A classic tension exists between exact inference in a simple model and approximate inference in a complex model. The latter offers expressivity and thus accuracy, but the former provides coverage of the space, an important property for confidence estimation and learning with indirect supervision. In this work, we introduce a new approach, reified context models, to reconcile this tension. Speci...

In agriculture and water resource management an important meteorological quantity is the reference evapotranspiration ET0. It is usually estimated from other meteorological quantities measured at weather stations. To estimate ET0 at an arbitrary geographical position these quantities have to be interpolated. The Center for Spatial Technologies And Remote Sensing (CSTARS) at UC Davis uses the Da...

we investigate the boundary-value problem generated by the sturm-liouville equation withdiscontinuous coefficients, eigenparameter dependent boundary conditions and transmission conditionsat the point of discontinuity. with a different approach we introduce an adequate hilbert spaceformulation, investigate some properties of eigenvalues, green’s function and resolvent operator, andfind simple c...

b a c k g r o u n d & aim: the aim of the current study was to investigate the advantages of bayesian method in comparison to traditional methods to detect best antioxidant in freezing of human male gametes. methods  &  materials:   semen  samples  were  obtained  from  40  men  whose  sperm  had  normal criteria. a part of each sample was separated without antioxidant  as fresh and the remaini...

I test for welfare-induced migration by comparing AFDC participation in border counties to interior counties in the same state. If migration costs are lower for border county residents, border counties on the high-benefit side of a state border should have higher welfare participation relative to the state's interior counties. Border counties on the low-benefit side should have lower welfare pa...

The authors explore how to define a welfare spell and how well surveys measure welfare spells. By comparing survey and administrative data from the Work Pays Demonstration Project in California on the receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), they find that a substantial amount of administrative churning occurs in administrative data. Through a mixing model of several break len...

Recent welfare reform legislation requires increased parental work effort and imposes time limits on the receipt of federal assistance. These changes were based in part on assumptions that parental welfare receipt may be negatively related to family processes and children's attitudes and behaviors. Currently, researchers know little about the effects of welfare by itself relative to the effects...

In August 1996, Congress and the president replaced the 60-year-old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with a block grant, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), permitting states to experiment with new forms of assistance to low-income families. States seem likely to try increasingly ambitious reforms as they gain experience under their TANF flexibility, at least if...