Current and Potential Future use of Facilities on the Crichton Estate by Students Attending Academic Institutions located on, and adjacent to, it

No abstract available

Mapping the “housing with care” concept with stakeholders: insights from a UK case study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of an early stage, exploratory case study of a proposed housing with care initiative (the Crichton Care Campus (CCC)). This sought the perspectives of a range of key stakeholders on the proposed model and how it might be best realised. The analyses of these findings show their relevance to debates on integrated housing with care, and reflect on the methodology used and its potential relevance to similar projects. Design/methodology/approach - The study used a transactive planning approach, where grounded views are sought from a variety of stakeholders. A purposive sample identified informants from relevant health, social care and housing organisations and nine semi-structured interviews were conducted. These were transcribed and data analysis was undertaken on an “interactive” basis, relating care theory to empirical expressions. Findings - The authors identify two contrasting orientations – inclusive “community-oriented” and professional “service-oriented”. This distinction provides the basis for a rudimentary conceptual map which can continue to be used in the planning process. Two significant variables within the conceptual map were the extent to which CCC should be intergenerational and as such, the degree to which care should come from formalised and self-care/informal sources. The potential to achieve an integrated approach was high with stakeholders across all sectors fully supporting the CCC concept and agreeing on the need for it to have a mixed tenure basis and include a range of non-care amenities. Originality/value- This paper offers originality in two respects. Methodologically, it describes an attempt to undertake early stage care planning using a needs led transactive methodology. In more practical terms, it also offers an innovative environment for considering any approach to care planning that actively seeks integration – based on an acknowledgement of complexity, a variety of perspectives and possible conflicts. The authors propose that the concepts of “community-orientation” and “service-orientation” are used as a helpful basis for planning negotiations, making implicit divergences explicit and thus better delineated

Current and Potential Future use of Facilities on the Crichton Estate by Students Attending Academic Institutions located on, and adjacent to, it

No abstract available

The Teachers Our Children Deserve

In describing “the schools our children deserve,” Alfie Kohn focuses on “moving beyond traditional classrooms and tougher standards” (1999) to argue for a progressive re-invention of schools. Kohn’s book also prompts us to think about the teachers our children deserve. By implication, from Kohn’s argument, the teachers who would work in the schools he envisions must be prepared to give learners an active role, honor their thinking, and enable their questions to help shape curriculum. Drawing upon Dewey, Kohn positions teachers as orchestrators of democracy as they negotiate the challenges and interactions of daily classroom life. Such teachers see their classrooms as places where a “community of learners… engages in discovery and invention, reflection, and problem-solving” (Kohn, 1999, p. 3). They see their role as responding to the needs and interests of their students, taking their ideas seriously, and using the shared experiences of classroom activities as the foundation for thinking and learning

Manx: Close air support aircraft preliminary design

The Manx is a twin engine, twin tailed, single seat close air support design proposal for the 1991 Team Student Design Competition. It blends advanced technologies into a lightweight, high performance design with the following features: High sensitivity (rugged, easily maintained, with night/adverse weather capability); Highly maneuverable (negative static margin, forward swept wing, canard, and advanced avionics result in enhanced aircraft agility); and Highly versatile (design flexibility allows the Manx to contribute to a truly integrated ground team capable of rapid deployment from forward sites)

Child Poverty and Family Structure during the Recession in English-Speaking Liberal Welfare States

While the 2008 global economic crisis is over and many countries are into a recovery phase, the impacts continue to linger. Analysis of its aftermath offers insight into how economic shocks reverberate through modern economies to affect the lives of children and families and how governments respond to economic crises. We calculate child poverty rates before and during the Great Recession in five nations - Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and United States. Data are from the latest nationally representative and harmonized household survey data available from the LIS Cross-National Data Center (Waves VII and VIII, approximately aligning with years 2007 and 2010). The study adds new knowledge in several ways. Welfare policies of the selected countries share common reliance on means-tested social assistance, higher economic inequality, and less unionization. While prior studies have examined within-country and cross-country variation in child poverty outside of the Recession, this paper investigates variation within welfare regime during a crisis. Second, within each country, we quantify the impact that market, social policy transfers, and taxes had on child poverty. Last, within countries, we examine how children's family structure affected their chances of living in poverty. We find large variations in child poverty rates during this period. Using a poverty threshold anchored in the 2007 distribution, across countries child poverty increased the most in Ireland and Australia and decreased the most in the UK and Canada. The US experienced only marginal changes in child poverty. Within countries, we find that children in married families have the lowest risk of poverty, except for the UK where the probability of being poor was lower for single and cohabitating families. Decomposing poverty rates by income source (labor, transfers, and taxes) over time, we quantify the contribution to the change in poverty rate. Labor earnings explained the poverty reduction in Canada and UK changes in poverty occurred primarily via transfers. In the US, the transfer system offset what would have been a large increase in poverty (4-percentage point). We then disaggregate these changes within country by family structure, finding significant variations in how earnings and social transfers affected children. Together, these findings document the impact of the different levels of cushioning provided by liberal welfare states in the Great Recession and the resulting differing relative poverty risks of different family structures

Discriminating small wooded elements in rural landscape from aerial photography: a hybrid pixel/object-based analysis approach

While small, fragmented wooded elements do not represent a large surface area in agricultural landscape, their role in the sustainability of ecological processes is recognized widely. Unfortunately, landscape ecology studies suffer from the lack of methods for automatic detection of these elements. We propose a hybrid approach using both aerial photographs and ancillary data of coarser resolution to automatically discriminate small wooded elements. First, a spectral and textural analysis is performed to identify all the planted-tree areas in the digital photograph. Secondly, an object-orientated spatial analysis using the two data sources and including a multi-resolution segmentation is applied to distinguish between large and small woods, copses, hedgerows and scattered trees. The results show the usefulness of the hybrid approach and the prospects for future ecological applications

Constraining the structure and formation of the Galactic bulge from a field in its outskirts. FLAMES-GIRAFFE spectra of about 400 red giants around (l,b)=(0{\deg},-10{\deg})

The presence of two stellar populations in the Milky Way bulge has been reported recently. We aim at studying the abundances and kinematics of stars in the outer bulge, thereby providing additional constraints on models of its formation. Spectra of 401 red giant stars in a field at (l,b)=(0{\deg},-10{\deg}) were obtained with FLAMES at the VLT. Stars of luminosities down to below the two bulge red clumps (RCs) are included. From these spectra we measure general metallicities, abundances of Fe and the alpha-elements, and radial velocities (RV) of the stars. These measurements as well as photometric data are compared to simulations with the Besancon and TRILEGAL models of the Galaxy. We confirm the presence of two populations among our sample stars: i) a metal-rich one at [M/H] ~+0.3, comprising about 30% of the sample, with low RV dispersion and low alpha-abundance, and ii) a metal-poor population at [M/H] ~-0.6 with high RV dispersion and high alpha-abundance. The metal-rich population could be connected to the Galactic bar. We identify this population as the carrier of the double RC feature. We do not find a significant difference in metallicity or RV between the two RCs, a small difference in metallicity being probably due to a selection effect. The RV dispersion agrees well with predictions of the Besancon Galaxy model, but the metallicity of the "thick bulge" model component should be shifted to lower metallicity by 0.2 to 0.3dex to well reproduce the observations. We present evidence that the metallicity distribution function depends on the evolutionary state of the sample stars, suggesting that enhanced mass loss preferentially removes metal-rich stars. We also confirm the decrease of \alpha-element over-abundance with increasing metallicity.Comment: 19 pages (excluding on-line table), 21 figures, accepted for publication in A&

CoRoT reveals a magnetic activity cycle in a Sun-like star

The 11-year activity cycle of the Sun is a consequence of a dynamo process occurring beneath its surface. We analyzed photometric data obtained by the CoRoT space mission, showing solar-like oscillations in the star HD49933, for signatures of stellar magnetic activity. Asteroseismic measurements of global changes in the oscillation frequencies and mode amplitudes reveal a modulation of at least 120 days, with the minimum frequency shift corresponding to maximum amplitude as in the Sun. These observations are evidence of a stellar magnetic activity cycle taking place beneath the surface of HD49933 and provide constraints for stellar dynamo models under conditions different from those of the Sun.Comment: Brevia text and supporting online material, published in Scienc

Integrated Circuit and System Design for Cognitive Radio and Ultra-Low Power Applications

The ubiquitous presence of wireless and battery-powered devices is an inseparable and invincible feature of our modern life. Meanwhile, the spectrum aggregation, and limited battery capacity of handheld devices challenge the exploding demand and growth of such radio systems. In this work, we try to present two separate solutions for each case; an ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver for Cognitive Radio (CR) applications to deal with spectrum aggregation, and an ultra-low power (ULP) receiver to enhance battery life of handheld wireless devices. Limited linearity and LO harmonics mixing are two major issues that ultra-wideband receivers, and CR in particular, are dealing with. Direct conversion schemes, based on current-driven passive mixers, have shown to improve the linearity, but unable to resolve LO harmonic mixing problem. They are usually limited to 3rd, and 5th harmonics rejection or require very complex and power hungry circuitry for higher number of harmonics. This work presents a heterodyne up-down conversion scheme in 180 nm CMOS technology for CR applications (54-862 MHz band) that mitigates the harmonic mixing issue for all the harmonics, while by employing an active feedback loop, a comparable to the state-of-the art IIP3 of better than +10 dBm is achieved. Measurements show an average NF of 7.5 dB when the active feedback loop is off (i.e. in the absence of destructive interference), and 15.5 dB when the feedback loop is active and a 0 dBm interferer is applied, respectively. Also, the second part of this work presents an ultra-low power super-regenerative receiver (SRR) suitable for OOK modulation and provides analytical insight into its design procedure. The receiver is fabricated in 40 nm CMOS technology and operates in the ISM band of 902-928 MHz. Binary search algorithm through Successive Approximation Register (SAR) architecture is being exploited to calibrate the internally generated quench signal and the working frequency of the receiver. Employing an on-chip inductor and a single-ended to differential architecture for the input amplifier has made the receiver fully integrable, eliminating the need for external components. A power consumption of 320 µW from a 0.65 V supply results in an excellent energy efficiency of 80 pJ/b at 4 Mb/s data rate. The receiver also employs an ADC that enables soft-decisioning and a convenient sensitivity-data rate trade-off, achieving sensitivity of -86.5, and -101.5 dBm at 1000 and 31.25 kbps data rate, respectivel