Paintings and their implicit presuppositions : a preliminary report

In a series of earlier papers (Social Science Working Papers 350, 355. 357) we have studied the ways in which differences in "implicit presupposi tions" (i. e •• differences in world views) cause scientists and historians to reach differing conclusions from a consideration of the same evidence. In this paper we show that paintings are characterized by implicit presuppositions similar to those that characterize the written materials -- essays, letters, scientific papers -- we have already studied

Paintings and their implicit presuppositions: High Renaissance and Mannerism

All art historians who are interested in questions of "styles" or "schools" agree in identifying a High Renaissance school of Italian painting. There is, however, a disagreement, which has seemed nonterminating, regarding Mannerism: Is it another distinct school or is it merely a late development of the Renaissance school? We believe that this disagreement can be terminated by distinguishing questions of fact about paintings from questions about the definitions of schools. To this end we have had two representative subsets of paintings--one earlier, one later--rated on four of the dimensions of implicit presuppositions that we have introduced in other Working Papers. When the paintings are scaled in this way a very distinct profile emerges for the earlier, or Renaissance, paintings. In contrast, the later, or Mannerist, paintings are so heterogeneous that we conclude that they are best described as deviations from the Renaissance profile, rather than a separate school. These results are not unimportant--at least for art historians. But they are more important methodologically inasmuch as the procedures applied here can be used in classifying and distinguishing from one another all kind of cultural products

LANDSAT information for state planning

The transfer of remote sensing technology for the digital processing of LANDSAT data to state and local agencies in Georgia and other southeastern states is discussed. The project consists of a series of workshops, seminars, and demonstration efforts, and transfer of NASA-developed hardware concepts and computer software to state agencies. Throughout the multi-year effort, digital processing techniques have been emphasized classification algorithms. Software for LANDSAT data rectification and processing have been developed and/or transferred. A hardware system is available at EES (engineering experiment station) to allow user interactive processing of LANDSAT data. Seminars and workshops emphasize the digital approach to LANDSAT data utilization and the system improvements scheduled for LANDSATs C and D. Results of the project indicate a substantially increased awareness of the utility of digital LANDSAT processing techniques among the agencies contracted throughout the southeast. In Georgia, several agencies have jointly funded a program to map the entire state using digitally processed LANDSAT data

Study of USGS/NASA land use classification system

It is known from several previous investigations that many categories of land-use can be mapped via computer processing of Earth Resources Technology Satellite data. The results are presented of one such experiment using the USGS/NASA land-use classification system. Douglas County, Georgia, was chosen as the test site for this project. It was chosen primarily because of its recent rapid growth and future growth potential. Results of the investigation indicate an overall land-use mapping accuracy of 67% with higher accuracies in rural areas and lower accuracies in urban areas. It is estimated, however, that 95% of the State of Georgia could be mapped by these techniques with an accuracy of 80% to 90%

Summary of papers presented at the conference "models and monetary policy: research in the tradition of Dale Henderson, Richard Porter, and Peter Tinsley"

On March 26 and 27, 2004, the Federal Reserve Board held a conference in Washington, D.C., on the application of economic models to the analysis of monetary policy issues. The papers presented at the conference addressed several topics that, because they are of interest to central bankers, have been a prominent feature of Federal Reserve research over the years. In particular, the papers represent research in the tradition of work carried out over the past thirty-five years at the Federal Reserve by three prominent staff economists -- Dale W. Henderson, Richard D. Porter, and Peter A. Tinsley. Thus, the conference partly served as a celebration of the contributions made by these individuals to policy-related research since the late 1960s. ; Among the specific topics addressed at the conference were the influence of uncertainty on policymaking; the design of formal rules to guide policy actions; the role of money in the transmission of monetary policy; the determination of asset prices; and econometric techniques for estimating dynamic models of the economy.Monetary policy ; Econometric models

LANDSAT data for state planning

The results of an effort to generate and apply automated classification of LANDSAT digital data to state of Georgia problems are presented. This phase centers on an analysis of the usefulness of LANDSAT digital data to provide land-use data for transportation planning. Hall County, Georgia was chosen as a test site because it is part of a seventeen county area for which the Georgia Department of Transportation is currently designing a Transportation Planning Land-Use Simulation Model. The land-cover information derived from this study was compared to several other existing sources of land-use data for Hall County and input into this simulation. The results indicate that there is difficulty comparing LANDSAT derived land-cover information with previous land-use information since the LANDSAT data are acquired on an acre by acre grid basis while all previous land-use surveys for Hall County used land-use data on a parcel basis

Design of a low cost earth resources system

The author has identified the following significant results. Survey results indicated that users of remote sensing data in the Southeastern U.S. were increasingly turning to digital processing techniques. All the states surveyed have had some involvement in projects using digitally processed data. Even those states which do not yet have in-house capabilities for digital processing were extremely interested in and were planning to develop such capabilities

Lunar surface roughness comminution study Final report, 20 Jul. 1964 - 7 Apr. 1965

Lunar surface roughness comminution estimated by considering meteoric body catering proces

The effects of subcurative praziquantel treatment on life-history traits and trade-offs in drug-resistant Schistosoma mansoni

Natural selection acts on all organisms, including parasites, to maximise reproductive fitness. Drug resistance traits are often associated with life-history costs in the absence of treatment. Schistosomiasis control programmes rely on mass drug administration to reduce human morbidity and mortality. Although hotspots of reduced drug efficacy have been reported, resistance is not widespread. Using Bayesian State-Space Models (SSMs) fitted to data from an in vivo laboratory system, we tested the hypothesis that the spread of resistant Schistosoma may be limited by life-history costs not present in susceptible counterparts. Schistosoma mansoni parasites from a praziquantel–susceptible (S), a praziquantel–resistant (R) or a mixed line of originally resistant and susceptible parasites (RS) were exposed to a range of praziquantel doses. Parasite numbers at each life stage were quantified in their molluscan intermediate and murine definitive hosts across four generations, and SSMs were used to estimate key life-history parameters for each experimental group over time. Model outputs illustrated that parasite adult survival and fecundity in the murine host decreased across all lines, including R, with increasing drug pressure. Trade-offs between adult survival and fecundity were observed in all untreated lines, and these remained strong in S with praziquantel pressure. In contrast, trade-offs between adult survival and fecundity were lost under praziquantel pressure in R. As expected, parasite life-history traits within the molluscan host were complex, but trade-offs were demonstrated between parasite establishment and cercarial output. The observed trade-offs between generations within hosts, which were modified by praziquantel treatment in the R line, could limit the spread of R parasites under praziquantel pressure. Whilst such complex life-history costs may be difficult to detect using standard empirical methods, we demonstrate that SSMs provide robust estimates of life history parameters, aiding our understanding of costs and trade-offs of resistant parasites within this system and beyond

Some Implicit Presuppositions of Typical Writings in the Field of American Intellectual History

This paper reports a study made of some of the implicit presuppositions contained in the following materials: The Federalist, papers 10 and 51 by Madison, selections from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Emerson's "The American Scholar"; Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener"; "Washington as Commander in Chief” in Bancroft's History of the United States; and "A Small Group of Men Hold in their hands the Business of this Country," a Senate speech by Robert M. LaFollette, Fifteen students at the Claremont Graduate School, who had taken a course in which these materials were studied, rated them on seven scales, or "dimensions, " each of which represents one of a contrasting pair of implicit presuppositions which we have identified and defined. At 19 of the 42 choice points at which decisions had to be made (six selections on seven dimensions) the ratings proved to be significant at p < .05 level. These results thus expand the "scope" of our set of implicit presuppositions to include new materials not previously investigated. In short, it has been shown that readers who are guided by our definitions are able to agree on some of the implicit assumptions contained in a representative sample of writings in the field of American intellectual history