Influence of Profession as Risk of STIs in Intimate Partner Relationship in South Asian Countries

Mixing of sexual partners as part of the profession of female sex workers (FSWs) can be a risk in intimate partner relationship, which is primarily based on love and affection. Sexual relation with one partner provides emotional and psychological support. However, when it is a web of partners, it often results in unprotected sex, consequently creating a pathway for disease and increasing the vulnerability of FSWs to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This paper analyses the subtleties of sexual behavior of FSWs and their vulnerability toward STIs in intimate partner relationship in South Asian countries. The basic data used in this paper have been taken from 3 countries, 1271 FSWs from Bangladesh, 1404 FSWs from Nepal, and 7399 FSWs from India. The data were collected through modified time location cluster sampling as a part of mapping and size estimation of most-at-risk populations (MARPs) in Nepal and key affected populations (KAPs) in Bangladesh during the period of 2010–2016. The data for India are taken from the integrated behavioral and biological assessment (IBBA), which assesses the prevalence of high risk population in India. The findings reveal that the majority of the FSWs were married, which reveals dynamics of sexual activity placing them at higher risk of STIs. About half of the FSWs had more than 15 coituses in the last 30 days in Nepal, which is a high risk factor. Unprotected sex is reported high across all three countries irrespective of all background characteristics. Condom use during intercourse in Bangladesh is less likely in older FSWs and more likely among educated FSWs who had coital frequency of 7 or more in the last 30 days. Interestingly, unmarried FSWs in Nepal are less likely to use condom in their last sex as against India where FSWs are more likely to use condom in their last sex. The prevalence of STI among uneducated FSWs is found higher in Bangladesh as compared to Nepal and India. The socio-demographic background characteristics showed a significant association with unprotected sex, coital frequency and prevalence of STI across all three countries.     

An entropy approach to the scaling of ordinal categorical data

This paper studies the problem of scaling ordinal categorical data observed over two or more sets of categories measuring a single characteristic. Scaling is obtained by solving a constrained entropy model which finds the most probable values of the scales given the data. A Kullback-Leibler statistic is generated which operationalizes a measure for the strength of consistency among the sets of categories. A variety of data of two and three sets of categories are analyzed using the entropy approach.This research was partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant AFOSR 83-0234. The support by the Air Force through grant AFOSR-83-0234 is gratefully acknowledged. The comments of the editor and referees have been most helpful in improving the paper, and in bringing several additional references to our attention.     

Boundaryless LMX: Examining LMX's Impact on External Career Outcomes and Alumni Goodwill

Research has convincingly shown that leader–member exchange (LMX) is associated with a range of beneficial outcomes for employees within organizations. As employees increasingly pursue boundaryless careers that straddle multiple organizations, it is important to ask: Do advantages from LMX extend beyond the current organization and persist even after employees have left it? We propose that employees in higher quality LMX relationships with their managers benefit from stronger professional development, which can pay off in the form of better career outcomes on the external job market. Further, after leaving, whether or not ex‐employees (i.e., alumni) harbor goodwill toward their former organizations is likely to depend on their LMX quality prior to leaving. Alumni goodwill matters because organizations can potentially reap important strategic benefits from their alumni. Using time separated data including alumni interviews conducted by third‐party consultants, we find that, among employees who quit, pre‐turnover LMX is positively related to higher salaries and greater responsibility in their next jobs and is also positively related to alumni goodwill. Moreover, the strength of the LMX–alumni goodwill relationship depends on whether managers made robust retention efforts after employees communicated their decisions to quit.     

Of Intake and Outcomes: Wage Trajectories of Immigrant Classes in Canada

This study utilizes tabular data from the Canadian “Immigration Database” (IMDB) to look at the association between entry class and the wage earnings of immigrant cohorts arriving between 1990 and 2007. As expected, immigrants entering as skilled, principal applicants have the strongest earnings trajectories. Immigrants who enter under family or humanitarian considerations see more moderate earnings growth with government-assisted having the shallowest earnings trajectories.     

The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences

What are the positive and negative consequences of telecommuting? How do these consequences come about? When are these consequences more or less potent? The authors answer these questions through construction of a theoretical framework and meta-analysis of 46 studies in natural settings involving 12,883 employees. Telecommuting had small but mainly beneficial effects on proximal outcomes, such as perceived autonomy and (lower) work-family conflict. Importantly, telecommuting had no generally detrimental effects on the quality of workplace relationships. Telecommuting also had beneficial effects on more distal outcomes, such as job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and role stress. These beneficial consequences appeared to be at least partially mediated by perceived autonomy. Also, high-intensity telecommuting (more than 2.5 days a week) accentuated telecommuting's beneficial effects on work-family conflict but harmed relationships with coworkers. Results provide building blocks for a more complete theoretical and practical treatment of telecommuting.     

Community-Based Research in India: A Case Example of International and Transdisciplinary Collaboration

While there has been a trend toward greater disciplinary collaboration over the last several decades, the emergence of the HIV pandemic has required that disciplines work more closely and creatively to generate the multiple and innovative approaches necessary to meet the demands for effective prevention and treatment. This paper describes the nature of collaborative relationships among U.S. and Indian anthropologists, psychologists, demographers, epidemiologists, physicians and representatives of other fields and sectors in conducting a large scale, multi-year HIV/STD prevention project directed toward married men in urban poor communities in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The project has challenged members of the participating disciplines to develop a transdisciplinary conceptual model, to test the model with community-based formative research and to utilize the results in the development and implementation of a multi-level (community, provider and patient) intervention. The paper describes the interaction among disciplines and international sectors in the conceptualization, methodology and community-based action components of the project. In addition, it examines both the inhibiting and facilitating factors that are a part of the collaborative process. The paper concludes with implications for future transdisciplinary partnerships.     

The Effect of Pedagogy on Students' Perceptions of the Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibility in Business Firms

Human moral rights place justified limits on what people are free to do to one another. Animals also have moral rights, and arguments to support the use of animals in scientific research based on the benefits allegedly derived from animal model research are thus invalid. Animals do not belong in laboratories because placing them there, in the hope of benefits for others, violates their rights.     

Religion and mental health among Hindu young people in England

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between mental health and attitude toward their religious tradition among a sample of 330 young people attending the Hindu Youth Festival in London. The participants completed the Santosh–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Hinduism together with the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire which provides measures of neuroticism and psychoticism. The data indicated that a more positive attitude toward Hinduism was associated with lower psychoticism scores but unrelated to neuroticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to associate higher levels of religiosity with poorer mental health among young people within the Hindu community.     

How We See Ourselves: A Resident’s Reflection on the Class Play

The “class play” is an annual tradition in residency training programs and medical schools that celebrates the end of the academic year. It is also a locally generated narrative that reveals important components of an institution’s values, culture, and group dynamics. Exploring the class play is a reflexive exercise that allows one to reflect on his or her professional development and place in the department in a structural, historical, and experience-near driven way. In this way, the creation of and examining of the class play may be seen as an opportunity to understand and expand upon medicine’s Hidden Curriculum.