Institutions and Collective Action in Divided Labour Movements: Evidence from Indonesia

Under what conditions do trade unions in divided labour movements cooperate? Does cooperation in one domain increase the likelihood of cooperation in the other? Do institutions facilitate or discourage cooperation? We explore these questions through an examination of collective action across federation and confederation lines in post-Suharto Indonesia. Using a comparison of union cooperation in the policy and electoral domains, we demonstrate that tripartite wage-setting institutions have played a central role in facilitating collective action in the policy domain, encouraging unions to look beyond shop-level issues to policy issues identified by their respective national organizations as affecting workers. The relative absence of collective action across organizational divides in the electoral domain, meanwhile, can be explained by the institutional context, which creates higher barriers to unions working together

Translating Membership into Power at the Ballot Box? Trade Union Candidates and Worker Voting Patterns in Indonesia’s National Elections

This article analyses the effectiveness of trade unions’ electoral engagement in the union-dense electoral localities of Bekasi and Tangerang in Indonesia’s 2009 legislative elections. Our analysis reveals that legacies of authoritarianism, electoral rules, and union fragmentation pushed unions to pursue an ineffective electoral strategy of running union cadres on various party tickets. In Bekasi, local leaders within the Federation of Indonesian Metalworkers Unions (FSPMI) chose not to mobilize resources to support union candidates because the union’s national leadership had failed to convince them of the soundness of its strategy. In Tangerang, local leaders embraced the National Workers Union’s (SPN) national electoral strategy, but had inadequate membership data to conduct electoral mapping and did not provide candidates with financial and leadership support. Neither union, meanwhile, gave much consideration to the problem of translating membership to votes: survey data reveal that most members could not name union candidates, and many of those who could did not vote for them. The article argues that, despite its flaws, trade unions’ strategy of engagement in the electoral arena constitutes an important step forward in the consolidation of Indonesia’s democracy

Psychosocial health in adolescent unmarried motherhood in rural Uganda: implications for community based collaborative mental health education, and empowerment strategies in the prevention of depression and suicide

Teenage pregnancy rates in Uganda are among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Child marriage is often the result of unmarried teenage pregnancy and recognised by Uganda’s government as a form of sexual violence and an outcome of inequality. However, unmarried motherhood incurs stigma and shame within traditionally-living rural communities. Using co-produced Open Space and ethnographic methods, we examined the psychosocial impact of unmarried motherhood on girls and their communities, and explored problem-solving with key local stakeholders. Findings indicate that girls experience extreme stress and social exclusion and rejection by their families, and experience bereavement from school expulsion and the loss of their career aspirations. Depressive symptoms and suicidal behaviour are reportedly not uncommon amongst this population group. Community and family efforts to promote marriage for these mothers to avoid social stigma increased the mothers’ feelings of depression, while mothers who became independent appeared to fare better psychologically. Community members and local stakeholders demonstrated willingness to act locally to reduce the negative impacts of unmarried motherhood but lacked the knowledge and support resources. Our findings indicate that mental health promotion for teenage mothers is likely to be better served through empowerment strategies rather than marriage, and, in a context of poor mental health service access, there is a substantial role for community mobilisation and promotion of self-help strategies to support teenage mothers. This study raises important points regarding different community understandings of depression and indicates collaboration between professionals and communities for a values-based approach

Challenges and Opportunities for the Implementation of Virological Testing in resource-limited settings

Though the advantages of routine virological monitoring for patients on anti-retroviral therapy have been established, cost and complexity limit its full implementation. Monitoring is important for diagnosing virological failure early on, before the development of drug resistance mutations, and to trigger early adherence interventions. Simple and cost-effective viral load tests that facilitate simplification and decentralization of testing and strategies, such as the use of dried blood spots and pooled sample testing, which further aid simplification, are becoming available. In addition, replacing immunological monitoring with virological monitoring in non-viremic patients in a phased manner will reduce the costs associated with dual immuno-virological monitoring. Going forward, the simplification of testing paired with price reducing strategies that will allow for healthy competition between multiple manufacturers will enable the implementation of viral load testing in resource-poor settings. It is important that future HIV and AIDS treatment guidelines provide clear recommendations for routine virological monitoring and that governments and donors fund the implementation of accurate and operationally proven testing platforms in a comprehensive manner

Breast density measurements with ultrasound tomography: A comparison with film and digital mammography

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134902/1/mp2057.pd

Predicting the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls on cetacean populations through impacts on immunity and calf survival

This work was supported by funding from the International Whaling Commission's Pollution 2000+Program, the U.S. NOAA/NFMS Health and Stranding Response Program and the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (Grant Code SMRU 10001).The potential impact of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the health and survival of cetaceans continues to be an issue for conservation and management, yet few quantitative approaches for estimating population level effects have been developed. An individual based model (IBM) for assessing effects on both calf survival and immunity was developed and tested. Three case study species (bottlenose dolphin, humpback whale and killer whale) in four populations were taken as examples and the impact of varying levels of PCB uptake on achievable population growth was assessed. The unique aspect of the model is its ability to evaluate likely effects of immunosuppression in addition to calf survival, enabling consequences of PCB exposure on immune function on all age-classes to be explored. By incorporating quantitative tissue concentration-response functions from laboratory animal model species into an IBM framework, population trajectories were generated. Model outputs included estimated concentrations of PCBs in the blubber of females by age, which were then compared to published empirical data. Achievable population growth rates were more affected by the inclusion of effects of PCBs on immunity than on calf survival, but the magnitude depended on the virulence of any subsequent encounter with a pathogen and the proportion of the population exposed. Since the starting population parameters were from historic studies, which may already be impacted by PCBs, the results should be interpreted on a relative rather than an absolute basis. The framework will assist in providing quantitative risk assessments for populations of concern.PostprintPostprintPeer reviewe

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms