Authenticity and stakeholder planning in the segregated city

This paper is concerned with the production and reproduction of segregation in Northern Ireland and how territoriality has impacted on the Protestant community in Derry/Londonderry. The city was pivotal in the development of the most recent conflict, has a majority Catholic population, sits on a contested border and has attempted to respond to expressions of alienation that have emerged from the Protestant community. The research used multiple methods to understand the nature of alienation and exclusion using secondary data, a quantitative household survey, in-depth interviews and focus groups. This empirical commitment was important in identifying and unpacking the claims of various stakeholders with an interest in the use and development of the area. It is argued here that a version of Collaborative Planning provides a loosely articulated conceptual and methodological framework for drawing Protestant communities into the wider planning framework for the city. The data, however, suggest that the nature of stakeholders is complex and contradictory, and discursive practice that seeks consensus has limits, especially in validating or legitimating the assertions of self-acclaimed stakeholders. The research shows that the Protestant community had declined and residualised but had little experience of direct conflict with the majority community. Moreover, the Protestant community is now more likely to use the city centre (a predominantly Catholic space) for consumption and work, and its demographic decline has stopped. These findings are important as policy responses and community relations programmes have failed to distinguish between measurable socio-economic needs and claims concerning ethnic alienation based on emotion and manipulation. Such alienation has tended to bolster single identity communities who have little or no prospect and/or knowledge of the collaborative efforts required to deliver meaningful regeneration. More realistic strategies based on agonism focus attention on power relations and the authenticity of positions adopted by competing interests in land use management and change. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to acknowledge and value contestation but to challenge sectarian discourses represented as legitimate claims about community needs and priorities.     

Optimising risk reduction: An expected utility approach for marginal risk reduction during regulatory decision making

In practice, risk and uncertainty are essentially unavoidable in many regulation processes. Regulators frequently face a risk-benefit trade-off since zero risk is neither practicable nor affordable. Although it is accepted that cost–benefit analysis is important in many scenarios of risk management, what role it should play in a decision process is still controversial. One criticism of cost–benefit analysis is that decision makers should consider marginal benefits and costs, not present ones, in their decision making. In this paper, we investigate the problem of regulatory decision making under risk by applying expected utility theory and present a new approach of cost–benefit analysis. Directly taking into consideration the reduction of the risks, this approach achieves marginal cost–benefit analysis. By applying this approach, the optimal regulatory decision that maximizes the marginal benefit of risk reduction can be considered. This provides a transparent and reasonable criterion for stakeholders involved in the regulatory activity. An example of evaluating seismic retrofitting alternatives is provided to demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach.     

Airbags: an exploratory survey of public knowledge and attitudes.

The present study examines public knowledge and opinion in the United States on issues related to airbag safety. Data were obtained through a national random digit-dial telephone survey of 1005 people living in the contiguous 48 United States. A majority of respondents (1) know that airbags can harm drivers seated too close to the steering wheel; (2) know that rear-facing infant seats should not be placed in the front seat of a car with passenger-side airbags; and (3) know that airbags are saving more lives of women drivers than are being lost. However, most respondents did not know that (1) airbags are killing more children than they are saving; (2) airbags can injure properly belted drivers; and (3) the majority of the lives saved by airbags have been among people who were not wearing safety belts. Knowledge of airbag risks to children and properly belted drivers was significantly associated with a less favorable attitude toward airbags, and with opposition toward the law mandating airbags on all new cars. Drivers of vehicles equipped with airbags held more favorable attitudes toward airbag technology. Further analysis suggests that as the public begins to understand the risks associated with airbags, the current high level of public support for the technology and the mandatory regulation may decline.     

Comparison of four serological tests to determine the CagA or VacA status of Helicobacter pylori strains

We compared four tests for antibodies to CagA or VacA, HelicoBlot 2. 0, RIDA Blot Helicobacter, CHIRON RIBA H. pylori SIA, and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using recombinant CagA. Immunoblot assays were accurate for determining Helicobacter pylori status but poor for determining CagA or VacA status (accuracy, 66 to 80% for CagA status and 34 to 67% for VacA status). None can be recommended for determining CagA or VacA status.     

Generalized honeycomb torus is Hamiltonian

Generalized honeycomb torus is a candidate for interconnection network architectures, which includes honeycomb torus, honeycomb rectangular torus, and honeycomb parallelogramic torus as special cases. Existence of Hamiltonian cycle is a basic requirement for interconnection networks since it helps map a “token ring” parallel algorithm onto the associated network in an efficient way. Cho and Hsu [Inform. Process. Lett. 86 (4) (2003) 185-190] speculated that every generalized honeycomb torus is Hamiltonian. In this paper, we have proved this conjecture.     

Copper-binding compounds from Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b

Two copper-binding compounds/cofactors (CBCs) were isolated from the spent media of both the wild type and a constitutive soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMOC) mutant, PP319 (P. A. Phelps et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 58:3701-3708, 1992), of Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b. Both CBCs are small polypeptides with molecular masses of 1,218 and 779 Da for CBC-L1 and CBC-L2, respectively. The amino acid sequence of CBC-L1 is S?MYPGS?M, and that of CBC-L2 is SPMP?S. Copper-free CBCs showed absorption maxima at 204, 275, 333, and 356 with shoulders at 222 and 400 nm. Copper-containing CBCs showed a broad absorption maximum at 245 nm. The low-temperature electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of copper-containing CBC-L1 showed the presence of a copper center with an EPR splitting constant between those of type 1 and type 2 copper centers (g = 2.087, g = 2.42 G, A = 128 G). The EPR spectrum of CBC-L2 was more complex and showed two spectrally distinct copper centers. One signal can be attributed to a type 2 Cu2+ center (g = 2.073, g = 2.324 G, A = 144 G) which could be saturated at higher powers, while the second shows a broad, nearly isotropic signal near g = 2.063. In wild-type strains, the concentrations of CBCs in the spent media were highest in cells expressing the pMMO and stressed for copper. In contrast to wild-type strains, high concentrations of CBCs were observed in the extracellular fraction of the sMMOC mutants PP319 and PP359 regardless of the copper concentration in the culture medium.     

Real-time camera tracking using sports pitch markings

When broadcasting sports events such as football, it is useful to be able to place virtual annotations on the pitch, to indicate things such as distances between players and the goal, or whether a player is offside. This requires the camera position, orientation, and focal length to be estimated in real time, so that the graphics can be rendered to match the camera view. Whilst this can be achieved by using sensors on the camera mount and lens, they can be impractical or expensive to install, and often the broadcaster only has access to the video feed itself. This paper presents a method for computing the position, orientation and focal length of a camera in real time, using image analysis. The method uses markings on the pitch, such as arcs and lines, to compute the camera pose. A novel feature of the method is the use of multiple images to improve the accuracy of the camera position estimate. A means of automatically initialising the tracking process is also presented, which makes use of a modified form of Hough transform. The paper shows how a carefully chosen set of algorithms can provide fast, robust and accurate tracking for this real-world application.     

Influence of the Silicon Substrate on Defect Formation in MCT Grown on II-VI Buffered Si Using a Combined Molecular Beam Epitaxy/Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy Technique

II-VI buffer layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) onto silicon exhibit a uniform, slightly faceted surface morphology. However, a number of surface defects are apparent and these are amplified by the subsequent growth of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. Some of these defects have been traced to polishing damage present within the silicon substrate. A range of analytical techniques, including x-ray topography, have been used to track the defects from the substrate through to the buffer layer and into the MCT. Defects of this type will cause dead elements in the infrared focal plane arrays and will be a major cause of low operabilities.