bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Entrepreneurial Intentions and Outcomes: a Comparative Causal Mapping Study
Authors: Jenkins Mark , Johnson Gerry
Published: June 2003

This paper uses a causal map methodology to consider the contrasts between entrepreneurial intentions and outcomes. In evaluating a series of propositions drawn from the extant literature the study finds that the elicited causal maps are consistent with contrasts in entrepreneurial intentions, but not outcomes. This suggests that the existing emphasis on entrepreneurial strategies being deliberate, conscious processes may be misplaced: non‐deliberate, emergent strategies may be just as influential in producing entrepreneurial outcomes. The study develops a series of output propositions suggesting that entrepreneurial outcomes are associated with causal maps which connect the internal operations of the business with the external environment. This implies that entrepreneurial success may be a result of intuitive systems thinking in which connections are made between the environment and the internal operations of the business.
Implications of the US Farm Bill of 2002 for agricultural trade and trade negotiations
Authors: Sumner Daniel A.
Published: June 2003

The US Farm Bill of 2002 is the latest in a 7‐decade history of farm subsidy laws that transfer funds to farmers and regulate and subsidize production of selected commodities. Fruit, tree nut, ornamental and vegetable crops, hay and meats remain outside scope of main subsidy programs. The new law continues many innovations of the 1996 Act, such as removal of authority for annual land idling and crop price floors accompanied by government stockholding. Government payments remain the primary focus of commodity programs. The total amount of these payments are likely to remain similar to the amount paid in the period 1999–2001, but with some changes in the form of the programs. For example, allowing owners to update acreage and yield payment bases creates additional incentives for farmers to link current planting decisions to anticipated farm subsidies. Similarly, the new program that ties “counter‐cyclical” payments to the price of a specific crop also has production stimulus. A new program, estimated to add about 5–10 per cent to marginal milk revenue for smaller farms, makes ‘deficiency’ payments to dairy farms when milk prices are low. Despite the new programs with added links to stimulating production, new USA programs stimulate production only marginally more than the subsidies of the 1999–2001 period, which were replaced. Furthermore, the USA has flexibility to avoid explicitly violating its WTO commitments. Nonetheless, this US Farm Bill of 2002 has curtailed the previous trends toward lower farm subsidies and smaller production stimuli, and the negative publicity surrounding it has made negotiating reductions of farm trade distortions more difficult.
European agri‐environmental policy for the 21st century
Authors: Latacz‐Lohmann Uwe , Hodge Ian
Published: June 2003

The present paper reviews the development of agri‐environmental policy in Europe and assesses its prospects. While it does so from a predominantly UK perspective, there are many common features of the experience and policy choices across the majority of Member States. The first generation of agri‐environmental measures applied command‐and‐control regulation for the prevention of pollution. Second‐generation measures pay farmers for providing environmental public goods. The emphasis on ‘amenity’ derived from the maintenance of agricultural production systems contrasts with policy approaches in Australia and the USA. Well‐designed incentive schemes constitute ‘quasi‐markets’ for public goods, correcting for a pre‐existing market failure. Problems in the delivery of policy include poor spatial targeting and a lack of clarity between environmental and income support objectives. Various changes will be required in order to increase the environmental effectiveness and efficiency of agri‐environmental mechanisms.
Greenhouse gas and groundwater recharge abatement benefits of tree crops in south‐western Australian farming systems
Authors: Petersen Elizabeth , Schilizzi Steven , Bennett David
Published: June 2003

The indirect benefits of a commercial tree crop for greenhouse gas and groundwater recharge abatement are analysed. Oil mallees are introduced into a whole‐farm linear programming model as a source of income, an offset to greenhouse gas emissions from the mixed sheep and cropping enterprises and as a source of groundwater recharge abatement. The profitability of oil mallees is found to be very sensitive to the discount rate, yield and price assumptions and the relative profitability of other farm enterprises (especially the wool enterprise). Under standard assumptions where oil mallees are profitable, the trees significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions and groundwater recharge and the farm remains profitable. If farm‐level policies are introduced for greenhouse gas abatement, without tree crops or some other technological change, the current farming systems would fail and be replaced by alternative land uses.
Ag econ angst crisis revisited: a rejoinder
Authors: Rola‐Rubzen Maria Fay , Hardaker J. Brian
Published: June 2003

Poverty reduction has been an underlying goal of governments and the development community since the Second World War, but it was the 1973 Nairobi address of Robert S. McNamara, then President of the World Bank, that created a new commitment to directly address poverty reduction in the quest for development (McNamara 1973). More than half a century after the war and close to 30 years after Robert McNamara's speech, poverty is still rampant in many parts of the globe. Reflections on why this scourge remains, and what we as agricultural economists can do about it, were the driving forces behind our paper with the late John L. Dillon entitled ‘Agricultural economists and world poverty: progress and prospects’ (Rola‐Rubzen et al. 2001). The part of our paper that Johnson, Rossmiller and Sandiford‐Rossmiller (JRS) have reacted to was deliberately provocative to stimulate thinking on ways to combat poverty. We are pleased that someone has taken the bait. As the two surviving authors, we find ourselves in agreement with much that JRS have written. However, in preparing this rejoinder we have sadly missed John Dillon, especially his broad international experience. We note that in several respects JRS amplify and support some of our points, as well as adding a new perspective of their own, dealing with the new institutional economics. We find it hard to work out just where they differ from us.
Can Groups Learn?
Authors: Cohen Elizabeth G. , Lotan Rachel A. , Abram Percy L. , Scarloss Beth A. , Schultz Susan E.
Published: June 2003

This is a study of assessment of the work of creative problem-solving groups in sixth-grade social studies. We test the proposition that providing students with specific guidelines as to what makes an exemplary group product (evaluation criteria) will improve the character of the discussion as well as the quality of the group product. To assess the group's potential for successful instruction, we examine the character of the group conversation as well as the quality of the group product. We present a statistical model of the process of instruction that connects the use of evaluation criteria, group discussion, creation of the group product, and average performance on the final written assessment.
In Quest of Freedom: Towards Critical Pedagogy in the Education of Bilingual Youth
Authors: Hones Donald F.
Published: June 2003

There have been few studies done on bilingual middle and high school students, curricula, and programs in the United States. Although recently research in this area has increased, much of it tends to focus on how to prepare bilingual students with academic language, content area knowledge, and learning strategies needed for academic success. Nevertheless, a growing body of scholarly literature suggests the value of a dialogical process, especially in work with students who are not part of the dominant cultural and linguistic group. To analyze the need and the potential for critical pedagogy in the lives of bilingual students, I pursue the following research questions: What can a narrative, dialogic research process reveal about the lives of bilingual students, in and out of school? How can critical dialogues connect bilingual students’ lives with the curriculum of high schools? What can be the role of a university teacher education program in fostering such a dialogue about the curriculum, pedagogy, and students’ lives? Through a narrative, participatory research process the voices and experiences of three bilingual high school students are presented and interpreted through a critical pedagogical lens. The general lack of critical engagement that characterizes their formal high school experiences is noted. Nevertheless, the potential for a dialogic approach to learning becomes clear through the interactions of high school students, researchers, and preservice teachers from the university. Suggestions for researchers and educators are provided to encourage further development of critical approaches with bilingual youth.
Continuity in how We Think
Authors: Stanic George M. A. , Russell Dee
Published: June 2003

Prawat (2000, 2001) claims that a major discontinuity appeared in John Dewey's thinking in 1915, when Dewey moved away from the thinking of William James to that of Charles Peirce. The change is described as a “dramatic” and “stunning about face” in Dewey's views. We look at one crucial part of Prawat's evidence of discontinuity, the 1910 and 1933 versions of How We Think. Prawat cites passages from the 1933 version to make his case for discontinuity when, often, very similar (even identical) text can be found in the 1910 version. Focusing on Dewey's views on the role of the teacher, the place of aesthetics and ethics in inquiry, the form of concepts, and the generation of ideas, we conclude that Prawat's hypothesis of discontinuity cannot be sustained. The role of the imagination did become more explicit and important in Dewey's work over time, but Prawat fails to see the imagination in Dewey's early work and miscasts development and reconstruction as discontinuity.
Finding Families: Quantitative Methods in Language Classification
Authors: McMahon April , McMahon Robert
Published: June 2003

Over the past two decades, many of the major controversies in historical linguistics have centred on language classification. Some of these controversies have been concentrated within linguistics, as in the methodological opposition of multilateral comparison to the traditional Comparative Method. Others have crossed discipline boundaries, with the question of whether correlations can be established between language families, archaeological cultures and genetic populations. At the same time, increasing emphasis on language contact has challenged the family tree as a model of linguistic relatedness. This paper argues that we must quantify language classification, to allow objective evaluation of alternative methods within linguistics, and of proposed cross–disciplinary correlations; and that a first step in this quantification is represented by the ‘borrowing’ of computational tools from biology.
Carnochan, Scott & Whitley's Prosodic Analysis of French Regular Verbs
Authors: Ogden Richard , Kelly John
Published: June 2003

This paper presents a Firthian Prosodic Analysis of the French verb. The original analysis was done by J. C. Carnochan, N. C. Scott and E. M. Whitley at SOAS in the early 1950s, and was presented at a departmental seminar in 1954. The paper is important for several reasons: it is one of the few extant pieces of work in which Eileen Whitley had a hand; it is the only documented prosodic analysis of a major Indo–European language carried out at SOAS by Firth's co–workers, and as such it has great historical value; and finally it portrays an important stage in the development of FPA. Our paper describes the history of the original manuscript and explains the phonological analysis it contains. Some comparison is made with a contemporaneous phonemic analysis of French.
Choice Between the Overt and the Covert
Authors: Xu Liejiong
Published: June 2003

This article addresses the three factors involved in choosing between overt and null forms. The choice may be lexically controlled or uncontrolled; it may be grammatically determined or undetermined; it may be contextually sensitive or free. Each position of a syntactic structure can be characterised by means of three binary features [±L], [±G], [±C]. In some respects, feature characterisation has an advantage over the familiar approach of identifying a null subject or a null object as one of the four standard empty categories. It provides a mechanism for revealing important differences and similarities between languages and guarding against overgeneralisation and undergeneralisation.
Doing Wonders with an Egg: Optimal Re‐distribution When Households Differ in Market and Non‐Market Abilities
Authors: Balestrino Alessandro , Cigno Alessandro , Pettini Anna
Published: June 2003

The paper studies non‐linear income taxation and linear commodity taxation in a household production context with households differentiated by market and non‐market ability. In such a setting, there is an efficiency motive for re‐distribution which is independent from the usual equity motive, and operates also when the social planner is indifferent to utility inequality. As a consequence, some of the policy prescriptions applicable to the case in which households differ in market ability only do not hold when households differ also in non‐market ability. For instance, re‐distribution is not necessarily from high‐ to low‐wage households, and it is not necessarily true that the marginal rate of income tax should be zero for high incomes and positive for low incomes. In some cases, re‐distribution may accentuate rather than lessen utility inequality, and can reverse the direction of income inequality relative to the laissez‐faire equilibrium. Furthermore, contrary to Atkinson‐Stiglitz, it may be optimal to use indirect and direct taxation simultaneously even when the utility function is separable in commodities and labour.
Connectionism and the Philosophical Foundations of Cognitive Science
Authors: Horgan Terence
Published: June 2003

This is an overview of recent philosophical discussion about connectionism and the foundations of cognitive science. Connectionist modeling in cognitive science is described. Three broad conceptions of the mind are characterized, and their comparative strengths and weaknesses are discussed: (1) the classical computation conception in cognitive science; (2) a popular foundational interpretation of connectionism that John Tienson and I call “non‐sentential computationalism”; and (3) an alternative interpretation of connectionism we call “dynamical cognition.” Also discussed are two recent philosophical attempts to enlist connectionism in defense of eliminativism about folk psychology.
Directions in Connectionist Research: Tractable Computations Without Syntactically Structured Representations
Authors: Waskan Jonathan , Bechtel William
Published: June 2003

Should connectionists abandon the quest for tractably computable cognitive transition functions while retaining syntactically structured mental representations? We argue, in opposition to Horgan, that it should not. We argue that the case against tractably computable functions, based upon the claimed isotropic and Quinean character of cognition, fails since cognition is not as isotropic and Quinean as Fodor and Horgan contend. Moreover, we illustrate how current research in both connectionism and cognitive neuroscience suggests that tractability can be preserved through division of overall computations into modular sub‐processes, each of which is tractable. As to syntactically structured representations, we argue that they are unneeded for most cognitive tasks organisms confront, and that when they are needed, they may be provided by external representational media such as natural language. Moreover, we note that increasingly cognitive linguistics has become the ally of connectionism and that the research program of cognitive linguistics suggests that abilities to use natural languages may be developed without requiring syntactically structured mental representations to exist prior to natural language.
On the Poverty of Scientism, or: The Ineluctable Roughness of Rationality
Authors: Code Murray
Published: June 2003

If there is one rationality there must be a plurality of them. This conclusion follows, I argue, partly from the extreme and ineradicable vagueness of the fundamental concepts that every would‐be rational explanation must presuppose. Logicistic/scientistic assaults on this vagueness are doomed to fail partly because they are unable to acknowledge the imaginative dimension of rational thought. Being limited to the play of “outward appearances,” scientific investigations are also dependent on “inward imaginings” on their speculative side. The upshot is that schools of philosophy should be characterized by the kind of imaginary they adopt rather than by their logics. In which case, every attempt to get and tell something right about the world is bound to incorporate mythopoeic elements in its explanations.
How Can Research Organizations More Effectively Transfer Research Knowledge to Decision Makers?
Authors: LAVIS JOHN N. , ROBERTSON DAVE , WOODSIDE JENNIFER M. , McLEOD CHRISTOPHER B. , ABELSON JULIA
Published: June 2003

Applied research organizations invest a great deal of time, and research funders invest a great deal of money generating and (one hopes) transferring research knowledge that could inform decisions about health and health care. Basing these knowledge‐transfer activities on our evolving understanding of the most effective approaches to knowledge transfer will help us achieve value for money in our individual and collective investments in health services and health policy research. Research organizations and research funders can probably be excused for not basing their activities on research evidence until now, however, because the variety of relevant questions, target audiences, and disciplinary perspectives and methodological approaches used in empirical studies has made the identification of take‐home messages from this field of research a very difficult task.

We provide an organizing framework for a knowledge‐transfer strategy and an overview of our understanding of the current knowledge for each of the five elements of the framework. The framework provides an overall approach to knowledge transfer that can be evaluated as a whole over long periods of time, as well as specific elements that can be evaluated and fine‐tuned over shorter periods of time.
Alternative Models of Hospital‐Physician Affiliation as the United States Moves Away from Tight Managed Care
Authors: CASALINO LAWRENCE , ROBINSON JAMES C.
Published: June 2003

During the 1990s, many U.S. hospitals rushedto affiliate tightly with physicians by purchasing practices and funding the creation of Independent Practice Associations (IPAs) and Physician Hospital Organizations (PHOs) (Burns, DeGraaff, and Singh 1999;Burns and Thorpe 1993;Morrisey et al. 1996). Expectations were high for the national growth of capitated “full‐risk” and “shared‐risk” contracting. These contracting models were already prevalent in California and were found in a number of cities around the United States. Risk contracting was supposed to reward physicians and hospitals that could work together to control costs. It was commonly believed that “systems will either migrate to full integration or decline to … secondary status … vertically integrated systems enjoy irresistible economic advantages” (Governance Committee 1993, xiv). Hospital‐physician integration appeared to be an idea whose time had come. But when risk contracting failed to spread and financial and operational problems developed in hospital‐based IPAs and PHOs and in the physician practices that hospitals had purchased (Burns et al. 2000;Burns and Pauly 2002;Peters 1999), the prevailing wisdom changed.
Intelligent systems research in China
Authors: Li Zongbin , Zhang Hongtao
Published: June 2003

In recent years, research on intelligent systems is becoming more and more popular in academe. Intelligent systems research mainly involves the field of artificial intelligence. There are many research groups engaged in the research of intelligent systems in the world, and a variety of achievements have been made. In this paper, the main research institutions in China as well as their main research topics are introduced.
An experiment for showing some kind of artificial understanding
Authors: Jin Zhi , Bell David A.
Published: June 2003

In this paper we design an experiment which can be depicted as a simple scenario, a very limited ‘world’. In this world, there are an actor that can pursue a project and an observer that is keeping its eyes on the actor. We try to show in the experiment that the observer can to some degree understand the actor based on its knowledge and some metaphors, i.e. understand what the actor is doing and why. As the conclusion of this experiment, we try to show some features of ‘understanding’. These are (1) that ‘understanding’ has to be based on some preliminary knowledge; (2) that ‘understanding’ is a process of incremental learning; (3) that, as for symbolic systems, some metaphors are necessary for mapping real entities into concepts in mind.
From Core to Periphery? Recent Developments in Employment Relations in the Philippines
Authors: Erickson Christopher L. , Kuruvilla Sarosh , Ofreneo Rene E. , Ortiz Maria Asuncion
Published: June 2003

We seek to describe recent developments in employment relations in the Philippines, placing these developments in the contexts of the distinctive elements of the Philippine social/political/industrial relations systems as well as the ongoing trade‐based and functional integration of international markets and the recent regional economic crisis. We find that while some firms are pursuing functional flexibility and more cooperative employment relations, the logic of competition primarily has induced firms to adopt practices that promote numerical flexibility such that a core‐periphery workforce is created. We argue that the labor movement in the Philippines has been hampered in its efforts to effectively counter employer strategies by its low density and fragmentation and an unfavorable public‐policy environment; Philippine labor unions have, however, made some recent gains in organizing and interunion coordination. We also argue that the government has not done enough to counteract the negative effects of market integration on workers nor to evolve th e Philippines into a higher‐value‐added exporter.
Does an Advanced Degree Reduce the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence from MBAs
Authors: Montgomery Mark , Powell Irene
Published: June 2003

This article uses a longitudinal survey of registrants for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to compare the gender wage gap among MBA recipients with the gap among nonrecipients. We find evidence that the gender wage gap is lower among GMAT takers who obtained the MBA than among those who did not. This suggests that women with advanced degrees may face less discrimination in labor markets.
Gender and Piece Rates, Commissions, and Bonuses
Authors: Geddes Lori A. , Heywood John S.
Published: June 2003

Previous work shows that establishments with higher proportions of women are more likely to use piece rates but that individual women are less likely to receive performance pay. We present a model in which lower expected tenure and labor force attachment are positively associated with piece rates but are negatively associated with other forms of performance pay. Analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) confirms that women are more likely to be paid piece rates and simultaneously less likely to be paid commissions and bonuses.
Do Labor Laws Matter? The Density Decline and Convergence Thesis Revisited
Authors: Godard John
Published: June 2003

Under the density decline and convergence thesis, market forces are gradually eroding union density levels, leading to convergence with the U.S. level throughout the developed world. A key implication is that the U.S. decline has been unavoidable and that little, including labor law reforms, can be done to reverse it. Canada appears to refute this thesis, for it has stronger laws, and density is double that of the United States. Yet (1) Canada's higher public‐sector density may mask private‐sector declines, (2) any private‐sector differences simply may reflect a tendency for Canada to lag the United States, and (3) labor law may not explain U.S.–Canada differences. This article explores these possibilities, finding little support for them. It concludes that a strong case can be made for Canadian‐style labor law reforms but that such reforms may not be sufficient by themselves to revitalize the U.S. labor movement.
Lenin as Scientific Manager Under Monopoly Capitalism, State Capitalism, and Socialism: A Response to Scoville
Authors: Devinatz Victor G.
Published: June 2003

I argue that Lenin's views on scientific management did not shift as drastically as Scoville (2001) claims from 1913 to 1918. The seeds of Lenin's 1918 views on Taylorism actually were contained in an article he wrote in 1914, three years before the October Revolution. In addition, I argue that Lenin did not uncritically embrace the implementation of scientific management in the construction of socialism in the Soviet Republic, as argued by Scoville. I present evidence that Lenin viewed Taylorism as only a temporary measure to be used in the transitory stage of state capitalism that he believed characterized the Soviet Republic in 1918. Finally, because Scoville does not differentiate between the transitory stage of state capitalism and socialism in the Soviet Republic's early years, he states that Lenin advocated the use of scientific management under socialism. I argue that there is insufficient evidence to support this position.
Plantation Slavery and Economic Development in the Antebellum Southern United States
Authors: Post Charles
Published: June 2003

The relationship of plantation slavery in the Americas to economic and social development in the regions it was dominant has long been a subject of scholarly debate. The existing literature is divided into two broad interpretive models –‘planter capitalism’ (Fogel and Engerman, Fleisig) and the ‘pre‐bourgeois civilization’ (Genovese, Moreno‐Fraginals). While each grasps aspects of plantation slavery's dynamics, neither provides a consistent and coherent historical or theoretical account of slavery's impact on economic development because they focus on the subjective motivations of economic actors (planters or slaves) independent of their social context. Borrowing Robert Brenner's concept of ‘social property relations’, the article presents an alternative analysis of the dynamics of plantation slavery and their relation to economic development in the regions it dominated.
Feudal Dynamics and Runciman's Competitive Selection of Practices in Late Medieval Castile: An Essay on Differing Processes of Social Differentiation in a Pre‐Capitalist Context
Authors: Da Graca Laura
Published: June 2003

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the problem of feudal dynamics on the basis of an empirical study. The existence of processes of social differentiation and the chances of such processes developing further are comparatively analysed in the context of three different types of Castilian lordship that implied distinctive political configurations. The operative nucleus of W. G. Runciman's theory is applied to the empirical evidence, in that the concept of ‘mode of the distribution of power’ permits us to deal with political power as a structural element, while the notions of ‘systact’ and of inter‐societal ‘competitive selection of practices’ permit us to carry out a systematic comparative analysis and to establish a link between structure and dynamics. Through the analysis of social practice, it is shown that accumulative tendencies can be found in a pre‐capitalist context, although they were contingent and variable according to the way in which political power was exercised.
‘They Used To Go to Eat, Now They Go to Earn’: The Changing Meanings of Seasonal Migration from Puruliya District in West Bengal, India
Authors: Rogaly Ben , Coppard Daniel
Published: June 2003

This article uses migrant workers’ testimonies to analyse whether and how much the act of migrating seasonally for wage work has contributed to changing social relations. We investigate changes in the meaning of this kind of migration to workers involved in it over their working lives. The emergence of peasant capitalism in West Bengal from the 1970s resulted in more days work and higher wages for migrant workers. This made it possible for wage workers to view migration as a way of earning and accumulating a useful lump sum, rather than simply surviving through food payments during the period of work, as had taken place in the past. However, there was no general move away from the compulsion to earn a wage through hard manual labour. Through the testimonies, we explore the ambivalence of migrant workers towards changes in the relations of production at home and at the destination workplace.
Two‐machine open shop scheduling with secondary criteria
Authors: Gupta Jatinder N. D. , Werner Frank , Wulkenhaar Gunnar
Published: June 2003

This paper considers two‐machine open shop problems with secondary criteria where the primary criterion is the minimization of makespan and the secondary criterion is the minimization of the total flow time, total weighted flow time, or total weighted tardiness time. In view of the strongly NP‐hard nature of these problems, two polynomially solvable special cases are given and constructive heuristic algorithms based on insertion techniques are developed. A strongly connected neighborhood structure is derived and used to develop effective iterative heuristic algorithms by incorporating iterative improvement, simulated annealing and multi‐start procedures. The proposed insertion and iterative heuristic algorithms are empirically evaluated by solving problem instances with up to 80 jobs.
Allocating production batches to subcontractors by fuzzy goal programming
Authors: Ghiani Gianpaolo , Grieco Antonio , Guerriero Emanuela , Musmanno Roberto
Published: June 2003

Allocating production batches to subcontractors arises frequently in industry. When subcontractors operate different equipment, batch assignment is a complex decision that must take into account both throughput and quality of finished goods. In this paper, a Mixed Integer Linear Goal Programming Model, where productivity uncertainty is taken into account through Fuzzy Set Theory, is developed. Our study was motivated by a real‐world application arising in an Italian textile company. Computational results show that this method outperforms the hand‐made solutions put to use by the management so far.
The dynamics and characteristics of aeolian dust in dryland Central Asia: possible impacts on human exposure and respiratory health in the Aral Sea basin
Authors: Wiggs Giles F S , O'hara Sarah L , Wegerdt Johannah , Van Der Meer Joost , Small Ian , Hubbard Richard
Published: June 2003

The drying up of the Aral Sea has been described as one of the most staggering environmental disasters of the twentieth century. Over the last 40 years over 36 000 km2 of the former seabed have been exposed, creating a potentially significant aeolian dust source. It is widely believed, but little researched, that increased dust storm activity in the region has had a major impact on human health. In this paper we report the findings of a study into the link between dust exposure and respiratory health amongst children in the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan located on the southern shore of the Aral Sea. The findings indicate that dust deposition rates across the region are high, with sites located near the former shore of the sea being the worst affected. For these northerly regions the former bed of the Aral Sea is the most likely source of dust. The situation for the rest of the country appears to be far more complex. In these regions it appears that local sources and more distant sources to the south and south‐west represent significant sediment providers, particularly in the early summer. Provisional analysis of the respiratory health data suggests that children living in the north of the country, where aeolian dust deposition rates are greater, show a lower frequency of respiratory problems. This inverse relationship requires further investigation, but highlights the complexities of environmental and human health inter‐relationships.
Land degradation and climate change in South Africa
Authors: Meadows Michael E , Hoffman Timm M
Published: June 2003

This paper considers the potential impact of future climate change on the nature and extent of land degradation in South Africa. The basis of the assessment is the comprehensive review published by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEA&T) as a contribution to the South African effort in respect of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The DEA&T report is founded on information collated from 34 workshops, one in each of the agricultural regions of South Africa, involving some 453 participants consisting mainly of agricultural extension officers and soil conservation technicians. This analysis reveals that land degradation is underpinned by poverty and its structural roots in colonial and apartheid political planning. Nevertheless, future climate change represents a key challenge to the developing economies of countries like South Africa. Regionally downscaled models predicting the nature and degree of rainfall changes in the future are used to assess the possible impact of future change on the South African land degradation situation. It is concluded that the most severely degraded areas of the country, including large areas of the former ‘homeland’ states, are likely to become even more susceptible under predicted climate change scenarios.
A paleoclimatic context for the drought of 1999–2001 in the northern Great Plains of North America
Authors: Sauchyn David J , Stroich Jennifer , Beriault Antoine
Published: June 2003

The least annual precipitation in the western interior of North America occurs in the northern Great Plains, including an area that encompasses parts of south‐eastern Alberta, south‐western Saskatchewan and eastern Montana. During 1999–2001, most climate stations in this region had record low precipitation. This paper examines this three‐year drought in the context of historical climate records from Medicine Hat, Alberta and Havre, Montana and summer (June–July) and annual (August–July) precipitation reconstructed from standardized tree‐ring widths (residual chronologies) from Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine) sampled in the Cypress Hills of Alberta and Saskatchewan and the Bears Paw Mountains of north‐central Montana. Drought is operationally defined as precipitation in the lower 10th and 20th percentiles. Plots of reconstructed precipitation and cumulative departure from median values indicate a shift in climate variability prior to the twentieth century, when EuroCanadians settled in this region. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are characterized by sustained periods of progressively wetter and drier conditions, including prolonged drought. Various archival sources document the significant impacts of these prolonged droughts. While drought was frequent in the twentieth century, it tended to be of short duration and the impacts also were ameliorated by intervening periods of relatively high precipitation. Increasing aridity in response to global warming could expose a larger area of the northern Great Plains to the impacts of drought.
The Effects of A Continuous Increase in Lifetime on Saving
Authors: Kageyama Junji
Published: June 2003

This paper examines the effects on saving of a continuous increase in lifetime and shows that a greater increase in lifetime leads to greater savings. This is because an increase in lifetime is accompanied by uncertainty and because the working‐age cohort whose lifetime is longer saves more than the retired cohort dissaves. This result is tested empirically with cross‐country data, and it is confirmed that an increase in life expectancy has a positive effect on various saving rates.
Bounding Lifetime Income Using A Cross Section Of Data
Authors: Millimet Daniel , Podder Nripesh , Slottje Daniel , Zandvakili Sourushe
Published: June 2003

Measures of income inequality based on current income are well known to overstate lifetime income inequality for two reasons: intracohort mobility and the shape of the age‐earnings profile. Utilizing the concept of age equivalence scales along with varying assumptions concerning the extent of intracohort mobility, the method presented bounds lifetime income inequality using only cross‐sectional data from the CPS, 1967–86. As a result, we are able to analyze changes in lifetime inequality over this period.
Employment Patterns of Husbands and Wives and Family Income Distribution in Italy (1977–98)
Authors: Del Boca Daniela , Pasqua Silvia
Published: June 2003

The pattern of employment among men and women has changed remarkably over the past decades. The growth in the participation in the labor market of women with high‐income husbands has heightened concerns that wives’ earnings may increase income inequality among married couples, especially in countries like Italy, the U.K., and the U.S., where more noticeable growth of income inequality during the past decade has accompanied changes in employment levels. In this paper we attempt to measure the impact of the changes of women and men's employment patterns on the distribution of income among Italian households, by considering regional differences, using micro data from the Historical Archive of the Bank of Italy Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) for the period 1977–98. Our results indicate that total income distribution would have been more unequal without women's labor income.
Wisconsin's Budget Deficit: Size, Causes, Remedies, and Consequences
Authors: Conant James K.
Published: June 2003

Wisconsin's lawmakers increased spending and cut taxes during the 1990s. Then, in January of 2001, they faced an estimated $2.4 billion budget gap or deficit for the FY 2001–2003 biennium. They cut spending and generated additional revenue by borrowing against future tobacco settlement income. Still, by January of 2002, the estimated deficit had grown by an additional $1.3 billion, and more cutting and borrowing took place. Despite these actions, a $3.5 billion deficit was projected for FY 2003–2005. In this study, the causes of the deficit, the “remedies” selected, and their effects are examined. “Lessons” highlighted by Wisconsin's experience include the risks associated with nonincremental policy making, the high costs of excessive political partisanship, and the corrosive effects of “fiscal brinksmanship.”
Budgeting during a Recession Phase of the Business Cycle: The Georgia Experience
Authors: Lauth Thomas P.
Published: June 2003

This article describes the impact of the nation‐wide recession on Georgia revenue and spending decisions in the 2002 and 2003 fiscal years. The state's strong economy and conservative revenue estimating practices historically provided a hedge against revenue shortfalls during a recession phase of the business cycle. However, when state revenue collections for FY 2002 were 5 percent less than collections for the prior fiscal year, several gap‐closing measures became necessary, including state agency spending reductions and substitution of bond proceeds for tax revenues. These revenue and expenditure gap‐closing measures were intended to enable the governor to achieve his policy initiatives while maintaining a balanced budget. The state's Rainy Day Fund remained full and was held in reserve for budget balancing in FY 2004, if necessary. Budget balancing during the current recession has been made possible by the state's practice of not overcommitting to program increases and tax cuts during the expansion phase of the business cycle, and by effectively framing the issue of fiscal restraint.
Defense Supplementals and the Budget Process
Authors: McCaffery Jerry , Godek Paul
Published: June 2003

Supplemental appropriations provide emergency adjustments to the current year, usually for national defense contingencies and natural disaster emergencies. Recently, they have adopted some of the complexities of the regular appropriation process. For example, both the president and Congress may suggest when a supplemental is a dire emergency and thus beyond spending discipline and when it must be offset. Some supplementals have paid for nonemergency activities, others have resulted in funding decreases, and still others have resulted in spending in future years. Compared to the normal appropriation process, supplementals are usually passed expeditiously. Defense supplementals are generally precisely priced, whereas disaster supplementals tend to be lump sum estimates.
Implementing the GPRA: Examining the Prospects for Performance Budgeting in the Federal Government
Authors: McNab Robert M. , Melese Francois
Published: June 2003

The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) is the latest in a series of attempts to introduce performance‐based management and budgeting techniques at the federal level in the United States. In the past, these attempts largely failed due to administrative complexities, lack of investment in managerial, accounting, and information systems, and the absence of institutional incentives to promote gains in economic efficiency. Whereas we find the objectives of the GPRA laudable, we question whether this current incarnation of performance budgeting can succeed in transforming the traditional focus of federal budgeting from annual appropriations and obligations to multiyear outputs and outcomes.
Power Markets: Transferring Systematic Risk to Lottery Players
Authors: Miller James D. , Morey Matthew R.
Published: June 2003

This article shows how a state could design a lottery that absorbs some of the financial market's systematic risk. Under this lottery, prizes would be positively correlated with the stock market. This lottery could be a profitable complement to existing state lotteries.
Isotype Control of B Cell Signaling
Authors: Silver Karlee , Cornall Richard J.
Published: June 2003

The B cell receptor (BCR) consists of an antigen-binding membrane immunoglobulin (mIg) associated with the CD79α and CD79β heterodimer. Naïve B cells express the IgM and IgD isotypes, which have very short cytoplasmic tails and therefore depend on CD79α and CD79β for signal transduction. After antigenic stimulation, B cells undergo isotype switching to yield IgG, IgE, or IgA. Recent research suggests that the ability of the B cell coreceptor CD22 to regulate BCR signaling depends on the isotype of the mIg cytoplasmic tail. Cell lines that express a BCR with the cytoplasmic tail from IgG, the isotype found in memory B cells, are not subject to CD22 regulation, whereas cell lines that express BCRs with IgM cytoplasmic tails are subject to CD22 regulation. Moreover, stimulation through BCRs containing an IgG cytoplasmic tail causes increased numbers of antigen-specific clones to accumulate. These observations are a valuable step toward understanding the difference in B cell signaling between naïve and memory cells. Here, we discuss the implications of these findings for CD22 regulation and signaling through the mIgG-containing BCR.
Suboperonic Regulatory Signals
Authors: Adhya Sankar
Published: June 2003

In prokaryotes, the genome is necessarily small in size, thus creating challenges for gene regulation. Adhya discusses how polycistronic operons can be regulated at the suboperonic level to allow genes to be independently regulated within an operon. This permits the cells to respond to different environmental conditions and allows the genes within operons to encode proteins involved in divergent cellular processes and still be regulated according to the cell's needs. Suboperonic control leads to discoordinate gene expression and can occur through transcriptional regulatory events or translational regulatory events mediated by proteins or cis- or trans-acting RNAs.
Analysis of the Mobility of Signaling Molecules in Lymphocytes Using Fluorescence Photobleaching Techniques
Authors: Tanimura Natsuko , Nagafuku Masakazu , Liddicoat Douglas R. , Hamaoka Toshiyuki , Kosugi Atsushi
Published: June 2003

The earliest biochemical events at the plasma membrane that lead to gene activation appear to depend not only on the local concentration of signaling molecules, but also on the mobility of these molecules at the site of signaling. To elucidate the process of signal transduction after receptor engagement in the immune system, it is important to analyze the mobility of signaling molecules in living lymphocytes. Current knowledge of the changes in intracellular localization and dynamic movements of signaling molecules during lymphocyte activation is limited. Here, we describe a method for known as fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, used to measure the diffusion mobility of a signaling molecule in a T cell line after T cell receptor stimulation. This method is a useful tool in studies of spatiotemporal regulation in immunoreceptor signaling.
RNA Processing and Degradation inBacillus subtilis
Authors: Condon Ciarán
Published: June 2003

This review focuses on the enzymes and pathways of RNA processing and degradation in Bacillus subtilis, and compares them to those of its gram-negative counterpart, Escherichia coli. A comparison of the genomes from the two organisms reveals that B. subtilis has a very different selection of RNases available for RNA maturation. Of 17 characterized ribonuclease activities thus far identified in E. coli and B. subtilis, only 6 are shared, 3 exoribonucleases and 3 endoribonucleases. Some enzymes essential for cell viability in E. coli, such as RNase E and oligoribonuclease, do not have homologs in B. subtilis, and of those enzymes in common, some combinations are essential in one organism but not in the other. The degradation pathways and transcript half-lives have been examined to various degrees for a dozen or so B. subtilis mRNAs. The determinants of mRNA stability have been characterized for a number of these and point to a fundamentally different process in the initiation of mRNA decay. While RNase E binds to the 5′ end and catalyzes the rate-limiting cleavage of the majority of E. coli RNAs by looping to internal sites, the equivalent nuclease in B. subtilis, although not yet identified, is predicted to scan or track from the 5′ end. RNase E can also access cleavage sites directly, albeit less efficiently, while the enzyme responsible for initiating the decay of B. subtilis mRNAs appears incapable of direct entry. Thus, unlike E. coli, RNAs possessing stable secondary structures or sites for protein or ribosome binding near the 5′ end can have very long half-lives even if the RNA is not protected by translation.