Does Citizenship Status Matter in Canadian Agriculture? Workplace Health and Safety for Migrant and Immigrant Laborers

This article explores how precarious legal status circumscribes differential inclusion in the agricultural labor market and affects workers' lives through a comparative study of workplace health and safety among temporary migrant guest workers and immigrants in Canada. Original, multimethod research with South Asian immigrant and Mexican migrant farmworkers examines employment practices, working conditions, and health‐care access. We find that both groups engage in precarious work, with consequences for their health and safety, including immigrant workers with citizenship. Nevertheless, migrant guest workers are subject to more coercive forms of labor discipline and a narrower range of social protection than immigrants. We argue that while formal citizenship can mitigate some dimensions of precariousness for farmworkers racialized as non‐white, achieving a more just, safer food system will require broader policies to improve employer compliance and address legislative shortcomings that only weakly protect agricultural labor.     

Determinants of retirement timing expectations in the United States and Australia: a cross-national comparison of the effects of health and retirement benefit policies on retirement timing decisions

Data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (N = 2,589) and the Australian Household Income and Labour Dynamics survey (N = 1,760) were used to compare the macro-level policy frameworks on individual retirement timing expectations for pre-baby boomers (61+ years) and early baby boomers (45 to 60 years). Australian workers reported younger expected age of retirement compared to the U.S. sample. Reporting poor health was more strongly associated with younger expected retirement age in the United States than in Australia. Cohort and gender differences in the United States were found for the effect of private health insurance on younger expected age at retirement. Our results draw attention to how cross-national comparisons can inform us on the effects of policies on retirement expectations among older workers.     

Learning about radon's risk

This article reports the results of an evaluation of the effectiveness of different types of information materials in communicating the risk from exposure to radon, a naturally occurring indoor air pollutant. The study involved a panel of 2300 homeowners who actually experienced risks from radon, and the information program used to explain these risks. The analysis considered information transfer and performance on specific tasks requiring information on the risk from radon to measure learning. The results suggest a systematic learning process, but indicate that the process can be influenced by how risk information is presented.     

Incorporating Time‐Dose‐Response into Legionella Outbreak Models

A novel method was used to incorporate in vivo host–pathogen dynamics into a new robust outbreak model for legionellosis. Dose‐response and time‐dose‐response (TDR) models were generated for Legionella longbeachae exposure to mice via the intratracheal route using a maximum likelihood estimation approach. The best‐fit TDR model was then incorporated into two L. pneumophila outbreak models: an outbreak that occurred at a spa in Japan, and one that occurred in a Melbourne aquarium. The best‐fit TDR from the murine dosing study was the beta‐Poisson with exponential‐reciprocal dependency model, which had a minimized deviance of 32.9. This model was tested against other incubation distributions in the Japan outbreak, and performed consistently well, with reported deviances ranging from 32 to 35. In the case of the Melbourne outbreak, the exponential model with exponential dependency was tested against non‐time‐dependent distributions to explore the performance of the time‐dependent model with the lowest number of parameters. This model reported low minimized deviances around 8 for the Weibull, gamma, and lognormal exposure distribution cases. This work shows that the incorporation of a time factor into outbreak distributions provides models with acceptable fits that can provide insight into the in vivo dynamics of the host‐pathogen system.     

Fishing in Urban New Jersey: Ethnicity Affects Information Sources,Perception, and Compliance

Recreational and subsistence angling are important aspects of urban culture for much of North America where people are concentrated near the coasts or major rivers. Yet there are fish and shellfish advisories for many estuaries, rivers, and lakes, and these are not always heeded. This paper examines fishing behavior, sources of information, perceptions, and compliance with fishing advisories as a function of ethnicity for people fishing in the Newark Bay Complex of the New York–New Jersey Harbor. We test the null hypothesis that there were no ethnic differences in sources of information, perceptions of the safety of fish consumption, and compliance with advisories. There were ethnic differences in consumption rates, sources of information about fishing, knowledge about the safety of the fish, awareness of fishing advisories or of the correct advisories, and knowledge about risks for increased cancer and to unborn and young children. In general, the knowledge base was much lower for Hispanics, was intermediate for blacks, and was greatest for whites. When presented with a statement about the potential risks from eating fish, there were no differences in their willingness to stop eating fish or to encourage pregnant women to stop. These results indicate a willingness to comply with advisories regardless of ethnicity, but a vast difference in the base knowledge necessary to make informed risk decisions about the safety of fish and shellfish. Although the overall median income level of the population was in the $25,000–34,999 income category, for Hispanics it was on the border between $15,000–24,999 and $25,000–34,999.     

如何理解新时代中国共产党的文化与中国故事——访伦敦国王学院中国研究中心主任凯瑞·布朗教授

凯瑞·布朗是享誉世界的中国问题研究专家。2019年1月,凯瑞·布朗在访谈中谈到了他对中国共产党的文化以及中国故事的理解。他主张以中国共产党的历史为基础,植根中国的传统文化来理解中国共产党的文化,理解中国故事,分析中国政治与全球秩序。中国共产党的力量植根于改革开放的伟大进程中;一部成功的中国故事,就是具有积极愿景的未来的故事,是一个信仰团体的故事,是道德正义的故事;只有植根中国历史与文化,才可以理解并解决中西方的“幻象冲突”问题。     

Resources,homophily, and dependence: Organizational attributes and asymmetric ties in human service networks

This paper examines the effects of organizational attributes on power/dependence relations in interorganizational dyads. Exchange and homophily theories are discussed as two alternative perspectives on the processes that give rise to such effects. The data pertain to interagency ties in three community-based networks of youth service agencies and are analyzed via a new strategy of linear modeling dyadic relations. The results of the analysis suggest that size, administrative position, and justice system connections condition the extent to which an agency initiates and receives ties of influence, assistance, and support. Moreover, these relations are more frequent between agencies with similar treatment ideologies and client racial makeup. Finally, size and justice system access are found to reduce agency dependence on a network's administrative core. In the course of the discussion, a number of related issues and findings are discussed.     

On the equivalence of some test criteria based on BAN estimators for the multivariate exponential family

For the general multivariate exponential family of distributions it is shown that Rao's test criterion based on efficient scores is algebraically identical to the general chi-squared criterion based on maximum likelihood estimates and, similarly, that the Wald statistic is algebraically identical to the general minimum modified chi-squared statistic using linearization; these results are valid also for the multisample versions. Thus, these are extensions to the general exponential family of the findings due to Silvey (1970) and Bhapkar (1966), respectively, for the special case of the multinomial family.It is also shown that the general forms of the chi-squared and modified chi-squared criteria reduce to their respective well-known forms for the multivariate symmetric power series distribution. This finding is, thus, an extension of results noted by Ferguson (1958) and Clickner (1976) for the special case of the multinomial distribution.     

Strategic Liquidity Provision in Limit Order Markets

We characterize and prove the existence of Nash equilibrium in a limit order market with a finite number of risk‐neutral liquidity providers. We show that if there is sufficient adverse selection, then pointwise optimization (maximizing in p for each q) in a certain nonlinear pricing game produces a Nash equilibrium in the limit order market. The need for a sufficient degree of adverse selection does not vanish as the number of liquidity providers increases. Our formulation of the nonlinear pricing game encompasses various specifications of informed and liquidity trading, including the case in which nature chooses whether the market‐order trader is informed or a liquidity trader. We solve for an equilibrium analytically in various examples and also present examples in which the first‐order condition for pointwise optimization does not define an equilibrium, because the amount of adverse selection is insufficient.     

Value dimensions,cultural differences,and the prediction of perceived quality of life

This research sought to identify the dimensional structure of values, their relationship to perceived QOL, and to examine cultural differences in value systems. A sample of 200 respondents was asked to provide direct, indirect, and importance ratings of a range of values. It was found that these could be adequately represented by seven dimensions, and that comparable dimensions were obtained from all three sets of value measures. This finding was replicated by alternative analyses, and also replicates previous research, providing strong evidence for the generality of the structure. Some inconsistent differences in values were found between the three ethnic groups (European, Maori, and Polynesian) that comprised the sample, but it was concluded that there were no clear cultural differences in values. No cultural differences were found in QOL measures also. Some possible explanations of these results are discussed. Value dimensions for direct and indirect value measures were found to be useful predictors of QOL, with close, personal dimensions generally being the best predictors. Value importance dimensions were not found to be useful QOL predictors, and it is proposed that future research should focus on aspiration measures.