Using occupational structure to measure employability with an application to the Brazilian labor market

We propose measuring individual employability as a weighted average across occupations of a worker’s predicted wage for each occupation. Weights are given by the individual occupational probability distribution. Under this measure, a worker is more employable than another if she has a greater chance to obtain a better paid occupation. After normalization, expected employability corresponds to the population correlation between occupational predicted wages and the chance to obtain employment in these occupations and serves as a measure of the allocative efficiency of labor market. We apply the methodology to Brazil and found that employability increased and became less unequally distributed from 2002 to 2011. We used a decomposition method to investigate the causes of these changes. Although average normalized employability is weakly positive, it has increased for the period, which suggests that there is room for efficiency gains in the allocation of workers to occupations in the Brazilian labor market.     

Estimation of damage to human health due to forest burning in the Amazon

Forest burning stands as a highly used practice in the Brazilian Amazon Forest. Burning trees is the cheapest way to expand agricultural frontiers in the Amazon region. Nevertheless, the smoke generated in this process can produce undesirable negative effects, in particular health-induced problems by the polluted air. This study aims to investigate whether these effects on the health of the region’s population are statistically significant, using as variables mortality and morbidity rates associated with respiratory diseases. The estimated morbidity model was used to estimate the health damage to those people who became ill only by the fire.

A brief essay on ergonomics in graphic design

Through Brazilian publication revision on the relations amongst Ergonomics and Design, we observed the tendency towards an approach focusing on product design. However, it is our duty to question which would be the influences of ergonomics in the graphic design. As a methodology, we considered the identification that the practices derived from ergonomics as epistemic system found in the main bibliography related to graphic design.     

The Prevalence and Types of Gambling Among Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in New York City

Objectives To examine the prevalence of gambling and types of gambling activities in a sample of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Design Non-probability cross-sectional design. Setting New York City. Sample The 431 respondents ranged in age from 18 to 80 (mean age 32), 69.7% were male. Results More than half (53.8%) reported gambling in their lifetime and of those most (43.9%) played scratch and win tickets or the lottery. In multivariate analyses men reported gambling more than women [2.13, 95% CI = (1.03, 4.38)]. The odds of gambling in their lifetime were higher among those reporting sending money to family or friends in the home country [2.65, 95% CI = 1.10, 6.38)], and those who reported 1–5 days as compared to no days of poor mental health in the past 30 days [2.44, 95% CI = 1.22, 4.89)]. Conversely, those who reported entering the U.S. to live after 1996 were less likely to report gambling [0.44, 95% CI = (0.22, 0.89)] as compared to those who had lived in the U.S. longer. Conclusion There is a need to further explore both the prevalence and the severity of gambling amongst the growing population of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the U.S.     

Why Do Transnationally Mobile People Volunteer? Insights From a Swiss Case Study

Based on 44 qualitative interviews with transnationally mobile people engaged in 28 different associations in Switzerland, this article tries to understand the motives behind the choice to volunteer, i.e. to actively and regularly engage in associations. These interviews reveal the great importance of associations in fostering inclusion in both the new living place and the place of origin. They further reveal that mobile people, no matter where they come from or why they are on the move, turn to associations for similar motives. In order of importance, they turn to associations to secure material advantages, to find ways of defining their identity in a manner that is both coherent and compatible with the host society and to socialize with people who are thought of as trustworthy.     

Dimensions of social capital and subjective well-being: evidence from Italy

The concept of social capital was investigated as an explanatory variable of a number of significant socio-economic phenomena, such as economic development, the well-functioning of institutions, and school performance. This study proposes an analysis of the relation between social capital and well-being. The two concepts have been interpreted by social sciences in many different ways. In particular, as a result of its recent success, social capital has been the object of a great deal of interpretations. Social scientists have considered it either as a collective resource (macro social capital), or as an available resource amongst members of specific groups (friends, associations, local communities, etc.; i.e. meso social capital), or as a resource that individuals can achieve through their personal networks (micro social capital). Using data from a representative sample of Italian citizens (25–80 years old), this work investigates which dimension (micro, meso, or macro) of social capital has (if any) a major influence on subjective well-being. Data show some interdependence only with the macro social capital, and suggest that it is just the symbolic and cognitive qualities of the social capital, rather than its structural dimension, that could be associated with subjective well-being in a significant way.     

Assessing switchability for biosimilar products: modelling approaches applied to children's growth

The present paper describes two statistical modelling approaches that have been developed to demonstrate switchability from the original recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) formulation (Genotropin^®) to a biosimilar product (Omnitrope^®) in children suffering from growth hormone deficiency. Demonstrating switchability between rhGH products is challenging because the process of growth varies with the age of the child and across children. The first modelling approach aims at predicting individual height measured at several time‐points after switching to the biosimilar. The second modelling approach provides an estimate of the deviation from the overall growth rate after switching to the biosimilar, which can be regarded as an estimate of switchability. The results after applying these approaches to data from a randomized clinical trial are presented. The accuracy and precision of the predictions made using the first approach and the small deviation from switchability estimated with the second approach provide sufficient evidence to conclude that switching from Genotropin^® to Omnitrope^® has a very small effect on growth, which is neither statistically significant nor clinically relevant. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring Capacities for Community Resilience

The purpose of this study was to measure the sets of adaptive capacities for Economic Development and Social Capital in the Norris et al. (2008) community resilience model with publicly accessible population indicators. Our approach involved five steps. First, we conducted a literature review on measurements of the capacities. Second, we created an exhaustive “wish list” of relevant measures that operationalized the concepts presented in the literature. Third, we identified data sources and searched for archival, population-level data that matched our indicators. Fourth, we systematically tested correlations of indicators within and across the theoretical elements and used this information to select a parsimonious group of indicators. Fifth, we combined the indicators into composites of Economic Development and Social Capital and an additive index of Community Resilience using Mississippi county data, and validated these against a well-established index of social vulnerability and aggregated survey data on collective efficacy. We found that our measure of community resilience capacities correlated favorably and as expected when validated with the archival and survey data. This study provides the first step in identifying existing capacities that may predict a community’s ability to “bounce back” from disasters, thereby reducing post-trauma health and mental health problems.     

An exploratory study on the conditions of health, safety and environmental affairs of very small and small-size enterprises in Brazil

This paper focuses on the reality of very small and small enterprises (VSSEs) in Brazil, concerning health and safety management of their workers. These companies tend to operate in a few administrative levels. The owners' health and safety culture is fundamental for the implementation of preventive measures. The VSSEs end up adopting merely reactive and under-the-law actions. In order to understand such reality, a questionnaire was elaborated especially for the research made. Fifty-five very small and small enterprises of the industrial, commercial and service sectors were selected. The research confirmed the reactive attitude shown by the VSSEs, thus demonstrating that none of the companies involved presented policies of safety and health. Even though not holding policies, programs or scopes of their activities, 22% of them revealed to have a clear definition of the responsibilities of their high level administration. Nevertheless, 10% had financial resources allocated to this sector. Such companies do not count on a frequent safety and health support. The ignorance on it leads them to take a reactive action. This study reaches its objective on contributing to the debate, besides indicating that the way to improvement is on the strict cooperation between governments, companies, workers and society.