Comparison of bias-reducing methods for estimating the parameter in dilution series

Ten different estimators of the parameter in a limiting or serial dilution assay are compared. Eight of them are constructed to reduce the bias of the commonly used maximum likelihood estimator. Extensive Monte Carlo experiments using various designs, and practical considerations, suggest that a particular jackknife version of the maximum likelihood estimator is preferred, provided that the design is not too small.     

Abstracts and reviews

Although men are far less likely than women to be victims of heterosexual assault, such cases have been reported with increasing frequency in recent years. We compared social judgments about male and female victims of heterosexual and homosexual rape and tested hypotheses concerning social cognitions that are assumed to underlie a male rape mythology. In a 2 × 2 × 2 design, 77 male and 89 female subjects made a series of judgments about a sexual assault case in which sex of victim and sex of assailants were manipulated. Consistent with the hypotheses, the male victim of sexual assault by females was judged more likely to have initiated or encouraged the sex acts, and more enjoyment and less stress were attributed to him. This pattern of results was more pronounced among male subjects. The results are discussed in relation to stereotypic beliefs concerning male sex roles, sexual motivation, and sexual functioning that are likely to affect the social cognitions of both observers and male victims of heterosexual assault.     

Der Einfluss von Systemischen Strukturaufstellungen auf Koh?sion, Kooperation, Koordination und Kommunikation in Teams: Eine L?ngsschnittstudie

This article deals with the evaluation of structural team constellations (STC)??a special form of organisational constellation. 67 team members from 14 working teams carried out an STC and were surveyed at three time intervals, by means of a questionnaire, on their estimation of cohesion, cooperation, communication and coordination in the team as well as on their satisfaction with the relationship to the constellator. Stable chronologically increases were noticed in the variables of cohesion and cooperation. For the variables communication and coordination, however, improvements could only be established, between the first and second measurement. Participants who better evaluated the team variables over time were also more satisfied with their relationship to the constellator. Given the low time requirements involved, STCs can be rated as recommendable compared to other team training and team building processes.     

Popular Culture and Workplace Gendering among Varieties of Capitalism: Working Women and their Representation in Japanese Manga

Female empowerment is a prerequisite for a just and sustainable developed society. Being the most developed non‐western country, Japan offers an instructive window onto concerns about gender worldwide. Although overall gender equality is advancing in Japan, difficulties remain, especially in achieving equality in the workplace. We draw on theories of ontological commitment and the psychology of fiction to critically analyse the role of popular culture — in this case manga — in the reproduction of gender inequality in the Japanese workplace. We present examples of four of the most popular mainstream manga aimed at working men and women in Japan and show how women are depicted. We argue that the hyper‐mediated fictional realism of representative tropes generates an ontological commitment to characters and narratives among consumers that reinforces the reproduction of a culturally exceptionalist national political economic space, one of whose essential defining characteristics is a gendered workplace. Our research suggests important implications for researching the relationship between culture, in all its forms, and spatial variation in persistent institutional biases among varieties of capitalism.     

Systemische Aufstellungen und lösungsfokussierte Beratung in der Schulpraxis

Systemic sculpturing and solution oriented counseling is a possibility to help students to improve their teaching competencies when problems with teaching may be ascribed to unfavorable mental modells about teaching in general and their roles as teachers. After clarifying some basic assumptions about systemic formations and solution oriented counseling, the steps of such a process are described and illustrated by means of a case study. The mode of action and effect of systemic sculpturing are described at the end.     

看张爱玲的《对照记》

张爱玲的《对照记》对照的是形象(照片)与个人身世的真实,因此她用文字来解释心得。《对照记》本身有很强的“后设性”,对《对照记》的解读,则是“后设”的“后设”。从《对照记》中所列的相当可观的张爱玲祖父祖母一代人的照片中,可以解读出她的怀古幽思,她所怀念的就是她祖父母这一代的人物和生活方式,这自觉或不自觉地展露了她的历史怀旧意识。《对照记》中没有张爱玲与父亲或母亲的合影,也没有她父母亲的合影,这些照片的缺失使《对照记》创设了一股幼时的失落感或被遗弃的情境,呈现出“褪了色”的苍凉。张爱玲自己的照片在全书中有30多幅,她的姿态在“镜花水月”式的美学意境中制造了一种神秘感。张爱玲“传奇”不仅是她的文字,也是她的形象造成的。     

Rural communities and well‐being: a good place to grow up?

This study looks at young people's accounts of life in communities in rural northern Scotland, and considers in what ways affective and social aspects of community are bound up with well‐being, over and above young people's concerns for the future, rural youth transitions, and out‐migration. Interviews were held with 15–18 year‐olds in four study areas (16 groups, N=60+) and a parallel survey of 11–16 year‐olds was conducted in eight study areas (N=2400+). Themes to emerge from the interviews included: opportunities locally, the future and staying on, as well as local amenities and services; but older teenagers also spoke at length about their social lives, family and social networks, and their community, both as close‐knit and caring and as intrusive and controlling. Rural communities were seen as good places in childhood, but not necessarily for young people. In parallel with that, the survey data paints a picture where feelings of support, control, autonomy, and attachment were all associated with emotional well‐being. Importantly, links between emotional well‐being and practical, material concerns were outweighed by positive identifications of community as close‐knit and caring; and equally, by negative identifications as intrusive and constraining, where the latter was felt more strongly by young women. Certainly, beliefs about future employment and educational opportunities were also linked to well‐being, but that was over and above, and independently of, affective and social aspects of community life. Additionally, migration intentions were also bound up with sense of self and well‐being, and with feelings about community life; and links between thoughts about leaving and community life as controlling and constraining were, yet again, felt more strongly by young women. Thus, gender was a key dimension affecting young people's feelings about their communities with significant implications for well‐being, and out‐migration. The study illustrates the importance of understanding the experiences young people have of growing up in rural areas, and how they evaluate those experiences: particularly, how life in rural communities matters for young people's well‐being; and especially, for young women.     

Correlated Inputs in Quantitative Risk Assessment: The Effects of Distributional Shape

Application of Monte Carlo simulation methods to quantitative risk assessment are becoming increasingly popular. With this methodology, investigators have become concerned about correlations among input variables which might affect the resulting distribution of risk. We show that the choice of input distributions in these simulations likely has a larger effect on the resultant risk distribution than does the inclusion or exclusion of correlations. Previous investigators have studied the effect of correlated input variables for the addition of variables with any underlying distribution and for the product of lognormally distributed variables. The effects in the main part of the distribution are small unless the correlation and variances are large. We extend this work by considering addition, multiplication and division of two variables with assumed normal, lognormal, uniform and triangular distributions. For all possible pairwise combinations, we find that the effects of correlated input variables are similar to those observed for lognormal distributions, and thus relatively small overall. The effect of using different distributions, however, can be large.     

Moral guidelines for international corporations: The Vesper-Hinksey challenge

The quest continues for a Code of Conduct embracing universal principles which will provide guidelines and norms for corporate decision making in our increasingly complex world of global business. The search continues to identify those criteria which will enable the corporate leadership, especially those engaged in international business to be more morally sensitive and to make better ethical decisions. This article will report on an ambitious initiative designed to achieve that goal: to develop through consultation and consensus new Guidelines for International Corporations.