The Demographic Discontinuities of Mauritius

Up to the middle of the 20th century, immigration of Europeans, African slaves, and indentured laborers from India was the major source of population growth on the island of Mauritius. Immediately after World War II, fertility increased and mortality entered a rapid decline which is largely attributable to the eradication of malaria. During the 1960s Mauritius had one of the highest growth rates in the world. Over the last two decades, however, fertility declined to replacement level. These demographic discontinuities resulted in a strong youth cohort born during the 1960s and early 1970s that will characterize the Mauritian age structure for decades to come. This paper studies these discontinuities from several different angles

The Demographic Dimensions of Divorce: The Case of Finland

Any demographic event such as birth, death, marriage, and divorce may be registered and studied with respect to various demographic dimensions; these are most prominently age and time but also duration of marriage, time since last birth, etc. Fertility, mortality, and nuptiality are all considered to depend primarily on age. Divorce has traditionally been studied with respect to marital duration. This paper uses a multi-dimensional perspective to study the phenomenon of divorce. It is made possible by the availability of a unique data set from the Finnish Population Register that provides cross-classified information on several demographic dimensions of divorce. The study yields intriguing results that give a quite different picture than conventional one- and two-dimensional perspectives

Population Futures for Europe: An Analysis of Alternative Scenarios

Population projections using arbitrary assumptions are made by many agencies, national and international, and there is no obvious need for one more set. But what distinguishes the projections of this Working Paper is the extremely wide range of assumptions in regard to births, deaths and migration with which the authors experimented. Moreover, they give a more explicit rationale for their assumptions than is commonly presented. In effect the paper answers such questions as "What if we have a new baby boom, short but intense, comparable to that of the 1950s?" "What if mortality improves spectacularly, not only at the ages to which people have lived up to now, but far beyond those ages, say though discovery of a magic drug?" On the other hand they also ask "What happens if some vast epidemic, such as AIDS, ravages the population of Europe?" Its imaginative assumptions are unlikely to be fulfilled, but none of them is impossible. This new set of perspectives goes beyond the more conventional projections that are currently in print in displaying what may happen in the future

One year E-learning at the K.U.Leuven: an Examination of Log-Files

At the K.U.Leuven the introduction of a digital learning environment was strongly embedded in an already present and extensively communicated educational concept (‘guided independent learning’). Hence, it seems obvious that courses designed within the digital learning environment will be in line with this educational concept. An examination of logfiles however suggests that this might only be true for a minority of courses.In: A.J. Kallenberg and M.J.J.M. van de Ven (Eds), 2002, The New Educational Benefits of ICT in Higher Education: Proceedings. Rotterdam: Erasmus Plus BV, OECR ISBN 90-9016127-

Demographic Aspects of Changes in the Soviet Pension System

The paper discusses the consequences of possible demographic changes in the USSR as a whole and at the regional level upon the pension system under different assumptions about retirement ages. Some general recommendations on changes in the pension system based on international experience are presented

All conformally flat pure radiation metrics

The complete class of conformally flat, pure radiation metrics is given, generalising the metric recently given by Wils.Comment: 7 pages, plain Te

The Unique Frequency Spectrum of the Blazhko RRc Star LS Her

The Blazhko effect in RR Lyrae stars is still poorly understood theoretically. Stars with multiple Blazhko periods or in which the Blazhko effect itself varies are particularly challenging. This study investigates the Blazhko effect in the RRc star LS Her. Detailed VRI CCD photometry has been performed on 63 nights during six months. LS Her is confirmed to have a Blazhko period of 12.75+/-0.02 days. However, where normally the side frequencies of the Blazhko triplet are expected, an equidistant group of three frequencies is found on both sides of the main pulsation frequency. As a consequence the period and amplitude of the Blazhko effect itself vary in a cycle of 109+/-4 days. LS Her is a unique object turning out to be very important in the verification of the theories for the Blazhko effect.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Mometasone furoate and fluticasone furoate are equally effective in restoring nasal epithelial barrier dysfunction in allergic rhinitis

Rinitis alérgica; Integridad epitelial; Furoato de mometasonaRinitis al·lèrgica; Integritat epitelial; Furoat de mometasonaAllergic rhinitis; Epithelial integrity; Mometasone furoateTight junction defects (TJ) have been associated with a defective epithelial barrier function in allergic rhinitis (AR). Intranasal corticosteroids are potent drugs frequently used to treat AR and are shown to restore epithelial integrity by acting on TJs and by reducing type 2 cytokine production. However, the effect of different classes of intranasal corticosteroids on the epithelial barrier has not been studied. Therefore, we compared the effect of 2 intranasal corticosteroids, ie, fluticasone furoate (FF) and mometasone furoate (MF) on epithelial barrier function. Both FF and MF similarly increased trans-epithelial electrical resistance of primary nasal epithelial cell cultures from AR patients. In a house dust mite-induced allergic asthma mouse model, FF and MF had similar beneficial effects on fluorescein isothiocyanate–dextran 4 kDa mucosal permeability, eosinophilic infiltration and IL-13 levels. Both molecules increased mRNA expression of the TJ proteins occludin and zonula occludens-1, thereby restoring epithelial barrier function. Lastly, we showed that long-term FF treatment also increased expression of occludin in AR patients compared to controls. In conclusion, both FF and MF effectively restore epithelial barrier function by increasing expression of TJ proteins in AR patients.This work was supported by an unrestricted grant from GSK. BS is supported by the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO), Belgium

On the Symmetries of the Edgar-Ludwig Metric

The conformal Killing equations for the most general (non-plane wave) conformally flat pure radiation field are solved to find the conformal Killing vectors. As expected fifteen independent conformal Killing vectors exist, but in general the metric admits no Killing or homothetic vectors. However for certain special cases a one-dimensional group of homotheties or motions may exist and in one very special case, overlooked by previous investigators, a two-dimensional homethety group exists. No higher dimensional groups of motions or homotheties are admitted by these metrics.Comment: Plain TeX, 7 pages, No figure

All spacetimes with vanishing curvature invariants

All Lorentzian spacetimes with vanishing invariants constructed from the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives are determined. A subclass of the Kundt spacetimes results and we display the corresponding metrics in local coordinates. Some potential applications of these spacetimes are discussed.Comment: 24 page