Level Of Merit Research Articles

Luci e ombre nella Vqr 2004-2010: un focus sulla scheda di valutazione peer nell'Area 14

Research evaluation is a political priority in Italy, there is nothing to say on its merit. The intent of this work is to focus on its method, by analysing from a methodological point of view, some aspects of the research products’ evaluation procedure used during the VQR. The main focus will be the evaluation procedure utilised in the Area of Political and Social Science. In the reporting of VQR, despite several efforts in the direction of the accountability, some decisive procedural steps remained in the shade, including the operational definition of the research quality for the gathering of the peer’s judgments through the evaluation forms. Therefore, the ways in which the concept of research quality has been translated into variables will be analysed. Furthermore, the analysis will concern procedure used to summarize this information up to the allocation of the final level of merit.

An Adaptive Multiobjective Approach to Evolving ART Architectures

In this paper, we present the evolution of adaptive resonance theory (ART) neural network architectures (classifiers) using a multiobjective optimization approach. In particular, we propose the use of a multiobjective evolutionary approach to simultaneously evolve the weights and the topology of three well-known ART architectures; fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM), ellipsoidal ARTMAP (EAM), and Gaussian ARTMAP (GAM). We refer to the resulting architectures as MO-GFAM, MO-GEAM, and MO-GGAM, and collectively as MO-GART. The major advantage of MO-GART is that it produces a number of solutions for the classification problem at hand that have different levels of merit [accuracy on unseen data (generalization) and size (number of categories created)]. MO-GART is shown to be more elegant (does not require user intervention to define the network parameters), more effective (of better accuracy and smaller size), and more efficient (faster to produce the solution networks) than other ART neural network architectures that have appeared in the literature. Furthermore, MO-GART is shown to be competitive with other popular classifiers, such as classification and regression tree (CART) and support vector machines (SVMs).

Postman Does Penguins

IN HIS remarkable 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman examined the appeal and cultural function of Sesame Street. He wrote that parents embraced the program because assuaged their guilt over the fact that they could not or would not restrict their children's access to At the same time, the program relieved them of the responsibility of teaching their preschool children how to read. (1) Because it delivered effortless pleasure, Postman believed that Sesame Street prepared children all too well for full membership in their parents' amusement-obsessed culture. When it was first introduced, many progressive educators praised Sesame Street as an effective means of encouraging early literacy and positive attitudes toward learning and school. Unfortunately, they missed the ways in which the show undermined what it attempted to promote. As Postman observed, Sesame Street encouraged children to love school only if school was like Sesame Street, complete with superior production values and rapid-fire shifts of topics and points of view. It is impossible to read Postman's critique of television without reflecting on the speed of change and on how readily we have set aside the debate over television as a cultural threat. It is equally impossible to miss Postman's prescience and his ability to understand the relationship between media and education, even after several generations of technology have been layered over the television. Network programming has been augmented by other types of screen-mediated content. According to a 2003 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half of surveyed parents deemed educational videos very important to their babies' development, and 27% of young children own a Einstein video. (2) Consider this testimonial, published on the company website, from a mother who is at least as enthusiastic about Einstein as her mother probably was about Sesame Street, and for all the same reasons: My 9 month old has loved the videos and DVD's since he was 2 months old. Not only have they bought me precious minutes (and hours) of time to do things like take a shower, BUT ALSO I have actually seen his recognition skills develop ... [Now] Einstein is the only thing he will sit still for. Thank God for these products, both for a new mom's sanity and her baby's most advanced intellect, of course!!! Of course. Notice that the Einstein testimonials are provided by parents rather than child development experts, a trend that (depending on one's perspective) reflects the democratizing tendencies of infoglut or the elevation of every opinion to the same level of merit. It is difficult to find disinterested experts in favor of the electronic stimulation of young children's minds. The American Association of Pediatricians has said that babies under the age of 2 shouldn't be put in front of televisions and that preschoolers should watch less than two hours each day. But 26% of children under 2 have televisions located in their bedrooms. Ninety-seven percent of children have toys or clothes based on TV or movie characters. (3) With the advent of the cable channel TV, the diaper demographic has come into its own. Parents are promised that their babies will not be targeted by advertising as they are stimulated, soothed, or channeled by the channel. There are programs for baby chefs, for babies who will watch balls of different shapes [sic], and programs that explore geometry. There even is a segment for the Baby that promises to nurture the inherent spirituality in every child. (4) Inevitably, Spiritual grows up to be Connected Child. Parental attempts to maintain an electronic version of the gated community become far more difficult, and most parents are either unwilling or unable to apply rules that might inhibit their children's access to information, communication, or amusement. …

Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2007: Enriching Our Service to Authors and Readers

Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2007: Enriching Our Service to Authors and Readers

ANALYSIS OF BIOMECHANICAL QUANTITIES DURING A SQUAT JUMP

In this study, a procedure for evaluating the performance of an athlete in a squat jump has been developed. The athletes were divided into 2 categories according to their level of merit: elite athletes and nonelite athletes. In some of the subjects, the vertical component of acceleration during the squat jump was acquired with a uniaxial accelerometer. The acceleration-time curves obtained for each category of athletes were analyzed. Some analysis parameters suitable for establishing an athletic training level index were determined. A threshold value for this index that can be used to check gesture learning was also established, allowing the index to be used as a parameter for defining sport performance in a squat jump; thus it can also be used, during the training of an athlete, as the performance index to which reference should be made.

Analysis of Biomechanical Quantities During a Squat Jump: Evaluation of a Performance Index

In this study, a procedure for evaluating the performance of an athlete in a squat jump has been developed. The athletes were divided into 2 categories according to their level of merit: elite athletes and non-elite athletes. In some of the subjects, the vertical component of acceleration during the squat jump was acquired with a uniaxial accelerometer. The acceleration-time curves obtained for each category of athletes were analyzed. Some analysis parameters suitable for establishing an athletic training level index were determined. A threshold value for this index that can be used to check gesture learning was also established, allowing the index to be used as a parameter for defining sport performance in a squat jump; thus it can also be used, during the training of an athlete, as the performance index to which reference should be made.

Solving the Nuisance-Value Settlement Problem: Mandatory Summary Judgment

The nuisance-value settlement problem arises whenever a litigant can profitably initiate a meritless claim or defense and offer to settle it for less than it would cost the opposing litigant to have a court dismiss the claim or defense on a standard motion for merits review like summary judgment. The opposing litigant confronted with such a nuisance-value claim or defense rationally would agree to settle for any amount up to the cost of litigating to have it dismissed. These settlement payoffs skew litigation outcomes away from socially appropriate levels, undermining the deterrence and compensation objectives of civil liability. Yet current procedural rules are inadequate to foreclose nuisance-value strategies. Class action is commonly thought to exacerbate the nuisance-value settlement problem to the systematic disadvantage of defendants. This concern has contributed to the growing support among courts and commentators for subjecting class actions to precertification merits review (PCMR), generally understood as conditioning class certification on prior screening of class claims for some threshold level of merit. This article proposes mandatory summary judgment (MSJ) as a solution to the problem of nuisance-value settlement in class actions and in civil litigation generally. Essentially, MSJ denies judicial enforceability to any settlement agreement entered into before the nuisance-value claim or defense has been submitted for merits review on a motion for summary judgment or other standard dispositive motion. Assessing the potential costs of the MSJ solution, we conclude that neither the opportunity for evading MSJ strictures nor the possibility of adding expenses to the settlement of non-nuisance-value litigation outweighs the benefits of MSJ. MSJ will be most cost-effective in the class action context, given the already existing general requirements of judicial review and approval of class action settlements, but MSJ should also prove beneficial in preempting nuisance-value strategies outside of class actions in the standard separate action context. With the MSJ solution set out, the article moves finally to offering a more exhaustive analysis of the theoretical soundness and practical efficacy of MSJ in the class action context, where its marginal benefits are arguable the greatest. First, the article challenges the commonly held belief that class action certification exacerbates the nuisance-value settlement problem, attempting to displace the conventional understanding of complex litigation with a new conceptual framework based on the recharacterization of the class action as part of a continuum of litigation processes rather than an isolated litigation mechanism. Second, the article provides a comparative analysis of MSJ and PCMR as solutions to the nuisance-value problems that do exist in the class action context, concluding that MSJ presents the superior and more cost-effective option.

The Policy or Function of the Law of Bills and Notes

The law of bills and notes applies to the transactions in which commercial paper is involved a group of rules peculiarly different from the normal rules of procedural, property, and contract law which otherwise would govern them. What is there about bills of exchange, bank checks, and promissory notes which justifies their being constituted a corps d'elite of the law? What policy, what end, what function is sought to be served by applying to bills and notes transactions rules of law appreciably different from the normal rules which govern business activity in general? The general policy of the law of bills and notes is to encourage the conducting of money or credit transactions in a commercially desirable manner by holding out to transactions so conducted the reward of a preferred status under the law. This general policy subsumes two subsidiary policies concerned, respectively, with form and substance which, with their correlative legal peculiarities and operative facts, furnish the basis for the classification here to be followed. The first policy involves the form of money or credit transactions. T'his policy is to encourage the shaping of such transactions into forms which commercial desirability dictates. The policy is served by holding out the reward of the procedural advantages which accrue to the ordinary holder of a negotiable instrument if the transaction be shaped into one of the molds approved by commercial practice. These advantages will follow regardless of the internal honesty of the transaction. The second policy involves the substance of money or credit transactions. Its aim is to encourage the conducting of the formal type transactions on a basis of the utmost honesty and commercial desirability, and is served by holding out the reward of the substantive advantages which accrue to the holder in due course of a negotiable instrument. For these to follow there must be, in addition to the approved formal conduct, the approved substantial conduct. Thus the corps d'elite of the law of bills and notes has two levels of merit with ascending strata of advantages granted to the obligee in