Recall of paired-associates as a function of overt and covert rehearsal procedures

Effect on memory of mode of studying paired associates, and mathematical model employing short term rehearsal buffer and long term memor

Approximation and elections

Any culture that requires that a decision be made within a group necessarily creates methods for aggregating each individual’s preferences. For instance, we see such a need in political elections, committees, and businesses. With the Internet and the increasing use of multiagent software systems, the general need for means of aggregating differing preferences has increased dramatically. Voting is one way to come to a single option (or small group of options) out of a larger pool of candidate options. Many voting systems exist, and criteria exist (within the field of social choice theory) for deciding which most fairly and accurately take into account the preferences of each voter. Since there is generally much to be gained from influencing such a vote through manipulation or bribery, one desirable criterion of fairness would be whether such activities are impossible in the system. However, it has been shown that a reasonable system that disallows manipulation does not exist [18, 43], so the next-best solution would be a system in which deciding how to bribe or otherwise influence the vote is so computationally difficult as to render it impossible or highly unlikely. While the debate over which voting systems are most fair and effective is on record of existing over the past few centuries (and likely goes further back to ancient Greece), there may exist the seeds of a renewal of this debate in the current boom in voting due to new technologies. For one, in artificial intelligence agents may vote to determine the best course of action to take given the individual’s preferences. In addition, algorithms in search engines and metasearch engines do order results in a manner that assumes a ranking was somehow approached. Voting is not only on the rise in software, of course, as most any user of the Internet could demonstrate. Internet users routinely vote most any user of the Internet could demonstrate. Internet users routinely vote online in situations ranging from the inane (e.g., rating a video on YouTube) to the potentially crucial (e.g., voting on whether a story is newsworthy or not on any of a plethora of such sites, including Digg, Reddit, and Newsvine). These newer uses of voting systems are interesting. They are used in environments where there are potentially far more candidates and voters than are conventionally seen in, say, political elections. Also, in these new environments, voting and manipulation can be automated to some degree, thus making the possibility of manipulation and control even more real than it has been in the past. Faliszewski, Hemaspaandra, and Hemaspaandra have proved for a number of voting systems that the bribery problem is too complex to be feasible (i.e., NP-complete) [15], and much research has been put forth determining the complexity of other problems related to voting. But it is still possible in the optimization cases of these problems that there exist approximation algorithms that can find a good solution with a reasonable amount of computation. That is, while a voting system may seem “resistant” to a particular form of manipulation as described by previous research, it may be that the problem is not as difficult if we allow a constant amount of error. Or, it may be that the problem is still difficult when error is allowed, thus making the voting system even more resilient with respect to some forms of manipulation. This thesis will examine the possibility of such approximations for some problems in elections

Leadership issues, concerns, and competencies of senior level student affairs professionals: a study of a 4 year public university

The purpose of this study was to analyze the leadership competencies commonly exhibited by selected student affairs professionals at a 4-year public university in the northeast. To have a deeper understanding of leadership within the field of student affairs, issues and concerns were investigated using relevant leadership theories (Eddy & VanDerLinden, 2006). The study sought to close the gap in the literature base by examining a division of student affairs from the director (or equivalent positions) up to the vice president of the division. Twenty one participants were selected because of their rank of senior level student affairs professionals at Public University. Of these 21 individuals 19 participated in the study. All participants completed Linkage Incorporated\u27s Leadership Assessment Instrument (LAI), and an interview conducted by the researcher. The findings suggested that selected administrators at Public University employ all five leadership competencies evenly, and their concerns are strongly related to their chosen leadership practice

Blue light and UV radiation accelerate spring and autumn leaf phenology in temperate tree species

Non peer reviewe

Using Citizen Science to Quantify Community Garden Crop Yields

New York City is home to over 500 community gardens, over 80% of which host food production (GrowNYC 2010). This paper is a case study of Farming Concrete, an open, community-based study aimed to define community gardens in the context of the New York City food system and to educate local communities about developing and conducting meaningful research. The project employs citizen science methods in which the gardeners and researchers alike are involved in the design and implementation processes. This paper will outline the methods and challenges involved in conducting participatory urban agriculture research, as well as discuss findings regarding how much food was grown in NYC community gardens in 2010 and 2011

Range-Wide Sex-Chromosome Sequence Similarity Supports Occasional XY Recombination in European Tree Frogs (Hyla arborea).

In contrast with mammals and birds, most poikilothermic vertebrates feature structurally undifferentiated sex chromosomes, which may result either from frequent turnovers, or from occasional events of XY recombination. The latter mechanism was recently suggested to be responsible for sex-chromosome homomorphy in European tree frogs (Hyla arborea). However, no single case of male recombination has been identified in large-scale laboratory crosses, and populations from NW Europe consistently display sex-specific allelic frequencies with male-diagnostic alleles, suggesting the absence of recombination in their recent history. To address this apparent paradox, we extended the phylogeographic scope of investigations, by analyzing the sequences of three sex-linked markers throughout the whole species distribution. Refugial populations (southern Balkans and Adriatic coast) show a mix of X and Y alleles in haplotypic networks, and no more within-individual pairwise nucleotide differences in males than in females, testifying to recurrent XY recombination. In contrast, populations of NW Europe, which originated from a recent postglacial expansion, show a clear pattern of XY differentiation; the X and Y gametologs of the sex-linked gene Med15 present different alleles, likely fixed by drift on the front wave of expansions, and kept differentiated since. Our results support the view that sex-chromosome homomorphy in H. arborea is maintained by occasional or historical events of recombination; whether the frequency of these events indeed differs between populations remains to be clarified

First-generation linkage map for the European tree frog (Hyla arborea) with utility in congeneric species.

BACKGROUND: Western Palearctic tree frogs (Hyla arborea group) represent a strong potential for evolutionary and conservation genetic research, so far underexploited due to limited molecular resources. New microsatellite markers have recently been developed for Hyla arborea, with high cross-species utility across the entire circum-Mediterranean radiation. Here we conduct sibship analyses to map available markers for use in future population genetic applications. FINDINGS: We characterized eight linkage groups, including one sex-linked, all showing drastically reduced recombination in males compared to females, as previously documented in this species. Mapping of the new 15 markers to the ~200 My diverged Xenopus tropicalis genome suggests a generally conserved synteny with only one confirmed major chromosome rearrangement. CONCLUSIONS: The new microsatellites are representative of several chromosomes of H. arborea that are likely to be conserved across closely-related species. Our linkage map provides an important resource for genetic research in European Hylids, notably for studies of speciation, genome evolution and conservation

Radiative transfer theory and modelling with libRadtran

Peer reviewe

Animal-assisted interventions in the classroom: a systematic review

The inclusion of animals in educational practice is becoming increasingly popular, but it is unclear how solid the evidence for this type of intervention is. The aim of this systematic review is to scrutinise the empirical research literature relating to animal-assisted interventions conducted in educational settings. The review included 25 papers; 21 from peer-reviewed journals and 4 obtained using grey literature databases. Most studies reported significant benefits of animal-assisted interventions in the school setting. Despite this, studies vary greatly in methods and design, in intervention types, measures, and sample sizes, and in the length of time exposed to an animal. Furthermore, a worrying lack of reference to risk assessment and animal welfare must be highlighted. Taken together, the results of this review show promising findings and emerging evidence suggestive of potential benefits related to animals in school settings. The review also indicates the need for a larger and more robust evidence base driven by thorough and strict protocols. The review further emphasises the need for safeguarding for all involved—welfare and safety are paramount