bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Financing And Measurement Of Knowledge Management In Indian Industry
Authors: Pillania Rajesh K.
Published: November 2015

We are in the knowledge economy and management scholars worldwide agree that knowledge is the most critical resource today. Research was conducted to understand the current state of financing Knowledge Management (KM) and measurement of knowledge in selected sectors, namely software, pharmaceutical, and petroleum marketing of Indian industry taking both macro and micro aspects as well as both private and public sectors. The findings for measurement are not very encouraging as they reveal that there is a lack of measurement efforts for knowledge or knowledge management. Interestingly, there is no lack of funds for knowledge management and funds for KM are coming mainly from IT/R&D areas.
The Financial Information Content of Celebrity Endorser: An Event Study Analysis
Authors: Mohanty Munmun
Published: November 2015

The use of celebrities to endorse products has gained a lot of momentum despite being a costly method. Although extensive literature on the effects of celebrity endorsements on consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions is available, little is known about the economic value of these endorsements. Research on this topic has typically focused on theories explaining the impact of celebrity endorsers on the consumers’ attitudes and intentions. We have tried to fill in the gap by using the case of Sachin Tendulkar and the event study method to find out the economic impact measured by the daily returns of the firms obtained from the share market. We have analysed the returns of ten companies (five endorsed by Sachin and the rest competing brands) and have found that positive news about the endorser has created market value for the firms endorsed by him and has eroded the market value of competing firms . However, it was found that there was no negative impact of the negative news on the market value of the firms in our data set. Hence, we conclude that negative news about a celebrity does not have any impact on the market value of the firm.
Career Development, Job Satisfaction, and Career Commitment: Evidence from the Singaporean Hospitality Industry
Authors: Pearson Cecil , Ananthram Subramaniam
Published: November 2015

Trends such as a changing workforce with greater diversity, a shrinking leadership pipeline, increased globalization, and rapid technological advances are driving organizations to take proactive steps for career development and talent management. To accelerate the development of leaders, organizations must carefully select development methods and invest development dollars wisely. In fact, senior executives are continuing to push for more accountability with human resource expenditures given the rising costs of these solutions and the intensive competition for the budgets associated with them. To that end, many best-practice organizations have developed balanced evaluation criteria, up to and including return on investment, to gauge the effectiveness of leadership development programs. This case study shows how the ROI process was used to evaluate the impact of a career development initiative implemented as a pilot talent management strategy for increased efficiency in a dynamic manufacturing environment. Results showed a positive link between participants’ on-the-job application of learned skills/knowledge and desired business results. Findings from this study support research showing that successful career development efforts must be implemented with a systems view that occurs in the context of ongoing, real-time work initiatives that are closely tied to strategic business goals. Critical success factors that have implications for HR professionals seeking to develop value-added career development solutions include: beginning with a thorough needs assessment; securing support and involvement from senior management; linking efforts to strategic objectives; integrating continuous evaluation processes; involving line managers in programme design; and piloting the programme before launch.
Sex Role Egalitarianism and Relative Spousal Influence in Household Purchase Decisions
Authors: Agarwal Reeti
Published: November 2015

Gender roles today are in a state of transition. The different roles being performed by husband and wife in Indian families are no longer confined to the traditional way of thinking. With changes taking place in the status of women through education, employment, etc., the attitude and perception of husbands and wives towards gender roles is getting transformed. These changes in gender role perception are impacting the dynamics of decision making for purchase in Indian families.

This paper analyses the effect of sex role egalitarianism of husband and wife on the relative spousal influence across different stages of the decision-making process for buying different categories of products and services. The study was conducted using the survey method. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire from a sample of 400 couples. The findings of the study clearly show that the presence of egalitarian beliefs in the husband or wife increases the influence of the wife in family purchase decisions and vice versa.
An Econometric Study of Lead-Lag Relationship between Futures and Spot Markets in India
Authors: Debasish Sathya Swaroop , Mishra Bishnupriya
Published: November 2015

The temporal relation between stock index and index futures has been an area of interest to academicians, regulators, and practitioners alike as it gives an idea about the efficiency of the market, its volatility, and arbitrage opportunities, if any. The issue of price discovery on futures and spot markets and the lead-lag relationship are topics of interest to traders, financial economists, and analysts. Although futures and spot markets react to the same information, the major question is which market reacts first. This paper examines the lead-log relationship between futures and spot markets in India. For both available stock index futures contracts, i.e., NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex of National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) respectively, we employ a Bivariate GARCH model to explain price discovery of futures market over the period from July 2000 to March 2007. Empirical results confirm that futures market plays a price discovery role, implying that futures prices contain useful information about spot prices (in line with similar findings in the literature). We evidence a bidirectional lead-lag relationship between spot and futures prices in both the stock indices and this is relatively stronger in NSE Nifty than in BSE Sensex. Futures markets are more informationally efficient than underlying stock markets in India during the period 2001-7. These findings are helpful to financial managers and traders dealing with Indian stock index futures.
Mapping Career Anchors in a Large Engineering Company: A Study
Authors: Singh Manjeesh Kr. , Bhattacharjee Vaijayanti , Kodwani Amitabh Deo
Published: November 2015

People will not accept uncertainty regardless of their status and make their own efforts to structure and interpret the meaning of their commonplace experience of the world. And in the organizational context this experience is what has been classified as careers. Of late, there has been a considerable interest generated in organizations about career planning and management. This study is an attempt to capture and give meaning to this exercise of managing and planning of careers and garner more currency to its application in the development of workforce. This career anchor study reveals the presence of rich and varied anchors in the company and speaks more of the organization for providing avenues for the development of the anchors over the years.
HZL Initiatives in Managing Rehabilitation Under Development Project: A Case Study
Authors: Singh Rajesh
Published: November 2015

The present article illustrates the efforts made by HZL in managing psycho-sociological consequences of displacement on people and subsequent rehabilitation of Rampura Augucha Village, displaced under one of its development projects. An attempt has been made to present the case with the help of the Rehabilitation Model suggested by the author (Singh, 1996). It critically examines achievements made and weaknesses and gaps in the implementation effort.

HZL pursued the Project as a planned change effort, designed and implemented appropriate preparedness measures and managing strategies to a great extent. In spite of these sincere efforts, the project suffered from serious limitations such as lack of communication strategy for creating awareness among people about displacement, lack of advance detailed planning resulting in long negotiations period for compensation package, lack of clear-cut responsibilities for maintenance of services and lack of environmental impact assessment resulting in environmental pollution problems. The management of the process highlighted the need for having a national policy on rehabilitation to provide guidelines for its effective management.
From Public to Private Investment Based Development Strategy: Understanding the Process, Policies and Effects of the Paradigm Shift
Authors: Raju Sunitha
Published: November 2015

This paper analyses India’s Industrial transition from a protectionist to a liberalised regime. As such, the analysis is for two time periods, namely, the Pre and the Post Reform periods. Given the broad development objectives, the focus of the analysis is on examining the policy framework and its effect on the industrialisation process. At the sectoral level, the relative roles of the public and the private sectors have been analysed in terms of their investment behaviour and performance.

Even though there has been evidence of positive efficiency gains in the post reform period, this paper argues that economic liberalisation in India has been primarily reactionary in nature, without any long term development agenda. Contrary to the general belief that economic liberalism would diminish the role of the State, the paper argues that the role of the State needs to be redefined. Considering our development needs, the State should concentrate on designing appropriate policies for regulating private sector instead of actively participating in commercial activities, develop rural infrastructure for greater employment opportunities; and strengthen the social security systems.
Collaborative Advantage Framework for HRD: Need, Issues and Interventions
Authors: Kapoor Gitika
Published: November 2015

Human Resource Development (HRD) is critical for a state’s development. The level of prosperity and economic development of state is contingent upon the status of development of its human resources. However, developing human resources is a daunting task for which active collaboration beween State and organisations is needed. The states foster HRD through collaborative networking with organisations. The role of state is outlined through three factors - Harbinger, Booster and Extension. These factors create the infrastructure necessary for HRD - ranging from basic need fulfilment to competitive advantage. The state’s role varies across the three factors. The paper discusses the nature of these factors and the interventions for each factor.
Bhutto and the Ppp'S Socialism?
Authors: Badejo Babafemi A
Published: November 2015

It is not unusual for many a government in post-colonial states to tag themselves “socialist.” One such government was that of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Pakisian. Not only did Bhutto acquire the nomenclature Quaid-i-Awam which in Pakistani parlance implies leader of the masses, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) which he led maintained a socialist posture in and out of government. Our intent in this paper is to undertake a review of Bhutto and the PPP's emergence in Pakistan, as well as the policy performance of Bhutto while in office. Consequent upon such a review, we intend to posit that Bhutto's rise to power was a result of infra-factional struggle within the propertied classes in Pakistan. And that socialism was merely expedient for such a struggle.
Temporal mechanisms of the brain as fundamentals of communication — with special reference to music perception and performance
Authors: Wittmann Marc , Pöppel Ernst
Published: November 2015

Rhythm and tempo are basic constituents of music perception and music performance. As these temporal characteristics in musical skill are controlled by mechanismsof the brain, we seek to explain them on the basis of a taxonomy of temporal processes of the central nervous system. In the presented model, two distinct mechanismsare discussed: On a high-frequency level (ca. 30 milliseconds), the brain creates successive events in perception and motor behaviour. On a lowfrequency level (ca. 3 seconds), a mechanism is responsible for the temporal integration of individual events. These two temporal processes can account for some requirements in music perception and music performance. The highfrequency mechanism enables the perception of temporal order and is involved in tempo control in musical expression. The low-frequency mechanism binds individual musical elements into rhythmical Gestalts. These two temporal factors play an important role in the music performance of musicians playing solo (subjective timing) or when communicating as participants of a music group (intersubjective timing). In general. they are temporal fundamentals for inter-personal communication, or, more specifically, for mutual musical experience and the exchange of information via spoken language.
From Contour Similarity to Motivic Topologies
Authors: Buteau Chantal , Mazzola Guerino
Published: November 2015

This paper is devoted to a qualitative and quantitative study of topological spaces built on premotif collections of musical scores. These motivic topologies are related to similarity concepts in the American music set theory. Through shapes, imitations and gestalts, and similarity relations between any two shapes, we obtain a motivic hierarchy of a score. This model of motivic analysis is completed by proposing different tools, such as weighted shapes and motivic evolution trees (MET), for visualizing these non-intuitive topologies. The concept MET, which is related to a systematic variation of the similarity parameter, is of a highly cognitive flavor. In the light of our approach, the still debated question concerning the length of the main theme in Bach's Kunst der Fuge is addressed. As a result, we can state that the extended 12-tone theme is essentially equivalent to the shorter 8-tone version when viewed from its motivic substance.
Impact of a Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment Program on Music Performance Anxiety in Secondary School Music Students: A Pilot Study
Authors: Osborne Margaret S. , Kenny Dianna T. , Cooksey John
Published: November 2015

This study assessed the effectiveness of a combined individual and group cognitive-behavioural treatment (CBT) program to reduce music performance anxiety (MPA) in adolescent musicians. Twenty-three adolescents with high MPA from a selective high school were randomly assigned to either a seven-session intervention program or a behaviour-exposure-only control group. The intervention consisted of psychoeducation, goal setting, cognitive restructuring, relaxation training and behavioural exposure in the form of two solo performances with audience. Outcome measures included self-reports of MPA, trait and state anxiety, diagnostic interview for social phobia, heart rate, frontalis EMG, and performance quality. Significant improvements in self-reported MPA were observed at posttest for adherent students only ( i.e., students who were actively engaged in the program and who adopted program techniques). Adherent students also had higher MPA at commencement. Non-adherent and behaviour-exposure-only students both showed reductions in MPA over the study period but not to the same degree as adherent students. There appeared to be no effect of CBT on performance quality.
Compactness in the Euler-Lattice: A Parsimonious Pitch Spelling Model
Authors: Honingh Aline K.
Published: November 2015

Compactness and convexity have been shown to represent important principles in music, reflecting a notion of consonance in scales and chords, and have been successfully applied to well-known problems from music research. In this paper, the notion of compactness is applied to the problem of pitch spelling. Pitch spelling addresses the question of how to derive traditional score notation from 12-tone pitch classes or MIDI. This paper proposes a pitch spelling algorithm that is based on only one principle: compactness in the Euler-lattice. Generally, the goodness of a pitch spelling model is measured in terms of its spelling accuracy. In this paper, we concentrate on the parsimony, cognitive plausibility and generalizability of the model as well. The spelling accuracy of the algorithm was evaluated on the first book of Bach's Well-tempered Clavier and had a success rate of 99.21%. A qualitative discussion of the model's cognitive plausibility, its parsimony and its generalizability is given.
The difficulty of discerning between composed and improvised music
Authors: Lehmann Andreas C. , Kopiez Reinhard
Published: November 2015

The generative processes (types) of composition and improvisation are often claimed to differ from each other with respect to complexity, spontaneity, and listener expectation. While this conceptual difference might be tenable, it is unclear whether it has an empirical perceptual basis. In a listening experiment with three contrasting pieces - classical (Mozart), romantic (Scriabin), and free jazz (Rissi) - we compared composed and non-composed musical stimuli. 102 experts rated six one-minute excerpts using the scales “spontaneous/improvised” and “coherent/ rehearsed”. The ratings were of acceptable, though moderate, reliability, and the listeners reacted markedly differently to the three styles. However, the effect of generative type was either non-significant (Mozart, Scriabin) or caused by performative aspects for the free jazz piece (Rissi). This lack of clear evidence for perceiving the two generative types is in line with other research showing divergence between theoretical concepts and their perceptual salience.
The Musical Surface: Challenging Basic Assumptions
Authors: Cambouropoulos Emilios
Published: November 2015

This paper addresses problems and misconceptions pertaining to the notion of the musical surface, a notion that is commonly thought to be relatively straight-forward and is often taken as a given in computational and cognitive research. It is suggested that the musical surface is comprised of (complex) musical events perceived as wholes within coherent musical streams - the musical surface is not merely an unstructured sequence of atomic note events, such as score notes or a piano-roll representation. Additionally, it is maintained that the emergence of the musical surface involves rather complex mechanisms that require, not only multi-pitch extraction from the acoustic signal, but, the employment of cognitive processes such as beat-tracking, metre induction, chord identification and stream/voice separation. Such processes do not come into play after the surface has been formed, but are, rather, an integral part of the formation of the musical surface per se.
Effects of Tuning Sharpness on Tone Categorization by Self-Organizing Neural Networks
Authors: Mencl W. Einar
Published: November 2015

Because humans can categorize tones either in terms of pitch height or pitch class (chroma), I have explored the potential of simple self-organizing networks to demonstrate these two different capacities, and have uncovered a mechanism which can subserve both. A self-organizing neural network architecture was used; during training, the network learns to represent internally the co-existence of stimulus features (here, harmonic components). Two sets of simulations were completed, identical in all respects except for the tuning sharpness used at the input layer. In the broad tuning condition, the network categorized sounds together exclusively on the basis of their pitch similarity. Here, two tones with nearby fundamental frequencies (FOs) activate many of the same input units, due to the overlap between adjacent tuning curves. Thissimilarity in activation decreases with increasing distance between the FOs. In the narrow tuning condition, a different result was found: many tones were categorized together on the basisof chroma similarity, as opposed to pitch similarity. In this case, two tones with nearby FOs do not activate many of the same input units, since the receptive fields of adjacent units do not overlap as much. However, two tones an octave apart still activate many of the same input units, since half of the upper harmonic components of the lower tone are also present in the upper tone. This results in categorization by chroma.
Afrikanische Trommler (Ghana) bewerten und spielen europäml;ische Rhythmen
Authors: Kopiez Reinhard , Langner Jörg , Steinhagen Piotr
Published: November 2015

Vor dem Hintergrund der neuropsychologischen „Theorie oszillierender Systeme” von Langner wurde die Frage untersucht, ob es interkulturell invariante Beurteilungskriterien füml;r die Qualitäml;t einer Rhythmusperformance gibt. In einer interkulturellen Rhythmusstudie wurden hierzu zwei Experimente mit deutschen und ghanaischen Versuchspersonen (Meistertrommler) durchgefüml;hrt: In einem Rating-Experiment (Experiment 1) beurteilten afrikanische Trommler (n = 12) jeweils drei Performances von sechs europäml;ischen Rhythmen, gespielt von europäml;ischen Schlagzeugern. Diese Performances wurden in drei Qualitäml;tsstufen vorgespielt: In schlechter, in mittlerer und in guter Performancequalitäml;t. Die Klassifikation in die jeweilige Qualitäml;tsstufe erfolgte in einem Vorexperiment durch europäml;ische Beurteiler. Füml;r alle sechs Rhythmen ergab sich eine hochsignifikante Korrelation von r (16) = 0, 63 zwischen den europäml;ischen und afrikanischen Urteilern. Die Urteilsäml;hnlichkeit füml;r die drei in beiden Kulturen relativ vertrauten Rhythmen ergab sogar eine Korrelation von r (7) = 0, 85. In Experiment 2 spielten die gleichen afrikanischen Vpn (n éls; 11) die sechs zuvor bewerteten Rhythmen unter Verwendung der Play-along-Methode nach. Die Analyse der Rhythmusperformance afrikanischer Trommler ergab als ein charakteristisches Merkmal eine Off-beat-Struktur und einen Drive-Effekt, der durch die Betonung von nach europäml;ischem Verstäml;ndnis unbetonten Taktteilen entstand. Schwierigkeiten bereitete die Performance des Bolero-Rhythmus, eines viertaktigen durchkomponierten Rhythmus sowie die eines Siebener-Taktes. Die Ergebnisse dieser Experimente geben sowohl Hinweise auf die Existenz von Wahmehmungsuniversalien (so z. B. bei der Performancebeurteilung) als auch auf kulturspezifische Unterschiede (so z. B. bei der Rhythmusperformance).
Rethinking trade unionism: Union renewal as transition
Authors: Fairbrother Peter
Published: November 2015

Union renewal has been the subject of debate over the last two decades. Via a review of these debates, a revision of the union renewal thesis is presented, suggesting that union renewal should be examined as a process of transition. Three analytic dimensions of renewal are identified and presented, each arising out of a consideration of the debates: union organisation, union capacity and union purpose. The proposition is that an understanding of contemporary unionism involves a consideration of the ways renewal involves a multi-faceted transition in relation to the political economy of trade unionism. The way to understand this characterisation is to reconsider theories about unions in terms of a dialectic, addressing the inter-relationships and integration of union organisation, capacities and purpose.
School-Business Partnerships That Help Schools, Businesses, and Economic Development
Authors: Burger Lynn Tolle , Lach Ivan J.
Published: November 2015

School/business partnerships are nothing new—but they are undergoing a renaissance as schools use these partnerships to help implement school-to-work transition systems and assist with economic development. It has long been a key role of community colleges to provide education and training to enable their students to get jobs, but increasingly community colleges find they must also play a key role in economic development to ensure that the local economy can provide jobs for the college's graduates.
Barriers of Palliative Care in Neonatal Intensive Care Units
Authors: Azzizadeh Forouzi Mansooreh , Banazadeh Marjan , Ahmadi Jila Soltan , Razban Farideh
Published: November 2015

Objective:

Neonatal nurses face numerous barriers in providing end-of-life (EOL) care for neonates and their families. Addressing neonatal nurses’ attitudes could provide insight into barriers that impede neonatal palliative care (NPC). This study thus conducted to examine neonatal nurses’ attitude toward barriers in providing NPC in Southeast Iran.

Method:

In this cross-sectional study, a translated modified version of Neonatal Palliative Care Attitude Scale was used to examine attitudes of 70 nurses toward barriers of palliative care in 3 neonatal intensive care units in Southeast Iran.

Results:

Findings indicated that overall 42.63% of nurses were strongly agreed or agreed with the proposed barriers in NPC. Among all categories, the highest and the lowest scores belonged to the categories of “insufficient resources” (3.42 ± 0.65) and “inappropriate personal and social attitudes” (2.33 ± 0.48), respectively. Neonatal nurses who had less education and study regarding NPC reported the presence of more barriers to NPC in the categories of “inappropriate organizational culture” and/or “inadequate nursing proficiency.” Also, younger nurses had more positive attitudes toward the category of inappropriate organizational culture as being a barrier to provision of NPC (4.62).

Conclusion:

The findings suggest that developing a context-based instrument is required to represent the barrier more precisely. Neonatal palliative care can be improved by establishing a special environment to focus on infants’ EOL care. This establishment requires standard palliative care guidelines and adequate NPC-trained nurses.
The Role of Positive Self-Evaluation on Cross-Cultural Differences in Well-Being
Authors: Kim Hyunji , Schimmack Ulrich , Cheng Cecilia , Webster Gregory D. , Spectre Aleksandr
Published: November 2015

Past studies have shown that North Americans have higher well-being compared with East Asians. Objective living conditions (e.g., wealth, education, personal and political freedom) have been found to substantially contribute to North Americans’ higher well-being. One other possible explanation is that North American culture fosters positive evaluations of the self to enhance self-esteem and to feel positive emotions, which may lead North Americans to provide favorable ratings. These cultural differences in positive self-evaluations are, thus, expected to contribute to differences in well-being. To test this hypothesis, the current study compared well-being across two countries, the United States and China. Participants from the two countries ( N = 271) reported on their life satisfaction and Big Five personality, which was used to indirectly measure their positive self-evaluation tendencies. We found cross-cultural differences with European Americans showing higher well-being and positively biased view of the self compared with Hong Kong Chinese. Importantly, cultural differences in positive evaluative bias mediated cross-cultural differences in well-being. The present study provides further support for the generalizability of cross-cultural differences in self-evaluation, and their influence on well-being.
Keller Resection Arthroplasty for Treatment of Hallux Valgus Deformity: Increased Correction with Fibular Sesamoidectomy
Authors: Donley Brian G. , Vaughn Roderick A. , Stephenson Kenneth A. , Richardson E. Greer
Published: November 2015

Thirty-eight patients (50 feet) were treated with Keller resection arthroplasties combined with fibular sesamoidectomies. Thirty-six patients were females (48 feet) and two were males (two feet). Their ages ranged from 55 to 87 years and averaged 68.4 years. Preoperative metatarsophalangeal (MTP) angles averaged 34° (range, 10 to 55°) and intermetatarsal (IM) angles averaged 15° (range, 8 to 27°). All patients were evaluated at an average of three years after surgery. An average correction of 18° in the MTP angle and 6° in the IM angle were obtained. At follow-up, 76% of patients had no pain, 14% had mild pain, and 10% had moderate pain; 76% had no activity limitations, 22% had recreational limitations, and 2% had daily limitations. Ninety-five percent of patients were satisfied with the results of their surgery.
Position of the Distal Fibular Fragment in Pronation and Supination Ankle Fractures: A CT Evaluation
Authors: Tang Chris W. , Roidis Nikolaos , Vaishnav Suketu , Patel Anand , Thordarson David B.
Published: November 2015

Background:

Although classically the fibula has been reported to be in external rotation after supination-external rotation (SER) or pronation-external rotation (PER) ankle fractures, a previous CT study demonstrated that what had traditionally been interpreted as external rotation of the distal fibular fracture fragment is actually internal rotation of the proximal fibular fragment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a series of CT scans in patients who have suffered type IV SER or PER ankle fractures to assess the rotational deformity of the fibular fragment.

Materials and Methods:

CT scans of the injured and uninjured extremities were performed on 30 extremities which had sustained either SER (21) or PER (9) injuries. The rotational relationship between the tibia and fibula was determined by a measured rotational ratio. A qualitative assessment of the rotational relationship between the tibia and fibula above, at, and below the fracture site at the level of the mortise was also performed. The difference in the ratio (calculated by subtracting the rotation ratio of the normal side from the fracture side) demonstrated whether the fractured fibula is externally or internally rotated compared to the uninjured side.

Results:

The average rotational ratio difference above the fracture compared to below the fracture for the SER group demonstrated significant external rotation ( p < .001). The PER fracture also demonstrated external rotation of the distal fragment compared to the proximal fragment ( p = .002). Additionally, qualitative assessment of the relationship demonstrated no obvious change in the rotational relationship in any patient above the fracture site except one where mild internal rotation of the proximal fragment was noted. However, at the level of the mortise, all had a normal talofibular rotational relationship while 24 of 30 had widening of the medial clear space with external rotation clearly evident on 15 of these 24 scans.

Conclusion:

Our study demonstrated that the distal fibular fragment in both SER and PER fractures is externally rotated relative to both the contralateral normal side and compared to the proximal fibular fragment.
Dorsal Mobility and First Ray Stiffness in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Glasoe Ward Mylo , Allen Mary K. , Ludewig Paula M. , Saltzman Charles L.
Published: November 2015

Background: Limited joint mobility in diabetic patients has been identified as a risk factor in the development of plantar ulcers. We examined dorsal mobility and passive first ray stiffness in patients with diabetes and investigated the relationship between first ray mobility and ankle joint dorsiflexion. Methods: Forty individuals were studied: 20 with diabetes (mean estimated duration of 16 ± 10 years) and 20 matched controls. Dorsal first ray mobility was measured using a mechanical device. Force-vs-dorsal mobility displacement values were collected at 10 N increments to a load limit of 55 N. Ankle joint dorsiflexion motion was measured with a goniometer. The “prayer sign,” a clinical indicator of limited joint mobility, was evaluated in each patient. Subjects were separated into the two groups for data analysis. Results: Patients in the diabetic group had more stiffness and less dorsal first ray mobility than the control group ( p <.05). In particular, patients with a positive prayer sign had significant first ray stiffness ( p <.05). Patients with diabetes also had less ankle dorsiflexion ( p <.05). Conclusion: Patients with diabetes have more stiffness and less first ray mobility and less ankle dorsiflexion than those without diabetes. The presence of a positive prayer sign correlates with stiffness and loss of first ray mobility. Soft-tissue stiffness may contribute to the development of foot ulcers in diabetic patients with neuropathy.
Perceptual Delay: A Consequence of Metacontrast and Apparent Motion
Authors: Didner Robert S.
Published: November 2015

Temporal-order judgments were used to obtain evidence that a later stimulus can delay the perception of an earlier one; at least when the two stimuli together produce the phenomena of metacontrast or apparent motion. This evidence supports the notion that metacontrast and apparent motion are mediated by the same mechanism.
Perception of Task Difficulty
Authors: Fergenson P. Everett , Gold Leon S.
Published: November 2015

Twenty male subjects were shown the operation of a rotor-pursuit apparatus under two states of three different task conditions; rotor speed, target shape, and hand used. Pre and post-performance estimates of task difficulty were obtained. The results indicated that subjects had trouble in estimating the relative affects of as few as three different task variables on performance.
Australia: A Community-Based Programme for the Gifted
Authors: Pirozzo Ralph
Published: November 2015

The curriculum required by the gifted is frequently described as qualitatively different. The underlying philosophical assumption is that the gifted child's intellectual ability does not respond to boring and repetitive curriculum tasks. Yet, there are major problems in planning and implementing a differentiated programme for these children due to negative attitudes toward the gifted, limited teachers' expertize in certain subject areas, and lack of school materials. These negative attitudinal factors represent the major obstacle to programming for the gifted because their needs are the lowest priority in most school systems.

These negative societal attitudes stem from the public's equation of gifted education with notions of genetic superiority and the establishment of an elite class. Thus, whenever schools are unable/unwilling to provide for these children's needs, the community has an obligation to ensure that these children are provided with programmes that will enable them to achieve at their highest levels. It becomes evident that all available learning resoures must be tapped to enrich and extend these children.

Community support is particularly appropriate because it encourages the community to become actively involved in the enhancement of its most valuable natural resource, its bright children. As well, this enables youngsters to interact with practising experts who are willing to share their specialized knowledge and their familiarity with the demands of various professions and occupations.

Since 1979, I have demonstrated the feasibility of this notion through my involvement in a community-based enrichment programme. This article describes a rationale for the implementation of a community-based programme and details the procedures used to keep this programme functioning for the last five years.
The Distribution of Fiscal Burdens and Benefits
Authors: Musgrave Richard A. , Case Karl E. , Leonard Herman
Published: November 2015

This paper updates to 1968 levels earlier estimates of the distribution of tax burdens, expenditure benefits, and net burdens or benefits. Emphasis is on the methodological issues involved, including the role of incidence assumptions and the specific formulation of the question to be answered. The appropriate definition of the effective rate ratios and the resulting impact on distribution is shown to depend on whether the problem is formulated in absolute or in differential terms and on whether consideration is given to the introduction or the removal of the budget.
A Budget Size in a Democracy: A Review of the Arguments
Authors: Amacher Ryan C. , Tollison Robert D. , Willett Thomas D.
Published: November 2015

There is no lack of opinion whether the public sector in the United States is too large or too small and there may even be a few who would argue that the present public-private mix is the correct one. While different individuals inevitably have different opinions given their underlying preferences and economic, political, and social positions, one can examine the systematic forces at work in the U.S. political and economic system to determine if they bias the mix of public versus private spending from what the average voter-consumer desires. Such examinations were pioneered by Pigou, Galbraith, Downs, Buchanan, and Tullock, among others. In this review their analyses are critically compared and extended especially with respect to what bench mark for “correct” budget size each author takes as relevant in his discussion. The question of possible systematic biases in the composition of public spending as well as in the public-private mix is addressed.
The Growth and Pattern of Public Expenditure in Brazil, 1920–1969
Authors: Mahar Dennis J. , Rezende Fernando A.
Published: November 2015

The paper seeks to explain the secular growth and time pattern of public expenditure in a developing country. Data are organized in aggregate, functional, and economic groupings and tested against several leading hypotheses on public expenditure behavior. Although the hypotheses tested are of some use in explaining the Brazilian case in general terms, their specific reasoning is not always applicable. We argue that these hypotheses are not readily transferable to the experience of a developing country without some important modifications.
Short-Run Corporate Tax Shifting by Profit-Maximizing Oligopolists
Authors: Reaume David M.
Published: November 2015

The assumption of firm-level profit maximization is frequently used to show that firms cannot shift a tax on economic profits in the short run. It is the purpose of this paper to show that the traditional assumption of firm-level profit maximization does not preclude short-run shifting of a profits tax by firms in a multifirm industry even if the firms normally behave in a noncollusive manner. It is shown that noncolluding firms who independently maximize profits subject to a general reaction function can shift the tax provided that they believe that their competitors will try to do so, and that there exists in the pretax situation sufficient unrealized industry profit to enable them to do so. In essence, the argument is that the imposition of the profits tax may cause firms who believe that they can shift the tax to consumers to raise their prices and reduce their output simultaneously so as to move the industry as a whole closer to the profit-maximizing level of output.
The Demand for Local Public Services, Spillovers, and Urban Decay: The Case of Public Libraries
Authors: Holtmann A. G. , Tabasz T. , Kruse W.
Published: November 2015

This paper focuses on the demand for library services by nonresidents of the community which finances the library. For several middle-size metropolitan areas in New York, it is shown that nonresidents contribute substantially to the financial burden of supporting a library. In addition, while the core areas's ability to support libraries is likely to decrease in the future, the demand for library services by nonresidents is likely to increase. This may lead to a change in the current scheme of local financing used by many public libraries in the United States.
The Demand for Police
Authors: Chapman Jeffrey I.
Published: November 2015

This paper is concerned with the estimation of a demand schedule for a public service–police protection. The paper's object is to determine the wage elasticity of demand for policemen, since if police demand is wage-inelastic, then police unions could have a powerful future. The paper follows a simple public choice framework by postulating a citizen utility function and income constraint in order to determine utility maximization conditions. It is shown that the quantity of policemen demanded–which was used as a proxy for police service–should be positively related to the citizen's income and wealth, and negatively related to the police wage. Further, other variables such as other government expenditures, crime rates, traffic congestion, and class status were also related to the police variable. The demand equation was estimated for a pooled, cross-sectional sample of California cities. Two-stage least squares was the estimation technique. Most of the signs of the significant variables were as anticipated. Especially interesting was the result that the demand for policemen is quite wage-inelastic.
Metropolitan Tax-Base-Sharing: Its Potential and Limitations
Authors: Plosila Walter H.
Published: November 2015

Governmental fragmentation in metropolitan areas is integrally linked to the problem of fiscal disparities among localities relative to their needs. The tax-base-sharing scheme adopted by the Minnesota Legislature was applied to the mature, slow-growing, metropolitan Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). Actual distribution of tax bases/revenue resources among county jurisdictions for a three-year time period were compared to results that would have occurred had base-sharing been in operation. The results of this simulation suggest a need for refinement and study of both the base-sharing concept and the formula utilized for general applicability to the more mature and/or slow-growth metropolitan areas of the United States. Base-sharing is not the “panacea” to all the ills of the metropolitan area. It does have potential, when used in concert with other complementary efforts, to better equalize fiscal resources and establish the basis for closer convergence among local needs, available tax resources, and operational responsibility for service provision among governmental levels.
Individual Income Tax Erosion: By Income Class in Japan
Authors: Ishi Hiromitsu
Published: November 2015

In Japan, as well as in the United States, the introduction of special provisions of the tax law has resulted in erosion of the tax base and tax yield. It is expected that tax erosion tends to destroy the equity of the existing income tax system. In this article, estimates of income tax erosion by income class for 1972 and 1975 are made from Japanese tax data. The major conclusion of this study is that the distributional effects of erosion of the Japanese income tax are quite similar to those in the United States.
Telemedicine by Email — Experience in Neonatal Care at a Primary Care Facility in Rural India
Authors: Deodhar Jayant
Published: November 2015

During an 18-month study period, teleconsultations were conducted by email between a neonatal intensive care unit at an urban teaching hospital in western India and a rural primary care centre 40 km away. There were email consultations about 182 newborn babies; these consultations comprised 309 messages sent from the primary care centre and 272 messages from the teaching hospital. The average reply time was 11.3 h. Thirty-eight babies were referred to the intensive care unit at the teaching hospital after these consultations. The remaining 144 babies were managed at the primary care centre. Telemedicine helped in the diagnosis, referral, treatment and follow-up of patients. The cost of the email service was estimated to be Rs 12,000 and the savings in avoided transfer were estimated to be Rs546,000, a cost-benefit ratio of 1:45.
Implementation of Telemedicine: The Problem of Evaluation
Authors: Harrison Robert , MacFarlane Anne , Wallace Paul
Published: November 2015

In the UK, few telemedicine applications have endured beyond the trial phase. It is commonly said that lack of evidence is responsible for the lack of implementation. This assumes that evidence will lead to implementation. Studies show that this is naive, especially in organizations like health-care systems, which are characterized by professional dominance. Furthermore, other research indicates that the nature of the changes experienced by clinicians in telemedicine experiments is sometimes limiting compared with conventional practice. This presents a dilemma for evaluation since it cannot reliably take place until a particular technique has become stable and accepted into the daily routine. A programme of selected case studies is recommended to develop knowledge of how telemedicine can become a taken-for-granted part of medical care.
Economic Perspectives on Tourism in China
Authors: Yan Min , Wall Geoffrey
Published: November 2015

This paper employs input-output analysis to evaluate the economic aspects of tourism in China. It concludes that, given the size and diversity of the Chinese economy, tourism has provided only a limited stimulus to economic development at the national level. Tourism development depends markedly on input from secondary industry. Tourism contributes to direct value added for tourism commodities and generates substantial indirect and induced employment to non-tourism commodities, especially in agriculture. Leakage is rather low. Only 40 per cent of the tourism leakage comes directly from tourism-related commodities and more than half is indirect leakage from non-tourism commodities, especially secondary industry. This suggests that the availability of secondary commodities may be a constraint on tourism development in China.
Consumer Requirements for a Mid-Priced Business Hotel: Insights from Analysis of Current Messaging by Hotels
Authors: Moskowitz Howard , Krieger Bert
Published: November 2015

This paper presents an analysis of current messages of mid-priced business hotels, using conjoint analysis. The study was run over the Internet in early 2001, with 126 elements derived from the actual language used by different hotel chains. Few elements emerged as distinct ‘losers’ (ie negative utilities) for the total respondent population of 376 individuals (all business travellers). A set of elements emerged as ‘winners’, but the elements dealt with a variety of topics. Segmentation revealed four groups, with homogeneous viewpoints within a group; interested but not responsive to communications; room as office; pamper me; room as vacation. Elements that one segment likes, another segment may dislike. The proper messaging to these four segments can dramatically enhance the impact of the communication.
Guest Houses: The Emergence of a New Tourist Accommodation Type in the Southc African Tourism Industry
Authors: Visser Gustav , Van Huyssteen Konrad
Published: November 2015

Abstract

This paper investigates the recent proliferation of guest houses in the Western Cape Province, South Africa's premier tourist destination. Responding to changing tourist preferences and local dynamics, guest houses appear to have found a niche in the tourist accommodation market left vacant by the nature of developments in the country's hotel industry. Despite this rapid expansion little is known about this industry. Consequently, this paper seeks to address the virtual absence of scholarly research on this topic. The paper examines the guest house entrepreneur, the guest house visitor and the economic impact of the industry on the local economy, concluding with suggestions for further research.