1) There is a growing awareness of the importance of accessibility as a determinant and conditioner of a variety of problems perceived in contemporary rural areas. 2) The 'rural transport problem1 is essentially social in character because it is possible to point to distinct social groups at particular localities that experience a differentially low level of personal mobility relative to the norms of contemporary society. 3) Rural society is not static in character but is at present experiencing three fundamental processes of social and demographic change. These condition the number, location, and individual perception, of people suffering the 'rural transport problem'. 4) There is a basic dichotomy between the stated rationale for' public intervention to solve the 'rural transport problem' and the way the policies have been implemented. This is shown to have arisen from a misconception of the relationship between the problem (consumer based) and the response (support supply) in the work of the Jack Committee in the early sixties. This dichotomy has been maintained. 5) There has been a general failure of both tiers of government to perceive the differences between the 'need' for transport and the 'demand' for transport and this has distorted the relationship between the objectives of public intervention and the social character of the problem on the one hand, and the nature of local policy implementation on the other. There is no method presently available, that can be attached to this procedure of implementation, that will allow the evaluation of the social returns of public financial intervention in this policy area. 6) An alternative process of implementation is advanced based upon three innovations in procedures; i) the use of a method of measuring comparative need as a device for identifying the transport needs of a community, ii) the use of spatial opportunity profiles to evaluate transport and fixed facility supply in meeting these needs, iii) the use of a process of operator tenders for defined service packages - defined by utilising the 'needs' criteria previously described. 7) The advantages of the reformulated procedure would be that; i) It directly implements and fulfills the stated objectives of public intervention in this policy area, ii) It gives social based criteria for the evaluation of the success of implementation - defining the nature, extent, and type of help given to those defined as in 'need', iii) It focuses local authority concerns solely upon the social rationale for intervention, iv) It allows bus operators to act commercially at all times.

The problems relating to transport and communications in large, sparsely populated areas are here examined in the context of the Highlands and Islands, north and west of the Great Glen. The concept of 'accessibility' is of particular importance. The work has two inter-related themes: the description, mainly in cartographic form, of regional patterns of accessibility within the Highlands and Islands, and also a comparative assessment of the practical value of the range of analytical techniques available for doing this. Due to the great size of the region, the bulk of the thesis is concerned with the regional, aggregate scale. Accessibility has a great variety of interpretations, and a physical rather than a behavioural view is taken here. A selection of elementary structural measures is applied, before resorting to the more complex procedures of network analysis. The former includes a survey of the coverage of the settlement pattern by transport services, and reveals a very high standard. The application of network analysis for high-resolution networks entails severe problems of definition and scale. A program is constructed for the manipulation of very large networks and a series of accessibility surfaces is generated; the degree of flexibility which the method proves to have must be appraised in the light of the computing problems encountered. Overall, fourteen accessibility indices are proposed in the thesis, and these reveal a fairly high degree of consensus on the spatial patterns of relative advantage within the region. To complement the main theme, a local scale study considers the concept of 'isolation' and suggests a methodology. In the Highlands, as in other rural areas, public transport must be seen in relation to the general issues of rural service provision and settlement policy.

No description available.

The planning and management of change has tended to be directed towards the achievement of end states. Adaptive procedures are generally undertaken when it is felt that these end states will not be reached and intervention is necessary. This intervention is usually determined by the technical and organizational criteria of the management system. This thesis argues, using the land-use planning system as a central example, that such an approach to change management fails to acknowledge the diversity of the process. Two points are considered to be fundamental to this argument. Firstly, that diversity is the generator of change, and not merely an inconvenient constraint upon its management Secondly, change follows multi-dimensional pathways (through time, across space, and between themes), that do not conform to technical, linear. management criteria. Failure to recognise these points inevitably hinders the ability of management systems to adapt to the uncertainty of the environment for which they have assumed responsibility. One measure of this failure is the mis-match between the agenda set by the managers of change, and that which is desired by the consumers of the process. The thesis supports the need for integrated management systems that are cognizant of, and driven by, the variety which is identified within the consumer agenda. The field work for the study considers ways of identifying the nature and extent of this variety. It will be argued that individuals interpret, negotiate, and effect change interactively with the wider social system. This interaction combines with the social and physical environments encountered by individuals in their daily lives, to define a 'sense of place'. A multi-method approach is developed which uses the demographic attributes of the . study village as bench marks that will allow comparison with other localities, and place it on an urban - rural continuum. This quantitative data also provides a means by which the variety of qualitative data can be assessed, and upon which provisional classifications about how particular groupings respond to change can be based. An interview and questionnaire instrument will be introduced. This will enable respondents to construct their own cognitive pathways of how changes which are pertinent to the local environment have evolve~. These pathways are then compared with the criteria Identified In land-use planning documentation, and the level of congruence between the two examined.

Experiences from many countries show that transport can have conflicting results on development. This is a question as to whether the provision of roads can stimulate the centres to generate ripple and trickle down effects or whether they drain raw material, capital, labour and entrepreneurial talent from surrounding areas. There is also a hypothesis that if there is a relationship between capital formation and economic growth, there must be a relationship between transport and the growth. This study explore this phenonmenon in depth in the context of a case study of North Sumatera in Indonesia. Economic growth factors and traffic volume data were collated from different sources covering the whole province of North Sumatera and were subjected to standard statistical tests. Despite the deficiencies in the data base, the findings suggest that the positive impact of roads on private investments, government activities and interregional trade is significant although roads may stimulate the concentration of investment and at the same time encourage interregional trade in the ports surrounding the primate city. It is also found that roads do not have a significant influence on the expansion of land use. The findings also show that in this case, the provision of roads has an impact on regional income but the speculation that the long term impact of roads leads to a backwash effect from the less developed subregions appears to be true. Regional inequalities may be reduced in some measure when all settlements in the region can be accessed by vehicles in all weathers. A simple model is . constructed to examine the relationship between the volume of ~raffic and economic growth factors. This model is based on the gravity model. The /findings show that agricultural land use and population have significant contribution to the generation of the volume of trucks and buses, respectively. Capital investment influences significantly on the generation of the volume of cars and trucks. Despite the level of significance, population makes the the smallest contributor to the volume of traffic. Due to data problems, the conclusions from this study must be drawn carefully. The findings of this study therefore are more indicative than conclusive. Even though they may indicate and permit an anticipation of the future role of transport, they should be interpreted more as trends and tendencies than an absolute predictions.

No description available.

During the second half of this century the institutions exercising the greatest influence upon rural land users over Scotland as a whole have been the agriculture Department (under various titles), the Forestry Commission, the Nature Conservancy/Nature Conservancy Council and the Countryside Commission for Scotland. The three latter institutions may be described as "quangos" (hereafter called "agencies") i.e. centrally-funded public bodies, but having a chairman and a board of management appointed from outwith government. In April 1992 the three agencies were radically reconstructed. The changes were described as having been made in response to criticism - not least in Scotland - of their structure and performance. It therefore seems timely to assess the record and effectiveness of the agencies in relation to Scotland, where both afforestation and nature conservation have had significant effects on land use. The method adopted is, first, to review the constitutional status and role of agencies in the UK, and the place of the land use agencies. Next, each of the three agencies is examined on its own, in terms of its historical origins, evolution and performance, particularly in relation to Scotland; its organisational structure; its efficiency and effectiveness as perceived by various observers; and its relationship with its "client" or interest group. Finally, the significance and achievement of the agencies - both individually and in combination - are appraised in relation to Scotland. It is concluded that they have fallen down on the <I>custodial</I> side of their terms of reference, i.e. their responsibility for the environment of rural Scotland. An explanation of the shortcomings of the agencies is sought in their institutional structure. A more coherent structure of agencies, aimed at curing the ills diagnosed, is suggested.

The medical uses of ultrasound for both diagnosis and therapy require a detailed knowledge of the interaction of ultrasound with the tissues. This will allow safety levels to be set and indicate any possible source of hazard. The interactions of ultrasound with tissue are usually divided into three catagories: thermal, cavitation phenomena, and direct action. Much work has been done to show the levels of intensity and the irradiation times which give rise to damage due to thermal and cavitational effects, but the interactions grouped under the term direct action are less well understood. To investigate the direct effects of ultrasound an irradiation system is required in which both the source of the ultrasound and the living system being irradiated can be monitored accurately. The simplest system with which this is possible is the irradiation of some form of cell suspension in a continuous wave ultrasound field. Cell cultures are simpler to use than whole animals and therefore allow better controlled experiments to be performed which result in more accurate quantitative results. Dosimetry of ultrasound is simplest in a continuous wave field. It is possible to make accurate, reproducible measurements of the intensity distribution at the positions where the irradiations are performed. This is important for relating effects to the intensities to which the cells are exposed. Initial work in this thesis was performed on cells suspended in a liquid medium. Clonogenic survival was used to check for any lethal effects of the ultrasound. In this situation the cells are free to move during irradiation which results in some degree of averaging of the intensities present over the whole sample of cells. Also, as it is only possible to measure survival in terms of the effect on the contents of each chamber as a whole, changes resulting from only the highest intensities in the ultrasound beam would not show as a significant alteration in the general level of survival. The results of these experiments showed no effect of ultrasound on clonogenic survival. The second area of research was with suspensions of cells in medium stiffened with agar. In these experiments the cells were mixed with the agar medium and placed in large chambers in which they would be able to grow for a period of at least two weeks. The principle of the experiments was to irradiate the cells in the agar medium and then monitor the growth of colonies in situ after a period of 10-14 days. As the cells are unable to move during or after irradiation, survival at each point across the chamber can be related directly to the intensity at that point. This is probably the only system likely to produce survival curves against actual intensity with presently available ultrasound sources. Also, results from this system may be easier to confirm as they should be reasonably independent of the intensity distribution of the ultrasound source used. Irradiations were performed at a range of intensities in an attempt to obtain a significant effect of ultrasound. No measurable reduction in clonogenic survival was found in any of these experiments. To try and enhance any effect that might be present hyperthermia was applied at the same time as the ultrasound, in a further series of experiments. These showed a significant effect due to the ultrasound, but the measured drop in survival was approximately that which would be expected from heating due to absorbtion of ultrasound alone. This further confirms the absence of any lethal effect of the direct action of ultrasound.

This study adopts the theoretical framework of structure and agency institutionalism to analyse the private urban residential development process (URDP) from policy formulation through to consumption, from the perspective of the individual household developer in a case study of the Tamale Municipal Assembly (TMA) in northern Ghana. The various theoretical frameworks for analysing land and housing development processes are reviewed. Traditional models are found to be unsuitable for adequately explaining the customary land tenure system as a constraint in the self-build URDP in the TMA. As a result, this research relies on an institutional approach to study the transformation occurring in communal land ownership. The use of structure and agency institutionalism in the study reveals that a wide spectrum of agents (actors) are involved in the private URDP in Tamale. The process itself is not only embedded within but is taking place against a background defined by a combination of economic, social, political and institutional environments. This contextual mix is observed to provide the formal and informal institutions, regulations and resources for all the agents, with profound implications for urban housing development, particularly with regard to land tenure conversion. The study reveals the complex web of agency and power relations that are being excerised in this arena, with the result that it is difficult to separate agents' attitudes from policy, especially at the formal institutional level. Contrary to popular belief, this study finds that the customary land tenure system, as it now operates in the study area, constitutes no real hindrance to the self-build developer with regard to land access. The economic and social changes taking place have engendered the transformation of societal attitudes resulting in the birth of a market for housing land. An oligopolistic class of capitalist landlords represented by the chiefs has evolved and while this could lead to the exclusion of the poor from access to land, those with the means, whether local or non-local people, can and do buy land from this new class of capitalist land holders. In relative terms, availability of finance, the cumbersome documentation procedures and lack of infrastructure are the principal difficulties faced by the household developer. Based on the key findings and problems faced by the self-build developer, the study suggests that rather than radical and unpopular reform of the customary land tenure system, the evolutionary changes taking place should be supported, while putting in place policy measures to address the issue of redistribution of the financial gains the chiefs make from land sales, the availability of finance and other constraints faced by the self-build developer. Although the study does not offer a blue print for solving the housing problem, it does propose through structure and agency institutionalism, an alternative approach which suggests a holistic analysis capable of enhancing comprehension of the problem, for therein lies the first steps towards its resolution.

This research examines the main elements which constitute the 'rural transport problem'. The work focuses on what appears to be a key issue for local government---establishing the level and nature for local public transport. Two possible approaches to the measurement of accessibility need, recently used by an English and a Welsh local authority, are applied to 4 case study areas in Scotland. Each study area has undergone significant service losses as a result of a major bus company rationalisation programme---the Scottish Bus Group's SCOTMAP exercise. A measure of the impact of these losses, in accessibility terms is attempted and a critical evaluation is made of the methodologies used to calculate this. The analysis presented was completed before the 1985 Transport Act created a new financial and legislative environment in local bus service provision. The Act has significantly altered the role of the regional councils in securing public transport services. These changes accompany deregulation of local bus services and a return to free-market competition between bus operators. The final section of this research considers the enhanced role for needs evaluation as part of the planned subsidy allocation procedure administered by local government for socially necessary (but non-commercial) arms of the bus networks. A number of recommendations are made, based upon the case studies with the aim of gearing a needs-based method to the Scottish context. It is concluded that whilst problems must be overcome, the analysis of needs has an important potential role in the deregulation context.