Repeated Features

Annotation

This feature of IFs allows users to quickly annotate different Run-Result-Files and Scenario-Load-Files to understand exactly what parameters have been altered and how they were altered. When you see an Annotation option, be sure to highlight the Run-Result-File (.run file) or Scenario-Load-File (.sce file) that you would like to more clearly understand and click on annotation. A window will appear after a moment (it takes a bit longer because IFs is going online to retrieve the information you are looking for) that will show you specifically what interventions have been made in the Run-Result-File or Scenario-Load-File that you have chosen.

Country/Region, Group or G-List

186 countries underpin the functioning of IFs and these countries can be displayed separately or as parts of larger groups that users can determine.

Below is a visual representation of how different entities are organized into Countries/Regions, Groups or Glists:

Image http://www.du.edu/ifs/help/use/repeated/countryregion.html

*Note: In older versions of IFs, Regions were used as intermediaries between Countries and Groups. In the future, they, or some similarly named unit, will be a sub-unit of Countries. Regions, acting as a sub-unit of Countries, are currently not a feature of IFs. See the image located at the bottom of this Help topic.

When using IFs, there are many occasions where the user is asked whether or not they would like to display their results as a product of single countries, or larger groups. This is typically a toggle switch that moves between Country/Region and Groups, however, it might be a three-way-toggle that includes Country/Region, Group and Glist.

Countries/Regions are currently the smallest geographical unit that users can represent. The ability to split countries down into smaller regions, or states, is under development. There are 186 different countries/regions that users can display.

Groups are variably organized geographically or by memberships in international institutions/regimes. You can find out who is represented in each group and add or delete members by exploring the Managing Regionalization function.

Glists merge both Groups and Countries/Regions. These lists are mostly geographically bound. In the future, the Glist distinction will become more important as some users may want to place, for example, both the Indian state of Kerala in a Glist with Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Users may also want to create their own groups or explore what countries are members of what groups.

Define, Drivers, Explain, Code and Delete

These options are present when variables or parameters are selected either for display, to create a new Scenario-Load-File, or when users double-click no values located in a Table.

From Self Managed Full Variable/Parameter Selection:

image http://www.du.edu/ifs/help/use/repeated/define.html

From Quick Scenario Analysis with Tree:

image http://www.du.edu/ifs/help/use/repeated/define.html

Define: By selecting this option, a window will appear that will define the variables that are being displayed. You are able to print these drivers from this new window by selecting the Print option. May provide a pop-up window with a longer definition of the variable.

Drivers (Linkages): By selecting this option, a window will appear that graphically displays how different drivers interact. The form will pop-up with a diagram showing the variable in the center and the variables from which it is computed on the left plus the variables to which it contributes on the right. This drivers diagram is derived directly from parsing the computer code of the model. If you float the cursor over any variable name on this screen, a more extended name will pop up. If you click on any driver variable or driven variable, the diagram will repaint with the variable selected at the middle. The menu option named Options has sub-options that allow you to display the computer code, view the equations, or see a causal diagram, view equations, or display the computer code (just as do the options from the pop-up box itself). It is also possible to save the drivers diagram to the clipboard or to a file – or to print the diagram. From this window, users are able to do the following:

• Exit Drivers: Select this to return to the previous screen.
• Copy to Clipboard: Select this to copy the presented data to your clipboard. To paste this data in an application (such as Word, or PowerPoint), open your selected application and either right-click and select Paste or hold in CTRL-V.
• Save: Select this option in order to save the image that is displayed. The default save option is a .bmp file.
• Print: Select this option to print the image displayed in IFs.
• How to: Selecting this option will call up a small window that explains this driver display feature of IFs in more detail.
• Additional Features: Move your mouse over any driver and a longer definition will be displayed. The drivers/parameters on the left hand side of your screen driver the drivers on the right hand side of the screen. To move either foreword or backward through the list of drivers, simply click on one driver that lies to either the right or left of the center driver. This will shift the driver display. Experiment.

Explain (Block Diagram): Selecting this option will bring up a help-file that shows a diagram that broadly explains how drivers interact for the area of inquiry (agriculture, economics, etc.) that you have displayed in your table. There normally is also textual explanation.

Equations: Selecting this option will bring up a help-file that shows the equations used in computing the drivers displayed.

View Code: Select this feature and a help-file will be opened that shows the computer code used to express the calculation of these drivers and their interaction in IFs.

Delete: This option allows you to clear the selected variable/parameter from this box.

Source File

The Source File is where IFs looks to find historical data on a given country/region or group. The main source file used in IFs is titled Base. This file contains all of the historical data for the countries of which IFs keeps track.

For a small number of countries, however, data is available at the provincial or regional level. See the country/region or group help page for a description of how IFs uses these different terms. The data for one of these few countries can thus be further disaggregated, allowing the user to, for example, experiment with the distribution of a given variable or variables across provinces, or look at the growth of a given variable over time in a single province. To access data at the provincial level requires using a different Source File than the default used by IFs. An enterprising user of IFs could even add provincial data for a country that lacks such data.

Access to provincial-level data is available through two features: Analyze Across Countries (Cross-Sectional) and Analyze Across Time (Longitudinal), both of which are found under the Data Analysis option on the Main Menu.