Sustainability Ranking for Cuban Tourist Destinations Based on Composite Indexes

This investigation approaches the levels and the predictors of loneliness among migrant youths from returned migrant families from France to Portugal. Three research questions guided the study: (1) Does loneliness of migrant youths differ from those who have never migrated? (2) Are migrant youths’ re-acculturation factors related to their loneliness? (3) Is the adaptation of migrant youths linked to their loneliness? The answer to these questions is important to improve migrant youths’ re-acculturation experiences and their adaptation. The sample included 222 youths from returned migrant families from France. Participants completed the brief Portuguese version of the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-6), in addition to measures of re-acculturation and adaptation. A control group comprised of 211 Portuguese adolescents who have never migrated was also involved in the investigation. Youths from returned migrant families showed lower levels of loneliness than their native Portuguese counterparts who have never migrated. Demographic, re-acculturation, and adaptation factors were significantly related to adolescents’ loneliness. Major predictors of loneliness were age at return, contacts with peers without migratory experience, perceived discrimination, stressful adaptation experience, and satisfaction with life.     

Linking Social Support to Psychological Distress in the Unemployed: The Moderating Role of Core Self-Evaluations

In this study, an integrative analysis involving social support and core self-evaluations (CSE) as concurrent predictors of psychological distress among unemployed adults was conducted. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between perceptions of social support and CSE with psychological distress among unemployed adults, as well as whether levels of CSE moderated the relations between social support and psychological distress. Results indicated that, along with the expected direct and additional influence, a significant social support × CSE interaction was found in explaining several dimensions of psychological distress beyond the independent effect of socio-demographic variables, social support and CSE independently. Specifically, we found significant interaction for social support × CSE in explaining stress and anxiety symptoms. Our data provide empirical support for theoretical and conceptual work connecting social support, CSE and psychological distress associated with unemployment suggesting that alone, but also in combination, these contextual and personal resources may be particularly relevant for leading to reduced psychological distress during unemployment. Finally, theoretical implications of the joint study of these constructs and their relation with psychological distress in unemployed people are discussed.     

Local and Global Knowledge Complementarity: R&D Collaborations and Innovation of Foreign and Domestic Firms

We analyze how research and development (R&D) collaborations affect product innovation for subsidiaries of foreign multinational firms and domestic firms. We build on the knowledge-based view to propose that subsidiaries and domestic firms differ in their ability to benefit from alternative R&D partners as a result of the variation in their knowledge complementarities. Specifically, we propose that subsidiaries may benefit more from undertaking R&D collaborations with customers and competitors, whose deeper knowledge of local conditions better complements the more global knowledge base of subsidiaries. In contrast, we argue that domestic firms may benefit more from engaging in R&D collaborations with suppliers and universities, whose more global nature of knowledge better complement the deeper local knowledge base of domestic firms.     

Emotional labour and emotional exhaustion: Interpersonal and intrapersonal mechanisms

Abstract

In some occupations, particularly in the service sector, dealing with patients or clients may require an employee to pretend to have emotions that they do not really have, or to actually experience required emotions. The regulation of emotion can be either automatic or controlled. This study extends research on the consequences and processes of emotional labour in two ways. First, it examines how the use of different emotion regulation strategies with patients relates to doctors’ emotional exhaustion. Second, it tests two mechanisms that may explain those relationships. A survey of 345 general practitioners (GPs) working in a large urban community in Spain was conducted for the study. Based on Côté's (2005) social interaction model, GP satisfaction with the responses of their patients was tested as a potential interpersonal mediator between their use of automatic, surface, and deep emotion regulation strategies and their emotional exhaustion. Psychological effort was tested as a potential intrapersonal mediator in the same pathway. Regression analysis indicated that emotion regulation was associated with GP emotional exhaustion when it was performed automatically, but that it had a positive and a neutral association when it was performed using surface and deep acting respectively. The mediating role of interpersonal and intrapersonal factors helped explain the differential associations between the GPs’ emotion regulation strategies and their emotional exhaustion.     

Sources of error in reported childlessness in a continuous British household survey

A recent investigation of the British General Household Survey (GHS) found substantial over-reporting of childlessness in recent years, particularly at older ages. We examine the phenomenon in further detail and find that the principal cause was change in survey procedures. To some extent the bias can be corrected for by using information on own children in the household. Revised fertility histories give period estimates of total fertility that are in close agreement with national vital registration statistics, unlike those based on original fertility histories of recent years. Misreporting in fertility histories dates primarily from administrative changes in the GHS in the years 1998-2000, and particularly from 2003, when the option of laptop self-completion (CASI) was introduced for reporting demographic histories.     

Education as a Positional Good: A Life Satisfaction Approach

In this paper we empirically investigate the direct effects of education on utility. Besides investment aspects of education, the focus is placed on its consumption component and on education positional concerns. We use data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and adopt a life satisfaction approach. First, we find that education shows a significant effect on life satisfaction independent of its effect on income, thus identifying a consumption component of education. Furthermore, given that the contribution of education to individual wellbeing might depend partly on relative position rather than absolute levels, we next study whether education can be considered as a positional good. To this end we analyse the relationship between education and life satisfaction for people in different income groups in which the reference levels of education may differ. Additionally, we control for occupational status since benefits from education could appear via occupational benefits. Our results indicate that the contribution of education to subjective wellbeing is stronger as less people attain a given level of education, thus suggesting that this contribution is partly due to positional concerns.     

The effect of variability and carryover on average bioequivalence assessment: a simulation study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of residual variability and carryover on average bioequivalence (ABE) studies performed under a 22 crossover design. ABE is usually assessed by means of the confidence interval inclusion principle. Here, the interval under consideration was the standard 'shortest' interval, which is the mainstream approach in practice. The evaluation was performed by means of a simulation study under different combinations of carryover and residual variability besides of formulation effect and sample size. The evaluation was made in terms of percentage of ABE declaration, coverage and interval precision. As is well known, high levels of variability distort the ABE procedures, particularly its type II error control (i.e. high variabilities make difficult to declare bioequivalence when it holds). The effect of carryover is modulated by variability and is especially disturbing for the type I error control. In the presence of carryover, the risk of erroneously declaring bioequivalence may become high, especially for low variabilities and large sample sizes. We end up with some hints concerning the controversy about pretesting for carryover before performing ABE analysis.     

Design issues for population growth models

We briefly review and discuss design issues for population growth and decline models. We then use a flexible growth and decline model as an illustrative example and apply optimal design theory to find optimal sampling times for estimating model parameters, specific parameters and interesting functions of the model parameters for the model with two real applications. Robustness properties of the optimal designs are investigated when nominal values or the model is mis-specified, and also under a different optimality criterion. To facilitate use of optimal design ideas in practice, we also introduce a website for generating a variety of optimal designs for popular models from different disciplines.     

Modeling wind energy flux by a Birnbaum–Saunders distribution with an unknown shift parameter

In this paper, we discuss a Birnbaum–Saunders distribution with an unknown shift parameter and apply it to wind energy modeling. We describe structural aspects of this distribution including properties, moments, mode and hazard and shape analyses. We also discuss estimation, goodness of fit and diagnostic methods for this distribution. A computational implementation in R language of the obtained results is provided. Finally, we apply such results to two unpublished real wind speed data from Chile, which allows us to show the characteristics of this statistical distribution and to model wind energy flux.     

Passive Support: No Support at All?

Several scholars have pointed out a shift from classic secondary associations to tertiary organizations based on passive support in Western countries. This development necessitates a better understanding of passive support within social science and voluntary sector management, on which strong opinions are expressed in the literature. This article attempts to contribute to the empirical basis for such opinions. We suggest that the current anxieties concerning the future of democracy if activity rates drop may be exaggerated.