The decline of son preference and rise of gender indifference in Taiwan since 1990

This study explores the change of married women’s sex preference for children in Taiwan since 1990, finding that there was a substantial decline of son preference and rise of “gender indifferenceâ€, defined as feeling indifferent about children’s sex (as opposed to desiring an equal number of boys and girls, in which the sex of children is still a primary consideration). Results show that at the individual level female education was the strongest predictor for the preference; education was negatively associated with son preference and positively with gender indifference. Cohort difference was noticeable as well. Younger cohorts were better educated than older ones hence they were more neutral about the sex and less adherent to the traditional male preference. In addition from 1992 to 2002 there was a universal intra cohort movement toward gender neutrality and away from son preference. When the younger cohorts gradually replaced the older ones as the main child bearers in Taiwanese society, at the aggregate level son preference declined and gender indifference rose.education, gender indifference, son preference, Taiwan

A Generalization of the Doubling Construction for Sums of Squares Identities

The doubling construction is a fast and important way to generate new solutions to the Hurwitz problem on sums of squares identities from any known ones. In this short note, we generalize the doubling construction and obtain from any given admissible triple $[r,s,n]$ a series of new ones $[r+\rho(2^{m-1}),2^ms,2^mn]$ for all positive integer $m$, where $\rho$ is the Hurwitz-Radon function

Heavy Quark Effective Theory on the Light Front

The light-front heavy quark effective theory is derived to all orders in $1/m_Q$. In the limit $m_Q\rightarrow \infty$, the theory exhibits the familiar heavy quark spin-flavor symmetry. This new formalism permits a straightforward canonical quantization to all orders in $1/m_Q$; moreover, higher order terms have rather simple operator structures. The light-front heavy quark effective theory can serve as an useful framework for the study of non-perturbative QCD dynamics of heavy hadron bound states.Comment: 11 pages, revtex, no figure

Bootstrapping 2D CFTs in the Semiclassical Limit

We study two dimensional conformal field theories in the semiclassical limit. In this limit, the four-point function is dominated by intermediate primaries of particular weights along with their descendants, and the crossing equations simplify drastically. For a four-point function receiving sufficiently small contributions from the light primaries, the structure constants involving heavy primaries follow a universal formula. Applying our results to the four-point function of the $\mathbb Z_2$ twist field in the symmetric product orbifold, we produce the Hellerman bound and the logarithmically corrected Cardy formula that is valid for $h \geq c/12$.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures. v2, v3: references added, minor clarification

Information and Communication Technologies and Informal Scholarly Communication: A Review of the Social Oriented Research

This article reviews and analyzes findings from research on computer mediated informal scholarly communication. Ten empirical research papers, which show the effects and influences of information & communication technologies (ICTs), or the effects of social contexts on ICTs use in informal scholarly communication, were analyzed and compared. Types of ICTs covered in those studies include e-mails, collaboratories, and electronic forums. The review shows that most of the empirical studies examined the ICTs use effects or consequences. Only a few studies examined the social shaping of ICTs and ICT uses in informal scholarly communication. Based on comparisons of the empirical findings this article summarizes the ICT use effects/consequences as identified in the studies into seven categories and discusses their implications