After Wildfire: Range Recovery

In the grip of drought, livestock producers often must deal with the additional impact of wildfire. While drought conditions develop gradually and can be anticipated, losses due to wildfire are sudden and devastating

Early Scottish Monasteries and Prehistory: A Preliminary Dialogue

Reflecting oil the diversity of monastic attributes found in the east and west of Britain, the author proposes that prehistoric ritual practice was influential on monastic form. An argument is advanced that this was not based solely oil inspiration Front the landscape, nor oil conservative tradition, but oil the intellectual reconciliation of Christian and non-Christian ideas, with disparate results that account. for the differences in monumentality. Among more general matters tentatively credited with a prehistoric root are the cult of relics, the tonsure and the date of Easter

Evaluating the relationship between user interaction and financial visual analysis

It has been widely accepted that interactive visualization techniques enable users to more effectively form hypotheses and identify areas for more detailed investigation. There have been numerous empirical user studies testing the effectiveness of specific visual analytical tools. However, there has been limited effort in connecting a user’s interaction with his reasoning for the purpose of extracting the relationship between the two. In this paper, we present an approach for capturing and analyzing user interactions in a financial visual analytical tool and describe an exploratory user study that examines these interaction strategies. To achieve this goal, we created two visual tools to analyze raw interaction data captured during the user session. The results of this study demonstrate one possible strategy for understanding the relationship between interaction and reasoning both operationally and strategically. Index Terms: H.5.2 [Information Interfaces And Presentatio

Missing Data Frequency and Correlates in Two Randomized Surgical Trials for Urinary Incontinence in Women

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Missing data is frequently observed in clinical trials; high rates of missing data may jeopardize trial outcome validity. PURPOSE: We determined the rates of missing data over time, by type of data collected and compared demographic and clinical factors associated with missing data among women who participated in two large randomized clinical trials of surgery for stress urinary incontinence, the Stress Incontinence Surgical Treatment Efficacy Trial (SISTEr) and the Trial of Midurethral Sling (TOMUS). METHODS: The proportions of subjects who attended and missed each follow-up visit were calculated. The chi-squared test, Fisher\u27s exact test and t test were used to compare women with and without missing data, as well as the completeness of the data for each component of the composite primary outcome. RESULTS: Data completeness for the primary outcome computation in the TOMUS trial (62.3%) was nearly double that in the SISTEr trial (35.7%). The follow-up visit attendance rate decreased over time. A higher proportion of subjects attended all follow-up visits in the TOMUS trial and overall there were fewer missing data for the period that included the primary outcome assessment at 12 months. The highest levels of complete data for the composite outcome variables were for the symptoms questionnaire (SISTEr 100 %, TOMUS 99.8%) and the urinary stress test (SISTEr 96.1%, TOMUS 96.7%). In both studies, the pad test was associated with the lowest levels of complete data (SISTEr 85.1%, TOMUS 88.3%) and approximately one in ten subjects had incomplete voiding diaries at the time of primary outcome assessment. Generally, in both studies, a higher proportion of younger subjects had missing data. This analysis lacked a patient perspective as to the reasons for missing data that could have provided additional information on subject burden, motivations for adherence and study design. In addition, we were unable to compare the effects of the different primary outcome assessment time-points in an identically designed trial. CONCLUSIONS: Missing visits and data increased with time. Questionnaire data and physical outcome data (urinary stress test) that could be assessed during a visit were least prone to missing data, whereas data for variables that required subject effort while away from the research team (pad test, voiding diary) were more likely to be missing. Older subjects were more likely to provide complete data

The Grizzly, September 13, 1985

Freshmen Enter on High Note • U.C. Athletes are Scholars Too • New Look Campus • Letter: Enthusiastic USGA Says Be Prepared • Appointed Staff Members • Lentz Discusses Following the Leader • Grants Awarded • R.E.M. Returns With More Confidence • Squeeze Back In • Women\u27s Field Hockey Looking Strong • The Westhead is Dead • Soccer Adds Much Depth • McCloskey: Geared to do a Rambo • Welcome Back Coach • Shorts: Book Sale; Write You Are; Blanche Allen in Communications; Ursinus M.B.A. Gears up for Fall; Special Sirens; Ursinus Professor Attends Marketing Seminar; Chair of Physics Endowed; Ursinus College Receives Wellness Grant • Tannenbaum Wins Writing Honors For Second Yearhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1143/thumbnail.jp

Reputation Agent: Prompting Fair Reviews in Gig Markets

Our study presents a new tool, Reputation Agent, to promote fairer reviews from requesters (employers or customers) on gig markets. Unfair reviews, created when requesters consider factors outside of a worker's control, are known to plague gig workers and can result in lost job opportunities and even termination from the marketplace. Our tool leverages machine learning to implement an intelligent interface that: (1) uses deep learning to automatically detect when an individual has included unfair factors into her review (factors outside the worker's control per the policies of the market); and (2) prompts the individual to reconsider her review if she has incorporated unfair factors. To study the effectiveness of Reputation Agent, we conducted a controlled experiment over different gig markets. Our experiment illustrates that across markets, Reputation Agent, in contrast with traditional approaches, motivates requesters to review gig workers' performance more fairly. We discuss how tools that bring more transparency to employers about the policies of a gig market can help build empathy thus resulting in reasoned discussions around potential injustices towards workers generated by these interfaces. Our vision is that with tools that promote truth and transparency we can bring fairer treatment to gig workers.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, The Web Conference 2020, ACM WWW 202

Early Weaning Reduces Rangeland Herbage Disappearance

Early weaning of beef calves reduces nutrient and forage demand in a cow–calf enterprise, potentially contributing to reduction in forage utilization on the pasture from which calves are removed by a nonlactating cow vs. a cow–calf pair. Research was conducted to evaluate weaning beef calves 90 days early (EW) vs. normal weaning (NW) on pasture herbage disappearance in mixed-grass prairie pastures in the northern Great Plains. Spring-calving cows (n = 48) were utilized in each study year (2003, 2004, and 2006) from the date of early weaning (August) until the date of normal weaning (November). Cow–calf pairs were randomly assigned each year to each NW pasture (n = 8 pasture–1); cows whose calves had been weaned early were randomly assigned to each EW pasture (n = 8 pasture–1). No calves grazed EW pastures. Cattle were weighed and body condition scored at the beginning and end of each trial period. Available herbage was determined before and after grazing in each pasture. The effect of weaning treatment on cow average daily gain and body condition score change was highly significant (P \u3c 0.001). Early-weaned cows gained weight and condition; normal-weaned cows lost weight and condition. Herbage disappearance was lower (P = 0.017) in EW than NW pastures, resulting in 18.9 lb cow–1day–1, or 36%, herbage savings. This is equivalent to an additional 1.1 month of grazing saved per animal unit over a 90-day period. The value of the additional animal-unit months includes extending the grazing season, increasing cow numbers, or as “banked” forage for drought management