Stigma, HIV/AIDS and prevention of mother-to-child transmission in Zambia

This report evaluates the extent of perceived and enacted HIV/AIDS-related stigma in a rural setting in Zambia. Stigmatisation is abundant, ranging from subtle actions to the most extreme degradation, rejection and abandonment. Women with HIV and pregnant women assumed to be HIV positive are repeatedly subjected to extensive forms of stigma, particularly once they become sick or if their child dies. Despite increasing access to prevention of mother to child transmission initiatives, including anti-retroviral drugs, the perceived disincentives of HIV testing, particularly for women, largely outweigh the potential gains from available treatments. HIV/AIDS related stigma drives the epidemic underground and is one of the main reasons that people do not wish to know their HIV status. Unless efforts to reduce stigma are, as one peer educator put it, “written in large letters in any HIV/AIDS campaign rather than small”, stigma will remain a major barrier to curbing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.     

Social network effects on academic achievement

How peer groups contribute to educational outcomes has long interested researchers. However, the possibility that peer groups dominated by either low- or high-achieving youth can have substantively different effects on achievement has been largely ignored. In this paper, we show that while being embedded in a high-achieving network of friends is not associated with increased own achievement, being embedded in a low-achieving network is associated with decreased own achievement. In additional analyses, we present evidence that these associations are at least in part due to influence, as opposed to only selection effects or shared environment. We also examine whether the structure of the network in which a student is embedded might affect their educational achievement. We show that achieving at higher levels positively predicts how centrally located a student is in their network, but being more centrally located does not predict concurrent achievement. This finding suggests that the behavior of individuals is affecting the formation of network structure and not the reverse.     

Pandemic Recovery Analysis Using the Dynamic Inoperability Input-Output Model

Economists have long conceptualized and modeled the inherent interdependent relationships among different sectors of the economy. This concept paved the way for input-output modeling, a methodology that accounts for sector interdependencies governing the magnitude and extent of ripple effects due to changes in the economic structure of a region or nation. Recent extensions to input-output modeling have enhanced the model's capabilities to account for the impact of an economic perturbation; two such examples are the inoperability input-output model^{( 1 , 2 )} and the dynamic inoperability input-output model (DIIM).^{( 3 )} These models introduced sector inoperability, or the inability to satisfy as-planned production levels, into input-output modeling. While these models provide insights for understanding the impacts of inoperability, there are several aspects of the current formulation that do not account for complexities associated with certain disasters, such as a pandemic. This article proposes further enhancements to the DIIM to account for economic productivity losses resulting primarily from workforce disruptions. A pandemic is a unique disaster because the majority of its direct impacts are workforce related. The article develops a modeling framework to account for workforce inoperability and recovery factors. The proposed workforce-explicit enhancements to the DIIM are demonstrated in a case study to simulate a pandemic scenario in the Commonwealth of Virginia.     

Relationships among JIT practices: an interpretive modeling approach

Abstract

This research develops a model of relationships among components of Total-JIT, including JIT-information, JIT-manufacturing, JIT-purchasing, and JIT-selling, to establish an implementation hierarchy based on relative importance. The data collected relates to the relationships among JIT components and two performance measures, supply chain competency and organizational performance. Two groups are used in the research, one group of five operations management academics and another group of 30 practicing operations managers working in U.S. manufacturing firms. An interpretive structural modelling methodology is used to develop alternative structural models. The academics’ data show JIT-information emerging as lynchpin of relationships, directly impacting all other JIT practices and both performance measures. The practitioners’ data indicates that all JIT practices and performance measures are interactive as components and outcomes. This study is the first to apply interpretive structural modelling to investigate the interplay among total-JIT components and the performance measures of supply chain competency and organizational performance.     

Does the prevention of brain ageing constitute anti-ageing medicine? Outline of a new space of representation for Alzheimer's Disease

In this paper we pose the question: Does the prevention of brain ageing constitute anti-ageing medicine? We answer the question by looking at recent changes in the knowledge and organisational structure of dementia research, practice and policy and investigating the boundary relations between this disease-specific field and anti-ageing medicine. Drawing on a qualitative study of the ways in which different clinical and scientific constituencies work to define, organise and negotiate the boundaries between normal and abnormal cognitive aging, we suggest that the field of dementia research, practice and policy has experienced internal diversification forming a ‘new space of representation'. We show how this space is structured by two axes: one that relates to how AD is conceptualised and another that concerns the modes of intervention or actions that will prevent the condition in individuals or populations. We argue that while these changes have blurred the epistemic boundaries between dementia and other fields of research, there are still strong institutional, economic and political factors that glue the field together.     

The Ecology of Diversity in Organizational Settings: Lessons from a Case Study

This paper advances a social ecological perspective on the resources necessary to support workplace diversity. It is based on observations from an ongoing organizational case study which used a collaborative inquiry process. We worked with insiders to establish a project steering team, conducted 36 confidential interviews, and met with work units to assess diversity-related concerns. The complex case portrait that emerged illuminates four lessons about the ecology of workplace diversity: (1) the influential role of organizational history and tradition in shaping current diversity dynamics, (2) the importance of understanding how participants' experiences of events may differ, (3) the power of informal organizational processes, and (4) the connections between individual, organizational, and broader cultural values. We discuss these lessons in the context of a three-part definition of support for effective diversity which includes representational, interactional, and cultural components. The goal is to further our understanding of the factors that support or hinder workforce diversity so we may more effectively create settings that are supportive of diversity.     

GMM Estimation with persistent panel data: an application to production functions

This paper considers the estimation of Cobb-Douglas production functions using panel data covering a large sample of companies observed for a small number of time periods. GMM estimatorshave been found to produce large finite-sample biases when using the standard first-differenced estimator. These biases can be dramatically reduced by exploiting reasonable stationarity restrictions on the initial conditions process. Using data for a panel of R&Dperforming US manufacturing companies we find that the additional instruments used in our extended GMM estimator yield much more reasonable parameter estimates.     

Justice Sensitivity in Childhood and Adolescence

Individuals differ in their sensitivity toward injustice. Justice‐sensitive persons perceive injustice more frequently and show stronger responses to it. Justice sensitivity has been studied predominantly in adults; little is known about its development in childhood and adolescence and its connection to prosocial behavior and emotional and behavioral problems. This study evaluates a version of the justice sensitivity inventory for children and adolescents (JSI‐CA5) in 1472 9‐ to 17‐year olds. Items and scales showed good psychometric properties and correlations with prosocial behavior and conduct problems similar to findings in adults, supporting the reliability and validity of the scale. We found individual differences in justice sensitivity as a function of age and gender. Furthermore, justice sensitivity predicted emotional and behavioral problems in children and adolescents over a 1‐ to 2‐year period. Justice sensitivity perspectives can therefore be considered as risk and/or protective factors for mental health in childhood and adolescence.