Michael Pratt – författare

This text explores the developments in geometric and product modelling, and their applications. In particular, it looks at the means by which product geometry emerges from the conceptual stages of design, and the use of geometric reasoning for applications downstream of design, including manufacture and assembly. Much existing design research is either totally geometry based or totally non-geometric, and the interface between the two areas is of great interest to industry, as well as being crucial for the successful development of integrated systems for design and manufacture. This interface is currently not well understood and the book attempts to make a contribution to its understanding. The following areas are amongst those addressed: computer-aided design and manufacture of mechanical products; computer integration of design and manufacturing; computational geometry; conceptual design and engineering tolerances; and assembly design and planning.

First published in 1980, Mugging as a Social Problem sets out to remedy the deficiency of serious research on mugging. The work is based on a random sample of over 1000 muggings which occurred within the Metropolitan Police District in the mid-1970s, and the author analyses the results not only in absolute and comparative terms but also against a background of social determinants such as ecology, deprivation and race. Dr. Pratt’s long-term solution is not novel: an all-round improvement in housing, employment and social conditions will eventually remove the circumstances which create muggers; but there are steps, he suggests, which can be taken in the short term to stop mugging by reducing opportunity. However, before any effective measures can be introduced, more facts are needed about the background, motives and methods of the typical mugger: it is just such facts that this study sets out to provide. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, law, urban studies and criminology.

First published in 1980, Mugging as a Social Problem sets out to remedy the deficiency of serious research on mugging. The work is based on a random sample of over 1000 muggings which occurred within the Metropolitan Police District in the mid-1970s, and the author analyses the results not only in absolute and comparative terms but also against a background of social determinants such as ecology, deprivation and race. Dr. Pratt’s long-term solution is not novel: an all-round improvement in housing, employment and social conditions will eventually remove the circumstances which create muggers; but there are steps, he suggests, which can be taken in the short term to stop mugging by reducing opportunity. However, before any effective measures can be introduced, more facts are needed about the background, motives and methods of the typical mugger: it is just such facts that this study sets out to provide. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, law, urban studies and criminology.

It describes not only the story of the estate and its very foreign owners, but also that of the English in eastern Sicily during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Not only was the Castello di Maniace the seat of a dukedom, but the estate had also been one of Sicily's greatest medieval abbeys and played a significant part in the island's past. The book contains maps and photographs from a collection long dispersed - sadly the last Duke of Bronte sold the property over twenty years ago, so they document a way of life that no longer exists. All facets of an unusual Anglo-Sicilian relationship, with mutual miscomprehension usually uppermost, are recorded here, sometimes touchingly.