Unsung Hero: Alison Bock

As the founder and president of Landmines Blow!®, Alison Bock has built an influential organization that raises awareness about landmines and unexploded ordnance, and helps victims all over the world. In the eyes of many people, Bock is truly an Unsung Hero

Longitudinal Hadronic Shower Development in a Combined Calorimeter

This work is devoted to the experimental study of the longitudinal hadronic shower development in the ATLAS barrel combined prototype calorimeter consisting of the lead-liquid argon electromagnetic part and the iron-scintillator hadronic part. The results have been obtained on the basis of the 1996 combined test beam data which have been taken on the H8 beam of the CERN SPS, with the pion beams of 10, 20, 40, 50, 80, 100, 150 and 300 GeV/c. The degree of description of generally accepted Bock parameterization of the longitudinal shower development has been investigated. It is shown that this parameterization does not give satisfactory description for this combined calorimeter. Some modification of this parameterization, in which the e/h ratios of the compartments of the combined calorimeter are used, is suggested and compared with the experimental data. The agreement between such parameterization and the experimental data is demonstrated.Comment: Latex, 21 pages, 10 figure

Momentum Resolution Improvement Technique for Silicon Tracking Detectors using dE/dx

A technique for improving the momentum resolution for low momentum charged particles in few layer silicon based trackers is presented. The particle momenta are determined from the measured Landau dE/dx distribution and the Bethe-Bloch formula in the 1/beta^2 region. It is shown that a factor of two improvement of the momentum determination is achieved as compared to standard track fitting methods. This improvement is important in large scale heavy ion experiments which cover the low transverse momentum spectra using stand-alone silicon tracking devices with a few planes like the ones used in STAR at RHIC and ALICE at LHC.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in NIM A 40956 (ref. number

Credal Networks under Epistemic Irrelevance

A credal network under epistemic irrelevance is a generalised type of Bayesian network that relaxes its two main building blocks. On the one hand, the local probabilities are allowed to be partially specified. On the other hand, the assessments of independence do not have to hold exactly. Conceptually, these two features turn credal networks under epistemic irrelevance into a powerful alternative to Bayesian networks, offering a more flexible approach to graph-based multivariate uncertainty modelling. However, in practice, they have long been perceived as very hard to work with, both theoretically and computationally. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that this perception is no longer justified. We provide a general introduction to credal networks under epistemic irrelevance, give an overview of the state of the art, and present several new theoretical results. Most importantly, we explain how these results can be combined to allow for the design of recursive inference methods. We provide numerous concrete examples of how this can be achieved, and use these to demonstrate that computing with credal networks under epistemic irrelevance is most definitely feasible, and in some cases even highly efficient. We also discuss several philosophical aspects, including the lack of symmetry, how to deal with probability zero, the interpretation of lower expectations, the axiomatic status of graphoid properties, and the difference between updating and conditioning

GEN MS 01 Katharine E. O’Brien Papers Finding Aid

Description: Katharine E. O’Brien (d. 1998) was raised in Portland, Maine. She taught mathematics for more than 30 years at Deering High School in Portland, of which she was an alumna, and was a published poet. The Papers includes typescripts of her poems, correspondence, photographs, and miscellany. Date Range: 1947-1998 Size of Collection: 1 ft

Bay Citizen/University of San Francisco Survey Findings Memo (Amended) October 2011

The Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco, in partnership with The Bay Citizen launched its inaugural municipal election survey in October 2011 to offer an objective and independent analysis of the state of the election. The poll represents a unique snapshot in time and offers statistically significant information about likely voters interviewed at the time of the survey. It is not intended to be, nor is it capable of being, predictive of the November election. This report presents the responses of the 551 persons surveyed. The margin of error for the population estimates is ±4.2%. Margins for subgroups are larger; significantly so in some cases. This report contains findings on the following topics: - Public perceptions of whether San Francisco is moving in the right or wrong direction and the job performance of the acting mayor. - First, second, and third place preferences in the election for Mayor of San Francisco; - First, second, and third place preferences in the election for San Francisco District Attorney; - First place preferences in the election for San Francisco Sheriff; - Opinions on the two pension reform ballot measures, Proposition C and Proposition D

ACUTA eNews September 1989, Vol. 18, No. 9

In This Issue ln Memory of Bill D. Morris Reflection on Bill Morris Message From The President Party Line Protect Your Call Record

Polarization Properties of Extragalactic Radio Sources and Their Contribution to Microwave Polarization Fluctuations

We investigate the statistical properties of the polarized emission of extragalactic radio sources and estimate their contribution to the power spectrum of polarization fluctuations in the microwave region. The basic ingredients of our analysis are the NVSS polarization data, the multifrequency study of polarization properties of the B3-VLA sample (Mack et al. 2002) which has allowed us to quantify Faraday depolarization effects, and the 15 GHz survey by Taylor et al. (2001), which has provided strong constraints on the high-frequency spectral indices of sources. The polarization degree of both steep- and flat-spectrum at 1.4 GHz is found to be anti-correlated with the flux density. The median polarization degree at 1.4 GHz of both steep- and flat-spectrum sources brighter than $S(1.4 \hbox{GHz})=80$mJy is $\simeq 2.2$. The data by Mack et al. (2002) indicate a substantial mean Faraday depolarization at 1.4 GHz for steep spectrum sources, while the depolarization is undetermined for most flat/inverted-spectrum sources. Exploiting this complex of information we have estimated the power spectrum of polarization fluctuations due to extragalactic radio sources at microwave frequencies. We confirm that extragalactic sources are expected to be the main contaminant of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization maps on small angular scales. At frequencies $< 30$GHz the amplitude of their power spectrum is expected to be comparable to that of the $E$-mode of the CMB. At higher frequencies, however, the CMB dominates.Comment: 10 pages, A&A in pres

Environmental Issues and Legislation, 1999-2000

Hannah-Beth Jackson, Chair MEMBERS Mike Briggs, Vice-Chair Audie Bock Jim Cunneen Ted Lempert Alan Lowenthal Ken Maddox Carl Washington Patricia Wiggins CONSULTANTS: Bruce H. Jennings, Chief Consultant Michael B. Endicott, Principal Consultant COMMITTEE SECRETARY: Patricia Hawkins Murph