Public Opinion in Perspective: Wisconsin's Mind on Education

Outlines survey findings on Wisconsin residents' views on the quality of public schools and reforms including increased spending, accountability, vouchers, charter schools, online education, and merit pay, compared with Milwaukee and national surveys

Arbitrarily slow approach to limiting behavior

Journal ArticleABSTRACT. Let f(k, t): RN x [0, oo) -- R be jointly continuous in k and t, with lim(t)--(oo) f(k, t) = F(k) discontinuous for a dense set of k's. It is proven that there exists a dense set T of k's such that, for k e T , |f(k, t) - F(k)| approaches 0 arbitrarily slowly, i.e., roughly speaking, more slowly than any expressible function g(t) -- 0 . This result is applied to diffusion and conduction in quasiperiodic media and yields arbitrarily slow approaches to limiting behavior as time or volume becomes infinite. Such a slow approach is in marked contrast to the power laws widely found for random media, and, in fact, implies that there is no law whatsoever governing the asymptotics

Nash estimates and the asymptotic behavior of diffusions

Journal ArticleIn order to analyze the asymptotic behavior of a particle diffusing in a drift field derived from a smooth bounded potential, we develop Nash-type a priori estimates on the transition density of the process. As an immediate consequence of the estimates, we find that for a rapidly decaying potential in Rd, the mean squared displacement behaves like td + C(t), where C(t) (the time integral of the "velocity autocorrelation function") decays like t-d/2. We also prove, using the estimates, that for a potential in Rd of the form V + B, where V is stationary random ergodic and B has compact support, the diffusion converges under space and time scaling to the same Brownian motion as does the diffusion with B = 0

Campaign advertising and democratic citizenship

Concern about the state of American democracy is a staple of political science and popular commentary. Critics warn that levels of citizen participation and political knowledge are disturbingly low and that seemingly ubiquitous political advertising is contributing to the problem. We argue that political advertising is rife with both informational and emotional content and actually contributes to a more informed, more engaged, and more participatory citizenry. With detailed advertising data from the 2000 election, we show that exposure to campaign advertising produces citizens who are more interested in the election, have more to say about the candidates, are more familiar with who is running, and ultimately are more likely to vote. Importantly, these effects are concentrated among those citizens who need it most: those with the lowest pre-existing levels of political information

Does bicycling contribute to the risk of erectile dysfunction? Results from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study (MMAS)

An association between bicycling and erectile dysfunction (ED) has been described previously, but there are limited data examining this association in a random population of men. Such data would incorporate bicyclists with varied types of riding and other factors. Data from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study (MMAS) were utilized to examine the association between bicycling and ED. Logistic regression was used to test for an association, controlling for age, energy expenditure, smoking, depression and chronic illness. Bicycling less than 3 h per week was not associated with ED and may be somewhat protective. Bicycling 3 h or more per week may be associated with ED. Data revealed that there may be a reduced probability of ED in those who ride less than 3 h per week and ED may be more likely in bikers who ride more than 3 h per week. More population-based research is needed to better define this relationship

Creating Test Score Bands for Assessments Involving Ratings using a Generalizability Theory Approach to Reliability Estimation

The selection of a method for estimating the reliability of ratings has considerable implications for the use of assessments in personnel selection. In particular, the accuracy of corrections to validity coefficients for unreliability and test score bands are completely dependent on the correct estimation of the reliability. In this paper, we discuss how generalizability theory can be used to estimate reliability for test score bands with assessments involving ratings. Using selection data from a municipal entity, we demonstrate the use of generalizability theory-based compare the implications of its use in test score banding compared to the traditional approach

Evaluating measures of campaign advertising exposure on political learning

Scholars employ various methods to measure exposure to televised political advertising but often arrive at conflicting conclusions about its impact on the thoughts and actions of citizens. We attempt to clarify one of these debates while validating a parsimonious measure of political advertising exposure. To do so, we assess the predictive power of six different measurement approaches - from the simple to the complex - on learning about political candidates. Two datasets are used in this inquiry: (1) geo-coded political advertising time-buy data, and (2) a national panel study concerning patterns of media consumption and levels of political knowledge. We conclude that many traditional methods of assessing exposure are flawed. Fortunately, there is a relatively simple measure that predicts knowledge about information featured in ads. This measure involves combining a tally of the volume of advertisements aired in a market with a small number of survey questions about the television viewing habits of geo-coded respondents

Adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study: Overview of substance use assessment methods.

One of the objectives of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org/) is to establish a national longitudinal cohort of 9 and 10 year olds that will be followed for 10 years in order to prospectively study the risk and protective factors influencing substance use and its consequences, examine the impact of substance use on neurocognitive, health and psychosocial outcomes, and to understand the relationship between substance use and psychopathology. This article provides an overview of the ABCD Study Substance Use Workgroup, provides the goals for the workgroup, rationale for the substance use battery, and includes details on the substance use module methods and measurement tools used during baseline, 6-month and 1-year follow-up assessment time-points. Prospective, longitudinal assessment of these substance use domains over a period of ten years in a nationwide sample of youth presents an unprecedented opportunity to further understand the timing and interactive relationships between substance use and neurocognitive, health, and psychopathology outcomes in youth living in the United States