Welshman Research Articles

Culture Maintenance, Occupational Change, and Social Status

Through a consideration of residential propinquity, religious and cultural activity, language retention, and levels of exogamy, this article provides a microstudy of the Welsh community in San Francisco and identifies the Welsh as a distinct ethnolinguistic community in the city during the late decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth. What was the nature of Welsh immigrant culture, and to what extent were working-class Welsh people involved in its expression? In addition, through an analysis of intragenerational changes in socioeconomic status, as indicated by occupational mobility, the article tests the assumption that the Welsh were prime illustrations of the “American Dream,” thus providing a clearer picture than the images promulgated by contemporary Welsh leaders who strove to emphasize the industry and upward mobility of their fellow countrymen. Did the Welsh as a group occupy a privileged position in the occupational hierarchy, and were they universally successful in improving on this position?

Languages flex cultural thinking

Recent studies have revealed remarkable interactions between language and emotion. Here, we show that such interactions influence judgments made regarding cultural information. Balanced Welsh–English bilinguals categorized statements about their native Welsh culture as true or false. Whilst participants categorized positive statements as true when they were true, they were biased towards categorizing them as true also when they were false, irrespective of the language in which they read them. Surprisingly, participants were unbiased when categorizing negative statements presented in their native language Welsh, but showed a reverse bias - categorizing sentences as false, even when they were true - for negative statements when they read them in English. The locus of this behavior originated from online semantic evaluation of the statements, shown in corresponding modulations of the N400 peak of event-related brain potentials. These findings suggest that bilinguals perceive and react to cultural information in a language-dependent fashion.

“Lady, Shall I Lie in Your Lap?”: Gender, Status, and Touch on the English Stage

“Lady, Shall I Lie in Your Lap?”: Gender, Status, and Touch on the English Stage

Cambrian Bards and Antiquarian Romantics: Anglophone Women Poets from Eighteenth-Century Wales

ABSTRACTDespite the fact that the recuperation of the ancient Welsh past at the hands of eighteenth-century “Celticists” was primarily a masculine endeavour, women poets of the time nevertheless engaged with this phenomenon on a number of intriguing levels. This essay explores a range of anglophone Welsh women poets, from the seventeenth-century Cardigan-based Katherine Philips to the Romantic writer Mary Robinson, in order to demonstrate women's engagement with antiquarian and national concerns in their own poetic productions. Through an analysis of their Wales-related poetry, which takes in a number of influences—from local knowledge of the Welsh landscape, of ancient British bardic verse, classical precedent and Welsh music, as well as the eighteenth-century “vogue” for imitating (or forging) the poetry of ancient cultures—the essay argues that it is possible to trace an identifiably female response to the period's literary interest in the ancient Celtic world.

“Our Poor Land of Wales”: National Identity and National Heroism in Women’s Historical Fictions

ABSTRACTThis essay examines a selection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historical fictions by anglophone Welsh women writers and other women writers sympathetic to Wales, focusing on Emma Robinson's Owen Tudor: An Historical Romance (1849), L. M. Spooner's Gladys of Harlech; or, The Sacrifice. A Romance of Welsh History (1858), Elizabeth Gaskell's “The Doom of the Griffiths” (1858) and Allen Raine's Hearts of Wales: An Old Romance (1905). Both women and Wales have been notably absent from theorizations of the development of the historical novel, in part because the focus on the work of Sir Walter Scott has led to an emphasis on an Anglo-Scottish model. In contrast, this essay explores the way that these women writers represent Wales in order to reshape narratives of national identity and explore notions of male and female heroism. All four writers invoke the figure of Owain Glyndŵr as the leader of the last major rebellion against the English, while two also feature the figures of Owen Tudor and Henry Tudor as the founders of the Tudor dynasty. They examine the national and personal consequences of betrayal and defeat. Excluded from mainstream historiography, these female writers turn to other modes of writing in order to reinsert both women and Wales into history.

“At Once Illogical and Unfair”: Jane Williams (Ysgafell) and the Government Report on Education in Mid Nineteenth-Century Wales

ABSTRACTCivil unrest in Wales during the first half of the nineteenth century was of great concern to the government in London; teaching the Welsh working classes loyalty to the Crown and the Anglican Church was the obvious answer. Accordingly, three commissioners were appointed to lead an inquiry into the state of education in Wales and to report on “the condition and character of the people”. The commissioners—middle-class English Anglicans who knew nothing of Wales, its history, language or culture—concluded not only that most Welsh schools were inadequate, but that most Welsh people were liars, cheats, thieves and sexually promiscuous—and, further, that these characteristics were related to the fact that most of them were Welsh-speaking Nonconformists. The commissioners' report appeared in 1847 and sparked outrage in Wales; one of the most effective responses to it was Artegall (1848), a pamphlet by Jane Williams (Ysgafell). This article examines the ways in which Williams drew on material from sociology, history, literature and linguistics to argue against the commissioners' political motives, and deployed mockery to undermine their pretensions to authoritative judgement. It also analyses a contemporary response to Artegall: an 1848 cartoon by Hugh Hughes which demonstrates both his admiration for Williams' writing and his complete inability to depict her.

85: Single MDT 30-day mortality after systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) for lung cancer in an NHS trust serving an English and Welsh population

85: Single MDT 30-day mortality after systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) for lung cancer in an NHS trust serving an English and Welsh population

Welsh Women's Industrial Fiction 1880–1910

ABSTRACTFrom the beginning of the genre, women writers have made a major contribution to the development of industrial writing. Although prevented from gaining first-hand experience of the coalface, Welsh women writers were amongst the first to try to fictionalize those heavy industries—coal and metal in the south, and slate in the north—which dominated the lives of the majority of the late nineteenth-century Welsh population. Treatment of industrial matter is generally fragmentary in this early women's writing; industrial imagery and metaphor may be used in novels that are not primarily “about” industry at all. Yet from c. 1880–1910, Welsh women writers made a significant—and hitherto critically neglected—attempt to make sense in literature of contemporary industrial Wales in powerful and innovative ways. This essay maps their contribution and considers anglophone Welsh women writers' adaptations and innovations of form (particularly romance) as they try to find a way of representing industrial landscapes, communities and the daily realities of industrial labour. It identifies the genesis in women's writing of tropes that would become central to later industrial fiction, including depictions of industrial accident, injury, death and disability. And it explores the representation of social relations (class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality) and conflict on this tumultuous, dangerous new stage.

Gwyneth Vaughan, Eluned Morgan and the Emancipation of Welsh Women

ABSTRACTCymru Fydd, the Welsh Home Rule movement of the 1880s and 1890s, included female suffrage as one of its goals, and envisioned its proposed Welsh National Assembly as including elected female members. Beriah Gwynfe Evans, an activist within that movement, introduced into his satirical novel Dafydd Dafis (1898) an episode in which his protagonist, in a prophetic dream, sees the allegorical figure of “Woman Enslaved” freed from her bonds by nine female helpmates, all well-known historical figures of the period. Two of those nine heroines, depicted in the cartoon which illustrated his dream and which also appears on the cover of this journal, were Welsh-language writers. The novelist Gwyneth Vaughan is shown aiming a blow with her “Woman Suffrage” broom against “Man the Oppressor”, while the travel writer Eluned Morgan also stands ready to aid in the freeing of “Woman Enslaved”. After an introductory account of the relation between Cymru Fydd and the women's movement, this article focuses on the contribution of these two writers to the emancipation of Welsh women. Vaughan's novels O Gorlannau y Defaid (From the Sheepfold, 1905) and Plant y Gorthrwm (The Children of the Oppression, 1908), along with Morgan's Dringo'r Andes (Climbing the Andes, 1904), Gwymon y Môr (Seaweed, 1909) and Ar Dir a Môr (On Land and Sea, 1913), are explored to assess the degree to which they did indeed aid in freeing Woman from her chains.

Adverse childhood experiences and their association with health-harming behaviours and mental wellbeing in the Welsh adult population: a national cross-sectional survey

BackgroundGlobally, an increasing body of evidence has identified the detrimental effects that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have on health across the life course. ACEs include suffering maltreatment in childhood and growing up in dysfunctional family environments. This study aimed to measure the prevalence of ACEs and their association with adult health in Wales, to inform prevention and early intervention in policy and practice. MethodsA face-to-face cross-sectional survey of adults (aged 16–69 years) was undertaken in Wales in 2015. A sample size of 2028 individuals (50·2% women) was achieved by use of stratified sampling methods (49·1% compliance rate). Respondents were asked a validated ACE questionnaire and questions about current health-related behaviours with computer-assisted personal interviewing. Although self-reporting bias is a limitation of this approach, it replicates ACE methodology undertaken internationally. Prevalence of ACEs was calculated, and adjusted to Welsh population estimates. Adjusted odds ratios for risks of health-related outcomes associated with ACEs were calculated, controlling for sex, age, deprivation, and ethnicity. Modelling estimated the reduction in prevalence of poor health-related outcomes that could be seen if ACEs had not been present. FindingsFor every 100 adults in Wales, 47 had at least one ACE during their childhood and 14 experienced four or more. After correcting for sociodemographics, ACE counts predicted health-harming behaviours (four or more ACEs vs none)—eg, violence victimisation (adjusted odds ratio 14·2, 95% CI 9·1–22·1; p<0·0001), high-risk drinking (4·4, 3·1–6·4; p<0·0001), and low mental wellbeing (4·7, 3·4–6·4; p<0·0001). Furthermore, modelling suggested that health-harming behaviours and low mental wellbeing nationally could be attributed to ACEs. InterpretationPrevention of ACEs and support for those exposed to ACEs to develop resilience is essential to improving the health of adults in future generations. Our analyses measured associations rather than causation and there might be unmeasured confounders not accounted for. Nonetheless, results from this study can be used to highlight the prevalence of ACEs in Wales and their association with health in later life. Policies such as the Well-Being and Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015 provide the legitimacy for collective targeted activity towards the primary prevention of ACEs. FundingPublic Health Wales.

Wales: (Still) a Problem of Translation? Language Choice in Wales at the End of the Anglo-Welsh Era

In 1996 the poet R. S. Thomas claimed that ‘my country, Cymru, to be understood presents a problem of translation, and if it is to maintain a separate and valuable identity, it must continue to do so.’ Thomas, a native speaker of English, and a self-taught user of Welsh, seemed to be questioning the value of English to reflect the reality of Wales, and with it his own status as an ‘Anglo-Welsh’ poet. This inner conflict mirrored the language situation in Wales, and the lack of language choice facing writers, since native Welsh speakers carried the psychological onus of remaining faithful to the ‘old language’, and non-Welsh speakers had no choice but to use English. But the last two decades have seen considerable social, political, and linguistic change in Wales. An extensive bilingual education policy, the emergence of a Welsh language television channel, and the establishment of the Welsh assembly, seem to have halted the decline in the number of Welsh speakers, and bridged the gap between the two linguistic communities. Today writers in Welsh and in English share the same national platform (Llenyddiaeth Cymru - Literature Wales) and an increasing number of bilingual writers choose to use both languages, often translating their own work. In this paper I shall look back over a century of Anglo Welsh writing, and suggest that entrenched language attitudes in Wales, and the attendant ‘impossibility of translation’, have given way to a vibrant bilingual literary scene as Welsh writers look beyond the hills and valleys of an Anglo-Welsh tradition to the world at large.

Reducing low birth weight: prioritizing action to address modifiable risk factors.

BackgroundLow birth weight (LBW) affects 6.9% of all UK births and has remained largely unchanged for many years. The United Nations and the World Health Assembly have set targets to substantially reduce global incidence. Understanding the contribution of modifiable risk factors to the burden of LBW is required to ensure appropriate interventions are in place to achieve this reduction.MethodsData from published studies on the risks from key modifiable factors were used alongside prevalence data from the Welsh population to calculate the population attributable risk for each factor individually and in combination.ResultsFourteen risk factors accounted for nearly half of LBW births, and 60% of those to younger mothers (<25 years). Tobacco smoke exposure was the largest contributor. We estimated that smoking in pregnancy was a factor in one in eight LBW births, increasing to one in five for women aged under 25.ConclusionsRisk factors are interrelated and inequitably distributed within the population. Exposure to one factor increases the likelihood of exposure to a constellation of factors further increasing risk. Action to address LBW must consider groups where the risk factors are most prevalent and address these risk factors together using multi-component interventions.

Analysis on genetic polymorphisms and distribution characteristics of major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related gene B genes of Han population in Shenzhen area

Objective To analyze genetic polymorphisms and distribution characteristics of major histocompatibility complex class Ⅰ chain-related gene (MIC) B alleles in individuals from Han population in Shenzhen area. Methods From August 2012 to December 2014, a total of 202 unrelated healthy individuals who donated blood in Shenzhen Blood Center Institute of Guangdong Province were included in this study. The alleles and genotypes frequencies of MICB genes in these 202 individuals were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based typing (PCR-SBT) with self-designed primers. The results of allele frequencies and genetic polymorphism in Han population from Shenzhen were compared with different areas in the world by statistical methods. The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Board of Investigation in Human Being of Shenzhen Blood Center Institute. Informed consent was obtained from all donors before blood collection. Results Ten MICB alleles and 24 MICB genotypes were detected in 202 Han population from Shenzhen. MICB*00502 genotype was dominant in MICB allele, accounted for 51.2%, followed by MICB*00201 (19.8%), MICB*00401 (8.7%), MICB*014 (5.7%) and MICB*008 (5.2%), respectively. MICB*00502-MICB*00502 genotype (35.64%) was dominant in MICB genotype. MICAB*013 was only detected in the Welsh population, which was not detected in Han population from Shenzhen, Korean and Spanish populations. MICB*018 had a higher allele frequancy (1.5%)in Han population from Shenzhen, but had not detection in German health population, Austrians, Moroccans, Australia and other Asian population. Conclusions The distribution of MICB alleles has basic characteristics in Han population from Shenzhen compared with people in different areas. These results may be use in anthropological and population genetics studies. Key words: Genes; Polymerase chain reaction; Sequence analysis; Polymorphism

Neolithic and Bronze Age migration to Ireland and establishment of the insular Atlantic genome

The Neolithic and Bronze Age transitions were profound cultural shifts catalyzed in parts of Europe by migrations, first of early farmers from the Near East and then Bronze Age herders from the Pontic Steppe. However, a decades-long, unresolved controversy is whether population change or cultural adoption occurred at the Atlantic edge, within the British Isles. We address this issue by using the first whole genome data from prehistoric Irish individuals. A Neolithic woman (3343-3020 cal BC) from a megalithic burial (10.3× coverage) possessed a genome of predominantly Near Eastern origin. She had some hunter-gatherer ancestry but belonged to a population of large effective size, suggesting a substantial influx of early farmers to the island. Three Bronze Age individuals from Rathlin Island (2026-1534 cal BC), including one high coverage (10.5×) genome, showed substantial Steppe genetic heritage indicating that the European population upheavals of the third millennium manifested all of the way from southern Siberia to the western ocean. This turnover invites the possibility of accompanying introduction of Indo-European, perhaps early Celtic, language. Irish Bronze Age haplotypic similarity is strongest within modern Irish, Scottish, and Welsh populations, and several important genetic variants that today show maximal or very high frequencies in Ireland appear at this horizon. These include those coding for lactase persistence, blue eye color, Y chromosome R1b haplotypes, and the hemochromatosis C282Y allele; to our knowledge, the first detection of a known Mendelian disease variant in prehistory. These findings together suggest the establishment of central attributes of the Irish genome 4,000 y ago.

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec

Population structure and history of the Welsh sheep breeds determined by whole genome genotyping.

BackgroundOne of the most economically important areas within the Welsh agricultural sector is sheep farming, contributing around £230 million to the UK economy annually. Phenotypic selection over several centuries has generated a number of native sheep breeds, which are presumably adapted to the diverse and challenging landscape of Wales. Little is known about the history, genetic diversity and relationships of these breeds with other European breeds. We genotyped 353 individuals from 18 native Welsh sheep breeds using the Illumina OvineSNP50 array and characterised the genetic structure of these breeds. Our genotyping data were then combined with, and compared to, those from a set of 74 worldwide breeds, previously collected during the International Sheep Genome Consortium HapMap project.ResultsModel based clustering of the Welsh and European breeds indicated shared ancestry. This finding was supported by multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS), which revealed separation of the European, African and Asian breeds. As expected, the commercial Texel and Merino breeds appeared to have extensive co-ancestry with most European breeds. Consistently high levels of haplotype sharing were observed between native Welsh and other European breeds. The Welsh breeds did not, however, form a genetically homogeneous group, with pairwise FST between breeds averaging 0.107 and ranging between 0.020 and 0.201. Four subpopulations were identified within the 18 native breeds, with high homogeneity observed amongst the majority of mountain breeds. Recent effective population sizes estimated from linkage disequilibrium ranged from 88 to 825.ConclusionsWelsh breeds are highly diverse with low to moderate effective population sizes and form at least four distinct genetic groups. Our data suggest common ancestry between the native Welsh and European breeds. These findings provide the basis for future genome-wide association studies and a first step towards developing genomics assisted breeding strategies in the UK.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-015-0216-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

1 Relative Survival and Excess Mortality following Primary PCI for STEMI: A National Cohort Study

<h3>Introduction</h3> Primary PCI studies report 3-year mortality rates of 6–7%, but typically lack external validity or are from historical cohorts. To date, no long-term outcome study has accounted for factors other than primary PCI and variables identified at baseline. This is important because long-term survival is more likely to be influenced by factors not associated with the underlying disease or its early management. In the United Kingdom, continuous whole country PCI data are collected through the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society registry and deaths via the Office for National Statistics, providing a unique opportunity to undertake large scale phenotype and intervention-specific research. In order to address the limitations of previous studies, we utilised the UK national cardiovascular and population databases to report relative survival (RS) and excess mortality after PPCI. <h3>Methods</h3> All individuals in England and Wales with STEMI who received PPCI between 1^st January 2005 and 31^st December 2010 were matched by age, sex, year of procedure and country to English and Welsh population data. Estimates of cumulative relative survival rates (RSRs) and hazard rates were used to calculate expected survival, observed all-cause mortality rate ratios (MRR) and excess mortality rate ratios (EMRR). Crude RS was estimated using the Ederer II method for the whole cohort and cumulative RS estimated by age, sex and biennial year of procedure. <h3>Results</h3> There was a total of 50,181 STEMI treated by PPCI from 109 hospitals, (mean age (SD) 63.2 (13.1) years, 25.9% female, (total time at risk 94997.5 person years). 6 month, 1 and 5 year RSRs were 93.1%, 92.6% and 90.9% and approached the background rate for patients &lt;55 years (Figure 1 a and b). There was a temporal trend towards better outcomes (Figure 2). Excess mortality was evident for females and the elderly (Table 1). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Survival is excellent for young STEMI who receive PPCI. This study highlights long term excess mortality in the elderly and females who could be further stratified for existing and novel therapies to improve cardiovascular outcomes. Relative survival is an accurate, powerful and underused tool that may help identify opportunities to improve longer term cardiovascular outcomes.

The age pattern of transitory mortality jumps and its impact on the pricing of catastrophic mortality bonds

To value catastrophic mortality bonds, a number of stochastic mortality models with transitory jump effects have been proposed. Rather than modeling the age pattern of jump effects explicitly, most of the existing models assume that the distributions of jump effects and general mortality improvements across ages are identical. Nevertheless, this assumption does not seem to be in line with what we observe from historical data. In this paper, we address this problem by introducing a Lee–Carter variant that captures the age pattern of mortality jumps by a distinct collection of parameters. The model variant is then further generalized to permit the age pattern of jump effects to vary randomly. We illustrate the two proposed models with mortality data from the United States and English and Welsh populations, and use them to value hypothetical mortality bonds with similar specifications to the Atlas IX Capital Class B note that was launched in 2013. It is found that the features we consider have a significant impact on the estimated prices.

Estimating the costs associated with the management of patients with chronic wounds using linked routine data.

Chronic wounds are known to represent a significant burden to patients and National Health Service (NHS) alike. However, previous attempts to estimate the costs associated with the management of chronic wounds have been based on literature studies or broad estimates derived from incidence rates and extrapolations from relatively small-scale studies. The aim of this study is therefore to determine the extent of resource utilisation by patients classed as having chronic wounds within Wales using linked routine data - available through the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) database - to estimate the costs associated with the management of these patients by the NHS in Wales. The SAIL database brings together, and anonymously links, a wide range of person-based data from general practitioner (GP) practices within Wales, which includes primary and secondary care consultations to create an encrypted anonymised linking field for each individual. This linkage allows the patient pathway to be tracked through the NHS system both retrospectively and prospectively from a specific reference date. The estimated costs were derived by extrapolating to an all-Wales level from the results gleaned from the SAIL database using the respective READ codes to capture relevant patients with chronic wounds. The number of patients identified as having chronic wounds within the SAIL database was 78 090, which equates to 190 463 across Wales as a whole and a prevalence of 6% of the Welsh population. The total cost of managing patients with chronic wounds in Wales amounted to £328·8 million - an average cost of £1727 per patient and 5·5% of total expenditure on the health service in Wales. A relatively few READ codes represented a significant proportion of expenditure, with diabetic foot ulcers, leg ulcers, foot ulcers, varicose eczema, bed sores and postoperative wound care constituting 93% of total expenditure. When a more conservative perspective was used in relation to classification of chronic wounds, the total cost amounted to £303 million. However, these are likely to be underestimates because of the lack of information for patients with treatments lasting over 6 months and not including patients who might have entered the health care system of wound management elsewhere - such as patients contracting pressure ulcers in hospitals and having surgical wound infections.

Welsh Women's Writing 1536–1914 A Special Issue of the journal Women's Writing Editor: Jane Aaron

Welsh Women's Writing 1536–1914 A Special Issue of the journal Women's Writing Editor: Jane Aaron