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International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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The Feasibility Of Developing A Computer Based Expert System To Mitigate Nuclear Power Plant Accidents, Jesse E. Smith

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the feasibility of developing a rule-based expert system to support nuclear plant operators in the mitigation of accidents. Human error in the use of Emergency Operating Procedures (EOPs) was the problem to be addressed. The goal was to determine if the Nuclear Plant Information System (NPIS) at one specific power plant would support development of an EOP operator aid to reduce the number of human errors.

A review of the literature confirmed that human error is a recurring problem. This is particularly evident during high stress situations, such as accidents. A rule-based operator aid can reduce human …

State Government Cost Recovery For Electronic Information Dissemination: A Comparative Study, Donald R. Wismer

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Prior to this study, no paradigm common among state governments regarding public policy principles on cost recovery for the dissemination of public information had been described. The study revealed that U.S. federal government policy has served as a model from which a majority of the states have proceeded. This study has compared the states with the federal government and with themselves to determine the policy boundaries. Themes from in the literature were presented and summarized, and measurable elements were isolated. Data from statutory, regulatory, and case law, and from explicit policy statements, were gathered and compared within graphical formats. A …

Student Withdrawal: Test Of An Integrated Model, Gary A. Adams, Ron Marks, Jeff Allen

Management Faculty Research and Publications

This study examined a model of student withdrawal that integrated the major elements of Tinto's (1975) Student Integration Model and Bean's (1982, 1983) Industrial Model of Student Attrition. In a sample of 315 college freshman, the results of a path analysis indicated that both social and academic integration were related to satisfaction but only academic integration was related to commitment. Neither social nor academic integration had significant direct effects on intention to withdraw. Further, of the two attitudinal variables, satisfaction was related to intention to withdraw, however, commitment was not. These findings support the integrated model of student withdrawal.

An Analysis Of Using Expert Systems And Intelligent Agents For The Virtual Library Project At The Naval Surface Warfare Center-Carderock Division, J. Liebowitz, Monica Adya

Management Faculty Research and Publications

The Virtual Library Project1 at the Naval Surface Warfare Center/Carderock Division (NSWC/CD) is being developed to facilitate the incorporation and use of library documents via the Internet. These documents typically relate to the design and manufacture of ships for the U.S. Navy Fleet. As such, the libraries will store documents that contain not only text but also images, graphs and design configurations. Because of the dynamic nature of digital documents, particularly those related to design, rapid and effective cataloging of these documents becomes challenging. We conducted a research study to analyze the use of expert systems and intelligent agents to …

Corrections To Rule-Based Forecasting: Findings From A Replication, Monica Adya

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Rule-Based Forecasting (RBF) is an expert system that combines forecasts from simple extrapolation methods based on features of time series. In this study, we provide corrections to ten of the 99 rules contained in RBF. These corrections were identified during a replication of RBF. Empirical comparisons indicate that the corrections did not lead to a noticeable improvement in accuracy when tested against some of the original data. However, in light of the fact that several studies are extending the work on RBF, it is important to report on these corrections to RBF.

Bringing Acquisition Reform Into Focus, Steve G. Green, David R. King, Neal J. Rappaport

Management Faculty Research and Publications

The response of our defense industrial base to major changes, such as the collapse of the former Soviet Union, emphasize the need to continue to improve the way the United States buys weapon systems. By looking through a historical lens, this paper addresses predicting the long-term success of acquisition practices and reform initiatives for the cost community. A literature review identifies acquisition reform legislation and initiatives since World War II. Looking at past acquisition reform and their long term impacts leads to the conclusion that acquisition reform efforts must be viewed skeptically. Given a dynamic environment, estimating costs may actually …

Turfgrass Care – Northern Utah Cool Season Grasses, Usu Extension

All Current Publications

Turfgrass adds beauty to most landscapes, helps cool the environment, and gives people a place to play, sit and walk barefoot. Maintaining a lawn properly helps keep it beautiful for years to come, and reduces the likelihood of problems. A few simple practices can make lawn care easier and more satisfying.

Turfgrass Weed Control, Usu Extension

All Current Publications

Weeds in the lawn are one of the more noticeable pests of the landscape. They not only detract from the aesthetic value of the home, but also waste water and fertilizer, harbor insects, and reduce the overall health of the lawn. There are a number of cultural and mechanical practices to reduce weed populations. In severe and difficult cases, herbicides can be used to control some weeds.

Helping Dairy Producers Reduce The Scc, Clell Bagley

All Current Publications

Practicing veterinarians are in an excellent position to help dairy producers recognize and deal with the problem of elevated somatic cell counts (SCC). Yet they are seldom asked to assist. A high SCC is an indication of chronic, subclinical mastitis in the herd and is also an indication of significant economic losses.

Behavior Depends On Consequences, Behave

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

Carbohydrate Reserves: What You Learned May Be Wrong, Behave

All Current Publications

This publication discusses when it is best to have livestock graze on land according to the carbohydrate reserves.

Factors Influencing Grazing Tolerance, Behave

All Current Publications

This publication discusses the different factors that influence grazing intolerance.

Ignoring Variation: Are We Missing Opportunities?, Behave

All Current Publications

This publication discusses the fact that each individual person and animal is so unique from one another and the opportunity to study and learn about the differences rather than the similarities and averages is often passed up.

Ingestion Of Toxic Plants By Herbivores, Behave

All Current Publications

This publication goes over the different types of toxins commonly produced by and found in plants.

Introducing Animals To New Foods, Behave

All Current Publications

This publication explains different ways of successfully introducing animals to new foods.

Learning About Foods And Locations, Behave

All Current Publications

This publication discusses the different ways that animals learn and adapt by being in different places and experiencing different things.

Mother Knows Best, Behave

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

Palatability - More Than A Matter Of Taste, Behave

All Current Publications

This publication explores the theory that palatability is more than a matter of taste but is an interrelationship between a food's flavor and its postingestive effects.

Complete Randomized Cutting Plane Algorithms For Propositional Satisfiability, Stephen Lee Hansen

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The propositional satisfiability problem (SAT) is a fundamental problem in computer science and combinatorial optimization. A considerable number of prior researchers have investigated SAT, and much is already known concerning limitations of known algorithms for SAT. In particular, some necessary conditions are known, such that any algorithm not meeting those conditions cannot be efficient. This paper reports a research to develop and test a new algorithm that meets the currently known necessary conditions.

In chapter three, we give a new characterization of the convex integer hull of SAT, and two new algorithms for finding strong cutting planes. We also show …

The International Refugee Rights Regime, James C. Hathaway

Book Chapters

The origins of refugee rights are closely intertwined with the emergence of the general system of international human rights law. Like international human rights, the refugee rights regime is a product of the twentieth century. Its contemporary codification by the United Nations took place just after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and was strongly influenced by the Declaration's nonnative structure. More fundamentally, however, the refugee rights regime draws heavily on the earlier precedents of the law of responsibility for injuries to aliens and international efforts to protect national minorities.

In this overview of the refugee rights …

Perceiving Imperceptible Harms (With Other Thoughts On Transitivity, Cumulative Effects, And Consequentialism), Donald H. Regan

Book Chapters

Many writers believe there can be cases which satisfy the following description: starting from an initial state of affairs, it is possible to make a series of changes, none of which alters the value of the state of affairs in any way, but such that the final state of affairs that results from the series of changes is worse than the initial state of affairs. I shall call the claim that there can be such cases the "ex nihilo" claim, since in a sense it asserts that the bad effects of the complete series of changes arise ex nihilo. Proponents …

Empty Moscow Stores: A Cautionary Tale For Property Innovators, Michael A. Heller

Book Chapters

Under socialism, governments stifled markets and often left store shelves bare. One promise of transition was that new entrepreneurs would acquire the stores, create businesses, and fill the shelves. 2 However, after several years of reform, storefronts often remained empty, while flimsy metal kiosks, stocked full of goods, mushroomed on Moscow streets (Rapaczynski 1996). Why did new merchants not come in from the cold? This chapter argues that even if the initial endowment of property rights were clearly defined, corruption held in check, and the rule of law respected (e.g., Gray, Hanson, and Heller 1992; Frydman and Rapaczynski 1994; Shleifer …

Otterbein Towers Winter 2000, Otterbein Towers

Towers Magazine

What Did You Do for Fun at Otterbein? This issue includes: Life is a (Rock' n'Roll) Cabaret; Otterbein Round Robins Still Flying High; The '99 Common Book Experience; Queen Brooks Art­work for the Visually Impaired; College News; Classnotes; Sports; "O" Club; Milestones; Philanthropy; and Alumni Notes.

An Essay On Texas V. Lesage, Christina B. Whitman

Articles

When I was invited to participate in this symposium, I was asked to discuss whether the causation defense developed in Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle applied to cases challenging state action under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. As I argue below, it seems clear that Mt. Healthy does apply to equal protection cases. The Supreme Court explicitly so held last November in Texas v. Lesage. But the implications of Lesage go beyond questions of causation. The opinion suggests that the Court may be rethinking (or ignoring) its promise in Carey v. Piphus …

Phoebe's Lament (Symposium: Empirical Research In Commercial Transactions), James J. White

Articles

Assume a bright hypothetical social scientist - call her Phoebe - who is completely ignorant of legal research as it is practiced in today's law schools. Phoebe might speculate about legal research as follows. First, she would note that the law schools are joined with and are the exclusive source of the practitioners of a profession. Second, she would note that commercial and legal actors rub up against and are influenced by the law in countless ways every day. Third, she might remark that this interaction occurs practically on the doorsteps of our law schools. Unlike anthropologists, who may have …

The Usury Trompe L'Oeil, James J. White

Articles

This Article demonstrates how the interaction of a federal statute passed in 1864,1 a case decided by the Supreme Court in 1978,2 and modem technology has legally debarred every state legislature from controlling consumer interest rates in its state-but not from passing laws that appear to do so-and has politically debarred the Congress from setting federal rates to replace the state rates. As a consequence, the elaborate usury laws on the books of most states are only a trompe l'oeil, a "visual deception... rendered in extremely fine detail ... ." The presence of these finely detailed laws gives the illusion …

Lilly V. Virginia Glimmers Of Hope For The Confrontation Clause?, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

In 1662, in The Case of Thomas Tong and Others, which involved charges of treason against several defendants, the judges of the King's Bench conferred on a crucial set of points of procedure. As reported by one of the judges, Sir John Kelyng, the judges agreed unanimously that a pretrial confession made to the authorities was evidence against the Party himself who made the Confession, and indeed, if adequately proved could support a conviction of that party without additional witnesses to the treason itself. But -- again unanimously, and quite definitively -- the judges also agreed that the confession cannot …

Uncoupling The Law Of Takings, Michael A. Heller, James E. Krier

Articles

The law of takings couples together matters that should be treated independently. The conventional view, shared by courts and commentators alike, has been that any takings case can be resolved in one of two ways: either there is a taking and compensation is due, or there is no taking and no compensation is due. These results are fine as long as one holding or the other serves the two central concerns of the Takings Clause - eficiency and justice. But a problem arises when the two purposes behind the law of takings come into cordhct, as they readily might. It …

Dna As Evidence: Viewing Science Through The Prism Of The Law, Peter Donnelly, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

In this article, we analyze a problem related to DNA evidence that is likely to be of great and increasing significance in the near future. This is the problem of whether, and how, to present evidence that the suspect has been identified through a DNA database search. In our view, the two well-known reports on DNA evidence issued by the National Research Council (NRC) have been badly mistaken in their analysis of this problem. The mistakes are significant because the reports have carried great authority with American courts; moreover, the DNA Advisory Board of the FBI has endorsed the second …