When gender bumps into health and safety training: working conditions, readings and challenges drawn from a case study in an industrial chemicals company

Health, safety and environmental issues are at present a social concern and an increasingly referred topic in the so called gender studies. This paper focuses on the relations between training, gender and risk perception in an industrial chemicals company, in Portugal, characterized by a mainly male population and by the presence of high occupational and environmental hazards. After characterizing the company and the training project that started up this reflection, the paper presents the reasons for its focus on gender followed by the essential methodological explanations: 14 interviews were made with male and female workers from the company; their content was transcribed from the audio recordings and it was systematically analyzed. A gender-attentive socio demographic analysis was also undertaken. Although at the beginning the company did not consider the gender issues as a problem nor was it the central topic of the training, which focused on the prevention of occupational and environmental hazards, the results reveal that the gender factor brought to light some working conditions, which so far have not been properly discussed within the group meetings. As a consequence, there is now room for the transformation of the representations on those working conditions.     

On the Determinants of Mortality Reductions in the Developing World

This article presents and critically discusses evidence on the determinants of mortality reductions in developing countries. It argues that increases in life expectancy between 1960 and 2000 were largely independent of improvements in income. The author characterizes the age and cause‐of‐death profile of changes in mortality and assesses what can be learned about the determinants of these changes from the international evidence and from country‐specific studies. Public health infrastructure, immunization, targeted programs, and the spread of less palpable forms of knowledge all seem to have been important factors. Finally, the article suggests that the evolution of health inequality across and within countries is intrinsically related to the process of diffusion of new technologies and to the nature of these new technologies, public or private.     

The environmental value of buildings: a proposal for performance assessment with reference to the case of the tall office building

Buildings consume approximately 33% of the world's energy, equivalent to 21% of global CO₂ emissions (IEA 2009, World energy outlook 2009, http://www.iea.org/weo/electricity.asp). Given the current scenario of energy consumption in buildings, the objective of this paper is to present some of the key issues related to assessment of the environmental performance of buildings, supported by the proposal of strategic indicators (with reference to the tall office building), followed by a critical review of the value of environmental design. Fieldwork has shown that a group of European case-studies show signs of change beginning to emerge considering value ahead of first cost, challenging the conventional commercial model. Energy savings and environmental quality in the operation of buildings bring marketability benefits to tenants, whilst future-proofing investments are of benefit to investors. In addition, buildings need to go beyond governmental targets to be able to remain competitive, adding value to environmentally considerate design.     

Validity evidence of the Portuguese adaptation of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory / Evidencias de validez de la adaptación portuguesa de la Escala de Sexismo Ambivalente

Abstract

Modern forms of sexism have promoted the development of new scales and evaluation tools. The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) (Glick & Fiske, 1996) aims to assess sexism along two dimensions: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. The aim of this study is to present evidence of the validity of the factor structure of the Portuguese version of the ASI by analysing its structure and its relationships with neosexism and social dominance. The sample consisted of 446 Portuguese participants (68.6% female) between 17 and 77 years old. Results confirmed the two-factor structure; however, the best fit was registered with a four-factor structure: one hostile factor and three benevolent factors. Both hostile and benevolent sexism were correlated with neosexism and social dominance orientation. Future research should explore the dimensionality of the scale based on a four-dimension structure and its relationship to others sexism issues.     

Assessment of dispersal and population structure of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) in a seaport setting

Seaports are introduction hotspots for invasive alien species (IAS). This is especially true for rodents, which have accompanied humans around the globe since the earliest days of ocean-going voyages. The rapid spread of IAS soon after arrival in a new environment is facilitated by further human-mediated transport or landscape features, like roads. By measuring genetic diversity and structure to investigate dispersal pathways, we gained insight into the transport, spread and establishment stages of a biological invasion, leveraging the most common rodent species (R. norvegicus) in this setting. We characterized the genetic structure of three Norway rat populations along a busy industrial road used by trucks to access the Port area in Paranaguá city (Brazil). A total of 71 rats were genotyped using 11 microsatellite markers. The results revealed a pattern of gene flow contrary to the expected stepping-stone model along the linear transect, with the two furthest apart populations being clustered together. We hypothesize that the observed outcome is explained by natural dispersal along the corridor being lower than human-mediated transport. The sampled area furthest from the port is a gas station frequented by trucks which are considered the most likely mode of transportation. In terms of management strategies, we suggest more emphasis should be put on cargo surveillance to lower the risk of Norway rat dispersal, not only for biosecurity, but also for sanitary reasons, as this port is a major grain trading point.

     

A self-comfort oriented pattern of regulatory behavior and avoidant attachment are more likely among infants born moderate-to-late preterm

Infants born preterm (<37 gestational weeks, GW) are at increased risk for regulatory difficulties and insecure attachment. However, the association between infants' regulatory behavior patterns and their later attachment organization is understudied in the preterm population. We addressed this gap by utilizing a Portuguese sample of 202 mother–infant dyads. Specifically, we compared the regulatory behavior patterns of 74 infants born moderate-to-late preterm (MLPT, 32–36 GW) to those of 128 infants born full-term (FT, 37–42 GW) and evaluated the associations of these regulatory patterns with later attachment. Infants' regulatory behavior patterns (Social-Positive Oriented, Distressed-Inconsolable, or Self-Comfort Oriented) were evaluated in the Face-to-Face-Still-Face paradigm at 3 months, and their attachment organization (secure, insecure-avoidant, or insecure-ambivalent) was evaluated in the Strange Situation at 12 months corrected age. In both samples, the Social-Positive-Oriented regulatory pattern was associated with secure attachment; the Distressed-Inconsolable pattern with insecure-ambivalent attachment; and the Self-Comfort-Oriented pattern with insecure-avoidant attachment. However, compared to FT infants, infants born MLPT were more likely to exhibit a Self-Comfort-Oriented pattern and avoidant attachment. Most perinatal and demographic variables were not related to infant outcomes. However, infants with a higher 1-min Apgar were more likely to exhibit the Social-Positive-Oriented regulatory pattern and secure attachment.     

Prevalence of Adolescent Problem Gambling: A Systematic Review of Recent Research

Previous research has shown that gambling is a popular activity among adolescents. Following a rapid expansion of legalized gambling opportunities and the emergence of new forms of gambling, many researchers have carried out studies on adolescent gambling and problem gambling. The present paper reviews studies that have been conducted worldwide since 2000, and then presents a more detailed picture of adolescent gambling research in Europe, by providing a country-by country analysis. After an extensive search on academic databases and following an exclusion process, 44 studies were identified. The findings showed that 0.2–12.3 % of youth meet criteria for problem gambling, notwithstanding differences among assessment instruments, cut-offs, and timeframes. However, despite this variability, several demographic characteristics were associated with adolescent gambling involvement and problem gambling. It is concluded that a small but significant minority of adolescents have gambling-related problems. Such findings will hopefully encourage more research into youth gambling to further understand the determinants of this phenomenon.     

Does export concentration matter in economic adjustment programs? Evidence from the euro-area

The recent crisis in some euro area countries is intensively fueling the political and economic policy debate about the effectiveness of the applied adjustment programs. This paper aims to contribute to explaining why the results of these programs could be different across countries, flagging the crucial role of exports. In view of recent economic literature about substitution between domestic and foreign sales, helping exports when domestic demand is adjusting, this paper uses panel data techniques to assess the role of the export structure in explaining this substitution effect in the euro area countries. Building a novel indicator for product concentration, the results suggest that domestic demand developments are more relevant to explaining exports in countries with a lower product concentration index (that is, more diversified exports). This contributes to explain why euro area countries under stress registered different economic performance, in particular the clearly less favorable behavior of Greece, where exports structure is concentrated more strongly in some goods and services than in other euro area countries. With different export behavior the final evaluation of the Greek adjustment would be certainly different. These results suggest that export structure should be taken into consideration when designing or evaluating this type of adjustment programs.     

The ARL of modified Shewhart control charts for conditionally heteroskedastic models

In this article we consider the modified Shewhart control chart for ARCH processes and introduce it for threshold ARCH (TARCH) ones. For both charts, we determine bounds for the distribution of the in-control run length (RL) and, consequently, for its average (ARL), both depending only on the distribution of the generating white noise, the model parameters and the critical value. For the ARCH model, we compare our bounds with others available in literature and show how they improve the existing ones. We present a simulation study to assess the quality of the bounds calculated for the ARL.