Search results for "Critical assessment"
showing 10 items of 16 documents
The Role the Static Maximization Approach Plays in Neoclassical Analyses
1994
This is an article on the methodology of economic thought. The critical assessment of the neoclassical research programme contained here basically comes from the contributions of J.M. Buchanan, Nobel prize winner in Economics 1986. These comments are aimed at pointing out the role that the static maximization approach plays in neoclassical analyses since L. Robbins and P. Samuelson’s influential contributions came about after World War II. Just to complement this basic purpose, I present in section 4 the alternative methodological foundations J.M. Buchanan proposes and uses to replace the static maximization approach when building public choice analyses and I sketch in section 5 several pe…
Prophylaxis of Non-communicable Diseases: Why fruits and vegetables may be better chemopreventive agents than dietary supplements based on isolated p…
2019
The World Health Organization (WHO) report from 2014 documented that non-communicable socalled civilization diseases such as cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer or type 2 diabetes are responsible for over 50% of all premature deaths in the world. Research carried out over the past 20 years has provided data suggesting that diet is an essential factor influencing the risk of development of these diseases. The increasing knowledge on chemopreventive properties of certain food ingredients, in particular, those of plant origin, opened the discussion on the possibility to use edible plants or their active components in the prevention of these chronic diseases. Health-pro…
Perspectives on Cluster Evolution: Critical Review and Future Research Issues
2015
The past two decades have witnessed an ever-growing scholarly interest in regional clusters. The focus of research has mainly been on why clusters exist and what characteristics “functioning” clusters hold. Although the interest in more dynamic views on clusters is not new, in recent years, however, more attention has been paid to providing better explanations of how clusters change and develop over time, giving rise to an increasing popularity of different variants of the cluster life cycle approach. This article offers a critical review of various cluster life cycle models. We discuss the key ideas and arguments put forward by their main protagonists and we identify several shortcomings –…
On measuring speculative and hedging activities in futures markets from volume and open interest data
2010
This paper provides a critical assessment of the line of research that measures speculative and hedging activities in futures markets from volume and open interest data. It makes several contributions. First, a detailed theoretical analysis of the measures proposed in the previous literature as proxies for speculative activity clarifies the circumstances in which they fail, as well as the assumptions that have to be made, when they are used as intended. Second, we propose a new way of combining the volume and the open interest figures, which provides additional information regarding the type of trading activity that takes place in the market on a given date. Finally, we analyse empirically …
A critical assessment of desalination operations in Sicily
2005
In this paper a brief history of desalination plants in Sicily is presented together with an in-depth description of processes and operating data, relevant to the plants actually operating on the island. 5 multi stage flash (MSF) units and one reverse osmosis (RO) plant are operating in Gela (total nominal production of about 80,000 m 3 /d), thus providing drinking water for more than 300,000 people living in the southern coast of the island. A thermal vapour compression multiple effect distillation (TVC-MED) plant (36,000 m 3 /d) is operating in Trapani and a small mechanical vapour compression (MVC) unit (5000 m 3 /d) is located in Porto Empedocle. In the oldest MSF units in Gela, several…
The institutionalization of universities’ third mission: introduction to the special issue
2015
Globally, debates on the notion of a third set of activities aimed at linking higher education institutions more closely with surrounding society are not new. In the last decade or so, calls for a re-engagement of the university in helping to tackle the great challenges facing societies and local communities have propelled the third mission to the forefront of policy discussions – this time under the mantra of ‘relevance’ and ‘social impact’. Yet, as some of the articles in this special issue attest, there is a fundamental tension in the notion of a third mission. The chief aim of this special issue is to provide a critical assessment of the extent to which the third mission has become an i…
Critical Review—Photocurrent Spectroscopy in Corrosion and Passivity Studies: A Critical Assessment of the Use of Band Gap Value to Estimate the Oxid…
2017
A critical assessment of the Photocurrent Spectroscopy (PCS) Technique for the semi-quantitative characterization of passive film and corrosion layers composition is carried out. We take into account more than three decades of PCS usage as "in-situ" analytical technique and related results as well as the criticism of the underlying semi-empirical correlation relating the measured optical bandgap (Eg) to the passive film composition. The discrepancies between the experimental data, gathered by PCS measurements, and Egestimates originating from recently developed Density Functional Theory based modeling of solid state properties are stressed with particular emphasis on the case of anodic pass…
La idea de epigénesis en la obra de W. Harvey: Una lectura organicista
2021
espanolEste trabajo plantea desde una perspectiva historico-filosofica una reflexion sobre la idea de epigenesis en la obra de W. Harvey Exercitationes de generatione animalium (1651). El objetivo es contribuir a esclarecer la singular concepcion que el medico ingles tiene de esta idea, comunmente vinculada a la tradicion mecanicista. Harvey desarrolla su vision de la embriogenesis como un proceso que no puede ser comprendido desde las categorias del arte humano, como se desprende de las criticas a su maestro Fabricius. Tampoco es exacto decir que su posicion sea animista. Una inmersion en esta ultima cuestion nos mostrara su concepcion organica del alma, en continuacion con la tradicion ar…
Photocurrent Spectroscopy in Corrosion and Passivity Studies. A Critical Assessment
2016
Photocurrent Spectroscopy (PCS) is currently employed for the characterization of solid-state properties of semiconducting and insulating materials, since the knowledge of their band gap is a prerequisite to any possible application in different fields such as: solar energy conversion (photoelectrochemical and photovoltaic solar cells, photocatalysis) and microelectronics (high-k, high band-gap materials) (1-2). In the last 20-30 years an increasing number of scientists working in the area of corrosion has been attracted by this technique owing to its versatility and ability to scrutinize in situ corrosion layers and passive films having semiconducting or insulating behaviour. In previous w…
A critical assessment of automatic photoelastic methods for the analysis of edge residual stresses in glass
2014
The measurement of residual stresses is of great importance in the glass industry. The analysis of residual stresses in the glass is usually carried out by photoelastic methods since the glass is a photoelastic material. This article considers the determination of membrane residual stresses of glass plates by digital photoelasticity. In particular, it presents a critical assessment concerning the automated methods based on gray-field polariscope, spectral content analysis, phase shifting, RGB photoelasticity, “test fringes” methods and “tint plate” method. These methods can effectively automate manual methods currently specified in some standards.