A Conversation with Ingram Olkin

Ingram Olkin was born on July 23, 1924 in Waterbury, Connecticut. His family moved to New York in 1934 and he graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1941. He served three years in the Air Force during World War II and obtained a B.S. in mathematics at the City College of New York in 1947. After receiving an M.A. in mathematical statistics from Columbia in 1949, he completed his graduate studies in the Department of Statistics at the University of North Carolina in 1951. His dissertation was written under the direction of S. N. Roy and Harold Hotelling. He joined the Department of Mathematics at Michigan State University in 1951 as an Assistant Professor, subsequently being promoted to Professor. In 1960, he took a position as Chair of the Department of Statistics at the University of Minnesota. He moved to Stanford University in 1961 to take a joint position as Professor of Statistics and Professor of Education; he was also Chair of the Department of Statistics from 1973--1976. In 2007, Ingram became Professor Emeritus. Ingram was Editor of the Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1971--1972) and served as the first editor of the Annals of Statistics from 1972--1974. He was a primary force in the founding of the Journal of Educational Statistics, for which he was also Associate Editor during 1977--1985. In 1984, he was President of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Among his many professional activities, he has served as Chair of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS), Chair of the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics of the National Research Council, Chair of the Management Board of the American Education Research Association, and as Trustee for the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. He has been honored by the American Statistical Association (ASA) with a Wilks Medal (1992) and a Founder's Award (1992). The American Psychological Association gave him a Lifetime Contribution Award (1997) and he was elected to the National Academy of Education in 2005. He received the COPSS Elizabeth L. Scott Award in 1998 and delivered the R. A. Fisher Lecture in 2000. In 2003, the City University of New York gave him a Townsend Harris Medal. An author of 5 books, an editor of 10 books, and an author of more than 200 publications, Ingram has made major contributions to statistics and education. His research has focused on multivariate analysis, majorization and inequalities, distribution theory, and meta-analysis. A volume in celebration of Ingram's 65th birthday contains a brief biography and an interview [Gleser, Perlman, Press and Sampson (1989)]. Ingram was chosen in 1997 to participate in the American Statistical Association Distinguished Statistician Video Series and a videotaped conversation and a lecture (Olkin, 1997) are available from the ASA (1997, DS041, DS042).Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342307000000122 the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Formulation development and microstructure analysis of a polymer modified bitumen emulsion road surfacing : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Product Development at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The purpose of this research was to develop a formulation for a polymer modified bitumen emulsion road surfacing product called microsurfacing to a mid-scale prototype stage. A supplementary part of the development was to investigate the polymer-bitumen interactions and how they affected the products end properties using confocal microscopy. The formulation development consisted of three stages: technical design specifications, initial design, detailed design. The technical specification was developed to define the product performance in quantitative measures, and set the initial formulation parameters to work within. The initial design development screened three polymers, four methods of adding polymer to the emulsion and two grades of bitumen. Experimental design techniques were used to determine the best polymer-bitumen combination and emulsion process method. Further experimental investigations consisted of screening three emulsifiers and assessing the effect of aggregate cleanliness on the surfacing abrasion and curing rate. The detailed design used experimental factorial design to examine the effects of polymer concentration, emulsifier level, and emulsifier pH on the emulsion stability, microsurfacing wear resistance and cure rate. The emulsion residue was observed using confocal microscopy with fluorescence light and the microsurfacing mixture using both fluorescent and reflected light. The research showed that a emulsion using 100 penetration grade Safaniya bitumen with SBR latex polymer post added could provide microsurfacing abrasion resistance of less than 100 g/m 2 ; an improvement of 85% on the minimum specification. The vertical permanent deformation was less than the 10% and could not be attained without polymer addition. The use of aggregate with a high cleanliness and an alkyl amidoamine emulsifier resulted in surfacing cohesion development of 20 kg-cm within 90 minutes, which compares closely to the international specification. Unexpected results not reported before were that the emulsion residue from biphase modified emulsions had a softening point up to 10°C higher than polymer modified hot bitumen with the same polymer concentration. The biphase emulsified binder residue also has a very different microstructure to hot modified bitumen and this structure has been proposed to help account for the improved resistance to high temperature and applied stress. Modifications to the formulation are to improve the emulsion settlement and should focus on the density difference between the bitumen and polymer latex. This research has shown that a microsurfacing reading product can be successfully formulated with New Zealand bitumen and aggregate sources to meet key specified performance requirements. By systematically investigating the effects of materials on the performance properties of the product, a formulation ready for a mid-scale experiment has been proposed

Alaska Criminal Statute Cross-Reference Guide

This guide provides cross-references between Alaska criminal statutes and National Criminal Information Center (NCIC), Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), Alaska OBTS, and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) codes. The guide also includes brief annotations of each statute. The guide is also available in a computerized version. An accompanying volume, Conversion Tables for Use with the Alaska OBTS Database and the Alaska Criminal Statute Cross-Reference Guide, is designed for use with printed versions of the guide. The guide reflects legislative changes in Alaska Statutes through 1997, but is no longer updated.Bureau of Justice Statistics. Grant No. 94-BJ-CX-KOO

New developments in astrodynamics algorithms for autonomous rendezvous

A the core of any autonomous rendezvous guidance system must be two algorithms for solving Lambert's and Kepler's problems, the two fundamental problems in classical astrodynamics. Lambert's problem is to determine the trajectory connecting specified initial and terminal position vectors in a specified transfer time. The solution is the initial and terminal velocity vectors. Kepler's problem is to determine the trajectory that stems from a given initial state (position and velocity). The solution is the state of an earlier or later specified time. To be suitable for flight software, astrodynamics algorithms must be totally reliable, compact, and fast. Although solving Lambert's and Kepler's problems has challenged some of the world's finest minds for over two centuries, only in the last year have algorithms appeared that satisfy all three requirements just stated. This paper presents an evaluation of the most highly regarded Lambert and Kepler algorithms

Alaska Correctional Requirements: A Forecast of Prison Population through the Year 2000

This report is part of the Fire Island Prison Feasibility Study, a project conducted jointly by the School of Justice and School of Engineering at University of Alaska, Anchorage under contract to the Alaska Department of Corrections. The project undertook to assess the feasibility of locating a correctional facility on a 4,240 acre tract of land on Fire Island, which lies in Upper Cook Inlet about three miles off Point Campbell within the Municipality of Anchorage. The project was divided into three major phases: (1) an assessment of future bed space needs of the Alaska Department of Corrections; (2) an evaluation of the physical site and cost estimates for prison construction and operation; and (3) a public opinion survey and open discussion.The growth of the Alaska prison inmate population over the past fifteen years has been substantial. According to available statistics there were 482 institutionalized adult prisoners under control of the Alaska Division of Corrections in January 1971; by January 1980 this population had increased to 770 inmates; and between 1980 and 1985, the number of Alaska inmates almost tripled, rising from 770 to 2,073. Accurate forecasts of the future size and makeup of the prison population are needed as a basis for long-range programs and capital planning. This report presents long and short-term forecasts of the Alaska incarcerated prisoner population and bedspace needs of the Alaska Department of Corrections through the year 2000. The forecasts were developed by taking into consideration historical facts and status quo assumptions. Attention is also given to the impact of the 1980 Alaska criminal code revision on unsentenced and sentenced populations. The forecast derived from this study provides evidence of the need for additional institutional capacity in Southcentral Alaska by 1990. Planning should proceed for a capacity of 1,000 beds to be available for use by 1990.Alaska Department of CorrectionsAcknowledgments / Summary of Study / I. Introduction / II. Long-Range Forecasts / III. Short-Range Forecasts / IV. Regional Forecasts / V. Conclusions / APPENDICES / A. Inmate Population Forecasting: Statistical Model / B. JUSSIM Forecasting Model / C. Bibliography of Inmate Population Forecastin

Social and motivational influences on reading

Pages numbered 1-70Bibliography: p. 47-69Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. NIE-400-81-003