bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Lifetime Earnings, Discount Rate, Ability and the Demand for Post–compulsory Education in Men in England and Wales
Authors: Johnson Daniel 
Published: March 2003

Human capital theory suggests educational investments are made based on expected returns over the lifetime. Most other work in this field, particularly using British data, is based on demand models estimated in reduced form, with no earnings measures, or crudely constructed earnings measures, based on one or two earnings observations per individual.We present a structural model of demand for educational investment which includes estimates of earnings paths for educational options as determinants of educational choice. This provides us with directly interpretable parameter estimates. The discount rate is also determined within our demand model.Ability controlled earnings profiles are estimated by matching individuals from the General Household Survey to individuals in similar occupations from the National Child Development Survey (NCDS).Our results show that expected earnings profiles vary according to observed ability and educational choice. Results from the demand model show that expected lifetime earnings have a significant impact on educational choice.Other socio–demographic factors, particularly social class, also exhibit significant influences on the education decision. We estimate the discount rate to be lower than reported in other studies.
Children's Understanding of Emotion in Speech
Authors: Morton J. Bruce , Trehub Sandra E. 
Published: March 2003

Children's understanding of emotion in speech was explored in three experiments. In Experiment 1, 4‐ to 10‐year‐old children and adults (N= 165) judged the happiness or sadness of the speaker from cues conveyed by propositional content and affective paralanguage. When the cues conflicted (i.e., a happy situation was described with sad paralanguage), children relied primarily on content, in contrast to adults, who relied on paralanguage. There were gradual developmental changes from 4‐year‐olds' almost exclusive focus on content to adults' exclusive focus on paralanguage. Children of all ages exhibited greater response latencies to utterances with conflicting cues than to those with nonconflicting cues, indicating that they processed both sources of emotional information. Children accurately labeled the affective paralanguage when the propositional cues to emotion were obscured by a foreign language (Experiment 2, N= 20) or by low‐pass filtering (Experiment 3, N = 60). The findings are consistent with children's limited understanding of the communicative functions of affective paralanguage.
Virtually Documented Environments: A New Interface Paradigm for Task‐oriented Access to Information
Authors: Kakez Samory , Conan Vania , Bisson Pascal 
Published: March 2003

We present a suitable virtually documented environment system providing the user with high level interaction possibilities. The system is dedicated to applications where the operator needs to have his hands free in order to access information, carry out measurements and/or operate on a device (e.g. maintenance, instruction). The system merges video images acquired through a head‐mounted video camera with synthetic data (multimedia documents including CAD models and text) and presents these merged images to the operator. Registration techniques allow the operator to visualise information properly correlated to the real world: this is an essential aspect in order to achieve a feeling of presence in a real environment.We increase the sense of immersion through high level Human‐Computer Interaction (HCI) allowing hands‐free access to information through vocal commands as well as multimodal interaction associating speech and gesture. In this way, the user can access information and manipulate it in a very natural manner. We discuss the construction of the documentation system and the requested functionalities which led to the system architecture.
The Art of Knitted Fabrics, Realistic & Physically Based Modelling of Knitted Patterns
Authors: Meißner M. , Eberhardt B. 
Published: March 2003

In this paper we will present a system to use three dimensional computer graphics in garment design. This system is capable to visualize the "real", i.e. the physically correct, appearance of a knitted fabric. A fast visualization of a physically correct micro‐structure garment is of crucial importance in textile industry, since it enables fast and less expensive product development. This system may be either used in the design of new products or teaching the art of knitted fabrics.We use in our system directly the produced machine‐code of the design system for knitting machines. A physical model, a particle system, is used to calculate the dynamics of the micro‐structure of the knitted garment.
Fast Ray Tracing of Implicit Surfaces
Authors: Sherstyuk Andrei 
Published: March 2003

A ray‐tracing algorithm is described for rendering implicit surfaces formed with C1‐continuous bounded functions f(x, y, z). This class of functions includes such popular implicit models as blobby molecules, metaballs, soft objects and convolution surfaces. The algorithm employs analytical methods only, which makes it fast, robust, and numerically stable.An earlier version of this work was presented at the 3rd International Workshop on Implicit Surfaces held in Seattle in 1998.
Representing Conics using NURBS of Degree Two*
Authors: Qin Kaihuai , Sun Jiaguang , Wang Xuefu 
Published: March 2003

AbstractIn this paper, a new method is presented for representing conics precisely using NURBS of degree two. The method requires only four control vertices to represent a full circle using the full circumscribing square‐based representation, which is less than the number required with the other methods using the square control vertex configuration.9, 10, 13 The paper also derives a new condition for NURBS to represent conics precisely and shows the sufficient and necessary conditions for representation of a circular arc, and gives the definition and the knot vector formulae of a periodic NURBS curve.
An Integrated System for Modeling, Animating and Rendering Hair
Authors: Daldegan Agnes , Thalmann Nadia Magnenat , Kurihara Tsuneya , Thalmann Daniel 
Published: March 2003

AbstractThere are basically four problems to solve in order to produce realistic animated synthetic actors with hair: hair modeling and creation, hair motion, collision detection and hair rendering. This paper describes a complete methodology to solve these basic four problems. We present how hair styles may be designed with our Hair Styler module. Then we survey the animation model and emphasize a method of collision processing. Finally, we explain how hair may be rendered using an extension of a standard ray‐tracing program. We also show applications of our synthetic actors with various hair styles and different styles of mustaches and beards.
Functions Defining Arbitrary Meshes – A Flexible Interface between Numerical Data and Visualization Routines
Authors: Rumpf Martin , Schmidt Alfred , Siebert Kunibert G. 
Published: March 2003

AbstractMost of the rendering tools in scientific visualization are restricted to special data structures which differ substantially from the data formats used in numerical applications. Trying to close this gap, we present an interface between data from numerical methods on general types of grids ‐ like cuboidal, prismatic, simplicial, parametric, mixed, or hierarchical meshes — and general visualization routines. It is based on a procedural approach managing a collection of arbitrary elements and a set of functions describing each element type. No mapping of (an in general enormous amount of) numerical data onto new data structures is necessary; a user may use his own data structures and only has to provide this small set of procedures and functions. The visualization tools will then use these routines to access (temporarily and locally) data of interest, like information about a single element. Compared with display routines on a specialized data structure, this general interface does not produce much cpu overhead.
Spanning the Gap – the theoretical principles that connect stakeholder policies to business performance
Authors: Slinger Giles 
Published: March 2003

If the word “stakeholder” were a person, it would just be coming into its prime. Born in 1963, it has accumulated experience in influential positions, and ought to be prepared for some serious responsibility. But what exactly does it offer, and is it ready?This paper tries to show that the stakeholder concept is ready. In the first half, it explains three principles that form the heart of the idea: co‐operation, commitment and rich information. Rich information, in particular, is given a new role in interpreting stakeholder theory. The second half of the paper focuses on a practical issue: methods for encouraging co‐operation. For fifty years, organizational psychologists at the (UK) Tavistock Institute and the (US) National Training Laboratories have developed methods for changing relations in the workplace. The principles underlying their work are shown to be very close to the principles underlying the stakeholder approach. This means that the stakeholder approach has foundations in an important body of practical scientific experimentation.Lastly, by explaining the principles underlying the idea of stakeholding, this paper fills a gap which has previously prevented the identification of a convincing causal connection between stakeholder policies and business performance.
Making Sense with Backcasting: the Future Perfect: A creative method and its backgrounds illustrated through a practical case
Authors: Tassoul Marc 
Published: March 2003

During his work as a creativity practitioner and researcher, the author has developed a Future Perfect approach to achieve a collaborative sense and vision about issues of change.This article reports the experience of both participants and facilitator in using this process, in a project undertaken to develop new approaches to clean textiles in the context of sustainable development. The process is described in part on the basis of McWhinney’s ‘Six Systems Model’ and Catford and Ray’s ‘Path of the Everyday Hero’. The experience is then developed into helpful hints for creativity practitioners.
The Place of TRIZ in a Holistic Design Methodology
Authors: Knott David 
Published: March 2003

Design is key to a project’s profitability and therefore increased PROFIT by DESIGN is the goal of improvements to the design process. Business requirements can be summarised as Better, Faster, Cheaper and considerable investment has been made in technology and methods for the design process to enable this. There is evidence to suggest that these investments have resulted in products themselves getting better but not necessarily produced faster or cheaper.A model of the design process has been developed which makes explicit its key elements. The six key elements or dimensions of the design process are: Analyse; Understand; Decide; Create; Capture; and Know.Investments in design technology may not be reaching their full potential due to a mismatch between the relative importance of the attributes of a good designer and the areas where investments have been made, leading to a potential loss of balance in the design process. This is compounded by failure to take a holistic view of changes to the process including mitigation of any downside. In particular the Create dimension, which is seen as the most important attribute of a good designer, has had the least investment and also is the most vulnerable because it is optional. In recognition of this fact, Rolls‐Royce is using the TRIZ methodology to provide designers with an improved capability. However it also is recognised that providing capability alone is not enough. The right motivation and opportunity are also needed, and this requires the appropriate organisational and cultural features to be in place. What is needed is a people centred process that is business driven and product focused.
Temporal Context of Organizational Learning in New Product Development Projects
Authors: Bourgeon Laurent 
Published: March 2003

Faced with the evolution of the competitive environment, firms have to find the delicate balance between two goals that are sometimes contradictory: accelerate the time spent on product development and leave time to the personnel implicated in these projects to develop collective learning.This research shows that the project ‘time’ has an important influence on the realization of collective learning during new product development projects. The commitment of the project team in activities like experimentation, detection and correction of errors, and research of new combinations which constitute organizational learning depends on the two conceptions of the project ‘time’.If the duration of the project and the time spent by the functional personnel on the project constitute the objective time of the project (first conception of time), the project ‘time’ is also a subjective time which corresponds to the project team’s shared vision of the project’s deadlines (second conception of time).
Road pricing and the ‘new deal for transport’
Authors: Bayliss David 
Published: March 2003

There are several good reasons why motorists should be charged for using roads, and it is important to understand these and to distinguish between them.Alternatives, however attractive, fail to stand up to close scrutiny. The change of government attitude showed in the recent White Paper is to be welcomed, but of the three specific proposals, two are questionable. Road pricing should not be used as a major welfare tool.
Foreign debt and economic growth
Authors: Lin Shuanglin , Sosin Kim 
Published: March 2003

This paper empirically examines the relationship between government foreign debt and the growth rate of per capita GDP based on a total sample of 77 countries, as well as sub‐samples of various regions. Cross‐sectional estimates of the coefficient of foreign debt based on the total sample have a negative sign, but are not always statistically significant. Available data from African countries indicate that foreign debt and the growth rate of per capita GDP were negatively related at a high level of significance. For industrialized and Latin American sub‐samples, this relationship is negative but statistically insignificant. The sub‐sample Asian and other developing countries show a positive but insignificant relationship.JEL classification: F34, H6, O23.
Squatting as a transition problem in South Africa
Authors: Nathan Cedric D. , Spindler Zane A. 
Published: March 2003

This paper applies principles of transition to land tenure and squatting in South Africa. Political transition in South Africa reassigned political property rights, which produced contestable, and rent‐seeking incentives for squatting as a means to privatize land and redistribute wealth. Government failure to establish and protect private property rights in a squatter camp resulted in common‐pool problems that resisted private and public resolution with consequent rent dissipation and social loss. In response to this retreat from duty, informal agents emerged to claim their own share of the prize. Without enforceable rules of capture, the growth of squatter camps in South Africa will continue.JEL classification: D7, H8, K1, K4, R1, R4.
Growth and Convergence in a Two-Region Model of Unified Germany
Authors: Funke Michael , Strulik Holger 
Published: March 2003

Abstract
The paper sets up a two-region endogenous growth model to discuss growth and regional convergence of unified Germany. It emphasizes the role of private and public capital accumulation during the developing process. The theoretical part derives fiscal policy rules which establish convergence of regional output per capita and convergence of regional human wealth. To assess the speed of convergence the model is calibrated with German data. Given a fiscal policy rule that is consistent with the data on government spending in East and West Germany after unification the model suggests that East Germany will reach 80 per cent of West Germany's income per capita between 20 and 30 years after unification and that actual transfers are approximately sufficient to equalize regional human wealth. The results are compared with an extension of the model that includes wage-setting behaviour and unemployment in the eastern region.
Falling Labor Share and Rising Unemployment: Long-Run Consequences of Institutional Shocks?
Authors: Berthold Norbert , Rainer Rainer , Thode Eric 
Published: March 2003

Abstract
The literature on unemployment has mostly focused on labor market issues while the impact of capital formation is largely neglected. Job creation is often thought to be a matter of encouraging more employment on a given capital stock. In contrast, this paper explicitly deals with the long-run consequences of institutional shocks on capital formation and employment. It is shown that the usual tradeoff between employment and wages disappears in the long run. In line with an appropriation model, the estimated values for the long-run elasticities of substitution between capital and labor for Germany and France are substantially greater than one.
The taphonomy of cooked bone: characterizing boiling and its physico–chemical effects
Authors: Roberts S. J. , Smith C. I. , Millard A. , Collins M. J. 
Published: March 2003

Cooking is perhaps the most common pre–burial taphonomic transformation that occurs to bone, yet it is still one of the least understood. Little progress has been made in determining a method of identifying cooked bone in the archaeological record, despite its import for various branches of archaeology. This paper attempts to describe boiling in terms of its physico–chemical effects on bone, and uses a suite of diagenetic indicators to do this.It is shown that cooking for brief periods of time has little distinguishable effect on bone in the short term, but that increased boiling times can mirror diagenetic effects observed in archaeological bone. The relationship between the loss of collagen and alterations to the bone mineral is explored through heating experiments, and the results compared with archaeological data.The possibility of boiling being used as an analogue for bone diagenesis in future studies is raised, and the key relationship between protein and mineral is once again highlighted as vital to our understanding of bone diagenesis.
Utilization of Home Health Services before and after the Balanced Budget Act of 1997: What Were the Initial Effects?
Authors: McCall Nelda , Petersons Andrew , Moore Stanley , Korb Jodi 
Published: March 2003

Objective To estimate the impact of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA), which changed the way Medicare reimbursed for home health services, on a range of home health utilization measures, and to examine whether particular subgroups of beneficiaries were differentially impacted in the post‐BBA period.Data Sources Secondary data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Standard Analytic Files for the 1 percent sample of Medicare beneficiaries for fiscal years 1997 and 1999, linked with information from CMS eligibility, provider, and cost report files as well as the Area Resources File.Study Design Logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of being in the post‐BBA period on the incidence of home health service use and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to estimate the effects of being in the post‐BBA period on the amount and type of use by home health service users. Interaction terms were included for all the independent variables to assess whether the effect was disproportionate among particular beneficiary subgroups.Principal Findings Results show a 22 percent decrease in the percentage using home health services post‐BBA and a 39 percent decrease in the number of visits per user. Stronger reductions, though not very large, were found in the incidence of use for beneficiaries aged 85 and older, those in states with high historical Medicare home health use, and those with Medicaid buy‐in. More intensive reductions in the number of services were found for those aged 85 and older, in high historical Medicare use states, nonwhites, females, those using for‐profit agencies, and those treated for certain diagnoses. Less intensive reductions were associated with hospital‐based agencies.Conclusions This research demonstrates that public program expenditures can be sharply curtailed with financial incentives. As reimbursement shifts to a prospective payment system legislated by the BBA, utilization should be closely monitored, especially for vulnerable subgroups.
Effectiveness and Cost‐effectiveness of Four Treatment Modalities for Substance Disorders: A Propensity Score Analysis
Authors: Mojtabai Ramin , Graff Zivin Joshua 
Published: March 2003

Objective To assess the effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness of four treatment modalities for substance abuse.Data Sources The study used data from the Services Research Outcomes Study (SROS), a survey of 3,047 clients in a random sample of 99 drug treatment facilities across the United States. Detailed sociodemographic, substance use, and clinical data were abstracted from treatment records. Substance abuse outcome and treatment history following discharge from index facilities were assessed using a comprehensive interview with 1,799 of these individuals five years after discharge. Treatment success was defined in two ways: as abstinence and as any reduction in substance use.Study Design Effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness of four modalities were compared: inpatient, residential, outpatient detox/methadone, and outpatient drug‐free. Clients were stratified based on propensity scores and analyses were conducted within these strata. Sensitivity analyses examined the impact of future substance abuse treatment on effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness estimates.Principal Findings Treatment of substance disorders appears to be cost‐effective compared to other health interventions. The cost per successfully treated abstinent case in the least costly modality, the outpatient drug‐free programs, was $6,300 (95 percent confidence intervals: $5,200–$7,900) in 1990 dollars. There were only minor differences between various modalities of treatment with regard to effectiveness. However, modalities varied considerably with regard to cost‐effectiveness. Outpatient drug‐free programs were the most cost‐effective. There was little evidence that relative effectiveness or cost‐effectiveness of programs varied according to factors that were associated with selection into different programs.Conclusions Substance disorders can be treated most cost‐effectively in outpatient drug‐free settings. Savings from transitioning to the most cost‐effective treatment modality may free resources that could be reinvested to improve access to substance abuse treatment for a larger number of individuals in need of such treatment.