Scheduling Updates of Probabilistic Risk Assessments: The Arkansas Nuclear One-Unit 1 Experience

This paper presents the results of a study that identified how often a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA)should be updated to accommodate the changes that take place at nuclear power plants. Based on a 7-year analysis of design and procedural changes at one plant, we consider 5 years to be the maximum interval for updating PRAs. This conclusion is preliminary because it is based on the review of changes that occurred at a single plant, and it addresses only PRAs that involve a Level 1 analysis (i.e., a PRA including calculation of core damage frequency only). Nevertheless, this conclusion indicates that maintaining a useful PRA requires periodic updating efforts. However, the need for this periodic update stems only partly from the number of changes that can be expected to take place at nuclear power plants–changes that individually have only a moderate to minor impact on the PRA, but whose combined impact is substantial and necessitates a PRA update. Additionally, a comparison of two generations of PRAs performed about 5 years apart indicates that PRAs must be periodically updated to reflect the evolution of PRA methods. The most desirable updating interval depends on these two technical considerations as well as the cost of updating the PRA. (Cost considerations, however, were beyond the scope of this study.)     

When the Export of Social Problems Is No Longer Possible: Immigration Policies and Unemployment in Switzerland

Throughout the twentieth century, Switzerland has been one of the OECD countries with the highest proportion of immigrants in its population. The aim of this article is to show how institutional factors have shaped the opportunities for change in immigration and immigrant‐employment‐related policies there in the 1990s. Whereas unemployment had remained low in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a marked increase at the beginning of the 1990s. Existing migration policies were considered a central cause of this increase, since the great majority of foreigners who had come and settled in Switzerland in the periods of economic expansion were low‐skilled, and were now over‐represented among the unemployed. The reforms undertaken in the field of immigration and integration policy to respond to these new problems have been determined by specific institutional factors: direct democracy, a defensive migration regime, the development of immigrant rights and the weak autonomy of the central state. These factors account to a large extent for the limited scope and specific pathways of policy reforms in these two domains.     

Stable and visualizable Gaussian parsimonious clustering models

Gaussian mixture model-based clustering is now a standard tool to determine a hypothetical underlying structure in continuous data. However, many usual parsimonious models, despite either their appealing geometrical interpretation or their ability to deal with high dimensional data, suffer from major drawbacks due to scale dependence or unsustainability of the constraints after projection. In this work we present a new family of parsimonious Gaussian models based on a variance-correlation decomposition of the covariance matrices. These new models are stable when projected into the canonical planes and, so, faithfully representable in low dimension. They are also stable by modification of the measurement units of the data and such a modification does not change the model selection based on likelihood criteria. We highlight all these stability properties by a specific graphical representation of each model. A detailed Generalized EM (GEM) algorithm is also provided for every model inference. Then, on biological and geological data, we compare our stable models to standard ones (geometrical models and factor analyzer models), which underlines all the profit to obtain unit-free models.     

Adjustment for nonresponse with variables from different sources: Bias correction and precision loss,with application to the Swiss European Social Survey 2012

ABSTRACT

Adjustment for nonresponse should reduce the nonresponse bias without decreasing the precision of the estimates. Adjustment for nonresponses are commonly based on socio-demographic variables, although these variables may be poorly correlated with response propensities and with variables of interest. Such variables nevertheless have the advantage of being available for all sample units, whether or not they are participating in the survey. Alternatively, adjustment for nonresponse can be obtained from a follow-up survey aimed at sample units which did not participate in the survey and from which the variables are designed to be correlated with response propensities. However, information collected through these follow-up surveys is not available for people in the sample who participated neither in the survey nor in its nonresponse follow-up. These two sets of variables when used in a nonresponse model for the Swiss European Social Survey 2012 differ only slightly with regard to their effect on bias correction and on the precision of estimates. The variables from the follow-up are performing slightly better. In both cases, the adjustment for nonresponse performs poorly.     

Portuguese Scientists’ Migration: a study on the 2008 crisis aftermath

In the economic and social aftermath of the 2008 crisis there has been an important and growing new wave of highly qualified Portuguese emigration comprising scientists. No or very few public policies have been designed to reverse this phenomenon, risking the consequences of brain drain. International literature argues that professional reasons are central to scientists’ decision to migrate, even after the 2008 crisis. Spending some time in a foreign country to study, research, or teach, is perceived as a common step in an individual academic trajectory and an advantage for a successful professional career in academia. It is also encouraged by European Union policies. Twelve individual portraits of Portuguese scientists living in central Europe reveal how important other factors are to the migration decision‐making process. These factors include the economic crisis, student mobility programmes, and the current Portuguese scientific system revision.     

Musculoskeletal symptoms and workers' perception about job factors in a pulp and paper industry

The study aimed to conduct a literature review as a step of the development of a new questionnaire about the nursing workers' perception of job factors that may lead to musculoskeletal symptoms. An information synthesis was achieved by collecting data from studies that fitted the search criteria. The results showed that despite the existence of several job factors related to musculoskeletal symptoms, no specific questionnaire that evaluates this relationship was found. Therefore, this literature review presents important topics for developing the first questionnaire to analyze work activities that may contribute to pain and discomfort among nursing personnel.     

Assembling the dance: reggae sound system practices in the United Kingdom and France

Reggae sound systems are assemblages of speakers, record decks, and amplifiers that permit sound to be reproduced at very powerful levels. Sound systems crews, alongside an extended affinity group, build their own systems and organize and engineer the space of the dance. Interviews with crews from the United Kingdom and France reveal differences in how they each draw from the history of Jamaican musical experimentation when making spaces to collectively immerse the crew and crowd in sound. Yet in both cases, their approach to sound design communicates a commitment to inclusivity, maintaining an emphasis on the “vibe,” which progressively alters participants’ somatic experience and perceptions. In contrast to “dancehall” in Jamaica, such sound systems disrupt understandings of a “standard” setup that reinforces hierarchical relationships between performers and audience. Crews also downplay the visual aspects of the “dance” and dancing and are consciously non-consumerist. Thus, different crews’ histories and associations alter how they enact, feel, and understand similar conventions.     

The Impact of Patronymic Attractiveness on Employability

We link patronymics (first and last names presented together) to success in the job market by investigating the influence of name attractiveness on employability. Using data from a recruitment agency, we tested (binomial regression) for effects associated with age, gender, and name attractiveness on job interview outcomes. We found that candidates with more attractive patronymics were more likely to be retained by employers.     

Implementing a diversity policy through public incentives: Diversity Plans in companies of the Brussels-Capital Region

ABSTRACT

The development of diversity policies in the private sector is mostly a result of a voluntary engagement of companies. When interested, they decide about the ways and goals of such policies, implications for human resource management and the inclusion of staff with a migration background. This article explores a specific situation in which public authorities offered support and resources to companies in order to develop diversity policies. I present a first analysis of the implementation dynamics of the Brussels Diversity Plan, a policy instrument launched in 2007 by the Government of the city-region of Brussels. Building on the theoretical tools of the political sociology of public policies, I use qualitative material (interviews and administrative documents) to explore implementation processes in three private companies. I show that public authorities can play a decisive role in developing diversity policies in the private sector through incentives rather than constraint. Yet, the room for manoeuver offered to companies leads to important variations regarding how processes unfold and the results achieved.