Alternative High Schools on the Virginia Peninsula

To guide this study the following research goals were used: 1. Identify the number of seats in Peninsula alternative schools; 2. Identify the academic resources of those schools; 3. Identify the admittance criteria to those schools; 4. Identify the credit and degree the student receives at completion of those alternative schools; 5. Determine the future capacity of alternative high schools on the Virginia Peninsula

VALUE IN THE MASH: EXPLORING THE BENEFITS, BARRIERS AND ENABLERS OF OPEN DATA APPS

The open government paradigm relies on the provision and reuse of open government data (OGD) to improve transparency and create new sources of valu. This study aims to progress understanding of OGD beyond a theoretical commentary by exploring the perceived sources of valu of mashups (online services that combine diverse OGD), and to examine issus that impact on, and facilitate, the delivery of this valu from an ˜insider´ perspective. Based on open-ended interviews with 17 individuals actively involved in OGD application design, use, and advocacy in New Zealand (ranked fourth in the 2013 Global Open Data Barometer) nine key sources of valu were identified: Ease of discovery, improved data quality, bringing knowledge into relevant contexts, economic benefits, social benefits, cost reduction and efficiencies, predictive valu, transparency, and ability to explore and play. Twelve barriers to delivering this valu were found, ranging from change-related issus to problems relating to sustainability. Six facilitators were identified as helping to overcome these barriers and realise the valu of OGD

Lagrangian Statistics of Dark Halos in a LCDM Cosmology

New statistical properties of dark matter halos in Lagrangian space are presented. Tracing back the dark matter particles constituting bound halos resolved in a series of N-body simulations, we measure quantitatively the correlations of the proto-halo's inertia tensors with the local tidal tensors and investigate how the correlation strength depends on the proto-halo's sphericity, local density and filtering scale. It is shown that the majority of the proto-halos exhibit strong correlations between the two tensors provided that the tidal field is smoothed on the proto-halo's mass scale. The correlation strength is found to increase as the proto-halo's sphericity increases, as the proto-halo's mass increases, and as the local density becomes close to the critical value, delta_{ec}. It is also found that those peculiar proto-halos which exhibit exceptionally weak correlations between the two tensors tend to acquire higher specific angular momentum in Eulerian space, which is consistent with the linear tidal torque theory. In the light of our results, it is intriguing to speculate a hypothesis that the low surface brightness galaxies observed at present epoch correspond to the peculiar proto-halos with extreme low-sphericity whose inertia tensors are weakly correlated with the local tidal tensors.Comment: ApJ in press, accepted version, 20 pages, 8 figures, discussion on LSBGs improved, particle distribution of dark halos in Lagrangian space show

Translog Cost Function Estimation: Banking Efficiency

This paper examines the selection of data source and econometric technique for studies of banking efficiency using translog cost functions. We examine the use of Seemingly Unrelated Regression estimation for a cost function, as against estimation using Ordinary Least Squares. Choice of cost data to feed to the estimation is also important, and we find that use of wage and interest data may sometimes be superior to cost data inferred from bank accounting information. Lastly, we discuss filtering of data, where some observations may contain erroneous or noisy data

Effect of dataset selection on the topological interpretation of protein interaction networks

BACKGROUND: Studies of the yeast protein interaction network have revealed distinct correlations between the connectivity of individual proteins within the network and the average connectivity of their neighbours. Although a number of biological mechanisms have been proposed to account for these findings, the significance and influence of the specific datasets included in these studies has not been appreciated adequately. RESULTS: We show how the use of different interaction data sets, such as those resulting from high-throughput or small-scale studies, and different modelling methodologies for the derivation pair-wise protein interactions, can dramatically change the topology of these networks. Furthermore, we show that some of the previously reported features identified in these networks may simply be the result of experimental or methodological errors and biases. CONCLUSION: When performing network-based studies, it is essential to define what is meant by the term "interaction" and this must be taken into account when interpreting the topologies of the networks generated. Consideration must be given to the type of data included and appropriate controls that take into account the idiosyncrasies of the data must be selecte