Qualitative variables take symbolic values such as cat, orange, California, Africa. Often these values can be arranged in levels of deeper detail. For example, the variable place_of_birth takes as level-1 values Africa, Asia... as level-2 values Nigeria, Japan... as level-3 values California, Massachusetts... These values are organized in a hierarchy H, a mathematical construct among these valu...

The class NPkV consists of those partial, multivalued functions that can be computed by a nondeterministic, polynomial time-bounded transducer that has at most k distinct values on any input. We define the output-multiplicity hierarchy to consist of the collection of classes NPkV, for all positive integers k 1. In this paper we investigate the strictness of the output-multiplicity hierarchy and...

We study combinatorial prediction markets where agents bet on the sum of values at any tree node in a hierarchy of events, for example the sum of page views among all the children within a web subdomain. We propose three expressive betting languages that seem natural, and analyze the complexity of pricing using Hanson’s logarithmic market scoring rule (LMSR) market maker. Sum of arbitrary subse...

In the context of Integral Lifework, functional intelligence represents our effectiveness in perceiving, developing and operationalizing personal values. This demands a high level of self-awareness, and answers to some detailed questions. For example, are we aware of our operative values hierarchy, especially in contrast to an idealized one? Do the outcomes of our efforts actually align with ou...

Tourism experiences in natural landscapes are considered an integral component of tourism value. Tourism experiences can also create a link between an individual and his or her spiritual needs. Thus, this study aims to utilize an effective approach to interpret individual, subjective human experiences in natural environments using interpretive structural modeling. This technique is used to buil...

Among the hyphomycetous endoparasites destructive to eelworms that abound in slowly decaying plant materials, as well as in agar plate cultures earlier inoculated with partly decomposed vegetable detritus, Harposporium anguillulae Lohde emend. Zopf (1888) is observed much more frequently than allied forms. In seeking an explanation for this more frequent occurrence it would seem highly signific...

This paper describes a physiologically based toxicokinetic model for 1,3-butadiene uptake, distribution, and metabolic clearance in mice. Model parameters for metabolic activity were estimated from the correspondence between computer simulation studies and experimental results as published in the literature. The parameterized model was validated with independent literature data. With the result...