A double epidemic: crystal methamphetamine drug use in relation to HIV transmission among gay men

Emerging research on methamphetamine use among gay men suggests that growth in the use of this drug could present serious problems for HIV/AIDS prevention within the gay community. This article summarizes current studies on the extent, role, and context of methamphetamine use among gay men and its relationship to high risk sexual behaviors related to HIV transmission. Methamphetamine is often used by gay men to initiate, enhance, and prolong sexual encounters. Use of the drug is, therefore, associated with particular environments where sexual contact among gay men is promoted, such as sex clubs and large "circuit" parties. Research with gay and bisexual men indicates that methamphetamine use is strongly associated with risky sexual behaviors that may transmit HIV. This relationship, coupled with emerging evidence that methamphetamine use is on the rise among gay men, suggests that the drug could exacerbate the HIV/AIDS epidemic among this community. The article offers recommendations for further research and suggestions for prevention programs regarding methamphetamine use by gay men.     

Bisexuality: reassessing our paradigms of sexuality

Sexuality research currently needs to re-examine critically its constructs of sexual orientation and identity for theoretical inconsistencies and simplistic assumptions about the nature of sexual desire continue to plague it. This becomes evident when one reviews how the confluence of heterosexual and homosexual desire in individuals is "explained" by theories that assume a basic dichotomy in sexual orientation. This article examines how categories such as homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual have developed, and differentiates between their utility as social labels and as scientific constructs. The intrusion of social and political considerations into the scientific investigation of sexuality is noted, and it is suggested that the use of these labels impedes rather than advances such study.     

Historical epidemiology of smallpox in Åland,Finland: 1751–1890

We analyze a 140-year series of smallpox deaths in the Åland Islands, Finland. Vaccination, introduced in 1805, dramatically reduced the annual number of smallpox deaths. It also influenced the age distribution of smallpox deaths, changing smallpox from a childhood disease before 1805 to one which affected both adults and children after 1805. This appears to be due to the fact that Ålanders were usually vaccinated only once during childhood and often lost their immunity during adulthood. Spectral analysis of the prevaccination time series of smallpox deaths demonstrates a strong seven-year periodicity, reflecting the amount of time necessary to build up a cohort of nonimmune individuals. After the introduction of vaccination, the periodicity changes to eight years. The probability that a parish in Åland was affected by a smallpox epidemic is shown to be highly correlated with migration patterns and parish population sizes.     

Research on sexual orientation: definitions and methods

An extensive survey of the research literature on sexual orientation was undertaken for the purpose of determining how sexual orientation had been conceptually and operationally defined and how research subjects had been identified and selected. Two hundred-twenty-eight articles from 47 different journals were analyzed. Sexual orientation, it was found, was conceptually defined in 28 studies and operationally defined in 168. In 196 studies respondents were identified on the basis of the settings in which they were found. Because of the great variation in both conceptual and operational definitions, it was almost impossible to determine with certainty the theoretical frameworks used in the studies. The wide divergency in the definitions of sexual orientation, the investigators conclude, is symptomatic of an underlying conceptual confusion.     

Understanding calendar rhythm

Rhythm has been among the family planning methods endorsed since the start of the National Population Program in the Philippines, but it has not been given as much emphasis as the other methods such as oral contraception (OC), the IUD, and sterilization. For several years, no systematic effort was made to promote the effective use of rhythm. The 1978 Community Outreach Survey (COS) tried to determine the extent to which contraceptive methods were being used in the Outreach Project areas. The project covered 2,000 barangay service points (BSPs) with 1.76 million married couples of reproductive age (MCRA), representing 32% of the estimated total MCRA in the Philippines. The COS findings revealed that, of the total sexually active married women aged 15-49, 48% were using contraceptive methods. Of these, only 11.4% were using modern methods, 20% were using other program methods (rhythm, condom, and combination of rhythm and condom); and 16.7% were using nonprogram methods (withdrawal, abstinence, and others). When used in combination with other methods, rhythm had a monthly continuation rate of 96%; when used alone, 94%. The COS data showed that the rhythm method is practiced by a large number of Filipino couples. With the renewed interest in rhythm, it became imperative for the program to help rhythm acceptors use the method more effectively and thus reduce user failure. There continues to be need for data on the "product image" of rhythm. These include the emotions that come into play in the acceptance or rejection of rhythm, the perceived side effects as well as advantages of the method, the ways women communicate their "safe" and "unsafe" days to their husbands, the manner in which couples prevent sexual contact during "unsafe" days, and the attitude of couples toward abstinence. Among important study findings were the following: couples choose rhythm because it does not disturb the sexual act, has no side effects, and poses no religious objections; 1 of the problems of rhythm users is that they get varied explanations and instructions from service delivery personnel on the correct way to practice rhythm; and many rural women do not have a clear understanding of the menstrual cycle. Requirements of successful rhythm practice include cooperation, regular cycle, and the couple's age.     

Modelling domestic work time

What variables should be used as regressors in models of the length of time which people spend doing unpaid domestic work? To most economists, the answer would be straightforward: use the variables which are implied by a theoretical model of household time allocation (e.g. Becker's). This paper shows that this strategy has not been followed, explores why this is so, and makes some recommendations about variable specification and the treatment of paid market work time in particular. The arguments are illustrated using regressions based on UK time budget data for the mid-1980s.     

Census adjustment and the distribution of federal spending

In 1989, programs that use population counts to determine the distribution of their funds transferred $236 per capita to state and local governments. If the 1990 census were adjusted to reflect undercounting, about 40% of state and local governments would receive increased grants averaging $56 per miscounted person; other jurisdictions would lose an almost equal amount of grant money. The surprisingly small reallocations arise because 1) total funds allocated by population are essentially fixed; 2) allocations depend on other factors in addition to population; and 3) programs vary as to whether they allocate funds in direct or inverse proportion to population.     

Population and the energy problem

When energy is scarce or expensive, people can suffer material deprivation and economic hardship. When it is obtained in ways that fail to minimize environmental and political costs, these too can threaten human wellbeing in fundamental and pervasive ways. The energy problem today combines these syndromes: much of the world's population has too little energy to meet basic human needs; the monetary costs of energy are rising nearly everywhere; the environmental impacts of energy supply are growing and already dominant contributors to local, regional, and global environmental problems (including air pollution, water pollution, ocean pollution, and climate change); and the sociopolitical risks of energy supply (above all the danger of conflict over oil and the links between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons) are growing too. This predicament has many causes, but predominant among them are the nearly 20-fold increase in world energy use since 1850 and the cumulative depletion of the most convenient oil and gas deposits that this growth has entailed, resulting in increasing resort to costlier and/or environmentally more disruptive energy sources. The growth of world population in this period was responsible for 52% of the energy growth, while growth in per capita energy use was responsible for 48% (excluding causal connections between population and energy use per capita). In the United States in the same period, population growth accounted for 66% of the 36-fold increase in energy use. In the late 1980s, population growth was still accounting for a third of energy growth both in the United States and worldwide. Coping with global energy problems will require greatly increased investment in improving the efficiency of energy enduse and in reducing the environmental impacts of contemporary energy technologies, and it will require financing a transition over the next several decades to a set of more sustainable (but probably also more expensive) energy sources. The difficulty of implementing these measures will be greatest by far in the developing countries, not least because of their high rates of population growth and the attendant extra pressures on economic and managerial resources. If efficiency improvements permit delivering the high standard of living to which the world aspires based on a per capita rate of energy use as low as 3 kilowatts—about a quarter of the current U.S. figure—then a world population stabilized at 10 billion people would be using energy at a rate of 30 terawatts, and a population of 14 billion would imply 42 terawatts (compare 13.2 terawatts in 1990). Delivering even the lower figure at tolerable monetary and environmental costs will be difficult; each additional billion people added to the world population will compound these difficulties and increase energy's costs, making everyone poorer.Presented at the Symposium on Population and Scarcity: The Forgotten Dimensions.     

Personality correlates of positive identity and relationship involvement in gay men

Six personality variables (social anxiety, trait anxiety, locus of control, sensitization, depression, and self concept) were correlated with variables relevant to a positive gay identity (degree of communication about sexual preference and degree of comfort being gay) and to relationship involvement (being in a gay relationship, number of months in a gay relationship, and living with a partner) in a volunteer, nonclinical sample of 51 gay males. Men who informed others of their sexual preference were low on trait anxiety, sensitization, and depression and high on self concept. Men comfortable with their gay identity were low on social anxiety, sensitization, and depression and high on self concept. Men involved in long-term relationships were low in trait anxiety, had an internal locus of control, and were low in depression. Men living with a partner had a higher self concept than men not living with a partner. Results are discussed in terms of previous studies of gay male relationships.