The Cross-Wavelet Transform and Analysis of Quasiperiodic Behavior in the Pearson-Readhead VLBI Survey Sources

We introduce an algorithm for applying a cross-wavelet transform to analysis of quasiperiodic variations in a time-series, and introduce significance tests for the technique. We apply a continuous wavelet transform and the cross-wavelet algorithm to the Pearson-Readhead VLBI survey sources using data obtained from the University of Michigan 26-m parabloid at observing frequencies of 14.5, 8.0, and 4.8 GHz. Thirty of the sixty-two sources were chosen to have sufficient data for analysis, having at least 100 data points for a given time-series. Of these thirty sources, a little more than half exhibited evidence for quasiperiodic behavior in at least one observing frequency, with a mean characteristic period of 2.4 yr and standard deviation of 1.3 yr. We find that out of the thirty sources, there were about four time scales for every ten time series, and about half of those sources showing quasiperiodic behavior repeated the behavior in at least one other observing frequency.Comment: Revised version, accepted by ApJ. 17 pages, 13 figures, color figures included as gifs, seperate from the text. The addition of statistical significance tests has resulted in modifying the technique and results, but the broad conclusion remain the same. A high resolution version may be found at http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/obs/radiotel/prcwdata.htm

Using Technology to Monitor Hearing Device Use and Linguistic Environments: Early Intervention Providers’ Perspectives

To optimize outcomes of children with hearing loss, early intervention professionals must work with families to optimize both children’s hearing device use and the linguistic and auditory features of their environments. Two technologies with potential use in monitoring these domains are data logging and Language Environment Analysis (LENA) technology. This study had two objectives: 1) to determine whether providers’ experiences, perspectives, and current practices indicate there is a need for tools to better monitor these domains, and 2) to gain a better understanding of providers’ experiences with and perspectives on use of data logging and LENA technology using an internet-based questionnaire. Providers used informal, subjective methods to monitor functioning in the two domains and felt confident that this allowed them to know how consistently children on their caseloads were wearing their hearing devices and what their environments were like between intervention visits. Providers had limited personal experience with accessing data logging information from hearing devices, but many were receiving that information from the child’s audiologist. Most providers reported limited personal experience with LENA technology. Most providers indicated that they believed access to the technologies may be beneficial, but only if coupled with proper funding for the technology, appropriate training, and supportive administrative policies

The Importance of Cultural Context in Rural Education: Historical and Modern Perspectives

This paper presents a review of the historical context and the prominent debates about rural education that occurred from 1900-1940 and connects current trends in rural education to this history. Outmigration of rural youth and the decline of rural populations spurred the development of the Country Life Commission (Danbom, 1979) which sought to address this problem through rural education reform. Outmigration of rural youth continues to be a concern for rural communities, and the continued and important role of modern education in this phenomenon is discussed. Additionally, the current paper offers a review of other historic concerns regarding rural education including the training and recruitment of teachers, school district consolidation, and content of rural curriculum. Links to modern debates surrounding educational resources (e.g., funding) and curriculum are discussed, including the importance of place-based education, along with an historic case example highlighting culturally informed educational practices offered by the Montana Life Project (Montana Education Association, ca. 1937). Targets of advocacy to improve rural education historically and contemporarily are highlighted, as well as the importance of cultural competence in rural education. Additionally, implications for modern rural education drawn from the connection of historical debates and contexts and current situations are provided

Your Place in Space: Classroom Experiment on Spatial Location Theory

The authors detail an urban economics experiment that is easily run in the classroom. The experiment has a flexible design that allows the instructor to explore how congestion, zoning, public transportation, and taxation levels determine the bid-rent function. Heterogeneous agents in the experiment compete for land use utilizing a simple auction mechanism. Using the data that is collected, a bid-rent function is derived, and the experimental treatment is altered over the course of three sessions to uncover core concepts in urban economics. Moreover, this provides a tangible experience that can be used to help undergraduates relate to urban issues such as the steep rent gradient found around many larger colleges and universities.

ABA Criminal Justice Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners

or more than i O years, corrections professionals and others concerned about the treatment of prisoners have despaired over conditions in California\u27s prisons. Crowding, violence, racial segregation, abysmal medical care, an obstructionist corrections union. and a state budget crisis have combined to bring the system to the point of constitutional meltdov,n. In 2008. a state appellate court found conditions of \u27extreme peril to the safety of persons and property,\u27\u27 and a three-judge federal court confirmed the existence of a substantial risk to the health and safety of the men and women who work inside these prisons and the inmates housed in them. (See CCPOA v. Schwarzenegger, 77 Cal. Rptr. 3d 844. 854 (Cal. App. Ct. 2008); Coleman v. Schwarzenegger, 2009 WL 330960 (Feb. 9, 2009).) California\u27s situation is extreme and atypical, but its lessons have not been lost on other jurisdictions struggling to cope with greatly expanded prison populations in a time of severe budget constraints. Nor have they been lost on the legal profession

Strategyproof Computing: Systems Infrastructures for Self-Interested Parties

The widespread deployment of high-speed internet access is ushering in a new era of distributed computing, in which parties both contribute to a global pool of shared resources and access the pooled resources to support their own computing needs. We argue that system designers must explicitly address the self-interest of individual parties if these next-generation computing systems are to flourish. We propose strategyproof computing, a vision for an open computing infrastructure in which resource allocation and negotiation schemes are incentive-compatible, and individual parties can treat other resources as their own. In this paper we outline key guiding principles for the vision of strategyproof computing, define the strategyproof computing paradigm, and lay out a systems-related research agenda.Engineering and Applied Science

Virtual Worlds: Fast and Strategyproof Auctions for Dynamic Resource Allocation

We consider the problem of designing fast and strategyproof exchanges for dynamic resource allocation problems in distributed systems. The exchange is implemented as a sequence of auctions, with dynamically arriving requests from agents matched with each auction. Each auction is associated with some consignment of the resources from a single seller. We provide a simple Virtual Worlds (VW) construction, that extends a fast and strategyproof mechanism for a single auction to apply to this sequence-of-auctions setting. Rather than match each buyer with a single auction, the VW mechanism allows buyers to be considered for multiple auctions while retaining strategyproofness.Engineering and Applied Science