Buma v. Providence Porp. Dev., 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 60 (Dec. 12, 2019)

The court determined that the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act (NIIA) extends workers’ compensation protections to traveling employees while they are on work trips. The court held that traveling employee cases will use a categorical approach, where workers’ compensation is extended to traveling employees for injuries sustained during activity that can be considered an employment risk or a neutral risk which passes the increased risk test, but not to activities which are considered a personal risk. Activities considered a personal risk fall under the “distinct departure” exception, which requires that no compensation be given for injuries sustained during “personally motivated activities that take the traveling employee on a material deviation in time or space from carrying out the trip’s employment-related objectives.

Beta Regression in R

The class of beta regression models is commonly used by practitioners to model variables that assume values in the standard unit interval (0, 1). It is based on the assumption that the dependent variable is beta-distributed and that its mean is related to a set of regressors through a linear predictor with unknown coefficients and a link function. The model also includes a precision parameter which may be constant or depend on a (potentially different) set of regressors through a link function as well. This approach naturally incorporates features such as heteroskedasticity or skewness which are commonly observed in data taking values in the standard unit interval, such as rates or proportions. This paper describes the betareg package which provides the class of beta regressions in the R system for statistical computing. The underlying theory is briefly outlined, the implementation discussed and illustrated in various replication exercises.Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematic

Beta Regression in R

The class of beta regression models is commonly used by practitioners to model variables that assume values in the standard unit interval (0, 1). It is based on the assumption that the dependent variable is beta-distributed and that its mean is related to a set of regressors through a linear predictor with unknown coefficients and a link function. The model also includes a precision parameter which may be constant or depend on a (potentially different) set of regressors through a link function as well. This approach naturally incorporates features such as heteroskedasticity or skewness which are commonly observed in data taking values in the standard unit interval, such as rates or proportions. This paper describes the betareg package which provides the class of beta regressions in the R system for statistical computing. The underlying theory is briefly outlined, the implementation discussed and illustrated in various replication exercises.

Discussing Changes in Historical Human–Environmental Dynamics Through Ecosystem Services Interactions and Future Scenarios in a Rural-Mining Region of Central Appalachians

The aim of this dissertation was to investigate how recent processes of land-change induced by humans contributed to the shaping and alteration of the current landscape in a headwater system of Central Appalachians in West Virginia (US), to understand the interactions and tradeoffs among ecosystems services and address potential solutions for targeting more sustainable human-environment interactions in a region that is deeply grounded on extractive economies. The multitiered objective was addressed through different research phases in order to unfold and disentangle a series of complex problems that the study area presents. Three main phases were used; they corresponded to distinct chapters within this study. The first paper analyzed land-cover transitions, from 1976 to 2016, using Multi-Level Intensity Analysis and Difference Components methods. Two land cover classifications were derived explicitly for this study using remote sensing methods and obtained with segmentation analysis and machine learning algorithms from historical high-resolution aerial images (1-2 meters) and ancillary data. Results allowed the author to distinguish between surface mining areas produced before and after the enactment of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA, 1977), discuss differences among distinct socio-technical phases, and differentiate the main drivers and outcomes of landscape change processes in the area. The historical information and knowledge gained in the first step were used to inform the second chapter, whose objective was to analyze the interactions among ecosystem services and derive their bundles. Ecosystem services models were obtained using InVEST, and a custom model was explicitly defined to link water quality changes to freshwater ecosystem services. The results identified significant losses of carbon sequestration, habitat quality, and freshwater ecosystem services in areas subjected to Mountaintop Removal mining. The findings spatially located different ecosystem services bundles characterized by distinct human-environment relationships and complex anthropogenic drivers not limited to coal mining processes. The study identified the appropriate spatial scale for targeting specific management actions and implementing conservation, as well as development-restoration strategies, in areas characterized by similar social-ecological processes and deeply altered ecosystems. In the third essay, the identification of ecosystem services bundles allowed the author to delineate two distinct social-ecological systems characterized by surface coal extraction and reclamation processes produced during different historical phases. These areas were discussed as separate case studies within a time interval of seventy years, from the recent past (1976) to future scenarios (2045). The scenarios were based on a backcasting approach integrated by ecosystem services models and the analysis of functional changes within the two social-ecological units analyzed. The results highlighted differences in the flow of ecosystem services due to the intensity of mining and the different and incremental reclamation approaches used in the scenarios. The comparison of threats and opportunities within each scenario, identified, in the discussion section, a range of plausible hypotheses and solutions the stakeholders and communities of the region should face if they want to rehabilitate the social and ecological conditions to promote a more sustainable approach for the future of these places

A Generalization of the Exponential-Poisson Distribution

The two-parameter distribution known as exponential-Poisson (EP) distribution, which has decreasing failure rate, was introduced by Kus (2007). In this paper we generalize the EP distribution and show that the failure rate of the new distribution can be decreasing or increasing. The failure rate can also be upside-down bathtub shaped. A comprehensive mathematical treatment of the new distribution is provided. We provide closed-form expressions for the density, cumulative distribution, survival and failure rate functions; we also obtain the density of the $i$th order statistic. We derive the $r$th raw moment of the new distribution and also the moments of order statistics. Moreover, we discuss estimation by maximum likelihood and obtain an expression for Fisher's information matrix. Furthermore, expressions for the R\'enyi and Shannon entropies are given and estimation of the stress-strength parameter is discussed. Applications using two real data sets are presented

A comparison of aural and aural-visual modeling on the development of executive and performance skills of beginning recorder students

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study was to compare the effects of aural and aural-visual modeling on the development o f executive and performance skills o f third-grade beginning recorder students. A secondary goal ofmy study was to determine whether music aptitude was a factor in students' responses to modeling condition. Two groups of students received instruction on the soprano recorder and heard musical examples modeled by the instructor. Modeling condition and music aptitude served as independent variables. Executive (i.e., posture, hand position, arm position, and finger position), performance (i.e., fmgerings, airstream, tonguing, rhythmic stability, and improvisation), and composite recorder skills served as the dependent variables. Before implementing the treatment phase, students completed Gordon' s Intermediate Measures ofMusic Audiation (IMMA) (1986a), and I randomly assigned pre-existing classes of third graders to either the aural or the aural-visual modeling treatment. In the aural modeling treatment, recorder instruction was conducted from the back of the classroom, where students were able to hear musical examples as they were performed, but were unable to watch as I manipulated the recorder. In the aural-visual modeling condition, recorder instruction was conducted from the front of the room, where students were able to hear musical examples as they were performed as well as see the teacher manipulate the instrument. At the end of approximately 5 months of treatment, I video recorded participants' executive and performance skills, which were analyzed by two external evaluators and me. Data were then subjected to Analysis ofVariance (ANOVA) to compare the effects of modeling condition and aptitude on the executive, performance, and composite recorder skills of students. There were no statistically significant differences between the executive skills (p =.75), performance skills (p = .46), or composite recorder skills (p = .49) of students in the aural and aural-visual treatments. There were no significant interactions between modeling condition and aptitude level. Music aptitude, however, was found to have a significant effect (p = .001) on the students' performance and composite recorder skills. I concluded that although neither modeling condition was significantly more effective in developing executive and performance skills of third-grade beginning recorder students, an understanding of a student's music aptitude level may prove useful in planning beginning recorder instruction

Castillo v. State, 135 Nev. Adv. Op. 16 (May. 30, 2019)

The Court determined that (1) a defendant is death-eligible in Nevada once the State proves beyond a reasonable doubt the elements of first-degree murder and at least one statutory aggravating circumstance; and (2) the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard does not apply to the weighing of aggravating and mitigating circumstances