Networks in the Premodern Economy: the Market for London Apprenticeships, 1600-1749

This paper examines the importance of social and geographical networks in structuring entry into skilled occupations in premodern London. Using newly digitised records of those beginning an apprenticeship in London between 1600 and 1749, we find little evidence that networks strongly shaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentice did not have an identifiable connection to his master in the form of a kin link, shared name, or shared place or county of origin. The majority of migrant apprentices' fathers came from outside of the craft sector. Our results suggest that the market for apprenticeship was strikingly open: well-to-do families of all types were able to access a wide range of craft and trade apprenticeships, and would-be apprentices had considerable scope to match their perceived ability and aptitude to opportunity.Apprenticeship, human capital formation, training, migration, networks, UK, early modern

A Writer, an Editor, an Instructor, and an Alumna Walk into the Writing Center

As the writing center director, I believe our professional tutors provide valuable expert perspectives to student writers. They also help me mentor the peer tutors and push me to reevaluate our practices. They add staffing stability to the center (whose peer tutors never stay for more than three years). Finally, these trusted writing experts professionalize the writing center’s status among administration, faculty, and students. In the following paragraphs, Amy, Ellen, Chris, and Lindsey illustrate the rich variety of skills and perspectives professional writing tutors can contribute to a writing centerUniversity Writing Cente

Implementing the NIS Directive, Driving Cybersecurity Improvements for Essential Services

A review by the National Audit Office of the National Cyber Security Programme recommended a more robust performance framework, to understand the impact of the Programme and to focus activities going forward. The Directive on security of network and information systems (the NIS Directive) has placed responsibility for essential aspects of supply chains on Operators of Essential Services (OES). Our dependence on international supply chains also requires a performance framework to assist cybersecurity improvements in this area. The following sections describe work to investigate the implementation of the NIS Directive by Competent Authorities (CA) and OES and proposes a framework to monitor performance across interdependencies. This is to enable development of a more effective set of performance metrics to guide interventions and improvements in cybersecurity for critical infrastructure

Siltation Related to Beaver Dam Decomposition in the Little Kankakee River

The Little Kankakee River (LKR) in LaPorte County, Indiana is an uncommon example of a good, cold-water fishery in northwest Indiana. However, the river has variable sedimentation levels; deep silt often covers gravel and sand, smothering invertebrates, a key food source for higher trophic organisms. The LKR contains a naturally-decomposing, abandoned beaver dam. The purpose of this study is to monitor its impact upon upstream and downstream silt levels. This research intends to identify possible sources of variability in silt levels, benefiting restoration teams in determining effects of dam removals. Furthermore, understanding the impact and pattern of silt levels could aid the monitoring of river health. Water depth, silt depth, flow rate, and a description of the river bed are measured and recorded. Flow rate fluctuations will be charted against monthly precipitation, noting changes in flow. It is predicted that the beaver dam causes fluctuating siltation by collecting silt upstream and then releasing variable amounts during dam decomposition. Preliminary results indicate the narrow sections of the river have faster water flow and less silt. The beaver dam impedes flow, widens the river, and reduces velocity, allowing fine sediment to accumulate. It is predicted that if the beaver dam decomposes rapidly, then trapped silt above the dam will percolate rapidly through the system stopping at wide sections of the river. If the beaver dam deteriorates slowly, then silt accumulations may not be measureable and leave silt in the system much longer

XMbodyinfo

XMbodyinfo was designed to evaluate potential reference trajectories, providing a proficient way to assess the quality of all satellite body flybys for a Cassini type mission tour. It is autonomous and will generate a variety of ORS (optical remote sensing) and FPW (fields, particles, and waves) plots that aid in the evaluation, qualification, selection, and improvement of a potential tour

On the effect of projections on convergence peak counts and Minkowski functionals

The act of projecting data sampled on the surface of the celestial sphere onto a regular grid on the plane can introduce error and a loss of information. This paper evaluates the effects of different planar projections on non-Gaussian statistics of weak lensing convergence maps. In particular we investigate the effect of projection on peak counts and Minkowski Functionals (MFs) derived from convergence maps and the suitability of a number of projections at matching the peak counts and MFs obtained from a sphere. We find that the peak counts derived from planar projections consistently overestimate the counts at low SNR thresholds and underestimate at high SNR thresholds across the projections evaluated, although the difference is reduced when smoothing of the maps is increased. In the case of the Minkowski Functionals, V0 is minimally affected by projection used, while projected V1 and V2 are consistently overestimated with respect to the spherical case

Interorganizational cooperation in supply chain cybersecurity: a cross-industry study of the effectiveness of the UK implementation of the NIS Directive

The transposition of the EU Directive on Network and Information Security (NIS) by EU Member States involved assigning a set of responsibilities to operators, regulators and policy makers within a national cybersecurity strategy, in order to improve cybersecurity levels across critical infrastructures. This research investigates the perspectives and experiences of organisations affected by the NIS Directive focussing on three different sectors (Energy, Water & Aviation). The authors evaluate the response of different actors to NIS interventions and their challenges in meeting their assigned responsibilities, in particular their ability to oversee supply chain cybersecurity. It proposes further support for partnerships and cooperation across organisations to increase the effectiveness of NIS implementation. Based on results from semi-structured interviews and observations of industry working groups, an approach to supply chain oversight to achieve a balance between control and cooperation is recommended, to improve cybersecurity within industry sectors and across critical national infrastructures. Although our initial focus has been on working mainly with UK stakeholders, we argue that our recommendations have a more general application beyond those countries directly affected by the Directive

Access to the trade: monopoly and mobility in European craft guilds, 17th and 18th centuries

One of the standard objections against citizenship systems and trade organizations in the premodern world has been their exclusiveness. Privileged access to certain professions and industries is seen as a disincentive for technological progress. Guilds, especially, have been portrayed as providing unfair advantages to established masters and their descendants, over immigrants and other outsiders. In this paper the results of detailed local investigations of the composition of citizenries and guild apprentices and masters is brought together, to find out to what extent this picture is historically correct. This data offers an indirect measurement of the accessibility of citizenship and guilds that allows insight into the mechanisms of exclusion and their impact. The paper finds that guild masterships were in most towns open to large numbers of immigrants and non-family, as were training markets for apprentices. Therefore, we argue, our understanding of urban and guild ‘monopolies’, and the measure of protection and reward they supplied to established citizens, is in need of serious revision