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In Victorian Britain rags were not only associated with the inadequate clothing of the poor, they were also viewed as a valuable commodity, widely collected for recycling into paper. This essay examines rags as simultaneously despised and precious objects, tracing the connections between Victorian accounts of poverty, the industrial recycling of rags into paper, and the redemption narratives created by Charles Dickens about rescued children. A supporter of Ragged Schools and champion of rags recycling, Dickens drew on the idea of the transformation of dirty rags into clean paper in his representations of ragged children. To him, the recycling of rags indicated the civilizing forces of modernity, and reading Dickens's representations of ragged children in this context reveals how cloth recycling became a paradigm for society's duties towards destitute children. This essay explains Dickens's juxtaposition of ragged children with references to rag-dealing in his novels; by this means he suggested that street children, like their ragged clothing, were capable of being purified and transformed into social usefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Starch is one of the most important plant products to man. It is an essential component of food providing a large proportion of the daily calorific intake and is important in non-food uses such as in adhesives. However, while much is known about the chemistry and pathways of synthesis for starch, there are major gaps in this knowledge so that it is not possible to modify the quantity or quality of starch produced by plants in a predictable way. While yield has improved markedly over the last century it is no longer improving faster than the growth in population and, at the same time, farmers' incomes in Europe have been falling, especially in the UK. Thus, production, even in Europe, is not much greater than demand. In the western world an increasing amount of the harvested crop is processed and, therefore, the quality of the raw product becomes an increasingly important issue. There is, therefore, an increasing need to combine the modern mathematical modelling tools with modern biochemical tools and the modern science of genomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government's White Paper, Learning to Succeed: a new framework for post-16 learning, is here evaluated. The considerable strengths of the proposals – replacement of the TECs with Learning and Skills Councils, the adoption of social partnership in the membership of the new Councils, the substantial increase in resource and a large number of specific measures – are briefly welcomed. A number of serious reservations are then discussed in detail – for example, the absence of a model of change, the over-riding concern to meet the skill needs of business, the overreliance on human capital theory and the continued dependence on exhortation as a means of increasing employers' investment in training. Findings from The Learning Society Programme are then used to question some of the central assumptions underlying the official model of progress. It is argued that endless technocratic reforms are more likely to foster conformity, compliance and control rather than emancipation, empowerment and the enhancement of learning. Finally, it is concluded that the government is rightly pursuing radical, structural reform but is failing to recognize the potential of lifelong learning as a major lever on such change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the working papers on the main proposals for the government's white paper, Working for Patients in Great Britain. Practice budget for general practitioners; Pressure on drug expenditure; Improvement of quality of care; Role of general managers in the leadership of the Family Practitioners Committee.

Focuses on the provisions of the British government's report regarding government information entitled `White Paper.' Proposal for the accessibility of governmental information to public scrutiny; Support for transparency in international relations; Report's ambiguity on exemptions; Possible amendment of the Data Protection Act.

Focuses on the establishment of Great Britain's White Paper on Science and Technology. Measures of effective exploitation on scientific research; Establishment of Technology Foresight Steering Group; Presentation of the White Paper's policy for science and technology.

Presents comments on the impact of white paper on the National Health Service (NHS) of Great Britain. Assertions on the significance and focus of the paper in specialist services; Comments on the significance of chapters four, five and six of the paper; Account on the effect of the paper on minority groups.

Focuses on the rejection of the general practitioners of the government's National Health Service (NHS) in Great Britain. Rejection of the government's proposal for general practitioners; Views regarding the white paper of the NHS; Compatibility of the concepts of the white paper with the principles of the NHS.

Background: Response rates to surveys are declining and this threatens the validity and generalisability of their findings. We wanted to determine whether paper quality influences the response rate to postal surveysMethods: A postal questionnaire was sent to all members of the British Society of Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE). Recipients were randomised to receiving the questionnaire printed on standard quality paper or high quality paper.Results: The response rate for the recipients of high quality paper was 43/195 (22%) and 57/194 (29%) for standard quality paper (relative rate of response 0.75, 95% CI 0.33-1.05, p = 0.1Conclusion: The use of high quality paper did not increase response rates to a questionnaire survey of gynaecologists affiliated to an endoscopic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the publication of a draft of the freedom of information bill by United Kingdom Home Secretary Jack Straw in May, 1999. Statutory right of people to get access to internal documents from public authorities, including hospitals and the police; Proposals in the White Paper; Comments by Maurice Frankel, director of the campaign for Freedom of Information.

Comments on the government's objectives for health services in Great Britain. Need for the support of the people; Dismissal of the proposed general practice budgets and self-governing hospitals; Details of the objectives of the white paper.