Economic socialization in the kibbutz and the town in Israel

This study compared the economic understanding and attitudes of children living in the city with those living in a kibbutz, collective villages where an extreme socialist lifestyle is practised and preached. The differences in the answer patterns of the urban and kibbutz children were not very large, but the pattern was clear, and in keeping with the dominant ideology in both places: socialist in the kibbutz, middle-class capitalist in the city.     

Effects of Group Norms on Children's Intentions to Bully

A minimal group study examined the effect of peer group norms on children's direct and indirect bullying intentions. Prior to an inter‐group drawing competition, children (N = 85) aged seven and nine years were assigned to a group that had a norm of out‐group dislike or out‐group liking. Results indicated that, regardless of group norms, the children's attitudes were more positive towards the in‐group vs. the out‐group. Children's bullying intentions were greater when the in‐group had a norm of out‐group dislike vs. out‐group liking, the children were younger rather than older, and the bullying was indirect vs. direct. A three‐way interaction showed that the in‐group norms had a larger effect on the younger children's direct rather than indirect bullying intentions, but a larger effect on the older children's indirect rather than direct bullying intentions. Implications for understanding school bullying intentions and behaviour are discussed.     

Shortage of girls in China today

China has the most severe shortage of girls compared to boys of any country in the world today, as documented by China's surveys and censuses up to 2000. This article evaluates data on sex ratios in China since before the founding of the People's Republic, and shows that the relative dearth of girls has become more extreme during the last two decades, and that the problem is real and not merely due to undercounting of girls. Daughters are lost primarily through sex-selective abortion, secondly through excess female infant mortality, and thirdly through neglect or mistreatment of girls up to age three, in cities as well as rural areas. Until recently, the dearth of girls was confined to second or higher-order births, but now couples in some provinces are using sex-selective abortions for first births. Maps show the geographical concentration of life-threatening discrimination against girls and its spread over time. Son preference, low fertility and technology combine to cause the loss of daughters in China today and compulsory family planning and the one-child policy exacerbate the problem. The discussion includes what the People's Republic of China has done to ameliorate life-threatening discrimination against girls and what further steps might be taken to improve the situation.     

Local Gatekeeping Practices and Residential Segregation*

This article links the statistical data on residential segregation with the informal practices of individuals. Local gatekeeping practices contribute to the perpetuation of segregation and further explain the patterns of macro-level analyses. This research focuses on the community of Greenpoint, a predominantly white, working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. The study describes the strategies used by residents of Greenpoint to accomplish residential segregation and to maintain a predominantly white non-Hispanic neighborhood. The process of informal housing networking is supported by the arrangements of local institutions.     

SHORT REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Paul Demeny and Geoffrey Mcnicoll (eds.), Encyclopedia of Population Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Agriculture: Towards 2015/2030: An FAO Perspective and Summary Report Jeanne X. Kasperson and Roger E. Kasperson, Global Environmental Risk Richard Lynn, Eugenics: A Reassessment Douglas W. Maynard, Hanneke Houtkoop‐Steenstra, Nora Gate Schaeffer, and Johannes van der Zouwen (eds.), Standardization and Tacit Knowledge: Interaction and Practice in the Survey Anthony M. Messina (ed.), West European Immigration and Immigrant Policy in the New Century     

A Two-Phase Exact Algorithm for MAX-SAT and Weighted MAX-SAT Problems

We describe a two-phase algorithm for MAX-SAT and weighted MAX-SAT problems. In the first phase, we use the GSAT heuristic to find a good solution to the problem. In the second phase, we use an enumeration procedure based on the Davis-Putnam-Loveland algorithm, to find a provably optimal solution. The first heuristic stage improves the performance of the algorithm by obtaining an upper bound on the minimum number of unsatisfied clauses that can be used in pruning branches of the search tree.We compare our algorithm with an integer programming branch-and-cut algorithm. Our implementation of the two-phase algorithm is faster than the integer programming approach on many problems. However, the integer programming approach is more effective than the two-phase algorithm on some classes of problems, including MAX-2-SAT problems.