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Review Of: Daniel M. Kammen & David M. Hassenzahl, Should We Risk It: Exploring Environmental, Health, And Technological Problem Solving, Christopher Verni

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

A review of the book Should We Risk It: Exploring Environmental, Health, and Technological Problem Solving by Daniel M. Kammen & David M. Hassenzahl, (Princeton University Press 1999). Preface, acknowledgments, introduction, appendix, index. ISBN: 0-691-00426-9 [404 pp. $39.50. Cloth, 41 William Street, Princeton, NJ 08540].

What's Best?, Arthur T. Benjamin, Matthew T. Fluet '99

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided in this article.

Some Applications Of The Ultrapower Theorem To The Theory Of Compacta, Paul Bankston

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

The ultrapower theorem of Keisler and Shelah allows such model-theoretic notions as elementary equivalence, elementary embedding and existential embedding to be couched in the language of categories (limits, morphism diagrams). This in turn allows analogs of these (and related) notions to be transported into unusual settings, chiefly those of Banach spaces and of compacta. Our interest here is the enrichment of the theory of compacta, especially the theory of continua, brought about by the importation of model-theoretic ideas and techniques.

Permitting Jury Discussions During Trial: Impact Of The Arizona Reform, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans, G. Thomas Munsterman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

A field experiment tested the effect of an Arizona civil jury reform that allows jurors to discuss evidence among themselves during the trial. Judges, jurors, attorneys, and litigants completed questionnaires in trials randomly assigned to either a Trial Discussions condition, in which jurors were permitted to discuss the evidence during trial, or a No Discussions condition, in which jurors were prohibited from discussing evidence during trial according to traditional admonitions. Judicial agreement with jury verdicts did not differ between conditions. Permitting jurors to discuss the evidence did affect the degree of certainty that jurors reported about their preferences at the …

Empirical Methods And The Law, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

One can divide empirical analysis of legal issues into three major branches: (1) the use of scientific empirical analysis by litigants to attempt to prevail in individual cases, (2) the use of social scientific empirical analysis in individual cases, and (3) the use of the empirical methods to describe the legal system’s operation. The first two uses present difficulties that reflect a fundamental limitation on using statistical methods in law: the difference between establishing statistical association and establishing actual causation in an individual case filtered through our adversary legal system. The third use encounters no such obstacle and can aid …

An Investigation Into Relationships Between Alternative Assessment And Pre-Service Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs About Mathematics, David Charles Coffey

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how including alternative assessments in a reform-based mathematics course affects pre-service teachers’ mathematical beliefs. A single section of a mathematics course designed for elementary education majors that employed three different alternative assessments was the setting for the study.

A pre- and post-belief survey completed by students enrolled in the section under study represented the first level of data collection and analysis. The results of the pre-belief survey guided the selection of seven informants from the section and provided belief statements for the informants to verify during subsequent interviews. Based on the data …

Rainbow Ramsey Numbers, Linda Eroh

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Extension Of Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis Applied To Craniofacial Growth Prediction, Mark K. Batesole

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study is [sic] introduces a new extension of Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis (EDMA) as applied to growth prediction analysis. Using EDMA eliminates the presupposition of a set growth pattern, which is introduced by traditional superimposition techniques. When EDMA is extended to analyze prediction methodologies, using a non-age-matched growth sample, some shortcomings become evident. These involve bootstrapping techniques, relative difference in growth, and absence of clinical, real world measure. To overcome these issues, a statistical approach using the Wilcoxen signed rank test, absolute difference in growth, and a new method to evaluate the error in a prediction methodology's landmark identification …

Statistical Power Analysis Of Dissertations Completed By Students Majoring In Educational Leadership At Tennessee Universities, Heping Deng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to estimate the level of statistical power demonstrated in recent dissertations in the field of educational leadership. Power tables provided in Cohen's (1988) Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences were used to determine the power of the statistical tests conducted in dissertations selected from five universities in Tennessee. The meta-analytic approach was used to summarize and synthesize the findings. The population of this study consisted of all dissertations successfully defended by doctoral students majoring in educational leadership/administration at East Tennessee State University, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Tennessee State University, the University …

A Census Of Rational Maps, Eva Brezin, Rosemary Byrne, Joshua Levy, Kevin M. Pilgrim, Kelly Plummer

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We discuss the general combinatorial, topological, algebraic, and dynamical issues underlying the enumeration of postcritically finite rational functions, regarded as holomorphic dynamical systems on the Riemann sphere. We present findings from our creation of a census of all degree two and three hyperbolic nonpolynomial maps with four or fewer postcritical points. Our data is tabulated in detail at. © 1999 American Mathematical Society.

Taking Animal Welfare Seriously: Minimizing Pain And Distress In Research Animals, The Humane Society Of The United States

ANIMAL RESEARCH

Pain and distress caused by specific research models and techniques raise serious concerns for those in the animal welfare community as well as in the scientific community. Yet good estimates of how much animal pain and/or animal distress is caused by particular techniques or methods are not yet available. The HSUS has compiled a preliminary list of research models and techniques that cause pain and distress. Analyses by the USDA and HSUS indicate that the majority of the animals reported in Column E are used in various testing procedures, with vaccine testing prominent among them. More data are needed to …

Cramer-Rao Bound And Optimal Amplitude Estimator Of Superimposed Sinusoidal Signals With Unknown Frequencies, Shaohui Jia

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses optimally estimating the amplitudes of superimposed sinusoidal signals with unknown frequencies. The Cramer-Rao Bound of estimating the amplitudes in white Gaussian noise is given, and the maximum likelihood estimator of the amplitudes in this case is shown to be asymptotically efficient at high signal to noise ratio but finite sample size. Applying the theoretical results to signal resolutions, it is shown that the optimal resolution of multiple signals using a finite sample is given by the maximum likelihood estimator of the amplitudes of signals.

The Timing Of Opinion Formation By Jurors In Civil Cases: An Empirical Examination, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans, Nicole L. Mott, G. Thomas Munsterman

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The question of when and how jurors form opinions about evidence presented at trial has been the focus of seemingly endless speculation. For lawyers, the question is how to capture the attention and approval of the jury at the earliest possible point in the trial. Their goal is to maximize the persuasiveness of their arguments--or at least to minimize the persuasiveness of those of the opposing side. Judges, in contrast, are more concerned about prejudgment. They regularly admonish jurors to suspend judgment until after all the evidence has been presented and after the jurors have been instructed on the law. …

The Emotional Economy Of Capital Sentencing, Stephen P. Garvey

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

You often hear that one reason capital jurors condemn capital defendants is that jurors don't empathize with defendants. And one reason they don't empathize is that the process of capital sentencing is rigged against empathy. Using data from the South Carolina segment of the Capital Jury Project, I try to examine the role emotion plays in capital sentencing.

Without entering here all the important and necessary caveats, I find that the self-reported emotional responses jurors have toward capital defendants run the gamut from sympathy and pity at one extreme, to disgust, anger, and fear at the other. What causes these …

A Rational Solution To Cootie, Arthur T. Benjamin, Matthew T. Fluet '99

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided in this article.

Dendrites And Light Open Mappings, J. J. Charatonik, W. J. Charatonik, Pawel Krupski

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

It is shown that a metric continuum X is a dendrite if and only if for every compact space Y and for every light open mapping f : Y ->f(Y ) such that X c f(Y ) there is a copy X1 of X in Y for which the restriction fjX1 : X1 ->X is a homeomorphism. Another characterization of dendrites in terms of continuous selections of multivalued functions is also obtained.

Associations Among Hospital Capacity, Utilization, And Mortality Of Us Medicare Beneficiaries, Controlling For Sociodemographic Factors., E. S. Fisher, J. E. Wennberg, T. A. Stukel, J. S. Skinner, S. M. Sharp

Dartmouth Scholarship

To explore whether geographic variations in Medicare hospital utilization rates are due to differences in local hospital capacity, after controlling for socioeconomic status and disease burden, and to determine whether greater hospital capacity is associated with lower Medicare mortality rates.

Inverse Limits On [0,1] Using Piecewise Linear Unimodal Bonding Maps, William Thomas Ingram

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper we investigate inverse limits on [0,1] using a single bonding map chosen from a two-parameter family of piecewise linear unimodal bonding maps. This investigation focuses on the parameter values at the boundary between a hereditarily decomposable inverse limit and an inverse limit containing an indecomposable continuum. © 1999 American Mathematical Society.

Extensive Forest Leaf Area Survey Aiming At Detection Of Vegetation Change In Subarctic-Boreal Zone, Tomoko Kusakabe, Hayato Tsuzuki, Gary B. Hughes, Tatsuo Sweda

Statistics

The warming resulting from increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses is expected to be most prominent in the subarctic-boreal region of the Northern Hemisphere. With the objective of setting up a baseline to monitor possible vegetation change in this region, a continuous vegetation profile extending 600 km from Edmonton, Alberta to Cluff Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada was measured using an airborne infrared laser altimeter mounted on a helicopter. Then the distribution of leaf area index over the same 600 km long transect was estimated from this vegetation profile based on a series of plot surveys on the ground to …

Remarks On The Prandtl Equation For A Permeable Wall, R. Temam, X. Wang

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The goal of this article is to study the boundary layer for a flow in a channel with permeable walls. Observing that the Prandtl equation can be solved almost exactly in this case, we are able to derive rigorously a number of results concerning the boundary layer and the convergence of the Navier-Stokes equations to the Euler equations. We indicate also how to derive higher order terms in the inner and outer expansions with respect to the kinematic viscosity v.

Soil Quality Assessment After Weed-Control Tillage In A No-Till Wheat–Fallow Cropping System, Timothy A. Kettler, Drew J. Lyon, John W. Doran, W. L. Powers, Walter W. Stroup

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

Adoption of reduced-tillage fallow systems in the western USA is limited by winter annual grass weeds such as downy brome (Bromus tectorum L.). Moldboard plowing is an effective means of controlling downy brome in winter wheat (Tritcum aestivum L.)–fallow systems. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of plowing and secondary tillage operations, for the purpose of weed control, on soil quality attributes of a silt loam soil that had been cropped in a subtill or no-till (NT) winter wheat–fallow system for more than 20 yr. Compared with undisturbed NT, downy brome populations in plowed …

Ua56/1 Facts At A Glance, Wku Institutional Research

WKU Administration Documents

Statistical and demographic profile of WKU.

Evaluation Of Animal Model Research, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

It is argued that a concept of evaluation of animal models that is broader and more useful than validation is available. Productive generativity refers to the degree to which a model furthers understanding and leads to more-effective treatment interventions. Results of the application of this novel evaluative frame to several animal models of eating disorders show that this animal-based research has not been productive. The question of the relation between clinic and animal laboratory is discussed.

Ua56/1 Fact Book, Wku Institutional Research

WKU Administration Documents

Statistical and demographic profile of WKU.

Bottom-Up Design Of Artificial Neural Network For Single-Lead Electrocardiogram Beat And Rhythm Classification, Srikanth Thiagarajan

Doctoral Dissertations

Performance improvement in computerized Electrocardiogram (ECG) classification is vital to improve reliability in this life-saving technology. The non-linearly overlapping nature of the ECG classification task prevents the statistical and the syntactic procedures from reaching the maximum performance. A new approach, a neural network-based classification scheme, has been implemented in clinical ECG problems with much success. The focus, however, has been on narrow clinical problem domains and the implementations lacked engineering precision. An optimal utilization of frequency information was missing. This dissertation attempts to improve the accuracy of neural network-based single-lead (lead-II) ECG beat and rhythm classification. A bottom-up approach defined …

A Leveque-Type Lower Bound For Discrepancy, Francis E. Su

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

A sharp lower bound for discrepancy on R / Z is derived that resembles the upper bound due to LeVeque. An analogous bound is proved for discrepancy on R^k / Z^k. These are discussed in the more general context of the discrepancy of probablity measures. As applications, the bounds are applied to Kronecker sequences and to a random walk on the torus.

State Of The Fisheries Report 1999/2000, J. W. Penn, Fisheries Western Australia

Status Reports of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources

The State of the Fisheries document is designed as an essential supplement to the Annual Report to Parliament and provides a more detailed level of information to support the agency's non-financial performance measures.

By summarising management changes, compliance activities and research data such as landings, effort, catch rates, stock assessment and breeding stock levels, this document provides a valuable reference point for Western Australian fisheries of major importance to the commercial, recreational and aquaculture sectors. Information relevant to Fisheries WA's Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Program is also provided.

The report indicates that overall the major fish stocks which support …

Nonparametric Bayes Estimation Of Contamination Levels Using Observations From The Residual Distribution, Paul H. Kvam, Ram C. Tiwari, Jyoti N. Zalkikar

Department of Math & Statistics Faculty Publications

A nonparametric Bayes estimator of the survival function is derived for right censored data where additional observations from the residual distribution are available. The estimation is motivated by data on contamination concentrations for chromium from one of the EPA's toxic waste sites. The residual sample can be produced by hot spot sampling, where only samples above a given threshold value are collected. The Dirichlet process is used to formulate prior information about the chromium contamination, and we compare the Bayes estimator of the mean concentration level to other estimators currently considered by the EPA and other sources. The Bayes estimator …

Inbreeding In Law School Hiring: Assessing The Performance Of Faculty Hired From Within, Theodore Eisenberg, Martin T. Wells

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This study compares the scholarly impact of inbred entry-level law school faculty members with the scholarly impact of noninbred entry-level law school faculty members. The sample includes 32 law schools and approximately 700 entry-level faculty members. By our measure of performance, scholarly impact as measured by citation frequency, inbred entry-level law school faculty members do not perform as well as noninbred entry-level faculty members.

Oif Spaces, Zoltan Balogh, Harold Bennett, Dennis Burke, Gary Gruenhage, David Lutzer, Joe D. Mashburn

Mathematics Faculty Publications

A base β of a space X is called an OIF base when every element of B is a subset of only a finite number of other elements of β. We will explore the fundamental properties of spaces having such bases. In particular, we will show that in T2 spaces, strong OIF bases are the same as uniform bases, and that in T3 spaces where all subspaces have OIF bases, compactness, countable compactness, or local compactness will give metrizability.