Desertification: overpopulation on dry lands - deserts in the making

The U.N.'s conference in Nairobi focused on the problem of desertification in the underdeveloped nations. Population pressures force the overuse of the land - in grazing, cropping, and cutting trees for burning. External factors such as the organization of the societies, the past colonial system in Africa, and the introduction of foreign technologies and fluctuating world food markets have all contributed to desertification. The conference recommended that a fund be started to fight this condition. Such a fund would provide for a full agenda of conservation, research, and public education.     

Poverty Assessment in Degraded Rural Drylands in the Monte Desert,Argentina. An Evaluation Using GIS and Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

The work aims to contribute to the construction a local-scale poverty indicator, which contemplates multiple dimensions and allows for spatialization of socioeconomic data for a rural area in the Monte Desert. Given the evident and widely studied relationship between desertification processes and poverty, and aiming to contribute to integrating socioeconomic information to desertification assessment and monitoring, there arises the need for spatializing poverty by addressing its multiple dimensions, aspects poorly developed thus far. For this purpose, a data model was designed, which enabled integrating quantitative and qualitative information within the scope of geographic ?nformation systems (GIS) with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), whereby it was possible to spatialize in detail the degree of poverty in the study area, laying the foundations for up-scaling the assessment to different scales. This work demonstrates the usefulness of GIS and MCDA as an instrument that enables progressing in new integral, interdisciplinary, multi-scale and multi-temporal approaches.     

Consistency between fertility attitudes and behaviour: A conceptual model

The consistency (or lack of it) between attitude and behaviour has been a controversial issue in social psychology for the past several decades,¹ and more recently has become a focus of considerable controversy in the field of population studies.² In accordance with Freedman, Hermalin and Chang,³it is argued here that this controversy will not be resolved by theoretical discussions, and evidence is needed from many countries at several time points to resolve this issue. This paper presents evidence on consistency between fertility attitudes and behaviour from survey data from Venezuela and, based upon analysis of the present data, suggests a conceptual model for the study of consistency between fertility attitudes and behaviour.     

Place,race and differential occupational opportunities

A large body of literature investigating the link between black percentage in the community and occupational differentiation, has found disparities to be greater in places where blacks are in a higher proportion. The present paper discusses first, theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques employed in past research; second, examines the issue in terms of the relative odds of the races for incumbency in a series of occupational groupings; and third, analyzes the effect of percentage black on race-linked occupational differentiation across 124 major American cities. Using log-linear procedures, blacks, relative to whites, are much more likely to be in unskilled and semiskilled manual occupations, while whites, relative to blacks, are far more likely to be in white-collar and upper-status positions. Moreover, blacks' denial of access to higher-status positions, their channeling to lower-status work, and their ability to overflow into specific intermediate-status occupations are found to be greatly influenced both by percentage black as well as other community characteristics. The findings are discussed in light of sociological theories suggesting that the issue cannot be understood solely by the competition hypothesis. One must also consider the overflow and queuing explanations.     

Structure and processes of a phenomenon: The context of quality of life in India

The properties of objective or subjective variables are commonly examined with reference to a set of mutually distinct but analogous social groups structured at a time point. The procedure fails to examine what is happening across the structured groups and therefore what is likely to be the role of the variables in differentiating or integrating the ordained set of social groups. A resolution of this issue is vital for the appraisal of a better quality of life because by definition it is always an ongoing phenomenon. The issue is examined with reference to its methodological implications and with respect to QOL data on India.     

新疆塔里木河流域人口增长、水资源与沙漠化的关系

新疆塔里木河流域土地沙漠化的直接成因是干流和下游来水量的减少,而来水量的减少与上个流域段耕地面积的增加有密切关系。经过定性定量的分析,进一步发现在塔里木河这样典型的内陆河流域,人口增长对耕地面积(在干旱区流域基本等同于灌溉面积)不仅有密切的关系,而且不同的流域段人口增长对耕地增大的驱动效果也不同,人口增长的驱动对土地退化的影响具有从源流向下游的传递性,下游的土地沙化主要通过源流和上中游人口增长对下游来水量的影响传递产生。因此,治理下游严重的土地退化,控制源流和上中游的人口增长将比通过移民减少下游的人口更为重要。     

„...ja, was willst du viel mitbestimmen?” — Partizipationschancen im entgrenzten Arbeitsfeld mobile Pflege

Based on empirical research on mobile care services in Vienna, the article discusses the issue of participation and democracy at work. More precisely, it explores the impact that work place characteristics such as field work, flexible working hours or the utilisation of subjectivity have on participation, i. e. the worker’s chance to co-determine working conditions. According to the findings presented in the paper workers actually have little chance to exert any influence on the temporal, economic and organisational conditions of their jobs, due to growing pressure as a result of cost-cutting measures.     

Does illegal immigration empower rightist parties?

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the political outcome in countries where the relevant issue in elections is the control of immigration. In particular, we explore the consequences on the political outcome of the fact that parties are either ideological or opportunistic with respect to this issue. To do that, we use a simple two-party political competition model in which the issues over which parties take positions are the levels of border enforcement and the way it has to be financed. We show that an ideological rather than a pure opportunistic behavior gives parties an advantage to win the election. This result may help us to understand the recent success of anti-immigrant and rightist parties in several countries.     

Selection and the Marriage Premium for Infant Health

Previous research has found a positive relationship between marriage and infant health, but it is unclear whether this relationship is causal or a reflection of positive selection into marriage. We use multiple empirical approaches to address this issue. First, using a technique developed by Gelbach (2009) to determine the relative importance of observable characteristics, we show how selection into marriage has changed over time. Second, we construct a matched sample of children born to the same mother and apply panel data techniques to account for time-invariant unobserved characteristics. We find evidence of a sizable marriage premium. However, this premium fell by more than 40 % between 1989 and 2004, largely as a result of declining selection into marriage by race. Accounting for selection reduces ordinary least squares estimates of the marriage premiums for birth weight, prematurity, and infant mortality by at least one-half.     

Predicting the policy choices of individual legislators: A comparative study of Canada and the United States

For this project we measured a set of variables defining the demographic and career characteristics and the values of lawmakers and used this information to predict policy decisions. Legislators were surveyed in three Canadian provinces and two American states. Regression analysis was used to build a linear prediction equation for two policy issue areas: educational funding and welfare/unemployment compensation.For both American state legislators and Canadian provincial legislators, the best overall predictors of policy choice are value orientations. Demographic and career attributes, however, are also important determinants of policy choice. It was actually possible to explain just as much of the variance in policy support scores by using career and demographic attributes alone - ignoring the data describing the values of the legislators.Although studies of decision-making are central to the discipline of political science, this project stands apart from most previous research efforts for several reasons: (1) it incorporates an explicitly measured dependent variable; (2) it employs a comparative perspective, which analyzes the membership of several legislative assemblies cross-nationally, focusing on the United States and Canada; and (3) it evaluates legislators along a variety of dimensions.     

Desertification ... in perspective

Desertification remains high on the international agenda of critical environmental problems as the decade of the '80's draws to a close. The fact that this subject has attracted renewed high level attention over the past year is a source of considerable encouragement. The "bad news" is that such recognition reflects the failure of the international community to address the desertification problem in a meaningful way over two decades—this despite the considerable enthusiasm, detailed planning and extensive commitments of governments, international bodies and the private sector.While lack of adequate funding is often implicated, reasons for the woeful performance are found elsewhere: an initial underestimation of the depth and tenacity of the problem; the continuing absence of agreement on the dimensions and key indicators of desertification, prerequisites for measuring trends and progress; the erosion of public confidence and government support through failure to publicize and build on the few successes; and widespread civil unrest in many of the affected countries which has thwarted meaningful antidesertification efforts.Prospects for the 1990's depend upon new commitments and follow-through both by governments of affected nations and by the development assistance community. The former must provide a more favorable political and social context for success. This means tackling more aggressively problems of population growth, land tenure, and civil disruption. The donor community, for its part, must overcome the scattering of its intellectual, technological and financial resources, and rebuild its own and others' confidence by demonstrating that the resource base can indeed be stabilized and enhanced at a meaningful scale. Recognition of and commitment to the long-term requirements of antidesertification campaigns are also required of all parties.This paper was prepared for the symposium, Review of the 1977–87 Decade of Action to Combat Desertification, under the authority and sponsorship of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceCommittee on Arid Lands. The views expressed are solely those of the author and not those of the OECD and/or its Member countries.     

Environmental Refugees

There are fast-growing numbers of people who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems. In their desperation, these environmental refugees—as they are increasingly coming to be known and as they are termed in this paper—feel they have no alternative but to seek sanctuary elsewhere, however hazardous the attempt. Not all of them have fled their countries, many being internally displaced. But all have abandoned their homelands on a semi-permanent if not permanent basis, having little hope of a foreseeable return.     

对社会保障经济增长效率和社会分配效率的思考

随着人口老龄化问题和一系列体制改革遗留问题的显现 ,我国社会保障问题被逐渐提上议程。现今 ,实际国情要求我国仍需坚持以经济建设为中心的发展战略 ,这就要求我们必须对社会保障的经济增长效率做一分析 ;与此同时 ,作为社会收入再分配的一种重要手段 ,社会保障担任着缩小我国较大的贫富差距的重任 ,所以就有必要分析将要实行的社会保障政策在社会收入再分配方面的效率。     

Understanding aging in Korea

"This study discusses demographic trends, sociocultural characteristics, and policy choices of aging in [South] Korea.... Although the proportion of the elderly was not so high as to worry about aging before 1990, it is projected that one in eight Koreans will be aged 65 or more in 2020. Because the care for the elderly is mostly expected to be provided by each family, not by the state or Korean society, the role of the family is pivotal in coping with [the] aging problem.... Although adult children currently understand that their aged parents need assistance and support from them, they want to solve the issue of support for the elderly in a way different from the traditional.... This paper examines how the changing attitude toward the old is reflected in family life in terms of living arrangement and physical contacts. This paper also describes and discusses the current situation of various welfare policies on the elderly in Korea."     

The Performance and Reception of Televisual "Ugliness" in Yo soy Betty la fea

According to an old Portuguese saying, in quarrels “between husband and wife, nobody sticks in a spoon,” indicating, in other words, that certain domestic issues are to be kept “private.” Although when applied to domestic violence this is now legally false and despite the many national deaths and injuries to women and children, many social constraints keep the issue out of the national public sphere. The exceptions to this are the police or officially sourced news in the press and the rare occasions when public figures are involved. Because of the awareness public figures can give to the cause, feminists should research the role of the media in the latter cases. This being the opportunity to bring a socially silenced issue to the public fore, we need to understand the role of the media in breaking down the public/private distinction that feminists have long argued for. The article discusses how the Portuguese media covered two such cases of domestic violence involving public figures. By considering both feminist claims and media theory, it argues that media logics and workings must be considered when discussing their role in voicing the issue of domestic violence in the public sphere.     

Consistency between fertility attitudes and behaviour: A conceptual model

Abstract The consistency (or lack of it) between attitude and behaviour has been a controversial issue in social psychology for the past several decades,(1) and more recently has become a focus of considerable controversy in the field of population studies.(2) In accordance with Freedman, Hermalin and Chang,(3)it is argued here that this controversy will not be resolved by theoretical discussions, and evidence is needed from many countries at several time points to resolve this issue. This paper presents evidence on consistency between fertility attitudes and behaviour from survey data from Venezuela and, based upon analysis of the present data, suggests a conceptual model for the study of consistency between fertility attitudes and behaviour.     

Fecundability and the Frequency of Marital Intercourse: A Critique of Nine Models

The biological and demographic literature on the effects or frequency of intercourse on fecundability is reviewed in this paper. While empirical work and model-building results agree well on the effect of change from low to moderate coital frequencies, inconsistencies emerge when increase from moderate to high coital frequencies is considered. Of the models considered, it may be argued that the explicit provision for unfavourable cycles makes Schwartz's model an improvement over Barrett and Marshall's, Lachenbruch's and Trussell's. Moreover, even though he used a very different approach, Bongaarts obtained results that are much closer to those of Schwartz et al. than the others. Bongaarts's model is used as a starting point for new modelling, to be reported in the next issue, which deals with these inconsistencies by taking into account the ageing of gametes.     

Experiences with obstetric violence among healthcare professionals and students in Spain: A constructivist grounded theory study

BackgroundObstetric violence appears to be a worldwide concern and is defined as a type of gender-based violence perpetrated by health professionals. This violence undermines and harms women’s autonomy. In Spain, 38.3 % of women have identified themselves as victims of this type of violence.AimTo explore current information and knowledge about obstetric violence within the Spanish healthcare context, as well as to develop a theoretical model to explain the concept of obstetric violence, based on the experiences of healthcare professionals (midwives, registered nurses, gynaecologists and paediatricians) and nursing students.MethodsA constructivist grounded theory study was conducted at Jaume I University in Spain between May and July 2021, including concurrent data collection and interpretation through constant comparison analysis. An inductive analysis was carried out using the ATLAS.ti 9.0 software to organise and analyse the data.ResultsTwenty in-depth interviews were conducted, which revealed that healthcare professionals and students considered obstetric violence a violation of human rights and a serious public health issue. The interviews allowed them to describe certain characteristics and propose preventive strategies. Three main categories were identified from the data analysis: (i) characteristics of obstetric violence in the daily routine, (ii) defining the problem of obstetric violence and (iii) strategies for addressing obstetric violence. Participants identified obstetric violence as structural gender-based violence and emphasised the importance of understanding its characteristics. Our results indicate how participants’ experiences influence their process of connecting new information to prior knowledge, and they provide a connection to specific micro- and macro-level strategic plans.DiscussionDespite the lack of consensus, this study resonates with the established principles of women and childbirth care, but also generates a new theoretical model for healthcare students and professionals to identify and manage obstetric violence based on contextual factors. The term ‘obstetric violence’ offers a distinct contribution to the growing awareness of violence against women, helps to regulate it through national policy and legislation, and involves both structural and interpersonal gender-based abuse, rather than assigning blame only to care providers.ConclusionsObstetric violence is the most accurate term to describe disrespect and mistreatment as forms of interpersonal and structural violence that contribute to gender and social inequality, and the definition of this term contributes to the ongoing awareness of violence against women, which may help to regulate it through national policy and legislation.     

气候变化背景下荒漠草原牧民退牧意愿及其影响因素分析--以张掖市平山湖乡为例

近年来,气候变化对自然生态环境造成了极大破坏,特别是对原本生态环境脆弱,自然灾害频发的荒漠草原更是雪上加霜,严重影响了牧民的生产生活。只有鼓励更多牧民参与退牧还草项目,才能促使当地经济快速发展。基于此,本文利用甘肃省张掖市平山湖乡全乡牧民的调查数据,首先采用Logistic回归模型分析牧民退牧意愿的影响因素,然后运用解释结构模型分析各影响因素之间的关系。研究表明：牧民受教育程度、家庭拥有的饲草地面积、牧民对气候变化的认知、牧民对草原荒漠化的认知、牧民对退牧补贴政策的认知,对牧民退牧意愿呈现出正向影响,而家庭拥有的羊只数量对牧民退牧意愿呈现出负向影响,牧民年龄和外出务工率对牧民退牧意愿影响不显著。其中,文化程度、羊只数量、饲草地面积是深层原因;对退牧补贴政策的认知和对草原荒漠化的认知是间接原因;对气候变化的认知是直接原因。     

The Satisfaction with Sex Life Across the Adult Life Span

Three separate issues concerning the relation between age and satisfaction with sex life are addressed in this article. The first issue was concerned with the age generalizability of the factor structure produced by responses to the Satisfaction with Sex Life Scale (SWSLS). The second issue was to examine whether there were differences in the satisfaction with sex life according to certain background characteristics, namely age. Finally, the relationship between scores on the SWSLS with those on other relational constructs was explored. Data collection involved completion of a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 1,144 participants. The mean ages of the sample were 38.99 years in (SD = 16.91); ages ranged from 20 to 80. The data indicated that the factor structure of responses to the SWSLS were highly similar through adult life. Religious involvement, marital status, and love status influenced satisfaction with sex life. Expected correlations with measures of other relationship constructs were found. The strongest predictor of satisfaction with sex live across the adult life span was love satisfaction. Suggestions concerning the use of the SWSLS for research and clinical purposes are offered.