First Faith, Then Reason

John Philipp Koehler (1859-1951) was a professor of church history at the theological seminary of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod at Wauwatosa, Wis., from 1900 to 1930. This essay, translated by Philemon Hensel, was first delivered in German to a conference of pastors and professors in the early 1920s. It is here reprinted with permission from Faith-Life, XLI (May/ June 1968), 15-18

Information Management Principles Applied to the Ballistic Missile Defense System

Information systems (IS) have evolved over the last 50 plus years from individual components with single functionality to grand architectures that integrate multiple individual business functions into global organizational enterprises. Similarly several military systems with the single mission of missile defense have evolved in service stovepipes, and are now being integrated into a national and global missile defense architecture. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is currently tasked with developing an integrated Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) capable of defending against all ranges of ballistic missiles in all phases of flight in defense of the homeland, our deployed forces, and our allies. While this initiative has been proceeding since before Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the full momentum has only recently been achieved through the withdrawal of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and demonstrated threats from North Korea and Iran. This study draws parallels between the evolution of IS and the BMDS. Further it compiles information management (IM) principles, investigates if they apply to the BMDS, and investigates if they can be used to achieve a better integrated system. Initial indications are that IM principles do apply, but it is questionable if they are being applied

An Empirical Research Agenda for the Forensic Sciences

After the National Academy of Sciences issued a stunning report in 2009 on the unscientific state of many forensic science subfields, forensic science has undergone internal and external scrutiny that it had managed to avoid for decades. Although some reform efforts are underway, forensic science writ large has yet to embrace and settle upon an empirical research agenda that addresses knowledge gaps pertaining to the reliability of its methods. Our paper addresses this problem by proposing a preliminary set of fourteen empirical studies for the forensic sciences. Following a brief discussion of the courtroom treatment of forensic science evidence, we sketch a series of studies that should be conducted to increase understanding of what forensic examiners are doing, how accurately they are doing it, and how cognitive bias may affect the work product. We also propose several studies that examine how the specific questions examiners are asked might affect the validity and persuasiveness of examiners’ responses. We conclude by affirming the importance of developing a research culture within the forensic sciences that includes a commitment to conducting, participating in, and relying upon high quality empirical research

Decision Making and the Law: Truth Barriers

Reaching an accurate outcome is a central goal of the American trial. But structural features of the legal system, in combination with the cognitive shortcomings of legal actors, hinder the search for truth. Regarding the legal system, various rules and policies restrict decision makers’ access to evidence, violate the laws of probability, and limit the evidentiary concerns that may be considered on appeal. Regarding legal actors, informational deficits (particularly regarding scientific and statistical evidence) and cognitive biases of police investigators, witnesses (lay and expert), attorneys, judges, and jurors pose serious obstacles. We conclude by suggesting that research in judgment and decision making may hold the key to understanding legal decisions and increasing their accuracy

Jury Simulation Goals

What are the goals that researchers who conduct jury simulations have or should have? Drawing on Pennington and Hastie (1981), we identify three primary goals: (1) develop theory, (2) describe how juries perform, and (3) improve the jury process. Where basic theory matters most, studies should be designed in ways that stress internal validity. Where describing the behaviors of real juries or persuading policy makers about changes that should be made, studies should focus on external and ecological validity as well. We urge researchers who are interested in describing jury behavior and improving the jury process to conduct ecologically valid studies. Failure to do so will restrict the impact of our research on courts and policy makers

Pattern and Special Considerations in the Organization of Landscape Material in Painting

60 pagesIt was Aristotle who first expressed the idea that an artist should be more than just an “Imitator of Nature” As Plato had stated. It was aristotle's belief that an artist should concern himself with what he calls the “Essence of Nature”. He sees the artist as an organizer of human experience. As such the artist does not copy nature literally and indiscriminately but rather selectively and creatively. Aristotle states that the purpose of the artist is to express the “truth” or the “universal” in life or rather to discover those things which are meaningful and significant and present these in a discriminating, discerning, and effective way. In order to produce or express what is the “Universal” the artist must produce a work which Aristotle said was to have “Internal Unity”. A painting which has this unity is one in which all of the parts are so interrelated “if any of them is displaced or removed the hole would be disjointed and disturbed.” As Aristotle reasoned “a thing whose presence or absence makes no visible difference is not an organic part of the whole." To some of this philosophy in contemporary terms would be to state that an artist should try to be selective in his choice of subject matter, be creative in the use of materials and media, be discriminating in the presenting of meaningful and significant discoveries and observations, and be able to present the whole in an effective way. It was not the intention of the writer to bring Aristotle into this paper to lend an aura of respectability. Ever since reading this work already cited it has been felt that this idea of Oh I seeAristotle’s would be a fairly good “rule of thumb” by which to gage one's painting efforts, and also be a good point of departure or a framework for a contemporary approach to painting. It lends itself well to the subject of this paper

Super-dosed Phytase Improves Rate and Efficiency of Gain in Nursery Pigs

The performance and growth of four hundred forty newly weaned nursery pigs were observed over a 35-day trial at the Iowa State University Swine Nutrition Farm. Pigs were allotted to one of four treatments: an NRC derived positive control [PC], a negative control with 10% lower SID lysine with relative lowering of all other essential amino acids and 1% reduced fat [NC], and two phytase levels: 0 vs 2,500 FTU Quantum Blue, with the 2,500 FTU being considered ‘super-dosed’. Pigs started with an average initial body weight of 6.27 ± 0.01 kg., and received feed and water ad libitum. For the overall experiment, both diet and phytase improved ADG and G:F. However, ADFI was unaffected, and there were no interactions. In conclusion, including phytase at super-dosed levels in the nursery pig diet improves growth performance, regardless of diet adequacy

Determination of SID Tryptophan to Lysine Ratio in Nursery Pigs

Four hundred and fiftynewly weaned nursery pigs were observed over a 35-day period at the Iowa State University Swine Nutrition Farm. Pigs were weighed and allotted to 1 of 5 treatments upon arriving, averaging 6.49 ± 0.40 kg for an initial bodyweight. All pigs were had ad libitumaccessto feed and water. The 5 treatments consisted of differing ratios of SID tryptophan to lysine, as follows: 0.150 Trp:Lys, 0.175 Trp:Lys, 0.200 Trp:Lys, 0.225 Trp:Lys, and 0.250 Trp:Lys. The overall data indicate that there is no further advantage in termsof growth performance and feed efficiency by having a diet containing a Trp:Lys ratio greater than 0.175 for nursery pigs. The Trp:Lys ratio largely explained variation in feed efficiency, but not ADG or ADFI. These data are supportive of the Trp:Lys ratio (Trp:Lys = 0.170) specified by the NRC (2012)

Identification of genetic markers for productive life in commercial sows

Escalating replacement rates and production costs warrant attention on sow productive life (SPL). Increasing average SPL by one-tenth of 1 parity would result in an annual revenue increase of over $15 million in the United States. Research in model organisms has revealed conserved genes and gene pathways that lead to longer lifespan. The most prominent gene pathways are those involved in growth, most notably genes in the IGF pathway that serve to mimic the response of caloric restriction. The objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that these well conserved genes and gene pathways could also play a role in SPL, even though the productive life of sows is both a measure of longevity and their reproductive performance. Preliminary research on 3 distinct populations of over 2,000 animals suggested that several genes were associated with components of SPL. Genetic markers were then analyzed against the corresponding records of the sows for reproductive and longevity traits using a validation population of 2,000 commercial females. Right censored data were used to test associations of genetic markers with survival to defined time points. Three distinct models of survival analysis were implemented using nonparametric estimates of the survival distribution in a sequential order, using a parametric accelerated failure time model with a Weibull distribution of the error term, and a Cox proportional hazards model, which is a semiparametric model that uses an unspecified baseline hazard function. The genetic markers CCR7 and CPT1A were significantly associated (P \u3c 0.05) with survival using the nonparametric model and tended (P \u3c 0.1) toward significance using the parametric and semiparametric models with significantly different effects (P \u3c 0.05) between some genotype classes. Genetic markers for MBL2, IGFBP3, and WARS2 also tended (P \u3c 0.1) toward significance for survival traits, but were not consistent. Mixed model analyses were used to determine the associations of these genetic markers with reproductive traits. The genetic markers for IGFBP1, MBL2, CPT1A, CCR7, SLC22A5, and ACE were significantly (P \u3c 0.05) associated with at least 1 reproductive trait. These results show that molecular markers should be considered for use in marker-assisted selection to improve SPL