The disasters of the past years in different high risk industries (e.g. aviation, offshore, nuclear) push for a moment of reflexivity about learning from accidents. In the aftermath of these events, one wonders whether learning from accidents remains a viable endeavour for companies and states or whether recurring technological disasters such as these seriously and definitely undermine any attempt to prove the feasibility of learning. Progress has certainly been made in the past, but apparently not enough so to be able to reach the highest safety levels, even in systems with dedicated resources. As a result of the current situation, some have been able to argue that 'we don't learn about disasters'. Although appealing and right, this is a very generic statement. There are many studies addressing aspects of learning from accidents which are in a position to bring insights about the drawbacks of learning. But this wealth of research is also part of the problem. When one wants to step back and to look broadly at the topic, to understand the reason why 'we don't learn', one is left with a fragmented scientific literature covering a very large spectrum of interests and views on the subject. This short paper tackles this problem by designing a framework to organise the diversity of studies. ; Il existe depuis une dizaine d'années un sentiment de déjà-vu pour les observateurs des questions de sécurité industrielle. À la vague des grands accidents emblématiques et médiatisés des années 80 semble succéder celle des années 2000. Aux Tchernobyl, Bhopal, Piper Alpha, Challenger ou Zeebruges, il est possible aujourd'hui de substituer les accidents plus récents de Columbia, Toulouse, Texas City, Deep Water Horizon, Fukushima ou encore du Costa Concordia. Ainsi, cet air de déjà-vu tient à la proximité dans le temps de plusieurs événements majeurs dans des domaines à risques différents [A]. Mais alors, pourquoi n'apprend-on pas du passé ? Pourquoi le retour d'expérience ne permet-il pas d'éviter la répétition de ce type d'événements ? La difficulté d'apporter une réponse à cette question est liée en grande partie à la fragmentation des savoirs et des études réalisées dans le domaine du retour d'expérience. En effet, celui-ci peut être étudié selon une multitude de points de vue. Or, pour comprendre les difficultés et limites du retour d'expérience, il convient non seulement de multiplier les angles d'interprétation, mais aussi de les combiner.
In developed countries, regular breakfast consumption is inversely associated with excess weight and directly associated with better dietary and improved physical activity behaviors. Our objective was to describe the frequency of breakfast consumption among school-going adolescents in Delhi and evaluate its association with overweight and obesity as well as other dietary, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors. Methods: Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Eight schools (Private and Government) of Delhi in the year 2006. Participants: 1814 students from 8th and 10th grades; response rate was 87.2%; 55% were 8th graders, 60% were boys and 52% attended Private schools. Main outcome measures: Body mass index, self-reported breakfast consumption, diet and physical activity related behaviors, and psychosocial factors. Data analysis: Mixed effects regression models were employed, adjusting for age, gender, grade level and school type (SES). Results: Significantly more Government school (lower SES) students consumed breakfast daily as compared to Private school (higher SES) students (73.8% vs. 66.3%; p<0.01). More 8th graders consumed breakfast daily vs. 10th graders (72.3% vs. 67.0%; p<0.05). A dose-response relationship was observed such that overall prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents who consumed breakfast daily (14.6%) was significantly lower vs. those who only sometimes (15.2%) or never (22.9%) consumed breakfast (p<0.05 for trend). This relationship was statistically significant for boys (15.4 % vs. 16.5% vs. 26.0; p<0.05 for trend) but not for girls. Intake of dairy products, fruits and vegetables was 5.5 (95% CI 2.4-12.5), 1.7 (95% CI 1.1-2.5) and 2.2 (95% CI 1.3-3.5) times higher among those who consumed breakfast daily vs. those who never consumed breakfast. Breakfast consumption was associated with greater physical activity vs. those who never consumed breakfast. Positive values and beliefs about healthy eating; body image satisfaction; and positive peer and parental influence were positively associated with daily breakfast consumption, while depression was negatively associated. Conclusion: Daily breakfast consumption is associated with less overweight and obesity and with healthier dietary-and physical activity-related behaviors among urban Indian students. Although prospective studies should confirm the present results, intervention programs to prevent or treat childhood obesity in India should consider emphasizing regular breakfast consumption. ; Obesity Prevention Center, University of Minnesota ; PRIME program of the University of Texas, School of Public Health (Stigler, PI) ; Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research in Underserved Populations
Inspired by the claim that vaccines cause autism, this thesis explores the many facets of the debate surrounding immunizations in our country. My research questions are: (1) How has vaccination policy evolved in America and how has it influenced U.S. Health Policy?; and (2) What effect has the anti-vaccination movement had on the American public? The development of vaccinations is commonly accepted as one of the most significant scientific developments of all time. Vaccination policy in American politics plays a significant role in the individual's greater perception of general health care policy in our country. Additionally, because of the unique timing and influential role immunizations play in the lives of young children, many citizens who are also parents use vaccination policy as a baseline for voting patterns and political views. The intensity of the anti-vaccination movement contrasted with the immense scientific research and funding directed toward advancing immunization technology provokes political dialogue, and influences fierce social movements. Health care is at the center of American politics today and the health of our country's children is at the forefront of the minds of schoolteachers, parents and politicians. Beginning with an examination of the historical path of vaccination policy in America, this paper will shed light on the decision-making process of political leaders with regard to the costs and benefits of immunization policy at both the societal and individual level. Furthermore, in cases where a child is not vaccinated, I plan to understand the role government plays as the ultimate guarantor of health in this country. I will look into several controversies that have rocked American politics such as the introduction of the small pox vaccine, the alleged connection that autism is caused by vaccines and the recent debate about the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, specifically the examination of the issues surrounding the requirement that all young women in Texas be given the vaccination as a prerequisite for school entry. I also plan to examine the role government plays in cases where families cannot afford immunizations. I find this topic to be engaging because of its many facets: the implications on the American family, politics, voting patterns, and its connection to sensationalized journalistic tendencies. While the dimensions of this debate remain intriguing, it is most significant on the political stage because of its role in the timeless debate concerning the balance between an individual's right to refuse a vaccine with the right of the public to be protected from disease.
The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, a neglected tropical infection that affects millions of people in the Americas. Current chemotherapy relies on only two drugs that have limited efficacy and considerable side effects. Therefore, the development of new and more effective drugs is of paramount importance. Although some host cellular factors that play a role in T. cruzi infection have been uncovered, the molecular requirements for intracellular parasite growth and persistence are still not well understood. To further study these host-parasite interactions and identify human host factors required for T. cruzi infection, we performed a genome-wide RNAi screen using cellular microarrays of a printed siRNA library that spanned the whole human genome. the screening was reproduced 6 times and a customized algorithm was used to select as hits those genes whose silencing visually impaired parasite infection. the 162 strongest hits were subjected to a secondary screening and subsequently validated in two different cell lines. Among the fourteen hits confirmed, we recognized some cellular membrane proteins that might function as cell receptors for parasite entry and others that may be related to calcium release triggered by parasites during cell invasion. in addition, two of the hits are related to the TGF-beta signaling pathway, whose inhibition is already known to diminish levels of T. cruzi infection. This study represents a significant step toward unveiling the key molecular requirements for host cell invasion and revealing new potential targets for antiparasitic therapy. ; Korean Government (MEST) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; NIH ; Inst Pasteur Korea, Image Min Grp, Songnam, Gyeonggi Do, South Korea ; Inst Pasteur Korea, Ctr Neglected Dis Drug Discovery, Songnam, Gyeonggi Do, South Korea ; Inst Pasteur Korea, Discovery Biol Grp, Songnam, Gyeonggi Do, South Korea ; Yonsei Univ, Dept Biochem, Seoul 120749, South Korea ; Yonsei Univ, Natl Res Lab, Seoul 120749, South Korea ; Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Microbiol Immunol & Parasitol, São Paulo, Brazil ; Univ Texas El Paso, Dept Biol Sci, Border Biomed Res Ctr, El Paso, TX 79968 USA ; CSIR Biosci, Synthet Biol ERA, High Throughput Biol Grp, Pretoria, South Africa ; Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Microbiol Immunol & Parasitol, São Paulo, Brazil ; Korean Government (MEST): K204EA000001-09E0100-00110 ; NIH: 2S06GM00812 ; NIH: 1R01AI070655 ; NIH: 5G12RR008124-16A1 ; Web of Science
This Article proposes an innovative approach for directing the expanding federal role in education that will encourage states to address disparities in educational opportunities that prevent disadvantaged students from achieving their full potential. The proposed approach builds on the understanding reflected in NCLB that the federal government will remain critical in public education reform. This Article reexamines one avenue for federal involvement that the U.S. Supreme Court considered in several cases and that scholars have debated for more than thirty years: a federal right to education. San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez explicitly offered the Supreme Court the opportunity to recognize education as a fundamental constitutional right when poor, minority schoolchildren who resided in districts with "a low property tax base" challenged the constitutionality of the Texas school financing system. The Court refused to recognize a federal right to education because it determined that the Constitution neither explicitly nor implicitly recognized education as a fundamental right. Furthermore, the Court found that education's importance and relationship to other rights, such as the right to speak and vote, were insufficient to transform it into a fundamental right. Numerous scholars have disagreed with the Court's opinion in Rodriguez and argued that the United States should recognize a federal right to education. However, those arguments, as have many of the proposals to reform education, envision a court-defined and enforced reform effort. In contrast, this Article contends that Congress should recognize a federal right to education through spending legislation that the federal and state governments collaboratively enforce. This reconceptualization of the enforcement of a federal right to education draws upon the implementation and enforcement mechanisms for a right to education in international human rights law. This Article proceeds in five parts. Part I briefly considers the major attempts to address inequities in educational opportunity - school desegregation litigation, school finance suits, and current federal education legislation - and analyzes why these approaches have not eliminated persistent inequities. Part II summarizes the arguments presented in the existing scholarship on a federal right to education. It then presents arguments for why federal action is necessary to address the persistent disparities in educational opportunities. Part III considers the human rights enforcement mechanisms for a right to education. Part IV then proposes how these models could inform the development and enforcement of a federal right to education in the United States. Part V explores some of the strengths and weaknesses of this Article's proposed approach.
The Ogallala Aquifer is an underground supply of water that stretches from South Dakota into the panhandle of Texas. It serves as the lifeblood of Southwestern Kansas' economy. The Southwestern Kansas Groundwater Management District (SWKGMD) is one of the largest groundwater regulating districts over the Ogallala Aquifer. The Ogallala Aquifer was once thought of as an infinite supply of water in the early 1900s with the drilling of the first irrigation wells. Over the last hundred years however, thanks to the assistance of hydrology and geology, the aquifer proved finite like many other precious commodities in nature. In the early 1970s, the Kansas State Legislature created groundwater management districts with the purpose of resolving the question of local regulation versus state intervention. With the adoption of this new law, each county in a designated district would be responsible for electing an individual to serve on the board once a district was organized. In order to serve on the board the elected person had to utilize one acre-foot of water per year or own forty contiguous acres. Consequently, large-scale irrigators became involved in water regulation. Over the next twenty- five years the district continued to produce educational forums, conservation pamphlets, and quick fix - it policies but little or no action was rendered to restrict excessive and wasteful water-usage by large scale irrigators. Though efficiency improved with the implementation of sprinklers and slow drip systems, the water table still continued to decrease. Moreover, state water regulation policies and economics encouraged farmers to exploit the Ogallala Aquifer further. Simultaneously, the SWKGMD Board of Directors (BOD) began to utilize the district's experts' hydrological studies as merely a clock measuring how much time they had left to exploit the water rather than a warning signal to create policies to help reduce usage or obtain a zero depletion recharge rate like other Groundwater Management Districts (GMD) throughout Kansas. Such exploitative policies have now left Southwestern Kansas in a precarious state. Throughout most of the region only a twenty-five year supply of water remains left to utilize. After twenty-five years irrigation will prove cost-prohibitive to extract water due to the decreasing water table. The implications of water usage yesterday and today will eventually determine the ultimate fate of Southwestern Kansas' future generations. In any case, the past actions of SWKGMD BOD will be linked directly with the understanding of that inevitable fate.
A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Payments to farmers under federal farm programs have reached an historic high--over $20 billion in fiscal year 2000. Nearly half of U.S. farms are receiving payments for income or price support purposes and/or for engaging in activities such as land conservation. These payments, in total, made up almost one-half of net farm income in fiscal year 2000. Despite the annual influx of billions of federal dollars to the farm sector, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that the number of farms has been declining about one percent per year, with the most notable declines in small family farms and young farmers. GAO reviewed USDA's annual surveys of U.S. farm operations--called the Agricultural Resource Management Study--and state and crop information from its Program Payments Reporting System to (1) determine the distribution of farm payments over the past decade by farm size, operators' age, state, and crop and (2) identify the major barriers that make it difficult for young people to enter farming. GAO found that in recent years, over 80 percent of farm payments have been made to large- and medium-sized farms, while small farms have received less than 20 percent of the payments. Even though small farms substantially outnumber medium and large farms, because payments are generally based on volume of production, the average payment to small farms was much less than the average payment to medium and large farms. The distribution pattern for 1999 was similar to that of the other years during the past decade, but the portion of the payments going to large farms has increased and the portion going to small farms has decreased since 1996. Farmers under age 35 received about 6 percent of farm payments while farmers ages 35 through 54 received 56 percent of the payments. Farm payments are principally directed at producers of eight major crops: wheat, corn, barley, oats, sorghum, rice, cotton, and oilseeds,. All states received a portion of payments, but six states--Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota--together received almost half of the payments in 1999. The major obstacle facing young people who wish to enter farming is the high cost of acquiring the needed assets, principally farmland and farm machinery. Although farm program payments can help beginning farmers once they have started farming, the payments can also present a hurdle because their value is reflected in a higher price to buy or lease the farmland."
In this interview, Dr. Clara M. Lovett discusses her leadership role at Northern Arizona University and the future of higher education. Born in northeast Italy, Dr. Lovett received her undergraduate education in English and German at the University of Trieste and at Cambridge University in England. She came to the United States in 1962, earning master's and doctoral degrees in history at the University of Texas, Austin. During her twenty-five years in higher education, she has served as professor of history at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, chief of the European Division of the Library of Congress, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University, and provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at George Mason University. Dr. Lovett is widely published. Her accomplishments as a scholar have been recognized through fellowships and grants from organizations, such as the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her extensive record of public service includes work with the Foreign Service Institute, the U.S. Information Agency, the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, the American Historical Association, the Association of American Colleges, numerous corporate boards in the fields of banking and technology, and other agencies. Dr. Lovett's awards and honors are many. In 1989, she was named by Washingtonian magazine as one of the "100 Most Powerful Women" in Washington, and in 1992 the Virginia Federation of Business and Professional Women selected her as Educator of the Year. In 1993, the American Association for Higher Education invited her to head a national project on faculty work. On October 15, 1993, Dr. Lovett accepted the presidency at Northern Arizona University, becoming the first woman to hold the top post at one of the three Arizona state universities. During her presidency, she improved campus communication through such initiatives as a university-wide dialogue--under the auspices of the Pew Higher Education Roundtable--about the future of the university. She also reworked, with input from faculty and staff, the institution's mission statement and goals, encouraged innovative thinking in preparation for the twenty-first century, and generated increased support from the Arizona Legislature. Now President Emerita (2001), Dr. Lovett remains active in higher education. She is married to Dr. Benjamin F. Brown, a retired professor of history and senior intelligence officer with the CIA.
Bio/Technology/Diversity Week Produced by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy May 27, 1994 Volume 3, Number 11 Code Number: NL94033 File Size: Text - 22K _____________________________________________ HEADLINES _____________________________________________ - rBGH NEWS OF THE WEEK Agri-Mark, the largest dairy cooperative in the Northeast, has asked the federal government to intervene and stop dairy prices from continuing their downward trend. - FLAVR SAVR APPROVED Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Flavr Savr tomato for commercial sale. The tomato is a genetically engineered product of the biotechnology company Calgene. - EUROPEAN GROUP TO EXAMINE ETHICS OF GENETIC ENGINEERING, GENE THERAPY A group that advises the European Commission, the cabinet equivalent in the European Union (EU), will examine the ethical issues related to biotechnology including genetic engineering and gene therapy - CANADIAN LIBERAL PARTY SOFTENS STANCE ON DRUG PATENT LAW Canada's Liberal party recently passed a watered down resolution on drug patenting . - APHIS RULES NO EIS NECESSARY FOR SIX MODIFIED CROPS Earlier this month, the Federal Register reported that the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) ruled no significant reason existed to complete an environmental impact statement (EIS) on six genetically engineered crop varieties. - ABRAC TO CONTINUE The USDA will again appoint an Agricultural Biotechnology Research Advisory Committee (ABRAC). - BIOTECH WINE A scientist at New York state agricultural experiment station is experimenting with genetically engineered grape varieties in an effort to bring biotech to the vineyard. - USDA SAYS BEWARE OF NEW STRAIN OF POTATO BLIGHT The USDA is warning of a new variety of potato blight, which is resistant to chemicals. - SENATE PASSES PVPA REFORM The Senate this week passed an amendment to the Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA), which eliminates the farmer's exemption to sell limited amounts of proprietary seed. - BOTANISTS MEET TO FIND CANCER, AIDS CURE IN PLANTS This week, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas held a three-day workshop about saving "the declining plant life of one of the most important places for plant diversity on our planet." Botanists from around the world gathered discuss an inventory of plants in the Philippines, where they believe potential cures for cancer and AIDS remain undiscovered but in danger of extinction. - LANDOWNER INCENTIVES NEEDED TO PROTECT HABITATS The Wilderness Society is calling on the federal government to provide landowners with incentives such as tax breaks to protect habitat. - MEDICINAL PLANTS EQUAL THERAPEUTIC DRUGS A recent article in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN examines the benefits of medicinal plants used by native peoples throughout the world. - Calendar of Events
"During July 1968, an outbreak of A2 influenza occurred in Hong Kong, and subsequent laboratory studies on isolates demonstrated that the virus had undergone a major antigenic shift within the A2 classification. During August and September 1968, the Hong Kong strains spread rapidly to Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Iran, Thailand, and India. The first documented introduction of the Hong Kong strains into the United States was in early September. Additional introductions of the virus by international travelers occurred throughout the fall of the year with an occasional small outbreak in a military population. Outbreaks in the civilian population wert' first documented in October, gained momentum in November, were widespread throughout the country in December, peaked at about the first of the year, and fell off in January. In all, 44 states, tile District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico reported widespread influenza A activity. Three states (Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas) reported regional activity; and three states (Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Hawaii) reported only isolated outbreaks. There was laboratory evidence of activity by the Hong Kong strains in all states except Nevada." - p. [1] ; I. United States summary 1968-69 -- II. Mechanics of influenza surveillance at the state and local levels -- III. International note -- IV. Laboratory report -- V. Special reports [A.International travel and the Hong Kong strains; B. Influenza epidemic in mining company employees, Utah; C. Pneumonia at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, 1968-69; D. Influenza in Helena, Montana; E. Influenza in family members of Maryland State Health Department employees ] -- VI. Public Health Service Advisory Committee recommendations on influenza vaccine 1969-70 ; June 30, 1969. ; Produced by the National Communicable Disease Center, Epidemiology Program, Viral Diseases Branch, Respiratory Viral Diseases Unit, Statistics Section, in collaboration with Laboratory Division, Respiratory Virology Unit; World Health Organization International Influenza Center for the Americas, NCDC. ; Last page consists of a listing by state of state epidemiologists. ; Section VI. Public Health Service Advisory Committee recommendations on influenza vaccine 1969-70 consists of: Recommendation of the Public Health Service Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices: Influenza (May 1969, reprinted from v. 18, no. 25). ; "Summarized in this report is information received from State Health Departments, university investigators, virology laboratories and other pertinent sources, domestic and foreign. Much of the information is preliminary. It is intended primarily for the use of those with responsibility for disease control activities. Anyone desiring to quote this report should contact the original investigator for confirmation and interpretation." - preface
In recent years, there has been increased reliance on the use of risk assessment in the juvenile justice system to predict and classify offenders based on their risk to reoffend. Over the years, the predictive validity of risk assessments has improved through the inclusion of actuarial assessment and dynamic risk factors. The predictive validity of certain assessments, such as the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI), has been well established through numerous replication studies on different subgroups of the population. The validity of other instruments, such as the Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT), is in its infancy having only been validated on the sample of the population for which it was created. The PACT, a relatively new juvenile risk assessment tool, was adapted from the Washington State Juvenile Court Assessment and validated on the Florida juvenile population. This study sought to demonstrate the predictive validity of the PACT risk assessment, analyze gender differences in juvenile recidivism, and determine the relative importance of individual-level, social-level, and community-level variables in the prediction of recidivism for a sample of juveniles in Tarrant County, Texas. The results of this research confirmed the predictive validity of the PACT for juveniles served by Tarrant County Juvenile Services (TCJS). Despite possessing adequate predictive validity for the entire population, gender-specific analyses revealed differences in the ability of the PACT to accurately classify female delinquents based on risk to reoffend. Not only did gender differences emerge in the predictive validity of the PACT, but males and female recidivism was also predicted by different social-level indicators. The results of this research provided further evidence for social-causation theories of crime and delinquency, with social-level indicators exerting the strongest relationship with recidivism when compared to individual-level and community-level predictors. The inability of community-level predictors to enhance the predictive accuracy of the assessment suggest broad application of the PACT across jurisdictions. TCJS has invested a considerable amount of time, resources, and funding in the implementation and maintenance of the PACT. The results of this study provided support and direction for the continued use of the PACT at TCJS. In addition, establishing the predictive validity of the PACT on the Tarrant County juvenile population satisfied the legislative requirement for a population specific validation of the risk assessment implemented in each county. ; 2012-05-01 ; Ph.D. ; Health and Public Affairs, Dean's Office COHPA ; Doctoral ; This record was generated from author submitted information.
In: Decision analysis: a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, INFORMS, Band 7, Heft 4, S. 404-410
ISSN: 1545-8504
Ali Abbas (" From the Editors… ") is an associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He received an M.S. in electrical engineering (1998), an M.S. in engineering economic systems and operations research (2001), a Ph.D. in management science and engineering (2003), and a Ph.D. (minor) in electrical engineering, all from Stanford University. He worked as a lecturer in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford and worked in Schlumberger Oilfield Services from 1991 to 1997, where he held several international positions in wireline logging, operations management, and international training. He has also worked on several consulting projects for mergers and acquisitions in California, and cotaught several executive seminars on decision analysis at Strategic Decisions Group in Menlo Park, California. His research interests include utility theory, decision making with incomplete information and preferences, dynamic programming, and information theory. Dr. Abbas is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). He is also an associate editor for Decision Analysis and Operations Research and coeditor of the DA column in education for Decision Analysis Today. Address: Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 117 Transportation Building, MC-238, 104 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801; e-mail: aliabbas@uiuc.edu . Matthew D. Bailey (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is an assistant professor of business analytics and operations in the School of Management at Bucknell University, and he is an adjunct research investigator with Geisinger Health System. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan. His primary research interest is in sequential decision making under uncertainty with applications to health-care operations and medical decision making. He is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). Address: School of Management, Bucknell University, 308 Taylor Hall, Lewisburg, PA 17837; e-mail: matt.bailey@bucknell.edu . Anthony M. Barrett (" Cost Effectiveness of On-Site Chlorine Generation for Chlorine Truck Attack Prevention ") is a risk analyst at ABS Consulting in Arlington, Virginia. He holds a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and he also was a postdoctoral research associate at the Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at the University of Southern California. His research interests include risk analysis, risk management, and public policies in a wide variety of areas, including terrorism, hazardous materials, energy and the environment, and natural hazards. Address: ABS Consulting, 1525 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 625, Arlington, VA 22209; e-mail: abarrett@absconsulting.com . Manel Baucells (" From the Editors… ") is a full professor at the Department of Economics and Business of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. He was an associate professor and head of the Managerial Decision Sciences Department at IESE Business School. He earned his Ph.D. in management from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). His research and consulting activities cover multiple areas of decision making including group decisions, consumer decisions, uncertainty, complexity, and psychology. He acts as associate editor for the top journals Management Science, Operations Research, and Decision Analysis. He has received various prizes and grants for his research. In 2001, he won the student paper competition of the Decision Analysis Society. He is the only IESE professor having won both the Excellence Research Award and the Excellence Teaching Award. He has been visiting professor at Duke University, UCLA, London Business School, and Erasmus University. Address: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain; e-mail: manel.baucells@upf.edu . J. Eric Bickel (" Scoring Rules and Decision Analysis Education ") is an assistant professor in both the Operations Research/Industrial Engineering Group (Department of Mechanical Engineering) and the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, Professor Bickel is a fellow in both the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy and the Center for Petroleum Asset Risk Management. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University and a B.S. in mechanical engineering with a minor in economics from New Mexico State University. His research interests include the theory and practice of decision analysis and its application in the energy and climate-change arenas. His research has addressed the modeling of probabilistic dependence, value of information, scoring rules, calibration, risk preference, education, decision making in sports, and climate engineering as a response to climate change. Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin, Professor Bickel was an assistant professor at Texas A&M University and a senior engagement manager for Strategic Decisions Group. He has consulted around the world in a range of industries, including oil and gas, electricity generation/transmission/delivery, energy trading and marketing, commodity and specialty chemicals, life sciences, financial services, and metals and mining. Address: Graduate Program in Operations Research, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C2200, Austin, TX 78712-0292; e-mail: ebickel@mail.utexas.edu . Vicki M. Bier (" From the Editors… ") holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Department of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she has directed the Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis (formerly the Center for Human Performance in Complex Systems) since 1995. She has more than 20 years of experience in risk analysis for the nuclear power, chemical, petrochemical, and aerospace industries. Before returning to academia, she spent seven years as a consultant at Pickard, Lowe and Garrick, Inc. While there, her clients included the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy, and a number of nuclear utilities, and she prepared testimony for Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearings on the safety of the Indian Point nuclear power plants. Dr. Bier's current research focuses on applications of risk analysis and related methods to problems of security and critical infrastructure protection, under support from the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Bier received the Women's Achievement Award from the American Nuclear Society in 1993, and was elected a Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis in 1996, from which she received the Distinguished Achievement Award in 2007. She has written a number of papers and book chapters related to uncertainty analysis and decision making under uncertainty, and is the author of two scholarly review articles on risk communication. She served as the engineering editor for Risk Analysis from 1997 through 2001, and has served as a councilor of both the Society for Risk Analysis and the Decision Analysis Society, for which she is currently vice president and president elect. Dr. Bier has also served as a member of both the Radiation Advisory Committee and the Homeland Security Advisory Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board. Address: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1513 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706; e-mail: bier@engr.wisc.edu . Samuel E. Bodily (" Darden's Luckiest Student: Lessons from a High-Stakes Risk Experiment ") is the John Tyler Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and has published textbooks and more than 40 articles in journals ranging from Harvard Business Review to Management Science. His publications relate to decision and risk analysis, forecasting, strategy modeling, revenue management, and eStrategy. He has edited special issues of Interfaces on decision and risk analysis and strategy modeling and analysis. Professor Bodily has published well over 100 cases, including a couple of the 10 best-selling cases at Darden. He received the Distinguished Casewriter Wachovia Award from Darden in 2005 and three other best case or research Wachovia awards. He is faculty leader for an executive program on Strategic Thinking and Action. He is the course head of, and teaches in, a highly valued first-year MBA course in decision analysis, has a successful second-year elective on Management Decision Models, and has taught eStrategy and Strategy. He is a past winner of the Decision Sciences International Instructional Award and has served as chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. He has taught numerous executive education programs for Darden and private companies, has consulted widely for business and government entities, and has served as an expert witness. Professor Bodily was on the faculties of MIT Sloan School of Management and Boston University and has been a visiting professor at INSEAD Singapore, Stanford University, and the University of Washington. He has a Ph.D. degree and an S.M. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in physics from Brigham Young University. Address: Darden School of Business, 100 Darden Boulevard, Charlottesville, VA 22903; e-mail: bodilys@virginia.edu . David Budescu (" From the Editors… ") is the Anne Anastasi Professor of Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology at Fordham University. He held positions at the University of Illinois and the University of Haifa, and visiting positions at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Gotheborg, the Kellog School at Northwestern University, the Hebrew University, and the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion). His research is in the areas of human judgment, individual and group decision making under uncertainty and with incomplete and vague information, and statistics for the behavioral and social sciences. He is or was on the editorial boards of Applied Psychological Measurement; Decision Analysis; Journal of Behavioral Decision Making; Journal of Mathematical Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (2000–2003); Multivariate Behavioral Research; Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (1992–2002); and Psychological Methods (1996–2000). He is past president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making (2000–2001), fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and an elected member of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychologists. Address: Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, NY 10458; e-mail: budescu@fordham.edu . John C. Butler (" From the Editors… ") is a clinical associate professor of finance and the academic director of the Energy Management and Innovation Center in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, and the secretary/treasurer of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. Butler received his Ph.D. in management science and information systems from the University of Texas in 1998. His research interests involve the use of decision science models to support decision making, with a particular emphasis on decision and risk analysis models with multiple performance criteria. Butler has consulted with a number of organizations regarding the application of decision analysis tools to a variety of practical problems. Most of his consulting projects involve use of Visual Basic for Applications and Excel to implement complex decision science models in a user-friendly format. Address: Center for Energy Management and Innovation, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1178; e-mail: john.butler2@mccombs.utexas.edu . Philippe Delquié (" From the Editors… ") is an associate professor of decision sciences at the George Washington University and holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Delquié's teaching and research are in decision, risk, and multicriteria analysis. His work focuses on the interplay of behavioral and normative theories of choice, with the aim of improving managerial decision making and risk taking. His research addresses issues in preference assessment, value of information, nonexpected utility models of choice under risk, and risk measures. Prior to joining the George Washington University, he held academic appointments at INSEAD, the University of Texas at Austin, and École Normale Supérieure, France, and visiting appointments at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Address: Department of Decision Sciences, George Washington University, Funger Hall, Suite 415, Washington, DC 20052; e-mail: delquie@gwu.edu . Zeynep Erkin (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her M.S. and B.S. degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and Middle East Technical University, Turkey, in 2008 and 2006, respectively. Her research interests include maintenance optimization and medical decision making. Address: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3600 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: zee2@pitt.edu . Peter I. Frazier (" Paradoxes in Learning and the Marginal Value of Information ") is an assistant professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University. He received a Ph.D. in operations research and financial engineering from Princeton University in 2009. His research interest is in the optimal acquisition of information, with applications in simulation, medicine, operations management, neuroscience, and information retrieval. He teaches courses in simulation and statistics. Address: School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; e-mail: pf98@cornell.edu . L. Robin Keller (" From the Editors… ") is a professor of operations and decision technologies in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. She received her Ph.D. and M.B.A. in management science and her B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has served as a program director for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Her research is on decision analysis and risk analysis for business and policy decisions and has been funded by NSF and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her research interests cover multiple-attribute decision making, riskiness, fairness, probability judgments, ambiguity of probabilities or outcomes, risk analysis (for terrorism, environmental, health, and safety risks), time preferences, problem structuring, cross-cultural decisions, and medical decision making. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Decision Analysis, published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She is a Fellow of INFORMS and has held numerous roles in INFORMS, including board member and chair of the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society. She is a recipient of the George F. Kimball Medal from INFORMS. She has served as the decision analyst on three National Academy of Sciences committees. Address: The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3125; e-mail: lrkeller@uci.edu . Lisa M. Maillart (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is an associate professor in the Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, she served on the faculty of the Department of Operations in the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. She received her M.S. and B.S. in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Tech, and her Ph.D. in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan. Her primary research interest is in sequential decision making under uncertainty, with applications in medical decision making and maintenance optimization. She is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the Society of Medical Decision Making (SMDM), and the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). Address: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3600 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: maillart@pitt.edu . Jason R. W. Merrick (" From the Editors… ") is an associate professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has a D.Sc. in operations research from the George Washington University. He teaches courses in decision analysis, risk analysis, and simulation. His research is primarily in the area of decision analysis and Bayesian statistics. He has worked on projects ranging from assessing maritime oil transportation and ferry system safety, the environmental health of watersheds, and optimal replacement policies for rail tracks and machine tools, and he has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the United States Coast Guard, the American Bureau of Shipping, British Petroleum, and Booz Allen Hamilton, among others. He has also performed training for Infineon Technologies, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Capital One Services. He is an associate editor for Decision Analysis and Operations Research. He is the information officer for the Decision Analysis Society. Address: Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284; e-mail: jrmerric@vcu.edu . Phillip E. Pfeifer (" Darden's Luckiest Student: Lessons from a High-Stakes Risk Experiment ") is the Richard S. Reynolds Professor of Business at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, where he teaches courses in decision analysis and direct marketing. A graduate of Lehigh University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, his teaching has won student awards and has been recognized in Business Week's Guide to the Best Business Schools. He is an active researcher in the areas of decision making and direct marketing, and he currently serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Interactive Marketing, which named him their best reviewer of 2008. In 2004 he was recognized as the Darden School's faculty leader in terms of external case sales, and in 2006 he coauthored a managerial book, Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master, published by Wharton School Publishing, which was named best marketing book of the year by Strategy + Business. Address: Darden School of Business; 100 Darden Boulevard; Charlottesville, VA 22903; e-mail: pfeiferp@virginia.edu . Warren B. Powell (" Paradoxes in Learning and the Marginal Value of Information ") is a professor in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1981. He is the director of CASTLE Laboratory (Princeton University), which specializes in the development of stochastic optimization models and algorithms with applications in transportation and logistics, energy, health, and finance. The author or coauthor of more than 160 refereed publications, he is an INFORMS Fellow, and the author of Approximate Dynamic Programming: Solving the Curses of Dimensionality, published by John Wiley and Sons. His primary research interests are in approximate dynamic programming for high-dimensional applications and optimal learning (the efficient collection of information), and their application in energy systems analysis and transportation. He is a recipient of the Wagner prize and has twice been a finalist in the Edelman competition. He has also served in a variety of editorial and administrative positions for INFORMS, including INFORMS Board of Directors, area editor for Operations Research, president of the Transportation Science Section, and numerous prize and administrative committees. Address: Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; e-mail: powell@princeton.edu . Mark S. Roberts (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach "), M.D., M.P.P., is professor and chair of health policy and management, and he holds secondary appointments in medicine, industrial engineering, and clinical and translational science. A practicing general internist, he has conducted research in decision analysis and the mathematical modeling of disease for more than 25 years, and he has expertise in cost effectiveness analysis, mathematical optimization and simulation, and the measurement and inclusion of patient preferences into decision problems. He has used decision analysis to examine clinical, costs, policy and allocation questions in liver transplantation, vaccination strategies, operative interventions, and the use of many medications. His recent research has concentrated in the use of mathematical methods from operations research and management science, including Markov decision processes, discrete-event simulation, and integer programming, to problems in health care. Address: Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, 130 De Soto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: robertsm@upmc.edu . Ahti Salo (" From the Editors… ") is a professor of systems analysis at the Systems Analysis Laboratory of Aalto University. His research interests include topics in portfolio decision analysis, multicriteria decision making, risk management, efficiency analysis, and technology foresight. He is currently president of the Finnish Operations Research Society (FORS) and represents Europe and the Middle East in the INFORMS International Activities Committee. Professor Salo has been responsible for the methodological design and implementation of numerous high-impact decision and policy processes, including FinnSight 2015, the national foresight exercise of the Academy of Finland and the National Funding Agency for Technology and Innovations (Tekes). Address: Aalto University, Systems Analysis Laboratory, P.O. Box 11100, 00076 Aalto, Finland; e-mail: ahti.salo@tkk.fi . Andrew J. Schaefer (" Eliciting Patients' Revealed Preferences: An Inverse Markov Decision Process Approach ") is an associate professor of industrial engineering and Wellington C. Carl Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. He has courtesy appointments in bioengineering, medicine, and clinical and translational science. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech in 2000. His research interests include the application of stochastic optimization methods to health-care problems, as well as stochastic optimization techniques, in particular, stochastic integer programming. He is interested in patient-oriented decision making in contexts such as end-stage liver disease, HIV/AIDS, sepsis, and diabetes. He also models health-care systems, including operating rooms and intensive-care units. He is an associate editor for INFORMS Journal on Computing and IIE Transactions. Address: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 3600 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261; e-mail: Schaefer@pitt.edu . George Wu (" From the Editors… ") has been on the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since September 1997. His degrees include A.B. (applied mathematics, 1985), S.M. (applied mathematics, 1987), and Ph.D. (decision sciences, 1991), all from Harvard University. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Chicago, Professor Wu was on the faculty at Harvard Business School. Wu worked as a decision analyst at Procter & Gamble prior to starting graduate school. His research interests include descriptive and prescriptive aspects of decision making, in particular, decision making involving risk, cognitive biases in bargaining and negotiation, and managerial and organizational decision making. Professor Wu is a coordinating editor for Theory and Decision, an advisory editor for Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, on the editorial boards of Decision Analysis and Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, and a former department editor of Management Science. Address: Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637; e-mail: wu@chicagobooth.edu .