Comparison of the Rapid Entire Body Assessment and the New Zealand Manual Handling 'Hazard Control Record', for assessment of manual handling hazards in the supermarket industry

This is a case study comparing the use of two different assessment tools (Rapid Entire Body Assessment versus New Zealand Manual Handling Hazard Control Record) to assess, plan and implement changes in manual handling practices in the supermarket industry. Existing manual handling practices being used within these supermarkets were assessed using each of these tools. The most hazardous tasks were revised to improve work methods and reviewed again using both tools, to determine the usefulness and effectiveness of these tools. The process generated considerable discussion regarding the benefits and drawbacks of each tool. The usefulness of each tool appears dependant on the reason for assessment and the anticipated outcome. REBA may be more useful if specific ergonomic or biomechanical changes are being implemented to decrease risk of work-related injury (particularly if an objective numeric score is required for re-assessment following modifications, to determine their effectiveness). The New Zealand Code of Practice for Manual Handling 'Hazard Control Record' Risk Score analysis process lacks specificity and objectivity, however it is less reductionistic and takes into account many factors other than biomechanics and ergonomics. It directs the user toward implementing controls, which are thorough, multi-factorial and useful to control hazards relating to several other areas, including task, load, environment, people and management factors.     

The impact of family structure transitions on youth achievement: Evidence from the children of the NlSY79

We investigated the sensitivity of measures of cognitive ability and socioemotional development to changes in parents' marital status using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979. We used several scores for each assessment, taken at different times relative to parents' marital transitions, which allowed us to trace the effects starting up to five years before a parent's change in marital status and continuing for up to six years afterward. It also allowed us to correct for the unobserved heterogeneity of the transition and nontransition samples by controlling for the child's fixed effect in estimating the time path of his or her response to the transition. We found that children from families with both biological parents scored significantly better on the BPI and the PIAT-math and PIAT-reading assessments than did children from nonintact families. However, much of the difference disappeared when we controlled for background variables. Furthermore, when we controlled for child fixed effects, we did not find significant longitudinal variation in these scores over long periods that encompass the marital transition. This finding suggests that most of the variation is due to cross-sectional differences and is not a result of marital transitions per se.     

Tests of the causal directions of global — Life facet satisfaction relationships

Previous research generally has supported multiple discrepancies theory (MDT) of the processes by which individuals arrive at judgments of satisfaction with various aspects of their lives as well as with life overall. However, the nature of possible causal relationships between overall and life facet satisfaction has been ignored. The purpose of this study was to extend MDT by testing alternative theoretical models which specified Bottom-up, Top-Down, and Bidirectional relationships between overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with 11 life facets in a sample of 1354 U.S. college students. Results most strongly favored the Bidirectional model in which the overall — life facet satisfaction relationship varied across life domains. The need to identify boundary conditions which determine the direction of the overall — life facet satisfaction relationship is discussed.     

Pretrial Bargaining in the Face of a Random Court Decision: Evidence from Laboratory Games

If negotiation over ownership of an asset is unsuccessful, agents go to court to determine possession. Experiments examine how the presence of a stochastic court decision affects pretrial bargaining behavior. Two players have private information over the value of an asset, owned by one player. If there is no acceptable trade price, a random court decision assigns ownership. The impact of a second stage court decision on bargaining outcomes and the efficiency of trades is measured. Courts reduce the total earnings of players and the frequency of efficient trades. Relative earnings and bargaining behavior depend on which agent proposes the trade price.     

Teen Childbearing and Educational Attainment: A Comparison of Methods

This research examines the impact of teenage childbearing on secondary school completion, while focusing on the problem of causal ambiguity in the relationships among self-determined behaviours. Techniques for dealing with the teenage childbearing problem are discussed, and results from these methods are compared. Data from the High School and Beyond Study on young women (n = 5257) who were enrolled as sophomores in sample schools in February 1980 and who had not given birth before November 1980 are used. Results indicate that teen childbearing reduces the probability of completing high school by 8% to 10%. Some evidence suggests that programs that target reduction of teen childbearing in improving young women's education and subsequent economic and labor force outcomes.     

The unequal impact of Covid-19 on the lives and rights of the children of modern slavery survivors,children in exploitation and children at risk of entering exploitation

This article discusses the unequal impact of Covid-19 on the lives of the children of survivors of modern slavery, child victims of exploitation and children at risk of exploitation in the UK. It draws on research that has analysed the risks and impacts of Covid-19 on victims and survivors of modern slavery. It explores how pandemic responses may have hindered these children's rights to education, food, safety, development and participation and representation in legal processes. It suggests that the pandemic should be used as an impetus to address inequalities that existed pre-Covid-19 and those that have been exacerbated by it.     

Disability,politics and poverty in a majority world context

This paper argues that the spread of free market economics throughout the world has generated unprecedented inequalities within and between nation states. This has led to the systematic exclusion of people with perceived impairments from the mainstream of economic and community life in almost all societies, the generation of an international disabled people’s movement, and their demand for legal frameworks with which to address the multiple deprivations encountered by people viewed as ‘disabled’. It is argued that the poverty and exclusion encountered by disabled people and other oppressed groups in all societies will not be eliminated without fundamental structural change at the international level.