What was the Dust Bowl? Assessing contemporary popular knowledge

This article reports on an assessment of contemporary popular knowledge and perceptions of the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s. In a region prone to recurrent drought and evolving resource issues such as the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, it follows that knowledge of the Dust Bowl can contribute to understanding and dealing with contemporary and future challenges to the human–environment dynamic of the region. An age-stratified sample of residents from 93 Great Plains counties provided their understandings of the three Dust Bowl concepts (era, event, and region) via questionnaire. When compared with the academic record on the subject, significant variation between respondent age groups was identified. Successively, older generations of the historic Dust Bowl region maintain higher degrees of knowledge than their younger counterparts, regarding this exceptional chapter of American environmental history. This record of knowledge erosion not only speaks to the necessity of enhancing Dust Bowl educational resources, but can be utilized to underscore the salience of studying and documenting adaptive strategies to drought on the American Great Plains.     

Katrina in historical context: environment and migration in the U.S.

The massive publicity surrounding the exodus of residents from New Orleans spurred by Hurricane Katrina has encouraged interest in the ways that past migration in the U.S. has been shaped by environmental factors. So has Timothy Egan’s exciting book, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of those who survived the Great American Dust Bowl. This article places those dramatic stories into a much less exciting context, demonstrating that the kinds of environmental factors exemplified by Katrina and the Dust Bowl are dwarfed in importance and frequency by the other ways that environment has both impeded and assisted the forces of migration. We accomplish this goal by enumerating four types of environmental influence on migration in the U.S.: (1) environmental calamities, including floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes, (2) environmental hardships and their obverse, short-term environmental benefits, including both drought and short periods of favorable weather, (3) environmental amenities, including warmth, sun, and proximity to water or mountains, and (4) environmental barriers and their management, including heat, air conditioning, flood control, drainage, and irrigation. In U.S. history, all four of these have driven migration flows in one direction or another. Placing Katrina into this historical context is an important task, both because the environmental calamities of which Katrina is an example are relatively rare and have not had a wide impact, and because focusing on them defers interest from the other kinds of environmental impacts, whose effect on migration may have been stronger and more persistent, though less dramatic.     

知识经济时代我国企业人力资源发展及对策

知识经济时代,企业所面临的市场环境及人力资源都发生了深刻的变化,对企业组织及社会产生了深远的影响。人力资源作为企业组织取得和维系竞争优势的关键要素,也必然发生巨大的变化。我国知识经济时代企业人力资源也发生了各种变化,从变化中总结经验,确定我国企业人力资源的未来发展对策。     

Finding a Place for a Muslimah Heroine in the Post-9/11 Marvel Universe: New X-Men's Dust

Soon after the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, Marvel Comics introduced Dust, an observant Sunni Muslim, as a member of the New X-Men. In this study, we point out how the focus upon her Islamic faith departs from conventional depictions of superheroes in American popular media. Additionally, we discuss how her religious beliefs and practices define her as different, and thus sets her apart, from other superheroes. We also examine how, in keeping with the American monomyth metanarrative that informs the superhero genre, Dust functions as a liminal character, one who bridges the worlds of Islam and the West. The paper concludes by noting that Dust, in common with other superheroines, is relegated to the periphery of Marvel's narratives primarily because she is female.     

Drought,Migration and Population Growth in the Sahel: The Case of the Malian Gourma: 1900–1991

This paper explores the development of the population of the Gourma in Northern Mali from the beginning of this century to the present. As part of Northern Sahel, the area has been hard-hit by at least four droughts this century and is among the least developed in Mali. The data used include the available population censuses, colonial records and recent survey research. The droughts of 1973 and 1984 may have increased child mortality, but the most important effects may have been short-term reductions in fertility, as well as increased migration. While approximately 30 per cent of adult men are absent, the overall picture of migration is much more complex than simply one of emigration, as migration into the Gourma and internal redistribution of population also play an important role.     

Drought and disproportionate disease: an investigation of gendered vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS in less-developed nations

Environmental change and climate-related disasters are an under-examined factor impacting women’s health, globally. Drawing on ecofeminist theory, we conduct analyses examining if the HIV burden among women is higher in nations that experience suffering from droughts. Specifically, we posit that droughts, which typically impact more people and for greater lengths of time than other climate-related disasters, have a unique impact on women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. We use a cross-national dataset of less-developed countries and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to explore and compare relationships between suffering from drought and total HIV prevalence and suffering from drought and women’s proportion of HIV cases. Overall, the results demonstrate that while droughts have an inconsistent impact on total HIV prevalence, suffering from drought significantly increases the proportion of HIV cases among women in comparison to men, net of the impact of common economic, social, cultural, and political predictors. The findings suggest that suffering from drought differentially impacts women’s health in less-developed countries, where a number of mechanisms, such as transactional sex or displacement, likely underlie the associations identified.

     

Child care, women's employment, and child outcomes

This paper reviews the evidence on the impact of child care and maternal employment in the pre-school years on child outcomes. This topic has long been of interest to economists, developmental psychologists, and scholars from other disciplines, and has been the focus of increased attention in recent years, as research has provided additional evidence about the processes of development in the earliest days, weeks, and years of life.¹  In this paper, I review the evidence on two broad sets of questions: what we know about the potential benefits of early intervention child care programs, and what we know about the effects (whether positive or negative) of maternal employment and child care in the first years of life. The evidence reviewed in this paper suggests that we now know a good deal about both sets of questions. But, this review also suggests that there are important gaps in our knowledge that future work by economists could fruitfully address. Received: 9 December 1999/Accepted: 20 September 2000     

“三要素”人力资源定义探讨

目前的人力资源定义,讨论的侧重点是知识、能力等"共性化"要素。我们认为,个性、兴趣、价值观等"个性化"要素和努力、态度、情感等"情绪化"要素,也应该包含在人力资源的定义中。"个性化"要素和"情绪化"要素对人力资源的"贡献弹性",具有明显的控制和调节作用。三要素人力资源定义,可以提高人力资源概念对人力资源构成要素的覆盖能力、对人力资源管理实践的解释能力和对未来人力资源管理的前瞻能力。     

西部经济发展中的人力资源开发问题

资本包括物质资本和人力资本,在知识经济时代,人力资本已代替物质资本成为经济实现持续增长的真正“引擎”;通过人力资源开发形成高质量的人力资本,是西部地区形成创新能力、实现可持续发展以及迎接知识经济时代的战略选择。西部地区必须深刻认识人力资源开发的重要性,提高本地区教育水平,充分发挥现有人才优势,提高人力资源利用率。     

The evolutionary basis of sex variations in the use of natural resources: Human examples

People, unlike other primates, regularly consume foods acquired by others. When people forage for a living, women and men customarily acquire different foods and consume the products of each other's work. This distinctively human sexual division of labor has seemed the hallmark of human resource use. If men and women have different economic specialties, marriage creates a social unit that deploys their different capacities to serve family needs. Other distinctively human patterns then seem to arise from this fundamental economic cooperation between the sexes. In recent decades, the use of evolutionary theory to investigate and explain social behavior across the living world has revealed pervasive conflicts of interest between (as well as within) the sexes. Application of these tools to human examples shows the sexual division of labor to be the economic aspect of different and conflicting reproductive agendas for women and men. A review of some examples from communities where people hunt and gather for a living illustrates that families are not units of common economic interest. As with other primates, males and females have different reproductive goals and these differences shape sex differences in patterns of resource use.     

气候变化对宁夏生态脆弱地区农牧民生计的影响及适应策略

气候变化对人类生产生活的影响随地区和人群的不同而不同,其中对生态脆弱地区的贫困人群影响尤为特殊。本文以受干旱影响的典型区域一宁夏生态脆弱地区农牧民生计为例．试图通过对宁夏回族自治区5个县／市／区294户农牧家庭开展的问卷调查和访谈研究．分析气候变化对当地农牧民生产、生活和生存状况的具体影响内容及影响的程度．探讨农牧民应对气候变化的主要的生计适应措施。结果显示农牧民心理上的自我调适是人们在脆弱的状态下应对气候变化的前提,并通过多样化的生计方式、外出务工、自主性迁移等自适应方式来适应气候变化对农牧民生计带来的种种影响．同时生态脆弱地区气候变化的应对也离不开政府大环境背景下的制度设计和政策支持。     

Experiencing ‘drought and more’: local responses from rural Victoria, Australia

Uncertainty around long-term droughts and water scarcity has been increasing as the impacts of El Nino cycles are felt globally. Understanding how the effects of these events are manifested on the ground in communities is particularly important if governments and associated agencies are to respond appropriately. Using a qualitative approach, this paper examines the impacts of drought on two rural towns in Victoria, Australia, and explores what lessons can be drawn from local experiences. The research suggests that previous responses to drought by governments have been largely ineffectual and as such, we question whether there is a need to reshape institutional understandings of what adapting to drought might mean. This research, therefore, seeks to further the discussion surrounding drought impacts and the myriad of challenges associated with it by drawing on locally situated knowledge to inform future decision-making in this evolving field of study.     

Probiotics and human lactational mastitis: A scoping review

ProblemLactational mastitis is a common condition amongst breastfeeding women. It is associated with decreased breastfeeding rates and often treated with antibiotics.BackgroundThe anti-inflammatory effects of probiotics have been identified as a potential treatment or prevention strategy for lactational mastitis leading to increased commercial and public interest. Despite the marketing of probiotics to women, evidence is still emerging as to its efficacy.Aim/MethodsThis scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) to identify and examine the evidence around probiotic consumption and lactational mastitis. The review addressed the question; what is the evidence regarding probiotic consumption and human lactational mastitis? Studies were critically appraised using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist for randomised control trials (RCTs).FindingsFive RCTs met the inclusion criteria; three concerned probiotic consumption for the treatment of mastitis, two for the prevention of mastitis. All reported a lower incidence of mastitis in the probiotic groups.DiscussionAlthough potentially promising results were reported across all studies there were significant methodological limitations concerning; appropriately described baseline characteristics, study hypotheses, lack of power calculations, definitional issues, and potential conflicts of interest.ConclusionProbiotics may have utility for the treatment or prevention of lactational mastitis. However only a few studies with significant limitations have been published to date. Well designed and conducted studies are needed before evidence-based recommendations can be made for use of probiotics in the treatment or prevention of lactational mastitis.     

Recent perspectives on active life expectancy for older women

This article provides a critical review of recent active life expectancy literature, describing trends of special interest to women. We review findings from leading perspectives used to study life expectancy and active life expectancy, including gender, racial and socioeconomic differences, disease-specific effects, and biodemography. We examine three competing theories of population health that frame active life expectancy research-compression of morbidity, expansion of morbidity, and dynamic equilibrium-concluding there is support for both the compression of morbidity and dynamic equilibrium theories. Policy implications for women include a greater understanding of the role of education and racial and ethnic diversity in active life trends, and an increased public policy emphasis on prevention and treatment of chronic disease, together with adoption of more healthy lifestyles.     

The Concept,Dimensions and Methods of Assessment of Human Well-Being within a Socioecological Context: A Literature Review

The concept of well-being has evolved over the past several decades as research has continued to reveal its multidimensional, dynamic, person-specific and culture-specific nature. Most recently, the ecological embeddedness of well-being has also gained recognition, and this development of the concept demands that we explore and identify new conceptual frameworks and appropriate methodological approaches towards the assessment of quality of life within a socioecological context. This paper offers a review of seminal and current research in the fields of social indicators, human development, ecological economics, and natural resources management, with the aim of examining the concept and the various methodologies designed to assess both the objective and subjective components and the multiple dimensions that comprise well-being. We also present some methodological approaches that have the capacity to account for the role of ecosystem services, considering several studies of rural populations whose well-being depends on the flow of ecosystem services, highlighting the participatory methods these studies employed to identify and assess locally relevant well-being indicators, and addressing some of the challenges inherent in such methods. We conclude with an appraisal of what we regard as the most appropriate methodological approach for measuring human well-being in the socioecological context.     

Recent Perspectives on Active Life Expectancy for Older Women

SUMMARY

This article provides a critical review of recent active life expectancy literature, describing trends of special interest to women. We review findings from leading perspectives used to study life expectancy and active life expectancy, including gender, racial and socioeconomic differences, disease-specific effects, and biodemography. We examine three competing theories of population health that frame active life expectancy research—compression of morbidity, expansion of morbidity, and dynamic equilibrium—concluding there is support for both the compression of morbidity and dynamic equilibrium theories. Policy implications for women include a greater understanding of the role of education and racial and ethnic diversity in active life trends, and an increased public policy emphasis on prevention and treatment of chronic disease, together with adoption of more healthy lifestyles.     

“Così è (se vi pare)”: Remarks on Subjective Well-Being from a Resource-Based Perspective

The present international interest on subjective well-being in research and policy-making is put under a critical eye from the perspective of the Scandinavian resource-based approach on well-being. In its stereotypical formulation, the Scandinavian approach is first and foremost interested in access to sufficient resources for all, and also in fair distribution of resources in the population. The approach leaves little space for subjective well-being, or leaves it as a private issue that is not a policy concern. From the Scandinavian perspective, it seems that many research ideas and policy proposals inspired by subjective well-being can be returned to resource-based approach. The paper discusses critically some recent proposals of strengthening the role of subjective well-being in research and policy. It also points out that the Scandinavian approach is not a monolith, but a number of side currents have always existed there, including ideas related to subjective well-being. Finally, the paper describes a rising interest in subjective well-being in the Nordic countries, too, although resource-based approach still dominates in welfare policies.     

A Few Good Men and Women: Gender,Race, and Status in the Wartime Volunteer Military

Much is known about the men who entered the US military during draft era wars and the peacetime volunteer era. Relatively less is known about those who turned 18 during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Journalists, advocates, and politicians have expressed concern that wartime volunteer service has been inequitable. Yet there is apparently only one peer-reviewed article that explores the socioeconomic characteristics of the men who came of age after the start of the recent wars, and none that evaluate how race and status of female recruits varied. To assess these questions, the following article develops a theoretical model building on the status attainment and life course traditions. It uses data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, which contains information about a national sample of people who became eligible to join the armed forces during the height of the wartime volunteer era. It does not find evidence that low-status and minority men were disproportionately likely to enlist. Indeed, those with low-status were less likely to do so, partly because they were excluded by military standards. Men were particularly unlikely to join the armed forces, however, if they grew up in high-status rather than families in the middle of the status distribution. By contrast, women were most likely to join the armed forces if they came from the lower-middle than from anywhere else in the status distribution. Minority men were no more likely than white men to enlist, but black women were disproportionately likely to join the military.     

Climate,migration, and the local food security context: introducing Terra Populus

Studies investigating the connection between environmental factors and migration are difficult to execute because they require the integration of microdata and spatial information. In this article, we introduce the novel, publically available data extraction system Terra Populus (TerraPop), which was designed to facilitate population–environment studies. We showcase the use of TerraPop by exploring variations in the climate–migration association in Burkina Faso and Senegal based on differences in the local food security context. Food security was approximated using anthropometric indicators of child stunting and wasting derived from Demographic and Health Surveys and linked to the TerraPop extract of climate and migration information. We find that an increase in heat waves was associated with a decrease in international migration from Burkina Faso, while excessive precipitation increased international moves from Senegal. Significant interactions reveal that the adverse effects of heat waves and droughts are strongly amplified in highly food insecure Senegalese departments.     

If GDP is Not the Answer,What is the Question? The Juncture of Capabilities,Institutions and Measurement in the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report

This review essay offers an institutional critique of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report. The notion of human capabilities and functionings advocated by the Report demonstrates an inspirational perspective to monitor human progress in quality of life (QoL). Several measurements the Report suggested remain inadequate. The personal diary techniques have some potential as it possesses strength in recording hedonic activities, but it is relatively weak in revealing eudaimonic experiences. The Report unfortunately mixes up outcome indicators of QoL at individual level and the higher-ordered, social institutions in mapping out causal processes of human wellbeing. Future researchers can contribute by concentrating on clarifying the plausible linkage between institutions and individual wellbeing in broad sense. There is much knowledge to be gained by researchers who ask questions of “how we can change” rather than answer to “what we can measure”