‘America’ in Indian Advertising: Change and Impact

The aims of this article are threefold: One, to focus on the advertising and marketing communications situating the presence of the USA in India. Two, to address three issues concerning the where, how, and impact dimensions of marking the US presence in Indian advertising. In that process an attempt will be made to integrate three aspects of advertising, namely: marketing, media, and linguistics. Three, to account for US corporate culture as it manifests itself in advertising. Central to our discussion are two product types: consumer products (e.g. Coke, Pepsi, Kellogg’s cereals, or Cadbury’s chocolates) and socially-sensitive, or ‘taboo’, products (e.g. condoms, alcohol, and breath fresheners).     

Protection of privacy in efficient application of randomized response techniques

In estimating the proportion of people bearing a sensitive attribute A, say, in a given community, following Warner’s (J Am Stat Assoc 60:63–69, 1965) pioneering work, certain randomized response (RR) techniques are available for application. These are intended to ensure efficient and unbiased estimation protecting a respondent’s privacy when it touches a person’s socially stigmatizing feature like rash driving, tax evasion, induced abortion, testing HIV positive, etc. Lanke (Int Stat Rev 44:197–203, 1976), Leysieffer and Warner (J Am Stat Assoc 71:649–656, 1976), Anderson (Int Stat Rev 44:213–217, 1976, Scand J Stat 4:11–19, 1977) and Nayak (Commun Stat Theor Method 23:3303–3321, 1994) among others have discussed how maintenance of efficiency is in conflict with protection of privacy. In their RR-related activities the sample selection is traditionally by simple random sampling (SRS) with replacement (WR). In this paper, an extension of an essential similarity in case of general unequal probability sample selection even without replacement is reported. Large scale surveys overwhelmingly employ complex designs other than SRSWR. So extension of RR techniques to complex designs is essential and hence this paper principally refers to them. New jeopardy measures to protect revelation of secrecy presented here are needed as modifications of those in the literature covering SRSWR alone. Observing that multiple responses are feasible in addressing such a dichotomous situation especially with Kuk’s (Biometrika 77:436–438, 1990) and Christofides’ (Metrika 57:195–200, 2003) RR devices, an average of the response-specific jeopardizing measures is proposed. This measure which is device dependent, could be regarded as a technical characteristic of the device and it should be made known to the participants before they agree to use the randomization device. The views expressed are the authors’, not of the organizations they work for. Prof Chaudhuri’s research is partially supported by CSIR Grant No. 21(0539)/02/EMR-II.     

Leadership to Overcome Resistance to Change

Abstract

The thoughtful behavior analysis of organizational leadership and resistance to change by Goltz and Hietapelto (2002) inspired this follow-up article. Goltz and Hietapelto propose that organizational power is determined by the magnitude, frequency, and quantity of consequences under a person's control, and that people resist change when their consequence control is threatened. This presentation extends the Goltz and Hietapelto article by describing 14 distinctions between management and leadership, and offering 16 guidelines for effective leadership that involve more than consequence control. Thus, while managers obtain their influence by controlling other peoples' consequences, leaders go beyond consequence control to benefit the behaviors and attitudes of their colleagues and coworkers. The leadership guidelines are founded on behavioral research and are relevant and practical for any organizational employee, even those who have only minimal influence on the meaningful consequences of their own and others' work life.     

边界沉思

提出一种关于一类感知反应系统演化的边界研究思路和方法,其主要内容为:系统的复杂性主要是由系统与环境之间的相互作用关系产生的,因此在系统边界上聚集着关于系统演化的重要特性;系统中的捕获力和游离力之间的竞争造就了一条"色谱边界”,其中包含着极其丰富的层次性;"色谱边界”上的要素以感知反应的方式推动系统的结构重组,从而促使系统实现突现或塌陷,完成一次演化过程.     

基于改进遗传算法的电力系统无功优化

在简单遗传算法的基础上，针对无功优化的动态、多目标、多约柬以及非线性特点，提出了基于简单遗传算法的改进算法．改进遗传算法中采用了个体适应度函数的线性变换、归一化的选择方法，以及定向变异策略的应用．以Ward＆Hale6节点标准测试系统为例对该算法进行了有效性验证．仿真结果表明，该方法对电力系统的无功优化效果良好．     

Framing distance: local vs. non-local news in Hong Kong press

Geographical location as a “natural” attribute of news has always been a source of news manipulation. This research investigates how different community newspapers select, interpret, and package events originating in places of varying distances. Contextualized in Hong Kong, three media frames (authority, conflict, and attribution) are closely examined and theoretically connected to three types of newspapers (mass appeal, elite, and pro-establishment) across four locales (local, mainland China, Asian, and international). To test the hypotheses, a large-scale content analysis of 14 daily newspapers in Hong Kong was conducted. On the whole, findings supported the three hypotheses, showing that local news was systematically differentiated from non-local news in terms of the frequency of political authorities cited, presence of diversified opinions, and the likelihood of either individuals or institutions being blamed for social wrongs. Considerable variations were detected across different types of newspapers as well. Theoretical and social implications of the empirical findings are discussed.     

Stigma Management Among Gay/Bisexual Men with HIV/AIDS

People with HIV infection are subjected to prejudice, discrimination and hostility related to the stigmatization of AIDS. To manage the stigma of their disease, they mount complex coping strategies. This paper reports results from a qualitative study that examined gay/bisexual men's experiences of living with HIV infection. Unstructured interviews from a diverse sample of 139 men were analyzed to examine how men coped with AIDS-related stigma. We discerned a variety of stigma management strategies that could be arranged along a continuum from reactive to proactive based on the extent to which they implicitly accepted or challenged the social norms and values that underlie the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS. Reactive strategies to cope with stigma involve defensive attempts to avoid or mitigate the impact of stigma, but imply acceptance of the underlying social norms and values that construct the stigma. Examples of reactive strategies include hiding one's HIV status, presenting one's illness as a less stigmatizing one (e.g., cancer), or distancing one's self from more damaging aspects of AIDS-stigma (e.g., attributing infection to blood transfusion). Proactive strategies challenge the validity of the stigma and imply disavowal and resistance of the social norms and values that underlie the stigma. Examples of proactive strategies include engaging in public educational efforts that address misperceptions about HIV transmission and social activism to change the social and political conditions that affect PWA/HIV.     

《复活》的文艺生态价值解析

生态学是研究有机体与其环境相互作用的科学。而生态批评以研究文学、文化与自然关系为课题,把生态与文学有机地结合在一起,为文学批评带来了一股新鲜活泼的自然之风。《复活》对自然生态环境、社会生态环境以及它们对人物思想、性格和行动等的影响的描述,为我们勾画出了人与自然、人与社会等二元矛盾的搏斗图,体现了较高的文艺生态价值。     

田径跳跃类项目反应力量特征研究

在阐述专项力量和反应力量的基础上，对田径跳跃项目专项力量中的反应力量进行深入探讨，分别讨论了田径跳跃项目技术的共性特征、各个项目起跳的状态特征、起跳过程中反应力量的共性特征、反应力量专项化的训练要求及常用方法．认为田径跳跃项目专项力量主要以“反应力量”为核心，教练员要结合专项特征加强运动员的反应力量训练．