Extended Pareto rules and relative utilitarianism

This paper introduces the “Extended Pareto” axiom on Social Welfare Functions and gives a characterization of the axiom when it is assumed that the Social Welfare Functions that satisfy it in a framework of preferences over lotteries also satisfy the restrictions (on the domain and range of preferences) implied by the von-Neumann Morgenstern axioms. With the addition of 2 other axioms: “Anonymity” and a weak version of Arrow's Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives axiom: “Weak IIA” it is shown that there is a unique Social Welfare Function called “Relative Utilitarianism” that consists of normalising individual utilities between 0 and 1 and adding them. Received: 7 June 1994 / Accepted: 28 April 1997     

Toward an assessment of the social role of rural midwives and its implication for the family planning program: an Iranian case study

An axiom of family planning programming is the importance of culturally-appropriate communicators and motivators. Traditional midwives seem ideal for this task but few studies have been done to verify this assumption by analyzing the midwife's social role as perceived by the community. 325 married women and 81 unmarried girls from a "model village" near Shiraz were interviewed by female undergraduates. 82.5% of the women are of childbearing age; 66% married before 14 years; 33% use contraception, mostly the pill, but most want large families because they expect high child mortality rates. Most of the older women are able to assist in childbirth but none, except the village's one recognized midwife, who is considered to have divine backing, will do so except in an emergency. The midwife's activities cause her to be held in low esteem by the community because 1) she has contact with a woman's sexual parts and this fact is public; 2) she has contact with vaginal excretia which are, in Islam, polluting; and 3) she is paid for her services, which labels her as a woman "without shame". The midwife is, however, widely used since women and their husbands fear the trip to the hospital and treatment by a male doctor much more than a midwife-supervised birth. The midwife in the study village had been there only 2 years and feels that she is not fully trusted. She is not consulted on birth control at all, because women expect the pill to be dispensed by doctors and consider other methods as a matter strictly between husband and wife. The midwife's role seems to complement that of the government health authorities rather than compete. The midwife's low status and circumscribed sphere of activity, the weak respect in which her advice is held and the pattern of having only 1 recognized midwife in a village at a time make the midwife a poor agent for family planning services. Her effectiveness as an agent of social change could be improved by training her in hygienic practices of childbirth and by redefining her role-relationship with the community. Studies should be done to identify the areas where traditional birth attendants are the best family planning communicators and those where that role is best left to others.     

Ergonomic basket design to reduce cumulative trauma disorders in tea leaf plucking operation

Work related musculoskeletal disorders are seen as an indicating parameter of occupational stress among the women workers engaged in tea leaf plucking operation. The hand plucking (no mechanized plucking is practiced in Assam) being a highly repetitive task requires forceful exertions to reach to the distant periphery of the tea bushes and mechanical compression (pressing against hard surfaces). Specifically it aggravates with awkward positions adopted. The current research addresses to minimize the risk factors associated with CTDs and to ascertain the role of ergonomic design development in improving the situation. Women workforce engaged in tea industry in Assam suffer from back, shoulder, arm and finger pains. Workers perform the activity for 440 minutes in the entire shift with one hour lunch break in between in the garden itself. An ergonomic investigation aiming at studying the strain index of plucking operation in tea industry was conducted. While performing the operation workers were found to assume unnatural posture which is static as well as highly dynamic with a load (tea leaf collecting basket up to weight of 30 kg when filled with plucked leaves) at back. With gradual increment of load and pain though the load is released intermittently the strain level found to remain at a high level. The total QEC scores found for plucking activity was 110 out of 138. To improve the situation and to reduce the work related upper limb disorder (WRULD) an ergonomically designed basket was conceived and trial results showed improvements. The newly designed plucking basket fits the back curvature of the workers well, which keeps the basket in place unlike the existing round basket. The new basket is light in weight having more leaf capacity. Significant reduction in energy expenditure and MSDs suffered was observed while using improved basket over existing basket.     

Exact confidence bounds for an exponential parameter under hybrid censoring

Consider a life testing experiment in which n units are put on test, successive failure times are recorded, and the observation is terminated either at a specified number r of failures or a specified time T whichever is reached first. This mixture of type I and type II censoring schemes, called hybrid censoring, is of wide use. Under this censoring scheme and the assumption of an exponential life distribution, the distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator of the mean life 6 is derived. It is then used to construct an exact lower confidence bound for θ.     

Strong State Society Synergy: A Novel Approach to Governance for Ameliorating Poverty in India

This paper examines the sustainability of a novel institutional architecture, the Strong State Society Synergistic approach, to help ameliorate poverty in India. The motivation for this study stems from the need to unravel the elusive governance puzzle that has long riddled policy-makers in India. Of the profuse vulnerabilities that characterize the Indian society today, the persistence of poverty amid plenty looms as the greatest challenge. It is therefore imperative that institutions that can work for inclusion have to be identified and made effective.     

Exact confidence bounds for an exponential parameter under hybrid censoring

Consider a life testing experiment in which n units are put on test, successive failure times are recorded, and the observation is terminated either at a specified number r of failures or a specified time T whichever is reached first. This mixture of type I and type II censoring schemes, called hybrid censoring, is of wide use. Under this censoring scheme and the assumption of an exponential life distribution, the distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator of the mean life θ is derived. It is then used to construct an exact lower confidence bound for θ.     

Chinese grand(parenting) encourages a re-imagining of Canada's immigration regime

Canada's migration regime prioritizes the admission of young skilled immigrants while restricting elderly immigrants constructed as non-contributing dependents. We review and compare the current pathways to family reunification for elderly immigrants. Based on interviews with 16 Chinese skilled immigrant mothers and eight sponsored (grand)parents in Edmonton and Ottawa, we highlight the contributions made by elderly Chinese immigrants to social reproduction, intergenerational cultural preservation, and various forms of transnational support. We also reveal the financial and emotional costs incurred by young skilled immigrants who sought to sponsor their elderly parents for permanent residency. Based on these rich conversations, we propose two policy recommendations to reduce the pressure on sponsoring family members and create opportunities for elderly immigrants to access gainful employment.     

Affective politics and reading/writing poetry from the Northeast of India

ABSTRACT

Theorization of cultural and political issues of Northeast of India often creates a disengagement from the actual cultural performances produced in the region. This unique geo-cultural place is sometimes homogenized. In actuality, it is the home of diverse socio-cultural practices and performances. In the context of globalization, deforestation, Christianization, other internal clashes and external influences, material bodies, here, are continuously being rewritten in socio-cultural sphere. Non-representational theory considers poetry as an effective mode of exhibiting the virtual multiplicity of the nonrepresentational world. This paper will focus on exploring the corpus of Northeast Indian English poetry that focuses on social practices and bodily experiences to interpret the entire cultural flow of everyday life. As Non-representational Theory positions ‘affect’ as a central issue to individual and collective disposition in constituting the affective political discourse, this paper will also indicate some political imperatives by advancing a politics of hope in the realm of socio-political sphere.     

Learning by Objectives for Adaptive Shop-Floor Scheduling*

Effective production scheduling requires consideration of the dynamics and unpredictability of the manufacturing environment. An automated learning scheme, utilizing genetic search, is proposed for adaptive control in typical decentralized factory-floor decision making. A high-level knowledge representation for modeling production environments is developed, with facilities for genetic learning within this scheme. A multiagent framework is used, with individual agents being responsible for the dispatch decision making at different workstations. Learning is with respect to stated objectives, and given the diversity of scheduling goals, the efficacy of the designed learning scheme is judged through its response under different objectives. The behavior of the genetic learning scheme is analyzed and simulation studies help compare how learning under different objectives impacts certain aggregate measures of system performance.