Custom in context : Medieval and Early Modern Scotland and England

Studying custom and its context gives unique insights into relations of property, production and law in a society. The first part of the article discusses meaning in Scotland, focusing on ‘custom as normative practice, custom as unwritten law, and custom in opposition to law’. The second seeks to demonstrate (using evidence focusing principally on landholding) that custom as legal currency was more restricted for Scots than English. The third sets out the implications for continuity of landholding and for agrarian change in the Highlands of Scotland, an area where custom might be thought strong. The fourth deals with the differential legal development of Scotland and England between the twelfth and eighteenth centuries and its effects on social and tenurial relationships. A final section suggests why custom mattered more as a resource to the English, the domains in which it was important to Scots and the implications for understanding the comparative development of the two societies since the Middle Ages.PostprintPeer reviewe

What did the Royal Almoner do in Britain and Ireland, c.1450-1700?

The late medieval and early modern royal almoner for England and Wales was an important figure, a senior cleric best documented as a court preacher who was the crown’s religious and moral face; prominent holders included Wolsey and Lancelot Andrewes. The article begins by looking at the almoner’s appointment and functions at court, but it is mostly devoted to his interactions with Tudor and Stuart society at large. Indeed he had many public roles that are poorly understood. These included arbitrating, mediating, and directing the distribution of the forfeited goods of suicides found felo de se by coroners’ inquests, granted to successive almoners by the crown. The article looks at the almoner’s operations both in courts such as Star Chamber and outside them. It argues that he sought to create or repair communal bonds when survivors of suicide denied their obligations. Exploring what he did to re-establish charity between neighbours, his role as a benevolent giver, and the underlying religious imperatives that directed his actions, the article illuminates central issues of lordship, law and community in a period of profound social, legal, religious and political change. Focusing mainly on England, it also uncovers the significantly different roles of the separate royal almoners of Ireland and Scotland.PostprintPeer reviewe

Do all inhibitions act alike? A study of go/no-go and stop-signal paradigms

Response inhibition is frequently measured by the Go/no-go and Stop-signal tasks. These two are often used indiscriminately under the assumption that both measure similar inhibitory control abilities. However, accumulating evidence show differences in both tasks' modulations, raising the question of whether they tap into equivalent cognitive mechanisms. In the current study, a comparison of the performance in both tasks took place under the influence of negative stimuli, following the assumption that ''controlled inhibition'', as measured by Stop-signal, but not ''automatic inhibition'', as measured by Go/no-go, will be affected. 54 young adults performed a task in which negative pictures, neutral pictures or no-pictures preceded go trials, no-go trials, and stop-trials. While the exposure to negative pictures impaired performance on go trials and improved the inhibitory capacity in Stop-signal task, the inhibitory performance in Go/no-go task was generally unaffected. The results support the conceptualization of different mechanisms operated by both tasks, thus emphasizing the necessity to thoroughly fathom both inhibitory processes and identify their corresponding cognitive measures. Implications regarding the usage of cognitive tasks for strengthening inhibitory capacity among individuals struggling with inhibitory impairments are discussed

The Real Price of College: College Completion Series: Part Two

The high price of college is the subject of media headlines, policy debates, and dinner table conversations because of its implications for educational opportunities, student and family pocketbooks, and the economy. Some people caution against giving too much weight to the advertised price of a college education, pointing out that the availability of financial aid means that college is not as expensive as people think it is. But they overlook a substantial problem: for many students, the real price of college is much higher than what recruitment literature, conventional wisdom, and even official statistics convey. Our research indicates that the current approach to higher education financing too often leaves low-income students facing unexpected, and sometimes untenable, expenses.Financial challenges are a consistent predictor of non-completion in higher education, and they are becoming more severe over time. Unexpected costs, even those that might appear modest in size, can derail students from families lacking financial cushions, and even those with greater family resources. Improving college completion rates requires both lowering the real price of attending college -- the student's remaining total costs, including tuition, books, and living expenses, after financial aid -- to better align with students' and families' ability to pay, and providing accurate information to help them plan to cover the real price of college.Many policymakers argue that bringing the personal and public benefits of higher education to an expanded population of Americans is important for the economy and to address inequality. Financial aid policies, they assume, help those with scarce resources to earn their degrees. But these policies often fall short, and when students have difficulty paying for college, they are more likely to focus their energies on working and raising funds rather than studying and attending classes, and are less likely to complete their degrees

Adoption and economics of silver barb (Puntius gonionotus) culture in seasonal waters in Bangladesh

This report is the outcome of a research undertaken during the implementation of Agricultural Research Project II (Supplement) by ICLARM-Bangladesh in collaboration with several agencies, to evaluate the socioeconomic viability and the farmers' assessment of culturing silver barb using ICLARM technology in different agroclimatic zones.Fish culture, Technology assessment, Aquaculture economics, Bangladesh, Puntius gonionotus

Technical assistance to the community-based fisheries management (CBFM) project: assessment of the impact of the CBFM project on community-managed fisheries in Bangladesh

The CBFM Output to Purpose Review 2 (OPR2) Report identified a need to further examine the impact of the CBFM activities on fisheries management performance at the local level in preparation for the final phase of the Project. This study was therefore commissioned in May 2005 specifically to determine the impact of the CBFM activities on fish production, resource sustainability and fisher well-being, whilst taking account of inter and intra-annual variation in important environmental variables such as hydrology.

Electromagnetic source localization with finite set of frequency measurements

A phase conjugation algorithm for localizing an extended radiating electromagnetic source from boundary measurements of the electric field is presented. Measurements are taken over a finite number of frequencies. The artifacts related to the finite frequency data are tackled with $l_1-$regularization blended with the fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm with backtracking of Beck & Teboulle.Comment: 10 page

Aquaculture technology adoption in Kapasia thana, Bangladesh: some preliminary results from farm record-keeping data

A report on the adoption by target farmers of three aquaculture technologies in Kapasia Thana, Bangladesh. Preliminary results indicate that there were significant changes in fish production and resource use by farmer-cooperators from their previous practices.Aquaculture systems, Technology transfer, Small scale aquaculture, Kapasia, Bangladesh,