The Social Vulnerability Scale for Older Adults: An Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analytic Study

The Social Vulnerability Scale (SVS), a 22-item informant report of vulnerability to exploitation and, in particular, financial exploitation of older adults, was administered to 266 respondents who assessed the social vulnerability of a significant other aged 50 years or over, either a person with dementia or other neurological condition (n?=?116), or a healthy adult (n?=?150). Exploratory factor analysis in the combined sample revealed a 15-item two-factor solution labeled gullibility and credulity. Stability in factor structure was established in an independent sample (n?=?123) using confirmatory factor analysis, and sound reliability (internal consistency) and validity (known-groups) were demonstrated. The SVS15 is a potentially useful instrument for assessing older adults' vulnerability to exploitation.     

Rethinking the Canon: Reflections on a Text That Ought to be Essential Reading

Abstract

The 2006 war in Lebanon that erupted between Hezbollah and Israel marked the largest evacuation of Americans abroad since World War II. This article captures the experiences of Lebanese-American women and investigates how gender identity was expressed during these evacuations. Presented from the point of view of a participant-observer and personal interviews, findings show that gender became a master identity that influenced these women's choices regarding how to escape the country and return to the United States. Some embraced dependency upon masculinist exercises of power while others claimed agency as they determined their own fate and carried out their own evacuation without waiting to be rescued by the state or male kin members. The evacuation stories in this article confirm and illuminate the complexity of ethnic citizenship and gendered agency.     

Minority Elder Maltreatment:

Comparison of 126 minority and 161 non-minority instances of elder maltreatment produces no compelling profile of differences, although there are implications for both study and practice. Within the minority subsample, differences in ethnic group, gender, age, and income provide some information. Hispanics have a less developed social support system, female-male distinctions focus on mortality rate and maltreatment type differences, the oldest old appear to differ from younger elder groups in several respects, and the poor may form a subgroup of isolates or loners.     

中国石油脆弱性的测算及其情景分析

选取构建了影响中国石油脆弱性的7个主要指标,运用主成分分析方法,对1998—2008年中国石油脆弱性进行了综合测算。结果表明：近年来中国石油脆弱性总体不断加深。在得出各指标对中国石油脆弱性的敏感性系数后,基于情景分析,模拟了2009—2015年中国石油脆弱性。为能源安全政策制定者提供了一定的参考和依据。     

Using vulnerability performance indicators to attain food supply chain robustness

High effectiveness and leanness of modern supply chains (SCs) increase their vulnerability, i.e. susceptibility to disturbances reflected in non-robust SC performances. Both the SC management literature and SC professionals indicate the need for the development of SC vulnerability assessment tools. In this article, a new method for vulnerability assessment, the VULA method, is presented. The VULA method helps to identify how much a company would underperform on a specific Key Performance Indicator in the case of a disturbance, how often this would happen and how long it would last. It ultimately informs the decision about whether process redesign is appropriate and what kind of redesign strategies should be used in order to increase the SC's robustness. The applicability of the VULA method is demonstrated in the context of a meat SC using discrete-event simulation to conduct the performance analysis.     

发展中国家粮食安全的脆弱性分析

从历史和现实的角度分析了发展中国家粮食安全的脆弱性特点及其原因.发展中国家粮食安全脆弱性历史和现实的证据分别以饥荒和高粮价大致的粮食危机的形式表现.通过分析并得出结论认为:发展中国家粮食安全的脆弱性在过去和现在普遍存在,而且这种状况还将持续一段时间;自然灾害、战乱冲突、国际局势动荡等原因造成粮食供给量的下降,而经济危机、粮价波动等原因又导致人们的粮食获取能力下降,两者共同作用导致了发展中国家的粮食不安全及其脆弱性.     

VaR方法在外汇风险管理中的应用

外汇风险是一个开放型经济所必然要面对的问题,各国央行都把保持币值稳定作为其重要任务,涉外企业因外汇风险处置不当而蒙受巨大损失的事例屡见不鲜。无论是从宏观上还是从微观上,外汇风险都极大地影响着一国的经济状况。VaR方法是近年来国际上流行的一种新的风险防范技术,本文将介绍外汇风险产生的根源以及探讨利用VaR技术予以防范的办法。     

生态保护区移民搬迁对低收入农户脆弱性的影响

基于A县2014—2022年的面板数据,利用双向固定效应双重差分法探讨生态保护区移民搬迁对低收入农户脆弱性的影响。研究发现,搬迁总体显著降低了农户的脆弱性,降幅为2.2%。脆弱性分解和成因分析结果表明,与低脆弱农户和低波动农户相比,搬迁对高脆弱性农户和高波动性农户的正向影响分别降低了16.3%和13.0%。人力资本劣势导致这些农户较难适应搬迁后的劳动力市场,生计转型缓慢,从而脆弱性下降较为平缓。这一结论对政府有针对性地制定搬迁后的帮扶政策具有重要意义。     

Vulnerabilities and risks in population and environment studies

In the study of risks , different sciences use the same category in different ways, each related to its own ontological assumptions. But many of these fields communicate very little with one another. This article seeks to approximate two of these areas of study that have shown similar concerns and that can mutually strengthen one another, namely, geography and demography. Geography was one of the first disciplines to include risk in its environmental dimension and has had broad experience in simultaneously focusing on social and natural dynamics. Demography, on the other hand, faces greater difficulties because only recently has it incorporated the environmental dimension into its scientific scope. Both have brought the concept of vulnerability into their conceptual framework as complementary to that of risk. Geographers understand vulnerability as a more symbiotic form of the relationship between society and nature, whereas demographers give it a strong socioeconomic component. In this regard, the conceptual discussion on risks and vulnerabilities, in its attempt at approximating these two fields, is a way of conceptually advancing and strengthening the different approaches to empirical work, especially in population–environment studies which is the common ground for the dialogue between the two disciplines.