Upgrade Program Research Articles

Commoning or being commoned? Institutions, politics, and the role of the state in collective housing policy in Bangkok, Thailand

This article theorizes the potential roles of the state in the urban commons through an analysis of a slum upgrading program in Thailand that employs collective forms of land tenure. In examining the transformation of the program from a grassroots movement to a “best practice” policy, the article demonstrates how the state has expanded from mere enabler of the commons to active promoter. In the process, the role of many residents has evolved from actively creating the institutions of collective governance— commoning—to adopting institutions prescribed by the state— being commoned. However, by comparing the work to two different groups of communities who work within the context of the policy, the article illustrates how active commoning can still take place in such contexts.

Spaces of Transformative Practice: Co-producing, (Re)Making and Translating Fractional Urban Space in Gugulethu, Cape Town

Reimagining neglected urban space offers the potential for social cohesion, integration, and connectivity. The intimate, interstitial or fractional spaces of a city represent a key component of social infrastructure in a neighbourhood. The smallest of interventions in urban space adds value and complexity to urban life. However, fractional, yet deeply transformative, urban space is often unrecognised and undocumented. Transformative practice seeks to accommodate, anticipate and represent inclusive public life but requires discovering new content and definitions on public space to decode emerging processes of incremental place-making in an African context. The narrative focuses on a network of place-making intervention projects as part of an urban upgrading programme in Lotus Park informal settlement, located in Gugulethu, Cape Town. A set of tracings, integrated with theoretical frames, reveal the impact of upgraded urban space through firstly, emerging centres and the (re)making of place on the periphery; secondly, disrupting edges and the co-production process involved in the negotiation of space; and lastly, crafting shadows and interpreting traces of micro-interventions. The purpose is to explore urban space as continually adapting to the intrusions in the city grid to translate (1) innovative modes of spatial production; (2) dynamic forms of local agency; (3) marginal ways of operating; and (4) interconnected and multi-scalar urban processes of everyday place-making. The practice of co-producing and (re)making urban space in Gugulethu uncovers alternate mechanisms for governance, partnerships and operations.

Young Land Occupations and the Failure of Housing Policy in Brazil

ABSTRACT How suitable are federal housing policies and slum upgrading programs for those living in young land occupations? Scholars rarely ask this question because research and policy target well-established settlements that have acquired tenure security. In contrast, young land occupations are highly vulnerable, emergent settlements threatened with eviction and are not sufficiently visible to attract government and scholarly attention. Through a multiyear collaboration with activists, social movements, nonprofits, and residents of young land occupations in São Paulo, Brazil, this participatory action research elucidates who occupies these locations and why, where they come from, and the housing struggles they face. A survey administered to 906 households depicts land occupiers as uniformly very poor and vulnerable, unlike the low- to modest-income dwellers of consolidated informal settlements. An assessment of existing social housing programs emphasizes the need to develop housing assistance and upgrading programs specifically targeting the socioeconomic conditions of land occupiers, thus proactively supporting them.

Review of the BM@N Physics and Upgrade Program

Review of the BM@N Physics and Upgrade Program

Experience of Implementing Water Safety Plan in Iran: A Systematic Review

Introduction: The water safety plan is a systematic approach that aims to ensure the quality of water distributed to consumers. In 2004, the World Health Organization issued a statement implementing the water safety plan. The plan is underway in Iran. The purpose of this study is to review the studies conducted from 2004 to 2020. Materials and Methods: Present article is a systematic review study to search for keywords in a combination of "water safety plan" (WSP), "Iran", "Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points", (HACCP) and "water" in international databases including: PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, as well as national databases include: Magiran and SID. Results: In the initial search, 671 articles were found that after screening based on the Prisma checklist, 15 articles were included in the study for further review. The results showed that in the implementation of WSP, the highest score is related to Qom city with 68.64% and the lowest value is related to Khoy city with 17.5%. Improvement and upgrade program, support program development, and review of WSP courses have received less attention. Low staff familiarity with WSP, insufficient team composition and lack of coordination between them in holding regular meetings can be the reason for poor implementation of WSP in Iran. Conclusion: The full implementation of the water safety plan controls the risks in the water supply system and reduces costs, as well as improves and increases the quality of water distributed to consumers.

The Impact of CEO Narcissism and Counterproductive Work Behaviors in Involvement of Middle Managers in the Strategy Process

This research aims to develop a theoretical framework to explain the conditions that facilitate or hinder the strategic roles of middle managers, such as the effects of CEO narcissism on the strategic roles of middle managers through the moderating effects of counterproductive work behaviors. This research examines these issues in the context of large Tunisian companies participating in Industrial Upgrading Program. The results show that CEO narcissism positively influences the counterproductive work behaviors of middle managers, which in turn negatively influences the strategic roles of middle managers. Consequently, this negative influence calls into question the SRMMs and clearly shows that the presence of the CEO narcissism constitutes an unfavorable condition for the involvement of middle managers in strategy process. Obviously, this should lead the defendants of the involvement of middle managers in strategy process to rethink this participatory approach, and this by considering the conditions that facilitate or hinder the strategic roles of middle managers.

Upgrade of the ATLAS Hadronic Tile Calorimeter for the High Luminosity LHC

The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is the hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS experiment. It is a scintillating plastic tiles and steel absorbers sampling calorimeter. The scintillators are read-out by wavelength shifting fibers coupled to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The TileCal response and its readout electronics are monitored to better than 1 $$\%$$ using radioactive source, laser and charge injection systems. The TileCal electronics will undergo major upgrades for the high luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC), so that the system can cope with increased radiation and can meet the requirements of a 1-MHz trigger. Digitized signals from all PMTs are sent to the back-end electronics and to the first level of trigger at 40 MHz. This will provide better precision in the trigger system and will allow the development of more complex trigger algorithms. The TileCal upgrade program has included extensive R&D and test beam studies. A Demonstrator module was inserted in ATLAS in 2019 for testing in actual detector conditions. The main features of the TileCal upgrade program and results obtained from the Demonstrator tests are discussed.

A Vector Finder Toolkit for Track Reconstruction in MPD ITS

As a part of the future upgrade program of the Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) experiment at the Nuclotron-Based Ion Collider Facility (NICA) complex, an Inner Tracking System (ITS) made of Monolitic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPSs) is proposed between the beam pipe and the Time Projection Chamber (TPC). It is expected that the new detector will enhance the experimental potential for the reconstruction of short-lived particles—in particular, those containing the open charm particle. To study the detector performance and select its best configuration, a track reconstruction approach based on a constrained combinatorial search was developed and implemented as a software toolkit called Vector Finder. This paper describes the proposed approach and demonstrates its characteristics for primary and secondary track finding in ITS, ITS-to-TPC track matching and hyperon reconstruction within the MPD software framework. The results were obtained on a set of simulated central gold–gold collision events at sNN=9 GeV with an average multiplicity of ∼1000 charged particles in the detector acceptance produced with the Ultra-Relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD) generator.

‘I Cannot Stand up to my Chief nor the State’: Reflections on Development-Induced Housing Mobility in Pro-Poor Housing Systems in Tamale, Ghana

ABSTRACT In Ghana, housing practices for the majority of urban residents lie outside the scope of formal housing markets and planning regulations. This has made urban upgrading a key component of physical development in cities in Ghana. In the face of accelerated urbanisation and the corresponding upsurge in informal housing practices, local authorities continue to grapple with the challenges of negotiating and implementing upgrading programmes without compromising pro-poor housing systems. As cities grow, mainly through the accretion of rural settlement nuclei, the quest to achieve orderly physical development has meant that new development ought to be planned alongside the upgrading and/or realignment of existing settlements. This complex spatial development trajectory makes forced residential mobility an integral component of post-independence urban development initiatives in many towns. Based on interviews with selected households and key stakeholders at city and neighbourhood levels, this study critically examines the incidence of development-induced residential mobility practices in the pro-poor housing systems of Tamale, Ghana. It makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the operation of dual urban management systems and how the navigation of such systems can be frustrating. The results show how and why sub-district local government actors collaborate with traditional chieftaincies to compel the relocation of poor families under the pretence of providing access roads. Paved roads have thus become deeply engrained in the housing politics of low-income communities, and form part of the narratives of the success or failure of chiefs or elected local government representatives. It is recommended that the scope of stakeholder engagement be broadened to promote inclusive urban development in Tamale.

Towards a two-dimensional readout of the improved CMS Resistive Plate Chamber with a new front-end electronics

As part of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment Phase-II upgrade program, new resistive plate chambers will be installed in the region at low angle with respect to the beam collision axis, in order to improve the detection of muons with a low transverse momentum. High background conditions are expected in this region during the high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider, therefore an improved-RPC design has been proposed with a new front-end electronics to sustain a higher particle rate capability and better time resolution. A new technology is used in the front-end electronics resulting in low achievable signal detection of 1–20 fC. Crucial in the design of the improved-RPC is the capability of a two-dimensional readout in order to improve the spatial resolution, mainly motivated by trigger requirements. In this work, the first performance results towards this two-dimensional readout are presented, based on data taken on a real-size prototype chamber with two embedded readout planes with orthogonal strips.

Construction and commissioning of CMS CE prototype silicon modules

As part of its HL-LHC upgrade program, the CMS collaboration is developing a High Granularity Calorimeter (CE) to replace the existing endcap calorimeters. The CE is a sampling calorimeter with unprecedented transverse and longitudinal readout for both electromagnetic (CE-E) and hadronic (CE-H) compartments. The calorimeter will be built with ∼30,000 hexagonal silicon modules. Prototype modules have been constructed with 6-inch hexagonal silicon sensors with cell areas of 1.1 cm2, and the SKIROC2-CMS readout ASIC. Beam tests of different sampling configurations were conducted with the prototype modules at DESY and CERN in 2017 and 2018. This paper describes the construction and commissioning of the CE calorimeter prototype, the silicon modules used in the construction, their basic performance, and the methods used for their calibration.

Volumetric analysis technique for analyzing the transport properties of hydrogen gas in cylindrical-shaped rubbery polymers

We report volumetric analysis techniques to analyze the transport properties of hydrogen dissolved in cylindrical-shaped polymers. The techniques utilize the volume measurement of the released hydrogen from rubber by gas collection in a graduated cylinder after charging sample with high-pressure hydrogen and subsequent decompression. We further improve the graduated cylinder with some modifications, such as reading the electrical capacitance of the water level using electrodes and changing the sample loading position. From the measurement results, the uptake (C∞), diffusion coefficient (D), and solubility (S) of hydrogen are quantified with an upgraded diffusion analysis program. These methods are applied to three cylindrical rubbers. Dual adsorption behaviors with increasing pressure are observed for all the samples. C∞ follows Henry's law up to ~15 MPa, whereas Langmuir model applies up to 90 MPa. D shows Knudsen and bulk diffusion behavior below and above pressure, respectively. A COMSOL simulation is compared with experimental observations.

Affordable Housing Programme in Kenya: Policy Guidelines and Milestones

The paper presents an overview of policy interventions and milestones by the Government of Kenya with regards to the Affordable Housing programme targeting civil servants, members of the Kenya Police Service and Kenyan Citizens. The programme was initiated by the Government to supply 500,000 homes over a period of 5 years in line with the Government’s Big Four Agenda, Kenya Vision 2030 and Kenya Constitution 2010. The paper presents a Financing Framework through which Citizens could eventually buy or rent a home cheaply. A highlight of the housing gap in Kenya is presented as well as the residential housing affordability challenges faced by most Kenyan Citizens. The paper highlights the eligibility criteria for affordable housing (through the Bomayangu online platform), the financing framework (for raising capital to buy a home) as well as partnerships between the Government of Kenya and other external stakeholders such as governments and private companies. Through the State Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Kenya Government has initiated several affordable housing projects in Nairobi and Kisumu Cities as well as Embu and Machakos Towns. In addition, slum upgrading programmes are on course in Kibera slums, Nairobi as well as other parts of Kenya. Lastly, the paper highlights the contribution to various stakeholders as well as housing finance theory where limited literature exists on such government initiated programmes. Keywords: Affordable Housing, Civil Servants, Civil Servants Housing Scheme, Housing Fund, Government Housing, Big Four Agenda and Kenya Vision 2030. DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-2-01 Publication date: March 31 st 2021

Addressing crime, violence and socio-spatial deprivation in a vulnerable community: An interdisciplinary perspective on the safety and peace through urban upgrading (spuu) initiative in Helenvale, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

ABSTRACT In 2012, the South African and German governments agreed to embark on a co-operative initiative to enhance violence and crime prevention in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. This initiative culminated in the Safety and Peace through Urban Upgrading (SPUU) programme, which was to be implemented in the community of Helenvale in Port Elizabeth. This article presents an interdisciplinary perspective on this initiative to determine its effectiveness in addressing crime, violence, socio-economic and spatial deprivation in the Helenvale community. Helenvale is afflicted by various challenges relating to crime and violence, but the most significant of these is undoubtedly gangsterism. The community has the dubious distinction of being perceived as the centre of gangsterism in the entire city. The importance of space and social marginalisation and the influence of these on violence and crime are explored. The authors employ anthropological, criminological and socio-spatial analytical approaches to interrogate the SPUU initiative, and, where necessary, suggest possible areas for revision or improvement in order to identify alternative ways to improve safety and the quality of life of the Helenvale community.

Beyond neoliberal urbanism: Assembling fluid gentrification through informal housing upgrading programs in Shenzhen, China

Over the past decade, Chinese metropolitan cities, Shenzhen included, have waged large-scale gentrification campaigns through land appropriation and demolition of old neighborhoods, resulting in the financialization of the urban property market. Since 2018, however, a new gentrification scheme under the rubric “comprehensive improvement” has been introduced in Shenzhen, in which the rehabilitation and formalization of informal housing arrangements in urban villages, instead of sweeping demolition, have become the focus. Based on fieldwork in a migrant community experiencing gentrification, I argue that the new gentrification scheme is fluid in the sense that, first, it comprises an assemblage of heterogenous actors, socialist institutions, market mechanisms, and a development regime. Even though the relationships between these components are not stable, this assemblage of factors enables the state to maintain some degree of power that it uses to regulate and channel the capital involved in the scheme. Second, gentrification is not a coherent process driven by a single force inevitably towards neoliberalism. Rather, it serves multiple purposes. Other than capital accumulation, fluid gentrification also functions as infrastructure for incorporating young professionals into state-led development. Fluid gentrification therefore goes beyond neoliberalism, pioneering a post-industrial mode of urban regeneration that is unstable, temporal and flexible in nature.

EFFECTS OF SLUM UPGRADING ON SECURITY MANAGMENT IN SOWETO SLUMS, ROYSAMBU SUB-COUNTY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

This paper uses data collected for an MA Thesis to explore the effects of slum upgrading on security management in Soweto slums, Roysambu sub-county in Nairobi, Kenya. The study was guided by three objectives to establish social effect of slum upgrading on security management in Kahawa Soweto slums; to examine the economic effect of slum upgrading on security management in Kahawa Soweto slums; and to establish the challenges of security management in the slum upgrading programme for Kahawa Soweto Slums. The study adopted a descriptive research design and random sampling to select 318 respondents (main respondents) and 10 Key informants (K.I). Questionnaire was the main method of data collection while interview was used to collect data from K.I. Data collected was organized, and systematically interpreted thematically by use of graphs, frequency tables, and percentages.
 This study established the relationship between slum setting and rise of crime and insecurity in Kahawa Soweto slums in Roysambu sub-county in Nairobi, Kenya with 69.2% of respondents agreeing to this count. According to this study, poor roads, high poverty levels, low education levels, poor spatial designs/environmental design of slum area and housing, absence of police station and poor lighting predisposed the slum dwellers to crime and insecurity. According to this study slum upgrade will reduce crime and insecurity, given that special aspects such as improvement in spatial designs/environmental design of urban areas and housing with enhanced modern lighting will significantly reduce crime in slums by eliminating criminogenic and insecurity risk factors. Additionally, improved economic effects of slum upgrading on slum dwellers would build resilience to crime and insecurity. This includes; Job creation, provision of educational facilities such as vocational training institutes (polytechnics), basic education institutions (primary and secondary schools) as well as other skills enhancement institutions. Community empowerment aimed at income generating activities, construction of police station to provide security to the slum dwellers (77%), and construction of better roads (55.3%) were recommended to reduce crime and improved security management in Kahawa Soweto slums in Roysambu sub-county in Nairobi, Kenya.

Housing externalities and expectation channel: A quasi-experiment using public housing upgrading programs

The paper examines differences in housing externalities across regions with different political affiliations. Using a merged dataset containing data on public housing upgrading, resale public housing transactions, electoral boundaries and election results from 2010 to 2016 and a differences-in-discontinuity approach, we find evidence that public housing programs are expedited in ruling-party-held wards in periods leading up to the general elections relative to contesting wards. We also find that the unbalanced provision of upgrading programs leads to higher housing externalities for housing blocks in ruling-party-held wards than those for otherwise similar blocks in contesting wards. This paper provides new evidence on the expectation channel through which housing externalities may be affected.

FELIX: the Detector Interface for the ATLAS Experiment at CERN

The Front-End Link eXchange (FELIX) system is an interface between the trigger and detector electronics and commodity switched networks for the ATLAS experiment at CERN. In preparation for the LHC Run 3, to start in 2022, the system is being installed to read out the new electromagnetic calorimeter, calorimeter trigger, and muon components being installed as part of the ongoing ATLAS upgrade programme. The detector and trigger electronic systems are largely custom and fully synchronous with respect to the 40.08 MHz clock of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The FELIX system uses FPGAs on server-hosted PCIe boards to pass data between custom data links connected to the detector and trigger electronics and host system memory over a PCIe interface then route data to network clients, such as the Software Readout Drivers (SW ROD), via a dedicated software platform running on these machines. The SW RODs build event fragments, buffer data, perform detector-specific processing and provide data for the ATLAS High Level Trigger. The FELIX approach takes advantage of modern FPGAs and commodity computing to reduce the system complexity and effort needed to support data acquisition systems in comparison to previous designs. Future upgrades of the experiment will introduce FELIX to read out all other detector components.

Australia's Bullpup Rifles: A Developmental History of the F88 and EF88 Self-loading Rifles

Following the experience of the Vietnam War, and in keeping with NATO military trends of the time, Australia began the search for a rifle chambered for a small- calibre, high-velocity cartridge in the 1980s. In 1988, Australia’s bicentenary year, the Austrian Steyr AUG was adopted as the F88 ‘Austeyr’. Manufactured domestically in Lithgow, New South Wales, the F88 went on receive a series of modifications under three distinct upgrade programmes, before being reconceived as the Enhanced F88 (EF88) from 2009 onwards. Now produced by Thales Australia, this latest iteration of the Austrian bullpup continues to serve the ADF around the world. In tracing the development history of what will soon be Australia’s longest-serving family of domestically produced rifles, the author outlines the challenges of maintaining a robust national manufacturing capability for small arms, and highlights solutions undertaken by Defence, industry, and other stakeholders.

Distant Shocks, Migration, and Housing Supply in India

It is hard to estimate housing supply elasticities. India is a particularly useful country to study housing supply because it is large and has a variety of housing typologies. We estimate the supply elasticity of non-durable, durable, and vacant residential housing units in urban India. We use two migration-inducing exogenous events --- negative rainfall shocks and a highway upgrade program --- occurring in a distant state as demand shifters for local urban housing markets. We apply the Rosen-Roback spatial equilibrium framework to show that both the negative rainfall shocks and the highway upgrade program in a distant state increase inter-state migration. This increase leads to higher population and household growth, and therefore, higher demand for housing in local urban markets. Our findings are three-fold. First, we estimate the long-term supply elasticity of durable housing in urban India to be 1.64. This estimate is substantially lower than the long-run housing supply elasticity estimates of 6-13 for metropolitan areas in the United States seen in the literature. Second, we find that the supply elasticity of non-durable housing is -0.55. Negative supply elasticity of non-durable housing is consistent with the existence of urban gentrification through the demolition and upgrading of slums. And finally, we estimate the elasticity of vacant residential housing unit supply to be 2.63. We posit that a relatively higher vacant housing unit elasticity indicates speculative building by developers.