Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Third Section (third + section)
Selected AbstractsNMR studies of chiral organic compounds in non-isotropic phasesCONCEPTS IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE, Issue 3 2008Marek J. Potrzebowski Abstract In this article, new applications and perspectives of one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy for study of chiral organic compounds in the non-isotropic phases (solid state and liquid crystals) are presented. The review is organized into five sections. In the first part, theoretical background and short introduction to solid state NMR are shown. The second part presents how NMR isotropic chemical shift can be used for distinguishing of racemates and enantiomers. In the third section, the power of the ODESSA pulse sequence for investigation of racemates, enantiomers and establishing of enantiomeric excess are discussed. The fourth part shows the application of analysis of principal elements of chemical shift tensors obtained by means of 2D NMR techniques for searching of absolute configuration and conformational changes in the solid state. The final part presents recent achievements of chiral liquid crystals NMR methodology for study of chiral compounds. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part A 32A:201,218, 2008. [source] Autoassociator networks: insights into infant cognitionDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2004Sylvain Sirois This paper presents autoassociator neural networks. A first section reviews the architecture of these models, common learning rules, and presents sample simulations to illustrate their abilities. In a second section, the ability of these models to account for learning phenomena such as habituation is reviewed. The contribution of these networks to discussions about infant cognition is highlighted. A new, modular approach is presented in a third section. In the discussion, a role for these learning models in a broader developmental framework is proposed. [source] Standard-Setting Methods as Measurement ProcessesEDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2010Paul Nichols Some writers in the measurement literature have been skeptical of the meaningfulness of achievement standards and described the standard-setting process as blatantly arbitrary. We argue that standard setting is more appropriately conceived of as a measurement process similar to student assessment. The construct being measured is the panelists' representation of student performance at the threshold of an achievement level. In the first section of this paper, we argue that standard setting is an example of stimulus-centered measurement. In the second section, we elaborate on this idea by comparing some popular standard-setting methods to the stimulus-centered scaling methods known as psychophysical scaling. In the third section, we use the lens of standard setting as a measurement process to take a fresh look at the two criticisms of standard setting: the role of judgment and the variability of results. In the fourth section, we offer a vision of standard-setting research and practice as grounded in the theory and practice of educational measurement. [source] Upgrading, uneven development, and jobs in the North American apparel industryGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 2 2003Jennifer Bair In this article we examine the developmental consequences of globalization at multiple scales, using a commodity chains framework to investigate the case of the North American apparel industry. In the first section we outline the apparel commodity chain and offer a brief typology of its lead firms. In the second section we discuss the concept of industrial upgrading and describe several main export roles in the global apparel industry. In the third section we focus on the regional dynamics resulting from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We contrast the Mexican experience with that of countries in the Caribbean Basin to show the impact of distinct trade policies on export-oriented development. We argue that NAFTA is creating upgrading opportunities for some Mexican firms to move from the low value-added export-oriented assembly (or maquila) model to full-package production. In the fourth section we explore the unevenness of upgrading dynamics through a comparison of two blue jeans manufacturing clusters in the United States and Mexico: El Paso and Torreon. Our conclusions about upgrading and uneven development in the North American apparel industry emphasize the importance of local, national and regional institutional contexts in shaping inter-firm networks and their development impact. [source] Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy-MakingGOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2000David P. Dolowitz In recent years there has been a growing body of literature within political science and international studies that directly and indirectly uses, discusses and analyzes the processes involved in lesson-drawing, policy convergence, policy diffusion and policy transfer. While the terminology and focus often vary, all of these studies are concerned with a similar process in which knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political setting (past or present) is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political setting. Given that this is a growing phenomenon, it is something that anyone studying public policy needs to consider. As such, this article is divided into four major sections. The first section briefly considers the extent of, and reasons for, the growth of policy transfer. The second section then outlines a framework for the analysis of transfer. From here a third section presents a continuum for distinguishing between different types of policy transfer. Finally, the last section addresses the relationship between policy transfer and policy "failure." [source] 3. HISTORIOGRAPHY WITHOUT GOD: A REPLY TO GREGORY,HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2008TOR EGIL FØRLAND ABSTRACT This reply aims both to respond to Gregory and to move forward the debate about God's place in historiography. The first section is devoted to the nature of science and God. Whereas Gregory thinks science is based on metaphysical naturalism with a methodological corollary of critical-realist empiricism, I see critical, empiricist methodology as basic, and naturalism as a consequence. Gregory's exposition of his apophatic theology, in which univocity is eschewed, illustrates the fissure between religious and scientific worldviews,no matter which basic scientific theory one subscribes to. The second section is allotted to miracles. As I do, Gregory thinks no miracle occurred on Fox Lakes in 1652, but he restricts himself to understanding the actors and explaining change over time, and refuses to explain past or contemporary actions and events. Marc Bloch, in his book The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France, is willing to go much further than Gregory. Using his superior medical knowledge to substitute his own explanation of the phenomenon for that of the actors, Bloch dismisses the actors' beliefs that they or others had been miraculously cured, and explains that they believed they saw miraculous healing because they were expecting to see it. In the third section, on historical explanation, I rephrase the question whether historians can accommodate both believers in God and naturalist scientists, asking whether God, acting miraculously or not, can be part of the ideal explanatory text. I reply in the negative, and explicate how the concept of a plural subject suggests how scientists can also be believers. This approach may be compatible with two options presented by Peter Lipton for resolving the tension between religion and science. The first is to see the truth claims of religious texts as untranslatable into scientific language (and vice versa); the other is to immerse oneself in religious texts by accepting them as a guide but not believing in their truth claims when these contradict science. [source] Ethical aspects of technical safetyHUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 3 2003Carl Friedrich Gethmann Uncertainty and inequality are the most important phenomena that lead to the situation in which the modern technical age, in contrast to the premodern technical phase, gives rise to specifically moral problems which in the premodern era played only a marginal role or no role at all. So modern, technically constituted societies must learn to develop from the initial perception of dangers to a rational risk assessment. To justify this ethical obligation, the first section discusses the relation between danger and risk. The problem of weighing risks is analyzed in the second section; in this context the concept of pragmatic consistency is introduced. In the third section, the term safety is explicated as a comparative concept by means of the principle of pragmatic consistency. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 13: 243,252, 2003. [source] "Grab the Signatures and Run": Federal Unity Strategy in Canada from the Referendum to PatriationINTERNATIONAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Neal Carter Whether as a traumatic event or great accomplishment, the legacy of the First Ministers' Conference of 1981 lives on in Canadian politics. Constitutional negotiations among the prime minister and provincial premiers in 1981 produced the only "packaged" agreement since Confederation to achieve even the minimal support necessary to achieve ratification. The resulting Constitution Act of 1982, which included the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, remains in place and is the principal manifestation of intergovernmental bargaining from over two decades ago. This study reevaluates the strategic interaction and conflict processes that took place between Ottawa and the provinces in negotiations leading up to that fateful November 1981 conference. We apply the sociological framework for assessment of the dynamics of identity contention adopted from McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly (2001) and find tentative support for its propositions. After an overview of the article's agenda, we present an analytic framework for the study of conflict processes. Second, the background to the constitutional crisis of 1980-81 is summarized. Using the analytic framework, the third section focuses on the federal strategy in the crisis as suggested by minutes from cabinet meetings, and the fourth section examines key events of the First Ministers Conference of November 1981. Fifth, and finally, the contributions of the preceding sections are summed up and ideas are put forward for further research. [source] Hyperbranched cyclic and multicyclic polymers by "a2+b4" polycondensationsJOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE (IN TWO SECTIONS), Issue 8 2009Hans R. Kricheldorf Abstract At first, theoretical aspects of "a2+b4" polycondensations (meaning polycondensations of difunctional and tetrafunctional monomers) are discussed and compared with what is known about "a2+b3" polycondensations. The following review of experimental results is subdivided into three sections. First, syntheses of hyperbranched polyethers and polyesters by polycondensations based on equimolar feed ratios will be reported. Second, kinetically controlled (i.e., irreversible) syntheses of multicyclic polymers using equifunctional feed ratios (i.e., a2/b4 ratios of 2:1) will be described. In the third section, syntheses of multicyclic polymers via thermodynamically controlled (reversible) "a2+b4" polycondensations will be discussed. Characteristic for these polycondensations are again equifunctional feed ratios and metal alkoxides as "a2" or "b4" monomers, which catalyze rapid equilibration reactions. Finally, potential applications of the new polymers will shortly be mentioned. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1971,1987, 2009 [source] The Transparency of MetaphorMIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 3 2006SAMUEL GUTTENPLAN In the second and longest section, I explore a major difficulty for certain of these accounts, namely the need to explain what I describe as the ,transparency' of metaphor. In the third section, I describe two accounts which can overcome the difficulty. The first is loosely based on Davidson's treatment of metaphor, and, finding this to be inadequate for reasons having nothing to do with transparency, it will be used solely to show the way. The second is my own, and, without attempting to defend it at length, I will content myself with suggesting how it can cope with the difficulty discussed in this paper in a way which mimics the Davidsonian proposal. Finally, in the fourth section, I shall briefly mention several considerations independent of transparency for adopting my account. [source] Homoplasy and mutation model at microsatellite loci and their consequences for population genetics analysisMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 9 2002Arnaud Estoup Abstract Homoplasy has recently attracted the attention of population geneticists, as a consequence of the popularity of highly variable stepwise mutating markers such as microsatellites. Microsatellite alleles generally refer to DNA fragments of different size (electromorphs). Electromorphs are identical in state (i.e. have identical size), but are not necessarily identical by descent due to convergent mutation(s). Homoplasy occurring at microsatellites is thus referred to as size homoplasy. Using new analytical developments and computer simulations, we first evaluate the effect of the mutation rate, the mutation model, the effective population size and the time of divergence between populations on size homoplasy at the within and between population levels. We then review the few experimental studies that used various molecular techniques to detect size homoplasious events at some microsatellite loci. The relationship between this molecularly accessible size homoplasy size and the actual amount of size homoplasy is not trivial, the former being considerably influenced by the molecular structure of microsatellite core sequences. In a third section, we show that homoplasy at microsatellite electromorphs does not represent a significant problem for many types of population genetics analyses realized by molecular ecologists, the large amount of variability at microsatellite loci often compensating for their homoplasious evolution. The situations where size homoplasy may be more problematic involve high mutation rates and large population sizes together with strong allele size constraints. [source] The Politics of Perception: Use and Abuse of Transparency International's Approach to Measuring CorruptionPOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2009Staffan Andersson The annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published by Transparency International (TI), has had a pivotal role in focusing attention on corruption. Despite recent critiques of the CPI, it remains highly influential on research into the causes of corruption and is also extensively used to galvanise support for measures to fight corruption. In this article we explore the CPI in more depth in order to highlight how the index has been used for political ends which may not always turn out to be supportive of anti-corruption efforts. The argument is developed in four sections: in the first, we focus on Transparency International's definition of corruption, highlighting some conceptual difficulties with the approach adopted and its relationship to the promotion of ,good governance' as the principal means of combating corruption. In the second section, we outline some methodological difficulties in the design of the Corruption Perceptions Index. Although the CPI has been much criticised, we demonstrate in the third section that the index continues to exercise great influence both in academic research and in the politics of anti-corruption efforts, particularly as exercised by Transparency International itself. In the final section we argue that the CPI contributes to the risk of creating a ,corruption trap' in countries where corruption is deeply embedded, as development aid is increasingly made conditional on the implementation of reforms which are impossible to achieve without that aid. [source] EVALUATING EU POLICIES ON PUBLIC SERVICES: A CITIZENS' PERSPECTIVEANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2010Judith Clifton ABSTRACT,:,This article evaluates EU policies on public services , particularly public network services , from the citizens' point of view. It is first argued that citizens' perceptions are important because the provision of fundamental services is at stake and because they constitute the infrastructure necessary for social and economic development. Citizens',voice' can, therefore, be known, analyzed and used in the design of improved policy on public services along with other indicators. Changing EU policy on public services is synthesized and classified into two main phases in section two. Citizen satisfaction with public services as revealed through surveys from 1997 to 2007 is explored in the third section. In the discussion, the prospects for EU policy on public services are considered and, it is argued that, from the perspectives of subsidiarity and proportionality, policy towards strengthening the common market is being increasingly uploaded to the supranational level in the form of directives, whilst cohesion and redistribution policies are being downloaded to the national level or dealt with at the supranational level by ,soft' instruments. [source] ,South Opposed to East and North': Adrian Stokes and Josef Strzygowski.ART HISTORY, Issue 4 2003A study in the aesthetics, historiography of Orientalism The ,South Opposed to East and North' of this paper's title comes from the third section of Adrian Stokes's book The Quattro Cento of 1932 , subtitled A Different Conception of the Italian Renaissance, and the founding work of his aesthetic. The Quattro Cento can be viewed as a response to the need expressed by Strzygowski in his Origin of Christian Church Art of 1923 ,for a work dealing with the penetration of the South by the North of Europe and the subsequent rise of the so-called Renaissance'; a North, in Strzygowski's view, already permeated by influences from the East. Within the contested terrain inscribed in the term, this paper isolates three key ,Orients' crucial to Stokes's Quattro Cento aesthetic: the experiential Orient of his Conrad-inspired voyage to the East; the Orient of the British Museum; and that of the Orientalist texts , primarily the now-marginalized Josef Strzygowski. As a study in the historiography of Orientalism, the essay examines how Adrian Stokes inflected his experience and readings of these Orients to re-evaluate European , specifically Italian Renaissance , culture. [source] Beyond Being Marginal: Gender and International Relations in BritainBRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2007Judith Squires In this introduction, we situate ,gender and international relations in Britain'. We discuss our understandings of gender, I/international R/relations and GIR. In the second section we discuss the relationship of feminist to gendered IR, arguing that while intimately related, they are nonetheless not synonymous. We turn in the third section to a critical discussion of feminist IR's tendency to see itself as marginal to mainstream IR, a move that contributes to the marginalisation it laments. In the fourth section we compare the development of GIR with gender in Politics, which has been less concerned from the outset with issues of marginality. In the final section we argue that GIR has come into its own, introducing the articles in this issue as instances of self-assured gendered analyses of ,things international'. [source] Development's invisible hands: Introduction to special issueJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2009Alan Thomas Abstract This Special Issue comes from the Development Studies Association (DSA) 30th Anniversary conference in 2008. The theme was ,Development's Invisible Hands', focusing on the forces likely to influence global change and re-shape development agendas over the next 30 years. The first section comprises brief invited thinkpieces mainly from DSA past presidents. Interestingly, while some focus on Adam Smith's original ,invisible hand' analogy and others discuss a range of non-market issues, several invoke Karl Polanyi on the limitations of market society. The second and third sections consist, respectively, of ,synthesis' papers on parallel panel themes and papers developed from the best panel presentations. The papers demonstrate the range of issues raised by questioning the future of development and development studies,while the limitations of future gazing are pointed up by the unexpected challenge to current development models presented since the conference by the global financial crisis. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||