Survival of the Richest: The Malthusian Mechanism in Pre-Industrial England

Fundamental to the Malthusian model of pre-industrial society is the assumption that higher income increased reproductive success. Despite the seemingly inescapable logic of this model, the empirical support for this vital assumption in the preindustrial world is weak. Here we examine the relationship between income and net fertility using a large new cross-sectional data set on reproductive success, social status and income for England between 1585 and 1638. We find that for early seventeenth century England, a society seemingly close to a Malthusian equilibrium, wealth at death robustly predicts reproductive success. The richest male testators left behind double the number of children of the poorest. Consequently in the static English economy of this period social mobility was generally downwards. The strong association in England between wealth and reproductive success seems to also extend back to at least 1250.england and economy

Marriage and Fertility in a Catholic Society: Eighteenth-Century Quebec

There are similarities and differences in marriage and fertility behavior between early North American societies and their modern counterparts. This paper investigates the quantitative importance of differential fecundity, assortative matching, and marriage market search frictions in affecting marriage and fertility behavior in a Catholic society, 18th century Quebec. The model may provide an explanation for both the historic and current experience.

Developing a coherent strategy to build leadership capacity in Scottish education

Leadership is central to policy ambitions for improvement in Scottish education with leadership positioned as one of the key drivers for improvement to achieve excellence and equity for all learners. To foster teacher engagement in and leadership of change and to prepare enough teachers for headship, building leadership capacity is crucial. The question we explore is: how is it possible to design a career-long leadership development strategy to secure the capacity necessary to fulfil these policy intentions while fostering the autonomy of teachers in professional learning? First, we examine leadership development in the reform agenda and second, we consider the task of balancing system and individual needs in career-long leadership development. We then detail the approaches used to build a cohesive leadership system and its ongoing development

Écarts salariaux entre francophones et anglophones à Montréal au 19e siècle

Notre étude fournit une perspective historique à la question des écarts de revenus entre francophones et anglophones en retournant loin en arrière, dans le Montréal du début du 19e siècle. Nous avons mis l’accent sur le marché des apprentis. Nous avons utilisé les détails présents dans les contrats signés entre maîtres et apprentis afin d’isoler les différences de rémunération entre ethnies. Nos résultats montrent des écarts ethniques considérables dans la composition et dans le niveau de rémunération. La plupart des résultats indiquent une prime « anglophone ». Nous constatons également un déclin de la pénalité subie par les francophones, mais cette tendance prend une direction opposée vers la fin des années 1830. Finalement, notre étude montre que la plupart des écarts sont associés au groupe ethnique du maître et non à celui de l’apprenti.In this paper we extend the historical record of French-English differences in labour market compensation for Quebec by providing evidence on early 19th century Montreal. Our focus is on the market for apprenticeships. We make use of the detail in apprentice contracts signed between individual masters and apprentices to isolate ethnic differences in compensation. We find evidence of sizable ethnic differences in the composition and level of apprentices' compensation, most of which points to an 'English' premium. We also find some evidence of a decline in the penalty associated with French ethnicity, but this trend reverses direction in the late-1830s. Finally, we show that most of the differences are associated with master's, not apprentice's, ethnicity

Écarts salariaux entre francophones et anglophones à Montréal au 19e siècle

In this paper we extend the historical record of French-English differences in labour market compensation for Quebec by providing evidence on early 19th century Montreal. Our focus is on the market for apprenticeships. We make use of the detail in apprentice contracts signed between individual masters and apprentices to isolate ethnic differences in compensation. We find evidence of sizable ethnic differences in the composition and level of apprentices' compensation, most of which points to an 'English' premium. We also find some evidence of a decline in the penalty associated with French ethnicity, but this trend reverses direction in the late-1830s. Finally, we show that most of the differences are associated with master's, not apprentice's, ethnicity. Notre étude fournit une perspective historique à la question des écarts de revenus entre francophones et anglophones en retournant loin en arrière, dans le Montréal du début du 19e siècle. Nous avons mis l’accent sur le marché des apprentis. Nous avons utilisé les détails présents dans les contrats signés entre maîtres et apprentis afin d’isoler les différences de rémunération entre ethnies. Nos résultats montrent des écarts ethniques considérables dans la composition et dans le niveau de rémunération. La plupart des résultats indiquent une prime « anglophone ». Nous constatons également un déclin de la pénalité subie par les francophones, mais cette tendance prend une direction opposée vers la fin des années 1830. Finalement, notre étude montre que la plupart des écarts sont associés au groupe ethnique du maître et non à celui de l’apprenti.

Addressing the ‘elephant in the room’. The role of the primary school practitioner in supporting children’s mental well-being

The enthusiasm regarding the school as a place for mental health promotion is powered by a large body of research demonstrating the links between mental health and well-being, academic success and future life opportunities. Despite on-going commitment to mental well-being in the U.K., statistics suggest mental health issues are increasing among children and young people. This small-scale qualitative-exploratory study, undertaken in two primary schools in North Wales, reports on how school practitioners perceive, promote and support the mental health and well-being of pupils. The paper highlights a reluctance by practitioners to address mental health topics due to fear of stigma and a desire to protect children. Issues linked to funding, skills and training, together with over-stretched specialist agencies, are making it difficult for school practitioners to support pupils. There is a pressing need for appropriate training opportunities in order for practitioners to be knowledgeable and to feel confident to discuss mental health with children and young people. Schools have a significant role in supporting children’s mental well-being and reducing the stigma attached to mental illness but only if this important topic is not regarded as an ‘elephant in the room’

Genes of the serotonergic and dopaminergic pathways and their interaction affect the expression of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms in Dementia (BPSD).

Although there is evidence for the involvement of genes of serotonergic and dopaminergic systems in the manifestation of the Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms in Dementia (BPSD), genetic association studies are contradictory. We used 1008 probable AD patients from the UK and applied a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) approach to investigate the effect of 11 polymorphisms in the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems, on four behavioural sub-phenotypes, namely "psychosis"," moods", "agitation" and "behavioural dyscontrol", as well as on 12 NPI items. Significant findings included the association of DRD1 A48G with "psychosis" (p=0.037), the association of DAT1 VNTR with "agitation" (p=0.006) and the association of DRD4 with "moods" sub-phenotype (p=0.008). In addition, associations were identified between DRD1 A48G and DAT1 VNTR with aberrant motor behaviour (AMB) symptoms (p=0.001 and p=0.015 respectively), between DRD4 and sleep disturbances (p=0.018) and between 5HTTLPR and apathy (p=0.033). Finally, significant interactions were observed between COMT Val158Met and 5HTTLPR with "psychosis" (p=0.026), between HTTLPR and STin2 with "psychosis" (p=0.005), between DAT1 3'UTR VNTR and COMT Val158Met with "agitation" (p=0.0001) and between DAT1 3'UTR VNTR and 5HTTLPR with the "moods" factor (p=0.0027). The complexity of the interrelations between genetic variation, behavioural symptoms and clinical variables was efficiently captured by this MIMIC model

Species-Level Classification of Peatland Vegetation Using Ultra-High-Resolution UAV Imagery

Peatland restoration projects are being employed worldwide as a form of climate change mitigation due to their potential for long-term carbon sequestration. Monitoring these environments (e.g., cover of keystone species) is therefore essential to evaluate success. However, existing studies have rarely examined peatland vegetation at fine scales due to its strong spatial heterogeneity and seasonal canopy development. The present study collected centimetre-scale multispectral Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imagery with a Parrot Sequoia camera (2.8 cm resolution; Parrot Drones SAS, Paris, France) in a temperate peatland over a complete growing season. Supervised classification algorithms were used to map the vegetation at the single-species level, and the Maximum Likelihood classifier was found to perform best at the site level (69% overall accuracy). The classification accuracy increased with the spatial resolution of the input data, and a large reduction in accuracy was observed when employing imagery of >11 cm resolution. Finally, the most accurate classifications were produced using imagery collected during the peak (July–August) or early growing season (start of May). These findings suggest that despite the strong heterogeneity of peatlands, these environments can be mapped at the species level using UAVs. Such an approach would benefit studies estimating peatland carbon emissions or using the cover of keystone species to evaluate restoration projects