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AbstractHurricanes threaten the physical and financial well‐being of coastal residents throughout the United States. Though hurricane‐related losses are largely avoidable through property mitigation (e.g., structural modifications to existing homes), few homeowners invest in mitigation. Communication campaigns, which have influenced risk‐related behaviors in other domains, hold promise for persuading coastal residents to engage in hurricane mitigation. The development of successful campaign messages relies, in part, on formative research to assess the potential influence of candidate message strategies. We present results from mixed‐methods, theory‐driven research to identify promising beliefs for persuading homeowners in coastal/coastal‐adjacent regions of Alabama and Florida to install a high wind–resistant (HWR) roof. In Study 1, we elicited homeowners' (n = 74) salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about installing an HWR roof. Using established procedures, we content analyzed open‐ended responses and categorized them by thematic content. In Study 2, we surveyed another sample of homeowners (n = 533) to examine the extent to which salient beliefs/themes about installing an HWR roof (elicited in Study 1) are promising targets for a communication campaign, given their associations with homeowners' intentions to retrofit. Results demonstrate that across elicited beliefs, common themes include the protection and property resilience reroofing affords, and anticipated expenses and financial barriers associated with reroofing. The most promising beliefs include behavioral beliefs that installing an HWR roof will protect oneself and one's family, and normative beliefs about the likelihood that one's family and community will install an HWR roof. We discuss the implications of findings for the development of hurricane mitigation messaging.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak and the launch of the "Healthy China 2030" strategy in 2019, public health has become a relevant topic of discussion both within and outside China. The provision of public health services, which is determined by public health expenditure, is critical to the regional public health sector. Fiscal decentralization provides local governments with more financial freedom, which may result in changes to public health spending; thus, fiscal decentralization may influence public health at the regional level. In order to study the effects of fiscal decentralization on local public health expenditure and local public health levels, we applied a two-way fixed effect model as well as threshold regression and intermediate effect models to 2008–2019 panel data from China's 30 mainland provinces as well as from four municipalities and autonomous regions to study the effects of fiscal decentralization on public health. The study found that fiscal decentralization has a positive effect on increasing public health expenditure. Moreover, fiscal decentralization can promote improvements in regional public health by increasing public health expenditure and by improving the availability of regional medical public service resources. In addition, fiscal decentralization has a non-linear effect on public health.

PurposeSocial interaction in comment sections has become a key factor for backers' decision making in crowdfunding platforms. However, current research on the two-way social interaction in crowdfunding is insufficient, and there exist inconsistent conclusions. This study focuses on the social interaction between creators and backers and explores its influence on the successful exit of crowdfunding projects.Design/methodology/approachThe extended Cox model is used for the empirical analysis of 1,988 crowdfunding projects on the Modian (www.modian.com) platform, a crowdfunding platform for cultural and creative projects in China. The two-way social interaction is reflected in comment quantity and sentiment, as well as reply rate.FindingsResults reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between comment quantity/sentiment and the successful exit of crowdfunding projects. This relationship is strengthened by high reply rate.Originality/valueThis study focuses on comment quantity and sentiment. The inverted U-shaped results reconcile previous conclusions. Replies from creators are regarded as a separate factor, and their moderating role is explained. The study research proves the importance of social interaction in crowdfunding platforms and provides suggestions for backers, creators and platform managers.

OBJECTIVE: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently issued a statement that the fate of human society and human health is at serious risk of catastrophic impacts unless we take bold action to keep global warming under 1.5 °C. In 2015, the Canadian Public Health Association noted emerging efforts to embrace intersectoral approaches to global change in public health research and practice. In this study, we question the extent to which Canadian Graduate Public Health Sciences Programs have kept pace with these efforts to see climate change surface as a new frontier for training the next generation of researchers and practitioners. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (19) were conducted with Department Heads (or equivalents) of graduate-level Public Health Sciences Programs at 15 Canadian universities concerning the place of climate change in their respective curricula. Interviews were designed to elicit participants' institutional perspectives on the importance of climate change in the Public Health Sciences and identify perceived challenges and opportunities. RESULTS: Despite wide recognition among participants that climate change is a public health "crisis", very few reported having substantive curricular engagement on the topic. Key challenges identified were lack of resources, organizational issues, and political barriers. Key opportunities to adapt curricula to address this new frontier in Public Health were faculty interest and expertise, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and pressure from the institution. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide evidence for post-secondary Public Health Sciences Programs to understand the need to address their own sluggishness when what is needed are bold, even radical, shifts to existing curricula.

This study analyses the relationship between ownership structure and board of director composition and their influences on the total factor productivity (TFP) of Taiwan's firms. The empirical results show that the curvilinear specification is better to capture the relationship between inside ownership and firm productivity. Meanwhile, the ownership structure in a firm indeed affects differences in TFP between conglomerate firms and non‐conglomerate firms, high‐tech firms and non‐high‐tech firms, and family‐owned firms and non‐family‐owned firms. Additionally, a smaller board may be less encumbered by bureaucratic problems and more functional and CEO duality may be able to improve productivity. Furthermore, productivity deteriorates with increasing proportion of collateralised shares. More institutional holdings, however, are an effective way to alleviate the negative impact of collateralised shares on TFP.

Abstract

Objectives
Varied work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) claim rates were found between companies even when they were in the same sectors with similar sizes. This study aimed to (i) identify common risk factors for back, shoulder, hand/wrist, and knee WMSDs among manufacturing jobs, and (ii) characterize the biomechanical exposures in jobs and work organizational practices between high and low WMSD claim rate companies so that more focused, industry-specific intervention strategies may be developed.


Methods
Using historical workers' compensation data, manufacturing companies were divided into two paired groups (low and high in the lower 25%ile and higher 75%ile, respectively). On-site job evaluations were conducted in 16 companies to determine job biomechanical risk levels. Management and workers' representatives in 32 paired companies were interviewed to identify possible differences between management strategies and management/worker relationships. A total of 39 injured workers were also interviewed to gather information of self-reported injury causes and suggested preventive measures.


Results
Analyses of 432 job evaluations showed that more jobs had higher risk levels of prolonged standing and heavy lifting in the high back WMSD claim rate companies than the low claim rate ones. No high biomechanical risk factors were found to be associated with jobs in high shoulder claim rate companies. High repetition, pinch force, and Strain Index were associated with high hand/wrist WMSD claim rate companies. High work pace and job stress were common among high knee WMSD claim rate companies. There were no statistically significant differences for the organizational factors between high and low WMSD claim rate companies. Heavy lifting, fast work pace, high hand/wrist repetition, high hand force, and awkward shoulder postures were identified as major contributing factors by the injured workers.


Conclusions
High WMSD claim rate companies appeared to have more high biomechanical exposure jobs than low WMSD claim rate companies. Available job evaluation methods for the low back and hand/wrists are satisfactory in quantifying job risk levels in the manufacturing industry. Research into more sensitive job evaluation methods for the shoulder and knee are needed.