Body image for women: Conceptualization,assessment, and a test of its importance to sexual dysfunction and medical illness

The content and valence of women's body image attitudes, general and enduring positive or negative feelings about the body, are studied with psychometric analyses of measures and contrasted groups. Data from two frequently used measures (Body Image Scale, Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1979; Body Satisfaction Scale, Berscheid, Walster & Bohrnstedt, 1973) provided an evaluation of the construct and the assessment of body image. Two studies are provided. The construct analyses suggest two contents for body attitude measures: a general factor of body, facial, and sexual (genital and breast) items, and a second factor assessing weight and/or its body correlates—the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Also, a method factor, a response style of negativity, may be important. Body image attitudes are correlated with some conceptually relevant criteria, such as interest in engaging in sexual activity; however, these relationships do not appear sufficiently strong to predict behavior, such as the occurrence or resolution of sexual dysfunction. Generalized body image disturbance as currently conceptualized and assessed may be difficult to document, particularly when item content and response styles are considered.     

GMM Estimation of a Stochastic Volatility Model: A Monte Carlo Study

We examine alternative generalized method of moments procedures for estimation of a stochastic autoregressive volatility model by Monte Carlo methods. We document the existence of a tradeoff between the number of moments, or information, included in estimation and the quality, or precision, of the objective function used for estimation. Furthermore, an approximation to the optimal weighting matrix is used to explore the impact of the weighting matrix for estimation, specification testing, and inference procedures. The results provide guidelines that help achieve desirable small-sample properties in settings characterized by strong conditional heteroscedasticity and correlation among the moments.     

Developing criteria for healthy organizational change

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify criteria for healthy change in organizations and to develop practical guidelines for intended change. We aimed to explore how change processes at the shop floor level can be better informed by consultants and labour inspectors. A total of 180 interviews were conducted with managers and employees in 90 units of public and private organizations in Norway. The interviews were analysed through four steps representing an expansion of grounded theory, and converted to qualitative analysis using QSR and N6 software. We found that organizational change processes were better managed by more attention to awareness of the local norms and diversity among employees in the perception and reactions to change efforts. An inspector or consultant should be aware of these phenomena in any change effort and tell the organization how to deal with them. The other three factors identified were early role clarification, manager availability, and using constructive conflicts to deal with change. They are all important coping mechanisms at the organizational level that will bring change processes onto a more optimal track if correctly managed. A healthy process empowers individuals instead of making them insecure and defensive in times of change. This will help them restore perceived control and promote job security, which benefits both them and the organization.     

Leadership, personality and effectiveness

This survey article is about leadership and personality, as it appears to be a renewed interest in this topic. Even when traditional research is re-examined and new research performed the most basic conclusion remains the same. Studies of how personality traits relate to leadership give inconsistent answers. Traditional and contemporary research shows that personality cannot explain leadership. Traits of leaders cannot explain organizational effectiveness. Leadership appears to have a minor impact on organizational effectiveness. The personality approach is less relevant to management. Management and leadership in formal organizations are not about possessing special traits. It is about acting.     

EFFECT DISPLAYS FOR MULTINOMIAL AND PROPORTIONAL-ODDS LOGIT MODELS

An "effect display" is a graphical or tabular summary of a statistical model based on high-order terms in the model. Effect displays have previously been defined by Fox (1987, 2003) for generalized linear models (including linear models). Such displays are especially compelling for complicated models—for example, those including interactions or polynomial terms. This paper extends effect displays to models commonly used for polytomous categorical response variables: the multinomial logit model and the proportional-odds logit model. Determining point estimates of effects for these models is a straightforward extension of results for the generalized linear model. Estimating sampling variation for effects on the probability scale in the multinomial and proportional-odds logit models is more challenging, however, and we use the delta method to derive approximate standard errors. Finally, we provide software for effect displays in the R statistical computing environment.     

Bayesian Estimation of Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Parameters in a Mode-of-Action-Based Cancer Risk Assessment for Chloroform

Chloroform is a carcinogen in rodents and its carcinogenicity is secondary to events associated with cytotoxicity and regenerative cell proliferation. In this study, a physiologically based pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PBPK/PD) model that links the processes of chloroform metabolism, reparable cell damage, cell death, and regenerative cellular proliferation was developed to support a new cancer dose-response assessment for chloroform. Model parameters were estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis in a two-step approach: (1) metabolism parameters for male and female mice and rats were estimated against available closed chamber gas uptake data; and (2) PD parameters for each of the four rodent groups were estimated from hepatic and renal labeling index data following inhalation exposures. Subsequently, the resulting rodent PD parameters together with literature values for human age-dependent physiological and metabolism parameters were used to scale up the rodent model to a human model. The human model was used to predict exposure conditions under which chloroform-mediated cytolethality is expected to occur in liver and kidney of adults and children. Using the human model, inhalation Reference Concentrations (RfCs) and oral Reference Doses (RfDs) were derived using an uncertainty factor of 10. Based on liver and kidney dose metrics, the respective RfCs were 0.9 and 0.09 ppm; and the respective RfDs were 0.4 and 3 mg/kg/day.     

Mobile Organizing Using Information Technology (MOBIT)

Both at the corporate level and in the government sector, we are currently witnessing a transformation towards mobile organizing using information technology (MOBIT). The mobile technology wave is challenging the fundamentals on organizational thinking on four accounts: (1) organizational platforms that support productive and efficient collaboration and enable self-development, experimentation and innovative behaviour; (2) balancing the need for managerial control and action with privacy rights for the individual workers related to digital transactions and storage; (3) strategies for having workers and external users (i.e. customers, citizens) at home, in a satellite office, or at the headquarters/front office; and (4) knowledge creation, replication, adaptation, and utilization in organizations glued with IT.     

Rational choice and the political bases of changing Israeli counterinsurgency strategy

Israeli counterinsurgency doctrine holds that the persistent use of credible threat and disproportionate military force results in repeated victories that eventually teach the enemy the futility of aggression. The doctrine thus endorses classical rational choice theory's claim that narrow cost-benefit calculations shape fixed action rationales. This paper assesses whether Israel's strategic practice reflects its counterinsurgency doctrine by exploring the historical record and the association between Israeli and Palestinian deaths due to low-intensity warfare. In contrast to the expectations of classical rational choice theory, the evidence suggests that institutional, cultural and historical forces routinely override simple cost-benefit calculations. Changing domestic and international circumstances periodically cause revisions in counterinsurgency strategy. Credible threat and disproportionate military force lack the predicted long-term effect.     

Living Conditions in the Arctic

This paper introduces a model for conductingresearch on living conditions among peoplesthat have experienced rapid social, culturaland economic change in countries where anon-parallel development has occurred. Thismodel was developed by the researchers ofSLICA, A Survey of Living Conditions inthe Artic; Inuit, Saami and the IndigenousPeoples of Chukotka, which was initiated byStatistics Greenland in 1997.The point of departure for this model is acritique of contemporary living conditionssurveys carried out by national statisticalbureaus in economically, technologically andculturally segmented areas. The point of viewis that these studies erroneously assume thatthe populations they investigate arehomogeneous, and that consensus concerningindividual social and economic objectivesexists. This usually leads to research designsand indicators of individual well-being thatreflect the dominant culture, or the prevalentway of living and thinking in these countries.The focus of this paper is on the researchdesign of SLICA. The implementation of twoimportant methodological challenges isdiscussed. Namely, (1) how to secure acontext-specific concept of well-being whichalso mirrors the life forms and the prioritiesof the respondents and (2) how to measureimpacts of structural change on individualwell-being.