L. O. Howard Promoted War Metaphors as a Rallying Cry for Economic Entomology

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ae/45.2.74

The Strange Career of DDT: Experts, Federal Capacity, and ‘Environmentalism’ in World War II

This is the published version, made available with the permission of the publisher. The published version is also available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.1999.0192

Hunters, Herders, and Hamburgers: The Past and Future of Human-Animal Relationships (review)

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v048/48.1russell.htm

Enemies Hypothesis: A Review of the Effect of Vegetational Diversity on Predatory Insects and Parasitoids

The enemies hypothesis holds that predatory insects and parasitoids are more effective at controlling populations of herbivores in diverse systems of vegetation than in simple ones. Eighteen studies that tested the enemies hypothesis are reviewed. Of those studies reporting mortality from prédation or parasitism, nine found higher mortality rates in diverse systems; two found a lower mortality rate; and two found no difference. The mechanisms that are thought to underlie the enemies hypothesis and directions for future research are discussed. Evidence suggests that the enemies hypothesis and the resource concentration hypothesis (which predicts that herbivores more easily find, stay in, and reproduce in monocultures of host plants than in polycultures) are complementary mechanisms in reducing numbers of herbivores in diverse agricultural systems

The Missing Link: Assessing the Reliability of Internet Citations in History Journals

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from doi:10.1353/tech.0.002

ALMANACS: A Simulatability Benchmark for Language Model Explainability

How do we measure the efficacy of language model explainability methods? While many explainability methods have been developed, they are typically evaluated on bespoke tasks, preventing an apples-to-apples comparison. To help fill this gap, we present ALMANACS, a language model explainability benchmark. ALMANACS scores explainability methods on simulatability, i.e., how well the explanations improve behavior prediction on new inputs. The ALMANACS scenarios span twelve safety-relevant topics such as ethical reasoning and advanced AI behaviors; they have idiosyncratic premises to invoke model-specific behavior; and they have a train-test distributional shift to encourage faithful explanations. By using another language model to predict behavior based on the explanations, ALMANACS is a fully automated benchmark. We use ALMANACS to evaluate counterfactuals, rationalizations, attention, and Integrated Gradients explanations. Our results are sobering: when averaged across all topics, no explanation method outperforms the explanation-free control. We conclude that despite modest successes in prior work, developing an explanation method that aids simulatability in ALMANACS remains an open challenge.Comment: Code is available at https://github.com/edmundmills/ALMANACS}{https://github.com/edmundmills/ALMANAC

Book reviews

Musgrave, P.W. (1992). From Humanity to Utility: Melbourne University and Public Examinations 1856-1964. Hawthorn: ACER. 340 pages. Batten, M, Marland, P. & Khamis, M. (1993). Knowing How to Teach Well: Teachers Reflect on Their Classroom Practice. Hawthorn: ACER Research Monograph, 84 pages. Griffin, P. (1991). Monitoring School Achievements. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. 76 pages. Izard, J. (1991). Assessment of Learning in the Classroom. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. 62 pages. Ormell, C. (1991). Behavioural Objectives in the Classroom. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. 73 pages. Owens, A. (1991). Assessment in Specific Circumstances. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. 46 pages. Withers, G. (1991). From Marks to Profiles and Records of Achievement. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. 74 pages. Brady, L. (1992). Curriculum Development (4th ed.). Sydney: Prentice-Hall, 308 pages

Changes with Age in the Moisture Content of Human Skin

A technique to measure the dynamic mechanical properties of human skin in vivo is described. The technique measures the propagation and attenuation of shear waves in skin tissue over a range of frequencies (8–1016 Hz). Results show that both the propagation velocity and attenuation of shear waves in skin are highly dependent upon the water content of the stratum corneum. The technique was used to measure the dynamic mechanical properties of the skin on the back of the left hand for a group of 16 men ranging in age from 24–63 years. The results suggest that aged skin has a lower water content than the skin of younger men