224,553 research outputs found
Gas dispersion measurements using a mobile Raman lidar system
The exploitation of natural gas resources to supply energy demands has resulted in the need to engineer pipelines and plants capable of handling extremely high pressures and throughputs. Consequently, more attention has been directed to evaluating the consequences of releases of material whether accidental or deliberate in nature. An important aspect of assessing the consequences of a release is an understanding of how gas disperses in the atmosphere over a wide range of release and atmospheric conditions. The most cost effective way of providing such information is through the development and use of reliable theoretical prediction methods. The need for some form of remote sensing device was identified. The various possibilities studied led to the conclusion that LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) offered the most suitable method. The system designed and built is described, and its recent use in monitoring operational ventings from a high pressure transmission system is discussed
Re-figuring Federalism: Nation and State in Health Reform's Next Round
Reviews the evolution of national healthcare reform movements and the relationship between the federal and state governments, with international comparisons. Outlines differences to be resolved over Medicaid and other programs under a reformed system
Harry Potter and the Meaning of Death
The paper reviews how J.K. Rowling is able to examine death in the Harry Potter book series. In the first part of the text the author touches on the deaths of Harry\u27s parents and the scarring that Harry receives from that, as well as an examination of how the deaths of others, from close friends to acquaintances, have affected Harry, specifically pertaining to his personal responsibility for them and also his grieving process. The paper also goes into how Voldemort\u27s inability to feel love, paired with his fear of dying, have pushed his quest for immortality (using Horcruxes). Harry\u27s mastery of death (using the Hallows), his willingness to accept death, and his sense of love and sacrifice for his friends is what enables him to finally defeat Voldemort. The main message is that the Harry Potter books are great entertainment, but their underlying philosophy on death creates a depth that Rowling wants us to learn from: death is a part of life, and seeking love and friendship is much more important than worrying about death
In-season prediction of batting averages: A field test of empirical Bayes and Bayes methodologies
Batting average is one of the principle performance measures for an
individual baseball player. It is natural to statistically model this as a
binomial-variable proportion, with a given (observed) number of qualifying
attempts (called ``at-bats''), an observed number of successes (``hits'')
distributed according to the binomial distribution, and with a true (but
unknown) value of that represents the player's latent ability. This is a
common data structure in many statistical applications; and so the
methodological study here has implications for such a range of applications. We
look at batting records for each Major League player over the course of a
single season (2005). The primary focus is on using only the batting records
from an earlier part of the season (e.g., the first 3 months) in order to
estimate the batter's latent ability, , and consequently, also to predict
their batting-average performance for the remainder of the season. Since we are
using a season that has already concluded, we can then validate our estimation
performance by comparing the estimated values to the actual values for the
remainder of the season. The prediction methods to be investigated are
motivated from empirical Bayes and hierarchical Bayes interpretations. A newly
proposed nonparametric empirical Bayes procedure performs particularly well in
the basic analysis of the full data set, though less well with analyses
involving more homogeneous subsets of the data. In those more homogeneous
situations better performance is obtained from appropriate versions of more
familiar methods. In all situations the poorest performing choice is the
na\"{{\i}}ve predictor which directly uses the current average to predict the
future average.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOAS138 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Changes in the chloride content of ground water in Pinellas County, Florida between 1947 and 1956
In December 1956 the U. S. Geological Survey, in cooperation
with the Florida Geological Survey and the Board of
County Commissioners of Pinellas County, collected waterlevel
and chloride content of water in 94 wells in Pinellas
County. First sampled in 1947, resampling and reanalyzing the water
from these wells was used to determine the change in the chloride
content of the ground water from 1947 to 1956. The chloride
content of ground water is generally a reliable indication of
the contamination of ground water by sea water, as 90 percent of the dissolved solids of sea water are chloride salts. (PDF contains 15 pages.
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