US Forest Service and National Park Service Wilderness Aircraft Overflight Study: Sociological background and study plans

The background and sociological aspects of the combined U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service Wilderness Aircraft Overflight Study (WACOS) are presented. The WACOS broaches a new area of research by combining aspects of outdoor recreation sociology and aircraft noise response studies. The tasks faced create new challenges and require innovative solutions. Background information on the WACOS is presented with special emphasis on sociological considerations. At the time of this writing, no data have yet been collected, so this paper will present background information, related issues, and plans for data collection. Some recent studies indicate that managers of Forest Service wildernesses and National Park Service areas consider aircraft overflights to be a problem to their users in some areas. Additional relevant background research from outdoor recreation sociology is discussed, followed by presentation of the authors' opinions of the most salient sociological issues faced by this study. The goals and desired end products are identified next, followed by a review of the methods anticipated to be used to obtain these results. Finally, a discussion and conclusion section is provided

Preliminary thoughts on an acoustic metric for the wilderness aircraft overflight study

Preliminary thoughts on acoustic metrics are presented which may be appropriate for the measurement of sound caused by aircraft overflights of wilderness areas. The use of parameter d'(measure of an energy flattened signal plus noise to nose relationship in the third octave, corrected for the efficiency of the observer) as a standard is considered

Chaos, Sunspots, and Automatic Stabilizers

We study a one-sector growth model which is standard except for the presence of an externality in the production function. The set of competitive equilibria is large. It includes constant equilibria, sunspot equilibria, cyclical and chaotic equilibria, and equilibria with deterministic or stochastic regime switching. The efficient allocation is characterized by constant employment and a constant growth rate. We identify an income tax-subsidy schedule that supports the efficient allocation as the unique equilibrium outcome. That schedule has two properties: (i) it specifies the tax rate to be an increasing function of aggregate employment, and (ii) earnings are subsidized when aggregate employment is at its efficient level. The first feature eliminates inefficient, fluctuating equilibria, while the second induces agents to internalize the externality.

Nonparametric regression in exponential families

Most results in nonparametric regression theory are developed only for the case of additive noise. In such a setting many smoothing techniques including wavelet thresholding methods have been developed and shown to be highly adaptive. In this paper we consider nonparametric regression in exponential families with the main focus on the natural exponential families with a quadratic variance function, which include, for example, Poisson regression, binomial regression and gamma regression. We propose a unified approach of using a mean-matching variance stabilizing transformation to turn the relatively complicated problem of nonparametric regression in exponential families into a standard homoscedastic Gaussian regression problem. Then in principle any good nonparametric Gaussian regression procedure can be applied to the transformed data. To illustrate our general methodology, in this paper we use wavelet block thresholding to construct the final estimators of the regression function. The procedures are easily implementable. Both theoretical and numerical properties of the estimators are investigated. The estimators are shown to enjoy a high degree of adaptivity and spatial adaptivity with near-optimal asymptotic performance over a wide range of Besov spaces. The estimators also perform well numerically.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOS762 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Robust nonparametric estimation via wavelet median regression

In this paper we develop a nonparametric regression method that is simultaneously adaptive over a wide range of function classes for the regression function and robust over a large collection of error distributions, including those that are heavy-tailed, and may not even possess variances or means. Our approach is to first use local medians to turn the problem of nonparametric regression with unknown noise distribution into a standard Gaussian regression problem and then apply a wavelet block thresholding procedure to construct an estimator of the regression function. It is shown that the estimator simultaneously attains the optimal rate of convergence over a wide range of the Besov classes, without prior knowledge of the smoothness of the underlying functions or prior knowledge of the error distribution. The estimator also automatically adapts to the local smoothness of the underlying function, and attains the local adaptive minimax rate for estimating functions at a point. A key technical result in our development is a quantile coupling theorem which gives a tight bound for the quantile coupling between the sample medians and a normal variable. This median coupling inequality may be of independent interest.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS513 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Media Use and Performance in Air Force Organizations: Testing the Value of Media Richness Theory

Communication is a critical factor in any organization. The choices Air Force members make when communicating have a direct impact on mission accomplishment. Media Richness Theory (MRT) recognizes that communication needs, and the ability of various media to support them, are influenced by a number of factors involving the message content, situational elements, and its symbolic aspects. The theory predicts employees who use more appropriate communication media face to face conversation, telephone, e-mail, and written correspondence as predicted by the theory, will be more effective performers. The ability of MRT to explain supervisory performance ratings for a group of junior enlisted Air Force members (n=48) and another group of senior enlisted Air Force members (n=33) was tested. Results showed that junior enlisted members who made media choices more consistent with MRT were rated as more effective performers by their supervisors. This is consistent with the findings of previous studies. However, the results for senior enlisted members were not consistent with the theory. For senior enlisted members, agreement with their supervisor\u27s media choices was a better predictor of performance than agreement with MRT\u27s predictions. This suggests that MRT may be more applicable for some types of employees than others

Effect of Calcium Chloride and Isoflurane on Force Frequency Relationship in Canines

Proper calcium cycling is critical for a optimally functioning heart. Improper calcium cycling in humans can contribute to heart failure. Human calcium cycling is difficult to study due to the risks of damaging the patient’s cardiac tissue. Risk of further damaging cardiac tissue is substantially increased in a heart failure patient. Past studies focus on studying the effects of changing calcium cycling in lab rats. Current research shows limited alternative methods in studying relationships between calcium cycling and FFR in larger mammals. This project analyzes data to determine the response of the canine force frequency relationship to calcium chloride and isoflurane infusion

Ethnic Stereotyping as Human Rights Violation in Ghana: Exploring University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Students’ Perceptions

In this study, the spotlight was focused on how ethnic stereotyping constitutes human rights violation in Ghana by exploring the perceptions of the students of the University of Education, Winneba.  The research design adopted for the study was a case study, embarking upon a qualitative research approach. A census comprising all the 15 Level 700 students offering M.Phil in Social Studies in the Department of Social Studies Education at the University of Education, Winneba was involved in the study. Interview schedule and focus group discussion were used to collect data for the study.  The data collected were analyzed thematically, based on the research questions raised for the study. The study revealed that a lot of ethnic stereotyping takes place in Ghana and these affect the ethnic groups psychologically, socially, politically and economically. It is, therefore, recommended that the concept stereotyping be incorporated into the school curriculum, via social studies, in order to gradually change people’s attitude towards such wrongful characterization of ethnic groups in the country. Keywords: Ethnicity, Stereotyping, Perceptions, Violations, Human Rights, Human Rights Violation, Ethnic Stereotyping

Rites of Passage, Rites of Academia: Facilitating the High School to College Transition through the Matriculation Process

The transition from high school to college can be challenging for many college bound students. In many colleges, polytechnics and universities today, administrators have put in place various strategies to facilitate a smooth high school-to-college transition for freshmen. In particular, Freshmen Orientation Programs (FOP) have been strategically used as a process towards the successful matriculation of students. This study is aimed to examine the Matriculation Process of freshmen through the theoretical lens of rites of passage. It employed participant observation and interviews, to examine pertinent issues of transition and adaptation of freshmen during the Matriculation Process at Ho Polytechnic. The findings revealed that FOPs which constituted the rites in the passage of transition from high school to the Polytechnic followed a process of ritualized phases akin to traditional rites of passage with the Ceremony of Matriculation as the crowning rite of incorporation. Post-matriculation evaluation interviews with participants showed that the Matriculation Process as an academic rite of passage was to a large extent effective in facilitating a smooth transition to life in the Polytechnic. Key words: Rites of Passage, Rites of Academia, Transition, Freshmen Orientation, Matriculation Proces