No Evidence for Long-Term Causal Associations Between Symptoms of Premature Ejaculation and Symptoms of Anxiety,Depression, and Sexual Distress in a Large,Population-Based Longitudinal Sample

Premature ejaculation (PE) is one of the most common male sexual complaints, but its etiology is unclear. Psychological problems, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression, have traditionally been seen as causal or maintaining etiological components of PE, and previous cross-sectional studies have found weak positive associations between them. The aim of the present study was to test possible causal pathways over time between PE and symptoms of the psychological problems anxiety, depression, and sexual distress. A sample of 985 male Finnish twins and brothers of twins completed a questionnaire in 2006 and 2012. Significant bivariate correlations were found both within and across time between PE and the psychological problems. When fitting structural equation models to test hypothesized causal pathways, symptoms of anxiety and sexual distress at the first measurement time point did not predict future PE. Likewise, PE symptoms at the first measurement did not predict increments or decrements in anxiety, sexual distress, or depression later on. These null findings regarding hypothesized associations may partly be explained by the relatively long time between measurements, or that the measures possibly did not capture the aspects of anxiety that are related to PE.     

Analyzing order: social structure and value in the economic sphere

The purpose of this article is to analyze social order in the economic sphere. This is done by introducing social configurations as a theoretical notion. Configurations combine social structure of interfacing roles with values. The type of configurations studied here are markets, the most central mechanisms in the economic sphere. It is claimed that any market analysis must account for social structure as well as values. The main argument of this article is that the same type of social structure can demonstrate different underlying values and logics in the economic sphere. This is shown in four empirical examples of markets.     

Finite Sample Properties of the Two-Step Empirical Likelihood Estimator

We investigate the finite sample properties of two-step empirical likelihood (EL) estimators. These estimators are shown to have the same third-order bias properties as EL itself. The Monte Carlo study provides evidence that (i) higher order asymptotics fails to provide a good approximation in the sense that the bias of the two-step EL estimators can be substantial and sensitive to the number of moment restrictions and (ii) the two-step EL estimators may have heavy tails.     

Supervision mit Ehrenamtlichen

For a better understanding of the requirements for the supervision of staff members in “crisis hot line” (“Telefonseelsorge”) the organization structure and the specific setting of telephone counseling are presented. The motives of the voluntary staff members are proving to be various and they are transforming from an altruistic desire to be helpful towards an increased need for personal development. In co-operation with volunteers the supervisor plays a special role. In addition to the routine supervision the supervisor is continually working with the volunteers to increase their scope of the basic principles of professional counseling. Finally, practical supervisory work is illustrated with case studies including frequently discussed topics such as intervention in situations of an existential crisis and dealing with sexually motivated calls and repeat permanent calls.     

Psychiatric Symptoms and Same-Sex Sexual Attraction and Behavior in Light of Childhood Gender Atypical Behavior and Parental Relationships

This study explores the relation between the level of current symptoms of depression and anxiety and recalled childhood gender atypical behavior (GAB), and quality of relationships with parents among men and women who reported same-sex sexual attraction or engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and men and women who did not. Matched pairs, 79 men (n = 158) and 148 women (n = 296), with equal levels of GAB were created of Finnish participants with either same-sex sexual attraction or behavior and participants without. The measures used were retrospective questionnaires. Ratings of maternal and paternal over-control and coldness differed as a function of same-sex sexual attraction or behavior. Childhood GAB was correlated with negative ratings of parental relationships. Both same-sex sexual attraction or behavior and a history of childhood GAB affected the reported levels of current depression and anxiety. Only gender typical participants with no same-sex sexual attraction or behavior reported significantly lower levels of symptoms. The findings suggest that childhood GAB is related to later distress both among hetero- and homosexual individuals. The elevated level of psychological distress among homosexual individuals, reported in several studies, might—to some extent—be caused by their generally higher levels of childhood GAB as opposed to a homosexual orientation per se.     

Using Ecological Momentary Assessment to investigate associations between ejaculatory latency and control in partnered and non-partnered sexual activities

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used to investigate associations between, and variations in, ejaculatory control and ejaculation latency time (ELT) over repeated measurements of sexual activities. Differences between measures recorded in partnered or non-partnered settings were also investigated. The sample consisted of 21 male Finns aged 18 years or above, contributing a total of 158 reports of partnered and non-partnered sexual activities over a six-week period. In the context of non-partnered sexual activities, after controlling for within-subjects dependence, ELTs between events were predictive of one another, but ELT did not predict ejaculatory control when measured simultaneously, nor at subsequent events. Also, ejaculatory control could not predict simultaneously measured ELT or ejaculatory control at subsequent events. During partnered sexual activities, both ejaculatory control and ELT could be accurately predicted by observing ejaculatory control at prior events. In this context, ejaculatory control could also reliably predict simultaneously measured ELT. ELT or ejaculatory control during partnered sexual activity could not be predicted by observing ELT at prior events. Between-event correlations were generally low, indicating considerable variation in ejaculatory functioning over time. EMA is a thrifty assessment method for studying variations in ejaculatory function, and is likely suitable for studying sexual dysfunctions in general.     

Renaissance of a rural artifact in a city with a million people: biodiversity responses to an agro-forestry restoration in a large urban traditional fruit orchard

The rural landscapes surrounding large cities are rapidly becoming incorporated into the urban environment. The most conspicuous changes involve green spaces, such as former agro-forestry systems like fruit orchards. In this paper, we assess the influence on biodiversity of restoring a large urban traditional fruit orchard as reflected by six selected taxa: plants, lichens, butterflies, beetles, orthopteroids and birds. The study was performed in Prague, which is the capital city of the Czech Republic and has more than a million inhabitants. We studied the effect of orchard renewal in 45 patches (15 for birds and 30 for other taxa). The majority of taxa responded positively to the restoration. The restoration had a significant positive effect on the species richness of lichens, butterflies and beetles. All taxa showed significantly altered species compositions, and the number of red-listed species increased. Orchards have a high potential for multi-functional use. Orchards are productive agro-forestry systems and host numerous possible human activities. Therefore, orchard restoration also has a social aspect. Moreover, our research in this artificial ecosystem revealed that its restoration increased the biodiversity and conservation potential of the associated areas.

     

Hybrid and Size‐Corrected Subsampling Methods

This paper considers inference in a broad class of nonregular models. The models considered are nonregular in the sense that standard test statistics have asymptotic distributions that are discontinuous in some parameters. It is shown in Andrews and Guggenberger (2009a) that standard fixed critical value, subsampling, and m out of n bootstrap methods often have incorrect asymptotic size in such models. This paper introduces general methods of constructing tests and confidence intervals that have correct asymptotic size. In particular, we consider a hybrid subsampling/fixed‐critical‐value method and size‐correction methods. The paper discusses two examples in detail. They are (i) confidence intervals in an autoregressive model with a root that may be close to unity and conditional heteroskedasticity of unknown form and (ii) tests and confidence intervals based on a post‐conservative model selection estimator.     

Distortions of Asymptotic Confidence Size in Locally Misspecified Moment Inequality Models

This paper studies the behavior, under local misspecification, of several confidence sets (CSs) commonly used in the literature on inference in moment (in)equality models. We propose the amount of asymptotic confidence size distortion as a criterion to choose among competing inference methods. This criterion is then applied to compare across test statistics and critical values employed in the construction of CSs. We find two important results under weak assumptions. First, we show that CSs based on subsampling and generalized moment selection (Andrews and Soares (2010)) suffer from the same degree of asymptotic confidence size distortion, despite the fact that asymptotically the latter can lead to CSs with strictly smaller expected volume under correct model specification. Second, we show that the asymptotic confidence size of CSs based on the quasi‐likelihood ratio test statistic can be an arbitrary small fraction of the asymptotic confidence size of CSs based on the modified method of moments test statistic.     

The impact of knowledge properties on international manufacturing transfer performance

Abstract

This paper examines how knowledge properties of a manufacturing activity transfer in international manufacturing network impact performance during the transfer itself and after steady state has been reached. Hierarchical regression was used to test the relationship on survey data from 178 companies. Knowledge properties as a group was significantly affected by both performance measures when controlling for the effects of sender unit experience, sender unit size and receiver unit experience. The activities transferred thus impact the success of the transfer. The control variables of sender unit experience and receiver unit experience have their relatively strongest performance effects after steady state has been reached. Independency was the single knowledge property dimensions with the strongest relative performance effect. This is one of the first survey studies to cover both the performance of the transfer itself and after reaching steady state of manufacturing transfers. Several strands of further research were therefore identified.