TQM-ing OMB: Or Why Regulatory Review Under Executive Order 12,291 Works Poorly and What President Clinton Should Do About It

Reflections are presented on how Pres Clinton should improve the deeply troubled relationship between the OMB and other government agencies. No president would dream of abolishing review of agency actions by the OMB

Empathy Activators: Strategies for Developing Empathy in Service-Learning Students

This poster presentation explores the link between service-learning and the development of student empathy. It will share the initial research results of a pilot study on student empathy, service-learning, and key ingredients for cultivating empathy. It also offers instructors concrete ideas for teaching tools that activate student empathy

Is Less Better? Greater Efficiency With Fewer Resources Expended

Summarizes an analysis of Medicare spending to assess the relative efficiency of healthcare providers in managing patients with severe chronic illnesses in California. Highlights the need to redesign the payment system to improve healthcare efficiency

A Representation Theorem for Frequently Irrational Agents

The standard representation theorem for expected utility theory tells us that if a subject’s preferences conform to certain axioms, then she can be represented as maximising her expected utility given a particular set of credences and utilities—and, moreover, that having those credences and utilities is the only way that she could be maximising her expected utility (given her preferences). However, the kinds of agents these theorems seem apt to tell us anything about are highly idealised, being (amongst other things) always probabilistically coherent with infinitely precise degrees of belief and full knowledge of all a priori truths. Ordinary subjects do not look very rational when compared to the kinds of agents usually talked about in decision theory. In this paper, I will develop an expected utility representation theorem aimed at the representation of those who are neither probabilistically coherent, logically omniscient, nor expected utility maximisers across the board—that is, agents who are frequently irrational. The agents in question may be deductively fallible, have incoherent credences, limited representational capacities, and fail to maximise expected utility for all but a limited class of gambles

Design and Construction of the 3.2 Mev High Voltage Column for Darht II

A 3.2 MeV injector has been designed and built for the Darht II Project at Los Alamos Lab. The installation of the complete injector system is nearing completion at this time. The requirements for the injector are to produce a 3.2 MeV, 2000 ampere electron pulse with a flattop width of at least 2-microseconds and emittance of less than 0.15 p cm-rad normalized. A large high voltage column has been built and installed. The column is vertically oriented, is 4.4 meters long, 1.2 meters in diameter, and weights 5700 kilograms. A novel method of construction has been employed which utilizes bonded mycalex insulating rings. This paper will describe the design, construction, and testing completed during construction. Mechanical aspects of the design will be emphasized.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Linac 200

Seeding systems for use with a laser velocimeter in large scale wind tunnels

Three seeding systems have been used in the 4- by 7- Meter Tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center: Kerosene smoke, solid particle dry dispersing, and solid particle liquid dispersing. It is anticipated that the liquid dispersing system will be used in all future applications at this facility because: (1) it has a steady output; (2) it is easy to operate and reconfigure; and, (3) it delivers particles of near uniform size