information and advice that they utilise, or would consider using, and the difficulties they experience in accessing information and advice of this type. These data are then used by the authors to shed light on the channels of such information and advice that are most likely to support improvements in how health and safety is managed in small enterprises. The authors' analysis leads them to caution against adopting an overly optimistic view of the part that can be played in this respect by intermediary organisations and the publication of more and better advisory material, and to stress the importance of not understating the advisory and information-providing role of health and safety inspectors