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Article Attempts (article + attempt)
Selected AbstractsGenetic Algorithms for Optimal Urban Transit Network DesignCOMPUTER-AIDED CIVIL AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING, Issue 3 2003Partha Chakroborty This article attempts to highlight the effectiveness of genetic algorithm (GA),based procedures in solving the urban transit network design problem (UTNDP). The article analyzes why traditional methods have problems in solving the UTNDP. The article also suggests procedures to alleviate these problems using GA,based optimization technique. The thrust of the article is three,fold: (1) to show the effectiveness of GAs in solving the UTNDP, (2) to identify features of the UTNDP that make it a difficult problem for traditional techniques, and (3) to suggest directions, through the presentation of GA,based methodologies for the UTNDP, for the development of GA,based procedures for solving other optimization problems having features similar to the UTNDP. [source] Her kind: Anne Sexton, the Cold War and the idea of the housewifeCRITICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2006CLARE POLLARD As a key figure of the 'Confessional' movement, Anne Sexton's work has often been critically assessed only in relation to her life - her history of mental illness and eventual suicide. This article attempts to place Sexton's poetry back into its historical context, arguing that with American suburbia being viewed as a new 'home front' during the Cold War, the persona of 'Housewife-poet' that Sexton adopted was highly politically charged. Seizing the language of pop-culture - from advertising to sci-fi - Sexton used it to expose the nightmare behind the white picket fence, and deconstruct the carefully constructed propaganda of the American housewife. [source] Skin problems related to noninfectious coastal microorganismsDERMATOLOGIC THERAPY, Issue 1 2002William A. Burke While there are a number of coastal microorganisms that can cause infections of the skin, there are many that can cause skin problems that are noninfectious in nature. From cyanobacterial dermatitis to skin problems related to dinoflagellates, to skin signs of ciguatera or scombroid fish poisonings, to "sea lice"/"seabather's eruption," to "swimmer's itch," this article attempts to separate these entities into distinct syndromes caused by a variety of bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Treatment and prevention of these diseases are also discussed. [source] Transforming the Developmental Welfare State in East AsiaDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2005Huck-ju Kwon This article attempts to explain changes and continuity in the developmental welfare states in Korea and Taiwan within the East Asian context. It first elaborates two strands of welfare developmentalism (selective vs. inclusive), and establishes that the welfare state in both countries fell into the selective category of developmental welfare states before the Asian economic crisis of 1997. The key principles of the selective strand of welfare developmentalism are productivism, selective social investment and authoritarianism; inclusive welfare development is based on productivism, universal social investment and democratic governance. The article then argues that the policy reform toward an inclusive welfare state in Korea and Taiwan was triggered by the need for structural reform in the economy. The need for economic reform, together with democratization, created institutional space in policy-making for advocacy coalitions, which made successful advances towards greater social rights. Finally, the article argues that the experiences of Korea and Taiwan counter the neo-liberal assertion that the role of social policy in economic development is minor, and emphasizes that the idea of an inclusive developmental welfare state should be explored in the wider context of economic and social development. [source] Expanding field of purinergic signalingDRUG DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH, Issue 1-2 2001Geoffrey Burnstock Abstract This article attempts to paint a broad picture of the extraordinary explosive recent developments in the purinergic signaling field. After a brief historical review and update of purinoceptor subtypes, the focus is on the physiological roles of purines and pyrimidines. These are considered both in terms of short-term signaling in neurotransmission, secretion, and vasodilatation and in long-term (trophic) signaling in development, regeneration, proliferation, and cell death. Examples of trophic signaling include cartilage development in limb buds, glial cell proliferation, development of skeletal muscle, changes in receptor expression in smooth-muscle phenotypes, maturation of testicular spermatids, and bone remodeling. Plasticity of purinoceptor expression in pathological conditions is described, including the increase in the purinergic component of parasympathetic nervous control of the human bladder in interstitial cystitis and outflow obstruction and in sympathetic cotransmitter control of blood vessels in hypertensive rats, the appearance of P2X7 receptors in the glomeruli of the kidney from diabetic and transgenic hypertensive animal models, and up-regulation of P2X1 and P2Y2 receptor mRNA in hearts of rats with congestive heart failure. The role of P2X3 receptors in nociception is considered, and a new hypothesis about purinergic mechanosensory transduction in the gut is explored. A personal view of some of the areas ripe for future development concludes this article, including a discussion of different strategies that could lead to the development of purinergic therapeutic agents. Drug Dev. Res. 52:1,10, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Illness, power and prayer in Asser's Life of King AlfredEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 2 2001Paul Kershaw Asser's account of Alfred's mysterious illnesses is one of the most puzzling and most-discussed passages in his Life. This article attempts to place this account in its contemporary setting, analysing its devotional, intellectual and political contexts, in order to argue that, far from being an anomaly, it reflects the cultural interests of the Alfredian court and the influence upon it of contemporary Carolingian notions of rulership. In the process, Asser is shown to be an author with a keen sense of the prevailing notions of royal authority, but one equally aware of the potential dangers such notions could bring, particularly when one key royal attribute, humility, could be seen as indicative more of weakness than fitness to rule. Taken as a whole, the ideas, allusions and influences present in the work allow Asser's Life to be seen not merely as a descriptive but also as a thematic portrait of the king's intellectual interests. Above all, the Life emerges as a work with strong resonances with the cultural preoccupations of the late ninth century. [source] Testimony and Trauma in Herta Müller's HerztierGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 1 2000Beverley Driver Eddy This article attempts to distinguish between testimony (an account of one's personal, limited knowledge of a crime or an atrocity) and trauma (a reconstructed life-story intended to overcome a troubling, recurring memory by locating that memory within its larger, historical context). It is the author's contention that Herta Müller's novel Herztier is a skilful blending of testimony and trauma narrative that illuminates the terrors of the Ceaus¸escu dictatorship and their lasting impact on its survivors. The testimonial aspects of the novel reveal one's inability to achieve complete knowledge of another's trauma, while the trauma narrative, through skilful incorporation of recurring, ,transfinite' images into the text, links the personal stories of the narrator and her friends by subsuming them and making them part of the history of a larger, national trauma. As Müller's novel makes clear, neither testimony nor trauma narrative is able to heal or bring closure to the victims of the Romanian state terror. [source] Public Education Financing Trends and the Gray Peril HypothesisGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2009DAYTON M. LAMBERT ABSTRACT The effects of migrating seniors on the provision of local public services in rural communities is growing in importance because of the large number of retiring baby boomers and the increasing rate at which these retirees are locating outside traditional retirement destinations. Some communities are optimistic about attracting and retaining retirees as an economic development strategy, but others are concerned that inmigrating seniors may be reluctant to support local public services, such as education, bringing with them "Gray Peril." This article attempts to clarify questions regarding the Gray Peril hypothesis and local ability and willingness to fund education in Tennessee, an increasingly popular retirement destination. To this end, county per pupil education expenditure growth is explained by growth trends in local property tax assessment and sales tax revenue, and migration patterns of the retirement-aged population from 1962 to 2002. [source] Steps toward nationhood: Henry Laurens (1724,92) and the American Revolution in the South*HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 200 2005James J. Kirschke Henry Laurens's political career ranks among the South's crucial contributions to the Revolution and American nationhood, contributions that historians have largely neglected. This article attempts to estimate this Southern role through an examination of Laurens's life and letters, and the political culture of his home state, South Carolina. Laurens and others in the South, despite an incongruous commitment to slavery, gave the emerging nation a distinctly Southern stamp by advocating state federalism, the sovereignty of the people through democratic legislature, and a strong executive. [source] The household and entourage of Charles I of Anjou, king of the Regno, 1266,85HISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 197 2004Jean H. Dunbabin This article attempts to reconstitute from the scrappy surviving records Charles I's household and court. For a conqueror, the choice of companions could have serious political implications. While Charles's immediate domestic circle was French in origin and organized on the example of Louis IX's household, he deliberately encouraged and paid for the attendance of men from Provence and the Regno, both in his travelling entourage and at his great court appearances at liturgical feasts. Beyond these intimates, he accepted into his fidelity, and therefore into his broader court circle, a wide range of talented individuals from all parts of his ,empire'. [source] More than a great poster: Lord Kitchener and the image of the military heroHISTORICAL RESEARCH, Issue 185 2001Keith Surridge Lord Kitchener was once a great legendary figure but the imagery and iconography used to create the legend is less well known. By using his papers and contemporary literature this article attempts to shed light on how Kitchener was regarded by his peers and the public. Instead of the wholesome English traits attributed to his predecessors, Kitchener's admirers and enemies described him as ,oriental', ,teutonic', devious, cruel, machine-like and efficient, which made him the ideal champion for a country undergoing a collective crisis of confidence before 1914. Thus Kitchener was, in many ways, a new kind of hero. [source] Continental Connections: Britain and Europe in the Eighteenth CenturyHISTORY, Issue 299 2005STEPHEN CONWAY The topic of empire has loomed large in recent writings on eighteenth-century Britain. This article attempts to encourage greater appreciation of Britain's multifarious connections with continental Europe in this period. It also seeks to establish that empire and Europe were seen by many Britons as complementary rather than competing areas of interest and engagement. [source] From D'Avaux to Dévot: Politics and Religion in the Thirty Years WarHISTORY, Issue 286 2002Paul Sonnino This article attempts to reformulate the classic question of whether the Thirty Years War was political or religious by examining the career of the Count d'Avaux, one of Cardinal Richelieu's principal agents in Germany and, in the time of Mazarin, one of France's plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Westphalia. All three men made a distinction between a political and religious war, but where they differed, and where D'Avaux was closer to Richelieu than to Mazarin, was in the relative weight each gave to considerations of legality, necessity, and conscience. [source] Making Sense of Theatre in the Third ReichHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2010Gerwin Strobl In the crowded field of studies on Nazi Germany the role of theatre in the Third Reich continues to be a neglected subject. The reluctance to engage with the topic is particularly true among historians and is in striking contrast to the attention devoted in recent years to other branches of the arts. Yet theatre actually received lavish funding from the Nazi regime. Indeed at no time in the history of the German stage was the provision so opulent, and the Nazi leadership went to considerable lengths to maintain the theatre sector even in wartime. The neglect of the theatre therefore constitutes more of a reflection on the priorities of the historical profession than those of the Nazi regime. This article attempts to redress the balance and to explore possible reasons for the limited treatment of the subject in the existing literature. [source] The Global Marketplace and the Privatisation of SecurityIDS BULLETIN, Issue 2 2009Jeffrey Isima The privatisation of security in the age of globalisation raises crucial concerns for global governance and development. Key among these are the impacts on the structures of poverty and inequality, and how these twin development issues shape global security privatisation. Equally important are the structural limits on public policy imposed by the promotion of the market as a powerful alternative mechanism for security provisioning. These concerns have become more urgent as the dominant neoliberal security governance paradigm has tended to avoid questions relating to poverty, social inequality and the dire condition of those who live on the margins of state protection. This calls for innovative policy changes for transforming security institutions and practices in a way that promotes security, not just for state officials and the wealthy, but most importantly, for the poor. This article attempts to explore these core development concerns in relation to the increasing outsourcing of security to non-state actors and how state actors, as leading agents of development, can protect and promote the wellbeing of vulnerable populations within the global market order. [source] Fibrosis in heart disease: understanding the role of transforming growth factor-,1 in cardiomyopathy, valvular disease and arrhythmiaIMMUNOLOGY, Issue 1 2006Razi Khan Summary The importance of fibrosis in organ pathology and dysfunction appears to be increasingly relevant to a variety of distinct diseases. In particular, a number of different cardiac pathologies seem to be caused by a common fibrotic process. Within the heart, this fibrosis is thought to be partially mediated by transforming growth factor-,1 (TGF-,1), a potent stimulator of collagen-producing cardiac fibroblasts. Previously, TGF-,1 had been implicated solely as a modulator of the myocardial remodelling seen after infarction. However, recent studies indicate that dilated, ischaemic and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies are all associated with raised levels of TGF-,1. In fact, the pathogenic effects of TGF-,1 have now been suggested to play a major role in valvular disease and arrhythmia, particularly atrial fibrillation. Thus far, medical therapy targeting TGF-,1 has shown promise in a multitude of heart diseases. These therapies provide great hope, not only for treatment of symptoms but also for prevention of cardiac pathology as well. As is stated in the introduction, most reviews have focused on the effects of cytokines in remodelling after myocardial infarction. This article attempts to underline the significance of TGF-,1 not only in the post-ischaemic setting, but also in dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies, valvular diseases and arrhythmias (focusing on atrial fibrillation). It also aims to show that TGF-,1 is an appropriate target for therapy in a variety of cardiovascular diseases. [source] Unraveling Home and Host Country Effects: An Investigation of the HR Policies of an American Multinational in Four European CountriesINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2005PHIL ALMOND This article argues that the institutional "home" and "host" country effects on employment policy and practice in multinational corporations (MNCs) need to be analyzed within a framework which takes more account both of the multiple levels of embeddedness experienced by the MNC, and processes of negotiation at different levels within the firm. Using in-depth case study analysis of the human resource (HR) structure and industrial relations and pay policies of a large U.S.-owned MNC in the IT sector, across Germany, Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the article attempts to move towards such a framework. [source] A new method of vegetation,climate classification in ChinaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2008Sun Yanling Abstract Coefficient C is a synthetic index from the third correlative equation, which represents the state of moisture in a region and may be used for assigning vegetation zonality. The third correlative equation is a new equation concerning heat and water balance from knowledge of evaporation on land. In this article, coefficient C and accumulated temperature over 5 °C (AT5) are combined to predict the distribution of vegetation zones in China. Predictions of vegetation distribution are made using observational climate data interpolated into a 25 × 25 km grid. The overall impression from examining the resulting vegetation map is that the location and distribution of vegetation zones in China are predicted fairly well. Comparison between the predicted vegetation map and the vegetation regionalization map are based on Kappa statistics and indicate very good agreement for the cold,temperate coniferous forest zone, the subtropical evergreen broadleaved forest zone, and the temperate mixed coniferous,broadleaved forest zone. Agreement is good for the warm,temperate deciduous broadleaved forest zone, the temperate steppe zone, the temperate desert zone, and the Tibetan high-cold plateau zone. Agreement between the regionalization map and the produced map is fair for the tropical rainforest and monsoon forest zone. Compared with those produced by the Holdridge, Thornthwaite, Penman, and the Kira models, as well as the Budyko method, the Kappa statistics in this article are all better except for the cold,temperate (boreal) coniferous forest zone and the temperate desert zone. The results are particularly superior for the Tibetan high-cold plateau zone. Coefficient C provides important information for predicting the distribution of vegetation zones in China, and this article attempts to study vegetation,climate classification on a large scale using coefficient C and AT5. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society [source] The Place of Theology in Theological HermeneuticsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 2 2002Donald Wood This article attempts to analyse the recent theological interest in special hermeneutics by tracking the place it accords Christian doctrine when construing the context of scriptural interpretation. A typology is developed which both takes up and relativizes the distinction between general and special hermeneutics, arguing that while the church may welcome the renewed interest in its own peculiar reading practices, it need not lean too heavily on the philosophical and sociological commitments that underlie much of the interest in special hermeneutics. Theological hermeneutics will best serve the church when it attends from first to last to the divine grace that establishes and limits the church's interpretation of scripture. [source] Transnational worker representation and transnational training needs: the case of European works councilsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2001Doug Miller The ongoing establishment of transnational information and consultation set in train by the European Works Council Directive of September 1994 is estimated to impact on approximately 25,000 employee representatives in some 1200 multinationals based in the EEA and beyond. This presents labour educators with enormous opportunities and challenges. Specific research questions which emerge in this context concern the extent to which such representatives have a set of generic and therefore transnational training needs in the area of skill, knowledge, and values/attitudes. Second, there is the extent to which existing methods of training needs identification are appropriate to detect and specify both individual and collective/organisational needs at this level. A third question concerns the prospects for transnational worker representatives to embed training needs analysis in their practice. This article attempts to shed some light on these questions. [source] Introduction: between cultures and naturesINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 187 2006Marie Roué How can indigenous peoples react to a situation of change that has a particularly strong effect on their youth? This article attempts to understand whether young Crees, who today find themselves all too often in a situation of double social exclusion, can complete their schooling, thus qualifying for work in the dominant society, while at the same time gaining command of the knowledge and know-how of their own society. Among the James Bay Cree Indians, some elders welcome youngsters after a period of delinquency and who are having problems into their hunting camps, and by initiating them to life "on the land" succeed in restoring their relationship with the world. This exemplary experience makes it possible to imagine solutions for helping indigenous youth fully to benefit from the two worlds in which they have roots. The elders, by inventing a healing process based on an initiation to the natural and cultural environment, offer a modern-day shamanism. [source] Healing the wounds of school by returning to the land: Cree elders come to the rescue of a lost generationINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 187 2006Marie Roué How can indigenous peoples react to a situation of change that has a particularly strong effect on their youth? This article attempts to understand whether young Crees, who today find themselves all too often in a situation of double social exclusion, can complete their schooling, thus qualifying for work in the dominant society, while at the same time gaining command of the knowledge and know-how of their own society. Among the James Bay Cree Indians, some elders welcome youngsters after a period of delinquency and who are having problems into their hunting camps, and by initiating them to life "on the land" succeed in restoring their relationship with the world. This exemplary experience makes it possible to imagine solutions for helping indigenous youth fully to benefit from the two worlds in which they have roots. The elders, by inventing a healing process based on an initiation to the natural and cultural environment, offer a modern-day shamanism. [source] Theorizing Religious Effects Among American AdolescentsJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 1 2003Christian Smith A large body of empirical studies shows that religion often serves as a factor promoting positive, healthy outcomes in the lives of American adolescents. Yet existing theoretical explanations for these religious effects remain largely disjointed and fragmented. This article attempts to formulate a more systematic, integrated, and coherent account of religion's constructive influence in the lives of American youth, suggesting nine key factors (moral directives, spiritual experiences, role models, community and leadership skills, coping skills, cultural capital, social capital, network closure, and extra,community links) that cluster around three key dimensions of influence (moral order, learned competencies, and social and organizational ties). [source] Adoption and Abandonment of Organic Farming: An Empirical Investigation of the Irish Drystock SectorJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2010Doris Läpple Q12; C41; Q16 Abstract There is a considerable literature about the adoption of organic farming. However, possible abandonment of organic farming has received scant attention. Thus, relatively little is known about the exit decisions of farmers. In addition, most studies are based on a static framework where it is not possible to account for changes in farmer decisions over time. This article attempts to fill this gap in the literature by investigating the determinants that affect both adoption and abandonment of organic drystock farming over time. The use of duration analysis allows for the consideration of cross-sectional and time-varying factors over the study period from 1981 to 2008. Using this dynamic econometric framework revealed a significant time effect on entry and exit decisions. Overall, the results highlight that where no attempt is made to account for exit decisions and time effects, important information about sustainable farmer decisions may not be taken into consideration. [source] INVESTOR RELATIONS, LIQUIDITY, AND STOCK PRICESJOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 4 2000Michael J. Brennan Although the first investor relations department was established by General Electric as long ago as 1952, the role of investor relations (IR) is one that has largely escaped scientific analysis and academic scrutiny. This article attempts to demonstrate the importance of a company's IR activities for its stock price by establishing a clear chain of causation between the following: 1,corporate IR activities and the number of stock analysts who follow the firm; 2,the number of analysts who follow the firm and the liquidity of trading in the firm's shares; 3,the liquidity of the firm's shares and its required rate of return, or cost of capital. The authors begin by presenting evidence that corporate IR activities, in the form of high levels of disclosure and presentations to investment analysts, increase the number of analysts who follow the firm by reducing their cost of acquiring information. Studies have also shown that more effective IR tends to improve the accuracy of analyst forecasts and the degree of agreement among analysts. Second, the authors summarize their own research showing that the number of analysts who follow a firm has a positive effect on the liquidity of the firm's shares. More specifically, their findings can be interpreted as saying that, for the average company, coverage by six additional analysts reduces "market-impact costs" (using a measure known as Kyle's lambda) by 28%, holding volume constant. And when the indirect effect of increased analyst coverage through expanded volume is taken into account, the reduction in trading costs is estimated to be as high as 85%. The final link in the chain of analysis is the growing evidence (much of it reviewed in the preceding article) that increased liquidity leads to a lower cost of capital and thus higher stock prices. In sum, a firm can reduce its cost of capital and increase its stock price through more effective investor relations activities, which reduce the cost of information to the market and to investment analysts in particular. [source] Using participatory methods and geographic information systems (GIS) to prepare for an hiv community-based trial in Vulindlela, South Africa (Project Accept,HPTN 043),,JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Admire Chirowodza Recent attempts to integrate geographic information systems (GIS) and participatory techniques, have given rise to terminologies such as participatory GIS and community-integrated GIS. Although GIS was initially developed for physical geographic application, it can be used for the management and analysis of health and health care data. Geographic information systems, combined with participatory methodology, have facilitated the analysis of access to health facilities and disease risk in different populations. Little has been published about the usefulness of combining participatory methodologies and GIS technology in an effort to understand and inform community-based intervention studies, especially in the context of HIV. This article attempts to address this perceived gap in the literature. The authors describe the application of participatory research methods with GIS in the formative phase of a multisite community-based social mobilization trial, using voluntary counseling and testing and post-test support as the intervention. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Anatomy of a crisis: the causes and consequences of surging food pricesAGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2008Derek Headey Agricultural policy; Commodity markets; Biofuels Abstract Although the potential causes and consequences of recent rising international food prices have attracted widespread attention, many existing appraisals are superficial and/or piecemeal. This article attempts to provide a more comprehensive review of these issues based on the best and most recent research, as well as on fresh theoretical and empirical analysis. We first analyze the causes of the current crisis by considering how well standard explanations hold up against relevant economic theory and important stylized facts. Some explanations turn out to hold up much better than others, especially rising oil prices, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, biofuels demand, and some commodity-specific explanations. We then provide an appraisal of the likely macro- and microeconomic impacts of the crisis on developing countries. We observe a large gap between macro and micro factors, which, when identifying the most vulnerable countries, often point in different directions. We conclude with a brief discussion of what ought to be learned from this crisis. [source] Leaving against medical advice: Facing the issue in the emergency departmentJOURNAL OF HEALTHCARE RISK MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009Edward P. Monico MD Patients leaving the emergency department (ED) against medical advice (AMA) represent 0.1% to 2.7% of all ED patients. These patients create significant angst for emergency physicians because these patients frequently have serious underlying medical pathology and tend to represent a higher-than-average source of medical-legal liability than other ED patients. This article attempts to mitigate these risks by reviewing what we know about AMA encounters from the ED and providing documentation guidelines for the encounter. [source] Evaluating the impact of agricultural extension on farms' performance in Crete: a nonneutral stochastic frontier approachAGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2007Ariel Dinar Farm performance; Extension; Stochastic frontier Abstract This article attempts to integrate the production- and the efficiency-based approaches for evaluating the impact of extension on farms' performance. For this purpose the nonneutral production frontier model is used, and the empirical analysis refers to a sample of farms from Crete, Greece. The empirical results support the proposed formulation instead of either the production- or the efficiency-based formulations as extension was found to have a statistically significant effect on closing both the technology and management gaps. Public and private extension services were found to be competitive in the production function and complementary in the technical inefficiency effect function. In addition, farms using both public and private extension services achieved a higher degree of technical efficiency than those using either public or private extension services, and farms with no extension services were found to be the least efficient. [source] Materials Metabolism Analysis of China's Highway Traffic System (HTS) for Promoting Circular EconomyJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Zongguo Wen Summary With the rapid growth of highway mileage and vehicles, the Chinese highway traffic system (HTS) has become one of the great resource consumers. This article attempts to evaluate the material metabolism of China's HTS during 2001,2005 using the approach of material flow analysis (MFA) and to explore possible measures to promote circular economy throughout HTS. We measured a set of indicators to illustrate the whole material metabolism of China's HTS. The results indicated that the direct material input (DMI) of China's HTS increased from 1181.26 million tonnes (Mt) in 2001 to 1,874.57 Mt in 2005, and about 80% of DMI was accumulated in the system as infrastructure and vehicles. The domestic processed output (DPO) increased by 59.0% from 2001 to 2005. Carbon dioxide and solid waste accounted for 80.5% and 10.4% of DPO, respectively. The increase of resource consumption and pollutant emissions kept pace with the growth of transportation turnover. All these suggest that China's HTS still followed an extensive linear developing pattern with large resource consumption and heavy pollution emissions during the study period, which brought great challenges to the resources and the environment. Therefore, it's high time for China to implement a circular economy throughout the HTS by instituting resource and energy savings, by reducing emissions in the field of infrastructure construction and maintenance, by reducing vehicles' energy and materials consumption, and by recycling waste materials. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||