Care of older people in migration contexts: local and transnational arrangements between Peru and Spain

Care arrangements for the elderly are becoming a main social process in contemporary societies due to socio-political and lifestyle changes over the last few decades. The family and the State play a basic role in the construction of care systems and in the establishment of strategies to access care resources. In the present context of migration, these resources interact at a transnational level, challenging family and State migratory regimes. These new realities need the recognition of basic international social rights, as the experiences of Peruvians living in a migration context in Spain show.     

Hand therapy and ergonomics: integration of approaches in vocational rehabilitation and promotion of decent work in Brazil

Among the indicators of Decent Work in Brazil, the one referring to the "Safe Working Environment" was the only which had no improvement in the time series analyzed by the International Labor Organisation. There is an increased number of accidents with significant economic and social impacts. Given that many of these accidents involve the hands and cause functional sequels, this paper presents an integration between the approaches of Hand Therapy and Ergonomics in order to facilitate the process of rehabilitation and reintegration, as well as acting to prevent further accidents, thus contributing to the promotion of Decent Work in the country, particularly with regard to safety and health at work and equal opportunities.     

$${\mathcal{L}}_p$$ loss functions: a robust bayesian approach

In bayesian inference, the Bayes estimator is the alternative with the minimum expected loss. In most cases, the loss function shows the distance between the alternative and the parameter. Therefore, any distance can lead to a loss function. Among the best known distance functions is L _p one, where the choice of value p may be difficult and arbitrary. This paper examines robust models where the loss function is modelled by family L _p . Our solution concept is the non-dominated alternative. We characterize the non-dominated set by having the posterior distribution function satisfy a particular asymmetry property. We also include an example to illustrate the methodology described.     

On a criticism of the profile likelihood function

The profile likelihood function is often criticized for giving strange or unintuitive results. In the cases discussed here these are due to the use of density functions that have singularities. These singularities are naturally inherited by the profile likelihood function. It is therefore apparently important to be reminded that likelihood functions are proportional to probability functions, and so cannot have singularities. When this issue is addressed, then the profile likelihood poses no problems of this sort. This is of particular importance since the profile likelihood is a commonly used method for dealing with separate estimation of parameters.     

Prenatal development in rural South Africa: relationship between birth weight and access to fathers and grandparents

Birth weight is an indicator of prenatal development associated with health in infancy and childhood, and may be affected by the family environment experienced by the mother during pregnancy. Using data from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, we explore the importance of the mother's access to the father and grandparents of the child during pregnancy. Controlling for household socio-economic indicators and maternal characteristics, the survival and residence of the biological father with the mother are positively associated with birth weight. The type of relationship seems to matter: married women have the heaviest newborns, but co-residence with a non-marital partner is also associated with higher birth weight. Access to the maternal grandmother may also be important: women whose mothers are alive have heavier newborns, but no additional benefit is observed from residing together. Co-residence with any grandparent is not associated with birth weight after controlling for the mother's partnership.     

The “New Mestiza,” the Old Mestizos: Contrasting Discourses on Mestizaje*

This article analyzes varying, inconsistent, representations of “mestizaje” (generally construed as racial or cultural mixing in the Americas) deriving from different historical settings and ideological frameworks. It particularly focuses on what I here term “old mestizaje,” summarized in the writings of Latin American intellectuals of the first quarter of the twentieth century, such as Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos (The Cosmic Race); and “new mestizaje,” articulated in the works of such contemporary thinkers as Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa (Borderlands/La Frontera: The NewMestiza). The center piece of the article is the contradictions and fractures between old and new discourses in terms of their underlying views of race, identity, and “destiny.” It examines the links of old mestizaje with essentialist, Social Darwinist, concepts, and the foundations of new mestizaje on a critical cultural studies paradigm. I propose that various aspects of old mestizaje infused hegemonic racial ideologies throughout Latin America and engendered a form of “color blindness” that obscured pervasive racial inequalities in the region.     

Mentoring,educational services,and incentives to learn: What do we know about them?

This paper reviews recent studies on the effectiveness of services and incentives offered to disadvantaged youths both in the US and abroad. We focus our analysis on three types of interventions: mentoring, educational services, and financial rewards. The objective of this article is threefold. First, we explain alternative theoretical points of view in favor (or against-when applicable) each of these interventions. We then discuss how recent empirical work has affected that view and summarize the latest findings. We conclude by considering which questions remain to be examined. Our hope is that this article will serve as a resource for those seeking to understand which educational interventions work and for whom, and to be used as a starting point for the debate on where to go next.