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Various Explanations (various + explanation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences25%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting25%

Selected Abstracts

Self-ratings in Training Programs: An Examination of Level of Performance and the Effects of Feedback

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT, Issue 3 2001
Sally A. Carless
The level of agreement (mean differences and correlations) between self, peer and training staff ratings were examined in this study. The sample consisted of 545 participants who were undertaking a Royal Australian Airforce officer training program. Consistent with previous research there was strong agreement between training staff and peers and weak agreement between self-ratings and ratings by others (training staff and peers). Accuracy of ratings was examined by (a) comparing the mean ratings of outstanding, average and below-average performers; and (b) correlating difference scores with a measure of performance. The findings showed that below-average performers have a less accurate view of themselves compared to outstanding performers. Finally, we examined the effects of negative feedback on self-perceptions. The analyses indicated that after receiving negative feedback, average performers adjusted their self-ratings. Various explanations were proposed together with practical implications for training. [source]

Use of Genetic Analyses to Refine Phenotypes Related to Alcohol Tolerance and Dependence

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 2 2001
John C. Crabbe
Various explanations for the dependence on alcohol are attributed to the development of tolerance to some of alcohol's effects, alterations in sensitivity to its rewarding effects, and unknown pathologic consequences of repeated exposure. All these aspects of dependence have been modeled in laboratory rodents, and these studies have consistently shown a significant influence of genetics. Genetic mapping studies have identified the genomic location of the specific genes for some of these contributing phenotypes. In addition, studies have shown that some genes in mice seem to affect both alcohol self-administration and alcohol withdrawal severity: genetic predisposition to high levels of drinking covaries with genetic predisposition to low withdrawal severity, and vice versa. Finally, the role of genetic background on which genes are expressed is important, as are the specifics of the environment in which genetically defined animals are tested. Understanding dependence will require disentangling the multiple interactions of many contributing phenotypes, and genetic analyses are proving very helpful. However, rigorous understanding of both gene-gene and gene-environment interactions will be required to interpret genetic experiments clearly. [source]

Sex Differences in Feeding Activity Results in Sexual Segregation of Feral Goats

ETHOLOGY, Issue 5 2008
Robin I. M. Dunbar
Sexual segregation is common in ungulates. We show, in a high latitude population of feral goats where behavioural synchrony and fission rates have been shown to be the best explanation for segregation, that it is differences explicitly in the feeding time requirements of the two sexes (but not those for other activities) that best explains the variations in monthly frequencies of segregation. However, this effect is less marked during winter months when short day length forces the time budgets of the two sexes to converge. We argue that the various explanations for segregation can best be interpreted as separate factors in a multivariate model in which species- and habitat-specific weightings influence the relative importance of these variables, and thus the likelihood that segregation will occur. [source]

Self-care versus self-harm: piercing, tattooing, and self-injuring in eating disorders

EUROPEAN EATING DISORDERS REVIEW, Issue 1 2005
Laurence Claes
Abstract Eating disordered patients seem to have a love,hate relationship with their bodies. Why do some decorate their bodies by means of tattooing and piercing, while others deliberately injure themselves and make parts of their body unattractive? We have explored this question in 101 eating-disordered patients by means of self-reporting questionnaires about the presence and characteristics of tattooing, piercing and self-injuring as well as the underlying motives. Furthermore, we studied the co-occurrence of impulsive behaviours as well as personality traits. In our patient sample, 11.9,per,cent had one or more tattoos, 25.7,per,cent a piercing and 64.9,per,cent showed some form of self-injurious behaviour (SIB). Tattooing and piercing are clearly driven by esthetical reasons, whereas SIB can have various explanations. All three behaviours were significantly more often linked to substance (ab)use. With respect to personality traits, piercing was positively linked to extraversion (positive affectivity) and openness, and negatively to conscientiousness. SIB, on the contrary, was positively linked to neuroticism (negative affectivity) and conscientiousness, and negatively to extraversion and openness. Tattooing did not show significant correlations with particular personality traits (probably due to the small number of tattooed patients). In summary, piercing and tattooing seem to reflect more self-care, and might protect some patients against more self-harm. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [source]

The Fate of Jewish Historiography after the Bible: A New Interpretation

HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 2 2004
Amram Tropper
What caused the eventual decline in later Jewish history of the vibrant historiographical tradition of the biblical period? In contrast to the plethora of historical writings composed during the biblical period, the rabbis of the early common era apparently were not interested in writing history, and when they did relate to historical events they often introduced mythical and unrealistic elements into their writings. Scholars have offered various explanations for this phenomenon; a central goal of this article is to locate these explanations within both the immediate historical setting of Roman Palestine and the overarching cultural atmosphere of the Greco-Roman Near East. In particular, I suggest that the largely ahistorical approach of the rabbis functioned as a local Jewish counterpart to the widespread classicizing tendencies of a contemporary Greek intellectual movement, the Second Sophistic. In both cases, eastern communities, whose political aspirations were stifled under Roman rule, sought to express their cognitive and spiritual identities by focusing on a glorious and idealized past rather than on contemporary history. Interestingly, the apparent lack of rabbinic interest in historiography is not limited to the early rabbinic period. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, Jews essentially did not write their political, diplomatic, or military history. Instead, Jews composed "traditional historiography" which included various types of literary genres among which the rabbinic "chain of transmission" was the most important. The chain of transmission reconstructs (or fabricates) the links that connect later rabbinic sages with their predecessors. Robert Bonfil has noted the similarity between this rabbinic project and contemporary church histories. Adding a diachronic dimension to Bonfil's comparison, I suggest that rabbinic chains of transmission and church histories are not similar though entirely independent phenomena, but rather their shared project actually derives from a common origin, the Hellenistic succession list. The succession list literary genre, which sketches the history of an intellectual discipline, apparently thrived during the Second Sophistic and diffused then into both rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. Thus, even though historiography was not terribly important to the early rabbis or to most Second Sophistic intellectuals, the succession list schematic, or the history of an intellectual discipline, was evaluated differently. Rabbis and early Christians absorbed the succession list from Second Sophistic culture and then continued to employ this historiographical genre for many centuries to come. [source]

Robustness of the co-ion transfer ratio in capillary electrophoresis

JOURNAL OF SEPARATION SCIENCE, JSS, Issue 17 2009
Guillaume L. Erny
Abstract In CE, indirect detection mode often exhibits a lower precision than its direct counterpart. Although various explanations have already been advanced, in this work, we aimed to investigate if this is due, in part, to problems of robustness of the co-ion transfer ratio (TR), thus being inherent to this particular detection scheme. This was investigated using simulation software that allows an accurate control of various parameters and validated using acetic acid as a test compound. It was conclusively demonstrated that the TR could vary by more than 6% when the concentration of one of the ions in the BGE was changed by as few as 1%. The presence of a system peak seems to be particularly damaging as it has been shown that the TR of peaks whose mobilities differ by more than 0.5×10,8 m2 V,1 s,1 from one of the system peaks, still have a relatively low robustness. [source]

How Much Is Investor Autonomy Worth?

THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 4 2002
Shlomo Benartzi
There is a worldwide trend towards defined contribution savings plans, where investors are often able to select their own portfolios. How much is this freedom of choice worth? We present retirement investors with information about the distribution of outcomes they could expect to obtain from the portfolios they picked for themselves, and the same information for the median portfolio selected by their peers. A majority of our survey participants actually prefer the median portfolio to the one they picked for themselves. We investigate various explanations for these findings and offer some evidence that the results are partly attributable to the fact that investors do not have well,defined preferences. [source]

Cuba's Medical Internationalism: Development and Rationale

BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 4 2009
JOHN M. KIRK
Since 1960, Cuba has been involved in providing medical support to the developing world, and at present has some 40,000 personnel in 74 countries , more than all of the G-8 countries combined. This article traces the evolution from its first (1960) mission to the current stage. The article also analyses various explanations for this extraordinary mixture of diplomacy and humanitarianism. [source]