Toward an Understanding of Aggregate Death Penalty Opinion Change: A Possible Role for Popular Music

Abstract: This study examines the relationship between popular music; specifically, death penalty songs, and aggregate death penalty opinion change utilizing an exploratory time series analysis. An assumption of this study is that the public is made conscious of the death penalty as a salient issue through the popular media, e.g., newspaper stories, magazine articles, movies, television programs, and music. Results of this study support the hypotheses that public consciousness about the death penalty as well as changes in aggregate death penalty opinion are associated with the content of popular media in the form of death penalty songs. As the number of death penalty songs increases in a year, death penalty support decreases two years later

ALIENATION AND COMPUTER USER ATTITUDES

The social psychological phenomenon of alienation has been used to explain feelings of separation and estrangement with our increasingly technological society since it was first proposed by Marx. The present study represents an application of the theory of alienation to the attitudes of computer users in an attempt to explain their feelings, especially negative feelings, which have heretofore been vaguely referred tO aS frustration, dissatisfaction, etc. The result is a systematic decomposition of these attitudes into various components of alienation which are consistent with the already well-established theory of alienation. Several hypotheses are tested, including examination of the effect of education on computer alienation

Signaling local non-credibility in an automatic segmentation pipeline

The advancing technology for automatic segmentation of medical images should be accompanied by techniques to inform the user of the local credibility of results. To the extent that this technology produces clinically acceptable segmentations for a significant fraction of cases, there is a risk that the clinician will assume every result is acceptable. In the less frequent case where segmentation fails, we are concerned that unless the user is alerted by the computer, she would still put the result to clinical use. By alerting the user to the location of a likely segmentation failure, we allow her to apply limited validation and editing resources where they are most needed. We propose an automated method to signal suspected non-credible regions of the segmentation, triggered by statistical outliers of the local image match function. We apply this test to m-rep segmentations of the bladder and prostate in CT images using a local image match computed by PCA on regional intensity quantile functions. We validate these results by correlating the non-credible regions with regions that have surface distance greater than 5.5mm to a reference segmentation for the bladder. A 6mm surface distance was used to validate the prostate results. Varying the outlier threshold level produced a receiver operating characteristic with area under the curve of 0.89 for the bladder and 0.92 for the prostate. Based on this preliminary result, our method has been able to predict local segmentation failures and shows potential for validation in an automatic segmentation pipeline

A disk census for the nearest group of young stars: Mid-infrared observations of the TW Hydrae Association

A group of young, active stars in the vicinity of TW Hydrae has recently been identified as a possible physical association with a common origin. Given its proximity ($\sim$50 pc), age ($\sim$10 Myr) and abundance of binary systems, the TW Hya Association is ideally suited to studies of diversity and evolution of circumstellar disks. Here we present mid-infrared observations of 15 candidate members of the group, 11 of which have no previous flux measurements at wavelengths longer than 2$\mu$m. We report the discovery of a possible 10$\mu$m excess in CD -33$^{\circ}$7795, which may be due to a circumstellar disk or a faint, as yet undetected binary companion. Of the other stars, only TW Hya, HD 98800, Hen 3-600A, and HR 4796A -- all of which were detected by IRAS -- show excess thermal emission. Our 10$\mu$m flux measurements for the remaining members of the Association are consistent with photospheric emission, allowing us to rule out dusty inner disks. In light of these findings, we discuss the origin and age of the TW Hya Association as well as implications for disk evolution timescales.Comment: 10 pages and 1 PostScript figure, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

An entropy maximization approach to the description of urban spatial organization

Bibliography: leaves [173]-190

Compatibility studies of several molten uranium and thorium alloys in niobium, tantalum, and yttrium

Niobium, tantalum, yttrium, and Inconel have been used to contain molten aluminum, lead, tin, zinc, and several of their respective uranium and thorium alloys for various times up to 3000 hours and at temperatures ranging from 600 to 1100° C. Altogether 76 capsule tests were run, almost all in a static isothermal condition. Tantalum showed the best resistance followed by niobium, Inconel, and yttrium respectively. The systems, lead in tantalum and lead in niobium, showed the greatest potentials for possible liquid-metal fuel carrier systems. An alloy of uranium-bismuth-tin contained in tantalum also exhibited promising possibilities . The tabulated test data include a classification of the type of corrosion attack which occurred and a measured value of the amount of corrosive penetration. Each test was also given an arbitrary rating for easy reference comparisons. A number of photomicrographs are included for each set of tests

Tobramycin-Induced Hepatotoxicity

OBJECTIVE. To report a case of tobramycin-induced hepatotoxicity. CASE SUMMARY: A 20-year-old female was hospitalized for treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia and osteomyelitis. Empiric intravenous antibiotic therapy with piperacillin/tazobactam, vancomycin, and ciprofloxacin was started, and based on the results of culture and sensitivity testing, was changed to intravenous ceftazidime and tobramycin 70 mg every 8 hours on hospital day 3. Liver enzyme levels then increased over days 3–6. Tests for hepatitis A, B, and C were all nonreactive, and HIV testing was negative. On day 8, therapy was changed from ceftazidime to piperacillin/tazobactam and the tobramycin dose was increased to 100 mg every 8 hours. Due to a continued increase in total bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase, piperacillin/tazobactam was discontinued and aztreonam was started on day 10. All antibiotics were stopped on day 12 and the elevated liver parameters began to decrease. Aztreonam and ciprofloxacin were restarted on day 16, and most laboratory test results returned to baseline levels by day 19; total bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase decreased to lower than baseline values. DISCUSSION. This case illustrates a possible occurrence of tobramycin-induced hepatotoxicity. Liver enzymes rose when tobramycin therapy was initiated, markedly increased when the tobramycin dose was increased, then resolved upon discontinuation of therapy. Other medication-related causes were ruled out by temporal relationship or rechallenge (aztreonam). Use of the Naranjo probability scale indicated a possible relationship between hepatotoxicity and tobramycin therapy. Other adverse reaction scales specific for evaluation of drug-induced liver disease were also used. Both the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences and Maria and Victorino scales indicated a probable likelihood of tobramycin-induced hepatotoxicity. This patient was not rechallenged with tobramycin due to the highly suggestive timeline present, lack of specific symptoms, and unnecessary risk to the patient. CONCLUSIONS. Although no other case reports on this interaction have been published through October 9, 2007, historical data from tertiary sources reveal the possibility of aminoglycoside-induced hepatotoxicity; therefore, tobramycin induced hepatotoxicity cannot be ruled out in this patient. Clinicians should be aware of this adverse event

Summary of Illiac IV - ARPA network multispectral image processing research activities : final report, covering the period March 1974 - February 1975 / CAC No. 168

Includes bibliographic references (p. 19-24)

Toward keystones for theories of natural communications / CAC No. 113

"This work was supported in part by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the EROS Program of the Department of Interior through NASA Grant NGR 14-005-202, and in part by the Advances Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense through Contract DAHCO4-72-C-0001."--t.p.Includes bibliographical references

Parental Compliance: Its Role in Termination of Parental Rights Cases

This article examines the current state of termination of parental rights (TPR) law, along with the results of an appellate case review, an exploratory project, and an empirical investigation of decision-making related to these cases. Section I begins with an overview of termination of parental rights law. The focus of this section is recent statutory changes in the area, highlighting some key differences between the former and the current law. In Section II, the focus shifts to a review of the foundations for the empirical study. Section III more specifically addresses the main areas that are explored in the empirical study, including descriptions of case plans, parental compliance with case plans, and the mental status of parents. Section IV describes the empirical study, which addressed whether certain factors contribute to TPRs. Finally, sections V and VI discuss the conclusions that can be drawn from the empirical study