Testing Recognition of Computer-generated Icons

Icons have been popularized by modern Graphical User Interface (GUI) software, however, an individual\u27s use and reaction to icons varies. Our purpose was to demonstrate that a computerized recall and recognition survey of icons could produce measurable results that could be used to better design and choose icons for common microcomputer applications. Icons with better recognition would also aid in student learning of common software tools. For this pilot survey, 125 MIS students viewed a projected five-minute computerized VGA slide show in a darkened classroom. Looking at a sequence of 30 colored screens shown for only 10 seconds each, they indicated their preferences for and their ability to discriminate, recall, and recognize 48 icons. The results indicated individuals can make icon choices quickly, certainly have icon preferences, and can recognize icons that they saw for only 10 seconds. Computerized projected surveys can provide preferences and measurable performance (number correct per time period) for icons, trademarks, logos, and signals much quicker than a series of individual trials or surveys

Do Gamma-Ray Burst Sources Repeat?

The demonstration of repeated gamma-ray bursts from an individual source would severely constrain burst source models. Recent reports (Quashnock and Lamb 1993; Wang and Lingenfelter 1993) of evidence for repetition in the first BATSE burst catalog have generated renewed interest in this issue. Here, we analyze the angular distribution of 585 bursts of the second BATSE catalog (Meegan et al. 1994). We search for evidence of burst recurrence using the nearest and farthest neighbor statistic and the two-point angular correlation function. We find the data to be consistent with the hypothesis that burst sources do not repeat; however, a repeater fraction of up to about 20% of the observed bursts cannot be excluded.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press, 13 pages, including three embedded figures. uuencoded Unix-compressed PostScrip

Teaching Human Rights Inside and Outside the Classroom: Education Without Borders (abstract)

University courses addressing various human rights issues have grown exponentially at the undergraduate and graduate levels over the past 20 years. Most of these courses focus on specific issues and many programs require fieldwork and/or internships. In addition, the use of the international human rights language is increasingly integrated into professional training programs that are often labeled “social” issues; for example, labor, immigration or domestic violence. What is lacking, despite the resonance and inclusion of human rights issues in these and other areas, is the development of comprehensive human rights methods and ethics courses. This roundtable seeks to bring together people engaged in human rights scholarship, teaching and training to explore the particular skills that are needed to do theoretical and applied research on human rights, human rights violations and advocacy. It will also discuss the ethics and methods of human rights work and, in so doing, will address the consequences of doing such research poorly. The roundtable thus aims to expand the understanding of human rights education beyond issue and content to specifically address the question of how do we do intellectually robust and reflexive human rights scholarship that works to make things better in the world? As Indigenous scholarship has taught us, good research must be evaluated on the basis of respect, reciprocity, relevance and responsibility by recognizing the ethics that are involved in doing such work. Thus, the roundtable aims to work towards developing a conversation around the methods of human rights academic and applied academic work. In this way one can develop best practices as well note concerns in current practice

Senator James O. Eastland, Bill Brock; Thomas J. McIntyre; Edward M. Kennedy; Richard S. Schweiker; Edmund S. Muskie; Thomas F. Eagleton; Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.; Howard Baker; J. Glenn Beall; Lowell Weicker, Jr.; William D. Hathaway; Dale Bumpers; John A. Durkin; Stuart Symington; Clairborne Pell; Hugh Scott; Edward W. Brooke; Birch Bayh; Henry M. Jackson; John L. McClellan; Gaylord Nelson; Ted Stevens; Ernest F. Hollings; Robert Morgan; Jesse Helms; Dick Stone; & Jennings Randolph to President Gerald R. Ford, 27 Februray 1976

Copy typed letter signed dated 27 February 1976 from Eastland; Bill Brock; Thomas J. McIntyre; Edward M. Kennedy; Richard S. Schweiker; Edmund S. Muskie; Thomas F. Eagleton; Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.; Howard Baker; J. Glenn Beall; Lowell Weicker, Jr.; William D. Hathaway; Dale Bumpers; John A. Durkin; Stuart Symington; Clairborne Pell; Hugh Scott; Edward W. Brooke; Birch Bayh; Henry M. Jackson; John L. McClellan; Gaylord Nelson; Ted Stevens; Ernest F. Hollings; Robert Morgan; Jesse Helms; Dick Stone; & Jennings Randolph to Ford, re: International Trade Commission, non-rubber footwear; 3 pages.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/joecorr_g/1064/thumbnail.jp

Estimating a Path through a Map of Decision Making

Studies of the evolution of collective behavior consider the payoffs of individual versus social learning. We have previously proposed that the relative magnitude of social versus individual learning could be compared against the transparency of payoff, also known as the “transparency” of the decision, through a heuristic, two-dimensional map. Moving from west to east, the estimated strength of social influence increases. As the decision maker proceeds from south to north, transparency of choice increases, and it becomes easier to identify the best choice itself and/or the best social role model from whom to learn (depending on position on east–west axis). Here we show how to parameterize the functions that underlie the map, how to estimate these functions, and thus how to describe estimated paths through the map. We develop estimation methods on artificial data sets and discuss real-world applications such as modeling changes in health decisions

DNA Methylation Arrays as Surrogate Measures of Cell mixture Distribution

There has been a long-standing need in biomedical research for a method that quantifies the normally mixed composition of leukocytes beyond what is possible by simple histological or flow cytometric assessments. The latter is restricted by the labile nature of protein epitopes, requirements for cell processing, and timely cell analysis. In a diverse array of diseases and following numerous immune-toxic exposures, leukocyte composition will critically inform the underlying immuno-biology to most chronic medical conditions. Emerging research demonstrates that DNA methylation is responsible for cellular differentiation, and when measured in whole peripheral blood, serves to distinguish cancer cases from controls

Kaneohe Bay Sewage Diversion Experiment: Perspectives on Ecosystem Responses to Nutritional Perturbation

Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, received increasing amounts of sewage from the 1950s through 1977. Most sewage was diverted from the bay in 1977 and early 1978. This investigation, begun in January 1976 and continued through August 1979, described the bay over that period, with particular reference to the responses of the ecosystem to sewage diversion. The sewage was a nutritional subsidy. All of the inorganic nitrogen and most of the inorganic phosphorus introduced into the ecosystem were taken up biologically before being advected from the bay. The major uptake was by phytoplankton, and the internal water-column cycle between dissolved nutrients, phytoplankton, zooplankton, microheterotrophs, and detritus supported a rate of productivity far exceeding the rate of nutrient loading. These water-column particles were partly washed out of the ecosystem and partly sedimented and became available to the benthos. The primary benthic response to nutrient loading was a large buildup of detritivorous heterotrophic biomass. Cycling of nutrients among heterotrophs, autotrophs, detritus, and inorganic nutrients was important. With sewage diversion, the biomass of both plankton and benthos decreased rapidly. Benthic biological composition has not yet returned to presewage conditions, partly because some key organisms are long-lived and partly because the bay substratum has been perturbed by both the sewage and other human influences

969-100 Changing Profile of the Cardiac Donor

AbstractAs the demand for organs for cardiac transplantation has increased, donor criteria have evolved. We reviewed the characteristics of 190 cardiac donors from 1983 to 1993 to identify trends in donor profile and to determine if recipient outcome were affected. Donors were divided into early(1983–1987; n=86) and late (1988-1993; n=104) groups according to operative era, While mean donor age has not changed significantly (24 ± 0.9 to 26 ± 1.3 years), the proportion of donors older than 40 years has increased from 1% (1/86) to 15% (16/104) (p<0.001). Trauma was the cause of death in 93% (80/86) of the early group and 65% of the late group (68/104) (p<0.001); in the total series, donors older than 40 years were less likely to have died from trauma 131%; 5/16) than younger donors (83%; 143/173) (p=0.001). The proportion of out-of-state donors has fallen from 71% (61/86) to 27% (28/104) (p<0.001), while the proportion of ethnic minorities increased from 10% (9/86) to 25% (26/1041 (p<0.001). There have been no significant changes in gender profile; males constituted 78% (67/86) of the early group and 72% (75/104) of the late group. Five year survival after transplant was not predicted by donor age, mode of donor death, recipient age, or recipient UNOS status. In summary, donors in the current era are more likely (1) to be older, (2) to be within the state, (3) to come from an ethnic minority, and (4) to have died from causes other than trauma when compared to donors from the earlier era