Artículos de revistas sobre el tema "Country life – England – Dorset"

This article is a comparative study of the contextual conditions for collective efficacy and territorial governance of social cohesion in two different rural localities: West Dorset in England and Lemvig in Denmark. The objective is to understand the conditions for and relations between neo-endogenous development and rural social cohesion in two different national contexts. Common to both cases are problems of demographic change, particularly loss of young people, depopulation, economic challenges and their peripheral location vis-à-vis the rest of the country. However, in West Dorset, community identity is fragmented compared to Lemvig, and this has consequences for how well local ‘collective efficacy’ (Sampson, 2012) transfers to more strategic levels of local development. These include not only variations in welfare settings and governance, but also variations in settlement structure and place identity (Jørgensen, Knudsen, Fallov, & Skov, 2016), collective efficacy, and the role of local leadership (Beer & Clower, 2014), which structure the conditions for rural development. While Lemvig is characterized by close interlocking relations between local government, business and civil society, this is less the case in England where centralization of powers in tandem with a dramatic restructuring of service delivery forms (e.g., contracting out, privatisation) have had damaging effects on these types of interlocking relations. Comparing these cases through the lens of the combined concepts of collective efficacy and place based leadership contribute to the understanding of rural development as not only relations between intra- and extra-local connections but also formal and informal forms of collective action and leadership.

Abstract Scelidosaurus fossils were first discovered during the commercial quarrying of the Liassic sea-cliffs between Charmouth and Lyme Regis in Dorset during the late 1850s. The original specimens included a well-preserved skull embedded in a block of argillaceous limestone (marlstone). Shortly after this skull was retrieved, a series of more-or-less contiguous marlstone slabs were recovered, containing most of the skeleton of the same animal (NHMUK R1111). After rudimentary (hammer and chisel) mechanical preparation, Owen published descriptions of this material (Owen, 1861, 1863). These two monographs have been the sole references pertaining to the anatomy of Scelidosaurus for >150 years. The skeleton of the lectotype of Scelidosaurus harrisonii (NHMUK R1111) has since been extracted from the surrounding matrix using an acid-immersion technique. Some additional specimens held in the collections of the Natural History Museum London, the Bristol City Museum and the Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge provide anatomical material that allows detailed description of this taxon, for which we have had, until now, a surprisingly poor understanding. Axial skeleton: The axial skeleton of Scelidosaurus comprises eight cervical, 16 dorsal, four sacral and > 40 caudal vertebrae. During ontogeny, the posterior centrum articular surface of the 16th dorsal vertebra develops a firm, ligament-bonded junction with the succeeding sacral centrum. Apart from the atlas rib, which is single headed, double-headed ribs are present throughout the presacral vertebral series, and none shows any indication of fusion to its associated vertebra. However, those ribs attached to cervical vertebrae 2–4 were evidently bound firmly by connective tissue to rugose diapophyses. The last two (presacral) dorsal ribs show merger of the capitulum and tuberculum, meaning that they are separated by only a step. The angulation and arching of the dorsal ribs suggest that these animals had a broad (barrel-like) torso. Intercostal uncinate plates were present, attached to the posterior margins of some of the largest dorsal ribs. Their attachment sites are clearly marked, and these plates might have been composed of calcified cartilage in larger individuals. The sacral vertebrae fuse progressively during ontogeny, in an anterior-to-posterior sequence. The sacral ribs are long and robust, and tilt the iliac blade outward dorsally. A sacricostal ‘yoke’ (created by the fusion of the distal ends of adjacent sacral ribs) never forms. The base of the tail has a unique ball-and-socket-style joint between the centra of caudal vertebrae 1 and 2 in only one skeleton. This might have permitted powerful, but controlled, movements of the tail as a defensive weapon (or increased flexibility at the base of the tail, which might have been necessary for reproduction). Caudal ribs are initially long, blade-shaped projections that gradually decrease in size and become stub-like remnants that persist as far back as the midtail (approximately caudal vertebra 25). Haemal arches (chevrons) disappear nearer to the distal end of the tail (approximately caudal vertebra 35). Ossified tendons are preserved as epaxial bundles that are clustered in the ‘axillary’ trough (between the neural spine and transverse processes on either side of the midline). Ossified tendons are restricted to the dorsal and sacral region. Flattened ossified tendons are fused to the sides of sacral neural spines. In life, the ossified tendons might have formed a low-angled trellis-like arrangement. Appendicular skeleton: The pectoral girdle comprises a long scapula, with a distally expanded blade. The proximal portion is expanded and supports an oblique promontory, forming an acromial process anteriorly and a thick, collar-like structure posteriorly above the glenoid. Between these two features is a shallow basin, bordered ventrally by a sutural edge for the coracoid. The scapula–coracoid suture remains unfused in large (5-m-long) individuals. The coracoid bears a discrete foramen and forms a subcircular dished plate, with the shallowest of embayments along its posterior edge. Clavicles are present as small fusiform bones attached to the acromial process of the scapulae and leading edge of each coracoid. A sternum was reported as ‘some partially ossified element of the endoskeleton’ Owen (1863: 13), but subsequent preparation of the skeleton has removed all trace of this material. The humerus is relatively long and has a prominent rectangular and proximally positioned deltopectoral crest. The ulna is robust and tapers distally, but there is no evidence of an olecranon process. The radius is more rod-like and terminates distally in an enlarged, subcircular and convex articular surface for the carpus. The carpus is represented by an array of five discoid carpals. The manus is pentadactyl and asymmetrical, with short, divergent metacarpals and digits that terminate in small, arched and pointed unguals on digits 1–3 (only). The phalangeal formula of the manus is 2-3-4-3-2. The pelvis is dominated by a long ilium; the preacetabular process is arched, transversely broad, and curves laterally. In juveniles, this process is short and horizontal, but during ontogeny it increases considerably in length and becomes arched. The iliac blade is tilted laterally, meaning that its dorsal blade partly overhangs the femur. The acetabulum forms a partial cupola, and there is a curtain-like medial wall that reduces the acetabular fenestra to a comparatively low, triangular opening between the pubis and ischium. The postacetabular portion of the ilium is long and supports a brevis shelf. The ischium has a long, laterally compressed shaft that hangs almost vertically beneath the ilium, and there is no obturator process. The pubis has a long, narrow shaft and a relatively short, deep, laterally compressed prepubic process that twists laterally (its distal end lies almost perpendicular to the long axis of the ilium). The articular pad on the pubis for the femoral head faces posteriorly. The obturator foramen is not fully enclosed within the pubis, but its foramen is closed off posteriorly by the pubic peduncle of the ischium. The femur is stout and has a slightly medially offset femoral head, and the greater trochanter forms a sloping shoulder continuous with, and lateral to, the femoral head. The anterior (lesser) trochanter is prominent and forms a thick, thumb-shaped projection on the anterolateral corner of the femoral shaft. The fourth trochanter is pendent and positioned at midshaft. In larger individuals, it appears to become thickened and reinforced by becoming coated with metaplastic bone derived from the tendons attached to its surface. The distal end of the femoral shaft is slightly curved and expands to form condyles. There is a deep and broad posterior intercondylar groove, but the anterior intercondylar groove is barely discernible in juveniles and not much better developed in subadults. The tibia and fibula are shorter than the femur. The tibia is structurally dominant, and the shorter fibula is comparatively slender and bowed. The proximal tarsals are firmly bound by connective tissue to the distal ends of the tibia and fibula. The distal end of the tibia is stepped, which aids the firm interlock between the crus and proximal tarsals. There appear to be two roughly discoid tarsals (distal tarsals 3 and 4), and a rudiment of distal tarsal 5 appears to be sutured to the lateral margin of distal tarsal 4. Five metatarsals are preserved, but the fifth is a splint of bone attached to the proximal end of metatarsal 4. Metatarsals 2–4 are dominant, long and are syndesmotically interlocked proximally, but their shafts splay apart distally. Metatarsal 1 is much shorter than the other three, but it retains two functional phalanges (including a short, pointed ungual). The foot is anatomically tetradactyl but functionally tridactyl. The pedal digit formula is 2-3-4-5-0. The digits diverge, but each appears to curve medially along its length, creating the impression of asymmetry. This asymmetry is emphasized, because the three principal unguals are also twisted medially. The ungual of digit 2 is the largest and most robust of the three, whereas that of digit 4 is the smallest and least robust. The general girth of the torso and the displacement of the abdomen posteriorly (a consequence of the opisthopubic pelvic construction in this dinosaur) constrained the excursion of the hindlimb during the protraction phase of the locomotor cycle. The anterolateral displacement of the hindlimb during protraction is in accord with the freedom of motion that is evident at the acetabulum, the susceptibility of the hindlimb to torsion between and within its component parts, and the asymmetry of the foot. It is probable that thyreophorans (notably, ankylosaurs) used a similar oblique-parasagittal hindlimb excursion to accommodate their equally large and wide abdomens. This surmise accords with the structure of the pelves and hindlimbs of ankylosaurs. Derived stegosaurs might have obviated this ‘problem’, in part, because their hindlimbs were longer and their torsos and abdomens narrower and capable of being ‘stretched’ vertically to a greater extent. Nevertheless, the structure of their acetabula and hindlimbs indicates that the oblique-parasagittal style of hindlimb excursion remained a possibility and might be an evolutionary remnant of the locomotor style of basal, shorter-limbed stegosaurs. A reconstruction of the endoskeleton of Scelidosaurus is presented on the basis of this updated description. Although quadrupedal, this animal was only facultatively so, judged by its forelimb-to-hindlimb proportions and structure; it therefore betrays bipedality in its ancestry.

Abstract Cranial exostoses (areas of periosteal ornamentation) are present on the external surfaces of the skull and mandible of Scelidosaurus harrisonii. True osteoderms have also been identified on the skull, forming a ‘brow-ridge’ of three supraorbital bones, dished plates that are attached to the lateral surface of the postorbitals and a pair of larger, horn-shaped structures that project from the posterodorsal surface of the occiput. Postcranial osteoderms form an extensive series of oval-based, ridged osteoderms that extend backward across the dorsal and lateral surfaces of the neck and torso. Smaller, narrow-based ridged osteoderms are also found on the lateral surfaces of the limbs. The tail is surrounded by four longitudinal rows of large, narrow-based, ridged or keeled osteoderms. The neck, unlike the rest of the body, is encased dorsolaterally by a variety of osteoderms. These can be differentiated into two fundamental types: base-plate osteoderms that develop deep within the compact layers of the dermis and, superficial to each base-plate, tall, ridged or cap-like osteoderms. These latter, project outward from the skin surface and were covered by an epidermal scale or a rigid keratinous sheath. The base-plates are true osteodermal components, but to differentiate them from the more familiar superficial osteoderms, they will be called here simply ‘base-plates’. Lying on the dorsal midline between and beneath the occipital horns is a single, ridged, nuchal osteoderm comprising a base-plate and osteoderm cap. The nuchal plate is flanked by a pair of prominent ‘tricorn’ osteoderm arrays mounted on shallowly arched blocks of fused base-plate osteoderms. Behind the tricorn arrays is a succession of four partial collar-like arrays of osteoderms formed (at least in ontogenetically mature specimens) by coalesced base-plates that anchor tall and either carinate or more plate-like osteoderms. The largest of these are always positioned on the ventrolateral margin of each collar. The osteoderms become progressively smaller toward the midline. It is at present unclear whether the base-plate supported collar arrays on either side fuse together along the midline to form cervical half-rings, as is often reported in more derived ankylosaurian thyreophorans. Individual collar arrays do not imbricate with each other, but are likely to have been interconnected by sheets of tough connective tissue. On the ventrolateral flanks of the pectoral region are found the largest, bladed osteoderms. In two partly articulated skeletons an osteoderm is preserved on the posterodistal surface of the scapular blade. Although this position is reminiscent of the parascapular spines found in some stegosaurs, these bones are not regarded as homologues; their placement is a coincidence of positioning an osteoderm row adjacent to the scapular blade. The torso preserves three principal rows of large, ridged osteoderms that show no evidence of accompanying base-plates. The ventrolateral row has the largest osteoderms and these are succeeded in size by the lateral row and dorsolateral row, respectively. There is no evidence to support the existence of a midline dorsal row of osteoderms. The principal rows extend backward across the dorsal and lateral flanks of the body as far as the pelvic area. Smaller cap-shaped osteoderms are scattered between the principal rows, but whether they were organized into subsidiary rows or were more randomly distributed cannot be ascertained. Smaller, narrow-based, ridged osteoderms are found in oblique rows across the anterior chest; they also flank the proximal half of the forelimb (as far as the elbow) and extend to the ankle region in the hind limb. The tail is surrounded by large, narrow-based, high-ridged osteoderms. Unlike the neck and torso, there is a row of dorsal midline osteoderms that are flanked by large, lateral osteoderms, and beneath these there is a midline ventral row. The latter are close-set and particularly deeply keeled in the area nearest to the pelvis. Osteoderms vary considerably both in structure and texture. Base-plates have a rough, porous external texture as a consequence of the abundant vascular canals that penetrate these bones. Internally, their surface is arched and has a woven-textured fabric comprising bundles of mineralized fibres interspersed with large vascular foramina. Accompanying osteoderms are generally a little denser than their base-plates and have a smoother cortex, although abundant small foramina and shallow vascular channels pit and groove this external surface. The pair of occipital osteoderms closely resemble bovid (ungulate mammal) horn-cores and are likely to have been sheathed by keratin (as preserved exceptionally in the ankylosaurians Zuul and Borealopelta). Farther posteriorly, the principal osteoderms in the major rows along the torso and tail are generally thin-walled, cap-shaped and ridged. They have a rough and porous external surface, which suggests that the bone surface was covered by keratinous scales. The generally porous fabric of these osteoderms has been remarked upon and it is probable that these were flushed with blood. Interspersed between the visually dominant parasagittal rows of osteoderms is a scattering of smaller cap-shaped osteoderms and polygonal or rounded, flat ossicles. Scattered populations of these ossicles were probably lost because they were, in effect, ‘invisible’ during excavation and skeletal preparation, being of millimetric dimensions. These smaller osteodermal ossicles formed a mosaic-like pattern on the skin surface and toughened the flexible portions of the skin of the animal. Skin impressions and epidermal peels, probably deriving from the ventral surface of the body, reveal a closely packed mosaic of smaller flat osteoderms that underlie similarly shaped keratinous scales. The discovery of smaller, partly articulated skeletons has revealed aspects of the growth and development of the cervical osteoderm arrays. Individual base-plates begin to form deep in the dermis through mineralization of the woven connective tissue fibres in the stratum compactum and, as these thicken, they also involve the looser and more irregular fibres of the stratum superficiale. Individual base-plates expand peripherally, deepen and form shallowly convex pads externally upon which primordial osteoderms developed. The latter form initially as narrow, elongate, pup-tent-shaped structures with a posteriorly off-set apex and arched, slightly hollow bases. Differential patterns of mineral deposition progressively modify these ‘templates’ into the range of osteoderm morphologies seen in ontogenetically mature skeletons: from subconical curved horns, through tall, carinate blades, to extremely tall, plate-shaped structures, as well as to the simpler oval-based, ridged, pup-tent-shaped osteoderms. As the skeleton approaches full size, in the neck region the base-plates and their osteodermal caps fuse together, and adjacent base-plates interlock before finally fusing together to form partial collars that anchor and support transverse arrays of prominent osteoderms. Osteoderms had the potential to contribute to a number of biological roles in the life of these animals, including protection (defence-retaliation), thermoregulation and more subtle aspects of their behaviour.

English monasticism survived the Reformation only in exile. In the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many monks came to England as pastors to the Catholic community (indeed all members of the English Benedictine Congregation, revived at the beginning of the seventeenth century, took an oath promising to work in England after ordination), but they lived alone or in small groups and except during the early Stuart period there were no organised religious communities in England which could properly be called monastic. This state of affairs was to change dramatically in the years of the French Revolution when the English communities on the continent were repatriated and a number of French religious made their way to England as émigrés. The English communities (including those now represented by the abbeys of Ampleforth in Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset, formerly at Dieulouard in Lorraine and Douai in Flanders respectively) managed to settle in England without too much opposition. These monks had been trained for circumspect behaviour on the mission and were not noticeably ‘monastic’ in either appearance or behaviour; the complete Benedictine habit was not used at Downside, for example, until the late 1840s and working in parishes away from their monasteries remained the normal expectation of most English Benedictine monks until well into the present century. The same could not be said of the community of Saint Susan at Lulworth in Dorset which provided between the years 1794 and 1817 the setting for the first experiment in fully observant monastic life in England for two hundred and fifty years.

During his 75 years of life from the 9th of March 1942 until the 28th of September 2017 Nicholas Wilkinson was a very productive and hardworking individual. He grew up in the north east of England in Corbridge, a small rural town in Northumberland. He was the third child of Zara and Tom Wilkinson and grew up together with his brother Warwick, his sister Joanna. He told me that as a child he played a lot by the riverside, and in their large family house garden and that, amongst other things, his outdoor childhood promoted a deep love of nature in him. His mother Zara had artistic abilities and his father, Tom a very good sense of judgement; Nicholas inherited these talents and characteristics from them. He was educated at Corchester Preparatory School in Corbridge and then at Bryanston School in Blanford, Dorset.

"Editor's Note: We are pleased and proud to publisb here the first 'Marianne Fry Memorial kdure', given by John Kti Wheway on 11 September, 1999. The newly established annual lecture, honouring Marianne Fry, is intended as a vehicle for continued serious exploration of the boundary between Gestalt and spirituality. Marianne Fry, who died in 1998 (and whose obimary appeared in the British Gesdt Journal, 7,l) made explicit and frequent ~onnections between her spiritual life and principles of Gestalt therapy. In this lecture, John Kirti Wheway, a close friend of Marianne, takes Montaignek Essays as his starting point for a remarkable personal statement - a reflective, honest, searching enquiry into therapy, its relation to spirituality in a secularised world, and his own development of selfhood. Montaigne's self- exploration, based on dim experience of 'the lived human life' provides (meway suggests) a mdel for a 'liberal spirituality', revealed here as bad in wholeness, 'the ernbeddedness of the human in the non-human world', the centrality of breath, and the presence of the 'disinterested witness' observing the 'story-telling self'. (John Kirti Wheway 's lecture formed a central part of the first 'Gestalt and Spirituality Gathering', which was organised by Gestalt Southwest and held at Hawkwood College, G'loucestershire, England. A second Gathering will be held 22-24 September, 2000, at Gaunt's House, Dorset, England. For details see the notice in this issue.)"

This study examines the economic effects of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts using a cross-country daily vaccination database and high-frequency indicators of economic activity—NO2 emissions, COemissions. We hitch go wool-gathering an uncourteous store in a hurry relative to a significant increase in productive activity. We anticipate contract hegemony for nonlinear emphatic vaccines, with insignificant remunerative profits increasing as vaccination rates rise. If absolute containment products are in place or if the country is experiencing a severe outbreak, country-specific issuance plays a primary role, resulting in far lower economic income. Surely, the consequences billet say-so of spillovers swelling vitality, highlighting the enumeration of equitable access to vaccines across nations. In addition, vaccines have a great impact on education, job employment rate, and people's quality of life. In education, many schools have changed the way of attending classes due to the epidemic, and the cost of attending classes has been reduced. At the same time, it also helps many people to develop and use video software. In addition, as the pandemic has affected the economy, many companies have faced closures and layoffs, leading to a significant decline in employment. We can't imagine how many people will lose their jobs as the companies they work for close down. A decline in employment leads to a loss of wages and reduced consumption, which in turn affects the economy as a whole. So vaccine development tends to increase employment, and companies can work when fewer people are sick. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the health of the economy.

Abstract Lower educational attainment is associated with a higher risk of dementia and a steeper cognitive decline in older adults. However, less clear is how other socioeconomic markers contribute to cognitive ageing and if these socioeconomic influences on cognitive ageing differ between England and China. We examined the relationship of education, household wealth, and urbanicity with cognitive performance and rate of change over 7-8 years follow up in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, national representative samples of England and China. We found that the rate of cognitive change appears to be socioeconomically patterned, primarily by education and area-based characteristics (urban vs rural), with a stronger impact of inequalities seen in rural China. Public health strategies for preventing cognitive decline and dementia should target socioeconomic gaps to reduce health disparities and protect those particularly disadvantaged in England and China.

The foundation and fortunes of the English College at Bruges, and its contribution to Catholicism in this country, remains one of the least chronicled chapters in the development of seminary education in the nineteenth century. For fifteen years, from 1858 to 1873, the college, founded by Sir John Sutton (1820–1873), trained more than 120 priests for the Church in England, Wales and Scotland.

Abstract Healthy ageing has become a popular topic worldwide. We investigated the role of sleep, leisure activities, and socioeconomic inequalities in relation to cognitive decline, wellbeing, and quality of life in data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), Chinese Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), and Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), national representative samples of England, China and Japan, respectively. We found an inverted U-shaped association between sleep quality and memory in English adults and a positive dose-response association in Chinese older adults (Brocklebank). In another examination, we found that younger English individuals playing games had lower quality-of-life than older participants who game, and this association is more pronounced for widowed individuals than others (Almeida-Meza). Cognitive impairment and dementia represent significant challenges worldwide. In a cross-country investigation, we found that the prevalence of MCI was twice as great in England compared with Japan, but that the two nations differ slightly across socioeconomic correlates (Gireesh). In another cross-country comparison between England and China, we found that the rate of memory change appeared socioeconomically patterned, primarily by education and area-based characteristics (urban vs. rural), with a more substantial impact on rural China inequalities compared to England (Cadar). Our results indicate more robust educational and geographical disparities in China and increased occupational impact among English and Japanese participants. Our findings highlight the imperative need for policy interventions and tailored strategies to protect those particularly disadvantaged in England and China.

AbstractOld Etonian missionary on the borders of Tibet and an English country squire at noisy multi-racial meetings in the back streets of Los Angeles: such contrasts suggest an interesting life, the life of Cecil Henry Polhill. However, this study is undertaken not for curiosity's sake, but because Polhill was a significant figure in the origins of the Pentecostal movement. Like his friend, the Revd. Alexander Boddy, vicar of All Saints, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland in north-east England, Cecil Polhill was a Pentecostal pioneer who remained until his death a faithful member of the established Church of England. Unlike Boddy, Polhill has not until now attracted any researcher. 1

BackgroundDespite the growing prevalence of depression in the Chinese elderly, there is conflicting evidence of life course socioeconomic position (SEP) and depression onset in China, and whether this association is akin to that observed in Western societies. We compared incident risk of mid–late life depression by childhood and adulthood SEP in China and England, a country where mental health inequality is firmly established.MethodsDepression-free participants from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (N=8508) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N=6184) were studied over 4 years. Depressive symptoms were classified as incident cases using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale criteria. Associations between SEP (education, wealth, residence ownership and childhood/adolescent deprivation) and depression symptom onset were assessed using Cox proportional hazards models. In China, we also investigated children’s government employment status as a SEP marker.ResultsHigher education and wealth predicted lower incidence of depression in both countries. The association with non-ownership of residence appeared stronger in England (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.41 to 1.86) than in China (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.29), while that with childhood/adolescent deprivation was stronger in China (HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.29 – 1.60) than in England (HR 1.33, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.92). Chinese adults whose children were employed in high-status government jobs, had lower rates of depression onset.ConclusionsConsistent findings from China and England demonstrate that SEP is a pervasive determinant of mid–late life depression in very diverse social contexts. Together with conventional measures of SEP, the SEP of children also affects the mental health of older Chinese.

Abstract Too little or too much sleep is associated with accelerated cognitive decline in older adults. However, sleep duration does not capture other sleep problems prevalent in older adults, such as difficulties with falling or staying asleep. Less is known about the impact of sleep quality on cognitive ageing, and if this relationship differs between England and China. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the relationship of self-reported sleep quality with cognitive performance and rate of change over 6-7 years follow-up in two nationally-representative samples of English and Chinese older adults. The primary outcome was a memory score (range 0-20), which was assessed using immediate and delayed 10-word recall tests in both cohorts. The results of bivariate descriptive analyses at baseline suggest there may be an inverted U-shaped association between sleep quality and memory in English older adults, and a positive dose-response association in Chinese older adults.

It is nearly two decades since Tony Wrigley first discussed the possible effects that the experience of London life may have had on changing the society of seventeenth-century England. Despite some excellent work on certain aspects of London's social history, however, his qualification still stands: ‘too little is known of the sociological differences between life in London and life in provincial England to afford a clear perception of the impact of London's growth upon the country as a whole’. Among the obstacles to this latter goal are that metropolitan and provincial society are often seen as qualitatively different and, perhaps in consequence, comparisons between the two have not been seriously attempted. What is needed is a model which might serve to embrace the experiences of both urban and rural inhabitants within a common framework.

Abstract The largely rural setting of Northern New England offers unique challenges to implementing improved acute care for the growing geriatric population. Northern New England is one of the United States’ most rapidly aging regions, with Vermont and New Hampshire being the second and third oldest US states respectively by median age (U.S. Census 2017). There is a need to expand innovations in geriatric emergency medicine to reach older adults in rural areas such as Northern New England. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the West Health are collaborating on a project leveraging telehealth to extend the reach of a GED to rural hospitals, as well as investigate the opportunities for scaling and sustaining this concept to other rural facilities across Northern New England and throughout the country. This symposium will focus on our experience implementing a hub and spoke model to achieve our goal of improving the care of older adults in rural emergency departments.

This article contemplates the idyllic imagery of Elizabeth Gaskell's rural texts in relation to the key visual motifs of the Internet aesthetic "cottagecore." Meanwhile, the paper also strives to highlight the importance of both the Victorian era, particularly its literature and art, with regard to this popular Internet aesthetic. With some brief references to influential figures of the age, the cultural timeframe surrounding Gaskell's rural fiction is shown to offer significant historical relevance to the romanticisation of the English country-cottage life. The literary and pictorial texts serve as examples of this cultural process. Considering the author's mostly ornamental use of cottages in Wives and Daughters as well as her employment of floral characterisation, the paper also highlights the visual aesthetics of the cottage art of Helen Allingham and Myles Birket Foster as well as rural depictions made by illustrators of Gaskell's provincial works that display the visual after-life of Gaskell's rural texts.

This article presents scholarship relating to work conducted in the Dennis Potter Archive, Dean Heritage Centre, Dean Museum Trust, England. It argues that the Dennis Potter Archive is a significant archive consisting of handwritten manuscripts and notebook drafts of virtually all of the work of famed writer Dennis Potter (1935–94), allowing us unique access to the engine room of his creativity. The article focuses on the ‘discovery’ of Potter works previously unknown and/or inaccessible, including completed drafts of unproduced television plays and unproduced film screenplays. It also sheds new light on the genesis of perhaps Potter’s most famous work, The Singing Detective (BBC TV 1986). It shows how this began as a ‘last’ television play, but that as it developed, Potter reached back to themes and preoccupations he first explored as a young man in an unpublished novel, written decades earlier. Marrying research in the archive with statements Potter gave about his work during his lifetime, the article uses accumulated Potter scholarship, together with manuscript critical analysis and dating, in order to piece together a clearer and fuller understanding of the working life of one of the most famous names in British television and film history.

Abstract Non-mortgage debts were linked to negative cognitive health outcomes in later-life older adults. It is unclear how they may be associated with later-life memory function through psychosocial pathways, and whether the associations vary by health care system and policy environment. We examined the mediating effects of depressive symptoms and dissatisfaction with life in the association between non-mortgage debts and subsequent memory function among adults aged 65-101 years in the US, China, and England. Data were from harmonized, nationally representative longitudinal studies of aging in the US (Health and Retirement Study; n=8,388), China (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study; n=1,180), and England (English Longitudinal Study of Aging; n=3,390). Non-mortgage debt burden was defined as any pre-existing or new non-mortgage debts in two years (2010-2012 for the US and England; 2011-2013 for China). Memory function was measured by 20-point immediate and delayed word recall summary scores over a subsequent 5- or 6-year follow-up period. Within each country, we used sampling-weighted, multivariable-adjusted causal mediation analysis (product method) to estimate the total and direct effects of non-mortgage debts on memory function, and the indirect effects mediated by depressive symptoms and dissatisfaction with life. We observed significant mediating effects of depressive symptoms on the association between non-mortgage debts and memory function in China only. Dissatisfaction with life had a significant mediating effect on this association in US and China, not in England. Although more investigation is needed, the relationships between non-mortgage debts and later-life memory function through psychosocial pathways may differ across macro-level socioeconomic structures.

Abstract Countries across the globe are experiencing declining rates of fertility and marriage, which present a distinct challenge for older adults’ social integration, well-being, and end-of-life care. However, older adults who are “alone” (e.g., no partner, no child) may not be lonely, and end-of-life risks faced by “kinless” older adults likely vary significantly by country context. Using harmonized, cross-national data from 20 countries (United States (HRS), England (ELSA), and European Union (SHARE)), we examine associations between family structure, loneliness, and end-of-life outcomes. Although “kinless” family structures are associated with greater loneliness in the pooled sample, the percent of “kinless” who report no signs of loneliness ranges from 7% (Greece) to 56% (Denmark). Family structure is associated with various end-of-life outcomes, and these associations vary by country—likely reflecting differences in healthcare structure. We discuss distinctions between “being alone,” “being lonely,” and “being without care” in light of cross-national variation.

Background The cumulative (dis)advantage (CAD) perspective more and more is examined in a comparative way, to highlight the role of context in generating inequality over the life course. This study adds to this field of research by examining trajectories of activities of daily living (ADL) in later life by educational level in a country comparison of England and Germany, emphasizing differing institutional conditions. Method Data used are the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA; 11,352 individuals) and the German subsample of the Survey of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE; 5,573 individuals). Using population averaged Poisson panel regression models, 12-year trajectories of six birth cohorts are investigated, covering the age range of 50 to 90 years. Results Respondents in England have a higher level of limitations at age 50, and more limited increases over age than in Germany. An educational gradient exists in both countries at age 50. Notably, the educational gradient increases for more recently born cohorts, but declines with increasing age in England, while in Germany educational differences increase for more recently born cohort only. Discussion The current study indicates that CAD processes between educational groups are context sensitive. While England showed convergence of disparities with increasing age, in Germany no differential development was found.

From the moment of Luther’s defiance of both Pope and Emperor at the Diet of Worms the sixteenth century became a period par excellence of cuius regio, eius religio, and of nowhere was this more true than for the very different societies of England and Poland. In England, for that time a highly centralized country, the nation’s religious fate oscillated wildly with the change of monarchs and their respective governments, mildly reformist under Henry VIII so long as Thomas Cromwell held power, indisputedly Protestant during the rule of the boy king, Edward VI, as indisputedly Roman Catholic in the equally short reign of Mary I, and then Protestant, as it turned out permanently, on the accession of Elizabeth. In Poland, where, because of its proximity to Wittenberg, Luther’s teachings began taking root at least within the German communities considerably earlier than in England, the spread first of Lutheranism and then Calvinism depended far more on the attitude of the nobility than of the monarch, though the succession of the more tolerant Sigismund Augustus in 1548 certainly accelerated the process. Apart from the five years between 1547 and 1553 in England, in neither country was life easy for converts to the Swiss version of Protestantism before 1560, and at different times both Polish and English Protestants suffered quite severe episodes of persecution: this essay traces the fortunes of the Poles who found a refuge in England and of the English who sought a temporary haven in Poland on account of their religion in the mid-sixteenth century.

Ours is the age of the Jacobite restoration – not in dynastic terms, but in historical scholarship. Parliamentary Jacobitism in the period after 1710 has particularly attracted recent attention. While disagreement persists among historians as to the extent and seriousness of tory involvement with the Jacobite cause, few would deny that the issue is significant. By contrast, the influence of Jacobitism on politics under William III has been almost entirely neglected. Beyond the shadowy conspiracies that have long fascinated researchers, little is known of the role of Jacobite sentiment in the political life of England between 1688 and 1702. Not much has been added to Keith Feiling's sixty-year old assessment of the Jacobites as ‘that right wing of Toryism, in which the whole pre-Revolutionary sentiment survived’.

Abstract Education is positively related to cognitive function. However, educational gradients in cognitive function may vary across older populations with different educational compositions and physical and social environments. We conducted one of the first cross-national comparative studies on educational differences in later-life cognitive function using harmonized data. Multivariable linear regressions were employed to estimate the association between education according to International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) categories and cognitive function for adults ages 60+ from the United States, England, Mexico, South Africa, India, and China. Cross-country differences were tested using fully interacted models. Controlling for demographics and parental education, we found significant educational gradients in cognitive function in low- and middle-income countries; however, in high-income countries, only those with upper secondary education and above had a consistent cognitive advantage over those with primary education. This study suggests substantial country-level differences in cognitive benefits of educational attainment.

Abstract Japan is the world’s fastest ageing population, with a higher prevalence of dementia than in the UK. Less clear is the role of socioeconomic inequalities in neurocognitive disorders between these countries. This study aims to assess comparatively the relationship between education, a marker of cognitive reserve, and income in relation to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in England and Japan. We ascertained MCI using a validated algorithm based on one standard deviation below the mean on two standardised cognitive tests. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to study the associations between socioeconomic markers and MCI/dementia. The prevalence of MCI was almost twice as high among English adults compared to Japanese. Results suggest that nations are similar in overall socioeconomic inequalities of MCI/dementia, but this might differ across socioeconomic markers. Considerable variability in the health inequalities could be attributed to the country-specific socio-cultural-political factors, which remains to be further explored.

ABSTRACTThe assumed rate of future mortality improvement has increased over three recent sets of the United Kingdom's national population projections. This optimism has not been so marked in countries which share ancestors with the U.K. population. New Zealand is one such country that provides a data-rich case example in which to investigate the portability of mortality trends.This paper compares mortality trends in New Zealand with those in England & Wales. Both countries seem to have a ‘golden cohort’ which enjoys faster improving mortality than people born before or after. The birth of the golden cohort in England & Wales coincided with cohort life expectancy there catching up with New Zealand's.We show that first generation migrants from the U.K. have better mortality than New Zealand born residents likely to have British ancestry. The advantage lasts into older ages, decades after migration. We hypothesise that migrants from the U.K.'s golden cohort brought with them an early life mortality improvement advantage, and additionally benefited from the healthier environment of New Zealand at middle to older ages. Further, given the recent strong mortality improvement in New Zealand, the U.K.'s assumptions for future mortality look relatively optimistic.

You that are men and thoughts of manhood know,Be Just now to the Man who made you so.Martyr'd by Scholars the stabbed Cassian dies,And falls to cursed Lads a Sacrafice.Not so my Cheever; Not by Scholars slain,But Praised and Lov'd, and wished to Life again.Cotton Mather, 1708In New England, as in the country as a whole, teaching began as a male occupation. The earliest schoolmasters taught in small settlements of religious dissenters who had migrated to the wilderness of New England in the seventeenth century. The gendered meaning of teaching accompanied the social practice of hiring male teachers. Puritan minister Cotton Mather, in his passionate elegy for seventeenth-century New England schoolmaster Ezekiel Cheever, attests to the settlers' belief in the manliness of teachers. To Mather and other English settlers, the very term schoolmaster denoted masculine qualities. In Mather's own words: “He lives as a Master, the Term, which has been for above three thousand years, assign'd to the Life of a Man.” For Mather, teachers were not only male but embodied a particular vision of the masculine as well. Mather's vision of the ideal teacher, as having a specific kind of masculinity, was not unique to him. Drawing on English and Puritan traditions, the early New England colonists embraced an image of the ideal teacher that incorporated masculine virtues.

Abstract Strong evidence demonstrates the long-term influence of stress and well-being on psychological, social, and physical health outcomes across the lifespan. Because of this, stress and well-being measures have been added to nearly all of the International Family of Health and Retirement Studies. However, this newly available data has not been compared cross-nationally or within-country to unpack how culture influences these important predictors of healthy aging. Using the Gateway to Global Aging Data, which provides harmonized data from the Health and Retirement Study and its sibling nationally representative studies, levels of self-reported stress (e.g. job stress, discrimination, loneliness) and well-being (e.g. quality of life, life satisfaction) are compared across 30 countries. Data come from the following studies: HRS, ELSA, SHARE, TILDA, CHARLS, KLoSA, MHAS, and JSTAR. We used data from the latest study wave for which the relevant survey was implemented. Average age of participants across studies is 67 and 55% are women. Initial analyses show stressor specific findings such as participants in Korea reported greater work stress than participants in Japan, England, the United States, and across Europe, and the United States reported higher loneliness than China and England, but not higher than Ireland. Reporting cross-national and within-country variation in these measures will be generative in pointing to new research directions for understanding how culture influences health and aging trajectories.

Objective: To determine whether impaired quality of life (QoL) in adults with GH deficiency (GHD) is reversible with long-term GH therapy and whether the responses in QoL dimensions differ from each other. Methods: QoL was measured by the Quality of Life–Assessment for Growth Hormone Deficiency in Adults (QoL-AGHDA) in general population samples in England & Wales, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden (n = 892, 1038, 868 and 1682 respectively) and compared with corresponding patients’ data from KIMS (Pfizer International Metabolic Database) (n = 758, 247, 197 and 484 respectively) for 4–6 years a follow-up. The subsets of patients from England and Wales, and Sweden with longitudinal data for 5 years’ follow-up were also analysed. The change of the total QoL-AGHDA scores and responses within dimensions were evaluated. Subanalyses were performed to identify any specificity in response pattern for gender, age, disease-onset and aetiology. Results: Irrespective of the degree of impairment, overall QoL improved dramatically in the first 12 months, with steady progress thereafter towards the country-specific population mean. Problems with memory and tiredness were the most serious burden for untreated patients, followed by tenseness, self-confidence and problems with socialising. With treatment, these improved in the reverse order, normalising for the latter three. Conclusions: Long-term GH replacement results in sustained improvements towards the normative country-specific values in overall QoL and in most impaired dimensions. The lasting improvement and almost identical pattern of response in each patient subgroup and independent of the level of QoL impairment support the hypothesis that GHD may cause these patients’ psychological problems.

One way of characterising the good society is one that has achieved a high degree of health equity. For a low-income country, one route to this achievement is to increase national income. But other features of society come to the fore, for low, middle and high-income societies alike. In England, my review of health inequalities highlighted: good early child development, education and life long learning, employment and working conditions, having enough income to lead a healthy life, healthy and sustainable places to live and work, taking a social determinants approach to prevention. Taking action on these requires commitment and cross-government action.

Abstract The widely cited Lancet Commission (Livingston et al., 2017) concluded that a third of dementia cases may be preventable through appropriate interventions targeting what they refer to as modifiable risk factors. These risk factors have been widely studied individually, but rarely investigated collectively and across many countries. We analyze the cross-country consistency of relationships between these modifiable risk factors and cognition using an internationally comparable set of aging studies in 31 countries including the United States, England and Europe. Cross-country differences in culture, policies, economy, and other collective experiences lead to significant variation in lifecycle outcomes, including dementia onset and modifiable risk factors. We find a limited number of robust relations: education, depression, and hearing show clear, consistent associations with our cognition measure, the sum of immediate and delayed recall. The evidence for other factors, including obesity, smoking, diabetes, and hypertension is weaker and becomes almost non-existent when correcting for multiple hypotheses testing. The inconsistent relationship across countries between these risk factors and cognition suggests the lack of a causal mechanism leading to cognitive decline – a necessary condition for these risk factors to be modifiable and effective targets for policy interventions aimed at controlling the prevalence and cost of dementia.

This paper considers the importance of material objects for looked after and adopted children integrated as part of life story work practices. Conducting life story work is believed to be good practice within direct work with looked after children in England and there are a range of diverse practices, including life story books, later life letters and memory boxes. Through a creative design project developing a playful memory product for looked after children, we have had the opportunity to capture sector perspectives on life story work approaches and these are interspersed throughout this commentary. Combining multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives and these sector insights, we explore how special material objects are important for children’s identity and continuity of sense of self. The paper highlights the importance of children telling their own stories of these objects, giving them agency and control over their life story narratives. In a context of austerity, life story work may not be prioritised by social workers who have many other competing demands and limited resources. We emphasise the need for professionals to recognise the value children give to objects and to provide them with opportunities to both keep these safe during placement moves and to tell their own story through their objects alongside more traditional, formal life story work. The recommendations have implications for children in out of home care in many country contexts, not just England where the research has been conducted.

Abstract Household wealth is positively associated with later-life cognitive health, but little is known about the effects of changes in wealth over time and whether they differ across populations. In this study, we evaluated the within- and between-country relationships between short-term changes in household wealth and subsequent cognitive function among adults aged ≥65 years in China, England, Mexico, and the US. We used sampling-weighted, multivariable-adjusted linear models to estimate the relationships between household wealth change over 3- to 4-year periods and subsequent harmonized general cognitive performance factor scores using HCAP measures. We found that short-term decreases in household wealth were associated with poor subsequent cognitive health in the US and China, but not in England or Mexico. The observed associations were weaker in Mexico than in the US. In summary, macro-level social and economic structures may modify the association between wealth changes and cognitive health, although further investigation is needed.

From an ultimate perspective, the age of onset of female reproduction should be sensitive to variation in mortality rates, and variation in the productivity of non-reproductive activities. In accordance with this prediction, most of the cross-national variation in women's age at first birth can be explained by differences in female life expectancies and incomes. The within-country variation in England shows a similar pattern: women have children younger in neighbourhoods where the expectation of healthy life is shorter and incomes are lower. I consider the proximate mechanisms likely to be involved in producing locally appropriate reproductive decisions. There is evidence suggesting that developmental induction, social learning and contextual evocation may all play a role.

Printed ephemera can be beguiling evidence of historic foodways. An ad for an English food merchant from 1880 uses language that blurs its time of origin. It shows familiar terms, such as "American cheese," but others, such as "green ham," that signal its antiquity. Because ads and other bits of throwaway graphic design are usually tied to brief, transitory events, they express their time succinctly and offer many paths for food historians to follow. This ad leads to investigations about what foods were popular in 1880 England, the terms used for them, the differences between city life and country life, and the rapid changes in food production at the end of the nineteenth century.

Background: A rapidly ageing population presents major challenges to health and social care services. Cross-country comparative studies on survival among older adults are limited. In addition, Japan, the country with the longest life expectancy, is rarely included in these cross-country comparisons. Objective: We examined the relative contributions of social and behavioural factors on the differences in survival among older people in Japan and England. Methods: We used data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES; n = 13,176) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA; n = 5,551) to analyse all-cause mortality up to 9.4 years from the baseline. Applying Laplace regression models, the 15th survival percentile difference was estimated. Results: During the follow-up, 31.3% of women and 38.6% of men in the ELSA died, whereas 19.3% of women and 31.3% of men in the JAGES died. After adjusting for age and baseline health status, JAGES participants had longer survival than ELSA participants by 318.8 days for women and by 131.6 days for men. Family-based social relationships contributed to 105.4 days longer survival in JAGES than ELSA men. Fewer friendship-based social relationships shortened the JAGES men’s survival by 45.4 days compared to ELSA men. Currently not being a smoker contributed to longer survival for JAGES women (197.7 days) and ELSA men (46.6 days), and having lower BMI reduced the survival of JAGES participants by 129.0 days for women and by 212.2 days for men. Conclusion: Compared to participants in England, Japanese older people lived longer mainly because of non-smoking for women and family-based social relationships for men. In contrast, a lower rate of underweight, men’s better friendship-based social relationships, and a lower smoking rate contributed to survival among participants in England.

This paper is a study of the costs and quality of life of 157 people attending specialist employment schemes for people with long-term mental health problems in southeast England. The research, work force, and the seven work settings are described and differences found between service users in satisfaction, social networks and costs at 1994–95 levels are reported. This is the first such study of work schemes in this country, and while still not generalisable, it supplies valuable empirical evidence for all those concerned with psychiatric rehabilitation.

Alfred the Great is King of Wessex, reigning from 871 to 899. Alfred successfully defended his country against the the invasion and pilage attempt of Vikings and became the most powerful monarch in England until his death. Alfred is one of two British monarchs to hold the title of "Great". The other ruler with this title is Knud the Great, who Scandinavian origin. He was the first king to describe himself not only as the "King of the West Saxons" but als as the "King of the Anglo-Saxons" as a completly. Alfred the Great draws attention as one of the rare medieval figures whose popularity still continues today with his actions. Alfred's influence continued through the ages and was directly associated with British imperialism by some authors. Cultural and administrative developments during the reign of Alfred the Great attracted the attention of many authors. Alfred was famous as a merciful, gracious king who loved to learn, reorganized the legal system and military structure of his country with his reforms, and improved the quality of life of the people. Alfred made incentives for the dissemination of education in his country. However, he preferred English, not Latin, as the language of education in the country. The main purpose of our article is to provide a brief perspective on Alfred's life.