The population statistics of China,A.D. 2–1953

Chinese population statistics are collated from the time of the Western Han Dynasty (A.D. 2) to 19 5 3, including statistics of population and households for provinces as well as for China as a whole. Evidence bearing on the definitions of the statistics, methods of compilation, and reliability of the figures as measures of population size and change, is summarized. An "emended series " of population totals for China proper, A.D. 2 to 1953 is presented, excluding figures which are clearly defective.     

Occupational variations in drinking and psychological distress: a multilevel analysis

The relationship between alcohol intake and psychological distress has been overlooked in studies on the working population. Using a multilevel multivariate model, this study reports results obtained from a sample of 8812 workers nested in 387 occupations. Results show that alcohol intake and psychological distress vary significantly at the worker and occupation levels, but they do not show a large variation at the occupation level. Occupational socioeconomic status appears to be a common factor explaining the correlation between alcohol intake and psychological distress at the occupation level. Semi-professionals, middle management, foreman and semiskilled clerical-sales-services occupations are particularly at risk. Gender is related to both outcomes, while work schedule and number of weekly working hours are associated only with psychological distress. Implications and limitations of these results are discussed.     

The relationship between dissociative-like experiences and sensation seeking among social and problem gamblers

The present study examined the relationships between dissociative experiences, sensation seeking scores, and gambling behavior. On the basis of the frequency of their gambling behavior and responses to the Gamblers Anonymous Twenty Questions, subjects were designated as either problem gamblers (N=30) or social gamblers (N=30).Those designated as problem gamblers responded yes to an average of 12.17 questions on the Gamblers Anonymous Twenty Questions as compared to the social gamblers who averaged 1.90 yes responses. Responses on the Twenty Questions correlated strongly with the frequency of gambling behavior and dissociative experiences. Problem gamblers reported a significantly greater number of dissociative experiences than social gamblers (p<.01). Problem gamblers scored significantly higher than social gamblers on the Total Sensation Seeking Scale, and the Boredom Susceptibility, Experience Seeking, and Disinhibition subscales. Clinical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Juvenile Gambling in North America: An Analysis of Long Term Trends and Future Prospects

Long term trends, based on findings from twenty independent prevalence studies surveying middle and high school youth in North America, suggest that within the past year two out of three legally underage youth have gambled for money. In the United States and Canada as many as 15.3 million 12–17 year olds have been gambling with or without adult awareness or approval, and 2.2 million of these are experiencing serious gambling-related problems. Lottery play dominates legalized forms of gambling among juveniles in both the United States and Canada. Trends between 1984–1999 indicate a substantial increase in the proportion of juveniles who report gambling within the past year, and a parallel increase in the proportion of juveniles reporting serious gambling-related problems. Yet, there continues to be little public awareness or concern about the extent, or the potential hazards associated with juvenile gambling. A composite profile of juveniles reporting numerous gambling problems is contrasted with their peers who reported few or none. Future prospects concerning this growing problem are offered.     

Does any mother’s body odor stimulate interest in mother’s face in 4‐month‐old infants?

Little is known about the effects of olfaction on visual processing during infancy. We investigated whether and how an infant's own mother's body odor or another mother's body odor affects 4‐month‐old infants’ looking at their mother's face when it is paired with a stranger's face. In Experiment 1, infants were exposed to their mother's body odor or to a control odor, while in Experiment 2, infants were exposed to a stranger mother's body odor while their visual preferences were recorded. Results revealed that infants looked more at the stranger's female face in presence of the control odor but that they looked more at their mother's face in the context of any mother's body odors. This effect was due to a reduction of looking at the stranger's face. These findings suggest that infants react similarly to the body odor of any mother and add to the growing body of evidence indicating that olfactory stimulation represents a pervasive aspect of infant multisensory perception.     

A note on monotonicity in iterated choice functions

This short paper proves the following conjecture of D. Bouyssou: a preference aggregation function built by iteration of a strictly monotonic and symmetric social choice correspondence cannot be strictly monotonic. Received: 1 October 1998/Accepted: 23 December 1999