From ‘Employab-ility’ to ‘Entrepreneurial-ity’ in Spain: youth in the spotlight in times of crisis

This paper discusses the processes of individualisation of work and redefinition of the referential category of worker fostered by youth employability schemes in Spain. Employability measures proposed by the recent Spanish Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan and its antithetical youth representations (as a group ‘without qualities’ – the ‘NEETS’– while at the same time as a referential value and cultural model – ‘the young entrepreneur’-) will be analysed. These paradoxes strengthened by employability policies, and further aggravated in the wake of the current economic crisis, do not give rise to political contradictions due to the depolitisation promoted by employability policies: social problems are converted into individual deficits. These processes of psychologisation of work are further discussed on the basis of a recent study on employment counselling and career guidance to help to enhance the employability of jobless people in three Spanish cities, Seville, Madrid and Valencia. These tools are aimed at fostering employability of unemployed people with a high risk of social exclusion and are emblematic concerning the principle of employability (new governance tools, different intervention logics/principles). Some paradoxes concerning employability policies (entrepreneuriality) in the current labour market crisis will be outlined.     

A Wald-type test statistic based on robust modified median estimator in logistic regression models

In this paper a new robust estimator, modified median estimator, is introduced and studied for the logistic regression model. This estimator is based on the median estimator considered in Hobza et al. [Robust median estimator in logistic regression. J Stat Plan Inference. 2008;138:3822–3840]. Its asymptotic distribution is obtained. Using the modified median estimator, we also consider a Wald-type test statistic for testing linear hypotheses in the logistic regression model and we obtain its asymptotic distribution under the assumption of random regressors. An extensive simulation study is presented in order to analyse the efficiency as well as the robustness of the modified median estimator and Wald-type test based on it.     

New improved estimators for overdispersion in models with clustered multinomial data and unequal cluster sizes

It is usual to rely on the quasi-likelihood methods for deriving statistical methods applied to clustered multinomial data with no underlying distribution. Even though extensive literature can be encountered for these kind of data sets, there are few investigations to deal with unequal cluster sizes. This paper aims to contribute to fill this gap by proposing new estimators for the intracluster correlation coefficient.     

Growing Up in A Single Mother Family and Student’s Tardiness: A Cross-National Study Exploring the Moderating Role of Family Resources

Research shows that growing up in a single-parent family has a negative effect on children’s educational level, whereas the relationship between family structure and test scores is less consistent or even nonexistent in some countries. Some authors suggested that something besides cognitive ability is responsible for the poorer school outcomes of children from nonintact families. In this study, we focus on a noncognitive outcome, in this case student tardiness, which is one of the components of problematic absenteeism. Using PISA 2003 data from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we find that children who grow up in a single-mother family have greater chances of arriving late for school in 16 of the 17 countries analyzed. Some studies have analyzed the extent to which the effect of growing up in a single-mother family is compensated by a high level of family resources. However, these yield mixed findings, which can be attributed to the differences between the countries studied. With the exception of Bernardi and Radl (2014), to our knowledge no study analyzes the heterogeneity of family structure effects using a cross-national approach. We find that in most of the 17 countries analyzed, a high level of family resources, such as home possessions, cultural resources, mother’s occupational and educational level, and mother’s type of work, do not compensate for the harmful effects of growing up in a single-mother family on children’s school tardiness.     

PI3K pathway and Bcl-2 family. Clinicopathological features in prostate cancer

The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR pathways and Bcl-2 family play a central role in prostate cancer (PC). The aim was to determine influence in the biochemical progression in PC. To evaluate the association between clinic pathological and immunohistochemical variables, Spearman’s test was performed. Log-rank test and Kaplan–Meier curves were used for survival comparisons. To explore the correlation of the studied immunohistochemical parameters and the established prognostic variables with biochemical progression, univariate and multivariate Cox proportional Hazard regression analyses were performed. Spearman analysis showed correlation between stroma expression and tumor expression of PI3K with biochemical progression (p?=?.009, p?=?.004), respectively, and tumor immunohistochemical score with biochemical progression (p?=?.051). In the multivariate Cox regression model, only PI3K was retained as independent predictors of biochemical progression. In stroma expression, PI3K is (HR 0.172, 95% CI 0.065–0.452, p?=?.000); tumor expression, PI3K is (HR 0.087, 95% CI 0.026–0.293, p?=?.000), and tumor immunohistochemical score (HR 0.382, 95% CI 0.209–0.697 p?=?.002). Our results suggest a role for prostatic expression of PI3K was prognostic markers for PC. PI3K/AKT/mTOR and Bcl-2 family are becoming an important therapeutic target and predictive biomarkers of onset and progression of PC.     

Predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship: the role of servant leadership in young people / Predicción de las actitudes y las intenciones conductuales hacia el emprendimiento social: el papel del liderazgo de servicio en los jóvenes

: Social entrepreneurship (SE) refers to the development of innovative projects whose main aim is not individual profit but the transformation of society. The issue is particularly important for promoting youth development and participation. This research offers insights from two studies designed from a multi-dimensional perspective analysing attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social ventures built upon the constructs of servant leadership and lifestyles. Results of Study 1 indicated that servant leadership is a key predictor of attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship, while having a violent lifestyle is negatively associated with these attitudes and intentions. Study 2 showed that servant leadership style predicted attitudes towards social entrepreneurship over and above other types of leadership (i.e., transformational, transactional and laissez-faire). These studies demonstrate the importance of considering servant leadership and relational styles as key factors in predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding social and active participation of young people. Limitations of the study and applications to designing interventions aimed at improving attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship are discussed.     

Robust estimators for additive models using backfitting

Additive models provide an attractive setup to estimate regression functions in a nonparametric context. They provide a flexible and interpretable model, where each regression function depends only on a single explanatory variable and can be estimated at an optimal univariate rate. Most estimation procedures for these models are highly sensitive to the presence of even a small proportion of outliers in the data. In this paper, we show that a relatively simple robust version of the backfitting algorithm (consisting of using robust local polynomial smoothers) corresponds to the solution of a well-defined optimisation problem. This formulation allows us to find mild conditions to show Fisher consistency and to study the convergence of the algorithm. Our numerical experiments show that the resulting estimators have good robustness and efficiency properties. We illustrate the use of these estimators on a real data set where the robust fit reveals the presence of influential outliers.     

Empirical phi-divergence test statistics for the difference of means of two populations

Empirical phi-divergence test statistics have demostrated to be a useful technique for the simple null hypothesis to improve the finite sample behavior of the classical likelihood ratio test statistic, as well as for model misspecification problems, in both cases for the one population problem. This paper introduces this methodology for two-sample problems. A simulation study illustrates situations in which the new test statistics become a competitive tool with respect to the classical z test and the likelihood ratio test statistic.     

Improving the biomarker diagnostic capacity via functional transformations

The use of the area under the receiver-operating characteristic, ROC, curve (AUC) as an index of diagnostic accuracy is overwhelming in fields such as biomedical science and machine learning. It seems that a larger AUC value has become synonymous with a better performance. The functional transformation of the marker values has been proposed in the specialized literature as a procedure for increasing the AUC and therefore the diagnostic accuracy. However, the classification process is based on some regions (classification subsets) which support the decision made; one subject is classified as positive if its marker is within this region and classified as negative otherwise. In this paper we study the capacity of improving the classification performance of univariate biomarkers via functional transformations and the impact of this transformation on the final classification regions based on a real-world dataset. Particularly, we consider the problem of determining the gender of a subject based on the Mode frequency of his/her voice. The shape of the cumulative distribution function of this characteristic in both the male and the female groups makes the resulting classification problem useful for illustrating the differences between having useful diagnostic rules and obtaining an optimal AUC value. Our point is that improving the AUC by means of a functional transformation can produce classification regions with no practical interpretability. We propose to improve the classification accuracy by making the selection of the classification subsets more flexible while preserving their interpretability. Besides, we provide different graphical approximations which allow us a better understanding of the classification problem.     

Obstacles invisibles et représentation des femmes aux postes de décision en Espagne

Les auteurs présentent les résultats d'une étude sur les caractéristiques personnelles et les qualifications d'hommes et de femmes assumant des fonctions de direction dans des entreprises espagnoles, leur situation professionnelle et leur point de vue sur l'égalité des sexes. Par rapport à leurs homologues masculins, les Espagnoles occupant des postes à responsabilités sont plus jeunes mais aussi qualifiées, voire plus, et elles ont moins d'enfants. Cependant, elles sont toujours confrontées à des obstacles qui empěchent la pleine exploitation d'un capital humain précieux. Malgré les mesures adoptées, plus de neuf postes de décision sur dix sont toujours occupés par des hommes.