bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Institutions and the Relation between Corruption and Economic Growth
Authors: de Vaal Albert , Ebben Wouter 
Published: January 2011

AbstractWe study the effects of bureaucratic corruption on economic growth in a framework that takes into account that corruption also affects growth through its impact on institutions. We use a formal growth framework in which corruption affects growth negatively because of individual rent‐seeking and stealing of public goods, but where corruption may serve a positive role by taking over the role of institutions. We find that the overall effect of corruption on economic growth is highly dependent on the institutional setting of a country. Particularly in situations where institutions are not well developed corruption may be conducive to economic growth. We also find that the interaction among institutions themselves matters. This underscores the importance of taking into account the complete institutional setting when studying corruption, both in theory as well as empirically.
Frailty Effects in Networks: Comparison and Identification of Individual HeterogeneityVersusPreferential Attachment in Evolving Networks
Authors: Blasio Birgitte Freiesleben de , Seierstad Taral Guldahl , Aalen Odd O. 
Published: January 2011

SummaryPreferential attachment is a proportionate growth process in networks, where nodes receive new links in proportion to their current degree. Preferential attachment is a popular generative mechanism to explain the widespread observation of power-law-distributed networks. An alternative explanation for the phenomenon is a randomly grown network with large individual variation in growth rates among the nodes (frailty). We derive analytically the distribution of individual rates, which will reproduce the connectivity distribution that is obtained from a general preferential attachment process (Yule process), and the structural differences between the two types of graphs are examined by simulations. We present a statistical test to distinguish the two generative mechanisms from each other and we apply the test to both simulated data and two real data sets of scientific citation and sexual partner networks. The findings from the latter analyses argue for frailty effects as an important mechanism underlying the dynamics of complex networks.
Approximate Bayesian Computation Using Indirect Inference
Authors: Drovandi Christopher C. , Pettitt Anthony N. , Faddy Malcolm J. 
Published: January 2011

SummaryWe present a novel approach for developing summary statistics for use in approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) algorithms by using indirect inference. ABC methods are useful for posterior inference in the presence of an intractable likelihood function. In the indirect inference approach to ABC the parameters of an auxiliary model fitted to the data become the summary statistics. Although applicable to any ABC technique, we embed this approach within a sequential Monte Carlo algorithm that is completely adaptive and requires very little tuning. This methodological development was motivated by an application involving data on macroparasite population evolution modelled by a trivariate stochastic process for which there is no tractable likelihood function. The auxiliary model here is based on a beta–binomial distribution. The main objective of the analysis is to determine which parameters of the stochastic model are estimable from the observed data on mature parasite worms.
Optimal Designs for Generalized Non-Linear Models with Application to Second-Harmonic Generation Experiments
Authors: Biedermann Stefanie , Woods David C. 
Published: January 2011

SummaryThe design of experiments for generalized non-linear models is investigated and applied to an optical process for characterizing interfaces which is widely used in the physical and natural sciences. Design strategies for overcoming the dependence of a D-optimal design on the values of the model parameters are explored, including the use of Bayesian designs. Designs for the accurate estimation of model parameters are presented and compared, as are designs for the estimation of a set of ratios of parameters which is of particular importance in the motivating example. The effectiveness of various design methods is studied, and the benefits of well-designed experiments are demonstrated.
Shenzhen: City of Suspended Possibility
Authors: BACH JONATHAN 
Published: January 2011

AbstractThis essay on Shenzhen, China, presents three vignettes addressing the question of home in a city of migrants. The first section explores the ubiquitous narratives of success forming the city's foundational myth. The second follows this myth into the world of a Shenzhen filmmaker and his characters, as they navigate the tension between the idea of home and the urge to start anew, resulting in the suspended possibility of the title. The last section looks at young architects who hope to preserve the city's heterotopic sites of migrants and original villagers through architectural innovations. The cases show how an economy of desire supplements the political economy of this export‐driven city. The city appears as an urban desiring machine that produces itself as an object of desire for the migrants of all classes who flock to its factories, ‘urban villages’, white‐collar jobs, luxury villas and underground economy. The essay is an encounter with the mythology of success and failure, the intertwining of home as an end and home as the beginning, and with the manipulation of space that allows residents to control their own subjectivity.Résumé Ce travail sur Shenzhen présente trois évocations sur le thème du ‘lieu d'origine’ (home) dans une ville chinoise de migrants. La première partie revient sur les récits généralisés de réussites qui sont à la base du mythe fondateur de la ville. La deuxième suit ce mythe dans l'univers d'un cinéaste de Shenzhen et de ses personnages soumis aux tensions entre la notion de lieu d'origine et l'envie de recommencement, aboutissant à la ‘possibilité en suspens’ du titre. La dernière partie porte sur de jeunes architectes dont les innovations espèrent préserver, dans la ville, des sites hétérotopiques de migrants et d'anciens villageois. Les cas étudiés montrent comment une économie du désir s'ajoute à l'économie politique de cette ville orientée à l'exportation. La ville apparaît comme une machine urbaine en désir qui s'autoproduit en objet de désir pour les migrants de toute classe qui affluent vers ses usines, ‘villages urbains’, emplois de bureau, villas de luxe et son économie souterraine. Ce texte est une rencontre avec la mythologie du succès et de l'échec, avec le lien inextricable entre le lieu d'origine comme fin et comme début, et avec la manipulation de l'espace qui permet aux habitants de maîtriser leur propre subjectivité.
Interrogating recent range changes in South African birds: confounding signals from land use and climate change present a challenge for attribution
Authors: Hockey Philip A. R. , Sirami Clélia , Ridley Amanda R. , Midgley Guy F. , Babiker Hassan A. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractAim Apparent anthropogenic warming has been underway in South Africa for several decades, a period over which significant range shifts have been observed in some indigenous bird species. We asked whether these range shifts by birds are clearly consistent with either climate change or land use change being the primary driver.Location South Africa.Methods We categorized recent range changes among 408 South African terrestrial bird species and, using generalized linear mixed models, analysed ecological attributes of those species that have and have not changed their ranges.Results Fifty‐six of the 408 taxa studied have undergone significant range shifts. Most extended their ranges towards the south (towards cooler latitudes, consistent with climate‐change drivers) or west (towards drier and warmer habitats, inconsistent with climate drivers but consistent with land use drivers); very few moved east or north. Both southward and westward movers were habitat generalists. Furthermore, southward movers were mobile taxa (migrants and nomads), whereas westward movers were associated with human‐modified elements in the landscape, such as croplands, plantations or buildings.Main conclusions The results suggest that both land use changes and climate change may simultaneously be influencing dynamic range shifts by South African birds, but separating the relative strengths of these two drivers is challenging, not least because both are operating concurrently and may influence some species simultaneously. Those species that respond to land use change by contracting their ranges are likely to be among the species that will be most impacted by climate change if land use practices with negative impacts are occurring in areas anticipated to become climatic refugia for these species. This highlights a pressing need to develop dynamic models of species’ potential range shifts and changing abundances that incorporate population and dispersal processes, as well as ecological processes that influence habitat suitability.
Teaching of direct composite restoration repair in undergraduate dental schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Authors: Blum I. R. , Lynch C. D. , Wilson N. H. F. 
Published: January 2011

AbstractAim:  To investigate aspects of the teaching of restoration repair as a minimally invasive alternative to the replacement of defective direct composite restorations in teaching programmes in undergraduate curricula in dental schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland.Methods:  An online questionnaire which sought information in relation to the current teaching of composite restoration repair was developed and distributed to the 17 established UK and Irish dental schools with undergraduate teaching programmes in Spring 2010.Results:  Completed responses were received from all 17 schools (response rate= 100%). Fifteen schools reported that they included teaching of repair techniques for defective direct composite restorations in their programme. Of the two remaining schools, one indicated that it would introduce teaching of repair techniques during the next five years. The most common indication for a composite repair was that of ‘tooth substance preservation’ (15 schools). The defects in restorations considered appropriate for repair rather than replacement by the largest number of schools included partial loss of restoration (13 schools) and marginal defects (12 schools). The most commonly taught surface treatment when performing a repair was mechanical roughening of the existing composite with removal of the surface layer (14 schools). Thirteen schools taught etching and the application of an adhesive bonding agent to the prepared surfaces, while the most commonly taught material for completing the repair was a hybrid composite resin (12 schools). Popular finishing implements included diamond finishing instruments (13 schools) and finishing discs (11 schools).Conclusion:  Not withstanding reluctance amongst general dental practitioners, the teaching of repair of a defective composite restoration, rather than total restoration replacement, is firmly established within UK and Irish dental school programmes. Repair techniques have clear advantages for patients, not least including a minimally invasive approach to treatment and avoidance of unnecessary loss of tooth tissue and pulpal damage. Dental practitioners should look more to repair techniques when managing defective composite restorations and clinical dental teachers should continue to research and refine composite repair techniques.