School And Society In London, Canada, 1826-1871: The Evolution Of A System Of Public Education

The principal question investigated in the thesis is: were changes in school attendance behaviour primarily the result of socially differentiated family strategies. The behaviour analyzed is the decision of London parents to send or not to send their children to school between 1826 and l871.;Parents in this study were divided into three cultural groups: Protestants, Roman Catholics and Blacks. They were also classified into occupational groups which were employed as surrogate measures for social class: upper, middle, and lower. Enrollments and attendance rates provided the proxy measure of the behavioural decision. The time frame was differentiated into four periods of study: 1826 to 1842; 1843 to 1852; 1853 to 1861; and 1867 to 1871.;A family strategies approach is employed in this research because of its significant explanatory potential, and its capacity to incorporate many of the approaches used by other historians. From this perspective, the primary concern of most parents in the last century was for the security and survival of their families. Thus, before the passage of compulsory school laws, their response to public schooling is viewed as calculative; that is, most parents measured schooling in terms of gains and losses for the family unit. Moreover, these decisions were not made in isolation. They were strongly influenced by the cultural and class background of the parent; and they were reached in the midst of social, economic, political, and environmental changes.;Based on the literature concerning nineteenth-century school attendance, a number of hypotheses were generated and tested in each of the periods outlined above. In general, it was found that Protestant and upper and middle class males dominated schooling arrangements until Roman Catholic separate schools were established in 1858; that Protestants and Roman Catholics formed schools to transmit key cultural tenets to their children; that Protestant and upper and middle class children generally demonstrated higher attendance rates than Roman Catholic or Black and working class children; that lower class parents limited their children\u27s education to the 3R\u27s; and that family schooling strategies were directly linked to the future occupational destinations of children.;Archival files, annual reports, board and city council minutes, newspapers, personal papers, censuses, city directories, church records, and school syllabi were used to measure qualitatively and quantitatively the school attendance behaviour of London children in the past century.;In general, the hypotheses advanced by historians of education in Canada were substantiated in this study. Thus, when compared and contrasted to similar studies for other communities, these findings could furnish some additional truth about the relationship between school and society in nineteenth-century Canada

Do Economic Restrictions Improve Forecasts?

A previous study showed that imposing economic restrictions improves the forecasting ability of food demand systems, thus warranting their use even when rejected in-sample. This study attempts to determine whether this is due solely to the fact that restrictions improve degrees of freedom. Results indicate that restrictions improve forecasting ability even when not derived from economic theory, but theoretical restrictions forecast best.Demand and Price Analysis,

Do Economic Restrictions Improve Forecasts?

A previous study showed that imposing economic restrictions improves the forecasting ability of food demand systems, thus warranting their use even when rejected in-sample. This study attempts to determine whether this is due solely to the fact that restrictions improve degrees of freedom. Results indicate that restrictions improve forecasting ability even when not derived from economic theory, but theoretical restrictions forecast best.Demand and Price Analysis,

Spatial variation in the fine-structure constant -- new results from VLT/UVES

(abridged) We present a new analysis of a large sample of quasar absorption-line spectra obtained using UVES (the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph) on the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile. In the VLT sample (154 absorbers), we find evidence that alpha increases with increasing cosmological distance from Earth. However, as previously shown, the Keck sample (141 absorbers) provided evidence for a smaller alpha in the distant absorption clouds. Upon combining the samples an apparent variation of alpha across the sky emerges which is well represented by an angular dipole model pointing in the direction RA=(17.3 +/- 1.0) hr, dec. = (-61 +/- 10) deg, with amplitude (0.97 +0.22/-0.20) x 10^(-5). The dipole model is required at the 4.1 sigma statistical significance level over a simple monopole model where alpha is the same across the sky (but possibly different to the current laboratory value). The data sets reveal a number of remarkable consistencies: various data cuts are consistent and there is consistency in the overlap region of the Keck and VLT samples. Assuming a dipole-only (i.e. no-monopole) model whose amplitude grows proportionally with `lookback-time distance' (r=ct, where t is the lookback time), the amplitude is (1.1 +/- 0.2) x 10^(-6) GLyr^(-1) and the model is significant at the 4.2 sigma confidence level over the null model [Delta alpha]/alpha = 0). We apply robustness checks and demonstrate that the dipole effect does not originate from a small subset of the absorbers or spectra. We present an analysis of systematic effects, and are unable to identify any single systematic effect which can emulate the observed variation in alpha.Comment: 47 pages, 35 figures. Accepted for publication by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Please see http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~mmurphy/pub.html for an ASCII version of table A1 and the full set of Voigt profile fits for appendix

[8,8-(PPh3)2-9-(OEt)-8,7-RhSB9H9].0.95(CH2Cl2)

9-Ethoxy-8,8-di(triphenylphosphine)-9,10- tz H-8-rhoda-7-thia-nido-undecaborane( l O) dichloromethane solvate, C38Ha4B9OP2RhS.0.95(CH2C12), Mr = 891.7, triclinic, Pi, a = 10.271 (4), b = 11.401 (3), c = 19.426 (4)/~, a = 74.86 (2), 13 = 88.51 (3), y = 83.51 (3) °, V= 2182 (2)/~3, Z= 2, Dx = 1.357 g cm-3, graphite-monochromated Mo Ka radiation, a = 0.71073 A, /z = 6.5 cm-1, F(000) = 912, T= 294 K, R = 0.038 for 3984 observed reflections. The title compound contains an l 1-atom RhSB9 nido-structured cage with Rh and S atoms adjacent in the open RhSB3 face. An ethoxy group is bonded to the B atom adjacent to Rh in the open face with Rh--B9 2.119 (6) and B9--O 1.387 (9)A. The phosphine ligands are bonded to the Rh atom with one Rh--P bond [2.278 (2)A] trans to the S atom and the other [2.417 (1) A] located perpendicular to the open face of the cage

Evaluation of fermented whole crop wheat, urea-treated processed whole crop wheat and maize silage for dairy cows

End of Project ReportThere has been increased interest in and increased usage of forages other than grass silage for feeding dairy cows during the winter period. This has arisen because of the inconsistency in making good quality grass silage and the low intake characteristics of this feed. The main objective of this project was to evaluate the effects on dairy cow intake and performance of offering fermented whole crop wheat (WCW) silage, urea-treated processed WCW and maize silage in mixtures with grass silage compared with grass silage alone. The value of these feeds as supplements to grazed grass in the Autumn for late lactation spring calving cows and their effect on dietary nitrogen (N) utilisation for milk protein production were also investigated. The first two experiments evaluated the effects of including 67% of the forage mixture on a dry matter (DM) basis as fermented WCW, urea-treated processed WCW (also known as “Alkalage”) or maize silage in comparison to grass silage alone in the diet of autumn calving cows. The fermented WCW and urea-treated processed WCW were harvested at a stubble height of approximately 20 cm. Sixty and 95% of the grain was milled/cracked in the urea-treated processed WCW in experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Forages were supplemented with concentrates of varying crude protein (CP) concentrations so as to maintain a similar CP concentration in the total dietary dry matter across treatments. In both experiments all the feeds were well preserved. The DM (g/kg) and starch contents (g/kg DM) in the fermented WCW, urea-treated processed WCW and maize silage in experiments 1 were 406 and 282, 733 and 324, 221 and 140 and in experiment 2 were 370 and 323, 763 and 341 and 302 and 324, respectively. Results from both experiments were similar. The three forage mixtures resulted in greater DM intake and greater fat plus protein production than grass silage. The largest effect on intake was obtained with the urea-treated processed WCW which probably reflected the greater DM content of this forage mixture compared with the others. Milk protein content was generally similar across the three forage mixtures and greater than on grass silage as the sole forage. In the third experiment short-straw urea-treated processed WCW (harvested at a stubble height of 35 cm) was evaluated in comparison to the fermented WCW (harvested at a stubble height of 20 cm), maize silage and grass silage. The DM (g/kg) and starch (g/kg DM) contents in the fermented WCW, urea-treated processed WCW and maize silage were 389 and 316, 795 and 382 and 346 and 301, respectively. Fifty nine percent of the grain was cracked/processed in the urea-treated processed UP-WCW .Level of inclusion of forages in the diets was the same as in the first two experiments and total dietary CP was again maintained at a similar concentration across treatments by offering concentrates of varying CP concentrations. The higher harvesting height of the urea-treated processed WCW resulted in a greater starch concentration in this feed in comparison to the first two experiments. The results however were very similar to those obtained in the first two experiments with the forage mixtures again increasing DM intake and fat plus protein yield. Inclusion of the short-straw urea-treated processed WCW did not result in greater fat plus protein production compared with the inclusion of fermented WCW or maize silage. The greatest efficiency of conversion of dietary nitrogen (N) to milk N was achieved with the maize silage mixture and the least efficiency with the urea-treated process WCW mixture. In experiment 4 the nutritive value of fermented WCW, urea-treated processed WCW and maize silage were evaluated in comparison to a concentrate as supplements to grazed grass for spring calving cows in the autumn. A treatment with a high grass allowance of 24 kgDM (> 4 cm)/cow per day was also included while the grass allowance on the supplemented treatments was restricted to 17 kgDM (> 4 cm)/cow per day. All the supplemented treatments and the high grass allowance treatment gave greater milk yields than the unsupplemented restricted grass treatment. The concentrate supplement resulted in the greatest solids corrected milk yield and this was greater than any of the forage supplemented treatments which were not significantly different from one another. In the final experiment the output of N in milk, urine and faeces was measured when grass silage, fermented WCW, urea-treated processed WCW and maize silage were fed as the sole forages plus 6 kg of a concentrate containing 338 g crude protein/kg DM. The proportion of consumed N excreted in urine and faeces was greatest on grass silage and urea-treated processed WCW with fermented WCW and maize silage resulting in the greatest proportion of consumed N being excreted in milk. Overall, the project demonstrated that including either type of WCW or maize silage with grass silage increased fat plus protein production and protein concentration to a similar extent compared to grass silage as the sole forage. All three forages increased DM intake with the greatest increase observed with urea-treated processed WCW. Because of this greater intake resulting in similar fat plus protein production conversion of dietary DM to milk solids was less efficient on urea-treated processed WCW based diets than on fermented WCW or maize silage based diets. Grass silage and urea-treated processed WCW based diets were least N efficient with less dietary N being incorporated into milk N than on fermented WCW or maize silage based diets. Comparing the responses on the forage mixtures relative to one another and to grass silage across experiments 1 to 3 indicates that neither degree of grain processing or harvesting height (within the ranges studied here) are of substantial importance in determining the nutritive value of urea-treated processed WCW. All of the three alternative forages gave similar solids corrected milk yield responses when used as buffer feeds for spring calved cows at pasture in the autumn but these responses were less than 50% of the response to a concentrate supplement

Cosmological Evolution of Heavy Element and Molecular Hydrogen Abundances

Spectroscopic observations of distant quasars have resulted in the detection of molecular hydrogen in intervening damped Lyman-alpha absorption clouds (DLAs). We use observations compiled from different experimental groups to show that the molecular hydrogen abundance exhibits a dramatic increase over a cosmological time period corresponding to 13% to 24% of the age of the universe. We also tentatively show that the heavy element abundances in the same gas clouds exhibit a faster and more well-defined cosmological evolution compared to the general DLA population over the same time baseline. We argue that this latter point is unsurprising, because the general DLA population arises in a wide variety of galaxy types and environments, and thus a spans broad range of ISM gas-phases and abundances at the same cosmic time. DLAs exhibiting H2 absorption may therefore circumvent this problem, efficiently identifying a narrower class of objects, and provide a more sensitive probe of cosmological chemical evolution.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by MNRAS Letters. v2: Added table summarizing H2-bearing DLA properties, added figure showing [Fe/H] vs. redshift, added more discussio