The Types of Case Studies in Research and Career-Based Endeavors

This chapter focuses on the overarching components of the case study methodology in the context of research and career-based teaching and organizational learning settings. More specifically, this chapter, presented in several distinct sections, provides a description of the various types of case studies that can be selected for research purposes as well as for use as a teaching tool for career professionals, higher education faculty, and others interested in employing this type methodology. This chapter is intended to serve as a foundation to the subsequent text in this book pertaining to the detailed descriptions and elements of the case study serving as either a research design or a function of the teaching and learning process in academic and career-based settings. Providing a rich initial presentation of the types and qualities of the case study research design, this chapter will launch additional structure for the later chapters to offer a deeper understanding for the reader.

A Review on the Structure and Anti-Diabetic (Type 2) Functions of β-Glucans

Type 2 diabetes, a long-term chronic metabolic disease, causes severe and increasing economic and health problems globally. There is growing evidence that β-glucans can function as bioactive macromolecules that help control type 2 diabetes with minimal side effects. However, conflicting conclusions about the antidiabetic activities of β-glucans have been published, potentially resulting from incomplete understanding of their precise structural characteristics. This review aims to increase clarity on the structure–function relationships of β-glucans in treating type 2 diabetes by examining detailed structural and conformational features of naturally derived β-glucans, as well as both chemical and instrumental methods used in their characterization, and their underlying anti-diabetic mechanisms. This may help to uncover additional structure and function relationships and to expand applications of β-glucans.

The Strong Minimalist Thesis

This article reviews and attempts to evaluate the various proposals for a strong minimalist thesis that have been at the core of the minimalist program for linguistic theory since its inception almost three decades ago. These proposals have involved legibility conditions for the interface between language and the cognitive systems that access it, the simplest computational operation Merge (its form and function), and principles of computational efficiency (including inclusiveness, no-tampering, cyclic computation, and the deletion of copies). This evaluation attempts to demonstrate that reliance on interface conditions encounters serious long-standing problems for the analysis of language. It also suggests that the precise formulation of Merge may, in fact, subsume the effects of those principles of efficient computation currently under investigation and might possibly render unnecessary proposals for additional structure building operations (e.g., Pair-Merge and FormSequence).

A Multi-Regional Computable General Equilibrium Model for New Zealand

<p>Although New Zealand has had an active CGE modelling community since the 1980's, a multi-regional CGE model for the country has not been developed until now. This thesis presents a prototype multi-regional CGE model to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a comprehensive model that captures the benefits of modelling agent behaviour with a bottom-up approach. The prototype model is built upon bottom-up regional micro-foundations and New Zealand data is used to operationalise a particular implementation of the model. The thesis fills an important gap in the New Zealand CGE modelling literature as none of the models in current use have a structure involving bottom-up regional modelling. The method of implementation is also a key contribution, utilising a maximum-entropy approach to overcome data shortages. An illustrative simulation of a natural disaster that strikes the Wellington central business district demonstrates the strengths of the bottom-up multi-regional approach - that the model can capture differential effects across regions of shocks that occur at the regional level, and incorporate flow-on and feedback effects between regions. Sensitivity testing of the substitution elasticity between domestic sources of products reinforces the importance of empirically-estimated parameters in CGE models. The basic model is extended in two ways. The first is to introduce modelling of distribution services as has been done in the ORANI and subsequently FEDERAL models. The key structural difference here is that products identified as distribution services are required to facilitate movement of other products from seller to buyer. Thus there are no opportunities to substitute away from these services if they become relatively more expensive. To implement the additional structure, sets of coefficients are specified to control technical possibilities in the usage of the distribution services. These include switches that can dictate, for example, that wholesale trade is only involved in the delivery of tangible products, that retail trade is only used by in-region purchasers, and that transport is required for moving physical products across regional borders or to exporters. That these assumptions can be integrated seamlessly into the database highlights the strength of the maximum-entropy approach used to generate the multi-regional input-output database. Simulations of an oil price shock show that the regional assumptions surrounding the distribution networks are material to the results. The second extension to the model is the addition of a module to control the degree of inter-regional labour mobility. Essentially the user is given the ability to specify the extent to which households respond to regional real wage di erences by moving to regions with relatively higher rates. Therefore, in short-run simulations labour can be made more mobile than capital, while in the long-run it can be less mobile than capital. The module also introduces additional structure to link populations, households, and labour market components. One important element of this new structure is a link back to the endogenous labour supply theory of the basic model. Publicly available demographic and labour market data are used to implement the mobility module. The importance of a mobility response to relative real wage changes is explored in an illustrative application looking at the impact of regionally-concentrated immigration flows. The simulations suggest that population movements can work to dissipate the welfare effects of such migration inflows.</p>

A Multi-Regional Computable General Equilibrium Model for New Zealand

<p>Although New Zealand has had an active CGE modelling community since the 1980's, a multi-regional CGE model for the country has not been developed until now. This thesis presents a prototype multi-regional CGE model to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a comprehensive model that captures the benefits of modelling agent behaviour with a bottom-up approach. The prototype model is built upon bottom-up regional micro-foundations and New Zealand data is used to operationalise a particular implementation of the model. The thesis fills an important gap in the New Zealand CGE modelling literature as none of the models in current use have a structure involving bottom-up regional modelling. The method of implementation is also a key contribution, utilising a maximum-entropy approach to overcome data shortages. An illustrative simulation of a natural disaster that strikes the Wellington central business district demonstrates the strengths of the bottom-up multi-regional approach - that the model can capture differential effects across regions of shocks that occur at the regional level, and incorporate flow-on and feedback effects between regions. Sensitivity testing of the substitution elasticity between domestic sources of products reinforces the importance of empirically-estimated parameters in CGE models. The basic model is extended in two ways. The first is to introduce modelling of distribution services as has been done in the ORANI and subsequently FEDERAL models. The key structural difference here is that products identified as distribution services are required to facilitate movement of other products from seller to buyer. Thus there are no opportunities to substitute away from these services if they become relatively more expensive. To implement the additional structure, sets of coefficients are specified to control technical possibilities in the usage of the distribution services. These include switches that can dictate, for example, that wholesale trade is only involved in the delivery of tangible products, that retail trade is only used by in-region purchasers, and that transport is required for moving physical products across regional borders or to exporters. That these assumptions can be integrated seamlessly into the database highlights the strength of the maximum-entropy approach used to generate the multi-regional input-output database. Simulations of an oil price shock show that the regional assumptions surrounding the distribution networks are material to the results. The second extension to the model is the addition of a module to control the degree of inter-regional labour mobility. Essentially the user is given the ability to specify the extent to which households respond to regional real wage di erences by moving to regions with relatively higher rates. Therefore, in short-run simulations labour can be made more mobile than capital, while in the long-run it can be less mobile than capital. The module also introduces additional structure to link populations, households, and labour market components. One important element of this new structure is a link back to the endogenous labour supply theory of the basic model. Publicly available demographic and labour market data are used to implement the mobility module. The importance of a mobility response to relative real wage changes is explored in an illustrative application looking at the impact of regionally-concentrated immigration flows. The simulations suggest that population movements can work to dissipate the welfare effects of such migration inflows.</p>

Effects of Causes and Causes of Effects

We describe and contrast two distinct problem areas for statistical causality: studying the likely effects of an intervention (effects of causes) and studying whether there is a causal link between the observed exposure and outcome in an individual case (causes of effects). For each of these, we introduce and compare various formal frameworks that have been proposed for that purpose, including the decision-theoretic approach, structural equations, structural and stochastic causal models, and potential outcomes. We argue that counterfactual concepts are unnecessary for studying effects of causes but are needed for analyzing causes of effects. They are, however, subject to a degree of arbitrariness, which can be reduced, though not in general eliminated, by taking account of additional structure in the problem. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application, Volume 9 is March 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Some Empirical Results Concerning Causal Learning and Representation

This chapter explores some empirical results bearing on the descriptive and normative adequacy of different accounts of causal learning and representation. It begins by contrasting associative accounts with accounts that attribute additional structure to causal representation, arguing in favor of the latter. Empirical results supporting the claim that adult humans often reason about causal relationships using interventionist counterfactuals are presented. Contrasts between human and nonhuman primate causal cognition are also discussed, as well as some experiments concerning causal cognition in young children. A proposal about what is involved in having adult human causal representations is presented and some issues about how these might develop over time are explored.

Jumping Wave Characteristic during Low Plasticity Burnishing Process

During the low plasticity burnishing process of soft materials such as carbon steel with a hardness of up to 40 HRC (Rockwell grade) a raised structure of the material known as the Jumping Wave forms in front of the tool roll. This phenomenon significantly disturbs the burnishing process, but is very poorly described in the literature. This article presents studies of this phenomenon on the example of burnished 1.0562 steel. The research concerns the changes in the surface structure of the processed material as well as changes in the structure of the material during this process. The research shows changes in the geometric structure of the surface made in the 3D system and their parametric description. Moreover, the work presents an analysis of the metallographic structure in the tool zone. The research showed occurrence of material slippages in the wave in front of the tool, which creates an additional structure on the surface. These tests make it possible to better understand the process of changes that take place in the surface layer of the processed element in the low plasticity burnishing process.

Global Properties of Eigenvalues of Parametric Rank One Perturbations for Unstructured and Structured Matrices

General properties of eigenvalues of $$A+\tau uv^*$$ A + τ u v ∗ as functions of $$\tau \in {\mathbb {C} }$$ τ ∈ C or $$\tau \in {\mathbb {R} }$$ τ ∈ R or $$\tau ={{\,\mathrm{{e}}\,}}^{{{\,\mathrm{{i}}\,}}\theta }$$ τ = e i θ on the unit circle are considered. In particular, the problem of existence of global analytic formulas for eigenvalues is addressed. Furthermore, the limits of eigenvalues with $$\tau \rightarrow \infty $$ τ → ∞ are discussed in detail. The following classes of matrices are considered: complex (without additional structure), real (without additional structure), complex H-selfadjoint and real J-Hamiltonian.

Promise Theory and the Alignment of Context, Processes, Types, and Transforms

Promise Theory concerns the 'alignment', i.e. the degree of functional compatibility and the 'scaling' properties of process outcomes in agent-based models, with causality and intentional semantics. It serves as an umbrella for other theories of interaction, from physics to socio-economics, integrating dynamical and semantic concerns into a single framework. It derives its measures from sets, and can therefore incorporate a wide range of descriptive techniques, giving additional structure with predictive constraints. We review some structural details of Promise Theory, applied to Promises of the First Kind, to assist in the comparison of Promise Theory with other forms of physical and mathematical modelling, including Category Theory and Dynamical Systems. We explain how Promise Theory is distinct from other kinds of model, but has a natural structural similarity to statistical mechanics and quantum theory, albeit with different goals; it respects and clarifies the bounds of locality, while incorporating non-local communication. We derive the relationship between promises and morphisms to the extent that this would be a useful comparison.