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Emotion as Social Information Theory claims that in an ambiguous situation, people rely on others' emotions to make sense of the level of fairness encountered. We tested whether the information provided by emotions about the fairness of a procedure is still a significant factor in explaining individual differences in perception of variance, even in unambiguous situations. We assessed the effects of others' emotions on observers inferred procedural justice during (un)ambiguous situations when people are treated (un)fairly. We collected data using Qualtrics online survey software from 1012 employees across different industry services in the United States. The participants were assigned randomly to one of the 12 experimental conditions (fair, unfair, and unknown x happiness, anger, guilt, and neutral). The results indicated that emotions played a significant role in the psychology of justice judgments under the ambiguous situation, as predicted by the EASI, as well as under unambiguous conditions. The study revealed significant interactions between the procedure and emotion. These findings emphasized the importance of considering how others' emotions influence an observer's perception of justice. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass shootings are becoming more frequent in the United States, as we routinely learn from the media about attempts that have been prevented or tragedies that destroyed entire communities. To date, there has been limited understanding of the modus operandi of mass shooters, especially those who seek fame through their attacks. Here, we explore whether the attacks of these fame-seeking mass shooters were more surprising than those of others and clarify the link between fame and surprise in mass shootings. We assembled a dataset of 189 mass shootings from 1966 to 2021, integrating data from multiple sources. We categorized the incidents in terms of the targeted population and shooting location. We measured “surprisal” (often known as “Shannon information content”) with respect to these features, and we scored fame from Wikipedia traffic data—a commonly used metric of fame. Surprisal was significantly higher for fame-seeking mass shooters than non-fame-seeking ones. We also registered a significant positive correlation between fame and surprisal controlling for the number of casualties and injured victims. Not only do we uncover a link between fame-seeking behavior and surprise in the attacks but also we demonstrate an association between the fame of a mass shooting and its surprise. Mass shootings are becoming more frequent in the United States, as we routinely learn from the media about attempts that have been prevented or tragedies that destroyed entire communities. To date, there has been limited understanding of the modus operandi of mass shooters, especially those who seek fame through their attacks. Here, we explore whether the attacks of these fame-seeking mass shooters were more surprising than those of others and clarify the link between fame and surprise in mass shootings. We assembled a dataset of 189 mass shootings from 1966 to 2021, integrating data from multiple sources. We categorized the incidents in terms of the targeted population and shooting location. We measured “surprisal” (often known as “Shannon information content”) with respect to these features, and we scored fame from Wikipedia traffic data—a commonly used metric of fame. Surprisal was significantly higher for fame-seeking mass shooters than non-fame-seeking ones. We also registered a significant positive correlation between fame and surprisal controlling for the number of casualties and injured victims. Not only do we uncover a link between fame-seeking behavior and surprise in the attacks but also we demonstrate an association between the fame of a mass shooting and its surprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative scheduling (CS) and related practices impact the performance of construction projects which can be measured by key performance indicators (KPIs). However, little is known about which of these practices are implemented and how their combined implementation might impact KPIs. The objectives of this research are to identify perceptions of CS practices that drive project performance, define CS practices used by industry that impact KPIs, and establish practices that are more commonly implemented and have a higher potential to positively impact KPIs. The research team conducted a nationwide survey in the United States and obtained 241 usable responses. Utilizing an information theory approach to measure the uncertainty of implementation and impact of each practice, the research built a set of Chow–Liu tree models to determine the most efficient sequence of actions to improve CS. Results indicate that meeting owners' expectation throughout the life-cycle of the project from design through construction and commissioning, using the schedule to support a strong project culture, and an effective communication plan were the top CS levers for overall KPI improvement. An innovative method was developed to help construction project managers discover the value of each CS practice, the relation between CS practices, and CS practices' influence to project KPIs so that managers can improve KPIs efficiently by prioritizing their CS practices according to their own project needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How precipitation (P) is translated into streamflow (Q) and over what timescales (i.e., "memory") is difficult to predict without calibration of site‐specific models or using geochemical approaches, posing barriers to prediction in ungauged basins or advancement of general theories. Here, we used a data‐driven approach to identify regional patterns and exogenous controls on P–Q interactions. We applied an information flow analysis, which quantifies uncertainty reduction, to a daily time series of P and Q from 671 watersheds across the conterminous United States. We first demonstrated that information transfer from P to Q primarily reflects the quickflow component of water‐budgets, based on a watershed model. Readily quantifiable information flows show a functional relationship with model parameters, suggesting utility for model calibration. Second, applied to real watersheds, P–Q information flows exhibit seasonally varying behavior within regions in a manner consistent with dominant runoff generation mechanisms. However, the timing and the magnitude of information flows also reflect considerable subregional heterogeneity, likely attributable to differences in watershed size, baseflow contributions, and variation in aerial coverage of preferential flow paths. A regression analysis showed that a combination of climate and watershed characteristics are predictive of P–Q information flows. Though information flows cannot, in most cases, uniquely determine dominant runoff mechanisms, they provide a means to quantify the heterogeneous outcomes of those mechanisms within regions, thereby serving as a benchmarking tool for models developed at the regional scale. Last, information flows characterize regionally specific ways in which catchment connectivity changes from the wet to dry season. Key Points: Information‐theoretic metrics quantifying the precipitation (P)–streamflow (Q) interaction can reduce model parameter uncertaintyInformation flows between P and Q reveal dominance of surface or subsurface quickflow processes on the streamflow signalP‐Q information flows are informative of subregional heterogeneity and seasonal changes in watershed connectivity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pandemics threaten world stability; however, spread is mitigated with prevention behaviors. We introduce "personally relevant knowledge" to explain the knowledge–behavior gap (i.e., objective and subjective knowledge on information acquisition and behavioral change). Hypotheses are derived from prior knowledge literature, economic psychology, and relevance theory. Multimethod analysis (survey data, partial least squares structural equation path modeling [PLS-SEM], and an asymmetric information theoretic statistical analysis) is applied to H1N1 data from the USA and Australia. Personally relevant knowledge is an important addition to prior knowledge conceptualizations, and information theory uncovers asymmetric variable relationships concerning the knowledge–behavior gap, not captured by PLS-SEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tornadoes have Lorenzian predictability horizons O(10) min, and convection-allowing ensemble prediction systems (EPSs) often provide probabilistic guidance of such events to forecasters. Given the O(0.1)-km length scale of tornadoes and O(1)-km scale of mesocyclones, operational models running at horizontal grid spacings (Δx) of 3 km may not capture narrower mesocyclones (typical of the southeastern United States) and certainly do not resolve most tornadoes per se. In any case, it requires O(50) times more computer power to reduce Δx by a factor of 3. Herein, to determine value in such an investment, we compare two EPSs, differing only in Δx (3 vs 1 km), for four low-CAPE, high-shear cases. Verification was grouped as 1) deterministic, traditional methods using pointwise evaluation, 2) a scale-aware probabilistic metric, and 3) a novel method via object identification and information theory. Results suggest 1-km forecasts better detect storms and any associated rapid low- and midlevel rotation, but at the cost of weak–moderate reflectivity forecast skill. The nature of improvement was sensitive to the case, variable, forecast lead time, and magnitude, precluding a straightforward aggregation of results. However, the distribution of object-specific information gain over all cases consistently shows greater average benefit from the 1-km EPS. We also reiterate the importance of verification methodology appropriate for the hazard of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how parents manage conflicting online information, which may affect their information-seeking behavior and decision-making about childhood vaccination, by applying the Theory of Motivated Information Management in online communication contexts. Although an extensive body of literature has demonstrated the effectiveness of TMIM in predicting how individuals manage health uncertainty and information in the interpersonal communication contexts, the present study goes beyond and applies the theoretical framework in the online communication contexts. Our findings of a survey with 439 parents in the United States are in conjunction with previous applications of TMIM, which show that individuals adopt a similar process to deal with uncertainty resulting from conflicting information in the online environment. Although further research must be conducted to change perceptions, attitudes, and vaccine-related behaviors, this study may help communication practitioners, vaccination advocates, and related nonprofit organizations to eliminate misconceptions about immunization among parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze how financial analysts generate information, make decisions about firm coverage, and try to maintain their forecasting accuracy after the passage of Regulation Fair Disclosure ("Reg FD"). Using the model developed by Barron, Kim, Lim, and Stevens 1998, we find that analysts are investing more effort in idiosyncratic information discovery. In order to do this, individual analysts appear to be reducing coverage for well-followed firms while increasing coverage of firms that were less followed prior to Reg FD. Analysts who had preferential links with firms that they covered, such as analysts from large brokerage houses, tend to have greater forecast accuracy in the pre-FD period. However, these analysts are unable to sustain their forecasting superiority in the post-FD period, which suggests that there has been a leveling of the information playing field among analysts. Overall, our results reflect a trend toward greater reliance on idiosyncratic information discovery on part of the financial analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use concepts from actor-network theory (ANT) to interpret the sequence of events that led to business process change (BPC) failure at a telecommunications company in the United States. Through our intensive examination of the BPC initiative, we find that a number of issues suggested by ANT, such as errors in problematization, parallel translation, betrayal, and irreversible inscription of interests, contributed significantly to the failure. We provide nine abstraction statements capturing the essence of our findings in a concrete form. The larger implication of our study is that, for sociotechnical phenomena such as BPC with significant political components, an ANT-informed understanding can enable practitioners to better anticipate and cope with emergent complexities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of an exploratory survey of executives from a cross-section of U.S. advertising agencies, this article examines the relationship between agency creative philosophies and agent creative risk taking. The natures of both creative risk and agency philosophy are discussed. Multiple measures of risk taking are applied and the findings suggest that agency executives working in agencies with clear identities are more likely to take risks than are those in agencies without such identities (hybrid philosophies), but not for all measures of risk. The extent to which the size of client plays a role also is assessed. After an assessment of the findings, limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several thousand group support systems (GSS) installations worldwide, and, while that number is growing, GSS has not yet achieved critical mass. One reason may be that it can take one to three years for an organization to complete a transition to GSS. Studying GSS transition in the field could yield insights that would allow for faster, lower-risk transitions elsewhere. This article presents a thirty-two-month qualitative field investigation of an effort to introduce GSS into the daily work of the staff of the U.S. Navy's Commander, Third Fleet. Using the principles of action research, the project began with interventions based on the precepts of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The goal of the interventions was to engender sufficient acceptance for GSS to create a self-sustaining, growing community of GSS users. Throughout the study, building on a base of experience developed in other private- and public-sector transition projects, we revised and extended TAM based on insights that emerged in the field. The resulting model, the Technology Transition Model (TTM), frames acceptance as a multiplicative function of the magnitude and frequency of the perceived net value of a proposed change, moderated by the perceived net value associated with the transition period itself. TTF frames net value as having a number of dimensions, including cognitive, economic, political, social, affective, and physical. It posits that cognitive net value derives from at least three sources: changes in access, technical, and conceptual attention loads. GSS transition proceeded at different speeds in different segments of the Third Fleet; the intelligence and battle staffs became self-sustaining within weeks, while others are still not self-sustaining. TTM appears to explain the differences that emerged in the Navy community. The articles presents TAM, then argues the propositions of TTM. It then presents background information about Third Fleet, and describes critical incidents in the transition effort that give rise to the model. It summarizes the lessons learned in the field by comparing the differing transition trajectories among Fleet staff segments in light of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report the findings of an experiment comparing the effectiveness of television commercials with varied levels of information content (high vs. low) in the United States and the Republic of Korea. Cultural differences were used as a basis for the hypothesis. Consistent with expectations based on those cultural differences, the U.S. subjects responded more favourably to commercials with high information levels than did the Korean subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use Random Matrix Theory (RMT) and information theory to analyze the correlations and flow of information between 64,939 news from The New York Times and 40 world financial indices during 10 months along the period 2015–2016. The set of news is quantified and transformed into daily polarity time series using tools from sentiment analysis. The results show that a common factor influences the world indices and news, which even share the same dynamics. Furthermore, the global correlation structure is found to be preserved when adding white noise, what indicates that correlations are not due to sample size effects. Likewise, we find a considerable amount of information flowing from news to world indices for some specific delay. This is of practical interest for trading purposes. Our results suggest a deep relationship between news and world indices, and show a situation where news drive world market movements, giving a new evidence to support behavioral finance as the current economic paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the first sex offender community notification laws in the early 1990s, the expansion of online sex offender registries (SORs) in the United States has offered Americans unprecedented access to information about previously convicted sex offenders living in their communities. Despite this, survey data suggest that relatively few citizens use SORs and that even fewer use that information for specific protective purposes. The current study examines the patterns and correlates of SOR usage among a stratified nationwide sample of 1,000 U.S. adults, offering the most extensive national assessment to date of SOR use among the U.S. public. Although 45% of the sample reported that they had accessed an SOR (higher than rates reported in previous studies), the majority had done so only once or twice, most typically out of general curiosity rather than for a specific purpose. Separating these “casual users” from those who had consulted the SOR more frequently, the study revealed significant effects related to gender, age, race, political ideology, and importance of religion. Analyses also found the most frequent users to be significantly more likely to report diminished feelings of safety as a result of viewing SOR information and to engage in protective actions, including the sharing of information with family and neighbors. Policy implications for the design and implementation of public SORs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnoracial residential segregation is a complex, multiscalar phenomenon with immense moral and economic costs. Modeling the structure and dynamics of segregation is a pressing problem for sociology and urban planning, but existing methods have limitations. In this paper, we develop a suite of methods, grounded in information theory, for studying the spatial structure of segregation. We first advance existing profile and decomposition methods by posing two related regionalization methods, which allow for profile curves with nonconstant spatial scale and decomposition analysis with nonarbitrary areal units. We then formulate a measure of local spatial scale, which may be used for both detailed, within-city analysis and intercity comparisons. These methods highlight detailed insights in the structure and dynamics of urban segregation that would be otherwise easy to miss or difficult to quantify. They are computationally efficient, applicable to a broad range of study questions, and freely available in open source software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the impact of the four paradigms of language and development in the American West. Details on the inception of these paradigms; Contributions of the swift technological changes to the population, settlement and education in the West; Substantial evidence indicating that a great number of people who settled in the region effectively used all the language-art skills and all four paradigms of language development.

Answering one question often begets another. We present a decision-theoretic model that describes how this affects the sequencing of decisions over time. Because answering an easy question may raise a more difficult one, a rational judge may delay resolution even if he has perfect information about the correct decision. Furthermore, because otherwise unrelated questionsmay raise similar follow-ups, hemay optimally clump decisions together. Our theory thus generates an endogenous economy of scale in dispute resolution and contributes to the literature on punctuated equilibrium theory. We illustrate the results of our model with a case study from legal history in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An information framework is proposed for studying uncertainty and disagreement of economic forecasters. This framework builds upon the mixture model of combining density forecasts through a systematic application of the information theory. The framework encompasses the measures used in the literature and leads to their generalizations. The focal measure is the Jensen–Shannon divergence of the mixture which admits Kullback–Leibler and mutual information representations. Illustrations include exploring the dynamics of the individual and aggregate uncertainty about the US inflation rate using the survey of professional forecasters (SPF). We show that the normalized entropy index corrects some of the distortions caused by changes of the design of the SPF over time. Bayesian hierarchical models are used to examine the association of the inflation uncertainty with the anticipated inflation and the dispersion of point forecasts. Implementation of the information framework based on the variance and Dirichlet model for capturing uncertainty about the probability distribution of the economic variable are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Clinical trials require sufficient samples recruited within limited time and budget constraints. Trials with minors are additionally burdened by the requirement for youth assent and parental permission. This paper details the use of Facebook ads and traditional paper mailings to enroll 797 adolescent girls for a longitudinal, web-based, drug abuse prevention trial. Data on sample representativeness and retention are also provided.Methods: Facebook ads appeared on the pages of females aged 13 or 14years who reside in the U.S. Ads linked girls to a recruitment website. Girls who wanted more information submitted contact information and were mailed information packets to their homes containing, among other things, youth assent and parent permission forms. Returned forms were verified for accuracy and validity.Results: The Facebook ad campaign reached 2,267,848 girls and had a unique click-through rate of 3.0%. The campaign cost $41,202.37 with an average cost of $51.70 per enrolled girl. Information packets were mailed to 1,873 girls. Approximately one-half of girls returned the forms, and 797 girls were enrolled. The Facebook campaign's success varied by ad type, month, and day of the week. Baseline data revealed comparability to national data on demographic and substance use variables.Conclusions: Results suggest that Facebook ads provide a useful initial point of access to unparalleled numbers of adolescents. Clinical trials may benefit from a two-fold recruitment strategy that uses online ads to attract interested adolescents followed by traditional recruitment methods to communicate detailed information to adolescents and parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initiatives to boost public trust of government often rely on better reporting of the efforts and accomplishments of government agencies. But if citizens disbelieve the performance reports of agencies, especially information about good performance, then these initiatives may be do little to enhance trust. We ask the following questions: Do citizens find performance information from government agencies to be credible, or do they trust more in independent sources? Do they believe some agencies more than others? And does credibility of the agency itself as a source depend on the level of performance that is being reported? To address these questions, we designed an experiment to test the credibility of a customer satisfaction index for two U.S. federal agencies, with random allocation of the specific agency (one politically less attractive, the other more so), the source of the index (the federal agency itself or an independent rating firm), as well as the level of performance reported in the index. Results from an online sample of nearly 600 U.S. adults show that credibility is lower for the politically less attractive agency and that citizens are especially doubtful about good performance reported by the government agency itself (as opposed to the independent rating firm). These results suggest that independent sources can boost credibility when reporting good news about government performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have argued that popular music has secured aesthetic legitimacy and an elevated position in the cultural hierarchy. Drawing on a variety of information, including newspaper articles on popular music in the US and the Netherlands in select reference years from 1975 to 2005, I consider the extent to which processes of commercialization and autonomization ( Bourdieu, 1993 ) have shaped coverage of popular music. Overall, I find that the field of popular music has developed a stable system of symbolic value that is relatively autonomous from, although overlapping with, commercial success. In particular, most coverage of popular music across artist and music types takes an aesthetic perspective, although there is a balance of both news items and artistic reviews. The study contributes to recent studies of institutional recognition and consecration in commercialized fields of cultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The First Amendment's usually strict protection of the right to free speech sometimes appears to give way when listeners would have difficulty evaluating a given communication. But it is far from clear when or why courts relax the dictates of the Speech and Press Clauses in light of the effects of speech on listeners. Courts 'failure to develop a clear method for assessing speech effects under the First Amendment is particularly troublesome in light of the novel speechrelated issues that have come with rapid advances in modern communications technologies. Arriving at an approach for evaluating the impact of speech on listeners would clarify First Amendment jurisprudence, helping to resolve questions about how the Speech and Press Clauses should apply in a hyper connected, hypercommunicative, high-technology world. This Note turns to communications theory, and in particular to the work of Marshall McLuhan, to develop such an approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the careers of a nationally representative U.S. cohort of young adults using sequence analysis and information-theoretic techniques to describe these careers' structure and how this structure might inform differences in wage mobility. We operationalise the career as a sequence of industry-occupation pairs observed quarterly. We investigate how the content of these pairs and their organisation over time relate to future mobility. We perform the analysis across three different mobility groups, one of which is characterised by persistent low-wage work. Contrary to what one might expect, low-wage work is not typified by a lack of structure, even in many of the careers in which the worker is weakly attached to the labour market. Using clustering techniques customised to this problem, we build a typology of careers within three groups of workers defined by their wage mobility. We find significant variation within, as well as similarity across the three groups, enhancing our understanding of careers with different levels of mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting and explaining the relationships among interacting components has long been a focal point of dynamical systems research. In this paper, we extend these types of data-driven analyses to the realm of public policy, whereby individual legislative entities interact to produce changes in their legal and political environments. We focus on the U.S. public health policy landscape, whose complexity determines our capacity as a society to effectively tackle pressing health issues. It has long been thought that some U.S. states innovate and enact new policies, while others mimic successful or competing states. However, the extent to which states learn from others, and the state characteristics that lead two states to influence one another, are not fully understood. Here, we propose a model-free, information-theoretical method to measure the existence and direction of influence of one state's policy or legal activity on others. Specifically, we tailor a popular notion of causality to handle the slow time scale of p olicy adoption dynamics and unravel relationships among states from their recent law enactment histories. The method is validated using surrogate data generated from a new stochastic model of policy activity. Through the analysis of real data in alcohol, driving safety, and impaired driving po licy, we provide evidence for the role of geography, political ideology, risk factors, and demographic and economic indicators on a state's tendency to learn from others when shaping its approach to public health regulation. Our method offers a new model-free approach to uncover interactions and establish cause and effect in slowly evolving complex dynamical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tells the story of Ed Fredkin, a pilot, programmer, engineer, hardware designer, and entrepreneur whose work inside and outside academia has influenced major developments in computer science and in the foundations of theoretical physics, and, in particular, in the intersection thereof, for the past fifty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay attempts to unpack a core principle of folklore's "field-Imaginary." Characterized here as a cybernetic Ideal, folklorists take for granted that the folklore process entails a tension between mechanisms of randomizing variation and counter forces of stabilizing constraint, leading to some form of dynamic equilibrium. The argument is not that this foundational idea is wrong, but that the simple form in which we receive it from the field-Imaginary limits what we recognize as relevant to folklore studies. A more complex understanding of (neo) cybernetic thinking can help us enlarge our disciplinary frame and contemplate more critically the digital/ computational turn in folklore studies today [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A culture is a kind of common created by social communications and composed of both information and attention. Over the last hundred and forty years or so, the United States has seen an aggressive move toward the privatization of both the information and attention facets of the cultural commons. The model of a collectively governed commons offers a more democratic option than commodified communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Prior research suggested that single-unit trucks are undercounted when using vehicle body codes in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). This study explored the extent of the misclassification and undercounting problem for crashes in FARS and state crash databases.Methods: Truck misclassifications for fatal crashes were explored by comparing the Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) database with FARS. TIFA used vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and survey information to classify large trucks. This study used VINs to improve the accuracy of large truck classifications in state crash databases from 5 states (Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Utah).Results: The vehicle body type codes resulted in a 19% undercount of single-unit trucks in FARS and a 23% undercount of single-unit trucks in state databases. Tractor-trailers were misclassified less often. Misclassifications occurred most frequently among single-unit trucks in the weight classes of 10,001-14,000 pounds.Conclusions: The amount of misclassification of large trucks is large enough to potentially affect federal and state decisions on traffic safety. Using information from VINs results in more complete and accurate counts of large trucks involved in crashes. The National Transportation Safety Board recommended actions to improve federal and state crash data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing search process is an overlooked mechanism in the scholarly research that seeks to understand the causes of persistent racial residential segregation in the United States. Past research has explored in detail the preferences people hold in terms of the racial and ethnic composition of their neighborhoods, and more recently some have also examined the correspondence between racial and ethnic neighborhood preferences and current neighborhood racial/ethnic composition. But an intermediate stage-the racial/ethnic composition of where people search-has not been investigated. We analyze a subsample ( n = 382) from the 2004-2005 Chicago Area Study to demonstrate the value of systematically studying the matches-or mismatches-between preferences, search locations, and neighborhood outcomes. We find that for whites, not only their current neighborhoods but also the neighborhoods in which they search for housing have larger percentages of whites than they say they prefer. In contrast, blacks-and to a lesser extent Latinos-search in neighborhoods that correspond to their preferences, but reside in neighborhoods with a larger percentage own group. Logistic regression analyses reveal that mismatches are associated with both a lack of information and inadequate finances, but also may be due to socially desirable responding for whites in particular. Our results provide suggestive evidence of the importance of unpacking the search process more generally and draw attention to what are likely to be productive new future data collection efforts as well as an area potentially ripe for policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information theory of legislative organization suggests that legislative committees are designed to provide their parent chamber with necessary information to legislate. Despite empirical evidence for various aspects of the theory, we have limited knowledge of committees' influence on legislative outputs. I argue that informative committees are more than information providers, that they also substantively impact legislative outcomes. With supportive evidence from the US state legislatures, this article shows that the presence of an informative committee system not only lowers the number of bills introduced to the legislature but also enhances the chamber's efficiency in transforming legislative proposals into laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using computational algorithms to design tailored drug cocktails for highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on specific populations is a goal of major importance for both pharmaceutical industry and public health policy institutions. New combinations of compounds need to be predicted in order to design HAART cocktails. On the one hand, there are the biomolecular factors related to the drugs in the cocktail (experimental measure, chemical structure, drug target, assay organisms, etc .); on the other hand, there are the socioeconomic factors of the specific population (income inequalities, employment levels, fiscal pressure, education, migration, population structure, etc .) to study the relationship between the socioeconomic status and the disease. In this context, machine learning algorithms, able to seek models for problems with multi-source data, have to be used. In this work, the first artificial neural network (ANN) model is proposed for the prediction of HAART cocktails, to halt AIDS on epidemic networks of U.S. counties using information indices that codify both biomolecular and several socioeconomic factors. The data was obtained from at least three major sources. The first dataset included assays of anti-HIV chemical compounds released to ChEMBL. The second dataset is the AIDSVu database of Emory University. AIDSVu compiled AIDS prevalence for >2300 U.S. counties. The third data set included socioeconomic data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Three scales or levels were employed to group the counties according to the location or population structure codes: state, rural urban continuum code (RUCC) and urban influence code (UIC). An analysis of >130,000 pairs (network links) was performed, corresponding to AIDS prevalence in 2310 counties in U.S. vs. drug cocktails made up of combinations of ChEMBL results for 21,582 unique drugs, 9 viral or human protein targets, 4856 protocols, and 10 possible experimental measures. The best model found with the original data was a linear neural network (LNN) with AUROC > 0.80 and accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity ≈ 77% in training and external validation series. The change of the spatial and population structure scale (State, UIC, or RUCC codes) does not affect the quality of the model. Unbalance was detected in all the models found comparing positive/negative cases and linear/non-linear model accuracy ratios. Using synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE), data pre-processing and machine-learning algorithms implemented into the WEKA software, more balanced models were found. In particular, a multilayer perceptron (MLP) with AUROC = 97.4% and precision, recall, and F-measure >90% was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about renewable energy is limited and a lack of information pertaining to biofuels is prevalent. If consumers believe there are negative consequences towards use of biofuels then they are less likely to use biodiesel. Based on perceptions portrayed through media formats, the battle between food and fuel has been formulated and presented to the public. This study sought to examine selected college students' awareness, use and perceptions of biodiesel and determine if there was variance between selected regions based on gender, major (agriculture vs. non-agriculture), type of area where students were raised (farm, rural non-farm, town or city), or political orientation (conservative, moderate, or liberal). Findings indicated that one in five (20.9%) participants reported owning or driving a vehicle fueled by diesel while over three-fourths (76.4%) had heard of biodiesel. Furthermore, males, agriculture majors, and students raised on a farm were significantly more likely to have heard of biodiesel than females, nonagriculture majors, and students raised in a town or city. Illinois State University students tended to be more likely to have purchased biodiesel, be more positive about the benefits of biodiesel and have a lower level of concern about the effects of biodiesel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of smoke from prescribed fires requires knowledge of fuel quantity and the amount and composition of the smoke produced by the fire to minimize adverse impacts on human health. A five-year study produced new emissions information for more than 100 trace gases and particulate matter in smoke for fuel types found in the southern United States of America using state-of-the-art instrumentation in both laboratory and field experiments. Emission factors for flaming, smoldering, and residual smoldering were developed. Agreement between laboratory and field-derived emission factors was generally good in most cases. Reference spectra of over 50 wildland fire gas-phase smoke components were added to a publicly-available database to support identification via infrared spectroscopy. Fuel loading for the field experiments was similar to previously measured fuels. This article summarizes the results of a five-year study to better understand the composition of smoke during all phases of burning for such forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borrowing from recent finance research that describes geographic distance as a determinant of information asymmetry and performance, we examine the relation between audit quality and auditor-client proximity. After controlling for monitoring costs (audit fees) and client firms' selection of auditors, we find that accruals quality (a common proxy for audit performance) improves with auditor proximity. The findings indicate that auditors have information advantage that dissipates with geographic distance (i.e., 'soft' information in Berger et al. in J Financ Econ 76(2):237-269, ; Coval and Moskowitz in J Polit Econ 109(4):811-841, ; Petersen and Rajan in J Financ 57(6):2533-2570, ), suggesting that that investors, analysts, and regulators should pay additional attention to information risk for firms audited by non-local auditors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, a group of practitioners took action to restore 175 miles of riparian habitat impaired by invasive plants along the Dolores River in southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah. Recognizing the magnitude of ecological, jurisdictional, and management challenges associated with this large-scale initiative, this group of managers built trust and relationships with key partners to foster collaboration across boundaries and cultivate consensus of a variety of perspectives and forms of knowledge. What emerged was a network of individuals, organizations, and agencies dedicated to restoring the Dolores River riparian corridor while sharing information and learning from one another. This public-private collaboration, called the Dolores River Restoration Partnership ( DRRP), has been successful in creating a process by which financial, technical, and human resources are shared across boundaries to restore a riparian corridor. Specifically, the DRRP developed effective planning documents, a responsive governance structure, monitoring protocols, and a shared mindset for extracting lessons learned that have been instrumental in making progress toward its shared restoration goals and addressing a wide variety of restoration challenges. The tools developed by the partnership and lessons learned from their utility are outlined in this case study as a means to inform other collaborative restoration efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the implications of electronic monitoring systems for organizational information flows and worker control, in the context of the U.S. trucking industry. Truckers, a spatially dispersed group of workers with a traditionally independent culture and a high degree of autonomy, are increasingly subjected to performance monitoring via fleet management systems that record and transmit fine-grained data about their location and behaviors. These systems redistribute operational information within firms by accruing real-time aggregated data in a remote company dispatcher. This redistribution results in a seemingly incongruous set of effects. First, abstracted and aggregated data streams allow dispatchers to quantitatively evaluate truckers’ job performance across new metrics, and to challenge truckers’ accounts of local and biophysical conditions. Second, even as these data are abstracted, information about truckers’ activities is simultaneously resocialized via its strategic deployment into truckers’ social relationships with their coworkers and families. These disparate dynamics operate together to facilitate firms’ control over truckers’ daily work practices in a manner that was not previously possible. The trucking case reveals multifaceted pathways to the entrenchment of organizational control via electronic monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the veracity of a theoretically derived model of health that describes a non-linear trajectory of health from birth to death with available population data sets. Methods The distribution of mortality by age is directly related to health at that age, thus health approximates 1/mortality. The inverse of available all-cause mortality data from various time periods and populations was used as proxy data to compare with the theoretically derived non-linear health model predictions, using both qualitative approaches and quantitative one-sample Kolmogorov- Smirnov analysis with Monte Carlo simulation. Results The mortality data's inverse resembles a log-normal distribution as predicted by the proposed health model. The curves have identical slopes from birth and follow a logarithmic decline from peak health in young adulthood. A majority of the sampled populations had a good to excellent quantitative fit to a log-normal distribution, supporting the underlying model assumptions. Post hoc manipulation showed the model predictions to be stable. Conclusions This is a first theory of health to be validated by proxy data, namely the inverse of all-cause mortality. This non-linear model, derived from the notion of the interaction of physical, environmental, mental, emotional, social and sense-making domains of health, gives physicians a more rigorous basis to direct health care services and resources away from disease-focused elder care towards broad-based biopsychosocial interventions earlier in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey gives a review of recent artificial intelligence-related research directions that are considered priority areas by the U.S. Air Force and targeted for basic research funding by Air Force Office of Scientific Research. These research areas include space situational awareness, autonomous systems, sensing and information fusion, surveillance, navigation, robust decision making, human-computer interfaces, and computational and machine intelligence. The possible contributions of artificial intelligence to these topics will be described and illustrated whenever possible by recently awarded grants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]