An Estimation of Producer Preferences, and the Wage, Hours, and Gross Sales Effects of Migrant Labor in Alabama's Horticulture Industry

Using 2002 survey data, this study employs log-linear regression analysis to examine the effects of migrant labor on wages, hours, and gross sales in Alabama's horticulture industry. A binomial probit model is added to measure producer decisions to hire migrant workers. The presence of migrant workers is found to raise average wages within green industry firms, but exhibits no significant effects on hours and sales.Labor and Human Capital,

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Ailing Hearts, Go Home: Ethnographic Storytelling and the Levels of Experience

I visited Primary Children\u27s Medical Center on a fresh snow morning near the beginning of last winter. The hospital was not where it had been in my childhood, a quiet neighborhood in the avenues section of Salt Lake City; several years ago the hospital moved to a new location farther east on the Wasatch Mountain foothills, near the University of Utah Medical Center. The old brick building now sits sedate and empty at the top of a shaded hill. My memory of the old hospital is as a bright and oppressive place, full of the stuff of life and death. There had been a giant aquarium in the middle of the foyer back then, full of bizarre salt-water fish. Some had spiky fins and tails the color of fireworks; others were black and white, like zebras; still others were the kind that would puff up when you put your face against the glass or your finger in the water. This had occupied most of my attention; I was six years old

Looking Through a Paradox an Environmental History of Two Mormon Communities

Nature is both powerfully attractive and powerfully repellent, 1 describes the Western Paradox as it was first described by Donald Worster in his Under the Western Skies: The West has been an American symbol of independence, equality and self-preservation from its earliest day, but that freedom had a price. The scarcity of water in the arid West shackled these free spirited adventurers as they became slaves to canals, dams and irrigation ditches.2 Their natural spirit seemed to be defied by the world of technology and machines, which they sought to leave behind by coming West. Yet, by coming to the arid West, the need for water to merely survive grew severe, and with it, grew a need to efficiently use limited water resources. Out of this need, evolved an increasing use of technology to obtain water resources effectively, as well as innovations of new technology. When this happened, those free-spirited adventurers found themselves becoming caught in the capitalistic and dependant world, that they had dreamt of leaving behind, and transforming into victims of Worster\u27s Paradox.

Iodine in Ovaritis.

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Do residents’ perceptions of being well-placed and objective presence of local amenities match? A case study in West Central Scotland, UK

Background:<p></p> Recently there has been growing interest in how neighbourhood features, such as the provision of local facilities and amenities, influence residents’ health and well-being. Prior research has measured amenity provision through subjective measures (surveying residents’ perceptions) or objective (GIS mapping of distance) methods. The latter may provide a more accurate measure of physical access, but residents may not use local amenities if they do not perceive them as ‘local’. We believe both subjective and objective measures should be explored, and use West Central Scotland data to investigate correspondence between residents’ subjective assessments of how well-placed they are for everyday amenities (food stores, primary and secondary schools, libraries, pharmacies, public recreation), and objective GIS-modelled measures, and examine correspondence by various sub-groups.<p></p> Methods:<p></p> ArcMap was used to map the postal locations of ‘Transport, Health and Well-being 2010 Study’ respondents (n = 1760), and the six amenities, and the presence/absence of each of them within various straight-line and network buffers around respondents’ homes was recorded. SPSS was used to investigate whether objective presence of an amenity within a specified buffer was perceived by a respondent as being well-placed for that amenity. Kappa statistics were used to test agreement between measures for all respondents, and by sex, age, social class, area deprivation, car ownership, dog ownership, walking in the local area, and years lived in current home.<p></p> Results:<p></p> In general, there was poor agreement (Kappa <0.20) between perceptions of being well-placed for each facility and objective presence, within 800 m and 1000 m straight-line and network buffers, with the exception of pharmacies (at 1000 m straight-line) (Kappa: 0.21). Results varied between respondent sub-groups, with some showing better agreement than others. Amongst sub-groups, at 800 m straight-line buffers, the highest correspondence between subjective and objective measures was for pharmacies and primary schools, and at 1000 m, for pharmacies, primary schools and libraries. For road network buffers under 1000 m, agreement was generally poor.<p></p> Conclusion:<p></p> Respondents did not necessarily regard themselves as well-placed for specific amenities when these amenities were present within specified boundaries around their homes, with some exceptions; the picture is not clear-cut with varying findings between different amenities, buffers, and sub-groups

Epistemic Turbulence in Renewable Energy Engineering on the Chinese "Belt and Road"

Energy issues constitute a nexus of technological, political and economic challenges, particularly in light of the global climate crisis. Chinese banks and corporations, guided by a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure investment program called the "Belt and Road Initiative," now account for one-third of global investment in renewable energy. In this ethnographic study, we explore the professional knowledge and practices of Chinese, Israeli and European engineers working on a pumped-storage hydropower project in Israel with financial and technical backing from Chinese energy firms. We examine how these experts construct and maintain a set of epistemic cultural practices within transnational flows of capital, technology, materials and expertise. Situating our findings within Science and Technology Studies (STS), we use the hydrological engineering concept of "turbulence" as a metaphor for the rapid transnational movements of engineering concepts and personnel in the renewable energy sector.Peer reviewe

The lived experience of working with female patients in a high secure hospital

Women’s secure hospitals are often considered to be stressful and demanding places to work, with these environments characterised as challenging and violent. The staff experience of working in this environment is however not well represented in the literature. This study is the first to examine the ‘lived experience’ of seven nurses working in the National High Secure Healthcare Service for Women. Interview transcripts were analysed with the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, and the findings presented within four superordinate themes ‘horror’, ‘balancing acts’, ‘emotional hard labour’, and ‘the ward as a community’. These themes all depict the challenges that participants experience in their work, the ways in which they cope with these challenges and how they make sense of these experiences. A meta-theme of ‘making sense by understanding why’ is also presented, which represents the importance for participants to attempt to make sense of the tensions and challenges by formulating a fuller meaning. The findings suggest the importance of workforce development, in terms of allowing sufficient protected time for reflection and formulation (for example within the format of group supervision or reflective practice), and for staff support mechanisms (e.g. clinical supervision, counselling, debriefs) to be inbuilt into the ethos of a service, so as to provide proactive support for staff ‘on the frontline’