Rising Rates of Cohabitation and the Odds of Repartnering: Does the Gap Between Men and Women Disappear?

Men are more likely to repartner than women. This pattern might reflect gender disparities in barriers to repartnering. When rates of cohabitation increase, the gender disparity might shrink, as cohabitation is a less institutionalized form of coresidential partnership and therefore has lower entry barriers in comparison to marriage. Using event-history models applied to Czech data from the Generations and Gender Survey, we show that the odds of repartnering were indeed higher among men than among women in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. No significant change in the gender effect, however, was found. Similarly, the analysis revealed no change in the effect of gender on the odds of entering cohabitation rather than marriage.     

Risk assessment of banknotes as a fomite of SARS-CoV-2 in cash payment transactions

The COVID 19 pandemic has triggered concerns and assumptions globally about transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus via cash transactions. This paper assesses the risk of contracting COVID-19 through exposure to SARS-CoV-2 via cash acting as a fomite in payment transactions. A quantitative microbial risk assessment was conducted for a scenario assuming an infectious person at the onset of symptoms, when virion concentrations in coughed droplets are at their highest. This person then contaminates a banknote by coughing on it and immediately hands it over to another person, who might then be infected by transferring the virions with a finger from the contaminated banknote to a facial mucous membrane. The scenario considered transfer efficiency of virions on the banknote to fingertips when droplets were still wet and after having dried up and subsequently being touched by finger printing or rubbing the object. Accounting for the likelihood of the scenario to occur by considering (1) a local prevalence of 100 COVID-19 cases/100,000 persons, (2) a maximum of about one-fifth of infected persons transmit high virus loads, and (3) the numbers of cash transactions/person/day, the risk of contracting COVID-19 via person-to-person cash transactions was estimated to be much lower than once per 39,000 days (107 years) for a single person. In the general populace, there will be a maximum of 2.6 expected cases/100,000 persons/day. The risk for a cashier at an average point of sale was estimated to be much less than once per 430 working days (21 months). The depicted scenario is a rare event, therefore, for a single person, the risk of contracting COVID-19 via person-to-person cash transactions is very low. At a point of sale, the risk to the cashier proportionally increases but it is still low.     

“How to wind the clock of the day?” Solo living phenomena and the various stabilities of home

The domestic home is usually theorized as negotiated and structured space-time and as an emotional attachment to people and places. However, the increasing number of people living on their own brings about the question of how home is experienced, embodied, and narrated by solo-living individuals, especially in terms of ordering and stability under the flexible and fluid nature of some other realms, such as paid work. Following the affordance approach in studies of home, our aim is to integrate research on practices, materialities, and narratives of domestic homes. Our main question concerns how home is perceived, experienced, and performed by childless solo-living people and how they understand the stability of their dwelling—one of the main characteristics of home in social theory. To broaden this “traditional” concept of home, we build upon the emphasis on stability with the notion of flow, as presented by Deleuze and Guattari, along with the concept of boundary work, to describe the processes of delineation between these two from the level of mundane “doings.” Through in-depth interviews conducted using the go-along technique, combined with walking through the dwellings and some of the neighborhoods, we explore the ambivalence of stability, permanence, and temporariness, and the interconnection between materialities and meanings. The appropriation of space and time enables solo-living people to dwell comfortably, while also materializing and stabilizing the sometimes unwanted state of singleness or living alone. In contrast, the unfinished nature of some homes indicates a provisional state of being, pointing out that the current situation is still not satisfactory, being more open to change; however, it might lead to permanent living in unpleasant or even un-homey homes.     

A note on fiducial generalized pivots for in one-way heteroscedastic ANOVA with random effects

The paper deals with generalized confidence intervals for the between-group variance in one-way heteroscedastic (unbalanced) ANOVA with random effects. The approach used mimics the standard one applied in mixed linear models with two variance components, where interval estimators are based on a minimal sufficient statistic derived after an initial reduction by the principle of invariance. A minimal sufficient statistic under heteroscedasticity is found to resemble its homoscedastic counterpart and further analogies between heteroscedastic and homoscedastic cases lead us to two classes of fiducial generalized pivots for the between-group variance. The procedures suggested formerly by Wimmer and Witkovský [Between group variance component interval estimation for the unbalanced heteroscedastic one-way random effects model, J. Stat. Comput. Simul. 73 (2003), pp. 333–346] and Li [Comparison of confidence intervals on between group variance in unbalanced heteroscedastic one-way random models, Comm. Statist. Simulation Comput. 36 (2007), pp. 381–390] are found to belong to these two classes. We comment briefly on some of their properties that were not mentioned in the original papers. In addition, properties of another particular generalized pivot are considered.     

Independent Quadratic Forms in 3-Variance-Component Models

This article addresses derivation and existence of quadratic forms that were suggested by Burch (2007 Burch , B. D. ( 2007 ). Generalized confidence intervals for proportions of total variance in mixed linear models . J. Statist. Plann. Infer. 137 : 2394 – 2404 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for procedures for inference on variance components in mixed linear models in combination with generalized fiducial inference. A relatively simple algorithm leading to the required quadratic forms in a general 3-variance-component model is stated and designs for two-way ANOVA models without interactions that permit Burch's procedure are characterized. This complements developments in the original article by Burch.     

All I need is a stage to shine: Narcissists' leader emergence and performance

Many of the world's leaders appear to possess narcissistic characteristics (e.g., Deluga, 1997). This begs a question as to whether and why narcissistic individuals are chosen as leaders and how they perform. Prior research has suggested that leadership emergence and performance of narcissistic personalities may depend on contextual factors. Of particular interests are those contextual factors that pertain to the interdependence of work relationships, because narcissists typically tend to “shine” in social settings where they can influence others. Therefore, the present study investigated the leadership emergence and performance of narcissistic individuals in low versus high reward interdependent teams that participated in an interactive team simulation task. We found that narcissists emerged as leaders irrespective of the team's level of reward interdependence and their individual performance. Yet, high narcissists performed better in the high reward interdependent condition than in the low reward interdependent condition.     

A Systems View of Companies’ Communication in Online Social Environments

In order to enrich previous contributions interested in the identification of possible pathways to improve companies’ capabilities to better face the challenges imposed by increasing social and economic variety, this paper focuses attention on the role of companies’ communications in online social environments. Thanks to the adoption of systems thinking, the paper enlarges existing contributions on companies’ online communication by combining the research streams of signalling theory, capital need theory, and legitimacy theory. By building on a multi-disciplinary literature review, this paper identifies three variables to analyse the effectiveness of companies’ communication based on the use of social networks: the frequency, the instability, and the previous activities. Empirical research is proposed with reference to a sample composed by the 50 best performing European companies in terms of return on sales (ROS) (USD) in 2015 via the use of structural equation modelling (SEM). SEM is applied to explore the relationships among identified variables in companies’ online communication on Facebook and Instagram, and how those communications influence companies’ economic performance in terms of ROS.     

Critical reflection of the reintegration process through the lens of gender oppression: the case of social work with mothers in shelters

The article discusses the impact of the construct of motherhood on the process of reintegration of single mothers from shelters into permanent forms of housing in the Czech Republic. At the beginning of the article, we deal with the construct of women and mothers in Czech society and apply this construct to the construct of homeless mothers who are clients of shelters. We also describe the system of shelters in the Czech Republic. Our research involved 33 communication partners, who were either currently staying in a shelter or already reintegrated into permanent housing. When analyzing the results of the research, it showed that the construct of motherhood was one of the key themes and oppressive mechanisms. Mothers in interviews thematised the label of ‘bad mother’, the forced masculinization of their own conduct and takeover of the competence of mothers by the service, the construct of anti-mother and the need for ‘public mothering’. Based on the research data, we created a two-level model of the reintegration process.     

Strengthening the science–policy interface in the climate migration field

The question of how climatic changes and hazards affect human mobility has increasingly gained prominence in public debates over the past decade. Despite improvements in the scientific understanding of the subject and advancements in policy, major gaps remain in addressing the humanitarian and socio-economic challenges related to climate migration. In this perspectives article, we argue for a holistic approach and a closer integration of science and policy involving diverse stakeholders in the process of knowledge generation and implementation. We identify five key challenges characteristic for improving the science–policy interface: (i) conflictual political contexts and the securitization of human migration, (ii) simplistic narratives and framing of the subject, (iii) the uneven production and dissemination of knowledge, (iv) limited data and analytical capacities and (v) a selective topical and methodological focus. To address these diverse challenges, there is a need for more bridging initiatives at the science–policy interface that integrate diverse disciplines, approaches and stakeholders. A closer engagement of researchers and policymakers in the form of multi-stakeholder exchanges, capacity-building activities, co-development and co-implementation processes and integrative scientific assessments can help bridge the gap to support the inclusive generation of knowledge and the development of comprehensive policies.