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Alternative Definitions (alternative + definition)
Selected AbstractsGAAP versus The Street: An Empirical Assessment of Two Alternative Definitions of EarningsJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2002Mark T. Bradshaw Managers, security analysts, investors, and the press rely increasingly on modified definitions of GAAP net income, known by such names as "operating" and "pro forma" earnings. We document this phenomenon and discuss competing explanations for the recent rise in the use of such modified earnings numbers and implications for the interpretation of related accounting research. Our results show that over the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in the frequency and magnitude of cases where "GAAP" and "Street" earnings differ. Further, there is a very strong bias toward the reporting of a Street earnings number that exceeds the GAAP earnings number. We also show that the market response to the Street earnings number has displaced GAAP earnings as a primary determinant of stock prices. Finally, through an analysis of earnings releases, we show that management has taken a proactive role in defining and emphasizing the Street number when communicating to analysts and investors. [source] Alternative Definitions of Micro,to,Macro Transitions in Particle Aggregates of Granular MaterialsPROCEEDINGS IN APPLIED MATHEMATICS & MECHANICS, Issue 1 2003Joachim Dettmar Dipl.-Ing. An alternative approach to the modelling of the overall macroscopic response of granular materials is presented based on micro,macro transitions. A homogenized macro,continuum is considered with locally attached granular microstructures. The new developments include a consistent transfer of micro,macro transitions from continuous to particle microstructures with a new overall macro,stress definition. Secondly, a new class of boundary conditions for displacements/ rotations on prescribed boundary,frame particles is presented that yields upper and lower bounds with regard to the aggregate stiffness. Thirdly, a unified implementation of the displacement/ rotation boundary constraints by a penalty method is developed that proves to be a convenient computational tool in explicit codes. [source] Financial and Thermodynamic EquilibriumECONOMIC NOTES, Issue 3 2000Antonio Roma This paper explores general equilibrium asset pricing implications in a two-period model in which the production side explicitly describes the thermodynamic process unavoidably connected with production. We show that steady state of the production process, i.e. thermodynamic equilibrium, has a one-to-one correspondence with the absence of arbitrage possibilities. This provides an alternative definition of the absence of arbitrage. (J.E.L.: D5, G1, R3) [source] The British partnership phenomenon: a ten year reviewHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009Stewart Johnstone This article presents a detailed review of the vast partnership literature that has emerged in the UK between 1998 and 2008. It begins by examining definitions of partnership, and suggests that while academic definitions are vague, practitioner definitions tend to conflate partnership processes with partnership outcomes. An alternative definition based upon processes and practices is offered. This is followed by a review of the conceptual advocates/critics debate, and the key themes of empirical partnership studies. It is proposed that while recent empirical evidence identifies a variety of outcomes and presents various typologies of partnership, there is an absence of debates on typologies in the literature. The article then identifies several limitations of the existing literature, including ideological positions, a lack of sensitivity to context and to different types of partnership, and a focus on outcomes. The article concludes by suggesting avenues for future partnership research. [source] Testing Bergmann's rule in the presence of potentially confounding factors: a case study with three species of Galerida larks in MoroccoJOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2008Alban Guillaumet Abstract Aim, To test Bergmann's rule (which predicts a larger body size in colder areas within warm-blooded vertebrate species) in three partially sympatric species of larks (Galerida theklae, Galerida cristata and Galerida randonii) that occur in Morocco. Location, Morocco. Methods, Restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques applied on cytochrome b haplotypes were used to discriminate G. cristata and G. randonii, and to investigate the effects of interspecific hybridization in their contact zone. A comprehensive statistical framework was then designed to test Bergmann's rule in our three Galerida species (using altitude as a proxy for cold temperatures), while controlling for the possible influence of interspecific hybridization and competition and accounting for spatial autocorrelation. The method we propose is conservative in the sense that potentially confounding factors are adjusted so as to maximize their influence on the variable of interest. Results, Bergmann's rule was strongly supported in G. theklae and G. randonii. However, body size did not respond to altitude in G. cristata, a result that was not simply explained by species-specific differences in geographical ranges and altitudinal span. In G. cristata, we detected a tendency for body size to increase with aridity, in agreement with an alternative definition of Bergmann's rule. However, since G. cristata also hybridizes with G. randonii in a contact zone located in the most arid part of the range of G. cristata, we could not tease apart the relative contribution of selection and hybridization in driving this pattern. Main conclusions, This study highlights the need for careful statistical designs that allow meaningful variables to be picked out from large sets of potential factors. When taking these factors into account, we found that Bergmann's rule was still strongly supported in two out of the three species examined. [source] Introducing Radius of Torsure and Cylindroid of TorsureJOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 8 2003David B. Dooner Robotic path planning can involve the specification of the position and orientation of an end-effector to achieve a desired task (e.g., deburring, welding, or surface metrology). Under such scenarios the end-effector is instantaneously rotating and translating about a unique axis; the ISA. Alternately, the performance of direct contact mechanisms (viz., cam systems and gear pairs) are dependent on the surface geometry between two surfaces in direct contact. Determination of this geometry can entail the parametrization of a family of geodesics curves embedded within each surface. This parametrization is tantamount to an end-effector rotating and translating about an ISA. In both scenarios there is a unique ISA for each geodesic embedded in a surface. Here, curvature and torsion of a spatial curve are coupled together to define an alternative definition for the radius-of-curvature of a spatial curve. This new definition is identified as radius of torsure to distinguish it from the classical definition for radius-of-curvature. Further, it is shown that the family of twists that corresponds to the pencil of geodesics coincident with a point on a surface defines a cylindroid: the cylindroid of torsure. An illustrative example is provided to demonstrate this difference. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Relationship of the h-index, g-index, and e-indexJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Chun-Ting Zhang Of h-type indices available now, the g-index is an important one in that it not only keeps some advantages of the h-index but also counts citations from highly cited articles. However, the g-index has a drawback that one has to add fictitious articles with zero citation to calculate this index in some important cases. Based on an alternative definition without introducing fictitious articles, an analytical method has been proposed to calculate the g-index based approximately on the h-index and the e-index. If citations for a scientist are ranked by a power law, it is shown that the g-index can be calculated accurately by the h-index, the e-index, and the power parameter. The relationship of the h-, g-, and e-indices presented here shows that the g-index contains the citation information from the h-index, the e-index, and some papers beyond the h-core. [source] Describing migration spatial structure,PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2002Andrei Rogers Migration; spatial structure; log-linear models Abstract The age structure of a population is a fundamental concept in demography and is generally depicted in the form of an age pyramid. The spatial structure of an interregional system of origin-destination-specific migration streams is, however, a notion lacking a widely accepted definition. We offer a definition in this article, one that draws on the log-linear specification of the geographer's spatial interaction model. We illustrate our definition with observed migration data, we discuss extensions and special cases, and proceed to contrast our definition and associated empirical findings against another measure having an alternative definition. [source] A uniform residual tumor (R) classificationCANCER, Issue 15 2009Integration of the R classification, the circumferential margin status Abstract BACKGROUND: Since the introduction of the TNM residual tumor (R) classification, the involvement of resection margins has been defined either as a microscopic (R1) or a macroscopic (R2) demonstration of tumor directly at the resection margin ("tumor transected"). METHODS: The recognition of the importance of the circumferential resection margin (CRM) in patients with rectal cancer patients raises the need for an alternative definition of resection margin involvement, namely, the importance of delineating tumor with a minimal distance from the CRM of ,1 mm (CRM-positive) from tumor directly at the resection margin. The different use of both definitions of resection margin involvement prevents valid comparisons between reports on treatment results. RESULTS: To avoid confusion by different definitions, the authors proposed including the minimal distance between tumor and resection margin into the current R classification. CONCLUSIONS: By using the proposed expanded classification, comparisons of new data with previous publications will be possible. Cancer 2009. © 2009 American Cancer Society. [source] Does personality change and, if so, what changes?,CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 1 2004Conor Duggan Background Although the question of whether or not personality changes is fundamental to much of what clinicians do, we do not appear to be very curious about the question itself. Method This paper considers three separate but related issues: (a) Does personality change? (b) If it does, then what changes? (c) How can we show that change has taken place? Costa and McCrea have produced a model of personality that helps to answer (a) and (b), as it distinguishes ,Basic Tendencies' from ,Characteristic Adaptations'. The former are largely innate, fixed dispositions that produce the latter (which are highly variable) depending on its interaction with differing environments. Thus, personality is both static and dynamic depending on its definition. It will also be argued that detecting change is complex as there are many alternative definitions of the relevant outcome variable. Moreover, measuring several different outcomes does not help as change in one measure is often not matched by a concordant change in another. Some practical examples are provided to support this position. Conclusions In the absence of a firm theoretical base, the author believes that only limited conclusions can be drawn about the efficacy of treatment in personality disorder. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Is there a SSRI dose response in treating major depression?DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 1 2003The case for re-analysis of current data, for enhancing future study design Abstract It has been widely stated that the available research data has not demonstrated a SSRI dose response for major depression. We re-evaluated the methods used to analyze the SSRI data by clarifying two key alternative definitions of dose response and their implications for enhancing analysis of currently available data as well as future study design. We differentiated "potential" dose response, which focuses exclusively on response excluding tolerability effects and asks whether differences in dose can result in significant differences in response, from "expressed" dose response, which incorporates all tolerability effects currently associated with dose (including those caused by study protocol or treatment practice) and asks whether differences in dose do result in significant differences in response. To analyze potential dose response for all studies, one should use a "dose-tolerant" sample, i.e., an ITT sample from which dropouts due to adverse events have been removed. To analyze an expressed dose response, an ITT sample is the optimum sample if the study conforms to several design specifications. In the absence of conformance to these specifications, an ITT sample may be an approximation of the appropriate sample. Given design limitations of currently available studies, a dose-tolerant sample may provide a more informative approximation of an optimal sample to be used in evaluating the expressed dose response that could be expected in the best clinical practice. Future studies of dose-response relations could be enhanced by taking into account the principles noted above, and currently available data should be reanalyzed based on these principles. This re-analysis is performed in a companion article [Baker et al. 2003, Depress Anxiety 17:1-9]. Depression and Anxiety 17:10,18, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Defining Political Community and Rights to Natural Resources in BotswanaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2009Amy R. Poteete ABSTRACT Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), once presented as the best way to protect common pool natural resources, now attracts a growing chorus of critiques that either question its underlying assumptions or emphasize problems related to institutional design. These critiques overlook connections between the definition of rights to natural resources and membership in political communities. The potential for competing definitions of political identity and rights across natural resources arises when property rights regimes differ across natural resources and these different systems of rights appeal to alternative definitions of community. In Botswana, the entangling of natural resource policy with identity politics contributed to a partial recentralization of CBNRM in 2007. [source] Cannabis withdrawal predicts severity of cannabis involvement at 1-year follow-up among treated adolescentsADDICTION, Issue 5 2008Tammy Chung ABSTRACT Aims Controversy exists regarding the inclusion of cannabis withdrawal as an indicator of dependence in the next revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and International Classification of Diseases (ICD). This study contrasted the concurrent and predictive validity of three operational definitions of cannabis withdrawal in a sample of treated adolescents. Design Prospective study of treated adolescents with 1-year follow-up. Setting and participants Adolescents (n = 214) were recruited from intensive out-patient treatment programs for substance abuse, and followed at 1 year (92% retention). Youth who were included in the analyses reported regular cannabis use. Measurements The number of DSM-IV cannabis abuse and dependence symptoms at baseline and 1-year follow-up, past year frequency of cannabis use at baseline and follow-up, and periods of abstinence at 1-year follow-up. Cannabis withdrawal was defined based on (i) the presence of two or more cannabis withdrawal symptoms; (ii) a definition proposed by Budney and colleagues (2006) that requires four or more withdrawal symptoms (four-symptom definition); and (iii) the use of latent class analysis to identify subgroups with similar cannabis withdrawal symptom profiles. Findings and conclusions All three definitions of cannabis withdrawal demonstrated some concurrent validity. Only the four-symptom and latent class-derived definitions of withdrawal predicted severity of cannabis-related problems at 1-year follow-up. No cannabis withdrawal definition predicted frequency of use at follow-up. Further research is needed to determine the clinical utility and validity of the four-symptom definition, as well as alternative definitions of cannabis withdrawal, to inform revisions leading to DSM-V and ICD-11. [source] The police officer's terrorist dilemma: trust resilience following fatal errorsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2008Mathew P. White Suicide attacks have raised the stakes for officers deciding whether or not to shoot a suspect (,Police Officer's Terrorist Dilemma'). Despite high-profile errors we know little about how trust in the police is affected by their response to the terrorist threat. Building on a conceptualisation of lay observers as intuitive signal detection theorists, a general population sample (N,=,1153) were presented with scenarios manipulated in terms of suspect status (Armed/Unarmed), officer decision (Shoot/Not Shoot) and outcome severity (e.g. suspect armed with Bomb/Knife; police shoot suspect/suspect plus child bystander). Supporting predictions, people showed higher trust in officers who made correct decisions, reflecting good discrimination ability and who decided to shoot, reflecting an ,appropriate' response bias given the relative costs and benefits. This latter effect was moderated by (a) outcome severity, suggesting it did not simply reflect a preference for a particular type of action, and (b) preferences for a tough stance towards terrorism indexed by Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). Despite loss of civilian life, failure to prevent minor terror attacks resulted in no loss of trust amongst people low in RWA, whereas among people high in RWA trust was positive when police erroneously shot an unarmed suspect. Relations to alternative definitions of trust and procedural justice research are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] ENVIRONMENTAL NICHE EQUIVALENCY VERSUS CONSERVATISM: QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES TO NICHE EVOLUTIONEVOLUTION, Issue 11 2008Dan L. Warren Environmental niche models, which are generated by combining species occurrence data with environmental GIS data layers, are increasingly used to answer fundamental questions about niche evolution, speciation, and the accumulation of ecological diversity within clades. The question of whether environmental niches are conserved over evolutionary time scales has attracted considerable attention, but often produced conflicting conclusions. This conflict, however, may result from differences in how niche similarity is measured and the specific null hypothesis being tested. We develop new methods for quantifying niche overlap that rely on a traditional ecological measure and a metric from mathematical statistics. We reexamine a classic study of niche conservatism between sister species in several groups of Mexican animals, and, for the first time, address alternative definitions of "niche conservatism" within a single framework using consistent methods. As expected, we find that environmental niches of sister species are more similar than expected under three distinct null hypotheses, but that they are rarely identical. We demonstrate how our measures can be used in phylogenetic comparative analyses by reexamining niche divergence in an adaptive radiation of Cuban anoles. Our results show that environmental niche overlap is closely tied to geographic overlap, but not to phylogenetic distances, suggesting that niche conservatism has not constrained local communities in this group to consist of closely related species. We suggest various randomization tests that may prove useful in other areas of ecology and evolutionary biology. [source] Competency-Based Education and Assessment for the Accounting Profession: A Critical Review,ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2003J. EFRIM BORITZ ABSTRACT In recent years many professional accounting associations have become interested in establishing competency-based professional requirements and assessment methods for certifying accounting professionals. A competency-based approach to qualification specifies expectations in terms of outcomes, or what an individual can accomplish, rather than in terms of an individual's knowledge or capabilities. This idea has an obvious appeal to many practitioners and administrators of professional qualification programs. However, there is limited knowledge about competency-based approaches in the accounting profession and among accounting academics, which is constraining discussion about the value of these approaches and about the strengths and weaknesses of the different competency models that have sprung up in various jurisdictions. In this paper we review and synthesize the literature on competency-based approaches. We identify a number of theoretical benefits of competency-based approaches. However, we also find many alternative definitions and philosophies underlying competency-based approaches, and a variety of visions of how competencies should be determined and assessed. We note that there is limited evidence supporting many competency-based approaches and we identify 14 research questions that could be used to help policy makers to more effectively address policy matters related to competency-based education and assessment. [source] On the applicability of multireference second-order perturbation theory to study weak magnetic coupling in molecular complexes,JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 6 2008Núria Queralt Abstract The performance of multiconfigurational second-order perturbation techniques is established for the calculation of small magnetic couplings in heterobinuclear complexes. Whereas CASPT2 gives satisfactory results for relatively strong magnetic couplings, the method shows important deviations from the expected Heisenberg spectrum for couplings smaller than 15,20 cm,1. The standard choice of the zeroth-order CASPT2 Hamiltonian is compared to alternative definitions published in the literature and the stability of the results is tested against increasing level shifts. Furthermore, we compare CASPT2 with an alternative implementation of multiconfigurational perturbation theory, namely NEVPT2 and with variational calculations based on the difference dedicated CI technique. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2008 [source] Overeducation and the skills of UK graduatesJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 2 2009Arnaud Chevalier Summary., During the early 1990s the proportion of a cohort entering higher education in the UK doubled over a short period of time. The paper investigates the effect of the expansion on graduates' early labour market attainment, focusing on overeducation. We define overeducation by combining occupation codes and a self-reported measure for the appropriateness of the match between qualification and the job. We therefore define three groups of graduates: matched, apparently overeducated and genuinely overeducated. This measure is well correlated with alternative definitions of overeducation. Comparing pre- and post-expansion cohorts of graduates, we find with this measure that the proportion of overeducated graduates has doubled, even though overeducation wage penalties have remained stable. We do not find that type of institution affects the probability of genuine overeducation. Apparently overeducated graduates are mostly indistinguishable from matched graduates, whereas genuinely overeducated graduates principally lack non-academic skills and suffer a large wage penalty. Individual unobserved heterogeneity differs between the three groups of graduates but controlling for it does not alter these conclusions. [source] Crime and Labour Market Opportunities in Italy (1993,2002)LABOUR, Issue 4 2006Paolo Buonanno Using regional data over the period 1993,2002, we study the impact of wages and unemployment on different types of crime. To mitigate omitted variables bias, we control extensively for demographic and socio-economic variables. Empirical results suggest that unemployment has a large and positive effect on crime rates in southern regions. Our results are robust to model specification, endogeneity, changes in the classification of crimes, and finally, to alternative definitions of unemployment. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||