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Various Sorts (various + sort)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	40%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	40%

Selected Abstracts

WHY HAS CRIME FALLEN?

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2002
AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE
In this paper we consider the reasons why the general level of recorded crime has been falling in the United States and many European countries in the last ten years. We review the time-series statistical evidence on the determinants of crime, and investigate the extent to which these determinants are matched with survey evidence on the offending behaviour of young people. This survey evidence is particularly revealing on the perceptions of young people to various sorts of deterrents, and it also highlights a strong association between illicit drug use and involvement in crime. [source]

The HIPC Initiative: True and False Promises

INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 3 2001
Daniel Cohen
The paper develops the view that understanding of the HIPC initiative is distorted by a lack of perspective on the ,market value' of the debt which is written down. The appropriate ,market value' takes account of the risk of non-payment: arrears, rescheduling and ,constrained' refinancing of various sorts. Building on econometric evidence that relies on middle income debtors in the 1980s, the paper argues that the initiative is about ten times less generous than face value accounting would suggest. [source]

METHODS FOR JOINT INFERENCE FROM MULTIPLE DATA SOURCES FOR IMPROVED ESTIMATES OF POPULATION SIZE AND SURVIVAL RATES

MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2004
Daniel Goodman
Abstract Critical conservation decisions often hinge on estimates of population size, population growth rate, and survival rates, but as a practical matter it is difficult to obtain enough data to provide precise estimates. Here we discuss Bayesian methods for simultaneously drawing on the information content from multiple sorts of data to get as much precision as possible for the estimates. The basic idea is that an underlying population model can connect the various sorts of observations, so this can be elaborated into a joint likelihood function for joint estimation of the respective parameters. The potential for improved estimates derives from the potentially greater effective sample size of the aggregate of data, even though some of the data types may only bear directly on a subset of the parameters. The achieved improvement depends on specifics of the interactions among parameters in the underlying model, and on the actual content of the data. Assuming the respective data sets are unbiased, notwithstanding the fact that they may be noisy, we may gauge the average improvement in the estimates of the parameters of interest from the reduction, if any, in the standard deviations of their posterior marginal distributions. Prospective designs may be evaluated from analysis of simulated data. Here this approach is illustrated with an assessment of the potential value in various ways of merging mark-resight and carcass-survey data for the Florida manatee, as could be made possible by various modifications in the data collection protocols in both programs. [source]

Ayahuasca and Spiritual Crisis: Liminality as Space for Personal Growth

ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 2 2008
SARA E. LEWIS
ABSTRACT There is an increased controversy surrounding Westerners' use of ayahuasca. One issue of importance is psychological resiliency of users and lack of screening by ayahuasca tourism groups in the Amazon. Given the powerful effects of ayahuasca coupled with lack of cultural support, Western users are at increased risk for psychological distress. Many Westerners who experience psychological distress following ayahuasca ceremonies report concurrently profound spiritual experiences. Because of this, it may be helpful to consider these episodes "spiritual emergencies," or crises resulting from intense and transformative spiritual experiences. Although the author warns readers to avoid romantic comparisons of Western ayahuasca users to shamans, ethnographic data on indigenous shamanic initiates along with theory on liminality may be of some use to understand difficult experiences that accompany ayahuasca use. Given that psychotherapy is culturally sanctioned, therapists trained in treating spiritual crises can help Western ayahuasca users make meaning of their distress. Three case studies are offered as examples of individuals working through various sorts of crises following ayahuasca ceremonies. [source]

CORRECT DELINEATIONS AND PROMISCUOUS OUTLINES: ENVISIONING INDIA AT THE TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS

ART HISTORY, Issue 1 2006
FINBARR BARRY FLOOD
This essay explores the representation of India to a British metropolitan audience in the last decades of the eighteenth century, a time of burgeoning orientalist scholarship. Texts and images produced during the period reveal many of the ambiguities and ambivalences in the evolving relationship between Parliament, the East India Company and native Indian rulers. Between 1788 and 1795 these were highlighted dramatically in the impeachment proceedings against Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of the East India Company's possessions. The proceedings coincided with the exhibition and publication in London of a corpus of Indian landscape paintings executed by William Hodges, who had enjoyed Hastings's patronage during and after his travels in India. The article focuses on a number of satirical political prints relating to the impeachment, arguing that they draw upon the sudden influx of graphic information on India as a vehicle for satire while invoking a contemporary penchant for optical devices of various sorts. In doing so, they highlight a contemporary tension between the aesthetic and documentary value of the image, which is often framed in terms of a dialectical opposition between artistic translation and transcription. It is suggested that these images reflect a hermeneutic common to other modes of orientalist production, which effected a domestic inscription of the Orient by finding correspondences between the foreign and the familiar. [source]