Older Latina Women and HIV/AIDS: An Examination of Sexuality and Culture as they Relate to Risk and Protective Factors

Older Latina women are one of the least studied American demographic groups with regard to social, health, or sexual behavior. This could leave social workers and other geriatric professionals unprepared for dealing with HIV/AIDS in this population. Currently, older Latina women are one of the fastest growing groups of new AIDS cases. Twenty percent of all women ever diagnosed with the disease are Latina and 5.5% of Latinas infected with the virus are older. The number of diagnosed infections is increasing in older women, including Latinas, in spite of recent declines in infection rates with younger populations. There are also a potentially large number of cases that go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed.

This article also addresses risk and protective factors related to gender roles, traditional Latino family values, religion, socioeconomic factors, health, and health care, with special attention to the triple jeopardy faced by this population by virtue of being female, seniors, and minorities. The article concludes with recommendations for the development of culturally competent practices with older Latinas and the development of a research agenda to better understand their risk-related and health-seeking behavior.     

Employment Relationships and Firm Innovation: The Double Role of Human Capital

We examine how employment relationships and human capital influence innovation in a sample of Spanish firms. Previous research has indicated that human capital directly affects innovation, but few studies have considered human capital as a variable that mediates or moderates the effects of other variables on innovation. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of 150 innovative Spanish firms and confirmed that, while human capital favours innovations, employment relationships are not directly associated with innovation unless they take human capital into account. Specifically, our analyses suggest that human capital mediates the relationship between a mutual investment employment relationship and innovation, which is characterized by high levels of incentives and expectations. However, we also found that human capital plays a moderating role when organizations develop an employment relationship characterized by low investments in personnel but high expectations from their work (the underinvestment model). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.     

Ceasing of muscle function with aging: is it the consequence of intrinsic muscle degeneration or a secondary effect of neuronal impairments?

Aging is associated with a significant decline in neuromuscular function leading to an eventual loss of independence and mobility of senescent people. Age-related sarcopenia, characterised by a reduction in muscle mass and strength, is considered one of the most striking features of aging at the level of the skeletal muscle. Morphological alterations in skeletal muscle can be considered as one of the consequences responsible for muscle weakness in the aged population. Beyond 60 years of age, human muscle undergoes a process of continuous denervation and reinnervation, due to an accelerating loss of motor units. It appears evident that phenotypic alterations in muscle depend on the motor drives provided by the nervous system. Because the peripheral nerves, the neuromuscular junction and motor neurons exhibit degenerative features during advanced age, sarcopenia does not seem to intrinsically develop, but is rather a secondary effect of impaired neuronal function. It is therefore recommended that elderly subjects undergo an exercise program that is aimed towards the improvement of coordinative skills and of muscle strength.     

Two-way analysis of variance for data from a concentrated bipolar Watson distribution

The bipolar Watson distribution is frequently used for modeling axial data. We extend the one-way analysis of variance based on this distribution to a two-way layout. We illustrate the method with directional data in three dimensions     

Diversity of vascular plants growing on walls of a Brazilian city

City walls are very specialized environments, conditioned by human activities. There is little information about plants that invade human-made habitats, and no study done in Brazil with plants growing up on walls. The aim of the present study was to survey the wall vascular flora of a Brazilian city, comparing the diversity found in its downtown and neighborhoods. Fieldwork was done in Jundiaí, São Paulo State, where data was collected in downtown and in five neighborhoods. In each place, three transects of 1 km were established and every plant individual was registered. Twenty-eight species were identified, all of them on the downtown transect and most also on the neighborhood transects. Five species were the most frequent, although none were dominant. The diversity indicies of the six transects were not significantly different, with an overall diversity of H′ = 2.93.     

A unified approach to permutation testing for equivalence

Statistical Methods & Applications - The notion of testing for equivalence of two treatments is widely used in clinical trials, pharmaceutical experiments, bioequivalence and quality control....     

The impact of corporate social performance on the cost of debt and access to debt financing for listed European non-financial firms

This study addresses the controversial issue of how non-financial performance affects the cost of debt capital and access to it. The relationship between corporate social performance and two measures of debt cost (accounting-based and market-based) and the measure of debt access are analysed by means of a multi-theoretical framework combining economics with social theories. By observing a sample of listed European non-financial firms over an 8-year period from 2005 to 2012, we find a negative relationship between corporate social performance and interest rate. Consistent with this result, we find a positive relationship between corporate social performance and debt rating. Thus, corporate social performance has a positive role in reducing the cost of debt capital. Moreover, firms with better corporate social performance are more attractive to lenders in terms of leverage allowance. Overall, our findings provide deeper insight into the reasons why companies should improve their corporate social performance.     

Prior education and entrepreneurial intentions: the differential impact of a wide range of fields of study

Studies on entrepreneurial intentions often neglect the heterogeneity of individuals’ education background. This paper develops an integrated intention-based framework and analyzes the impact of fields of study on entrepreneurial intentions. Based on a sample of 2423 final-year students, enrolled in 32 fields of study, and resorting to logistic estimations, we find that, beside the attitude towards starting a business, fields of study, considered at a highly detailed level, are relevant (direct and indirect) predictors of entrepreneurial intention. We unambiguously show that there is a huge hidden potential for new venture creation in fields of study related to creative and leisure activities (e.g., Arts and humanities, or, more specifically, Literature and linguistics, History and archaeology, Audio-visual techniques and media production, Sports, and Architecture and town planning), Law, and Health (most notably, Pharmacy and Veterinary). Significant differences in the level of intention between students of different fields of study indicate that universities should more extensively focus entrepreneurship education on students in other subject area than business or engineering/technology sciences.     

Working conditions in the export industry of northern Morocco: Legal framework and situation on the ground

Companies in northern Morocco that export manufactured goods and services run on a production system characterized by high pressure, flexible use of labour, strict supervision and the challenging of certain labour rights. This article studies the conditions of work at these enterprises on the basis of the theoretical model of the “localized global economy”, drawing distinctions based on types of enterprise, industry and occupational categories. The results show how changes to the labour law in 2004, which adopted the standards contained in international conventions, have given more power to multinational enterprises.