Well-Being Outcomes in Bolivia: Accounting for the Effects of Ethnicity and Regional Location

This study assesses well-being differences in Bolivia. We specifically investigate whether ethnicity and regional location explain differences in housing quality, material wealth, sanitation, and educational achievement in Bolivia. We use the 1994 and 1998 DHS surveys of 9114 and 12109 cases, respectively, to test the study hypotheses, which predict that indigenous ethnicity and highland location negatively affect well-being. Results show that in both surveys, indigenous households had lower levels of housing quality, material wealth, and sanitation as compared to non-indigenous households. Indigenous heads of household also showed lower levels of education as compared to non-indigenous heads of household. Households located in the highlands showed lower levels of housing quality and sanitation in both 1994 and 1998. Highland location was a significant predictor of material wealth in the 1998 model but not in the 1994 one. Highland location was not a significant predictor of education in either the 1994 or 1998 models. Rural–urban location had the largest influence on well-being.     

Media exposure,threat processing,and mitigation behaviors in Gulf Coast residents facing the co-occurring threats of COVID-19 and hurricanes

The 2020 hurricane season threatened millions of Americans concurrently grappling with COVID-19. Processes guiding individual-level mitigation for these conceptually distinct threats, one novel and chronic (COVID-19), the other familiar and episodic (hurricanes), are unknown. Theories of health protective behaviors suggest that inputs from external stimuli (e.g., traditional and social media) lead to threat processing, including perceived efficacy (self- and response) and perceived threat (susceptibility and severity), guiding mitigation behavior. We surveyed a representative sample of Florida and Texas residents (N = 1846) between April 14, 2020 and April 27, 2020; many had previous hurricane exposure; all were previously assessed between September 8, 2017 and September 11, 2017. Using preregistered analyses, two generalized structural equation models tested direct and indirect effects of media exposure (traditional media, social media) on self-reported (1) COVID-19 mitigation (handwashing, mask-wearing, social distancing) and (2) hurricane mitigation (preparation behaviors), as mediated through perceived efficacy (self- and response) and perceived threat (susceptibility and severity). Self-efficacy and response efficacy were associated with social distancing (p = .002), handwashing, mask-wearing, and hurricane preparation (ps < 0.001). Perceived susceptibility was positively associated with social distancing (p = 0.017) and hurricane preparation (p < 0.001). Perceived severity was positively associated with social distancing (p < 0.001). Traditional media exhibited indirect effects on COVID-19 mitigation through increased response efficacy (ps < 0.05), and to a lesser extent self-efficacy (p < 0.05), and on hurricane preparation through increased self-efficacy and response efficacy and perceived susceptibility (ps < 0.05). Social media did not exhibit indirect effects on COVID-19 or hurricane mitigation. Communications targeting efficacy and susceptibility may encourage mitigation behavior; research should explore how social media campaigns can more effectively target threat processing, guiding protective actions.     

Single machine scheduling with non-availability interval and optional job rejection

This paper studies the single machine scheduling problem with availability constraints and optional job rejection. We consider the non-resumable and resumable variants, and show that the problems remain ordinary NP-hard, even with the rejection possibility extension, by presenting pseudo-polynomial dynamic-programming (DP) solutions. We also present an enhanced running time implementation of the algorithm of Kellerer and Strusevich (Algorithmica 57(4):769–795, 2010) for the resumable scenario without job rejection. This solution is adapted to efficiently solve the machine non-availability problem with a floating interval and the problem of two competing agents on a single machine, with and without optional job rejection. Numerical experiments support the efficiency of our DP implementation.