Book Review: The Business of Charity: The Woman’s Exchange Movement, 1832-1900

Review of The Business of Charity: The Woman’s Exchange Movement, 1832-1900 by Kathleen Waters Sande

Talking Less but Saying More: Teaching US History Online

After years of teaching in person at a large public university in Virginia, I decided to move my undergraduate U.S. history courses for that school online. I did so for one reason: the online format allows me to off er a better history class

Trifling With Holy Time: Women and the Formation of the Calvinist Church of Worcester, Massachusetts, 1815-1820

The Calvinist Church of Worcester, Massachusetts, grew out of the frustration of three wealthy women who had been excluded in 1816 from the process of selecting a new minister, Charles A. Goodrich, for the First Congregational Church. Elizabeth Salisbury and Rebecca and Sarah Waldo found Goodrich insufficiently masculine and wondered about his orthodoxy. They rejected the decision of the church\u27s deacons and minister to block their transfer to another congregation. In 1820, they won a reversal of this decision and founded the new church. The women had not explicitly challenged the subordination of women, but their actions amounted to this. Although the charter of the new church gave the three women veto power over the selection of future ministers, it did not give women a formal voice in the selection of ministers. Nevertheless, women voted in each selection prior to the Civil War

The construction and validation of a spatail test, using diagrammatic material based on projections and sections of solid objects

An important development in mental testing has been the construction of tests for measuring the ability to obtain,and utilise, visual spatial imagery. These spatial tests have proved valuable in predicting subsequent success in such spheres as engineering apprenticeships, technical drawing and woodwork. They have also been employed successfully i n selection for secondary schools. Although a limited number of such tests already existed, it was felt that a new test based on three-dimensionalmaterial, and particularly projections and sections of this material, could prove of value. Two hundred possible test items, of thirteen types, were therefore prepared and "tried-out" on a representative sample of school children. An item analysis of the resulting dataprovided indices of Facility and Discrimination which were used to select the one hundred most suitable items. The selected items were then organised into a revised draft which was inserted into the selection examination for the entire ten-year-old population of a city. This large- scale trial, as well as showing that the test and instructions are suitable for the age group, provided information from which tables for converting raw scores to standardised scores were constructed; enabled a second, confirmatory item analysis to be made; showing a significant difference in mean scores for boys and girls, a recognised property of spatial tests; and provided the following figures: Range: 1 - 99 Mean: 42.1 Standard Deviation: 20.745 Reliability: 0.9642 In an investigation with 85 boys the test correlated more highly with a recognised spatial test than with a verbal test, and was a better predictor of success in metalwork than was the verbal test. Extended validation, notably a four year follow-up of the 85 boys, and a factor-analysis are required before it can be certain that the test is truly "spatial" with the uses associated with such tests

Optimising woody-weed control

Woody weeds pose significant threats to the 12.3 billion dollar Australian grazing industry. These weeds reduce stocking rate, increase mustering effort, and impede cattle access to waterways. Two major concerns of woody-weed management are the high cost of weed management with respect to grazing gross margins, and episodic seedling recruitments due to climatic conditions. This case study uses a Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) model to determine the optimal weed management decisions for chinee apple (Ziziphus mauritiana) in northern Australian rangelands to maximise grazing profits. Weed management techniques investigated include: no-control, burning, poisoning, and mechanical removal (blade ploughing). The model provides clear weed management thresholds and decision rules, with respect to weed-free gross margins and weed management costs.woody weeds, weed control, chinee apple, rangelands, grazing, stochastic dynamic programming, Livestock Production/Industries,

A novel approach to non-segmented flow analysis. Part 2. A prototype high-performance analyser

A high-performance continuous flow analyser is described, based on gas pressure driven carrier and reagents controlled by computer switched solenoid valves. The principal characteristics of the analyser are discussed and examples of its performance are provided in the form of results obtained using a standard procedure for the determination of Cr(VI). The system was also tested in use with real samples using an ammonium ion analysis on potable and effluent water samples, and the results compared with those obtained using a segmented continuous flow method operated at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist