Toward a new social contract theory in organization science

Includes bibliographic references (p. 23-29)

First-Year Student Success Initiative: Navigate Working Group Video

Mary Mahoney O\u27Neil, Associate Dean of the College of Education and Human Development discusses the goals of the navigate app working group that is part of the First-Year Student Success Initiative at UMaine

Regularized Laplacian Estimation and Fast Eigenvector Approximation

Recently, Mahoney and Orecchia demonstrated that popular diffusion-based procedures to compute a quick \emph{approximation} to the first nontrivial eigenvector of a data graph Laplacian \emph{exactly} solve certain regularized Semi-Definite Programs (SDPs). In this paper, we extend that result by providing a statistical interpretation of their approximation procedure. Our interpretation will be analogous to the manner in which $\ell_2$-regularized or $\ell_1$-regularized $\ell_2$-regression (often called Ridge regression and Lasso regression, respectively) can be interpreted in terms of a Gaussian prior or a Laplace prior, respectively, on the coefficient vector of the regression problem. Our framework will imply that the solutions to the Mahoney-Orecchia regularized SDP can be interpreted as regularized estimates of the pseudoinverse of the graph Laplacian. Conversely, it will imply that the solution to this regularized estimation problem can be computed very quickly by running, e.g., the fast diffusion-based PageRank procedure for computing an approximation to the first nontrivial eigenvector of the graph Laplacian. Empirical results are also provided to illustrate the manner in which approximate eigenvector computation \emph{implicitly} performs statistical regularization, relative to running the corresponding exact algorithm.Comment: 13 pages and 3 figures. A more detailed version of a paper appearing in the 2011 NIPS Conferenc

The Trouble with Truth-telling: Preliminary Reflections on Truth and Justice in Post-war Liberia

This study investigates perceptions of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), particularly focusing on understandings of, and the links between, truth, justice, and reconciliation. Forty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted at three research sites in Liberia. Findings indicate that although most Liberians agreed with the TRC in principle, most of those who followed its proceedings saw major problems in its implementation, harming perceptions of reconciliation. Participants expressed concerns that the Commission had failed to discover the full truth of wartime abuses, that the truth that was discovered was not told in the right way, and that there had been problems implementing justice. The data indicates that societies recovering from violence and suffering must think carefully about how to revisit their pasts. In order for a truth commission to have a positive impact, it must ensure that truth is told in a reconciliatory fashion, and that its justice-based strategy enjoys popular support

Random Projections For Large-Scale Regression

Fitting linear regression models can be computationally very expensive in large-scale data analysis tasks if the sample size and the number of variables are very large. Random projections are extensively used as a dimension reduction tool in machine learning and statistics. We discuss the applications of random projections in linear regression problems, developed to decrease computational costs, and give an overview of the theoretical guarantees of the generalization error. It can be shown that the combination of random projections with least squares regression leads to similar recovery as ridge regression and principal component regression. We also discuss possible improvements when averaging over multiple random projections, an approach that lends itself easily to parallel implementation.Comment: 13 pages, 3 Figure

The Honorable William H. Victor, The Life and Times of a Distinguished Jurist

William H. Victor after a long and distinguished career as a judge and civic leader has decided to take retired status. He will be able to be recalled to serve where needed on assignment from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio

The Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy: A Centennial Lesson

The Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy (P.S.O.T.) was one of five founding occupational therapy academic programs in the United States. The program was led by two powerful occupational therapists, Helen S. Willard and Clare S. Spackman, for nearly a half century. After 60 years, P.S.O.T. was closed. This article provides a historical overview of the progression of occupational therapy education in the United States over the last century, using the story of P.S.O.T as a case study. The historical legacy and lesson from P.S.O.T. is that excellence in today’s academy may not mean security. Historically relevant today, the interaction between education and societal demands is explored, starting from the founders of the National Society for the Promotion of Occupational Therapy in 1917, through the World Wars, and casting forward. Curricular expansion, the addition of accreditation requirements, financial concerns, and faculty research requirements are presented as influential to the history of occupational therapy education. Lessons for current occupational therapy educational programs are discussed

Lithofacies Control in Detrital Zircon Provenance Studies: Insights from the Cretaceous Methow Basin, Southern Canadian Cordillera

High-frequency sampling for detrital zircon analysis can provide a detailed record of fine-scale basin evolution by revealing the temporal and spatial variability of detrital zircon ages within clastic sedimentary successions. This investigation employed detailed sampling of two sedimentary successions in the Methow/Methow-Tyaughton basin of the southern Canadian Cordillera to characterize the heterogeneity of detrital zircon signatures within single lithofacies and assess the applicability of detrital zircon analysis in distinguishing fine-scale provenance changes not apparent in lithologic analysis of the strata. The Methow/Methow-Tyaughton basin contains two distinct stratigraphic sequences of middle Albian to Santonian clastic sedimentary rocks: submarine-fan deposits of the Harts Pass Formation/Jackass Mountain Group and fluvial deposits of the Winthrop Formation. Although both stratigraphic sequences displayed consistent ranges in detrital zircon ages on a broad scale, detailed sampling within each succession revealed heterogeneity in the detrital zircon age distributions that was systematic and predictable in the turbidite succession but unpredictable in the fluvial succession. These results suggest that a high-density sampling approach permits interpretation of fine-scale changes within a lithologically uniform turbiditic sedimentary succession, but heterogeneity within fluvial systems may be too large and unpredictable to permit accurate fine-scale characterization of the evolution of source regions. The robust composite detrital zircon age signature developed for these two successions permits comparison of the Methow/Methow-Tyaughton basin age signature with known plutonic source-rock ages from major plutonic belts throughout the Cretaceous North American margin. The Methow/Methow-Tyaughton basin detrital zircon age signature matches best with source regions in the southern Canadian Cordillera, requiring that the basin developed in close proximity to the southern Canadian Cordillera and providing evidence against large-scale dextral translation of the Methow terrane