bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Influenza‐Schutzimpfung und Dermatosen – Koinzidenz oder kausale Assoziation?
Authors: Hehn Jennifer , Hartmann Klaus , Bröcker Eva‐Bettina , Goebeler Matthias
Published: March 2003

Influenzainfektionen gehen auch heute noch mit einer beträchtlichen Morbidität und nicht zu unterschätzenden Mortalität einher. Es werden daher in vielen Ländern der Welt Schutzimpfungen für Risikogruppen empfohlen. Immer wieder allerdings werden im klinischen Alltag neu oder wieder aufgetretene Erkrankungen der Haut mit einer vorangegangenen Grippeschutzimpfung in Verbindung gebracht. In der vorliegenden Arbeit geben wir einen systematischen Literaturüberblick zu dieser Thematik und stellen Daten des Paul‐Ehrlich‐Instituts vor, das in Deutschland Impfnebenwirkungen erfaßt. Neben Lokalreaktionen an der Injektionsstelle, überwiegend urtikariellen Exanthemen und anaphylaktischen Reaktionen auf Komponenten des Grippeimpfstoffs, wurden Fälle von Vaskulitiden dokumentiert, die mit Wahrscheinlichkeit auf eine vorangegangene Impfung zurückzuführen waren. Für weitere Hauterkrankungen konnte ein wahrscheinlicher oder sicherer Zusammenhang nicht überzeugend aufgezeigt werden. Das sehr geringe Risiko dermatologischer Komplikationen rechtfertigt nicht den Verzicht auf eine indikationsgerecht eingesetzte Grippeschutzimpfung.
Specification of Actin Filament Function and Molecular Composition by Tropomyosin Isoforms
Authors: Bryce Nicole S. , Schevzov Galina , Ferguson Vicki , Percival Justin M. , Lin Jim J.-C. , Matsumura Fumio , Bamburg James R. , Jeffrey Peter L. , Hardeman Edna C. , Gunning Peter , Weinberger Ron P.
Published: March 2003

The specific functions of greater than 40 vertebrate nonmuscle tropomyosins (Tms) are poorly understood. In this article we have tested the ability of two Tm isoforms, TmBr3 and the human homologue of Tm5 (hTM5NM1), to regulate actin filament function. We found that these Tms can differentially alter actin filament organization, cell size, and shape. hTm5NM1was able to recruit myosin II into stress fibers, which resulted in decreased lamellipodia and cellular migration. In contrast, TmBr3 transfection induced lamellipodial formation, increased cellular migration, and reduced stress fibers. Based on coimmunoprecipitation and colocalization studies, TmBr3 appeared to be associated with actin-depolymerizing factor/cofilin (ADF)-bound actin filaments. Additionally, the Tms can specifically regulate the incorporation of other Tms into actin filaments, suggesting that selective dimerization may also be involved in the control of actin filament organization. We conclude that Tm isoforms can be used to specify the functional properties and molecular composition of actin filaments and that spatial segregation of isoforms may lead to localized specialization of actin filament function.
Lens Connexins α3Cx46 and α8Cx50 Interact with Zonula Occludens Protein-1 (ZO-1)
Authors: Nielsen Peter A. , Baruch Amos , Shestopalov Valery I. , Giepmans Ben N.G. , Dunia Irene , Benedetti E. Lucio , Kumar Nalin M.
Published: March 2003

Connexin α1Cx43 has previously been shown to bind to the PDZ domain–containing protein ZO-1. The similarity of the carboxyl termini of this connexin and the lens fiber connexins α3Cx46 and α8Cx50 suggested that these connexins may also interact with ZO-1. ZO-1 was shown to be highly expressed in mouse lenses. Colocalization of ZO-1 with α3Cx46 and α8Cx50 connexins in fiber cells was demonstrated by immunofluorescence and by fracture-labeling electron microscopy but showed regional variations throughout the lens. ZO-1 was found to coimmunoprecipitate with α3Cx46 and α8Cx50, and pull-down experiments showed that the second PDZ domain of ZO-1 was involved in this interaction. Transiently expressed α3Cx46 and α8Cx50 connexins lacking the COOH-terminal residues did not bind to the second PDZ domain but still formed structures resembling gap junctions by immunofluorescence. These results indicate that ZO-1 interacts with lens fiber connexins α3Cx46 and α8Cx50 in a manner similar to that previously described for α1Cx43. The spatial variation in the interaction of ZO-1 with lens gap junctions is intriguing and is suggestive of multiple dynamic roles for this association.
Assessing the global accessibility of the Internet
Authors: Ngini Chukwuma U. , Furnell Steven M. , Ghita Bogdan V.
Published: March 2003

Previous studies have identified significant disparity in the levels of Internet access availability in different countries, particularly in developing nations. This paper presents the findings of an investigation into Internet connectivity and usage in different countries, in an attempt to determine the extent of Internet access, and whether the availability of such technology is considered to be beneficial. This research considers indicators such as available technology infrastructure and access costs, in order to identify the varying limitations that may be faced in different countries across continents. In addition, the opinions of individuals were sought regarding their typical access methods and level of Internet access, typical services utilised, and the general impact Internet has had upon their activities. A Web‐based questionnaire was used to elicit comments from 152 respondents from 19 countries, yielding preliminary statistical data to enable the assessment of Internet usage in different countries.
Consumer response to Web sites and their influence on advertising effectiveness
Authors: Goldsmith Ronald E. , Lafferty Barbara A.
Published: March 2003

The purpose of the present study was to test four hypotheses regarding the effects of viewing Web sites on Internet advertising. We surveyed a convenience sample of 329 undergraduate students, asking them to recall brand names seen on the Internet, to describe perceived advantages and disadvantages of online advertising, and to recall ads encountered in all media and whether they liked these or not. Visiting Web sites appeared to increase aided recall of brands seen on the Internet and to improve consumers’ views of the brand. Consumers who felt that Web sites improved their perceptions of brands saw more advantages in Web advertising, but they perceived more disadvantages as well. Finally, the consumers appeared to like TV and magazine ads more than the ads they recalled seeing on the Internet. The findings present a complex picture of Internet advertising that should be useful to online advertisers.
Infrastructure, specialization, and economic growth
Authors: Bougheas Spiros , Demetriades Panicos O. , Mamuneas Theofanis P.
Published: March 2003

We introduce infrastructure as a cost‐reducing technology in Romer's (1987) model of endogenous growth. We show that infrastructure can promote specialization and long‐run growth, even though its eﬀect on the latter is non‐monotonic, reﬂecting its resource costs. We provide evidence using data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures that suggests that the degree of specialization is positively correlated with core infrastructure, as predicted by the model. We also provide evidence from cross‐country regressions, using physical measures of infrastructure provision, that shows a robust non‐monotonic relationship between infrastructure and growth. JEL Classification: 041,050

Les auteurs introduisent l'infrastructure en tant que technologie réduisant les coûts dans un modèle de croissance endogène à la Romer (1987). On montre que l'infrastructure peut promouvoir la spécialisation et la croissance en longue péride, même si ses effets sur la croissance ne sont pas monotones et reflètent ses coûts en ressource. On montre, en utilisant les données du recensement des manufactures des Etats Unis, que le degré de spécialisation est relié positivement à l'infrastructure de base, comme le suggère le modèle. On montre aussi à l'aide de régressions transversales, utilisant des mesures physiques de l'infrastructure, qu'il existe une relation non monotone mais robuste entre infrastructure et croissance.
Social assistance and labour supply
Authors: Christofides Louis N.
Published: March 2003

The longitudinal, 1988–89 LMAS makes it possible to study the interaction between social assistance and labour supply while allowing for substantial time dependence. Tobit equations for hours worked on and off social assistance, which allow for endogenous selection of social assistance status, are estimated by using FIML. Small, but statistically significant, effects for a social assistance benefit variable are obtained, particularly for females. A claw‐back variable is not consistently useful. The wage rate has a consistently negative coefficient in the selection equations and is important in the Tobit equations. In this paper an attempt is made to reconcile results found in earlier literature. JEL Classification: I38, J22

Aide sociale et offre de travail. L'étude longitudinale de l'Enquête de 1988‐89 sur la population active rend possible l'étude de l'interaction entre l'aide sociale et l'offre de travail tout en permettant la prise en compte de l'effet d'inertie hérité du passé. On calibre des équations Tobit pour les heures travaillées séparément pour les personnes qui reçoivent et ne reçoivent pas d'aide sociale et une équation probit qui permet une sélection endogène du statut d'assisté social en utilisant la méthode du maximum de vraisemblance avec pleine information. On obtient des impacts faibles mais statistiquement significatifs des prestations d'aide sociale sur l'offre de travail pour les femmes. Une variable qui tente de capturer les effets de recouvrement fiscal des prestations n'est pas uniformément utile comme source d'explication. Le taux de salaire a un coefficient négatif de manière générale dans les équations de sélection et est important dans les équations Tobit. Le mémoire tente de réconcilier ces résultats avec ceux que contiennent les études antérieures.
Cohort patterns in Canadian earnings: assessing the role of skill premia in inequality trends
Authors: Beaudry Paul , Green David A.
Published: March 2003

In this paper we document the pattern of change in age‐earnings profiles across cohorts and evaluate its implications. Using synthetic cohorts from the survey of Consumer Finances over the period 1971 to 1993, wwe show that the age‐earnings profiles of Canadian men have been deteriorating for more recentcohorts in comparison with older cohorts. We find this pattern for both high school and university educated workers. In no case do we find evidence that the return to gaining experience has been increasing over time, nor do we find increased within‐cohort dispersion of earnings. We view these findings as conflicting with the hypothesis that increased skill premia largely explain the observed increase in dispersion of male weekly earnings. JEL Classification: J31, O33

Ce mémoire documente le pattern de changements dans les relations âges‐gains d'une cohorte à l'autre, et en analyse les implications. Utilisant des cohortes synthétiques pour la période 1971–93, on montre que les profils âges‐gains des hommes au Canada se sont détériorés dans les cohortes les plus récentes. On ne trouve pas de résultats qui montreraient que le rendement sur l'expérience accumulée s'est accru dans le temps ou qu'il y a dispersion accrue des gains à l'intérieur des cohortes. Les auteurs suggèrent que ces résultats contredisent l'hypothèse que des primes accrues pour les habiletés expliqueraient l'accroissement qu'on a observé dans la dispersion des gains des hommes au Canada.
National borders and international trade: evidence from the European Union
Authors: Nitsch Volker
Published: March 2003

In this paper the impact of national borders on international trade within the European Union is considered. Using a gravity model, I find that, averaged over all EU countries, intranational trade is about ten times as high as international trade with an EU partner country of similar size and distance. This relatively strong home bias suggests that even within the European Union national borders still have a decisive impact on trade patterns. JEL Classification: F02, F14, F15, O52

Ce mémoire examine l'impact des frontières nationales sur le commerce international à l'intérieur de l'Union européenne. On montre que, en moyenne pour tous les pays de l'Union européenne, le commerce intranational est à peu près dix fois plus important que le commerce international avec un pays partenaire de l'Union européenne de même taille et à même distance. Ce degré relativement important de préférence nationale suggère que, même dans le cadre de l'Union européenne, les frontières nationales ont encore un impact déterminant sur les patterns de commerce.
The Montreal Gazette call loan rate, 1871–1907
Authors: Furlong Kieran
Published: March 2003

Economic historians have assumed that the call loan market in Canada was insignificant before 1900. In this paper I present a monthly series for the call loan rate recorded daily by the Montreal Gazette between 1871 and 1907, which corresponds closely with the known post‐1900 rate in 1900–07. Evidence from monthly bank returns further indicates that the magnitude of the domestic call loan market rivalled that of Canadian call loans in New York prior to 1907. The Montreal Gazette call loan series bears little relation to call loan series for New York and London, partly because the Montreal market was less centralized and less liquid.

Le taux sur prêts à vue du Montreal Gazette 1871–1907. Les historiens économiques ont présumé que le marché des prêts à vue était insignifiant au Canada avant 1900. Ce mémoire présente une série mensuelle des taux sur les prêts à vue publiée quotidiennement par la Montreal Gazette entre 1871 et 1907. Ce taux suit de près les données publiées par ailleurs après 1900, et ce pour toute la période de chevauchement des deux séries. Les renseignements recueillis dans les rapports mensuels des banques montrent que la taille de ce marché canadien se compare avec ce qui se passait à New York avant 1907. La série publiée par la Montreal Gazette n'a que peu de rapport avec celles de New York et Londres en partie parce que le marché de Montréal était moins centralisé et moins liquide.
The markup and inflation: evidence in OECD countries
Authors: Neiss Katharine S.
Published: March 2003

In this paper we evaluate the dynamic inconsistency argument put forth by Kydland and Prescott (1977) and Barro and Gordon (1983) as an explanation for differences in the average inflation experience across OECD countries. The focus is on the empirical evidence relating the overall degree of competition among firms, as measured by the markup of price over marginal cost, and inflation over the 1973–88 period. The prediction is that higher markups raise the monetary authority's incentive to increase output, leading to higher equilibrium rates of inflation. We find that the markup does well in explaining cross‐country differences in average inflation. JEL Classification: E31, E58, D43

L'écart du prix par rapport au coût marginal et l'inflation: résultats pour les pays de l'OCDE. Ce mémoire examine l'argument mis de l'avant par Kydland et Prescott (1977) et Barro et Gordon (1983) pour expliquer les différences dans le taux moyen d'inflation entre les pays de l'OCDE. On porte une attention spéciale aux résultats empiriques qui relient le degré général de concurrence entre les entreprises, mesuré par l'écart du prix par rapport au coût marginal, et le niveau d'inflation entre 1973 et 1988. La prédiction est que des écarts prix/coût marginal plus élevés augmentent l'incitation des autorités monétaires à accroître le niveau de production, ce qui entraîne des taux d'inflation d'équilibre plus élevés. Il s'avère que l'écart du prix par rapport au coût marginal tend à expliquer bien les différences dans le niveau moyen d'inflation entre pays.
Import quotas, tied aid, capital accumulation, and welfare
Authors: Chao Chi‐Chur , Yu Eden S. H.
Published: March 2003

Aid conditional on the purchase of an imported capital good increases the supply of, and demand for, the good. Examining the effects of tied aid on capital accumulation, the current account, and welfare, we find that two resultant conflicting forces render the price of the capital good indeterminate. If the demand pressure is larger than the supply response, the capital stock increases at the expense of the current account and welfare improves. Alternatively, if the demand pressure is less than the supply response, capital is reduced. This may be detrimental to welfare. JEL Classification: F35, F11

Contingentement à l'importation, aide liée, accumulation et bien‐être. Une aide conditionnelle accordée pour l'achat d'un bien importé accroît l'offre et la demande de ce bien. En examinant les effets d'une aide liée de ce type sur l'accumulation du capital, le compte courant et le niveau de bien‐être, les auteurs montrent que deux forces contradictoires rendent le prix du bien capital indéterminé. Si la pression sur la demande est plus grande que la réponse du côté de l'offfre, le stock de capital s'accroît au détriment du compte courant, et le niveau de bien‐être s'accroît. D'autre part, si la pression en provenance de la demande est moindre que la réponse du côté de l'offre, le stock de capital est réduit. Cela peut entraîner une réduction du niveau de bien‐être.
How long to eat a cake of unknown size? Optimal time horizon under uncertainty
Authors: Kumar Ramesh C.
Published: March 2003

This paper is concerned with the determination of the optimal time horizon for the cake–eating problem under uncertainty. It is shown that if the uncertain exhaustible resource stock is a discrete random variable admitting at most a finite number of values, the optimal planning horizon is infinite (finite) according as the marginal utility of extraction–cum–consumption is infinite (a finite positive value) as the latter approaches zero, thereby extending the scope of the similar result under perfect certainty. Other results show that uncertainty will generally lengthen the planning horizon, implying a more conservative extraction policy under uncertainty, and that the extraction policy aimed at extracting an amount equal to the expected value of the uncertain resource stock takes longer than the expected value of the optimal planning horizon. JEL Classification: D81 and Q31

Combien de temps pour manger un gâteau de taille inconnue? L’horizon temporel optimal en régime d’incertitude. Ce mémoire s’attaque à la détermination de l’horizon temporel optimal dans le cas du problème du gâteau–à–manger en régime d’incertitude. On montre que si le stock incertain de la ressource épuisable est une variable aléatoire discontinue qui ne peut prendre qu’un nombre fini de valeurs, l’horizon temporel est infini (fini) selon que l’utilité marginale de l’extraction–cum–consommation est infinie (prend une value finie positive) quand celle–ci approche zéro, et ce faisant élargit la portée d’un résultat similaire obtenu en régime de certitude parfaite. D’autres résultats montrent que l’incertitude accroît généralement l’horizon temporel, ce qui suggère qu’une politique d’extraction plus conservatrice va prévaloir en régime d’incertitude, et que la politique d’extraction visant à extraire une quantitéégale à la valeur anticipée d’un stock de ressource incertain prend plus de temps que la valeur anticipée de l’horizon temporel optimal.
Role of Knowledge in Assessing Nonuse Values for Natural Resource Damages
Authors: Johnson F. Reed , Dunford Richard W. , Desvousges William H. , Banzhaf Melissa Ruby
Published: March 2003

Measuring nonuse values is one of the most controversial topics facing environmental economists today. One important issue that has received little attention is determining who has economic standing with respect to nonuse losses from natural resource injuries. In this paper, a conceptual model for determining compensable nonuse losses is developed that is consistent with the Kaldor‐Hicks principle of potential Pareto improvement, and then that model is applied to the results of a telephone survey on industrial water pollution in the lower Passaic River in northern New Jersey. One proposition from this model indicates that only people who have knowledge of the injured resource (i.e., 10 to 44 percent of respondents) can incur a compensable nonuse loss. A second proposition from the model indicates that demand for information about an injury to a familiar resource is a necessary condition for compensable nonuse losses. It was found that 81 percent of the respondents who were familiar with the lower Passaic River were likely to read, listen to, or watch a news story about the river. However, far fewer respondents familiar with the lower Passaic River were willing to engage in more active, and costly, information‐acquisition activities (such as conducting research at the library and attending public meetings). Finally, the model suggests that geographic proximity to nondescript resources may affect nonuse values, information costs, or both, helping define the potentially affected population. The empirical results for the lower Passaic River support this third proposition. The overall conclusion is that only a small fraction of the population in New Jersey and New York might reasonably experience a nonuse loss as a result of industrial water pollution in the lower Passaic River.
A Critical Reexamination of Default Logic, Autoepistemic Logic, and Only Knowing
Authors: Halpern Joseph Y.
Published: March 2003

Fifteen years of work on nonmonotonic logic has certainly increased our understanding of the area. However, given a problem in which nonmonotonic reasoning is called for, it is far from clear how one should go about modeling the problem using the various approaches. We explore this issue in the context on two of the best–known approaches, Reiter's default logic and Moore's autoepistemic logic, as well as two related notions of “only knowing,” due to Halpern and Moses and to Levesque. In particular, we return to the original technical definitions given in these papers and examine the extent to which they capture the intuitions they were designed to capture.
Conversational Actions and Discourse Situations
Authors: Poesio Massimo , Traum David R.
Published: March 2003

We use the idea that actions performed in a conversation become part of the common ground as the basis for a model of context that reconciles in a general and systematic fashion the differences between the theories of discourse context used for reference resolution, intention recognition, and dialogue management. We start from the treatment of anaphoric accessibility developed in discourse representation theory (DRT), and we show first how to obtain a discourse model that, while preserving DRT's basic ideas about referential accessibility, includes information about the occurrence of speech acts and their relations. Next, we show how the different kinds of ‘structure’ that play a role in conversation—discourse segmentation, turn‐taking, and grounding—can be formulated in terms of information about speech acts, and use this same information as the basis for a model of the interpretation of fragmentary input.
Review and Restore for Case‐Base Maintenance
Authors: Reinartz Thomas , Iglezakis Ioannis , Roth–Berghofer Thomas
Published: March 2003

Case‐base maintenance is one of the most important issues for current research in case‐based reasoning (CBR). In this article we propose an extended six‐step CBR cycle and discuss its two additional steps as part of the maintenance phase of the CBR process. The review step covers assessment and monitoring of the knowledge containers, whereas the restore step actually modifies the contents of the containers according to recommendations resulting from the review step in order to keep the knowledge containers in a usable state. Here we focus our attention on the case base. For the review step, we define several quality measures based on different case and case‐base properties that describe specific characteristics of the case base such as correctness, consistency, uniqueness, minimality, and incoherence. Then we use these measures to realize monitoring capabilities for the case‐base container that indicate when the restore step is necessary. Finally, we also describe several methods for modifications of the case base in the restore step and their relation to the review step. An initial experimental evaluation shows the appropriateness of the proposed concepts and methods before we conclude the article with a discussion of related work and an outline of future directions to extend these aspects of maintenance in CBR.
Case‐Base Maintenance in a Multimodal Reasoning System
Authors: Portinale Luigi , Torasso Pietro
Published: March 2003

The definition of suitable case‐base maintenance policies is widely recognized as a major key to success for case‐based systems; underestimating this issue may lead to systems that either do not fulfill their role of knowledge management and preservation or that do not perform adequately under performance dimensions, namely, computation time and competence and quality of solutions. The goal of this article is to analyze some automatic case‐base management strategies in the context of a multimodal architecture combining case‐based reasoning and model‐based reasoning. We propose and compare two different methodologies, the first one, called replace, is a competence‐based strategy aimed at replacing a set of stored cases with the current one, if the latter exhibits an estimated competence comparable with the estimated competence of the considered set of stored cases. The second one, called learning by failure with forgetting (LFF), is based on incremental learning of cases interleaved with off‐line processes of forgetting (deleting) cases whose usage does not fulfill specific utility conditions. Results from an extensive experimental analysis in an industrial plant diagnosis domain are reported, showing the usefulness of both strategies with respect to the maintenance of suitable performance levels for the target system.
A Case Study of Maintenance of a Commercially Fielded Case‐Based Reasoning System
Authors: Watson Ian
Published: March 2003

This article is a case study of the maintenance required to the case base of a commercially fielded case‐based reasoning (CBR) system that provides support for HVAC engineers enabling them to better specify HVAC installations. The article briefly describes the system and details how the case base grew rapidly, causing a problem of case redundancy. A simple algorithm to identify and remove redundant cases is described, along with the results of applying it to the case base. Case obsolescence also was encountered and partially remedied using DBMS techniques. The article analyzes the case‐base maintenance (CBM) required by the system in terms of Richter's knowledge containers and Leake and Wilson's CBM framework and contrasts this case study with experience from NEC and DaimlerChrysler. The article observes that had maintenance of the case base been considered more explicitly during system design and implementation, some of the resulting maintenance would have been unnecessary. The article concludes by identifying lessons learned and highlighting the relationship between the sophistication of the case‐representation and similarity metrics and the ease with which CBM can be undertaken by nontechnical staff. This relationship does not always work in favor of the maintainer.
Combining Rough Sets and Bayes' Rule
Authors: Pawlak Zdzisław
Published: March 2003

In rough set theory with every decision rule two conditional probabilities, called certainty and coverage factors, are associated. These two factors are closely related with the lower and the upper approximation of a set, basic notions of rough set theory. It is shown that these two factors satisfy the Bayes' rule.

The Bayes' rule in our case simply shows some relationship in the data, without referring to prior and posterior probabilities intrinsically associated with Bayesian inference. This relationship can be used to “invert” decision rules, i.e., to find reasons (explanation) for decisions thus providing inductive as well as deductive inference in our scheme.
Rough Problem Settings for ILP Dealing With Imperfect Data
Authors: Liu Chunnian , Zhong Ning
Published: March 2003

This paper applies rough set theory to Inductive Logic Programming (ILP, a relatively new method in machine learning) to deal with imperfect data occurring in large real‐world applications. We investigate various kinds of imperfect data in ILP and propose rough problem settings to deal with incomplete background knowledge (where essential predicates/clauses are missing), indiscernible data (where some examples belong to both sets of positive and negative training examples), missing classification (where some examples are unclassified) and too strong declarative bias (hence the failure in searching for solutions). The rough problem settings relax the strict requirements in the standard normal problem setting for ILP, so that rough but useful hypotheses can be induced from imperfect data. We give simple measures of learning quality for the rough problem settings. For other kinds of imperfect data (noise data, too sparse data, missing values, real‐valued data, etc.), while referring to their traditional handling techniques, we also point out the possibility of new methods based on rough set theory.
Rough Mereological Calculi of Granules: A Rough Set Approach To Computation
Authors: Polkowski Lech , Skowron Andrzej
Published: March 2003

Rough Mereology is a paradigm allowing for a synthesis of main ideas of two potent paradigms for reasoning under uncertainty: Fuzzy Set Theory and Rough Set Theory. Approximate reasoning is based in this paradigm on the predicate of being a part to a degree. We present applications of Rough Mereology to the important theoretical idea put forth by Lotfi Zadeh (1996, 1997), i.e., Granularity of Knowledge: We define granules of knowledge by means of the operator of mereological class and we extend the idea of a granule over complex objects like decision rules as well as decision algorithms. We apply these notions and methods in the distributed environment discussing complex problems of knowledge and granule fusion. We express the mechanism of complex granule formation by means of a formal grammar called Synthesis Grammar defined over granules of knowledge, granules of classifying rules, or over granules of classifying algorithms. We finally propose hybrid rough‐neural schemes bridging rough and neural computations.
Evolving Granules for Classification for Discovering Difference in the Usage of Words
Authors: Yoshida Tetsuya , Kondo Teruyuki , Nishida Shogo
Published: March 2003

This paper proposes an evolutionary approach for discovering difference in the usage of words to facilitate collaboration among people. In general, different people seem to have different ways of conception and thus can have different concepts even on the same thing. When people try to communicate their concepts with words, such difference in the meaning and usage can lead to misunderstanding in communication, which can hinder their collaboration. In our approach each granule of knowledge in classification from users is structured into a decision tree so that difference in the usage of words can be discovered as difference in the structure of decision trees. By treating each granule of classification knowledge (i.e., decision tree) as an individual in Genetic Algorithm (GA), evolution is carried out with respect to both classification efficiency of each individual and diversity as a population so that the granule for classification is gradually evolved with diverse structure. Experiments were carried out on motor diagnosis cases with artificially encoded difference in the usage of words and the result shows the effectiveness of the proposed evolutionary approach.
Control States and Complete Agent Architectures
Authors: Davis Darryl N.
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a developing concept of mind defined in terms of external and internal niches. This perspective on mind is described primarily in terms of the niche space of control states and the design space of processes that may support such phenomena. A developing agent architecture, that can support motivation and other control states associated with mind, is presented. Different aspects of agent research are discussed in terms of three categories of agents. Each agent category is characterized primarily in terms of their task‐related competencies and internal behaviors and discussed in terms of our taxonomy of control states. The concept of complete agents is then introduced. Goals are described in terms of their generation across a number of computational layers. Experimental analysis is provided on how these differing forms of behaviors can be cleanly integrated. This leads into a discussion on the nature of motivational states and the mechanisms used for making decisions and managing the sometimes‐competitive nature of processes internal to a complex agent. The difficulty of evaluating complete agents is discussed from a number of perspectives. The paper concludes by considering future directions related to the computational modeling of emotions and the concept of synthetic mind.
Individualized Contracts For Top Public Servants: Copying Business, Path‐Dependent Political Re‐Engineering—or Trobriand Cricket?
Authors: Hood Christopher
Published: March 2003

This article compares the “contractualization” of senior civil‐service employment in New Zealand and the UK over the past decade. It argues the conventional interpretation of the introduction of individual contracts for senior civil servants—as part of a worldwide process of modernizing the public sector by mimicking private‐sector practice—neither explains major differences between the two cases nor the many ways in which private business practice was in fact not followed in either case. “Political re‐engineering” seems to have been a more important impetus in a form that was highly path‐dependent and did not produce convergent outcomes. But even so, it does not follow that the outcome of the new contract regimes adopted for top civil servants necessarily follows the intentions of the architects of reform, as is shown by discussing two prominent cases in which the new contractualized accountability arrangements were tested and an element of “Trobriand cricket” (that is, a game played differently from the intentions of those who introduced it) entered into the contractualization of senior civil‐service terms.
Ideas, Paradigms and Institutions: Agricultural Exceptionalism in the European Union and the United States
Authors: Skogstad Grace
Published: March 2003

The differing trajectory of agricultural policy reforms in the 1990s in the world's two most important agricultural powers, the United States and the European Community/Union (EC/EU), can only be fully understood by appreciating the role that ideas play in policy outcomes. The idea of agricultural exceptionalism underwrote a paradigm of state assistance in the US and the EC/EU. By the mid‐1980s, the state assistance paradigm was under stress, and subject to a number of anomalies in both the US and the EC. But while the paradigm was overthrown and replaced with a market liberal model in the US grain sector in the 1990s, it remained intact in the European Union. Explaining why agricultural exceptionalism and the state assistance paradigm has endured in the EU while it has withered in the US highlights three factors: the importance of the political institutional framework in locking in—or not—policy principles and instruments; the degree of fit of a sectoral policy paradigm with the broader societal ideational framework regarding appropriate relations between the state, the market, and the individual; and the capacity of a paradigm to adjust in the face of challenges and anomalies.
Answering the Public Choice Challenge: A Neoprogressive Research Agenda
Authors: Lowery David
Published: March 2003

A neoprogressive research agenda is developed to challenge public choice theory's position as the new orthodoxy in both understanding and guiding policy choices about urban service delivery. Such a challenge requires more than accumulating negative empirical tests. Rather, we must accept the new burden of proof laid on proponents of progressive reform institutions by the theories of nonmarket failure and quasimarkets, ideas that undermined the intellectual pillars supporting progressive reform institutions and can only be challenged by new ideas. Public choice theory itself, broadly considered, is proposed as a valid source of such new ideas. Three research programs, in part already underway, are outlined as essential building blocks in the research agenda, focusing, respectively, on blunting the rough edges of the theory of nonmarket failure, coordinating the empirical critiques of quasimarkets in a new theory of quasimarket failure, and developing the new institutionalism so that it can provide the basis for comparing the production outcomes of alternative urban institutions.
Rational Choice and Dysfunctional Institutions
Authors: Miller Gary
Published: March 2003

As stated elsewhere in this issue, we cannot claim to explain an institution's origin just by the functions it serves. In part thismay be because of the cognitive limitations of those actors who are instrumental in institutional formation and institutional change. But even more clearly, it is the case that rational instrumental choice does not imply functional institutions. Just as rational choice in a prisoner's dilemma may result in inefficient policies, rational choice by actors with conflicting preferencesfor institutions may result in institutions that are suboptimal. Examples of rational choice explanations of dysfunctional institutions are provided in the area of bureaucracy, regulation, healthcare, and budgeting. I argue that the paradoxes and impossibility results of rational choice theory offer the best insights currently available into the persistent inefficiencies of the world ofpolitics.
The Auditing of Public Policy and the Politics of Auditing: The U.S. GAO and Israel's State Comptroller
Authors: Grasso Patrick G. , Sharkansky Ira
Published: March 2003

A purist conception of audit independence appears to be obsolete. A survey of audit activities of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and Israel's State Comptroller describes pressures on audit bodies to examine sensitive policy issues and to enter partisan and personal squabbles between elected officials. The critique of the GAO by the National Academy of Public Administration recommends that legislators refrain from asking the audit body to deal with politically sensitive issues. In order to salvage something from the principle of audit independence, it appears more realistic to urge diligence on the part of the supreme auditor.
Dismantling Swedish Housing Policy
Authors: Lindbom Anders
Published: March 2003

Today it is often argued that welfare state retrenchment is more or less impossible. Even politicians who advocate radical cuts in principle do not manage to execute them in the face of the strong opposition such proposals meet. However, Swedish housing policy has experienced radical change, resulting in big savings for the state budget and dramatically increased housing costs for citizens. In comparison with changes in other parts of the welfare state, the reforms have been radical. This article argues that Swedish housing policy is very complex and technical. Reforms met little resistance because the general public did not understand their effects. Even today, when the effects are known, citizens’ knowledge about the policy area is too meager to allow them to understand that the increased cost of their housing is an effect of political decisions.
The European Commission: The Limits of Centralization and the Perils of Parliamentarization
Authors: Majone Giandomenico
Published: March 2003

The idea of an inevitable process of centralization in the European Community (EC)/European Union (EU) is a myth. Also, the metaphor of “creeping competences,” with its suggestion of a surreptitious but continuous growth of the powers of the Commission, can be misleading. It is true that the functional scope of EC/EU competences has steadily increased, but the nature of new competences has changed dramatically, as may be seen from the evolution of the methods of harmonization.

The original emphasis on total harmonization, which gives the Community exclusive competence over a given policy area, has been largely replaced by more flexible but less “communitarian” methods such as optional and minimum harmonization, reference to nonbinding technical standards, and mutual recognition. Finally, the treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam explicitly excluded harmonization for most new competences.

Thus, the expansion of the jurisdiction of the EC/EU has not automatically increased the powers of the Commission, but has actually weakened them in several respects. In addition, the progressive parliamentarization of the Commission risks compromising its credibility as an independent regulator, without necessarily enhancing its democratic legitimacy.

Since the member states continue to oppose any centralization of regulatory powers, even in areas essential to the functioning of the internal market, the task of implementing Community policies should be entrusted to networks of independent national and European regulators, roughly modeled on the European System of Central Banks. The Commission would coordinate and monitor the activities of these networks in order to ensure the coherence of EC regulatory policies. More generally, it should bring its distinctive competence more clearly into focus by concentrating on the core business of ensuring the development and proper functioning of the single European market. This is a more modest role than that of the kernel of a future government of Europe, but it is essential to the credibility of the integration process and does not overstrain the limited financial and legitimacy resources available to the Commission.
Does Administrative Corporatism Promote Trust and Deliberation?
Authors: Öberg Perola
Published: March 2003

How corporatist arrangements actually work has not been empirically demonstrated, despite the theoretical focus on interest intermediation. This article investigates whether corporatism affects trust and deliberation in state activities, using Swedish public administration as a case study. First, it is doubtful that corporatism directly promotes trust among citizens, but it very likely promotes trust within and between the represented organizations. Second, interest–group representation cannot be understood as a process of strict delivering of positions adopted in advance. Preferences are often transformed in discussions where other interests are involved. Furthermore, the case investigated here shows that the decision–making process within a corporatist arrangement resembles deliberation, rather than negotiations between “contesting interests.”
Policy Networks And Agricultural Policy Reforms: Explaining Deregulation In Sweden And Re‐Regulation In The European Community
Authors: Daugbjerg Carsten
Published: March 2003

Policy network analysis has been criticized for being unable to explain outcomes and change in outcomes. This article develops a theoretical network model which attempts to explain reform outcomes. It suggests that the success of reformers depends mainly on the policy network type existing in the sector in which they attempt to bring about change. If the network has a high degree of cohesion, then those network members who are subject to reform have power to defend the principles of the established policy. Consequently, only moderate policy reform occurs. On the other hand, if the network's degree of cohesion is low, then those who are subject to reform do not have the power to oppose reformers successfully. Therefore, reformers have opportunities to bring about fundamental policy reform. Differences in the cohesion of agricultural policy networks help to explain why the 1990 Swedish agricultural policy reform was more radical than the European Community's in 1992.
Person–Organisation Fit: The Match Between Theory and Methodology: Introduction to the Special Issue
Authors: Van Vianen Annelies
Published: March 2003

In this introduction to a special issue on Person–Organisation Fit it is argued that future studies on P–O fit should pay more attention to criteria of variability and the value of fit for selecting the components of the fit measure. Moreover, more within‐person designs should be used in order to examine processes of adaptation and to improve the power of P–O fit research.
Project GLOBE: An Introduction
Authors: House Robert , Javidan Mansour , Dorfman Peter
Published: March 2003

Le projet GLOBE est décrit dans cet article, avec ses bases conceptuelle et méthodologique. Une introduction est indispensable puisque les travaux présentés dans ce numéro relèvent de ce projet qui est une étude exceptionnelle de 61 pays sous divers aspects et à partir de plusieurs méthodes; il porte sur la vaste question de la culture, du leadership et des pratiques organisationnelles. Plus de 150 spécialistes du management et des sciences sociales des 61 pays y ont contribué. L’objectif global du projet est le développement d’une théorie empirique destinée à décrire, comprendre et prédire l’impact de variables culturelles spécifiques sur le leadership, les processus organisationnels et leur efficience. L’article survole différents aspects de ce projet et peut être utilisé pour se repérer dans les autres contributions.
Do Just World Believers Process Unfair Authoritative Decisions Differently?
Authors: Hagedoorn Mariët , Buunk Bram P. , Van de Vliert Evert
Published: March 2003

Cette étude a examiné si l’effet d’interaction fréquemment observé du caractère favorable d’un résultat et du degré de justice d’une procédure sur la perception et les réactions face à des décisions pouvait être la conséquence du besoin des personnes de croire en un monde juste. Des étudiants en administration (n= 121) ont participéà une simulation de type “in‐basket” calquée sur la réalité organisationnelle. De façon indépendante de l’exercice de simulation, les étudiants ont aussi été questionnés sur leur croyance d’un monde juste. Comme prévu, les résultats indiquent que, seulement pour ceux qui croient fermement en un monde juste, un résultat favorable peut diminuer la perception d’injustice causée par une procédure biaisée, et une procédure non biaisée peut diminuer la perception d’injustice causée par un résultat non favorable. De plus, autant ceux avec des croyances fortes que ceux avec de faibles croyances ont exprimé de la colère quand le résultat était non favorable que lorsqui’il était favorable. Cependant, les résultats ont démontré qu’une procédure biaisée a amené plus de colère qu’une procédure non biaisée seulement pour ceux ayant une forte croyance en un monde juste. Aucun effet d’interaction n’a été trouvé pour le comportement de protestation.

This experiment examined whether the frequently observed interactive effect of outcome favorability or fairness and procedural desirability or fairness on perceptions of and reactions to decisions of authorities might be the consequence of people’s need to believe in a just world. One hundred and twenty‐one business students participated in an in‐basket simulation that closely resembled a work organisation. Independent of the in‐basket exercise, participants were asked about their just world belief. As expected, the findings indicate that only among those who strongly believe in a just world, a favorable outcome can decrease people’s perception of injustice caused by a biased procedure and an unbiased procedure can decrease people’s perception of injustice caused by an unfavorable outcome. In addition, both strong and weak believers reported more anger when the outcome was unfavorable than when it was favorable. But only among those with a strong just world belief, a biased procedure led to more anger than an unbiased procedure. We did not find interactive effects on aggressive voice (i.e. protest behavior).