Exploring Perceived Discrimination Among LGBT Individuals in Turkey in Education,Employment, and Health Care: Results of an Online Survey

This article explores the discrimination practices encountered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in education, income, employment, and health care in Turkey. Limited quantitative data on LGBT individuals are available in Turkey. This study collected data from 2,875 LGBT individuals through a Web-based survey. The findings suggest that LGBT individuals report perceived direct and indirect discrimination in accessing education, employment, and health care. In a country where LGBT rights are not yet recognized and antidiscrimination legislation covering sexual orientation and gender identity is still nonexistent, findings demonstrate perceived discrimination of LGBTs rarely turns into a legal complaint. Even when they do, most LGBTs in our sample report that they did not feel that the justice system addressed their grievances.     

Efficacy of screening and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection

ABSTRACT

Sixty-three percent of the total active tuberculosis cases in Canada were diagnosed among foreign-born individuals, representing 20% of the total population. The majority of these cases occur from the reactivation of tuberculosis infections acquired prior to immigration. A preventive policy consisting of screening and treating new immigrants for latent tuberculosis infection is evaluated on its efficacy for reducing the total number of tuberculosis cases, using tuberculosis incidence data between 1986 and 1995 from the Canadian tuberculosis reporting system. The most effective intervention is to screen for and treat latent tuberculosis infection among arriving immigrants from countries of birth with a tuberculosis incidence rate greater than 15 cases per 100,000.     

Measuring temporal trends in biodiversity

In 2002, nearly 200 nations signed up to the 2010 target of the Convention for Biological Diversity, ‘to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010’. To assess whether the target was met, it became necessary to quantify temporal trends in measures of diversity. This resulted in a marked shift in focus for biodiversity measurement. We explore the developments in measuring biodiversity that was prompted by the 2010 target. We consider measures based on species proportions, and also explain why a geometric mean of relative abundance estimates was preferred to such measures for assessing progress towards the target. We look at the use of diversity profiles, and consider how species similarity can be incorporated into diversity measures. We also discuss measures of turnover that can be used to quantify shifts in community composition arising, for example, from climate change.     

Medicaid expansion and ethnoracial disparities in health insurance coverage

ABSTRACT

Medicaid expansion, as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), was touted by many policymakers as a potentially powerful force for reducing ethnoracial disparities in health insurance coverage. Using a unique county-level dataset at two time points (before and after the passage of the PPACA), we test whether Medicaid Expansion predicted change in ethnoracial disparities. Specifically, we use fixed-effect regression models to predict the Black-white, Hispanic-white, and Asian-white disparities in health insurance coverage. Using states that did not expand Medicaid as a counterfactual, our models show that this policy expansion was not significantly associated with a decrease in ethnoracial health insurance disparities. Overall, these findings suggest the need for scholars and policymakers to be more cautious and tempered about Medicaid expansion’s relationship with ethnoracial disparities in health insurance coverage. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on ethnoracial health insurance disparities, as well as policy efforts to increase coverage in minority communities.     

Why are older adults victims of fraud? Current knowledge and prospects regarding older adults’ vulnerability to fraud

Older adults are disproportionately targeted by various kinds of fraud, which result in irreversible economic losses and great psychological distress. Over the past years, researchers have conducted systematic research on the prevalence, under-reporting, and research methods of fraud victimization in older adults. Research paradigms regarding fraud victimization among older adults have mainly included cognitive, emotion regulation and motivation, and comprehensive paradigms. Factors shown to influence fraud victimization among older adults include cognitive decline, emotional regulation and motivational changes, their overly trusting nature, psychological vulnerability, social isolation, risk-taking, and a lack of knowledge and information regarding fraud prevention. Based on a review of the literature, future research can benefit from constructing a comprehensive fraud victimization theory, improving research methods, extending existing research, exploring physiological mechanisms of elderly fraud, and strengthening prevention and intervention efforts.     

A Bayesian-loss function-based method in assessing loss caused by ship-source oil spills in the arctic area

It is difficult to assess the risk of ship-source oil spills in Arctic waters for insurance purposes due to many unknowns and the lack of reliable data. However, maritime activities in the Arctic area continue to grow, indicating the urgent needs for the development of innovative methods to estimate loss from potential ship-source oil spills in the Arctic area. To fill this gap, we develop a hybrid Bayesian-loss function-based method to assess ship-source oil spill-related loss and implement an illustrative test on Baffin Island, Nunavut in Canada. The results confirm that our method can accurately assess loss and, subsequently, develop reliable insurance premiums for shipping activities in the Arctic area. This enables governmental and nongovernmental organizations alike to use the method as a reliable loss estimation mechanism for ship-source oil spills. Also, it is a valuable tool in designing measures for safer and more resilient Arctic shipping.     

Development and Validation of TQM Implementation Constructs

The contemporary quality management (QM) literature prescribes various quality improvement strategies. However, it lacks scientifically developed and tested constructs that represent an integrative QM philosophy. Moreover, an impact of the prescribed QM strategies on a firm's product quality has not been analyzed. Through a detailed analysis of the literature, this research identifies 12 constructs of integrated QM strategies. Using a survey of 371 manufacturing firms, the constructs are then empirically tested and validated. LISREL 7 is used for this purpose. Finally, a framework to examine the effects of integrated QM strategies on a firm's product quality is suggested. Comparisons between this and two other comprehensive scales of TQM are made.     

大学生学习倦怠的现状及成因分析

学习倦怠是当代大学生普遍存在的心理现象,严重影响着他们的学业和身心健康。导致大学生学习倦怠的成因,客观上主要是教育模式陈旧、学习竞争激烈,就业压力增大所致;主观上则主要是理想与现实的矛盾、学习目标不明、专业兴趣淡薄、人际关系失调等造成的。     

A Cross‐Ethnic Study of Adolescents' Depressed Mood and the Erosion of Parental and Peer Warmth During the Transition to Young Adulthood

This 1‐year longitudinal study investigated the effects of adolescents' depressed mood on perceived parental and peer warmth during the transition to young adulthood. We hypothesized that ethnicity would moderate such effects. As part of a larger study, 511 adolescents (154 European, 205 Hispanic, and 152 Asian Americans) participated in this research. They were surveyed shortly before their high school graduation and again 1 year later. Analyses based on 2‐wave cross‐lagged models showed that higher levels of initial depressive symptoms predicted lower levels of subsequent perceived parental and peer warmth for European Americans. For Asian Americans, higher initial depressed mood was significantly associated with lower levels of perceived peer warmth and was marginally associated with lower levels of parental warmth. In contrast, the erosion of parental and peer warmth was not evident for Hispanic Americans. The role of culture in the erosion of parental and peer warmth during life transitions was discussed.