France, Germany and Islam: Negotiating Identities

Since the 1980s Islam in France and Germany has become part of the discourse of immigrants as well as the public authorities, and a source of action for militants active in voluntary associations. For immigrants it becomes a way of reappropriating an identity. The discourse reflects a sense of belonging to a community, the elements of which are drawn from its practice, its tradition and its rituals. Its organization reflects the expectation of individuals and the public authorities. This essay analyses the interaction between immigrant organizations and the state in France and Germany, and the role of the state in building a community defined by its religion towards the state.     

Feminist And Postfeminist Readings Of Romantic Narratives

This paper examines the reception and interpretation of romantic narratives among fifteen Israeli heterosexual women viewers of the TV series Sex and the City. Based upon the dialogue carried out by the participants in two discussion groups and individual interviews, I map the different strategies employed by the viewers in interpreting the show, as situated within their worldviews concerning issues such as romance and romantic relationships, power relations, and social gender roles.     

Risk Estimation and Value-of-Information Analysis for Three Proposed Genetic Screening Programs for Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention

Genetic differences (polymorphisms) among members of a population are thought to influence susceptibility to various environmental exposures. In practice, however, this information is rarely incorporated into quantitative risk assessment and risk management. We describe an analytic framework for predicting the risk reduction and value-of-information (VOI) resulting from specific risk management applications of genetic biomarkers, and we apply the framework to the example of occupational chronic beryllium disease (CBD), an immune-mediated pulmonary granulomatous disease. One described Human Leukocyte Antigen gene variant, HLA-DP beta 1*0201, contains a substitution of glutamate for lysine at position 69 that appears to have high sensitivity (approximately 94%) but low specificity (approximately 70%) with respect to CBD among individuals occupationally exposed to respirable beryllium. The expected postintervention CBD prevalence rates for using the genetic variant (1) as a required job placement screen, (2) as a medical screen for semiannual in place of annual lymphocyte proliferation testing, or (3) as a voluntary job placement screen are 0.08%, 0.8%, and 0.6%, respectively, in a hypothetical cohort with 1% baseline CBD prevalence. VOI analysis is used to examine the reduction in total social cost, calculated as the net value of disease reduction and financial expenditures, expected for proposed CBD intervention programs based on the genetic susceptibility test. For the example cohort, the expected net VOI per beryllium worker for genetically based testing and intervention is $13,000, $1,800, and $5,100, respectively, based on a health valuation of $1.45 million per CBD case avoided. VOI results for alternative CBD evaluations are also presented. Despite large parameter uncertainty, probabilistic analysis predicts generally positive utility for each of the three evaluated programs when avoidance of a CBD case is valued at $1 million or higher. Although the utility of a proposed risk management program may be evaluated solely in terms of risk reduction and financial costs, decisions about genetic testing and program implementation must also consider serious social, legal, and ethical factors.     

The Importance of Governance Levels in Alternative Food Networks: The Case of Red Meat Inspection Rules

Focusing on U.S. red meat inspection regulations, in the context of alternative food networks (AFNs), we explore the implications of different levels of governmental governance for the number of red meat slaughter establishments in the United States. We argue that disaggregating “the state” makes possible a more nuanced consideration of the effects of different tiers of governance. We use regression analysis with data for 40 U.S. states over 40 years to examine the effects of state (subnational) inspection programs and implementation of the federal Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations on the number of slaughter establishments by type. In this analysis we test two common beliefs among AFN actors: that state inspection helps, and HACCP hurts, small slaughter establishments. It also allows us to make a case for disaggregating governance tiers as we find that state inspection programs and HACCP have significant and opposite effects on the number of federally and non–federally inspected slaughter establishments. Our analysis supports the belief that state inspection is important to small slaughter establishments, but does not support the belief that HACCP has had a negative effect on them. Our conclusion is that agrifood scholars need to pay attention to different forms of governmental governance even with the increased focus on private and third‐party certifications.     

Societal Gender Inequality as Moderator of the Relationship Between Work–Life Fit and Subjective Well-Being: A Multilevel Analysis Across European Countries

Social Indicators Research - Social well-being of person who works in social services as well as hospital staff has a large effect on care quality and organizational efficiency. The aim of this...     

Use of Quality-Adjusted Life Year Weights with Dose-Response Models for Public Health Decisions: A Case Study of the Risks and Benefits of Fish Consumption

Risks associated with toxicants in food are often controlled by exposure reduction. When exposure recommendations are developed for foods with both harmful and beneficial qualities, however, they must balance the associated risks and benefits to maximize public health. Although quantitative methods are commonly used to evaluate health risks, such methods have not been generally applied to evaluating the health benefits associated with environmental exposures. A quantitative method for risk-benefit analysis is presented that allows for consideration of diverse health endpoints that differ in their impact (i.e., duration and severity) using dose-response modeling weighted by quality-adjusted life years saved. To demonstrate the usefulness of this method, the risks and benefits of fish consumption are evaluated using a single health risk and health benefit endpoint. Benefits are defined as the decrease in myocardial infarction mortality resulting from fish consumption, and risks are defined as the increase in neurodevelopmental delay (i.e., talking) resulting from prenatal methylmercury exposure. Fish consumption rates are based on information from Washington State. Using the proposed framework, the net health impact of eating fish is estimated in either a whole population or a population consisting of women of childbearing age and their children. It is demonstrated that across a range of fish methylmercury concentrations (0-1 ppm) and intake levels (0-25 g/day), individuals would have to weight the neurodevelopmental effects 6 times more (in the whole population) or 250 times less (among women of child-bearing age and their children) than the myocardial infarction benefits in order to be ambivalent about whether or not to consume fish. These methods can be generalized to evaluate the merits of other public health and risk management programs that involve trade-offs between risks and benefits.     

Estimation of a Benchmark Dose in the Presence or Absence of Hormesis Using Posterior Averaging

U.S. Environment Protection Agency benchmark doses for dichotomous cancer responses are often estimated using a multistage model based on a monotonic dose‐response assumption. To account for model uncertainty in the estimation process, several model averaging methods have been proposed for risk assessment. In this article, we extend the usual parameter space in the multistage model for monotonicity to allow for the possibility of a hormetic dose‐response relationship. Bayesian model averaging is used to estimate the benchmark dose and to provide posterior probabilities for monotonicity versus hormesis. Simulation studies show that the newly proposed method provides robust point and interval estimation of a benchmark dose in the presence or absence of hormesis. We also apply the method to two data sets on carcinogenic response of rats to 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐p‐dioxin.