‘Every Tenant Matters’? The New Governance of Social Housing in England

This paper begins by considering the series of reviews of aspects of housing policy carried out by the Westminster government between 2004 and 2007. It then moves on to describe and evaluate the legislative changes derived from those reviews in the form of the Housing and Regeneration Act, 2008. Responsibility for funding social housing was separated from the regulatory role, after more than 30 years during which they had been combined within the Housing Corporation. The changes were intended to introduce and promote a new culture, on the one hand encouraging wider involvement of private, profit-seeking organisations in the production and management of social housing. On the other hand, the expressed intention was to develop a more consumer oriented approach to the regulation of social housing. The paper concludes by asking whether the Act marks a new era for social housing in England.     

Comparison of ionically and ionical-covalently cross-linked polyaromatic membranes for SO2 electrolysis

It has been shown that hydrogen, which can be used for energy storage, can be produced efficiently by the membrane based Hybrid Sulfur (HyS) process. During the HyS electrolysis step, SO₂ and H₂O are converted to H₂ and H₂SO₄, which implies that membranes to be used for this process should have both a high proton conductivity and acid stability. In this study ionic and ionic-covalently cross-linked polybenzimidazole (PBI) blended membranes were investigated and compared with Nafion^®212 in terms of their acid stability. Characterization of the membranes, which included monitoring the change in weight, swelling, SEM/EDX, TEM, TGA-MS, FTIR and IEC before and after H₂SO₄ treatment showed that all tested membranes were stable in 80 wt% H₂SO₄ at 80 °C for 120 h. Subsequent HyS electrolysis showed that the blend membranes performed better than Nafion^®115 at current densities below 0.3 A/cm², while performing similar above 0.3 A/cm².     

Both Rationed and Subsidised: Jersey's Command Economy in Housing

The bailiwick of Jersey's special constitutional position has given it the opportunity to develop its own economic, cultural and policy strategies. Becoming an off-shore tax haven, with a flat rate income tax of 20 per cent, no VAT, no inheritance tax and no capital gains tax, has brought with it the need to strictly limit residency. A key instrument in this has been housing policy and draconian measures have been introduced by the States of Jersey to ration access to housing through a complex series of stacked housing rights directly linked to residency rights. At the same time, the high cost of housing on Jersey that has resulted from economic pressures has forced the States to subsidise housing to certain categories of those who fulfil the residency requirements. This paper describes Jersey's unique and little known housing system. It is suggested that Jersey's housing policy strategy can be fruitfully understood in a broader international comparative context and in relation to other tax-havens and 'micro-states'.     

Generalised lattice transformation for crystal filters

Crystal lattice filters are usually based on the transformation of a lowpass Brune section to a second-order lattice section. This letter describes a generalisation, which transforms n Brune sections simultaneously into a lattice of order 2n, and which offers advantages for high-order filters, or filters with complex transmission zeros.     

Structured methodology for designing static and dynamic aspects of data base applications

This paper presents an integrated methodology for specifying, verifying and processing both static and dynamic requirements of data base applications.A semantic binary data model that in all the different design stages supports definition, integration and testing of views and transactions is illustrated first. The underlying related languages are then illustrated: a Schema Definition Language is introduced to specify the information that should be represented, while a Transaction Definition Language is utilised to describe the transactions that will be executed on the data base.The structure, the computer-assisted tools and the specific interactive steps of the design methodology are finally presented.     

IMBA Professional Plus: a flexible approach to internal dosimetry

IMBA (Integrated Modules for Bioassay Analysis) is a suite of software modules that implement the current ICRP biokinetic and dosimetric models for estimation of intakes and doses. The IMBA modules have gone through extensive quality assurance, and are now used for routine formal dose assessment by Approved Dosimetry Services throughout the UK. HPA has continued to develop the IMBA modules. In addition, several projects, sponsored by organisations both in the USA and in Canada, have resulted in the development of customised user-friendly interfaces (IMBA Experttrade mark 'editions'). These enable users not only to use the standard ICRP models, but also to change many of the parameter values from ICRP defaults, and to apply sophisticated data handling techniques to internal dose calculations. These include: fitting measurement data with the maximum likelihood method; using multiple chronic and acute intakes; and dealing with different data types, such as urine, faces and whole body simultaneously. These interfaces were improved further as a result of user-feedback, and a general 'off-the-shelf' product, IMBA Professional, was developed and made available in January 2004. A new version, IMBA Professional Plus, was released in April 2005, which is both faster and more powerful than previous software. The aim of this paper is to describe the capabilities of IMBA Professional Plus, and the mathematical methods used.     

Revealing the Ritually Concealed: Custodians,Conservators, and the Concealed Shoe

Abstract

Concealed shoes are footwear purposely concealed within domestic buildings. The motivations behind their concealments are unknown to us, but the prominent theory suggests that shoes were employed as apotropaic (evil-averting) devices. The metonymical connection between shoe and wearer is believed to imbue the shoe with the necessary protective power, and one theory suggests that, to possess this power, shoes must bear the unambiguous imprint of their past wearers, hence why the vast majority of them are old, well-worn or damaged. From the point of discovery (often during restructuring work), the concealed shoe’s biography can follow a variety of courses. Some debate, for example, surrounds their removal. Some finders believe it to be “bad luck” to remove concealed shoes and therefore wish to keep them in situ. Others are donated to museums, where still more debate surrounds their treatment: should they be restored by textile conservationists or left in their original state, their damaged conditions being considered central to the interpretation of the custom? This paper aims to trace the complex biographies of several examples of concealed shoes following discovery, considering how they have been variously perceived and treated by their finders and custodians.     

Anaerobic treatment of olive mill wastewater and piggery effluents fermented with Candida tropicalis

Olive mill wastewater (OMW) contains high concentrations of phenolic compounds that are inhibitory to many microorganisms making it difficult to treat biologically prior to discharge in waterways. The total mono-cyclic phenol reduction in OMW in this study was carried out by aerobic pre-treatment using the yeast Candida tropicalis in a 18 L batch reactor at 30 degrees C for 12 days followed by anaerobic co-digestion. A COD removal of 62% and a reduction in the total mono-cyclic phenol content by 51% of the mixture was achieved in the aerobic pre-treatment. Pig slurry was added as co-substrate to supplement the low nitrogen levels in the olive mill wastewater. Subsequent anaerobic treatment was carried out in a 20L fixed-bed reactor at 37 degrees C and HRT between 11 and 45 days. After a long start-up period, the OLR was increased from 1.25 to 5 kg COD m(-3)day(-1) during the last 30 days, resulting in subsequent increase in overall COD removal and biogas production, up to maximum values of 85% and 29 L(biogas)L(reactor)(-1)day(-1), respectively. Methane content of the biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion ranged between 65% and 74%.     

Effects of heavy-ion irradiation on solute segregation to dislocations in oxide-dispersion-strengthened Eurofer 97 steel

Interactions of solute atoms with dislocations are known to influence the mechanical properties of metals, and are an important aspect of irradiated materials. Here, atom-probe tomography is used to investigate the segregation of solutes to dislocations in the martensitic/ferritic oxide-dispersion-strengthened Eurofer steel. The material was irradiated with 0.5-2 MeV Fe²⁺ ions at 400 °C, and the distributions of solutes at dislocations were analysed in the ‘as-received’ condition, after annealing, and after ion implantation. While Mn is randomly distributed in the as-received material, significant segregation of Mn at dislocations and grain boundaries is observed after irradiation. The level of Mn segregation varies depending on the density of oxide particles surrounding the dislocations.