Widowhood,family size,and post-reproductive Mortality: a comparative Analysis of three populations in Nineteenth-Century Europe

Researchers from a number of disciplines have offered competing theories about the effects oJ childbearing on parents 'postreproductive longevity. The "disposable soma theory" argues that investments in somatic maintenance increase longevity but reduce childbearing. "Maternal depletion" models suggest that the rigors of childrearing increase mortality in later years. Other researchers consider continued childbearing a sign of healthy aging and a predictor of future longevity. Empirical studies have produced inconsistent and contradictory results. Our focus is on the experience of widowhood, which has been ignored in previous studies. We hypothesize that the death of a spouse is a stressful event with long-term consequences for health, especially for women with small children. Data are drawn from historical sources in Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands from 1766 to 1980. Postreproductive mortality was highest among young widows with larger families in all three samples. Age at last birth had little or no effect. We conclude that raising children under adverse circumstances can have long-lasting, harmful effects on a mother's health.     

Older women's fears of violence: the need for interventions that enable active ageing

Women's fear of violence can impact negatively on their active participation in life. An ageing survey conducted with 2,620 Australian respondents aged 50 to 90 years examined aspects of work, learning, social, spiritual and emotional status, health, vision, home, life events, demographics, and asked an open-ended question about what being actively engaged in life meant. Ordinal regression was carried out on two dependent variables: wanting and needing to learn to discourage violence. Analyses found that as women's age increased, those on lower incomes were more likely than others to say they needed to learn how to discourage violence against them. This paper investigates the variables associated with the findings-transport, finances, news media, home safety, and reduced social interactions. Results highlight the importance of understanding women's fear in the context of personal and social issues, and the need to provide learning opportunities to improve safety and social engagement.     

The International Child Poverty Gap: Does Demography Matter?

According to the Luxembourg Income Study data, the U.S. child poverty rate is the second highest among 15 high-income nations. The present work reveals that 55% of all American children living in a household headed by a single female with no other adult present live in poverty-the highest rate for any of the five living arrangements in the 15 countries examined in this study. While previous analyses have focused on market forces and governmental redistribution across households, we question the contribution of demographic factors that place children in family structures with different poverty risks relative to other factors such as differential market opportunities and governmental benefits for adults caring for children in various living arrangements. Applying a classic demographic decomposition technique to the overall poverty gap, we find that the distributional effect of demographic behavior contributes little to the U.S. poverty gap with other nations (and none with respect to the United Kingdom). Overall differences in labor markets and welfare schemes best explain the U.S. child poverty gap, although for some countries, the gap is accentuated by the gradient of governmental transfers, and for most countries, by the gradient of market earnings across living arrangements.     

准噶尔汗国灭亡后的佚名史籍与卫拉特人的历史记忆

本文通过解读准噶尔汗国灭亡后卫拉特蒙古佚名氏史家撰写的几篇托忒文史籍,探讨当时卫拉特人对汗国灭亡的反思及对清准战争的历史记忆.几位史家的文本反映了"四卫拉特"这一历史框架的稳定性,以及卫拉特人在政治认同方面的一些变化.     

IMPROVING POPULATION-SPECIFIC ALLELE FREQUENCY ESTIMATES BY ADAPTING SUPPLEMENTAL DATA: AN EMPIRICAL BAYES APPROACH

Estimation of the allele frequency at genetic markers is a key ingredient in biological and biomedical research, such as studies of human genetic variation or of the genetic etiology of heritable traits. As genetic data becomes increasingly available, investigators face a dilemma: when should data from other studies and population subgroups be pooled with the primary data? Pooling additional samples will generally reduce the variance of the frequency estimates; however, used inappropriately, pooled estimates can be severely biased due to population stratification. Because of this potential bias, most investigators avoid pooling, even for samples with the same ethnic background and residing on the same continent. Here, we propose an empirical Bayes approach for estimating allele frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms. This procedure adaptively incorporates genotypes from related samples, so that more similar samples have a greater influence on the estimates. In every example we have considered, our estimator achieves a mean squared error (MSE) that is smaller than either pooling or not, and sometimes substantially improves over both extremes. The bias introduced is small, as is shown by a simulation study that is carefully matched to a real data example. Our method is particularly useful when small groups of individuals are genotyped at a large number of markers, a situation we are likely to encounter in a genome-wide association study.     

Multiple-arm superiority and non-inferiority designs with various endpoints

Multiple-arm dose-response superiority trials are widely studied for continuous and binary endpoints, while non-inferiority designs have been studied recently in two-arm trials. In this paper, a unified asymptotic formulation of a sample size calculation for k-arm (k>0) trials with different endpoints (continuous, binary and survival endpoints) is derived for both superiority and non-inferiority designs. The proposed method covers the sample size calculation for single-arm and k-arm (k> or =2) designs with survival endpoints, which has not been covered in the statistic literature. A simple, closed form for power and sample size calculations is derived from a contrast test. Application examples are provided. The effect of the contrasts on the power is discussed, and a SAS program for sample size calculation is provided and ready to use.     

Physician/hospital business relationships. Sorting through the options

Providers recognize the critical role of physician/hospital partnerships in the newly emerging health care delivery system. However, the possibilities available for establishing such partnerships can be overwhelming. The authors provide a critical review of the options for physician/hospital business relationships. They emphasize the need to match physician/hospital strategies to local market characteristics, develop market-based business objectives, and structure physician/hospital relationships to support the achievement of business objectives.     

贸易谈判能否结出硕果?

哥伦比亚总统乌里贝(AlvaroUribe)最近带领几百名公司执行官、投资者和厂商去迈阿密参加高规格的贸易谈判,他环视着这些人,把国内反对同华盛顿进行贸易妥协的问题完全撇在了一旁。     

社会学方法论

理论和方法论二者齐头并进,社会学于是取得进展。社会学理论研究途径的多样性,在方法论的多样性上得到反映。“定量的”和“定性的”两种方法论之间的区别的贴切性已经消失或大大削弱,也许,把方法论作“上延的”和“下伸的”区分较此更有建设性。但须注意,这二者又是互补的,可以结合起来在同一研究项目中运用。所有的方法论均具有一种“非普遍”的性质,虽然又都各有特定的应用范围。多方法的分析的价值在于获取稳定的结果并开创子学科之间的交流。本文为通用的社会学研究程序提出四个“经典性”的步骤,并加上了两个往往不明显的基本步骤:信息在研究过程中的初步转换和最终转换。     

妇女在社会中

这篇就妇女社会地位的变化所作的比较性纵览,考察了女权主义社会科学家和性别社会学家提出的一些问题,诸如:社会学理论和女权主义理论之间的对话;关于妇女就业、政权,以及作为一种制度的家长制的辩论;性别及其与阶级、国家、集体行动和世界体系之间的交互作用;以及最能说明妇女地位何以在世界范围内发生变化的因素也提出了关于世界各地妇女地位趋势的实证性数据。本文认为,妇女的社会地位受到了城市化、工业化、无产阶级化的重大影响,也受影响于普及教育、法制改革和妇女运动。反过来,妇女或则通过有意识的妇女运动或则通过跻身公共部门,也助长了关键的社会机制的变化,其中有劳动力市场、政治一法律结构,还有家庭。这些变化有时遇到逆流(例如反对人工流产和原教旨主义运动),其结果是性别问题及妇女问题成为当代许多运动和论说的中心。虽然较之社会科学其他各学科,社会学相对能够考虑性别问题,因而女权主义者和社会科学家之间的对话还应继续。