Home  About us  Contact
 

Simple Idea (simple + idea)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences42%

Selected Abstracts

Book recommendation #5, Presentation zen: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery, by Guy Kawasaki

INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2009
Article first published online: 5 NOV 200
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

A new spin on losses looming larger than gains: asymmetric implicit associations from slot machine experience

JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING, Issue 4 2008
Scott A. Akalis
Abstract Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory states, among other things, that losses loom larger than gains. As much research as this simple idea has generated, key questions remain. How fundamental is the losses-looming-larger effect: will it emerge under more minimal circumstances than previously tested and will it manifest in implicit associations? And how does the actual experience of predominant losses or gains affect the losses-looming-larger effect? In two experiments employing non-traditional methods, participants experienced slot machine spins in which symbols were paired with gain, loss, and neutral outcomes. After experiencing these pairings, participants took Implicit Association Tests (IATs). In Experiment 1, implicit associations formed by the minimal experience of the slot machine were lopsided: negative associations with the loss symbol were stronger than positive associations with the gain symbol. In addition, it was found that the extent to which losses loomed larger depended on the context of the slot machine experience, with losses looming implicitly larger than gains most when they were fewer in number (participants experienced a net-gain) and least when they were the predominant outcome (participants experienced a net-loss). Finally, in Experiment 2, a potential artifact was ruled out and a replication obtained by showing that slot machine losses implicitly loom larger whether conceptualized from the perspective of a casino player or a casino owner. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Maximum-weight-basis preconditioners

NUMERICAL LINEAR ALGEBRA WITH APPLICATIONS, Issue 8-9 2004
Erik G. Boman
Abstract This paper analyses a novel method for constructing preconditioners for diagonally dominant symmetric positive-definite matrices. The method discussed here is based on a simple idea: we construct M by simply dropping offdiagonal non-zeros from A and modifying the diagonal elements to maintain a certain row-sum property. The preconditioners are extensions of Vaidya's augmented maximum-spanning-tree preconditioners. The preconditioners presented here were also mentioned by Vaidya in an unpublished manuscript, but without a complete analysis. The preconditioners that we present have only O(n+t2) nonzeros, where n is the dimension of the matrix and 1,t,n is a parameter that one can choose. Their construction is efficient and guarantees that the condition number of the preconditioned system is O(n2/t2) if the number of nonzeros per row in the matrix is bounded by a constant. We have developed an efficient algorithm to construct these preconditioners and we have implemented it. We used our implementation to solve a simple model problem; we show the combinatorial structure of the preconditioners and we present encouraging convergence results. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Graduate density, gender, and employment

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 3 2002
Malcolm Brynin
ABSTRACT The expansion of higher education is often viewed as reflecting increased demand for skills, whether related to technological change or the growing complexity of the economy. It is also linked to widening pay differentials between the poorly and highly educated. There are reasons, however, to question these associations. Even if demand for graduates is growing the supply of graduates might as a result of the status derived from having a degree still exceed this. The demand for graduates itself need not be wholly tied in with upgrading of the labour force. Graduates could be part of a more flexible workforce who increasingly undertake non-graduate work, thus downgrading their labour-market position. LFS (Labour Force Survey) and BHPS (British Household Panel Study) data are used to show that there has been no major shift in the distribution of graduates in the British labour market, that career starts are increasingly at a lower status point, and that there is a negative effect of graduate density on wages. There are also redistributional effects. There has been a large increase in the social demand for higher education by women, and they have gained from this expansion while men have lost out. In addition, graduate density is positive for non-graduates, who gain from the reduced rewards accruing to graduates. The results call into question the simple idea of a trend towards a demand for increasing levels of skills and qualifications. More attention should be paid to the distribution of skills and to complex interactions within this. [source]

In Memoriam: Mordecai Kaffman, M.D. (1917,2005)

FAMILY PROCESS, Issue 2 2005
Yoel Elizur Ph.D.
A word of warning: the following ideas will be presented in plain everyday language, avoiding any type of professional lexicon. It may be that this down-to-earth form of presentation will disappoint some of my potential readers who are accustomed to peruse material presented in sophisticated meta-systemic language. All I can do is plead guilty, and in self-defense put forward two arguments. First, that I cannot escape the universal truth, "the style is the man," and second, that the simple ideas which I am to present here are all, without exception, the result of concrete clinical experience, with no admixture of theoretical armchair speculation. [source]

Locke on the Idea of Substratum

PACIFIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2000
Lex Newman
Locke's treatment of substratum is notoriously difficult. Accordingto one commentator, ,nothing else in the writings of any philosopher matches the doubleness of attitude of the passages about substratum in Locke's Essay' (Bennett 1987, 197). The aim of the present paper is to render consistent Locke's seemingly divergent strands on the subject. My efforts are organized around three levels of apparent duplicity. At each level, I argue that the doubleness of attitude in Locke's treatment is merely apparent. I argue further that Locke means to ground an empiricist-friendly idea of substratum in the customary experience of simple ideas that ,go constantly together.' [source]

Natural orifice surgery: applications in colonic surgery

ASIAN JOURNAL OF ENDOSCOPIC SURGERY, Issue 2 2010
J. Leroy
Abstract Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic abdominal surgery, or NOTES, allows invasive operations to be performed through a single or multiple natural-orifice approach either in isolation ("pure") or in combination with a transparietal ("hybrid") access format. Therefore, to facilitate a colonic or rectal resection, the transgastric, transrectal or transcolonic routes, as well as the transvaginal route in women, can all be used either alone or in combination. We are now performing resectional colonic techniques on our patients that have been inspired by this revolutionary concept, carefully planned with storyboarding and validated in porcine models with survival analysis. Adaptation of existing equipment along with the use of new instruments and some simple ideas, such as magnetic fields to retract and mobilize the colon, have allowed us to simplify and standardize the operative technique (the first steps to ensuring procedural reproducibility). Initial potential applications can easily be imagined for partial colonic resections for voluminous benign polyps and for small early cancers, but these applications may extend to incorporate inflammatory bowel diseases such as diverticular disease of the sigmoid colon. For these techniques to further improve and the concept to become a concrete reality, a change in current surgical practice is required, and conventional laparoscopic techniques must be understood to represent a point along the evolutional development of surgery and not considered the final destination. However, as important as technical capacity is, due consideration and assurance of oncological and immunological propriety is essential, as is the issue of clarifying precise patient harm:benefit risk ratios. [source]