From danger and motherhood to health and beauty: health advice for the factory girl in early Twentieth-Century Britain

A survey of government reports and the archives and journals of other agencies interested in industrial health in early twentieth-century Britain has led us to conclude that, in addition to apprehension about the potentially harmful impact of industrial work on the reproductive health of women, there was a great deal of interest in the health of young, unmarried girls in the workplace, particularly the factory. Adopting a broader time frame, we suggest that the First World War, with its emphasis on the reproductive health of women, was an anomalous experience in a broader trend which stressed the growing acceptability of women's work within industry. Concern with girls' health and welfare embraced hygiene, diet, exercise, recreation, fashion and beauty within and outside of the workplace, as well as the impact of the boredom and monotony associated with industrial work. The health problems of young women workers tended to be associated with behaviour and environment rather than biology, as were anxieties about the impact of work on morals, habits and character. Efforts to ensure that young female factory workers would be equipped to take their place as citizens and parents, we argue, often dovetailed rather than diverged with the ‘boy labour’ question

Nuclear Thermal Rocket by 2000: a DOE Perspective

It is asserted that a Nuclear Propulsion Space Transportation System is required for the Manned Mars Mission. Additionally, it is felt that a Nuclear Propulsion Space Transportation System can support a wide variety of future space missions, including lunar base implementation and support. The Rover/NERVA program demonstrated that a safe, reliable Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) can be developed and operated for sufficient run times, at desirable temperatures, and with multiple restarts. The discussion is presented in viewgraph form

The Role of Uncertainty in CO2 Emissions Inventories

We have greater certainty for what has happened in the past than for what will happen in the future. Uncertainty on the impact and value of emissions can be very large. Given all of the elements of uncertainty, we are challenged to set global targets for limiting the environmental impact of emissions, to distribute those targets among the many Parties responsible for emissions, to evaluate the trajectories toward targets, to understand the risk involved in not meeting targets, to motivate the collective efforts and burden sharing or trading, and to verify that targets have been achieved

The 2007 Provincial Election in Newfoundland and Labrador

On the surface, there was nothing special about the 2007 Newfoundland and Labrador general election, which saw Danny Williams re-elected for a second term as Premier. That his Progressive Conservatives would win a solid majority was never in doubt. There were no emerging issues, major gaffes or innovative campaign tactics, and few tight races. The de facto referendum on Williams’ leadership became a coronation. As Mackinnon (2007: 1) wrote about the Prince Edward Island election held five months earlier, “some campaigns are over before they begin.” In this case the only intrigue was how many Liberal or New Democratic Party candidates would form the opposition. However the results do illustrate that a relatively homogenous electorate can rally around a leader who decries the province’s status in the Canadian federation. Furthermore, when elected officials from all major parties have been implicated in a scandal, many electors respond by not participating in politics. Political scientists can therefore draw comparative insights, such as asymmetrical federalism reminiscent of Quebec Premier Jean Lesage in the early 1960s, political scandal similar to the Grant Devine administration of Saskatchewan in the early 1990s, or about civic engagement generally

Could Labour and the Liberal Democrats merge? If so, they should look to Canada for inspiration

The Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties are both currently reeling from disastrous 2015 election results, with both in the process of electing new leaders following the resignations of Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. But could the two parties, until recently at loggerheads, ever become one? Alex Marland argues that the two parties should look to Canada for inspiration both on why and how if they are minded to travel down this path

'Close confinement tells very much upon a man' : prison memoirs, insanity and the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century prison

This article explores prisoners’ observations of mental illness in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century prisons, recorded in memoirs published following their release. The discipline of separate confinement was lauded for its potential to improve prisoners’ minds, inducing reflection and reform, when it was introduced to British prisons in the 1840s, but in practice led to high levels of mental breakdown. In order to maintain the integrity of the prison system, the prison authorities played down incidences of insanity, while prison chaplains lauded the beneficent influence of cellular isolation. In contrast, as this article demonstrates, prisoners’ memoirs offer insights into the prevalence of mental illness in prison, and its poor management, as well as inmates’ efforts to manage mental distress. As the prison system became more closed, uniform and penal after the 1860s, the volume of such publications increased. Oscar Wilde’s evocative prison writings have attracted considerable attention, but he was only one of many prison authors criticizing the penal system and decrying the damage it inflicted on the mind. Exploration of prison memoirs, it is argued, enhances our understanding of experiences of mental disorder in the underexplored context of the prison, highlighting the prisoners’ voice, agency and advocacy of reform

Investigating the Impact of Student Opt Out on Value-Added Measures of Teacher Quality

Student assessment nonparticipation (or opt out) has increased substantially in K-12 schools in states across the country. This increase in opt out has the potential to impact achievement and growth measures used for educator and institutional accountability. This simulation study investigates the extent to which value-added measures of teacher quality are impacted as a result of varying degrees of opt out, as well as various types of nonrandom opt out. Results show that the magnitude of opt out has a greater impact on stability of value-added estimates than the type of nonrandom opt out patterns simulated in this study, with root mean square differences in value-added estimates and standard errors increasing as the magnitude increased. In addition, classification agreement decreased as magnitude increased. Finally, one type of opt out, where the highest achieving students in the highest achieving classrooms did not participate, appeared to have more of an impact on stability than the other types of opt out in this study

Cutting the size of a parliament: we should consider process and resources not just numbers

When political leaders say we should cut the number of politicians, what are their motives? Alex Marland found that the rationale is largely symbolic, rather than grounded in any considered approach to legislature size, and used as a populist framing for more general cost-cutting. A more coherent approach should include attention to the process of cutting, and to overall resources for backbench politicians