The Second Demographic Transition Theory: A Review and Appraisal

References to the second demographic transition (SDT) concept/theoretical framework have increased dramatically in the last two decades. The SDT predicts unilinear change toward very low fertility and a diversity of union and family types. The primary driver of these changes is a powerful, inevitable and irreversible shift in attitudes and norms in the direction of greater individual freedom and self-actualization. First, we describe the origin of this framework and its evolution over time. Second, we review the empirical fit of the framework to major changes in demographic and family behavior in the U.S., the West, and beyond. As has been the case for other unilinear, developmental theories of demographic/family change, the SDT failed to predict many contemporary patterns of change/difference. Finally, we review previous critiques and identify fundamental weaknesses of this perspective, and provide brief comparisons to selected alternative approaches

Effect of Listening to A Relaxing Water Sound for Fifteen Minutes On Traumatic Stress Subjects’ Immediate Stress Levels and Electroencephalograms

BACKGROUND: Music and calmness are noteworthy stimulators that significantly affect mental health. Listening to relaxing sounds activates the feeling of wellbeing. The present study aimed to analyze the effect of closed eyes brief exposure to a relaxing water sound on Electroencephalogram (EEG) in pre and post-test states. METHODOLOGY: A total of 20 traumatic stress subjects were included to participate in this study. The subjects were requested to be seated with eyes closed while the sound of water flowing was played for 15 min in between (before and after) the EEG recordings. A subsection of the Sadaf Stress Scale (SSS) i.e. traumatic stress scale was used to assess the traumatic stress and muse (SCR_014418) monitor headband was utilized for EEG evaluation i.e. Alpha waves, Beta waves, Theta waves & Delta waves. RESULTS: Significantly increased theta wave & alpha waves were found after the listening of relaxing water sound in the eyes-closed state. While no significant change was observed in beta & delta waves. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that exposure to the sound of water flowing quietly significantly generates alteration in brain waves. Although, the applied stimulators were for a brief period changes in frequencies suggest if applied for a longer period it could generate a relaxation state

Cloaking using the anisotropic multilayer sphere

We studied a Spherically Radially Anisotropic (SRA) multilayer sphere with an arbitrary number of layers. Within each layer permittivity components are different from each other in radial and tangential directions. Under the quasi-static approximation, we developed a more generalized mathematical model that can be used to calculate polarizability of the SRA multilayer sphere with any arbitrary number of layers. Moreover, the functionality of the SRA multilayer sphere as a cloak has been investigated. It has been shown that by choosing a suitable contrast between components of the permittivity, the SRA multilayer sphere can achieve threshold required for invisibility cloaking

Introduction to radar scattering application in remote sensing and diagnostics: Review

The manuscript reviews the current literature on scattering applications of RADAR (Radio Detecting And Ranging) in remote sensing and diagnostics. This paper gives prime features for a variety of RADAR applications ranging from forest and climate monitoring to weather forecast, sea status, planetary information, and mapping of natural disasters such as the ones caused by earthquakes. Both the fundamental parameters involved in scattering mechanisms of RADAR applications and the factors affecting RADAR performances are also discusse

A plan for transportation and distribution the products based on multi-objective travelling salesman problem in fuzzy environmental

Transportation and distribution are the most important elements in the work system for any company, which are of great importance in the success of the chain work. Al-Rabee factory is one of the largest ice cream factories in Iraq and it is considered one of the most productive and diversified factories with products where its products cover most areas of the capital Baghdad, however, it lacks a distribution system based on scientific and mathematical methods to work in the transportation and distribution processes, moreover, these processes need a set of important data that cannot in any way be separated from the reality of fuzziness industrial environment in Iraq, which led to use the fuzzy sets theory to reduce the levels of uncertainty. The decision-maker has several goals that he aspires to accomplish for two stages, so, the decision-maker adopted in his work system on a multi-objective travelling salesman problem. A network of paths for transportation and distribution of the products has been designed based on a multi-objective travelling salesman problem, by building a mathematical model that finds the best paths for each stage, taking into account the goals required by the decision-maker. The results obtained from the use of (Lingo) software showed the importance of these methods in determining the optimal path for the processes of collecting and transporting milk from their collection centers to the Al-Rabee factory as a first stage, as well as transporting the final products and distributing them from the Al-Rabee factory to the shopping centers as a second stage

An integrated model for solving production planning and production capacity problems using an improved fuzzy model for multiple linear programming according to Angelov's method

Decision making has become a part of our everyday lives. The main apprehension is that almost all decision difficulties include certain criteria, which usually can be multiple or conflicting. Certainly, the production planning and production capacity development includes several parameters uncertainty such as fuzzy resource capacity, fuzzy demand and fuzzy production rate. This situation makes decision maker challenging to describe the objective crisply and at the end the real optimum solution cannot attained correctly. The Fuzzy model for multi-objective linear programming should be an suitable approach for dealing with the production planning and production capacity (PP& PC) problems. The PP& PC problem based on the fuzzy environment becomes even more sophisticated as decision makers try to consider multi-objectives, Therefore, this study attempts to propose a novel scheme which is capable of dealing with these obstacles in PP& PC problem. Intuitionistic Fuzzy Optimization (1FO) by implementing the optimization problem in an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set (IFS) environment and considered the degrees of rejection of objective(s) and of constraints as the complement of satisfaction degrees. The aim of the research is to propose a new method capable of dealing with these obstacles in the PP & PC problem. It takes into account uncertainty and makes trade-offs between multiple conflicting goals simultaneously. To verify the validity of the proposed method, a case study of the fuzzy multi-objective model of the PP&PC is used. This research takes into account uncertainty and makes a comparison between multiple conflicting goals at the same time. Therefore, this study attempts to propose a new scheme which is the modified Angelov’s approach