This dissertation addresses the history of antibiotic use in British and US food production between 1950 and 2013. Introduced to agriculture in the 1950s, antibiotics underpinned the 20th-century revolution in Western food production. However, from the late 1950s onwards, controversies over antibiotic resistance, residues and animal welfare began to tarnish antibiotics' image. By mapping both the enthusiasm and the controversies surrounding antibiotic use, this dissertation shows how distinct civic epistemologies of risk influenced consumers', producers' and officials' attitudes towards antibiotics. These differing risk perceptions did not emerge by chance: in Britain, popular animal welfare concerns fused with new scenarios of antibiotic resistance and drove reform. Following 1969, Britain pioneered antibiotic resistance regulation by banning certain feed antibiotics. However, subsequent reforms were only partially implemented, and total antibiotic consumption failed to sink. Meanwhile, scandals and public pressure forced the American FDA to install the first comprehensive monitoring program for antibiotic residues. However, differing public priorities and industrial opposition meant that the FDA failed to convince Congress of resistance-inspired bans. The transatlantic regulatory gap has since widened: following the BSE crisis, the EU phased out growth-promoting antibiotic feeds in 2006. The US proclaimed only a voluntary and partial ban of antibiotic feeds in December 2013. In the face of contemporary warnings about failing antibiotics, the dissertation shows how one group of substances acquired different meanings for different communities. It also reveals that the dilemma of antibiotic regulation is hardly new. Despite knowing about antibiotic allergies and resistance since the 1940s, no country has managed to solve the dilemma of preserving antibiotics' economic benefits whilst containing their medical risks. Historically, effective antibiotic regulation emerged only when differing perceptions of antibiotics were broken down either by sustained regulatory reform or large crises.

No abstract available / History / M.A.

Rapid industrialization, breakthroughs in science and technological development have ushered in an era regarded as a technocratic age. The advent of a technocratic age has necessitated the acquisition of technologically appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes, and consequently it has become necessary to establish education systems that fulfil the demands set by technocratic age principles. Present-day education is typified by technocratic age imperatives which include meritocracy, specialization, vocationalism, professionalism and scientism. Technocratic age education is further characterized by mass education, free and compulsory education and greater bureaucratic control of education. In technocratic age education systems, entrance examinations are used to select learners for advanced education and training. It would appear that this takes place with little regard for the learner's personal worth or meeting the learner's distinctive needs. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (History of Education)

This thesis investigates the progress of technological development during the interwar period of 1919 to 1939. The interwar period was a time of slashed military budgets and isolationist policies. However, despite political, financial, and organizational handicaps, each branch of the military made significant progress in the development of military technology, and the air corps and navy achieved significantly better results. The reason these two branches were able succeed was through a combination of organizational policy and the development of an overarching goal for their respective branch. Within this thesis, I investigated each of the major military branches during the interwar period, specifically the United States Army, Army Air Corps, and Navy. The air corps is considered a separate branch despite being a segment of the army due to its different strategic goal and its growing independence during the interwar period. In my research I found that the army made by far the least technological progress, but did make significant strides in terms of the development of individual components for larger projects. For example, the army developed the M1 rifle and state-of-the-art shock absorbers for tanks. The air corps succeeded in transforming from a small army auxiliary made up of woodand-fabric biplanes into a largely independent branch of the military made up of all-metal monoplane bombers. The navy developed the aircraft carrier and aircraft to accompany the new ships, in addition to making substantial upgrades to existing ships. These upgrades included strengthening ships against torpedo attacks, making engines more efficient, and adding antiaircraft guns to the ships‟ arsenals

The issue of national health care has actively plagued the 20th century political spectrum in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom. It has been an issue of astounding resilience and vexation, alluding almost all simple-quick answers while consuming an ever increasing amount of public resources. There have been three principal time periods when both the United States and Great Britain have actively addressed universal coverage: the 1910s; the 194Os; and the 1990s. This dissertation extends John Kingdon's theory on policy agenda formation by examining the aforementioned debates. The conclusions that come from this study are four fold. (1) Contemporaneous interactions can occur between nations. (2) Century-long longitudinal development of a single policy area is possible and is illustrated. (3) Kingdon's policy streams approach can be utilized to conduct a comparative analysis of the policy agenda formation process. (4) Kingdon's conceptual model is more accurate at depicting the policy agenda formation process of the British parliamentary system than it is for the divided government structure of the U.S. / Ph. D.

Based on federal and state experience of the late 1970's and early 1980's, this paper examines various policy alternatives that government could implement in promoting renewable energy. The paper assumes that government has an interest in promoting renewables. Therefore, it makes no attempt to advocate why federal or state governments should promote renewable energy. It merely presents a variety of options that these governments might choose to promote renewables as a viable alternative to meet present and future energy demands. The Carter and Reagan administrations at the federal level and the Brown, Deukmejian, and Wilson governorships in California are examined. This time period was selected because of the significant changes which occurred during the 1970's and 1980's in the energy economy and political arena and their resulting impact on the renewable energy industry. The contrast between one decade and the next starkly revealed the effects that government policy had in both cultivating and undermining a relatively infant industry. The thesis presents a detailed case study of Luz International to illustrate those effects. The discussion focuses on the factors affecting the policy formulation process, with emphasis on the importance of the executive office, interest groups, and the legislature. This thesis argues that energy policy formulation is governed or shaped largely by factors that are beyond the control of the renewable energy industry. Examples of such factors are benefit coalitions, short-term mentality of elected officials, and lack of public awareness. Effective policy to facilitate the commercialization of renewable energy technologies must account for the conditions of the marketplace and the political process. / Master of Urban Affairs

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the early 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower encouraged citizens to “Wake Up! Sign Up! Look Up!” to the Soviet atomic threat by joining the Ground Observer Corps (GOC). Established by the United States Air Force (USAF), the GOC involved civilian volunteers surveying the skies for Soviet aircraft via watchtowers, alerting the Air Force if they suspected threatening aircraft. This thesis examines the 1950s response to the longstanding problem posed by the invention of any new weapon: how to adapt defensive technology to meet the potential threat. In the case of the early Cold War period, the GOC was the USAF’s best, albeit faulty, defense option against a weapon that did not discriminate between soldiers and citizens and rendered traditional ground troops useless. After the Korean War, Air Force officials promoted the GOC for its espousal of volunteerism and individualism. Encouraged to take ownership of the program, observers appropriated the GOC for their personal and community needs, comprised of social gatherings and policing activities, thus greatly expanding the USAF’s original objectives.

The thesis seeks to develop a more sophisticated view of the black power movement in twentieth century America by analysing the movement’s cultural legacy. The rise, maturation and decline of black power as a political force had a significant impact on American culture, black and white, yet to be substantively analysed. The thesis argues that while the black power movement was not exclusively cultural it was essentially cultural. It was a revolt in and of culture that was manifested in a variety of forms, with black and white culture providing an index to the black and white world view. This independent black culture base provided cohesion to a movement otherwise severely lacking focus and structural support for the movement’s political and economic endeavours. Each chapter in the PhD acts as a step toward understanding black power as an adaptive cultural term which served to connect and illuminate the differing ideological orientations of movement supporters and explores the implications of this. In this manner, it becomes possible to conceptualise the black power movement as something beyond a cacophony of voices which achieved few tangible gains for African-Americans and to move the discussion beyond traditional historiographical perspectives which focus upon the politics and violence of the movement. Viewing the movement from a cultural perspective places language, folk culture, film, sport, religion and the literary and performing arts in a central historical context which served to spread black power philosophy further than political invective. By demonstrating how culture served to broaden the appeal and facilitate the acceptance of black power tenets it is possible to argue that the use of cultural forms of advocation to advance black power ideologies contributed significantly to making the movement a lasting influence in American culture – one whose impact could be discerned long after its exclusively political agenda had disintegrated.

This project explores the use if illegitimacy within Western discourse over the last three centuries. Illegitimacy was used in Victorian literature as a literary device to drive plot but evolved into a touchstone for Western discourse to explore the bounds of what is considered respectable society. Over time, as illegitimacy has become more mainstream, I contend illegitimate identities have been utilized to serve as a mirror for Western hegemony. In the first chapter, I explore the origins of illegitimacy being used as a literary device in novels by Victorian authors Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. In the second chapter, I examine the role illegitimacy plays in the origin stories of canonical comic book superheroes Batman and Superman. Lastly, in the third chapter, I scrutinize the role illegitimacy plays in defining the human condition within science fiction as human culture continues to advance technologically towards a post human world. / by Ryan Dessler. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

This thesis argues that, from 1880 to 1935, Syrian immigrants, who comprised an enclave on the Lower West Side of Manhattan in New York City, sought to control the pace and extent of their assimilation into mainstream American society, by distancing themselves from their ethnicity, or by using their ethnicity to their advantage, or by combining both approaches to varying degrees, as they determined individually, rather than monolithically. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection