New results on atmospheric neutrinos from Soudan 2

Neutrino interactions recorded in a 5.1 fiducial kiloton-year exposure of the Soudan-2 iron tracking calorimeter are analyzed for effects of neutrino oscillations. Using contained single track and single shower events, we update our measurement of the atmospheric nu_mu/nu_e ratio-of-ratios and find R = 0.68 \pm 0.11 \pm 0.06. Assuming this anomalously low R-value is the result of nu_mu flavor disappearance via nu_mu to nu_tau oscillation, we select samples of charged current events which offer good resolution, event-by-event, for L/Enu reconstruction. Oscillation-weighted Monte Carlo events are fitted to these data events using a chisq function summed over bins of log(L/E_nu). The region allowed in the (sin^2 2\theta, \Delta m^2) plane at 90% CL is obtained using the Feldman-Cousins procedure: 0.46 < sin^2 2\theta < 1.0 and 2.2x10^-4 < \Delta m^2 < 2.2x10^-2 ev^2. A small but relatively energetic sample of partially contained nu_mu events has also been isolated. Their distribution in log(L/E_vis) relative to null oscillation Monte Carlo is compatible with nu_mu to nu_tau oscillation scenarios within the parameter region allowed by our contained events.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; presented at NU2000, the XIXth Int. Conf. on Nuetrino Physics and Astrophysics, June 16-21, 2000, Sudbury, canad

Amy's story: a research agenda for smoking cessation in pregnancy

The purpose of this paper is to report on a case from Nottinghamshire County Primary Care Trust (PCT) as an exploratory study examining the role of social marketing’s contribution to smoking cessation during pregnancy. Insights from the case will be used to inform and stimulate debate around future inquiry regarding the effectiveness of such campaigns, specifically with respect to smoking cessation in pregnancy, the role of low-budget highly-localised programmes and, in response to a recent Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) paper (Thorp, 2009), the extent to which social marketers lead the way in producing behavioural change in populations. Whilst well discussed in the health literature, smoking cessation during pregnancy remains under-researched in the marketing literature offering opportunities for research and practice. Also, this study is of contemporary interest in light of the proposed public sector cuts which will restrict social marketing budgets, the move of Public Health to local authority control placing it as central to the Government’s public health plans, and the Government’s reported interest in behavioural change techniques such as nudge theory (Stamp, 2010). The paper is structured by presenting the case using The National Social Marketing Centre’s (NSMC, 2010) benchmark criteria for effective social marketing, whilst identifying findings and themes from the literature

Supporting sustainable e‐learning

This paper draws upon work carried out within phase one of a national forum for support staff, funded by the UK Learning and Teaching Support Network Generic Centre. It sets out themes in current Learning Technology research within the context of institutional practice. It reports the responses of a range of e‐learning support staff to new developments in the reuse and sharing of Learning Objects. The article highlights tensions across support units, inconsistencies in support provision and confusion over issues concerning different modes of teaching. It also forewarns a growing gap between institutional practice and research in the development of approaches to sustainable e‐learning

Effects of Eat Better, Move More (EBMM) Educational Program on Obesity Rates in Latino Children Residing in Northwest Arkansas

Background: Childhood obesity, especially in ethnic minority populations, is a growing problem with no signs of improvement over the past decade. The Latino population is one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. Unfortunately, they have experienced substantial health disparities and socioeconomic disadvantages that contribute to the high rates of obesity in their youth. Decreasing obesity rates would not only have many health advantages, but also financial benefits as well. It would reduce the risk of co-morbidities such as cardiovascular disease and depression. Healthy children are more likely to grow into healthy adults, ultimately lowering the cost of healthcare for this population. Objective: The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of proper nutrition and foster positive attitudes towards healthy habits. It aims to specifically target behaviors that decrease the likelihood of childhood obesity, in 4th-5th grade children by educating their parents. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, parental knowledge of healthy lifestyle behaviors of parents at the study site elementary school were collected prior to and after the education sessions. “Healthy Habits” and “Parental Feeding Style” pre-test and post-test were completed by the caregiver group in their native language. The data gathered compared the knowledge of the students and guardians before and after four education sessions to evaluate the effectiveness of the Eat Better, Move More (EBMM) program. The program was designed to answer the following research question: What is the effect of Eat Better, Move More education program on parents of school-age children on healthy lifestyle behaviors (self and home), including food choices, physical activity and sleep habits? Results: Although the results were not statistically significant due to the inconsistency of the sample size, exposure to the educational program positively influenced healthy habits and increased the knowledge of the caregivers involved. With the limitations of time, only the preliminary data was collected and analyzed. The post-survey will be administered and the results will be compared in May 2019. Conclusion: It is hoped that the Eat Better, Move More educational program will increase understanding of the behaviors and practices contributing to the complicated nature of the obesity epidemic among school age children. Ultimately, the program aims to decrease the prevalence of childhood obesity in ethnic minorities throughout Northwest Arkansas

Sprawling by the Lake: How IDA-Granted Property Tax Exemptions Undermine Older Parts of the Buffalo/Niagara Metro Area

An examination of the geographic distribution of property tax exemptions given to businesses in 2005 by the nine state-regulated Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) in the Buffalo/Niagara metro area reveals they have subsidized job creation outside of the region’s oldest, most densely populated and most transit-accessible areas, despite the fact those areas are most in need of jobs and reinvestment. The exemptions’ sprawling, pro-suburban bias is especially evident in Erie County and far less problematic in Niagara

AUnit - a testing framework for alloy

textWriting declarative models of software designs and analyzing them to detect defects is an effective methodology for developing more dependable software systems. However, writing such models correctly can be challenging for practitioners who may not be proficient in declarative programming, and their models themselves may be buggy. We introduce the foundations of a novel test automation framework, AUnit, which we envision for testing declarative models written in Alloy -- a first-order, relational language that is supported by its SAT-based analyzer. We take inspiration from the success of the family of xUnit frameworks that are used widely in practice for test automation, albeit for imperative or object-oriented programs. The key novelty of our work is to define a basis for unit testing for Alloy, specifically, to define the concepts of test case and test coverage as well as coverage criteria for declarative models. We reduce the problems of declarative test execution and coverage computation to partial evaluation without requiring SAT solving. Our vision is to blend how developers write unit tests in commonly used programming languages with how Alloy users formulate their models in Alloy, thereby facilitating the development and testing of Alloy models for both new Alloy users as well as experts. We illustrate our ideas using a small but complex Alloy model. While we focus on Alloy, our ideas generalize to other declarative languages (such as Z, B, ASM).Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Margaret Chase Smith\u27s 1972 Election: The Fall of an Institutional Giant

Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and was well-known by her constituents in Maine as a principled, integrous public servant. In 1972, after 24 years in the Senate, Margaret Chase Smith lost her first ever election to democratic challenger, William Hathaway. An examination of the primary source documents available at the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine, as well as local and national newspaper coverage, finds three main reasons that Smith suffered defeat: Smith was unwilling to let go of her traditional way of campaigning, she was berated by a press that she had antagonized throughout her career, and the state of national politics caused a coalition of out-of-state forces to rise up against her

Everyone’s a Critic: Defamation and Anonymity on the Internet

Internet publishing is easy and has become commonplace in ourtechnology-focused society. Although this type of publication can beexciting and helpful for those interested in communicating an idea, theissue of anonymous speech on the Internet has created some complications in the rather established tort of defamation. This article will discuss two approaches recently taken by two different courts in response to the Internet-anonymity issue and will evaluate them based on their ability to strike a balance between protecting free speech and protecting against defamation