Of Cherries, Fudge, and Onions: Science and Its Courtroom Perversion

The thesis of this article is that the Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.\u27s focus on the scientific method, however rigorously applied, invites certain classes of abuses. There are instances in which evidence can be made to look more scientific by a process that in fact and substance makes is utterly unscientific

Rating teacher performance to determine career ladder advancement: An analysis of bias and reliability

The primary purposes of this investigation were to analyze the effect of rater bias and to determine the degree of reliability of teacher evaluation ratings from a school district using a career ladder advancement system for teachers. This analysis attempted to establish the degree to which the evaluations reflected true differences in teaching performance rather than biases held by the rater or the inability of raters to produce consistent results over time;Approximately 34,000 completed copies of the formative appraisal instrument used by a large urban school district during the 1985-86 school year were obtained for analysis. Samples were drawn from evaluators at the elementary level to test various hypotheses. This instrument was found to be consistent internally, as a high rate of agreement was found between two subgroups of criteria;The effect of rater biases was tested using the characteristics of gender, race, years of experience, and level of training. Female evaluators were found to give significantly lower ratings to teachers than male evaluators. Also, lower evaluation scores occurred for teachers evaluated by members of racial minorities (black and Hispanic). No significant interaction effect was found for rater/ratee gender or race;Evaluation scores became consistently more severe as the amount of formal training of the evaluator increased. A curvilinear relationship was found between evaluation ratings and the years of experience in education of the evaluator, with mid-career evaluators assigning stricter ratings than less or more experienced raters;A high degree of inter-rater agreement was found between the evaluation scores assigned by a teacher\u27s building principal and a second appraiser, who was a principal from a different elementary school in the same school district. Also, a significantly high correlation was found between appraisers\u27 first and second semester evaluations of a common group of teachers. These findings suggest that the evaluation system used by this district produced highly reliable results

Biotechnology and Economic Development: The Economic Benefits of Maize Streak Virus Tolerant Maize in Kenya

For countries that could not benefit from the Green Revolution due to heterogeneous and unfavorable biophysical environments, agricultural biotechnology potentially provides a means of improving the quality and quantity of agricultural production. This paper analyses some of the major issues relating to the utilization of biotechnology in Kenya. A partial equilibrium trade model is applied to Kenya's corn market to study the potential of genetically modified maize that is tolerant to the Maize Streak Virus. The model accounts for home production and consumption; the positive results of the welfare estimation are disaggregated between consumers, large and small Kenyan corn farms.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

A Macro-Level Order Metric for Self-Organizing Adaptive Systems

Analyzing how agent interactions affect macro-level self-organized behaviors can yield a deeper understanding of how complex adaptive systems work. The dynamic nature of complex systems makes it difficult to determine if, or when, a system has reached a state of equilibrium or is about to undergo a major transition reflecting the appearance of self-organized states. Using the notion of local neighborhood entropy, this paper presents a metric for evaluating the macro-level order of a system. The metric is tested in two dissimilar complex adaptive systems with self-organizing properties: An autonomous swarm searching for multiple dynamic targets and Conway\u27s Game of Life. In both domains, the proposed metric is able to graphically capture periods of increasing and decreasing self-organization (i.e. changes in macro-level order), equilibrium and points of criticality; displaying its general applicability in identifying these behaviors in complex adaptive systems. Abstract © 2018 IEEE

Epaminondas: Exploring Combat Tactics

Epaminondas is a two-person, zero-sum strategy game that combines long-term strategic play with highly tactical move sequences. The game has two unique features that make it stand out from other games. The first feature is the creation of phalanxes, which are groups of pieces that can move as a whole unit. As the number of pieces in a phalanx increases, the mobility and capturing power of the phalanx also increases. The second feature differs from many other strategy games: when a player makes a crossing, a winning move in the game, the second player has an opportunity to respond. This paper presents strategies and heuristics used in a Min-Max Alpha-Beta agent that plays at a novice level. Furthermore, it defines the state-space and game-tree complexities for Epaminondas. Finally, a new version of MCTS is implemented that uses the Alpha-Beta heuristic function during node selection to guide MCTS to more promising areas of the search tree. Additionally, in an effort to overcome the MCTS tactical weakness, the MCTS player implements the Alpha-Beta search once the game reaches 15 turns. Results show that the added heuristic value and the switch to Alpha-Beta for endgame play, positively impact the performance of MCTS, surpassing novice Alpha-Beta win ratios at certain time intervals

Internet Training for Lay Leaders to Meet Pastoral Care Needs

A review of current literature and ministry websites demonstrates that very little material is available online to assist ministry leaders and teachers with the pastoral needs issues they face in their ministries. Most ministry websites are information based rather than education based. Based on surveys and questionnaires sent to leaders and teachers, the project reviews educational website material and takes the reader though the process of developing a ministry educational website for their own ministry. The result is an educational website that may be further developed to equip for meeting pastoral care needs encountered in ministry

Immunologic activation of human syncytiotrophoblast by Plasmodium falciparum

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria during pregnancy is characterized by the sequestration of malaria-infected red blood cells (iRBC) in the intervillous spaces of the placenta, often accompanied by the infiltration of maternal mononuclear cells, causing substantial maternal and foetal/infant morbidity. The iRBC bind to receptors expressed by the syncytiotrophoblast (ST). How ST responds to this interaction remains poorly understood. Because it is known that ST is immunoactive and can respond to infectious agents, the consequences of this ST-iRBC interaction should be investigated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An in vitro system was used to assess the biochemical and immunological changes induced in ST by ST-adherent iRBCs. Changes in ST mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation were assessed by immunoblotting and mRNA expression levels of selected cytokine and chemokines in primary ST bound by iRBC were determined using real-time, reverse transcription PCR. In addition, secreted cytokine and chemokine proteins were assayed by standard ELISA, and chemotaxis of PBMC was assessed using a two-chamber assay system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Following iRBC/ST interaction, ST C-Jun N-terminal kinase 1 (JNK1) was activated and modest increases in the mRNA expression of TGF-β and IL-8/CXCL8 were observed. In addition, this interaction increased secretion of MIF and MIP-1α/CCL3 by ST and induced migration of PBMC towards iRBC-stimulated ST.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results from this study provide the first evidence that ST participates in shaping the local immunological milieu and in the recruitment of maternal immune cells to the maternal blood space during placental malaria infection.</p

Investigating Habituation to Premonitory Urges in Behavior Therapy for Tic Disorders

Behavior therapy is effective for Persistent Tic Disorders (PTDs), but behavioral processes facilitating tic reduction are not well understood. One process, habituation, is thought to create tic reduction through decreases in premonitory urge severity. The current study tested whether premonitory urges decreased in youth with PTDs (N = 126) and adults with PTDs (N = 122) who participated in parallel randomized clinical trials comparing behavior therapy to psychoeducation and supportive therapy (PST). Trends in premonitory urges, tic severity, and treatment outcome were analyzed according to the predictions of a habituation model, whereby urge severity would be expected to decrease in those who responded to behavior therapy. Although adults who responded to behavior therapy showed a significant trend of declining premonitory urge severity across treatment, results failed to demonstrate that behavior therapy specifically caused changes in premonitory urge severity. In addition, reductions in premonitory urge severity in those who responded to behavior therapy were significant greater than those who did not respond to behavior therapy but no different than those who responded or did not respond to PST. Children with PTDs failed to show any significant changes in premonitory urges. Reductions in premonitory urge severity did not mediate the relationship between treatment and outcome in either adults or children. These results cast doubt on the notion that habituation is the therapeutic process underlying the effectiveness of behavior therapy, which has immediate implications for the psychoeducation and therapeutic rationale presented in clinical practice. Moreover, there may be important developmental changes in premonitory urges in PTDs, and alternative models of therapeutic change warrant investigation