Will gay and bisexually active men at high risk of infection use over-the-counter rapid HIV tests to screen sexual partners?

The Food and Drug Administration may license OraQuick?, a rapid HIV test, for over-the-counter (OTC) sale. This study investigated whether HIV-uninfected, non-monogamous, gay and bisexual men who never or rarely use condoms would use the test with partners as a harm-reduction approach. Sixty participants responded to two computer-assisted self-interviews, underwent an in-depth interview, and chose whether to test themselves with OraQuick. Over 80% of the men said they would use the kit to test sexual partners or themselves if it became available OTC. Most participants understood that antibody tests have a window period in which the virus is undetectable, yet saw advantages to using the test to screen partners; 74% tested themselves in our offices. Participants offered several possible strategies to introduce the home-test idea to partners, frequently endorsed mutual testing, and highlighted that home testing could stimulate greater honesty in serostatus disclosure. Participants drew distinctions between testing regular versus occasional partners. Non-monogamous men who have sex with men, who never or rarely use condoms, may nevertheless seek to avoid HIV. Technologies that do not interfere with sexual pleasure are likely to be used when available. Studies are needed to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using OTC rapid HIV tests as one additional harm-reduction tool.     

Community organization moderates the effect of alcohol outlet density on violence

There is growing evidence from multiple disciplines that alcohol outlet density is associated with community levels of assault. Based on the theoretical and empirical literatures on social organization and crime, we tested the hypothesis that the association between alcohol outlet density and neighbourhood violence rates is moderated by social organization. Using geocoded police data on assaults, geocoded data on the location of alcohol outlets, and controlling for several structural factors thought to be associated with violence rates, we tested this hypothesis employing negative binomial regression with our sample of 298 block groups in Cincinnati. Our results revealed direct effects of alcohol outlet density and social organization on assault density, and these effects held for different outlet types (i.e., off‐premise, bars, restaurants) and levels of harm (i.e., simple and aggravated assaults). More importantly, we found that the strength of the outlet‐assault association was significantly weaker in more socially organized communities. Subsequent analyses by level of organization revealed no effects of alcohol outlet density on aggravated assaults in organized block groups, but significant effects in disorganized block groups. We found no association between social (dis)organization and outlet density. These results clarify the community‐level relationship between alcohol outlets and violence and have important implications for municipal‐level alcohol policies.     

Making Sense of Community Action and Voluntary Participation—A Multilevel Test of Multilevel Hypotheses: Do Communities Act?

To what extent does community context influence individuals’ proclivity to participate in community‐oriented activities and projects? In this article we utilize survey data from residents of 99 Iowa communities to conduct a multilevel analysis of voluntary participation and community action, simultaneously addressing voluntary participation at the individual level and “community action” at the community level. Additionally, we test the suggestion that community attachment may constitute a unique form of social capital. The robustness of these data allows us to overcome the obstacles that have led to the conflation of individual‐ and community‐level attributes in many community studies. We show that community attachment and community‐oriented action are determined almost entirely by individuals’ characteristics rather than by the characteristics of communities, and thus do not constitute community‐level phenomena, calling into question the assumptions on which certain theoretical approaches to community are based.     

JOB SECURITY IN AUSTRALIA: BROADENING THE ANALYSIS

An examination of the discussion surrounding aspects of job security in Australia in light of the apparently conflicting evidence and interpretations of the prevailing trends. Notions of job security need to move beyond the narrow perception of a link to actual or expected job duration. After a discussion of why job security is of policy interest, the various definitions and interpretations of the concept are reviewed. This leads to a consideration of whether the available evidence indicates job security is increasing or decreasing in Australia.     

企业政策因素对灰色采购行为倾向的影响

以营销道德理论为基础,使用情境法从137位专业采购人员采集数据,本文探讨了在灰色营销中买方企业的相关政策对其采购人员灰色采购行为倾向的影响. 研究结果显示:企业政策对采购人员的灰色采购行为倾向既有直接影响,也有通过采购人员的道德判断和同情而中介的间接影响. 具体而言,第一,企业在采购政策中约束采购人员接收礼品和回扣的政策越模糊,在销售政策中越是默许自己的推销人员进行灰色营销,其采购人员越是会低估灰色采购的不道德性和给企业造成的伤害,从而直接和间接地增强其灰色采购的行为倾向;第二,企业鼓励采购人员与合作伙伴建立良好私人关系的政策,既会提高采购人员对灰色采购行为的不道德性评价,也会增强采购人员对灰色采购行为的同情,从而提高或降低(依以上两种影响的相对强度而定)其采购人员灰色采购的行为倾向. 最后,讨论了研究结果的应用.     

Loitering: reassembling time in the city-of-the-global-south

One of the most powerfully visible ways in which public space in inner city Johannesburg is ordered is through the material presence of apparently idle young men – a context profoundly linked to the precarious position of young and immigrant men in the post-apartheid economy. For the most part, these young men are regarded with disdain, the objects of fear and anxiety. In the following discussion, based on two years of field research with a group of unemployed young men (between the ages of 15 and 30 years old) who attend a weekly bible study and soup kitchen at a church in the inner city, I demonstrate ways in which these young men structure their daily lives in response to the over-abundance of time. I consider how the act of loitering in public space serves to reassemble the relationship between time and value at the peripheries of the urban economy, extracting value from the apparently idle activity of waiting in the present, but uncoupled from a sense of control over the past and future.     

Professionalization of Politics and Tension Management: the Case of the Soviet Union

The movement toward the rationalization of the world, as conceived by Max Weber, has culminated in the 20th century with the rationalization and the professionalization of politics. It is a process by which human beings attempt to transform decision-making into a public service, independent of class and other interests, and based upon a systematic body of knowledge about man.
The development of professionalized politics becomes possible when the practitioners themselves set out to manipulate charismatic symbols and create a social order compatible with professionalized decision-making, as exemplified by the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. The major social problems of such a new social order can be traced to the structural tensions which come about as a result of political professionalization.
The paper contains an outline of the major tensions existing in Soviet society, which require further study by sociologists: 1) intraprofessional tensions; 2) practitionerclient tensions; and 3) interprofessional tensions. Proposals are made as to the sources of these tensions and the ways in which they are resolved. It is suggested that the survival of professionalized politics is based on the Party's capacity to manage these tensions.     

Use of Biological Markers in Risk Assessment1

Measurements of intermediate end points in the carcinogenic process may reduce uncertainty in human risk assessment from bioassay data, by identifying sources of interspecies variation and dose nonlinearity. This paper describes desirable properties of such markers: persistence, predictive power, temporal relevance, and consistency across dose rate and species. We illustrate these properties by evaluating markers for squamous cell nasal carcinoma in rodents exposed to formaldehyde. We also discuss design issues for bioassays that evaluate markers and tumors simultaneously at necropsy.