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This thesis examines the voluntary transfer of housing stock by Scottsh local authorities between 1986 and 1997, under a Conservative Government. The study sought to identify who had transferred what, why and how, employing a multi-theoretical approach and a range of concepts from policy studies to investigate rationaliy and opportunity in policymaking. The study used quantitative methods to define and establish the incidence of transfer, which was found in two forms: as partial transactions, with and without subsidy; and as privately financed disposals of whole stocks. Similar volumes of transactions were found in Scotland as in England, though on different terms and affecting fewer houses. Qualitative methods were used to explore the decisions, actions and capacity of people involved in voluntary sales of tenanted housing to other landlords. Key actors included tenants and community activists, politicians and officials in councils, government departments and agencies. The thesis argues that transfer in Scotland was the product of local responses to two key developments. One was accumulated financial constraints; the other, particularly affecting partial transfer, was the use of financial and organisational incentives, secured with ministerial acquiescence. Although government was ultimately responsible for both developments, it neither planned nor anticipated their consequences; it was often iiprepared to respond to local initiatives, partial and whole; and it failed to understand or monitor the consequences. Most Scottsh councils ignored whole stock transfer in 1996, when it came to be actively promoted by Conservative poliicians. Paradoxically, while organisations representing institutional interests in council housing vocalised opposition to stock disposals, their constituent members took action to transfer ownership, with the conflcting values of local incumbents accommodated by stealth. Transfer was later legally structured, when an afterthought from English legislation accidentally turned power relations upside down, making ministerial consent conditional on demonstrating lack of tenant opposition. Senior officials played a consistently critical role in initiating, brokering, frustrating and nourishing local negotiations. This study demonstrates the particular significance of local action in policy-making, allowing transfer to emerge in response to wider constraints determined at the centre.

The research of this thesis was performed to understand the vibrational dynamics of stage 0&1 child safety seats and of the children who occupy them. Since no previous vibration data for small children or child seats was found, the investigation took the form of experiments designed to shed light on the behaviour of the system consisting of child, child seat, vehicle safety belt and vehicle seat. To provide a background for interpreting the results a literature review was performed of child seat characteristics, of human whole-body response and of primate whole-body response. An industrial test procedure for measuring the vibration isolation properties of vehicular seats is also presented as an illustration of the concepts involved. A whole-body vibration bench for testing children in the vertical direction was built and apparent mass and absorbed power functions were measured for 8 children of age less than 24 months and mass less than 13 kg. An algorithm was developed for identifying the parameter values of a single degree of freedom mass-spring-damper model of the seated body using Differential Evolution optimisation. The parameter values were determined for each child and compared to those of adults and primates. This thesis also presents the results of modal testing of 2 child seat units and of operational deflection shape testing of 1 unit in an automobile under 3 loading conditions (empty, sandbag or child). In-vehicle transmissibility measurements were also performed in the vertical direction for 10 children and child seats using 9 automobiles. The floor-to-human transmissibilities were determined for each child and driver when passing over a reference road surface at both 20 and 40 km/h. Except for the damping ratio, all child mechanical response parameters were found to differ with respect to those of adults or primates, with the differences being greater with respect to adults. The first resonance frequency of children was found to be located at 8.5 Hz as opposed to 4.0 Hz for adults, raising questions regarding the applicability of standards such as ISO 2631 towards the evaluation of child vibrational comfort. The child seats were found to have higher transmissibilities on average than the vehicular seats occupied by adults. A characteristic low frequency rigid body rocking motion was noted at 1.8 Hz as were multiple flexible body resonances starting from frequencies as low as 15 Hz. Areas of possible improvement and topics for further research have been identified.

Since the late 1960s, the sociological studies of policing and of football culture/hooliganism have been increasingly steadily. However, few authors have considered how these areas overlap, namely, the sociology of football policing. This thesis represents the first detailed ethnographic study of police officers and stewards at football matches and their relationships with the supporters. Research was conducted via participant observation and interviews and focused on the police perspective of events. The work of Erving Goffman facilitated this research by highlighting the various interaction teams that are present among the police and the stewards, and how each team interacts with the football supporters in different ways. The supporters and the police/stewards interact according to understood (but not formally recognised) rules of behaviour. Only when these informal rules are violated do the police utilise their legally granted powers. This division of the police into separate interaction teams suggests that the police only appear on the surface to be a united force, but in fact operate as several differentiated units. In addition, this study has suggested some developments to Goffman's ideas, such as the hierarchical relationships among certain interaction teams and the possibility that two teams can co-operate in staging the same performance. The Appendix contains a reflection on the roles gender, nationality and educational background played in executing the methodology.

The chemical composition of snow, terricolous lichens and top-soil along with abundance and diversity of lichen communities were assessed in the Pechora and Usa basins, North-Eastern European Russia. Transects were established through the principal industrial towns of Vorkuta, Inta and Usinsk to assess the spatial extent of acid or alkaline and metal deposition. A further eight sites were selected to assess local impacts of oil and gas operations. In the Usa basin decreases of nitrogen concentration in the lichen Cladonia stellaris and winter deposition of non-sea salt sulphate moving northward were attributed to long range transport of oxides of nitrogen and sulphur from lower latitudes. Increased ionic content and pH of snow, along with elevated nitrogen concentrations and modified cation ratios in lichens (Cladonia arbuscula and Flavocetraria cucullata) within 25-40 km of Vorkuta and Inta were attributed to local deposition of alkaline coal ash. Nitrate concentration in snow did not vary with proximity to perceived pollution sources. Trace metal composition of winter snowpack, snow-melt filter residues and top-soils indicated elevated concentrations of elements associated with alkaline combustion ash around coal mining operations in Vorkuta and Inta, adding significantly to the soil metal loading as a result of ash fallout. Around the petrochemical industry near Usinsk there was little evidence of trace metal deposition. Acid deposition was associated with pristine areas, whereas alkaline combustion ash near to emission sources more than compensated for the acidity due to S02 and NOx. There were limited perturbations in the chemical signals in lichens, top-soils and lichen diversity close to an oil and gas industrial complex on the Kolva river. Here, there were elevations of lead and nitrogen concentrations in lichen apices and in the apical : basal nitrogen ratio in Flavocetraria cucullata, with lower lichen diversity of epigeal and epiphytic lichens. Elevated concentrations of Ba and Ca were found in soil-ash, probably as a result of local emissions from construction activity and gas flaring, rather than from long-range transport. Virtually all other sites remained unmodified and reflected background concentrations.The ecological impacts of the measured pollution loads are discussed.

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