The Effectiveness of California Assembly Bill 2109: Personal Belief Exemptions for Kindergarten Immunizations

The numbers of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) in the United States has declined with the development, administration, and effectiveness of vaccines during the 1970s and 1980s. As the eminent threat of VPDs to the public began to wane, parents started questioning the safety and necessity of vaccines. When parents were given the option of selecting personal belief exemption (PBE) waivers for state mandated immunizations for their incoming kindergarten children, an increase in PBEs and the number of VPD outbreaks began to occur. To counter the growing trend of PBEs, and to prevent outbreaks of VPDs in school settings and communities, California Assembly Bill2109 (AB 2109, 2012) was created to help educate parents about vaccine safety and VPDs. As of January 2014, California Assembly Bill2109 (AB 2109, 2012) mandated that parents seeking PBEs for state mandated immunizations for students entering kindergarten were required to receive education about vaccine safety and risks along with education regarding VPDs by a health care professional (AB 2109, 2012). The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of AB 21 09 by examining data from the top ten most populous counties in California. Data was collected for the 2013-2014, 2014-2015, and 2015- 2016 school years to determine if AB 2109 directly impacted the number of PBEs for incoming kindergartners. This project determined that AB 2109 was significant in decreasing the number 3 of PBEs from the 2013-2014,2014-2015, and 2015-2016 school years by -23.4% in the ten most populous counties in California. Further research beyond this project is necessary to evaluate the continued impact of AB 2109 on PBEs and in decreasing the number of VPD outbreaks throughout California

Hierarchies and decision-making in groups: Experimental evidence

In this study, I investigate differences in decision-making outcomes for groups under different hierarchies using an experimental approach. Many decisions in firms, households, and other contexts are not taken by individuals, but by groups. In addition, most groups, especially in firms, are characterized by hierarchical organization structures. While research in management, sociology and psychology has been investigating the role of hierarchies for a long time, there is a lack of experimental economic research on the effect of various group structures or hierarchies on decision-making and its quality. I compare the choices of groups in Holt and Laury (2002) type lottery choices and in intellective tasks in five different group types: a group without hierarchy, a hierarchy by age (where the oldest group member decides), by merit (where the winner in a financial literacy quiz decides), by chance (where a randomly determined leader decides) and by election (where an elected leader decides). Experimental results suggest that there are no differences in the number of safe choices between the different hierarchy types. However, groups with a leader assigned on the basis of merit perform better in intellective tasks

Virtual 3D Environments: Implementations of 3D Environments for Virtual Tours and Online Communication

Virtual tours can be found over the web in many different scenarios: touring a campus, displaying consumer products, documenting a trip. These tours provide information using images, movies and sound to provide users with navigation in such a way that they user feels they are experiencing the information in real time. These tours are usually driven by mouse clicks, whether it is clicking on an image gallery, movie gallery or panning around a panoramic image. While virtual tours are interactive in those examples, there is a lack of interaction be tween the users viewing the tour. Online communication has become a substitution for the tradition interaction between people due to its ease of accessibility. These range from customizable avatars and custom messages to real time movement within an environment. This gives the user the ability to make a virtual persona; a way to experience a realistic interaction online. I will try to create a virtual tour that expands on previous virtual tour concepts and provide users with a virtual representation of an environment with different forms of interaction and communication. My thesis is an exploration in designing a completely web based interactive tour with the purpose of teaching the user about the Computer Graphics Design program at the Rochester Institute of Technology while providing the user with a virtual re-creation of the program’s computer lab in hopes of bringing a more interactive approach to virtual tours. Divided into 3 sections, this thesis provides the user the option to choose their avatar, chat with other users and explore the program’s lab to learn about the program

Botanical Teaching

Some months ago a suggestion was made that at this dinner we should ask ourselves the question: Why is it that with the enormous classes we are having in botany there is a marked dearth of properly trained men who can serve as instructors in colleges and universities

A simulation study of active feedback supression of dynamic response in helicopter rotor blades

A parameter study is presented for active feedback control applied to a helicopter rotor blade during forward flight. The study was performed on an electromechanical apparatus which included a mechanical model rotor blade and electronic analog simulation of interaction between blade deflections and aerodynamic loading. Blade response parameters were obtained for simulated vortex impinging at the blade tip at one pulse per revolution, and for a pulse which traveled from the blade tip toward its root. Results show that the response in a 1 - 10-per-rev frequency band is diminished by the feedback action, but at the same time responses at frequencies above 10-per-rev become increasingly more prominent with increased feedback amplitude, and can even lead to instability at certain levels. It appears that the latter behavior results from limitations of the laboratory simulation apparatus, rather than genuine potential behavior for a prototype helicopter