This article examines the lived experiences of the older body—the embodiment of old age—from the perspective of older people. It uses letters written from 1680 to 1820 by twenty-two women and men aged between sixty and eighty-nine, selected from a corpus of over 391 letter writers. We begin by exploring the embodied experiences discussed by older people, as well as their understanding of the relationship between these experiences and their later years. The article finds that old age was experienced as highly variable and was subject to an ongoing process of recalibration. Central to that process was the corporeality of the aging body as experienced in the context of a range of social factors. The corporeality of the body was a factor for all but was not always framed negatively or even situated in the context of aging. The article then turns to the responses of older people to the life-stage of old age. The article finds them self-directed and proactive in continuing to live well. This is significant evidence for a self-consciously active, engaged, and embodied old age in early modernity. These older letter writers tended not to disavow old age but to accommodate and even embrace it.

This article explores how writers, predominantly adhering to a variety of different Christian denominations but also including Jewish writers, discussed religion and the body in letters throughout the long eighteenth century. It draws on a corpus of over 2,500 familiar letters written by men and women of different denominations between 1675 and 1820. That these letters were not chosen because of their religious content makes them a good ‘test’ of the role of faith in everyday understandings of the body. This article underscores the continued centrality of religious discourse and devotional practice in eighteenth-century everyday life. Our research finds that religion was a commonplace register deployed when discussing bodily matters throughout the long eighteenth century. Significantly, this was the case for individuals who otherwise made scant reference to their faith. Discussion of the physical body encouraged recourse to providence, a public discussion of doctrine, and the shared expression of devotion. The ongoing force of religion in people’s lives was thus intimately tied to their embodied experiences. Letters not only expressed but actively maintained this widely shared religious framework for understanding the body.

Taking a material culture approach to the body poses challenges to our research practices and approaches to studying past experience. This piece considers what can be learned from using human remains in the study of the British past, arguing that integrating the material body into our methods aligns well with historical emphasis on the constructed nature of the body.

Negation with indefinite items in English can be expressed in three ways: any-negation (I didn’t have any money), no-negation (I had no money) and negative concord (I didn’t have no money). These variants have persisted over time, with some studies suggesting that the newest variant, any-negation, is increasing at the expense of no-negation (Tottie 1991a, 1991b). Others suggest that although this variable was undergoing change in earlier centuries, it is stable in Modern English (Wallage 2017). This article examines the current state of the variability in four communities within two distinctive English-speaking regions: Toronto and Belleville in Ontario, Canada, and Tyneside and York in Northern England. Our comparative quantitative analysis of speech corpora from these communities shows that the rates of no-negation vary between Northern England and Ontario, but the variation is largely stable and primarily conditioned by verb type in a robust effect that holds cross-dialectally: functional verbs retain no-negation, while lexical verbs favour any. The social embedding of the variability varies between the communities, but they share a common variable grammar.

Field experiments, conducted from 1991 to 1994, generated information on weed seedbank emergence for 22 site-years from Ohio to Colorado and Minnesota to Missouri. Early spring seedbank densities were estimated through direct extraction of viable seeds from soil cores. Emerged seedlings were recorded periodically, as were daily values for air and soil temperature, and precipitation. Percentages of weed seedbanks that emerged as seedlings were calculated from seedbank and seedling data for each species, and relationships between seedbank emergence and microclimatic variables were sought. Fifteen species were found in 3 or more site-years. Average emergence percentages (and coefficients of variation) of these species were as follows: giant foxtail, 31.2 (84%); velvetleaf, 28.2 (66); kochia, 25.7 (79); Pennsylvania smartweed, 25.1 (65); common purslane, 15.4 (135); common ragweed, 15.0 (110); green foxtail, 8.5 (72); wild proso millet, 6.6 (104); hairy nightshade, 5.2 (62); common sunflower, 5.0 (26); yellow foxtail, 3.4 (67); pigweed species, 3.3 (103); common lambsquarters, 2.7 (111); wild buckwheat, 2.5 (63), and prostrate knotweed, 0.6 (79). Variation among site-years, for some species, could be attributed to microclimate variables thought to induce secondary dormancy in spring. For example, total seasonal emergence percentage of giant foxtail was related positively to the 1st date at which average daily soil temperature at 5 to 10 cm soil depth reached 16 C. Thus, if soil warmed before mid April, secondary dormancy was induced and few seedlings emerged, whereas many seedlings emerged if soil remained cool until June.

Seedbanks and seedling emergence of annual weeds were examined in arable fields at eight locations in the Corn Belt. Seed densities were estimated by direct seed extraction from each of several soil cores in each sampled plot. Average total seedbank densities ranged from 600 to 162 000 viable seed m-2 among locations. Coefficients of variation (CV) typically exceeded 50%. CV for seed densities of individual species usually exceeded 100%, indicating strongly aggregated distributions. CV were lower for species with dense seed populations than those with sparse seed populations. Variance of total seedbank densities was unstable when < 10 cores were examined per plot, but stabilized at all locations when ≥ 15 cores were analyzed, despite a 12-fold difference in plot size and 270-fold difference in seed density among locations. Percentage viable seed that emerged as seedlings in field plots ranged from < 1% for yellow rocket to 30% for giant foxtail. Redroot pigweed and common lambsquarters were the most frequently encountered species. Emergence percentages of these species were related inversely to rainfall or air temperatures in April or May, presumably because anoxia and/or high temperatures induced secondary dormancy in nondormant seed. From 50 to 90% of total seed in the seedbank were dead. This information can be employed by bioeconomic weed management models, which currently use coarse estimates of emergence percentages to customize recommendations for weed control.

Field experiments were conducted in 1996 and 1997 near Arlington, WI, to compare the efficacy of glyphosate applied below registered rates in sequential and tank-mix combinations with residual herbicides to no-till, narrow-row, glyphosate-resistant soybean. In the sequential combinations of preplant (PP) residual herbicides and postemergence (POST) glyphosate study, glyphosate followed one of eight burndown treatments. Clomazone applied PP controlled 86% of common lambsquarters in 1996 when followed by 420 g ae/ha glyphosate early POST (EPOST). All other herbicide treatments controlled 94% or greater regardless of weed species, PP treatment, glyphosate timing, or glyphosate rate. The greatest soybean yields occurred in EPOST glyphosate applications in 1996 and late POST (LPOST) glyphosate applications in 1997. The only time PP residual herbicides were beneficial was prior to the LPOST glyphosate application in 1996. In the tank-mix POST combinations of glyphosate and residual herbicides study, glyphosate was applied alone or in combination with four residual herbicides. Soybean injury did not exceed 5% except in the glyphosate and imazethapyr combination in 1997. Control of common lambsquarters, velvetleaf, and giant foxtail was 90% or greater when averaged across all residual combinations and glyphosate timings and rates. Imazethapyr alone controlled velvetleaf 99% and giant foxtail 92% in 1997. When glyphosate was applied alone, soybean yields were similar at all glyphosate rates and application timings, except the 630 g/ha glyphosate LPOST resulted in a lower yield than 420 g/ha glyphosate LPOST. Only one residual herbicide, SAN 582, combined with glyphosate produced yields equivalent to the highest yielding treatments when averaged over both glyphosate rates and timings. Cloransulam added to 420 g/ha glyphosate EPOST and chlorimuron plus thifensulfuron and imazethapyr added to 420 g/ha glyphosate LPOST resulted in lower soybean yields compared to the same rate of glyphosate applied alone at the respective timings. Thus, no herbicide combination preformed better than glyphosate applied in a timely manner alone. However, in situations where early-season weed competition is severe and a timely glyphosate application is not possible, a PP residual herbicide may be beneficial.

Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) photovoltaic absorbers frequently develop Ga gradients during growth. These gradients vary as a function of growth recipe, and are important to device performance. Prediction of Ga profiles using classic diffusion equations is not possible because In and Ga atoms occupy the same lattice sites and thus diffuse interdependently, and there is not yet a detailed experimental knowledge of the chemical potential as a function of composition that describes this interaction. We show how diffusion equations can be modified to account for site sharing between In and Ga atoms. The analysis has been implemented in an Excel spreadsheet, and outputs predicted Cu, In, and Ga profiles for entered deposition recipes. A single set of diffusion coefficients and activation energies are chosen, such that simulated elemental profiles track with published data and those from this study. Extent and limits of agreement between elemental profiles predicted from the growth recipes and the spreadsheet tool are demonstrated.

The US health care system has maintained an objective of preparedness for natural or manmade catastrophic events as part of its larger charge to deliver health services for the American population. In 2002, support for hospital-based preparedness activities was bolstered by the creation of the National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program, now called the Hospital Preparedness Program, in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Since 2012, this program has promoted linking health care facilities into health care coalitions that build key preparedness and emergency response capabilities. Recognizing that well-functioning health care coalitions can have a positive impact on the health outcomes of the populations they serve, this article informs efforts to optimize health care coalition activity. We first review the landscape of health care coalitions in the United States. Then, using principles from supply chain management and high-reliability organization theory, we present 2 frameworks extending beyond the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s current guidance in a way that may help health care coalition leaders gain conceptual insight into how different enterprises achieve similar ends relevant to emergency response. We conclude with a proposed research agenda to advance understanding of how coalitions can contribute to the day-to-day functioning of health care systems and disaster preparedness. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:717–723)

Older adults with early forms of neurodegenerative disease are at risk for functional disability, which is often defined by the loss of independence in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). The current study investigated the influence of mild changes in everyday functional abilities (referred to as functional limitations) on risk for development of incident functional disability. A total of 407 participants, who were considered cognitively normal or diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at baseline, were followed longitudinally over an average 4.1 years (range=0.8–9.2 years). Informant-based ratings from the Everyday Cognition (ECog; Farias et al., 2008) and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (Lawton & Brody, 1969) scales assessed the degree of functional limitations and incident IADL disability, respectively. Cox proportional hazards models revealed that more severe functional limitations (as measured by the Total ECog score) at baseline were associated with approximately a four-fold increased risk of developing IADL disability a few years later. Among the ECog domains, functional limitations in Everyday Planning, Everyday Memory, and Everyday Visuospatial domains were associated with the greatest risk of incident functional disability. These results remained robust even after controlling for participants’ neuropsychological functioning on tests of executive functions and episodic memory. Current findings indicate that early functional limitations have prognostic value in identifying older adults at risk for developing functional disability. Findings highlight the importance of developing interventions to support everyday abilities related to memory, executive function, and visuospatial skills in an effort to delay loss of independence in IADLs. (JINS, 2015, 21, 688–698)

This essay explores changes in eighteenth-century male clothing in the context of the history of sexual difference, gender roles, and masculinity. The essay contributes to a history of dress by reconstructing a range of meanings and social practices through which men's clothing was understood by its consumers. Furthermore, critically engaging with work on the “great male renunciation,” the essay argues that the public authority that accrued to men through their clothing was based not on a new image of a rational disembodied man but instead on an emphasis on the male anatomy and masculinity as intrinsically embodied. Drawing on findings from the material objects of eighteenth-century clothing, visual representations, and evidence from the archival records of male consumers, the essay adopts an interdisciplinary approach that allows historians to study sex and gender as embodied, rather than simply performed. In so doing, the essay not only treats “embodiment” as an historical category but also responds to recent shifts in the historical discipline and the wider academy towards a more corporealist approach to the body.

The past two decades have witnessed a burgeoning of the history of the body and sexuality. Seeking to historicize sex differences, historians have widely incorporated the study of the body and sexuality into the history of women and gender. This review considers the place of the body and sexuality in women's and gender history. Recent work posits the long eighteenth century as the century of change in the ways in which bodies were understood, sexuality constructed, and sexual activity carried out. Yet in turn, the incorporation of such new topics also reinvigorates older narratives of economic and political transformation. This historiographical review assesses this recent work, arguing that key facets of the historiography need to be reconsidered. Explanatory models of historical change need to incorporate issues such as life-cycle changes and historical persistence. Approaches to cultural exchange have to develop which can accommodate cultural diversity, and the complexities of cultural transmission. Finally, analyses of the material contexts of the body and sexuality – both corporeal and textual – need to be undertaken.

From a direct comparison, we find that filament channels are more easily detected in He I λ1083 than in Hλ, particularly for polar crown filaments. He I 1083 nm filament channels appear to coincide with the outer boundaries of Yohkoh/SXT X-ray cavities.