The economic and social conditions of lead miners in the Northern Pennines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the lead mining industry of the Northern Pennines passed through a managerial and industrial revolution. Superficially, life in the lead mining dales changed less between 1750 and 1850 than in the neighbouring coal fields and shipyards. The wild and romantic Pennine scenery remained little corrupted by industrialisation. Mining continued to be governed by an apparently unchanged elaborate system of sub contract. But population increased by a factor of three or four, and below the surface ( metaphorically speaking ) social institutions changed fundamentally. Technological advances in underground haulage and in ore dressing at the beginning of the nineteenth century forced organisational changes on the mine owners. In these fields sub-contracting was either abolished, or regulated so closely that the sub-contractors were direct employees in all but name. The contracts governing actual ore getting became tighter, reducing the practical status of the theoretically independent miner to that of an employee. The proportion of agents to workmen increased, allowing greater supervision. The miners were paid more regularly - and were expected to work more regularly. Outside working hours there was little of their social life not influenced by the mine owners by 1850. Education, churches and chapels, benefit societies, even organised amusements were provided or subsidized by the mining companies. But, misdemeanours in private life - drunkenness, fathering a bastard child, etc. - were as much the province of managerial discipline as any offence during working hours. By 1850, at work and outside, the lead miner was dominated by his employer

Organochloride Pesticides Present in Animal Fur, Soil, and Streambed in an Agricultural Region of Southeastern Arkansas

Animals in agricultural settings may be subject to bioaccumulation of toxins. For the last several years, we collected hair samples from bats and rodents in an agricultural area near Bayou Bartholomew in Drew County, Arkansas. Samples were submitted to the Center of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of Connecticut for wide-screen toxin analysis. Several of these samples contained measurable amounts of organochloride pesticides or their metabolites, including some that have been banned for decades, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and chlordane. In addition, we collected several samples of soil from within an agricultural field, from adjacent edge habitat, from alongside the bank of the Bayou, and from the bed of the Bayou itself. Although none of these samples tested positive for DDT or chlordane, all of the samples except one contained measurable amounts of metabolites from these pesticides. This study raises questions about environmental persistence of DDT/DDE and other organochlorides. There may be risk to wildlife populations, warranting further investigation into effects of long-term exposure to these toxins

Role of a Conserved Glutamate Residue in the \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e SecA ATPase Mechanism

Escherichia coli SecA uses ATP to drive the transport of proteins across cell membranes. Glutamate 210 in the “DEVD” Walker B motif of the SecA ATP-binding site has been proposed as the catalytic base for ATP hydrolysis (Hunt, J. F., Weinkauf, S., Henry, L., Fak, J. J., McNicholas, P., Oliver, D. B., and Deisenhofer, J. (2002) Science 297, 2018–2026). Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that mutation of glutamate 210 to aspartate results in a 90-fold reduction of the ATP hydrolysis rate compared with wild type SecA, 0.3 s–1versus 27 s–1, respectively. SecA-E210D also releases ADP at a slower rate compared with wild type SecA, suggesting that in addition to serving as the catalytic base, glutamate 210 might aid turnover as well. Our results contradict an earlier report that proposed aspartate 133 as the catalytic base (Sato, K., Mori, H., Yoshida, M., and Mizushima, S. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 17439–17444). Re-evaluation of the SecA-D133N mutant used in that study confirms its loss of ATPase and membrane translocation activities, but surprisingly, the analogous SecA-D133A mutant retains full activity, revealing that this residue does not play a key role in catalysis

The Adoption of the User Pays Option by a Water Authority in a Developing Country: Its Viability

In this dissertation the viability of the 'user pays' funding option, in the context of financial considerations, is examined. The setting of that examination is via a case study of a Water Authority operating in a developing country environment - the Solomon Island Water Authority (SIWA). A framework is developed which considers the key elements of accountability and funding and the associated sub-elements of planning and reporting. The development of the framework also considered the water issues of the long term nature of investments, the cost of those investments and the associated financing decisions, the recurrent costs required to maintain those investments and the conflicting claims on resources which normally confront water authorities. In order to test the viability of the 'user pays' option a revenue model is developed which acts to integrate all levels of planning. The revenue model also provides a funding mechanism for assessing the viability of the 'user pays' option by allowing for the running of simulations of that model. It was found through analysis of the revenue model simulations that, in terms of this study, that the 'user pays' option is not a viable option. It is not possible to draw conclusions from this study concerning economic issues such as those found in pricing models. The simulation results simply provide the means for managers to develop strategies to overcome obstacles in meeting the Objectives identified in the Corporate Plan and the associated cost with implementing those objectives in achieving the Corporate Mission Statement

Adolescents' Appraisal of Homophobic Epithets: The Role of Individual and Situational Factors

Homophobic epithets have become commonly-used insults among adolescents. However, evidence suggests that there are differences in how these homophobic epithets are evaluated based on beliefs held by the observer, and by the context in which they are used. In order to examine this, Italian high school students were asked to rate the offensiveness of homophic epithets, as well as to consider how they or others would react to homophobic epithets across various situations. Homophobic beliefs and beliefs about the social acceptability of homophobic epithets were also examined. It was found that greater perceived social acceptability of homophobic epithets was related to dismissive reactions to their use, whereas homophobic beliefs were predictive of negative emotional reactions, but in varying ways depending on the specific context. The results indicate that homophobic epithets may not always be perceived as homophobic by adolescents, and that attempts to alter the social acceptability of these insults may be an effective manner of reducing their use

Understanding the passivation layer formed by tolyltriazole on copper, bronze, and brass surfaces

Funding: Lubrizol Ltd is acknowledged for funding and supplying TTAH. EPSRC is acknowledged (EP/L017008/1, EP/T019298/1, and EP/R023751/1) for electron microscopy.Tolyltriazole (TTAH) is used industrially as a corrosion inhibitor for copper alloys, particularly in organic media. In this study, the morphology and chemistry of the layer formed by TTAH on copper and copper alloys under realistic conditions is investigated, with focus on the effects due to the presence of tin or zinc in the substrates. A combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), medium energy ion scattering (MEIS), and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has been used. It was found that an inhomogeneous metal–organic layer forms on the surface of copper specimens, likely in the form of copper nanoparticles surrounded by CuxTTAy complexes. This layer increases in thickness for at least 30 days. Chemically, the copper species in the layer are initially in the +2 oxidation state, but after longer exposure to TTAH, mostly Cu(I) is observed. In bronze samples, tin does not appear to segregate to the surface layer. In brass samples, zinc is depleted from the bulk and forms a thicker ZnxTTAy layer.Peer reviewe

Adsorption of the prototypical organic corrosion inhibitor benzotriazole on the Cu(100) surface

M.T. gratefully acknowledges financial support from Lubrizol Limited and thanks the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant EP/L015307/1 for the Molecular Analytical Science Centre for Doctoral Training (MAS-CDT). C.G. acknowledges the use of the Euler cluster at ETH Zurich for the DFT calculations. F.G. acknowledges funding from the EPSRC (grant EP/S027270/1).The interaction of benzotriazole (BTAH) with Cu(100) has been studied as a function of BTAH exposure in a joint experimental and theoretical effort. Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been combined to elucidate the structural and chemical characteristics of this system. BTAH is found to deprotonate upon adsorption on the copper surface and to adopt an orientation that depends on the molecular coverage. Benzotriazolate (BTA) species initially lie with their planes parallel to the substrate but, at a higher molecular coverage, a transition occurs to an upright adsorption geometry. Upon increasing the BTAH exposure, different phases of vertically aligned BTAs are observed with increasing molecular densities until a final, self-limiting monolayer is developed. Both theory and experiment agree in identifying CuBTA and Cu(BTA)2 metal-organic complexes as the fundamental building blocks of this monolayer. This work shows several similarities with the results of previous studies on the interaction of benzotriazole with other low Miller index copper surfaces, thereby ideally completing and concluding them. The overall emerging picture constitutes an important starting point for understanding the mechanism for protection of copper from corrosion.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe