China: development, change and engagement

This Editorial introduces the Local Economy special issue on China, guest edited by David Webster.It gives the background to the main themes considered in the special issue: China's rapid urbanization and associated problems of rural to urban migration; issues involved in planning the country's infrastructure; problems of urban regeneration and renewal; adjustment to marketization in industry and housing; and the question how economic development specialists in the UK can relate to China

Travel to work areas and local unemployment statistics: a Glasgow view

Through detailed consideration of the Glasgow case, this paper shows that the UK official 'travel to work areas' (TTWAs) misrepresent the geographical pattern of unemployment. After a brief consideration of the origins of the TTWA system, it criticises the use of the local 'workforce', rather than residents, as the denominator in the unemployment rate, and of 'self-containment' rather than internal cohesion as the dominant criterion in selecting boundaries. It shows how these procedures cause large concentrations of unemployment to disappear almost entirely from view, and that where there is an imbalance between commuting inflows and outflows, as is often the case, the TTWA unemployment rate will be under- or over-estimated, often by substantial amounts. TTWAs also fail to reflect the restricted commuting fields of most workers. The paper argues that the way ahead lies in identifying local concentrations of unemployment using a resident-based denominator, and mapping their effective commuting fields to establish where employment growth would need to occur in order to benefit them

Jobseeker's allowance sanctions and disallowances

This article describes the large rise since 2005 in the number of Jobseeker's Allowance claimants being subjected to 'sanctions' or 'disallowances' and consequently losing their benefits, to a total of 792,000 such penalties in the year to 21 October 2012. It examines the reasons given for the penalties, showing that disqualifications for leaving a job voluntarily or losing it through misconduct have fallen dramatically in the current recession, with more aggressive types of penalty rising correspondingly more. It describes the regime of 'hardship payments' available to some sanctioned claimants. Finally it estimates that the amount of money lost by claimants, net of hardship payments, has risen from about £37m in 2005 to about £140m in the year to October 2012, and that it would have been about £250m in the latter year had the new regime of lengthier sanctions started on 22 October 2012 been in force

Sidelooking laser altimeter for a flight simulator

An improved laser altimeter for a flight simulator which allows measurement of the height of the simulator probe above the terrain directly below the probe tip is described. A laser beam is directed from the probe at an angle theta to the horizontal to produce a beam spot on the terrain. The angle theta that the laser beam makes with the horizontal is varied so as to bring the beam spot into coincidence with a plumb line coaxial with the longitudinal axis of the probe. A television altimeter camera observes the beam spot and has a raster line aligned with the plumb line. Spot detector circuit coupled to the output of the TV camera monitors the position of the beam spot relative to the plumb line

Clutchless multiple drive source for output shaft

A first shaft is connected to a source of rotational power and has a gear fixedly mounted on the shaft. A second gear is fixedly mounted on a gear shaft that is parallel to the first shaft. A third gear, also fixedly mounted on gear shaft, meshes with a fourth gear fixedly mounted on the output shaft. The first input shaft and output shaft are rotatably mounted through a housing that is itself rotatable with respect to a support. Both shafts are coaxial and in end-to-end relationship. A second input shaft is connected to a second source of rotational power. A fifth gear, fixedly mounted on second input shaft, meshes with a sixth gear, which is fixedly mounted on rotatable housing and in coaxial relationship with first input shaft. In operation, the first drive source and gear train provide rotational power in a first direction to drive the output shaft in a given direction of rotation. The second source of rotational power may be operated either to decrease the rate of rotation imparted to the output shaft by the first source of rotational power, or to increase that rate of rotation, depending on which direction the housing is rotated by the second source of rotational power

A single axis study of flight simulator kinematics by difference techniques

The kinematic parameters of position, velocity, and acceleration of a flight simulator may be calculated by knowing the distance between two or more points on an axis and the time the simulator takes to traverse the space between each set of points. These parameters are calculated through the use of difference techniques. Given the true kinematic response of the simulator to computer generated commands, the entire motion system loop may be calibrated, and system operability verified

NASA-SETI microwave observing project: Targeted Search Element (TSE)

The Targeted Search Element (TSE) performs one of two complimentary search strategies of the NASA-SETI Microwave Observing Project (MOP): the targeted search. The principle objective of the targeted search strategy is to scan the microwave window between the frequencies of one and three gigahertz for narrowband microwave emissions eminating from the direction of 773 specifically targeted stars. The scanning process is accomplished at a minimum resolution of one or two Hertz at very high sensitivity. Detectable signals will be of a continuous wave or pulsed form and may also drift in frequency. The TSE will possess extensive radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation and verification capability as the majority of signals detected by the TSE will be of local origin. Any signal passing through RFI classification and classifiable as an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) candidate will be further validated at non-MOP observatories using established protocol. The targeted search will be conducted using the capability provided by the TSE. The TSE provides six Targeted Search Systems (TSS) which independently or cooperatively perform automated collection, analysis, storage, and archive of signal data. Data is collected in 10 megahertz chunks and signal processing is performed at a rate of 160 megabits per second. Signal data is obtained utilizing the largest radio telescopes available for the Targeted Search such as those at Arecibo and Nancay or at the dedicated NASA-SETI facility. This latter facility will allow continuous collection of data. The TSE also provides for TSS utilization planning, logistics, remote operation, and for off-line data analysis and permanent archive of both the Targeted Search and Sky Survey data

Interface refactoring in performance-constrained web services

This paper presents the development of REF-WS an approach to enable a Web Service provider to reliably evolve their service through the application of refactoring transformations. REF-WS is intended to aid service providers, particularly in a reliability and performance constrained domain as it permits upgraded ’non-backwards compatible’ services to be deployed into a performance constrained network where existing consumers depend on an older version of the service interface. In order for this to be successful, the refactoring and message mediation needs to occur without affecting functional compatibility with the services’ consumers, and must operate within the performance overhead expected of the original service, introducing as little latency as possible. Furthermore, compared to a manually programmed solution, the presented approach enables the service developer to apply and parameterize refactorings with a level of confidence that they will not produce an invalid or ’corrupt’ transformation of messages. This is achieved through the use of preconditions for the defined refactorings

Experimental investigation of outdoor propagation of finite-amplitude noise

The outdoor propagation of finite amplitude acoustic waves was investigated using a conventional electroacoustic transmitter which was mounted on the ground and pointed upward in order to avoid ground reflection effects. The propagation path was parallel to a radio tower 85 m tall, whose elevator carried the receiving microphone. The observations and conclusions are as follows: (1) At the higher source levels nonlinear propagation distortion caused a strong generation of high frequency noise over the propagation path. For example, at 70 m for a frequency 2-3 octaves above the source noise band, the measured noise was up to 30 dB higher than the linear theory prediction. (2) The generation occurred in both the nearfield and the farfield of the transmitter. (3) At no measurement point was small-signal behavior established for the high requency noise. Calculations support the contention that the nonlinearity generated high frequency noise never becomes small-signal in its behavior, regardless of distance. (4) When measured spectra are scaled in frequency and level to make them comparable with spectra of actual jet noise, they are found to be well within the jet noise range. It is therefore entirely possible that nonlinear distortion affects jet noise

Guns, germs, and stealing: exploring the link between infectious disease and crime.

Can variation in crime rates be traced to the threat of infectious disease? Pathogens pose an ongoing challenge to survival, leading humans to adapt defenses to manage this threat. In addition to the biological immune system, humans have psychological and behavioral responses designed to protect against disease. Under persistent disease threat, xenophobia increases and people constrict social interactions to known in-group members. Though these responses reduce disease transmission, they can generate favorable crime conditions in two ways. First, xenophobia reduces inhibitions against harming and exploiting out-group members. Second, segregation into in-group factions erodes people's concern for the welfare of their community and weakens the collective ability to prevent crime. The present study examined the effects of infection incidence on crime rates across the United States. Infection rates predicted violent and property crime more strongly than other crime covariates. Infections also predicted homicides against strangers but not family or acquaintances, supporting the hypothesis that in-group-out-group discrimination was responsible for the infections-crime link. Overall, the results add to evidence that disease threat shapes interpersonal behavior and structural characteristics of groups