A tale of two provinces

The population program in 2 provinces of the Philippines 1 which has achieved success already and 1 where success is expected ultimately - is described. The Laguna program, launched in 1960, has reduced the annual birthrate to 1.8%, the lowest rate in the country. Governor F.T. San Luis, elected that year, is credited with much of the success of the program. The relatively high standard of living of the people in the province, cooperation of various related agencies, and the consistency and continuity of the program have made for success, despite initial problems with financing, conservative opposition, and interagency confusion. Capiz province is the model family program of the Commission on Population - Total Integrated Development Approach program for the southern region of the country. This program originally worked to develop self-awareness concerning needs and ambitions for the future among the people. When the program got under way in 1975, it stressed training, orientation, and education campaigns. Family planning in Capiz is part of the larger socioeconomic development program.     

Reducing Refusal Rates for Telephone Interviews

In two experiments, refusal rates to telephone interviews werenot affected by substantial changes in the introductory remarksof the interviewer. A prior letter significantly lowered refusalrates in a third experiment. In all three, interviewer sex hadno effect.     

A METHOD FOR SOLVING LINEAR PROGRAMS WITH VARIABLE RESOURCES

This paper is concerned with the solution of linear and linear goal programming problems in which the values of the right-hand side parameters are not fixed constants. Specifically, we are concerned with linear optimization problems in which the right-hand sides of the constraining equations are free to vary subject to a set of linear constraining equations. By formulating a relaxed linear program wherein the right-hand sides are treated as variables, we show how it is possible to solve one larger linear program that yields as a solution not only the optimal values for the decision variables, but also the optimal values for the right-hand sides.     

A STRATEGY FOR INTEGRATING QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES INTO THE BUSINESS CURRICULUM*

Quantitative methods courses play an increasingly significant role in the programs of Schools of Business. However, maximum utilization of the concepts can occur only when these quantitative techniques have been integrated into the various functional areas via a faculty knowledgeable with such techniques and their applications. Lacking sufficient stimuli, this integrative process is observed to be one of an evolutionary nature. This article presents a strategy for stimulation of this process.     

The demography of disability and the effects of immigrant history: Older Asians in the United States

Using data from the 2000 U.S. census, we compare the older Asian population with U.S.-born, non-Hispanic whites with respect to three indicators of disability. Insofar as any Asian "advantage" in health vis-a-vis whites exists among the population aged 65 and over, our evidence suggests that it occurs primarily among the U.S.-born segments of this population. We also investigate how differences in disability levels among Asian immigrant groups are influenced by country of birth and by the combined effects of duration of residence in the United States and life cycle stage at entry. These results highlight the diversity of the older Asian population with respect to the ways in which immigration and origin history are linked to disability outcomes. We conclude that in later life, immigrant status confers few disability advantages among the Asian population in the United States.     

Assessing attitude toward same-sex marriage: scale development and validation

This paper reports the results of three studies conducted to develop, refine, and validate a scale which assessed heterosexual adults' attitudes toward same-sex marriage, the Attitude Toward Same-Sex Marriage Scale (ASSMS). The need for such a scale is evidenced in the increasing importance of same-sex marriage in the political arena of the United States and other nations, as well as the growing body of empirical research examining same-sex marriage and related issues (e.g., Lannutti, 2005; Solomon, Rothblum, & Balsam, 2004). The results demonstrate strong reliability, convergent validity, and predictive validity for the ASSMS and suggest that the ASSMS may be adapted to measure attitudes toward civil unions and other forms of relational recognition for same-sex couples. Gender comparisons using the validated scale showed that in college and non-college samples, women had a significantly more positive attitude toward same-sex marriage than did men.     

Correcting missing-data bias in historical demography

Studies on population history are often based on incomplete records of life histories. For instance, in studies using data obtained from family reconstitution, the date of death is right censored (by migration) and the censoring time is never observed. Several methods for the correction of mortality estimates are proposed in the literature, most of which first estimate the number of individuals at risk and then use standard techniques to estimate mortality. Other methods are based on statistical models. In this paper all methods are reviewed, and their merits are compared by applying them to simulated and to seventeenth-century data from the English parish of Reigate. An ad hoc method proposed by Ruggles performs reasonably well. Methods based on statistical models, provided they are sufficiently realistic, give comparable accuracy and allow the estimation of several other quantities of interest, such as the distribution of migration times.