Costs and Benefits of Full Dual-Frame Telephone Survey Designs

Assesses the cost, sample composition, weighting, and substantive effect on survey results involved in interviewing respondents by cell phone, including those with landlines. Includes demographic profiles of cell phone-only, landline-only, and dual users

Using Choice to Measure the Availability and Use of E-Books

As e-books have come to hold a major impact on library collection building activities, the influence of reviews of titles and the on-going conversion of titles to a digital format have significant potential impacts for libraries. Reviewing tools such as Choice and the lag-time between publication notice of the print edition of a work and its corresponding e-version asks the questions, “How many of the print titles that are reviewed in Choice have a corresponding e-version ready for purchase?” and “How used are those e-versions in comparison with print?

Chaos in a ring circuit

A ring-shaped logic circuit is proposed here as a robust design for a True Random Number Generator (TRNG). Most existing TRNGs rely on physical noise as a source of randomness, where the underlying idealized deterministic system is simply oscillatory. The design proposed here is based on chaotic dynamics and therefore intrinsically displays random behavior, even in the ideal noise-free situation. The paper presents several mathematical models for the circuit having different levels of detail. They take the form of differential equations using steep sigmoid terms for the transfer functions of logic gates. A large part of the analysis is concerned with the hard step-function limit, leading to a model known in mathematical biology as a Glass network. In this framework, an underlying discrete structure (a state space diagram) is used to describe the likely structure of the global attractor for this system. The latter takes the form of intertwined periodic paths, along which trajectories alternate unpredictably. It is also invariant under the action of the cyclic group. A combination of analytical results and numerical investigations confirms the occurrence of symmetric chaos in this system, which when implemented in (noisy) hardware, should therefore serve as a robust TRNG

Greater Than the Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco control

Tobacco control and public health have evolved into a complex set of interconnected and largely self-organizing systems. Their components include international, national, and local governmental agencies; individual advocacy groups; policy makers; health care professionals; nonprofit foundations; and the general population itself. The issues require the exploration of approaches and methodologies that speak to the evolving, dynamic nature of this systems environment. This monograph focuses on the first two years of the Initiative on the Study and Implementation of Systems (ISIS), which was funded by the National Cancer Institute to examine the potential for systems thinking in tobacco control and public health. ISIS explored the general idea of a systems thinking rubric encompassing a great variety of systems-oriented methodologies and approaches. Four approaches have particular promise for their applicability to tobacco control and public health and thus were chosen as areas for initial investigation: (1) organizing and managing as a system, (2) system dynamics and how to model those dynamics, (3) system networks and their analysis, and (4) systems knowledge and its management and translation. As a transdisciplinary effort that linked both tobacco control stakeholders and systems experts, ISIS combined a number of exploratory projects and case studies within these four approaches with a detailed examination of the potential for systems thinking in tobacco control. Its end product was a set of expert consensus guidelines for the future implementation of systems thinking and systems perspectives for tobacco control and public health.https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/18/index.htm

Tobacco, e-cigarette and alcohol content in popular UK soap operas: a content analysis to explore changes in social norms and scene location over time

Background Exposure to tobacco and alcohol on-screen promotes use and despite regulations and policies to limit impact, these behaviours remain common. We report a longitudinal analysis of tobacco, e-cigarette and alcohol content in three popular UK television soap operas, to examine changing social norms between 2002-2022. Methods We used one-minute interval coding to measure content in programmes in two one-week periods in three years (2002, 2012 and 2022). Change in probability of actual and implied use of tobacco, e-cigarette and alcohol over time was examined using logistic regression. Results We coded 2505 intervals from 78 episodes. Tobacco content occurred in 22% of episodes and significantly decreased from 2002 to 2022 (OR 0.15 95% CI 0.06-0.40). Tobacco use changed over time with decreasing use indoors and increasing use outdoors. No e-cigarette use was identified. Alcohol content was found in 88% of episodes and while it also significantly decreased over time (OR 0.78 95% CI 0.61 – 0.99) it featured in 20% of broadcast minutes in 2022. Alcohol use in homes increased over time. Conclusion While tobacco imagery is increasingly rare on television, alcohol content has remained common. Current regulations are not sufficient to reduce exposure. Soap opera producers should consider the impact of on-screen tobacco and alcohol use and opportunities to change social norms and help protect future generations

A near-infrared morphological comparison of high-redshift submm and radio galaxies: massive star-forming discs vs relaxed spheroids

We present deep, high-quality K-band images of complete subsamples of powerful radio and sub-mm galaxies at z=2. The data were obtained in the best available seeing at UKIRT and Gemini North, with integration times scaled to ensure that comparable rest-frame surface brightness levels are reached for all galaxies. We fit two-dimensional axi-symmetric galaxy models to determine galaxy morphologies at rest-frame optical wavelengths > 4000A, varying luminosity, axial ratio, half-light radius, and Sersic index. We find that, while some images show evidence of galaxy interactions, >95% of the rest-frame optical light in all galaxies is well-described by these simple models. We also find a clear difference in morphology between these two classes of galaxy; fits to the individual images and image stacks reveal that the radio galaxies are moderately large (=8.4+-1.1kpc; median r{1/2}=7.8), de Vaucouleurs spheroids ( = 4.07+-0.27; median n=3.87), while the sub-mm galaxies appear to be moderately compact (=3.4+-0.3kpc; median r{1/2}=3.1kpc) exponential discs (=1.44+-0.16; median n=1.08). We show that the z=2 radio galaxies display a well-defined Kormendy relation but that, while larger than other recently-studied high-z massive galaxy populations, they are still ~1.5 times smaller than their local counterparts. The scalelengths of the starlight in the sub-mm galaxies are comparable to those reported for the molecular gas. Their sizes are also similar to those of comparably massive quiescent galaxies at z>1.5. In terms of stellar mass surface density, the majority of the radio galaxies lie within the locus defined by local ellipticals. In contrast, while best modelled as discs, most of the sub-mm galaxies have higher stellar mass densities than local galaxies, and appear destined to evolve into present-day massive ellipticals.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Ultraviolet Absorption Spectra at Reduced Temperatures. I. Principles and Methods

Low temperature absorption and fluorescence spectra of solids, liquids, and solutions often reveal increased spectral detail of use in analytical procedures and molecular structure studies. Nevertheless, while qualitative observations of the influence of liquid air temperatures upon optical properties were undertaken very early, investigations of the absorption and fluorescence of organic compounds at the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-195.6°; 77.4 °K.) and below have appeared only sporadically. Because of the potential usefulness of the technique we have undertaken a systematic study of the low temperature spectra of substances of biochemical interest. The present paper discusses the methods employed; subsequent papers will deal with the experimental results. In this work, we have emphasized the wave-length location of absorption bands and the accurate determination of relative optical densities rather than precision in the determination of absolute optical densities, thus permitting the use of simpler methods than would otherwise be necessary

Dust attenuation in 2<z<3 star-forming galaxies from deep ALMA observations of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

17 pages, 7 figures, accepted version to be published in MNRASWe present the results of a new study of the relationship between infrared excess (IRX ≡ L IR/L UV), ultraviolet (UV) spectral slope (β) and stellar mass at redshifts 2 < z < 3, based on a deep Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 1.3-mm continuum mosaic of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Excluding the most heavily obscured sources, we use a stacking analysis to show that z ≃ 2.5 star-forming galaxies in the mass range 9.25 ≤ log(M*/M ⊙) ≤ 10.75 are fully consistent with the IRX-β relation expected for a relatively grey attenuation curve, similar to the commonly adopted Calzetti law. Based on a large, mass-complete sample of 2 ≤ z ≤ 3 star-forming galaxies drawn frommultiple surveys, we proceed to derive a new empirical relationship between β and stellar mass, making it possible to predict UV attenuation (A1600) and IRX as a function of stellar mass, for any assumed attenuation law. Once again, we find that z ≃ 2.5 star-forming galaxies follow A1600-M* and IRX-M* relations consistent with a relatively grey attenuation law, and find no compelling evidence that star-forming galaxies at this epoch follow a reddening law as steep as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) extinction curve. In fact, we use a simple simulation to demonstrate that previous determinations of the IRX-β relation may have been biased towards low values of IRX at red values of β, mimicking the signature expected for an SMC-like dust law. We show that this provides a plausible mechanism for reconciling apparently contradictory results in the literature and that, based on typical measurement uncertainties, stellar mass provides a cleaner prediction of UV attenuation than β. Although the situation at lower stellar masses remains uncertain, we conclude that for 2 < z < 3 star-forming galaxies with log(M*/M ⊙) ≥ 9.75, both the IRX-β and IRX-M* relations are well described by a Calzetti-like attenuation law.Peer reviewe

Individuals and Organizations as Sources of State Effectiveness, and Consequences for Policy Design

How much of the variation in state effectiveness is due to the individuals and organizations responsible for implementing policy? We investigate this question and its implications for policy design in the context of public procurement, using a text-based product classification method to measure bureaucratic output. We show that effective procurers lower bid preparation/submission costs, and that 60% of within-product purchase-price variation across 16 million purchases in Russia in 2011-2015 is due to the bureaucrats and organizations administering procurement processes. This has dramatic policy consequences. To illustrate these, we study a ubiquitous procurement policy: bid preferences for favored firms (here domestic manufacturers). The policy decreases overall entry and increases prices when procurers are effective, but has the opposite impact with ineffective procurers, as predicted by a simple endogenous-entry model of procurement. Our results imply that the state’s often overlooked bureaucratic tier is critical for effectiveness and the make-up of optimal policies