Living in the demos: qualitative approaches to demographic questions

Contributors to this special issue use qualitative methodologies to explore questions traditionally posed by demographers. The introduction summarizes each article and surveys the wider potential significance of qualitative research for historical demography. The authors suggest that this research can disrupt traditional scholarly categories and methods pertaining to reproduction and other demographic phenomena. Qualitative sources may serve as wild cards suggesting new paths of investigation based on individuals' idiosyncratic viewpoints; but they may also offer ways to collapse and integrate wide bodies of knowledge by contextualizing and reframing the blurred cross-categorical world views associated with individuals' actionable ideas and ideals. Studying such views more systematically will become easier as the digitization of human culture, past and present, proceeds apace. Moreover, as digital tools for accessing and interpreting text become more sophisticated, individual- and aggregate-level studies may be increasingly understood as a single scholarly corpus, rather than two parallel approaches with scattered mutual intelligibility and intermittent cross-fertilization. As explanations for fertility decline continue to center on modernization – often without speaking its name – the authors suggest that individual narratives offer a way to subjectivize modernization while avoiding the mystical incoherence of extreme subjectivization

ANTIGENIC RELATEDNESS OF SELECTED FLAVIVIRUSES: STUDY WITH HOMOLOGOUS AND HETEROLOGOUS IMMUNE MOUSE ASCITIC FLUIDS

The antigenic relationship of 9 flaviviruses, Yellow fever (YF) , Wesselsbron (WSL) , Uganda S (UGS) , Potiskum (POT), West Nile (WN) , Banzi (BAN) , Zika (ZK) , Dengue type 1 (DEN-1) and Dengue type 2 (DEN-2), was assessed by cross-haemagglutination-inhibition (Cross-HI) and cross-complement fixation (Cross-CF) reactions between each of the viruses and their homologous immune mouse ascitic fluids. Titre ratios were calculated using the heterologous and homologous titres. Cross-CF reactions revealed wider antigenic variations among viruses than Cross-HI reactions. There was no significant antigenic variation between WSL, POT and YF viruses using either of those methods. However, definite differences in antigenicity were observed between them and UGS, BAN and ZK viruses. There were no significant differences between UGS, BAN and ZK or between DEN-1 and DEN-2. The serological relationship among flaviviruses is important in establishing diagnosis and epidemiology of these infections in Africa.<br>A relação antigênica de 9 Flavivirus, Febre amarela (YF), Wesselsbron (WSL), Uganda S (UGS), Potiskum (POT), West Nile (WN), Banzi (BAN), Zika (ZK), Dengue tipo 1 (DEN-1) e Dengue tipo2 (DEN-2), foi avaliada por reação de inibição da hemaglutinação cruzada (cross-HI) e reação de fixação do complemento cruzada (Cross-CF) entre cada um dos virus e seu fluido ascítico homólogo em camundongos. Médias de títulos foram calculadas usando os títulos heterólogos e homólogos. Reações cruzadas CF revelaram maiores variações antigênicas entre virus do que reações cruzadas HI. Não houve variação antigênica significativa entre virus WSL, POT e YF usando cada um dos métodos. Todavia, diferenças definidas da antigenicidade foram observadas entre eles e os vírus UGS, BAN e ZK. Não existiram diferenças significativas entre UGS, BAN e ZK ou entre DEN-1 e DEN-2. A relação sorológica entre Flavivirus é importante para se estabelecer o diagnóstico e a epidemiologia destas infecções na África