The Puzzle of the Antebellum Fertility Decline in the United States: New Evidence and Reconsideration

All nations that can be characterized as developed have undergone the demographic transition from high to low levels of fertility and mortality. Most presently developed nations began their fertility transitions in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries. The United States was an exception. Evidence using census-based child-woman ratios suggests that the fertility of the white population of the United States was declining from at least the year 1800. By the end of the antebellum period in 1860, child-woman ratios had declined 33 percent. There is also indication that the free black population was experiencing a fertility transition. This transition was well in advance of significant urbanization, industrialization, and mortality decline and well in advance of every other presently developed nation with the exception of France. This paper uses census data on county-level child-woman ratios to test a variety of explanations on the antebellum American fertility transition. It also uses micro data from the IPUMS files for 1850 and 1860. A number of the explanations, including the land availability hypothesis, the local labor market-child default hypothesis, and the life cycle saving hypothesis, are consistent with the data, but nuptiality, not one of the usual explanations, emerges as likely very important.

American Indian Mortality in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Impact of Federal Assimilation Policies on a Vulnerable Population

Under the urging of late nineteenth-century humanitarian reformers, U.S. policy toward American Indians shifted from removal and relocation efforts to state-sponsored attempts to "civilize" Indians through allotment of tribal lands, citizenship, and forced education. There is little consensus, however, whether and to what extent federal assimilation efforts played a role in the stabilization and recovery of the American Indian population in the twentieth century. In this paper, we rely on a new IPUMS sample of the 1900 census of American Indians and census-based estimation methods to investigate the impact of federal assimilation policies on childhood mortality. We use children ever born and children surviving data included in the censuses to estimate childhood mortality and [responses to] several questions unique to the Indian enumeration [including tribal affiliation, degree of "white blood", type of dwelling, ability to speak English, and whether a citizen by allotment] to construct multivariate models of child mortality. The results suggest that mortality among American Indians in the late nineteenth century was very high - approximately 62% [standardize as % or percent throughout] higher than that for the white population. The impact of assimilation policies was mixed. Increased ability to speak English was associated with lower child mortality, while allotment of land in severalty was associated with higher mortality. The combined effect was a very modest four percent [as above] decline in mortality. As of 1900, the government campaign to assimilate Indians had yet to result in a significant decline in Indian mortality while incurring substantial economic and cultural costs.

The question of being

La difficulté éprouvée lorsqu'on considère la question de l'être est décrite par Étienne Gilson de la manière suivante : Dans « un domaine où la démonstration dialectique perd ses droits, chacun ne peut que regarder, dire ce qu'il voit et inviter les autres à tourner comme lui le regard vers la vérité. » En fait, Gilson dit, dans le même article : « De deux métaphysiciens également compétents et jouissant d'une égale habileté dans le maniement des arguments dialectiques, il se peut qu'aucun ne réussisse jamais à convaincre l'autre, parce qu'ils ne voient pas les mêmes choses. » Cela semblerait être le sort du vrai philosophe, qui est, comme il est décrit dans le Sophiste, difficile à voir, « car cette région est si brillante, et les yeux de l'âme de la plupart des gens ne peuvent pas supporter de regarder ce qui est divin. » Si le philosophe, la personne qui interroge l'Être, est difficile à voir, à cause de ce qu'il poursuit, alors ce qu'il poursuit doit être encore plus difficile à saisir. Comme Josef Pieper le dit, « La personne philosophante se trouve dans une telle situation ; ceci est, en effet, exactement ce que la distingue, c'est-à-dire, qu'elle est obligée de parler de quelque chose qui soit indéniablement rencontré, mais qui ne peut être exprimé avec des mots précis. » Cette thèse est divisée en deux grandes sections. La première pourrait être décrite comme une section interprétative. Nous essayons ici de mettre en place, aussi précisément que possible, les différentes tentatives de répondre à la question de l'être proposées par Platon, Aristote et Martin Heidegger. Nous cherchons, dans un sens, à tracer les chemins qu'ils ont pris dans leur quête vers le sommet du mont Être. Chacune de ces subdivisions contiennent nos propres contributions à ce que nous proposons comme la bonne approche interprétative de ces trois philosophes. Ces appoints prennent en compte une interprétation préliminaire de ces auteurs, suivies d'une tentative de naviguer dans un véritable marécage de textes interprétatifs qui prétendent nous dire, une fois pour toutes, comment bien comprendre les revendications ontologiques de Platon, d'Aristote et de Martin Heidegger. Nos contributions à la pensée philosophique entourant ces penseurs particuliers ne constituent pas, cependant, l'objectif principal de cette thèse. Au contraire, ils serviront à nous aider dans notre tentative d'atteindre, nous-mêmes le sommet du la montagne de l'Être. Après avoir jalonné ces parcours, nous devrions être en mesure de mieux planifier notre propre approche à la question de l'Être. La première section sous-tendra ainsi la deuxième afin d'aborder, à nouveau, la question de l'Être. Cette deuxième section doit être considérée comme une section philosophique-la poursuite active de la sagesse. Dans cette deuxième partie, nous proposons d'aborder la question de l'Être, tout d'abord par la comparaison, l'analyse et la critique des trois penseurs que nous avons examinés dans la première section ; nous proposerons ensuite nos propres tentatives de répondre à la question de l'Être. Nous allons conclure avec quelques brèves réflexions sur la façon dont nos découvertes concernant l'Être pourraient affecter d'autres domaines de la connaissance.The difficulty of approaching the question of Being is described, by Étienne Gilson as follows, "in a domain where dialectical demonstration loses its rights, one can do no more than look, say what he sees, and invite others to turn, like himself, their eyes towards the truth." In fact, says Gilson, earlier in this same article, "Take two metaphysicians who are equally competent and in possession of equal ability in the handling of dialectical arguments, it is possible that neither of them will ever succeed in convincing the other, because they do not see the same things." This seems to be the fate of the true philosopher, as he is described in the Sophist, who is hard to see "because that area is so bright and the eyes of most people's souls cannot bear to look at that which is divine." If the philosopher, the person who questions Being, is difficult to see, because of that which he is pursuing, then that which he is pursuing must be even more difficult to grasp. As Josef Pieper puts it, "The philosophizing person finds himself in just such a situation; this is precisely what singles him out, that is, that he is obliged to speak of something undeniably encountered but that cannot be expressed exactly in words." This dissertation can be divided into two major sections. The first major section could be portrayed as an interpretative section. We here attempt to establish, as accurately as possible, the differing attempts to answer the question of Being that were proposed by Plato, Aristotle and Martin Heidegger. We are, in a sense, attempting to map out the paths they took in their quest to attain the summit of Mount Being. Each of these sections contain our own contributions to what we propose is the proper interpretation of these three philosophers. These contributions take into account a preliminary interpretation of these authors, followed by the attempt to wade through a veritable swamp of interpretative writings that purport to tell us, once and for all, how to properly understand the ontological claims of Plato, Aristotle and Martin Heidegger. Our contributions to philosophical thought surrounding these particular thinkers do not constitute, however, the primary goal of this dissertation. Rather, they will serve to help us in our attempt to climb the mountain of Being. Having mapped out their paths, we should be better able to plan out our own approach to the question of Being. Thus, in the second section, we will use what we have learned in the first section in order to approach the question of Being anew. This second section should be seen as a philosophical section-the active pursuit of wisdom. In this second section we propose to approach the question of Being, first of all, through a comparison, analysis, and critique of the three thinkers we examined in the first section. This will be followed by our own humble attempts to answer the question of Being. We will conclude with some brief thoughts about how our discoveries about Being may affect other domains of knowledge

Somalia and the Pirates. ESF Working Paper No. 33, 18 December 2009

Piracy is defined by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies as an "act of boarding or attempting to board any ship with the apparent intent to commit theft or any other crime and with the apparent intent or capability to use force in furtherance of that act." And it is estimated that from 1995 to 2009, around 730 persons were killed or are presumed dead, approximately 3,850 seafarers were held hostage, around 230 were kidnapped and ransomed, nearly 800 were seriously injured and hundreds more were threatened with guns and knives. (See paper by Rob de Wijk). In November 2009, CEPS held a European Security Forum seminar, in collaboration with the Institute for Strategic Studies, the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, to focus on the issue of Somalia and the Pirates, chaired by Francois Heisbourg. Four eminent specialists in this field: David Anderson, Rob de Wijk, Steven Haines and Jonathon Stevenson looked at the links with Somalia, and the historical, legal, political and security dimensions of the troubling success of piracy in today’s world. Their conclusions and recommendations for future action are brought together in this ESF 33 Working Paper

Hafters and crafters : verbal unruliness and the contest for artistic discourse in the english renaissance

Chapter One argues for the recovery of the word haft. An account of the denotative varieties of haft provides a way of looking back into an implicit logic of rhetorical practice which has fallen out of use. Chapter Two focuses on two texts by John Skelton which demonstrate the rhetorical texture of literary contests: the flyting Agenst Garnesche (1514) and the interlude Magnyfycence (c. 1515). In the former, Skelton falls to verbal blows with his opponent, Christopher Garnesche, in an effort to exalt his own reputation at court while humiliating Garnesche. In Magnyfycence, Skelton enlarges an understanding of haft through characters who explicitly claim to be hafters. Chapter Three examines oppositional discourse in the English Renaissance as it appears later in the sixteenth century in Sidney\u27s Defense of Poesie and Puttenham\u27s The Arte of English Poesie. As opposed to the ostentatious style and heavy-handed nature of earlier-century flytings, the manner in which authors wage later-century verbal combat is more restrained, and private contests for a reputation as a distinguished poet must be disguised as a public effort to imitate courtly decorum in the form of poesie. Here, haft marks out the places where professional status and style intersect. In Chapter Four, haft serves as a means of indicating the aptness of one\u27s ideas about language. Herein the quarrel between Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey is considered as a later sixteenth-century flyting disguised as criticism. This debate helps shape the identity and boundaries of the profession of English literature, setting out the limits of decorum by means of their eristic nature. Chapter Five examines haft as a transgression of boundaries via indecorous language of rogues, vagrants, and ruffians in Jonson\u27s Bartholomew Fair. Just as the actual fair event places a number of the dramatis personae in close proximity to rogues and cut-purses, Bartholomew Fair offers playgoers the opportunity to slum in an anti-pastoral carnival world without risking injury to their own purse or person. The dramatist benefits from exchanging a performative text with an audience whose admiration fills the symbolic coffers of Jonson\u27s cultural strongbox

GODIVA2: interactive visualization of environmental data on the Web

GODIVA2 is a dynamic website that provides visual access to several terabytes of physically distributed, four-dimensional environmental data. It allows users to explore large datasets interactively without the need to install new software or download and understand complex data. Through the use of open international standards, GODIVA2 maintains a high level of interoperability with third-party systems, allowing diverse datasets to be mutually compared. Scientists can use the system to search for features in large datasets and to diagnose the output from numerical simulations and data processing algorithms. Data providers around Europe have adopted GODIVA2 as an INSPIRE-compliant dynamic quick-view system for providing visual access to their data

GOLDEN EAGLE RESOURCE SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL DRIVERS OF REPRODUCTION IN THE NORTHERN RANGE OF YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

In the United States (US), National Parks are considered the “crown jewels” of protected lands. However, the importance of National Parks to wildlife populations and the species that inhabit them is not often quantified, thus, requiring a better understanding of National Parks as a conservation tool. Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are a North American species of conservation concern and territories in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) are relatively dense. However, average reproductive rates over the past ten years (2011-2020) have been low (productivity = 0.34, nest success = 28%). The contrast of high density and low reproduction has stimulated questions regarding what environmental factors limit reproductive success. The overall objective of this study is to identify spatial and temporal components of golden eagle habitat that explain reproductive demographics in YNP’s northern range. To accomplish, I first examined resource selection at multiple spatial scales during two seasonal periods influential to reproduction. I found that golden eagles select home ranges in areas with low forest cover and in close proximity to open water. Within the home range I found that golden eagles select for increasingly rugged topography and upper slopes increasing to ridgelines. Additionally, I found weak evidence that eagles are selecting prey habitat based on season. I then used the resource selection analysis findings coupled with yearly weather variation to examine their effects on nest initiation/egg-laying and successfully fledging nestlings. Results indicate that increasing occasions of prolonged precipitation and severe weather negatively influence both nest initiation and success. I found weak evidence that home ranges with more rugged terrain and territories in closer proximity to neighboring territories positively influence nest success. The resource selection analysis reaffirms the importance of increased openness and topography near prey habitat on eagle presence and daily needs. Overall, my study advances our understanding of the drivers of low reproductive rates of golden eagles in the northern range of YNP. Harsh weather negatively influences nest initiation and success with weak evidence of a positive effect for spatially distributed resources. Given the potential consequences of low reproductive success in YNP, research will need to address other life-history stages to better understand population status

Permeability evolution across carbonate hosted normal fault zones

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Total E&P and BG Group for project funding and support, and the Industry Technology Facilitator for facilitating the collaborative development (grant number 3322PSD). The authors would also like to express their gratitude to the Aberdeen Formation Evaluation Society and the College of Physical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen for partial financial support. Raymi Castilla (Total E&P), Fabrizio Agosta and Cathy Hollis are also thanked for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve the standard of this manuscript as are John Still and Colin Taylor (University of Aberdeen) for technical assistance in the laboratory. Piero Gianolla is thanked for his editorial handling of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin