Workplace aggression against health care workers,law enforcement officials,and bus drivers: Differences in prevalence,perceptions, and psychological consequences

Investigations into workplace aggression (WPA) remain largely occupation specific, with few studies using a comparative approach. The aim of the present study was to compare the health care, law enforcement, and public transportation sectors with regards to the prevalence of different types of WPA, the perceptions of workers toward WPA, and the psychological consequences of such acts. A cross-sectional survey was completed by 1,774 workers in Canada. Multinomial regressions were utilized to address the objectives. Findings revealed that verbal abuse victimization was particularly common in bus drivers, witnessing death threats was most frequent among law enforcement officials, and witnessing all types of WPA was most common among health care workers. Although bus drivers did not normalize WPA, they feared complaining about violence to their employer and thought it useless to talk it about unless wounds were visible. Fear of complaining about violence to colleagues was prevalent in health care and law enforcement, both sectors in which WPA was normalized. Finally, flashbacks and irritability following WPA were most likely to affect bus drivers whereas health care workers experienced hypervigilance to a greater extent. Strategies to tailor primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention according to these distinctions are suggested to offer a better-informed response to WPA.     

“Friendly” Initiatives: An Emerging Approach to Improve Communities for Vulnerable Populations

A growing number of cities and towns are implementing “friendly” initiatives to change the community’s social and physical infrastructure to address the needs of a particular vulnerable segment of their population. Three prominent examples are aging-friendly, child-friendly, and immigrant-friendly initiatives. Although the limited but growing literature describes these initiatives as promising strategies to improve the quality of life of the targeted population, to date there has been little written about the underlying goals, values, and assumptions of these efforts. Using the value-critical approach, this article aims to better understand these aspects of population-friendly initiatives by examining the scholarly and grey literature. Social workers engaged in community and policy practice can play a key role in these efforts and call attention to the ways they may alleviate or exacerbate inequities. Future research is needed to assess the effects of these initiatives on their targeted population as well as other community residents.     

Sociopolitical and Cultural Correlates of Internalized Homonegativity in Gay and Bisexual Men: Findings from a Global Study

Objectives: Based on the premise that internalized homonegativity (IH) is a product of the incorporation of environmental heterosexism, the authors examined the influence of sociopolitical and individual influences on IH. Methods: The cross-sectional study consisted of 109,382 gay and bisexual men across 77 countries. Results: Variables at the (European) country-level that were associated with higher levels of IH included lack of laws recognizing same-sex relationships and perceived and actual negative gay-related public opinion about homosexuals. Individual-level variables significantly associated with IH were public opinion about homosexuals and exposure to gay-related victimization/discrimination. Conclusions: An improved sociopolitical climate for LGB individuals is needed.     

Identification-robust moment-based tests for Markov switching in autoregressive models

ABSTRACT

This paper develops tests of the null hypothesis of linearity in the context of autoregressive models with Markov-switching means and variances. These tests are robust to the identification failures that plague conventional likelihood-based inference methods. The approach exploits the moments of normal mixtures implied by the regime-switching process and uses Monte Carlo test techniques to deal with the presence of an autoregressive component in the model specification. The proposed tests have very respectable power in comparison with the optimal tests for Markov-switching parameters of Carrasco et al. (2014 Carrasco, M., Hu, L., Ploberger, W. (2014). Optimal test for Markov switching parameters. Econometrica 82(2):765–784.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and they are also quite attractive owing to their computational simplicity. The new tests are illustrated with an empirical application to an autoregressive model of USA output growth.     

Alcohol use and strenuous physical activity in college students: A longitudinal test of 2 explanatory models of health behavior

Objective: To help clarify the effect of gender on the bidirectional relationship between alcohol use and strenuous physical activity in college students. Participants: Five hundred twenty-four (52% female) college students recruited in August 2008 and 2009 and followed up in April 2009 and April 2011, respectively. Methods: Participants reported their alcohol use and strenuous physical activity on 2 occasions (baseline and follow-up) spaced approximately 1 or 2 years apart. Results: For females, alcohol use quantity at baseline was associated with increased strenuous physical activity at 1- and 2-year follow-ups, and alcohol use frequency at baseline was associated with decreased strenuous physical activity at 2-year follow-up. For males, alcohol use frequency at baseline predicted decreased strenuous physical activity at 1-year follow-up. Conclusions: Gender differences may be explained from an eating disorders perspective such that women use physical activity as a compensatory strategy to combat potential weight gain from calories consumed during alcohol use.     

Exploring how the social model of disability can be re-invigorated for autism: in response to Jonathan Levitt

Levitt argues that the social model of disability needs to be re-invigorated, potentially by adapting the tool for separate countries. The social model has been successfully applied for some disabled groups in the United Kingdom. However, the social model is not implemented for neurodivergent labels such as autism, through the negative language of autism, causing severe problems for autistic individuals’ daily lives. The social model can be re-invigorated for autism, removing social barriers by changing non-autistic people’s attitudes towards autism through ensuring positive language of autism, preventing the categorisation of autism and fully enacting The Autism Act 2009 and The Equality Act 2010.     

社会团体的三个面向与社会管理职能的发挥

发挥社会组织在社会管理领域的各项职能,对于创新社会管理具有十分重要的意义。以社会团体为例,它在社会管理领域的主要职能来源于三个面向,即:面向会员———规范会员行为,促进行业自律;面向公众———提供公共服务,促进资源整合配置;面向政府和其他团体———促进利益协商与对话,参与公共决策。在此过程中,社会团体对于激发社会活力、增加社会和谐因素、减少社会不和谐因素等发挥着重要的作用。当前,为促进社会团体的发展,调整政府与社会团体的关系、加大政策和资金的扶持力度是十分必要的。     

新疆农业经济波动的数量分析

新疆农业波动的数量分析以新疆农业总产值增长率作为考察指标,按照"谷一谷"划分法,在1979-2004年的26年中,新疆农业增长率呈现5个周期(其中第5个周期尚未结束).纵向上,改革开放以后新疆农业波动状态特征是由剧烈转向平缓;横向上,新疆农业波动幅度大于新疆经济波动幅度.     

精益成本管理模式及其启示

国外的精益成本管理模式是以客户满意为前提,以精益管理为手段,以降低成本为途径,以提高企业竞争力为目标,形成了包括采购、设计、生产、物流、服务等作业环节上的企业供应链成本管理理念。随着我国社会主义市场经济体制的逐步建立和完善,企业成为市场的主体,服务客户的观念和成本竞争的意识已深入企业日常管理活动中,使我国企业开始面临以作业流程为核心的供应链的再造。因此,国外精益成本管理思想很值得我国企业界深入学习和实践。然而,精益成本管理对企业的信息交流渠道与组织管理机构要求的条件较高,目前在我国实施还有一定的困难,但是,它对我国企业改善成本管理的基础工作仍提出了很多有益的启示。