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Huge Impact (huge + impact)
Selected AbstractsThe need for adaptability in EU environmental policy design and implementationENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 5 2001Matthieu Glachant Is the application of the EU environmentally policy satisfying in the field? In particular, are the environmental objectives set in the directives met? This paper explores the issue of the effectiveness of the European environmental policy. It is based on the results of a recent study, which has consisted in evaluating the implementation of three pieces of EU environmental legislation in France, Germany, Netherlands and United Kingdom. The legislation studied was Directive 89/429 regulating atmospheric emissions from domestic waste incinerators, Directive 88/609 dealing with SO2 and NOx emissions from large combustion plants (LCPs) and Council Regulation 1836/93 concerning the voluntary participation of industrial companies in an EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). The result of the study suggests that simply posing the problem in terms of ,implementation deficit' is not sufficient. In fact, over-compliance with directive goals is even observed in certain cases. By contrast, the evaluation suggests the prevalence of interactions between the considered implementation process and other parallel policy processes at the implementation stage. The study shows that this interplay between policies has a huge impact on implementation environmental results, which can be either positive or negative. Based on this statement, an important question for EU policy is how implementation can efficiently cope with such interactions, which means finding ways to maximize potential synergies, or alternatively to reduce inconsistencies, with the other policy components. Given that policy interactions are difficult to predict at the policy formulation stage of the policy, adjustments necessarily occur at the implementation stage. In this context, implementing EU environmental policy requires policy systems able to adjust at low costs. In this paper, this property is called adaptability and is given a precise content. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source] Joint compensation of IQ imbalance, frequency offset and phase noise in OFDM receivers,EUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Issue 3 2004Jan Tubbax Zero-IF receivers are getting a lot of attention because of their potential to enable low-cost OFDM terminals. However, zero-IF receivers also introduce IQ imbalance which can have a huge impact on the performance. Rather than increasing component cost to decrease the IQ imbalance, an alternative is to tolerate the IQ imbalance and compensate for it digitally. Current solutions either require additional analog hardware or are based on digital algorithms that converge too slowly for bursty communication. Moreover, the impact of a frequency offset and phase noise on the IQ imbalance estimation/compensation problem is not considered. In this paper, we analyze the joint IQ imbalance/frequency offset/phase noise estimation and propose a low-cost, highly effective, all-digital mitigation scheme. For large IQ imbalance large frequency offsets and in the presence of phase noise our solution still results in an average implementation loss below 0.5,dB. It, therefore, enables the design of low-cost, lowcomplexity OFDM receivers. Copyright © 2004 AEI [source] Institutional Trading and Price MomentumINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF FINANCE, Issue 1-2 2008CHIH-HSIEN JERRY YU ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore the effect of institutional trading on the two asymmetric phenomena found by Lee and Swaminathan: (1) asymmetric price momentum: price momentum is more pronounced among high-turnover stocks; (2) asymmetric return phenomenon: low-turnover stocks tend to outperform high-turnover stocks. Lee and Swaminathan use a ,momentum life cycle' to explain the asymmetric momentum effect while attributing the asymmetric return phenomenon to the analysts' overestimating (underestimating) the future profitability of high (low)-turnover firms. However, it essentially needs trading activity to induce both of the above asymmetric results. Because institutional investors exhibit a momentum trading pattern and the trading behavior of institutional investors may have a huge impact on the movement of stock prices, institutional trading may be one of the major driving forces leading to both of the above asymmetric patterns. The empirical results show that, first of all, after controlling for the turnover, the price momentum is still more pronounced among stocks with higher institutional ownership, while high-turnover stocks no longer exhibit a pronounced momentum effect after controlling for the institutional ownership. Furthermore, stocks with higher institutional ownership have better return performance in any of the turnover groups. While low-turnover stocks still outperform high-turnover stocks after controlling for the institutional ownership level, for some winner stocks this is no longer true. The results suggest that the asymmetric momentum effect is not induced by a stock's turnover, but rather it is driven by institutional trading. Turnover is only a proxy for institutional trading. That is, turnover per se has no economic significance in such a momentum phenomenon. [source] Occurrence of the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella L.) and its parasitoids in Ethiopia: influence of geographical region and agronomic traitsJOURNAL OF APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 6-7 2006G. Ayalew Abstract:, Surveys were carried out in 2001 in brassica-producing areas of Ethiopia to determine the geographic distribution and severity of diamondback moth (DBM) and occurrence of indigenous parasitoids. Principal component analysis was used to analyse the importance of nine parameters , DBM density, parasitism by different parasitoid species (Oomyzus sokolowskii, Diadegma spp., Apanteles sp. and overall parasitism), cropping systems, pesticide use, frequency of pesticide application and altitude. A total of 194 brassica fields in 13 different areas were visited. Principal component analysis showed that the first two of the nine principal components (largely DBM density and pesticide use) accounted for 70% of the variation in the data set. Higher DBM numbers were associated with pesticide usage and higher overall parasitism with intercropping. Eight parasitoid species were recorded of which three species were important both in distribution and level of parasitism. These include Oomyzus sokolowskii (Hym., Eulophidae), Diadegma spp. (Hym., Ichneumonidae) and Apanteles sp. (Hym., Braconidae). Overall parasitism ranged from 3.6% to 79.5% with big differences between areas. Apanteles sp. and Diadegma spp. were largely confined to the south-western part of Ethiopia where insecticide use is minimal. Oomyzus sokolowskii is mainly distributed in areas of the Rift Valley and northern Ethiopia with relatively heavy insecticide use. This study indicated a huge impact of repeated insecticide treatment and agronomic practices on DBM severity and its parasitoids. [source] Analyzing the real advantages of bifunctional initiator over monofunctional initiator in free radical polymerizationJOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE, Issue 5 2010Paula F. de M. P. B. Machado Abstract Monofunctional initiators are extensively used in free radical polymerization. To enhance productivity, a higher temperature is usually used; however, this leads to lower molecular weights. Bifunctional initiators can increase the polymerization rate without decreasing the average molecular weight and this can be desirable. A bifunctional initiator is an important issue to be investigated, and it is of great interest to industries. The objective of this work is to study polymerization reactions with mono- and bi-functional initiators through comprehensive mathematical models. Polystyrene is considered as case study. This work collects and presents some experimental data available in literature for polymerization using two different types of bifunctional initiators. Model prediction showed good agreement with experimental data. It was observed that the initial initiator concentration has a huge impact on the efficiency of initiators with functionality bigger than one and high concentrations of bifunctional initiator make the system behave as if it were a system operating with monofunctional initiator. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010 [source] Patterns of offending among people with intellectual disability: a systematic review.JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 5 2001Part I: methodology, prevalence data Abstract A systematic review of research on offenders with intellectual disability (ID) was conducted. In the present study, the first of a two-part presentation of the findings, the authors outline the methodology of the review and present data on the prevalence of offending by adults with ID. The review highlights the methodological problems of the research and the low level of rigour in many of the studies. The organization of the penal and ,care' systems are seen to have a huge impact on research findings. In addition, studies which adopt an IQ-based concept of ID show low rates of offending, whilst those which use wider definitions (e.g. attendance at special school) show higher ones. There is also preliminary evidence for believing that the prevalence of arson and sexual offences may be higher relative to other kinds of crimes for people with ID than for other offenders. [source] Characterization of germanium linear kinoform lenses at Diamond Light SourceJOURNAL OF SYNCHROTRON RADIATION, Issue 3 2009L. Alianelli The unprecedented brilliance achieved by third-generation synchrotron sources and the availability of improved optics have opened up new opportunities for the study of materials at the micrometre and nanometre scale. Focusing the synchrotron radiation to smaller and smaller beams is having a huge impact on a wide research area at synchrotrons. The key to the exploitation of the improved sources is the development of novel optics that deliver narrow beams without loss of brilliance and coherence. Several types of synchrotron focusing optics are successfully fabricated using advanced miniaturization techniques. Kinoform refractive lenses are being developed for hard X-ray beamlines, and the first test results at Diamond are discussed in this paper. [source] Toward an epistemology of WikipediaJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 10 2008Don Fallis Wikipedia (the "free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit") is having a huge impact on how a great many people gather information about the world. So, it is important for epistemologists and information scientists to ask whether people are likely to acquire knowledge as a result of having access to this information source. In other words, is Wikipedia having good epistemic consequences? After surveying the various concerns that have been raised about the reliability of Wikipedia, this article argues that the epistemic consequences of people using Wikipedia as a source of information are likely to be quite good. According to several empirical studies, the reliability of Wikipedia compares favorably to the reliability of traditional encyclopedias. Furthermore, the reliability of Wikipedia compares even more favorably to the reliability of those information sources that people would be likely to use if Wikipedia did not exist (viz., Web sites that are as freely and easily accessible as Wikipedia). In addition, Wikipedia has a number of other epistemic virtues (e.g., power, speed, and fecundity) that arguably outweigh any deficiency in terms of reliability. Even so, epistemologists and information scientists should certainly be trying to identify changes (or alternatives) to Wikipedia that will bring about even better epistemic consequences. This article suggests that to improve Wikipedia, we need to clarify what our epistemic values are and to better understand why Wikipedia works as well as it does. Somebody who reads Wikipedia is "rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom," says Mr. McHenry, Britannica's former editor. "It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him." One wonders whether people like Mr. McHenry would prefer there to be no public lavatories at all. The Economist (Vol. 379, April 22, 2006, pp. 14,15) [source] Automated technologies and novel techniques to accelerate protein crystallography for structural genomicsPROTEINS: STRUCTURE, FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS, Issue 4 2008Babu A. Manjasetty Dr. Abstract The sequence infrastructure that has arisen through large-scale genomic projects dedicated to protein analysis, has provided a wealth of information and brought together scientists and institutions from all over the world. As a consequence, the development of novel technologies and methodologies in proteomics research is helping to unravel the biochemical and physiological mechanisms of complex multivariate diseases at both a functional and molecular level. In the late sixties, when X-ray crystallography had just been established, the idea of determining protein structure on an almost universal basis was akin to an impossible dream or a miracle. Yet only forty years after, automated protein structure determination platforms have been established. The widespread use of robotics in protein crystallography has had a huge impact at every stage of the pipeline from protein cloning, over-expression, purification, crystallization, data collection, structure solution, refinement, validation and data management- all of which have become more or less automated with minimal human intervention necessary. Here, recent advances in protein crystal structure analysis in the context of structural genomics will be discussed. In addition, this review aims to give an overview of recent developments in high throughput instrumentation, and technologies and strategies to accelerate protein structure/function analysis. [source] Famous discoveries by medical studentsANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 12 2009Mark D. Stringer Abstract Heparin, insulin, the sinoatrial node and ether anaesthesia are just some of the major discoveries made by medical students, all of which have had a huge impact on the practice of surgery. This paper explores the breadth and depth of some of these talented individuals and their extraordinary contributions to medicine. While some continued to enjoy brilliant careers, others became embroiled in damaging disputes about priority or were overtaken by illness or personal problems. Regardless of their fate, their contributions are a potent reminder of what can be achieved by gifted and determined medical students undertaking a period of basic scientific or clinical research. [source] | |||||||||||||