Celebrating Joan Acker: Sociologist,fearless feminist,friend

Joan Acker's life reflects a time when middle‐class women were expected to be satisfied with maintaining the home front, serving husbands and children, not having paid‐work careers. After living “the ideal” for 37 years, Acker took a new path by earning a Ph. D. and producing path‐breaking scholarship that challenged taken‐for‐granted beliefs about gender, family, work, and organizations. Acker spoke “truth to power” and was an academic heroine in posing feminist challenges to injustices involving gender, social class, and race/ethnicity, particularly (but not solely) related to the workplace. This overview lets Joan tell her story and offers reflections on her milestone publications as seen by Pat Martin.     

Graphical representation of survival curves in the presence of time-dependent categorical covariates with application to liver transplantation

Graphical representation of survival curves is often used to illustrate associations between exposures and time-to-event outcomes. However, when exposures are time-dependent, calculation of survival probabilities is not straightforward. Our aim was to develop a method to estimate time-dependent survival probabilities and represent them graphically. Cox models with time-dependent indicators to represent state changes were fitted, and survival probabilities were plotted using pre-specified times of state changes. Time-varying hazard ratios for the state change were also explored. The method was applied to data from the Adult-to-Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation Cohort Study (A2ALL). Survival curves showing a ‘split’ at a pre-specified time t allow for the qualitative comparison of survival probabilities between patients with similar baseline covariates who do and do not experience a state change at time t. Time since state change interactions can be visually represented to reflect changing hazard ratios over time. A2ALL study results showed differences in survival probabilities among those who did not receive a transplant, received a living donor transplant, and received a deceased donor transplant. These graphical representations of survival curves with time-dependent indicators improve upon previous methods and allow for clinically meaningful interpretation.     

Data‐Driven Supply Chain Orientation and Financial Performance: The Moderating Effect of Innovation‐Focused Complementary Assets

Drawing on the complementary assets framework, this study explores the moderating effect of innovation‐focused complementary assets (CA‐I) on the relationship between a data‐driven supply chain orientation (DDSCO) and firm financial performance. To test the moderating effect, survey data gathered from 329 manufacturing firms in China were analysed using a moderated regression analysis. The results indicate that DDSCO has a significant positive effect on financial performance, and that capabilities for product and process innovation function as complementary assets moderating the DDSCO–performance relationship. The findings suggest that innovation‐focused complementary assets are performance differentiators when paired with a DDSCO and explain why some firms obtain financial benefits from the development of a DDSCO while others do not. Specifically, competitive advantage from a DDSCO may not be realized unless CA‐I and potentially other complementary assets are harnessed, thus providing useful practical guidance to managers. Hence, the study provides empirical support for the complementary assets framework.     

Developing a Cross-National Comparative Framework for Studying Labour Market Segmentation: Measurement Equivalence with Latent Class Analysis

Social Indicators Research - This article proposes a novel measurement model of labour market segmentation in Europe for cross-national comparisons, tackling three drawbacks of current approaches:...     

Agency and fatalism in older Appalachian women’s information seeking about gynecological cancer

Researchers consider older women in rural Appalachia to have low levels of agency and high levels of fatalism regarding decision making about cancer treatment. Using the life course perspective, we examined older women’s agency with information seeking about gynecological cancer. Semistructured interviews with 20 White women living in central Appalachia revealed four trajectories: Surrendering Control, Accepting Death, Self-Care, and Advocacy, each with its own forms of agency. Some women experienced personal transformation, increased self-efficacy, and a passion for community empowerment. Fatalism was not understood apart from placing trust in medical expertise. We implore researchers to further explore rural expressions of agency.     

Distributed intervention: networked content moderation in anonymous mobile spaces

Given recent public focus on the use of digital tools to engage in discrimination and harassment, online platforms have come under increasing scrutiny to address online incivility. Many of these efforts have been critiqued for relying too heavily on technical tools or burdening individuals with the responsibility for reporting inappropriate actions. This research examines practices of digital bystander intervention on the anonymous localized mobile app Yik Yak. Through an analysis of the firsthand experiences of college students in the United States, this research identifies and investigates practices of networked intervention—that is, strategies of content moderation where success relies on collective action. Rooted in a general uncertainty and skepticism regarding reporting tools provided by the platform, findings suggest a preference for intervention practices that depend on distributed responsibility and networked activity. Taking inspiration from research on college bathroom graffiti—a parallel discursive environment—this paper employs the feminist theory of relational autonomy to explore the possibilities and limitations of networked intervention to cultivate individual and collective empowerment.     

The Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index

Social Indicators Research - The empowerment of women in the livestock sector is fundamental to achieve gender equality. It also is instrumental for increased household productivity and improved...     

基于银行债券视角对存款保险基本费率的测算

 存款保险制度可能引发道德风险问题,即促使参保银行主动承受更大的风险。因此,建立适合的存款保险制度需要从风险管理及反映风险的保险费用的确定等方面着手,其核心工作就是存款保险费率的厘定。        常见的存款保险定价方法包括单一费率法和差别费率法,基于风险设计存款保险费率结构的差别费率法能降低银行的道德风险。RONN和VERMA结合存款保险的差别费率法和复合期权定价思路,提出存款保险价值不仅与银行资产的风险和收益有关,还可以与银行股权资本状况和存款债务建立关系。借鉴RONN和VERMA的建模思路,利用存款债务与其他普通债务的相似性及期权对角价差组合技术,建立银行资产市场价值和银行资产隐含波动率与银行普通债券价值和债券收益率的波动率之间的联立非线性方程组。利用上市银行债券数据的可得性,采用数值方法对5家国有商业银行的风险中性违约概率和存款保险基本费率进行测算。在此基础上,结合Ronn-Verma模型,得到其他10家上市银行的存款保险费率。        研究结果表明,在其他情况相同的条件下,违约概率和存款保险费率均与银行债券收益率的波动率正相关,债券的价格信息能够反映一定的银行存款风险;此外,3类银行中以股份制银行的存款保险费率最高,城市商业银行次之,5家国有商业银行最低,后者略高于同期央行规定的基准费率。        中国正逐步实践隐性存款保险向显性存款保险的转变,研究结果为基于债券市值给存款保险定价提供借鉴。在充分考虑实际情况的基础上,相关部门应该从实施风险差别费率、建立风险评级体系、完善风险费率措施等角度入手,为实施合适的存款保险费率制度创造有利条件。     

Polynomial algorithms for canonical forms of orientations

We introduce canonical forms that represent certain equivalence classes of totally cyclic and acyclic orientations of graphs and present a polynomial algorithms for their constructions. The forms are used in new formulas evaluating tension and flow polynomials on graphs.