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Macro Level (macro + level)
Selected AbstractsKnowledge Translation at the Macro Level: Legal and Ethical ConsiderationsACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 11 2007Gregory Luke Larkin MD, MSPH Macro-level legal and ethical issues play a significant role in the successful translation of knowledge into practice. The medicolegal milieu, in particular, can promote clinical inertia and stifle innovation. Embracing new clinical practice guidelines and best practice models has not protected physicians from superfluous torts; in some cases, emerging evidence has been used as the dagger of trial lawyers rather than the scalpel of physicians. Beyond the legal challenges are overarching justice issues that frame the broad goals of knowledge translation (KT) and technology diffusion. Optimal implementation of the latest evidence requires attention to be paid to the context of the candidate community and the key opinion leaders therein, characterized by the "8Ps" (public, patients, press, physicians, policy makers, private sector, payers, and public health). Ethical and equitable KT also accounts for the global burdens and benefits of implementing innovation such that disparities and gaps in health experienced by the least advantaged are prioritized. Researchers and thought leaders must attend to questions of fairness, economics, and legal risk when investigating ways to promote equity-oriented KT. [source] Generating Consistent Motion Transition via Decoupled Framespace InterpolationCOMPUTER GRAPHICS FORUM, Issue 3 2000G. Ashraf The framespace interpolation algorithm abstracts motion sequences as 1D signals, and interpolates between them to create higher dimension signals, with weights drawn from a user specified curve in a bounded region. We reformulate the algorithm to achieve motion-state based transition via dynamic warping of framespaces and automatic transition timing via framespace frequency interpolation. Basis motions displaying diverse coordination configurations between upper and lower body-halves, cannot be consistently corresponded at a macro level. We address this problem here, through decoupled blending of these halves to achieve true consistency, and eliminate accumulated phase differences via cosine phase warp functions. This generalization enables interpolation of motions with diverse coordinations between the upper and lower bodies. [source] What is Changing in Academic Research?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, Issue 2 2006Futures Scenarios, Trends What is changing in academic research? What has changed over the past decades and what might change in the coming ones? Could the research mission of universities be carried out in slightly or radically different ways in the medium term? This article aims to cast light on the trends and driving forces that can be observed in academic research over the past two decades in the OECD area. It gives an outlook of the main current characteristics of academic research at a macro level in terms of funding and activities in comparison with research performed by other sectors. It also highlights future challenges and sketches a few possible futures scenarios in a 20-year time frame. [source] On the capillary stress tensor in wet granular materialsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 10 2009L. Scholtès Abstract This paper presents a micromechanical study of unsaturated granular media in the pendular regime, based on numerical experiments using the discrete element method, compared with a microstructural elastoplastic model. Water effects are taken into account by adding capillary menisci at contacts and their consequences in terms of force and water volume are studied. Simulations of triaxial compression tests are used to investigate both macro and micro-effects of a partial saturation. The results provided by the two methods appear to be in good agreement, reproducing the major trends of a partially saturated granular assembly, such as the increase in the shear strength and the hardening with suction. Moreover, a capillary stress tensor is exhibited from capillary forces by using homogenization techniques. Both macroscopic and microscopic considerations emphasize an induced anisotropy of the capillary stress tensor in relation with the pore fluid distribution inside the material. Insofar as the tensorial nature of this fluid fabric implies shear effects on the solid phase associated with suction, a comparison has been made with the standard equivalent pore pressure assumption. It is shown that water effects induce microstructural phenomena that cannot be considered at the macro level, particularly when dealing with material history. Thus, the study points out that unsaturated soil stress definitions should include, besides the macroscopic stresses such as the total stress, the microscopic interparticle stresses such as the ones resulting from capillary forces, in order to interpret more precisely the implications of the pore fluid on the mechanical behaviour of granular materials. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Internal Auditing and Risk Assessment in Large Italian Companies: an Empirical SurveyINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 3 2003Marco Allegrini This paper aims at achieving an overall view regarding the state of the art of internal auditing in large Italian companies. Mainly, it is focused on risk assessment practices and on the execution of a risk-based approach in the audit process. The research is based on a survey carried out on the ,Top100' companies listed at the Italian Stock Exchange. Survey results reveal that practices vary significantly among three different models: 1A few companies (25%) carry out mainly traditional compliance activities and they generally follow an audit-cycle approach for the annual audit planning; 2In most companies (67%), internal auditors adopt the COSO model and perform mainly operational auditing. Risk-based approach is applied predominantly at macro level. 3Finally, it is possible to identify a very few large companies (8%), in which auditors are applying a risk-based approach both at macro and micro level. [source] The Religious Institutional Base and Violent Crime in Rural AreasJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 3 2006MATTHEW R. LEE Research on the relationship between religion and crime has typically focused on individual religiosity and delinquency, or moral communities and crime at the macro level. This study extends prior research by delineating the sociological implications of a strong religious institutional base, and investigating the ties between the religious institutional base and violent crime across rural communities. Multivariate regression analysis of Uniform Crime Report data on violent crime, Census of Churches and Church membership data, and U.S. Census data circa 2000 reveal that rural violent crime rates on average are consistently lower where there are more churches per capita. This relationship holds net of the overall adherence rates, the presence of civically engaged religious adherents, and the presence of conservative Protestant adherents. Moreover, regional variations are evident, with the South and the Midwest,two highly religious regions of the country,sustaining most of the observed institutional effects. [source] Enterprise Risk Management: Theory and PracticeJOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 4 2006Brian W. Nocco The Chief Risk Officer of Nationwide Insurance teams up with a distinguished academic to discuss the benefits and challenges associated with the design and implementation of an enterprise risk management program. The authors begin by arguing that a carefully designed ERM program,one in which all material corporate risks are viewed and managed within a single framework,can be a source of long-run competitive advantage and value through its effects at both a "macro" or company-wide level and a "micro" or business-unit level. At the macro level, ERM enables senior management to identify, measure, and limit to acceptable levels the net exposures faced by the firm. By managing such exposures mainly with the idea of cushioning downside outcomes and protecting the firm's credit rating, ERM helps maintain the firm's access to capital and other resources necessary to implement its strategy and business plan. At the micro level, ERM adds value by ensuring that all material risks are "owned," and risk-return tradeoffs carefully evaluated, by operating managers and employees throughout the firm. To this end, business unit managers at Nationwide are required to provide information about major risks associated with all new capital projects,information that can then used by senior management to evaluate the marginal impact of the projects on the firm's total risk. And to encourage operating managers to focus on the risk-return tradeoffs in their own businesses, Nationwide's periodic performance evaluations of its business units attempt to refl ect their contributions to total risk by assigning risk-adjusted levels of "imputed" capital on which project managers are expected to earn adequate returns. The second, and by far the larger, part of the article provides an extensive guide to the process and major challenges that arise when implementing ERM, along with an account of Nationwide's approach to dealing with them. Among other issues, the authors discuss how a company should assess its risk "appetite," measure how much risk it is bearing, and decide which risks to retain and which to transfer to others. Consistent with the principle of comparative advantage it uses to guide such decisions, Nationwide attempts to limit "non-core" exposures, such as interest rate and equity risk, thereby enlarging the firm's capacity to bear the "information-intensive, insurance- specific" risks at the core of its business and competencies. [source] Interrogating power: the case of arts and mental health in community projectsJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2007Rebecca Lawthom Abstract In this paper, we use the multi-dimensional model of power to interrogate arts and mental health community based projects. Using data retrospectively gathered during a series of participative evaluations, we re-analyse the data focusing on the ways in which power is located and negotiated across levels of analysis and multiple ecological domains. Evidence from the evaluations is richly presented illustrating power at the micro, meso and macro level. Whilst the model offers a rich reading of power, it is difficult to operationalize historically. Moreover, the static nature of the model fails to adequately capture the multiplicity of sometimes polar positions adopted. Engaging in a particular framework of community psychology, we argue that this project may be seen as part of a wider prefigurative action research agenda. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Primacy effect or recency effect?JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2010A long-term memory test of Super Bowl commercials The serial position effects for television commercials were tested within a naturalistic setting in this study, at both the micro level and the macro level. Television viewers' brand memory (recall and recognition) for the 2006 Super Bowl commercials were analyzed. At the micro level, the serial position of each commercial in a same commercial pod was measured. When the length of a commercial pod was controlled for, an earlier position for a commercial generated better brand recall. When the number of preceding ads was held constant, a commercial in a pod with fewer ads generated better brand recognition. At the macro level, the serial position of each commercial pod within the whole Super Bowl game broadcast was measured. The commercial pods at earlier positions generated better brand memory. Both findings confirmed a strong primacy effect. Managerial implications of the findings were also discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Does It Take a Village?LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 4 2006Fear of Crime in Latin America, Policing Strategies ABSTRACT How can policymakers reduce public fear of crime in Latin America? This study compares the effectiveness of "zero tolerance" and community-based policing strategies in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. At the micro level, it assesses the links between fear of crime and social identity characteristics, contextual factors, the media, community participation, and other insecurities. It finds that citizens' economic, political, and social insecurities are the main determinants of their fear of crime. At the macro level, the study compares levels of public insecurity and finds that cities that employ community-based strategies to fight crime register lower levels of public fear of crime. [source] An econometric study of the decisions of a town planning authority: complementary & substitute uses of industrial activities in Hong KongMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2002Lawrence W.C. Lai This is a contribution to the research on the interface between urban economics and urban planning at the micro level on the one hand and economic development at the macro level on the other hand by a study of the relationship between the performance of the development application mechanism and economic development. This study is conducted in the light that neither urban economics nor urban planning research has utilized useful development control information that can help better understand the spatial and linkage aspects of the industrial sector in economic development. A probit study of a relatively large population of statistics (with 1728 observations) concerning planning applications for uses in lands under industrial zoning in Hong Kong is conducted in terms of 5 refutable hypotheses about the role of the planning authority in respect of land uses that are neutral to, complementary to and substitutes of industrial uses in a local context where major structural changes are occurring in the economy. The hypotheses are derived from standard price theory. The test discovers that, consistent with the theory of substitute goods, that the probabilities of mixed industrial/office and pure office uses in industrial zones being approved were dependent on the rise and fall of the manufacturing sector (measured in terms of labor share). However, those for ancillary office use, a use that theoretically should be complementary to industrial activities, were independent of the state of the manufacturing sector. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Dynamics of petroleum markets in OECD countries in a monthly VAR,VEC model (1995,2007)OPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 1 2008Mehdi Asali This paper contains some results of a study in which the dynamics of petroleum markets in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is investigated through a vector auto regression (VAR),vector error correction model. The time series of the model comprises the monthly data for the variables demand for oil in the OECD, WTI in real term as a benchmark oil price, industrial production in OECD as a proxy for income and commercial stocks of crude oil and oil products in OECD for the time period of January 1995 to September 2007. The detailed results of this empirical research are presented in different sections of the paper; nevertheless, the general result that emerges from this study could be summarised as follows: (i) there is convincing evidence of the series being non-stationary and integrated of order one I(1) with clear signs of co-integration relations between the series; (ii) the VAR system of the empirical study appears stable and restores its dynamics as usual, following a shock to the rate of changes of different variables of the model, taking between five and eight periods (months in our case); (iii) we find the lag length of 2 as being optimal for the estimated VAR model; (iv) significant impact of changes in the commercial crude and products' inventory level on oil price and on demand for oil is highlighted in our empirical study and in different formulations of the VAR model, indicating the importance of the changes in the stocks' level on oil market dynamics; and (v) income elasticity of deman for oil appears to be prominent and statistically significant in most estimated models of the VAR system in the long run, while price elasticity of demand for oil is found to be negligible and insignificant in the short run. However, while aggregate oil consumption does not appear to be very sensitive to the changes of oil prices (which is believed to be because of the so-called ,rebound effect' of oil (energy) efficiency in the macro level) in the macro level, the declining trend of oil intensity (oil used for production of unit value of goods and services), particularly when there is an upward trend in oil price, clearly indicates the channels through which persistent changes in oil prices could affect the demand for oil in OECD countries. [source] Erfordert die Informationsgesellschaftflexiblere Arbeitsmärkte?PERSPEKTIVEN DER WIRTSCHAFTSPOLITIK, Issue 1 2003Gunther Tichy The paper argues that increased complexity rather than faster change is the real problem. Dealing with complexity affords adaptability and organisational learning. Short-term flexibility, however, is detrimental to adaptability and learning as it hinders the accumulation of firm-specific capabilities , and, consequently, of country-specific ones at the macro level. The ability of the firm to absorb and act upon knowledge depends to a large extent on staff continuity and motivation. [source] The relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and occupation: The 1998, 2001, and 2005 Korea National health and nutrition examination survey (KNHANES),AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 3 2009Dong-Hee Koh MD, DrPH Abstract Objectives We examined the relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and occupation. Methods We analyzed data from the 1998, 2001, and 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Men and women aged 20,59 who participated in the three KNHANES were included to analyze the relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and occupation. Trained interviewers visited subjects' homes and administered a standardized questionnaire on diagnosed diseases. Subjects were asked if they had experienced chronic rhinosinusitis during the previous year or had had rhinosinusitis for three or more consecutive months. Occupational classification followed the major groups of the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations (KSCO). We calculated the prevalence ratios (PRs) of chronic rhinosinusitis by major groups compared with clerical workers in the three KNHANES. Poisson regression with robust standard error was conducted, adjusting for age in 10-year strata. Results There were significantly increased PRs of chronic rhinosinusitis in plant and machinery operators and assemblers, elementary occupations, crafts and related trade workers, and the unemployed. Conclusions These results support the relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and occupational exposure at the macro level. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:179,184, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Social Capital and the Dynamics of Trust in GovernmentAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2007Luke Keele It is well understood that trust in government responds to the performance of the president, Congress, and the economy. Despite improved government performance, however, trust has never returned to the levels witnessed in the 1950s and 1960s. Social capital may be the force that has kept trust low. If so, we need to assess the relative contributions of both government performance and social capital at the macro level. Using macrolevel data, the analysis, here, is designed to capture the variation over time in both social capital and government performance and let them compete to explain the macro variation in trust. The empirical results demonstrate that both government performance and social capital matter, but that social capital appears to be the force which accounts for the decline in trust over the last 40 years. [source] THE INDIVIDUAL AND TRANSFORMATION OF BRIDEWEALTH IN RURAL NORTH CHINATHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 4 2005Yunxiang Yan Drawing on data collected from longitudinal fieldwork, this article explores how the practice of bridewealth in a north China village has been transformed into a new form of property division within the groom's family and how the bride has replaced her parents as the recipient of bridewealth. At the individual level, this transformation has evolved through a long process during which individual brides and grooms negotiated with their parents over control of bridewealth. A misunderstanding about Western individualism provides village youths with a new ideological tool to justify their relentless extraction of money from their parents. At the level of family life, the changing norm of bridewealth has shaped and in turn has helped to re-shape mate choice, family division, and support for the elderly. These family changes occurred within the context of other social changes at the macro level and are closely linked to the role of the powerful state. While emphasizing the active role of the individual in transforming the practice of bridewealth, an important phenomenon that by and large has been overlooked in most studies of marriage transactions, the article also examines the specific strategies by which individuals exercise their agency, choosing to take advantage of the custom of bridewealth instead of abandoning it when it affords them greater autonomy in mate choice and marriage negotiations. [source] Clues, Margins, and Monads: The Micro,Macro Link in Historical ResearchHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2001Matti Peltonen This article discusses the new microhistory of the 1970s and 1980s in terms of the concept of exceptional typical, and contrasts the new microhistory to old microhistory, in which the relationship between micro and macro levels of phenomena was defined by means of the concepts of exceptionality and typicality. The focus of the essay is on Carlo Ginzburg's method of clues, Walter Benjamin's idea of monads, and Michel de Certeau's concept of margins. The new microhistory is also compared with methodological discussions in the social sciences. In the mid-1970s concepts like the micro,macro link or the microfoundations of macrotheory were introduced in sociology and economics. But these largely worked in terms of the concepts of typicality or exceptionality, and this has proved to be problematic. Only historians have developed concepts that escape these and the older definitions of the micro,macro relationship; indeed, the "new microhistory" can best be described in terms of the notion of "exceptional typical." The essay explores the meaning of this notion. [source] A Theory Matrix for MediatorsNEGOTIATION JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010Archie Zariski The author uses a behavioral perspective to survey theory that may be useful in mediation. He notes the lack of diffusion of knowledge of theory among practitioners and argues that mediators should pay more explicit attention to theory. He presents a matrix comprising the behavioral factors of perception, emotion, cognition, communication, and intervention at the micro, meso, and macro levels of conflict and uses this matrix to organize and review some mediation theories. Several types of intervention theory are identified: integrated, generic, dialectical, developmental, and dialogical. The article closes by posing some outstanding theoretical issues and questioning whether current mediator training programs are adequate to bridge the gap between theory and practice. [source] Evolutionary dynamics of knowledge,COMPLEXITY, Issue 5 2006Carlos M. Parra Abstract This study discusses the evolutionary nature of knowledge acquisition at micro and macro levels, and in particular when the process involves an artificial agent's interpretative devices. In order to accomplish this, we propose using an individual learning model (or inner-world reconstruction model) that in our view overcomes neoclassic epistemological holdups and may increase the predictive power of computational economics, by letting an artificial agent's knowledge evolve by itself, irrespective of globally specified goals or individual motives of behavior; using simultaneous (or parallel) genetic algorithms (GA) to evolve a single agent's learning strategy, each GA with different general specifications, in a multiagent setting. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 11: 12,19, 2006 [source] | |||||||||||||||||||