5,832 research outputs found
Aging, work and the demographic dividend in South Asia
Much current interest in South Asia's population structure focuses on 'the working generation' (aged 15-60) and particularly on the 'youth' who could potentially deliver a 'demographic dividend', thereby solving the conundrum of population ageing in developing economies. In contrast to this idea and the related one underlying a wide range of development strategies, that reductions of poverty at younger ages will have a meaningful impact on poverty in old age, this paper will demonstrate, first, that older peopleâs paid and unpaid work is needed to realise the demographic dividend, second, that older people already play an important role in reducing family poverty and sustaining national economies and, third, that only age-specific policies can address poverty in old age
Increasing consumption, decreasing support: a multi-generational study of family relations among South Indian Chakkliyars
This article looks at intergenerational relations in two Chakkliyar neighbourhoods in rural Tamil Nadu. Post-1991 economic changes, together with longer-term changes in the rural economy and state policies, have significantly widened the customary âneeds gapâ between younger and older generations by expanding the needs and aspirations of younger generations both absolutely and in comparison to the perceived needs of older people, whilst not providing them with the means to meet those needs. The declining demand for agricultural labour has not only constrained sonsâ capacities to meet the needs of both their conjugal and natal families, but also severely undermined older people's livelihoods as they compete with younger people for agricultural work. The cause of the elderly Chakkliyarsâ tenuous subsistence lies not with negligent sons but with the way their vulnerabilities are built into the structure of the economy, society and polity
Modeling for seasonal marked point processes: An analysis of evolving hurricane occurrences
Seasonal point processes refer to stochastic models for random events which
are only observed in a given season. We develop nonparametric Bayesian
methodology to study the dynamic evolution of a seasonal marked point process
intensity. We assume the point process is a nonhomogeneous Poisson process and
propose a nonparametric mixture of beta densities to model dynamically evolving
temporal Poisson process intensities. Dependence structure is built through a
dependent Dirichlet process prior for the seasonally-varying mixing
distributions. We extend the nonparametric model to incorporate time-varying
marks, resulting in flexible inference for both the seasonal point process
intensity and for the conditional mark distribution. The motivating application
involves the analysis of hurricane landfalls with reported damages along the
U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts from 1900 to 2010. We focus on studying the
evolution of the intensity of the process of hurricane landfall occurrences,
and the respective maximum wind speed and associated damages. Our results
indicate an increase in the number of hurricane landfall occurrences and a
decrease in the median maximum wind speed at the peak of the season.
Introducing standardized damage as a mark, such that reported damages are
comparable both in time and space, we find that there is no significant rising
trend in hurricane damages over time.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOAS796 in the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Election Forensics and the 2004 Venezuelan Presidential Recall Referendum as a Case Study
A referendum to recall President Hugo Ch\'{a}vez was held in Venezuela in
August of 2004. In the referendum, voters were to vote YES if they wished to
recall the President and NO if they wanted him to continue in office. The
official results were 59% NO and 41% YES. Even though the election was
monitored by various international groups including the Organization of
American States and the Carter Center (both of which declared that the
referendum had been conducted in a free and transparent manner), the outcome of
the election was questioned by other groups both inside and outside of
Venezuela. The collection of manuscripts that comprise this issue of
Statistical Science discusses the general topic of election forensics but also
focuses on different statistical approaches to explore, post-election, whether
irregularities in the voting, vote transmission or vote counting processes
could be detected in the 2004 presidential recall referendum. In this
introduction to the Venezuela issue, we discuss the more recent literature on
post-election auditing, describe the institutional context for the 2004
Venezuelan referendum, and briefly introduce each of the five contributions.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-STS379 the Statistical
Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Meiotic irregularities in Alstroemeria andina var. Venustula (Alstroemeriaceae)
Alstroemeria andina Phil. var. venustula (Phil.) M. Muñoz (sub nom. A. andina Phil. subsp. venustula (Phil.) Ehr. Bayer) is a perennial, small herb, 5-16 cm tall, that occurs mainly at 2,800-3,700 meters above sea level, in populations of limited distribution from Argentina and Chile. The course of the meiosis was analyzed in a population of this taxon (2n = 2x = 16), and it proved to be highly irregular. It was characterized by presenting bridge and fragment configurations both at anaphases I and II. The highest number of bridges at anaphase I found in one cell was two, suggesting heterozygosity for as many as two paracentric inversions. Typical chiasmata were almost not detectable, even though they actually existed. The chiasma-like structures observed may be regarded as concealed chiasmata as it has been described in cryptochiasmate meiosis. A high frequency of tetrads with micronuclei was observed, implying significant levels of unbalanced gametes. Pollen stainability ranged between 28 and 30%. In Alstroemeria species the meiotic behaviour is highly regular, and the presence of rearrangements is very uncommon. The whole situation led us to suggest that some environmental factors have drastically affected the chromosome structure and the control of the meiotic process. The present study constitutes the first report of remarkable meiotic irregularities found in a wild population of this genus.Fil: Sanso, Andrea Mariel. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de EcologĂa, GenĂ©tica y EvoluciĂłn; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; ArgentinaFil: Wulff, Arturo Federico. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de EcologĂa, GenĂ©tica y EvoluciĂłn; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientĂficas y TĂ©cnicas; Argentin
Posterior moments and quantiles for the normal location model with Laplace prior
We derive explicit expressions for arbitrary moments and quantiles of the posterior distribution of the location parameter eta in the normal location model with Laplace prior, and use the results to approximate the posterior distribution of sums of independent copies of eta
Risk-talk: the politics of risk and its representation
Looking at the concept of risk from a cross-cultural perspective, the contributors challenge the Eurocentric frameworks within which notions of risk are more commonly considered. They argue that perceptions of danger, and sources of anxiety, are far more socially and culturally constructed â and far more contingent â than risk theorists generally admit. Topics covered include prostitutes in London; AIDS in Tanzania; the cease-fire in Northern Ireland; the volcanic eruptions in Montserrat; modernisation in Amazonia; and the BSE scare in Britain
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