The public perception and discussion of falling birth rates: the recent debate over low fertility in the popular press

Aspects of below-replacement fertility have long been debated among academics. Analyzing 437 popular newspaper and magazine articles from eleven developed countries during 1998-99, this study documents and investigates the corresponding public debate about low fertility. Despite the diversity in the debates of eleven countries, due to the countries´ different socioeconomic, political and demographic backrounds, our study finds important commonalties of the public debates about low fertility: First, countries emphasize consequences and potential interventions rather than causes in their public debate over lover fertility. Second, our study undoubtedly reveals that the public media perceives low fertility as a serious concern with mostly negative implications, despite the fact that many of the causes of low fertility are associated with social and economic progress. Third, the variety of issues and perspectives revealed in the public debate, while cohesive in general ways, invites a role for demographers in informing an accurate public discussion of low fertility, which will help form the most appropriate policy outcomes. (AUTHORS)

Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises

Lying on the border between eastern and western Christendom, Orthodox Karelia preserved its unique religious culture into the 19th and 20th centuries, when it was described and recorded by Finnish and Karelian folklore collectors. This colorful array of ritulas and beliefs involving nature spirits, saints, the dead, and pilgrimage to monasteries represented a unigue fusion of official Church ritual and doctrine and pre-Christian ethnic folk belief. This book undertakes a fascinating exploration into many aspects of Orthodox Karelian ritual life: beliefs in supernatural forces, folk models of illness, body concepts, divination, holy icons, the role of the ritual specialist and healer, the divide between nature and culture, images of forest, the cult of the dead, and the popular image of monasteries and holy hermits. It will appeal to anyone interested in popular religion, the cognitive study of religion, ritual studies, medical anthropology, and the folk traditions and symbolism of the Balto-Finnic peoples

The Limits of Patriarchy: How Female Networks of Pilfering and Gossip Sparked the First Debates on Rural Gender Rights in the 19th-Century Finnish-Language Press

"In the mid-19th century, letters to newspapers in Finland began to condemn a practice known as home thievery, in which farm mistresses pilfered goods from their farms to sell behind the farm master’s back. Why did farm mistresses engage home thievery and why were writers so harsh in their disapproval of it? Why did many men in their letters nonetheless sympathize with women’s pilfering? What opinions did farm daughters express? This book explores theoretical concepts of agency and power applied to the 19th-century context and takes a closer look at the family patriarch, resistance to patriarchal power by farm mistresses and their daughters, and the identities of those Finnish men who already in the 1850s and 1860s sought to defend the rights of rural farm women.

Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises

Lying on the border between eastern and western Christendom, Orthodox Karelia preserved its unique religious culture into the 19th and 20th centuries, when it was described and recorded by Finnish and Karelian folklore collectors. This colorful array of ritulas and beliefs involving nature spirits, saints, the dead, and pilgrimage to monasteries represented a unigue fusion of official Church ritual and doctrine and pre-Christian ethnic folk belief. This book undertakes a fascinating exploration into many aspects of Orthodox Karelian ritual life: beliefs in supernatural forces, folk models of illness, body concepts, divination, holy icons, the role of the ritual specialist and healer, the divide between nature and culture, images of forest, the cult of the dead, and the popular image of monasteries and holy hermits. It will appeal to anyone interested in popular religion, the cognitive study of religion, ritual studies, medical anthropology, and the folk traditions and symbolism of the Balto-Finnic peoples

Rank Minimization over Finite Fields: Fundamental Limits and Coding-Theoretic Interpretations

This paper establishes information-theoretic limits in estimating a finite field low-rank matrix given random linear measurements of it. These linear measurements are obtained by taking inner products of the low-rank matrix with random sensing matrices. Necessary and sufficient conditions on the number of measurements required are provided. It is shown that these conditions are sharp and the minimum-rank decoder is asymptotically optimal. The reliability function of this decoder is also derived by appealing to de Caen's lower bound on the probability of a union. The sufficient condition also holds when the sensing matrices are sparse - a scenario that may be amenable to efficient decoding. More precisely, it is shown that if the n\times n-sensing matrices contain, on average, \Omega(nlog n) entries, the number of measurements required is the same as that when the sensing matrices are dense and contain entries drawn uniformly at random from the field. Analogies are drawn between the above results and rank-metric codes in the coding theory literature. In fact, we are also strongly motivated by understanding when minimum rank distance decoding of random rank-metric codes succeeds. To this end, we derive distance properties of equiprobable and sparse rank-metric codes. These distance properties provide a precise geometric interpretation of the fact that the sparse ensemble requires as few measurements as the dense one. Finally, we provide a non-exhaustive procedure to search for the unknown low-rank matrix.Comment: Accepted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory; Presented at IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) 201

Maalaisrahvaan kirjoitusmotivaatio ja asenteet kirjoitustaitoa kohtaan 1840–1890-luvun Suomessa

This paper explores experiences shared by the first generation which learned to write in the 19th century Finnish countryside, drawing upon early autobiographies written by mostly men born between 1827 and 1866. The author explores how rural inhabitants learned to write, but also what writing meant to them in the context of both rural poverty and social barriers to personal progress. What motivated rural inhabitants to write, and what hindered their efforts? Increased opportunities for learning the skill of writing came at a time when rural conditions had not improved enough to allow writers to maintain proficiency in the skill. Writers’ early experiences were shaped not only by the physical conditions of rural life, but also the attitudes and expectations of others in their communities. When early writers were mocked and derided, they were forced to reflect upon traditional notions of manly honor.Mikä motivoi maaseudun suomenkielistä rahvasta hankkimaan kirjoitustaidon 1800-luvulla? Millaisia asenteita ja vaikeuksia kohtasivat tavalliset ihmiset, jotka opettelivat kirjoittamaan? Mitä kirjoittaminen merkitsi niille kansanihmisille, jotka taidon hankkivat? Näitä kysymyksiä tutkitaan yhdentoista omaelämäkerrallisen kirjoituksen kautta. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan kirjoittajien kokemuksia kirjoitustaidon hankkimisesta ja merkityksestä heidän elämässään. Kokemuksia eivät muovanneet pelkästään maaseutuelämän fyysiset ja taloudelliset puitteet, vaan myös yhteisön jäsenten asenteet ja odotukset

From the seeds of rediscovered texts come new fields of inquiry

Kirjallisuusarvostel

Epidemiology of gastroschisis: A population-based study in California from 1995 to 2012.

BackgroundAlthough the incidence of gastroschisis is increasing, risk factors are not clearly identified.MethodsUsing the Linked Birth Database from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development from 1995 to 2012, patients with gastroschisis were identified by ICD-9 diagnosis/procedure code or birth certificate designation. Logistic regressions examined demographics, birth factors, and maternal exposures on risk of gastroschisis.ResultsThe prevalence of gastroschisis was 2.7 cases per 10,000 live births. Patients with gastroschisis had no difference in fetal exposure to alcohol (p = 0.609), narcotics (p = 0.072), hallucinogenics (p = 0.239), or cocaine (p = 0.777), but had higher exposure to unspecified/other noxious substances (OR 3.27, p = 0.040; OR 2.02, p = 0.002). Gastroschisis was associated with low/very low birthweight (OR 5.08-16.21, p < 0.001) and preterm birth (OR 3.26-10.0, p < 0.001). Multivariable analysis showed lower risk in black (OR 0.44, p < 0.001), Asian/Pacific Islander (OR 0.76, p = 0.003), and Hispanic patients (OR 0.72, p < 0.001) compared to white patients. Risk was higher in rural areas (OR 1.24-1.76, p = 0.001). Compared to women age < 20, risk decreased with advancing maternal age (OR 0.49-OR 0.03, p < 0.001). Patients with gastroschisis had increased total charges ($336,270 vs.$9012, p < 0.001) and length of stay (38.1 vs. 2.9 days, p < 0.001). Mortality was 4.6%.ConclusionsThis is the largest population-based study summarizing current epidemiology of gastroschisis in California.Type of studyRetrospective comparative cohort study.Level of evidenceIII