Child Mortality and Reproductive Behaviour in German Village Populations in the Past: A Micro-Level Analysis of the Replacement Effect

1982 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 177 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Knodel
Keyword(s):  
Child Mortality ◽  
Reproductive Behaviour ◽  
The Past ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Level Analysis

Universalised versus Particularised Conceptualisations of Islam in Translations of the Qur'an

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-91
Author(s):  
Nora S. Eggen
Keyword(s):  
Source Text ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Technical Sense ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Level Analysis

In this article I offer a case study on conceptualisations of Islam in translations of the Qur'an into the Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian languages during the past 170 years. While situating the translations as well as their translators in their historical and cultural contexts, the study does not take an assumed motivation of the translator as a starting point for the analysis, nor is it source text oriented and framed by discussions on translatability. Rather, this study aims at investigating the conceptual impact of different translation strategies, through a comprehensive micro-level analysis of eight target texts and their translations of the Qur'anic lexical cluster islām/aslama/muslim. The differences between the translations are mainly born out of two overall translation strategies: choosing between a monosemantic and a polysemantic view of the Qur'anic language and between the generic and the technical sense of the lexemes. I argue that these choices and how they are negotiated in the translated texts with their paratexts produces universalised versus particularised conceptualisations of Islam.

Meddling in the Ballot Box

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dov H. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Level Analysis ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This book examines why partisan electoral interventions occur as well as their effects on the election results in countries in which the great powers intervened. A new dataset shows that the U.S. and the USSR/Russia have intervened in one out of every nine elections between 1946 and 2000 in other countries in order to help or hinder one of the candidates or parties; the Russian intervention in the 2016 U.S. elections is just the latest example. Nevertheless, electoral interventions receive scant scholarly attention. This book develops a new theoretical model to answer both questions. It argues that electoral interventions are usually “inside jobs,” occurring only if a significant domestic actor within the target wants it. Likewise, electoral interventions won’t happen unless the intervening country fears its interests are endangered by another significant party or candidate with very different and inflexible preferences. As for the effects it argues that such meddling usually gives a significant boost to the preferred side, with overt interventions being more effective than covert ones in this regard. However, unlike in later elections, electoral interventions in founding elections usually harm the aided side. A multi-method framework is used in order to study these questions, including in-depth archival research into six cases in which the U.S. seriously considered intervening, the statistical analysis of the aforementioned dataset (PEIG), and a micro-level analysis of election surveys from three intervention cases. It also includes a preliminary analysis of the Russian intervention in the 2016 U.S. elections and the cyber-future of such meddling in general.

Performance Assessment Study of Indian Railways – Case of Low Efficiencies in Large Government Monopoly

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110255
Author(s):  
Sabyasachi S. Roy ◽  
Mukul Kulshrestha
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Rail Network ◽  
The Past ◽  
Assessment Study ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Financial Losses

Indian Railways is the world’s largest government-owned monopoly, annually carrying passenger numbers that surpass the global population. It is world’s fourth largest rail network after the U.S.A., China, and Russia, and is managed by a separate Ministry of Railways. The operating ratios have consistently been around 90% in the past several years, indicating that that the capability to generate operational surplus is low. Further, its expenditure on staff and their pensions has been increasing. Consequently, capacity growth is increasingly being funded through borrowings, which threatens to further worsen the financial situation. Thus, railway services in India are often perceived as being inefficient and unsatisfactory. However, this perception of inefficient services has no scientific basis as mid- and micro-level efficiency analyses of Indian Railways have never been carried out. This paper adopts a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based approach to evaluate the performance efficiencies of the 69 divisions of Indian Railways. Six models that deploy a range of performance indicators like operating expenditures, numbers of staff employed or passengers carried, freight carried, rail network length, and revenues generated have been employed to assess efficiencies. The results demonstrate the existence of significant inefficiencies that may possibly be attributed to lack of proper management, planning policies, and mis-governance, resulting in significant financial losses. The paper discusses these issues and the policy reforms needed in the developing country context, while suggesting some reforms that may lead to improved sector performances.

scholarly journals A Fast and Effective Method to Identify Relevant Sets of Variables in Complex Systems

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1022
Author(s):  
Gianluca D’Addese ◽  
Martina Casari ◽  
Roberto Serra ◽  
Marco Villani
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Gene Regulatory Networks ◽  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Computational Cost ◽  
Graph Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Medium Level ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Gene Regulatory ◽  
High Level

In many complex systems one observes the formation of medium-level structures, whose detection could allow a high-level description of the dynamical organization of the system itself, and thus to its better understanding. We have developed in the past a powerful method to achieve this goal, which however requires a heavy computational cost in several real-world cases. In this work we introduce a modified version of our approach, which reduces the computational burden. The design of the new algorithm allowed the realization of an original suite of methods able to work simultaneously at the micro level (that of the binary relationships of the single variables) and at meso level (the identification of dynamically relevant groups). We apply this suite to a particularly relevant case, in which we look for the dynamic organization of a gene regulatory network when it is subject to knock-outs. The approach combines information theory, graph analysis, and an iterated sieving algorithm in order to describe rather complex situations. Its application allowed to derive some general observations on the dynamical organization of gene regulatory networks, and to observe interesting characteristics in an experimental case.

How management accountants exert influence on managers – a micro-level analysis of management accountants’ influence tactics in budgetary control meetings

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Mack ◽  
Lukas Goretzki
Keyword(s):  
Influence Tactics ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Management Accountants ◽  
Remote Management ◽  
Budgetary Control ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Level Analysis

Purpose This paper aims to examine how remote (i.e. global, regional or divisional) management accountants communicate in interpersonal contacts with operational managers when trying to exert influence on them. Design/methodology/approach An ethnographic field study focusing on budgetary control meetings between regional management accountants and operational managers is used as the basis for a micro-level analysis of situated face-to-face interactions and communicative influence tactics. Findings Remote management accountants mainly use soft rather than hard influence tactics. They, furthermore, employ what is referred to as “panoramic knowledge” gained explicitly from their structurally as well as physically removed “meta-positioning” to suggest certain measures to operational managers that have proved successful in other units and – by doing so – try to exert influence on these managers. Moreover, they use information that they gain in their position in between senior and operational managers by acting as “double agents” – that is, informing operational managers about senior managers’ focus as well as making transparent to operational managers that they will inform senior management about specific operational matters. By doing so, they try to prompt operational managers to address these issues. Additionally, strengthening their verbally articulated suggestions, as “minute takers” they are able to document their suggestions by moving from spoken to a more binding written text. Through these purposeful and rather unobtrusive tactics, remote management accountants try to take influence on operational managers without generating their resistance. Originality/value The paper shows how remote management accountants (as staff members) can skillfully turn their apparently powerless position within the organization into a source of strength to exert influence on operational managers.

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