Microbiological and Modeling Approach to Derive Performance Objectives for Bacillus cereus Group in Ready‐to‐Eat Salads

In this article, the performance objectives (POs) for Bacillus cereus group (BC) in celery, cheese, and spelt added as ingredients in a ready‐to‐eat mixed spelt salad, packaged under modified atmosphere, were calculated using a Bayesian approach. In order to derive the POs, BC detection and enumeration were performed in nine lots of naturally contaminated ingredients and final product. Moreover, the impact of specific production steps on the BC contamination was quantified. Finally, a sampling plan to verify the ingredient lots' compliance with each PO value at a 95% confidence level (CL) was defined. To calculate the POs, detection results as well as results above the limit of detection but below the limit of quantification (i.e., censored data) were analyzed. The most probable distribution of the censored data was determined and two‐dimensional (2D) Monte Carlo simulations were performed. The PO values were calculated to meet a food safety objective of 4 log₁₀ cfu of BC for g of spelt salad at the time of consumption. When BC grows during storage between 0.90 and 1.90 log₁₀ cfu/g, the POs for BC in celery, cheese, and spelt ranged between 1.21 log₁₀ cfu/g for celery and 2.45 log₁₀ cfu/g for spelt. This article represents the first attempt to manage the concept of PO and 2D Monte Carlo simulation in the flow chart of a complex food matrix, including raw and cooked ingredients.     

Datafying anti-poverty programmes: implications for data justice

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to illuminate the significance of datafication for anti-poverty programmes, meaning social protection schemes designed specifically for poor people. The conversion of beneficiary populations into machine-readable data enables two core functions of social protection, those of recognising entitled beneficiaries and assigning entitlements connected to each anti-poverty scheme. Drawing on the incorporation of Aadhaar, India’s biometric population database, in the national agenda for social protection, we unpack a techno-rational perspective that crafts datafication as a means to enhance the effectiveness of anti-poverty schemes. Nevertheless, narratives collected in the field show multiple forms of data injustice on recipients, underpinned by Aadhaar’s functionality for a shift of the social protection agenda from in-kind subsidies to cash transfers. Based on such narratives the paper introduces a politically embedded view of data, framing datafication as a transformative force that contributes to reforming existing anti-poverty schemes.     

Is Social Innovation Fostering Satisfaction and Well-Being at Work? Insights from Employment in Social Enterprises Providing Long-Term Eldercare Services

Considering insights from socio-economics, work psychology, and occupational health, this study focuses on the job satisfaction and well-being of employees working in nonprofit social enterprises (SE). We question the idea suggested by the recent literature that working for a SE brings employees a high level of job satisfaction and well-being. We also investigate whether being involved in social innovation is associated with even higher job satisfaction and well-being. Indeed, understood as a manifestation of positive social change, social innovation is expected to improve outcomes such as the quality of life at work. However, because social innovation is an umbrella concept, it embraces different innovation-related concepts. Here we explore the distinction between service innovation and workplace innovation. This article applies a multivariate analysis to an original dataset covering 1134 employees working in the field of elder homecare in Wallonia. Its implications for social entrepreneurs and scholars are also examined.     

Statistical models for e-learning data

In this paper we analyse a real e-learning dataset derived from the e-learning platform of the University of Pavia. The dataset concerns an online learning environment with in-depth teaching materials. The main focus of this paper is to supply a measure of the relative importance of the exercises (test) at the end of each training unit; to build predictive models of student’s performance and finally to personalize the e-learning platform. The methodology employed is based on nonparametric statistical methods for kernel density estimation and generalized linear models and generalized additive models for predictive purposes.     

Does accounting regulation enhance corporate governance? Evidence from the disclosure of share-based remuneration

Accounting for stock options and share-based remuneration is a controversial issue. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the mandatory adoption of IFRS 2 on accounting for share-based remuneration by Italian listed companies. The requirements under this standard could have relevant implications for corporate governance as IFRS 2 is expected to reduce the information asymmetry that may exist between corporate insiders and outsiders regarding such remuneration. Empirical evidence confirms that overall disclosure in annual reports concerning the costs of remuneration plans has increased following the adoption of IFRS 2, although some cases of lack of disclosure have also been found. We find that this change in accounting regulation has contributed towards revealing the ‘true’ cost of share-based remuneration to minority shareholders and other investors, together with some evidence of creative accounting surrounding the substance over form principle.     

Asymptotic behavior of RA-estimates in autoregressive 2D processes

In this work we study the asymptotic behavior of a robust class of estimators of the coefficient of a AR-2D process. We establish the precise conditions for the consistency and asymptotic normality of the RA estimator. The AR-2D model has many applications in image modeling and statistical image processing, therefore the relevance of knowing such properties. The adequacy of the AR-2D model is analyzed with real images; we also show the impact of contamination and the capability of the RA estimator to produce useful results even in the presence of spurious data.     

Use of the scale-up methods in injury prevention research: An empirical assessment to the case of choking in children

The scale-up method estimates the size of hard to count subpopulations. This method is based on the idea that the proportion of subjects in a subpopulation E known to each member of the general population T is the same as the proportion of members of E belonging to general population T.     

Bailouts: The lesser of two evils?

This paper investigates the relation between bailouts and regulation. Regulation, by limiting the room for government intervention in the market, can affect the likelihood and size of a bailout. While a higher level of regulation is associated with a lower likelihood of a direct acquisition, such countries resort to a higher use of State aid. The findings suggest the more transparent nature of direct acquisitions, makes them the lesser of two evils. In this light, policymakers should monitor State Aid and bailouts together, with the aim of making the former more transparent.     

If we practice posthumanist research,do we need ‘gender’ any longer?

This article offers a reflection around the question of ‘do we need ‘gender’ any longer?’ In taking up this problem and inspired by the way in which postqualitative inquiry has opened a conversation with Deleuzian philosophy and formulated a ‘concept as/instead of method’ line of thought, I wonder whether new images of thought might give the concept of gender ‘the forces it needs to return to life’ or the forces to abandon it. I propose four different images that might provoke the desire to experiment with a new image of thought in relation to the problem: a vegetal mode of thought, a musical mode, a fleshy mode as labiaplasty, a nonliving mode. This choice is connected to the dualities they target: the human/vegetal living world, the rational/artistic production of knowledge, the dis‐embodied/corporeal being in the world, the life/nonlife hierarchization. Each way of thinking of ‘gender’ stages, enacts, performs a different material reality of the concept that shifts the focus from linguistic representations to discursive practices. Hence, if gender has become a dominant discourse, it may be that positive repetition of this discourse might become a way of opening a new site inside it, by de‐territorializing it and re‐territorializing it otherwise.     

THE LABOR MARKET IN THE ART SECTOR OF BAROQUE ROME

We analyze the labor market for painters in Baroque Rome using unique data on primary sales of portraits, still lifes, genre paintings, landscapes, and figurative paintings. In line with the traditional artistic hierarchy of genres, average price differentials between them were high. The matched painter‐patron nature of the dataset allows us to evaluate the extent to which price heterogeneity is related to unobservable characteristics of painters and patrons. We find that the market allocated artists between artistic genres to the point of equalizing the marginal return of each genre. Residual price differences at the employer level can be explained in terms of incentive mechanisms to induce effort in the production of artistic quality and compensating wage differentials. (JEL C23, D8, J3, Z11)