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Discrete Events (discrete + event)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	20%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	20%

Selected Abstracts

When is Faith Enough?

JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 3 2001
The Effects of Religious Involvement on Depression
Although most scholars find that religious involvement is negatively related to depression, questions still remain regarding how individuals benefit from such involvement and evidence from nationally representative samples is rare. In this paper, I expand upon previous research by considering three types of general religious involvement (attendance at religious services, religious salience, and spiritual help-seeking) and three types of effects (linear, curvilinear, and stress-buffering). Using Americans' Changing Lives (House 1989),a large, nationally representative, and longitudinal data set,I find a U-shaped effect of religious salience on depression, no significant independent effect of service attendance, and a positive effect of spiritual help-seeking. I also find that spiritual help-seeking and religious salience exhibit significant stress-buffering effects, but that these occur only when individuals experience multiple negative life events, and not when they experience any single type of discrete event. The theoretical implications of these effects are discussed, both as they contribute to research on the life stress paradigm and research on the psychology of religion. [source]

A Multidimensional Framework for Understanding Outsourcing Arrangements

JOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2007
Nada R. Sanders
SUMMARY The growth of outsourcing has resulted in numerous different outsourcing arrangements, ranging from out-tasking and managed services to business process outsourcing and transformational outsourcing. The growing lexicon of outsourcing terminology has caused confusion for many managers and academicians alike, who tend to view outsourcing as a fixed, discrete event or a simple make-or-buy decision. In reality, outsourcing is an umbrella term that includes a range of sourcing options that are external to the firm. Understanding these options, their characteristic differences, and how they serve to meet differing business objectives is the focus of the current research. Based on in-depth interviews with 19 senior executives experienced in outsourcing, as well as a thorough synthesis of available research, this article provides a framework clarifying the broad spectrum of outsourcing arrangements, and their inherent risks and advantages. Managerial guidance related to outsourcing is also provided. [source]

Contrasting population changes in sympatric penguin species in association with climate warming

GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
JAUME FORCADA
Abstract Climate warming and associated sea ice reductions in Antarctica have modified habitat conditions for some species. These include the congeneric Adélie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins, which now demonstrate remarkable population responses to regional warming. However, inconsistencies in the direction of population changes between species at different study sites complicate the understanding of causal processes. Here, we show that at the South Orkney Islands where the three species breed sympatrically, the less ice-adapted gentoo penguins increased significantly in numbers over the last 26 years, whereas chinstrap and Adélie penguins both declined. These trends occurred in parallel with regional long-term warming and significant reduction in sea ice extent. Periodical warm events, with teleconnections to the tropical Pacific, caused cycles in sea ice leading to reduced prey biomass, and simultaneous interannual population decreases in the three penguin species. With the loss of sea ice, Adélie penguins were less buffered against the environment, their numbers fluctuated greatly and their population response was strong and linear. Chinstrap penguins, considered to be better adapted to ice-free conditions, were affected by discrete events of locally increased ice cover, but showed less variable, nonlinear responses to sea ice loss. Gentoo penguins were temporarily affected by negative anomalies in regional sea ice, but persistent sea ice reductions were likely to increase their available niche, which is likely to be substantially segregated from that of their more abundant congeners. Thus, the regional consequences of global climate perturbations on the sea ice phenology affect the marine ecosystem, with repercussions for penguin food supply and competition for resources. Ultimately, variability in penguin populations with warming reflects the local balance between penguin adaptation to ice conditions and trophic-mediated changes cascading from global climate forcing. [source]

Synoptic climatology of extreme fire-weather conditions across the southwest United States

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 8 2006
Michael A. Crimmins
Abstract Extreme fire-weather conditions are usually thought of as discrete events rather than part of a continuum of meteorological and climatological variability. This study uses a synoptic climatological approach (weather typing) to examine the seasonal climatology of extreme fire-weather conditions across the southwest United States (Arizona and New Mexico) during the period of 1988,2003. Three key circulation patterns representing broad southwesterly flow and large geopotential height gradients are associated with over 80% of the extreme fire-weather days identified in this study. Seasonal changes in relative humidity levels, strength of height gradient, and geopotential heights all modulate the relationship between these key circulation patterns and extreme fire-weather days. Examination of daily incident summaries for three recent wildfires (May 2000, June 2002 and June 2003) shows that wildfire activity can be strongly regulated by these critical fire-weather circulation patterns. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society. [source]

Simulation and discrete event optimization for automated decisions for in-queue flights

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 5 2010
D. Dimitrakiev
The paper discusses simulation and optimization of in-queue flights, analyzed as discrete-event systems. Simulation is performed in a platform, based on MATLAB program functions and SIMULINK dynamic models. Regime optimization aims to maximize the controllability of the queue and minimize the fuel consumption of each aircraft (AC). Because of mutual preferential independence, a hierarchical additive value function is constructed, consisting of fuzzily estimated parameter value functions and weight coefficients and a multicriteria decision problem is solved under strict certainty. Two optimization algorithms are applied: one that finds the regime that leads to maximally preferred consequence and another that finds the regime with minimum total fuel consumption among those whose control parameters are set at their most preferred levels. A comparison between the two algorithms is proposed. A scheme describes how the optimization procedures can be used multiple times during the execution of the flight with respect to the occurrence of discrete events. Simulation results are also proposed for the discussed algorithms and procedures. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Fuzzy scheduling strategy for generalized switched server systems and its robustness over system heterogeneity

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS, Issue 3 2009
Xingxuan Wang
Generalized switched server system, a discretely controlled continuous-time system, in which N tanks are used to represent N parallel entities, respectively, can be employed to address a class of load-balancing problems. A tank-pair model is a system that consists of two tanks and a single input single output controller, which regulates the inflows of the two tanks to acquire the two uniform levels under the specified inflow constraints. According to a quantized observation of the N tank levels, some discrete events are generated, and based on certain event feedback strategy, switching the location of the tank-pair can control all the N tanks in a time-sharing manner to acquire the N levels uniformity. Different from some existing scheduling strategies, this study proposes a fuzzy scheduling strategy (FSS) for such generalized switched server systems. Special measures are taken to reduce the N -inputs two-outputs fuzzy inference to a two-inputs one-output one, which greatly facilitates fuzzy scheduler design. Simulation results show that the proposed FSS strategy outperforms over the three existing scheduling strategies as a whole, and they also show that the proposed FSS strategy demonstrates high robustness over system heterogeneity. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Understanding women's experiences of developing an eating disorder and recovering: a life-history approach

NURSING INQUIRY, Issue 1 2009
Joanna Patching
Qualitative inquiry into eating disorders is burgeoning, offering valuable and innovative insights into various aspects of the condition. This study used life-history interviews with 20 women who had recovered from anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or both and who had remained healthy. The interviews focused on the women's narratives and experience rather than a diagnostic therapeutic model. Three themes of control, connectedness and conflict emerged as significant in the development, experience of, and recovery from an eating disorder. The development of the condition was attributed to a lack of control, a sense of non-connectedness to family and peers and extreme conflict with significant others. Recovery occurred when the women re-engaged with life, developed skills necessary for conflict resolution and rediscovered their sense of self. Rather than viewing the development of, and recovery from an eating disorder as separate and discrete events, the data from the life-history interviews suggest they are better viewed as one entity , that is, the journey of an individual attempting to discover and develop their sense of self. This perspective challenges some current constructs of eating disorders; it is not a condition in and of itself but a symptom of deeper issues that if addressed, when the individual is ,ready' to make that choice, will lead to recovery. [source]

Business Cycles and the Role of Confidence: Evidence for Europe,

OXFORD BULLETIN OF ECONOMICS & STATISTICS, Issue 2 2007
Karl Taylor
Abstract This paper examines whether indicators of consumer and business confidence can predict movements in GDP over the business cycle for four European economies. The empirical methodology used to investigate the properties of the data comprises cross-correlation statistics, implementing an approach developed by den Haan [Journal of Monetary Economics (2000), Vol. 46, pp. 3,30]. The predictive power of confidence indicators is also examined, investigating whether they can predict discrete events, namely economic downturns, and whether they can quantitatively forecast point estimates of economic activity. The results indicate that both consumer and business confidence indicators are procyclical and generally play a significant role in predicting downturns. [source]

Stratigraphic and environmental implications of a large ice-wedge cast at Tjæreborg, Denmark

PERMAFROST AND PERIGLACIAL PROCESSES, Issue 1 2004
Else Kolstrup
Abstract Exceptionally large ice-wedge casts and composite-wedge casts occur together with involutions (cryoturbations) in a gravel pit near Tjæreborg, western Jutland. The filling reveals distinctly different, vertically-orientated sedimentary units, suggesting discrete events. Variations in wedge structure and infill between the different exposures suggest differences with alternating pools and drier conditions over the former wedges. In an attempt to date and correlate crack development a perusal of local glacial history is given and optically-stimulated-luminescence (OSL) dates are presented. A review of Saalian and early Weichselian wedge casts and deep involutions in other areas in northwest Europe is provided for correlation. It is suggested that the cracking in Tjæreborg took place during the Saale or/and early Weichselian. The existence of such old wedges shows that the present land surface has probably existed since the Saalian, leaving the ground available for cracking and infilling during succeeding periods of permafrost. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

A Computational Model of Event Segmentation From Perceptual Prediction

COGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007
Jeremy R. Reynolds
Abstract People tend to perceive ongoing continuous activity as series of discrete events. This partitioning of continuous activity may occur, in part, because events correspond to dynamic patterns that have recurred across different contexts. Recurring patterns may lead to reliable sequential dependencies in observers' experiences, which then can be used to guide perception. The current set of simulations investigated whether this statistical structure within events can be used 1) to develop stable internal representations that facilitate perception and 2) to learn when to update such representations in a self-organizing manner. These simulations demonstrate that experience with recurring patterns enables a system to accurately predict upcoming stimuli within an event, to identify boundaries between such events based on transient increases in prediction error, and to use such boundaries to improve prediction about subsequent activities. [source]