Stein's Method for the Single Server Queue in Heavy Traffic

Following recent developments in the application of Stein's method in queueing theory, this paper is intended to be a short treatment showing how Stein's method can be developed and applied to the single server queue in heavy traffic. Here we provide two approaches to this approximation: one based on equilibrium couplings and another involving comparison of generators.Comment: 11 pages. To appear in Statistics and Probability Letters, 2019

Dispersants and Seafood Safety Assessment of the potential impact of Corexit® oil dispersants on seafood safety

The April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil production platform (DWH) resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history. On April 29th, a Spill of National Significance was declared as roughly 53 thousand barrels of oil per day flowed into the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The U.S. Coast Guard estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil escaped before the damaged DWH wellhead was sealed on July 15, 2010 (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling 2010). Oil spill clean-up methods included skimming operations, burning of surface oil, siphoning oil into tankers directly from the wellhead, and the application of chemical dispersants. The first 3 methods mentioned above physically removed spilled oil from GOM waters. The last method, chemical dispersion, distributed insoluble fractions of the oil into the water-column. This was done for 3 reasons: 1) to reduce the exposure of response personnel at-sea to volatile organic compounds emanating from the surface slick; 2) to prevent concentrated surface oil from reaching, and damaging, fragile coastal wetlands, beaches and shoreline communities; and 3) to accelerate the break-down of spilled oil by natural microorganisms in the environment. The oil spill response contingency plan (RCP) applicable to the GOM (EPA Regions 4 and 6 within the National Response Plan framework) pre-authorized the use of Nalco Co. (Naperville, IL) oil dispersants Corexit® 9527 and Corexit® 9500 among other pre-approved product formulations. From April 22 to July 19, 2010 an estimated 1.1 million gallons of Corexit® dispersant were applied over approximately 300 square miles of oiled surface waters in the GOM and 771,000 gallons were injected directly into the oil free-flowing from the wellhead 5,100 feet beneath the surface (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling 2010). Corexit® 9527 comprised approximately 215,000 gallons (~11%) of the total dispersant volume applied to the surface oil slick and was discontinued on May 22. The unprecedented volume of chemical dispersants used to combat the DWH oil spill elicited public concerns for the health of responders, coastal communities, marine life, and the safety of seafood from impacted areas of the GOM. This document will address the latter of these concerns

Justification of Antisocial Behavior

The purpose of this study was to further the study of conditional reasoning (CR) methodology to study personality. The direction of the expansion was two fold. First was to increase the content area of the study of aggressive personality by developing justification mechanisms (JMs) for antisocial behaviors. Second, was to determine the feasibility of using different reasoning-based tasks to measure JMs. Thus the development of a CR based reading comprehension task to measure antisocial JMs was undertaken. This study represents the preliminary investigation of the viability of this measure. The Conditional Reasoning Reading Comprehension test (CR2C) was administered to 833 undergraduates at a large Southeastern university, along with the Conditional Reasoning Test for Aggression (CRT-A), the CPI Socialization scale, and another self-report measure of antisocial tendencies. The student’s records were also accessed for violations of the university’s code of conduct. Items from the CR2C meeting selection criteria were kept to form a preliminary empirically derived key for the measure. The key held up to cross-validation and a confirmatory factor analysis and thus was retained for further analysis. This preliminary key showed solid psychometric properties and was a good predictor of student conduct-violations. The key also demonstrated discriminate and convergent validity with the CRT-A and the self-report antisocial measures. Strengths and weaknesses of the current study are discussed, as well as future directions for research

Informal Transnational Police-to-Police Information Sharing: Its Structure and Reform

This thesis examines the informal sharing of information and cooperation between police agencies across international borders, and how it is or should be informed by international human rights law. The author looks at how intelligence-led policing theory has affected transnational policing. A distinction is made between police actions made on domestic soil that have adverse consequences abroad and police actions made on foreign soil that have adverse consequences. The first category of cases is firmly within jurisdiction and covered by domestic and international legal obligations. The second category of cases introduces the concept of the extraterritorial application of international human rights instruments. The theory is illustrated by the case studies of the Bali Nine and of Maher Arar. Finally the author suggests methods of best practice for transnational information sharing and suggests that all government agencies should follow these rules

Nonstatistical Factors Influencing Predictions of Financial Distress and Managerial Implications in the All-Cargo Airline Industry

All-cargo airlines carry over 50% of global airfreight, yet they are prone to bankruptcy. Many financial models are designed to predict a firms\u27 financial health, but they do not assess many nonstatistical factors that influence the prediction capability of these models. In this study, qualitative grounded theory design was used to identify nonstatistical factors and explore how they influence bankruptcy prediction models in the all-cargo airline industry. In the first phase of the study, financial data from 2005 to 2009 for 17 all-cargo U.S. airlines were used to determine the bankruptcy prediction ability of the Kroeze financial bankruptcy model. A sample of six all-cargo airlines (ABX Air, Arrow Air, Atlas Air, Cargo 360, Gemini Air Cargo, and Kitty Hawk Air Cargo) were selected containing a mixture of airlines for which the Kroeze model correctly and incorrectly predicted bankruptcy. The sample was used as the starting point to explore the nonstatistical factors using grounded theory. Data were obtained on the six airlines from company annual reports, SEC 10K annual reports, reports from professional journals such as Air Transport Intelligence and Traffic World, news reports and company press releases. The data were coded and grouped into conceptual categories, which were used in theory generation to support the emerging theory. Six categories (management, risk, operations, competitive advantage, financial, and external factors) that relate to the financial stability of an all-cargo airline emerged during the research. Three themes emerged that may improve current quantitative bankruptcy prediction models. The three themes are airline fleet type, type of aircraft flown, and aircraft utilization. The three themes relate to the type, use, and make up of an airline’s fleet. These themes influence bankruptcy prediction model and should be incorporated into failure prediction models to improve their overall accuracy. Future research should be conducted to verify these findings on a larger population, such as all-cargo airlines that operate outside the United States. These airlines operate under different financial regimes that may affect the prediction models differently

Informal Transnational Police-to-Police Information Sharing: Its Structure and Reform

This thesis examines the informal sharing of information and cooperation between police agencies across international borders, and how it is or should be informed by international human rights law. The author looks at how intelligence-led policing theory has affected transnational policing. A distinction is made between police actions made on domestic soil that have adverse consequences abroad and police actions made on foreign soil that have adverse consequences. The first category of cases is firmly within jurisdiction and covered by domestic and international legal obligations. The second category of cases introduces the concept of the extraterritorial application of international human rights instruments. The theory is illustrated by the case studies of the Bali Nine and of Maher Arar. Finally the author suggests methods of best practice for transnational information sharing and suggests that all government agencies should follow these rules