The role of carers in supporting the progress of care leavers in the world of work

The aim of this component of a preliminary cross‐national study (Ireland and Catalonia) of care leavers' experience in the world of work is to explore how carers may influence the entry of young people in care into the world of work and how they may also influence the young people's progress in that world. A total of 22 care leavers, aged 23–33 years, were recruited on the basis of their having substantial employment experience since leaving care. Evidence from the interviews reveals the importance of the role of carers in the work‐related progression of the young care leavers, especially in relation to gaining work experience while they were still in care. The qualitative analysis shows that carers were influential in promoting (and sometimes hindering) progress in work and education. Carers were often reported to play an important role in opening up opportunities, giving support (modelling skill development, giving practical help, etc.), being role models and cultivating the young person's agency. On the basis of these findings, we propose an initial conceptualization of carer roles in positive work support.     

Do the rich save more in Latin America?

This paper reports evidence that the savings rate of the rich is higher than that of the poor in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. On average, the difference between the fifth and fourth income quintile groups is 7 percentage points. No differences between income groups are found in Uruguay and the results for Argentina and Colombia are not robust to estimation alternatives. The key methodological step is to construct a measure of lifetime income. Current income is not a good proxy since it is affected by phases of the life cycle and transitory shocks. We implement a two-stage procedure based on the education level of the household head and the education level of his/her partner. Several robustness exercises are reported for different age groups, inclusion/exclusion of outliers and for a wealth index based on homeownership, home appliances and other household owned assets.     

Species occupancy estimation and imperfect detection: shall surveys continue after the first detection?

Species occupancy, the proportion of sites occupied by a species, is a state variable of interest in ecology. One challenge in its estimation is that detection is often imperfect in wildlife surveys. As a consequence, occupancy models that explicitly describe the observation process are becoming widely used in the discipline. These models require data that are informative about species detectability. Such information is often obtained by conducting repeat surveys to sampling sites. One strategy is to survey each site a predefined number of times, regardless of whether the species is detected. Alternatively, one can stop surveying a site once the species is detected and reallocate the effort saved to surveying new sites. In this paper we evaluate the merits of these two general design strategies under a range of realistic conditions. We conclude that continuing surveys after detection is beneficial unless the cumulative probability of detection at occupied sites is close to one, and that the benefits are greater when the sample size is small. Since detectability and sample size tend to be small in ecological applications, our recommendation is to follow a strategy where at least some of the sites continue to be sampled after first detection.     

Estimation of multivariate conditional-tail-expectation using Kendall's process

This paper deals with the problem of estimating the multivariate version of the Conditional-Tail-Expectation, proposed by Di Bernardino et al. [(2013), ‘Plug-in Estimation of Level Sets in a Non-Compact Setting with Applications in Multivariable Risk Theory’, ESAIM: Probability and Statistics, (17), 236–256]. We propose a new nonparametric estimator for this multivariate risk-measure, which is essentially based on Kendall's process [Genest and Rivest, (1993), ‘Statistical Inference Procedures for Bivariate Archimedean Copulas’, Journal of American Statistical Association, 88(423), 1034–1043]. Using the central limit theorem for Kendall's process, proved by Barbe et al. [(1996), ‘On Kendall's Process’, Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 58(2), 197–229], we provide a functional central limit theorem for our estimator. We illustrate the practical properties of our nonparametric estimator on simulations and on two real test cases. We also propose a comparison study with the level sets-based estimator introduced in Di Bernardino et al. [(2013), ‘Plug-In Estimation of Level Sets in A Non-Compact Setting with Applications in Multivariable Risk Theory’, ESAIM: Probability and Statistics, (17), 236–256] and with (semi-)parametric approaches.     

Impulsivity traits and gambling cognitions associated with gambling preferences and clinical status

Impulsivity (and related traits reward/punishment sensitivity and tolerance to delayed rewards) and gambling cognitions have been linked to gambling. However, their independent associations with gambling preferences and clinical status have never been dissociated. The current study applied a data-driven strategy to identify gambling preferences, based on gambling frequency in several modalities. The two resulting factors were used to classify gambling disorder patients (GDPs) and non-problem recreational gamblers (RGs) into Type I (preferring cards, casino games and skill-based bets) and Type II (preferring slot machines, lotteries/pools and bingo). Participants were assessed in impulsivity, delay discounting, reward/punishment sensitivity, gambling-related cognitions, gambling severity, gambling frequency and average amount gambled per episode. GDPs scored higher than RGs in positive and negative urgency, delay discounting, reward sensitivity and intensity of gambling-related cognitions, but less in lack of perseverance. Additionally, Type II gamblers had greater difficulties delaying gratification, whereas Type I gamblers showed higher cognitive distortion and reward sensitivity levels. In practical terms, the finding that some characteristics are equally pervasive in disordered gamblers independently of their preferences (affect-driven impulsivity), whereas others (distorted cognitions, reward sensitivity, delay discounting) are more prominent in one type or the other, provides a basis to establish targets’ priority in therapy.     

Latent Tuberculosis Infection Screening Acceptability among Migrant Farmworkers

Latent tuberculosis (TB) infection is routinely diagnosed using the tuberculin skin test (TST). New methods of detection more specific than TST such as QuantiFERON TB Gold In‐Tube (QFT‐GIT) have been developed but evidence remains limited on their acceptability among migrant farmworkers. This article examined the acceptability of screening tests among migrant farmworkers working on the Arizona‐Mexico border. We conducted a cross‐sectional survey of migrant farmworkers via questionnaire. Of 83 participants interviewed, 53 (63.9%) believed that TB was a serious disease that could result in death and 59 (71.1%) considered TB a health concern in their community. Sixty‐four participants (77.1%) rated QFT‐GIT test as performing better than TST. Our study demonstrates preference for QFT‐GIT results over TST, and highlights migrant farmworkers’ considering themselves at risk of TB and TB as a health concern. Policies that create easy access and culturally appropriate, affordable healthcare for this vulnerable population should be encouraged.     

On the role of Prognostics and Health Management in advanced maintenance systems

The advanced use of the Information and Communication Technologies is evolving the way that systems are managed and maintained. A great number of techniques and methods have emerged in the light of these advances allowing to have an accurate and knowledge about the systems’ condition evolution and remaining useful life. The advances are recognised as outcomes of an innovative discipline, nowadays discussed under the term of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM). In order to analyse how maintenance will change using PHM, a conceptual model is proposed built upon three views. The model highlights: (i) how PHM may impact the definition of maintenance policies; (ii) how PHM fits within the condition-based maintenance; and (iii) how PHM can be integrated into reliability-centred maintenance programmes. The conceptual model is the research finding of this review note and helps to discuss the role of PHM in advanced maintenance systems.     

Failure to Realize Fertility Intentions: A Key Aspect of the Post-communist Fertility Transition

Our paper focuses on the realization of fertility intentions, exploring a new aspect of the post-communist fertility transition. By making use of a follow-up study, it was possible to compare five European countries and to analyze the chances of realizing short-term, time-dependent fertility intentions. There is always a difference between intention and behavior. It is partly due to demographic and social factors, such as age, parity, partnership status, but once these are accounted for, important differences remain between western European and post-communist countries. In the period after the turn of the millennium, chances of realizing intentions are significantly lower in post-communist countries than in western European countries. The lower chance of realization is a consequence of social anomie originating from discrepancy between slow value shift and the increased dynamism of structural changes.     

Bourdieu,ethics and symbolic power

This article critically discusses Pierre Bourdieu's views on ethics and normative evaluations. Bourdieu acknowledged that people hold ethical stances, yet sought to show that these stances are – unconsciously – conducive to obtaining symbolic power and legitimizing hierarchy. The first part of the article looks at this argument and charts the shifts it went through particularly in the early 1990s. The second part discusses ontological and empirical critiques of the ethics as ideology argument and suggests the latter to be more salient, as Bourdieu proposed his argument as an empirical rather than as an ontological point. The reason why he nevertheless found the ethics as ideology explanation fitting to nearly all the cases he studied, as the third part argues, is not simply that reality ‘obliged’ him to do so, but his circular definition of symbolic capital as qualities that are worthy of esteem. This definition makes his argument of ethics as ideology unfalsifiable and impedes him from distinguishing between cases when legitimate power is the aim of ethics and between those when it is merely their side effect. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which Bourdieu's work can be fruitfully incorporated into the study of ethics once the tautology is resolved.