Parental age and offspring mortality: Negative effects of reproductive ageing may be counterbalanced by secular increases in longevity

As parental ages at birth continue to rise, concerns about the effects of fertility postponement on offspring are increasing. Due to reproductive ageing, advanced parental ages have been associated with negative health outcomes for offspring, including decreased longevity. The literature, however, has neglected to examine the potential benefits of being born at a later date. Secular declines in mortality mean that later birth cohorts are living longer. We analyse mortality over ages 30–74 among 1.9 million Swedish men and women born 1938–60, and use a sibling comparison design that accounts for all time-invariant factors shared by the siblings. When incorporating cohort improvements in mortality, we find that those born to older mothers do not suffer any significant mortality disadvantage, and that those born to older fathers have lower mortality. These findings are likely to be explained by secular declines in mortality counterbalancing the negative effects of reproductive ageing.     

Why does onlyAthalia Japonica enter summer diapause among three sympatricAthalia sawflies feeding on crucifers?

Summary This report assesses the primary factor for the evolution of summer diapause of the three species of sawfly,Athalia japonica, A. rosae andA. infumata that feed on cruciferous plants and coexist in the same area.A. japonica has two discrete spring and autumn generations, butA. rosae andA. infumata 5–6 generations. OnlyA. japonica enters summer diapause in response to the long daylengths in spring. Although these three sawflies usually feed on the same cultivated crucifers, they differ markedly in the utilization of wild crucifers. They oviposit only on young leaves.A. japonica mainly usesCardamine plants which sprout in spring and autumn.A. rosae andA. infumata primarily use hosts with new leaves all the year round, i.e. cultivated crucifers andRorippa indica, respectively. The thermal threshold for development is lower inA. japonica than in the other two species. The low heat tolerance ofA. japonica is adapted only to cool shady habitats whereCardamine grows. Presumably, summer diapause ofA. japonica is adaptation to the deterioration of the primary host plants rather than unfavorable climatic conditions. This interpretation is supported by the movement patterns of the threeAthalia sawflies, alternative means to escape from deteriorated habitat conditions.     

Living Arrangements and Quality of Life Among Chinese Canadian Elders

This paper examines the role of living arrangements in thequality of life of community-dwelling Chinese elders (aged 65 andover) currently residing in Vancouver and Victoria, BritishColumbia. Data are based on a random sample of 830 persons[response rate = 71.5%], who were interviewed in their homes inthe language of their choice in 1995–96. Three dimensions ofquality of life – satisfaction, well-being and social support –are examined for married men and women [living with spouse alonevs. living intergenerationally] and widowed women [living alonevs. living intergenerationally]. Few differences are found formarried persons, especially women; for widows, living alonesignificantly reduces quality of life in a number of areas.Regression analyses indicate that living arrangements are not asignificant predictor of life satisfaction or well-being formarried men and women. For widows, living arrangements determinewell-being but not life satisfaction.Overall, age, health status, and social support (havingfriends/confidante) are better predictors of quality of life forelderly Chinese Canadians than are living arrangements. Findingshighlight the importance of: empirically distinguishing maritalstatus and living arrangements in studying the quality of life ofelders; not homogenizing Chinese Canadian seniors with regard toliving arrangements; and focussing on Chinese elderly widows wholive alone as a group at risk of low well-being.     

So Many Theories,So Little Time: An Examination of Theories on the Intergenerational Transmission of Relationship Instability

To examine theoretical perspectives on the intergenerational transmission of relationship instability 945 college students from intact and divorced homes participated. Participants were examined simultaneously and separately based on racial and ethnic background. Regression analyses tested evolutionary, social learning, life-course adversity, and father-absent theory. Evolutionary theory proved to be the best explanation as it was able to explain relationship behaviors when examining all participants simultaneously, and some behaviors when examining participants separately. Life-course adversity and father-absent theory were able to explain early reproductive behaviors among White participants. For Black participants, age at first boy/girlfriend could be explained by social-learning, life-course adversity, and father-absent theory. None of the remaining theories were able to explain the relationship behaviors of Hispanic participants.     

Everyday tragedy and creation: Translated from the French by Karen Isabel Ocaña

In this essay, Michel Maffesoli exalts the poetry of the everyday, and a way of being that, paradoxically, opens one up to life through rituals that smack of a quest for divine nothingness. ‘Everyday Tragedy and Creation’ traces a series of connections: between Benjamin’s particular form of empirical mysticism and the notion of messianic time, the vitalism of Nietzsche (and tangentially his rediscovery of the Greek notion of tragedy and destiny), that of Bergson with his concept of duration, as well as the sociological hermeneutics of Dilthey. In the course of his discussion, Maffesoli invokes Verlaine, Rimbaud, street theatre and Eliot, and proposes a Zen-like approach to everyday happiness. More generally, Maffesoli rejects the temporality of modernism and drama and celebrates instead the ‘non-time’ of the tragedy of living in the present within a medium of communal images and practices.     

Quality of Life in Nursing Homes

Abstract

The Nursing Home Reform Act (NHRA) of 1987 established nursing home requirements and dually emphasized quality of care and quality of life outcomes. We researched elders' perceptions of quality of life in nursing homes using focus groups. Analysis revealed four major themes important to residents: generativity, spiritual well-being, homelike environment, and privacy. Themes were used to analyze the disparity between NHRA's goal of dual emphasis and the dominance of quality of care in the treatment of frail elders living in nursing homes. Policies and procedures must be developed that promote decisional control in everyday matters of an older person's life.     

元代葛逻禄诗人廼贤生平考述

廼贤是中国诗史上仅有的葛逻禄人,在当时诗、文声名极大,但其生平未见碑传,需要我们钩沉整理.本文对其族籍、家世进行了考辫,梳理了其生平事迹:自幼生长在江南鄞县,力学诗书;既壮,肆志远游,求仕不得;晚年官编修,客死军中.     

甘肃南部林区族群生存文化的生态人类学研究——以舟曲县3个藏汉村寨为例

甘肃省南部林区属于国家长江上游水土保持重点防治区域,具有非常重要的战略地位。世代居住在这块地方上的藏、汉族群积累了大量与所处环境相适应的生存技能和经验。构筑起与这种生态环境相适应的生存文化,形成了以森林为核心的生态系统与以苯教为核心的生存文化之间的共生关系。在保护当地生态环境、改善类似地区的生态环境、改变同一地区不同族群的生态观念等方面都能发挥作用,具有很强的实用价值,应该进行深入发掘和总结。     

Sport and the Cornish: difference and identity on the English periphery in the twentieth century

Cornwall differs from other English counties, not least because a significant percentage of those who live there self-identify as ‘Cornish’ rather than ‘English’ or British'. Sport has helped to underpin ‘the persistence of difference’. Distinctive versions of hurling and wrestling were key signifiers in this respect. In addition, Cornwall developed a particular affinity for rugby, similar to that found in Wales. In the late twentieth century, with indigenous Cornish culture threatened by deindustrialisation and in-migration, the county's rugby team enjoyed considerable success. Sport, in these conditions, became a signifier not merely of difference, but of a self-conscious Cornish identity.     

康区"三魔女",还是"康区三度母"——近代康区妇女精英研究

二十世纪上半叶康区三位著名妇女精英甘孜的孔萨?央金堪珠、德格的夏克? 泽旺志玛和瞻对的甲日?其美志玛在康区政治生活中扮演了重要的角色。她们之所以获得权力,是因为康区的传统习惯法以及清末和民国时期的法律都允许妇女在一个家族没有男性继承人的情况下继承名号和土司或头人的地位。为了获得和巩固政治地位,她们往往陷入多方势力的权力争斗中,这些势力包括其家族中的男性、来自其它家族的男性、地方军阀、中央政府,有时还有西藏地方政府。研究揭示了正是康区在夹缝中生存的各土司统治区域割裂、分权的性质为地方首领,特别是妇女领袖提供了较多的施展其政治才能的空间。