The right to exit and skilled labour emigration: Ethical considerations for compulsory health service programmes

Compulsory (health) service contracts have recently received considerable attention in the normative literature. The service contracts are considered and offered as a permissible and liberal alternative to emigration restrictions if individuals relinquish their right to exit via contract in exchange for the state‐funded tertiary education. To that end, the recent normative literature on the service programmes has particularly focused on discussing the circumstances or conditions in which the contracts should be signed, so that they are morally binding on the part of the skilled workers. However, little attention is devoted to the relevance of the right to exit for the debate on compulsory service programmes. In this paper, I argue that even if the service contracts are voluntary, and thus the would‐be medical students voluntarily relinquish their right to exit, the reasons behind the right should be taken into account for the contracts to be morally valid. A clear understanding of the right to exit is a must in order not to breach its basic components and for the service contracts to be morally binding. To that end, I provide two accounts of the reasons to value the right to exit by presenting Patti Lenard's discussion of the right to exit and by reconstructing James Griffin's account of human rights. I conclude by offering brief ethical considerations for compulsory health service programmes grounded in the reasons to value the right to exit.     

How to ‘catch’ floating populations? Research and the fixing of migration in space and time

Abstract

The recent ‘mobilities turn’ in the social sciences suggests that research always fixes mobility somehow in time and space, in order to understand it. Migration, being a form of mobility, has to be fixed on certain times and spaces in order to make it possible to define and research it. Being a geographer, I build on this insight in the first part of the article to re-read the critiques on post-war methodological nationalism. Reflecting on my own past research practice, I argue in the second part that leaving behind the methodological nationalism paradigm does not mean leaving behind the necessity to fix migration in time and space, on either the ontological or the practical methodological level. New ways of fixing are chosen and, out of recurring ontological and methodological choices, new migration stereotypes are developing such as what might be called ‘methodological ruralism’ in the case of Romanian migration.     

Exposure to Crystalline Silica Inhalation Among Construction Workers: A Probabilistic Risk Analysis

Crystalline silica and its presence in dust generated during various construction activities may pose a health hazard to construction workers. In this article, the occupational exposure to crystalline silica and the related long-term health (cancer and non-cancer) risks among construction workers from five different trades (activities) were evaluated using a probabilistic approach. The predicted 95th percentile of the excess lifetime cancer risk and hazard quotients for exposure to crystalline silica ranged from 4.5 × 10^?5 to 1.2 × 10^?4, and 15 to 37, respectively. The efficiency of the state-of-the-art technologies to reduce silica inhalation at construction sites are evaluated in the context of reduction in long-term health risks to the construction workers. The use of engineering controls and personal protective equipments to reduce the exposure to crystalline silica reduced the hazard quotient and excess lifetime cancer risk approximately by 65% and 78%, respectively. The sensitivity analyses showed that the exposure concentration of crystalline silica was the most significant parameter in both cancer and non-cancer risk estimates for the construction workers. The breathing rate, the exposure factor, and the daily shift hours also significantly contribute to the cancer and non-cancer risk estimates for the construction workers.     

Impact of a one-week intensive ‘training of trainers’ workshop for community health workers in south-west Nigeria

Background There is a huge unmet need for mental health services in low- and middle-in-come countries such as Nigeria. It has been suggested that one way of bridging the service gap is to plan for the effective integration of mental health services into primary care. We present the impact of a one-week training workshop on attitudes to and knowledge of mental health issues among the tutors of community health workers.Method An intensive one-week training workshop was organised for 24 trainers of community health officers from eight Nigerian states. The package was designed for the training of primary care workers in low-income countries by one of the authors (RJ). Participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess knowledge of and attitudes to mental health issues before and on completion of the training.Results There were 24 participants with a mean age of 47 years (SD ± 4.89). Eighteen (75%) of the participants were female. The overall assessment of knowledge of mental health issues increased from a mean score of 60.4% before training to a mean score of 73.7% after the training (t-test = 4.48, P = 0.001).Conclusion We reported a significant improvement in the knowledge and attitudes of tutors of community health workers following an intensive one-week training workshop. This, we believe, should improve the quality of pre-service mental health training for community health workers and hopefully impact on mental health service delivery at the primary healthcare level.     

Monitoring and evaluation of the activities of trainees in the ‘training of trainers’ workshop at Ibadan,south-west Nigeria

Background Like most low- and middle-income countries, Nigeria has a huge treatment gap for mental disorders. The World Health Organization has proposed the integration of mental health care into primary health service delivery as one of the ways to bridge this treatment gap. Studies have shown an immediate positive impact of mental health training for primary care workers. We evaluated the impact of training on the tutors of primary care workers approximately 12 months after the training.Method An intensive five-day training workshop for college teachers of mental health in community health officer (CHO) training institutions in south-west Nigeria was conducted in January 2009. Four of the 24 participants were randomly selected for evaluation of the impact of training on their activities approximately 12 months after the workshop. Qualitative methods were used, namely in-depth interviews, direct observation of classroom teaching by the participants and focus group discussion with their students.Results The participants interviewed reported a positive impact of the ‘training of trainers’ (TOT) workshop on their mental health course teaching. Direct observation of four participants revealed that three of them exhibited a high fidelity with the TOT course material and imbibed the teaching techniques advocated. The tutors'' students also reported an improvement in the quality of their mental health classes.Conclusion The training had an overall positive impact on the activities of the trainees approximately one year after the workshop.     

Higher vitellogenin concentrations in honey bee workers may be an adaptation to life in temperate climates

The honey bee originated in tropical Africa and later dispersed to northern Europe. It has been suggested that a higher hemolymph storage capacity for the glycolipoprotein vitellogenin evolved in temperate regions, and that the trait constitutes an adaptation to a strongly seasonal environment. We have investigated whether the relative vitellogenin levels of European and African honey bees are in accordance with this hypothesis. Our data indicate that European workers have a higher set-point concentration for vitellogenin compared to their African origin. Considered together with available life history information and physiological data, the results lend support to the view that “winter bees”, a longlived honey bee worker caste that survives winter in temperate regions, evolved through an increase in the worker bees’ capacity for vitellogenin accumulation. Received 20 September 2004; revised 25 March 2005; accepted 13 April 2005.     

How queen and workers share in male production in the stingless bee Melipona subnitida Ducke (Apidae, Meliponini)

Summary. Potential conflict between the queen and workers over the production of males is expected in stingless bees as a result of the higher relatedness of workers with their sons than with their brothers. This conflict was studied in Melipona subnitida by observing how the queen and the workers share in male production. The oviposition of individual cells was observed in two colonies with individually marked workers for a period of 51 and 40 days respectively. The gender that developed from these cells was then determined. The results revealed that most male production was concentrated in a 2–3-week period, during which laying workers were present. During these weeks, the queens produced twice as many males as all laying workers together. Outside this distinct period, the queens produced an occasional male. A reproductive worker either oviposited before the queen did, in which case she immediately proceeded to close the cell and thus prevented the queen from oviposition, or oviposited and sealed the cell after the queen had laid an egg. When cell construction and oviposition occured on several combs simultaneously, the workers preferentially laid male eggs on the newest combs. We discuss the proximate mechanism and ultimate cause of the way in which queen-worker male production occurred. In conclusion, we argue that overt behavioural conflict, occasionally displayed by reproductive workers of this species, can be of great cost to the colony.Received 27 February 2004; revised 6 September 2004; accepted 1 October 2004.     

Expansion of bamboo forests caused by reduced bamboo-shoot harvest under different natural and artificial conditions

To elucidate the expansion of bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel ex Houzeau de Lehaie) forests, we used multiple linear regression analysis and determined whether there were site differences for data obtained in Hirasawa, Otaki-machi, Chiba Prefecture, and Kofuki, Takehara City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Vegetation maps from 1984 and 2001 for Hirasawa, and from 1986, 1996, 2000, and 2006 for Kofuki, were compared, and the annual expansion rate of each P. pubescens forest was calculated. We evaluated nine indices, including original bamboo forest area, neighbouring vegetation, slope inclination and aspect, distance from roads, and shipment of bamboo shoots. Shipment of bamboo shoots was a positive factor for P. pubescens forest expansion, whereas the proportion of adjacent short vegetation, northness (the cosine of slope aspect), and area negatively affected the expansion in Hirasawa (R ² = 0.683). On the other hand, distance from roads and eastness (the sine of slope aspect) positively affected expansion, while slope inclination was a negative factor in Kofuki (R ² = 0.942). We calculated that P. pubescens forests expanded at about 2% per year in regions of reduced shipments of bamboo-shoot harvest. We showed that not only natural conditions but also management factors affect P. pubescens forest expansion. Regional differences in natural and anthropogenic effects on expansion were also found.     

生物行为变化研究的新模式——工蜂

蜜蜂群体由1只蜂王、几百只雄蜂和数千只工蜂组成,工蜂数量巨大,除蜂王和雄蜂共同完成生殖任务,巢内外活动均由工蜂完成,其行为呈现多样性。工蜂发育经过卵、幼虫、蛹、成虫4个阶段,其活动范围由温度、湿度相对稳定的巢内环境发展到复杂的巢外自然环境。随发育阶段和生活环境的变化,工蜂的生理、行为等方面也发生相应变化,这种变化为综合研究生物行为的分子机理提供了可能。又因工蜂数量多、体积较大易于观察、标记、饲养管理简单,而且目前对其形态、发育、生理、分子生物学、神经、社会生态等各方面的研究比较充分,所以工蜂成为研究生物体行为变化、发育机理和个体与群体关系的理想模式生物。该文介绍工蜂活动由巢内发展到巢外时出现的一系列变化以及部分变化的机制,主要包括行为的变化、激素的分泌、代谢活动、飞行能力、神经系统等。