Intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of yard vegetation in urban residential areas: implications for conservation planning

Residential green areas often represent a significant portion of a city’s green infrastructure which has generated great interest in studying the factors that contribute to the formation of plant associations in residential yards. This project evaluated the external factors to the household social-ecological system that influence the availability of plants for residential landscapes and how they may influence the presence of native plants in residential yards on households within the Río Piedras watershed in the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The methods used included a residential survey with open and closed questions that addressed the sources of plants used in landscaping and an evaluation of ornamental plant species inventories from local nurseries. A total of 432 yards were surveyed. Yard plants in this watershed have multiple sources. Aside from obtaining plants at local nurseries, natural dispersion, exchanges among family and friends and historical plantings can be just as important sources of yard plants. Our results also suggest that the majority of residents do not know where to get native plants which could represent a challenge for the development and implementation of initiatives for natives gardening. At the same time, most commercial nurseries have a deficit of native plants in their inventories. This information is critical to species conservation strategies that seek the inclusion of urban residential areas and may help improve initiatives about the involvement of individual citizens in sustainable gardening practices at the residential scale.     

Fair student placement

We revisit the concept of fairness in the Student Placement framework. We declare an allocation as \(\upalpha \)-equitable if no agent can propose an alternative allocation that nobody else might argue to be inequitable. It turns out that \(\upalpha \)-equity is compatible with efficiency. Our analysis fills a gap in the literature by giving normative support to the allocations improving, in terms of efficiency, the Student Optimal Stable allocation.     

Critical success factors and green supply chain management proactivity: shedding light on the human aspects of this relationship based on cases from the Brazilian industry

Abstract

By applying the resources-based view (RBV) theory to green management, this study aims to analyse the relationship between critical success factors (CSFs) and the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices for some Brazil-based manufacturers of automotive batteries considered focal in their supply chains. It also analyses how human issues, known as green human resource management (GHRM) aspects, can help to increase the effectiveness of CSFs for GSCM strategies that are still not totally well-managed, justifying a RBV perspective. This research assumes that firms tend to be in different stages of GSCM development (more strategic or less strategic) and tests four research propositions to determine whether more proactive GSCM is related to higher levels of effectively managed CSFs. Three focal companies that operate in the Brazilian automotive battery industry were studied. Research results suggest that more proactive GSCM practices correlate to more effectively managed CSFs and to a greater support from GHRM. We argue that managers with a clear GHRM strategy will have more success in GSCM adoption, using more green training, green recruitment and selection, green performance evaluation and employee rewards.     

Evolution of victimization,tolerance and detection of intimate partner violence among young Spanish women / Evolución de victimización,tolerancia y detección de la violencia de pareja entre mujeres jóvenes españolas

Intimate partner violence that takes place in first couple relationships has received increasing attention in recent years, leading our knowledge on different topics to grow remarkably. The objective of this study is two-fold: on the one hand, we compare levels of victimization and tolerance for two samples, from two waves of assessment; and on the other hand, we focus on coherence among victimization and the use of labels such as abuse, fear and feeling trapped in the relationship in both waves. A total sample of 3,844 women between the ages of 16 and 21 took part in the study, 18% in the first wave in 2003–05 and 82% in the second wave in 2011–13. Data were collected using the Cuestionario de Violencia de Novios (CUVINO), a questionnaire that provides information on the prevalence of and tolerance towards eight different kinds of abuse, along with self-labelling questions on the perception of abuse. Results showed a similarity in prevalence and labelling in both waves of assessment, with higher tolerance in the second wave. We discuss the implications of these findings for improving current prevention programs on dating violence.     

The Effects of Resources on Social Activity and Economic Performance in Social Economy Organizations

Social economy organizations (SEOs) represent the European Union's strong commitment to promoting the creation of welfare, employment, and social cohesion. This article examines the financial management model of these organizations by analyzing the impact of their available resources or capabilities on their economic performance and social activity and the possible mediating effect of their economic dimension as a strategic element in obtaining social achievements. In this study, we analyze 1,400 Spanish SEOs between 2009 and 2012 by using a structural equations model (SEM). Our results reveal that SEOs have their own financial management model that is characterized by the mediating role of economic performance and a high ability to adapt to changes in the environment.     

Status Perceptions Matter: Understanding Disliking Among Adolescents

The emergence of disliking relations depends on how adolescents perceive the relative informal status of their peers. This phenomenon is examined on a longitudinal sample using dynamic network analysis (585 students across 16 classes in five schools). As hypothesized, individuals dislike those who they look down on (disdain), and conform to others by disliking those who they perceive as being looked down on by their peers (conformity). The inconsistency between status perceptions also leads to disliking, when individuals do not look up to those who they perceive to be admired by peers (frustration). Adolescents are not more likely to dislike those who they look up to (admiration). The results demonstrate the role of status perceptions on disliking tie formation.     

“God Just Brought Me Through It”: Spiritual Coping Strategies for Resilience Among Intimate Partner Violence Survivors

This study highlights the spiritual coping processes for surviving and healing used by Christian women in a conservative faith community who experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Using data from 42 in-depth qualitative interviews of survivors of IPV, the findings reveal a pattern of spiritually-based survival and resilience strategies women used while coping with and eventually escaping their traumatic lives. The analysis notes the central role of spirituality as a means women used to move from coping for survival to resilient self-efficacy and healing. These findings assist clinical social workers with identifying and accessing spiritual strengths as a springboard to wellbeing.     

A new approach for bounding awards in bankruptcy problems

The solution for the contested garment problem, proposed in the Babylonic Talmud, suggests that each agent should receive at least some part of the resources whenever the claim exceeds the available amount. In this context, we propose a new method to define lower bounds on awards, an idea that has underlied the theoretical analysis of bankruptcy problems from its beginning (O’Neill, Math Soc Sci 2:345–371, 1982) to present day (Dominguez and Thomson, Econ Theory 28:283–307, 2006). Specifically, starting from the fact that a society establishes its own set of commonly accepted equity principles, our proposal ensures to each agent the smallest amount she gets according to all the admissible rules. We analyze its recursive application for different sets of equity principles.     

On the coloniality of work: Commercial surrogacy in India

Relations of domination and subjugation in work manifest as class differentiation, but, more crucially, become intensified along lines of gender, sexual and racial difference. This circumstance, I suggest, is neither accidental nor incidental. It is a historical effect of colonial logic that postulates gender, sexual and racial Others as ontologically, and hence ethically, different. The articulation of difference as such legitimizes gender, sexual and racial Others as sites of domination and exploitation, and thereby naturalizes them as objects of subordination in work. This circumstance may be described through the analytic of coloniality. The aim of this paper, then, is to explicate the coloniality of work as a means to comprehend the persistence of inequality and subjugation in its global organization. Specifically, it underscores the imperative of confronting the ontological production of gender, sexual and racial difference in the creation of relations of domination and subjugation, and thus, in the institution and operation of work qua work. I demonstrate the political urgency of such engagements through a discussion of commercial surrogacy in India.     

The Migrant Border Crossing Study: A methodological overview of research along the Sonora–Arizona border

Increased border enforcement efforts have redistributed unauthorized Mexican migration to the United States (US) away from traditional points of crossing, such as San Diego and El Paso, and into more remote areas along the US–Mexico border, including southern Arizona. Yet relatively little quantitative scholarly work exists examining Mexican migrants’ crossing, apprehension, and repatriation experiences in southern Arizona. We contend that if scholars truly want to understand the experiences of unauthorized migrants in transit, such migrants should be interviewed either at the border after being removed from the US, or during their trajectories across the border, or both. This paper provides a methodological overview of the Migrant Border Crossing Study (MBCS), a unique data source on Mexican migrants who attempted an unauthorized crossing along the Sonora–Arizona border, were apprehended, and repatriated to Nogales, Sonora in 2007–09. We also discuss substantive and theoretical contributions of the MBCS.