Chain migration through the social network: experience of labour migrants in Kuwait

Labour migration to the Gulf countries is predominantly contract based and a majority of workers fall below the salary ceiling necessary for sponsoring family members. Despite this, social networks have expanded in Kuwait, primarily in the form of sponsorship of additional labour migrants by those already in the country.
The objectives of the article are to describe how the process of arranging sponsorship works, to delineate the predictors of moving through a friend or relative, or arranging sponsorship for a subsequent labour migrant, and to assess the "multiplier" effect of the above process. The article is based on a survey among 800 South Asian skilled and unskilled male migrants, 200 each from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
About 34 per cent of all respondents moved through friends or relatives, 50 per cent through agents and 16 per cent through direct hiring or the government bureau. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the factors most likely to predict a move through the social network consisted of being a Pakistani or Indian, being a Muslim, and possessing some skills.
One-quarter of all migrants had arranged the visa for another migrant since they came to Kuwait. Logistic regression analysis showed the respondent's duration of stay in Kuwait to be an exceptionally important predictor for arranging sponsorship for an additional migrant.
Monthly income, being married and being a Muslim were also positively associated with arranging sponsorship. In terms of the multiplier effect, about 0.78 visas had been arranged per migrant. Pakistanis, who had the longest average duration of stay in Kuwait, arranged the maximum number (1.6) of visas on average.     

Asymptotic properties of a generalized regression-type predictor of a finite population variance in probability sampling

A system of predictors for estimating a finite population variance is defined and shown to be asymptotically design-unbiased (ADU) and asymptotically design-consistent (ADC) under probability sampling. An asymptotic mean squared error (MSE) of a generalized regression-type predictor, generated from the system, is obtained. The suggested predictor attains the minimum expected variance of any design-unbiased estimator when the superpopulation model is correct. The generalized regression-type predictor and the predictor suggested by Mukhopadhyay (1990) are compared.     

Optimizing inventory and marketing policy for non-instantaneous deteriorating items with generalized type deterioration and holding cost rates

This paper considers an inventory system with non-instantaneous deteriorating item in which demand rate is a function of advertisement of an item and selling price. This paper aids the retailer in maximizing the total profit by determining optimal inventory and marketing parameters. In contrast to previous inventory models, an arbitrary holding cost rate and arbitrary deterioration rate have been incorporated to provide general framework to the model. First, a mathematical model is formulated and then some useful theoretical results have been framed to characterize the optimal solutions. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the optimal solutions are also derived. An algorithm is designed to find the optimum solutions of the proposed model. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the algorithmic procedure and the effects of key parameters are studied to analyze the behavior of the model.     

Causes of Neonatal Deaths among Tribal Women in Gujarat,India

Mortality among neonates has long been largely neglected by research in all developing nations of world including India. This study aims to identify the primary and secondary causes of neonatal deaths among the tribes of Gujarat by retrospectively analyzing 106 neonatal deaths that occurred during the year 2008 and 2009. The socio-economic, biological and traditional newborn care practices impacting newborn survival were also studied. Case studies including in-depth interviews of 33 women who had experienced neonatal deaths in period of 2008 and 2009 have also been conducted. The results show that the main causes of neonatal deaths in the study area were birth asphyxia, prematurity, aspiration, infection and congenital anomalies, irrespective of place of delivery. Absence of trained and skilled personnel for newborn resuscitation was the main cause of perinatal birth asphyxia related deaths. Around 36% mothers had a history of infant deaths. Low birth weight is one of the important causes of neonatal deaths among mothers who had a history of child loss. Cyclicality of neonatal deaths continued among clustered families with social factors initiating the cycle. Qualified trained birth attendants practicing essential newborn care are necessary during home deliveries.     

Combined estimate of a location parameter

In this paper, we revisit the problem of combining estimates of location considered by Cohen (1976). Our results unify and strengthen the results of Cohen (1976), Bhattacharya (1981) and Akai (1982).     

Harassment at the Workplace: A Practical Review of the Laws in the United Kingdom and the United States of America

Harassment is a major deterrent for productivity, loyalty, and commitment to one’s job and organization. Unfortunately, many employees tend to experience various forms of harassment in the workplace. The focus in this article is to understand the extent to which the law protects a person from harassment, first based on the explication and application laws in the United Kingdom. The article then provides comparative discussion of laws and practices against workplace harassment in the United States. A major objective of this article is to help employers and managers become more expert in preventing and correcting harassment.     

UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT OF RISK PRACTICES AMONG INJECTING DRUG USERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEPATITIS C PREVENTION

‘Risk’ is central to recent sociological studies of health and related behaviour, particularly in discourses about HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C (HCV). While epidemiological survey predominates over qualitative investigation in HCV risk reduction, it is necessary to move beyond individual‐level characteristics to gain a fuller understanding of the social context of risk. This paper investigates the context of HCV‐related risk behaviour among injecting drug users (IDUs) and discusses the behavioural and social determinants of risk practices. Data from 336 IDUs completing a self‐administered questionnaire were analysed. The data show that needle‐sharing practices are often integral to long‐standing relationships, particularly sexual ones. The level of drug dependency, trust relationships between partners and misconceptions about HCV transmission have been demonstrated to be associated with risk behaviour. Logistic factors, such as poor access to injecting equipment, limited hours of operation, and fear of police were given as barriers to safer injecting. Given the progression of the HCV epidemic, prevention campaigns should aim at risk reduction rather than risk elimination.     

On the optimality of a class of minimal covering designs

It is shown that the minimal covering designs for v=6t+5 treatments in blocks of size 3 are optimal w.r.t. a large class of optimality criteria. This class of optimality criteria includes the well-known criteria of A-, D- and E-optimality. It is conjectured that these designs are also optimal w.r.t. other criteria suggested by Takeuchi (1961).     

Gamma shared frailty model based on reversed hazard rate

Abstract

Frailty models are used in survival analysis to account for unobserved heterogeneity in individual risks to disease and death. To analyze bivariate data on related survival times (e.g., matched pairs experiments, twin, or family data), shared frailty models were suggested. Shared frailty models are frequently used to model heterogeneity in survival analysis. The most common shared frailty model is a model in which hazard function is a product of random factor(frailty) and baseline hazard function which is common to all individuals. There are certain assumptions about the baseline distribution and distribution of frailty. In this paper, we introduce shared gamma frailty models with reversed hazard rate. We introduce Bayesian estimation procedure using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique to estimate the parameters involved in the model. We present a simulation study to compare the true values of the parameters with the estimated values. Also, we apply the proposed model to the Australian twin data set.