A Way to Guarantee Voting Rights

In 2004, state legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins faced nine-term Republican Nick Spano in a state Senate election. The election was very close, certified in favor of Spano by 18 votes

The Debate on the Uses of Practical Theory Continues

The first two essays by Spano and Hickson (Basic Communication Course Annual 8, 1996) involved some crucial issues about where the basic communication course stands in relation to theory, research, and practice. In this second round, specific examples are discussed by Spano. Hickson attempts to contextualize them. Such specificity involves delineating the nature of communication theory from a pragmatic perspective, not ideological from either a phenomenological not a positivistic stance. The importance of context is stressed and outlined as an aspect of human nature—perhaps the element which separates us from other living beings

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Spano with Wu Han, piano.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1368/thumbnail.jp

Theory and Pedagogy in the Basic Course: A Summary From Spano and Hickson

I, too, have been pleased about the exchange of insights relative to the practical approach to teaching the basic course, as suggested by Spano (1996). While I agree with much of what Spano wrote, I am still concerned about the nature and status of some of the “theory” that has been developed and that is being developed in the discipline. To understand my overall view, however, one must review information about the nature of theory from meta-theoreticians, or critics of theory. And I think that we will find that there are some similarities between a practical view of theory and a scientific view of theory

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Robert Spano, feature virtuoso pianist Tengku Irfan in their first KSU concert of the 2019-2020 season.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2239/thumbnail.jp

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Music Director Robert Spano leads the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in works by Michael Gandolfi, composer/pianist Dejan Lazić, and Rachmaninov\u27s Symphony No. 3.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1970/thumbnail.jp

Exact simulation of the Wright-Fisher diffusion

The Wright-Fisher family of diffusion processes is a widely used class of evolutionary models. However, simulation is difficult because there is no known closed-form formula for its transition function. In this article we demonstrate that it is in fact possible to simulate exactly from a broad class of Wright-Fisher diffusion processes and their bridges. For those diffusions corresponding to reversible, neutral evolution, our key idea is to exploit an eigenfunction expansion of the transition function; this approach even applies to its infinite-dimensional analogue, the Fleming-Viot process. We then develop an exact rejection algorithm for processes with more general drift functions, including those modelling natural selection, using ideas from retrospective simulation. Our approach also yields methods for exact simulation of the moment dual of the Wright-Fisher diffusion, the ancestral process of an infinite-leaf Kingman coalescent tree. We believe our new perspective on diffusion simulation holds promise for other models admitting a transition eigenfunction expansion.Comment: 36 pages, 2 figure, 2 tables. This version corrects an error in the proof of Lemma 6.

Guest Artist Series: Jessica Rivera, soprano and Kelley O\u27Connor, mezzo-soprano with Robert Spano, piano

KSU School of Music presents 2013-14 Guest Artist Series featuring Jessica Rivera, soprano and Kelley O\u27Connor, mezzo-soprano with Robert Spano, piano.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1286/thumbnail.jp