Comprehensive Framework (comprehensive + framework)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


COVER It: A Comprehensive Framework for Guiding Students Through Ethical Dilemmas

JOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES EDUCATION, Issue 1 2010
Jennifer M. Mitchell
First page of article [source]


Business Group Affiliation, Firm Governance, and Firm Performance: Evidence from China and India

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2009
Deeksha A. Singh
ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: This study seeks to understand how business group affiliation, within firm governance and external governance environment affect firm performance in emerging economies. We examine two aspects of within firm governance , ownership concentration and board independence. Research Findings/Insights: Using archival data on the top 500 Indian and Chinese firms from multiple data sources for 2007, we found that group affiliated firms performed worse than unaffiliated firms, and the negative relationship was stronger in the case of Indian firms than for Chinese firms. We also found that ownership concentration had a positive effect on firm performance, while board independence had a negative effect on firm performance. Further, we found that group affiliation , firm performance relationship in a given country context was moderated by ownership concentration. Theoretical/Academic Implications: This study utilizes an integration of agency theory with an institutional perspective, providing a more comprehensive framework to analyze the CG problems, particularly in the emerging economy firms. Empirically, our findings support, as well as contradict, some of the conventional wisdom, and suggest useful avenues for future research. Practitioner/Policy Implications: This study shows that reforms in general and CG reforms in particular are effective in emerging economies, which is an encouraging sign for policy makers. However, our research also suggests that it may be time for India and China to stop the encouragement for the empire building through group formation in the corporate world. For practioners, our findings suggest that firms need to balance the need for oversight with the need for advice, while selecting independent directors. [source]


Organization Structure from a Loose Coupling Perspective: A Multidimensional Approach,

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 2 2001
Rafik I. Beekun
Abstract Organizational theories frequently rely on notions of sharing and dependence among organizational participants, but researchers usually focus on characteristics of the actors themselves instead of the relational patterns among the actors. Loose coupling is one conceptual tool that emphasizes relational patterns. Loose coupling, however, is an abstract metaphor that is simultaneously fertile and ambiguous. This paper develops a rigorous and comprehensive framework that sharpens the theoretical contributions of loose coupling to our understanding of structural relationships. Characteristics of loose coupling capture some important and underexplored features of multidimensional fit and interdependence in organizations. The proposed framework clarifies these theoretical contributions of loose coupling with concepts and equations modified from network analysis. Testable hypotheses are proposed with respect to three key independent variables that may affect patterns of coupling: organization strategy, technology, and environmental turbulence. Additional hypotheses are advanced with respect to the use of the multidimensional approach to loose coupling in studying new organizational forms. Initial psychometric and empirical evidence are presented. [source]


A comprehensive framework for global patterns in biodiversity

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 1 2004
Robert E. Ricklefs
Abstract The present study proposes to reconcile the different spatial and temporal scales of regional species production and local constraint on species richness. Although interactions between populations rapidly achieve equilibrium and limit membership in ecological communities locally, these interactions occur over heterogeneous environments within large regions, where the populations of species are stably regulated through competition and habitat selection. Consequently, exclusion of species from a region depends on long-term regional-scale environmental change or evolutionary change among interacting populations, bringing species production and extinction onto the same scale and establishing a link between local and regional processes. [source]


Solving, Estimating, and Selecting Nonlinear Dynamic Models Without the Curse of Dimensionality

ECONOMETRICA, Issue 2 2010
Viktor Winschel
We present a comprehensive framework for Bayesian estimation of structural nonlinear dynamic economic models on sparse grids to overcome the curse of dimensionality for approximations. We apply sparse grids to a global polynomial approximation of the model solution, to the quadrature of integrals arising as rational expectations, and to three new nonlinear state space filters which speed up the sequential importance resampling particle filter. The posterior of the structural parameters is estimated by a new Metropolis,Hastings algorithm with mixing parallel sequences. The parallel extension improves the global maximization property of the algorithm, simplifies the parameterization for an appropriate acceptance ratio, and allows a simple implementation of the estimation on parallel computers. Finally, we provide all algorithms in the open source software JBendge for the solution and estimation of a general class of models. [source]


THIS IS NOT AMERICA: EMBEDDING THE COGNITIVE-CULTURAL URBAN ECONOMY

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2010
Robert C. Kloosterman
ABSTRACT. The aim of this article is to broaden the epistemological basis for investigating the current shift to cognitive-cultural economies and the resurgence of cities and its socio-spatial articulation. The point of departure here is that the drivers of the structural changes are indeed more or less ubiquitous, but are played out in different national institutional and urban contexts resulting in potentially diverging cognitive-cultural economies. Four main drivers of change after 1980 are distinguished. The first is the rise of a new technological paradigm based on digital technology. The second is the thrust towards deregulation and privatization as planks of the neo-liberal political programme. The third is the intensification of all kinds of linkages between regions across the globe. The fourth driver constitutes the processes of individualization and increasing reflexivity that have fragmented consumer markets. By identifying distinct filters which might shape and mould the impact of these more general drivers on concrete urban areas, a comprehensive framework is presented that can be used to analyse and compare the trajectories of cities while linking them to a larger narrative of societal change. A central line of reasoning is that agglomeration economies , pivotal in Allen Scott's analysis of the emergence of a cognitive-cultural economy , are themselves embedded in concrete social and institutional contexts which impact on how they are played out. To make this point, we build upon Richard Whitley's business systems. Given this institutional diversity, we expect that various institutional contexts will generate different cognitive-cultural economies. [source]


Cross-National Concepts in Supranational Governance: State,Society Relations and EU Policy Making

GOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2004
Albert S. YeeArticle first published online: 25 AUG 200
The emergence of multiple and shifting modes of governance both intranationally and supranationally has posed difficulties for analysts accustomed to refining or testing singular types of politics. When confronted with this changing complexity, a comprehensive framework can be a very useful diagnostic and organizational tool. This article devises one such conceptual framework to clarify and systematize varieties of state autonomy and state,society relations. By combining fundamental conceptions of action, elemental control mechanisms, and basic types of interaction, a comprehensive framework is constructed for characterizing and comparing governance modes in a conceptually coherent manner. Many of the abstract spaces within this conceptual field share affinities with types of state autonomy and state,society relations depicted in major theoretical approaches to national politics (i.e., authoritarianism, statism, pluralism, corporatism, institutionalism, and Marxism). This article uses this conceptual framework to systematize these major governance modes and to illuminate their coexistence in supranational governance by examining the European Union policy process. [source]


Centralization and Decentralization in Administration and Politics: Assessing Territorial Dimensions of Authority and Power

GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2001
Paul D. Hutchcroft
Throughout the world, diverse countries are implementing programs of decentralization as a means of promoting both democratic and developmental objectives. Unfortunately, however, scholarship has yet to offer a comprehensive framework within which to assess and reform central-local relations. This article seeks to overcome the "division of labor" that has long separated analyses of administrative and political structures, and to provide stronger conceptual vocabulary for describing and analyzing the complexities of centralization and decentralization in both administration and politics. After developing two distinct continua of administrative and political centralization/decentralization, the paper then combines them in a single matrix able to highlight the wide range of strategies and outcomes that emerge from the complex interplay of the two spheres. Depending on where a country lies within the matrix, it is argued, strategies of decentralization may do more harm than good. Strategies of devolution are especially problematic in settings with strong local bosses, and should never be attempted without careful analysis of the preexisting character of central-local ties. [source]


On parameter estimation of a simple real-time flow aggregation model

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 7 2006
Huirong Fu
Abstract There exists a clear need for a comprehensive framework for accurately analysing and realistically modelling the key traffic statistics that determine network performance. Recently, a novel traffic model, sinusoid with uniform noise (SUN), has been proposed, which outperforms other models in that it can simultaneously achieve tractability, parsimony, accuracy (in predicting network performance), and efficiency (in real-time capability). In this paper, we design, evaluate and compare several estimation approaches, including variance-based estimation (Var), minimum mean-square-error-based estimation (MMSE), MMSE with the constraint of variance (Var+MMSE), MMSE of autocorrelation function with the constraint of variance (Var+AutoCor+MMSE), and variance of secondary demand-based estimation (Secondary Variance), to determining the key parameters in the SUN model. Integrated with the SUN model, all the proposed methods are able to capture the basic behaviour of the aggregation reservation system and closely approximate the system performance. In addition, we find that: (1) the Var is very simple to operate and provides both upper and lower performance bounds. It can be integrated into other methods to provide very accurate approximation to the aggregation's performance and thus obtain an accurate solution; (2) Var+AutoCor+MMSE is superior to other proposed methods in the accuracy to determine system performance; and (3) Var+MMSE and Var+AutoCor+MMSE differ from the other three methods in that both adopt an experimental analysis method, which helps to improve the prediction accuracy while reducing computation complexity. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Migrants, Refugees and Insecurity.

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 4 2000
Current Threats to Peace?
Since the early 1980s, international migration has moved beyond humanitarian, economic development, labour market and societal integration concerns, raising complex interactive security implications for governments of migrant sending, receiving and transit countries, as well as for multilateral bodies. This article examines the effects of international migration on varied understandings and perceptions of international security. It discusses why international migration has come to be perceived as a security issue, both in industrialized and developing countries. Questions are raised on the migration-security nexus and the way in which the concepts ,security' and ,migration' are used. The real and perceived impacts of international migration upon national and regional security, both in industrialized and developing countries, are analysed. The policies developed by governments and multilateral agencies since the mid-1980s to mitigate the destabilizing effects of certain kinds of international population movement and human displacement are examined. The conclusions stress the need for the establishment of a comprehensive framework of international cooperation among origin and receiving countries and international organizations to address the destabilizing implications of international migration. [source]


A multimodal, multidimensional atlas of the C57BL/6J mouse brain

JOURNAL OF ANATOMY, Issue 2 2004
Allan MacKenzie-Graham
Abstract Strains of mice, through breeding or the disruption of normal genetic pathways, are widely used to model human diseases. Atlases are an invaluable aid in understanding the impact of such manipulations by providing a standard for comparison. We have developed a digital atlas of the adult C57BL/6J mouse brain as a comprehensive framework for storing and accessing the myriad types of information about the mouse brain. Our implementation was constructed using several different imaging techniques: magnetic resonance microscopy, blockface imaging, classical histology and immunohistochemistry. Along with raw and annotated images, it contains database management systems and a set of tools for comparing information from different techniques. The framework allows facile correlation of results from different animals, investigators or laboratories by establishing a canonical representation of the mouse brain and providing the tools for the insertion of independent data into the same space as the atlas. This tool will aid in managing the increasingly complex and voluminous amounts of information about the mammalian brain. It provides a framework that encompasses genetic information in the context of anatomical imaging and holds tremendous promise for producing new insights into the relationship between genotype and phenotype. We describe a suite of tools that enables the independent entry of other types of data, facile retrieval of information and straightforward display of images. Thus, the atlas becomes a framework for managing complex genetic and epigenetic information about the mouse brain. The atlas and associated tools may be accessed at http://www.loni.ucla.edu/MAP. [source]


Informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues: A critical review of research

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 5 2004
Troy D. Sadler
Socioscientific issues encompass social dilemmas with conceptual or technological links to science. The process of resolving these issues is best characterized by informal reasoning which describes the generation and evaluation of positions in response to complex situations. This article presents a critical review of research related to informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues. The findings reviewed address (a) socioscientific argumentation; (b) relationships between nature of science conceptualizations and socioscientific decision making; (c) the evaluation of information pertaining to socioscientific issues, including student ideas about what counts as evidence; and (d) the influence of an individual's conceptual understanding on his or her informal reasoning. This synthesis of the current state of socioscientific issue research provides a comprehensive framework from which future research can be motivated and decisions about the design and implementation of socioscientific curricula can be made. The implications for future research and classroom applications are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 513,536, 2004 [source]


Medical practice, procedure manuals and the standardisation of hospital death

NURSING INQUIRY, Issue 1 2009
Hans Hadders
This paper examines how death is managed in a larger regional hospital within the Norwegian health-care. The central focus of my paper concerns variations in how healthcare personnel enact death and handle the dead patient. Over several decades, modern standardised hospital death has come under critique in the western world. Such critique has resulted in changes in the standardisation of hospital deaths within Norwegian health-care. In the wake of the hospice movement and with greater focus on palliative care, doors have gradually been opened and relatives of the deceased are now more often invited to participate. I explore how the medical practice around death along with the procedure manual of post-mortem care at Trondheim University Hospital has changed. I argue that in the late-modern context, standardisation of hospital death is a multidimensional affair, embedded in a far more comprehensive framework than the depersonalised medico-legal. In the late-modern Norwegian hospital, interdisciplinary negotiation and co-operation has allowed a number of different agendas to co-exist, without any ensuing loss of the medical power holder's authority to broker death. I follow Mol's notion of praxiographic orientation of the actor,network approach while exploring this medical practice. [source]


A comprehensive framework for the evaluation of metacommunity structure

OIKOS, Issue 6 2010
Steven J. Presley
The metacommunity framework is a powerful platform for evaluating patterns of species distribution in geographic or environmental space. Idealized patterns (checkerboard, Clementsian, evenly spaced, Gleasonian and nested distributions) give the framework shape. Each pattern represents an area in a multidimensional continuum of metacommunity structures; however, the current approach to analysis of spatial structure of metacommunities is incomplete. To address this, we describe additional non-random structures and illustrate how they may be discerned via objective criteria. First, we distinguish three distinct forms of species loss in nested structures, which should improve identification of structuring mechanisms for nested patterns. Second, we define six quasi-structures that are consistent with the conceptual underpinnings of Clementsian, Gleasonian, evenly spaced and nested distributions. Finally, we demonstrate how combinations of structures at smaller spatial extents may aggregate to form Clementsian structure at larger extents. These refinements should facilitate the identification of best-fit patterns, associated structuring mechanisms, and informative scales of analysis and interpretation. This conceptual and analytical framework may be applied to network properties within communities (i.e. structure of interspecific interactions) and has broad application in ecology and biogeography. [source]


A framework for compensation plans with incentive value

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, Issue 2 2007
William J. Liccione
Although Vroom's expectancy theory and its later application to the workplace by Lawler have significant implications for the development of compensation plans with incentive value, they do not consider at least two critical components of incentive plan design: individuals' initial commitment to their goals and the relative value of rewards individuals receive for accomplishing their goals. This article integrates expectancy theory, goal theory, and equity theory into a comprehensive framework for the effective design of compensation plans with incentive value. [source]


Determinants of Performance Measurement: An Investigation into the Decision to Conduct Citizen Surveys

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 5 2008
Esteban G. Dalehite
This article develops and tests a comprehensive framework explaining the decision to measure performance, specifically the decision of local governments to conduct citizen surveys. It is structured around a fundamental distinction between subjective performance measures obtained for use in decision making and those that are produced solely for their symbolic value. The author suggests that the field of public administration may be taking a simplified view concerning the promotion and adoption of citizen surveys, overlooking important aspects of the decision-making process of performance-oriented public managers and neglecting the impact of politics and symbols. Political rationality may undercut managerial rationality in the decision to adopt citizen surveys, and symbolic adoption may be the underlying cause of low levels of information use. This study identifies policies to increase adoption of citizen surveys but cautions that simply promoting the adoption of surveys as inherently good may be a naive and wasteful course of action. Practitioners who have already made the decision to measure subjective performance through citizen surveys, or are facing such a decision, can find in this analysis a structure to assess past decisions or guide future decisions. [source]


Inter-annual variability in amphibian assemblages: implications for diversity assessment and conservation

AQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, Issue 6 2010
Carola Gómez-Rodríguez
Abstract 1.Diversity assessments and conservation management should take into account the dynamic nature of populations and communities, particularly when they are subject to highly variable and unpredictable environmental conditions. 2.This study evaluates the inter-annual variability in the assemblage composition (temporal turnover) of an amphibian community breeding in a highly dynamic habitat, a Mediterranean temporary pond system, during a 4-year period. 3.A comprehensive framework is provided to evaluate temporal turnover from data of a differing nature (species richness, presence/absence and relative abundance) and, especially, to discern variation in richness (species loss) from changes in the identity or abundance of species (species replacement). 4.Results show that the pond amphibian assemblages in Doñana National Park exhibited high inter-annual variability during the study period, both in the number of species, species identity and their relative abundance. This result provides evidence for the inadequacy of surveys conducted only in one breeding season to characterize the species assemblage associated with a given pond. Besides, it suggests that a given pond offers different breeding opportunities over time, being suitable for different species depending on the year. This alternation will contribute to the medium-term preservation of all species in the assemblage. 5.It is highly relevant to preserve the natural dynamism and spatial variability of temporary pond systems, which will favour the conservation of populations through their intrinsic variability. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Public-private partnerships in Canada: Theory and evidence

CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 1 2008
Aidan R. Vining
It focuses primarily on infrastructure projects and addresses three questions: 1) What goals do governments expect to achieve through P3s? 2) How effective are P3s likely to be at delivering value to governments and citizens? 3) What lessons can be derived from the use of P3s? The article reviews the government's intended social goals for P3s and evaluates how effective P3s have been in fulfilling them. It then formulates a more comprehensive framework and outlines a "positive theory" perspective of P3s that takes into account the divergent goals of the partners , profit maximization goals of private-sector participants and the political goals of the public sector. The article evaluates and summarizes the findings and implications of ten Canadian P3s. The appropriate test of success, from a social (normative) perspective, is whether P3s have lower total social costs, including production costs and all of the transaction costs and externalities associated with the project. The ten case studies indicate that the potential benefits of P3s are often outweighed by high contracting costs due to opportunism generated by goal conflict. These costs are particularly high when construction or operating complexity is high, revenue uncertainty (use-risk) is high, both of these risks have been transferred to the private-sector partner, and contract management effectiveness is poor. In infrastructure projects, it rarely makes sense to try to transfer large amounts of risk to the private sector. Sommaire: Le présent article élabore une théorie et examine la mise en ,uvre et la performance de partenariats des secteurs public/privé canadiens (P3). Il se penche essentiellement sur des projets d'infrastructure et aborde quatre questions : 1) quels objectifs les gouvernements prévoient-ils atteindre en ayant recours aux P3 ? 2) Dans quelle mesure les P3 seront efficaces à fournir de la valeur aux gouvernements et aux citoyens ? 3) Quelles leçons peut-on tirer des P3? L'article passe en revue les justifications normatives avancées par le gouvernement pour les P3 et examine leur efficacité. Ensuite, il formule un cadre normatif plus exhaustif. Puis, il présente les grandes lignes d'une perspective de «théorie positive» des P3 en tenant compte des objectifs divergents des partenaires : à savoir, les objectifs de maximisation des profits pour les participants du secteur privé et les objectifs politiques du secteur public. Par la suite, l'article passe en revue et évalue dix études de cas de P3 canadiens. Le test du succès, selon une perspective (normative) sociale, consiste à déterminer si les P3 ont des coûts sociaux totaux inférieurs, y compris les coûts de production, et tous les coûts de transactions et coûts externes associés au projet. Les dix études de cas indiquent que les avantages potentiels des P3 sont souvent surpassés par les frais élevés de passation de contrats dûs à l'opportunisme généré par les conflits en matière d'objectifs. Ces coûts sont particulièrement élevés lorsque la complexité de la construction ou de l'exploitation est élevée et que l'incertitude des revenus (le risque d'utilisation) est forte, que ces deux risques ont été transférés au partenaire du secteur privé, et que l'efficacité de la gestion du contrat est médiocre. Dans les projets d'infrastructure, il est souvent absurde d'essayer de transférer de grands montants de risque d'utilisation au secteur privé. [source]


Brain cytokines and disease

ACTA NEUROPSYCHIATRICA, Issue 6 2002
Carlos R Plata-Salaman
Cytokines (e.g. various interleukins and subfamily members, tumor necrosis factors, interferons, chemokines and growth factors) act in the brain as immunoregulators and neuromodulators. Over a decade ago, the integrative article ,Immunoregulators in the Nervous System' (Neurosci Biobehav Rev 1991; 15: 185,215) provided a comprehensive framework of pivotal issues on cytokines and the nervous system that recently have been extensively studied. Cytokine profiles in the brain, including cytokine generation and action, have been studied in multiple models associated with neuropathophysiological conditions. These include: (1) acute conditions and disorders such as stroke (cerebral ischemia or infarction and intracranial hemorrhage), traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and acute neuropathies; (2) chronic neurodegenerative disorders and chronic conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, neuropathic pain, epilepsy and chronic neuropathies; (3) brain infections, including bacterial meningitis and encephalitis; (4) brain tumors; (5) neuroimmunological disorders per se, such as multiple sclerosis; (5) psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and depression; (6) neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations associated with non- central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as peripheral cancer, liver, kidney and metabolic compromise, and peripheral infectious and inflammatory conditions; and (7) cytokine immunotherapy, which can be accompanied by neuropsychiatric manifestations when administered either via peripheral or brain routes. Cytokine profiles have also been studied in multiple animal models challenged with inflammatory, infectious, chemical, malignant and stressor insults. Essentially data show that cytokines play a pivotal role in multiple neuropathophysiological processes associated with different types of disorders and insults. Cytokine expression and action in the brain shows a different profile across conditions, but some similarities exist. Under a defined temporal sequence, cytokine involvement in neuroprotection or the induction of a deleterious pathophysiological cascade and in resolution/healing is proposed depending on the type of cytokine. In the brain, functional interactions among cytokines, balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and functional interactions with neurotransmitters and neuropeptides play a pivotal role in the overall cytokine profile, pattern of neuropathophysiological cascades, and quality and magnitude of neuropsychiatric manifestations. In this brief review various selected cytokine-related issues with relevance to the brain are discussed. [source]