42 research outputs found
A bibliometric index based on the complete list of cited Publications
No full textWe propose a new index, the j-index, which is defined for an author as the sum of the square roots of the numbers of citations to each of the author’s publications. The idea behind the j-index it to remedy a drawback of the h-index - that the h-index does not take into account the full citation record of a researcher. The square root function is motivated by our desire to avoid the possible bias that may occur with a simple sum when an author has several very highly cited papers. We compare the j-index to the h-index, the g-index and the total citation count for three subject areas using several association measures. Our results indicate that that the association between the j-index and the other indices varies according to the subject area. One explanation of this variation may be due to the proportion of citations to publications of the researcher that are in the h-core. The j-index is not an h-index variant, and as such is intended to complement rather than necessarily replace the h-index and other bibliometric indicators, thus providing a more complete picture of a researcher’s achievements
Can we hear what they heard?: the effect of orality upon a markan reading-event
No full textThis dissertation arises from recent investigations in the field of orality and the potential that it has for Markan studies. Chapter one identifies the epistemological divide which separates a contemporary reading experience from one situated in the first century. Further, chapter one will focus this hermeneutical question upon the difference in how a text functions between a modern and an ancient literary critic; specifically, modern meaning versus ancient effect. Chapter two seeks to survey the nature of communication in the New Testament world and how this information was created, stored, and conveyed to its audience. Furthermore, it will seek to identify what skills were required by the manuscript’s creator, reader, and receiver(s). The goal is to define and develop the nature of a reading-event of antiquity. Chapter three will continue our prolegomena to method with a description of the complex inter-relationship between a reader, an audience, and a manuscript in the ancient world. It will be defined as a partnership whereby their respective functions commingle as they create a communal reading-event. Next, an oral hermeneutic will be described in two parts. First, it will present a summary of the historical reading-event constructed from the previous chapters. Then, an oral/performative approach will be developed under the rubric of a hypothetical reading-effect. It will be an attempt to recreate the oral/aural aspects which alert the reader and the listeners to the story’s movement. Furthermore, it will attempt to document the affective value of a hearer’s encounter with the narrative. Finally, chapter four will put into practice the aforementioned method to recreate a reading-event of the Second Gospel. We will explore how the text of Mark provides keys to the reader for how to orally present the Second Gospel. At the same time, our reading model will assist us to determine how the reading-event itself produces a controlled reading-effect upon a listening audience. Throughout the detailed work on Mark, we will attempt to show how an oral perspective reveals distinctive features which otherwise might be left unheard to silent readers
On a Newly Published Divorce Bill from the Judaean Desert
No full textA wife's right to divorce her husband does not exist in Jewish law, or so claims virtually every textbook on Jewish law. Over the years scholars have, of course, noted exceptions to this absolute assertion. In Jewish marriage contracts from Elephantine, for example, women have a right to divorce equal to that of men. Another example is the Gospel of Mark's logion on divorce, which apparently implies that either a woman or a man can initiate divorce procedures. Josephus, moreover, relates that Salome, King Herod's sister, sent her husband a bill of divorce. Mainstream scholarship has too often brushed aside these pieces of evidence as nonrepresentative actions or misunderstandings on the part of a transmitter. The Elephantine community was thus remote and had lost contact with the center of Jewish life many years earlier, living a pagan existence and following the legal practices of its neighbors. Mark was a non-Jewish author describing the actions of Palestinian Jews in light of more familiar Roman legal practices. Salome's actions contradicted Jewish law and succeeded only because of her Roman citizenship.</jats:p
What macroeconomic policies are"sound?"
No full textMost people agree that the soundness of macroeconomic policies should be judged by their efficacy in meeting the objectives of steady growth, full employment, stable prices, and a viable external payments situation. What people debate about are the links between macroeconomics and economic structure--and in the current environment, the openness to foreign capital flows. As developing countries become more integrated into international financial markets, volatility may become an increasing fact of life. Faced with such volatility, how should these countries frame their macroeconomic policies? What broad principles should guide their macroeconomic management? In many developing countries, the openness of the capital account has been significant. Many countries have made the transition toward an open-economic paradigm. As a result, fluctuations in international capital and currency markets, as well as shifts in foreign investors'attitudes and confidence, have greatly affected local stock market prices, the level of foreign exchange reserves, and the scope for monetary and interest rate policy. Capital controls and foreign exchange restrictions have been significantly dismantled in a number of developing and transition economies. In 1970, only 34 countries--or 30 percent of the International Monetary Fund's membership-had assumed Article VIII of the IMF Articles of Agreement, declaring their currency convertible on current account transactions. By 1997, this figure had increased to 77 percent. Does financial integration make it more difficult to achieve macroeconomic stability? Apparently not, on the whole, although at times large short-term capital flows can lead to misaligned asset prices, including exchange rates. What financial integration does do is limit how far countries can pursue policies incompatible with medium-term financial stability. The disciplining effect of global financial and product markets applies not only to policymakers-through pressures on financial markets-but also to the private sector. Rather than constrain the pursuit of appropriate policies, globalization may add leverage and flexibility to such policies, easing financing constraints and extending the time during which countries can make adjustments. But markets will provide this leeway only if they perceive that countries are undertaking adjustments that address fundamental choices.Economic Theory&Research,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Macroeconomic Management
Man in his native noblesse? : chivalry and the politics of the nobility in the tragedies of George Chapman
No full textIn this thesis I argue that the three plays under consideration - Bussy
D'Anbois, The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles Duke of Byron, and The
Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois - illustrate Chapman's concern with the role of
chivalry in England following the debacle of the Essex Rebel lion in 1601.
My contention is that, for Chapman, the Essex Rebellion exposed the
fragility and the inconsistencies of Elizabethan chivalry and the political
threat represented by its preoccupation with martial values.
I suggest that in his plays, Chapman sets out to deconstruct the myth
of chivalry by exposing it as a romantic concept which is used by the
martial nobility as a means of Emphasizing their political rights. The
values of chivalry - prowess, honour, loyalty, generosity, courtesy and
independence - are shown, by the plays, to be incompatible with the
political ambitions of the nobility. By associating themselves with this
mythical concept of chivalry, political figures cane to identify their
factions with the values of chivalry. Chapman, I argue, shows haw the myth
is established and then exposes it for what it is, by portraying his
characters as unable to live up to their expected mythical ideals.
Chivalry is stripped of its mythical trappings and exposed as militaristic,
aggressive and politically motivated.
The thesis is divided into five chapters. In the first, I consider
Chapman alongside the Tacitean historians who were connected with the Essex
circle in the 1590s and show how, in The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles
Duke of Byron, the dramatist transformed the providentialist narrative of
his source into a play with Tacitean connotations, emphasizing the
relationship between chivalry and constitutional political theory. In the
second chapter I consider Chapman's interest in chivalry and discuss
generally the romantic concept of Elizabethan chivalry and its relationship
with the political concerns of the nobility. In Chapters Three to Five I
discuss Chapman's portrayal of chivalry and its political impliications
Range conditions for a spherical mean transform
No full textThe paper is devoted to the range description of the Radon type transform that averages a function over all spheres centered on a given sphere. Such transforms arise naturally in thermoacoustic tomography, a novel method of medical imaging. Range descriptions have recently been obtained for such transforms, and consisted of smoothness and support conditions, moment conditions, and some additional orthogonality conditions of spectral nature. It has been noticed that in odd dimensions, surprisingly, the moment conditions are superfluous and can be eliminated. It is shown in this text that in fact the same happens in any dimension.The work of the first author was partially supported by the ISF (Israel Science Foundation) Grant 688/08 and by the Texas A&M University. The third author was partially supported by the NSF grant DMS 0604778 and by the KAUST grant KUS-CI-016-04. The authors express their gratitude to NSF, Texas A&M University, and KAUST for the support. The authors also thank Y. Lyubarskii and L. Nguyen for discussions and the referee for useful remarks
A novel bibliometric index with a simple geometric interpretation
No full textWe propose the χ-index as a bibliometric indicator that generalises the h-index. While the h-index is determined by the maximum square that fits under the citation curve of an author when plotting the number of citations in decreasing order, the χ-index is determined by the maximum area rectangle that fits under the curve. The height of the maximum rectangle is the number of citations ck to the kth most-cited publication, where k is the width of the rectangle. The χ-index is then defined as , for convenience of comparison with the h-index and other similar indices. We present a comprehensive empirical comparison between the χ-index and other bibliometric indices, focusing on a comparison with the h-index, by analysing two datasets—a large set of Google Scholar profiles and a small set of Nobel prize winners. Our results show that, although the χ and h indices are strongly correlated, they do exhibit significant differences. In particular, we show that, for these data sets, there are a substantial number of profiles for which χ is significantly larger than h. Furthermore, restricting these profiles to the cases when ck > k or ck < k corresponds to, respectively, classifying researchers as either tending to influential, i.e. having many more than h citations, or tending to prolific, i.e. having many more than h publications
Interdirectionality of Transmission of Jesus and Gospel Traditions in Bilingual Contexts
No full textReturning culture to peacebuilding : contesting the liberal peace in Sierra Leone
No full textThis thesis investigates the advantages and limitations of applying culture to the analysis of violent conflict and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on liberal peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. While fully aware of the critique of the concept of culture in terms of its uses for the production of difference and ‘otherness,’ it also seeks to respond to the critique of liberal peacebuilding on the account of its low sensitivity towards local culture, which allegedly undermines the peace effort. After a careful examination of the terms of discussion about culture enabled by theoretical approaches to conflict in Chapter 2, the thesis presents a theoretical framework for the analysis of cultural aspects of conflict and peace based on the processes and effects of meaning-generation (Chapter 3), developing the conceptual apparatus and vocabulary for the subsequent empirical study. Instead of bracketing out the recursive nature of cultural theorising, the developed approach embraces the recursive dynamics which arise as a result of cultural ‘embeddedness’ of the analyst and the processes which s/he seeks to elucidate, mirroring similar dynamics in the cultural production of meaning and knowledge. The framework of ‘embedded cultural enquiry’ is then used to analyse the practices of liberal peacebuilding as a particular culture, which shapes the interaction of the liberal peace with its ‘subjects’ and critics as well as framing its reception of the cultural problematic generally (Chapter 4). The application of the analytical framework to the case study investigates the interaction between the liberal peace and ‘local culture,’ offering an alternative reading of the conflict and peace process in Sierra Leone (Chapter 5). The study concludes that a greater attention to cultural meaning-making offers a largely untapped potential for peacebuilding, although any decisions with regard to its deployment will inevitably be made from within an inherently biased cultural perspective
Reforming health care : a case for stay well health insurance
No full textAll countries - whether industrial, developing, or in transition to a market economy - are interested in health care reform. A central focus of reform everywhere is to make patients more responsive to health care costs without diluting the protection offered by public or private insurance. Conventional insurance offers customers little incentive to monitor their own use of health care services or to adopt and maintain better health habits. The authors describe an alternative health insurance structure first adopted in Mendocino County, California, in 1979, and compare it with conventional forms of insurance. The Mendocino or"stay well"plan offers consumers direct incentives to control their use of health care services and to adopt healthier lifestyles. How well this insurance can contain health care costs depends on the size of the incentives and consumer responsiveness to them. Conditions in some developing countries and in many countries moving to market based economies - overuse of services, poor health habits, and declining real incomes - improves the likelihood of a favorable response to such incentives. How to structure the stay well system depends on the country, but the stay well plan is a general flexible form of insurance that subsumes most conventional plans as special cases. The rewards for low use might take many forms. As in the Mendocino plan, the rewards might be a credit to a retirement account, but they could just as easily be annual cash rebates or credits against out of pocket expenses that exceed an individual's or family's spending goal in a future period. Administration of the stay well plan appears not to be unduly complex. If anything, incorporating stay well incentives in a single-payer or national health care system would be simpler than incorporating them in a self insured fund. The success of the plan hinges on whether incentives shift the frequency distribution of health care spending by reducing unnecessary utilization in the short run and through better health care habits, reducing long run costs. Despite additional payments to low users, the stay well plan could be less expensive than conventional plans with similar coverage. As in any insurance plan, solvency is enhanced by larger groups, better risk pooling, economies of scale in administration and claims processing, and greater bargaining power with health care providers.Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Health Economics&Finance,Insurance Law,Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation
