Depression and diabetes in India: perspectives and recommendations

Diabet. Med. 29, e308-e311 (2012) ABSTRACT: As diabetes prevalence shifts from affluent to lower-income groups in India, focus on depression in diabetes will become essential. This paper describes four perspectives through which depression and diabetes should be understood in the Indian context. We consider (1) how rapid socio-economic and demographic changes contribute to increased co-occurring diabetes and depression; (2) how social, cultural and economic factors in the Indian context contribute to depression and therefore play an important role in diabetes care; (3) biological and behavioural pathways between depression and diabetes; and (4) the role of health systems in depression, diabetes and their overlap. We conclude with recommendations for future research and policy on this topic in India.     

Conflicting social norms and community conservation compliance

Though the success of conservation initiatives relies on changing behaviour, little social psychological research has examined factors such as attitudes and social norms in the context of actual conservation campaigns. In the context of reducing light pollution around sea turtle nesting habitats, researching technological solutions has clear merit. Problems such as light glow are, however, fundamentally about human behaviour, and so finding ways to effect behavioural change is critical. Social norms, or perceptions about what other people think and do, have been widely used in behaviour change campaigns across various domains, including campaigns to promote conservation behaviour. Here, we investigate how the norms of different groups may influence our behaviour in the context of a campaign to alter behavioural norms about light glow pollution in a community. We examine attitudes, social norms, and the degree of conflict (versus congruence) between the behaviours of different groups, and their relationship with intentions to engage in conservation behaviours relevant to sea turtle conservation. We show that attitudes and norms are related to behavioural intentions, and conflicts between social norms influence intentions, over and above the norms themselves. This highlights an important consideration for conservation campaigns utilising social norms-based behaviour change appeals.     

Study on the long-term and short-term effects of globalization and population aging on ecological footprint in OECD countries

Population aging has become a global phenomenon. Whereas, the ecological consequences of population aging are rarely addressed in current research. In this context, this study contributes to the existing literature by providing new empirical evidence on how population aging along with globalization, economic growth, energy consumption, natural resource rent, and human capital affect ecological footprint for selected 27 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries during 1970–2017. This study utilizes an advanced econometric approach, Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator for empirical estimation, that allows heterogeneity in the slope parameters and dependencies across countries. The long-term results disclose that globalization (overall) decreases the ecological footprint. On the other hand, financial and political globalization poses a favorable impact on environmental quality, while economic and social globalization is found to increase environmental degradation. Population aging has a statistically significant negative effect on the ecological footprint, but its non-linear term increases the ecological footprint. Additionally, economic growth, energy consumption, and natural resource rent exacerbate environmental deterioration. In contrast, human capital decreases ecological footprint. Based on the empirical results, important policy implications have been provided.     

Does globalization impede environmental quality in India?

Using annual data for the period 1970–2012, the study explores the relationship between globalization and CO₂ emissions by incorporating energy consumption, financial development and economic growth in CO₂ emission function for India. It applies Lee and Strazicich (2013) unit root test for examining the stationary properties of variables in presence of structural breaks and employs the cointegration method proposed by Bayer and Hanck (2013) to test the long-run relationships in the model. The robustness s of cointegration result from the latter model was further verified with the application of the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration proposed by Pesaran et al. (2001). After confirming the existence of conitegration, the overall long run estimates of the estimation of carbon emission model points out that acceleration in the process of globalization (measured in its three dimensions – economic, social and political globalizations) and energy consumption result in increasing CO₂ emissions, along with the contribution of economic development and financial development toward the deterioration of the environmental quality by raising CO₂ emissions over the long-run. This finding validates the holding of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the Indian context.     

Nonadditive effects of group membership can lead to additive group phenotypes for anti-predator behaviour of guppies, Poecilia reticulata

Nonadditive effects of group membership are generated when individuals respond differently to the same social environment and may alter predictions about how behavioural evolution will occur. Despite this importance, the relationship between an individual's behaviour in two different social contexts and how reciprocal interactions among individuals within groups influence group behaviour are poorly understood. Guppy anti-predator behaviour can be used to explore how individuals behaviourally respond to changes in social context. Individuals from two strains were tested for response to a model predator alone and in groups to evaluate how individuals alter their behaviour in response to social context and how group phenotype relates to individual behaviour. Nonadditive effects of group membership were detected for a number of behaviours, revealing that the effect of being in a group differed among individuals. These nonadditive effects, however, yielded an additive group phenotype. That is, the average behaviour of the group was equal to the average of its parts, for all behaviours in both strains. Such an additive group phenotype may have resulted because all individuals within a group respond to the specific social environment provided by the other members of their group.     

Vocal Repertoire of Captive Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris): Structure,Context and Function

In this work we describe the structure, behavioral context and functionality of the vocal repertoire of capybaras, a social Caviomorph rodent. Additionally, since territoriality is present in this species, we hypothesize the occurrence of vocal differences among social groups. We analyzed a total of 2069 calls emitted by 28 animals from three different social groups. The capybara’s repertoire is comprised by seven call types (whistle, cry, whine, squeal, bark, click and tooth‐chattering). The vocalizations were functionally categorized as contact, alarm, distress and agonistic calls considering their behavioral contexts. The click calls emitted by the adults of the three captive capybara groups were significantly different, confirming our hypothesis of social groups’ vocal differences. The richness of interactions mediated by vocalization in capybaras suggests that the species’ communication is an important mechanism to regulate social encounters and to alert members of the group about environmental cues.     

Patterns of stress,disease and mortality in two prehistoric populations from North American

Archaeological data from the Dickson Mounds site was employed to reconstruct the cultural-ecological context of two prehistoric American Indian populations. These populations were identified as the Mississippian Acculturated Late Woodland (A.D. 1050–1200) and the Spoon River Focus of the Middle Mississippian (A.D. 1200–1300). The cultural-ecological data was then employed to interpret some of the biological parameters of the two skeletal populations.The cultural-ecological variables included: (a) subsistence technology; (b) population density and degree of sedentarism; and (c) the extent and intensity of contacts with surrounding social groups. The biological parameters included: (a) infectious disease; (b) micro-structural dental defects; and (c) mortality.The results of the analysis suggested that as alterations occurred in the cultural-ecological adaptations of the populations in the form of an increased reliance upon maize agriculture, an increase in population density and sedentarism, and an increase in social contacts; there occurred an increase in the frequency of infectious disease, micro-structural dental defects and mortality.     

The transnational assemblage of Indian rape culture

We analyse the affective-cultural assemblage of “Indian rape culture” across historical time and social space. We examine news coverage of a highly visible 2012 rape in Delhi in two newspapers, New York Times and Times of India, and the longevity of these articulations through an analysis of online discourses three years later. We further trace colonial-era materializations of Indian rape culture which emerged in the context of the “Indian Mutiny” in contrast to local perspectives, and which were rearticulated by development and human rights organizations. We show that at each moment, Global north voices and institutions dominate. The processes of articulation emanating from Global north institutions serve to realize a racialized transnational assemblage of Indian rape culture. Our framework points to the “soft” power and fluidity of racializing processes, the heterogeneity, and the multiple logics that appear disconnected, but which nonetheless flow and come together to sustain racialized power structures.     

Risk Communication and the Precautionary Principle

The perception of risks for environment and health deriving from globalization processes and an uncontrolled use of modern technologies is growing everywhere. The greater the capacity of controlling living conditions, the larger is the possibility of misusing this power. In environmental and occupational health research we tend to reduce the complexity of the observed phenomena in order to facilitate conclusions. In social and political sciences complexity is an essential element of the context, which needs to be continuously considered. The Precautionary Principle is a tool for facing complexity and uncertainty in health risk management. This paper is aimed at demonstrating that this is not only a problem of technical risk assessment. Great attention should also be paid to improve risk communication. Communication between the stakeholders (experts, decision makers, political and social leaders, media, groups of interest and people involved) is possibly the best condition to be successful in health risk management. Nevertheless, this process usually runs up against severe obstacles. These are not only caused by existing conflicts of interest. Differences in values, languages, perceptions, resources to have access to information, and to express one's own point of view are other key aspects.     

A Framework for Social Life Cycle Impact Assessment (10 pp)

Goal, Scope and Background To enhance the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool in business decision-making, a methodology for Social life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) is being developed. Social LCA aims at facilitating companies to conduct business in a socially responsible manner by providing information about the potential social impacts on people caused by the activities in the life cycle of their product. The development of the methodology has been guided by a business perspective accepting that companies, on the one hand, have responsibility for the people affected by their business activities, but, on the other hand, must also be able to compete and make profit in order to survive in the marketplace. Methods A combined, bottom-up and top-down approach has been taken in the development of the Social LCIA. Universal consensus documents regarding social issues as well as consideration for the specific business context of companies has guided the determination of damage categories, impact categories and category indicators. Results Discussion, and Conclusion. The main results are the following: (1) Impacts on people are naturally related to the conduct of the companies engaged in the life cycle rather than to the individual industrial processes, as is the case in Environmental LCA. Inventory analysis is therefore focused on the conduct of the companies engaged in the life cycle. A consequence of this view is that a key must be determined for relating the social profiles of the companies along the life cycle to the product. This need is not present in Environmental LCA, where we base the connection on the physical link which exists between process and product. (2) Boundaries of the product system are determined with respect to the influence that the product manufacturer exerts over the activities in the product chain. (3) A two-layer Social LCA method with an optional and an obligatory set of impact categories is suggested to ensure both societal and company relevance of the method. The obligatory set of impact categories encompasses the minimum expectations to a company conducting responsible business. (4) A new area of protection, Human dignity and Well-being, is defined and used to guide the modelling of impact chains. (5) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights serves as normative basis for Social LCA, together with local or country norms based on socio-economic development goals of individual countries. The International Labour Organisation's Conventions and Recommendations, and the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, support development of the impact pathway top-down, starting from the normative basis. (6) The obligatory part of Social LCA addresses the main stakeholder groups, employees, local community and society. Recommendations and Outlook Social LCA is still in its infancy and a number of further research tasks within this new area are identified.     

Postcoloniality,National Identity,Globalisation and the Simulacra of the Real

The focus of this paper is a famous boys' boarding school in the North Indian city of Dehra Dun. The Doon School was founded in 1935 and was soon hailed by a wide cross section of post-colonial Indian intelligentsia as the site for the production of the ‘modern’ Indian citizen. The discussion below suggests that contemporary social analysis needs to focus on specific sites of the production of the discourses of the nation and citizenship rather than simply announce their dissolution as an ‘inevitable’ by-product of ‘globalisation’; this seems to be the stand taken by certain strands of theorisation in the so-called globalisation debate and in particular versions of cultural studies. I argue that rather than having simply dissolved, the ‘national’ emotion, at least in the Indian context, may have been transformed into the production of ‘post-coloniality’ as a differentiating category to distinguish the ‘progressive’ populations of the nation-state from its ‘backward’ counterparts. I employ Baudrillard's concept of the ‘real’ in order to argue for situated analyses of the contemporary global condition where analyses of the relationship between nation-states and of the asymmetries within them continue to be important political tasks.     

A comparison of laboratory and field studies of cold response

The recent application of physiological techniques to anthropological studies of cold stress in different human groups has produced evidence of considerable variation in response to cold. The usual anthropological procedure has been to compare the adult males of two different ethnic groups under standardized laboratory conditions, and then to generalize the conclusions in an evolutionary or ecological context. Several assumptions behind this procedure are examined. Four studies of response to cold in the same Quechua Indian group of Southern Peru are discussed. Two of the studies deal with variation in response to cold in a standardized laboratory situation. The other two describe responses as detected under actual cold conditions experienced by the subjects as they go about their daily routines. The results of the laboratory and field studies are compared. It is suggested that adult males studied in the laboratory may represent only a minor part of the variation which exists in the group and that their responses may not be indicative of those of the entire population. It is also proposed that the validity of laboratory studies for an evolutionary interpretation may be limited by the laboratory approximation of the actual cold stress experienced by the group.     

From Samburu Heirloom to New Age Artifact: The Cross-Cultural Consumption of Mporo Marriage Beads

Antique Venetian trade beads used in Samburu women's marriage necklaces ( mporo ) have recently undergone intense recommodif ication in the transnational trade bead market concurrent with their appropriation by Euro-American women in both religious and secular domains. The article offers duai ethnographies of this mporo bead in order to advance anthropological understandings of precious objects in the context of globalization. Samburu and Euro-American desires for the "same" bead have been both reciprocal and distinct: Whereas Samburu desires for and exchange of mporo beads have been rooted in Samburu cultural forms, Euro-American desires for the same bead are linked to a kind of "fictional inalienability" that is not embedded in Samburu social relations but is instead rich in spiritual associations imagined through Euro-American women's vague understandings of the bead's "original" African owners. [Keywords: material culture, globalization, United States, Kenya, pastoralists]     

Evolved priors for ethnolinguistic categorization: A case study from the Quechua–Aymara boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano

Ethnic categories uniquely structure human social worlds. People readily form stereotypes about these, and other social categories, but it is unclear whether certain dimensions are privileged for making predictions about strangers when information is limited. If humans have been living in culturally-structured groups for much of their evolutionary history, we might expect them to have adaptations for prioritizing ethno-linguistic cues as a basis for making predictions about others. We provide a strong test of this possibility through a series of studies in a field context along the Quechua–Aymara linguistic boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano where the language boundary is not particularly socially meaningful. We find evidence of such psychological priors among children and adults at this site by showing that their age, and the social categories’ novelty affect participants’ reliance on ethno-linguistic inductive inferences (i.e. one-to-many predictions). Studies 1–3 show that participants make more ethno-linguistic inferences when the social categories are more removed from their real-world context. Additionally, in Study 4 when the category is marked with acoustic cues of language use, young children rely heavily on ethno-linguistic predictions, even though adults do not.     

HIV/AIDS in rural India: context and health care needs

Primary research on HIV/AIDS in India has predominantly focused on known risk groups such as sex workers, STI clinic attendees and long-distance truck drivers, and has largely been undertaken in urban areas. There is evidence of HIV spreading to rural areas but very little is known about the context of the infection or about issues relating to health and social impact on people living with HIV/AIDS. In-depth interviews with nineteen men and women infected with HIV who live in rural areas were used to collect experiences of testing and treatment, the social impacts of living with HIV and differential impacts on women and men. Eight focus group discussions with groups drawn from the general population in the four villages were used to provide an analysis of community level views about HIV/AIDS. While men reported contracting HIV from sex workers in the cities, women considered their husbands to be the source of their infection. Correct knowledge about HIV transmission co-existed with misconceptions. Men and women tested for HIV reported inadequate counselling and sought treatment from traditional healers as well as professionals. Owing to the general pattern of husbands being the first to contract HIV women faced a substantial burden, with few resources remaining for their own or their children's care after meeting the needs of sick husbands. Stigma and social isolation following widowhood were common, with an enforced return to the natal home. Implications for potential educational and service interventions are discussed within the context of gender and social relations.     

Why was Standing Rock and the #NoDAPL campaign so historic? Factors affecting American Indian participation in social movement collaborations and coalitions

ABSTRACT

Is the #NoDAPL mobilization, which was historically unusual as a national scale grassroots campaign featuring American Indians grassroots activists and tribal governments in coalition with others, an indicator of future similar efforts? Or, will the Standing Rock resistance be a relative aberration, based on a unique set of circumstances? To explore these questions, I draw upon theory and historical scholarship about American settler colonialism; cross-group collaborations and social movement coalitions; and American Indian movements. A variety of within-group, intergroup and larger structural factors pose significant obstacles to American Indian participation in grassroots social movement coalitions. However, striking threats, the existence of social ties between American Indian movements and environmental movements, and overlap between ideologies and frames generated by each movement were sufficient to generate robust coalitional mobilization.     

Agency,intimacy, and rape jokes: an ethnographic study of young women and sexual risk in Chennai

In this article, I examine the circulation of jokes about sexual violence among young middle‐class women in the South Indian city of Chennai. Drawing on ethnographic research with undergraduate students in this city, I locate the rape joke in an ambivalent discourse of risk that conflates the possibility of sexual assault with the perceived ‘risks’ of women's sexual autonomy. In this context, I argue that humour about sexual violence functions as a form of lateral agency, facilitating a break from the task of reproducing middle‐class respectability.     

Reduced Gaze Following and Attention to Heads when Viewing a "Live" Social Scene

Social stimuli are known to both attract and direct our attention, but most research on social attention has been conducted in highly controlled laboratory settings lacking in social context. This study examined the role of social context on viewing behaviour of participants whilst they watched a dynamic social scene, under three different conditions. In two social groups, participants believed they were watching a live webcam of other participants. The socially-engaged group believed they would later complete a group task with the people in the video, whilst the non-engaged group believed they would not meet the people in the scene. In a third condition, participants simply free-viewed the same video with the knowledge that it was pre-recorded, with no suggestion of a later interaction. Results demonstrated that the social context in which the stimulus was viewed significantly influenced viewing behaviour. Specifically, participants in the social conditions allocated less visual attention towards the heads of the actors in the scene and followed their gaze less than those in the free-viewing group. These findings suggest that by underestimating the impact of social context in social attention, researchers risk coming to inaccurate conclusions about how we attend to others in the real world.     

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Childhood Undernutrition in India: Analyzing Trends between 1992 and 2005

Background

India experienced a rapid economic boom between 1991 and 2007. However, this economic growth has not translated into improved nutritional status among young Indian children. Additionally, no study has assessed the trends in social disparities in childhood undernutrition in the Indian context. We examined the trends in social disparities in underweight and stunting among Indian children aged less than three years using nationally representative data.

Methods

We analyzed data from the three cross-sectional rounds of National Family Health Survey of India from 1992, 1998 and 2005. The social factors of interest were: household wealth, maternal education, caste, and urban residence. Using multilevel modeling to account for the nested structure and clustering of data, we fit multivariable logistic regression models to quantify the association between the social factors and the binary outcome variables. The final models additionally included age, gender, birth order of child, religion, and age of mother. We analyzed the trend by testing for interaction of the social factor and survey year in a dataset pooled from all three surveys.

Results

While the overall prevalence rates of undernutrition among Indian children less than three decreased over the 1992–2005 period, social disparities in undernutrition over these 14 years either widened or stayed the same. The absolute rates of undernutrition decreased for everyone regardless of their social status. The disparities by household wealth were greater than the disparities by maternal education. There were no disparities in undernutrition by caste, gender or rural residence.

Conclusions

There was a steady decrease in the rates of stunting in the 1992–2005 period, while the decline in underweight was greater between 1992 and 1998 than between 1998 and 2005. Social disparities in childhood undernutrition in India either widened or stayed the same during a time of major economic growth. While the advantages of economic growth might be reaching everyone, children from better-off households, with better educated mothers appear to have benefited to a greater extent than less privileged children. The high rates of undernutrition (even among the socially advantaged groups) and the persistent social disparities need to be addressed in an urgent and comprehensive manner.