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Though the growth of the gig economy has coincided with increased economic precarity in the new economy, we know less about the extent to which gig work (compared with other self-employment arrangements and non-gig work) may fuel economic insecurity among American households. We fill this gap in the literature by drawing on a sample of 4,756 workers from a unique national survey capturing economic hardships among non-standard workers like app- and platform-based gig and other self-employed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from generalized boosted regression modeling, utilizing machine learning to account for potential endogeneity, demonstrated that gig workers experienced significantly greater economic hardship than non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. For example, gig workers were more likely to experience food insecurity, miss bill payments, and suffer income loss compared with non-gig and other self-employed workers during the pandemic. While household liquid assets endowment prior to the pandemic reduced the effect of gig work on experiencing economic hardships, having dependent children in the household increased this effect. Thus, contrary to democratizing entrepreneurship opportunities, these findings suggest that the expansion of the gig economy may exacerbate labor market inequality, where wealth-endowed families are protected against adverse economic consequences of the gig economy. We discuss the implications of these findings for inequality-reducing labor market policies, including policies that account for the interconnectedness of family and the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The companies in Big Tech (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft) increasingly rely on contract workers, not only as suppliers but as contributors who fulfill key organizational functions without formal employment. To understand contractors' communicative construction of their organizational membership, we analyzed contract workers' descriptions of membership negotiation in Big Tech using crowdsourced company reviews (n = 500). Contract workers noted their positions enhanced their career development but also described being constrained in negotiating full inclusion within organizations, influencing work processes, and changing their membership status. We discuss the findings' implications for understanding and practicing membership negotiation in nonstandard work arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many vision tasks, utilizing pre-trained features results in improved performance and consistently benefits from the rapid advancement of pre-training technologies. However, in the field of stereo matching, the use of pre-trained features has not been extensively researched. In this paper, we present the first systematical exploration into the utilization of pre-trained features for stereo matching. To provide flexible employment for any combination of pre-trained backbones and stereo matching networks, we develop the deformable neck (DN) that decouples the network architectures of these two components. The core idea of DN is to utilize the deformable attention mechanism to iteratively fuse pre-trained features from shallow to deep layers. Empirically, our exploration reveals the crucial factors that influence using pre-trained features for stereo matching. We further investigate the role of instance-level information of pre-trained features, demonstrating it benefits stereo matching while can be suppressed during convolution-based feature fusion. Built on the attention mechanism, the proposed DN module effectively utilizes the instance-level information in pre-trained features. Besides, we provide an understanding of the efficiency-accuracy tradeoff, concluding that using pre-trained features can also be a good alternative with efficiency consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Primatological Society (IPS) held a meeting in Malaysia to discuss various topics related to primatology. The meeting covered issues such as the International Journal of Primatology, membership and financial matters, conservation efforts, and future IPS congresses. President Ratsimbazafy expressed gratitude and announced the next IPS Congress in Madagascar in 2025. VP Turner proposed creating an officers' handbook, while Humle suggested compensation for instructors and volunteers. The meeting concluded with plans for future congresses and the consideration of various proposals. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: This research seeks to understand, for the first time, what motivates knowledge-intensive organizations (KIOs) to initiate knowledge management (KM) activities in times of routine and emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic was placed at the center as a case study of an extreme crisis. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the adoption of the qualitative-constructivist paradigm, the study was conducted among 52 KM professionals through in-depth interviews and focus groups. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis method, according to the principles of the grounded theory approach. Findings: The findings reveal that opportunities and risks are two types of catalysts which accelerate KM efforts in times of routine and emergency respectively. Due to KM's support of the transition to flexible employment during COVID-19, the authors show that this field experienced real growth and prosperity in the "new normal." KM initiatives were promoted during the COVID-19 crisis in light of gaps in retention, sharing, accessibility and development of knowledge. Originality/value: Given that knowledge risks are a field with fragmented understanding, the results contribute to understanding the importance of risk management related to knowledge in times of crises and turmoil. The authors call for incorporating this niche into the overall risk management of the organization, while adopting a holistic and long-term perspective of KM. Furthermore, the authors uncover KM's position in KIOs during the global pandemic. The paper proposes food for thought regarding informal knowledge sharing in virtual environments typical of the "Corona routine". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experienced rapid development in the digital economy. Using data from 30 provinces in China between 2011 and 2017, this paper constructs a two-way fixed effects model to study the effects and mechanisms of the digital economy development on social insurance funds revenue. An increase of one unit in digital economy development led to a 0.56% increase in basic endowment insurance funds revenue and a 0.33% increase in basic health insurance funds revenue. The digital economy increased the social insurance funds revenue by promoting employment and increasing income. Furthermore, the effects of digital economic development on social insurance funds revenue were heterogeneous for different levels of economic development and urbanization. The conclusions stood after robustness tests by changing the method of weighting the digital economy indicators and using instrumental variables. This paper confirmed the positive role of the development of the digital economy in increasing the revenue of social insurance funds from the perspective of quantitative research and explored the mechanisms in depth. In order to increase social insurance funds revenue, it is essential to accelerate the development of the digital economy, especially in regions with lower economic development and urbanization, and to address the needs of the technically unemployed and those engaged in flexible employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines agrarian reform and social assistance policies in Brazil based on field research carried out in the Pastorinhas land settlement. The origin of this territory is related to the promise of implementing a public policy of agrarian reform in the 1990s, a fact that led a contingent of rural workers to occupy a farm in the rural area of Brumadinho, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The qualitative research sought to understand how access to land and social programs allowed families currently settled in Pastorinhas to overcome the challenges they faced and build a more dignified life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People experiencing homelessness co-occurring with substance use or offending ('severe and multiple disadvantage' SMD) often have high levels of poor oral health and related health behaviours (particularly, substance use, smoking, poor diet). This systematic review aimed to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions in adults experiencing SMD to improve oral health and related health behaviours. Methods and findings: From inception to February 2023, five bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus) and grey literature were searched. Two researchers independently screened the search results. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), comparative studies and economic evaluations were included that reported outcomes on oral health and the related health behaviours. Risk of bias was assessed and results narratively synthesized. Meta-analyses were performed where appropriate. This review was registered with PROSPERO (reg. no: CRD42020202416). Thirty-eight studies were included (published between 1991 and 2023) with 34 studies reporting about effectiveness. Most studies reported on substance use (n = 30). Interventions with a combination of housing support with substance use and mental health support such as contingent work therapy appeared to show some reduction in substance use in SMD groups. However, meta-analyses showed no statistically significant results. Most studies had short periods of follow-up and high attrition rates. Only one study reported on oral health; none reported on diet. Three RCTs reported on smoking, of which one comprising nicotine replacement with contingency management showed improved smoking abstinence at 4 weeks compared to control. Five studies with economic evaluations provided some evidence that interventions such as Housing First and enhanced support could be cost-effective in reducing substance use. Conclusion: This review found that services such as housing combined with other healthcare services could be effective in improving health behaviours, particularly substance use, among SMD groups. Gaps in evidence also remain on oral health improvement, smoking, and diet. High quality studies on effectiveness with adequate power and retention are needed to address these significant health challenges in SMD populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While search engines are discursively framed as automated, self-governing machines, they remain dependent on human laborers. This behind-the-screen workforce includes not only programmers and engineers but also categories of workers that have drawn far less attention. The latter include search quality raters, contingent workers tasked with supplying a "human check" on search algorithms. To explore the human–machine entanglements in search engine evaluation, we draw upon 21 in-depth interviews with raters located across the globe; we supplement our interview data with an analysis of worker training documents. Our findings reveal that despite Google's stated efforts to make algorithmic systems more sensitive to human subtlety, raters experience their work in ways that are—paradoxically—algorithmic. Indeed, workers framed their experiences through regimes of standardization, discipline, and invisibility. We conclude by discussing the broader implications of our analysis, including worker dehumanization and the exacerbation of power hierarchies in the global, on-demand economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a need to better understand autism across the life course, including the lives of both autistic people and supporting relatives. As part of a larger mixed methods cohort study involving autistic adults, carers and relatives this sub-study focused on the experiences of relatives alone to learn more about the lives of people from the wider personal networks. Our research questions were: 1. What are the experiences of family members who care for and/or support autistic adults, 2. How can the viewpoints of relatives add to what we know about transitions and challenges experienced by autistic adults, and 3. What strategies/support have been helpful for adults and relatives? Methods: Relatives of autistic adults were purposively sampled and recruited using the Relatives/Carers cohort from the Adult Autism Spectrum Cohort—UK. 18 participants aged 31-81years who were related to 16 autistic adults aged 18-57years were interviewed for 24-91minutes. Interview transcripts were examined using reflexive thematic analysis. Main findings: Two overarching themes were developed, 'Family support goes a long way in caring for autistic adults' and 'When families turn to society for support' with subthemes. Relatives described benefits they had gained and their admiration for autistic adults. They reflected on how they gave support for independence in various contexts of dependence. They also identified the challenges that both autistic adults and families face navigating support systems (for example for healthcare and employment). An important novel outcome was the advocated value of role-models with lived experience who come from outside of the family. Recommendations: The findings lead to recommendations for: (i) Strategies to reduce the barriers for support that are faced by autistic individuals and relatives during crisis points; (ii) recognition and support for what enables both relatives and autistic adults to function independently (e.g. funded activities, flexible employment); (iii) future planning conversations to include relatives who can enhance knowledge and help plan for future care or support needs for autistic adults and (iv) opportunities for role models (persons with lived experience, autistic adults and relatives) to inspire others and disseminate knowledge. Conclusions: These findings add valuable insights into the experiences of relatives of autistic adults and challenge the reader to have greater appreciation of the many roles relatives can contribute across time and in a variety of contexts. These perspectives add important information for those working with and planning provision for autistic adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of gender in career mobility is a major practical and scholarly concern. Drawing on boundaryless career literature and social role theory, we examined whether gender influences employees' psychological mobility, whether this influence varies depending on the nature of career boundaries (the boundaries of job, organisation and industry) and whether it is contingent on organisational or occupational characteristics. We conducted cross‐classified multilevel analyses on 3,527 Australian employees nested within 725 organisations and 43 occupations. The results suggest that females show higher mobility preferences than males when it comes to crossing industries but not changing organisations or jobs. However, their preference for crossing career boundaries is significantly reduced when their organisation has a strong presence of female leadership. We also find that in female‐dominated occupations, females show a higher cross‐organisational mobility preference than males, while in male‐dominated occupations, females show a lower cross‐organisational mobility preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emerging literature on demand-led structural transformation and structuralist macroeconomics finds that demand-growth can positively complement industrial policy and drive structural transformation but there is no firm consensus which policies can achieve a sustained virtuous circle of demand-, output- and productivity growth. Looking at evidence from manufacturing companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), this paper supports the view that demand-growth can effectively complement industrial policy but only if demand problems of different nature are addressed simultaneously. Increases in government spending need to be combined with distributional policies favouring the disposable income of workers and subsistence communities and with policies that can address country-specific and historically formed supply-side problems in vertically linked sectors to counteract external demand problems manifesting through the balance of payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research topic is geographical marginality, and the main aim of the research is to develop a methodology for identifying, analyzing and determining marginal areas of Međimurje on the spatial level of settlement. Exploratory factor analysis was used in the research via GIS methods. The 30 selected variables were used for exploratory factor analysis. The suitability of the variables was tested using the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and Bartlett’s test. Free, open source R, JASP and QGIS software were used. In the analysis, six factors were identified, by which the characteristic types of settlements in Međimurje were identified: 1) Spatial concentration and economic dynamics; 2) Demographic dynamics and population aging; 3) Education and economic diversification; 4) Availability of central functions; 5) Traditional extensive agricultural production; and 6) Stationary work contingent focused on primary activities. Based on the factor scores, a Međimurje index of marginalization of settlements (MIMaNa) was calculated. Based on this index, the degree of geographical marginality of settlements in Međimurje was determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By examining female streamers' everyday interactions with their viewers and their experiences as showroom livestreamers (xiuchang zhubo) in China's livestreaming industry, this article adopts—but also re-examines—the premises of relational labour in order to investigate the gendered power relations involved in the showroom livestreaming sector. Based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with female livestreamers, we argue that showroom livestreaming work is contingent on relational labour and constitutes a precarious balancing act. One the one hand, female streamers are positioned in a gendered economy, searching to monetize their production of sexually ambivalent intimacy. On the other hand, through constant negotiation, they try to maintain the correct degree of intimacy in order to avoid violating both platform regulations and the social moral standard. Therefore, the implicitly sexualised and intimate performances undertaken by female streamers are the result of negotiating livestreaming platforms' technological and economic affordances, the male viewers' needs for intimate personal interactions, and their own subjectivities. We claim that the economy of aimei, or ambivalent intimacy, represents a deeper form of exploitation, whereby female streamers themselves bear the responsibility to navigate tensions and emotional alienation at the nexus of financial security, sexual desire, and morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the term zones of compounded informality to demarcate locations wherein regulatory exclusions in distinct domains interact to escalate the impact of exclusions for people who live and work in these areas. Based upon a study of India's Delhi, National Capital Region (Delhi‐NCR), I explain how the interaction of flexible planning and employment in particular locales produce zones of compounded informality as a technique of governance. Circular migrant workers in Delhi‐NCR overwhelmingly live and work in these zones, wherein unstable employment and housing contribute to nomadic migration. Legal exclusion from housing protections interacts with other procedural pathways, creating barriers to accessing social protection and citizenship rights. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), and a survey of 981 workers, I consider how zones of compounded informality in Delhi‐NCR interact with India's Aadhar biometric identification system to variegate access to the franchise and Targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) for migrant and other low‐wage workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of flexicurity is gaining popularity in Europe, combining elements of employment flexibility with social security. As western countries experience show, some elements of flexicurity, such as flexible forms of employment, make it possible to improve a company's human resources management, having a positive impact on a company's development and competitiveness, especially in times of economic stagnation. When implementing flexicurity solutions, both at national and company level, it is necessary to adapt these solutions to the needs of employers and employees. The paper is related to the impact of flexicurity on the labour market. The main objective of the manuscript is to summarise the general assumptions and elements of flexicurity and its strengths and weaknesses. The paper also presents selected flexible forms of work organisation, on the example of legal regulations based on the Polish Labour Law. Among the research methods, desk research and the analysis of documents such as EU directives and the Labour Law were mainly used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses how a group of people in the San Francisco Bay Area turns social encounters into opportunities to make money. This group participated in sales schemes known as multi‐level marketing (MLM). MLM companies use a sales model in which participants earn money by selling products on behalf of companies while also recruiting people to join the companies as fellow salespeople. MLM participants earn financial commissions through selling products and recruiting others to join their network, leading them to hunt for new customers in public spaces or among existing social connections. The subjects of the study perceived social life as a commercial opportunity that could lead to financial gain, deliberately turning Saturday morning at the farmers' market or Sunday night dinner at a restaurant into an opportunity to recruit new customers. I interpret these activities as a form of social speculation: MLM participants invested their time in relationships that may 1 day be profitable, but they never knew whether their efforts would succeed. The potential to make money from social encounters was a constant motivator. Social speculation is an expression of a development in the United States in which people perceive social relationships in terms of economic potential because of precarious market conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meaningful engagement and partnerships with people who use drugs are essential to conducting research that is relevant and impactful in supporting desired outcomes of drug consumption as well as reducing drug-related harms of overdose and COVID-19. Community-based participatory research is a key strategy for engaging communities in research that directly affects their lives. While there are growing descriptions of community-based participatory research with people who use drugs and identification of key principles for conducting research, there is a gap in relation to models and frameworks to guide research partnerships with people who use drugs. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for research partnerships between people who use drugs and academic researchers, collaboratively developed and implemented as part of an evaluation of a provincial prescribed safer supply initiative introduced during dual public health emergencies (overdose and COVID-19) in British Columbia, Canada. The framework shifts from having researchers choose among multiple models (advisory, partnership and employment) to incorporating multiple roles within an overall community-based participatory research approach. Advocacy by and for drug users was identified as a key role and reason for engaging in research. Overall, both academic researchers and Peer Research Associates benefited within this collaborative partnerships approach. Each offered their expertise, creating opportunities for omni-directional learning and enhancing the research. The shift from fixed models to flexible roles allows for a range of involvement that accommodates varying time, energy and resources. Facilitators of involvement include development of trust and partnering with networks of people who use drugs, equitable pay, a graduate-level research assistant dedicated to ongoing orientation and communication, technical supports as well as fluidity in roles and opportunities. Key challenges included working in geographically dispersed locations, maintaining contact and connection over the course of the project and ensuring ongoing sustainable but flexible employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment is the foundation of people ’s livelihoods, and a low-carbon transition is a key development theme for China in the future. The impact of reducing CO2 emissions as a hard macroeconomic constraint on the labor market is an important economic issue. This paper used China’s low-carbon city pilot policy as a representative policy to study the low-carbon transition. Firstly, based on the analysis of typical economic facts and policy texts, it was found that there might exist two distinct low-carbon transition approaches in China. The study then examined the differences in the policy impact on labor employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities, analyzed the underlying mechanisms, and finally constructed a general equilibrium model based on the empirical findings to further elaborate the heterogeneous impact pathways from a theoretical perspective. The study showed that: ① There was a difference in the policy impact on employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities. The policy increased employment in secondary and tertiary industries and total employment in the first batch of pilot cities, but it increased employment in tertiary industries and decreased employment in secondary industries in the second batch of pilot cities. ② There was a difference in the mechanisms of policy impact on employment in the first and second batches of pilot cities. Under the influence of the policy, the first batch of pilot cities adopted the low-carbon transition approach of focusing resources on the secondary industry, while the second batch of pilot cities adopted the lowcarbon transition approach of focusing resources on the tertiary industry. ③ The low-carbon transition approaches of the two batches of pilot cities had their own advantages and disadvantages. The approach of the first batch of pilot cities achieved a reduction in total CO2 emissions and an increase in the number of jobs, with the disadvantage of increasing the intensity of CO2 emissions and reducing the disposable income of workers, failing to improve the quality of employment. However, the approach of the second batch of pilot cities reduced the intensity of CO2 emissions, increased employment in the tertiary industry, and increased the disposable income of workers, effectively improving the quality of employment but failing to achieve a reduction in total CO2 emissions and an increase in total employment. Accordingly, China’s goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality can be achieved either by industrial transformation and upgrading or by enhancing the development of the tertiary industry, but the best way is to develop the tertiary industry on the basis of industrial transformation and upgrading without blindly adopting the de-industrialization approach to achieve the peak carbon emission goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the information behaviors (IBs) of performers and artisan/vendors in American Renaissance faires. This research is exploratory in nature and seeks to discover how existing IB theories, including embodied information practices, can explain the information seeking and use of performers and artisan vendors working in American Renaissance faires. Design/methodology/approach: This study used semi-structured qualitative interviews with three artisan/vendors and 12 performers at Renaissance faires to explore their IBs around the roles at the festivals. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analyzed from an exploratory framework, looking for how existing IB theories might explain the findings. Findings: Although the participants in this study described information practices that were embodied and corporeal, they shared more experiences around the complex and fraught nature of information sharing within the Renaissance faire community. Information sharing prohibitions were related to power dynamics and the participants' roles as gig or contingent workers. Originality/value: This was the first study to explore the IBs of Renaissance faire performers and artisan/vendors and as such, was exploratory in nature. The findings point to several areas for additional research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy has increased the competitiveness of economies worldwide, accelerated dramatic changes in employment trends, and driven the rapid growth of flexible employment in China. We use micro survey data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2018 to empirically analyze the income competitiveness differences under different flexible employment modes in the context of the digital economy as well as the differences in income competitiveness between genders, and deconstruct the differences. It is found that the development of digital economy improves income competitiveness in the flexible employment market. The income competitiveness of the digital flexibly employed is higher than that of the traditionally flexibly employed. And in terms of gender differences, females benefit more from digital flexible employment modes. Moreover, the self-employed have higher income competitiveness than the regularly employed, especially the digital flexible selfemployed. Finally, in the context of the rapid development of the digital economy, there is a two-tier structure in the flexible employment labor market, and the wage penalty suffered by flexible workers at the bottom of the wage distribution is greater, which increases the internal income gap of flexible workers and exacerbates the income polarization. Therefore, public policies should focus on enhancing the employment competitiveness of flexible employment workers in the low-income quantile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contingentists—who hold that it is contingent what there is—are divided on the claim that having a property or standing in a relation requires being something. This claim can be formulated as a natural schematic principle of higher-order modal logic. On this formulation, I argue that contingentists who are also higher-order contingentists—and so hold that it is contingent what propositions, properties and relations there are—should reject the claim. Moreover, I argue that given higher-order contingentism, having a property or standing in a relation does not even require possibly being something. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil has suffered severe consequences from the Covid-19 pandemic, currently ranking second globally in terms of total fatalities, with more than 682,000 lives lost. This article critically outlines how a 'health security' framework overlooks processes of intersectionality and the varying impacts of the virus on different segments of society, or what we term health insecurity. We organize our analysis around three aspects of the pandemic that have become salient in Brazilian society, namely access to healthcare, disposable workers, and exposure to the virus, and delineate the intersectional impact of gendered inequality, neoliberal ideologies, and racial hierarchies within these three themes. Our methodology employs media and scholarly interpretations of Covid-19, and other secondary empirical and statistical data, to outline the virus's impacts on differently positioned bodies throughout Brazilian society. Our main findings reveal that during the pandemic, women's labor and health concerns have been undervalued, exploitative working conditions have been exacerbated, and Afro-Brazilians have been put in situations of higher exposure to the virus in both public and private spaces. This article underscores the need to better examine how public health, systems of oppression and exclusion, and (in)security overlap with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precarious work construct combines employment instability and employment-contingent outcomes. Yet, I argue that confining the scope of the investigation to employed individuals creates a sample selection that disguises the heterogeneous nature of employment instability. The COVID-19 skyrocketing unemployment rate provides both a compelling motivation and a unique opportunity to revisit the construct of precarious work. Using pre-COVID and COVID-19 era data of the working-age population in Israel, the results demonstrate that by pushing less stable individuals out of employment, the COVID-19 recession strengthened the negative relationship between volatility and employment opportunities and accentuated sample selection. Because the selection into employment was not random, this introduces a bias into the measurement of precarious work, one that is more severe during a recession than in a full-employment market. The discussion highlights the broader significance of this lacuna and suggests a way to hone the conceptualization and operationalization of the precarious work construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the rapid rise in electricity demand has compelled transmission and distribution systems to operate at almost their maximum capacity. This can pose numerous technical challenges such as excessive power losses, voltage and transient instabilities, as well as reduced power quality and reliability. Employment of Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS) devices can be an effective approach to obviate such challenges and reinforce the power system functionality. Nevertheless, FACTS devices require a high initial investment, and hence their optimal allocation in terms of various aspects such as type, size and location is of utmost importance. This cannot be achieved without the deployment of optimization techniques. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the existing proposals for the enhancement of power system performance adopting FACTS devices. Adhering to that, an in-depth analysis is carried out, in which the most pertinent options are classified into specific groups based on their optimization objectives. Finally, a comparative analysis is accomplished in which the main attributes and drawbacks of each optimization technique are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Torpor is a highly effective response to counter various ecological and physiological bottlenecks in endotherms. In this study, we examined interrelations between thermoregulatory responses and key environmental variables in free-living squirrel gliders (Petaurus norfolcensis) in a habitat with drastic climatic and ecological changes across seasons. To this end, we measured body temperature (T b) and heart rate (f H) simultaneously throughout the year using implanted data loggers. Squirrel gliders in our study experienced fluctuations in ambient temperature (T a) between −4.0°C and 44.1°C and expressed torpor at different times during the year. In contrast to our expectations, torpor seemed to be employed flexibly, on demand, and most frequently in spring rather than during the coldest and/or hottest periods. Torpor bouts lasted, on average, about 5 h, and T b during torpor dropped as low as 17.9°C. The f H during torpor decreased below 50 bpm, which is about one-third of the basal level. The ability to record f H alongside T b enabled us to also report periods of low f H during thermoconforming hyperthermia at T a's above 35°C that likely occurred to conserve energy and water. Our findings double the body size of Australian gliders for which data on torpor are available and advance our ecological understanding of the dynamics of torpor expression in wild mammals and of how animals cope with varying conditions. Moreover, they highlight that the flexibility of physiology and thermoregulatory responses are clearly more complex than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, I European Urban and Regional Studies i (EURS) awarded the first Jim Lewis Prize. We are delighted to announce the prize award to Andrew Herod, Kostas Gourzis and Stelios Gialis for their paper 'Inter-regional underemployment and the industrial reserve army: Precarity as a contemporary Greek drama', I European Urban and Regional Studies i 28(4): 413-430. Three years after Stelios' return Kostas, who was then developing his PhD thesis with Stelios, won his Fulbright scholarship and went to Athens, Georgia, to work with his co-supervisor, Andy. [Extracted from the article]

The excessive use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, such as tetracycline, presents a significant challenge to human survival and development. Oxygen vacancies (OVs) metal-organic framework (MOF) materials were synthesized using natural organic acids (L-malic acid, L-aspartic acid, and L-asparagine) with similar structures but different charge densities, along with copper as the metal linking agent. The presence of oxygen vacancies in the catalyst provides abundant active sites for photocatalytic reactions. The employment of flexible straight-chain organic ligands devoid of rigid polycyclic rings, combined with the incorporation of different substituents to induce variations in charge density, the resulting catalysts exhibit distinct photocatalytic activities under visible light. Density functional theory calculations confirm that L-asparagine exhibits the largest electron density difference, and the Cu-based MOF (Cu-ASU) synthesized as an organic ligand exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity under visible light excitation. The catalyst displayed remarkable photocatalytic activity against tetracycline antibiotics under identical conditions (with removal rates of 93.5 % for tetracycline, 81.4 % for terramycin, and 95.6 % for chloramphenicol hydrochloride). This provides a novel approach for the design and synthesis of photocatalysts for the removal of antibiotics from water. [Display omitted] • Ligands synthesis catalysts with varying electron density differences were chosen. • The ligands' electron density difference affects the catalyst activity. • DFT indicate that L-asparagine exhibits the highest electron density difference. • Cu-ASU showed an excellent optimal tetracycline removal rate of 93.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living with digital government is less of a technical issue but more of a political process. In political science, one new issue in need of greater theorizing and investigating is public anxiety about the use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) by digital government which has become an emerging challenge for the country to obtain public support. Employing an online survey in China, we test whether technology anxiety influences public support for policy and examine the mechanisms within them, namely, political persuasion, interaction orientation, and people’s happiness. Survey evidence reveals that technology anxiety exerts a significantly negative effect on public support, especially in flexible employment and service industry. Additionally, technology anxiety indirectly influences public support for policy through the three abovementioned mechanisms, with political persuasion based on algorithm demonstrating the most pronounced mediating role. The findings contribute to understanding the relationship between public anxiety and political support in Chinese context and beyond, and enrich the studies of political psychology and legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential for Assemblage Theory to supplement current approaches to studying labor migration in law and the social sciences. Based upon a study of women's migration for garment and domestic work in India, I lay out the labor supply chain assemblage (LSCA) as a framework for understanding how workers find employment across multi-site, dynamic trajectories. Migration into temporary employment requires workers to move between jobs on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, studying labor supply chains as fluid assemblages defined by labor market conditions, component elements, and various agents provides a methodology for analyzing frequent job searches, across recruitment geographies, that include a range of recruitment actors. By accommodating temporal, territorial, and relational analysis, this approach provides insight into how labor migration processes for migrant garment and domestic workers in India articulate with the development of markets, working conditions, and social hierarchies – including on the basis of gender and caste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public universities have assumed business-minded practices and norms that more closely align with goals and values of corporations than social institutions charged with creating and disseminating knowledge. One pervasive cost-savings strategy is the outsourcing of instruction to a contingent workforce. This case study explores the experiences of part-time and full-time non-tenure track faculty from undergraduate colleges across a striving, public, four-year research institution midway through its ten-year plan to attain Tier I Carnegie classification status and rebrand itself as a "very high" research institution. Findings describe contingent faculty experiences of the double-edged sword of autonomy. Their contingent status freed them from many responsibilities and oversight of tenure-line faculty but also alienated them from other meaningful faculty roles and activities. Drawing from academic capitalism, we theorize their work lives—grounded in now-antiquated notions of non-tenure-track faculty as casual labor, regardless of appointment type—provide descriptive insights into faculty culture and infer potential consequences of economic-minded faculty labor policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the processes that are taking place in the modern labor market, and considers in detail such an innovative flexible form of employment organization as freelancing. The prerequisites for its formation and features are determined, taking into account modern economic conditions. A model of freelancer’s work has been developed, taking into account the properties of activity in the field under study. The article analyzes the regulatory acts that have an impact on the regulation of freelancing in Ukraine and identifies the specifics of appropriate legal support abroad. The dynamics of attracting employees in the field of freelancing in Ukraine and the most common areas of activity among freelancers are evaluated. The specified sources of customer search by freelancers that help create their workload. The advantages and disadvantages of a flexible form of self-employment are highlighted, which significantly affect the specifics of planning and organizing the work of freelance employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gendered division of occupations is a persistent characteristic of the Austrian labour market. Furthermore, we can observe more flexible employment biographies, where sequential employment episodes and occupational transitions become an important part. On this account, the article argues that both gender inequalities and labour market movements need to be examined simultaneously. The authors therefore analyse gender-(un)typed horizontal occupational transitions and their influence on the vertical positioning, based on the Austrian Micro Census (2008–2018). The results reveal that gender-typed occupational transitions are regaining relevance and that the gender effect is reversing in that women increasingly leave gender-untyped occupations. The findings also demonstrate that this gender-typed horizontal movement yields a significant decline in occupational status for women, which even increases when women become mothers. Based on their models the authors find no negative effects for fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is written for people working in the related fields of theological and religious studies, speaking directly to the issue of contingency as a feminist question of care. It acknowledges how cisgendered women in the academy often bear the bulk of caring for others, but goes further, interrogating how care discourses structurally inform the contingent worker's material realities. Contingency raises the question of the value of the humanities, of which theological and religious studies are a part. Framed as a question of "vocation," Max Weber argues that the humanities scholar's work should be oriented to research, rather than moral transformation. A critical and feminist analysis of care, then, unveils contingent labor as a kind of care work that supports masculinist attachments to the tenure track faculty position as the pinnacle of effort and scholarship. The article offers first steps toward constructive recommendations for the issues that we identify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of institutions in decoupling economic growth from environmental impacts, employing the Varieties of Capitalism framework. It finds that Northern European countries have achieved more significant decoupling than other Western OECD countries since the 1980s, as measured by the Ecological Footprint of Consumption. Differences in corporatism, as well as the amount and type of public social expenditures, are hypothesized to play a crucial role in explaining this pattern. Multiple regression analysis reveals that larger proportions of GDP allocated to universal social expenditures — not contingent on work status — are robustly associated with stronger decoupling. This suggests that the considerable investments of Northern European countries in universal social benefits have been key for effectively reducing the environmental impacts associated with economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the core of this paper is a critique of labour law’s engagement with menopausal workers in the UK. The critique is framed by an overarching discussion of the coping strategies adopted when lived realities of menopausal workers disrupt traditional organisational cultures, especially its manifestation in the ‘ideal worker’ norm. At the core of the paper is an argument that the legal treatment of menopausal workers is failing to encourage effective management of menopause / workplace tensions and, as a result, validates the promotion of this problematic ‘ideal worker’ norm within organisational cultures. Effective labour laws could however better support menopausal workers: labour laws could encourage long term individual and organisational resilience by adopting more effective anti-discrimination and dismissal protections and more strongly centring negotiation as a realistic strategy for menopausal workers and employers when navigating any tensions that arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations rarely invest in contingent employees, at least relative to the human resources efforts commonly afforded to permanent workers — but should they? Traditional social exchange theory suggests that motivation and loyalty should be difficult to cultivate in short-term, fixed-term relationships like contingent employment. However, a novel social exchange model (i.e., the anchoring model) suggests that socioemotional exchange relationships can develop quickly in response to highly salient "anchoring events." We position employee onboarding as a positive anchoring event that can quickly and durably drive contingent workers' socioemotional exchange in the form of work engagement, self-reported task performance, and intent to return to the employing organization. Specifically, we develop and test a temporally grounded process model based on the three proposed stages of the anchoring model. Our model was supported across two studies, an initial cross-sectional evaluation of the basic model within a heterogenous sample of contingent workers (n = 121), followed by a three-wave evaluation of the more detailed process model among an organizational sample of seasonal workers (n = 378). Findings provide evidence that the anchoring model, including the expanded framework developed here, explains contingent workers' attitudinal and behavioral responses to human resources initiatives in a way that traditional organizational theories have not fully achieved. Finally, recommendations for effectively managing contingent workers, through onboarding as well as through other efforts such as training and development, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undoubtedly, one of the most important results of the COVID-19 pandemic, which stands out with its uncertainty feature, is the increasing unemployment rates. This situation has led to the importance of flexible employment policies. These policies, which were shaped due to compelling reasons and came to the forefront with short-term work programs, came to the forefront as the most preferred and mostly implemented in Europe during the pandemic period. One of the most successful examples of these policies, also called the European model, is the kurzarbeit system, which successfully absorbed the effects of the 2008 crisis and played an important role in keeping unemployment rates under control. This system, which can also be defined as the German short-term working model, became popular and famous all over the world. Accordingly, the aims of the study are as follows: The kurzarbeit system, which was implemented as an important job retention policy during the pandemic period; Comparison of its successful experience during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and its performance in the period of COVID-19. And questioning the missions it can undertake in post-pandemic recovery policies. The research was carried out within the framework of case study within the scope of qualitative research method. As a result, the kurzarbeit system, which was shaped by extensive and significant government support, played a major role in keeping unemployment rates under control in Germany during the COVID-19 period as well as during the global crisis. and passed the exam successfully. In addition, the system, which has been expanded and applied during the pandemic process, offers important arguments for post-pandemic recovery policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's education enters a high-level stage, more and more students graduate from Chinese colleges and universities. In particular, the current employment environment is flexible and multilateral, and there are more and more opportunities to choose from. In view of this situation, this article aims to visualize the career planning (CP) path of college students, so as to help college students adapt to the environment of flexible employment. For deep learning and big data (DLBA) technology, this article proposes the LSTM-Canopy algorithm, which is added to the traditional Canopy algorithm to enhance the self-learning clustering ability of the algorithm. Also, this study applies this algorithm to the visualization system of college students' CP path, which can effectively improve the analysis and judgment of experts on career. The experiments in this article have proved that the system can meet the normal use of 400–500 users, and the system server has successfully passed 40 load tests, and the running time is also less than 2.5s, which proves the reliability of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This feminist ethnographic piece offers a snapshot of how contingency impacts diversity work in General Education (GE) courses in the Communication Studies Department at California State University, Northridge. After grounding my work in critical university scholarship from Sara Ahmed (2012), Roderick Ferguson (2012), and others, I explore how the pressure to do diversity work impacts contingent faculty of various identities in my department. To this end, I take an intersectional approach to understanding these experiences in hopes of showing how various parts of one's identity might make certain topics more difficult to teach than others, especially through precarity. Concurrently, I illustrate how my contingent position intersects with my neurodivergency to make the ethnographic process especially challenging. In Time Binds , Elizabeth Freeman (2010) explores how this usurping of time affects those who cannot, or do not want to, conform to neoliberal time. Freeman describes this concept of privileging a certain orientation toward time as chrononormativity, or a way institutions use time to encourage maximum productivity of individuals within it. My neurodivergency combined with my contingency work against chrononormative expectations. When I add to this the time necessary to perform the intersectional work of feminist ethnography, my hopes of producing research that might unstick myself from contingency feels both rushed and stalled at the same time. I offer this essay as a glimpse of the tensions contingent faculty hold within them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem raised by causality in comparative policy analysis is twofold. First, how can we be sure there is actually a causal relationship between two variables, factors or events? Second, what do we really know about the causal forces, the individual motivations and the institutions at work between the alleged explanandum and the explanans (and vice versa)? The answer to these questions depends on whether we intend to predict what can or will happen if the same cause is present at different points in time or space, or whether we are willing to explain a causal process linking a trigger (i.e. a cause, a factor or a determinant) to an outcome, a result or an effect. To contribute to the discussion, we build on a typology of models of causation, coined as "regularity" (if causality is about generalizations based on constant variations), "necessity" (if it is about causal powers at work in contingent situations), "ideal-type" (if it is about historical patterns or chains of events), and "social construction" (if it is about actors' frames and values). Each model fulfills a different purpose when addressing causality. The article explains how these models work and command the selection and utilization of the methods. This introduction discusses the contribution to the discussion made by the four articles included in this special issue, which are organized by model of causation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the crisis of solidarity affecting workers who protest labor precarity under South Korea's capitalist democracy. Once considered foundational to the struggle for national democratization, the dramatic protests of aggrieved workers are frequently depicted as out of place and out of sync. Drawing upon ethnographic research on workers' protest repertoires, this essay challenges prevailing explanations and instead argues that heightened forms of drama, ritual, and suffering in workers' protests enact a willful politics of refusal. Moving beyond resistance as an all-encompassing frame, the labor of refusal foregrounds ways of being and becoming that are not rooted in the contractual fallacies of liberal capitalist democracy, but in the spaces of solidarity produced by social movement networks and grassroots communities of care. The labor of refusal may not always generate robust solidarity, but it challenges the structures of organized abandonment that treat workers as disposable under neoliberal capitalist rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employment of a flexible benzoimidazole-type ligand of 1-(2-(1H-benzoimidazol-1-yl)ethyl)-1H-benzoimidazole (beb), two coordination polymers (CPs) of Zn(II) and Co(II) namely, {[Co(beb)(dmglut)]}n (1) and {Zn2(beb)2(hipt)2(H2O)1.5(MeOH)}]n (2) have been produced in the existence of distinct dicarboxylate ligands and metal ions. The measurements of luminescence reveal that the Zn(II)-containing complex 2 can determine 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) in DMF which possesses high selectivity and sensitivity. For the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, complexes 1 and 2 were synthesized as above. Their treatment activity on the Alzheimer's disease was evaluated, and the specific mechanism was investigated as well. Western blot was used to detect the accumulation of Amyloid protein in neurons. Then, the real time RT-PCR was implemented to assess autophagy related genes expression levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contracted personnel employment practices in administrative organizations have become widespread over the years and contracted personnel of various statuses have started to be employed. This type of employment, which was used to meet the need for impermanent, exceptional and specific service formerly, has become widespread over time and has reached a wide range of applications, from the provision of permanent and continuous services, to appointments in expert or administrator. Especially with the adoption of the New Public Management Approach, the widespread use of flexible employment in the public increased the number of contracted personnel and their weight in the total. The most comprehensive practice is the employment of contracted personnel within the scope of Article 4 / B of the Civil Servants Law No. 657. Contracted personnel employment creates many problem areas in practice as well as many innovations for the public personnel system. One of these problems is that a disciplinary legislation with standard measures and principles has not been established for contracted personnel. This situation may cause the contract personnel to lose their rights, as well as cause disruptions in the provision of public services, and the inability to apply the rules determining the working conditions. It has become a necessity to make the legal arrangements that will constitute the legal basis for disciplinary proceedings regarding contracted personnel as soon as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video game voice acting does not rank among the core roles of video game production, yet actors in leading roles sometimes achieve wide recognition despite their contingent employment. In this article, we explore the role of voice actors in the video game culture using the specific case of the recasting of the video game series Life Is Strange, which was caused by the 2016 to 2017 SAG-AFTRA strike against video game companies. Our qualitative empirical analysis of journalistic coverage (including interviews with voice actors), promotional materials, press releases, and player discussions reconstructs the events of the game's production and investigates the reception of the recasting with regard to actor-character identification and to labor conditions of voice actors. We find that voice actors, whose status is partly dependent on the popularity of their characters, attempt to rise "above the line" by engaging in relational labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzed the income differences between flexibly and nonflexibly employed persons based on the 2018 China Mobile Population Dynamics Monitoring Data, using OLS methods, propensity score matching (PSM), and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. The results show that the income of flexibly employed persons is 11.9%–23.6% higher than that of nonflexibly employed persons, with differences in individual endowment characteristics explaining 53.9% of the income difference and differences in coefficients of nonmarket factors explaining 45.7% of the income difference. The degree of income difference between the two groups in different industries varies; except for the primary industry, the secondary and tertiary industries all show higher income for flexibly employed persons than for nonflexibly employed persons. The difference in income between the two groups was as high as 25% or more in the sectors of "rental and business services," "education," and "culture, sports, and entertainment." The high ratio of employers and self-employed workers in flexible employment and the fact that the average number of hours worked per week is 12.6 hours higher for flexible workers than for nonflexible workers are important factors contributing to the difference in earnings between these two groups. Clarifying the extent of the current income disparity between flexible and nonflexible employment groups and its sources, and formulating and adjusting relevant policies and measures in a timely manner are conducive to creating a fair and equitable labour market environment and promoting the healthy development of flexible employment under the new circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]