The Medieval Iron Industry of the Weald

The Weald of Kent, Sussex and Surrey has long been recognised in the literature as a centre of iron production, an industry that spanned from the late Iron Age to the early 19th century. During the period of Roman occupation, evidence suggests iron was produced at some localities on an industrial scale. However, the limited archaeological evidence for its existence in the Anglo-Saxon period and its relative absence from the Domesday Book, save a single reference to a ‘una ferraria’ near East Grinstead, suggests that by the 11th century iron-production in the Weald only operated on a small scale. By the 14th century however, evidence of iron production is more apparent in the archaeological and documentary record. It is at this time that a unique collection of records, of the Tudeley Ironworks at the manor of Southfrith, Kent were created. These accounts offer a rare insight into the annual outputs of a Wealden ironworks, along with details on the site’s construction, its equipment and the identity of ironworkers and woodland workers, involved in supplying the necessary raw materials and managing the furnace. At a time when plague and population loss had led to considerable uncertainty across England, Tudeley Ironworks along with its wood colliers and ore diggers, found itself in the middle of significant social changes. While documentary evidence is scarce for the iron industry, several important accounts imply that iron was more than just a local commodity by the 14th century, but one whose trade was connected to nobility, Royalty, and the Church. Commodities such as nails, arrows, iron bars and horseshoes were transported across England and used to repair Royal houses, castles and equip Edward III’s war horses, during the Scottish wars in 1327. Sites operating on a larger scale to fulfil these orders are indicated in the documentary record, which include Roffey where, in 1327, 1000 horseshoes were made. Eleven years later 6000 arrows were sent from near Horsham to the Tower of London. At times trade was controversial and in 1300 London ironmongers complained that Wealden ironworkers were selling iron strakes for cartwheels at shorter than the normal lengths. How do these historical accounts relate to the archaeological evidence? and what was the nature of Wealden iron-production sites during this period? Excavations at Crawley have suggested it may have formed a centre of production during the medieval period, while the 1327 and 1338 references to horseshoes and arrows suggest other larger-scale production sites were also in existence. Other questions are raised over the working and spatial relationship between smelting and smithing at this time – were they separated, or did they form collaborative groups? This thesis uses an archaeo-historical approach to identify and define centres of iron production within the Weald. Two case study sites were investigated which included Tudeley Ironworks and Roffey, both of which were recorded in documentary accounts and offered the opportunity to carry out archaeological field surveys. Site morphology and technology was investigated in both cases, using a range of methods including landscape reconnaissance survey, geophysics, fieldwalking and macromorphology. Along with site specific analysis, the wider economic landscape of both sites was investigated to identify related woodland industries that provided the necessary raw materials for these sites to operate

MISASSESSED RISK IN CONSUMER VALUATION OF FOOD SAFETY: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH

This study estimates Canadian consumers' willingness to pay for food safety improvements and identifies systematic misassessments of food-borne risks. Non-hypothetical experimental auctions were used to elicit consumer valuations of food safety improvement. Consistent with behavioural research, results suggest that subjects generally overestimate the likelihood of becoming ill due to food-borne disease relative to scientifically-estimated odds. Subjects were willing to pay a positive amount to reduce food-safety risk. Risk reductions' valuations increased with higher initial risk, supporting arguments of diminishing marginal value for risk reductions.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Determinants of Income Diversification among Fishing Communities in Western Kenya

Poverty, income Diversification, fish worker, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, Production Economics,

The Canadian Bioproducts Industry Analysis of the Bioproduct Development Survey - 2004

Bioproducts are often presented as one of the potential saviours of Canadian agriculture, offering non-food applications for agricultural products. However, relatively little is known about the sector or the characteristics of the firms. This paper presents an analysis of the Canadian bioproducts sector based on the first survey of bioproduct firms in Canada. The survey was performed by Statistics Canada in 2004 using 2003 firm results. The paper analyzes the responses to the bioproducts survey on two important dimensions, by region and firm size. The results indicate that for most of Canada's 232 bioproducts firms, bioproducts are just one part of the business activities, accounting for less than one third of employees and slightly more than one quarter of total firm revenue. Bioproduct activities provide both market and environmental benefits. The major challenges to the industry are financing and regulation. However, the relative importance of bioproducts, benefits and strategies and the focus and success of firms vary dramatically by region and by firm size.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Poverty analysis using an international cross-country demand system

This paper proposes a new method for ex ante analysis of the poverty impacts arising from policy reforms. Three innovations underlie this approach. The first is the estimation of a global demand system using a combination of micro-data from household surveys and macro-data from the International Comparisons Project (ICP). Estimation is undertaken in a manner that reconciles these two sources of information, explicitly recognizing that per capita national demands are an aggregation of the disaggregated, individual household demands. The second innovation relates to a methodology for post-estimation calibration of the global demand system, giving rise to country-specific demand systems and an associated expenditure function which, when aggregated across the expenditure distribution, reproduce observed per capita budget shares exactly. This leads to the third innovation, which is the establishment of a unique poverty level of utility and an appropriately modified set of Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measures. With these tools in hand, the authors are able to calculate the change in the head-count of poverty, poverty gap, and squared poverty gap arising from policy reforms, where the poverty measures are derived using a unique poverty level of utility, rather than an income or expenditure-based measure. They use these techniques with a demand system for food, other nondurables and services estimated using a combination of 1996 ICP data set and national expenditure distribution data. Calibration is demonstrated for three countries for which household survey expenditure data are used during estimation-Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. To show the usefulness of these calibrated models for policy analysis, the authors assess the effects of an assumed 5 percent food price rise as might be realized in the wake of a multilateral trade agreement. Results illustrate the important role of subsistence expenditures at lowest income levels, but of discretionary expenditure at higher income levels. The welfare analysis underscores the relatively large impact of the price hike on poorer households, while a modified Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measure shows that the 5 percent price rise increases the incidence and intensity of poverty in all three cases, although the specific effects vary considerably by country.Markets and Market Access,Economic Theory&Research,Population Policies,Rural Poverty Reduction,Poverty Lines

An Analysis of Financing Innovation and Commercialization in Canada's Functional Food and Nutraceutical Sector

Growing consumer interest in functional foods and nutraceuticals has been seen as a significant business opportunity for the agri-food sector. Many of the new firms in this sector are small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs often face difficulties in obtaining financing for their functional food and nutraceutical innovation activities. We develop and implement two models to show what factors affect a firm's decision to seek external financing and the level of financing obtained. Firm size, being privately held and engaging in contractual arrangements, have negative impacts on the likelihood of a firm seeking external funding, while firms which are intensively involved in the functional food and nutraceutical sector, with greater prospects for business expansion and/or are involved in partnerships are more likely to seek external financing. Larger firms and those involved in functional food and nutraceutical research and development receive a greater amount of capital when they decided to raise capital. However, firms focused on functional foods and nutraceuticals, as opposed to more diversified firms, and those involved in product development and concept scale-up receive less capital. Our findings highlight the importance of public support in addressing the capital requirements of functional food and nutraceutical firms and underscore the considerable burden in this respect borne by smaller sized firms.Agribusiness,

A key to the species of bluebushes (Maireana species) of the arid southern shrublands of Western Australia

This key has been produced to make identification of Maireana species (the bluebushes) easier in the arid shrublands region of Western Australia. It attempts to use everyday terms rather than technical botanical terms wherever possible and includes an illustrated diagram for ease of identification. A flow diagram - as opposed to traditional botanical keys - allows for visual tracking of steps taken in the key and hence makes it easier to backtrack if the final identified species seems incorrect.Fruit chacters alluded to at various steps in the key are also presented, and drawings of each species fruits are also included to provide a quick check of final identifications

Making informed decisions on change: key points for health care managers and professionals

A booklet, drawing on 'Organisational Change: A review for health care managers, professionals and researchers' (NSCCSDO, 2001), which aims to encourage managers and professionals to reflect on and share what helps and hinders successful change to improve the quality of services

A Multi-Factorial Risk Prioritization Framework for Food-Borne Pathogens

To lower the incidence of human food-borne disease, experts and stakeholders have urged the development of a science- and risk-based management system in which food-borne hazards are analyzed and prioritized. A literature review shows that most approaches to risk prioritization developed to date are based on measures of health outcomes and do not systematically account for other factors that may be important to decision making. The Multi-Factorial Risk Prioritization Framework developed here considers four factors that may be important to risk managers: public health, consumer risk perceptions and acceptance, market-level impacts, and social sensitivity. The framework is based on the systematic organization and analysis of data on these multiple factors. The basic building block of the information structure is a three-dimensional cube based on pathogen-food-factor relationships. Each cell of the cube has an information card associated with it and data from the cube can be aggregated along different dimensions. The framework is operationalized in three stages, with each stage adding another dimension to decision-making capacity. The first stage is the information cards themselves that provide systematic information that is not pre-processed or aggregated across factors. The second stage maps the information on the various information cards into cobweb diagrams that create a graphical profile of, for example, a food-pathogen combination with respect to each of the four risk prioritization factors. The third stage is formal multi-criteria decision analysis in which decision makers place explicit values on different criteria in order to develop risk priorities. The process outlined above produces a ‘List A’ of priority food-pathogen combinations according to some aggregate of the four risk prioritization factors. This list is further vetted to produce ‘List B’, which brings in feasibility analysis by ranking those combinations where practical actions that have a significant impact are feasible. Food-pathogen combinations where not enough is known to identify any or few feasible interventions are included in ‘List C’. ‘List C’ highlights areas with significant uncertainty where further research may be needed to enhance the precision of the risk prioritization process. The separation of feasibility and uncertainty issues through the use of ‘Lists A, B, and C’ allows risk managers to focus separately on distinct dimensions of the overall prioritization. The Multi-Factorial Risk Prioritization Framework provides a flexible instrument that compares and contrasts risks along four dimensions. Use of the framework is an iterative process. It can be used to establish priorities across pathogens for a particular food, across foods for a particular pathogen and/or across specific food-pathogen combinations. This report provides a comprehensive conceptual paper that forms the basis for a wider process of consultation and for case studies applying the framework.risk analysis, risk prioritization, food-borne pathogens, benefits and costs

Smartphone security awareness, perceptions and practices:a Welsh higher education case study

Higher Education students are purported to be heavy users of technology; specifically smartphones, which represent the “Internet of Things” (IoT). These have revolutionized every sector of public and personal lives, and also revolutionised teaching and learning within Higher Education, providing students a 21st century learning experience. The way students engage with each other, with institutions of higher learning, and with their own learning, has changed dramatically. The smartphone is used to assist with all areas of their lives; however, a plethora of security issues accompanies its use. Cybersecurity perceptions are said to inform security practices and precautionary-related behaviours. If perceptions are skewed, the necessary security behaviours might be inadequate. The main objective of this quantitative study was to investigate the level of smartphone security awareness of Higher Education students undertaking a Business degree at a Welsh University during the 2016-17 and 2018-19 academic years. Understanding whether students have acquired prior cybersecurity knowledge through formal means was key to understanding whether there was a link between security education, security awareness, smartphone security behaviours, perceptions and practices.This research therefore aimed to investigate:1) The level of smartphone security awareness depicted in the attitudes, behaviours, knowledge and competences of these university students;2) Any gender differences in terms of attitudes, behaviours, knowledge and competences regarding smartphone security awareness;3) The importance of cybersecurity awareness training.Participants in this study were largely male, with half of the participants having undertaken a prior information communication technology related type courses. Almost all participants recognised that there were security related issues with social networking and location based applications. The majority of participants did not deploy measures to prevent viruses, this being the case for significantly more females. More than half of the participants used some mechanisms to protect their data. However, significantly more of the 2018-19 participant group compared to the 2016-17 participant group indicated that they did not do this. Moreover, a large proportion of the participants were unaware of the liability linked to the use of social media and the related rules applicable. This study suggests that students who received some formal information communication technology training prior to university entry were more aware of the security risks and their behaviours reflect this. Despite this, the level of smartphone security awareness is not as high as it should be which is in keeping with other research findings. This study suggests that as technology and digital literacy gain further importance, smartphone security literacy training should not be left to chance. . It is clear that education and training should occur early in the education life cycle, and should be a lifelong learning activity