Book Review: Rework

This is a book review of the book "Rework" by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson. It was originally written for the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance member newsletter

Book Review: Venture Deals

Review of the book Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. It was originally written for the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance member newsletter

'Smoking to forget': the impact of prolonged smoking on prospective memory

Prospective memory (PM) refers to remembering to remember and is essential for everyday living. Although recent research has focused upon PM deficits associated with recreational drug use, very little research to date has focused on smoking and PM. This thesis had four aims. Firstly, to verify whether PM deficits are associated with prolonged smoking could be replicated. Secondly, to observe whether such smoking-related deficits extended to objective measures of PM. Thirdly, to assess what effect, if any, abstinence from smoking had upon PM. Fourthly, to ascertain whether there was any difference in PM performance between regular (daily) smokers and social (binge) smokers. Participants were drawn primarily from undergraduates in North East universities. Studies 1�3 in this thesis studied self-reports and objective measures of PM in smokers, previous smokers and non-smokers. Across all three studies no consistent findings were observed on self-reported PM reflecting deficits associated with smoking, but smokers performed worse on the objective measures of PM than non-smokers, with previous smokers falling between the other two groups � suggesting that smokers� PM is impaired and that those who stopped smoking appeared to recover a proportion of their PM function. Study 4 revealed smokers� poor performance on objective tasks was not confounded by their being in a state of withdrawal. Studies 5 and 6 explored whether any difference was observed between �social� (binge) smokers and �regular� (daily) smokers on PM performance. Studies 5 and 6 found no difference between social and regular smokers on a video-based, nor a real-world PM task. Overall, it was concluded that self-reports of PM do not provide consistent findings (first aim), lowered PM performance on objective measures are associated with prolonged smoking (second aim), previous smokers show some recovery of PM function (third aim) and that the pattern of smoking does not affect PM performance in smokers� (fourth aim)

Everyday memory deficits associated with anabolic-androgenic steroid use in regular gymnasium users

Background: This study compared a group of 47 regular gym users who take androgenic-anabolic steroids (the AAS group) as part of their recreational sport, with a group of 48 regular gym users who do not use AAS (the Non-AAS group) on self-reports of Retrospective memory (RM), executive function (EF) and prospective memory (PM), which are all critical to everyday remembering. Methods: All participants were tested using an on-line Survey Monkey method. The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) assessed everyday RM and PM deficits and the Executive Function Questionnaire (EFQ) assessed self-reported problems in EF. A drug-use questionnaire and a mood questionnaire were also administered Results: After observing no between-group differences on alcohol or mood, omitting anyone who drank excessively or had drank recently, smoked or reported using any illegal drug, three one-way ANCOVAs (controlling for age) revealed that the ASS group reported significantly more RM deficits, EF deficits, and PM deficits, when compared with the NonASS group. Conclusion: It was concluded that AAS use in a recreational sports context is associated with RM, EF and PM deficits, indicating that AAS use may damage everyday remembering

Interval estimation via tail functions

In this paper we describe a new methodology for constructing confidence intervals. The idea is to specify the tail cutoff areas in terms of a function of the target parameter rather than as constants. This function, called the tail function, can be engineered so as to provide shorter confidence intervals when prior information is available. It can also be used to improve the coverage properties of approximate confidence intervals. We illustrate the methodology by applying it to inference on the normal mean and binomial proportion, and develop measures of the resulting improvements. Guidelines for choosing the optimal tail function in any situation are provided, and the relationship with Bayesian inference is discussed

University Technology Transfer Process and University Libraries

This poster will depict the innovation ecosystem relevant to University Technology Transfer (UTT), particularly focusing on the current and potential roles that academic libraries play in supporting and interacting with these functions. In studying the process of UTT, the audience will gain insight into how UTT functions, the potential value their expertise can provide, while also helping develop an understanding of the terminology and metrics for success used in the UTT community. An important challenge for responding to the needs of this group is the constraints on what is available to them through University Libraries due to licensing and budgetary limitations. The poster will explore the opportunities and resources available that map to UTT needs while navigating those limitations, featuring open access and other available resources. Though most informed by the experience of the home country, differences in home-geography governance will also be reflected in the poster

Book Review: Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid

This is a book review of the book Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid by Daniel Isenberg. It was originally written for the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance member newsletter