Executive Summary The purpose of this white paper is educational. It is designed to impart a better understanding of what is meant by the term comparative effectiveness and to communicate the complexities that surround it. The primary purpose of comparative effectiveness research is to inform healthcare related decisions. While comparative effectiveness can be a valuable tool to inform the deci...

An important recent finding is that testing improves learning and memory. In this article, the authors describe a demonstration that illustrates this principle and helps students incorporate more testing into their learning. The authors asked students to read one text using a Study–Study strategy and one text using a Study–Test strategy. One week later, the authors tested students’ memory for b...

De Vrijer has presented a proof of the finite developments theorem which, in addition to showing that all developments are finite, gives an effective reduction strategy computing longest developments as well as a simple formula computing their length. We show that by applying a rather simple and intuitive principle of duality to de Vrijer’s approach one arrives at a proof that some developments...

3 Adapting the Covariance Matrix 10 3.1 Estimating the Covariance Matrix From Scratch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.2 Rank-μ-Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3 Rank-One-Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.1 A Different Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.2 Cumulation: Uti...

Correct classification of genes into gene families is important for understanding gene function and evolution. Although gene families of many species have been resolved both computationally and experimentally with high accuracy, gene family classification in most newly sequenced genomes has not been done with the same high standard. This project has been designed to develop a strategy to effect...

Fitts' (1954) classic theorem asserts that the movement time (MT) of voluntary reaches is determined by amplitude and width requirements (i.e., index of difficulty: ID). Actions associated with equivalent IDs should elicit equivalent MTs regardless of the amplitude and/ or width requirements. However, contemporary research has reported that amplitude-based contributions to IDs yield larger incr...

Predation is a fundamental interaction between species, yet it is unclear what escape strategies are effective for prey survival. Classical theory proposes that prey should either escape in a direction that conforms to a performance optimum or that is random and therefore unpredictable. Here, we show that larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) instead use a mixed strategy that may be either random or d...