The meaning of work among immigrants living in poverty in Israel: Replanting roots of belonging

The global financial crisis has increased the number of working immigrants living in poverty around the world. This article presents and analyses the interaction of work, immigration and poverty among working immigrants in Israel. Methodologically, this study has combined hermeneutic phenomenological and social constructivist approaches and in so doing has aimed to describe the realities of immigrants living and working in poverty. Presenting both men's and women's perspectives, we found that immigrants who work and live in poverty attribute crucial significance to work, which serves as a primary route of integration into the new culture as well as a means of coping with both the uprootedness caused by immigration and the difficulties of living in poverty. However, immigrants’ construction of work as the sole conduit for integration leaves them particularly vulnerable to discriminatory workplace practices.     

Test of a model of organizational contributors to product development team effectiveness

This study tests a model of product development team effectiveness which was developed by Susman and Dean [Susman, G.I., Dean, J.W., 1992. Development of a model for predicting design for manufacturability effectiveness. In: Susman, G.I. (Ed.), Integrating Design and Manufacturing for Competitive Advantage. Oxford Univ. Press, New York, pp. 207–227.]. The model addresses two interrelated managerial issues. One concerns the use of integrative mechanisms to counterbalance the potentially negative effects of function-based differentiation, directly or indirectly through group process. The other concerns group process vs. codification/computerization as alternative means to process information as risk increases. This study addresses the first issue by testing the effect of a subset of integrative mechanisms on project outcomes, i.e., project focus, and the role of group process as partial mediator of this relationship. The second issue is addressed by testing for risk as positive moderator of the relationship between group process and project outcomes and as negative moderator of the relationship between codification/computerization and project outcomes. The results suggest that project focus is directly related to project outcomes, but group process does not mediate this relationship. Codification/computerization is not related to project outcomes. Risk does not positively moderate the group process–project outcomes relationship, but does negatively moderate the codification/computerization–project outcomes relationship.     

Latino Crime and Latinos in the Criminal Justice System: Trends,Policy Implications,and Future Research Initiatives

With exponential growth in the Latino population over the past decade, both social scientists and politicians have directed their attention toward understanding Latino behavior(s) ranging from purchasing power and marketing to voting. Less is known, however, about the extent to which Latino population growth might be associated with patterns of criminal justice or violent criminal outcomes. One objective of this research is to provide a contemporary overview of the Latino experiences with the criminal justice system by highlighting racial/ethnic disparities in incarceration and sentencing. Using racial-/ethnic-specific homicide victimization data provided by the Centers for Disease Control, we also examine the impact of Latino concentration on levels of group-specific homicide, both regionally and nationally. Results from our negative binomial multivariate analyses indicate that the concentration of Latinos tends to be associated with lower levels of homicide victimization, a finding that holds across racial/ethnic groups and geographic specification. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings with an eye toward future research in this area.     

Flexible parametric modelling of the hazard function in breast cancer studies

In cancer research, study of the hazard function provides useful insights into disease dynamics, as it describes the way in which the (conditional) probability of death changes with time. The widely utilized Cox proportional hazard model uses a stepwise nonparametric estimator for the baseline hazard function, and therefore has a limited utility. The use of parametric models and/or other approaches that enables direct estimation of the hazard function is often invoked. A recent work by Cox et al. [6 Cox, C., Chu, H., Schneider, M. F. and Munoz, A. 2007. Parametric survival analysis and taxonomy of hazard functions for the generalized gamma distribution. Stat. Med., 26: 4352–4374. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] has stimulated the use of the flexible parametric model based on the Generalized Gamma (GG) distribution, supported by the development of optimization software. The GG distribution allows estimation of different hazard shapes in a single framework. We use the GG model to investigate the shape of the hazard function in early breast cancer patients. The flexible approach based on a piecewise exponential model and the nonparametric additive hazards model are also considered.     

Social security reform and the support for public education

Old age pensions and public education account for a large share of public budgets. We link both programs through a tax-transfer system that is also sensitive to labor market distortions. We analyze the impact that alternative pension reforms have, through the political process, on publicly financed education. We explain how changes in the pension system design affect the link between the two programs and also labor market incentives. These effects, if they exist, act in opposite directions. Overall, we find that most proposals that entail a partial privatization of pensions reduce the willingness of the society to fund public education.     

The complex Watson distribution and shape analysis

The complex Watson distribution is an important simple distribution on the complex sphere which is used in statistical shape analysis. We describe the density, obtain the integrating constant and provide large sample approximations. Maximum likelihood estimation and hypothesis testing procedures for one and two samples are described. The particular connection with shape analysis is discussed and we consider an application examining shape differences between normal and schizophrenic brains. We make some observations about Bayesian shape inference and finally we describe a more general rotationally symmetric family of distributions.     

Development of a Performance Assessment Capability in the Waste Management Programs of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has developed a performance assessment capability to address three programmatic areas in nuclear waste management: high-level waste, low-level waste, and decommissioning of licensed facilities (license termination). The NRC capability consists of: (1) methodologies for performance assessment; (2) models and computer codes for estimating system performance; (3) regulatory guidance in various forms, such as regulations, Branch Technical Positions, and Standard Review Plans; and (4) a technical staff experienced in executing and evaluating performance assessments for a variety of waste systems. Although the tools and techniques are refined for each programmatic area, general approaches and similar issues are encountered in all areas.