A generalisation of T‐optimality for discriminating between competing models with an application to pharmacokinetic studies

The T‐optimality criterion is used in optimal design to derive designs for model selection. To set up the method, it is required that one of the models is considered to be true. We term this local T‐optimality. In this work, we propose a generalisation of T‐optimality (termed robust T‐optimality) that relaxes the requirement that one of the candidate models is set as true. We then show an application to a nonlinear mixed effects model with two candidate non‐nested models and combine robust T‐optimality with robust D‐optimality. Optimal design under local T‐optimality was found to provide adequate power when the a priori assumed true model was the true model but poor power if the a priori assumed true model was not the true model. The robust T‐optimality method provided adequate power irrespective of which model was true. The robust T‐optimality method appears to have useful properties for nonlinear models, where both the parameter values and model structure are required to be known a priori, and the most likely model that would be applied to any new experiment is not known with certainty. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Austérité budgétaire et flexibilisation du marché du travail: une association risquée

Les auteurs évaluent les effets de l'association entre politiques d'austérité budgétaire et de réduction du coût du travail, et apportent ainsi quelque éclairage sur les débats en cours. Ils s'attaquent au problème de l'agrégation dans une perspective mondiale au moyen d'un macromodèle mettant en évidence la dynamique de la répartition. La flexibilisation réduit la part salariale et entraîne des rétroactions qui s'enchaînent dans une spirale descendante avec une contraction de l'activité, même dans les économies tirées par les exportations. Les gains initiaux de compétitivité se révèlent éphémères. Sur le long terme, les salaires sont les premiers moteurs de l'économie mondiale, qui réagit positivement aux stimuli keynésiens coordonnés.     

Cross‐Cultural Comparison of the Effects of Optimism,Intrinsic Motivation,and Family Relations on Vocational Identity

This study explored the effects of optimism, intrinsic motivation, and family relations on vocational identity in college students in the United States and South Korea. The results yielded support for the hypothesized multivariate model. Across both cultures, optimism was an important contributing factor to vocational identity, and intrinsic motivation partially mediated the link from optimism to vocational identity. In addition, family relations moderated the mediation effect of intrinsic motivation with American students but not Korean students. With Korean students, family relations moderated the direct link from optimism to vocational identity. These results have significant implications for counseling to promote vocational identity development for diverse college students.     

Engineering Identity: Gender and Professional Identity Negotiation among Women Engineers

This article considers how women in a gendered profession, engineering, construct their professional identity in response to workplace interpersonal interactions that marginalize it. Using data from interviews with women engineers, it also explores how these interactions influence the engineers' sense of self and belonging in engineering. The interpersonal interactions place professional identity on the periphery and can overly validate gender identity. I discuss two types of identity construction strategies employed by the participants in response to these marginalizing interactions: impression management tactics and coping strategies. Although the data demonstrate that participants may be left feeling devalued or ambivalent towards their identity or fit in engineering, some interactions are more validating and offer a sense of belonging. This article also reflects on how the engineers' actions may, in fact, represent forces for change in the gendered culture of engineering.     

Fragmented Sisters? The Implications of Flexible Working Policies for Professional Women's Workplace Relationships

Much is being done by governments and organizations to help workers reconcile their family and employment responsibilities. One such measure has been the introduction of flexible working policies. While academic and policy debates focus on the barriers to flexible working, less consideration is paid to those who work alongside flexible workers. Through a gendered lens, this article focuses on professional women and explores the implications of UK flexible working policies for women's workplace relations in organizations that have traditionally been based on male models of working. Drawing on interviews conducted in three English organizations, it was found that the women's interests did not always coincide and that their social relationships, with respect to flexible working, involved both support and resentment. In particular, the women's interests were affected by organizational and job‐related factors and their stage in the life course. These findings illuminate the ways in which policies are negotiated at the level of daily workplace life and show that co‐workers are a pivotal part of the wider picture of flexible working.     

Gendering the Organization of Home‐based Work in Turkey: Classical versus Familial Patriarchy

This article examines the link between industrial homework and family dynamics in Turkey by asking how and why varied patterns emerge in the organization of industrial homework. I develop a framework for the analysis of gendered organization of industrial homework by comparing labour practices in extended family and nuclear family households. In extended family households, subcontracts are made between industrial enterprises and male family members. Women carry out piece‐rated work at home under the supervision of male family members and have very little contact with people outside their family. In nuclear family households, subcontracts are made between women homeworkers and industrial enterprises or middle persons. Women work at residential streets and neighbourhood homework stores, as well as at home. They have control over their income as well as their working hours. To explain the divergent practices of industrial homework, I show that enterprises incorporate distinct patterns of patriarchy into the subcontracting arrangements through gendered organization of industrial homework.     

The Last Stitch in the Quilt

The patterns of our working lives are fluid and often unpredictable. They are linked to the process of identity forming that we understand as a recognizable, but continuously changing pattern of actions and developments within our lifespan, which includes our career choices. This interpretation allows us to identify the multiple temporal trajectories within a working life and to see how an analysis of temporalities can help us to understand the gendered nature of our careers. By using a number of retrospective narratives of older women about their working lives, we ascertain how an externally imposed and chronologically organized linear (life‐) career story breaks down into a number of a‐chronological trajectories, each of which is personally marked by the identity of the narrator. The theme of self‐care emerges and turns into a binding notion for working women from different generations.     

我国海洋渔业转产转业政策导致的双重困境探析--从“过度捕捞”到“过度养殖”

近年来,随着海洋资源开发利用程度的不断提高,海洋捕捞强度日渐超出海洋渔业资源的生态资源承载能力;中日、中韩和中越三个渔业协定的签署生效及海洋专属经济区制度的实行,导致海洋作业渔场逐渐减少,海洋渔民面临失业的凤险.在上述内部矛盾与外部规则的双重压力下,我国政府开始在沿海地区普遍实施海洋渔民转产转业政策,旨在减小海洋捕捞强度,实现海洋渔业资源的可持续利用.这对于改变海洋渔业资源无偿、无序、无度的开发利用现状以及保护和增殖渔业生态资源起到较大的促进作用,减船转产效果明显.然而,渔民弃船后大多转向了海水养殖业,致使海洋渔业陷入高密度、超容量的“过度养殖”困境,海水养殖资源供需矛盾进一步加剧,海洋渔业生态环境日趋恶化.鉴于此,从改善渔业管理制度入手,逐步舍弃传统的“投入控制”管理模式,引入“产出控制”管理模式,将成为有效控制捕捞和养殖的产量,进而“双管齐下”走出双重困境的合理、有效选择.     

双重边缘化状态下的文化产业融资难问题解析

在加快文化产业发展过程中,金融资本对于推进文化产业发展具有重要的作用,但“融资难”问题已成为制约文化产业发展的桎梏.出现文化产业“融资难”现象的根本原因在于文化产业被金融业双重边缘化的问题:一是文化产业发展的特殊性决定了它与建立在工商业基础上的金融体系之间存在着不兼容性,导致整个产业被金融业边缘化;二是由于我国文化产业尚处于发展初期,产业内部企业规模结构因市场分割导致的规模偏小,小型、微型企业的广泛分布导致了金融业因规模偏好带来的边缘化.解决“融资难”问题的关键不能局限于出台一项或数项具体激励措施,而在于调整改善制度结构,通过文化企业、金融业、政府三个主体的自我完善和调整,实现相互适应、共同发展,提高文化产业与金融业的对接效率,为文化产业融资提供一个良好的运行平台,进而推动文化产业快速发展.     

Well‐being among employed and non‐employed caregiving women in Taiwan

Chou Y‐C, Kröger T, Chiao C, Pu C‐Y. Well‐being among employed and non‐employed caregiving women in Taiwan This study addressed various groups of non‐employed/employed and non‐caring/caring women in Taiwan. Data from the 2006 National Taiwanese Women Survey (at age 16–64, n= 6,017) were analysed to determine whether there are differences in terms of well‐being, as measured by self‐rated health and family life satisfaction, between women who work and/or care and between different carer groups. Other factors associated with well‐being of carers of young children (n= 1,697) were also analysed. The results showed that non‐employed carers of disabled adults stood out as the most disadvantaged group. However, the importance of work has been replaced by support among carers of young children. This study suggests that unpaid carers, particularly carers of disabled adults who are non‐employed, ought to be supported by policies. To improve carers' well‐being, care–work reconciliation among working‐age women needs to be included in the future care scheme in Taiwan.