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The results of the 1981 Indian census showed a slight increase in the rate of population growth despite an energetic governmental campaign to reduce fertility, the growing use of contraception, a substantial number of sterilized persons, and a declining birthrate. The longitudinal ethnographic analysis of population data from Shanti Nagar dating from the 1950s and the 1970s suggests that the growth rate of the population might be better understood if analytical emphasis were to be shifted somewhat from birth and death rates to survivorship, that is, the average number of living children per mother, thus focusing attention on the family, the social unit in which the decisions are made that give rise to national demographic rates and averages. Currently, the principle fertility decision that a Shanti Nagar couple must make is whether to undergo sterilization and how many children are deemed necessary before taking this step. Analysis of the Shanti Nagar data shows that women of completed fertility in the 1970s had more living children than comparable women in the 1950s, and that even the sterilized couples of the 1970s had only slightly fewer children than the almost entirely noncontracepting women of the 1950s. Although the age of women at their own (or their husbands') sterilization is falling and the operation takes place after fewer children than formerly, the average sterilized couple nonetheless has more than 4 children instead of the 2 or 3 that the Government of India prefers. An analysis of the relationship to fertility of various modernization variables, such as urbanization and enhanced economic status, fails to show any consistent correlation of such variables with reduced fertility. School attendance by females is perhaps the most promising of the modernization veriables, but its effect is somewhat ambiguous and relatively weak until women achieve the college level. Current trends suggest that soon after 2025, India may surpass China as the world's most populous nation.

Purpose: Commitment to change is vital for the success of any organizational change initiative. However, despite a sustained increase in research interest on employees' commitment to change, there is still no consistency about the unidimensional or multi-dimensional construct of commitment to change, and previous research tends to ignore the impact vocational drivers may have on it. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on prospect theory, the authors extended Herscovitch and Meyer's (2002) commitment to change construct by developing and testing an additional dimension of commitment to change centered on employees' vocational commitment across two studies, adopting a longitudinal design within a Chinese context. As organizational change often has implications that impacts individual decision making, vocational development and work adjustments and attitudes within the workplace, the authors presented the case for vocational commitment to change as an important extension to the commitment to change literature. The authors first provided evidence for the internal consistency, factor structure and the validity of the commitment to change in the Chinese context. Subsequently, the authors examined the changes of employees' commitment to change across time, and demonstrated its predictive validity by exploring the relationship between commitment to change and change-related behaviors. Findings: The current research represents improvements in commitment to change measurement, provides construct clarification in the Asia context, and sheds light on theoretical and empirical evidence for how to support change in the Chinese context. Limitations, implications and directions for future research are further discussed. Originality/value: The current study responds to a call for research to further investigate the mechanisms of commitment to change within non-Western contexts, specifically within the Chinese context. Through a rigorous scale development process, the authors clarified Herscovitch and Meyer's (2002) commitment to change model and present an augmented model with a fourth dimension –vocational commitment to change. Furthermore, through a longitudinal study, the current study also demonstrates that the cultivation of commitment to change has great importance to improving employees' change-supportive behavior and reducing their resistance to change. This is consistent with cross-cultural research, which shows that Chinese individuals are more likely to possess inconsistent attitudes toward an object, including themselves, compared to Western individuals (Spencer-Rodgers et al., 2004). The study also explained the change of commitment to change over time, showing the significant relationships among the commitment to change and change-related behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe the prevalent forms of intimate partner violence (IPV), and the factors associated with IPV among women and men living in the two migrant communities of Baglung district, Nepal. 357 adult women and men were enrolled following a family model, interviewing young married women with daughter-in-law status in the home, their husbands, and mothers-in-law and fathers-in-laws using an electronic questionnaire. Random effects regression modelling compared men and women, as well as young married women with daughter-in-law status and older women with mothers-in-law with status. 28.6% of women had ever experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner compared to 18.2% of men ever perpetrated these forms of violence against their wives. Being older, male controlling behaviour and poor relations with husband increased women’s IPV in their lifetime while perceptions that the mother-in-law is kind were protective. Being ashamed of being unemployed and childhood trauma were associated with men perpetrating IPV in their lifetime. Borrowing money or food increased young married women’s lifetime IPV risk while mother-in-law cruelty and male control increased older married women’s lifetime IPV exposure. Factors associated with IPV in the past year among men were being younger, job seeking, experiences of childhood trauma and depression exposure among men while difficulty accessing money for emergencies, holding inequitable gender attitudes, and depression was associated with women’s increased IPV exposure. Unemployment stress, holding inequitable gender attitudes and mother-in-law kindness were associated with young women’s increased IPV risk and hunger, mother-in-law cruelty and depression with older women’s IPV risk. There is a need to critically challenge harmful social and gender norms by using approaches that are sensitive to young married women’s position and unequal gender relations in the family. IPV prevention interventions need to employ a holistic approach that combines changing social and gender norms and improving socioeconomic conditions of women living in migrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most papers on the physical condition of birds during spring migration focused on food availability preceding migratory take-off. Only a few studies examined the effect of climate conditions at the wintering grounds upon autumn arrival on bird physical condition later on. Here, we hypothesized that environmental conditions upon arrival at the wintering grounds, and not necessarily upon departure, have a crucial carry-over effect on bird spring migration. Using 29,000 observations of the lesser whitethroat, Sylvia curruca, and the eastern Bonelli’s warbler, Phylloscopus orientalis, we found temperatures upon arrival at the African wintering grounds to be the only climatic variable correlated with birds’ body state upon spring stopover in Israel, six months later. Two different mechanisms could explain these results. One possibility is that high temperatures create favorable conditions for insect activity, which allows rapid recovery from autumn migration and hence successful winter survival and maintenance. Another possible scenario is that harsh conditions, due to the heat and dry environment, cause high mortality, permitting survival of larger individuals which, then, enjoy reduced inter- and intra-specific competition. Whatever the mechanism is, our findings suggest that conditions upon autumn arrival, and not necessarily at the end of winter as traditionally thought, may have a major impact on migrating birds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the promising growth of Organic Food in the Asia region, this paper attempts to identify and understand the factors influencing the Purchase Intention and Actual Purchase of Organic Food in the Indian Urban market. The research was done starting with an extensive literature review followed by conducting a survey by administrating a structured questionnaire in the city of Mumbai. Empirical results reinforced the findings of few earlier studies of the countries of the emerging economies and challenged a few. The results indicate that Health, Environment friendly processes and Quality are the primary factors influencing the Purchase Intentions of the customers, however when it comes to Actual purchase the factor of the product being produced through environmentally friendly process is not influencing the consideration of the customer. Further research can be undertaken to identify the factors which will build the confidence and trust of the customer regarding adherence to environmentally friendly processes for production of organic food. This will help the marketers to convert the Purchase intention of the customers to Actual Purchase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• The values of parameters of a well-calibrated model are useful in detecting micro behavior. • We illustrate the evolution of banks strategy in response to different economic conditions. • It explores the banks reactions to financial shocks. • The result is an early warning indicator which anticipates phases of instability. In this paper, we show that the values of parameters of a well-calibrated model are useful in detecting micro behavior. We use a calibration procedure suitable for validating agent-based models to show how the evolution of model parameters, obtained via a rolling window estimation, illustrates the evolution of agents' strategies in response to different economic conditions. In this regard, we calibrate the well-known financial model of Brock and Hommes using three banking indices (i.e., the S&P SmallCap 600 Financials Index, the STOXX Europe 600 Banks, and the STOXX Asia/Pacific 600 Banks) running from 1994 to 2016. The choice of a spatially and temporally diversified dataset allows us to analyze differences and similarities in the behavior of banks belonging to the different macro areas, as well as to capture agents' reaction to the several economic phases characterizing the time series investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"A sample survey was conducted [in China]: more than 6,000 questionnaires were submitted and retrieved from domestic tourists in Shanghai, Xi'ian, Huangshan, and Huashan in order to provide data for demographic analysis of the special fluid population of tourists. The paper looks at the relationship between tourists' gender, age, income, occupation, education, and family structure, as well as their tourist activity, selection of destinations, shopping, and other tourist behaviors.", (excerpt)

"This paper presents detailed description of a newly developed fertility projection system which was used in population projections for Japan, and population projections by prefectures, officially announced in September and November 1992 respectively. The system is based on a model of age-specific fertility rates by birth order, and it converts parameters which convey behavioral traits of cohort fertility into age-specific fertility rates of future years." (SUMMARY IN ENG), (excerpt)

"In this paper, we consider crossovers of demographic density distributions from...populations that have the same fertility and mortality rates. We focus on observed populations and their associated stationary and stable models, and on proportional distributions of persons, births, deaths and reproductive values.... Three different populations were selected to represent a range of demographic behavior. Those populations are Japan 1963, a low mortality, low fertility population; Togo 1961, a high mortality, high fertility population; and the United States 1919-1921, a population whose fertility and mortality are intermediate.", (excerpt)

"In this paper behavioral models of international labor and nonlabor migration are presented. The models are based on the concept of chain migration, where the immigrant stock, differentiated by the duration of stay, induces and directs future migration flows. Three roles of the immigrant stock in inducing the inflow of potential migrants are identified: provider of assimilation aid; transmitter of information; and source of family reunification. Operationalized versions of the models are empirically tested for Turkish labor and nonlabor migration to West Germany, 1960-86. The results support the importance of information for labor migrants, and reunification ties for nonlabor migrants.", (excerpt)

This paper first presents an overview of data on 390 international crises, which incorporate 826 foreign policy crises, from the end of 1918 to the end of 1988. A set of crisis profiles is then constructed for the two superpowers of the post-World War II era, and for three regional systems, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The data on international crises are presented in terms of a common format for the regional profiles, with slight modifications for the superpowers, in order to facilitate comparisons: time and space; duration; onset; threat; behavior; severity of violence; US/USSR activity; global organization involvement; and outcome. Within these categories, distributions are noted for each of the polarity structures—multipolarity (1918-39), bipolarity (1945-62), and polycentrism (1963-1988). Thereafter, comparisons are made between US and USSR crises (after World War II), and among the three regional profiles. The central thrust of the findings from these profiles is clear: they focus attention on the dual characteristics of twentieth century crises, their pervasiveness and diversity. These traits, in turn, make much more difficult the task of constructing a theory that provides a systematic explanation of interstate crisis from onset to termination. Complex reality imposes an intolerable burden on the search for necessary and sufficient conditions of crisis. In positive terms, it leads to a shift in focus, from `necessary and sufficient' to the "most likely" conditions as the most credible path to theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of public health, family planning, education, electrification, and water supply programs on fertility, child mortality, and school enrollment decisions of rural households in East Java, Indonesia. The theoretical model assumes that parents maximize a utility function, subject to 1) a budget constraint that equates income with expenditures on children (including schooling and health inputs), and 2) a production function that relates health inputs to child survival possibilities. Public programs affect prices of contraceptives, schooling and health inputs, and environmental conditions that in turn affect child survival. Data are taken from the 1980 East Java Population Survey, the Socio-economic Survey, and the Detailed Village Census. The final sample consists of 3170 rural households with married women of childbearing age. Ordinary least squares and logit regressions of recent fertility, child mortality, and school enrollment on program and household variables yielded the following findings. 1) The presence of maternal and child health clinics reduced fertility but not mortality. 2) The presence of public health centers strongly reduced mortality but not fertility. 3) The presence of contraceptive distribution centers had no effect on fertility. 4) School attendance rates were influenced positively by the availability of primary and secondary schools. 5) Health and family planning programs had no effects on schooling. 6) The availability of public latrines reduced fertility and mortality. 7) The water supply variable did not affect the dependent variables when ordinary least squares techniques were applied but had statistically significant impact when logit methods were used. 8) Electricity supply had little effect on the dependent variables. 9) The mother's schooling had a strong positive correlation with children's schooling but no effect on fertility or mortality. 10) Household expenditures were related positively to school attendance and negatively to mortality. 11) There was little or no interaction between household variables and presence of government programs. 12) Subprovincial area measures of service availability appeared more appropriate for public health and family planning services, while village-level measures appeared more appropriate for schooling.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate salespersons' self-monitoring and its effect on adaptive selling behavior. As salespeople are constantly facing different customers with various needs and want and engaging in a different sales situation, salespeople must deploy their inner capabilities in practicing adaptive selling behavior during and across sales interactions. This study also investigates the impact of salesperson's intrapersonal leadership – where leadership stems from the individuals with the purpose to influence oneself. Design/methodology/approach: Authors draw on the social cognitive theory of self-regulation to develop our model and examine the relationship between self-monitoring, thought self-leadership and adaptive selling behavior. We empirically test the model using data from 335 pharmaceutical salespeople working across several countries in Asia. Findings: The results support the role of self-monitoring and thought self-leadership as antecedents to adaptive selling. Further, the results suggest that self-monitoring positively moderates the relationship between thought self-leadership and adaptive selling behavior. In light of these results, we explore implications and limitations and conclude by suggesting directions for further research. Research limitations/implications: The sampling method used was convenience sampling, which may limit the theoretical generalization of our results across all emerging markets. Moreover, this study examines the direct impact of self-management mechanism on adaptive selling behavior and the way it interacts with salesperson's thought self-leadership to strengthen adaptive selling behavior. However, the research model does not include organization-level drivers. Originality/value: This study makes an important and original contribution to sales literature by demonstrating the direct and interaction effects of self-monitoring mechanism on a critical component of a business to business sales process, adaptive selling behavior. Results from this study highlight the critical importance of cognitive processes that drives positive selling behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemical cues are used by many taxa to communicate within and among species. Behavioral defenses induced by predator cues are a mechanism by which prey species resist or avoid predator attack. This study examined the egg bank of native Daphnia species in a lake that has been invaded by Bythotrephes longimanus, an invertebrate zooplanktivore native to northern-central Europe and Asia (initial invasion 1994, population boom in 2009). Daphnia resting eggs from both pre- and post-B. longimanus invasion lake sediments were hatched and established as isofemale clonal lines. Phototactic behavior (a proxy for vertical migration behavior) was assessed in the presence and absence of B. longimanus cue. This was done to evaluate the hypothesis that the heavy predation imposed by B. longimanus would have been selected for Daphnia clones that are more negatively phototactic in the presence of B. longimanus cue, because B. longimanus is a visual predator. The behavior of the clones derived from pre-B. longimanus era resting eggs was not significantly different from the behavior of the clones from the post-B. longimanus era and exposure to predator cue did not affect the phototactic response of the clones. There was a significant difference in the phototactic behavior of the three Daphnia species tested (Daphnia ambigua, Daphnia mendotae, and Daphnia pulicaria). These results suggest that predation by B. longimanus is not the main factor that is influencing the phototactic behavior of Daphnia in the lake. Other factors such as fish predation may be playing a more significant role in this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feeding ecology of gray wolves has been investigated extensively worldwide. Despite previous studies on food habits of wolves in Asia and Iran, none has focused on the diet of the species in a scenario of depleted of wild prey and with recent records of attacks on humans. Here, we combined telemetry methods and scat analysis to study the diet of wolves in areas of Hamadan province, Iran, where medium to large wild prey is almost absent. Between October 2015 and March 2017, we studied the feeding behavior (by identifying feeding sites through clusters of GPS locations) of three wolves fitted with GPS collars, belonging to different wolf packs. We also collected and analyzed 110 wolf scats during the same period within the same areas. Overall, we investigated 850 clusters of GPS locations in the field, and identified 312 feeding sites. Most feeding clusters were linked to dumpsites and poultry farms around villages. We found 142 and 170 events of predatory (kill sites) and scavenging behavior, respectively. Prey composition based on kill sites was comprised of 74.6% livestock, 19.7% lagomorphs, 3.5% dogs, 1.4% red fox, and 0.7% golden jackal. Similarly, prey composition based on scavenging clusters was comprised of 79.9% livestock, 10.6% red fox, and 9.4% golden jackal. Scat analysis, however, indicated that livestock (34.3%), garbage (23.7%), poultry (16.0%), and European hare (15.4%) were the most frequent food items. We discuss the role of anthropogenic food sources in a context where agonistic wolf-human encounters occur recurrently, and suggest management guidelines regarding illegal dumping of animal carcasses and garbage dumpsites, in order to minimize wolf-human negative interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test and compare different incentives in motivating water conservation using a randomized controlled trial. In a field experiment carried out with Singaporean households, regular feedback was given, with informative, normative and monetary incentives provided to different groups. Evidence shows that all households saved an average of 4 Litres of water per person per day, with no difference in treatment effect found across various groups. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the water saving effect is also found to be more significant with high baseline users, who saved up to 5.9 Litres per person per day. High baseline households also respond more positively to the non-monetary incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice breeders in Asia and elsewhere in the world have long overlooked trying to shorten the time it takes to develop new varieties. Plant breeders have proposed a technique called Rapid Generation Advance (RGA) as a way to accelerate the results of public rice breeding programs. However, little is known about RGA’s potential impact. Here, we present the first results of a global impact study of RGA. More specifically, we calculated the multiplicator effects of RGA on the research benefits generated by conventional rice breeding programs and applied them to a meta-analysis of selected impact studies in the literature. These insights are a first crucial step in developing a targeted approach for disseminating RGA technology among rice breeders to accelerate the impact of their public rice breeding programs around the world. We show that the additional benefits due to time savings are considerable and offer some insights into the economics of breeding. Our results confirm that the adoption of accelerated breeding would lead to substantial advantages to rice breeding programs and the earlier variety release leads to significant economic benefits to society. This can be important to policy makers when reshaping their public breeding methods and optimising their return on research investments in breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Post hoc analyses (two single-arm studies) were conducted to determine the impact of once-monthly injection of paliperidone palmitate on functioning in adult patients with schizophrenia in the Asia-Pacific region.Methods: Study 1 enrolled hospitalized patients with acute exacerbation of schizophrenia, and study 2 enrolled patients with recently diagnosed schizophrenia unsatisfactorily treated with oral antipsychotics. Patients received paliperidone palmitate, 150 mg eq. on day 1, 100 mg eq. on day 8, then once monthly (50-150 mg eq.) (study 1, days 36 and 64; study 2, 18 months). Functional status was evaluated by Personal and Social Performance score in both studies and employment only in study 2.Results: In study 1, 54 of 184 patients (29.4%) with an unfavorable level of functioning at the baseline improved to a favorable level (Personal and Social Performance score greater than 70) at day 92. This improvement was significantly greater among patients with recently diagnosed schizophrenia (5 years or less) compared with patients with chronic schizophrenia (more than 5 years): 40% versus 22% (p < 0.0001). Improvements were observed in all four domains (socially useful activities, personal and social relationships, self-care, disturbing/aggressive behavior). In study 2, significant (p < 0.0001) improvement in functioning was observed at all visits, beginning at week 5. Almost half (48.7%, 247/507) of patients showed clinically meaningful improvement in functioning (i.e., 10 point or greater increase in Personal and Social Performance score) at month 18. The proportion of patients fully/partially employed was greater at all postbaseline visits (134 of 280, 47.9%, at month 18) as compared with the baseline.Conclusion: Functioning, including employment, was improved after short-term, once-monthly paliperidone palmitate injection, and was sustained to 18 months in Asia-Pacific patients with schizophrenia.Funding: Janssen-Cilag Asia-Pacific Medical Affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food intake and dietary behavior, along with physical activity, are key environmental determinants of both energy imbalance as well as achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Increasingly globalized, obesogenic diets and dietary behaviors have created a mainly urban Asian childhood obesity epidemic, which, coupled with persistent undernutrition, present a complex double burden of malnutrition. Some dietary patterns associated with Asian childhood overweight include snacking and eating out; consumption of fast food, sweetened beverages, and excessive meat; unhealthy macronutrient energy proportions; and a preference for refined grains. Strong evidenced-based measures must be created or identified that can adjust these ongoing obesogenic dietary shifts in more healthful directions, targeting lower-income subgroups in some of these societies. Measures must sensitively prevent and control the complex, interrelated diet problems presenting the nutritional double burden that, if not controlled, may overwhelm societies and health systems, undermining further Asian progress in health and socioeconomic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]