The snot-spattered experiments that show how far sneezes really spread

Does Activation Really Spread?

In this article we consider three versions of the spreading activation model for retrieval of information from memory. Predictions are derived for activation spreading down a linear network structure as a function of time. To test these predictions, two experiments were performed in which facilitation as a function of time was measured for target words in a linearly structured paragraph. A targ...

The determinants of infant mortality: how far are conceptual frameworks really modelled?

To explore whether theory is adequately translated into statistical models for measuring and explaining the widely acknowledged effect of « maternal education on infant or child survival », a systematic compilation of articles dealing explicitly with the statistical analysis of this relationship and published since 1990 in a selected sample of scientific journals was performed. The models used ...

How Far Did That Fly Ball Travel (Redux)?

A couple of years ago, one of us wrote a ProGuestus article entitled "How Far Did That Fly Ball Travel?". The article posed the question: How well does the initial velocity vector (speed and angles) determine the landing point of a fly ball? Utilizing HITf/x data for the initial velocity and ESPN Home Run Tracker for the landing point and hang time, it was determined that the initial velocity v...

"How far that little candle throws his beams".

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases: an empirical study of absenteeism and infectious illness.

This paper incorporates some theoretical ideas from the study of the epidemiology of infectious illness into a model of worker absence. The paper then seeks to quantify such infection effects by examining a personnel dataset which allows us to track daily absence decisions of a group of industrial workers employed in the same factory. We find significant effects of our measure of sickness in th...