A Dynamic Approach to Linear Statistical Calibration with an Application in Microwave Radiometry

The problem of statistical calibration of a measuring instrument can be framed both in a statistical context as well as in an engineering context. In the first, the problem is dealt with by distinguishing between the 'classical' approach and the 'inverse' regression approach. Both of these models are static models and are used to estimate exact measurements from measurements that are affected by error. In the engineering context, the variables of interest are considered to be taken at the time at which you observe it. The Bayesian time series analysis method of Dynamic Linear Models (DLM) can be used to monitor the evolution of the measures, thus introducing an dynamic approach to statistical calibration. The research presented employs the use of Bayesian methodology to perform statistical calibration. The DLM's framework is used to capture the time-varying parameters that maybe changing or drifting over time. Two separate DLM based models are presented in this paper. A simulation study is conducted where the two models are compared to some well known 'static' calibration approaches in the literature from both the frequentist and Bayesian perspectives. The focus of the study is to understand how well the dynamic statistical calibration methods performs under various signal-to-noise ratios, r. The posterior distributions of the estimated calibration points as well as the 95% coverage intervals are compared by statistical summaries. These dynamic methods are applied to a microwave radiometry data set.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure

Dynamic Bayesian Nonlinear Calibration

Statistical calibration where the curve is nonlinear is important in many areas, such as analytical chemistry and radiometry. Especially in radiometry, instrument characteristics change over time, thus calibration is a process that must be conducted as long as the instrument is in use. We propose a dynamic Bayesian method to perform calibration in the presence of a curvilinear relationship between the reference measurements and the response variable. The dynamic calibration approach adequately derives time dependent calibration distributions in the presence of drifting regression parameters. The method is applied to microwave radiometer data and simulated spectroscopy data based on work by Lundberg and de Mar\'{e} (1980)

Managing change – can HR software help?

With the pace of change in the HR and wider business environment seemingly becoming ever-faster, Human Resources teams have a real challenge on their hands to manage any resulting disruption. Employee engagement and morale is at stake, not to mention the reputation of HR, and there is significant pressure to justify the financial implications of any change projects undertaken. In this white paper, HR thought leaders therefore focus on the subject of best-practice change management, whilst providing 'real world' examples from the UK's 11th largest housing association, Together Housing. The white paper also analyses the value of technology to help streamline the potentially disruptive change management process, before sharing tips and advice for those embarking upon their own change journey

Two Functions of Social Discourse: From Lope de Vega to Miguel de Cervantes

At the inevitable risk of oversimplification, I propose to approach as directly as possible a broad and complex question: how are we to view in an orderly way the many different social functions of language, both oral and written? I will begin with the premise that oral language, analyzed abstractly by structuralists as a "semiotic system," is more concretely the human race's characteristic and fundamental social institution; normally acquired within the primary context of the family, language makes it possible for families and schools and other social organizations to exist and to function, articulating themselves, perpetuating themselves and developing historically. Purely mechanical inventions, such as the wheel, seem not to depend on language; but human families, tribes, city-states, and nations both constitute and are constituted by their verbal discourse. And the invention of writing, the "technologizing of the word," as it has been aptly characterized by Walter J. Ong, went hand in hand with an economic, social, and cultural revolution

Diglossia in New Spain

I had better begin with a definition of diglossia, or at least with a description of how I propose to use the term. In 1959 Charles Ferguson, an American sociolinguist now at Stanford, published an important article (Word. vol. 15, pp. 325-40) applying the term diglossia to the peculiar linguistic situation that he found in modern Greece, in the Arabic world, in German Switzerland and in Haiti. In all of these linguistic communities, two clearly differentiated languages are used: one for what we may call high puristic culture, and another for low familiar culture. In these communities, the child learns a vernacular language at home, and then learns a quite different written language at school. The two languages. in Ferguson\u27s examples, are not mutually intelligible. The literate person normally reads and writes only the school language, but speaks both languages, one on formal occasions (new broadcasts, lectures, political speeches) and the other on informal occasions (family conversation, marketplace discussion, popular songs). Thus, for example, all Haitians speak Creole, but only the literate minority speaks (reads and writes) a more or less standard metropolitan French. Ferguson\u27s diglossia is most familiar to us in the early European Middle Ages, when many dialects (Romance, Germanic, Celtic) were spoken at home and in the streets, but only Latin was taught at school, for reading and writing in church, university and chancery. This written language was obviously the language of authority

Conversaciones con Octavio Paz: crónica y anécdota.

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100 GHz Spaced 10 Gbit/s WDM over 10 degrees C to 70 degrees C using an uncooled DBR laser

100 GHz spaced 10 Gbit/s (NRZ, PRBS 2(31)-1) WDM transmission is demonstrated with an uncooled DBR laser. The wavelength of the laser was stabilised within 2 GHz from 10 degrees C to 70 degrees C using a predicting algorithm. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America

Passing the President's Program: Public Opinion and Presidential Influence in Congress

Correlations between legislative support scores and presidential popularity do not accurately reflect the relationship between public opinion and presidential influence in Congress. Presidents make strategic choices to expend their public prestige to obtain congressional approval of programmatic initiatives. Previous studies have ignored such choices as well as other features of the strategic environment which tend to lower the apparent legislative success rates of popular presidents. A model of presidential and congressional behavior is proposed and it is estimated that a one percent increase in a president's public support level increases the president's legislative approval rate by approximately one percent (holding program size fixed)

Structural durability of stiffened composite shells

The durability of a stiffened composite cylindrical shell panel is investigated under several loading conditions. An integrated computer code is utilized for the simulation of load induced structural degradation. Damage initiation, growth, and accumulation up to the stage of propagation to fracture are included in the computational simulation. Results indicate significant differences in the degradation paths for different loading cases. The effects of combined loading on structural durability and ultimate structural strength of a stiffened shell are assessed