Grandparental effects on reproductive strategizing

This paper analyzes data from the household registers for two villages in the Nôbi region of central Japan in the late Edo period (1717-1869) to assess how grandparents may have affected reproductive strategizing in stem families. The particulars of the family system fostered a culturally favored set of reproductive goals, in particular, a daughter as eldest child, followed by a son (and heir), coupled with gender alternation in subsequent reproduction and overall gender balance. This reproductive strategy was generally followed during the stem phase of the domestic cycle, when one or both grandparents were present, especially when the family head was in the senior generation. By contrast, a son-first strategy was favored when childbearing began in the conjugal phase of the cycle. This suggests grandparental influence on the junior couple’s reproductive decisions in favor of the cultural ideal. I find that the senior couple’s decision to marry the heir early or late strongly affects the reproductive strategies followed by him after marriage. I show that when a grandmother is present at the onset of childbearing, especially if she is relatively young, the junior couple ends up with more offspring on average. A controlled analysis of infanticiding behavior is interpreted in terms of conjugal power and coalition formation. It appears that a grandmother gets her way only when she and her son gang up on the daughter-in-law, but such a coalition is likely only when her son dominates the conjugal relationship (which in turn reflects the grandmother’s success in binding the son tightly to her emotionally and in delaying his marriage). Otherwise, the grandmother may be shut out from reproductive decision-making by the solidary conjugal coalition.family, historical household studies, infanticide, Japan, reproductive strategies

THE OPTICAL SCANNER - FRIEND OR FOE?

Examines pros and cons of the optical scanner for various institutions in the distribution channel. Concludes it's good.Agribusiness,

Montia chamissoi (Ledeb. ex Spreng.) Greene

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/herbarium_specimens_byname/5556/thumbnail.jp

Montia chamissoi (Ledeb. ex Spreng.) Greene

https://thekeep.eiu.edu/herbarium_specimens_byname/5556/thumbnail.jp

Single-cell Motility Analysis of Tethered Human Spermatozoa.

Vigorous sperm flagellar motility is essential for fertilization, and so the quantitative measurement of motility is a useful tool to assess the intrinsic fertility potential of sperm cells and explore how various factors can alter sperm's ability to reach the egg and penetrate its protective layers. Human sperm beat their flagella many times each second, and so recording and accurately quantifying this movement requires a high-speed camera. The aim of this protocol is to provide a detailed description of the tools required for quantitative beat frequency measurement of tethered human sperm at the single-cell level and to describe methods for investigating the effects of intracellular or extracellular factors on flagellar motion. This assay complements bulk measurements of sperm parameters using commercially-available systems for computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA)

Knowing What Works: States and Cities Build Smarter Social Policy with New and Improved Poverty Measurement

To better understand poverty and find the best strategies to reduce it, states and localities need to know who is poor, why they are poor, and what policies work best for different groups. Rather than rely on the official poverty measure, in use since the early 1960s, several states and localities have taken the lead in developing new measures of poverty that more accurately account for the resources available to their residents as well as their needs. Supported by a strong body of innovative research from the federal government and public policy research organizations, these new measures not only more accurately gauge the level of poverty but offer a cost-effective way to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs. Improved poverty measurement also helps policymakers identify effective new programs to assist vulnerable populations in meeting their families’ often-pressing needs. This brief provides an up-to-date look at how pioneering states and localities are using – or plan to use – improved poverty measurement to build smarter social policy. In a difficult fiscal climate, investing in better measures to estimate poverty and evaluate the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs is sound practice that will enable policymakers to quantify whether and how interventions are improving outcomes for children and their families

Identity management in a public IaaS Cloud

In this thesis the unique environment that is the public IaaS cloud along with its differences from a traditional data center environment has been considered. The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), states that “Managing identities and access control for enterprise applications remains one of the greatest challenges facing IT today”. The CSA also points out that “there is a lack of consistent secure methods for extending identity management into the cloud and across the cloud” [1]. This thesis examines this challenge of managing identities in the cloud by developing a list of best practices for implementing identity management in the cloud. These best practices were then tested by simulated misuse cases which were tested in a prototype of the implementation strategy. The results and analysis of the misuse cases show that the implementation of the identity management solution solves the problem of managing identities for the control of the infrastructure in the cloud. However, the analysis also shows that there are still areas where the properly implemented identity management solution fails to mitigate attacks to the infrastructure. These failures in particular are attacks that are sourced from the subscriber environments in the cloud. Finally, the best practices from this thesis also present some consistent methods for extending identity management into the cloud

Basic Facts About Low-income Children: Children Under 6 Years, 2011

Children represent 24 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families. Young children under 6 years of age appear to be particularly vulnerable, with 49 percent living in low-income families and 25 percent living in poor families. Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. There are a range of factors associated with children’s experiences of economic insecurity, including race/ethnicity and parents’ education and employment. This fact sheet describes the demographic, socio-economic, and geographic characteristics of young children and their parents. It highlights important factors that appear to distinguish low-income and poor children in this age group from their less disadvantaged counterparts