Tenement House Conditions in Five Rhode Island Cities

George H. Webb, Commissioner. Carol Aronovici, Special Agent. Rhode Island Bureau of Industrial Statistics. Part I of the Annual Report for 1910. A report commissioned by the Rhode Island Bureau of Industrial Statistics conducted in cooperation with the Rhode Island Bureau of Social Research, an agency of the Union for Christian Work, which examined the tenement housing conditions found in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, and Newport, RI.https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/ri_history/1017/thumbnail.jp

The Role of Organic Peroxides in the Induction of Mutations

The discovery by Wyss, Stone, and Clark' that bacteria grown on a substrate recently exposed to ultra-violet light are subject to high mutation rates shows clearly that some meta-stable chemical substance, probably of no great complexity, is an intermediate in at least a part of the mutagenic action of ultra-violet light. It was supposed that hydrogen peroxide might be responsible for these results, but subsequent work has shown that this cannot be the whole explanation. [2] However, organic peroxides are known to be formed by the action of ultra-violet light on many compounds and such peroxides might very well be the intermediate agents producing the substrate irradiation effect

Pre-service teachers use e-learning technologies to enhance their learning

The purpose of this study was twofold. The primary purpose was to improve pre-service teacher education by using technology to help pre-service teachers bridge the gap between academic preparation and practice. The secondary, but still important, objective was to familiarize pre-service teachers in the use of technology to support their future pedagogical activities. Therefore, this research sought to develop a method for training undergraduate students in designing, implementing, and evaluating lesson plans to solidify the relationship between research, pedagogy, and teaching practice. Specifically, this study investigated the implementation of e-learning as a method of instruction to help pre-service teachers evaluate and improve upon the implementation of their lesson plans during their real world practicum experiences. The study was guided by the following research questions: 1) What successes, challenges, and benefits do university instructors and pre-service teachers experience in using and analyzing video in teacher education methods coursework? 2) In what ways did the use of e-learning help the pre-service teachers improve their teaching during the practicum experience? Results showed that participants reported improved lesson planning, improved lesson implementation, visual interpretations of best practices, modeling, and peer and university instructor feedback as successes of the e-learning project. Challenges included participants’ frustrations of being overworked and overwhelmed with the technical problems associated with e-learning. Overall participants judged the e-learning project as a very positive aspect of their teacher training

Bibliographic Summary of Arkansas Field Botany

Over 750 references, compiled over the past five years, are presented on floristics, taxonomy, autecology, synecology, species biology, habitat analysis, impact analysis, paleoenvironment, phytogeography, and history of field botany in Arkansas. This bibliography is reported to facilitate efforts to document and interpret the flora, the vegetation, and the natural heritage of Arkansas and to encourage others to participate in that collective effort

Distribution, Abundance, Status, and Phytogeography of Log Ferns (Dryopteris: Woodsiaceae) in Arkansas

A study of the distribution, abundance, status, and phytogeography of the six taxa of Log Ferns {Dryopteris: Woodsiaceae) that are known to occur in Arkansas was conducted from 1981 -1986. Five of these ferns are generally quite rare in Arkansas. Except for D. marginalis, all exist in Arkansas as small, peripheral populations that are marginal, outlier populations to the west and south or west and north of their metropolis. Two sterile, triploid hybrid taxa (D. X australls and D. X leedsii each occur at only one locality, and there with but one of their parent taxa. The population of the putatively sterile hybrid D. Xaustralis has a large number of juvenile plants that were not asexually produced byrhizome expansion. The microhabitat of D. Xaustralls is suggested to favor gametophyte establishment. It is speculated that some level of pseudomeiotic spore production and/or apogamy may be involved in the production of numerous juvenile sporophytes

Market Integration and Economic Development: A Long-run Comparison

How much of China's recent economic performance can be attributed to market-oriented reforms introduced in the last two decades? A long-run perspective may be important for understanding the process of economic development occurring today. This paper compares the integration of rice markets in China today and 270 years ago. In the 18th century, transport technology was non-mechanized, but markets were close to being free markets. We distinguish local harvest and weather from aggregate sources of price variation in a historical sample and in a similarly constructed contemporary sample. Findings indicate the degree of market integration in the 1720s is a very good predictor of per capita income in the 1990s. Moreover, the current pattern of interregional income in China is strongly linked to persistent geographic factors that were already apparent several centuries ago, well before the enactment of modern reform programs.

Markets in China and Europe on the Eve of the Industrial Revolution

Prevailing views suggest the Industrial Revolution began in Europe because markets had gradually become more efficient and by the 18th century the scope of economic activity was far larger than in other parts of the world. This paper compares the actual performance of markets in Europe and China, two regions of the world that were relatively advanced in the pre-industrial period, but would start to industrialize about 150 years apart. The analysis covers economies that account for about two-fifths of the world's population in the mid-18th century, and it considers some three centuries of data. Our findings suggest that relative levels of market function in China and Europe were similar prior to the Industrial Revolution. Higher efficiency in Europe is seen only in the nineteenth century when industrialization was already underway. Moreover, these improvements occurred in a dramatic and sudden fashion, further casting doubt on an evolutionary view of market development. Rather than being a key condition for subsequent growth, gains in efficiency appeared simultaneously with the turning point of modern growth. We discuss the implications of these findings for a number of explanations for long-run growth and the Industrial Revolution.

The Origins of Spatial Interaction

Geography shapes economic outcomes in a major way. This paper uses spatial empirical methods to detect and analyze trade patterns in a historical data set on Chinese rice prices. Our results suggest that spatial features were important for the expansion of interregional trade. Geography dictates, first, over what distances trade was possible in different regions, because the costs of ship transport were considerably below those for land transport. Spatial features also influence the direction in which a trading network is expanding. Moreover, our analysis captures the impact of new trade routes both within and outside the trading areas. We also discuss the long-run implications this might have.