Effects of population policy and economic reform on the trend in fertility in Guangdong province,China, 1975–2005

An analysis of data mainly from China's 1990 and 2000 censuses and 2005 mini-census shows how fertility decline between 1975 and 2005 in the province of Guangdong has been influenced by both fertility policy and economic and social development. Guangdong's development since 1975 has been very rapid and has attracted huge numbers of migrants from other provinces. The analysis of the province's fertility trend from 1975 shows clearly the influence of fertility policy on the trend. The analysis also shows that economic development has brought about large changes in population composition by urban/rural residence, education, occupation, and migration status, which, together with large fertility differentials by these characteristics, have contributed substantially to Guangdong's fertility decline, in large part through changes in proportions currently married.     

Vertical Mystical Homoeros An Altered Form of Desire in Fundamentalism

This paper inquires into the kind of desire specific to the fundamentalist mode. The author suggests that the simplistic, black-and-white, ostensibly “horizontal” divisions between good and evil, right and wrong, pure and impure that characterize the fundamentalist sensibility create at the same time two phenomena: (a) gross emotional intensity that endows experience with a stark quality (e.g., grandiosity and abjection), and (b) a “vertical” division that constructs basic inequalities. The “vertical” difference between the believer and his God intensifies longing and mystical desire. The longing of the holder of such desire is to merge with a tantalizing, perfect, and cruel God and to renounce his individuality and even life. The concept of a “regression-to-the father” is a tempting and potentially dangerous process of abnegation if not countered by the need to overcome the “father” one so submissively desires.     

Socio-Economic Characteristics and Life Expectancies in Nineteenth-Century England: A District Analysis

This paper presents an analysis of levels of life expectancy and their patterns of change among six socio-economically differentiated sub-populations of England and Wales for the period 1851–1911. Differences in mortality levels among these sub-groups and their rates of change are analyzed with respect to three groups of explanatory variables, viz., environmental, stratification and demographic variables. Their relative importance for different periods is assessed and discussed. The findings show consistency with two previous studies, which have suggested that medical advances had little effect on the increase in life expectancy during the second half of the nineteenth century. The present paper supports the results of one study in that public health measures affected life expectancies earlier, while subsequently, the increase in standards of living was more important.     

Study of a Markov model for a high-quality dependent process

For high-quality processes, non-conforming items are seldom observed and the traditional p (or np) charts are not suitable for monitoring the state of the process. A type of chart based on the count of cumulative conforming items has recently been introduced and it is especially useful for automatically collected one-at-a-time data. However, in such a case, it is common that the process characteristics become dependent as items produced one after another are inspected. In this paper, we study the problem of process monitoring when the process is of high quality and measurement values possess a certain serial dependence. The problem of assuming independence is examined and a Markov model for this type of process is studied, upon which suitable control procedures can be developed.