The lives and deaths of young medieval women: the osteological evidence

Written sources from the medieval period focus mainly on the activities of adults, particularly males and often those from the wealthier sections of society. Recent scholarship has attempted to redress this balance by giving attention to medieval women and children, but we are still limited by what we can learn about the daily lives of all members of medieval English society. Osteology, the study of human skeletal remains, suffers from no such bias and can provide substantial and detailed information on growth, health and daily life of the general population. This paper presents the results of a new analysis of the skeletal remains of over 300 medieval girls and young women aged at between 14 and 25 years from a number of English cemetery sites. We incorporate data from the published archaeological literature as well as documentary evidence to provide new insights into the lives and deaths of young medieval women

On the threshold of adulthood: a new approach for the use of maturation indicators to assess puberty in adolescents from medieval England

Objectives: This study provides the first large scale analysis of the age at which adolescents in medieval England entered and completed the pubertal growth spurt. This new method has implications for expanding our knowledge of adolescent maturation across different time periods and regions. Methods: In total, 994 adolescent skeletons (10-25 years) from four urban sites in medieval England (AD 900-1550) were analysed for evidence of pubertal stage using new osteological techniques developed from the clinical literature (i.e. hamate hook development, CVM, canine mineralisation, iliac crest ossification, radial fusion). Results: Adolescents began puberty at a similar age to modern children at around 10-12 years, but the onset of menarche in girls was delayed by up to 3 years, occurring around 15 for most in the study sample and 17 years for females living in London. Modern European males usually complete their maturation by 16-18 years; medieval males took longer with the deceleration stage of the growth spurt extending as late as 21 years. Conclusions: This research provides the first attempt to directly assess the age of pubertal development in adolescents during the tenth to seventeenth centuries. Poor diet, infections, and physical exertion may have contributed to delayed development in the medieval adolescents, particularly for those living in the city of London. This study sheds new light on the nature of adolescence in the medieval period, highlighting an extended period of physical and social transition

Computer Availability and Applications in Selected European Business Schools

This article investigates the availability of computers and what they are used for by students enrolled in a cross-section of business classes at selected European universities. This research is important in that it will add to the literature used by educational administrators to improve curriculum that enhances instruction of important technology skills, as well as showing the importance of making computers more available to students. The subjects surveyed were undergraduate students taking business classes at six public universities in six European countries. Questions regarding secondary school computer experiences were also asked. Results indicate significant differences as to ease of computer accessibility. Only about half of the Belgian and Irish students felt their schools provided easy access to computers. This contrasts with the English students. Over 80 percent of them believed their school provided easy access. Significant differences were also found in regard to rates of usage between “assignments, research, email, entertainment and other.” The primary computer use for all students was email. General computer usage was measured as follows: (1) to obtain information, (2) to communicate, and (3) to organize and present data. The Belgians, Germans, and Spanish used computers heavily for information gathering, the Irish – to communicate, and the English and French for organizing and presenting data. Secondary school computer preparatory work was reported most frequently from the English students, with applications and class assignments varying widely by country at the secondary level

The Pact for Mexico after Five Years: How Has It Fared?

The Pact for Mexico pledged to institute policies that would usher in a new era of growth and prosperity for Mexico, through the implementation of a series of structural reforms. The timeline for implementation of the proposed reforms extended to the second semester of 2018.This paper examines whether there has been progress toward the Pact's goals since it was signed; and whether any measures taken since then — including current economic policies — are likely to help Mexico break out of its long economic slump and forge a different path toward economic and social progress.Five years into the Pact for Mexico, it is clear from the available data that the Pact's promises to launch a new era of economic and social progress have not begun to materialize. The authors conclude that the country's persistent sluggish growth, poverty, and inequality are rooted in a set of important economic policy choices that have been made consistently for a long time

The rhetoric of Southern identity: debating the shift from division to identification in the turn-of-the-century South

Recent debates as to the place of Old South symbols and institutions in the South of the new millennium are evidence of a changing order in the South. I examine -- from a rhetorical perspective informed by Kenneth Burke's theory of identification and division -- four debates that have taken place in the South and/or about the South over roughly the past decade, 1995 to the present. In this decade, Southerners and interested others have debated such issues as 1) admitting women to the Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel; 2) integrating displays of public art in Richmond to feature Confederates and African Americans side by side; 3) continuing to fly the Confederate battle flag in public spaces such as the South Carolina Capitol or including it in the designs of state flags such as those of Georgia and Mississippi; and 4) allowing Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, who seemed to speak out in support of the South's segregated past, to continue in his position of Senate leadership. Looking at each of these debates, it is clear that at issue in each is whether the ruling order of the South should continue to be one of division or whether that order should be supplanted by identification. Judging from the outcomes of the four debates analyzed here, the order of division seems to be waning just as the order of identification seems to be waxing in influence over the turn-of-the-millennium South. But a changing South is no less a distinctive, continuing South. I argue that a distinctive Southern culture based on a sense of order has existed and continues to exist amidst the larger American culture. If some form of "Southernism" is to continue as a distinctive mindset and way of life in the twenty-first century, Southerners will need to learn to strike a balance between their past, with its ruling order of division, and the present, with its ruling order of identification

Matching faces against the clock

This study examined the effect of time pressure on face matching accuracy. Across two experiments, observers decided whether pairs of faces depict one person or different people. Time pressure was exerted via two additional displays, which were constantly updated to inform observers on whether they were on track to meet or miss a time target. In this paradigm, faces were matched under increasing or decreasing (Experiment 1) and constant time pressure (Experiment 2), which varied from ten to two seconds. In both experiments, time pressure reduced accuracy, but the point at which this declined varied from eight to two seconds. A separate match response bias was found, which developed over the course of the experiments. These results indicate that both time pressure and the repetitive nature of face matching are detrimental to performance

Fifty Shades of Deservingness: An Analysis of State-Level Variation and Effect of Social Constructions on Policy Outcomes

A patchwork of policies exists across the United States. While citizens\u27 policy preferences in domains such as the criminal legal system, gun regulations/rights, immigration, and welfare are informed by their political predispositions, they are also shaped by the extent to which policy targets are viewed as deserving. This article centres the idea that collective evaluations matter in policymaking, and it ascertains whether subnational levels of deservingness evaluations of several target groups differ across space to illuminate the link between these judgements and state policy design. We leverage original survey data and multilevel regression and poststratification to create state-level estimates of deservingness evaluations. The analyses elucidate the heterogeneity in state-level deservingness evaluations of several politically relevant groups, and they pinpoint a link between these social reputations and policy design. The article also delivers a useful methodological tool and measures for scholars of state policy design to employ in future research

Answering the Call: Generating Contemporary Knowledge About Australian Social Work Activism

The contemporary context, characterised by neoliberalism, serves as a backdrop for social work activism. Social work academics, globally and nationally, have incited an urgent call to activism. Despite this exhortation, ways of practising social work activism remain contested and somewhat mystifying. This study aimed to generate contemporary knowledge about Australian social work activism. The qualitative inquiry, guided by pragmatism, used individual semi-structured and paired depth interviews to explore the experiences of 12 self-identified social work activists. Data analysis generated four core themes: i) Activist Practices Exist on a Continuum; ii) Activism Is Contextually Bound; iii) Activism Is an Inherently Relational Endeavour; and iv) Sustaining Activism for the Long Game. Together, the findings suggest that adopting multiple, contextualised, and interconnected approaches may enable workers to pursue justice at all levels of their practice. These insights contribute to the profession’s understanding of social work activism and may benefit practitioners, students, and educators

Collaborative Faculty Professional Development: Bringing the Classroom to the Screen

When the higher education practice of face-to-face instruction was disrupted by the COVID pandemic, faculty unaccustomed to and/or uncomfortable with online teaching needed to adapt quickly to serve their students. Fortunately, there are faculty and institutions with long histories of online teaching with much to share about the why and how of offering high-quality, deeply engaging digital learning experiences to support the success of higher education students. The paper explores the collaboration of two universities to create professional development delivered through a virtual workshop series to support faculty needs and encourage an emerging community of practice related to online teaching and learning, jointly envisioned and delivered with pilot funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Four key issues conclude the paper: (1) how can success be measured and supported, (2) how can emerging practices be disseminated beyond workshop participants, (3) how can we respond to the need for changes in how we recognize, incentivize, and reward good teaching, and (4) how do we move forward from here

Identifying robust response options to manage environmental change using an ecosystem approach:a stress-testing case study for the UK

A diverse range of response options was evaluated in terms of their utility for sustaining ecosystem services in the UK. Robustness of response options was investigated by applying a ‘stress-testing’ method which evaluated expected performance against combined scenarios of socioeconomic and climate change. Based upon stakeholder feedback, a reference scenario representing current trends in climate and socioeconomic drivers (‘business-as-usual’) was used as a dynamic baseline against which to compare results of other scenarios. The robustness of response options was evaluated by their utility in different environmental and social contexts as represented by the scenarios, and linked to their adaptability to adjust to changing conditions. Key findings demonstrate that adaptability becomes increasingly valuable as the magnitude and rate of future change diverges from current trends. Stress-testing also revealed that individual responses in isolation are unlikely to be robust meaning there are advantages from integrating cohesive combinations (bundles) of response options to maximise their individual strengths and compensate for weaknesses. This identifies a role for both top-down and bottom-up responses, including regulation, spatial targeting, incentives and partnership initiatives, and their use in combination through integrated assessment and planning consistent with the adoption of an Ecosystem Approach. Stress-testing approaches can have an important role in future-proofing policy appraisals but important knowledge gaps remain, especially for cultural and supporting ecosystem services. Finally, barriers and enablers to the implementation of more integrated long-term adaptive responses were identified drawing on the ‘4 Is’ (Institutions, Information, Incentives, Identity) conceptual framework. This highlighted the crucial but usually understated role of identity in promoting ownership and uptake of responses