466 research outputs found
Estimating uncertainty in spatial microsimulation approaches to small area estimation: a new approach to solving an old problem
No full textA wide range of user groups from policy makers to media commentators demand ever more spatially detailed information yet the desired data are often not available at fine spatial scales. Increasingly, small area estimation (SAE) techniques are called upon to fill in these informational gaps by downscaling survey outcome variables of interest based on the relationships seen with key covariate data. In the process SAE techniques both rely extensively on small area Census data to enable their estimation and offer potential future substitute data sources in the event of Census data becoming unavailable. Whilst statistical approaches to SAE routinely incorporate intervals of uncertainty around central point estimates in order to indicate their likely accuracy, the continued absence of such intervals from spatial microsimulation SAE approaches severely limits their utility and arguably represents their key methodological weakness. The present article presents an innovative approach to resolving this key methodological gap based on the estimation of variance of the between-area error term from a multilevel regression specification of the constraint selection for iterative proportional fitting (IPF). The performance of the estimated credible intervals are validated against known Census data at the target small area and show an extremely high level of performance. As well as offering an innovative solution to this long-standing methodological problem, it is hoped more broadly that the research will stimulate the spatial microsimulation community to adopt and build on these foundations so that we can collectively move to a position where intervals of uncertainty are delivered routinely around spatial microsimulation small area point estimates
A comparative study of typologies for rural areas in Europe
No full textThis paper examines alternative methodologies to build a typology for rural areas in Europe. First, it reviews the methodologies that have traditionally been used to construct area typologies in various contexts. It then uses data for European NUTS3 regions to build a typology for rural areas in Europe, on the basis of their peripherality and rurality. First, an aggregative approach to building typologies is adopted, under which the well-established statistical techniques of principal components analysis and cluster analysis are employed. We then highlight the disadvantages of this approach and we present an alternative disaggregative approach to the construction of typologies for rural areas in Europe. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of our suggested typology.
Business at the margins? Business interests in edge urban politics
No full textThe issue of the organization, role and influence of business interests in urban politics at the edge of major cities is one that is overdue for investigation. This article provides an initial and empirically oriented investigation of the organization, role and influence of business interests in edge urban politics in Europe. We present findings from five members of a European network of self-styled 'edge cities'. Following the now extensive debate in academic literature regarding the applicability of US concepts such as growth machines and urban regimes to the European setting, we draw attention to a diversity of business involvement in urban politics at the edge of Europe's capital cities. This diversity does include instances that, despite the very different 'macro-necessities' structuring edge urban politics in Europe, approximate to these concepts. Moreover, the diversity apparent in edge urban business politics raises several important questions for future research on urban governance. Namely, the complex connection between the local dependence of business and the organization of its interests; the 'jumping of scales' by locally dependent edge urban actors, and the sometimes neglected articulation of business interests with party political organization
Introduction
No full textRural areas across the world face many unique problems and challenges. Such communities have had an economy based historically on farming, forestry or mineral abstraction. Rural incomes and livelihoods have therefore been linked directly to the fortunes of these primary production sectors, with farming being the most common occupation in many rural areas. In Europe, rural incomes have been boosted, or at least secured, by very favourable policies relating to agricultural subsidies in particular. Farmers have been rewarded for (in effect) over producing, often resulting in wastage on a vast scale (butter mountains; wine lakes etc.). In the wake of the clearly unsustainable nature of such production systems these policies are changing and farmers are likely to get subsidies in the future for the non-production related goods associated with agriculture such as taking care of the rural landscape, the protection of biodiversity and sensitive habitats and allowing public access for recreational pursuits. The implication for farm incomes and for rural life in general is immense.</p
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Arab Jews, Mizrahi studies and Shimon Ballas' Outcast
No full texttextThis report examines the novel Outcast by Israeli author Shimon Ballas and its themes in respect to the prominent debates in the field of Mizrahi studies. It discusses the prominent scholars who deal with the history of Arab Jews in Israel and Mizrahi studies in general. It examines these issues both in the scholarship and literature and posits that each adds to and complicates the debate. The discussion also includes the treatments of Arab Jews in modern Zionist discourse and the history of Mizrahi political and scholarly activity in Israel.Middle Eastern Studie
Structural Peculiarities of Natural Ballas—Spheroidal Variety of Polycrystalline Diamond
No full textBallas is a rare polycrystalline diamond variety characterized by a radially oriented internal structure and spheroidal outer shape. The origin of natural ballases remains poorly constrained. We present the results of a comprehensive investigation of two classic ballas diamonds from Brazil. External morphology was studied using SEM, high-resolution 3D optical microscopy, and X-ray tomography. Point and extended defects were examined on polished central plates using infra-red, photo- and cathodoluminescence spectroscopies, and electron back-scattering diffraction; information about nanosized inclusions was inferred from Transmission Electron Microscopy. The results suggest that fibrous diamond crystallites comprising ballas are split with pronounced rotation, causing concentric zoning of the samples. Pervasive feather-like luminescing structural features envelop single crystalline domains and most likely represent fibers with non-crystallographic branching. These features are enriched in N3 point defects. Twinning is not common. The nitrogen content of the studied samples reaches 700 at.ppm; its concentration gradually increases from the center to the rim. Annealing of the ballases took place at relatively high temperatures of 1125–1250 °C; the annealing continued even when the samples were fully grown, as suggested by the presence of the H4 nitrogen-related defects in the outer rim. Presumably, the ballas diamond variety was formed at high supersaturation but in conditions favoring a small growth kinetic coefficient. The carbon isotopic composition of the studied ballases (δ13C = −5.42, −7.11‰) belongs to the main mode of mantle-derived diamonds
Human well-being and causality in social epidemiology
No full textThis paper discusses the work of Ballas and Dorling on life events and happiness.
I believe epidemiologists have things they could learn from economists (and vice
versa). Here I emphasize the issue of how to establish causality, and try to
suggest some ways forward
Interleukin 2 inhibits in vitro granulocyte-macrophage colony formation
No full textWe have previously shown that murine bone marrow cells cultured with interleukin 2 (IL-2) produce interferon-α/β (MuIFN-α/β) and that IFN-α/β can suppress in vitro granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cell formation (GM-CFC). In this study, IL-2 was directly assessed for its ability to inhibit in vitro granulocyte and/or macrophage colony-forming cell formation (GM-CFC/M-CFC). C57BL/6 bone marrow cells were cultured with different colony-stimulating factor (CSF), i.e., partially purified macrophage-CSF (M-CSF) or recombinant granulocyte and macrophage CSF (GM-CSF) in the presence or absence of different IL-2 preparations. Partially purified mouse IL-2 or recombinant human or mouse IL-2 (r-HuIL-2 and rMuIL-2) totally inhibit GM-CFC and M-CFC formation at 7 days of culture. The level of inhibition mediated by IL-2 was concentration-dependent, with as little as 1 U/ml giving total inhibition of colony formation. The ability of IL-2 to inhibit colony formation was completely abolished by treatment with antisera to IL-2. MuIFN-α/β and MuIFN-γ appeared to play no role in IL-2-induced myelosuppression in that addition of antisera to these IFN failed to block IL-2-induced suppression. Myelosuppression mediated by IL-2 was independent of the concentration of CSF used in the bone marrow cultures. Suppression was also not dependent upon the initial presence of T cells or natural killer (NK) cells. Bone marrow cells depleted of Thy-1+, Lyt-1+, Lyt-2+, NK-1.1+, Asialo GM1+, or Qa-5+ cells were as susceptible to IL-2 induced suppression as untreated or complement-treated bone marrow cells. These results suggest that IL-2 may play an important role in regulating different aspects of hematopoiesis
Existe-t-il une recherche comptable globale en Europe ? Une étude des communications présentées à l'EAA
No full textAu milieu des années 1990, de nombreux articles ont montré que la recherche comptable était très locale (Lukka and Kasanen, 1996; Panozzo, 1997; Carmona et al. 1999). Ce constat contraste avec l'internationalisation croissante de la profession comptable (normes IFRS, convergence US GAAP /IFRS,...). Dans cet article, nous réexaminons la nature locale de la recherche comptable à l'heure de la mise en place des normes comptables internationales (IFRS) à partir de l'analyse des communications aux congrès de l'EAA. L'étude de communications (plutôt que des articles publiés) est intéressante dans la mesure où elle permet de donner une image fidèle de l'activité des chercheurs. En effet, de nombreux auteurs ont montré que les revues académiques sont largement dominées par les auteurs nord-Américains (Lukka et Kasanen, 1996 ; Raffournier et Schatt, 2006). Par ailleurs, de nombreux chercheurs de pays européens et non européens participent aux congrès de l'EAA qui nous semble dès lors être un forum ‘global' de la recherche comptable. A partir des congrès de 2000 et de 2005, nos résultats montrent qu'une part croissante des communications peut être qualifiée de globale. Deux facteurs semblent expliquer la globalisation de la recherche comptable. Tout d'abord, elle dépend du thème de recherche : la recherche en comptabilité financière est deux fois plus globale que la recherche en contrôle de gestion. Ensuite, la stratégie de collaboration de recherche (coauteurs) compte : les papiers qualifiés de globaux ont plus de coauteurs que les papiers locaux. Cette étude enrichit la compréhension de la dynamique de la recherche comptable et illustre la relation complexe qui existe entre la globalisation de la pratique comptable et celle de la communauté de recherche comptable.Recherche comptable; Association européenne de comptabilité
Spatial Divisions of Poverty and Wealth
No full textThis chapter concerns very recent history and a time when the UK government was an all UK government and had enough funds to support academic work in the social sciences. Part of the GIS research reported here was funded by (what was then called) the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and conducted by the Social and Spatial Inequalities group, University of Sheffield (of which we were both members). Another part of the work discussed here was a project on poverty and wealth funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation during those same New Labour years and we are grateful to our colleagues Jan Rigby, Ben Wheeler, Bethan Thomas, Eldin Fahmy, Dave Gordon and Ruth Lupton who worked on the Rowntree report. This chapter also considers the early use of GIS in research on world inequalities and draws on work with colleagues in the United States (Mark Newman) and Anna Barford (now at Cambridge). An archive of this work can be found at www.worldmapper,org a project that was initially funded by the Leverhulme Trust
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