Variations in farrow : with special reference to the birth weight of pigs

Includes index.Cover title

Testing for monotonicity in the Hubble diagram

General relativistic kinematics and the cosmological principle alone imply a monotonicity constraint in the Hubble diagram, which we confront to present-day supernova data. We use the running gradient method of statistical inference by Hall & Heckman (2000). We find no significant departure from monotonicity. The method seems well adapted and we recommend its use with future data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Control of flow separation and mixing by aerodynamic excitation

The recent research in the control of shear flows using unsteady aerodynamic excitation conducted at the NASA Lewis Research Center is reviewed. The program is of a fundamental nature, concentrating on the physics of the unsteady aerodynamic processes. This field of research is a fairly new development with great promise in the areas of enhanced mixing and flow separation control. Enhanced mixing research includes influence of core turbulence, forced pairing of coherent structures, and saturation of mixing enhancement. Separation flow control studies included are for a two-dimensional diffuser, conical diffusers, and single airfoils. Ultimate applications include aircraft engine inlet flow control at high angle of attack, wide angle diffusers, highly loaded airfoils as in turbomachinery, and ejector/suppressor nozzles for the supersonic transport. An argument involving the Coanda Effect is made that all of the above mentioned application areas really only involve forms of shear layer mixing enhancement. The program also includes the development of practical excitation devices which might be used in aircraft applications

The experience of education: the impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families

This study lays bare Australian educator’s perspectives of NAPLAN testing and its unintended effects on schooling and student well-being. The report draws on the experience of over 8,300 teachers and principals across the country, surveyed at the time of the NAPLAN testing in mid-May, 2012. It probes the impact of NAPLAN on testing, pedagogy and curriculum practice as well as the more difficult (and largely ignored) question of the impact on students’ health and well-being. &nbsp

Introduction to papers on astrostatistics

We are pleased to present a Special Section on Statistics and Astronomy in this issue of the The Annals of Applied Statistics. Astronomy is an observational rather than experimental science; as a result, astronomical data sets both small and large present particularly challenging problems to analysts who must make the best of whatever the sky offers their instruments. The resulting statistical problems have enormous diversity. In one problem, one may have to carefully quantify uncertainty in a hard-won, sparse data set; in another, the sheer volume of data may forbid a formally optimal analysis, requiring judicious balancing of model sophistication, approximations, and clever algorithms. Often the data bear a complex relationship to the underlying phenomenon producing them, much in the manner of inverse problems.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS234 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Revegetation of Reconstructed Reaches of the Provo River, Heber Valley, Utah

Prior to the 1950s, the middle Provo River in Utah offered outstanding fish and wildlife habitat. This was due in part to the Provo River freely meandering through the Heber Valley. These bends in the river provided deep holes for fish and a dense streamside forest for many species of birds. This productive habitat was altered in the 1940s and 1950s when the river was dammed, channelized, and forced between dikes (figure 1). These dikes were constructed by the USDI Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) to contain high flows that came from additional water added to the Provo River from transbasin diversions. With the loss of the meandering channel came loss of fish and wildlife habitat. In 1992, Congress created the Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission (Mitigation Commission) to assure that mitigation for the Central Utah Project (CUP) and other Federal reclamation projects in Utah was accomplished. With the creation of the Mitigation Commission, new standards were imposed on mitigation projects that can be summarized as an “ecosystem restoration” standard. With this mandate, the Mitigation Commission was directed to support mitigation projects that integrated multiple aspects of the environment. Fish and riparian habitat in the middle Provo River was severely degraded as the result of earlier actions taken to develop Provo River waters for agricultural, municipal, industrial, and other purposes. Knowing the past productivity of the middle Provo River for fish and wildlife habitat, interest turned to the middle Provo River as a site for CUP mitigation. The Provo River Restoration Project (PRRP) involved removing or setting back most existing flood-control dikes, restoring meanders, and reestablishing a floodplain along the middle Provo River. The project began in 1999 and is anticipated to continue through 2006. In addition to fish and riparian habitat restoration, this project included acquisition of angler access, modification of diversion dams to bypass instream flows, and recreation facilities planning and development