Education in the working-class home: modes of learning as revealed by nineteenth-century criminal records

The transmission of knowledge and skills within the working-class household greatly troubled social commentators and social policy experts during the first half of the nineteenth century. To prove theories which related criminality to failures in working-class up-bringing, experts and officials embarked upon an ambitious collection of data on incarcerated criminals at various penal institutions. One such institution was the County Gaol at Ipswich. The exceptionally detailed information that survives on families, literacy, education and apprenticeships of the men, women and children imprisoned there has the potential to transform our understanding of the nature of home schooling (broadly interpreted) amongst the working classes in nineteenth-century England. This article uses data sets from prison registers to chart both the incidence and ‘success’ of instruction in reading and writing within the domestic environment. In the process, it highlights the importance of schooling in working-class families, but also the potentially growing significance of the family in occupational training

Liquid racism and the Danish Prophet Muhammad cartoons

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 The Author.This article examines reactions to the October 2005 publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. It does so by using the concept of ‘liquid racism’. While the controversy arose because it is considered blasphemous by many Muslims to create images of the Prophet Muhammad, the article argues that the meaning of the cartoons is multidimensional, that their analysis is significantly more complex than most commentators acknowledge, and that this complexity can best be addressed via the concept of liquid racism. The article examines the liquidity of the cartoons in relation to four readings. These see the cartoons as: (1) a criticism of Islamic fundamentalism; (2) blasphemous images; (3) Islamophobic and racist; and (4) satire and a defence of freedom of speech. Finally, the relationship between postmodernity and the rise of fundamentalism is discussed because the cartoons, reactions to them, and Islamic fundamentalism, all contain an important postmodern dimension.ESR

‘The Invisible Chain by Which All Are Bound to Each Other’: Civil Defence Magazines and the Development of Community During the Second World War

This article uses local collaboratively produced civil defence magazines to examine how community spirit was developed and represented within the civil defence services during the Second World War. It highlights the range of functions which the magazines performed, as well as the strategies employed by civil defence communities to manage their emotions in order to keep morale high and distract personnel from the fear and boredom experienced while on duty. The article also discusses silences in the magazines — especially around the experience of air raids — and argues that this too reflects group emotional management strategies. The significance of local social groups in developing narratives about civil defence and their workplace communities is demonstrated, and the article shows how personnel were able to engage with and refashion dominant cultural narratives of the ‘people’s war’ in order to assert their own status within the war effort

Milk for a girl and bananas for a boy:recipes and reasons for sex-preference practices in a British Internet forum

Using postings from an internet forum, this paper explores the ways in which some women try to influence the sex of a future child. The extensive reproductive work involved give an indication of the women’s commitment to being able to choose a particular sex; in this case a preference for girls rather than boys. The findings revealed stereotypical views of masculinity and femininity at the heart of the preference. The presumption of fixed gendered identities helped to frame this desire as ‘natural,’ lessen the threat to maternal identities, and reinforce the logic of ‘choice,’ and support their reproductive work practices

An open-source framework for synthetic post-dive Doppler ultrasound audio generation

Doppler ultrasound (DU) measurements are used to detect and evaluate venous gas emboli (VGE) formed after decompression. Automated methodologies for assessing VGE presence using signal processing have been developed on varying real-world datasets of limited size and without ground truth values preventing objective evaluation. We develop and report a method to generate synthetic post-dive data using DU signals collected in both precordium and subclavian vein with varying degrees of bubbling matching field-standard grading metrics. This method is adaptable, modifiable, and reproducible, allowing for researchers to tune the produced dataset for their desired purpose. We provide the baseline Doppler recordings and code required to generate synthetic data for researchers to reproduce our work and improve upon it. We also provide a set of pre-made synthetic post-dive DU data spanning six scenarios representing the Spencer and Kisman-Masurel (KM) grading scales as well as precordial and subclavian DU recordings. By providing a method for synthetic post-dive DU data generation, we aim to improve and accelerate the development of signal processing techniques for VGE analysis in Doppler ultrasound

Expressive free speech, the state, and the public sphere: A Bakhtinian–Deleuzian analysis of ‘public address’ at Hyde Park

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 Taylor & Francis.In this paper I explore how struggles around free speech between social movements and the state are often underpinned by a deeper struggle around expressive images of what counts as either ‘decent’ or ‘indecent’ discussion. These points are developed by exploring what is arguably the most famous populist place for free speech in Britain, namely Hyde Park. In 1872 the state introduced the Parks Regulation Act in order to regulate, amongst other things, populist uses of free speech at Hyde Park. However, although the 1872 Act designated a site in Hyde Park for public meetings, it did not mention ‘free speech’. Rather, the 1872 Act legally enforced the liberty to make a ‘public address’ and this was implicitly contrasted by the state of an expressive image of ‘indecent’ speakers exercising their ‘right’ of free speech at Hyde Park. Once constructed, the humiliating image of ‘indecent’ free speech could then be used by the state to regulate actual utterances of public speakers at Hyde Park. But the paper shows how in the years immediately following 1872 a battle was fought out in Hyde Park over the expressive image of public address between the state and regulars using Hyde Park as a public sphere to exercise free speech. For its part the state had to engage in meaningful deliberative forms of discussion within its own regulatory framework and with the public sphere at Hyde Park in order to maintain the legal form, content and expression of the 1872 Act. To draw out the implications of these points I employ some of the theoretical ideas of the Bakhtin Circle and Gilles Deleuze. Each set of thinkers in their own way make valuable contributions for understanding the relationship between the state, public sphere and expressive images

Patterns and predictors of place of cancer death for the oldest old

BACKGROUND: Cancer patients increasingly are among older age groups, but to date little work has examined the trends in cancer among older people, particularly in relation to end of life care and death. This study describes the older population who die of cancer and the factors which may affect their place of death. METHODS: A Cross-sectional analysis of national data was performed. The study included all people aged 75 and over dying of cancer in England and Wales between 1995 and 1999. The population was divided into exclusive 5 year age cohorts, up to 100 years and over. Descriptive analysis explored demographic characteristics, cancer type and place of death. RESULTS: Between 1995 and 1999, 315,462 people aged 75 and over were registered as dying from cancer. The number who died increased each year slightly over the 5 year period (1.2%). In the 75–79 age group, 55 % were men, in those aged 100 and over this fell to 16%. On reaching their hundreds, the most common cause of death for men was malignancies of the genital organs; and for women it was breast cancer. The most frequent place of death for women in their hundreds was the care home; for men it was hospitals. Those dying from lymphatic and haematopoietic malignancies were most likely to die in hospitals, those with head and neck malignancies in hospices and breast cancer patients in a care home. CONCLUSION: The finding of rising proportions of cancer deaths in institutions with increasing age suggests a need to ensure that appropriate high quality care is available to this growing section of the population

Editorial Board

Source at http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1345-8 Background: The duration of untreated psychosis is determined by both patient and service related factors. Few studies have considered the geographical accessibility of services in relation to treatment delay in early psychosis. To address this, we investigated whether treatment delay is co-determined by straight-line distance to hospital based specialist services in a mainly rural mental health context. Methods: A naturalistic cross-sectional study was conducted among a sample of recent onset psychosis patients in northern Norway (n = 62). Data on patient and service related determinants were analysed. Results: Half of the cohort had a treatment delay longer than 4.5 months. In a binary logistic regression model, straight-line distance was found to make an independent contribution to delay in which we controlled for other known risk factors. Conclusions: The determinants of treatment delay are complex. This study adds to previous studies on treatment delay by showing that the spatial location of services also makes an independent contribution. In addition, it may be that insidious onset is a more important factor in treatment delay in remote areas, as the logistical implications of specialist referral are much greater than for urban dwellers. The threshold for making a diagnosis in a remote location may therefore be higher. Strategies to reduce the duration of untreated psychosis in rural areas would benefit from improving appropriate referral by crisis services, and the detection of insidious onset of psychosis in community based specialist services

Spatial point analysis based on dengue surveys at household level in central Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dengue virus (DENV) affects nonimunne human populations in tropical and subtropical regions. In the Americas, dengue has drastically increased in the last two decades and Brazil is considered one of the most affected countries. The high frequency of asymptomatic infection makes difficult to estimate prevalence of infection using registered cases and to locate high risk intra-urban area at population level. The goal of this spatial point analysis was to identify potential high-risk intra-urban areas of dengue, using data collected at household level from surveys.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two household surveys took place in the city of Goiania (~1.1 million population), Central Brazil in the year 2001 and 2002. First survey screened 1,586 asymptomatic individuals older than 5 years of age. Second survey 2,906 asymptomatic volunteers, same age-groups, were selected by multistage sampling (census tracts; blocks; households) using available digital maps. Sera from participants were tested by dengue virus-specific IgM/IgG by EIA. A Generalized Additive Model (GAM) was used to detect the spatial varying risk over the region. Initially without any fixed covariates, to depict the overall risk map, followed by a model including the main covariates and the year, where the resulting maps show the risk associated with living place, controlled for the individual risk factors. This method has the advantage to generate smoothed risk factors maps, adjusted by socio-demographic covariates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prevalence of antibody against dengue infection was 37.3% (95%CI [35.5–39.1]) in the year 2002; 7.8% increase in one-year interval. The spatial variation in risk of dengue infection significantly changed when comparing 2001 with 2002, (ORadjusted = 1.35; p < 0.001), while controlling for potential confounders using GAM model. Also increasing age and low education levels were associated with dengue infection.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study showed spatial heterogeneity in the risk areas of dengue when using a spatial multivariate approach in a short time interval. Data from household surveys pointed out that low prevalence areas in 2001 surveys shifted to high-risk area in consecutive year. This mapping of dengue risks should give insights for control interventions in urban areas.</p