Exploring Personal Experience of Wartime Crisis Effects on Job Insecurity in Syria

The present research was conducted in Syria during the crisis conditions facing the nation in the years 2011-2014. We hypothesized that the broad effects of the Personal Experience of Wartime Crisis (PEoWTC) would be strongly and positively associated with increased job insecurity. We reasoned that employees are likely to experience intense unpredictability at work as a direct or indirect function of the national crisis. This line of inquiry represents a first in job insecurity research because PEoWTC has not previously been examined as a predictor of job insecurity. Thus, this research analyzes a new predictor of job insecurity, i.e., PEoWTC, and how its effects are indirectly transmitted via job insecurity to several organizational outcomes. Using a cross-sectional design, our preliminary data come from a sample consisting of 129 professionals, managers, and administrators. Our results show that PEoWTC positively predicts job insecurity. Additionally, our findings indicate that job insecurity significantly mediates the relationships between PEoWTC and job satisfaction, affective commitment, intention to quit, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)

Integration of genetic and epigenetic markers for risk stratification: opportunities and challenges

Common genetic susceptibility variants could be used for risk stratification in risk-tailored cancer screening and prevention programmes. Combining genetic variants with environmental risk factors would improve risk stratification. Epigenetic changes are surrogate markers of environmental exposures during individual's lifetime. Integrating epigenetic markers, in lieu of environmental exposure data, with genetic markers would potentially improve risk stratification. Epigenetic changes are reversible and acquired gradually, providing potentials for prevention and early detection strategies. The epigenetic changes are tissue-specific and stage-of-development-specific, raising challenges in choice of sample and timing for evaluation of cancer-associated changes. The Horizon 2020 funded research programme, FORECEE, using empirical data, will investigate the value of integration of epigenomics with genomics for risk prediction and prevention of women-specific cancers

Using an introduction website to start a family: implications for users and health practitioners

Donor insemination treatment offered in licensed clinics protects the donor, recipient and offspring both medically and legally. The internet has opened up novel, unregulated ways of donating sperm through ‘introduction websites’ and social media forums. Broadly three categories of women use introduction websites: those who want to have a child with no further involvement of the donor; those who wish to know the identity of the donor from the start and those who intend to electively co-parent, that is, to bring up the child together with the donor/father. Donors may choose to donate through introduction websites for altruistic reasons and/or in order to have greater involvement with the child. There are some donors who are motivated by the prospect of a sexual encounter, advertising their preference for natural insemination, via sexual intercourse or partial intercourse. When people make their own arrangements online, they may do so in the absence of clear, accurate information. In this article, we set out some of the issues that recipients and donors ought to consider before embarking on unregulated sperm donation

コロニアリズムとポストコロニアリズム : 合衆国のメキシコ系アメリカ人の問題

平成12年度第一回特別研究

Beyond Culture: Design Anthropology as a Tool of Social Design and Conflict-Resolution

Design Anthropology [DA] has gained significant prominence in recent years, along with increasing adoption of Design Thinking [DT] strategies, new human-centric approaches, and focused attention on the emotional and functional needs of the users. Both DA and DT have emerged during the last few decades as a result of a broader shift away from the profit-centered business models towards the development of value-driven paradigms that are placing the consumers at the center of research and production. This is a meaningful transformation that reflects the recognition of an urgent need for higher global sustainability and a new economy. The process of personalization, which is based on extensive study of consumers’ real needs rather continuous development of products, is the best strategic move to achieve these new global goals and set new social and individual values. Thus, business success in the contemporary world should aspire to merge values of sustainability with a good study of individual needs and lifestyle. DT is not a new way of business thinking and it has existed for decades. Yet, many of its advantages are still unknown, misunderstood, or are being used inefficiently due to lack of knowledge, strategic insights, and proper practices and experience. DT utilizes anthropological methods that provide the best strategies required to unfold hidden needs, heal pain points, and discover core cultural values. Anthropological tools include detailed observations of behavior and various activities, personal interviews, and immersion in the daily lives of individuals and communities studied in order to study their perspective and gain empathy and understanding as an insider. The project presented hereby demonstrates the uses and the professional advantages gained by using DT methods in finding new and creative pathways to complicated solutions in a case study that required the development of a healthcare app for the ASHA workers in India. The ASHA are healthcare activists who became a vital and crucial support system to many families in rural India, especially during the Covid19 pandemic. However, the low social caste to which they belong proved to be as big a challenge to face as the pandemic itself, and DT strategies combined with methodologies of anthropology supported the completion of the project on time with the best outcome possible

FROM “GALAPAGOS SYNDROME” TO GLOBALIZATION: JAPANESE BUSINESSES BETWEEN TRADITION AND VIRTUAL REALITY

Fluctuating between accelerated globalization promoted by the government and the closed-island mentality termed the Galâpagos Syndrome, Japanese businesses are at a historical moment of decision, having to choose between traditional work styles, old values, and stability on the one hand, and innovation, competition, and change on the other. Facing the growth of the high-tech world and the third wave of AI (artificial intelligence), businesses must confront these new rising industries, which are currently competing on the global arena, and change fast if they want to catch up and be part of the future global economy. The research presents the cultural factors that block traditional Japanese corporations from adapting faster to globalization, and follows the growing gap between traditional work style and the new virtual industries that are fast advancing