Contributions of ergonomics to the construction of bus drivers health and excellence in public transport and at work

This article is the product of research that analyzed the work of bus drivers of a public transportation company that is considered a benchmark reference in its field of operations, in which it strives to achieve operating excellence. Within this context, the authors sought to understand how such a company has managed to maintain a policy that is capable of reconciling quality public transport while also providing working conditions compatible with the professional development, comfort and health of its workers. Ergonomic work analysis and activity analysis were the guiding elements used in this study. Initial analyses indicate that the activity of drivers includes serving a population and providing mobility for it, which depends on driving the vehicle itself and on relationships with colleagues, users, pedestrians, drivers and others.     

Will gay and bisexually active men at high risk of infection use over-the-counter rapid HIV tests to screen sexual partners?

The Food and Drug Administration may license OraQuick?, a rapid HIV test, for over-the-counter (OTC) sale. This study investigated whether HIV-uninfected, non-monogamous, gay and bisexual men who never or rarely use condoms would use the test with partners as a harm-reduction approach. Sixty participants responded to two computer-assisted self-interviews, underwent an in-depth interview, and chose whether to test themselves with OraQuick. Over 80% of the men said they would use the kit to test sexual partners or themselves if it became available OTC. Most participants understood that antibody tests have a window period in which the virus is undetectable, yet saw advantages to using the test to screen partners; 74% tested themselves in our offices. Participants offered several possible strategies to introduce the home-test idea to partners, frequently endorsed mutual testing, and highlighted that home testing could stimulate greater honesty in serostatus disclosure. Participants drew distinctions between testing regular versus occasional partners. Non-monogamous men who have sex with men, who never or rarely use condoms, may nevertheless seek to avoid HIV. Technologies that do not interfere with sexual pleasure are likely to be used when available. Studies are needed to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using OTC rapid HIV tests as one additional harm-reduction tool.     

Who knows what? Reconfiguring the governance and the capabilities of the supply chain between physical and digital processes in the fashion industry

Abstract

On the basis of an exploratory multiple-case qualitative longitudinal study in the fashion industry, this article describes how digital technologies enabled choices among different types of supply chain governance. In doing so, this study responds to calls for governance-oriented longitudinal explorations and suggests an alternative path of governance choices in which the digital technologies become the platform that allows a dynamic discourse between outsourcer and outsourcee. Our results show that, when firms decide to leverage their performances through the adoption of information technology, they need to define their knowledge transfer capacities in order to adopt the appropriate type of governance model. With this article, we contribute to the global value chain literature adding to the knowledge transfer dimension.     

Transnationalism and American Exports in an English‐Speaking World1

Investigating the relationship between immigration, middleman minority status, transnationalism, and U.S. foreign trade, the authors assembled a census‐based data file that contains aggregate‐level variables for 88 foreign‐born groups by national origin between 1980 and 1990. They regressed immigrant characteristics and immigration volume upon time‐lagged import/export statistics from the same 88 nations between 1985 and 1995. Results show the independent influence on exports of immigrant entrepreneurship, transnationalism, and middleman minority status. But these variables, exhaustively derived from the existing literature, had no effect on U.S. imports; they only affected exports. The authors propose that the discrepancy between imports and exports arises because of the dominance of English as a world business language. In this situation, foreigners need no help from immigrants when they export to the United States; but native‐born, monolingual Americans need the help of bicultural immigrants when they export. The empirical results suggest that immigrant entrepreneurs enhance the United States' exports and thus reduce the United States' balance of payments deficit.     

Market‐Implied Spread for Earthquake CAT Bonds: Financial Implications of Engineering Decisions

In the event of natural and man‐made disasters, owners of large‐scale infrastructure facilities (assets) need contingency plans to effectively restore the operations within the acceptable timescales. Traditionally, the insurance sector provides the coverage against potential losses. However, there are many problems associated with this traditional approach to risk transfer including counterparty risk and litigation. Recently, a number of innovative risk mitigation methods, termed alternative risk transfer (ART) methods, have been introduced to address these problems. One of the most important ART methods is catastrophe (CAT) bonds. The objective of this article is to develop an integrative model that links engineering design parameters with financial indicators including spread and bond rating. The developed framework is based on a four‐step structural loss model and transformed survival model to determine expected excess returns. We illustrate the framework for a seismically designed bridge using two unique CAT bond contracts. The results show a nonlinear relationship between engineering design parameters and market‐implied spread.     

Large‐sample tests of extreme‐value dependence for multivariate copulas

Starting from the characterization of extreme‐value copulas based on max‐stability, large‐sample tests of extreme‐value dependence for multivariate copulas are studied. The two key ingredients of the proposed tests are the empirical copula of the data and a multiplier technique for obtaining approximate p‐values for the derived statistics. The asymptotic validity of the multiplier approach is established, and the finite‐sample performance of a large number of candidate test statistics is studied through extensive Monte Carlo experiments for data sets of dimension two to five. In the bivariate case, the rejection rates of the best versions of the tests are compared with those of the test of Ghoudi et al. (1998) recently revisited by Ben Ghorbal et al. (2009). The proposed procedures are illustrated on bivariate financial data and trivariate geological data. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 39: 703–720; 2011. © 2011 Statistical Society of Canada     

Survival of related individuals: An extension of some fundamental results of heterogeneity analysis

Many ideas in the analysis of heterogeneous mortality are based on the relationship between individual and observed hazard rates. This connection is established with the help of conditional averaging procedure: The observed risk of death at age x is calculated among those who survive this age. The analogy of this result for bivariate survival model with correlated individual hazards is derived. In the case of correlated frailty model the parametric specification of the mean, variance and correlation coefficient of the bivariate frailty distribution among survivors is obtained. The relationship between local association measure and the characteristics of the bivariate frailty distribution among survivors is established.