Newbery books are a reliable representation of quality children's literature. They have not previously been formally evaluated by the family structures represented in the books. This content analysis considered 87 contemporary realistic fiction Newbery winner and Honor books since the 1930s that portray families in English-speaking, western settings. The family structures portrayed in these books were compared with the family structure categories of the decade in which each book is set. Percentage comparisons revealed that the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s do not represent the actual family structures of their time period. After the Age of New Realism began in the mid 60s, the family structures in the books more closely matched the family structures of their decade, but several discrepancies remained.

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Measuring spouses’ ages allows us to explore larger sociological issues about marriage, such as whether narrowing gaps signal gender progress or if a rise in female-older unions reveals a status change. Using Census and American Community Survey data, I test the merits of beauty-exchange and status homogamy theories as explanations for how heterosexual marital age gaps changed over a 40-year period of social and economic revolution. Analyses address questions about how age gaps compared for people with different characteristics, whether similarly aged couples exhibited greater educational and socio-economic homogamy than others, and if the odds of being in age-heterogamous marriages changed. Chapter 4 provides the historical context of U.S. marriages from 1910 on, and shows that while disadvantaged groups retreated from marriage, the percentage of individuals with greater education and income who married remained high. Age homogamy rose over 100 years due to a decline in marriages involving much-older husbands rather than increases in wife-older unions. Results in Chapter 5 show that mean age gaps decreased significantly over time for first-married individuals by most—but not all—characteristics. Gaps narrowed for those who were White, Black, other race, or of Hispanic origin; from any age group; with zero, one, or two wage earners; with any level of education; and from most types of interracial pairs. One exception was that mean age gaps increased between Asian wives and White husbands, and Asian women’s odds of having a much older husband were higher than the odds for racially homogamous women. Those odds increased over time. Findings lent support for status homogamy theory, since same-age couples showed greater educational homogamy than others in any decade, but showed mixed support for beauty exchange. In 2010-14, the median spousal earnings gap was wider in husband-older marriages than age-homogamous ones; however, the reverse was true in 1980. Women-older first or remarriages exhibited the smallest median earnings gaps in 1980 and 2010-14, and women in these marriages contributed a greater percentage of the family income than other women in 2010-14 (43.6% vs 36.9%, respectively). The odds of being in age-heterogamous unions were significantly higher for persons who were remarried, from older age groups, from certain racial backgrounds, in some interracial marriages, less educated, and from lower SES backgrounds. Age and remarriage showed the greatest impact on odds ratios. While age homogamy increased overall, the odds of being a much older spouse (11+ years older) increased dramatically for remarried men and women between 1970 and 1980, and then remained high in 2010-14. Remarried women’s odds of being the much older wife versus a same-age spouse were 20.7 times that of the odds of first-married women in 2010-14. Other results showed that Black men’s odds of being with a much-older wife compared to one around the same age were about 2.5 times that of the odds of White men in each decade. Hispanic men’s odds of being in a first marriage with a much-older wife versus one of the same age were also twice the odds of White men in 1980 and 2010-14. Analyses demonstrated that marital age gaps have, indeed, changed significantly since the second-wave women’s movement, and that while age homogamy increased, the odds of being age heterogamous also shifted for people with different characteristics. / Sociology

戶口普查的主旨在於瞭解一個國家或地區的人口及其相關特性，國家的政策制訂及人力規劃需仰賴正確的調查結果。但隨著社會變遷等諸多因素，即使增加費用也無法提高普查的完訪率，資料的品質也因民眾配合意願而降低。為提高資料品質與降低調查成本等因素，部份國家積極發展新的普查方法，預計在2010年普查正式實施，取代傳統的戶口普查。 本研究整理新的普查方法，包括登記式普查、登記式普查結合抽樣調查、滾動式普查等方法。其中也包括行政院計畫預計在2010年以登記式普查結合抽樣調查取代傳統的戶口普查，效法新加坡、北歐四國與荷蘭，整合公務登記系統取得普查短表資料，抽樣調查代替國外長表問卷，希冀獲得較為詳細的教育、生育、居家老人照護等社經議題之統計資料。除了整理資料外，本文也將討論2010年台灣的戶口普查，以常住人口為調查目標，可能衍生的問題。 另外，本研究也將整理美國與法國即將採用的調查方法，包括美國社區調查（American Community Survey）的設計與抽樣方法，用於普查以取代長表問卷的可能，並研究抽樣調查蒐集人口的限制，比較普查及調查蒐集資料的優缺點。 / The objective of the population and housing census is to collect the demographic information on the population in a nation or an area which will be used as a reference for government planning and policy making. Because of the dramatic change in the social environment, some problems were generated as a result, such as the increase in survey cost, non-response rate, and data demand. Although many countries are still using the Traditional Census method for the 2010 census, some are active in developing new methods to improve the quality of data collected and to decrease the survey cost. Following the examples of Singapore, Netherland, and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), the method for conducting the 2010 Taiwan Census will be different, changing from the traditional census to registered-based census with sampling survey. This method will integrate the official registry system to acquire the basic demographic characteristics, and collect more detailed information on the social and economic topics, including the aspects of education, fertility, and elder care by using sampling methods. Consequently, this research will be separated into two parts. The first part will introduce and analyze several common census methods used, including the Traditional Census method, Registered-Based Census, Registered-Based Census with Sampling Survey, and the Rolling Census. In addition, the target population of 2010 Taiwan Census is De Jure population and we shall also discuss its potential problems. In the second part, the research will further examine the survey methods that will be used for the U.S. and French census, including the design concept and the sampling method executed by the American Community Survey (ACS) to replace the long-form questionnaire for the 2010 U.S. Census. Finally, we will discuss the restrictions of using sampling to collect data, compare the strengths and weaknesses of census and the different sampling methods, as well as analyze the problems related to the registered population and the permanent residents.

Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Tracy M. Turner / Many municipalities are beginning to play a more central and active role in slowing and reversing the process of the economic stagnation of business and commerce within their cities. Many municipalities combat these problems through the use of providing existing businesses or start up businesses with financial assistance or incentives. Economic theory shows us that a firm’s decision on production and location is influenced by fiscal incentives that are afforded to them. This paper explores the external effects of municipally assisted redevelopment programs. This analysis strives to broaden our understanding of businesses redevelopment programs to include not just the impacts on the commercial side, but see the total effects which include the residential side as well. It analyzes key economic indicators of households who reside within and directly around publicly assisted redevelopment areas and compares these indicators to their non-redeveloped area counterparts. Specifically, it empirically examines the impact of redevelopment on house values and unemployment rates in seven large Midwestern cities: Des Moines, Wichita, Kansas City, St. Louis, Lincoln, Omaha, and Milwaukee, using census data at the block group and census tract levels. I find that redevelopment has a substantial impact in increasing house values and reducing unemployment rates in the vicinity of the redevelopment projects.

The purpose of this study is to assist TxDOT engineers in the field of traffic control planning. This is to be done via the creation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) based tool. By bringing together information about TxDOT’s on-system roadways’ geographical locations, traffic demands, and capacities, one aggregate database has been established. Using the tools of GIS, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and VBA programming, a static clickable interface has been constructed. It enables users to access properties for any selected roadway link they desire. Expansion of the product to ArcIMS is ongoing to allow easy access for end users via the internet. / text

The Modifiable Areal Unit Phenomenon (MAUP) has traditionally been regarded as a problem in the analysis of spatial data organised in areal units. However, the approach adopted here is that the MAUP provides an opportunity to gain information about the data under investigation. Crucially, attempts to remove the MAUP from spatial data are regarded as an attempt to remove the geography. Therefore, the work seeks to provide an insight to the causes of, and information behind, the MAUP. The data used is from the 1991 Census of Great Britain. This was chosen over 2001 data due to the availability of individual level data. These data are of key importance to the methods employed. The methods seek to provide evidence of the magnitude of the MAUP, and more specifically the scale effect in the GB Census. This evidence is built on using correlation analysis to demonstrate the statistical significance of the MAUP. Having established the relevance of the MAUP in the context of current geographical research, the factors that contribute to the incidence of the MAUP are considered, and it is noted that a wide range of influences are important. These include the population size and density of an area, along with proportion of a variable. This discussion also recognises the importance of homogeneity as an influential factor, something that is referenced throughout the work. Finally, a search is made for spatial processes. This uses spatial autocorrelation and multilevel modelling to investigate the impact spatial processes have in a range of SAR Districts, like Glasgow, Reigate and Huntingdonshire, on the scale effect. The research is brought together, not to solve the MAUP but to provide an insight into the factors that cause the MAUP, and demonstrate the usefulness of the MAUP as a concept rather than a problem.

[pt] Esta dissertação é resultado de uma pesquisa na área de história do design, baseada em estudo de cultura material. Seu objeto principal é a propaganda gráfica criada para divulgação do Recenseamento Geral de 1940. O material encontrado é composto por onze peças formadas por ilustração e texto, pertencentes ao acervo iconográfico do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), órgão responsável por esse inquérito. Tanto a criação do IBGE quanto a realização do Recenseamento fizeram parte do projeto modernizador do Estado Novo e vieram suprir a necessidade de informações estatísticas confiáveis e de conhecimentos geográficos sobre o território nacional. Os modelos de governo autoritários marcaram os anos trinta e quarenta em diversos países e trouxeram a institucionalização da propaganda como forte arma de controle ideológico. No Brasil não foi diferente. O objetivo desta pesquisa, portanto, é analisar de que forma esse material se insere no discurso visual do Estado Novo. Para isso são apresentados os contextos político e cultural do período em questão. A seguir há uma discussão sobre o papel da estatística e da geografia no Estado Novo a partir de imagens criadas no IBGE. Por fim é feita uma análise gráfica de cada peça de propaganda do Recenseamento e um levantamento de características recorrentes, verificando-se de que maneira elas transmitem as idéias do regime e as suas semelhanças com outros exemplares de design gráfico produzido no mesmo período. / [en] This MA thesis is the result of research in the area of design history, based on the study of material culture. Its main object is the graphic propaganda created to advertise the General Census of 1940. The material under study comprises eleven items made up of text and illustration, which belong to the iconographic collection of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), the institution responsible for conducting the census. The creation of IBGE, as well as the setting up of this Census, was part of the broader modernizing project of Estado Novo and was intended to fill in the gap of reliable statistical information and geographical knowledge about the national territory. Authoritarian models of government were characteristic of the thirties and forties in different countries, and they brought about the institutionalization of propaganda as a means of ideological control. This was no different in Brazil. The aim of this study is, therefore, to analyze in which way the images under consideration are part of the visual discourse of Estado Novo. For this reason, the political and cultural contexts of this period are first presented. There follows a discussion of the role of statistics and geography as used by Estado Novo based on the images created for IBGE. Finally, a graphic analysis is undertaken of each individual item of propaganda for the census, seeking to identify common themes and verifying how they transmitted ideas about the system, as well as pointing out similarities with other examples of graphic design produced in the same period.