1,021 research outputs found

    Sentencing Disparities in Yakima County: The Washington Sentencing Reform Act Revisited

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    This study expands upon an earlier exploration of sentencing disparity in the Yakima County, Washington judicial system. The Sentencing Reform Act was adopted in 1981, becoming effective in 1984, to end inequitable sentences imposed on individuals who are convicted of similar offenses. This work adds to the original study by including an investigation of exceptional sentences and offense type crime. Independent variables are defendants\u27 ethnicity (Hispanic, Native American, and White), age, and gender. The period of investigation includes fiscal years 1986 through 1991. Data was provided to the researchers by the Washington Sentencing Guidelines Commission and was processed using a difference of means test (ANOVA program). The findings suggest that sentencing disparity, while not being widespread, does persist nearly a decade after the Sentencing Reform Act was adopted. Hispanic defendants who had no prior criminal history were apt to receive disproportionately more severe sentences for similar crimes than Native Americans or whites

    A Revisit to Quadratic Programming with One Inequality Quadratic Constraint via Matrix Pencil

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    The quadratic programming over one inequality quadratic constraint (QP1QC) is a very special case of quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) and attracted much attention since early 1990's. It is now understood that, under the primal Slater condition, (QP1QC) has a tight SDP relaxation (PSDP). The optimal solution to (QP1QC), if exists, can be obtained by a matrix rank one decomposition of the optimal matrix X? to (PSDP). In this paper, we pay a revisit to (QP1QC) by analyzing the associated matrix pencil of two symmetric real matrices A and B, the former matrix of which defines the quadratic term of the objective function whereas the latter for the constraint. We focus on the \undesired" (QP1QC) problems which are often ignored in typical literature: either there exists no Slater point, or (QP1QC) is unbounded below, or (QP1QC) is bounded below but unattainable. Our analysis is conducted with the help of the matrix pencil, not only for checking whether the undesired cases do happen, but also for an alternative way to compute the optimal solution in comparison with the usual SDP/rank-one-decomposition procedure.Comment: 22 pages, 0 figure

    Physiological effects of silver thiosulfate, (aminooxy)acetic acid, and malonate pulse treatments on the inhibition of ethylene biosynthesis and mode of action in carnations

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    Data concerned with the inhibition of ethylene (C[subscript]2H[subscript]4) biosynthesis and mode of action by pulsing carnations with silver thiosulfate (STS), (aminooxy)acetic acid (AOA), and malonate (MA) are presented. (Aminooxy)acetic acid at 12 [mu]mole/flower extended vase life to 15.1 days, STS at 1 [mu]mole/flower extended vase life to 15.3 days, and MA at 1 [mu]mole/flower shortened vase life to 8.8 days compared with 10.3 days for the water control. (Aminooxy)acetic acid and STS inhibited the activity of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase, and this resulted in a low ACC content and a low activity of the constitutive ethylene-forming-enzyme (EFE). The ultimate result of these metabolic events was that C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 biosynthesis was inhibited. Moreover, both AOA and STS decreased the respiratory rate as measured by CO[subscript]2 production. Malonate increased ACC synthase activity, and this increased the ACC content. Also, malonate increased respiration, which was unexpected. However, MA in combination with either AOA or STS reduced both C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 biosynthesis and respiration;Little ACC synthase activity existed in the upper portion of the petals, while the basal portion of the petals contained a higher ACC synthase activity. At the beginning of the vase-life cycle, ACC synthase activity was low. This was followed by a burst of activity at the climacteric, and this was followed by a decline before the death of the flowers. Ethylene-forming-enzyme activity was assayed by determining the maximum rate of C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 production. Flowers pulsed with AOA or STS showed low EFE activity related to C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 production, while the MA pulse treatment showed an increase of EFE activity at the climacteric;These results indicate that the inhibition of C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 biosynthesis and mode of action was caused by AOA and STS. Malonate pulse treatments need to be mixed with C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 biosynthesis inhibitors to inhibit C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 production and to preserve carbohydrates in the preservative solution. These results provided background information on the use of the preservatives for both inhibition of C[subscript]2H[subscript]4 biosynthesis and reduced use of carbohydrates

    An SDP Approach For Solving Quadratic Fractional Programming Problems

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    This paper considers a fractional programming problem (P) which minimizes a ratio of quadratic functions subject to a two-sided quadratic constraint. As is well-known, the fractional objective function can be replaced by a parametric family of quadratic functions, which makes (P) highly related to, but more difficult than a single quadratic programming problem subject to a similar constraint set. The task is to find the optimal parameter λ∗\lambda^* and then look for the optimal solution if λ∗\lambda^* is attained. Contrasted with the classical Dinkelbach method that iterates over the parameter, we propose a suitable constraint qualification under which a new version of the S-lemma with an equality can be proved so as to compute λ∗\lambda^* directly via an exact SDP relaxation. When the constraint set of (P) is degenerated to become an one-sided inequality, the same SDP approach can be applied to solve (P) {\it without any condition}. We observe that the difference between a two-sided problem and an one-sided problem lies in the fact that the S-lemma with an equality does not have a natural Slater point to hold, which makes the former essentially more difficult than the latter. This work does not, either, assume the existence of a positive-definite linear combination of the quadratic terms (also known as the dual Slater condition, or a positive-definite matrix pencil), our result thus provides a novel extension to the so-called "hard case" of the generalized trust region subproblem subject to the upper and the lower level set of a quadratic function.Comment: 26 page

    A Model Program to Develop Management Strategies and Training Skills for Fast Food Industry Employees in Taiwan

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    A model program in developing corporate personnel was designed for domestic fast food industry in Taiwan. The program emphasizes on successful business leaders\u27 skills in the basic management function of decision making, planning, organizing, communicating, directing and controlling. Meanwhile, the successful fast food employee development have focused on training activity of customer service, personal appearance, company rules and regulations. The program concentrates on two specific areas: a management model and an employee training model. More specifically the management approach and training skills are addressed through a variety of methods and activities

    Experimental Individuation and Philosophical Retail Arguments

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    This paper aims to defend the use of the notion of experimental individuation, which has recently been developed by Ruey-Lin Chen, as a criterion for the reality of theoretical entities. In short, when scientists experimentally individuate an entity, a realist conclusion about that entity is warranted. We embed this claim regarding experimental individuation within a framework that allows for other criteria of reality. And we understand so-called retail arguments regarding the reality of a particular theoretical entity as arguments that concern choosing an appropriate criterion of reality for that entity and determining whether the relevant first-order scientific evidence satisfies that criterion. We argue that such retail arguments are philosophical because defending criteria of reality, and showing that they are or are not satisfied in particular cases, involves work that is distinctively philosophical. And we illustrate this philosophical work by applying our criterion of experimental individuation to three historical cases: Davy’s potassium, Lavoisier’s muriatic radical, and Thomson’s electrified particles
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