Private Dwellings Research Articles

The Centenaria of Roman Tripolitania

AbstractControversy surrounds the reason why the centenaria were introduced into the pre-desert area of Tripolitania. This paper examines two conflicting theories; that of Goodchild that they were military in origin and that of Brogan and the Unesco Libyan Valleys team that they were in the main merely substantial private dwellings. The main contribution of this study is to provide new evidence from Latino-Punic inscriptions that the centenaria were private dwellings on private land.

Architecture and the United States History Survey

MENTION AN HISTORICAL DOCUMENT and students imagine a yellowing government record misfiled in some dreary archive. Few would consider the building itself. Yet libraries, town halls, churches, and private dwellings all offer cues to the past. Larger, more alluring, and certainly more appealing than a reel of microfilm, the built environment offers an exciting resource for the survey course in American history. This author is fortunate to live and teach in Philadelphia, a city known for its large and significant array of historical buildings. Here thousands of surviving structures can introduce students to the texture and tone of an urban past. They also help to illuminate the principal forces of national history. Colonial buildings and street plans, for example, have much to tell students about the bourgeois character of early Philadelphia and of other American cities. William Penn wished to create a thriving and prosperous community on the banks of the Delaware. In selecting a site for Philadelphia, he sought to ensure that inhabitants would have easy access to the sea, and to the rich agricultural lands to the north and west. Thousands flocked to the City of Brotherly Love from Great Britain and Western Europe. By 1776 Philadelphia was the largest city in the Thirteen Colonies and the second largest city in the English speaking world, rivaled only by London itself. Philadelphia's now famous grid plan with parallel streets intersecting at ninety degree angles facilitated entry to commercial establishments which sprouted everywhere. New York adopted a similar grid in 1811, as did virtually every other American city in

Use of the SCSB method for monitoring of respiration, body movements and ballistocardiogram in infants

A new method for long-term monitoring of respiration, the ballistocardiogram (BCG), heart rate and body movements in newborn infants and children is presented. The design of the static charge-sensitive bed (SCSB) method for the monitoring of newborn infants and children is described. The method is simple and inexpensive. No electrodes or cables need to be connected to the subject. The SCSB method allows continuous long-term monitoring of body movements, respiratory movement, the BCG and heart rate. The results of about 40 neonatal recordings made in our clinic with the SCSB method demonstrate that recording body movements and respiration is possible in ordinary hospital wards. The infra-acoustic noise due to air-conditioning which is usually present in ordinary wards disturbs the BCG recordings in neonates. To obtain adequate BCG recordings this noise must be eliminated from recording rooms. Low-frequency noise is low enough to allow good BCG recordings in private dwellings. The SCSB method opens up new approaches to long-term studies of the regulation of respiration, body movements and the ballistocardiogram in newborn infants and children. Possible clinical applications of the SCSB method are discussed.

Estimating human exposure to nitrogen dioxide: An indoor/outdoor modeling approach

Adverse health consequences associated with human exposure to nitrogen dioxide are well documented. In order for policymakers to assess health risks and implement appropriate control strategies, accurate information is required concerning (1) the number of people exposed, (2) the severity and patterns of exposure, and (3) the health-related effects of exposure. In the past, data from central monitoring sites have been used to establish air pollution exposures. However, it is now recognized that people spend much of their time indoors or in areas away from fixed monitors where pollutant concentrations may be drastically different. An attempt to provide a more realistic estimate of nitrogen dioxide exposures is made. A simple deterministic model is developed, relating exposure to background ambient levels, indoor values, and human activities. Ambient and indoor parameters are derived from monitoring programs in six U.S. cities. Results suggest indoor nitrogen dioxide concentrations in private dwellings vary primarily with outdoor levels and type of cooking fuel, but are also affected by factors such as air-exchange rates and strength of indoor sources. Estimates of population exposures are obtained by combining observed distributions of nitrogen dioxide concentrations from outdoor and indoor settings with information about number of people and time spent in each microenvironment.

Distributed Lag Behaviour in the Housing Market: Some Further Evidence

This article is a study of the distributed lag relationship between completions and starts of private dwellings in the UK and extends some results previously published in this journal. The main finding confirms that a proper study of builders' behaviour, as manifested in the distributed lag relationship between completions and starts, must allow for both disequilibrium effects and time varying lag structures. However, in examining the economic variables that modified builders' behaviour (and hence the lag structure) it was found that both the rate of house price inflation and the level of building society mortgage advances had an important influence. An increase in both caused builders, in the expectation of easier sales, to quicken their rates of completion. Additional plausible influences — like the level of construction activity in the public sector were, however, not supported by the data.

The Use of Multiplicity in a Household Survey of Disabilities

SummaryThe multiplicity technique has been proposed (Sirken, 1970) as a means of improving estimates of the number of rare “events” in a population. This paper describes one use of this technique, namely estimation of the number of persons with certain types of disability living in private dwellings in Canberra. The results are taken from three household surveys conducted in Canberra during 1978–79 in which a multiplicity rule linking parents, siblings and children of residents of sample households who were also living in private dwellings in Canberra was used. While no direct evidence on the level of non‐sampling error is available here, it appears that net response errors at least are not substantial using this multiplicity rule and that a reasonable gain in sampling efficiency results from the use of multiplicity.

Arrests in Private Dwellings

Arrests in Private Dwellings

STARTS AND COMPLETIONS OF PRIVATE DWELLINGS: FOUR MODELS OF DISTRIBUTED LAG BEHAVIOUR

The distributed lag relationship between completions and starts of private dwellings in the U.K. has been studied by Whitehead (1971, 1974) and Hadjimatheou (1976), the typical relationship estimated by them being of the form

Housing Values, Aspirations, and Satisfactions as Indicators of Housing Needs

The major purposes of this study were to identify the housing related values, aspirations, and satisfactions of a group of randomly selected low‐income rural residents living in private dwellings and a group of randomly selected low‐income urban residents living in public housing; and to explore the usefulness of Maslow's theory of human motivation to an understanding and assessment of human needs related to housing.The interpretation of the findings as they related to the Maslow framework suggested that the public housing units provided for the physiological needs of the residents, but that deficiencies in environmental factors such as location, community services, and social aspects of the milieu frustrated satisfaction of the higher order needs.

The design of residential homes for the elderly: An examination of variations with census data†

British central government policy regarding the size and design of residential homes for the elderly has changed direction a number of times in the post-war period. Employing data collected in the Census of Residential Accommodation of 1970, the effectiveness of these policy changes is analysed in a multiple regression framework. The results suggest that Central and Local Authority policies have been only partially successful in ensuring minimum standards of design and cast considerable doubt upon the efficacies of converting private dwellings into residential homes.

Bakteriologische Untersuchungen im röntgendiagnostischen Bereich einer radiologischen Klinik (Röntgeneinrichtungen, -räume und -personal)

The importance of X-ray departments as a potential source of infection with hospital organisms was investigated by examining a number of radiographic rooms and comparing these with two private dwellings. It was found that there was a higher incidence of organisms than in private homes, but this was considerably less than on wards. Particularly high numbers of organisms, including pathogenic ones, were found on radiographic apparatus which was inaccessible, and on sponge pillows. Regular disinfection reduced the number of organisms almost to the level of an operating theatre. A visit to the X-ray department does not present a significant risk of infection; nevertheless, hygiene can be markedly improved by appropriate changes in the rooms and by carrying out methods of disinfection.

Early Medieval Fortifications in the "West" of France: A Revised Technical Vocabulary

During the past twenty-five years scholars have become increasingly aware of the inadequacy of the technical vocabulary available for describing medieval fortifications. For example, the French word chateau is currently used to denote numerous structures varying from fortified private dwellings to grandiose 16th-century country houses to massive castles like Crac des Chevaliers. By contrast, the English word castle evokes an image of the vast military complexes built by Edward I in Wales, and it is only with great difficulty that the imagination can be stretched to envision the blockhouses and towers sur-

Smoke and toxicity hazards of plastics in fire.

Among fatal and non-fatal casualties in fires in buildings, the annual proportion due to smoke and toxic gas has increased threefold over a period of seventeen years; over half the total fatalities in fires are now due to this cause. This paper briefly reviews the problem of smoke and toxic gases in fires and describes investigations aimed at determining whether the introduction of non- traditional materials, principally plastics, into buildings is likely to make a significant increase in the numbers of fire casualties overcome by gas or smoke. The investigations covered the pyrolysis of plastics under laboratory conditions, large-scale fire tests in which the generation and survival of significant toxic products were monitored, and measurements of the toxicity of fire gases. Results are given for rigid PVC used as wall linings and for flexible polyurethane foam burning in bulk. It is clear that large industrial fire loads of these materials can produce an unacceptable hazard, but further work is needed before conclusions can be reached for fire loads relevant to, for example, private dwellings.

Dynamic Model of Private Incentives to Housing Maintenance

The current housing stock in U.S. cities consists primarily of privately-owned dwellings in structures that are more than a few years old. Consequently, changes in housing quality in many neighborhoods are determined primarily by the current decisions of private owners to repair, modernize, or expand existing houses rather than by new construction or by direct governmental action. Furthermore, despite the seriousness of widespread housing decay in older urban neighborhoods, many private dwellings are improved over time when market incentives to do so are sufficiently strong. Many writers on the subject of housing quality have recognized this fact [4; 5; 10; 11; 13], but they have focused most attention on slum creation as a separate phenomenon' and little attention has been given explicitly to the maintenance decision of the individual owner.2 Most of the discussion of housing quality is in terms of the characteristics of the owners or occupants or the physical characteristics of the community or neighborhood. This demographic approach, as most thoroughly applied by Muth,3 has validity for explaining present housing quality in an area, but it does not fully explain the process of quality change or the locational dynamics of improvement and decay. The process of quality change as determined by homeowner maintenance decisions i discussed by Lowry [8]. In his filtering model, certain market conditions are responsible for an owner's decision, in his own i terest, to allow a dwelling to deteriorate. If these conditions prevail throughout a neighb rhood, this process eventually results in the transferral of occupancy to persons of lesser means or more modest tastes for

Psychological Correlates of Housing in Central America

Traditional or developing areas of the world are moving toward urban and industrial societies characterized by rationalistic behavior. To an appreciable extent this transition is identified as the rise of urban middle sectors or classes, at least in the case of Latin America. One phase of the transition from a stage of economic underdevelopment to an industrial system has been the advent of public housing. Latin America in the last twenty years has witnessed extensive migration of families from the rural hinterland—in addition to the ever expanding families of the city itself— to the squatter shacks and slums, with eventual transfer of limited numbers to public housing. This article proposes to report on some differences in behavior and values of residents of private dwellings as opposed to those residents of public housing in two Central American capitals.

The Social Implication of Urban Renewal

FIRST, I shall discuss some significant aspects of Housing Act of 1961. When President Kennedy signed Housing Act of 1961 on June 30 he called it the most important and farreaching Federal legislation in field of housing since enactment of Housing Act of 1949. This legislation has given us tools long desired in housing field. We needed these tools to meet many problems that were not adequately provided for under previous federal legislation. Let us look at most important of these new tools and examine their potential. One housing problem easily understood and which has received popular reception by Congress and government officials at all levels is making adequate provision for housing for our senior citizens. The Housing Act of 1961 makes a real contribution to wellbeing and comfort of elderly persons. The direct loan program for housing for elderly was increased from 50 to 125 million dollars, and consumer cooperatives and certain public bodies are now made eligible borrowers. Also, where rents of units occupied by elderly are so low as to threaten solvency of a low-rent public housing project, an additional federal subsidy payment of up to $120 per year per unit is authorized. So, we have a greatly enlarged opportunity to provide good privatelyowned housing units for elderly persons with direct loans from federal government, and we are able to accept a greater number of elderly persons with minimum incomes in public housing. Already, a number of nonprofit groups, including churches and labor unions, are developing housing to meet needs of our elderly citizens more adequately. Since passage of 1949 Housing Act, it has become increasingly urgent that a positive program be developed to assist in providing good housing for low-, middle-income familiesthose whose incomes are just above admission limits to public housing but below that required to pay rentals for standard private dwellings. The Housing Act of 1961 makes a major contribution to this area of need. A new FHA provision, called Sec. 221(d) (3), creates a sub-market interest rate program. Under this program FHA can insure mortgages to certain nonprofit or limited-profit developers at a rate as low as 31/8 per cent. Furthermore, FHA can insure mortgage with reduced insurance premiums or no premiums at all. In sales housing for low-, middle-income families, under FHA program, dollar limits on one-family houses are raised. Down payments can be as

Instructing Nursing Home Personnel in Rehabilitation Techniques

IN ILLINOIS, as in most other States, complete and intensive rehabilitation services are limited to a, few urban areas, not-ably Chicago and Peoria. Elsewlhere in the State public and private nursing homes are expanding rapidly to care for chronically ill and disabled persons. Some of these persons at other times and under other circumstances, would have been hospital patients. But hospital care for such patients is frequently inappropriate, unavailable, or economically prohibitive, or no agencies are available to help them obtain hospital care. In many sections of Illinois hospital care is not available in the patient's community, and the local physician must rely upon the nursing home for inpatient care wlhen care at home cannot be provided. The shrinking size of private dwellings and the dwindling number of family members available to provide home care has further increased the use of commercial and county nursing homes for both private pay patients and recipienits of public assistance. Likewise, there is frequent evidence of the need for general hospitals to concern themselves more with measures to prevent the development of conditions which may require nursing home care after a hospital stay. The vocational rehabilitation of residents of nursing homes presents several significant problems. For instance, in the average Illinois community there is often little knowledge or appreciation of the philosophy and techniques of rehabilitation and the vocational potentials that may emerge from physical rehabilitation. Similarly, there is often little knowledge of the interests or services of the Federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and its counterparts in many of the States. The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Forest Park Founidation of Peoria, through the Peoria Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the Illinois Public Aid Commission joined forces to colnduct a 3-year research demonstration project, the rehabilitation education service. Begun in February 1957, the project, the first of its kind in the United States, proposed to look for the answers to these questions. * What a-re the rehabilitation needs among patients of a selected group of public and private nursing homes? * Can the existing staffs of these homes, in cooperation with local physicians and services in the local community, meet these needs if they receive adequate training in the philosophy and techniques of rehabilitation? * What kind of training can be developed to provide staffs with a knowledge of rehabilitation techniques and to increase their appreciation of the philosophy of physical and vocational rehabilitation? * What kinds of teaching materials can be developed that other agencies and schools can Mr. Hackley is coordinator of the rehabilitation education service of the Illinois Public Aid Commission, Peoria. The project is supported by grants from the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Forest Park Foundation of Peoria, and the Illinois Public Aid CommLssion.

Thoreau and Whitman: The Record of a Pilgrimage

ON afternoon of November 9, 1856, two visitors from Massachusetts presented themselves at front door of the middle tenement of single block of three private dwellings . . . far out on Myrtle Avenue, in very suburbs of city of Brooklyn.' Behind that door lived the savage sovereign of flesh,2 as one of callers was to set him down in his journal following day, man who year ago had excited or scandalized few (a very few) readers with his Leaves of Grass, book which even some of those who praised it boggled at calling poetry. Of callers, one who no doubt wielded knocker was Amos Bronson Alcott, who thought of himself as combined Socrates and Boswell of Transcendentalist movement. Hanging back slightly, one should imagine was stubborn-minded protege of Mr. Emerson, Henry David Thoreau-his disciple, as malicious liked to point out, even to barn-roof slope of shoulders and thin, drooping nose. As stage-managed by Alcott, opening of door would bring together two great Transcendental rebels, both of whom had been prophesied by Mr. Emerson, both of whom had appeared, almost instantaneously it seemed now, as if Waldo had actually conjured them into being. It was historic occasion, as impresario Alcott was intensely aware, this bringing together of two great hopes in Transcendental line of succession. The keynote of whole episode was sounded at very beginning: Mr. Whitman was not at home. It was Walt's mother, a stately sensible matron, who answered door, discoursed to two while about virtues of her boy, and invited gentlemen to call again early next morning.

Late Assyrian Pottery from Nimrud

During the 1953 season at Nimrud a considerable quantity of late Assyrian pottery was discovered in a well-dated context. It was thought that the immediate publication of this material, although in a brief and preliminary form, would be of value in providing dating criteria for other Near Eastern sites.Of particular interest is one room (T.W. 5 3, room 19) in the private dwellings excavated along the eastern wall of the akropolis near the north-east corner of the tall. This room which had apparently served as a store-room contained pottery on the floor in a deposit several feet thick. In one corner of it was a cache of dated tablets which spanned the years 666 B.C.–c. 626 B.C.; none was earlier than the reign of Aššur-bani-pal. That this storeroom had been burned was indicated by carboni2ed grain and sesame seed in the large storage jars, heavy burning of the tablets, and traces of burning throughout the debris to a height of 1·50 metres above the floor, and also by the hard-baked mud-plaster on the walls. The room appeared to have been a kind of surdab, three low and narrow entrances (in the west, north and south walls) had been the means of access, though not all of them were in use at one and the same time. It seems quite reasonable to assume that the burning occurred not later than 612 B.C. As most of the pottery must still have been in use when the place was burnt, we may reckon on a maximum error of eighteen years (629 B.C.–612 B.C.), for the dating of the complete specimens. Many of the types were, of course, already known in the Sargonid period as will be noted in the discussion below.

Training for Citizenship in the Schools

criminality. A comprehensive policy for housing improvement should begin with a continuous leveling up of the standards of our poorer housing through progressively raising the minimum requirements of construction, sanitation and maintenance established by legislation. Such policy will inevitably include also for America, as for European cities, special schemes for slum demolition and for the construction, by proper agencies, of wholesome private dwellings for families of small income. It should further promote, as rapidly as feasible, the decentralization of our industries and the concomitant decentralization of residences of the workers. But such a policy for decentralizati n, to be effective, must involve community planning, as well as the construction of private homes for the industrial workers.