Using data on 9762 women from the 1997 Yemen Demographic and Maternal and Child Health Survey, this paper examines the prevalence and socioeconomic correlates of consanguineous marriages in Yemen. The results indicate that 40% of marriages are consanguineous, over 85% of which are between first cousins. The prevalence of consanguineous marriages appears to have increased over time, particularly for the last marriage cohort. As for socioeconomic correlates, the study confirms the inverse association between consanguineous marriages and women's education and occupation, age at marriage and economic status. However, no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of consanguinity has been found by place of residence and geographical region. Somewhat unexpected results have been obtained by husband's background characteristics, with higher educated men and those working in the modern sector of the economy being more likely to be married to cousins.

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This paper examines nuptiality Tends and patterns in Lebanon using the 1996 Population and Housing Survey (PHS), a representative sample of 64,472 households that provides the largest demographic dataset for the country since the 1932 census. There are five objectives to this study. First, to analyze the proportions of single adults by age and sex, and trends and differentials in the mean age at first marriage (MAFM) for both sexes, at the national and governorate levels. Second, to estimate the singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM) for Lebanon and for its governorates. Third, to address some important methodological concerns about the shortcomings of both the MAFM (obtained from the direct question on age at marriage) and the SMAM (computed indirectly from the proportions single) to measuring average ages at first marriage, and to suggest a new measure based upon the combination of both these estimates. Fourth, to explore whether the war had any significant impact on age at first marriage and the marriage market in Lebanon. It is observed that the proportions of single women of childbearing age doubled between 1970 (shortly before the war) and 1996 (five years after war ended). Mate availability ratios (MARs), defined as the number of single males available per 100 single females in the adult age groups, have declined to 75 at age 25 and 50 at age 30, due to a war effect. Finally, the study attempts to answer the question whether the pursuit of higher education by women may adversely affect their marriage prospects.

Automata theory is an important subject in computer science and quite consequently, simulation of automata for pedagogical purposes is an important topic in computer science education research. This article reviews the major initiatives in the field of simulation of automata in the last five decades with emphasis on those automata simulators actually used at universities for teaching. A classification of the automata simulators on the basis of their design paradigms has been developed where they have been classified broadly into language based automata simulators and visualization centric automata simulators. Some salient trends in the research on simulation of automata are also identified. The article concludes with an advocacy for continuing research on simulation of automata and integration of automata simulators in teaching.

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