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Risk‐information framing can be a powerful tool for aiding the communication of risk and improving decision making. However, little work has investigated the extent that these framing effects depend on the characteristics of the perceiver. In our study, we examine whether the effects of different risk‐pricing formats on risky choices are the same for all individuals, no matter their domain experience or cultural background, or whether there are interactions between these factors. Survey 1 revealed that three risk‐pricing formats of the same choice problem resulted in the same individuals making different risky choices (preference reversal), suggesting that risk perception was distorted by the risk‐pricing format manipulation. In Survey 2, the effects of the risk‐pricing formats were shown to differ by the participants' cultural background (Asian vs. European) and the extent of their domain experience. The fact that there were no differences between the cultural or domain experience groups in their overall tendency to select riskier (cf. safer) choices indicates that risk behavior differences between groups are often closely linked to perceptual, rather than simply attitudinal, cognitive processes. The results demonstrate the complex, interactive cognitive processes that are used to encode risk information, involving the framing of the information and the cultural background and previous experiences of the individual. We conclude that it is important to consider the characteristics of the individual (e.g., culture, domain experience, etc.) when manipulating risk‐information framing with the aim of improving risk communication.

Comparisons of mass & elite sociopolitical preferences & levels of their attitudinal consistency are critical for understanding mass-elite interaction &, hence, political developments in the rapidly changing society of the People's Republic of China. Analysis of responses to identical questions asked of both mass & elite interviewees (N = 626 & 68, respectively) in Beijing reveals four important findings. (1) While the masses & elites shared similar views on government policy performance & the role of the individual in politics, they held quite different positions on issues of regime legitimacy, reform assessment, & democratic principles. (2) These two sets of political actors organized their subjective orientations to some issues similarly but to others differently. (3) In general, the elites had low attitudinal consistency relative to their counterparts in many other studies. (4) Such relatively low attitudinal consistency among the elites seemed to be caused at least in part by the ongoing decay of the Chinese Communist Party's grassroots organizations. These findings have strong implications for the weakness & strength of party rule &, hence, China's sociopolitical stability. 4 Tables, 2 Figures, 2 Appendixes, 48 References. Adapted from the source document.

This dissertation is an ethnographic and epidemiological investigation of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. This research focuses on South Florida, and explores how global health and policy frameworks of HIV/AIDS affect the health and well being of transnational immigrants such as Haitians. It traces the circulation of knowledge about HIV/AIDS prevention from sites of surveillance and regulation to various clinics and hospitals to the social worlds of Haitian immigrants. Interviews with HIV/AIDS experts and public officials, as well as Haitian clients, demonstrate that global technicalities of disease prevention are inherently linked to individual practices and local politics of difference. Specifically, this project explores how the politics of difference permeates HIV/AIDS prevention in the United States. As discussions of the biological basis of race continue to gain traction in light of recent demographic changes and advances in genetic research, this research documents how medical, epidemiological, and social constructions of HIV/AIDS risk fuse notions of pathology with racial and cultural differences. It reveals that notions of individual responsibility in HIV/AIDS risk management often become inseparable from notions of racial, ethnic, and immigrant identities. It argues that HIV/AIDS surveillance practices help to reinforce categories of individual and collective difference, and sustain race and ethnicity as risk factors for HIV/AIDS. In addition, this project highlights the specific problems facing diverse immigrant and ethnic populations, and reveals that Haitians strategically identify with various institutions and diseases in order to access critical resources. Here, it illustrates that public understandings of health interventions are complex, and as a result, translations of HIV/AIDS prevention do not occur smoothly or as planned in Haitian communities. Finally, it argues for a re-envisioning of health disparities to emphasize their productive capacity in generating subjectivities, domestic and global policies, and scholarly research initiatives. This research posits that disparities in health, as realized in the socio-political and scientific realms in which they are engaged, are being made into everyday social instruments of action for securing funding, gaining political power, and obtaining forms of welfare benefits.

This thesis explores the neglected question of what feminism means in the current climate of academic feminist theorising wherein differing, even conflicting, claims are being made in the name of feminism. By clarifying what is at stake in these claims, this thesis makes an original contribution to feminist theory. It is divided into two Parts. In Part I, I begin with a discussion of some basic debates in sociology concerning 'the individual' and 'society', arguing not only that 'the individual' is social all the way through, but also that feminism requires an explicit account of the human individual as a moral and political agent with the potential for resisting relations of ruling. I then proceed to define feminism in terms of opposition to the meanings and values of male supremacy which structure a reality where only men are 'human', and also in terms of the concomitant struggle for a human status for women at no one's expense. I argue in favour of a feminist standpoint which is not reducible to 'women's life activity' alone, but which takes its meaning and value from its recognition of and struggle against the social system of male domination. In Part II, I argue for the limitations of defining feminism in terms which equivocate on the question of male domination. I investigate a number of representative academic feminist texts which account for the central problematic of feminism in terms other than male domination. I discuss some problems entailed in implicitly defining feminism in terms of 'women', 'patriarchy', 'sexism', the idealist constructs of 'gender' and 'dichotomies', as well as the concept of 'difference', both in the sense of differences between the sexes and in the sense of differences between and among women. This issue of differences between women is discussed at length in the last chapter in relation to the question of 'race' as it has been debated within feminism. I conclude with a discussion of what is involved in recently suggested links between masculinity and racism, arguing that no ...

In December 2021, we published statistical research on Administrative Data Based Population Estimates (ABPEs) for Scotland's population in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This work was developed as part of a project to consider how administrative data could be used to support Scotland's Census.
Following the governance process, administrative datasets were processed and de-identified, before being transferred to Scotland's National Safe Haven for linking and analysis. The datasets used include data from health, the electoral register, vital events registrations, and education. The methodology used several linking variables so data could be linked, even without exact agreement between records. Records from across the data sources were resolved into individuals using these links. Business rules then indicated which individuals to include in Scotland's Integrated Demographic Dataset (SIDD). The ABPEs were then produced from this and compared with the official mid-year population estimates (MYEs) to determine success.
On aggregate, the population estimates from the ABPEs are very similar to the MYEs, differing by less than 0.5 per cent in each year. When broken down further, larger differences occur with ABPEs having more males and fewer people aged over 65 when compared with the official statistics. A notable difference between the two is for males aged between 30 and 65 in deprived areas, with ABPEs up to 20% higher than the MYEs. These differences by deprivation are smaller for other age ranges and for females. The ABPEs tend to be higher than official estimates for urban areas, and lower for rural areas. Differences for each local authority area range from 5 per cent below to 4 per cent above official estimates.
It is therefore possible to produce Scottish population estimates purely from administrative sources that roughly agree with MYEs. Further investigation will help understand the differences for particular groups, and will be explored in future years by comparing ABPEs with the 2022 Census.

Objective: The study investigates the trends in health-related inequalities in paid employment among men and women in different educational groups in 26 countries in 5 European regions. Design: Individual-level analysis of repeated cross-sectional annual data (2005-2014) from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Setting: 26 European countries in 5 European regions. Participants: 1 844 915 individuals aged 30-59 years were selected with information on work status, chronic illness, educational background, age and gender. Outcome measures: Absolute differences were expressed by absolute differences in proportion in paid employment between participants with and without a chronic illness, using linear regression. Relative differences were expressed by prevalence ratios in paid employment, using a Cox proportional hazard model. Linear regression was used to examine the trends of inequalities. Results: Participants with a chronic illness had consistently lower labour force participation than those without illnesses. Educational inequalities were substantial with absolute differences larger within lower educated (men 21%-35%, women 10%-31%) than within higher educated (men 5%-13%, women 6%-16%). Relative differences showed that low-educated men with a chronic illness were 1.4-1.9 times (women 1.3-1.8 times) more likely to be out of paid employment than low-educated persons without a chronic illness, whereas this was 1.1-1.2 among high-educated men and women. In the Nordic, Anglo-Saxon and Eastern regions, these health-related educational inequalities in paid employment were more pronounced than in the Continental and Southern region. For most regions, absolute health-related educational inequalities in paid employment were generally constant, whereas relative inequalities increased, especially among low-educated persons. Conclusions: Men and women with a chronic illness have considerable less access to the labour market than their healthy colleagues, especially among lower educated persons. This exclusion from paid employment will increase health inequalities.

Introduction Individuals with visual impairments may use long canes for estimating distances and detecting gaps, obstacles, and texture patterns. The study presented here investigated whether length perception with canes is influenced by cane material. Methods Visually impaired, sighted-blindfolded, and sighted individuals (n = 30 for each group) participated in this study. Each group was divided into three subgroups (with 5 females and 5 males each) according to cane material. The canes (length = 80 cm, diameter = 1.5 cm) were made of wood, polyethene plastic, or aluminum. The participants were required to judge whether comparison stimuli were shorter than, equal to, or longer than the standard stimulus. Two sessions (for horizontal or vertical lines) were carried out on consecutive days. Results Cane material was not a significant factor influencing accuracy, F(2, 79) = 2.47, p = .091, and difference threshold, F(2, 79) = 2.01, p = .14, in length perception for the three groups of participants, but cane material interacted with orientation of stimuli, F(2, 79) = 3.24, p = .044. There were significant group differences for accuracy, F(2, 79) = 9.6, p <.001, and difference threshold, F(2, 79) = 8.8, p < .001, revealing that participants with visual impairments were better at discriminating length than sighted-blindfolded participants. Discussion Our results provide evidence that length perception with canes is not significantly influenced by cane material. The significant group differences for accuracy and difference threshold indicate that assessing visually impaired participants may be more adequate in studies aimed at investigating aspects related to long canes. Implications for practitioners Orientation and mobility (O&M) instructors can report that there is experimental evidence that cane material is not a significant factor in conveying spatial (length) information, although some evidence suggests that it is a significant factor in conveying tactile information such as the roughness of surface textures.

The persistently low employment rate among disabled individuals has been an enduring concern of governments across developed countries and has been the subject of a succession of policy initiatives, including labour market activation programmes, equality laws and welfare reform. A key indicator of progress is the trend in the disability-related employment gap, the percentage point difference between the employment rate for disabled and non-disabled individuals. Confusingly for the UK, studies undertaken between 1998 and 2012 have simultaneously reported both a widening and a narrowing of the gap. The source of the discrepancy can be found in the choice of survey, the General Household Survey (GHS) or the Labour Force Survey (LFS), although both use a common conception of disability and collect self-reported information from a random sample of households. The literature has analysed these surveys separately from each other and ignored inter-survey differences in findings. The Health Survey for England (HSE), a third national household survey, replicates the GHS questions on disability but has had limited use in this context. This empirical study compares the trends in disability prevalence and the disability-related employment gap across the three surveys using a three-stage harmonisation process. The negative relationship between the prevalence of disability and the employment gap found in cross-section inter-survey comparisons prompts an initial focus on differences in the definition of disability as an explanation of the discrepancy. This is broadened to include differences in survey methods and sample composition. Differences in the trend in disability prevalence and the employment gap remain following harmonisation for definition, survey method and sample composition. It is the LFS, the main policy-influencing and policy-assessment survey, which generates outlying results. As such, we cannot be confident that the disability-related employment gap has narrowed in the UK since 1998.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Myths, Fantasies, and Realism: The Story of Sethe -- Similarities and Differences -- A Social "Unconscious -- Myths, Fantasies, and Morrison's Beloved -- Myth and Realism -- Problems -- Politics of Identity: The Epistemic Status of Identity -- Problems of Identity: Identity Is Epistemically Constrained -- Real Similarities and Differences -- 2 Transformation Experiences and Rational Deliberation -- Doing the Right Thing: The Standard View -- The Problem of Personal Integrity -- Conversion Experiences -- Nonpropositional or Implicit Understanding -- Rationality Again -- 3 Objective Interests, Nonpropositional Knowledge, and Conversion Experiences -- Railton's Objective Ends -- Problems -- Objective Interests Defined in Terms of Specified Ends -- Objective Interests Defined by Paths of Development -- Getting It Backward -- 4 Leading Life from the Inside: Individuals, Minority Rights, and Some Problems About Indeterminacy -- Individual Interests -- Cultures as Contexts of Choice -- An Epistemological Problem -- Cultural Politics -- Justification and Problems About Indeterminacy -- Conclusion -- 5 Personal Integrity, Politics, and Moral Imagination -- Individual Identity: Rorty and Wong -- Integrity: McFall and Davion -- Individuality and Moral Imagination -- Bitterness -- Elster and the Rationality of Vindictiveness -- Conclusion -- 6 Feminists and Nature: A Defense of Essentialism -- Essentialism -- Haraway's Radical Nominalism -- Realism -- Essentialism/Nominalism -- 7 Reason and the Erotic: The Moral Significance of Personal Relations and Commitments -- Miller's Account of Partiality -- Problems -- Particularism in Feminist Discussions -- Ways of Being -- Radical Critique and Moral Imagination -- The Erotic Again -- Conclusion

The current study uses data from two independent surveys administered through Academic Prolific's online opt-in panel to explore whether there may be racial differences in views of armed school police. We use two distinct samples and t-tests to compare views of Black and White individuals in 2019 and 2020, respectively, as well as views in 2019 and 2020 generally. We then employ regression analyses of the 2020 survey data to test whether race was associated with views of armed school police. Some similarities in views emerged. In 2019, Black and White individuals had similiar views of whether armed police keep schools safe as well as whether they were comfortable sending their child to a school with police. However, differences in views were also found. In 2019 and 2020, mean scores for beliefs of whether armed police act with students' best interest was lower among Blacks than Whites. In 2020, the mean score for Blacks was lower that it was for Whites when asked about whether armed police keep schools safe and whether they would be comfortable sending their child to a school with police. In 2020, Black individuals were less likely to agree that school police implement their duties in ways that are fair, respectful, and keep students' interests in mind. We conclude by discussing implications for scholarship and policy about school policing and school safety generally.

Purpose
This paper aims to analyze conflict resolution strategies among individuals who encountered disputes with family, neighbors, workmates, businesses, strangers, government authorities or other members in their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Design/methodology/approach
Applying a difference-in-difference approach by sex, the authors use a representative panel of adults living in 82 cities from across Mexico to measure changes in antisocial strategies (violence) and prosocial strategies (non-confrontational methods and dialogue) to resolve disputes.


Findings
During the COVID-19 pandemic, men reduced their use of violence by 19.6% while women did so by 17.4%. There was a parallel rise in non-confrontational strategies used to solve conflicts equal to 73.6% for men and 62% for women. The use of dialogue as a tool for resolving disputes increased by more in cities that banned the sale of alcohol. Alternative Twitter data corroborates the main findings, suggesting that individuals are becoming more prosocial during the pandemic.


Originality/value
To the knowledge, this is the first empirical study to analyze changes in strategies for conflict resolution as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating how individuals adapt their dispute strategies under extraordinary circumstances such as a pandemic, with a focus on a middle-income setting.

Abstract. Background: A common suicide prevention strategy is training gatekeepers to identify at-risk individuals and refer them to services. Aims: The study aimed to examine whether differences in training outcomes were observed for brief versus in-depth gatekeeper trainings for trainees from varied professional settings while controlling for differences in trainee characteristics and community context. Method: Trainees' identification and referral behavior 3 months after gatekeeper training was compared with a sample of respondents matched on individual- and community-level variables using propensity score-based techniques. The value was estimated, in terms of additional identification and associated costs, of adopting in-depth training. Results: A higher proportion of trainees who participated in in-depth trainings from K-12 and community settings identified at-risk youth, and a higher proportion of in-depth trainees from mental health settings referred youth to services compared with participants of brief trainings from the same setting and with similar characteristics. The effect of training type on outcomes varied by professional role and community context. Limitations: Self-report measures were used to assess outcomes. Similar measures are used in other studies; their validity has not been conclusively established. Conclusion: Findings suggest certain individuals may benefit from in-depth training more than others, which favors targeting this intervention to particular gatekeepers.

State indiscriminate violence against civilians has been viewed as counterproductive for the government. This conclusion hinges on the assumption that indiscriminate violence aggrieves civilians against the government even when the rebels provoke the state by using civilians as human shields. An alternative view suggests that civilians recognize if the rebels exploit them as human shields and blame the rebels if such provocation occurs. We ask: do civilians evaluate all state indiscriminate violence in the same way or do they think of state indiscriminate violence differently when it is provoked by insurgents? Accounting for the covariate differences between individuals with and without personal experience of warfare in the survey data from postwar Ukraine, we find that personal exposure to violence shapes one's blame attribution for provoked state attacks on civilians. Individuals unexposed to violence tend to take into account whether the government was provoked by the rebels. By contrast, individuals with personal experience of warfare tend to blame the government for indiscriminate attacks regardless of rebel provocation. This finding has implications for counterinsurgency scholarship and policy. It is likely that the difference between unexposed and exposed to violence civilians emerges in geographically isolated conflicts. If so, targeting of civilians may have different effects on the escalation of insurgency in geographically concentrated as opposed to widespread cases of violence.

This chapter defines a universal public pension scheme (UPPS) as a government-mandated lifecycle longevity insurance scheme that transfers individual consumption from the working years to the retirement phase of the lifecycle. It discusses the differences in four UPPS designs defined with regard to whether they are defined contribution (DC) or defined benefit (DB), and financial (F) or nonfinancial (N). Generally speaking, DC schemes are distinguished from DB schemes by their basic building block of individual accounts. This ensures the important design feature of transparency, the "enabler" of economic efficiency - through the effects on marginal decisions to choose formal work over informal work or leisure and to postpone retirement marginally toward the end of the working life. The chapter examines additional criteria (fairness, financial sustainability, affordability, and adequacy), plus some other design characteristics of interest in a comparative assessment. The conclusion is that the two UPPS-DC designs are superior to the two UPPS-DB designs. The difference in the relative rates of return of NDC versus FDC designs, together with uncertain demographic effects on future investment needs, speak in favor of a UPPS portfolio with both. UPPS-FDC involves additional risks and costs, but also provides positive effects through returns for individuals and the economy.

Every gesture of the daily life of an individual is structured by a series of social constraints leading it to conform to an existing social order. This Sociograph examines how the most intimate of these aspects, the way an individual thinks, is socially framed. Using the data of the Swiss Household Panel, the work analyzes to what extent the fact of becoming a union member is capable of influencing a series of job, political and social attitudes. After a brief characterization of the Swiss union landscape and an analysis of the declining trend of union density in Switzerland, the reader is led to consider the methodological issues to take into account when trying to tease out causal effects from observational data. By exploiting the advantages of a panel data approach, the results reveal whether the attitudinal differences existing between union members and non-members can be traced back to a causal effect of union membership or whether they are to be attributed to pre-existing differences between the two groups. If a causal effect of union membership is indeed there, it is shown that the nature of the mechanisms explaining its appearance varies according to the sector of activity, to the profile of the individual and to the attitude taken into account.