27,606 research outputs found
Applications of cluster analysis in natural resources research
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
Australian Fathers\u27 Study: What influences paternal engagement with antenatal care?
This mixed-methods study explores factors associated with and levels of engagement of fathers in antenatal care. One hundred expectant fathers were recruited from antenatal clinics and community settings in Western Australia. They completed validated questionnaires. Eighty-three percent of expectant fathers reported a lack of engagement with antenatal care. Factors significantly associated with lack of engagement in multivariate analysis were working more than 40 hours a week and lack of adequate consultation by antenatal care staff. In qualitative analysis, 6 themes emerged in association with a lack of engagement. They were role in decision making, time pressures, the observer effect, lack of knowledge, barriers to attendance, and feeling unprepared or anxious. Care providers should involve fathers in consultations to improve paternal engagement
Hadronic and electromagnetic probes of hot and dense matter in a Boltzmann+Hydrodynamics model of relativistic nuclear collisions
We present recent results on bulk observables and electromagnetic probes
obtained using a hybrid approach based on the Ultrarelativistic Quantum
Molecular Dynamics transport model with an intermediate hydrodynamic stage for
the description of heavy-ion collisions at AGS, SPS and RHIC energies. After
briefly reviewing the main results for particle multiplicities, elliptic flow,
transverse momentum and rapidity spectra, we focus on photon and dilepton
emission from hot and dense hadronic matter.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of WISH 2010: International Workshop on
Interplay between Soft and Hard interactions in particle production at
ultrarelativistic energies, Catania, Italy, 8-10 September 201
A new approach to hierarchical data analysis: Targeted maximum likelihood estimation for the causal effect of a cluster-level exposure
We often seek to estimate the impact of an exposure naturally occurring or
randomly assigned at the cluster-level. For example, the literature on
neighborhood determinants of health continues to grow. Likewise, community
randomized trials are applied to learn about real-world implementation,
sustainability, and population effects of interventions with proven
individual-level efficacy. In these settings, individual-level outcomes are
correlated due to shared cluster-level factors, including the exposure, as well
as social or biological interactions between individuals. To flexibly and
efficiently estimate the effect of a cluster-level exposure, we present two
targeted maximum likelihood estimators (TMLEs). The first TMLE is developed
under a non-parametric causal model, which allows for arbitrary interactions
between individuals within a cluster. These interactions include direct
transmission of the outcome (i.e. contagion) and influence of one individual's
covariates on another's outcome (i.e. covariate interference). The second TMLE
is developed under a causal sub-model assuming the cluster-level and
individual-specific covariates are sufficient to control for confounding.
Simulations compare the alternative estimators and illustrate the potential
gains from pairing individual-level risk factors and outcomes during
estimation, while avoiding unwarranted assumptions. Our results suggest that
estimation under the sub-model can result in bias and misleading inference in
an observational setting. Incorporating working assumptions during estimation
is more robust than assuming they hold in the underlying causal model. We
illustrate our approach with an application to HIV prevention and treatment
Processing ERTS and Aircraft MSS data with the General Electric Image 100 system
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
On the distribution of career longevity and the evolution of home run prowess in professional baseball
Statistical analysis is a major aspect of baseball, from player averages to
historical benchmarks and records. Much of baseball fanfare is based around
players exceeding the norm, some in a single game and others over a long
career. Career statistics serve as a metric for classifying players and
establishing their historical legacy. However, the concept of records and
benchmarks assumes that the level of competition in baseball is stationary in
time. Here we show that power-law probability density functions, a hallmark of
many complex systems that are driven by competition, govern career longevity in
baseball. We also find similar power laws in the density functions of all major
performance metrics for pitchers and batters. The use of performance-enhancing
drugs has a dark history, emerging as a problem for both amateur and
professional sports. We find statistical evidence consistent with
performance-enhancing drugs in the analysis of home runs hit by players in the
last 25 years. This is corroborated by the findings of the Mitchell Report [1],
a two-year investigation into the use of illegal steroids in major league
baseball, which recently revealed that over 5 percent of major league baseball
players tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in an anonymous 2003
survey.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 2-column revtex4 format. Revision has change of
title, a figure added, and minor changes in response to referee comment
Time-lapse Video as a Self-Reflection Tool for Collaborative Learning Projects
For many disciplines, students are required to learn to work collaboratively in groups and to perform team-based activities such as brainstorming, collaborative problem solving, and cooperative decision-making. To support the learning of such team-based processes, many university courses require students to engage in short “group challenges.” These challenges often comprise in-class experiences in which students form small teams and attempt to solve a simulated problem of practice. Upon completion of the challenge, students are usually asked to reflect upon their experiences and to evaluate their group dynamics, their collective time management, and other factors that might have contributed to the success and/or failure of the team effort. A common problem is students, like most people, are generally poor at self-reflection and have a difficult time objectively assessing their personal behavior as well as the behavior of their group. To address this problem, time-lapse video has been employed as a novel pedagogical intervention for enhancing student reflection in group exercises. Under the protocol, groups were video taped using time-lapse technology that visually compresses time, for example compressing a sixty-minute work session into a sixty-second high-speed video. We postulated that by watching the high-speed video of their own collaborative efforts, the students would more readily recognize patterns of behavior they otherwise would have missed: becoming more insightful when assessing group dynamics, division of labor, time management, and the reasons for the success or failure of their collaborative effort. This paper describes our preliminary efforts to develop and test such a time-lapse video intervention for university-level group projects and describes initial observations regarding the effect of this intervention upon student reflections
Isoperimetric Inequalities for Minimal Submanifolds in Riemannian Manifolds: A Counterexample in Higher Codimension
For compact Riemannian manifolds with convex boundary, B.White proved the
following alternative: Either there is an isoperimetric inequality for minimal
hypersurfaces or there exists a closed minimal hypersurface, possibly with a
small singular set. There is the natural question if a similar result is true
for submanifolds of higher codimension. Specifically, B.White asked if the
non-existence of an isoperimetric inequality for k-varifolds implies the
existence of a nonzero, stationary, integral k-varifold. We present examples
showing that this is not true in codimension greater than two. The key step is
the construction of a Riemannian metric on the closed four-dimensional ball B
with the following properties: (1) B has strictly convex boundary. (2) There
exists a complete nonconstant geodesic. (3) There does not exist a closed
geodesic in B.Comment: 11 pages, We changed the title and added a section that exhibits the
relation between our example and the question posed by Brian White concerning
isoperimetric inequalities for minimal submanifold
Apollo to Artemis: Mining 50-Year Old Records to Inform Future Human Lunar Landing Systems
Under the Artemis lunar exploration program, NASA is committed to landing American astronauts on the moon by 2024. While NASAs new Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule will carry astronauts from Earth to the Gateway, the human lunar landing system has not yet been fully defined. As in the Apollo program, there are concerns for vehicle weight and internal volume such that seats may not be desirable, and standing during lunar descent and ascent may be a preferred engineering solution. With such a design, astronauts will experience +GZ (head-to-foot) accelerations during capsule accelerations, and it is unclear whether spaceflight deconditioned astronauts can tolerate these. Apollo astronauts stood during lunar descent and ascent, and the data contained in the early program records for those missions represent a unique resource that may provide insights to the cardiovascular stress associated with this human landing system design
- …