Telescope Time Without Tears: A Distributed Approach to Peer Review

The procedure that is currently employed to allocate time on telescopes is horribly onerous on those unfortunate astronomers who serve on the committees that administer the process, and is in danger of complete collapse as the number of applications steadily increases. Here, an alternative is presented, whereby the task is distributed around the astronomical community, with a suitable mechanism design established to steer the outcome toward awarding this precious resource to those projects where there is a consensus across the community that the science is most exciting and innovative.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Geophysic

Symmetry of Nonparametric Statistical Tests on Three Samples

Problem statement: Many different nonparametric statistical procedures can be used to analyze ranked data. Inconsistencies among the outcomes of such procedures can occur when analyzing the same ranked data set. Understanding why these peculiarities can occur is imperative to providing an accurate analysis of the ranking data. In this context, this study addressed why inconsistent outcomes can occur and which types of data structures cause the different procedures to yield different outcomes. Approach: Appropriate properties were identified and developed to explain why different methods can define different rankings of three samples with the same data. The approach identifies certain symmetry structures that are implicitly contained within the data and analyzes how the procedures utilize these structures to produce an outcome. Results: We proved that all possible differences among the nonparametric rules are caused because different rules place different levels of emphasis on the specified symmetry configurations of data. Our findings explain and characterize why different procedures can output different results using the same data set. Conclusion: This study therefore served as crucial step in deciding which nonparametric procedure to use when analyzing ranked data. In addition, it serves as the building block to defining new techniques to analyze rankings. Because different procedures use different aspects of the data in different ways, then one may determine the choice of analysis procedure based on what parts of the data one deems important

Directional characteristics of lunar thermal emission

Directional characteristics and brightness temperatures of thermal lunar emissio

Modeling and kinetic determination in affinity precipitation of trypsin

A mathematical model was proposed to allow the analysis of kinetic enzyme in experimental of affinity precipitation system. The methodology was tested using a system composed of enzyme, ethylene glycol and conjugated PABA-poly (NIPAM). N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) is one of the monomers that have appealed to a great deal of investigation in the recent years. Its homopolymer NIPAM possesses temperature sensitivity and can act as a functional polymer with great potential. A water soluble ligand bound polymer has been synthesized by Electron Beam Irradiation for the purpose of affinity precipitation of trypsin. The affinity polymer was formed by ligand-PABA. The binding efficiency of trypsin to this polymer was dependent upon the ratio of (NIPAM), mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) as a chain transfer reagent and p-aminobenzamidine (PABA) as ligand that used in the polymer synthesis. The amount of precipitated of poly (NIPAM) present in the polymer solution also greatly affected the trypsin binding efficiency. The total binding capacity of trypsin molecules to ligand molecules approached the theoretical value which was considerably higher than that of insoluble gel matrices. Bound trypsin could be easily eluted by the ethylene glycol solution. At low molecular weight of poly (NIPAM), the conjugate polymer solution was very stable and retained its high capacity for trypsin recovery over a long period of time. The proposed analysis and simulation of kinetic parameters may be helpful in affinity precipitation technique for advanced application

Voting and the Cardinal Aggregation of Judgments

The paper elaborates the idea that voting is an instance of the aggregation of judgments, this being a more general concept than the aggregation of preferences. To aggregate judgments one must first measure them. I show that such aggregation has been unproblematic whenever it has been based on an independent and unrestricted scale. The scales analyzed in voting theory are either context dependent or subject to unreasonable restrictions. This is the real source of the diverse 'paradoxes of voting' that would better be termed 'voting pathologies'. The theory leads me to advocate what I term evaluative voting. It can also be called utilitarian voting as it is based on having voters express their cardinal preferences. The alternative that maximizes the sum wins. This proposal operationalizes, in an election context, the abstract cardinal theories of collective choice due to Fleming and Harsanyi. On pragmatic grounds, I argue for a three valued scale for general elections