Access to Water in the Slums of Sub‐Saharan Africa

This article reviews the changing perspectives for improving access to water in the slums of developing countries, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa. While much of the literature continues to maintain an aversion to state‐led urban development policies, there is now increasing emphasis on the importance of informal, small‐scale providers and communitarian initiatives, following the many failures of privatisation. The article argues that market‐oriented solutions are inappropriate for sub‐Saharan African countries where over two‐thirds of the urban population live in squatter settlements with multidimensional challenges.     

清代伊犁将军直辖的两蒙古营制研究

1762年伊犁将军设立后,察哈尔、厄鲁特等5营相继建立。察哈尔、厄鲁特与其他3营既有相同之处,也有不同之处。两蒙古营的社会制度为总管旗制,其社会职责主要是驻卡巡边、牧放官牧厂的牲畜等。     

Structural constraints and excess capacity: an international comparison of manufacturing firms

Excess capacity results in real and opportunity costs as well as lower factor productivity. Conventionally, variation in capacity utilisation rates has been explained with reference to the business cycles and market imperfections. In this article, we show that these two factors do not always fully explain the causes of idle capacity. Our findings suggest that manufacturing firms in low‐income countries tend to have lower capacity utilisation (CU) rates than those in middle‐ and upper‐middle‐income groups. To explain this peculiarity, it is proposed in this article that the level of excess capacity partly depends on supply‐side conditions and institutional variables. The findings provide strong support for this view and suggest that there are gains to be made in the manufacturing industries of the lower‐income countries through improvements in the structural conditions.     

The underridization of Nancy: tracing the transformations in Nancy’s idea of community

My aim in this paper is to expose a misrepresentation of Jean-Luc Nancy’s ideas on community in the secondary literature. I argue that discussions of Nancy’s work have failed to recognize a transformation that has occurred in his later thought, which distances him from Jacques Derrida. I propose that Nancy’s later work points the way beyond the “persistence of unhappy consciousness” in deconstruction through allowing for the possibility of the creation of a world alternative to globalization. Recognition of this transformation is suggestive for how Nancy’s theoretical framework might be employed in analyses of recent resistance movements.     

Semi-parametric bivariate polychotomous ordinal regression

A pair of polychotomous random variables \((Y_1,Y_2)^\top =:{\varvec{Y}}\), where each \(Y_j\) has a totally ordered support, is studied within a penalized generalized linear model framework. We deal with a triangular generating process for \({\varvec{Y}}\), a structure that has been employed in the literature to control for the presence of residual confounding. Differently from previous works, however, the proposed model allows for a semi-parametric estimation of the covariate-response relationships. In this way, the risk of model mis-specification stemming from the imposition of fixed-order polynomial functional forms is also reduced. The proposed estimation methods and related inferential results are finally applied to study the effect of education on alcohol consumption among young adults in the UK.     

Effect of age and physical activity level on functional fitness in older adults

It is difficult to distinguish between the effects of age and physical activity level in the functional fitness level of older adults. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of age and physical activity level on some functional fitness parameters in community-dwelling older adults.Two hundred twenty-nine elderly (111 female; 118 male) aged between 65–87 years living in the Balçova municipality region were divided into two groups: the young elderly (65–69 years old) and the elderly (70 years old or over). The “seven-day physical activity recall questionnaire” was used to estimate physical activity level (PAL). The functional fitness evaluation included the body mass index (BMI), the lower body strength (LBS), the dynamic balance, and the aerobic endurance. The young elderly were significantly worse with regard to BMI and significantly better with regard to LBS, dynamic balance, and aerobic endurance than the elderly; in contrast, PAL did not affect any of the functional fitness parameters. The young elderly showed worse BMI than the elderly when the age groups were less active. The young elderly showed better LBS and dynamic balance than the elderly when the age groups were more active. The young elderly showed significantly better aerobic endurance than the elderly in both the less and more active age groups. This study confirms that age affects functional fitness, whereas PAL generally does not. However, being more active is advantageous for the young elderly with regard to BMI, LBS, and dynamic balance.     

厄鲁特营对伊犁地区的经济开发

厄鲁特营是清朝在新疆驻防军的一部分,自1764年(乾隆二十九年)厄鲁特营设置以来,直至1938年营制撤销,历时近200年。该营厄鲁特蒙古军民为西北边防的经济、国防建设做出了不朽的功绩。厄鲁特营的屯垦、经营牧厂是清朝在新疆屯垦等经济开发活动的一部分。文章通过探讨厄鲁特蒙古对西北边疆经济的开发,以揭示他们与新疆各族人民一道使新疆的经济从相对落后逐渐走向比较发达的历史过程。     

We can do it! Inclusive leader language promotes voice behavior in multi-professional teams

Although it is known that leaders can have a strong impact on whether employees voice work-related ideas or concerns, no research has investigated the impact of leader language on voice—particularly in professionally diverse contexts. Based on a social identity approach as well as on collectivistic leadership theories, we distinguish between implicit (i.e., First-Person Plural pronouns) and explicit (i.e., invitations and appreciations) inclusive leader language and test its effects on voice in multi-professional teams. We hypothesized that implicit inclusive leader language promotes voice especially among team members sharing the same professional group membership as the leader (in-group team members) while explicit inclusive leader language promotes voice especially among team members belonging to a different professional group (out-group team members). These hypotheses were tested in a field setting in which 126 health care professionals (i.e., nurses, resident and attending physicians), organized in 26 teams, managed medical emergencies. Behavioral coding and leader language analyses supported our hypotheses: Leaders' “WE”-references were more strongly related to residents' (in-group) and explicit invitations related more strongly to nurses' (out-group) voice behavior. We discuss how inclusive leader language promotes employee voice and explain why group membership functions as an important moderator in professionally diverse teams.     

Improvement in Estimating the Population Median in Simple Random Sampling and Stratified Random Sampling Using Auxiliary Information

This paper deals with estimation of population median in simple and stratified random samplings by using auxiliary information. Auxiliary information is rarely used in estimating population median, although there have been many studies to estimate population mean using auxiliary information. In this study, we suggest some estimators using auxiliary information such as mode and range of an auxiliary variable and correlation coefficient. We also expand these estimators to stratified random sampling for combined and separate estimators. We obtain mean square error equations for all proposed estimators and find theoretical conditions. These conditions are also supported by using numerical examples.