Parameter estimation by contrast minimization for noisy observations of a diffusion process

We consider the estimation of unknown parameters in the drift and diffusion coefficients of a one-dimensional ergodic diffusion X when the observation Y is a discrete sampling of X with an additive noise, at times i δ, i=1,?…?, N. Assuming that the sampling interval tends to 0 while the total length-time interval tends to infinity, we prove limit theorems for functionals associated with the observations, based on local means of the sample. We apply these results to obtain a contrast function. The associated minimum contrast estimators are shown to be consistent. Some examples are discussed with numerical simulations.     

Personelle Unternehmensverflechtung und Vorstandsgehälter

Personal linkages between the biggest German corporations is subject to a special survey by the Monopolies Commission every two years. We use linkage data ranging from 2000–2006 to examine the impact of personal linkage on the compensation of management board members. The empirical analysis reveals a positive relation between compensation of management board members and the amount of corporation-linkages by additional supervisory board mandates of members of the management board. At the same time, the performance of the sending firms has no influence on the likelihood to receive further supervisory board seats.     

Masculinity,Complex: A Historical Take

The author recapitulates the history of the changes in second-wave feminist psychoanalytic thinking regarding masculinity, beginning with the critique of the Freudian-Lacanian position of phallic monism adumbrated by Juliet Mitchell. It traces the reversal brought about by the North American position, represented by Stoller and Chodorow, that emphasized the boy’s problem in breaking his primary identification with the mother. Continuing, the author summarizes her own critique of the oedipal model and have-have-not binary that it dictated as well as her own outline of preoedipal “homoerotic identificatory love” and the overinclusive nature of early identifications. In addition, she includes her understanding of the Oedipus as founded in the repudiation of passivity and its projection into the female “Other,” the daughter position. Along the way she points to how a number of other feminist psychoanalytic thinkers took the idea of postoedipal and overinclusive thinking further and in a more critical direction.     

Desh bidesh revisited

This article discusses the emergence of a ‘British Bangladeshi social field’. It makes two connected arguments about its effects. First, it argues that the emergence of the British Bangladeshi social field has rendered the discourses of desh and bidesh less important. Second, it argues that British Bangladeshis are embedded into many transnational social fields and lead multiply orientated rather than binary lives. It uses the example of the importance of the global Islamic umma (community) to British Bangladeshis to illustrate this and argues that it has also contributed to the decreasing importance of the discourse of the desh. What this shows is that the transnationalism of today is very different from that of 20 years ago, both in terms of how it is experienced and how it is analysed.     

Understanding high school student leaders, i: Predicting teacher ratings of leader behavior

We describe the first stage of a longitudinal research program concerned with the prediction, understanding, and durability of early displays of leadership behavior. The predictability of teachers' ratings of leadership behavior for 242 high school students was explored with respect to predictors from the following construct domains: personality, interests, motivation, behavior, self-rated skills, and academic ability. Results revealed that variables from each construct domain significantly and consistently predicted leadership ratings for as long as 12 months after the collection of the predictor data. In addition, the linear combination of predictors from different domains yielded strong prediction of leadership, with R²s in the .40 range. Evidence also showed that both academic ability and the other measured constructs contributed unique variance to the prediction of leadership behaviors as reported by the teachers. These exploratory findings are discussed in light of a continuing research program designed to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the origin, development, and emergence of adult leadership behavior.     

Household Income and Trajectories of Marital Satisfaction in Early Marriage

Are the marriages of lower income couples less satisfying than the marriages of more affluent couples? To address this question, we compared trajectories of marital satisfaction among couples with a wide range of household incomes. The marital satisfaction of 862 Black, White, and Latino newlywed spouses (N = 431 couples) was assessed five times, each 9 months apart, during the first 4 years of marriage. Lower income couples did not have less satisfying marriages on average, nor did their satisfaction decline more steeply on average. They did, however, experience (a) significantly greater fluctuations in marital satisfaction across assessments and (b) significantly more variability between husbands and wives. If efforts to support the marriages of low‐income couples are to address the unique characteristics of their marital development, these findings suggest that efforts to stabilize their marriages may be more effective than efforts to improve their satisfaction alone.     

International notes

This article is a review of Gowan, J. C., Development of the Psychedelic Individual, Buffalo, N.Y., Creative Education Foundation, 1974. Its author sees the book as important because it finds a way for humanistic psychology to deal with areas of human experience formerly treated as supernatural or abnormal, and to deal with them in a developmental manner. An assessment is made of some suggested methods of developing the psychedelic personality. A general evaluation of the book considers the role of concept development in the progress of science and concludes that Gowan's work is of significant value on an important frontier of human knowledge.     

Australian Association of Almoners — (Victorian Branch)

Review of Literature on Adjustment Process Marriage is seen as “a phenomenon of the life cycle extending over a period of many years, during which time it has several aspects, several stages, requires several kinds of adjustments and behaviors of its participants”.¹ The emphasis is on marriage as a personal relationship which requires particular skills in order to fulfil particular functions, both personal and social. There are several areas of potential adjustment, role expectations and performance, sex, finances, social activities, relatives, religion, and mutual friends. Values, shared goals, gratification of emotional needs, and creative growth and development of individuals, both as individuals and as members of a family, are vital factors in influencing the success and adjustment of any marriage.