Housing market trend and rail transport investments in the city of Naples

Rail transport investments can influence housing market trends, as demonstrated in the literature. However many empirical researches highlight that different results can derive from different urban context applications and that each case should be threaten separately. It is for this reason that this paper is focused on the single case of the city of Naples, where many rail transport investments have been carried out in the last decades. The aim of this study is to give an interpretation of the housing values changes due to the opening of new metro stations. This study applies GIS tools in order to show the spatial distribution and the intensity of rail impacts in different areas of the urban system from 1994 to 2004. This study shows that the extent of the impacts varies from place to place and the effects intensity requires the presence of several complementary factors such as central location of the new stations and the presence of urban planning policies in the transit corridors. This again testifies how housing market is strictly related to the infrastructures investments planning and urban design.

The costs of urban growth at the fringe of a Chinese city: evidence from Jinshi Village in Suzhou

The rate of city growth in China today correlates well with an overall loss of the most fertile agricultural areas of the country. A consequence of this growth includes the rapid reshaping of peri-urban livelihoods in their densely populated fringe. The policy response from central government has focused on containing city growth and pursuing modern rural development. Both policy directions have failed, in part, to acknowledge the intrinsic nature of the urban fringe in China. This paper explores the features of the fringe of Suzhou, a fast growing city in the Yangtze River Delta. The aim is to outline potential social costs of this current policy framework, through analysing the case study of Jinshi Village. The paper advocates a different regionalist approach to policy implementation.

Is the incipient Chinese civil society playing a role in regenerating historic urban areas? Evidence from Nanjing, Suzhou and Shanghai

Urban regeneration in Western countries can count on a long-lasting tradition of experiences in which civil society has played a fundamental role in counterbalancing the system of power, resulting in profound urban governance readjustments. This has been the result of the increasing centrality of horizontal alliances between citizens and associations involved in urban affairs since the late 1960s in the West. Similar theoretical frameworks have been applied in China. However, these have frequently resulted in conceptual shortcuts that depict civil society as immature or lacking and the state as authoritarian. This paper will explore whether these categories are still entirely valid to urban regeneration in China. While the regime has traditionally prevented horizontal linkages of associations in urban governance (supporting their vertical integration to ensure a certain degree of soft control), there are signs of change. In particular, three cases of urban regeneration in historic areas will be used to discuss the changing role played by civil society in China. The ultimate goal is to examine whether horizontal linkages across groups of heterogeneous citizens are arising at the micro-level of urban governance.

The role of geographical proximity in the establishment and development of science parks – evidence from Nanjing, China

The emergence of science parks is a relatively new phenomenon in China. Apart from the widely debated topics of university–industry linkages, collaboration among firms and spontaneous/policy-driven science parks, the development of science parks in China also has several distinguishing characteristics, such as their ambiguous linkage with urban expansion and their hierarchical structuring pattern. This paper attempts to discuss the motivation and efficiency of spatial proximity in science park development and to explore the role of universities in science parks, the function of science parks as a government project and a case study of location choice by on-site firms. The qualitative analysis, based on in-depth interviews with tenant firm managers and district-level government officers in Jiangning, Nanjing, is used as a basis for discussion.

Detailed analysis of data from heat pumps installed via the Renewable Heat Premium Payment Scheme

The RHPP policy provided subsidies for private householders, Registered social landlords and communities to install renewable heat measures in residential properties. Eligible measures included air and ground-source heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar thermal. Around 18,000 heat pumps were installed via this scheme. DECC funded a detailed monitoring campaign, which covered 700 heat pumps (around 4% of the total). The aim of this monitoring campaign was to assess the efficiencies of the heat pumps and to estimate the carbon and bill savings and amount of renewable heat generated. Data was collected from 31/10/2013 to 31/03/2015. This report represents the analysis of this data and represents the most complete and reliable data in-situ residential heat pump performance in the UK to date.

Residential heat pump installations: the role of vocational education and training

Meeting European emissions targets is reliant on innovative renewable technologies, particularly ‘renewable heat’ from heat pumps. Heat pump performance is driven by Carnot efficiency and optimum performance requires the lowest possible space heating flow temperatures leading to greater sensitivity to poor design, installation and operation. Does sufficient training and installer capacity exist for this technology? This paper situates the results of heat pump field trial performance in a socio-technical context, identifying how far installer competence requirements are met within the current vocational education and training (VET) system and considers possible futures. Few UK installers have formal heat pump qualifications at National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 3 and heat pump VET is generally through short-course provision where the structure of training is largely unregulated with no strict adherence to a common syllabus or a detailed training centre specification. Prerequisites for short-course trainees, specifically the demand for heating system knowledge based on metric design criteria, is limited and proof of ‘experience’ is an accepted alternative to formal educational qualifications. The lack of broader educational content and deficiencies in engineering knowledge will have profound negative impacts on both the performance and market acceptance of heat pumps. Possible futures to address this problem are identified.

Ecotoxicological aspects related to the presence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment

Pharmaceuticals are biologically active and persistent substances which have been recognized as a continuing threat to environmental stability. Chronic ecotoxicity data as well as information on the current distribution levels in different environmental compartments continue to be sparse and are focused on those therapeutic classes that are more frequently prescribed and consumed. Nevertheless, they indicate the negative impact that these chemical contaminants may have on living organisms, ecosystems and ultimately, public health. This article reviews the different contamination sources as well as fate and both acute and chronic effects on non-target organisms. An extensive review of existing data in the form of tables, encompassing many therapeutic classes is presented.

The physical environment and organizational behavior

Research into organizational behaviour has indicated that there is an inevitable conflict between the needs of the individual and organizational demands. Psychologists have given insights into basic individual needs and contend that satisfaction of these needs constitutes a motivating force which enhances desired behavioural patterns. Behaviouralists have suggested that a basic and pervasive individual need is the culturally determined need for privacy. Anthropologists and environmental psychologists have shown that man's spatial behaviour is observable and predictable and that changes in the physical environment or the way it is perceived are accompanied by concommitant changes in behaviour. Research findings from each of the disciplines have been reviewed in an attempt to show that the physical environment is a significant factor in satisfying the needs of the individual organizational member, hence, a significant influence on organizational behaviour. A model has been generated to show the relationship between the physical setting and behaviour and to underscore the importance of making provisions within the physical setting for the attainment of a culturally determined optimal level of privacy. The physical setting, by providing for this need, becomes a significant factor in reducing the conflict between the individual and the organization and makes for acceptable role behaviour and the fulfilment of organizational goals.

Experiences and meaning of the aquatic environment for individuals with physical disabilities

This study examines the experiences and meaning of physical activity in the aquatic environment to enhance social, cultural and political understanding of its impact in the lives of individuals with physical disabilities. Interviews, lived experience descriptions and artifacts present an explanation of the felt sense oftheir bodies as they engage in swimming or scuba diving. 11 Combining written, verbal and visual descriptions generated by informants provides a detailed account of the unique qualities of physical activity in the water for those with physical disabilities. Participants' descriptions highlight that context is an important aspect of physical activity among individuals with physical disabilities through discussion of motility and the role of the lived body. Aspects of the aquatic environment create a setting that facilitates forgetfulness of the lived body's presence. Instructors and participants alike will benefit from learning the difference between the object body and the lived body, listening to the body's voice as they participate in physical activity .

Optimizing Computational Frameworks to Study the Influence of the Protein Environment on the Individual Site Energies of Chromophores in Photosystem II of Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is a process in which electromagnetic radiation is converted into chemical energy. Photosystems capture photons with chromophores and transfer their energy to reaction centers using chromophores as a medium. In the reaction center, the excitation energy is used to perform chemical reactions. Knowledge of chromophore site energies is crucial to the understanding of excitation energy transfer pathways in photosystems and the ability to compute the site energies in a fast and accurate manner is mandatory for investigating how protein dynamics ef-fect the site energies and ultimately energy pathways with time. In this work we developed two software frameworks designed to optimize the calculations of chro-mophore site energies within a protein environment. The first is for performing quantum mechanical energy optimizations on molecules and the second is for com-puting site energies of chromophores in a fast and accurate manner using the polar-izability embedding method. The two frameworks allow for the fast and accurate calculation of chromophore site energies within proteins, ultimately allowing for the effect of protein dynamics on energy pathways to be studied. We use these frame-works to compute the site energies of the eight chromophores in the reaction center of photosystem II (PSII) using a 1.9 Å resolution x-ray structure of photosystem II. We compare our results to conflicting experimental data obtained from both isolat-ed intact PSII core preparations and the minimal reaction center preparation of PSII, and find our work more supportive of the former.

Phase Transitions of Trace Metals in the Aquatic Environment of Kuttanad, Kerala

This thesis is a modest attempt in assessing the trace metal levels and their behavior in the aquatic environment of Kuttanad, an aquatic system that is severely affected by man’s intervention on natural processes, by study seriously evaluating the levels of trace metals in dissolved and particulate phases and also in the different chemical fractions of the sediments. Understanding of the distributions, variations and transfer processes of trace metals in different environmental phases in the backwaters of Kuttanad is vital for the assessment of the water pollution problems and study the ecology of the area which contributes 20% of the rice production in the State of Kerala. Kuttand is a low-lying, shallow bay formed as a result of geological uplift. The major economic activity is agriculture involving 40% of the population. About 1.5% of the people are engaged in aquaculture. The trace metal distribution in the Kuttand backwaters is considerably influenced by the tropical features of the location and by human activities including agricultural activities and construction of salinity barrier. In this study an attempt is made to differentiate the metals in the sediment into exchangeable, reducible and resistant fractions in the sediments.