Knowledge,Risk Perceptions,and Xenophobic Attitudes: Evidence from Italy During the Ebola Outbreak

The purposes of the current study were twofold: (1) to investigate affective and cognitive responses and social‐contextual factors related to Ebola and their intercorrelations in a developed country without widespread Ebola transmission; and (2) to examine the relationships among risk perception of Ebola, levels of knowledge about Ebola, and (blatant and subtle) prejudice toward African immigrants. Between January 2015 and March 2015, an anonymous cross‐sectional survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 486 Italian adults. Results showed that most participants were not particularly concerned about Ebola and did not feel at risk of acquiring the virus. Cognitive dimensions of risk perception of Ebola (i.e., perceived severity of illness, perceived personal impact, perceived coping efficacy, and likelihood of infection), affective response (or worry) to Ebola, and social‐contextual factors (i.e., perceived preparedness of institutions, family members’ and friends’ levels of worry) were interrelated. Prejudice toward African immigrants was positively related to risk perception of Ebola and negatively related to levels of knowledge about Ebola even when controlling for sociodemographic variables including political preference.     

Improved inference on capture recapture models with behavioural effects

In the context of capture-recapture modeling for estimating the unknown size of a finite population it is often required a flexible framework for dealing with a behavioural response to trapping. Many alternative settings have been proposed in the literature to account for the variation of capture probability at each occasion depending on the previous capture history. Inference is typically carried out relying on the so-called conditional likelihood approach. We highlight that such approach may, with positive probability, lead to inferential pathologies such as unbounded estimates for the finite size of the population. The occurrence of such likelihood failures is characterized within a very general class of behavioural effect models. It is also pointed out that a fully Bayesian analysis overcomes the likelihood failure phenomenon. The overall improved performance of alternative Bayesian estimators is investigated under different non-informative prior distributions verifying their comparative merits with both simulated and real data.     

Sexual abuse: Effects of group therapy on pre-adolescent girls

This article describes the effectiveness of a group therapy program used at the University of Manitoba with pre-adolescent girls who have experienced sexual abuse. Thirty-five girls, ranging in age from 7 to 12, were referred to structured therapy groups of 9 to 12 weeks' duration. Issues addressed in weekly sessions included feelings about the offender, problem-solving, sex education, and prevention of further abuse. Measurements of self-esteem, anxiety, and internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems were taken for participating children prior to and following treatment at 1 and 9 to 12 month intervals. Parent- and child-reported social validity data were also collected following treatment. Comparison group data for self-esteem and anxiety were provided by a non-random sample of 35 girls with no known history of sexual abuse. Results indicated that following group therapy, self-esteem increased and anxiety and behaviour problems decreased. Comparison group data further supported the effectiveness of group treatment in improving the self-esteem of sexually abused girls. Social validity reports of children and parents also suggested that treatment was helpful and worthwhile. Implications of the findings are discussed as are difficulties encountered in conducting treatment outcome research with children who have been sexually abused.     

MODEL‐BASED DIRECT ESTIMATION OF SMALL‐AREA DISTRIBUTIONS

Much of the small‐area estimation literature focuses on population totals and means. However, users of survey data are often interested in the finite‐population distribution of a survey variable and in the measures (e.g. medians, quartiles, percentiles) that characterize the shape of this distribution at the small‐area level. In this paper we propose a model‐based direct estimator (MBDE, Chandra and Chambers) of the small‐area distribution function. The MBDE is defined as a weighted sum of sample data from the area of interest, with weights derived from the calibrated spline‐based estimate of the finite‐population distribution function introduced by Harms and Duchesne, under an appropriately specified regression model with random area effects. We also discuss the mean squared error estimation of the MBDE. Monte Carlo simulations based on both simulated and real data sets show that the proposed MBDE and its associated mean squared error estimator perform well when compared with alternative estimators of the area‐specific finite‐population distribution function.     

Fertility and PAYG pensions in the overlapping generations model

This article analyses how long-run pay-as-you-go public pensions react to a change in fertility in the Diamond overlapping generations model. While it might seem well established both in academic and political debates that the decline in fertility represents a “demographic time bomb” for the sustainability of public pensions, it is shown that a falling birth rate need not necessarily cause the fall of pensions in the long run.     

Città Aperta o Cultura Chiusa?: The Homosexualization of Fascism in the Perverted Cultural Memory of the Italian Left

The essay analyzes the equation of Fascism and homosexuality offered by two founding works of the Italian left-wing Neorealist movement: Roberto Rossellini's film Roma, città aperta (1945) and Vasco Pratolini's novel Cronache di poveri amanti (1947). By identifying Fascism and homosexuality, both works limited their commemoration of the victims of Fascism to heterosexuals and contributed to the erasure of a gay and lesbian Holocaust from historical memory. As shown by Carlo Lizzani's film Celluloide (1996) and the coverage of the World Pride 2000 by the Communist daily Liberazione, briefly analyzed at the end of the essay, the Italian Left has still not found a satisfactory way of dealing with the homophobic legacy of Neo-realism.     

On social utility payoffs in games: a methodological comparison between Behavioural and Rational Game Theory

Are the recent findings of Behavioural Game Theory (BGT) on unselfish behaviours relevant for the progress of game theory? Is the methodology of BGT, centred around the attempt to study theoretically players’ utility functions in the light of the feedback that experimental evidence can produce on the theory, a satisfactory one? Or is the creation of various types of ‘social preferences’ just wasteful tinkering? This article compares BGT with the methodology of Rational Game Theory (RGT). BGT is viewed as a more promising and constructive approach, with regard to the relationship between experimental data and theoretical modelling. However, I also argue that today RGT and BGT are closer to one another than often thought.     

A noise estimation method for corrupted correlated data

Data acquisition, both in time and in spatial domains, in many cases yields observations with a measurement error. The identification of such a component, that masks the phenomenon under study (signal), must be carried out before the model of interest is specified. The objective of the paper is to propose an estimator for the parameters of an additive noise and compare it with existing methods by applications to both simulated and real data sets.     

The Impact of Culture on the Perception of Young Japanese and Germans in the Management of the Corona Crisis by their Government

Public Organization Review - This article addresses the extent to which culture has an impact in crisis management at the government level, exemplified by the corona crisis in Germany and Japan....     

The Endogenous Construction of Accounting Discourses in a Trade Union

The exploration of accounting practices reported in this paper illustrates how perceptions of financial problems and notions of economic accountability develop within cultural and institutional environments that substantially differ from those of the business firm. The paper seeks to oppose a notion of economic determinism which, explicitly or implicitly, promotes the ideal identity between market and society. In contrast to such a view, an institutional and organizational embedded understanding of accounting is suggested as a more fruitful way of appreciating the nature and scope of economic discourses as they develop within a nonprofit organization. The analysis focuses on the ways in which economic functioning is interpreted and accountability developed within an organization that rejects stereotyped views of managerialism and conventional notions of economic rationality. The presence of endogenous fabrications of economic accounts is what eventually allows us to problematize the way in which the economic framework is all too easily seen to enter non-business environments as a colonizing force.