The Working Week in the Long Nineteenth Century: Evidence from the Timings of Political Events in Britain

Debates about patterns of time use in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain go back to the seminal work of E. P. Thompson in the 1960s. But the lack of systematic evidence means that many of these questions remain unresolved. In an attempt to advance those debates, this essay uses three catalogs of political events to reconstruct the working week in Britain over the long nineteenth century. Three patterns emerge. First, observance of Saint Monday appears to have been widespread in the early nineteenth century before declining slowly in the mid-1800s, a process that happened faster in factory towns than elsewhere. This finding supports the orthodox narrative about Saint Monday against its recent challengers (in particular Hans-Joachim Voth). Second, I find that political organizers in the early nineteenth century were reluctant to profane the Sabbath by arranging public meetings on Sundays, but that this came to an end during the heyday of Chartism. Third, these catalogs also provide some, more speculative, evidence that the working day and the working week became more ordered as the nineteenth century wore on.

Exploring Unobserved Heterogeneity in Cyclists’ Occupying Motorized Vehicle Lane Behaviors at Different Bike Facility Configurations

Cyclists occupying motorized vehicle lanes disrupt road traffic order and increase collisions. Exploring the contributing factors could help develop countermeasures to regulate such behaviors. The purpose of this study is to explore the intrinsic features influencing the behavior of cyclists in occupying motorized vehicle lanes at different bicycle facilities. We investigated a total of 34,631 cycling behavior samples in the urban area of Pingdingshan, China. A Bayesian random parameter logit model was used to account for the unobserved heterogeneous effects. The experimental results of all bike facilities demonstrate that the bike type, dividing strip type, bike lane width, temporary on-street parking, and whether it is a working day significantly affect cyclists’ occupying motorized vehicle lane behaviors. Factors associated with unobserved heterogeneity are age, barriers dividing strip, vehicle lane numbers, bike volume, vehicle volume, and daily recording time intervals. Comparing the estimated model of five type bike lane facilities across different dividing strips, we find that cyclists have a significantly different occupying probability and the heterogeneity factors of the various bike facilities also have their focus. When the non-motorized road conditions become more open, the cyclist behavior becomes more random and the heterogeneity factors become broader.

Research on Combined Forecasting of Cooling Load Based on Advanced Cuckoo Search and Improved Particle Swarm Optimization

This study aims to improve the real-time accuracy of cooling load forecasting for heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems (HVAC). This article takes the cooling load in a study room in Qingdao, China, which has been put into use for the first time, as the research object, and establishes a TRNSYS simulation platform to obtain sufficient load data. After using the mean influence value (MIV) and Spearman correlation coefficient to screen the characteristic variables, a hybrid algorithm (CS-CPSO) based on cuckoo search (CS) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed. Firstly, the iterative extremum is introduced to PSO, secondly, mechanism of levy random flight to generate random new nest in CS is used to initialize PSO particles adaptively, Finally, the optimization algorithm is applied to optimize the back propagation (BP) and support vector regression (SVR) load training models (WBP, WSVR, RBP, RSVR) of the working day (W) and rest day (R), respectively. The maximum grey correlation coefficient is utilized to establish the both models (CS-CPSO-CW, CS-CPSO-CR) of the working day (W) and rest day (R) based on CS-CPSO. In this way, the forecasting results are optimized and then compared with the regression prediction method. The analysis shows that the accuracy of the optimized BP model and SVR model are improved and fully considering the differences, the accuracy of the cooling load prediction is effectively promoted by separately, optimal selection between the prediction values of advanced models (CS-CPSO-WBP, CS-CPSO-WSVR and CS-CPSO-RBP, CS-CPSO-RSVR) gives full play to each algorithm’s advantages and makes up for their shortcomings, and it greatly increases reliability and improves accuracy, which in turn provides the basis for the optimal plan, control, and operation of the HVAC.

Co-Production at Work: The Process of Breaking Up Sitting Time to Improve Cardiovascular Health. A Pilot Study

Prolonged sitting negatively affects several cardiovascular disease biomarkers. Current workplace physical activity interventions to reduce sitting result in inconsistent uptake and adherence rates. Co-production attempts to improve the translation of evidence to practice through engaging the participants within the intervention design, improving the context sensitivity and acceptability of the intervention. A needs analysis questionnaire was initially conducted (n = 157) to scope workplace behaviours and attitudes. A development group (n = 11) was consulted in focus groups around the needs analysis findings and asked to comment on the feasibility of a proposed intervention. A pilot intervention was then carried out (n = 5). The needs analysis indicated that only 1.8% (n = 4) engaged in occupational physical activity, and 68.7% (n = 103) sat for ≥6 h during their working day. Through the focus groups, an intervention breaking up sitting time hourly with five-minute walking breaks was co-produced. Cultural and pragmatic issues concerning the implementation of frequent physical activity breaks from sitting and the subsequent impact on work productivity were highlighted. The pilot intervention increased the number of breaks from sedentary behaviour from 2 to 11. The co-production methodology resulted in a research- and stakeholder-guided compromise. Large-scale intervention implementation is required before firm effectiveness conclusions can be made.

nanopore nCoV-2019 sequencing protocol (RAPID barcoding, 1200bp amplicon, combined RT-PCR) v2

We established a protocol for fast, cost efficient Sars-CoV-2 sequencing with little as possible hands-on time (around 3h in total, excluding RNA extraction). The whole Sequencing can be done in one working day, including the bioinformatic pipeline. The cost per sample accumulates at around 40$, with already isolated RNA. We adapted and simplified existing workflows using the ‘midnight’ 1,200 bp amplicon split primer sets for PCR, which produce tiled overlapping amplicons covering almost all of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Subsequently, we applied the Oxford Nanopore Rapid barcoding protocol and the portable MinION Mk1C sequencer in combination with the ARTIC bioinformatics pipeline. We tested the simplified and less time-consuming workflow on confirmed SARS-CoV-2-positive specimens from clinical routine and identified pre-analytical parameters, which may help to decrease the rate of sequencing failures. Duration of the complete pipeline was approx. 7 hrs for one specimen and approx. 11 hrs for 12 multiplexed barcoded specimens. This protocol is a modified version of Nikki Freed and Olin Silanders protocol. To get information such as Primers, visit their protocol. Nikki Freed, Olin Silander 2020. nCoV-2019 sequencing protocol (RAPID barcoding, 1200bp amplicon).doi: 10.1093/biomethods/bpaa014 Our peer-reviewed paper is available here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/9/12/2598

ACTIVITY OF COURTS IN THE KHANTY-MANSIYSK AUTONOMOUS OKRUG TO STRENGTHEN THE LABOR DISCIPLINE OF THE SOVIET SOCIETY IN THE EARLY 1940s

The article reflects the peculiarities of implementing the penal and labor policy by the Soviet party and state bodies, including judicial ones in the Ostyako-Vogulsky, later Khanty-Mansiysk National Okrug, their interrelation in the early 1940s. The stages of evolving and forming the administrative-territorial structure in the region are also touched upon. The relevance of the stated topic is noted. In the conditions of the Second World War and on the eve of the Great Patriotic War in the USSR, there were noticeable changes in the social policy of the state, which were conditioned by the needs of the country’s defense. It is known that in the 1930s tensions in international relations increased, there was a threat of an attack on the USSR. Due to this in 1940s the transition to an 8-hour working day and a 7-day working week was carried out in all regions of the country. In the same year, a law was adopted on the judicial responsibility up to imprisonment for unauthorized leave, absenteeism and tardiness as a result of which criminal penalties and the role of punitive, including judicial, bodies were strengthened in the country. The article notes that in the harsh northern conditions, taking into account the vast territory of the district, a significant distance separating settlements from each other, the lack of proper transport links between settlements, it was impossible to properly and promptly ensure proper consideration of criminal cases, which did not allow the territorial judicial authorities of the Ostyak-Vogul (Khanty-Mansiysk) National Okrug to make correct and balanced decisions in a timely manner. However, the judicial authorities of the district played an important role in strengthening labor discipline in the region in the early 1940s.

Civil-legal terms in contractual system

Objective: to develop the “term” concept in the contract system legislation and to identify the features of terms calculation, taking into account the wording of the Federal Law “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, and services for state and municipal needs” of 02.07.2021.Methods: general scientific and specific scientific research methods are used in the work.Results: the legislation on the contract system does not register the “term” concept, but establishes it in all procedures and for all participants of the contract system. Terms violation entails administrative liability for both legal entities and officials. The entire logistics of procurement activities is connected with terms. As a result of the study, the following features related to terms in the contract system were identified: a) the terms calculation in the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, and services for state and municipal needs must be carried out in accordance with Chapter 11 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation; b) Monday to Friday, except for federal official holidays, as well as other non-working days established by the authorities of the Russian Federation, should be considered working days; c) taking into account the high administrative responsibility for these offenses, if possible, to add to the established minimum and to subtract from the maximum period at least one day for unforeseen technical failures, in addition to the calculated period; d) in the legal structure “from the day following the day”, when establishing the maximum preventive terms in the law, to calculate the terms from the day of the event, the minimum preventive terms – from the day following the specified event; e) in some cases, as, for example, when concluding a contract, the customer should not only comply with all the terms of the formula “not more”, but also plan so that at the last stage there is no contradiction between “not more” and “not less”; f) the calculation of the terms provided by Law for the placement of electronic documents and information in the UIS starts from the moment they are placed in the UIS. Individual documents are placed in the UIS through the Treasury, the territorial body of which has the right to form notifications about the passage of control of these objects of control during the next working day. At that, the placement of control objects in the UIS will be carried out on the next working day from the date of their referral for control to the appropriate Treasury body.Scientific novelty: the article for the first time examines the norms and rules for calculating the terms stipulated in the Federal Law “On the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, and services for state and municipal needs” as amended on 02.07.2021, and analyzes regulatory legal acts in the field of procurement that come into force on January 1, 2022.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the calculation of terms in the field of procurement.

Simplified Point-of-Care Full SARS-CoV-2 Genome Sequencing Using Nanopore Technology

The scale of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic warrants the urgent establishment of a global decentralized surveillance system to recognize local outbreaks and the emergence of novel variants of concern. Among available deep-sequencing technologies, nanopore-sequencing could be an important cornerstone, as it is mobile, scalable, and cost-effective. Therefore, streamlined nanopore-sequencing protocols need to be developed and optimized for SARS-CoV-2 variants identification. We adapted and simplified existing workflows using the ‘midnight’ 1200 bp amplicon split primer sets for PCR, which produce tiled overlapping amplicons covering almost the entire SARS-CoV-2 genome. Subsequently, we applied Oxford Nanopore Rapid Barcoding and the portable MinION Mk1C sequencer combined with the interARTIC bioinformatics pipeline. We tested a simplified and less time-consuming workflow using SARS-CoV-2-positive specimens from clinical routine and identified the CT value as a useful pre-analytical parameter, which may help to decrease sequencing failures rates. Complete pipeline duration was approx. 7 h for one specimen and approx. 11 h for 12 multiplexed barcoded specimens. The adapted protocol contains fewer processing steps and can be completely conducted within one working day. Diagnostic CT values deduced from qPCR standardization experiments can act as principal criteria for specimen selection. As a guideline, SARS-CoV-2 genome copy numbers lower than 4 × 106 were associated with a coverage threshold below 20-fold and incompletely assembled SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Thus, based on the described thermocycler/chemistry combination, we recommend CT values of ~26 or lower to achieve full and high-quality SARS-CoV-2 (+)RNA genome coverage.

The Daily Lives of Urban Women during the Khrushchev Thaw in Soviet and Post-Soviet Scholarship

The article discusses the rise and changes of scholarly interest in urban women's everyday life in the USSR of the mid-twentieth century. By studying the Soviet and post-Soviet historiography of women's everyday life during Khrushchevs Thaw, the authors explain that at first this subject was treated in analogy to the customary celebration of Soviet achievements: also, the womens question would eventually be resolved. With rising doubts about the resolvability of the complex problems related to gender relations came a paradigm shift towards reflections on the difficulties and contradictions in the lifestyle of urban women. At the center of debate were now the necessity for shortening the working day and for additional vacation days, as well as the double bondage of women who had to combine a professional workload with heavy family obligations. The authors argue that in the 1990s (a period now often called the new thaw, and the nineties of the gender debates), the political aspects of female life in the 1950s and 1960s became marginal in scholarship. The main attention was now focused on the home and family spheres, on problems of corporeality and fashion, and on the woman's voice in literature, cinema and media. In consequence, some aspects of women's everyday life during the Thaw years remained unexplored. Finally, there are no generalizing works that would compare women's everyday life on the levels of the USSR, Russia, or Russias regions, and little work has been done on ethnocultural characteristics of women's life in the post-war USSR.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM REGISTRATION OF OCCUPANCY AND USE OF LIGHTING IN OFFICES, SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES AND INDUSTRY BUILDINGS, A CROSS COUNTRY STUDY

The paper presents a registration of occupancy and the use of (day)light in four buildings representing respectively offices, primary schools, universities, and industry buildings; it was done across Europe in 2020. A self-registration method was used, assisted with light technical measurements outdoors and indoors. In general, occupants consider the visual environment at the workplace when they are coming in or out of the room. It happens mainly at the beginning (adjustment of blinds and switching light on) and at the end of the working day (switching light off). In the primary school building, where users move in-out many times during the day, the adjustment happens more frequently. Also use of projector generates very low general light level; covering windows and switching off the electric light happens accordingly, but the pattern is not consistent. In general, the changes in the electrical lighting use follow the occupancy pattern, not the light levels.