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Outlines A Number (outline a + number)
Kinds of Outlines A Number Selected AbstractsHabitat connectivity and matrix restoration: the wider implications of agri-environment schemesJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2006PAUL F. DONALD Summary 1The spread and intensification of agriculture are recognized as two of the most important global threats to wildlife. There are clear links between agricultural change and declines in biodiversity across a wide range of agricultural systems, and convincing evidence that reversing these changes leads to a recovery in wildlife populations. 2Nearly 4 billion euros are now paid annually through agri-environment schemes (AES) to farmers in Europe and North America to make environmental improvements to their land. Where appropriately designed and targeted, these schemes have proved successful in reversing declines in farmland wildlife populations. 3We argue that insights gained from island biogeography and metapopulation theory, and from theoretical and empirical assessments of landscape connectivity suggest that AES may carry substantial wider benefits, which so far have not been considered in the design and deployment of such schemes. ,Softening' agricultural land could offset some of the negative impacts on biodiversity of the loss and fragmentation of non-agricultural habitats; could allow species to adapt to climate change; could slow the spread of alien and invasive species; and could contribute positively to the coherence of key biodiversity and protected area networks. Indeed, AES might represent the only viable way to counter these threats. 4We outline a number of ways in which these wider benefits could be taken account of in the design of AES and suggest a number of characteristics of the species most likely to benefit from them. 5Synthesis and applications. Agri-environment schemes might bring significant environmental benefits to habitats other than farmland by restoring the agricultural matrix that separates them. Theoretical and empirical research suggests that matrix restoration improves a number of ecosystem functions. Where they are available, AES might therefore represent a viable mechanism for addressing a range of pandemic environmental problems such as global climate change. Little consideration has so far been given to these wider conservation applications in the design, deployment and monitoring of AES. [source] Financial volatility: an introductionJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS, Issue 5 2002Philip Hans Franses It is now 20 years since the publication of Engle's (1982) seminal paper, which introduced ARCH to the world. The ARCH paper had an enormous influence on both theoretical and applied econometrics, and was influential in the establishment of the discipline of Financial Econometrics. In this paper we provide an introduction to the special issue on modelling and forecasting financial volatility, which commemorates the Twentieth Anniversary of the publication of ARCH. Financial econometrics has become a mature discipline over the last two decades, and one of its major research objects is the modelling and forecasting of volatility. This special issue presents ten papers, all of which focus on volatility and risk. The papers examine issues such as the new frontiers of volatility, the selection of models for observed and unobserved volatility, the potential long-memory property of volatility, and the measurement of volatility. The commonality of papers is that they do not examine the extant literature, which has been reviewed elsewhere, but rather outline a number of important issues that are not only of current interest, but are likely to remain so for many years to come. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Using Film in Theology and Religious StudiesRELIGION COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2009Christopher Deacy The aim of this article is to provide an overview of work that has been carried out by scholars working in religion/theology and film over recent years. For a field that has only come to prominence in the last two decades, I outline a number of perspectives on the ways in which religion/theology and film may be seen to interact, including a discussion of some of the criticisms that have emerged both from within existing religious studies and theology scholarship and from film studies. The discussion focuses on whether or not research and teaching in this area is more than a fad and whether it offers creative new possibilities for interdisciplinary study. [source] The Logic of African Neopatrimonialism: What Role for Donors?DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2007Diana Cammack Today a number of sub-Saharan African countries display the outward signs of modern, democratic states. International aid agencies often treat them as though power and decision-making reside within government institutions and that they function as designed. When they do not they are labelled dysfunctional though their action is actually quite logical when viewed through a ,neopatrimonial lens'. This article outlines a number of neopatrimonial practices observed in Africa in the past two decades and attempts to explain the ,logic' that underpins them. It provides several recommendations about the way donors should assist states where deeply rooted anti-democratic and non-developmental behaviour dominates. [source] Trends, challenges and opportunities in power quality researchEUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRICAL POWER, Issue 1 2010Math H. J. Bollen Abstract This paper outlines a number of possible research directions in power quality. The introduction of new sources of generation will introduce the need for new research on voltage,magnitude variations, harmonic emission and harmonic resonance. Statistical performance indicators are expected to play an important role in addressing the hosting capacity of the power system for these new sources. The quickly growing amounts of power-quality data call for automatic analysis methods. Advanced signal-processing tools need to be developed and applied to address this challenge. Equipment with an active power-electronic interface generates waveform distortion at higher frequencies than existing equipment. The emission, spread, consequences and mitigation of this distortion require more research emphasis. The growing complexity of the power system calls for remote identification of system events and load transitions. Future DC networks, at different voltage levels, require the research on DC power quality next to AC power quality. Research on methods to describe and analyse time-varying harmonics has applications in a number of the above-mentioned issues. So does the use of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and real-time-digital simulation. Existing power quality standards should not form a barrier against future research; instead research should result in improved standards as well as completely new concepts. Examples are: voltage dips in three-phase systems, flicker due to non-incandescent lamps, and voltage variations on the timescale between 1,second and 10,minutes. All together, it is concluded in this paper that sufficient important and interesting research challenges and opportunities remain in the power quality area. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Deleting ,irrational' responses from discrete choice experiments: a case of investigating or imposing preferences?HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 8 2006Emily Lancsar Abstract Investigation of the ,rationality' of responses to discrete choice experiments (DCEs) has been a theme of research in health economics. Responses have been deleted from DCEs where they have been deemed by researchers to (a) be ,irrational', defined by such studies as failing tests for non-satiation, or (b) represent lexicographic preferences. This paper outlines a number of reasons why deleting responses from DCEs may be inappropriate after first reviewing the theory underpinning rationality, highlighting that the importance placed on rationality depends on the approach to consumer theory to which one ascribes. The aim of this paper is not to suggest that all preferences elicited via DCEs are rational. Instead, it is to suggest a number of reasons why it may not be the case that all preferences labelled as ,irrational' are indeed so. Hence, deleting responses may result in the removal of valid preferences; induce sample selection bias; and reduce the statistical efficiency and power of the estimated choice models. Further, evidence suggests random utility theory may be able to cope with such preferences. Finally, we discuss a number of implications for the design, implementation and interpretation of DCEs and recommend caution regarding the deletion of preferences from stated preference experiments. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Community engagement for counterterrorism: lessons from the United KingdomINTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2010RACHEL BRIGGS This article explores the development of community engagement within the UK's strategy to tackle international terrorism linked to and inspired by Al-Qaeda, commonly known as CONTEST. It focuses mostly on the ,Prevent' strand of the strategy which seeks to prevent radicalization towards violence, reduce tacit support for violence, and increase the resilience of communities to tackle radicalization and extremist messages themselves. Community engagement for counterterrorism also relates to certain aspects of the ,Pursue' strand of CONTEST, and these are highlighted. The article outlines the case for a community-based approach to counterterrorism and outlines a number of the key developments in its emergence from 2005 onwards. It analyses the performance of this aspect of the counterterrorism strategy, pointing to a number of shortcomings in relation to the establishment of partnerships, the integration of the approach, capacity shortfalls at the local level, and the wider challenges of a hostile political and media environment. Written as the new UK coalition government announces a review of the ,Prevent' strategy, it offers a number of recommendations for the future direction of this area of policy. It calls for an overhaul in working styles, a focus on people rather than projects, and the need to draw a much clearer line between downstream and targeted ,Prevent' work and the broader and longer-term community development work, with the latter encapsulated within the government's Big Society Programme and aimed at all fragile communities, not just Muslims. [source] Efficient IP-multicast via Inmarsat BGAN, a 3GPP satellite networkINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING, Issue 5 2007Paul Febvre Abstract This paper outlines a number of challenges associated with supporting IP-multicast services efficiently across the Inmarsat Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) 3GPP-based satellite network operating over the Imarsat-4 satellite constellation. The paper presents a network architecture that extends the 3GPP reference architecture to allow IP-multicast to be delivered when the Core Network is in a 3GPP Release-4 (non-MBMS compliant) configuration. This paper further extends the service and system concepts defined in 3GPP MBMS to provide improved flexibility and accountability, and improved scalability and efficiency when operating with the Inmarsat-4 BGAN TDM/TDMA air interface. This paper describes a number of radio resource management techniques that were deployed in a test system and the validation testing that was undertaken to support multimedia distribution and VoIP-based netted communications applications. The tuning of application and system behaviour to achieve acceptable performance is described in outline. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Japanese Contributions to the Theory of International TradeTHE JAPANESE ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2000Paul Oslington This paper outlines a number of significant Japanese contributions to the theory of international trade in the postwar period, and identifies some of their characteristic topics and methods. It then seeks to explain these characteristics, with reference to Japan's intellectual and cultural heritage, its pressing national priorities, and the situation of the Japanese economist within Japanese society and the economics profession internationally. It is argued that despite these common characteristics we cannot speak meaningfully of a Japanese school of trade theory, although there is a characteristically Japanese approach to trade policy. Finally, some reasons for the neglect of Japanese contributions are explored. JEL Classification Numbers: B20, F19. [source] Crystallization to obtain protein,ligand complexes for structure-aided drug designACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 6 2006Dennis E. Danley The use of X-ray crystallography to derive three-dimensional structures for structure-aided drug design (SADD) is a common activity in drug discovery today. In this process, the structures of inhibitors or other ligands of interest complexed with their macromolecular target are solved and the structural information is used iteratively to design new molecules. The ability to form cocrystal complexes between a target protein and a ligand is essential to this process and therefore is of considerable interest to anyone practicing in this field. In the course of obtaining the necessary ligand,protein crystals, even with crystallization conditions well established for a protein of interest, obtaining co-structures with inhibitors either through cocrystallization or soaking is too often not successful. There are numerous potential reasons for this lack of success and this article outlines a number of possible factors that may be involved and discusses considerations that should be taken into account when designing successful experiments to obtain iterative costructures. [source] | ||||||||||||||||