Gender Inequality in the Wealth of Older Canadians

Beyond income, wealth is an important measure of economic well-being, because while income captures the current state of inequality, wealth has the potential for examining accumulated and historically structured inequality. This paper documents the extent of gender inequality in wealth for Canadian women and men aged 45 and older. The analysis uses data from the 1999 Canadian Survey of Financial Security, a large nationally representative survey of household wealth in Canada. Wealth is measured by total net worth as measured by total assets minus debt. We test two general hypotheses to account for gender differences in wealth. The differential exposure hypothesis suggest that women report less wealth accumulation because of their reduced access to the material and social conditions of life that foster economic security. The differential vulnerability hypothesis suggests that women report lower levels of wealth because they receive differential returns to material and social conditions of their lives. Support is found for both hypotheses. Much of the gender differences in wealth can be explained by the gendering of work and family roles that restricts women’s ability to build up assets over the life course. But beyond this, there are significant gender interaction effects that indicate that women are further penalized by their returns to participation in family life, their health and where they live. When women do work, net of other factors, they are better able to accumulate wealth than their male counterparts.wealth, retirement, net assets, gender differences

Gender Inequality in the Wealth of Older Canadians

Beyond income, wealth is an important measure of economic well-being, because while income captures the current state of inequality, wealth has the potential for examining accumulated and historically structured inequality. This paper documents the extent of gender inequality in wealth for Canadian women and men aged 45 and older. The analysis uses data from the 1999 Canadian Survey of Financial Security, a large nationally representative survey of household wealth in Canada. Wealth is measured by total net worth as measured by total assets minus debt. We test two general hypotheses to account for gender differences in wealth. The differential exposure hypothesis suggest that women report less wealth accumulation because of their reduced access to the material and social conditions of life that foster economic security. The differential vulnerability hypothesis suggests that women report lower levels of wealth because they receive differential returns to material and social conditions of their lives. Support is found for both hypotheses. Much of the gender differences in wealth can be explained by the gendering of work and family roles that restricts women’s ability to build up assets over the life course. But beyond this, there are significant gender interaction effects that indicate that women are further penalized by their returns to participation in family life, their health and where they live. When women do work, net of other factors, they are better able to accumulate wealth than their male counterparts.wealth, retirement, net assets, gender differences

Associations between Work Intensification, Stress and Job Satisfaction : The Case of Nurses in Ontario

Health sector reform of the 1990s affected most health care workers in Ontario and in other provinces. As a result of organizational changes, many workers experienced work intensification. This paper examines the associations between work intensification, stress and job satisfaction focusing on nurses in three teaching hospitals in Ontario. Data come from our 2002 survey of 949 nurses who worked in their employing hospital since the early 1990s when the health sector reform era began. Results show that nurses feel their work has intensified since the health sector reform of the 1990s, and work intensification contributed to increased stress and decreased job satisfaction. Results provide empirical support to the literature which suggests that work intensification has an adverse effect on workers’ health and well-being, and work attitudes.Les changements organisationnels apportés dans les années 80 et 90 ont contribué à l’intensification du travail dans les pays industrialisés (Green, 2004; Lapido et Wilkinson, 2002). Des recherches effectuées dans des pays européens et sept pays membres de l’OCDE démontrent que la satisfaction au travail est stable ou en déclin (Clark, 2005) et que l’intensification du travail est l’un des facteurs contribuant au déclin de la satisfaction au travail (Green et Tsitsianis, 2005). Au Canada, aucune étude ne s’est intéressée au lien entre la satisfaction au travail et l’intensification du travail. Toutefois, deux récents sondages indiquent qu’un travailleur canadien sur dix n’est pas satisfait au travail (Catlin, 2001; WES Compendium, 2001).Les changements organisationnels constituent communément une source d’intensification du travail (Green, 2004). Les organisations du secteur de la santé ont subit de nombreux changements organisationnels depuis le début des années 90 (CHSRF, 2000). Le personnel infirmier a été très affecté par les réformes du secteur de la santé. Plusieurs infirmières et infirmiers ont été mis à pied et le personnel restant a dû mettre les bouchées doubles pour prendre en charge le surplus de travail occasionné par ces départs involontaires (O’Brien-Pallas et al., 2004). Les réformes du secteur de la santé reposant sur de petits budgets peuvent avoir de lourdes conséquences pour le personnel : leur travail peut s’intensifier, devenir plus exigeant et stressant (Wetzel, 2005a), amenant une baisse de la satisfaction au travail.L’objectif de cette étude est d’examiner le lien entre l’intensification du travail, le stress et la satisfaction au travail. Notre étude contribue à l’avancement des connaissances en gestion des ressources humaines en examinant l’une des conséquences de la réforme du secteur de la santé, c’est-à-dire l’intensification du travail, sur la santé et le bien-être du personnel infirmier et sur son attitude envers son emploi. Dans un contexte de pénurie de main-d’oeuvre dans le secteur de la santé et d’un besoin grandissant de services infirmiers, notre étude porte précisément sur la satisfaction au travail des infirmières et infirmiers et est ainsi importante et d’actualité. Les données de cette étude ont été recueillies auprès de 949 infirmières et infirmiers déjà en emploi avant l’implantation de la réforme du secteur de la santé travaillant dans trois hôpitaux universitaires de l’Ontario. Toutes les infirmières et infirmiers de ces établissements ont été sélectionnés pour l’étude. Au total, 1 396 d’entre eux ont participé à l’étude, représentant un taux de réponse de 52 %. Le New Health Care Worker Questionnaire (des auteurs) est l’outil ayant servi à amasser les données. La variable dépendante, la satisfaction au travail, a été mesurée à partir du Spector’s 1985 Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) (1997). Les deux sous-échelles sont la satisfaction liée aux avantages pécuniaires et la satisfaction liée à l’emploi et à l’environnement de travail. L’intensification du travail est la variable indépendante de notre étude. Il n’y pas d’outil mesurant l’intensification du travail faisant consensus (Burchell, 2002; Green, 2004). Nous avons utilisé dans cette étude un outil mesurant la perception d’une intensification du travail que nous avons nous-mêmes développé. Cet outil stipule l’énoncé suivant : « Il y a eu plusieurs changements dans le système de santé depuis le début des années 90. En comparant le temps présent et le début des années 90, veuillez indiquer votre accord ou désaccord avec chacun des énoncés ». Les énoncés sont : « mon travail s’est intensifié; ma charge de travail a augmenté; les infirmières et infirmiers doivent traiter plus de patients par quart de travail; je fais de plus en plus de travail pour lequel je ne reçois pas de rémunération; il y a moins de leaders parmi le personnel infirmier; et la complexité des cas à traiter a augmenté ». Les réponses ont été recueillies à partir d’une échelle de type Likert à cinq niveaux allant de 1 : « je suis tout à fait en désaccord », à 5 : « je suis tout à fait en accord » et les résultats ont été additionnés pour créer l’échelle mesurant l’intensification du travail. Nous avons effectué une analyse factorielle utilisant la méthode d’extraction de l’analyse de la composante principale (Principal Component Analysis). Une composante principale fut extraite. L’échelle de mesure de l’intensification du travail démontre une forte fiabilité de l’outil grâce à un alpha de Cronbach de 0,80 (voir le tableau 1 de l’article). Pour ce qui est de la cohérence externe de l’outil de mesure, notre échantillon est comparable à celui d’autres études qui ont trouvé une intensification plus grande du travail dans le secteur de la santé et des services sociaux (Boisard et al., 2003b), pour les femmes (Burchell et Fagan, 2002) et pour les travailleurs du secteur public (Green, 2004). Le Symptoms of Stress Scale (Denton et al., 2002b) est la variable modératrice dans cette étude.Les résultats démontrent que le personnel infirmier est dans une certaine mesure satisfait des avantages pécuniaires (M = 33,7; S.D. = 6,5) et modérément satisfait de son emploi et de son environnement de travail (M = 76,6; S.D. = 11,1). Il existe une perception généralisée que le travail s’est intensifié durant la dernière décennie (M = 24,2; S.D. = 3,9) et le personnel infirmier se sent stressé (M = 32,5; S.D. = 7,9). En contrôlant la satisfaction à l’égard des avantages pécuniaires, l’intensification du travail et le stress sont significativement et négativement corrélés (–0,343; p ≥ .01 et –0,502; p ≥ .01, respectivement). Le modèle global (voir le tableau 3, colonne 4 de l’article) démontre que le stress est significativement et négativement associé à la satisfaction liée aux avantages pécuniaires et que le stress a un effet modérateur partiel sur l’intensification du travail. Le modèle de la satisfaction liée aux avantages pécuniaires est sain, expliquant 29 % de la variance. Tel que présenté, dans le modèle global (tableau 4, colonne 4 de l’article), le stress a un effet modérateur sur l’intensification du travail en relation avec la satisfaction liée à l’emploi et à l’environnement de travail. Il est intéressant de noter que notre modèle de la satisfaction liée à l’emploi et à l’environnement de travail explique à lui seul près de 68 % de la variance totale.Notre étude confirme les prédictions de Wetzel (2005a) quant au personnel infirmier et démontre que la perception de l’intensification du travail est un facteur significatif contribuant à augmenter le niveau de stress chez les infirmières et infirmiers. Ce stress, en retour, affecte négativement leur satisfaction au travail. Considérant que l’attraction et la rétention du personnel travaillant dans le secteur de la santé est le défi le plus important posé aux gestionnaires du système de santé canadien, nos résultats sont importants. Ils expliquent pourquoi le personnel infirmier se sent stressé et comment ce stress contribue à diminuer leur satisfaction au travail. Nous recommandons fortement aux décideurs de tous les niveaux, et en particulier à ceux qui élaborent les politiques, de porter une attention particulière aux effets à long terme occasionnés par les décisions stratégiques qu’ils prennent concernant leurs personnels.La reforma del sector de salud de los años 1990 afectó la mayoría de los trabajadores de la salud en Ontario y otras provincias. Como resultado de los cambios organizacionales, muchos trabajadores experimentaron intensificación del trabajo. Este documento examina las asociaciones entre intensificación del trabajo, estrés y satisfacción del trabajo focalizando la situación de las enfermeras en tres hospitales de enseñanza en Ontario. Los datos provienen de nuestra encuesta administrada en 2002 a 949 enfermeras que trabajaban en esos hospitales desde los comienzos de los años 90 cuando la reforma del sector salud comenzaba. Los resultados muestran que las enfermeras sienten que su trabajo se ha intensificado con la reforma del sector de los años 1990 y que la intensificación del trabajo contribuye a incrementar el estrés y disminuir la satisfacción del trabajo. Los resultados proveen soporte empírico a la literatura que sugiere que la intensificación del trabajo tiene un efecto adverso en la salud y el bienestar de los trabajadores y en las actitudes en el trabajo

Where Would You Turn for Help? Older Adults’ Awareness of Community Support Services

Previous findings on older adults’ awareness of community support services (CSSs) have been inconsistent and marred by acquiescence or over-claiming bias. To address this issue, this study used a series of 12 vignettes to describe common situations faced by older adults for which CSSs might be appropriate. In telephone interviews, 1,152 adults aged 50 years and over were read a series of vignettes and asked if they were able to identify a community organization or agency that they may turn to in that situation. They were also asked about their most important sources of information about CSSs. The findings show that, using a vignette methodology, awareness of CSSs is much lower than previously thought. The most important sources of information about CSSs included information and referral sources, the telephone book, doctors’ offices, and word of mouth.aging, community support services, awareness, knowledge, acquiescence bias, vignette methodology

Where Would You Turn for Help? Older Adults’ Awareness of Community Health and Support Services for Dementia Care

Previous findings on older adults’ awareness of community support services (CSSs) have been inconsistent and marred by acquiescence or over-claiming bias. To address this issue, this study used a series of 12 vignettes to describe common situations faced by older adults for which CSSs might be appropriate. In telephone interviews, 1,152 adults aged 50 years and over were read a series of vignettes and asked if they were able to identify a community organization or agency that they may turn to in that situation. They were also asked about their most important sources of information about CSSs. The findings show that, using a vignette methodology, awareness of CSSs is much lower than previously thought. The most important sources of information about CSSs included information and referral sources, the telephone book, doctors’ offices, and word of mouth.aging, community support services, awareness, knowledge, acquiescence bias, vignette methodology

Combined Forward-Backward Asymmetry Measurements in Top-Antitop Quark Production at the Tevatron

The CDF and D0 experiments at the Fermilab Tevatron have measured the asymmetry between yields of forward- and backward-produced top and antitop quarks based on their rapidity difference and the asymmetry between their decay leptons. These measurements use the full data sets collected in proton-antiproton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt s =1.96$ TeV. We report the results of combinations of the inclusive asymmetries and their differential dependencies on relevant kinematic quantities. The combined inclusive asymmetry is $A_{\mathrm{FB}}^{t\bar{t}} = 0.128 \pm 0.025$. The combined inclusive and differential asymmetries are consistent with recent standard model predictions

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV