The immigration issue in Assam and conflicts around it

Assam, the northeastern state of India, has experienced strong anti-outsider sentiment for more than half a century now. What makes the Assam case unique is that it has faced both internal as well as illegal international migration in massive scales giving rise to intense existential fear and apprehension among its smaller indigenous communities. Their lack of the required political authority and the indifferent attitude of the Indian Union government in addressing the issue have only multiplied its magnitude. The article explicates the politico-economic dynamics of the immigration issue in Assam and the social tension and conflicts around it in a historical perspective and suggests that a multi-pronged approach backed by strong political will is imperative to negotiate the challenges of immigration in the state in an effective manner.     

Judging Facial Emotion Expressions in Context: The Influence of Culture and Self-Construal Orientation

We assessed the impact of social context on the judgment of emotional facial expressions as a function of self-construal and decoding rules. German and Greek participants rated spontaneous emotional faces shown either alone or surrounded by other faces with congruent or incongruent facial expressions. Greek participants were higher in interdependence than German participants. In line with cultural decoding rules, Greek participants rated anger expressions less intensely and sad and disgust expressions more intensely. Social context affected the ratings by both groups in different ways. In the more interdependent culture (Greece) participants perceived anger least intensely when the group showed neutral expressions, whereas sadness expressions were rated as most intense in the absence of social context. In the independent culture (Germany) a group context (others expressing anger or happiness) additionally amplified the perception of angry and happy expressions. In line with the notion that these effects are mediated by more holistic processing linked to higher interdependence, this difference disappeared when we controlled for interdependence on the individual level. The findings confirm the usefulness of considering both country level and individual level factors when studying cultural differences.     

Female Juvenile Violent Behavior: Bonding Systems and Other Mediating Constructs

The purpose of this research was to examine a conceptual/theoretical model with negative (substance use) and positive (extracurricular activities) mediating factors between several bonding systems and violent behavior among female youth. Since much of the prior researches have focused on both males and females therefore this study is focusing on females only. Data from the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health was used for this study. For the purpose of this study female research participants between the age of 12–17 were selected (N = 9383). At the stage of bivariate analysis, parental bonding system was omitted from a model before moving onto a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis as most of the correlations between indicators of parental bonding systems and dependent variables were not significant. Revised model with two bonding systems on violent behavior through two mediating constructs, extracurricular activities and substance use were tested through the SEM and Sobel test analyses. This structural model specifies a satisfactory fit with the sample. Several mediating effects within this model, which help lower the occurrence of violent behavior, were also validated.     

Domestic Violence: Comparative Analysis of German and U.K. Research Findings*

Objective. This article examines the notion of the family and within its postmodern definition the research undertaken in the field of domestic violence and its consequences for criminal justice agencies in the United Kingdom and Germany. Has the notion of the family changed in Western culture? How has legislation changed regarding domestic violence in line with criminologists' and social scientists' hypotheses, reflections, and recommendations? How are victims and witnesses protected from perpetrators? Methods. The authors discuss how legislation in both countries has changed to meet the needs of victims and witnesses of domestic violence. The article looks at different forms of law enforcement in domestic violence and how the agencies assess future dangerousness. Results. Research analyses show that domestic violence is now taken seriously in both countries' legislation. But what is the impact on policing domestic violence in both countries? It is argued that U.K. law enforcement agencies are more advanced that the German police in dealing with domestic violence in a practical and pragmatic fashion. Conclusions. The authors explore the shift in cultural beliefs affecting male dominance in the family setting, how public attitudes to domestic violence have changed, and how law enforcement agencies are now dealing with violence within the family in both countries.     

Gruppensupervision mit Betreuern — Eine empirische Fallstudie

Group supervision with carers — an empirical case studyGroup supervision with carers serves in expanding the attention range in the everyday working routine recapitulating action and endurance. In the reported endurance processes relevant aspects are made visible for care work by means of systematic observation. Through this, clarity in command and purpose emerges. As a consequence, problems may be localised more easily, hypotheses are raised and plans put into action. This sets off processes of change among all those supervised. Everyone picks out the creativity impulses significant for himself from the case historics for his own work as new intervention possibilitics. Therefore, over-focussing and paralysis are avoided and/or already existing ones corrected. Group supervision thus enables full use of spontaneity and creativity potential for everyone. It prevents burn-out just as much as indicating development of professional identity for the carers.     

Dietary and Inhalation Intake of Lead and Estimation of Blood Lead Levels in Adults and Children in Kanpur, India

This research was initiated to study lead levels in various food items in the city of Kanpur, India, to assess the dietary intake of lead and to estimate blood lead (PbB) levels, a biomarker of lead toxicity. For this purpose, sampling of food products, laboratory analysis, and computational exercises were undertaken. Specifically, six food groups (leafy vegetables, nonleafy vegetables, fruits, pulses, cereals, and milk), drinking water, and lead air concentration were considered for estimating lead intake. Results indicated highest lead content in leafy vegetables followed by pulses. Fruits showed low lead content and drinking water lead levels were always within tolerable limits. It was estimated that average daily lead intake through diet was about 114 microg/day for adults and 50 microg/day in children; tolerable limit is 250 microg/day for adults and 90 microg/day for children. The estimated lead intakes were translated into the resultant PbB concentrations for children and adults using a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model. Monte Carlo simulation of PbB level variations for adults showed that probability of exceeding the tolerable limit of PbB (i.e.,10 microg/dL) was 0.062 for the pre-unleaded and 0.000328 for the post-unleaded gasoline period. The probability of exceeding tolerable limits in PbB level was reduced by a factor of 189 in the post-unleaded scenario. The study also suggested that in spite of the introduction of unleaded gasoline, children continue to be at a high risk (probability of exceeding 10 microg/dL = 0.39) because of a high intake of lead per unit body weight.     

Beate Krais (Hg.): An der Spitze. Von Eliten und herrschenden Klassen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Validity and reliability of proposed framework of manufacturing excellence in the Indian industry

This article presents the findings of the empirical study of proposed framework of manufacturing excellence (ME) in the Indian industry. The study includes companies from five major sectors, namely automobile, process, machines and equipment, electronics and components and textile. Responses from 90 companies were analysed to explore the validity and reliability of the proposed framework of ME in Indian industry. The developed questionnaire is outlined along with the results obtained from the analysis of the data from the Indian industry. The framework shows high level of reliability and validity.