The demography of disability and the effects of immigrant history: Older Asians in the United States

Using data from the 2000 U.S. census, we compare the older Asian population with U.S.-born, non-Hispanic whites with respect to three indicators of disability. Insofar as any Asian "advantage" in health vis-a-vis whites exists among the population aged 65 and over, our evidence suggests that it occurs primarily among the U.S.-born segments of this population. We also investigate how differences in disability levels among Asian immigrant groups are influenced by country of birth and by the combined effects of duration of residence in the United States and life cycle stage at entry. These results highlight the diversity of the older Asian population with respect to the ways in which immigration and origin history are linked to disability outcomes. We conclude that in later life, immigrant status confers few disability advantages among the Asian population in the United States.     

Nurse safety: How is safety climate related to affect and attitude?

Occupational accidents and injuries continue to be a critical concern for nurses, given the hazardous healthcare environment. This study advances the research on workplace safety by studying the process variables (i.e. job-related negative affect (JRNA) and job satisfaction) in explaining the relationship between safety climate and various safety criteria in nurses. Based on survey data from 326 nurses, our findings suggest that psychological safety climate is negatively related to JRNA, turnover intentions, safety workarounds, and workplace hazards. In addition, structural equation modelling indicated general support for a model in which psychological safety climate influences employee strain through job attitudes, including JRNA and job satisfaction. More specifically, job attitudes were found to mediate the relationship between psychological safety climate and turnover intentions, experience of hazards, and injuries. Safety workarounds did not significantly relate to injuries. The present study contributes to the ongoing improvement of interventions aimed at mitigating nurses’ injuries by integrating job attitudes into the safety climate–safety outcome framework.     

A study of physical-health and neuroticism among women engaged in the home-based production of chikan embroidery

The present study examined physical health and neuroticism among women (n=200) engaged in the unorganized home-based production of chikan embroidery. Physical health of women chikan workers was examined with the help of an abbreviated version of CMI, and neuroticism, with PGI Health Questionnaire N-2 in easy paced, face to face personal interviews. The results indicated that women chikan workers in general were facing some serious health problems. Significant variations were also obtained across groups of women associated with different centres of chikan production. The study points towards the stressful nature of environment in which these women chikan workers live and work.     

Skewed Sex Ratios in India: “Physician, Heal Thyself”

Sex selection, a gender discrimination of the worst kind, is highly prevalent across all strata of Indian society. Physicians have a crucial role in this practice and implementation of the Indian Government’s Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act in 1996 to prevent the misuse of ultrasound techniques for the purpose of prenatal sex determination. Little is known about family preferences, let alone preferences among families of physicians. We investigated the sex ratios in 946 nuclear families with 1,624 children, for which either one or both parents were physicians. The overall child sex ratio was more skewed than the national average of 914. The conditional sex ratios decreased with increasing number of previous female births, and a previous birth of a daughter in the family was associated with a 38 % reduced likelihood of a subsequent female birth. The heavily skewed sex ratios in the families of physicians are indicative of a deeply rooted social malady that could pose a critical challenge in correcting the sex ratios in India.     

Framing microfinance in Australia – gender neutral or gender blind?

In Australia, microfinance is gaining visibility as a distinct poverty alleviation strategy. Within the Australian microfinance policy and program discourses, the microfinance sector is framed as targeting both men and women equally. Yet at the practice level, the majority of loan recipients are women. Such a gender neutral framing is in stark contrast to microfinance policy and practices developed elsewhere. This paper explores how gender is represented in microfinance policy and practice in Australia, drawing on an analysis of the policy and practice statements of Australian microfinance programs. It is argued that the robust feminist assessments of the relationship between microfinance and gender equality that have emerged in developing countries could usefully inform Australian developments in this area of social policy, but that this shift requires acknowledging gender in the framing of the problem Australian microfinance seeks to address.     

Repossession through sharing of and access to seeds: different cases and practices

Seeds are both the means and product of agricultural production. The corporate appropriation of seeds affects farmers’ autonomy and has been contested and resisted by farmers worldwide through practices of repossession. This article investigates different practices of the repossession of seeds emphasising the micro-structure and recent developments in agricultural practices that lead to a commonisation of seeds. Various practices of seed repossession present in India are analysed and compared with open-source initiatives to present examples of the diversity of singular initiatives aimed at the commonisation of seeds in the Global South. The article shows that each initiative applies a multitude of concrete practices to counter what we will refer to as metabolic rift, but without a single generic strategy, each seeking in its own way to repossess seeds and (re)locate them in a social space of commons.     

Relative performance of academic departments using DEA with sensitivity analysis

The process of liberalization and globalization of Indian economy has brought new opportunities and challenges in all areas of human endeavor including education. Educational institutions have to adopt new strategies to make best use of the opportunities and counter the challenges. One of these challenges is how to assess the performance of academic programs based on multiple criteria. Keeping this in view, this paper attempts to evaluate the performance efficiencies of 19 academic departments of IIT Roorkee (India) through data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. The technique has been used to assess the performance of academic institutions in a number of countries like USA, UK, Australia, etc. But we are using it first time in Indian context to the best of our knowledge. Applying DEA models, we calculate technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies and identify the reference sets for inefficient departments. Input and output projections are also suggested for inefficient departments to reach the frontier. Overall performance, research performance and teaching performance are assessed separately using sensitivity analysis.     

Field and remotely sensed measures of soil and vegetation carbon and nitrogen across an urbanization gradient in the Boston metropolitan area

Understanding the impact of urbanization on terrestrial biogeochemistry is critical for addressing society’s grand challenge of global environmental change. We used field observations and remotely sensed data to quantify the effects of urbanization on vegetation and soils across a 100-km urbanization gradient extending from Boston to Harvard Forest and Worcester, MA. At the field-plot scale, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was positively correlated with aboveground biomass (AGB) and foliar nitrogen (N) content and negatively correlated with impervious surface fraction. Unlike previous studies, we found no significant relationship between NDVI or impervious surface area (ISA) fraction and foliar N concentration. Patterns in foliar N appeared to be driven more strongly by changes in species composition rather than phenotypic plasticity across the urbanization gradient. For forest and non-residential development, soil nitrogen content increased with urban intensity. In contrast, residential land had consistently high soil N content across the gradient of urbanization. When field observations were scaled-up to the Boston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), we found that soil and vegetation N content were negatively correlated with ISA fraction, an indicator of urban intensity. Our results demonstrated the importance of accounting for the influence of impervious surfaces when scaling field data across urban ecosystems. The combination of field data with remote sensing holds promise for disentangling the complex interactions that drive biogeochemical cycling in urbanizing landscapes. Empirical data that accurately characterize variations in urban biogeochemistry are critical to gain a mechanistic understanding of urban ecosystem function and to guide policy makers and planners in developing ecologically sensitive development strategies.     

The National Laws of Myanmar: Making of Statelessness for the Rohingya

This article examines the legal status of the Rohingya in Myanmar by analysing relevant constitutional provisions (of 1947, 1974 and 2008) and other major citizenship legislations including the Citizenship Law, 1982. A doctrinal analysis demonstrates that: (i) the earlier Constitutions and laws provided citizenship for the Rohingya (where they were identified as an ethnic minority); and (ii) their status has been changed gradually under the later constitutions and legislations until recently, when they are regarded as neither minority nor citizen and rendered stateless by the law. The role of legislation in disempowering the Rohingya is thus made explicit.     

Tests for exponentiality against new better than old in expectation and new better than some used in expectation alternatives

We present statistical procedures for testing exponentiality againt New Better than Old in Expectation (NBOE) and New Better than Some Used in Expectation (NBSUE) alternatives. The test statistics devised for the purpose are U-Statistics and hence asymptotically normally distributed. Pitman's asymptotic relative efficiency results have been obtained and Monte Carlo study presented to compare power of the test proposed with the other tests.