The role of housing in providing a welfare asset has been widely explored. With the growth in home ownership between 1979 and 2008 and erosion of the welfare state, housing wealth has become part of the welfare mix in the UK. Here, we present analysis of housing outcomes, as measured in the UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS), among people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual in Great Britain. This shows that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people have poorer housing outcomes than heterosexual counterparts: they are less likely to be homeowners; more likely to be private renters; and more likely to be social renters. With growing intergenerational inequalities in access to home ownership, we argue that, as openly LGB (and broader trans and queer) people being on average younger than the rest of the population, this could lead to LGB people, as a group, being excluded from asset-based welfare in the future as they age.

Iron impurities in the Hohen Hagen nontronite (NG-1) were identified as maghemite and goethite. The phase identified as maghemite was magnetically ordered at both room temperature and 87 K, with hyperfine magnetic fields of 48.6 and 50.7 tesla, respectively. Due to the magnetic properties of this phase, it was easily separated from aqueous dispersions of the clay using a hand magnet. X-ray powder diffraction analysis revealed maghemite, quartz, and phyllosilicate in the magnetically separated phase. The impurity identified as goethite remained in the non-magnetic <2-μm fraction of the clay, displayed magnetic order only at 87 K (47.44 tesla hyperfine field), and accounted for about 8% of the total area of the Mössbauer spectrum.

The reduction and reoxidation of three nontronite samples, GAN (API H-33a, Garfield, Washington), SWa-1 (ferruginous Washington smectite), and NG-1 (Hohen Hagen, Federal Republic of Germany) were studied with visible absorption and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The intensity of the intervalence electron transfer (IT) band at 730 nm in these nontronites was monitored during reduction and reoxidation at 277, 294, and 348 K. The results showed that the intensity of the band followed the number of Fe(II)-O-Fe(III) groups in the clay crystal, increasing to a maximum at about Fe(II): total Fe = 0.4; upon complete reduction, the band decreased to about the intensity of the unaltered, oxidized sample. With reoxidation of the sample with O2, the intensity of the band increased sharply, followed by a gradual decay back to the original, oxidized intensity. The ultimate level of Fe reduction achieved was at least 92%. Concomitantly, the color changed from yellow through green, blue-green, dark blue, light blue, and light gray as the Fe(II) content increased. The GAN nontronite was more difficult to reduce than the SWa-1 or NG-1 samples. The rate and level of reduction increased with the amount of reducing agent added.

The distribution and chemical state of Si in a synthetic 2-line ferrihydrite with a Si/(Si + Fe) molar ratio of 0.11 was studied. Heat treatment under oxidizing conditions shows that Si-rich ferrihydrite is stable to 400°C. The transformation to hematite and the formation of a polymerized amorphous-silica phase occur at 850°C. At this temperature, the specific surface area decreases greatly and the average pore diameter increases, which is indicative of sintering. Heating under severe reducing conditions causes a segregation of Si from Fe and results in a mixture of elemental Fe and SiO2. Surface and structural data suggest that Si is located near the particle surface where it limits the rearrangement of Fe octahedra to form hematite.

Recent research has shown the potential of speleothem δ13C to record a range of environmental processes. Here, we report on 230Th-dated stalagmite δ13C records for southwest Sulawesi, Indonesia, over the last 40,000 yr to investigate the relationship between tropical vegetation productivity and atmospheric methane concentrations. We demonstrate that the Sulawesi stalagmite δ13C record is driven by changes in vegetation productivity and soil respiration and explore the link between soil respiration and tropical methane emissions using HadCM3 and the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model. The model indicates that changes in soil respiration are primarily driven by changes in temperature and CO2, in line with our interpretation of stalagmite δ13C. In turn, modelled methane emissions are driven by soil respiration, providing a mechanism that links methane to stalagmite δ13C. This relationship is particularly strong during the last glaciation, indicating a key role for the tropics in controlling atmospheric methane when emissions from high-latitude boreal wetlands were suppressed. With further investigation, the link between δ13C in stalagmites and tropical methane could provide a low-latitude proxy complementary to polar ice core records to improve our understanding of the glacial–interglacial methane budget.

The industrial assessment of ceramic clays commonly consists of the determination of just two parameters, the particle-size distribution and the chemical composition; other parameters may also be important, however. The aim of the present study was to show that a careful determination of the mineralogical phase content provides valuable additional information on the processing behavior of ceramic clays.

Two ceramic clays (W1 andW2) from theWesterwald area, Germany, were evaluated as being the same with respect to industrial screening criteria, but showed different processing properties. In order to elucidate the different behaviors, both clays were investigated comprehensively using a multi-method approach combining physical-chemical and mineralogical methods.

Different aggregation characteristics for the two clays were revealed by determining the grain-size distribution with and without Na-pyrophosphate as a dispersant. In addition, W1 showed a greater electrical conductivity and soluble-salt concentration which promoted dispersion behavior.

The phase content was identified both for bulk materials and for several grain-size fractions by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld analysis. The quantitative phase content was crosschecked with the chemical composition by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. Additional information was gathered by thermal analysis, cation exchange capacity (CEC) measurements, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and optical microscopy. While bulk samples of W1 and W2 showed nearly the same mineralogical and chemical compositions, investigation of the clay-size fractions (0.6–2 μm, <0.6 mm) revealed differences in the composition of the 2:1 layer silicates. The percentages of smectite in the mixed-layer I-S, as well as the amount of kaolinite, discrete illite, and smectite were determined by one-dimensional XRD profile fitting (ODPF). Best-fitting results for W1 were achieved for a physical mixture of an illite-rich I-S mixed-layer mineral (R3 I(0.9)-S) with discrete smectite, whereas W2 was characterized by a greater proportion of smectite in the mixed-layer (R1 I(0.8)-S), without discrete smectite. Based on the different structural features of the swellable clays, a qualitative delamination model for the 2:1 layer silicates during processing of the clays was derived. The model provides a further approach, aside from aggregation characteristics, to help understand the clay-processing behavior, which was found to be different for the two ceramic clays investigated.

Permeability is often the limiting factor in clay-based barrier systems designed to attenuate miscible or immiscible contaminant transport. One critical aspect of barrier design is prediction of the effects of permeant conditions on physicochemical properties (e.g swelling) of the clay component and thus, ultimately, the permeability of the barrier. To this end, the permeability of an organically modified bentonite to ethanol-water solutions was determined to approximate the effects of organo sorption-induced swelling. The bentonite was modified with a substituted alkylammonium cation: benzyloctadecyl-dimethylammonium (BODMA). Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements were used to measure interlayer expansion and to estimate aggregate particle densities at any given ethanol concentration. Permeability measurements were conducted on samples under confining overburden stresses of 43 kPa (∼2.5 m of saturated soil) using a hydraulic gradient of ∼300. Sample thickness was continuously monitored during measurements of volumetric flow so that sample strain, void ratio and porosity could be calculated from changes in sample pore volumes. For calculations of porosity and void ratio, the swelling solid volume, determined from XRD, was assumed to include the sorbed layer (crystalline water/ethanol), the thickness of which is not normally considered in engineering applications. Exposure of the BODMA bentonite to increasing ethanol concentrations increased the swell volume of the clay. Measured coefficients of permeability for the BODMA bentonite decreased from ∼1 × 10−7m s−1 for pure water to ∼8 × 10−10m s−1 for pure ethanol. Exposure of the organo clay to ethanol-water solutions containing 0.2 M NaCl increased the effect of ethanol on clay swelling and permeability. Probable consequences of the effects of sorption-induced swelling on permeability and the performance of organo clay-based permeable reactive barriers are discussed.

An ideal vision model accounts for behavior and neurophysiology in both naturalistic conditions and designed lab experiments. Unlike psychological theories, artificial neural networks (ANNs) actually perform visual tasks and generate testable predictions for arbitrary inputs. These advantages enable ANNs to engage the entire spectrum of the evidence. Failures of particular models drive progress in a vibrant ANN research program of human vision.

The objective was to evaluate steer performance, meat nutritional value, land-use, food–feed competition and both economic and environmental sustainability within temperate pasture-based suckler weanling-to-beef systems with or without (forage-only) concentrates. Post-weaning, 8-month-old, late-maturing breed steers (333 kg) were assigned to one of three systems: (1) grass silage + 1.2 kg concentrate DM (148 days), followed by pasture (123 days) and finished on ad libitum concentrates (120 days) – slaughter age, 21 months (GRAIN); (2) as per (1) but pasture (196 days) and finished on grass silage ad libitum + 3.5 kg concentrate DM (124 days) – slaughter age, 24 months (SIL + GRAIN); and (3) grass silage-only (148 days), pasture (196 days), silage-only (140 days) and finished on pasture (97 days) – slaughter age, 28 months (FORAGE). The mean target carcass weight was 390 kg for each system. Data generated were used to parameterize a farm-level beef systems model. Concentrate DM intake was 1187, 606 and 0 kg/head for GRAIN, SIL + GRAIN and FORAGE, respectively. The forage-only (FORAGE) system offers several advantages, including improved farm profitability, enhanced meat fatty acid profile and only utilized inedible human feed. Consequently, associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per net human edible food produced were more favourable for FORAGE. However, compared to GRAIN, the FORAGE system had an older age at slaughter and associated increased pasture land-use and GHG emissions per animal, meat weight gain and essential amino acids gain. There are therefore inevitable trade-offs, as one beef system does not improve all sustainability and GHG emission metrics.

Recently, there have been epidemics of human cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE) in Kyrgyzstan. This study investigated 2 districts for the presence of Echinococcus granulosus s.l. and Echinococcus multilocularis eggs; species identity was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction in dog feces and the level of environmental contamination with parasite eggs in 2017–2018 was also investigated. In the Alay district 5 villages with a high reported annual incidence of AE of 162 cases per 100 000 and 5 villages in the Kochkor district which had a much lower incidence of 21 cases per 100 000 were investigated. However, the proportion of dog feces containing E. granulosus s.l. eggs was ~4.2 and ~3.5% in Alay and Kochkor respectively. For E. multilocularis, the corresponding proportions were 2.8 and 3.2%. Environmental contamination of Echinococcus spp. eggs was estimated using the McMaster technique for fecal egg counts, weight and density of canine feces. The level of environmental contamination with E. multilocularis eggs was similar at 4.4 and 5.0 eggs per m2 in Alay and Kochkor respectively. The corresponding values for E. granulosus s.l. were 8.3 and 7.5 eggs per m2. There was no association between village or district level incidence of human AE or CE and the proportion of dog feces containing eggs of Echinococcus spp. or the level of environmental contamination. Increased contamination of taeniid eggs occured in the autumn, after the return of farmers with dogs from summer mountain pastures.