The education and professional experience of demographers: results of an international survey

This paper presents findings relating to the education, disciplinary background and professional experience of 634 demographers responding to a mainly internet-based survey carried out in 1999-2000. Two thirds of the survey respondents have some training in demography, and virtually all have studied some other subject also. Academic backgrounds are quite varied, with sociology (broadly defined), economics, mathematics/statistics and geography being the most common. Findings presented relate to: the combinations of disciplines studied, current practise of discipline of origin, interdisciplinary activity, place of education, education abroad, current and past sectors of employment and time-use. Differentials by age, gender and region of residence or birth are considered

Why we measure period fertility

Four reasons for measuring period fertility are distinguished: to explain fertility time trends, to anticipate future fertility, to construct theoretical models and to communicate with non-specialist audiences. The paper argues that not all measures are suitable for each purpose, and that tempo adjustment may be appropriate for some objectives but not others. In particular, it is argued that genuine timing effects do not bias or distort measures of period fertility as dependent variable. Several different concepts of bias or distortion are identified in relation to period fertility measures. Synthetic cohort indicators are a source of confusion since they conflate measurement and forecasting. Anticipating future fertility is more akin to forecasting than to measurement. Greater clarity about concepts and measures in the fertility arena could be achieved by a stronger emphasis on validation. Period incidence and occurrence-exposure rates have a straightforward interpretation. More complex period fertility measures are meaningful only if a direct or indirect criterion can be specified against which to evaluate them. Their performance against that criterion is what establishes them as valid or useful

The travels of M. de Thévenot through the thug archive

The campaign against thuggee in 1830s India produced a set of widely-circulated accounts of the origins and practices of thugs. In these works (both popular and scholarly), a very small amount of primary information was continually recycled throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The changes visible in the manner of deployment of this information are indicative of progressive re-formulations of the narrative of the history of thuggee, and the larger history of British India. This process is examined through a study of the incorporation of an extract from The Travels of M de Thévenot into the Levant into the historical archive, which concludes that any re-appraisal of history must incorporate a consideration of the narrative underlying the production of the records, as well as the records themselves

Facilitating active learning in the classroom

In the context of a relatively traditional second year module in for mechanical engineering students, Strength of Materials, changes were made to module delivery to facilitate more active learning. The motivation was a perceived need to improve the level of understanding achieved by the students. Justification for the changes was an assessment of student learning style preferences, which indicate a strong preference for active learning. Results show that changes in how lecture and tutorial activities were managed increased the level of student engagement during classroom sessions. In addition, 'small step' approaches to problem solving proved popular among students. The study also indicates that both students and lecturers need time to become practiced in the new approach, and that benefits of changes to traditional 'talk and chalk' lecturing may take time to become apparent

Dead-end filtration of yeast suspensions: correlating specific resistance and flux data using artificial neural networks

The specific cake resistance in dead-end filtration is a complex function of suspension properties and operating conditions. In this study, the specific resistance of resuspended dried bakers yeast suspensions was measured in a series of 150 experiments covering a range of pressures, cell concentrations, pHs, ionic strengths and membrane resistances. The specific resistance was found to increase linearly with pressure and exhibited a complex dependence on pH and ionic strength. The specific resistance data were correlated using an artificial neural network containing a single hidden layer with nine neurons employing the sigmoidal activation function. The network was trained with 104 training points, 13 validation points and 33 test points. Excellent agreement was obtained between the neural network and the test data with average errors of less than 10%. In addition, a network was trained for prediction of the filtrate flux directly from the system inputs and this approach is easily extended to crossflow filtration by adding inputs such as the crossflow velocity and channel height. An attempt was made to interpret the network weights for both the specific resistance and flux networks. The effective contribution of each input to the system output was computed in each case and showed trends that were as expected. Although network weights, and consequently the computed effect of each parameter, is different each time a network is changed (depending on the initial weights used in the training process), the variation was low enough for information contained in the network to be interpreted in a meaningful way

Cohabitation and marriage in Britain since the 1970s

The article presents an overview of trends in cohabitation and marriage in Britain over several decades, using a consistent set of retrospective histories from the General Household Survey 1979–2007. Time-trends are presented, for men and women, of: the experience of different types of partnership by specified ages, the frequency of premarital cohabitation, the average time spent in different types of partnership, the timing of life course transitions, and the outcome of cohabitation and marriage at the fifth and tenth anniversaries

The trend to later childbearing: is there evidence of postponement?

Fertility rates in most developed societies have been declining at younger ages and rising at older ages. This phenomenon is widely referred to as reflecting the postponement of fertility. But is this an accurate description? The paper considers whether recent changes in the age-pattern of childbearing in France can be described as postponement. The statistical features of time series of rates are distinguished from the underlying behavioural process generating these. Criteria for the presence of postponement are proposed. In the absence of detailed, longitudinal information on intentions, the occurrence or otherwise of postponement is assessed by indirect means. Some evidence is found consistent with fertility postponement in recent decades. However, it cannot be interpreted causally, and so cannot be used either to explain recent trends or to anticipate future trends. Much more detailed evidence is required to establish the existence of postonement in the behavioural sense than is generally assumed

Teacher education for inclusive education: a framework for developing collaboration for inclusion of students with support plans

A study was conducted to explore the impact of professional development related to the individual education plan (IEP) process on teachers’ understanding and practices in the Republic of Ireland (RoI). This paper reports on part of that research, focusing on teachers’ collaborative practices in the IEP process. In the RoI, teachers working as special education teachers (SET) can avail of State-funded professional development through an award-bearing model provided by universities. The study combined survey of three cohorts of teachers who undertook this professional development course in one university with follow-up focus groups, observation and documentary analysis in five schools. Challenges to effective team functioning were identified in relation to the constructs of joint instructional work, communication, and values and ethics. Building on these constructs, this paper proposes a framework for developing competencies in collaborative practice for inclusion of students with IEPs with implications for practice and for teacher educators

Does Postponement Explain the Trend to Later Childbearing in France?

Fertility rates in most developed societies have been declining at younger ages and rising at older ages. This phenomenon is widely referred to as reflecting the postponement of fertility. But is this an accurate description? The present paper considers whether recent changes in the age-pattern of childbearing in France can be described as postponement. The statistical features of time series of rates are distinguished from the underlying behavioural process generating them. Criteria for the presence of postponement are proposed. In the absence of detailed, longitudinal information on intentions, the occurrence or otherwise of postponement is assessed by indirect means. Some evidence is found consistent with fertility postponement in recent decades. However, it cannot be interpreted causally, and so cannot be used either to explain recent trends or to anticipate future trends. Much more detailed evidence is required to establish the existence of postponement in the behavioural sense than is generally assumed.