bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Transport and Land-Use Benefits under Location Externalities
Authors: Martínez Francisco , Araya Claudio
Published: January 2006

Transport projects are economically assessed partly by estimating users' benefits in the transport system and by ignoring impacts on land use under the argument that these benefits are already incorporated into transport users' benefits. In this paper we discuss this argument from two main viewpoints: the level of percolation of transport benefits into land values and the presence of external economies in urban systems. We first propose and discuss measures of benefits in the transport system and in the land-use system. Then we analyse to what extent transport users' benefits percolate into land rents, showing empirical evidence that it may be limited. We then focus on the less-studied effect of three types of technological externalities: direct effects associated with traffic nuisance; location externalities, associated with economies of agglomeration of households and firms, which in some cities may be a dominant location choice factor; and land-use–transport interaction. We conclude by specifying in more detail the conditions under which the classical argument and current project appraisal methods are valid.
Testing for Origin Dependence in Socioeconomic Duration Data
Authors: Crouchley Rob , Oskrochi Reza
Published: January 2006

We investigate the properties of two tests for origin dependence in the semi-Markov process. Although several authors have discussed tests for destination dependence, tests for the equally important origin dependence have been ignored. The properties of the test statistics under the null hypothesis of no origin dependence are examined by means of a simulation study. The use of these tests is illustrated by an application to residential tenure data from the British Household Panel Survey.
Assessing the Role of the Arts and Cultural Industries in a Local Economy
Authors: Bryan Jane , Hill Steve , Munday Max , Roberts Annette
Published: January 2006

The authors examine the economic impacts of the arts and cultural industries on the Welsh economy. The impact of defined sectors were assessed within an input-output modelling framework. By using this methodology they seek to estimate the sectoral impacts on employment, output, and incomes in Wales and also to assess the significance of sectoral interdependencies. A number of policy implications are discussed.
Ethnic Minority Housing Needs and Diversity in an Area of Low Housing Demand
Authors: Cameron Stuart
Published: January 2006

This paper is based on my studies of minority ethnic housing needs in the west end of Newcastle, and links these to the issue of low demand for social housing in the area. The minority ethnic population is expanding but barriers exist to its utilisation of social housing. In this paper, I reveal the diversity of socioeconomic and housing circumstances between different minority ethnic groups, and the particularly disadvantaged situation of the Bangladeshi population. I explore the barriers that exist to access to housing both in theoretical terms and in terms of the detailed social and residential geography of the west end of Newcastle, and I examine how the social and spatial location of ethnic minorities maps onto the patterns of low housing demand. Discussion of the policy implications suggests the block reallocation of areas of social housing to specific minority ethnic communities.
Labour-Market Insecurity and Risk in the Owner-Occupied Housing Market
Authors: Munro Moira
Published: January 2006

The author explores the extent to which labour-market insecurity affects behaviour in the owner-occupied housing market. Drawing on related qualitative and quantitative survey evidence, the author first argues that owner-occupiers have experienced and also perceive considerable labour-market insecurity. However, analysis of the large-scale survey suggests only weak linkages between indicators of insecurity and the choices that owners make in the housing market. This apparent inconsistency is explored with the aid of the qualitative data which suggest that perception of insecurity and attitude to risk intersect to create strategies that may not bear any direct connection to measurable and objective labour-market characteristics or risks. The author concludes by arguing that this evidence suggests that the current policy aim of leaving owners to insure themselves against labour-market risk will leave some owners unprotected, and that this gap is likely to persist in the long term.
Intellectual Respectability and Disciplinary Transformation? Radical Geography and the Institutionalisation of Geography in the USA since 1945
Authors: Johnston Ron
Published: January 2006

Radical geography is an established component of geography in the United States, yet a recent report whose production was promoted by the Association of American Geographers virtually ignores it in its presentation of current priorities for teaching and research in the discipline. The report is far from inclusive in its outline of the discipline, therefore, which is aimed at the country's scientific establishment, a very different strategy from that employed three decades earlier in a report produced with very similar goals before radical geography's genesis. The reports are compared, and their different strategies evaluated in the context of understandings of both how disciplines evolve and the role of science within contemporary US society.
An Exploration of ‘Bundles' as Indicators of Rural Disadvantage
Authors: Hodge Ian , Dunn Jessica , Monk Sarah , Kiddle Caroline
Published: January 2006

Indicators are increasingly used in the allocation of resources in addressing problems of disadvantage. The most commonly used indicators have generally been developed in relation to urban problems and there is a concern that this fails to reveal problems as experienced in rural areas. Many of the indicators that might be used are ambiguous and there appear to be few single indicators that adequately capture the complex nature of the problems facing people living in rural areas. An alternative approach is proposed, involving the development of bundles of indicators that are defined around notional numbers of people living in particular sets of circumstances relating, for example, to employment, service provision, and access to housing. A number of bundles are suggested and illustrative results are presented for three counties. Analysis illustrates how the results may be used to compare the incidence of disadvantage between urban and rural areas, the concentration of disadvantage within rural areas, and the relationships between the various types of disadvantage. The approach has potential both for analysing the incidence of rural disadvantage and as a basis for the allocation of rural development assistance.
A Structurationist Interpretation of Community Activism during School Closures
Authors: Phipps Alan G
Published: January 2006

Structuration theory is applied to produce a typology of rules and resources that community representatives could use in their activism to keep open a facility slated for closure. This typology is compared with the rules and the resources that the community representatives used during a school-closure review in Essex County, Ontario, Canada, as inferred from a computerized content analysis of 138 letters published in the local daily newspaper. The community representatives' primary authoritative resource was their knowledge about the students' education and their communities. Their primary rules were the political ones for influencing the local and the provincial politicians. This structurationist interpretation clarifies the point that their community activism with these resources and rules did not solely explain the reprieve of the schools from closure.
Leisure, Property, and the Viability of Town Centres
Authors: Ravenscroft Neil , Reeves Jo , Rowley Martha
Published: January 2006

Much has been written about the positive benefits associated with the growth in town centres of leisure enterprises, particularly those associated with the ‘evening economy’. Coinciding as it has with concerns about the future viability of many of these centres, the promotion of leisure and tourism businesses—and the concomitant conversion of property—has become a core strategy for many local authorities and town-centre managers. Informed by the work of Sharon Zukin, the authors argue that, rather than reflecting the increasing strength of urban areas, the opposite may be the case, particularly in smaller provincial towns. Using case-study data, the authors show that, rather than compete for space, most new leisure businesses employ opportunist strategies, colonising areas no longer required by other occupiers—whether retail, commercial, or industrial. As a result, they argue, the emergence of concentrations of leisure-based property occupiers in town centres signals little more than a delay in the economic restructuring of the area.
Workers and Workplaces in a Neoliberal Global Economy
Authors: Herod Andrew
Published: January 2006

In this commentary I suggest that three sets of processes—a dramatic shrinking of distance between places, a growing global interconnection of economies, and the increasing importance for many corporations of an ‘international strategy’—are having fundamental impacts on workers and workplaces. Although these processes are playing out in geographically uneven ways, differentially affecting various parts of the globe, there are three sets of general implications associated with them. First, the speed with which the consequences of economic and political events are transmitted through markets has increased dramatically during the past decades. Second, the rhetoric of neoliberal globalization is being used in an attempt to shift the balance of power to global capital. Third, the international migration of both work and people is likely to increase, the former fueled by Internet technologies effectively allowing global telecommuting, the latter fueled by falling birth rates in the industrial economies of the global North. I conclude with some observations about how workers and their organizations may respond to these developments.
Development, Post-, Anti-, and Populist: A Critical Review
Authors: Blaikie Piers
Published: January 2006

The notion and practice of development have been severely critiqued from both modernist and postmodernist perspectives, yet the global development industry flourishes. The latter have afforded important insights, but also suffer from unexamined ideological agendas, a disinclination to undertake detailed research into development processes and policy, a preoccupation with texts and representations by the development industry, and from perpetuating an indulgent and agenda-less academic cul-de-sac. Instead, the postmodern critique of development could lead to a more politically astute and practical reconstruction of certain aspects of ‘development’, particularly in the neopopulist mode of developmentalism. Three powerful development paradigms are identified, and the ways in which they are constructed, promoted, and adapted are discussed in the light of conflicting modernist and postmodern accounts.
Class, Geography, and the Consumerist Turn: UNITE and the Stop Sweatshops Campaign
Authors: Johns Rebecca , Vural Leyla
Published: January 2006

The late 20th century has seen unions in the industrial and postindustrial countries retrench and struggle to develop new strategies and tactics in the face of a changing political economy. A challenge to the traditional conceptions of the appropriate place and scope of union activity comes from the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and its innovative leadership in the US-based Stop Sweatshops Campaign. Based on an analysis of the shifting locus of power in the garment industry, the union shifted its focus from the point of production to the place of consumption to pressure retailers who set prices within the industry. This strategy, which fulfills the prophecy of the consumptive turn earlier this century, applies a new geography and politics to labor struggles, and forces labor geographers to consider anew the relationship between consumption and production in our understanding of the changing economic landscape.
Professionalisation, Activism, and the University: Whither ‘Critical Geography’?
Authors: Castree Noel
Published: January 2006

In this paper I seek to describe, explain, and evaluate three decades of Left geographical change. Now that ‘critical geography’—rather than ‘radical geography’—has become the privileged descriptor for Left geographical inquiry, it is argued that this temporal switch of labels is of more than merely semantic significance. Specifically, it is suggested that the supercession of the ‘radical geography’ label is symptomatic of a substantive shift in the nature and purposes of Left geographical inquiry. This shift has entailed the ‘professionalisation’ and ‘academicisation’ of Left geography. Both developments have occurred in the context of a thirty-year transition from a ‘modern’ to an ‘after-modern’ higher education system. Taking the Anglo-American case, it is argued that the current vitality of the geographical (read ‘critical’) Left in the academy correlates with its detachment from ‘real world’ political constituencies and also a blindness to the academic changes underpinning this inverse correlation. Rather than worrying over their apparent failure to connect with constituencies ‘out there’, it is argued that geographical Leftists need to recapture something of the radical geography spirit of action and engagement in order to contest changes occurring ‘in here’: that is, changes in the political and moral economy of the higher system that enables and constrains our academic labours. A brief manifesto for a ‘domesticated critical geography’ is offered by way of a conclusion.
Estimating the Socioeconomic Characteristics of School Populations with the Aid of Pupil Postcodes and Small-Area Census Data: An Appraisal
Authors: Gibson Alex , Asthana Sheena
Published: January 2006

It is becoming increasingly important to understand the social and economic circumstances under which schools operate. Benchmarking school performance targets, contextualising performance outcomes, and Ofsted inspections all rely upon measures of the socioeconomic status of school populations. These tend to utilise administrative data—such as the percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals—or census data for the ward or neighbourhood of wards in which a school is located. This last approach brings to bear the remarkable wealth of information contained within the census, but it suffers from the fact that schools seldom draw their pupils exclusively, or even predominately, from their immediate hinterlands. The authors discuss a method of estimating the socioeconomic characteristics of school populations which, using a program called NCP Profiler to link individual pupil postcodes with census data at the enumeration district level, is sensitive to the manner in which schools actually recruit students—an increasingly important consideration as the quasi-market in education leads to the effective dismantling of geographically defined school catchment areas.
Estimating the Population of Young People by Ethnic Group in the Northern Region of England, 1971–91
Authors: Dummer Trevor J B , Dickinson Heather O , Charlton Martin E , Parker Louise
Published: January 2006

We estimate the numbers of young people aged 0–24 years, resident in the Northern Region in 1971, 1981, and 1991 by ethnic group, age, sex, and birth place (inside–outside the United Kingdom). In 1991 the numbers of residents by ethnic group, age, and sex were obtained from the census and adjusted for underenumeration; the numbers born inside and outside the United Kingdom were estimated from the 1991 Census Sample of Anonymised Records (SAR). In 1981 and 1971, the numbers of UK-born residents by ethnic group, age, and sex were estimated from the proportion of UK-born residents in the relevant group in the 1991 SAR; country of birth was used as an indication of ethnicity of non-UK-born residents. The accuracy of the estimates is assessed. The methodology developed could be applied to other regions of the United Kingdom.
Constructing and Evaluating Contextual Indices Using GIS: A Case of Primary School Performance Tables
Authors: Brimicombe Allan
Published: January 2006

School performance tables emphasising aggregate examination scores have become an enduring feature of the educational landscape. These tables are problematic, even flawed, as a guide, given the recognised broad link between pupil performance and the social and economic environment in which they live. There is continued interest in being able to contextualise school examination scores so as better to reflect relative achievement. The inherent spatiality of inequalities lends itself to analysis using geographical information systems (GIS), particularly in the task of creating context from geodemographic and lifestyle data. In this paper I explore a methodology for creating and analysing a contextual index of ambient disadvantage centred on robust normalisation of data and illustrate this by using census variables, pupil numbers, and test scores for 3687 primary schools in the north of England. Relevant census variables are interpolated using ordinary kriging with an element of smoothing so as to simulate, to some extent, the effect of school catchment areas. Key features of using robust normalisation are that variable weights can be tested and the internal level of support for an index, the weighted absolute deviation, can be calculated and mapped. This latter quantity provides a quality measure for an index. The methodology is critically assessed in relation to other recent approaches.
The Geography of R&D: Tobit Analysis and a Bayesian Approach to Mapping R&D Activities in the Netherlands
Authors: Ouwersloot Hans , Rietveld Piet
Published: January 2006

Regions vary strongly according to the participation of firms in R&D activity. By linking data on R&D activity at the firm level with GIS-based data on economic and other location features of regions, we are able to investigate the impact of local factors on R&D involvement for various types of firms. The relative importance of local factors as determinants of the R&D involvement of firms is estimated by means of a tobit model. Rather strong differences are found between zones in the same urban region. For example, modern manufacturing firms located in the centre of large cities have relatively low levels of R&D, and the opposite holds for rings of zones at certain distances from the cities. Bayesian methods are used for map presentations of the survey data.
Mismatch Unemployment and Local Labour-Market Efficiency: The Role of Employer and Vacancy Characteristics
Authors: Adams John , Greig Malcolm , McQuaid Ronald W
Published: January 2006

Much of the theoretical and policy debate on local labour markets has focused upon improving the educational, training, and other ‘supply-side’ characteristics of job seekers. However, complementary employer ‘demand-side’ factors, in particular the characteristics of employers, job openings, and recruitment practices, are also important in local labour markets but have been relatively neglected in the literature. The authors investigate such factors and argue that job vacancies in an environment of high unemployment are not only the result of traditional ‘structural’ or ‘skill mismatch between local labour markets, but may result from a mismatch between employer and job-seeker expectations combined with an asymmetry of information between these groups, resulting in ‘frictional mismatch’ within local labour markets. Skill shortages can therefore be seen as a subset of wider recruitment difficulties. The authors survey a sample of employers to examine their characteristics, vacancies, and recruitment practices. The results provide evidence on the importance of employer and job factors on the flow of people into job vacancies. They also indicate that certain recruitment practices and inherent characteristics of vacancies and employers result in job offers that are either unattractive or inaccessible to the unemployed and hence increase the duration of job vacancies. It is argued that research into and design of local labour-market policies need to take more explicit account of the employer and job characteristics when discussing skill mismatch.
Governmentality and Rights and Responsibilities in Urban Policy
Authors: Raco Mike , Imrie Rob
Published: January 2006

We deploy aspects of Foucault's concept of governmentality to discuss the argument that the recent shift towards a ‘rights and responsibilities' agenda in urban policy is part of broader transformations in the rationalities and techniques of government. Following Rose, we characterise the emergent forms of urban policy as part of ‘advanced liberalism’ or strategies which seek to activate citizens, individually and collectively, to take greater responsibility for their own government. Such strategies are, as Rose notes, seeking to govern through the instrumentalisation of the self-governing properties of the subjects of government themselves in a whole variety of locales. We develop the argument in three parts. The first part justifies the use of a Foucauldian framework in seeking to understand the new political and policy agenda on ‘rights and responsibilities’. In a second part, we investigate the changing nature of governmental rationalities and techniques of governmentality primarily through the context of the Single Regeneration Budget. In so doing, we consider two interrelated dimensions of the rationalities and techniques of government which seek to shape and guide what Foucault refers to as ‘the conduct of others' or those that are the objects of government, that is, active citizens. These dimensions are government through community and the specification of subjects of government. We conclude by specifying the importance we attach to using a Foucauldian framework for the analysis of urban policy and policy processes more generally.
The Control of High-Skill Labor and Entrepreneurship in the Early US Semiconductor Industry
Authors: Appold Stephen J
Published: January 2006

Studies of entrepreneurship increasingly focus on the context of entrepreneurship, rather than on the characteristics of the entrepreneur. Arguing that the inability of particular firms to control high-skill labor is responsible for a critical component of contemporary entrepreneurship—technologically based spin-offs—the author provides a theoretical basis for the effects of career dynamics on entrepreneurship. A theory of entrepreneurship, drawing on human capital theory, skills–opportunity theory, and internal labor-market theory, links declines in firm market share to a disequilibrium in labor-market matches. That imbalance leads to the breakdown of control and the consequent generation of spin-offs. Combining theory with qualitative and quantitative evidence, support is drawn from a study of the US semiconductor industry from its beginning until its early maturity in the mid-1970s.
Recent Developments in the Greek System of Urban Centres
Authors: Petrakos George , Mardakis Prodromos , Caraveli Helen
Published: January 2006

In this paper we examine the recent developments in the Greek system of urban centres, in order to assess the validity of the view that trends of deconcentration have been in operation during the last decade. Estimation of the rank — size distribution functions for all the postwar census years shows that concentration trends were prevalent until the early 1980s. During the last decade, however, stabilisation or even deconcentration trends have appeared with the faster development of smaller cities. This finding should not be taken as an indication of a trend reversal towards more balanced spatial development, as further analysis shows that the faster growing smaller cities are largely satellite cities of the metropolitan centres of Athens and Thessaloniki. Based on the results of regression analysis, we conclude with a discussion on the factors contributing to differential urban growth performance and the policy implications of these findings for metropolitan regions and balanced growth in Greece.
A Theoretical Framework for Weight-Value Set Construction in Land Suitability Assessment
Authors: Xiang Wei-Ning
Published: January 2006

When using the rating and weighting (RAW) method in land suitability assessment, planners often substitute the theoretical weight-value range [0, 1] with a weight-value set, an ordered set of discrete values reduced from the continuous weight-value range. In constructing such a weight-value set, one needs to decide on how many weight values should be used (size of the value set) and where in the value range they should be placed (the choice of weight values). At present, one must make these decisions and defend their credibility on the basis of “professional judgments”, as a theoretical framework for such purposes is simply not available. Can a theoretical framework be established so that one can make these decisions systematically? If so, is it advantageous to use such a framework, instead of the existing methods, in constructing weight-value sets? In this paper these two issues are explored. I found that the theoretical weight-value range [0, 1] is actually sliced into segments; that in producing land suitability scores, weight-value sets that are constructed from these segments function just as effectively as the weight-value range; and that a five-rule framework comprised of these weight-value sets offers a higher level of efficiency and greater transparency than existing methods.
Reasoning by Visual Analogy in Design Problem-Solving: The Role of Guidance
Authors: Casakin Hernan P , Goldschmidt Gabriela
Published: January 2006

The use of analogy, including visual analogy, is a powerful problem-solving strategy that can help explain new problems in terms of familiar ones. There is evidence that problem-solvers have difficulty in making spontaneous use of this strategy, despite its proven effectiveness. However, guidance to use it greatly increases accessibility to analogy in problem-solving. In the design domain, evidence of the use of analogy has hitherto been mostly anecdotal. Our goal in this paper is to show through empirical data that analogy can be effective in facilitating design problem-solving, especially when explicit instructions for its use are given.
Patterns of Energy Use in Nondomestic Buildings
Authors: Mortimer Nigel D , Elsayed Maha A , Grant John F
Published: January 2006

In this paper we present current results which illustrate various aspects of the patterns of energy use in nondomestic buildings derived from the statistical analysis of data obtained from energy surveying activities. The reason for producing such results is explained. The means of organising results in a meaningful manner is introduced. Standard methods of statistical analysis are described by using results from the current sample of office premises as an example. Comparisons of energy-use patterns are presented for eleven prominent activity categories within the United Kingdom non-domestic building stock.
Adapting GIS Technology to the Needs of Local Planning
Authors: Ceccato Vania A , Snickars Folke
Published: January 2006

Our objective in this paper is to argue for a new use of geographic information systems—GIS in local planning as an auxiliary tool for decision-making. We review the use of the GIS technique in earlier research studies and represent the empirical findings from using GIS in a quality-of-life study in conjunction with an urban renewal project of a residential area in Stockholm County, Sweden. Special attention is given to the potential of GIS for mapping qualitative data representing people's needs and judgments about their residential areas. We conclude with a discussion of future challenges in using GIS techniques in combination with the Internet for social analysis in renewal planning. One of the arguments proposed is that the tool can be used to promote the involvement of urban residents.
Spatial Planning as a Design Discipline: A Paradigm for Western Europe?
Authors: Needham Barrie
Published: January 2006

There is an implicit paradigm in the theory of spatial planning, which we call “spatial planning as a design discipline”. It is implicit in much of planning theory, and the exposition here is in many respects an ordering of ideas from planning theory which have been in circulation for many years. I will make them explicit and relate them to each other in order to lay bare the underlying assumptions, to help planning education, and to improve the relationship between theory and practice. Such an ordering of existing ideas inevitably looks backwards, so I will also investigate how the paradigm presented here relates to some recent innovations in planning theory. Because many of the ideas have been in good currency for a long time, it is probable that they have had a strong influence on planning practice in much of Western Europe: there is not just a paradigm shared by academics but also a discourse shared by academics and practitioners.
Computer Visualisation in the Design Control of Urban Environments: A Literature Review
Authors: Pietsch Susan M
Published: January 2006

The use of three-dimensional computer visualisation in shaping our urban environments has been discussed in the literature for the past ten years. In particular, the use of visualisation in design control has been of interest in opening up the planning process to those outside the design profession with a view to improving decisionmaking. Despite research demonstrating that this occurs, implementation of visualisation on a routine basis within planning authorities remains limited. In this paper a literature review is presented concerning visualisation of urban environments to explore the reasons for this lack of implementation. The interrelation of abstraction, accuracy, and realism in visualisation is used as a framework for this examination.
What is a Neighbourhood? The Structure and Function of an Idea
Authors: Kallus Rachel , Law-Yone Hubert
Published: January 2006

In this paper we use the tension between ideals and reality as a key to comprehend the ever-changing concept of neighbourhood in architecture and planning theory. We analyze the theoretical, that is abstract, meaning of the concept of neighbourhood by using a deconstructive approach in the examination of particular texts. A shift in the sense and meaning of neighbourhood in architecture and planning theory over the years is discerned. A stratified process of transformation in the meaning attached to the neighbourhood is identified in the arguments used to construct this idea in theory and in professional practice. This process proceeds from a humanistic approach, to an instrumental and then to a phenomenological approach. The humanistic approach sees the neighbourhood as a manifestation of human activity and thus the planning of the neighbourhood as a moral requirement which is a proper response to basic human needs. The instrumental approach views the neighbourhood as a planning device, an integral building block in the development of urban structure. As such it conceives of the neighbourhood as a subsystem in a larger assemblage. The phenomenological approach emphasizes the neighbourhood as a unique urban phenomenon. Its significance is seen to stem from its conventional everyday function (residential) which involves continuity and permanence and which fixes the neighbourhood sense of place in the urban collective memory. In our paper these three approaches are related to present architectural and planning attempts to come to terms with both overall general societal developments as well as with specific demands and needs situated in the profession.
Mapping Policy Discourse with CRANES: Spatial Understanding Support Systems as a Medium for Community Conflict Resolution
Authors: Horita Masahide
Published: January 2006

In this paper I will report on the development of a new spatial understanding support system (SUSS) for representing community disputes. It is argued that the more traditional approach of spatial decision support systems (SDSS) has had limited success in its application to actual community conflicts. In this study I have therefore adopted an alternative approach to spatial decision support, broadly following the paradigm of soft operational research. A prototype system termed CRANES (coordinator for rational arguments through nested substantiation) has been developed based on this alternative approach, integrated with a GIS. CRANES is a computer-assisted communication tool that aims to structure conflicts with their geographical, strategic, and argumentative dimensions. In the case study CRANES was introduced into an actual consultation exercise on an urban regeneration scheme in London. Results show that the multidimensional representation realised by CRANES contributed to a richer understanding of other peoples' arguments. Furthermore these arguments structured by and stored in CRANES proved to be a useful public resource for future decision making. It is concluded that SUSS such as CRANES could be incorporated into a future consultation process for many real-world community conflicts.
Technological Options for the Reduction of Russian Acid Rain and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Authors: Hill Malcolm R
Published: January 2006

The first part of this paper consists of a summary of previous studies on Russian emissions of oxides of sulphur (SO x) and nitrogen (NO x), followed by a summary of reports of Russian carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This range of estimates is then compared with reports of emissions from other major industrial Western countries, in order to provide information on the comparative magnitudes of acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions from the former Soviet region. The next section of the paper provides information on technological options for the reduction of acid rain and CO2 emissions within a framework of available fuels and combustion processes utilised in power generation within the former USSR, paying particular attention to those technologies which are applicable to the reduction of acid rain or greenhouse gases either separately or simultaneously. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the Russian economic, political, and commercial factors which will influence the practical implementation of those technologies in that region, paying particular attention to the potentials for the development of indigenous Russian technologies and the assimilation of Western know-how.
School Construction and Waste Diversion: An Interorganizational Perspective
Authors: MacKinnon Colleen T
Published: January 2006

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore reducing, reusing, and recycling materials during a demolition, renovation, and construction project at a Vermont public school site. Participants included school district representatives, architects, builders, trades-people, end-use marketers, and solid waste specialists, with each of the participants representing a different perspective of school construction. The study underscored potential changes other participants could adopt that might lead to increasing the total capacity of school construction stakeholders to divert solid waste materials from the waste stream. Themes studied included (a) valuing waste diversion, (b) building infrastructure capacity, (c) balancing cost-effectiveness with strategies, and (d) communicating strategies and obstacles. In particular, the study identified activities currently used and obstacles to solid waste diversion efforts.
Areas and Types of Glazing and other Openings in the Nondomestic Building Stock
Authors: Gakovic Bratislav
Published: January 2006

In this paper I will report an empirical study of the patterns and areas of openings—windows, rooflights, and doors—in a sample of nondomestic buildings. Strong correlations are shown, for some selected groups of building types, between total areas of openings and total floor areas. The results are being used in the development of a database of the Nondomestic Building Stock for the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, whose main purpose is to test policies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The findings should have applications in other areas of building science which are concerned with glazing, especially in the modelling of lighting and thermal performance.
Three-Dimensional Representation of Urban Built Form in a GIS
Authors: Holtier S , Steadman J P , Smith M G
Published: January 2006

The Smallworld GIS has been customised to create a means of representing the three-dimensional forms of buildings. To do this, buildings are broken down into “floor polygons”, among whose attributes are floor level and storey height. Data for nondomestic buildings at 3350 addresses in four English towns have been entered into Smallworld, and measurements made of floor areas, roof areas, and exposed wall areas. Floor polygons may be reaggregated into premises, built forms, or by other attributes. Several applications in energy analysis and urban planning are described.
Cortical signatures of noun and verb production
Authors: Shapiro Kevin A. , Moo Lauren R. , Caramazza Alfonso
Published: January 2006

Categories like “noun” and “verb” represent the basic units of grammar in all human languages, and the retrieval of categorical information associated with words is an essential step in the production of grammatical speech. Studies of brain-damaged patients suggest that knowledge of nouns and verbs can be spared or impaired selectively; however, the neuroanatomical correlates of this dissociation are not well understood. We used event-related functional MRI to identify cortical regions that were active when English-speaking subjects produced nouns or verbs in the context of short phrases. Two regions, in the left prefrontal cortex and left superior parietal lobule, were selectively activated for verb trials compared with noun trials; one region in the left inferior temporal lobe was more active during noun production than verb production. We propose that these regions are involved in representing core conceptual properties of nouns and verbs.
Cyclodextrin-covered organic nanotubes derived from self-assembly of dendrons and their supramolecular transformation
Authors: Park Chiyoung , Lee Im Hae , Lee Sanghwa , Song Yumi , Rhue Mikyo , Kim Chulhee
Published: January 2006

The dendritic building blocks with a focal pyrene unit self-organize into vesicles in aqueous phase. The
in situ
inclusion of the focal pyrene units into the cavity of β- or γ-cyclodextrin (CD) induces self-assembled organic nanotubes with an average outer diameter of ≈45 nm and inner diameter of 22 nm. The surface of the nanotube is covered with CD. Therefore, the functional group on the surface of the nanotube is controlled simply by modifying the functionality of CD. The removal of CD from the nanotube with poly(propylene glycol) reversibly generates vesicles. This work provides an efficient methodology not only to create an additional class of CD-covered organic nanotubes but also to exhibit reversible transformation of nanotubes and vesicles triggered by the motifs of dendron self-assembly, CD inclusion, and pseudorotaxane formation.
Tumor marker-responsive behavior of gels prepared by biomolecular imprinting
Authors: Miyata Takashi , Jige Masashi , Nakaminami Takeshi , Uragami Tadashi
Published: January 2006

We report dynamic glycoprotein recognition of gels prepared by biomolecular imprinting using lectin and antibody molecules as ligands for tumor-specific marker glycoproteins. The glycoprotein-imprinted gels prepared with minute amounts of cross-linkers could dynamically recognize tumor-specific marker glycoproteins by lectin and antibody ligands and induce volume changes according to the glycoprotein concentration. The glycoprotein-imprinted gel shrank in response to a target glycoprotein but nonimprinted gel swelled a little. The glycoprotein-responsive shrinking of the imprinted gel was caused by formation of lectin–glycoprotein–antibody complexes that acted as reversible cross-linking points. Glycoprotein-imprinted gels only shrank when both lectin and antibody in the gels simultaneously recognized the saccharide and peptide chains of the target glycoprotein. As shrinking behavior of biomolecularly imprinted gels in response to glycoproteins enables the accurate detection and recognition of tumor-specific marker glycoproteins, they have many potential applications as smart devices in sensing systems and for molecular diagnostics.
Active digestion of sperm mitochondrial DNA in single living sperm revealed by optical tweezers
Authors: Nishimura Yoshiki , Yoshinari Tomoya , Naruse Kiyoshi , Yamada Takeshi , Sumi Kazuyoshi , Mitani Hiroshi , Higashiyama Tetsuya , Kuroiwa Tsuneyoshi
Published: January 2006

In almost all eukaryotes, mitochondrial (mt) genes are transmitted to progeny mainly from the maternal parent. The most popular explanation for this phenomenon is simple dilution of paternal mtDNA, because the paternal gametes (sperm) are much smaller than maternal gametes (egg) and contribute a limited amount of mitochondria to the progeny. Recently, this simple explanation has been challenged in several reports that describe the active digestion of sperm mtDNA, down-regulation of mtDNA replication in sperm, and proteolysis of mitochondria triggered by ubiquitination. In this investigation, we visualized mt nucleoids in living sperm by using highly sensitive SYBR green I vital staining. The ability to visualize mt nucleoids allowed us to clarify that the elimination of sperm mtDNA upon fertilization is achieved through two steps: (
i
) gradual decrease of mt nucleoid numbers during spermatogenesis and (
ii
) rapid digestion of sperm mtDNA just after fertilization. One notable point is that the digestion of mtDNA is achieved before the complete destruction of mitochondrial structures, which may be necessary to avoid the diffusion and transmission of potentially deleterious sperm mtDNA to the progeny.
Drosophila
as a model for the identification of genes causing adult human heart disease
Authors: Wolf Matthew J. , Amrein Hubert , Izatt Joseph A. , Choma Michael A. , Reedy Mary C. , Rockman Howard A.
Published: January 2006

Drosophila melanogaster
genetics provides the advantage of molecularly defined P-element insertions and deletions that span the entire genome. Although
Drosophila
has been extensively used as a model system to study heart development, it has not been used to dissect the genetics of adult human heart disease because of an inability to phenotype the adult fly heart
in vivo
. Here we report the development of a strategy to measure cardiac function in awake adult
Drosophila
that opens the field of
Drosophila
genetics to the study of human dilated cardiomyopathies. Through the application of optical coherence tomography, we accurately distinguish between normal and abnormal cardiac function based on measurements of internal cardiac chamber dimensions
in vivo
. Normal
Drosophila
have a fractional shortening of 87 ± 4%, whereas cardiomyopathic flies that contain a mutation in troponin I or tropomyosin show severe impairment of systolic function. To determine whether the fly can be used as a model system to recapitulate human dilated cardiomyopathy, we generated transgenic
Drosophila
with inducible cardiac expression of a mutant of human δ-sarcoglycan (δsg
S151A
), which has previously been associated with familial dilated cardiomyopathy. Compared to transgenic flies overexpressing wild-type δsg, or the standard laboratory strain

w
1118

,
Drosophila
expressing δsg
S151A
developed marked impairment of systolic function and significantly enlarged cardiac chambers. These data illustrate the utility of
Drosophila
as a model system to study dilated cardiomyopathy and the applicability of the vast genetic resources available in
Drosophila
to systematically study the genetic mechanisms responsible for human cardiac disease.
Retroviral vector integration deregulates gene expression but has no consequence on the biology and function of transplanted T cells
Authors: Recchia Alessandra , Bonini Chiara , Magnani Zulma , Urbinati Fabrizia , Sartori Daniela , Muraro Sara , Tagliafico Enrico , Bondanza Attilio , Stanghellini Maria Teresa Lupo , Bernardi Massimo , Pescarollo Alessandra , Ciceri Fabio , Bordignon Claudio , Mavilio Fulvio
Published: January 2006

The use of retroviral vectors in gene therapy has raised safety concerns for the genotoxic risk associated with their uncontrolled insertion into the human genome. We have analyzed the consequences of retroviral transduction in T cells from leukemic patients treated with allogeneic stem cell transplantation and donor lymphocytes genetically modified with a suicide gene (HSV-TK). Retroviral vectors integrate preferentially within or near transcribed regions of the genome, with a preference for sequences around promoters and for genes active in T cells at the time of transduction. Quantitative transcript analysis shows that one fifth of these integrations affect the expression of nearby genes. However, transduced T cell populations maintain remarkably stable gene expression profiles, phenotype, biological functions, and immune repertoire
in vivo
, with no evidence of clonal selection up to 9 yr after administration. Analysis of integrated proviruses in transduced cells before and after transplantation indicates that integrations interfering with normal T cell function are more likely to lead to clonal ablation than expansion
in vivo
. Despite the potentially dangerous interactions with the T cell genome, retroviral integration has therefore little consequence on the safety and efficacy of T cell transplantation.
Torque–speed relationship of the bacterial flagellar motor
Authors: Xing Jianhua , Bai Fan , Berry Richard , Oster George
Published: January 2006

Many swimming bacteria are propelled by flagellar filaments driven by a rotary motor. Each of these tiny motors can generate an impressive torque. The motor torque vs. speed relationship is considered one of the most important measurable characteristics of the motor and therefore is a major criterion for judging models proposed for the working mechanism. Here we give an explicit explanation for this torque–speed curve. The same physics also can explain certain puzzling properties of other motors.
A SNP in the flt-1 promoter integrates the VEGF system into the p53 transcriptional network
Authors: Menendez Daniel , Krysiak Oliver , Inga Alberto , Krysiak Bianca , Resnick Michael A. , Schönfelder Gilbert
Published: January 2006

The VEGF system is essential for angiogenesis. VEGF overexpression frequently correlates with increased microvascularity and metastasis and decreased spontaneous apoptosis. Although a precise mechanism has not been established, studies suggest that VEGF expression is negatively regulated by p53, a master regulator and tumor suppressor. There are no reports of additional components of the VEGF signal transduction pathway being part of the p53 transcriptional network. A target of VEGF, the VEGF receptor 1/flt-1, can regulate growth and migration of endothelial cells and modulate angiogenesis. VEGF appears to be up-regulated in various cancers in which flt-1 may have a role in tumor progression and metastasis. We identified a C-to-T SNP upstream of the transcriptional start site in ≈6% of the people examined. The SNP is located within a putative p53 response element. Only the promoter with the T SNP (FLT1-T) was responsive to p53 when examined with reporter assays or by endogenous gene expression analysis in cell lines with different SNP status. In response to doxorubicin-induced DNA damage, there was clear allele discrimination based on p53 binding at the FLT1-T but not FLT1-C promoters as well as p53-dependent induction of flt-1 mRNA, which required the presence of FLT1-T. Our results establish that p53 can differentially stimulate transcription at a polymorphic variant of the flt-1 promoter and directly places the VEGF system in the p53 stress-response network via flt-1 in a significant fraction of the human population. We suggest that the p53-VEGF-flt-1 interaction is relevant to risks in angiogenesis-associated diseases, including cancer.