Creating offshore-ready it professionals: A global perspective and strong collaborative skills are needed

Outsourcing of IT functions has become a widespread corporate practice, which has naturally led to concerns among IT works about how this affects their jobs. The issue is complex, and many companies are bringing their IT functions back inhouse. In light of this complexity, what skills do IT workers need to be com-petitive? We address this question first by reviewing the literature and then by examining two corporate case studies that have dealt with outsourcing issues. Based on this view of outsourcing, we discuss the skills that can provide a com-petitive advantage in the current environment.     

Modernisierungstheorie und Wandel der Weltgesellschaft

The modernization and industrialization of the developing countries, especially in Asia and Latin America in the last 30 years, are facts that seem to contradict to the basic assumptions of the ruling sociological theories of development. The rise of the developing countries is a main part of the process called “globalization”. The different parts of the world are getting closer to each other by trade, industrial investments, tourism, political influences and co-operations on different levels. Theories of dependence and similar approaches don’t fit these social developments and seem to have gotten a status of falsified, refused, neglected or simply forgotten theories. “Sociological Theory” is till this day not ready to answer the open questions and to fill the scientific gap. The article shows that the classical theory of modernization is capable to describe and explain the process of modernization not only in Europe but also in the developing countries. Modernization theory is the central and encompassing theory of development, no matter whether Europe in the last 200 years, the present-day developing countries or processes of globalization is the chosen and focused subject of research activities.     

More than Myth: The Developmental Significance of Romantic Relationships During Adolescence

Adolescents' romantic relationships have attracted popular interest, but, until recently, little scientific curiosity. Research has been impeded by erroneous assumptions that adolescent relationships are trivial and transitory, that they provide little information beyond measures of the influence of parent‐child and peer relationships, and that their impact is primarily associated with problems of behavior and adjustment. This article proposes that distinguishing five features of romantic relationships (involvement, partner selection, relationship content, quality, and cognitive and emotional processes) is essential to describing adolescents' relationships and their developmental significance. These distinctions also help to clarify the role of context, age‐related variations, and individual differences in the impact of romantic experiences. Research is needed to illuminate questions of how and under what conditions romantic relationships affect individual development and how romantic and other close relationships jointly influence developmental trajectories during adolescence.     

Modified cross-validation in density estimation

We propose a new modified (biased) cross-validation method for adaptively determining the bandwidth in a nonparametric density estimation setup. It is shown that the method provides consistent minimizers. Some simulation results are reported on which compare the small sample behavior of the new and the classical cross-validation selectors.     

Recurrent pain in college students.

The authors investigated the prevalence of recurrent pain in a college student sample. Of the 1,564 students surveyed, 467 (29%) indicated that they had experienced recurrent pain at an intensity that was mostly in the mild-to-moderate range. Students who reported having recurrent pain were significantly older and more depressed than students who did not indicate they suffered from recurrent pain. Pain intensity was positively correlated (r = .14) with depression among the students who reported having recurrent pain. Implications of the findings for future research, treatment, and health promotion efforts are discussed.     

The effect of 1980s tort reform legislation on general liability and medical malpractice insurance

A large number of states adopted tort reforms in the mid-1980s to limit the dramatic surge in insurance losses and premiums. Evidence based on liability insurance data by state indicates that these reforms substantially influenced general liability insurance. The levels of losses, premiums, and loss ratios (a measure of insurance profitability) all reflected the impact of the reforms. The large-scale reform efforts in 1986 were particularly influential. Medical malpractice insurance was much less sensitive to the reform efforts.     

Intimacy,Men and Their Relationships

This paper is an attempt, using one case example, to highlight the struggle many men have with masculinity. The presenting problem for this young man, was his belief he had a small penis and was not a “man”. This resulted in him closing off his life more and more. The connection between intimacy and masculinity and the ideas that proved helpful for this man consequently to explore relationships will be discussed.