			Home About us Contact

Main Vehicle (main + vehicle)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	40%

Selected Abstracts

Locating Responsibility: The Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Its Rationale

DISASTERS, Issue 2 2004
James Darcy
Criticised by some as a technical initiative that neglects core principles, Sphere was seen by its originators precisely as an articulation of principle. The Humanitarian Charter was the main vehicle through which this was expressed, but its relationship to the Minimum Standards has remained a matter of uncertainty. Specifically, it was unclear in the original (1999) edition of Sphere how the concept of rights informed the Minimum Standards. The revised (2004) edition goes some way to clarifying this in the way the standards are framed, yet the link between the standards and the charter remains unclear. The concern with the quality and accountability of humanitarian assistance, which motivated the attempt to establish system-wide standards through the Sphere Project, was accompanied by a desire to establish such actions in a wider framework of legal and political responsibility. In part, this reflects the conditional nature of the undertaking that agencies make when they adopt Sphere. This aspect of the charter has been neglected, but it is fundamental to an understanding of the standards and their application. This paper considers the rationale of the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and the conceptual model that underpins it. It discusses the relationship between the charter and the Minimum Standards, and the sense in which the latter are properly called ,rights-based' (explored further in a related paper herein by Young and Taylor). The author was closely involved in the conception and drafting of the charter, and this paper attempts to convey some of the thinking that lay behind it. [source]

The E-economy and the Rise of Technocapitalism: Networks, Firms, and Transportation

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2003
Luis Suarez-Villa
ABSTRACT The e-economy is part of a larger phenomenon, technocapitalism, that is transforming business organizations and the ways in which they transact, produce, and ship their goods. Technocapitalism is an evolution of market capitalism that is rooted in technological innovation and supported by such intangibles as creativity and knowledge. This paper considers first the main characteristics of networks that support the e-economy and its source phenomenon, the emergence of technocapitalism. Networks are thought to be the main vehicle through which the e-economy spreads, and they have major effects on the organization of business firms. The culture of technocapitalism, with its emphasis on continuous innovation and rapid adjustment, is largely behind the rising importance of networks. A second section then considers the deconstruction of business firms and its relation to networks, the e-economy, and the rise of technocapitalism. A historical perspective is provided to show the contrast with previous eras. The deconstruction of business organizations involves a major transformation of the norms and ways in which firms are run and structured. Finally, the likely implications for transportation and shipping of the rise of the e-economy, its networks, and the deconstruction of firms are discussed. The logistics, pricing, and infrastructure of shipping are likely to be substantially affected by the spread of the e-economy, its networks, and the deconstruction of firms. [source]

Modeling of activation data in the BrainMapÔ database: Detection of outliers

HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 3 2002
Finn Årup Nielsen
Abstract We describe a system for meta-analytical modeling of activation foci from functional neuroimaging studies. Our main vehicle is a set of density models in Talairach space capturing the distribution of activation foci in sets of experiments labeled by lobar anatomy. One important use of such density models is identification of novelty, i.e., low probability database events. We rank the novelty of the outliers and investigate the cause for 21 of the most novel, finding several outliers that are entry and transcription errors or infrequent or non-conforming terminology. We briefly discuss the use of atlases for outlier detection. Hum. Brain Mapping 15:146,156, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

The change from water to salt as the main vehicle for community-wide fluoride exposure in Basle, Switzerland

COMMUNITY DENTISTRY AND ORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 6 2003
J. Meyer
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Considering a multisite study?

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2002
How to take the leap, have a soft landing
Although most policymakers agree that a fundamental goal of the mental health system is to provide integrated community-based services, there is little empirical evidence with which to plan such a system. Studies in the community mental health literature have not used a standard set of evaluation methods. One way of addressing this gap is through a multisite program evaluation in which multiple sites and programs evaluate the same outcomes using the same instruments and time frame. The proposition of introducing the same study design in different settings and programs is deceptively straightforward. The difficulty is not in the conceptualization but in the implementation. This article examines the factors that act as implementation barriers, how are they magnified in a multisite study design, and how they can be successfully addressed. In discussing the issue of study design, this article considers processes used to address six major types of barriers to conducting collaborative studies identified by Lancaster or Lancaster's six Cs,contribution, communication, compatibility, consensus, credit, and commitment. A case study approach is used to examine implementation of a multisite community mental health evaluation of services and supports (case management, self-help initiatives, crisis interventions) represented by six independent evaluations of 15 community health programs. A principal finding was that one of the main vehicles to a successful multisite project is participation. It is only through participation that Lancaster's six Cs can be addressed. Key factors in large, geographically dispersed, and diverse groups include the use of advisory committees, explicit criteria and opportunities for participation, reliance on all modes of communication, and valuing informal interactions. The article concludes that whereas modern technology has assisted in making complicated research designs feasible, the operationalization of timeless virtues such as mutual respect and trust, flexibility, and commitment make them successful. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]