Impact of physical activity and sedentary behaviour on fall risks in older people: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

The objective of this work was to summarise and evaluate the evidence showing that physical activity is a protector factor as regards falls in older people. Relevant studies were identified through a systematic search in the MEDLINE and Cochrane Library, under the keywords of accidental fall/numerical data and risk factors, and with the bibliographies of retrieved papers. The combined odds ratio (OR) [95% confidence interval] for physical activity was 0.75 [0.64, 0.88] with moderate heterogeneity (I ²?=?33%). For fall injury, it was 0.59 [0.47, 0.74] and, for falls in general, it rose to 0.94 [0.76, 1.17] with nil heterogeneity. The combined OR for sedentary factors was 1.14 [1.10, 1.82] with moderate heterogeneity (I ²?=?36%). Regular physical activity in daily life yields significant reduction in falls in older people, especially falls with injuries.     

Divorce Alimony: An Estimation of its Determinants and of its Amount

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants of the attribution of alimony to women after divorce, and to examine the main determinants of its amount. Three different theoretical models of marriage may influence judges'decision in attributing alimony: an investment-type marriage, a trade-type marriage or an association-type marriage. An estimation of the corresponding dichotomic variable is run using data we collected from six French courts. Results show that the probability of obtaining alimony is strongly increased if the divorce is declared to be the husband's fault; labour market participation of the ex-wife exerts a negative effect, as well as a decrease in relative wages of husband and wife. Finally, it appears that the amount of alimony is independent of the amount of child support.     

Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Understand Motivation to Register Births in Lombok,Indonesia

Despite government interest in promoting birth registration, more than a third of Indonesian children do not have a birth certificate, affecting the realisation of both their human and citizen rights. While barriers to registering children's births in Indonesia have been assessed, there is limited research on how communities perceive the importance of having a birth certificate. This study used focus group discussions to explore parental motivations around birth registration. The results of a thematic analysis found that perceived use of birth certificates, perceived control over the application process and social norms related to certificate ownership affect the intention to apply.     

Intra-household inequality in transitional Russia

The paper proposes an original strategy for analyzing household sharing of income and satisfaction. Using two different subjective questions from the Russian data RLMS (Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey), we assume a correspondence between, first, the perception of income that household members report and their true income sharing, and, second, between their answer to a satisfaction question and their utility. We show that answers given by different members of the household bring pertinent information on income sharing and utility in the household. In particular, we find a significant effect of the female–male wage ratio in reported income perception and satisfaction differentials between household members. Our data covers the transition period (1994–2003) characterized by massive economic and social changes in Russia. We investigate the evolution of intra-household welfare distribution by exploiting the episode of the financial crisis of 1998 to distinguish two periods: pre- and post-crisis. Our empirical strategy consists of applying probit-type models allowing the parameters to change in a discrete manner between two periods and accounting for discrete unobserved heterogeneity.     

Mythology, Joseph Campbell, and the socioeconomic conflict

This article shows that the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell indicates a solution to what might be called the socioeconomic conflict: the conflict between self-interest and the individual's need to be part of a community of shared values. That solution is to “follow your bliss” or the wisdom of your own heart rather than the dictates of some impersonal social system. This rule brings an individual the greatest possible happiness while at the same time it revitalizes his or her community of heroes following their bliss whose values are that of personal creativity and integrity. Cambell's own scholarship exemplified the ideals of socioeconomics since he considered himself a generalist who read widely in many fields looking for and finding a transcendent message.     

The Role of Evaluator-Victim Relationships in Children's Evaluations of Peer Provocation

Second-, third-, fifth-, and sixth- grade children evaluated two hypothetical target peers in three provocation scenarios which differed as to the intent of a provocative act (Ambiguous, Accidental, Hostile). In addition to age and gender, evaluator-victim relationship was manipulated with children portrayed as being in a best friend, an acquaintance, or an enemy relationship with the victim, while the agent of the provocation was an unfamiliar peer. Evaluations were assessed in terms of attributions of aggressor's intentions, behavior response of the victim, evaluator's liking for victim, and evaluator's affect. Results indicated that older children evaluated aggressor's intentions and victim's behavior response more negatively than did younger children. Further, attributions of aggressor's intent significantly predicted the victim's subsequent behavioral response. Evaluator's affect was reported to be more negative when evaluating hostile provocation compared to accidental or ambiguous provocation and evaluators in acquaintance and enemy relationships with the victim reported liking the victim more after the provocation than before it occurred. Results are discussed in terms of the social relational and social situational influences on children's evaluations of peer interactions and the need to integrate these contextual factors in children's person perception research.     

Compact labelings for efficient first-order model-checking

We consider graph properties that can be checked from labels, i.e., bit sequences, of logarithmic length attached to vertices. We prove that there exists such a labeling for checking a first-order formula with free set variables in the graphs of every class that is nicely locally clique-width-decomposable. This notion generalizes that of a nicely locally tree-decomposable class. The graphs of such classes can be covered by graphs of bounded clique-width with limited overlaps. We also consider such labelings for bounded first-order formulas on graph classes of bounded expansion. Some of these results are extended to counting queries.     

Post bureaucratic organisations and managers

Pressures to change in organizations administered on bureaucratic lines and using the production techniques of “scientific management” are deriving from certain intrinsic attributes of these systems and from changing attributes of the environment. These changes constitute attempts to introduce greater fluidity into organizational structures and attempts to diffuse power. To the extent that they are implemented they imply that future management will centre more on sociological and psychological data, will become more experimental and less directive in style, will focus more on organizational (as against departmental) concerns and will become more responsive to external groupings. They imply also that managers will be judged more by results than by the opinion of peers, that they will be more exposed to challenge and criticism, that they will be held responsible for the quality of the work experience of their subordinates and that their own careers will be less orderly.     

A more powerful unconditional exact test of homogeneity for 2 × c contingency table analysis

The classical unconditional exact p-value test can be used to compare two multinomial distributions with small samples. This general hypothesis requires parameter estimation under the null which makes the test severely conservative. Similar property has been observed for Fisher's exact test with Barnard and Boschloo providing distinct adjustments that produce more powerful testing approaches. In this study, we develop a novel adjustment for the conservativeness of the unconditional multinomial exact p-value test that produces nominal type I error rate and increased power in comparison to all alternative approaches. We used a large simulation study to empirically estimate the 5th percentiles of the distributions of the p-values of the exact test over a range of scenarios and implemented a regression model to predict the values for two-sample multinomial settings. Our results show that the new test is uniformly more powerful than Fisher's, Barnard's, and Boschloo's tests with gains in power as large as several hundred percent in certain scenarios. Lastly, we provide a real-life data example where the unadjusted unconditional exact test wrongly fails to reject the null hypothesis and the corrected unconditional exact test rejects the null appropriately.