Home  About us  Contact
 

Increased Importance (increased + importance)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting37%
Medical Sciences25%
Humanities and Social Sciences25%

Selected Abstracts

Private Pension Arrangements and Retirement in Britain,

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2005
James Banks
Abstract This paper looks at the policy debate surrounding private pensions and retirement patterns in the UK. Recent increases in longevity have led not only to increased pressures in public pensions but also to corresponding increases in the importance of private pensions in the UK and changes in the way in which they are structured. We consider the economic implications of these changes, and in particular the increased importance of defined contribution plans. In addition, we discuss the prospects for future trends in retirement ages. [source]

The Take-Up of Multiple Means-Tested Benefits by British Pensioners: Evidence from the Family Resources Survey

FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2004
RUTH HANCOCK
Non-take-up of means-tested benefits among pensioners is of long-standing concern. It has assumed increased importance from October 2003 with the introduction of the new means-tested pension credit to which about half of pensioners are expected to be entitled. We use Family Resources Survey data from April 1997 to March 2000 to investigate patterns of pensioner take-up of income support (IS) (subsequently renamed the minimum income guarantee and now subsumed in pension credit), housing benefit (HB) and council tax benefit (CTB). Although 36 per cent of pensioners in our sample failed to claim their entitlements to at least one of these benefits, only 16 per cent failed to claim amounts worth more than 10 per cent of their disposable income. Generally, take-up is high where entitlement is high. But there are exceptions which may reflect the claims process and/or a greater degree of social stigma associated with IS than with HB or CTB. [source]

Suburbanisation in relation to education in the Tallinn metropolitan area

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 4 2007
Tiit Tammaru
Abstract Significant changes occur in the social stratification order and spatial redistribution of population in countries in transition. One of the important dimensions in the changing social stratification order is related to the increased importance of education. Dominance of suburbanisation is an important dimension in spatial population change. The aim of the current article is to study these two important dimensions of social and spatial change by analysing suburbanisation with regard to the level of education of residential migrants in the Tallinn metropolitan area, Estonia. The study is based on census data from the year 2000 and it employs logistic regression to compare suburbanisers with stayers in Tallinn and its suburbs. The main findings indicate that suburbanisation reduces inequalities in the educational composition of people living in Tallinn and its suburbs on the one hand, but increases socio-spatial segregation within the suburbs on the other. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Relative Performance Evaluation Contracts and Asset Market Equilibrium,

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 506 2005
Sandeep Kapur
We analyse the equilibrium consequences of performance-based contracts for fund managers. Managerial remuneration is tied to a fund's absolute and relative performance. Investors choose whether or not to delegate their investment to better-informed fund managers; if they delegate they choose the optimal contract subject to the fund manager's participation constraint. We find that the impact of relative performance evaluation on the equilibrium equity premium and on portfolio herding critically depends on whether the participation constraint is binding. Simple numerical examples suggest that the increased importance of delegation and relative performance evaluation may lower the equity premium. [source]

Voxel-based morphometry depicts central compensation after vestibular neuritis

ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Peter zu Eulenburg MD
Objective Patients who have had vestibular neuritis (VN) show a remarkable clinical improvement especially in gait and posture >6 months after disease onset. Methods Voxel-based morphometry was used to detect the VN-induced changes in gray and white matter by means of structural magnetic resonance imaging. Twenty-two patients were compared an average 2.5 years after onset of VN to a healthy sex-and age-matched control group. Results Our analysis revealed that all patients had signal intensity increases for gray matter in the medial vestibular nuclei and the right gracile nucleus and for white matter in the area of the pontine commissural vestibular fibers. A relative atrophy was observed in the left posterior hippocampus and the right superior temporal gyrus. Patients with a residual canal paresis also showed an increase of gray matter in middle temporal (MT)/V5 bilaterally. Interpretation These findings indicate that the processes of central compensation after VN seem to occur in 3 different sensory systems. First of all, the vestibular system itself showed a white matter increase in the commissural fibers as a direct consequence of an increased internuclei vestibular crosstalk of the medial vestibular nuclei. Second, to regain postural stability, there was a shift to the somatosensory system due to an elevated processing of proprioceptive information in the right gracile nucleus. Third, there was a bilateral increase in the area of MT/V5 in VN patients with a residual peripheral vestibular hypofunction. This seems to be the result of an increased importance of visual motion processing. ANN NEUROL 2010;68:241,249 [source]

Effect of incubation temperature on carbohydrate digestion in important teleosts for aquaculture

AQUACULTURE RESEARCH, Issue 13 2005
Eustratios S Papoutsoglou
Abstract The activity and capacity (activity × tissue weight) of digestive carbohydrases (total carbohydrase, ,-glucosidase, ,-amylase) was examined in vitro under a range of (more realistic) incubation temperatures (5, 18 and 25°C) and pH (7.6) more likely to be encountered during rearing, along the digestive tract of important teleost species for aquaculture (Dicentrarchus labrax, Sparus aurata, Oreochromis aureus, Oncorhynchus mykiss and Salmo salar). Results indicate, among other things, an overestimation of digestive carbohydrase levels when performing assays at 37°C, a different effect of temperature on digestive enzyme performance along the digestive tract of examined species, and the increased importance of ,-glucosidase towards carbohydrate digestion. Implications regarding the capacity of each species for carbohydrate digestion in nature, as well as feed manufacturing, are discussed. [source]

Global production networks, the developmental state and the articulation of Asia Pacific economies in the commercial aircraft industry

ASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 3 2007
John T. Bowen Jr.
Abstract: Asia Pacific economies , particularly Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore , play a large and growing role in the commercial aircraft industry, despite the fact that the region has no major independent plane-maker. Instead, Asia has secured a significant position in the increasingly elaborate global production networks of Boeing and Airbus. The wider Asian significance in those networks has been fostered not only by the region's deep capital and human resource assets but also by the catalytic actions of developmental states in the region. Moreover, decades of rapid air traffic growth have made Asia a crucial market for Boeing and Airbus. In response, the American and European giants have been compelled to outsource more of their business to Asia in order to win sales and to design new airliners tailored to the needs of Asian customers. Together, the increased importance of Asia in both the design and the manufacture of commercial aircraft point to a future in which Asia will capture an ever-larger share of the value created in one of the world's most technologically sophisticated and strategically significant industries. [source]

Lowering of blood pressure during chronic suppression of central sympathetic outflow: Insight from computer simulations

CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PHARMACOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Radu Iliescu
Summary 1. Chronic electrical stimulation of the carotid sinuses has provided unique insight into the mechanisms that cause sustained reductions in blood pressure during chronic suppression of central sympathetic outflow. 2. Because renal denervation does not abolish the sustained fall in arterial pressure in response to baroreflex activation, this observation has seemingly challenged the concept that the kidneys play a critical role in the long-term control of arterial pressure during chronic changes in sympathetic activity. The aim of the present study was to use computer simulations to provide a more comprehensive understanding of physiological mechanisms that mediate sustained reductions in arterial pressure during prolonged baroreflex-mediated suppression of central sympathetic outflow. 3. Physiological responses to baroreflex activation under different conditions were simulated by an established mathematical model of human physiology (QHP2008; see Supporting Information (Appendix S1) provided in the online version of this article and/or http://groups.google.com/group/modelingworkshop). The model closely reproduced empirical data, providing important validation of its accuracy. 4. The simulations indicated that baroreflex-mediated suppression of renal sympathetic nerve activity does chronically increase renal excretory function but that, in addition, hormonal and haemodynamic mechanisms also contribute to this natriuretic response. The contribution of these redundant natriuretic mechanisms to the chronic lowering of blood pressure is of increased importance when suppression of renal adrenergic activity is prevented, such as after renal denervation. Activation of these redundant natriuretic mechanisms occurs at the expense of excessive fluid retention. 5. More broadly, the present study illustrates the value of numerical simulations in elucidating physiological mechanisms that are not obvious intuitively and, in some cases, not readily testable in experimental studies. [source]