Land Grant Application- Page, Daniel (Fairfield)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office for Daniel Page for service in the Revolutionary War.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_me_land_office/1694/thumbnail.jp

Learning and Production of Movement Sequences: Behavioral, Neurophysiological, and Modeling Perspectives

A growing wave of behavioral studies, using a wide variety of paradigms that were introduced or greatly refined in recent years, has generated a new wealth of parametric observations about serial order behavior. What was a mere trickle of neurophysiological studies has grown to a more steady stream of probes of neural sites and mechanisms underlying sequential behavior. Moreover, simulation models of serial behavior generation have begun to open a channel to link cellular dynamics with cognitive and behavioral dynamics. Here we summarize the major results from prominent sequence learning and performance tasks, namely immediate serial recall, typing, 2XN, discrete sequence production, and serial reaction time. These populate a continuum from higher to lower degrees of internal control of sequential organization. The main movement classes covered are speech and keypressing, both involving small amplitude movements that are very amenable to parametric study. A brief synopsis of classes of serial order models, vis-à-vis the detailing of major effects found in the behavioral data, leads to a focus on competitive queuing (CQ) models. Recently, the many behavioral predictive successes of CQ models have been joined by successful prediction of distinctively patterend electrophysiological recordings in prefrontal cortex, wherein parallel activation dynamics of multiple neural ensembles strikingly matches the parallel dynamics predicted by CQ theory. An extended CQ simulation model-the N-STREAMS neural network model-is then examined to highlight issues in ongoing attemptes to accomodate a broader range of behavioral and neurophysiological data within a CQ-consistent theory. Important contemporary issues such as the nature of working memory representations for sequential behavior, and the development and role of chunks in hierarchial control are prominent throughout.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409); National Institute of Mental Health (R01 DC02852

Assessing the quality of early childhood education and care

In December 2009 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a unified National Quality Framework (NQF) for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The quality reforms—which include clear standards, streamlined regulatory approaches, an assessment and rating system and a national learning framework—are being implemented over the period 2012 to 2020 as an initiative of the National Early Childhood Development Strategy. The vision of the strategy is that \u27by 2020 all children have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves, and for the nation\u27 (COAG, 2009). The purpose of this Policy Brief is to consider the implications of current research and the role of quality assessment in delivering the National Early Childhood Development Strategy vision. Specifically, the Brief discusses the ECEC policy environment in Australia and outlines international evidence regarding the impact of ECEC quality components related to adult-child interactions and relationships.&nbsp

Approximation Algorithms for Problems in Makespan Minimization on Unrelated Parallel Machines

A fundamental problem in scheduling is makespan minimization on unrelated parallel machines (R||Cmax). Let there be a set J of jobs and a set M of parallel machines, where every job Jj ∈ J has processing time or length pi,j ∈ ℚ+ on machine Mi ∈ M. The goal in R||Cmax is to schedule the jobs non-preemptively on the machines so as to minimize the length of the schedule, the makespan. A ρ-approximation algorithm produces in polynomial time a feasible solution such that its objective value is within a multiplicative factor ρ of the optimum, where ρ is called its approximation ratio. The best-known approximation algorithms for R||Cmax have approximation ratio 2, but there is no ρ-approximation algorithm with ρ \u3c 3/2 for R||Cmax unless P=NP. A longstanding open problem in approximation algorithms is to reconcile this hardness gap. We take a two-pronged approach to learn more about the hardness gap of R||Cmax: (1) find approximation algorithms for special cases of R||Cmax whose approximation ratios are tight (unless P=NP); (2) identify special cases of R||Cmax that have the same 3/2-hardness bound of R||Cmax, but where the approximation barrier of 2 can be broken. This thesis is divided into four parts. The first two parts investigate a special case of R||Cmax called the graph balancing problem when every job has one of two lengths and the machines may have one of two speeds. First, we present 3/2-approximation algorithms for the graph balancing problem with one speed and two job lengths. In the second part of this thesis we give an approximation algorithm for the graph balancing problem with two speeds and two job lengths with approximation ratio (√65+7)/8 ≈ 1.88278. In the third part of the thesis we present approximation algorithms and hardness of approximation results for two problems called R||Cmax with simple job-intersection structure and R||Cmax with bounded job assignments. We conclude this thesis by presenting algorithmic and computational complexity results for a generalization of R||Cmax where J is partitioned into sets called bags, and it must be that no two jobs belonging to the same bag are scheduled on the same machine

An in-depth validation of momentum as a dominant explanatory factor on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D), September 2016This study considers momentum in share prices, per Jegadeesh and Titman (1993, 2001), on the cross-section of shares listed on the JSE. The key research objective is to define whether momentum is significant, independent and priced. ‘Significant’ implies that momentum produces significantly positive nominal and risk-adjusted profits, ‘independent’ means that momentum is independent of other non-momentum stylistic factor premiums and finally, ‘priced’ suggests that momentum is a priced factor on the JSE and thereby contributes to the cross-sectional variation in share returns. In order to determine the significance of the momentum premium on the JSE, univariate momentum sorts are conducted that consider variation in portfolio estimation and holding periods, weighting methodologies as well as liquidity constraints, price impact and microstructure effects. The results of the univariate sorts clearly indicate that momentum on the JSE is both significant and profitable assuming estimation and holding periods between three and twelve months. Furthermore, consistent with international and local literature, momentum profits reverse assuming holding periods in excess of 24 months. In order to determine whether momentum is independent, bivariate sorts and time-series attribution regressions are conducted using momentum and six non-momentum factors, namely: Size, Value, Liquidity, Market Beta, Idiosyncratic Risk and Currency Risk. The results of the bivariate sorts and time-series attribution regressions clearly indicate that momentum on the JSE is largely independent of the nonmomentum stylistic factors considered. Lastly, cross-sectional panel regressions are conducted where momentum is applied, in conjunction with the considered non-momentum factors, as an independent variable in order assess the relationship between the factors and expected returns on a share-by-share basis. The results of the panel data cross-sectional regressions clearly indicate that momentum produces a consistently significant and independent premium, conclusively proving that momentum is a priced factor that contributes to the cross-sectional variation in share returns listed on the JSE.XL201

Cues and Deterrents to Smoking: A Comparison of Different Types of Smokers

Objective. It was the purpose of this study to determine if different types of smokers, as defined by their smoking frequency and behavior in the presence of others or alone, indicate different cues and deterrents to cigarette smoking. Smoker types included daily smokers and occasional smokers, with who subgroups of occasional smokers including Social smokers and chipper smokers. Methodology. A sample of 824 college students completed a cross-sectional survey regarding their smoking behaviors in the past 30 days, beliefs regarding health consequences and bystander intervention, and reasons and locations where they smoked and or refrained from smoking in the past 30 days. Results. Twenty one daily smokers (15.9%), 93 Social smokers (70.5%), and 17 chipper smokers (12.9%) reported significant differences in cues and deterrents between daily and occasional smokers and chipper and Social smokers. Daily smokers were significantly more likely than occasional smokers to report smoking in solitary locations (

The Startup and Evolution of The State Journal: A Statewide Newspaper Reports on Business

Two Charleston, West Virginia, brothers, Robert C. and Henry E. Payne, III, and Charleston lawyer Fred F. Holroyd established The State Journal in October 1984 as a weekly newspaper to serve a statewide business readership. The newspaper evolved through difficult early years and eventually became profitable through the sales leadership of Lorenelle White, who would purchase the newspaper with her husband in 1997. She eventually would re-establish the newspaper’s weekly publishing cycle. The Whites would sell The State Journal in 2001 to a newly formed media business, West Virginia Media Holdings, which would increase in the newspaper’s editorial resources. Since that time, the newspaper has received national recognition for its news coverage. The State Journal is now 21 years old and employs about 20 people, including nine news personnel

A Mathematical Approach to the Study of the United States Code

The United States Code (Code) is a document containing over 22 million words that represents a large and important source of Federal statutory law. Scholars and policy advocates often discuss the direction and magnitude of changes in various aspects of the Code. However, few have mathematically formalized the notions behind these discussions or directly measured the resulting representations. This paper addresses the current state of the literature in two ways. First, we formalize a representation of the United States Code as the union of a hierarchical network and a citation network over vertices containing the language of the Code. This representation reflects the fact that the Code is a hierarchically organized document containing language and explicit citations between provisions. Second, we use this formalization to measure aspects of the Code as codified in October 2008, November 2009, and March 2010. These measurements allow for a characterization of the actual changes in the Code over time. Our findings indicate that in the recent past, the Code has grown in its amount of structure, interdependence, and language.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables

Molecular signatures of natural selection for polymorphic genes of the human dopaminergic and serotonergic systems: A review

A large body of research has examined the behavioral and mental health consequences of polymorphisms in genes of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. Along with this, there has been considerable interest in the possibility that these polymorphisms have developed and/or been maintained due to the action of natural selection. Episodes of natural selection on a gene are expected to leave molecular “footprints” in the DNA sequences of the gene and adjacent genomic regions. Here we review the research literature investigating molecular signals of selection for genes of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. The gene SLC6A4, which codes for a serotonin transport protein, was the one gene for which there was consistent support from multiple studies for a selective episode. Positive selection on SLC6A4 appears to have been initiated ∼ 20–25,000 years ago in east Asia and possibly in Europe. There are scattered reports of molecular signals of selection for other neurotransmitter genes, but these have generally failed at replication across studies. In spite of speculation in the literature about selection on these genes, current evidence from population genomic analyses supports selectively neutral processes, such as genetic drift and population dynamics, as the principal drivers of recent evolution in dopaminergic and serotonergic genes other than SLC6A4