Predictors of Generative Action Among Adults in Two Transitional Countries

One of the widest elaborations of generativity today is the theoretical model proposed by McAdams and de St. Aubin. This model has not yet been tested completely, that is only some of its components and their relations have been tested. The main reasons for such an empirical status of the model are inadequately clear operationalizations of the components of the model. After our previous research, which include adaptation of scales for measuring of some key components of model, generative care and generative action (Lacković-Grgin et al., Suvremena Psihologija, 5, 9, 2002; Lacković-Grgin, Zbirka psihologijskih skala i upitnika, Zadar: University of Zadar, 2004; Tucak et al., Generativna briga i generativno djelovanje u odraslih osoba u Hrvatskoj i Sloveniji, XVII Dani Ramira i Zorana Bujasa, Summaries, 98, 2005), as well as operationalization of so called belief in species component (which is a component of Philosophy about human nature) (Ćubela Adorić et al., Philosophies of Human Nature in Adolescents and Adults, 7th Alps-Adria Conference in Psychology, Abstracts, 167, 2005), in this paper we have tried to evaluate life goals questionnaire. This questionnaire tried to measure the other component of the model—inner desire. In that way we could realize the main goal of this paper, research of how important are the evaluations in the prediction of generative action in Croatian and Slovenian adults. Generative action is under the strong influence of cultural demands and inner desires. There are more sociological and economical indications about the differences in expected social development in countries like Croatia and Slovenia. Because of the fact that in the last decade Slovenia has been developed more than Croatia, we could expect that this could also be manifested in assessment of importance of some areas of life, which are relevant for generative action (e.g., work, marriage, free time), for life goals of agency and communion, as well as for generative care as a possible predictor of generative action. The greater differences were obtained in some predictors of generative action (e.g. importance of job, importance of free time, goals of agency and communion), as well as in their predictive importance.     

Channel Strategies and Stocking Policies in Uncapacitated and Capacitated Supply Chains*

A supply chain consisting of a single supplier distributing two independent products through multiple retailers is analyzed in this paper. The supplier needs to incentivize its retailers to adopt stocking policies that are mutually advantageous and that result in the optimal level of market coverage. The focus is on determining the optimal stocking policies for retailers and the resulting distribution strategy given that the supplier has either unlimited or limited capacity. The results provide insights on the optimal distribution strategy and stocking policies for the supply chain. In general, the paper shows that it is optimal for the supplier to use an intensive distribution strategy (i.e., the products are stocked by all retailers). Selective or exclusive strategies are optimal only when retailers are risk averse, stocking synergies exist, and there are differences in demand or supply uncertainties across products. The analysis also shows that retailers hold larger stocks of a product which generates higher supplier margins but only when the supplier has unlimited capacity. If the supplier has limited capacity, then their margins have no effect on retailers' stocking decisions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, retailers hold larger stocks of a product that has less demand uncertainty as compared to one that has more demand uncertainty.     

Internalizing Symptoms,Peer Substance Use,and Substance Use Initiation

This study used longitudinal survey and social network data covering sixth through ninth grades to test whether internalizing symptoms make early adolescents more prone to (1) exposure to and (2) influence by substance‐using peers. Random effects regressions revealed that increases in symptoms were significantly associated with increases in the proportion of friends who used cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana; some associations weakened across grades. Event history models revealed that the effect of friends' smoking on smoking initiation decreased as internalizing symptoms increased; symptoms did not moderate the effects of friends' alcohol and marijuana use on alcohol and marijuana use initiation. These findings counter the influence hypothesis of the co‐occurrence of internalizing symptoms with substance use and partly support the exposure hypothesis.     

Tensions between work and home: job quality and working conditions in the institutional contexts of Germany and Spain

Good jobs can generate capabilities that allow employees to avoid tensions between work and family/home. Following the conceptual framework of Amartya Sen, we examine how job-related demands and resources are related to the level of interference, as well as satisfaction with managing work and home in Spanish and German employees, using three different large-scale European surveys: European Quality of Life Survey and two waves of the European Social Survey. We find that long working hours systematically increase tensions between work and home, as do time pressure, job-related stress, and working hard. Job control or autonomy at work, which is hypothesized to expand individuals' capabilities and agency, tends to increase work–home interference rather than alleviate it. Family responsibilities and household demands do not seem relevant to the tensions employees experience at the work–home interface. This also holds true for women, which is a surprising result in view of the “double burden” hypothesis. Employed mothers in Germany and Spain are a select group of women, as combining employment with raising children in conservative–corporatist and conservative–familialist states may be particularly problematic. Thus while the institutional contexts of Germany and Spain curtail women's ability to reconcile employment and parenthood, the mothers (and fathers) who are employed do not experience significantly higher levels of work–family/home tensions than nonparents.     

Longitudinal Test of a Multiple Domain Model of Adolescent Condom Use

A comprehensive multiple domain model (MDM) to understand condom use in adolescents was proposed and tested using structural equation modeling of data at three time points. The proposed model integrates social psychological theory, demographic and personality factors, social environment, and situational/contextual variables. Adolescents who were sexually active at time 2 (6 months after baseline) and time 3 (1 year after time 2) and completed surveys at all three time points were included in the analyses (N = 511). An iterative process of model testing resulted in a structural equation model that provided a good fit to the data (CFI = .92, RMSEA = .04). Models comparing gender and race as moderators also were calculated and supported the generalizability of the model. Results provide support for an MDM that goes beyond traditional social psychological models for a broader understanding of condom use in adolescents. Implications for further theory testing and safer sexual interventions are discussed.     

Outlier Identification Procedures for Contingency Tables using Maximum Likelihood and L1 Estimates

Abstract.  Observed cell counts in contingency tables are perceived as outliers if they have low probability under an anticipated loglinear Poisson model. New procedures for the identification of such outliers are derived using the classical maximum likelihood estimator and an estimator based on the L ₁ norm.     

Extended Analysis and Evidence Integration of Chloroprene as a Human Carcinogen

β-Chloroprene is used in the production of polychloroprene, a synthetic rubber. In 2010, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the Integrated Risk Information System “Toxicological Review of Chloroprene,” concluding that chloroprene was “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” This was based on findings from a 1998 National Toxicology Program (NTP) study showing multiple tumors within and across animal species; results from occupational epidemiological studies; a proposed mutagenic mode of action; and structural similarities with 1,3-butadiene and vinyl chloride. Using mouse data from the NTP study and assuming a mutagenic mode of action, EPA calculated an inhalation unit risk (IUR) for chloroprene of 5 × 10⁻⁴ per µg/m³. This is among the highest IURs for chemicals classified by IARC or EPA as known or probable human carcinogens and orders of magnitude higher than the IURs for carcinogens such as vinyl chloride, benzene, and 1,3-butadiene. Due to differences in pharmacokinetics, mice appear to be uniquely responsive to chloroprene exposure compared to other animals, including humans, which is consistent with the lack of evidence of carcinogenicity in robust occupational epidemiological studies. We evaluated and integrated all lines of evidence for chloroprene carcinogenicity to assess whether the 2010 EPA IUR could be scientifically substantiated. Due to clear interspecies differences in carcinogenic response to chloroprene, we applied a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for chloroprene to calculate a species-specific internal dose (amount metabolized/gram of lung tissue) and derived an IUR that is over 100-fold lower than the 2010 EPA IUR. Therefore, we recommend that EPA's IUR be updated.     

Entscheidungsunterstützung unter Berücksichtigung der Anforderungen von Entscheidungsträgern am Beispiel der Gestaltung von optionalen Girokonto-Tarifen

Quantitative decision models are used only if managers’ implementation conditions are met. Decision makers want tools that offer a set of good solutions so that they can evaluate different solutions according to various objectives without being forced to make their trade-offs explicit in a functional form. This also allows taking into account strategic aspects that cannot be modeled otherwise. In such situations, heuristics are needed which derive solutions from the structure and not so much from the mathematical properties. We present such a decision support tool for the problem of determining a menu of optional tariffs for checking accounts. The heuristic is based on the idea that for reasonably separable preferences across segments it is the best to offer for each segment the most preferred product. We use latent class choice-based conjoint analysis to estimate customer preferences and develop a customized choice-based conjoint design to take differences in individual demand into account. The proposed heuristic was used to support an actual decision problem for which the profit contribution has been increased substantially without having faced a considerable loss of customers.     

Reflections on the politics linking science,environment and innovation

Green technological innovation is the subject of much current research because it is expected to serve ‘competitiveness’ and ‘ecological modernization’. Research needs to be extended to cover institutional innovation and the combined socio‐political impacts of the new environmentalism. One entry into this area is to examine the links between science, environmental protection, innovation, and the distribution of political power. It is argued that institutionalized science — or the research‐cum‐consultancy enterprise — thrives on the claim that it is able to solve fashionable’ problems, especially future ones, by technological progress. There is little historical reason to reject such claims. However, these claims make science, and especially the environmental sciences, of immediate interest to those seeking new powers or defending existing privileges or markets. Proposed solutions tend to be threats to vested interests and distributions of wealth and influence. But the power of science reaches beyond responding to the concerns of the day, it strives to select those problems for society which create markets for planned research agendas and technologies still on the computer screen. The research enterprise, at the root of much technological and technical innovation, is not likely to succeed in imposing its choices on society without support in the market place or from government. It therefore becomes an important, if neglected, political actor, influencing and persuading not only with appeals to rationality, but also with promises of enhanced security, health and wealth. Having identified and selected problems, these are presented to society with pleas for remedial or preventive action. This paper reflects on the impact of these pleas on contemporary world politics. It is concluded that political systems must learn to evaluate and judge scientific claims more cautiously because research networks and the informal influence of science entrepreneurs on ‘the public’ tend to turn environmental change into policy problems. Once technological fixes’ are offered simultaneously, potential implementor and enforcers form alliances demanding state intervention to resolve the alleged problems. How real is the global environmental problem — the allegedly evergrowing ökologische Problemdruck? Does the seeking of green competitiveness in the ‘North’ in the name of preventing catastrophe, whilst de facto opposing industrialization and resource developments in the ‘South’ in the name of ‘sustainable development’, represent the essence of global politics of the 1990s?