The Rationality Uninformed Electorate: Some Experimental Evidence

This essay reports on a series of twenty four election experiments in which voters are allowed to decide between voting retrospectively and purchasing contemporaneous information about the candidate challenging the incumbent. Each experiment consists of a series of election periods in which dummy candidates choose spatial positions which represent either their policy while in office or a promise about policy if elected. Subjects (voters) are told the value to them of the incumbent's policy, but they must decide, prior to voting, whether or not to purchase information about the value of the challenger's promise. In general, our data conform to reasonable expectations: voters purchase less information and rely more on retrospective knowledge when the candidates' strategies are stable, and their likelihood of purchasing information during periods of instability is tempered by the likelihood that their votes matter, by the reliability of the information available for purchase, and by the degree of instability as measured by changes in each voter's welfare

Mouse Models of Prostate Cancer

The development and optimization of high-throughput screening methods has identified a multitude of genetic changes associated with human disease. The use of immunodeficient and genetically engineered mouse models that mimic the human disease has been crucial in validating the importance of these genetic pathways in prostate cancer. These models provide a platform for finding novel therapies to treat human patients afflicted with prostate cancer as well as those who have debilitating bone metastases. In this paper, we focus on the historical development and phenotypic descriptions of mouse models used to study prostate cancer. We also comment on how closely each model recapitulates human prostate cancer

Haptic-Multimodal Flight Control System Update

The rapidly advancing capabilities of autonomous aircraft suggest a future where many of the responsibilities of today s pilot transition to the vehicle, transforming the pilot s job into something akin to driving a car or simply being a passenger. Notionally, this transition will reduce the specialized skills, training, and attention required of the human user while improving safety and performance. However, our experience with highly automated aircraft highlights many challenges to this transition including: lack of automation resilience; adverse human-automation interaction under stress; and the difficulty of developing certification standards and methods of compliance for complex systems performing critical functions traditionally performed by the pilot (e.g., sense and avoid vs. see and avoid). Recognizing these opportunities and realities, researchers at NASA Langley are developing a haptic-multimodal flight control (HFC) system concept that can serve as a bridge between today s state of the art aircraft that are highly automated but have little autonomy and can only be operated safely by highly trained experts (i.e., pilots) to a future in which non-experts (e.g., drivers) can safely and reliably use autonomous aircraft to perform a variety of missions. This paper reviews the motivation and theoretical basis of the HFC system, describes its current state of development, and presents results from two pilot-in-the-loop simulation studies. These preliminary studies suggest the HFC reshapes human-automation interaction in a way well-suited to revolutionary ease-of-use

Piloted Evaluation of the H-Mode, a Variable Autonomy Control System, in Motion-Based Simulation

As aircraft become able to autonomously respond to a range of situations with performance surpassing human operators, we are compelled to look for new methods that help understand their use and guide the design of new, more effective forms of automation and interaction. The "H-mode" is one such method and is based on the metaphor of a well-trained horse. The concept allows the pilot to manage a broad range of control automation functionality, from augmented manual control to FMS-like coupling and automation initiated actions, using a common interface system and easily learned set of interaction skills. The interface leverages familiar manual control interfaces (e.g., the control stick) and flight displays through the addition of contextually dependent haptic-multimodal elements. The concept is relevant to manned and remotely piloted vehicles. This paper provides an overview of the H-mode concept followed by a presentation of the results from a recent evaluation conducted in a motion-based simulator. The evaluation focused on assessing the overall usability and flying qualities of the concept with an emphasis on the effects of turbulence and cockpit motion. Because the H-mode results in interactions between traditional flying qualities and management of higher-level flight path automation, these effects are of particular interest. The results indicate that the concept may provide a useful complement or replacement to conventional interfaces, and retains the usefulness in the presence of turbulence and motion

CDASH: a cloud-enabled program for structure solution from powder diffraction data

The simulated annealing approach to crystal structure determination from powder diffraction data, as implemented in the DASH program, is readily amenable to parallelization at the individual run level. Very large scale increases in speed of execution can be achieved by distributing individual DASH runs over a network of computers. The CDASH program delivers this by using scalable on-demand computing clusters built on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud service. By way of example, a 360 vCPU cluster returned the crystal structure of racemic ornidazole (Z0 = 3, 30 degrees of freedom) ca 40 times faster than a typical modern quad-core desktop CPU. Whilst used here specifically for DASH, this approach is of general applicability to other packages that are amenable to coarse-grained parallelism strategies

The Obidient movement on Twitter and 2023 general election in Nigeria: an extrapolative analysis

The study highlighted that Twitter can be a powerful platform for political mobilization, it is one among many channels for engaging with voters. However, Extrapolation on Obidient Movement in the 2023 general election in Nigeria involves making predictions or projections based on existing trends or pattern. Movements and hashtags on Twitter can draw attention to specific issues, shape narratives, and amplify voices that may otherwise go unheard. They can also facilitate discussions, engage with policymakers, and galvanize support for various causes. The study adopted the survey method and area of study is Imo State. The population is 5,830,489 and sample size of 384 was attained using Wimmer and Dominick calculator. The multistage/cluster sampling technique was adopted and questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collection. The mean and percentage descriptive statistics were used for data presentation. At a mean average of 2.8, there is a greater motivation behind the emergence of the Obidient Movement in Nigeria's 2023 election. The movement have had significant impact on voter behaviour and electoral outcomes in the 2023 general election 2.5 (N=378). The study recommended that those in charge of electoral process in Nigeria must ensure readiness as there will be improved voter participation in subsequent election in the country. Furthermore, political movements must look at the broader political and social dynamics leading up to subsequent elections

Cows Are Good Bean Market

Dairy cows will produce more butterfat on a ration in which whole (cracked) soybeans provide the protein supplement than on an ordinary ration of mixed grains which uses such a protein supplement as soybean oilmeal

A Spectroscopic Survey of the Fields of 28 Strong Gravitational Lenses: Implications for H0H_0

Strong gravitational lensing provides an independent measurement of the Hubble parameter ($H_0$). One remaining systematic is a bias from the additional mass due to a galaxy group at the lens redshift or along the sightline. We quantify this bias for more than 20 strong lenses that have well-sampled sightline mass distributions, focusing on the convergence $\kappa$ and shear $\gamma$. In 23% of these fields, a lens group contributes a $\ge$1% convergence bias; in 57%, there is a similarly significant line-of-sight group. For the nine time delay lens systems, $H_0$ is overestimated by 11$^{+3}_{-2}$% on average when groups are ignored. In 67% of fields with total $\kappa \ge$ 0.01, line-of-sight groups contribute $\gtrsim 2\times$ more convergence than do lens groups, indicating that the lens group is not the only important mass. Lens environment affects the ratio of four (quad) to two (double) image systems; all seven quads have lens groups while only three of 10 doubles do, and the highest convergences due to lens groups are in quads. We calibrate the $\gamma$-$\kappa$ relation: $\log(\kappa_{\rm{tot}}) = (1.94 \pm 0.34) \log(\gamma_{\rm{tot}}) + (1.31 \pm 0.49)$ with a rms scatter of 0.34 dex. Shear, which, unlike convergence, can be measured directly from lensed images, can be a poor predictor of $\kappa$; for 19% of our fields, $\kappa$ is $\gtrsim 2\gamma$. Thus, accurate cosmology using strong gravitational lenses requires precise measurement and correction for all significant structures in each lens field.Comment: 34 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

The Rationality Uninformed Electorate: Some Experimental Evidence

This essay reports on a series of twenty four election experiments in which voters are allowed to decide between voting retrospectively and purchasing contemporaneous information about the candidate challenging the incumbent. Each experiment consists of a series of election periods in which dummy candidates choose spatial positions which represent either their policy while in office or a promise about policy if elected. Subjects (voters) are told the value to them of the incumbent's policy, but they must decide, prior to voting, whether or not to purchase information about the value of the challenger's promise. In general, our data conform to reasonable expectations: voters purchase less information and rely more on retrospective knowledge when the candidates' strategies are stable, and their likelihood of purchasing information during periods of instability is tempered by the likelihood that their votes matter, by the reliability of the information available for purchase, and by the degree of instability as measured by changes in each voter's welfare

Application of the H-Mode, a Design and Interaction Concept for Highly Automated Vehicles, to Aircraft

Driven by increased safety, efficiency, and airspace capacity, automation is playing an increasing role in aircraft operations. As aircraft become increasingly able to autonomously respond to a range of situations with performance surpassing human operators, we are compelled to look for new methods that help us understand their use and guide their design using new forms of automation and interaction. We propose a novel design metaphor to aid the conceptualization, design, and operation of highly-automated aircraft. Design metaphors transfer meaning from common experiences to less familiar applications or functions. A notable example is the "Desktop metaphor" for manipulating files on a computer. This paper describes a metaphor for highly automated vehicles known as the H-metaphor and a specific embodiment of the metaphor known as the H-mode as applied to aircraft. The fundamentals of the H-metaphor are reviewed followed by an overview of an exploratory usability study investigating human-automation interaction issues for a simple H-mode implementation. The envisioned application of the H-mode concept to aircraft is then described as are two planned evaluations