Recent migrations from Morocco to Spain

"This study addressed the problem of the Moroccan immigration into Spain within the context of South-North movements, focusing on analyzing provisional data from the last immigrant regularization in the country completed during the end months of 1991."     

The contemporary crisis and the social relations department at Harvard: A case study in hegemony and disintegration

The history of sociology is marked by periods of theoretical pluralism and hegemony. Their interplay has resulted in the slow and uneven development of the discipline. Today, however, bodies of theory and practice have become so diverse that many scholars worry that sociology is in a state of disintegration. The theoretical career of Talcott Parsons provides a microcosm in which to explore similar processes. Building on the success of The Structure of Social Action, Parsons led a movement that transformed Harvard's Department of Sociolgy into the Department of Social Relations. There he attempted a grander, but failed synthesis in Toward A General Theory of Action. His case provides a situation in which to explore features of disciplinary integration and fragmentation. The comparison stimulates one to fashion an informed sense of whether sociology is now facing its latest crisis or may be in the process of decomposition as a corpus of study. This research was supported by grants from the American Sociological Association's Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline and by Indiana University Northwest through a sabbatical leave.     

South-East Asia

This article reviews the literature on migration and HIV infections in the Mekong Region countries of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The HIV/AIDS situation is profiled in each country. The populations at risk include legal and undocumented cross-border migrants, internal migrants, sex workers, and mobile occupational persons, such as truck drivers, fishermen, seafarers, and cross-border traders. Currently, there is little regional cooperation on the issue of HIV among migrants. Prevalence is high in most of the region. Programs range from being very developed in Thailand to minimal in China. Recently, nongovernmental organizations have created innovative models. AIDSCAP studies have focused on river trade routes along the Thai-Lao border and fishing ports in Thailand and Cambodia. The Asian Research Center for Migration has researched fishermen in 6 countries; Burmese women in Thailand; migrants along the Thai-Myanmar borders; and the impact of transportation routes on the spread of HIV/AIDS along six main inter-country routes. Coordination of Action Research has engaged in research and action projects in 8 southeast Asian countries. The region would benefit from information exchanges about lessons learned and best practices. Field researchers could use better technical support. Regional strategies are useful for providing support from origin to destination.     

Application of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to modelling birth prevalence of Down syndrome

Data collected before the routine application of prenatal screening are of unique value in estimating the natural live-birth prevalence of Down syndrome. However, much of these data are from births from over 20 years ago and they are of uncertain quality. In particular, they are subject to varying degrees of underascertainment. Published approaches have used ad hoc corrections to deal with this problem or have been restricted to data sets in which ascertainment is assumed to be complete. In this paper we adopt a Bayesian approach to modelling ascertainment and live-birth prevalence. We consider three prior specifications concerning ascertainment and compare predicted maternal-age-specific prevalence under these three different prior specifications. The computations are carried out by using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods in which model parameters and missing data are sampled.     

Learning how to learn: the key to CQI

All CQI/TQM efforts share a common purpose: to learn something that can correct past mistakes and/or to create better futures. Because learning is a dynamic circular process, the information about a problem or an opportunity will be limited unless four perceptions of the truth--each valid, and each incomplete--are accepted. These four types of learning styles or ways of perceiving are: abstract conceptualizers, active experimenters, concrete experiencers, and reflective observers. Unless all the stages of the learning process have been fully completed, unless all the strokes work in harmony, we cannot be confident that a CQI effort has added its full value. A CQI team's interpersonal process, the tools by which individually limited truths are forged into a consensual holistic truth, must ensure that the group's effort goes "around in circles."     

Making the journey into the networked enterprise, Part 2

In the May issue of Physician Executive, the authors described the difficulties other industries have had with vertical integration and why so many corporations have abandoned it for other organizational structures. In this second part of the series, they explore the ways health care organizations can make the shift into integrated delivery systems, avoiding the trap of the hierarchical, vertically integrated monolithic structures that will become the dinosaurs of the future.     

Population growth and the changing ecosystem in Mindanao

Mindanao is the second largest island in the Philippines. Once considered the greenest spot on earth, it has since been highly exploited. This paper discusses the changing ecosystem of the island as a result of rapid population growth since the early 1900s. Not much is known about Mindanao before 1900. From 1913, however, population grew on Mindanao as the American colonial government established agricultural colonies to open up the south for trade and development. Colonial settlement together with migration and natural population increase led to environmental resource degradation and the displacement of indigenous communities such as the Moros and Lumads. Legal and illegal logging and rampant kaingin agriculture have also stressed the environment. The opening of the Mindanao frontier, Philippine development, the Great Migration, incursion of the Mindanao upland, deforestation, the displacement of indigenous communities, and the possible maintenance and rehabilitation of the ecosystem are discussed.     

Rethinking assimilation theory for a new era of immigration

"We argue that assimilation theory has not lost its utility for the study of contemporary immigration to the United States. In making our case, we review critically the canonical account of assimilation provided by Milton Gordon and others; we refer to Shibutani and Kwan's theory of ethnic stratification to suggest some directions to take in reformulating assimilation theory. We also examine some of the arguments frequently made to distinguish between the earlier mass immigration of Europeans and the immigration of the contemporary era and find them to be inconclusive. Finally, we sift through some of the evidence about the socioeconomic and residential assimilation of recent immigrant groups. Though the record is clearly mixed, we find evidence consistent with the view that assimilation is taking place, albeit unevenly."     

"How much do you spend gambling?" ambiguities in survey questionnaire items

The validity of a survey's findings is dependent upon the clarity and lack of ambiguity contained in each individual item yet minimal attention has been directed to this issue in most prevalence studies. Researchers have shown a tendency to accept the uncritical assumption that respondents interpret seemingly simple and straightforward items such as 'how much do you spend gambling?' in a consistent manner. No attempt is made to confirm the uniformity of responses by clarifying the mathematical formulae used by respondents to derive their answers. The purpose of this paper was to examine the consistency shown by a sample of 181 medical undergraduate subjects in estimating the level of gambling expenditure in a series of five case vignettes describing various scenarios of wins and losses during a session of gambling. Results revealed a wide variation in calculated figures depending upon whether or not subjects interpreted the item to mean net expenditure or turnover. Only two thirds or less of subjects calculated the figure to be the difference between the initial amount risked and the residual at the conclusion of the session. It is suggested that more attention be paid in prevalence and clinical studies to providing subjects with clear instructions on how to calculate expenditure estimates.