Public Trust in Local Government: Explaining the Role of Good Governance Practices

Public Organization Review - The primary purpose of this study was to examine the role of good governance practices on public trust in local government. In this study, a conceptual model was...     

Reconstructing the Sikh Diaspora

The Sikh diaspora, along with the Jewish Diaspora, is perhaps one of the only religious diasporas in the world. The Sikhs are scattered across the globe today. This article is an attempt to outline the reasons for Sikh migration out of Punjab and the role played by the colonial rulers in that migration. It traces the process of migration of Sikhs and their emergence as a diaspora.     

Ranked set sample sign test for quantiles

A ranked set sample version of the sign test is proposed for testing hypotheses concerning the quantiles of a population characteristic. Both equal and unequal allocations are considered and the relative performance of different allocations is assessed in terms of Pitman's asymptotic relative efficiency. In particular, for each quantile, the allocation that maximizes the efficacy is identified and shown to not depend on the population distribution.     

Efficient family of estimators of median using two-phase sampling design

ABSTRACT

For a trivariate distribution, an efficient family of estimators of median of study variable using the known information on the auxiliary variables has been proposed under two-phase sampling design. The expressions for bias and its mean square error have been obtained up to first order of approximation. It has been shown that the proposed estimator has smaller bias as compared to estimator defined by Singh et al. (2006 Singh, S., Singh, H.P., Upadhyaya, L.N. (2006). Chain ratio and regression type estimators for median estimation in survey sampling. Statist. Pap. 48:23–46.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) with the same efficiency. The results have also been illustrated numerically by taking data from different populations considered in literature.     

Polarized Scientists? Exploring Political Differences about Religion and Science among U.S. Biologists and Physicists1

From the Texas textbook debate to the March for Science, visible displays of activism illuminate how deeply politicized the science‐religion interface has become. However, little is known about the extent to which scientists’ attitudes about science and religion are politicized. Using original survey data from 1,989 U.S. academic biologists and physicists, we examine the degree to which political views shape how scientists perceive the relationship between religion and science, religious authority, their personal religious identity, and views on dominant scientific theories. Findings suggest that, indeed, the science‐religion interface holds political meaning for scientists, but in different ways across the political spectrum. Specifically, for politically liberal scientists, atheism and the conflict narrative are particularly politicized belief structures, while politically conservative scientists emphasize religious identity to distinguish themselves from political liberals. Findings point to the critical role of politics in shaping scientists’ attitudes and identities, which may have implications for the scientific enterprise, both at the lab bench and in the political sphere.     

Challenging stereotypes of British-Asian women's experiences of work and family life

Kalminder Kaur describes herself as ‘married, I've got 2 girls; 10 and 7 years old now, and we're Sikhs. I went to university and did my first degree in Biology and my PhD in Biology and Engineering. The job I've got at the moment is with a water company. I am a Water Treatment Specialist.’

Kalminder was talking to researcher Baljit Kaur Rana about British-Asian women's experiences of the work-family interface. What Kalminder has to say raises many questions about stereotypical images of British-Asian women, their working lives and related community issues. This article seeks to highlight the significance of changes that have recently started to become more commonplace in the organisation of Asian family life in Britain. It is evident that increased awareness about these changes is of considerable significance to employers, as well as in relation to other families and the wider community. Debate continues about how women juggle work and family commitments, and Kalminder's account draws attention to the ways in which cultural background can blur the boundaries further. In practice however, many families respond effectively to very complex demands.     

Post-exotic India: on remixed histories and smart images

This paper examines the aesthetics of remixing history at the heart of the neoliberal project of India’s image makeover as the ‘land of limitless opportunity’ for global tourists and investors. I argue that the project of remixing India’s history is predicated upon the ontological fault line of how to retain and erase the original simultaneously while shaping the new in the contemporary global. Taking the Incredible India campaign as an example, I show how the original essence of India is revealed and authenticated in the very moment of its disappearance as it is morphed in the aesthetics of the contemporary global. The post-exotic self, I further argue, is not produced by effacing the exotic past, but by condensing, accelerating and fast-forwarding it into a timeless, infinite global present. And in doing so, it also reveals the blueprint of the ongoing visual rearrangement of nation’s civilisational past in the making of new India.     

Exploring global recognition of quality midwifery education: Vision or fiction?

Background

Midwifery education is the foundation for preparing competent midwives to provide a high standard of safe, evidence-based care for women and their newborns. Global competencies and standards for midwifery education have been defined as benchmarks for establishing quality midwifery education and practice worldwide. However, wide variations in type and nature of midwifery education programs exist.