Birmingham Stories: local histories of migration and settlement and the practice of history

Over the last decade research on the history of ethnic minority migrant communities in Birmingham and the West Midlands has grown with investigations looking at postwar migration and settlement; ‘race’ thinking and racism; social movements and community activists; faith communities; national identity; issues of surveillance; the local state; public histories and narratives of the city; urban histories and sources; and visual evidence and history. Much of this research has been matched by the presentation of a sustained argument for new narratives of the city’s (and by implication the nation’s) history which recognizes that there is a need for a radical transformation of social memory in order to better reflect the cultural diversity and difference that is a part of everyday lived reality. This article aims to do two things: first to summarise research to date on the ethnic minority history of Birmingham and to locate it within a historiography that goes back to Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (1938); and second to look at the nature of the historical practice associated with writing local histories of migration and settlement and by doing so to relate this practice to Edward Said’s (2003) idea of ‘communities of interpretation’ and the role of historians in contemporary society

Exploring supplementary education: margins, theories and methods.

Existing knowledge of supplementary education, that is education organised and run by political, faith or ethnic groups outside of formal schooling, is patchy. This article is an exploration of the histories of supplementary education in the twentieth century. It is organised into three sections. \ud The article begins by reviewing some existing literature and argues that supplementary education has been a topic of marginal concern for social historians, sociologists and historians of education. This marginal status has often been reflected in the way in which a dominant account of the history of supplementary education has entered the research literature despite a rather selective evidential base. The second section of the article deploys an expansive definition of education, and presents some new historical evidence concerning African Caribbean and Irish supplementary education. A final arguments section reflects on the significance of supplementary education and suggestions some topics for a future research agenda.\u

Performance improvements of an F-15 airplane with an integrated engine-flight control system

An integrated flight and propulsion control system has been developed and flight demonstrated on the NASA Ames-Dryden F-15 research aircraft. The highly integrated digital control (HIDEC) system provides additional engine thrust by increasing engine pressure ratio (EPR) at intermediate and afterburning power. The amount of EPR uptrim is modulated based on airplane maneuver requirements, flight conditions, and engine information. Engine thrust was increased as much as 10.5 percent at subsonic flight conditions by uptrimming EPR. The additional thrust significantly improved aircraft performance. Rate of climb was increased 14 percent at 40,000 ft and the time to climb from 10,000 to 40,000 ft was reduced 13 percent. A 14 and 24 percent increase in acceleration was obtained at intermediate and maximum power, respectively. The HIDEC logic performed fault free. No engine anomalies were encountered for EPR increases up to 12 percent and for angles of attack and sideslip of 32 and 11 degrees, respectively

Faith in history: memory, multiculturalism and the legacies of Empire in post war England

This article employs a broad concept of memory in order to examine the reconstruction of the past in various migrant religious and educational settings in the period after 1970. In educational projects designed to promote good community relations, and in attempts to develop non-dogmatic forms of religious belief, British history became the subject of extensive discussion and debate. A small space opened up in which the legacies of British imperial history, so often a matter of visceral feeling, could be publicised, explored and taken seriously. Using case studies from London and Birmingham the article argues that religious groups played a small but important role in enabling new, more inclusive and more critical, historical narratives to enter metropolitan British society

Evaluation of high hydrostatic pressure, meat species, and ingredients to control Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meats

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of meat species, ingredients, and level of high hydrostatic pressure on growth of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meats. The overall findings of the research show the benefits of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) in controlling L. monocytogenes by serving as a post-packaging treatment capable of decreasing the number of L. monocytogenes by over 3 log CFU/g at 600 MPa. The first research study presented here showed that HHP is a technology capable of decreasing the number of L. monocytogenes organisms by 3-4 log CFU/g in conventionally-cured processed meats. The study suggested that turkey and ham (pork) had very similar levels of growth of L. monocytogenes without HHP. The inclusion of nitrite was the key variable in the study that caused a decrease in growth of L. monocytogenes without HHP. However, when formulations were processed via 600 MPa HHP after inoculation with 3 log CFU/g of L. monocytogenes, the level of L. monocytogenes was decreased to below the detection limit in all treatments and remained below the detection limit in all treatments for at least 119 days after pressure processing. A second study showed that use of a reduced level of pressure at 400 MPa was not adequate in decreasing the number of L. monocytogenes by \u3e1 log CFU/g. The addition of nitrite from either a natural source (pre-converted vegetable juice powder), at 50 or 100 ppm, or from sodium nitrite, at 100 or 200 ppm, were equal in their inhibition of L. monocytogenes. For some unexplained reason the greater concentrations of natural nitrite (150 and 200 ppm) that used HHP had, towards the end of storage, greater growth of L. monocytogenes than all other treatments. Some hypotheses were presented, including a greater pH level in the treatments with a greater concentration of natural nitrite, but further research is needed to understand the root cause of the greater level of growth in these treatments. The third study evaluated the use of the reduced pressure level of 400 MPa HHP in combination with antimicrobial compounds to provide added reduction of L. monocytogenes above what each of the interventions could achieve on their own in cured meats, using either natural or conventional formulations. The addition of antimicrobial ingredients to the formulations or use of post-lethality antimicrobial sprays in conventional items gave a 1-2 log CFU/g reduction of L. monocytogenes numbers, while combining each of these with 400 MPa HHP gave about a 3 log CFU/g reduction in L. monocytogenes numbers. However the combination of ingredient, spray, and 400 MPa HHP gave a \u3e4 log CFU/g reduction in L. monocytogenes in conventional products formulated with sodium nitrite. Similar effects were witnessed in natural products (formulated using a natural nitrite source) but at reduced levels of efficacy, as the combination of ingredient, spray, and 400 MPa HHP gave an initial 2.1-2.4 log CFU/g reduction in L. monocytogenes. In conventional and natural products, when an antimicrobial ingredient was added (Danisco LM220 for conventional or MOStatin for natural) in combination with HHP, the level of L. monocytogenes continued to fall over the extended shelf life (182 days) of the sliced ham

The convergence of psychology and neurobiology in flavor-nutrient learning

Flavor evaluation is influenced by learning from experience with foods. One main influence is flavor-nutrient learning (FNL), a Pavlovian process whereby a flavor acts as a conditioned stimulus (CS) that becomes associated with the postingestive effects of ingested nutrients (the US). As a result that flavor becomes preferred and intake typically increases. This learning powerfully influences food choice and meal patterning. This paper summarizes how research elucidating the physiological and neural substrates of FNL has progressed in parallel with work characterizing how FNL affects perception, motivation, and behavior. The picture that emerges from this work is of a robust system of appetition (a term coined by Sclafani in contrast to the better-understood satiation signals) whereby ingested nutrients sensed in the gut evoke positive motivational responses. Appetition signals act within a meal to promote continued intake in immediate response to gut feedback, and act in the longer term to steer preference towards sensory cues that predict nutritional consequences

Sensory-specific satiety is intact in rats made obese on a high-fat, high-sugar choice diet.

Sensory-specific satiety (SSS) is the temporary decreased pleasantness of a recently eaten food, which inhibits further eating. Evidence is currently mixed whether SSS is weaker in obese people, and whether such difference precedes or follows from the obese state. Animal models allow testing whether diet-induced obesity causes SSS impairment. Female rats (n = 24) were randomly assigned to an obesogenic high-fat, high-sugar choice diet or chow-only control. Tests of SSS involved pre-feeding a single palatable, distinctively-flavored food (cheese- or cocoa-flavored) prior to free choice between both foods. Rats were tested for short-term SSS (2 h pre-feeding immediately followed by 2 h choice) and long-term SSS (3 day pre-feeding prior to choice on day 4). In both short- and long-term tests rats exhibited SSS by shifting preference towards the food not been recently eaten. SSS was not impaired in obese rats. On the contrary, in the long-term tests they showed stronger SSS than controls. This demonstrates that neither the obese state nor a history of excess energy consumption fundamentally causes impaired SSS in rats. The putative impaired SSS in obese people may instead reflect a specific predisposition, properties of the obesogenic diet, or history of restrictive dieting and bingeing