Distress,Need for Help,and Positive Feelings Derived from Participation in Sex Research: Findings of a Population Study in the Netherlands

To inform cost-benefit analyses of potential harms and benefits for participants in sex research, the current study investigated potential effects of completing a self-report sex survey. The data stem from a sexual health study in a population sample in the Netherlands (N = 8,064; 15 to 70 years old). Three measures assessed potential effects of participation: distress, need for help, and positive feelings related to research participation. Analyses showed that levels of experienced distress and need for help resulting from participation in a self-report sex survey were low, while participants reported positive feelings to a considerable extent. Only few participants reported levels of positive experiences that were lower than the levels of distress (4.8%) or need for help (1.7%) they experienced. Although differences were found according to sociodemographic characteristics and sexual experiences, the proportion of variance explained by these variables was generally small. While the findings of this study show that the balance between potential harm and positive outcomes seems disturbed for few participants, researchers should provide participants with the details of care providers in case they experience any distress or need for help.     

Decision process of allocating projects to project managers

Allocating projects to project managers (PM) is a crucial decision in project management. Choosing the PM must be undertaken in a structured way, and thereby take into account the needs of the project and the PM’s competences and availability. The proposed model optimises the total time that PMs have available and takes into account the constraint of the switchover time loss within the mathematical programming. It model is part of a three-stage approach where: (1) projects are sorted using a multicriteria approach; (2) PMs are sorted using a multicriteria approach; and (3) the final allocation to intra-classes of projects is made using the optimisation model. This proposal contributes to aiding decision-makers involved in allocating projects: by respecting the limit of the time that PMs have available, or by extrapolating PMs’ available hours in which case overtime will have to be used. The model is applied in a Brazilian Energy Company.     

全球法与掠夺:法治的阴暗面

"法治"(rule of law),习惯上已被当作一个具有积极本质、政治中立的"工具",且效力普适,放之四海而皆准.作为Ugo Mattei与Laura Nadar教授合著的Plunder:When the Ruleof Law is Illegal (Blackwell Publishing,Oxford 2008)一书观点的综述,本文认为,作为一个歧义丛生的概念,"法治"具有光明与阴暗的两面性,而"法治"的阴暗面长期以来一直被排除在公众讨论的范围之外."法治"作为一个华丽辞藻,已被西方强势者所挟持,用来论证其(主要)对"发展中"国家的干涉及其最终演变成的掠夺(plunder)实践的合法性,并使西方经济势力对"非西方世界"(the rest)的扩张成为可能.基于此,我们得出了这样的结论:"法治"已被"非法地"(illegally)利用.目前国际金融机构--当今的全球立法者--在用"法治"观念包裹着其提供给"发展中世界"的各种改革方案的背后,隐藏着智识短视、种族中心主义和帝国主义立场."技术性"概念对"法"概念的偷换,美国法所独享的全球性支配地位以及当今西方跨国公司的帝国主义态度等作为其中的一些指标,向我们展示了殖民主义与当今新自由主义政策之间的沆瀣一气.     

Parameter estimation of the generalized Pareto distribution—Part II

This is the second part of a paper which focuses on reviewing methods for estimating the parameters of the generalized Pareto distribution (GPD). The GPD is a very important distribution in the extreme value context. It is commonly used for modeling the observations that exceed very high thresholds. The ultimate success of the GPD in applications evidently depends on the parameter estimation process. Quite a few methods exist in the literature for estimating the GPD parameters. Estimation procedures, such as the maximum likelihood (ML), the method of moments (MOM) and the probability weighted moments (PWM) method were described in Part I of the paper. We shall continue to review methods for estimating the GPD parameters, in particular methods that are robust and procedures that use the Bayesian methodology. As in Part I, we shall focus on those that are relatively simple and straightforward to be applied to real world data.     

Robust inference in an heteroscedastic measurement error model

In this paper we deal with robust inference in heteroscedastic measurement error models. Rather than the normal distribution, we postulate a Student t distribution for the observed variables. Maximum likelihood estimates are computed numerically. Consistent estimation of the asymptotic covariance matrices of the maximum likelihood and generalized least squares estimators is also discussed. Three test statistics are proposed for testing hypotheses of interest with the asymptotic chi-square distribution which guarantees correct asymptotic significance levels. Results of simulations and an application to a real data set are also reported.     

Consequences of effect size heterogeneity for meta-analysis: a Monte Carlo study

In this article we use Monte Carlo analysis to assess the small sample behaviour of the OLS, the weighted least squares (WLS) and the mixed effects meta-estimators under several types of effect size heterogeneity, using the bias, the mean squared error and the size and power of the statistical tests as performance indicators. Specifically, we analyse the consequences of heterogeneity in effect size precision (heteroskedasticity) and of two types of random effect size variation, one where the variation holds for the entire sample, and one where only a subset of the sample of studies is affected. Our results show that the mixed effects estimator is to be preferred to the other two estimators in the first two situations, but that WLS outperforms OLS and mixed effects in the third situation. Our findings therefore show that, under circumstances that are quite common in practice, using the mixed effects estimator may be suboptimal and that the use of WLS is preferable.     

Using Economic Freedom Indexes as Policy Indicators: An Intercontinental Example

We use time-series cross-section analysis to provide empirical validation for the existence of a specific American ethos and a specific European ethos with respect to economic policy. In our innovation, economic policy is proxied by “economic freedom” from the Fraser Institute database and constitutional “political institutions” are proxied by variables from the Database of Political Institutions (from the World Bank). Our results suggest that, once we control for political and institutional differences, the United States and Europe still pursue different economic policies.

Reviews

Abstract

Rachael Green Clemens reviews Usage and Usability Assessment: Library Practices and Concerns, James T. Deffenbaugh reviews Metadata Fundamentals for All Librarians, and Marguerite E. Horn reviews The Accidental Systems Librarian. Serials Review 2003; 29:325–329.     

Prior Density Selection as a Particular Case of Bayesian Model Selection: A Predictive Approach

A Bayesian model consists of two elements: a sampling model and a prior density. The problem of selecting a prior density is nothing but the problem of selecting a Bayesian model where the sampling model is fixed. A predictive approach is used through a decision problem where the loss function is the squared L ² distance between the sampling density and the posterior predictive density, because the aim of the method is to choose the prior that provides a posterior predictive density as good as possible. An algorithm is developed for solving the problem; this algorithm is based on Lavine's linearization technique.