Responsive homes of old Cairo: Learning from the past, feeding in the future

By investigating the social dynamics of home in one of the enduring communities of Cairo, this paper reveals the way ordinary people construct and consume their private and public domains on a daily basis. It reveals what is central and what is marginal in the cognitive idea of home. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary strategy of investigation, utilizing sociological and anthropological data to read and visit spatial practices in the home. Building on historical as well as contemporary accounts of residents and families, the concept of home is envisioned as a spectrum of social spheres that is liberated from the physical determinants of space, hence revealing a new domain of part-time spaces and dynamic spatiality. The emergent idea of home intertwines work, domesticity, recreation and hospitality in interplay of space-activity-time relationships. Homes of old Cairo have proved to be responsive to continuous change, and have evolved dynamic forms of the temporal settings required for accommodation of emerging home-based professional activities such as hospitality, home-workers, and care-homes.

THE EXPANSION HISTORY OF ALUMINUM TARGETS RELEVANT TO X-RAY LASER SCHEMES

For the first time, the technique of point projection absorption spectroscopy - which uses an intense, point source of X-rays to project and spectrally disperse an image of a plasma onto a detector- has been shown to be applicable to the study of expanding aluminium plasmas generated by approximately 80ps (2-omega) laser pulses. Massive, stripe targets of approximately 125-mu-m width and wire targets of 25-mu-m diameter have been studied. Using a PET Bragg crystal as the dispersive element, a resolving power of approximately 3500 was achieved with spatial resolution at the 5-mu-m level in frame times of the order of 80ps. Reduction of the data for times up to 150ps after the peak of the incident laser pulse produced estimates of the temperature and densities present, as a function of space and time.

CHARACTERIZATION OF A LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA USING THE TECHNIQUE OF POINT-PROJECTION ABSORPTION-SPECTROSCOPY

The technique of point-projection spectroscopy has been shown to be applicable to the study of expanding aluminum plasmas generated by approximately 80 ps laser pulses incident on massive, aluminum stripe targets of approximately 125-mu-m width. Targets were irradiated at an intensity of 2.5 +/- 0.5 x 10(13) W/cm2 in a line focus geometry and under conditions similar to those of interest in x-ray laser schemes. Hydrogenic and heliumlike aluminum resonance lines were observed in absorption using a quasicontinuous uranium back-lighter plasma. Using a pentaerythrital Bragg crystal as the dispersive element, a resolving power of approximately 3500 was achieved with spatial resolution at the 5-mu-m level in frame times of the order of 100 ps. Reduction of the data for times up to 150 ps after the peak of the incident laser pulse produced estimates of the temperature and ion densities present, as a function of space and time. The one-dimensional Lagrangian hydrodynamic code MEDUSA coupled to the atomic physics non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium ionized material package was used to simulate the experiment in planar geometry and has been shown to be consistent with the measurements.

Challenges of UK/Irish Contractors Regarding Material Management and Logistics in Confined Site Construction

The aim of this paper is to identify the various managerial issues encountered by UK/Irish contractors in the management of materials in confined urban construction sites. Through extensive literature review, detailed interviews, case studies, cognitive mapping, causal loop diagrams, questionnaire survey and documenting severity indices, a comprehensive insight into the materials management concerns within a confined construction site environment is envisaged and portrayed. The leading issues highlighted are: that contractors’ material spatial requirements exceed available space, it is difficult to coordinate the storage of materials in line with the programme, location of the site entrance makes delivery of materials particularly difficult, it is difficult to store materials on-site due to the lack of space, and difficult to coordinate the storage requirements of the various sub-contractors. With the continued development of confined urban centres and the increasing high cost of materials, any marginal savings made on-site would translate into significant monetary savings at project completion. Such savings would give developers a distinct competitive advantage in this challenging economic climate. As on-site management professionals successfully identify, acknowledge and counteract the numerous issues illustrated, the successful management of materials on a confined urban construction site becomes attainable.

Berryman, Sexton and the Possibilities of Poetic Language

This paper examines a select number of poems by Middle Generation poets John Berryman and Anne Sexton in relation to questions of death, silence and the task that literature sets itself as understood in key works by Blanchot, Heidegger, and Levinas. Rather than recourse to the overtrodden critical path of confessional interpretations of their work, this paper connects Berryman’s The Dream Songs (1969) and two Sexton poems (‘Oh’ and ‘The Silence’) to the philosophical determinations of what it is language can say and what demands literature makes of the writer prepared to risk their own being in answer to its call. Central issues such as suicide and the originating silence of the work of art are intricately interwoven with Berryman’s and Sexton’s work. Leaving aside their biographies, and by approaching suicide as a philosophical problem with which their poetry wrestles, a restructured approach to their work becomes available. The impulse to suicide and the mental processes involved in considering and committing the act are instincts and responses located within an individual’s own psychology. For these writers particularly such issues are sited within a philosophical debate about language, what it can and cannot represent. If poetry articulates language’s argument about its own capability, it is the ideal forum for philosophical confrontations with the possibilities of existence as represented by the grave decision to take one’s own life. © The Author 2013.

Critical factors affecting management of site operatives and personal in confined construction site

The aim of this paper is to identify and classify the numerous managerial issues encountered in the management of personnel in confined site construction. For the purpose of this research, a confined construction site is defined as a site where permanent works fit the site footprint, extending to levels above and/or below ground level, leaving spatial restrictions for other operations (e.g. plant and material movements, materials storage and temporary accommodation etc.) and require effective resource co-ordination beyond normal on-site management input. A literature review and analysis, case studies incorporating interviews and focus groups along with a questionnaire survey were used in order to gain a comprehensive insight into the issues in the management of personnel in a confined construction site environment. The following are the top five leading issues highlighted in the management of personnel in confined site construction; (1) Accidents due to an untidy site, (2) One contractor holding up another because of the lack of space, (3) A risk to personnel because of vehicular traffic on-site, (4) Difficult to facilitate several contractors at one work location, and (5) Numerous personnel working within the one space. In today’s modern environment, spatial restrictions are quickly becoming the norm in the industry. Therefore, the management of personnel on-site becomes progressively more difficult with the decrease in available space on-site. Where such environments exist, acknowledging the numerous issues highlighted above, aids site management in the supervision and co-ordination of personnel on-site, thus reducing accidents, increasing productivity and increase profit margins, in spatially restricted environments. As on-site management professionals successfully identify, acknowledge and counteract the numerous issues illustrated, the successful management of personnel on a confined construction site is achievable. By identifying the numerous issues, on-site management can proactively mitigate such issues through adopting counteractive measures and through successful identification of the traits identified.

Denial, Silence and the Politics of the Past: Unpicking the Opposition to Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland

There has been considerable and protracted debate on whether a formal truth recovery process should be established in Northern Ireland. Some of the strongest opposition to the creation of such a body has been from unionist political elites and the security forces. Based on qualitative fieldwork, this article argues that the dynamics of denial and silence have been instrumental in shaping their concerns. It explores how questions of memory, identity and denial have created a ‘myth of blamelessness’ in unionist discourse that is at odds with the reasons for a truth process being established. It also examines how three interlocking manifestations of silence – ‘silence as passivity,’ ‘silence as loyalty’ and ‘silence as pragmatism’ – have furthered unionists’ opposition to dealing with the past. This article argues that making peace with the past requires an active deconstruction of these practices.

Migratory navigation in birds: new opportunities in an era of fast-developing tracking technology

Birds have remained the dominant model for studying the mechanisms of animal navigation for decades, with much of what has been discovered coming from laboratory studies or model systems. The miniaturisation of tracking technology in recent years now promises opportunities for studying navigation during migration itself (migratory navigation) on an unprecedented scale. Even if migration tracking studies are principally being designed for other purposes, we argue that attention to salient environmental variables during the design or analysis of a study may enable a host of navigational questions to be addressed, greatly enriching the field. We explore candidate variables in the form of a series of contrasts (e. g. land vs ocean or night vs day migration), which may vary naturally between migratory species, populations or even within the life span of a migrating individual. We discuss how these contrasts might help address questions of sensory mechanisms, spatiotemporal representational strategies and adaptive variation in navigational ability. We suggest that this comparative approach may help enrich our knowledge about the natural history of migratory navigation in birds.

Dirty Hands and the Complicity of the Democratic Public

The alleged problem of the dirty hands of politicians has been much discussed since Michael Walzer’s original piece (Walzer 1974). The discussion has concerned the precise nature of the problem or sought to dissolve the apparent paradox. However there has been little discussion of the putative complicity, and thus also dirtying of hands, of a democratic public that authorizes politicians to act in its name. This article outlines the sense in which politicians do get dirty hands and the degree to which a democratic public may also get dirty hands. It separates the questions of secrecy, authorisation, and wrongfulness in order to spell out the extent of public complicity. Finally it addresses the ways in which those who do and those who do not acknowledge the problem of dirty hands erroneously discount or deny the problem of complicity by an appeal to the nature of democracy, a putatively essential need for political openness or to the scope of ideal theory.

Violence in the Lives of Children and Youth in “Post-Conflict” Northern Ireland

While Northern Ireland experiences relative peace and political stability, its violent past is normalized in murals and commemorations, the language and posturing of opposition politics, segregated communities and social life. In “post-conflict” Northern Ireland, children and youth disproportionately experience paramilitary-style attacks and routine sectarian violence. The violence of poverty and restricted opportunities within communities debilitated by three decades of conflict is masked by a discourse of social, economic and political progress. Drawing on qualitative research, this paper illustrates the continued legacy and impacts of violence on the lives of children and youth living in post-ceasefire Northern Ireland. It discusses the prominence of violence—sectarian, racist, political, “everyday,” domestic, “informal”—in young people's accounts and the impacts on their safety, sense of belonging, identity formation, use of space and emotional well-being. The paper concludes by challenging narrow and reductionist explanations of violence, arguing the need to contextualize these within local, historical, political, cultural and material contexts.

Changing Paradigms in Space Theories:Recapturing 20th Century Architectural History

The concept of space entered architectural history as late as 1893. Studies in art opened up the discussion, and it has been studied in various ways in architecture ever since. This article aims to instigate an additional reading to architectural history, one that is not supported by "isms" but based on space theories in the 20th century. Objectives of the article are to bring the concept of space and its changing paradigms to the attention of architectural researchers, to introduce a conceptual framework to classify and clarify theories of space, and to enrich the discussions on the 20th century architecture through theories that are beyond styles. The introduction of space in architecture will revolve around subject-object relationships, three-dimensionality and senses. Modern space will be discussed through concepts such as empathy, perception, abstraction, and geometry. A scientific approach will follow to study the concept of place through environment, event, behavior, and design methods. Finally, the research will look at contemporary approaches related to digitally supported space via concepts like reality-virtuality, mediated experience, and relationship with machines.

Cinematic Peripheries of Dublin

The term periphery is, most of the time, used with or in relation to the centre. The ‘zoning’ taken by granted by the architect is unlike the one portrayed by the director who frames the differences of places in a non-linear manner. Film offers a constructed urban experience, suggesting the city to be a local network composed of nodes and links, rather than a centre and the margin. It is possible to talk about the construction of a new kind of network in film through a temporal representation of space, of the distant as the close. In this way, film may be a tool to shift the gaze from the bird’s-eye view to the eye level to create ‘a unified perceptual image of the city’, in Christine Boyer’s words. The experienced surface of the city is two-dimensional neither in fiction nor in reality. In this chapter, the nodes of Dublin are examined through two Irish films, Goldfish Memory (Elizabeth Gill, 2003) and Adam and Paul (Leonard Abrahamson, 2004). Specific elements of the city of Dublin, including walls, houses, pubs, streets, bridges, and parks, are analysed to understand the nature of the network of the city composed of nodes and their connections.

Supply Chain Management in Confined Site Construction: Strategies to Reduce Delay in the Delivery of Materials to Site

With the increase in construction in dense urban environments, the delays associated with managing the material supply chain to site is called into question. Purpose: The aim of this investigation is to gain the perspective of construction contractors operating in a dense urban environment and the resulting strategies adopted to reduce delays in the delivery of materials to site. Methodology: This is achieved through incorporating a comprehensive literature review on the subject in conjunction with industry interviews with construction professionals in the identification of various management issues and corresponding strategies in the reduction of delays in the delivery of materials to site. Findings: The key issue which emerges is the lack of space for unloading bays while the corresponding key strategy is to schedule deliveries outside peak congestion times. Practical Implication: With confined site construction evident throughout the industry and the noted importance of an effective supply chain, the findings here in further assist on-site management in the daily task of ensuring the effective delivery and off-loading of materials in a complex and hazardous environment. Originality/Value: This research aids on-site management of confined site environments in the coordination of the material supply chain to site.

New Perspectives on the Role of Cultural Intermediaries in Social Inclusion in the UK

Based on interviews with arts administrators responsible for addressing targeted groups labelled “socially excluded,” this paper highlights new understandings of the term “cultural intermediary” (Featherstone 1991; Bourdieu 2000) within art galleries and art centres. It considers the unique role of such figures in crossing the exclusion/inclusion boundary within the arts and developing more personal approaches to marketing activities in their institutions through relationship building. While it is acknowledged here that such workers find themselves in a privileged position in being able to shape questions of taste and particular consumerist dispositions to understanding the art world, little, if not no, effort has been made to understand this process. As such, there remains a void between the cultural policy‐oriented conception of social inclusion, which implies a version of repairing the “flawed consumer” (Bauman 2005), and the way in which such policy is played out on the ground.

Angels with dirty faces? European identity, politics of representation and recognition of Romani interests

The contradiction between acknowledgement of cultural differences and their accommodation in public has been a constant theme in studies of diverse societies. This review essay discusses five volumes that grapple with questions of Romani inclusion and the problems Roma face across Europe. The volumes under review point to problems faced by Romani communities and analyse the various legal, political and social challenges that situation of the Roma poses to institutions of contemporary societies. The essay reviews the challenging nature of the status of Roma as we move away from the one-sided towards more reciprocal relationship engagement of state with society in general, and the multiply excluded groups, in particular. The essay finds that the role Roma play in these relationships is either over-, or under-estimated by the literature, largely as a result of limited opportunities to acknowledge and, in effect, accommodate Roma who are rarely understood as actors in their own right.