Feminist Heuristics: Transforming the Foundation of Food Quality and Safety Assurance Systems*

Food safety and quality assurance systems have emerged as a key mechanism of food governance in recent years and are also popular among alternative agrofood movements, such as the organic and fair trade movements. Rural sociologists have identified many problems with existing systems, including corporate cooptation, the marginalization of small producers, and the depoliticization of consumer consciousness. Tackling these problems requires an epistemological shift. This article argues that the existing systems are based on positivist epistemology and calls for a feminist intervention. To show a concrete example of a feminist departure from the conventional assurance systems, I look at the case of a Japanese women's food cooperative and analyze its unique system, comparing it to its conventional counterpart, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Feminist epistemology can change assurance systems from being closed, nondiscriminatory, and technical to being participatory, differentiated, and normative.     

道德教育与人的价值创造——来自日本道德教育的课题

不论是日本还是中国，学问沦为学历的道具，教育精神已然荒废，再加上儿童的道德意识薄弱，“道德教育”、“人格教育”的必要性开始引起人们的重视。在展望日本道德教育的课题的同时，既考察作为中日两国确立教育的最终目的的关键词一价值创造的概念，也考察道德教育的最终方向。     

Testing Equality of Mean Vectors in Two Sample Problem with Missing Data

Finding the influence of traffic accident on the road is helpful to analyze the characteristics of traffic flow, and take reasonable and effective control measures. Here, the detrended fluctuation analysis method is applied to investigate the complexity of time series in mixed traffic flow with a blockage induced by an accident. As a parameter to depict the long-term evolutionary behavior of the time series in traffic flow, the scaling exponent is analyzed. According to the scaling exponent, it is shown that the traffic flow time series can display long-range correlation characteristics, short-range correlation characteristics, and non-power-law relation in the long-range correlation characteristics, which is strongly dependent on the entering probability of vehicle, the ratio of slow vehicle and the blockage duration time.     

Work overload and intimidation: The moderating role of resilience

Work overload is a critical but understudied stressor at work, particularly for boundary-spanning positions. Recent studies have highlighted the need for more research on the identification of different predictors of the use of intimidation, a type of assertive impression management tactic. Relying on Lazarus's transactional theory, this study hypothesized and investigated a mediated moderation model that includes resilience, work overload, and its outcomes.This paper contributes to the organizational literature by examining the use of intimidation by salespeople as a reaction to stressful circumstances and the association between this tactic and salespeople's performance. The information provided by 248 employee–supervisor dyads confirmed the proposed model. Work overload has a positive association with intimidation, and the direct effect of work overload on intimidation depends on the level of an employee's resilience. Finally, the use of intimidation has a negative association with supervisor-rated performance.     

Computing the conditional stationary distribution in Markov chains of level-dependent M/G/1-type

This paper considers the computation of the conditional stationary distribution in Markov chains of level-dependent M/G/1-type, given that the level is not greater than a predefined threshold. This problem has been studied recently and a computational algorithm is proposed under the assumption that matrices representing downward jumps are nonsingular. We first show that this assumption can be eliminated in a general setting of Markov chains of level-dependent G/G/1-type. Next we develop a computational algorithm for the conditional stationary distribution in Markov chains of level-dependent M/G/1-type, by modifying the above-mentioned algorithm slightly. In principle, our algorithm is applicable to any Markov chain of level-dependent M/G/1-type, if the Markov chain is irreducible and positive-recurrent. Furthermore, as an input to the algorithm, we can set an error bound for the computed conditional distribution, which is a notable feature of our algorithm. Some numerical examples are also provided.     

Social costs of displacement in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Hundreds of thousands of Louisiana citizens were displaced from their homes as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Of those displaced within Louisiana some relocated to other parishes, some to other residences within the same parish, and others were able to return to their pre-storm residence. This article draws upon data gathered by the 2006 Louisiana Health and Population Survey to examine the social costs of displacement across 18 Louisiana parishes approximately 1 year after the hurricanes. Specifically, we examine how displacement affected housing, economic, and health outcomes for individuals and families. Further, we compare the implications of two types of displacement (1) internal displacement—within-parish relocation versus (2) external displacement—relocation across parish lines. We found that the displaced had lower odds of owning their homes, living in detached housing, and retaining access to primary health care facilities. The displaced were also more likely to be unemployed and exhibit symptoms consistent with severe mental illness. The externally displaced suffered income declines. These trends are critically important for understanding both the short- and long-term ramifications of displacement after disaster. Our findings have implications for theories, policy makers, and planners considering the larger social costs of disaster and large-scale displacement.     

Negative Assimilation: How Immigrants Experience Economic Mobility in Japan

This paper examines the economic mobility of foreign migrants in Japan. In a country that is largely regarded as homogeneous and closed to outsiders, how and to what extent do immigrants achieve economic success? A survey conducted by the authors revealed that the conventional assimilationist perspective does not fully explain immigrants’ economic success in Japan. Migrants from the West experience what Chiswick and Miller ( 2011 ) refer to as “negative assimilation.” That is, their earnings decline over time in Japan. While negative assimilation was not clearly observed among immigrants from neighboring Asian countries, wages among them did not increase with the length of their stay in Japan. For both groups, the skills they brought from abroad were found to be largely accountable for their economic success, while locally specific human capital, such as education acquired in the host society, did not contribute to their earnings.     

Displacement Dynamics in Southern Louisiana After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

We describe displacement dynamics in Louisiana approximately 1 year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Policy-makers and service-providers require a more detailed understanding of displacement in order to provide for geographically dispersed populations. Census estimates of net change are often insufficient because they fail to capture the broad range of movement of people. Therefore, we draw upon original data to more fully describe patterns of movement across and within parish lines in southern Louisiana. The 2006 Louisiana Health and Population Survey (LHPS) was commissioned by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and the Louisiana Recovery Authority to provide information on population dispersion and related health characteristics in and around hurricane-affected regions. Our paper utilizes this unique dataset to describe three distinct dimensions of displacement dynamics: in-migration, out-migration, and intra-parish movement. These displacement dynamics add important correctives to the broader “net effects” commonly cited in media reports of population changes, which vastly understate the extent of displacement in the region.

Game Theoretical Formulations of The Olson Problem*

Abstract This paper takes up one of the basic themes of Mancur Olson's Logic of Collective Action (Harvard University Press 1965). that is a group size as a cause of suboptimal provision of collective or public goods. A general framework is developed for classifying collective action situations involving public goods provisions. This framework focuses on the two characteristics: relations between contribution and provision, and rivalness or jointness in consumption of the collective goods. This framework distinguishes six types of collective actions, for each of which a game theoretical formulation is developed to obtain. models concerning social movements against (or for) new legislations, a petition for the recall of an official, a strike, lobbying, building a lighthouse, creation of a database, etc. These models, formulated either as an N-person chicken game or as an N-person prisoner's dilemma game. are examined with respect to how a group size affects non-cooperative equilibria and their Paretooptimality. There is no group size effect in the collective action situations formulated as an N-person chicken game, while large groups may suffer from suboptimal provision of the public goods in the collective action situations formulated as an N-person prisoner's dilemma game. Two types of the group size effect in N-person prisoner's dilemmas must be distinguished. In some cases. “no contribution” is the equilibrium regardless of the group size. but increase in the group size makes the equilibrium Pareto-deficient. In other cases, increase in the group size changes the equilibrium from the Pareto-efficient one with N contributors to the deficient one with no contributors.     

Foreign Language Listening Anxiety: A Self-Presentational View

This study used a self-presentational framework to investigate second language listening anxiety among university students and demonstrated that second language listening involves social concerns that are specific to second language settings. A set of anxiety questionnaires was administered to 1,177 students, and 17 learners provided verbal protocol data. The results demonstrated that second language listening anxiety is a higher-order construct composed of two related but distinct dimensions: Self-Focused Apprehension and Task-Focused Apprehension. The former is a concern over social evaluative threat, and the latter is worry over effective processing of aural input. Levels of social anxiety influenced both dimensions.