The Emotional and Psychological Experiences of Drag Performers: A Qualitative Study

To better understand psychological experiences of drag queens, the authors conducted interviews with 12 cisgender, gay male drag queens from a midsouth state. Participants were age 22 to 54 years (M = 34) and reported participating in drag for 2 to 33 years (M = 13). The authors used consensual qualitative analysis to identify five main themes: motivation, effects, protective factors, stressors, and involvement. Results indicate that participants in drag may benefit from social support, a creative outlet, and empowerment. Participants also reported experiences of discrimination, performance anxiety, and loss of friendships. We discuss implications for counseling lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who may perform in drag.     

Coping with missing data in phase III pivotal registration trials: Tolvaptan in subjects with kidney disease,a case study

Missing data cause challenging issues, particularly in phase III registration trials, as highlighted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US National Research Council. We explore, as a case study, how the issues from missing data were tackled in a double‐blind phase III trial in subjects with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. A total of 1445 subjects were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive active treatment (tolvaptan), or placebo. The primary outcome, the rate of change in total kidney volume, favored tolvaptan (P < .0001). The key secondary efficacy endpoints of clinical progression of disease and rate of decline in kidney function also favored tolvaptan. However, as highlighted by Food and Drug Administration and EMA, the interpretation of results was hampered by a high number of unevenly distributed dropouts, particularly early dropouts. In this paper, we outline the analyses undertaken to address the issue of missing data thoroughly. “Tipping point analyses” were performed to explore how extreme and detrimental outcomes among subjects with missing data must be to overturn the positive treatment effect attained in those subjects who had complete data. Nonparametric rank‐based analyses were also performed accounting for missing data. In conclusion, straightforward and transparent analyses directly taking into account missing data convincingly support the robustness of the preplanned analyses on the primary and secondary endpoints. Tolvaptan was confirmed to be effective in slowing total kidney volume growth, which is considered an efficacy endpoint by EMA, and in lessening the decline in renal function in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.     

重塑社会学的想象力——语言/视觉二元论以及文化社会学的符像转向

以意义为中心的文化社会学遭遇的关键挑战之一就是不得不面对当代人类学、考古学、艺术史和物质文化研究等领域的发现。其越来越紧迫的任务就是认识并修正曾经由这些学科所确立的语言学/文本框架之解释的局限性。传统结构主义者集中关注各种话语符码,而且,在理解复杂的表象经济的权力,特别是在履行解释其变异性方面,文化符号之任意性的假设显得捉襟见肘。语言和以沟通为中心的框架通常忽视的事实是,被相信具有因果性社会力量的绝大多数能指无可避免地嵌入在开放的但并非无限制的感情与物质性结构之中。因此,行动中需要整合能力更强且维度更多的文化模式。本文主要讨论符像性对发展一个与此相关的整合性视角的重要性,同时并不抛弃语言学转向的一些构成性洞见。我以亚历山大等当代学者的转型性工作和我自己的研究来证实,被如此构想的文化的复合体才是具因果律的社会力。我的目的在于详尽阐述物质性文化研究中的一个关键原则,即不同的符号秩序对于决定性和/或自主性逻辑而言是不同的主题,并且由此对“社会建构”和历史转型的不同模式做出回应。我们需要继续关注奥斯汀关于如何以言行事的问题,但是不能重复他的局限,即似乎社会之事发生之际同时并不伴随图像、对象、场所、身体和所有它们的特征以及使用暗含。对社会学想象力的这一扩展予以充实,可以帮助我们激活理解和解释文化这一概念所拥有的充分潜力,并由此坚定地转向文化。     

Kosten und Kostentreiber von unerwünschten Werbemails (Spam) — Eine empirische Analyse auf Provider- und Anwenderseite

Zusammenfassung  In der Literatur wird diskutiert, dass unerwünschte Werbemails (Spam) sowohl auf individueller als auch auf volkswirtschaftlicher Ebene erhebliche Kosten verursachen, deren H?he jedoch unbestimmt ist. Diese Fragestellung wird mit zwei empirischen Untersuchungen adressiert, in denen die Mitarbeiter einer Universit?t zu ihren Spam-Kosten befragt wurden. Die Daten werden mit Hilfe von Finite Mixture Regressions analysiert. In der Betrachtung der Kosten ergibt sich der Befund, dass die auf individueller Ebene entstehenden Kosten die zentralen Kosten auf IT-Ebene deutlich übersteigen. Es zeigt sich, dass die Spam-Belastung bei den Mitarbeitern heterogen verteilt ist und dass ein Spamfilter vor allem bei stark belasteten Nutzern zu einer Kostenersparnis führt. Um die Heterogenit?t in der Spam-Wahrnehmung und die Angst vor Fehlklassifikationen zu berücksichtigen, sollten die Nutzer die M?glichkeit haben, auf einfache Art auf den Filterprozess einzuwirken.

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Costs and cost drivers of unsolicited bulk email (spam) — an empirical analysis

Summary  This paper empirically addresses the often claimed assumption that unsolicited bulk e-mail (spam) causes significant costs — on the individual level as well as for the entire society. To shed light on this problem, employees of a large university were interviewed twice in order to determine the individual costs caused by spam and to identify the relevant cost drivers using finite mixture regressions. The results indicate a heterogeneous distribution of spam load and the resulting costs. The panel approach yields the conclusion that spam filters lead to a reduction of costs only for users severely troubled by spam. Furthermore, people tend to become active against spam only when a certain threshold of spam burden is reached. The costs caused by spam for the users exceed the central IT-related expenses by far. For the implementation of spam filters the results suggest a two step procedure to be most efficient: central actions should be taken to block e-mails that can be unambiguously identified as spam. Further, users should be given the opportunity to influence the filtering process in order to account for heterogeneity and their fear of false classification.

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Die Autoren bedanken sich sehr herzlich bei den Mitarbeitern des Rechenzentrums der Christian-Albrechts-Universit?t zu Kiel für die intensive Kooperation. Wir danken zudem Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. S?nke Albers, Christian Barrot, Eva Bl?meke und Christina Schmidt-St?lting für die zahlreichen Hinweise zu früheren Fassungen des Aufsatzes. Auch die beiden Gutachter und das Herausgeberteam der ZfB haben zahlreiche Verbesserungsvorschl?ge gemacht, die zu einer substanziellen Verbesserung des Manuskripts geführt haben.     

Individuelle Freiheit als Grundlage normativer Ökonomik

The economic approach to CSR has been increasingly criticized as being too narrow to provide a basis for ethical judgments. However, economic theory makes an implicit but fundamental ethical judgment as it emphasizes individual freedom, premising that everyone should be free to make their decisions in the marketplace. I interpret this ethical judgment explicitly and derive three implications, which allow assessing the legitimacy of corporate action in a globalized world. More specifically, I argue that contracts must rely on the voluntary and informed consent of all people concerned to be legitimate. Companies have the responsibility to ensure that these criteria are met in their contracts.     

Modellierung von Aktienanlagen bei laufenden Umschichtungen und einer Besteuerung von Veräußerungsgewinnen

This paper develops a technique which simplifies the calculation of terminal values of share investments when portfolio turnovers repeatedly trigger capital gains taxation. So far, the calculations of these values are difficult, due to recursive dependencies, which cannot be expressed by geometric series. Using our technique, tax burdens of differently taxed forms of share investments can be determined in an easy way even if these methods imply different elements of deferred taxation (equity funds, certificates, preferred taxed pension plans). The simplification is reached by assuming a specific trading strategy. This strategy is in line with empirically observed investor behavior which is characterized by periodical portfolio turnovers and reluctance to realize taxable capital gains.     

Kitchen Hygiene in the Spotlight: How Cooking Shows Influence Viewers’ Hygiene Practices

Poor hygiene when handling food is a major cause of foodborne illness. To investigate whether hygiene practices visible in television cooking shows influence viewers’ kitchen hygiene, a study on the adoption of demonstrated hygiene behavior was conducted under controlled, experimental conditions. In a study ostensibly on cooking by following recipes participants (n = 65) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, in which they watched a cooking video that differed only with regard to the hygiene behavior of the chef. In condition 1, the chef engaged in poor hygiene practices while preparing the dish, in condition 2 the chef's hygiene behavior was exemplary and in condition 3, the chef's hygiene behavior was not visible (control condition). After watching the video, participants were instructed to cook the recipe individually in the fully equipped laboratory kitchen. Cooking sessions were videotaped and experimenters blind to condition coded hygiene lapses committed by participants. The level of kitchen hygiene displayed in the cooking video significantly affected hygiene practices of participants cooking the recipe. Participants who had watched the cooking video with correct hygiene practices committed significantly fewer hygiene lapses than those who had watched the video with poor hygiene practices. From a risk communication perspective, TV cooking shows are well placed to convey knowledge of essential hygiene practices during food preparation to a broad audience. To facilitate behavioral change toward safer food‐handling practices among viewers, visibly performing correct hygiene practices in cooking shows is a promising strategy.     

Methods for one-sided testing of the difference between proportions and sample size considerations related to non-inferiority clinical trials

Assessment of non-inferiority is often performed using a one-sided statistical test through an analogous one-sided confidence limit. When the focus of attention is the difference in success rates between test and active control proportions, the lower confidence limit is computed, and many methods exist in the literature to address this objective. This paper considers methods which have been shown to be popular in the literature and have surfaced in this research as having good performance with respect to controlling type I error at the specified level. Performance of these methods is assessed with respect to power and type I error through simulations. Sample size considerations are also included to aid in the planning stages of non-inferiority trials focusing on the difference in proportions. Results suggest that the appropriate method to use depends on the sample size allocation of subjects in the test and active control groups.     

Potential impact of COVID-19 on ongoing clinical trials: a simulation study with the neurological Yale Global Tic Severity Scale based on the CANNA-TICS study

The COVID-19 pandemic has manifold impacts on clinical trials. In response, drug regulatory agencies and public health bodies have issued guidance on how to assess potential impacts on ongoing clinical trials and stress the importance of a risk-assessment as a pre-requisite for modifications to the clinical trial conduct. This article presents a simulation study to assess the impact on the power of an ongoing clinical trial without the need to unblind trial data and compromise trial integrity. In the context of the CANNA-TICS trial, investigating the effect of nabiximols on reducing the total tic score of the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS-TTS) in patients with chronic tic disorders and Tourette syndrome, the impact of the two COVID-19 related intercurrent events handled by a treatment policy strategy is investigated using a multiplicative and additive data generating model. The empirical power is examined for the analysis of the YGTSS-TTS as a continuous and dichotomized endpoint using analysis techniques adjusted and unadjusted for the occurrence of the intercurrent event. In the investigated scenarios, the simulation studies showed that substantial power losses are possible, potentially making sample size increases necessary to retain sufficient power. However, we were also able to identify scenarios with only limited loss of power. By adjusting for the occurrence of the intercurrent event, the power loss could be diminished to different degrees in most scenarios. In summary, the presented risk assessment approach may support decisions on trial modifications like sample size increases, while maintaining trial integrity.