Deciphering infant mortality

Sylvie Berrut, Violette Pouillard, Peter Richmond and Bertrand M. Roehner

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2016, vol. 463, issue C, 400-426

Abstract: This paper is about infant mortality. In line with reliability theory, “infant” refers to the time interval following birth during which the mortality (or failure) rate decreases. This definition provides a systems science perspective in which birth constitutes a sudden transition falling within the field of application of the Transient Shock (TS) conjecture put forward in Richmond and Roehner (2016c). This conjecture provides predictions about the timing and shape of the death rate peak. It says that there will be a death rate spike whenever external conditions change abruptly and drastically and also predicts that after a steep rise there will be a much longer hyperbolic relaxation process.

Keywords: Neonatal mortality; Birth; Primate; Selection process; Fish; Yolk-sac (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:463:y:2016:i:c:p:400-426

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.07.031

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