Some population characteristics of villages differentiated by size,location, and growth

Selected social characteristics of individuals were examined for groups of villages simultaneously dichotomized by size, location relative to larger cities, and population change. The percent of people having a selected characteristic in each village group of the resulting eight-fold classification was taken as the dependent variable, and difference scores indicating main effects and first order interactions were obtained for each characteristic. The universe is the 375 incorporated places under 2500 in 1950outside the SMSAs of Wisconsin. Size of place was found to be important for the sex ratio, education and income levels, and labor force and occupational variables. Characteristics associated with nearness to a large city included income, male labor force participation, occupation, and industry. Growth was important for age and sex differences, education, income, and some labor force, occupation, and industry variables. An interaction between location and growth was found for several occupation and industry characteristics. The consistency between some of the results and previous research on larger places supports the contention that villages, although classified as rural, share many characteristics of urban centers. The industry and occupation differences by location, and the interaction between location and growth, strongly suggest that location is tied closely to function here. Places near cities over 25,000, especially those that are growing, may serve as residences for commuting blue-collar workers, or perhaps as small manufacturing centers, while most places more remote from cities continue to function as small service centers for a rural hinterland.     

Putting modularity in business planning and control

The use of modules in constructing corporate planning systems has been reported by companies such as I.B.M. Xerox, and Standard Oil of New Jersey. The modules may be of organizational units, or of functions such as production, distribution and finance. Modules may also be used for different types of calculations and for generating report output. A module is quite simply a standard unit. Modularity becomes more important as systems grow large, because it is one means of keeping order within large systems. Modularisation is a key concept in structuring large systems, and a useful approach to use in designing procedures for Corporate Planning.     

Intention and uncertainty at later stages of childbearing: the united states 1965 and 1970

While births may be dichotomous, fertility intentions are not inherently so. Intentions are predictions about the future and, as such, are couched in considerable uncertainty. Ignoring this uncertainty hides much of what could be learned from data on fertility intentions. This paper presents a model which allows analysis of the full range of intentions. After selecting a sample of women in the later stage of childbearing (e.g., those who intend fewer than two additional children) from the 1965and 1970 National Fertility Studies, it is shown that: (1) substantial portions of women at this stage of the reproductive life cycle were indeed uncertain of their parity-specific intention; (2) this certainty, like more firm intentions, varies by age and parity as the model predicts; and (3) there were significant shifts in the level of certainty between 1965 and 1970. Specifically, while intentions for third, fourth, and fifth births declined, more women “didn’t know” if they intended to have another child or not. Among those not intending another child, more seemed uncertain of this intention in 1970 than did comparable women in 1965. In contrast, those intending another child seemed more certain. These changes in intention and uncertainty indicate that the observed decline in intended parity was tentative. Post-1970 evidence suggests that this tentative decline has become an unequivocal one.     

Automatic starting point selection for function optimization

Traditional (non-stochastic) iterative methods for optimizing functions with multiple optima require a good procedure for selecting starting points. This paper illustrates how the selection of starting points can be made automatically by using a method based upon simulated annealing. We present a hybrid algorithm, possessing the accuracy of traditional routines, whilst incorporating the reliability of annealing methods, and illustrate its performance for a particularly complex practical problem.Now at the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1SB, UK.     

Patterns of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Utilization and Manufacturing Capabilities

The objectives of this research are first to empirically replicate Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) utilization taxonomies identified in foregoing research, second to investigate the relationship between patterns of AMT utilization and manufacturing capabilities attainment, and third to explore differences in context, and performance across AMT groups. Theories of performance frontiers and capability progression provide the basis for our hypotheses. Data were collected from 224 U.S. manufacturing plants in industries considered to have potential utilizations of AMTs. A cluster analysis of the data yields a solution that closely resembles a previous AMT utilization taxonomy, including four groups labeled, respectively, as Traditionalists, Generalists, High Investors, and Designers. Significant manufacturing capability differences across these four groups indicate that plants that utilize a broader scope of AMTs enjoy a greater breadth of manufacturing capabilities. The implied capability attainment pattern is consistent with cumulative capability theory. However, the results suggest that cost capability is not included in the capability mix when broad‐based AMT utilization is the enabler of capability gains. A post hoc exploration of the AMT groups indicates significant differences in performance across the groups. Collectively, the results extend prior research by providing added insights into the possible rationale and impact of AMT utilization patterns.     

Developments in gender and U.S. politics: A call for intersectionality

Since “women and politics” scholarship emerged in the 1970s, social, institutional, and theoretical developments have shaped the trajectory of U.S. scholarship in this field. First, the presence of women in formal politics has increased, albeit unevenly across parties and minority groups over time. Simultaneously, the capacity to study “political women” has become supported through institutional mechanisms such as academic journals and communities of practice. Moreover, gender as a critical focus of analysis has been developed and refined. In the literature on women and politics, the shift from studying sex differences to interrogating gendered political institutions is especially salient. This institutional focus, along with recent intersectional studies of gender and politics, increases opportunities for cross‐pollination of sociological and political science perspectives. In this review, I provide a brief history of the U.S. scholarship on gender and politics and map these relevant social, institutional, and theoretical advances. I highlight the value of recent intersectional contributions in this field and make the case for bringing partisanship—an increasingly salient political identity and structure—into intersectional approaches to gender and politics.