Conserving Rental Housing A Policy Analysis

Conserving the existing stock of rental housing is a key part of any policy to house low-and moderate-income people and to revitalize their neighborhoods. Local governments, with their limited resources, have growing responsibility for the conservation efforts. But they have little information about what programs actually result in better maintenance and repair of rental housing. This article, based on studies of landlords' investments in repairs to their buildings, outlines policies for shaping effective programs to conserve rental housing. It focuses on six crucial issues: how to divide public actions between those that directly support housing improvements and those that indirectly encourage rehabilitation by improving neighborhood conditions; how much assistance to provide, and where to concentrate it geographically; how to involve other private parties, especially lenders; which owners to assist; what level of rehabilitation to support for a given building; and how to balance the use of “carrots” and “sticks.”     

Effect of NiO on the Phase Stability and Microstructure of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia

Nickel oxide (NiO) was screen printed onto the surfaces of 3 and 8 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) dense pre-fired substrates and then heat treated at temperatures from 1350° to 1550°C. The effect of NiO was dependent on the yttria content of the substrate. In 3 mol% YSZ, it was found to alter the phase composition from predominantly tetragonal with a small amount of cubic phase to one consisting of approximately equal amounts of cubic and monoclinic phase. The cubic grains were much larger than the monoclinic ones and contained more nickel. Furthermore, nickel was observed to migrate through the thickness of the tile, a distance of approximately 200 μm. In the 8 mol% YSZ substrates, the phase composition was unaltered, although large grains developed under the printed NiO layer and the nickel migration was confined to the extent of these large grains.     

Anionic functional initiators. 1: 3-dimethylaminopropyllithium as an initiator for the synthesis of Bi- and difunctional polybutadienes

Methods are described whereby a series of novel bi- and difunctional (telechelic) high 1,4-microstructure polybutadienes are prepared by use of an anionic functional initiator. This initiator, 3-dimethylaminopropyllithium, has been extensively investigated and methods for its preparation and use in non-polar solvents are described. When utilised in such non-polar solvents the polybutadienes produced are uniquely functionalised, possessing a high 1,4-structure and a low glass transition temperature. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that these reactions are true ‘living’ polymerisations and that quantitative functional termination reactions may be used to yield a wide range of multi-, bi- or difunctional polymers.     

Quantitative probing the interfacial structure of TPO/CPO blends by transmission electron microscopy via EDX

High-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope (HR STEM) measurements were performed on a thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) substrate coated with chlorinated polyolefin (CPO). This CPO was a maleated chlorinated polypropylene containing 21.8 wt% Cl. The TPO investigated was a blend of high-modulus isotactic polypropylene (iPP) with a crystalline ethylene-butene copolymer (EB9) containing 9 wt% butene. For these injection-molded samples, examined ca. 10 mm from the mold gate, a stratified morphology found at TPO surface consisting of thin fibers of EB9 trapped in a transcrystalline iPP matrix, with crystalline lamellae propagating from the matrix across the EB9 domains. This structure was unperturbed when the plaques were coated (from tetrahydrofuran solution) with a 5 μm layer of CPO, but underwent changes of increasing severity when subjected either to a dry bake at 120 °C or annealing at 120 °C in the presence of xylene vapor. The interfacial structure between the CPO and the TPO was probed by TEM with energy dispersive X-ray imaging (EDX). The elemental chlorine across the interface gave good fits to a tan h function, and the interface thickness increased from 23 ± 2 nm to 28 ± 1 nm upon annealing at 120 °C for 30 min. After annealing in the presence of xylene vapor, this value increased to 50 ± 4 nm. As reference points, we determined an interface thickness of 29 ± 3 nm for the CPO-EB interface and 15 ± 2 nm for the interface between CPO and iPP.     

Relationship between behavioral marital therapy outcome and process variables.

This study was conducted to identify therapist and client behaviors with a positive response to social learning-based behavioral marital therapy. A sample of 32 couples receiving treatment was examined. Immediately after each therapy session, the therapist, husband, and wife independently completed process ratings forms that measured therapist and client behaviors during the session. Composite scales, derived from these ratings, were entered into multiple regression equations to examine their relationship with posttherapy marital satisfaction. After controlling for pretherapy marital satisfaction and the other predictor variables, therapists', husbands', and wives' ratings of positive client behavior (i.e., collaboration, active participation, and homework compliance) were positively associated with therapy outcome. Implications for marital therapy and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Surface grain structure evolution in hot rolling of 6061 aluminum alloy

During hot deformation of Al–Mg–Si alloys, a non-uniform microstructure is developed due to differences in localized strain. Physical simulations were performed to examine the effects of processing parameters such as deformation temperature, total reduction, rolling schedule and alloying additions on the grain structure evolution. Overall, the kinetics of recrystallization followed the traditional trends predicted by JMAK kinetics. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used to quantify the difference in recrystallization kinetics at the sample surface and mid-thickness. The results showed that the surface showed elevated kinetics when compared to the sample mid-thickness.     

Theater Improvisers Know the Requirements Game

This article introduces improvisational theater, or improv, to support team-based innovation in requirements processes. It proposes improv to help workshop participants develop requirements soft skills through practice and play. The authors describe and demonstrate different improv techniques with simple examples, then advise readers on how to introduce them into requirements projects.     

MORA routing and capacity building in disruption-tolerant networks

Disruption-tolerant networks (DTNs) differ from other types of networks in that capacity is created by the movements of network participants. This implies that understanding and influencing the participants’ motions can have a significant impact on network performance. In this paper, we introduce the routing protocol MORA, which learns structure in the movement patterns of network participants and uses it to enable informed message passing. We also propose the introduction of autonomous agents as additional participants in DTNs. These agents adapt their movements in response to variations in network capacity and demand. We use multi-objective control methods from robotics to generate motions capable of optimizing multiple network performance metrics simultaneously. We present experimental evidence that these strategies, individually and in conjunction, result in significant performance improvements in DTNs.