Current status of and prospects for China Population Information Centre

The China Population information Centre (CPIC), set up in May 1980, is a national institution for population information research under the State Family Planning Commission. Its main functions are to 1) collect, process, and distribute and foreign materials on population and family planning; 2) collect, tabulate, and analyze population and family planning data; 3) keep abreast of new population and family planning developments within and outside the country; 4) edit and publish information materials; and 5) provide information users with diversified services. The CPIC has 8 operational units: 1) the Library, 2) the Statistics Division, 3) the 1st Information Research Division, 4) the 2nd Information Research Division, 5) the Editorial Division, 6) the Translation Division, 7) the Computer Division, and 8) the Technical Support Division.     

Measures to facilitate the return and reintegration of highly skilled migrants into African countries

A very large number of skilled Africans are found to be operating in the developed industrialized countries of the West at a time when their national economies are crying out for their services. Ways must be found to return as many of these skilled Africans as possible to the African economy. This out-migration or brain drain has a number of causes, including: 1) real incomes in Africa have been on the decline in the past several years while prices were constantly rising. Professional and salaried workers seek employment in other countries that pay much higher salaries. 2) Promotion on criteria other than merit is common in Africa and diligence and high productivity are not often rewarded. 3) Political interference frustrates public services professionals; they are rendered unable to use their professional judgement in making decisions that affect the economic and social fabric. 4) The inadequacy of higher education facilities and opportunities in African countries encourages the brightest and best qualified Africans to go to Western Europe and North America for school; they tend not to return after graduation. 5) Political upheavals and general instability contribute to feelings of individual insecurity, sending Africans to seek sanctuary in more politically stable and less repressive environments. Actions needed to control this out-migration include: 1) incentive systems should be reviewed with a view to providing realistic levels of renumeration and working conditions should be made to promote job satisfaction and self-actualization. 2) Capacities and capabilities should be strengthened so as to ensure that production of goods and services becomes indigenized and that the development and operation of institutions emanates from within the continent. 3) Educational services should be expanded and improved to obviate the need for large numbers of Africans to seek educational opportunities abroad.     

The use of metaphor in therapeutic communication with young adolescents

The ability to utilize metaphor is presented as the normal stage in the development of the capacity to symbolize that is characteristic of the young adolescent. Symbolization is considered to be the basic structure through which the individual constructs a knowledge of the reality and of the self. Therefore, staying within the framework of the metaphor in treatment with the young adolescent is beginning where the client is but equally as importantly it is assisting the youngster to further develop both his symbolic capacities and himself. A case illustration is utilized to demonstrate both healthy and pathological usage of metaphorical language.     

Secularization and the politics of traditionalism: The case of the right-to-life movement

Research on the traditionalist movement against abortion needs alignment with currents in historical sociology, the theory of social movements and the sociology of politics. The religious (specifically, Christian) basis of the right-to-life movement has attracted considerable attention in the literature. The movement is seen as a traditionalist bloc claiming to oppose secularization and return to customary restrictions. However the tradition in question appears to be a recent social construction. There is slim warrant in the actual traditions of Western religion for asserting a categorical right to life. As a result, the movement's ideology is best approached as the product of—rather than the antidote to—secularizing processes (including the demographic transition, discourse about rights, markets for symbolic entrepreneurs and the separation of church and state) and possibly as an unintended import from non-Western religion. Implications for traditionalism, the functions of religion, and the study of countermovements are explored. This case illustrates the value of attending to historical sequences and the external cultural environments of social movements.     

Stochastic modelling of regional annual rainfall anomalies in East Africa

ARIMA (p, d, q) models were fitted to areal annual rainfall of two homogeneous regions in East Africa with rainfall records extending between the period 1922–80. The areal estimates of the regional rainfall were derived from the time series of the first eigenvector, which was significantly dominant at each of the two regions. The first eigenvector accounted for about 80% of the total rainfall variance in each region.

The class of ARIMA (p, d, q) models which best fitted the areal indices of relative wetness/dryness were the A R M A (3, 1) models. Tests of forecasting skill however indicated low skill in the forecasts given by these models. In all cases the models accounted for less than 50% of the total variance.

Spectral analysis of the indices time series indicated dominant quasi-periodic fluctuations around 2.2–2.8 years, 3–3.7 years, 5–6 years and 10–13 years. These spectral bands however accounted for very low proportion of the total rainfall variance.     

Marriage and its transition in Bangladesh

The author examines developments in marriage patterns in Bangladesh in light of social, cultural, and economic conditions. Previous literature on the subject is used to discuss Muslim marriage, Hindu marriage, child marriage, mate selection and social mobility, and the question of a marriage squeeze. "The analysis presents evidence that the society is experiencing a change in its family formation, mating process and family type. This transition is to some extent towards the characteristics of [the] Western World, but in a poor economy. Part of this transition is due to the effect of modernization and part due to increasing poverty."     

International factors in the formation of refugee movements

The authors construct a theoretical framework for analyzing factors influencing international refugee movements. "On the basis of detailed case studies by the authors of the principal refugee flows generated in Asia, Africa, and Latin America from approximately 1960 to the present, it was found that international factors often intrude both directly and indirectly on the major types of social conflict that trigger refugee flows, and tend to exacerbate their effects. Refugees are also produced by conflicts that are manifestly international, but which are themselves often related to internal social conflict among the antagonists."     

How bad can a voting location be

Two questions concerning the location of a single facility by a voting process are investigated for transportation networks:

- What is the maximum number of customers located on the network preferring some rival point over a voting solution?

- How does the average distance of the customers to the facility increase when a voting location instead of a Weber location is chosen for the facility?

Complete answers are given for general networks and for certain planar networks, viz., the so-called generalized cacti.