Shared labor and love

The study on job sharing couples and employers in academia found that, for the couples, the shared and flexible work schedule is conducive to increased cooperation and sharing of work and domestic-related activities, independent of gender, and to enhanced intimacy. Because of how the couples use their “surplus” time, they are working more, not less. Employers recognize the increased productivity, but tend to attribute it to their special couple(s) and not to the alternative work structure. Many employers resist job sharing because part-time work is not considered professional.     

All Ages and None: Commentary on Helene Moglen's Ageing and Transageing

Helene Moglen's article is especially welcome, given the paucity of psychoanalytic reflection on ageing. She usefully describes possible ways of managing the losses of ageing through accessing the multiple, decentered self-states embedded in our personal histories. However, I have some queries on her use of contrasting psychic topologies. In particular I wonder whether she is sometimes in danger of seeing images of former selves as being associatively “recovered” in the work of mourning that might be better seen as the more illusive “production” of presumptively anterior contexts and states of mind in the present. I also question how successfully Moglen's positioning of her notion of “transaging” somewhere between “transgender” and “transsexuality” serves to loosen up the vicious binary between “young” and “old. I would appreciate closer attention to the dreaded “feminization” of old age, noting the toxic sexism permeating cultures of ageing. Nevertheless, Moglen offers an excellent opening into this troubling topic.     

Kernel Density Estimator From Ranked Set Samples

We study kernel density estimator from the ranked set samples (RSS). In the kernel density estimator, the selection of the bandwidth gives strong influence on the resulting estimate. In this article, we consider several different choices of the bandwidth and compare their asymptotic mean integrated square errors (MISE). We also propose a plug-in estimator of the bandwidth to minimize the asymptotic MISE. We numerically compare the MISE of the proposed kernel estimator (having the plug-in bandwidth estimator) to its simple random sampling counterpart. We further propose two estimators for a symmetric distribution, and show that they outperform in MISE all other estimators not considering symmetry. We finally apply the methods in this article to analyzing the tree height data from Platt et al. (1988 Platt, W.J., Evans, G.M., Rathbun, S.L. (1988). The population dynamics of long-lived conifer (Pinus plaustris) (1988). Amer. Natrualist 131:491–525.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Chen et al. (2003 Chen, Z., Bai, Z., Sinha, B.K. (2003). Ranked Set Sampling: Theory and Applications. New York: Springer. [Google Scholar]).     

Growing by Leaps and Inches: Creative Destruction, Real Cost Reduction, and Inching Up

Most firms achieve perfective progress, incrementally improving commodities or productivity. But technological progress is concentrated in a few firms achieving metamorphic progress: forming or transforming industries with technological breakthroughs (e.g., biotechnology, lasers, semiconductors, nanotechnology). Unless congruent with incumbents' science and technology base, metamorphic progress promotes entry. Scientific breakthroughs embodied in discovering scientists, protected by natural excludability and transferred by learning-by-doing-with at the bench generally drive metamorphic progress. Embodied knowledge is rivalrous and leads to entry and industry dominance by star scientist–linked firms. Incorporating this scientific entrepreneurial process is essential to improving—if not transforming—endogenous growth models.     

Meaningful Youth Engagement as a Protective Factor for Youth Suicidal Ideation

Youth suicide is a leading cause of mortality. Greater still is the prevalence of suicidal behavior and ideation. In this study with 813 secondary school students, we explored youth engagement in structured extracurricular activities as a possible protective factor for suicidal ideation. Personally meaningful youth engagement significantly moderated the relationships between depressive symptoms, risk behaviors, self‐esteem, and social support in the prediction of suicidal ideation. Specifically, the more meaning found in engagement, the less likely youth were to report suicidal thoughts in spite of risk factors. Acknowledging limitations, a focus on engaging youth in well‐selected activities of interest might represent a nonstigmatizing approach to universal prevention. Further research into the mechanisms of such an approach is warranted.     

A Process Study of Negotiating Challenges of Managing International Development Projects

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - Despite the role that non-government organisations, including community development organisations, play in social...