Occupational Mortality, Age at Marriage and Marital Fertility Early Twentieth Century England and Wales

What factors determine fertility and to what extent do we really understand the decision processes that underpinned when to marry, when to start having children and how many children to have in the historical past? In many ways, the posing of such questions may seem surprising given the now copious literature on the subject.1 In this paper we use new datasets built from previously under-exploited primary source materials and improved econometric modelling to build on previous work and thereby improve on our understanding of the determinants of the demand for children in early twentieth century England and Wales

Political animals

In the last few years the animal rights movement has grown out of all recognition. It's now an important political force that challenges our definition of the political

Earnings inequality and central-city development

This paper was presented at the conference "Unequal incomes, unequal outcomes? Economic inequality and measures of well-being" as part of session 4, "Economic inequality and local public services." The conference was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on May 7, 1999. The author considers not only the competition between cities, but also the competition between cities and the surrounding areas - the suburbs. He notes that rising income inequality tends to lead to greater income disparity between the suburbs and the central cities because the rich are more likely to move to the suburbs. In addition, business suburbanization has occurred because modern transportation and communication technologies have reduced the costs of moving people, goods, and messages over considerable distances. Moreover, some central business districts have become so large as to exhaust the advantages of locating there. However, the author suggests that the movement of businesses away from central cities began to change around 1996. Tighter labor markets have induced U.S. businesses to locate in central cities for the same reason that these businesses have been going to Mexico and East Asia - namely, the availability of relatively low-wage workers. The author also cites the dramatic fall in central-city crime rates in the 1990s and new legislation allowing cities to limit "brownfields liability" - the liability of businesses for environmental damage that occurred before their occupation of a site - as developments that have made it easier for businesses to return to the central cities.Income distribution ; Income ; Urban economics

Should government try to control suburban growth?

Metropolitan areas - Statistics

Microbiological surface sampling cart

Mobile sampling cart automatically swabs surfaces for the recovery of microorganisms. Unit operates without human involvement and provides for control of swabbing speed, rotation of cotton swab, and the pressure and angle applied to swab. Capability of reverse direction is also available. Sampling cart use is limited to flat surfaces

Automated single-slide staining device

A simple apparatus and method is disclosed for making individual single Gram stains on bacteria inoculated slides to assist in classifying bacteria in the laboratory as Gram-positive or Gram-negative. The apparatus involves positioning a single inoculated slide in a stationary position and thereafter automatically and sequentially flooding the slide with increments of a primary stain, a mordant, a decolorizer, a counterstain and a wash solution in a sequential manner without the individual lab technician touching the slide and with minimum danger of contamination thereof from other slides

Apparatus for microbiological sampling

An automatic apparatus is described for microbiologically sampling surface using a cotton swab which eliminates human error. The apparatus includes a self-powered transport device, such as a motor-driven wheeled cart, which mounts a swabbing motor drive for a crank arm which supports a swab in the free end thereof. The swabbing motor is pivotably mounted and an actuator rod movable responsive to the cart traveling a predetermined distance provides lifting of the swab from the surface being sampled and reversal of the direction of travel of the cart