Sign-graded posets, unimodality of WW-polynomials and the Charney-Davis Conjecture

We generalize the notion of graded posets to what we call sign-graded (labeled) posets. We prove that the $W$-polynomial of a sign-graded poset is symmetric and unimodal. This extends a recent result of Reiner and Welker who proved it for graded posets by associating a simplicial polytopal sphere to each graded poset $P$. By proving that the $W$-polynomials of sign-graded posets has the right sign at -1, we are able to prove the Charney-Davis Conjecture for these spheres (whenever they are flag).Comment: 14 page

Public Reaction to Mandated Language for U.S. Drinking Water Quality Reports

The author discusses results of a survey evaluating the mandated language for United States drinking water quality reports

Comparing Bottled Water and Tap Water: Experiments in Risk Communication

The author discusses results of experiments in risk communication comparing bottled water and tap water

Rules of Engagement: Architecture Theory and the Social Sciences in Frank Duffy’s 1974 Thesis on Office Planning

This paper addresses the broad shift that took place in architectural theory and education in the 70s, where models of the discipline asserting the autonomy of architecture eclipsed models privileging architecture’s ties to other disciplines, particularly technology and the social sciences. With Frank Duffy's Princeton thesis on open office planning (1974) as a focus, the paper explores the theoretical and institutional contexts of this shift and offers a critical reappraisal in light of contemporary issues facing architecture.architectural theory, office space, planning, architectural education

Utility Customers\u27 Views of the Consumer Confidence Report of Drinking Water Quality

The author evaluates consumer understanding of water quality reports provided to them by their drinking water utility under the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996

Advancing Understanding of Knowledge\u27s Role in Lay Risk Perception

Emphasizing how knowledge affects lay Risk perception, summarizing studies and suggesting further research, the author differentiates between knowledge production, knowledge dissemination and information processing as affected by, e.g., heuristics and Risk aversion. He also suggests that better understanding of lay knowledge can also illuminate experts\u27 hazard knowledge

The Common-Core/Diversity Dilemma: Revisions of Humean thought, New Empirical Research, and the Limits of Rational Religious Belief

This paper is the product of an interdisciplinary, interreligious dialogue aiming to outline some of the possibilities and rational limits of supernatural religious belief, in the light of a critique of David Hume’s familiar sceptical arguments -- including a rejection of his famous Maxim on miracles -- combined with a range of striking recent empirical research. The Humean nexus leads us to the formulation of a new ”Common-Core/Diversity Dilemma’, which suggests that the contradictions between different religious belief systems, in conjunction with new understandings of the cognitive forces that shape their common features, persuasively challenge the rationality of most kinds of supernatural belief. In support of this conclusion, we survey empirical research concerning intercessory prayer, religious experience, near-death experience, and various cognitive biases. But we then go on to consider evidence that supernaturalism -- even when rationally unwarranted -- has significant beneficial individual and social effects, despite others that are far less desirable. This prompts the formulation of a ”Normal/Objective Dilemma’, identifying important trade-offs to be found in the choice between our humanly evolved ”normal’ outlook on the world, and one that is more rational and ”objective’. Can we retain the pragmatic benefits of supernatural belief while avoiding irrationality and intergroup conflict? It may well seem that rationality is incompatible with any wilful sacrifice of objectivity. But in a situation of uncertainty, an attractive compromise may be available by moving from the competing factions and mutual contradictions of ”first-order’ supernaturalism to a more abstract and tolerant ”second-order’ view, which itself can be given some distinctive intellectual support through the increasingly popular Fine Tuning Argument. We end by proposing a ”Maxim of the Moon’ to express the undogmatic spirit of this second-order religiosity, providing a cautionary metaphor to counter the pervasive bias endemic to the human condition, and offering a more cooperation- and humility-enhancing understanding of religious diversity in a tense and precarious globalised age