Island Demography: A Review of Selected Caribbean Contributions

This article traces the demographic contributions of island studies scholarship in four sections. First, demographic transition theory is applied to the population history of the region. The second highlights the impact of this demographic scholarship on related social science fields in the Caribbean. The third and fourth contributions focus on the impact of migration on two related hypotheses: the demographic transition and the mobility transition. In the first case, migration patterns between St. Kitts-Nevis and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 1960s suggest that the age-sex selectivity of migration tends to accelerate the transition in sending societies and retard its progress in receiving societies. In the second case, empirical support is provided for the so-called ‘migration transition’ whereby former chronic labour exporters become labour importers under sustained growth

The propensity for dependence in small Caribbean and Pacific Islands

Why has the postwar march to independence stalled among small tropical islands? Why do dependent islands continue to vote for the status quo? The primary explanation in the literature is the substantial economic benefits conferred by political affiliation: preferential metropolitan trade, investment and migration opportunities and subsidized infrastructure funding. This study compares 16 dependent with 19 independent islands in the Caribbean and Pacific across 25 socio-economic and demographic indicators. The former significantly out-perform their larger sovereign rivals across most indices. Results suggest the dependencies have more successfully restructured their colonial economies, have progressed further along the demographic transition, and comprise a new insular development case: the small service-driven dependent island economy.peer-reviewe

Small island economies : Caribbean versus Pacific

After a review of the small island economy literature, this study compares the average performance of 16 Caribbean versus 15 mainly Pacific islands with three from the Indian Ocean. Mean difference analysis is employed across 22 socio-economic and demographic variables. Results confirm previous research. The Caribbean outperforms the Pacific with higher per capita GDP and life expectancy and lower infant mortality and fertility. Different migration experiences discriminate the more dynamic Caribbean characterized by heavy immigration from the relatively stagnant Pacific marked by chronic emigration. The three determinants offered to account for these differences involve significant Caribbean advantages: geographic proximity to the major global markets, early post-war development of international tourism and offshore banking, and a longer and more intense period of colonisation that early on established basic infrastructure and market institutions.peer-reviewe

Emigrant and immigrant small-island profiles

This study examines a global sample of forty small islands less than three million in population, 14 characterized by chronic immigration and 26 typified by chronic emigration. It constructs separate socio-economic and demographic profiles of the two island groups using means difference analysis across twenty-two indicators. The paper concludes that the immigrant islands are significantly more economically and socially advanced and demographically mature than their emigrant counterparts. It argues indirectly that the source of the former’s affluence is their greater degree of postwar diversification, especially towards international tourism, offshore banking and export manufacturing.peer-reviewe

The advantages of political affiliation : dependent and independent small-island profiles

It appears that the independence candle for islands has been snuffed, at least for the moment. The current status is regarded as the best of both worlds. Island jurisdictions wield many of the benefits associated with political sovereignty while they are delegating responsibilities to, and enjoying the security and reaping the material benefits of remaining in association with, a larger, and typically richer, patron (Baldacchino,2004).peer-reviewe

Spectroscopic scanning tunneling microscopy insights into Fe-based superconductors

In the first three years since the discovery of Fe-based high Tc superconductors, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy have shed light on three important questions. First, STM has demonstrated the complexity of the pairing symmetry in Fe-based materials. Phase-sensitive quasiparticle interference (QPI) imaging and low temperature spectroscopy have shown that the pairing order parameter varies from nodal to nodeless s\pm within a single family, FeTe1-xSex. Second, STM has imaged C4 -> C2 symmetry breaking in the electronic states of both parent and superconducting materials. As a local probe, STM is in a strong position to understand the interactions between these broken symmetry states and superconductivity. Finally, STM has been used to image the vortex state, giving insights into the technical problem of vortex pinning, and the fundamental problem of the competing states introduced when superconductivity is locally quenched by a magnetic field. Here we give a pedagogical introduction to STM and QPI imaging, discuss the specific challenges associated with extracting bulk properties from the study of surfaces, and report on progress made in understanding Fe-based superconductors using STM techniques.Comment: 36 pages, 23 figures, 229 reference

Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe

Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe