The Contribution of Assisted Reproduction to Completed Fertility: An Analysis of Danish Data

Assisted reproduction has a minor but increasing influence on childbearing trends in advanced societies. In Denmark, the use of assisted reproduction technology (ART) has become particularly widespread. At the same time, Danish women born in the late 1950s and the 1960s experienced stabilization or even a slight increase in their mean number of children. Broad availability and widespread use of assisted reproduction may become important factors contributing to maintaining relatively high completed fertility among the younger cohorts of Danish women. To explore this idea, we analyze and project cohort trends in fertility rates among native Danish women born in 1960‐78 and examine the likely contribution of assisted reproduction to these trends. The projected proportion of children born after ART treatment shows a substantial increase from 2.1 percent among women born in 1965 to 4‐5 percent among women born in 1978, with an estimated net impact of ART (as compared with the hypothetical situation where no ART treatment was available) on the order of 3‐4 percent. When intrauterine inseminations are included, this implies that up to 7 percent of children of those native Danish women born in 1975 and later will likely be conceived by infertility treatment.     

Real-world Europeanisation: the silent turning of small gears*

Several studies of the impacts of the EU on modern policies and polities evade investigation of the most detailed level of Europeanisation, that is, gradual legal changes. This seems odd as it is exactly these small gears turning that constitute perhaps the most real and concrete of all types of Europeanisation. This paper looks at a range of cash benefits in Denmark. Applying a novel framework of silent versus loud Europeanisation, it investigates how legal changes since 1972 came into being by digging into both the legal details and the preparatory and parliamentary work. The conclusion is that Denmark – often mentioned as an archetype universalist welfare state at odds with the European logics of free movement and non-discrimination – has indeed altered the very nature of its most universalist cash benefits, but these changes have been very gradual and have often not even been recognised as Europeanisation.     

AFFINE‐EQUIVARIANT SPATIAL MEDIAN AND ITS USE IN THE MULTIVARIATE MULTI‐SAMPLE LOCATION PROBLEM

The classical spatial median is not affine‐equivariant, which often turns out to be an unfavourable property. In this paper, the asymptotic properties of an affine‐equivariant modification of the spatial median are investigated. It is shown that under some weak regularity conditions, the modified spatial median computed by means of the sample norming matrix is asymptotically equivalent to the one computed by means of the population norming matrix, which yields its asymptotic normality. A consistent estimate of the asymptotic covariance matrix of the modified spatial median is also presented. These results are implemented in a scheme, where the sample norm is determined by means of the sample Dümbgen scatter matrix. The results are utilized in the construction of affine‐invariant test statistics for testing the multi‐sample hypothesis of equality of location parameters. The performance of the proposed tests is demonstrated through a simulation study.     

The relationship between vitamin D level and erectile dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Recent studies have suggested that a relationship could exist between 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] deficiency and erectile dysfunction (ED). The present study evaluated the relationship between 25(OH)D levels and ED in male patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). The study included 98 patients with type 2?DM aged between 18–80 years. The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) Questionnaire was administered. The patients were divided into three groups according to IIEF-5 scoring: IIEF-5 score between 5–10, severe ED; IIEF-5 score between 11–20, moderate ED; IIEF-5 score between 21–25, no ED. Biochemical parameters, 25(OH)D and hormonal analysis tests were obtained in all patients. All parameters were compared between these three groups. Of 98 patients included in the study, 32 had severe ED, 45 had moderate ED and 21 had no ED. The mean age was 55.12?±?9.39 years and the mean 25(OH)D level was 13.69?±?8.15?ng/ml. When the three groups were compared, 25(OH)D levels were significantly lower in patients with the IIEF-5 score between 5–10 (p?=?0.020). There was a moderate positive relationship between IIEF-5 score and 25(OH)D level (r?=?0.21, p?=?0.038). The patients with severe ED have considerably lower 25(OH)D levels.     

Gender,Management and Market Discourse: The Case of Gender Quotas in the Swedish and Finnish Media

In this article we present a comparative study of media texts in Sweden and Finland, two societies traditionally viewed as Nordic welfare states. Focusing on the controversial question of introducing gender‐based quotas on the boards of companies, we analyse how representations of gender and management are affected in Sweden and Finland by contemporary market discourse. We argue that market discourse takes different forms in the two societal contexts and that the space for questioning and criticizing it from a gender equality perspective remains different. Our analysis thus complements recent contributions stressing that both societal particularities and transnational processes must be considered in studies of gender and management ( Calás and Smircich, 2006 ).     

The generalized Gudermannian distribution: inference and volatility modelling

In this paper, we introduce a new distribution, called generalized Gudermannian (GG) distribution, and its skew extension for GARCH models in modelling daily Value-at-Risk (VaR). Basic structural properties of the proposed distribution are obtained including probability density and cumulative distribution functions, moments, and stochastic representation. The maximum likelihood method is used to estimate unknown parameters of the proposed model and finite sample performance of maximum likelihood estimates are evaluated by means of Monte-Carlo simulation study. The real data application on Nikkei 225 index is given to demonstrate the performance of GARCH model specified under skew extension of GG innovation distribution against normal, Student's-t, skew normal and generalized error and skew generalized error distributions in terms of the accuracy of VaR forecasts. The empirical results show that the GARCH model with GG innovation distribution produces the most accurate VaR forecasts for all confidence levels.     

Searching for the Self: Adult International Adoptees’ Narratives of Their Search for and Reunion With Their Birth Families

In this case study, five international adoptees from Finland were interviewed about their search and reunion experiences to find out what meanings they ascribed to their identities and family relations. The thematic analysis yielded three themes: search and reunion in significant periods of life, meaning of reunion for identity, and belonging and relatedness within family. The first theme was characterized by the changing interest in birth family from the inability in childhood to fully understand the meaning of adoption and the growing interest in adolescence to adulthood where participants’ own parenthood intensified their interest. The second theme was characterized by the sense of coherence and sense of continuity that the adoptees, despite the conflicting emotions of reunion, felt they had achieved through reunion. In the third theme, reunion with their birth family appeared significant, even though belonging to a family was interpreted more as an outcome of attachment and nurture than biology. Particular for all themes was the meaning of communicating about adoption-related issues for the adoptee–adoptive parent relationship. Future research is needed to concentrate in more detail on the broad themes and to investigate how the meanings of the birth family for adoptive identity change over life courses.     

Tight bounds for NF-based bounded-space online bin packing algorithms

In Zheng et al. (J Comb Optim 30(2):360–369, 2015) modelled a surgery problem by the one-dimensional bin packing, and developed a semi-online algorithm to give an efficient feasible solution. In their algorithm they used a buffer to temporarily store items, having a possibility to lookahead in the list. Because of the considered practical problem they investigated the 2-parametric case, when the size of the items is at most 1 / 2. Using an NF-based online algorithm the authors proved an ACR of \(13/9 = 1.44\ldots \) for any given buffer size not less than 1. They also gave a lower bound of \(4/3=1.33\ldots \) for the bounded-space algorithms that use NF-based rules. Later, in Zhang et al. (J Comb Optim 33(2):530–542, 2017) an algorithm was given with an ACR of 1.4243,  and the authors improved the lower bound to 1.4230. In this paper we present a tight lower bound of \(h_\infty (r)\) for the r-parametric problem when the buffer capacity is 3. Since \(h_\infty (2) = 1.42312\ldots \), our result—as a special case—gives a tight bound for the algorithm-class given in 2017. To prove that the lower bound is tight, we present an NF-based online algorithm that considers the r-parametric problem, and uses a buffer with capacity of 3. We prove that this algorithm has an ACR that is equal to the lower bounds for arbitrary r.     

Exploring Differences in Financial Literacy Across Countries: The Role of Individual Characteristics and Institutions

We explore microdata from the OECD/INFE survey on financial literacy of adult individuals. We find considerable differences in financial literacy across countries and decompose them into a part explainable by varying individual characteristics and a remainder. We show that individual characteristics matter with regard to differences in average financial literacy, but do not fully explain the gaps. We decompose financial literacy across its distribution and directly relate it to different policies. We then correlate the unexplained differences to institutional macroeconomic variables. We find strong correlations between unexplained differences and life expectancy, social contributions rate, PISA math scores, and internet usage, suggesting room for harmonization of environments across countries to close the financial literacy gap.

     

异化消费理论视域下当代大学生消费观审视

马克思的异化劳动理论对资本主义社会的剥削关系进行了深入细致的剖析。当代西方马克思主义学者继承马克思的批判精神,将批判的视角由生产领域延伸到消费领域,提出异化消费理论。异化消费理论为深刻认识当代大学生群体中存在的各种不当的消费观和消费行为提供了理论支撑,对深入分析当前大学生群体消费的特征和影响具有重要的借鉴价值。当代大学生群体中出现的追求物质享受而忽视精神向度的追求,热衷于超前消费和炫耀性消费,受资本驱使沉溺于网络消费陷阱等消费现象和趋势,具有典型的追求虚假需求的满足、消费行为受资本和消费文化的操纵、通过消费和对商品的占有取代对本真生存意义的追求等异化消费的特征。当前大学生群体中出现的异化消费现象是当代生态危机、人性危机和意识形态危机的重要表征,具有极强的社会危害性。大学生作为未来中国特色社会主义事业的建设者和接班人,承担着引领社会风尚的重要历史责任,因此,大学生个人及其家庭、所在高校和社会必须深刻认识到当前大学生群体中不当消费观的严重后果以及应对大学生不当消费的紧迫性,及时采取必要行动引导大学生树立正确的消费观,形成良好的消费习惯。