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Derek Pearsall wrote influentially about the contexts in which Middle English romances were transmitted, paying particular attention to large manuscript "libraries" offering mixed edification and diversion. Two copies of Sir Orfeo, a romance in which he was especially interested, survive in just such contexts, in capacious anthologies. The third copy, however, in London, British Library MS Harley 3810, section I, is rather different, and has attracted less attention. This article discusses the features of this section of Harley 3810, its relationship to the other sections of the manuscript, and what can be hypothesized about its early readership and circulation. Unlike the other manuscripts in which Sir Orfeo appears, this small-format anthology has the characteristics of a pocket-book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use household panel data from Tajikistan to explore the change in living arrangements as a response to income shifts related to international labour migration. In addition, we analyse the interaction between the effect of idiosyncratic income increase resulting from a completed migration episode, and the effect of an aggregate shock – the global financial crisis – and show how different households adjust their household size during times of financial hardship. The empirical evidence indicates that while current migration is associated with an increase in household size, a completed migration episode two years before the interview was followed by family members moving out. At the same time, our empirical analysis demonstrates that migrant families doubled up in response to a financial crisis to the same extent as non‐migrant families, which suggests that labour migration in Tajikistan does not insure against economic shocks in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When news media in the UK and US discuss China's surveillance networks, it is often to imply that the Chinese government is creating a "techno-authoritarian state" to track and monitor its citizens. News outlets, however, are missing a larger point. The specific problem with China's surveillance apparatus is not that it is technologically "totalizing" and "intrusive," but that it relies on a newly digitized information platform that connects surveillance subjects to information about their households and family members, allowing the simultaneous identification and monitoring of everyone in each kinship network. Referred to as the Household Register or hukou, this platform is the backbone of China's "surveillant assemblage" (Haggerty and Ericson 2000). Until the late 1990s when it was digitalized, hukou was an individually separate and distinct surveillance system that contained both general and detailed information about a household and its members. With digitalization, hukou became a platform that integrates different computer systems and databases. CCTV surveillance that involves facial recognition and Internet surveillance practices are connected to, and supported by, information from hukou. In the case of CCTV surveillance, cameras equipped with facial recognition features match the face of surveillance subjects with their ID and trace them back to their families. As for Internet surveillance, the connection between hukou and surveillance subjects happens via telephone number. Access to the Internet and social media platforms such as WeChat, SinaWeibo, and e-mail services requires a telephone number purchased with a governmentissued ID card, which is connected to a household register and, therefore, the telephone card owner's family. Chinese law enforcement's ability to treat individual Internet users also as "collective units" represents the most distinctive feature of Chinese surveillance, an unlimited source of coercion for the Communist Party to reproduce itself as the ruling party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a major project to investigate protective and diagnostic immune markers against tuberculosis (TB), we measured antibody isotype responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) antigens (LAM, Rv2031, and HBHA) in cohorts of 149 pulmonary tuberculosis patients (PTBP), 148 household contacts (HHCs), and 68 community controls (CCs) in an endemic setting. ELISA was used to measure levels of IgA, IgG, and IgM from sera of cohorts at baseline, and at 6 and 12 months from entry. The results show that there were significant differences in IgA, IgG, and IgM responses to the different antigens and in the three cohorts. At baseline, the level of IgM against RV2031 and LAM did not vary between cohorts, but the levels of IgA and IgG against Rv2031 were significantly higher in PTB patients than HHCs and CCs, followed by HHCs, and the lowest in CCs. In patients, there was a significant variation in antibody responses before and after chemotherapy. The levels of IgA and IgG against HBHA, and IgA against Rv2031 decreased significantly and remained low, while IgA and IgG against LAM increased significantly and remained high following chemotherapy. However, the levels of IgM against Rv2031 and LAM increased at 6 months but decreased again at 12 months. IgM against HBHA did not show any significant variation before and after chemotherapy. Similarly, there were also significant variations in antibody responses in HHCs over time. Our results show that there are significant variations in IgA, IgG and IgM responses to the different antigens and in the three cohorts, implying that not all antibody isotype responses are markers of clinical TB. In addition, the current and previous studies consistently show that IgA and IgG against Rv2031 discriminate between clinical disease, Mtb-infected and non-infected individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability revolves around many factors which include technological training, number of farmers trained and high yields. The study investigates impact of Master Farmer Training (MFT) on rapoko Eleusine coracana (L.) cultivation, considering in situ variables in Buhera District. A cross-sectional survey design was used among trained and non-trained farmers. Data analysis was carried out in R version 3.2.3. Chi-squared test for independence was used to confirm association between MFT and rapoko cultivation, and between household gender and rapoko cultivation. MFT had a positive influence on number of farmers (100% were master farmers (MFs), while 23% were non-master farmers (NMFs) who grew rapoko). Yields for MFs were higher than for NMFs. The values for first and second year of t were 3.37 at P < 0.01 and 10.75 at P< 0.01 respectively. MFT influenced formation of farmer groups which allowed them to get training on rapoko cultivation. More male-headed households (70%) cultivated rapoko than female-headed households (40%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article calls attention to the role of capital, large capital in particular, in recent reforms to China’s system of household registration (hukou). It argues that a tripartite alliance between agrarian capital, urban capital, and local governments arose in the first decade of this century and has become a major force driving locally initiated hukou reforms. The main goal of reform has been to facilitate the transfer of land rights from rural residents so that rural land could be used to generate profits and government revenue. While rural residents are compensated for the loss of land rights, many face increasing insecurity in their livelihoods. The article is based on an extensive survey of local policy documents and a case study of Chengdu Municipality in Sichuan Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several theories have emerged to explain how group cooperation (collective action) can arise and be maintained in the face of incentives to engage in free riding. Explanations focusing on reputational benefits and partner choice have particular promise for cases in which punishment is absent or insufficient to deter free riding. In indigenous communities of highland Peru, collective action is pervasive and provides critical benefits. Participation in collective action is unequal across households, but all households share its benefits. Importantly, investment in collective action involves considerable time, energy, and risk. Differential participation in collective action can convey information about qualities of fellow community members that are not easily observable otherwise, such as cooperative intent, knowledge, work ethic, skill, and/or physical vitality. Conveying such information may enhance access to adaptive support networks. Interview and observational data collected in a Peruvian highland community indicate that persons who contributed more to collective action had greater reputations as reliable, hard workers with regard to collective action and also were considered the most respected, influential, and generous people in the community. Additionally, household heads with greater reputations had more social support partners (measured as network indegree centrality), and households with larger support networks experienced fewer illness symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]