Checklists for grading object-oriented CS1 programs: concepts and misconceptions

Sanders, K. and Thomas, L. 2007. Checklists for grading object-oriented CS1 programs: concepts and misconceptions. In Proceedings of the 12th Annual SIGCSE Conference on innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (Dundee, Scotland, June 25 - 27, 2007). ITiCSE '07. ACM, New York, NY, 166-170

Patient Retention in Antiretroviral Therapy Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

Paper published in PLoS Medicine in 2007.

OS Support for Portable Bulk Synchronous Parallel Programs

Predictability -- the ability to foretell that an implementation will not violate a set of specified reliability and timeliness requirements -- is a crucial, highly desirable property of responsive embedded systems. This paper overviews a development methodology for responsive systems, which enhances predictability by eliminating potential hazards resulting from physically-unsound specifications. The backbone of our methodology is the Time-constrained Reactive Automaton (TRA) formalism, which adopts a fundamental notion of space and time that restricts expressiveness in a way that allows the specification of only reactive, spontaneous, and causal computation. Using the TRA model, unrealistic systems – possessing properties such as clairvoyance, caprice, infinite capacity, or perfect timing -- cannot even be specified. We argue that this "ounce of prevention" at the specification level is likely to spare a lot of time and energy in the development cycle of responsive systems -- not to mention the elimination of potential hazards that would have gone, otherwise, unnoticed. The TRA model is presented to system developers through the Cleopatra programming language. Cleopatra features a C-like imperative syntax for the description of computation, which makes it easier to incorporate in applications already using C. It is event-driven, and thus appropriate for embedded process control applications. It is object-oriented and compositional, thus advocating modularity and reusability. Cleopatra is semantically sound; its objects can be transformed, mechanically and unambiguously, into formal TRA automata for verification purposes, which can be pursued using model-checking or theorem proving techniques. Since 1989, an ancestor of Cleopatra has been in use as a specification and simulation language for embedded time-critical robotic processes.

Hidden Type Variables and Conditional Extension for More Expressive Generic Programs

Generic object-oriented programming languages combine parametric polymorphism and nominal subtype polymorphism, thereby providing better data abstraction, greater code reuse, and fewer run-time errors. However, most generic object-oriented languages provide a straightforward combination of the two kinds of polymorphism, which prevents the expression of advanced type relationships. Furthermore, most generic object-oriented languages have a type-erasure semantics: instantiations of type parameters are not available at run time, and thus may not be used by type-dependent operations. This dissertation shows that two features, which allow the expression of many advanced type relationships, can be added to a generic object-oriented programming language without type erasure: 1. type variables that are not parameters of the class that declares them, and 2. extension that is dependent on the satisfiability of one or more constraints. We refer to the first feature as hidden type variables and the second feature as conditional extension. Hidden type variables allow: covariance and contravariance without variance annotations or special type arguments such as wildcards; a single type to extend, and inherit methods from, infinitely many instantiations of another type; a limited capacity to augment the set of superclasses after that class is defined; and the omission of redundant type arguments. Conditional extension allows the properties of a collection type to be dependent on the properties of its element type. This dissertation describes the semantics and implementation of hidden type variables and conditional extension. A sound type system is presented. In addition, a sound and terminating type checking algorithm is presented. Although designed for the Fortress programming language, hidden type variables and conditional extension can be incorporated into other generic object-oriented languages. Many of the same problems would arise, and solutions analogous to those we present would apply.

Untangling unstructured programs

A method is presented for converting unstructured program schemas to strictly equivalent structured form. The predicates of the original schema are left intact with structuring being achieved by the duplication of he original decision vertices without the introduction of compound predicate expressions, or where possible by function duplication alone. It is shown that structured schemas must have at least as many decision vertices as the original unstructured schema, and must have more when the original schema contains branches out of decision constructs. The structuring method allows the complete avoidance of function duplication, but only at the expense of decision vertex duplication. It is shown that structured schemas have greater space-time requirements in general than their equivalent optimal unstructured counterparts and at best have the same requirements.

Are State legislatures responding to public opinion when allocating funds for tobacco control programs?

This study explored the factors associated with state-level allocations to tobacco-control programs. The primary research question was whether public sentiment regarding tobacco control was a significant factor in the states' 2001 budget decisions. In addition to public opinion, several additional political and economic measures were considered. Significant associations were found between our outcome, state-level tobacco-control funding per capita, and key variables of interest including public opinion, amount of tobacco settlement received, the party affiliation of the governor, the state's smoking rate, excise tax revenue received, and whether the state was a major producer of tobacco. The findings from this study supported our hypothesis that states with citizens who favor more restrictive indoor air policies allocate more to tobacco control. Effective public education to change public opinion and the cultural norms surrounding smoking may affect political decisions and, in turn, increase funding for crucial public health programs.

Information relaxations and duality in stochastic dynamic programs

We describe a general technique for determining upper bounds on maximal values (or lower bounds on minimal costs) in stochastic dynamic programs. In this approach, we relax the nonanticipativity constraints that require decisions to depend only on the information available at the time a decision is made and impose a "penalty" that punishes violations of nonanticipativity. In applications, the hope is that this relaxed version of the problem will be simpler to solve than the original dynamic program. The upper bounds provided by this dual approach complement lower bounds on values that may be found by simulating with heuristic policies. We describe the theory underlying this dual approach and establish weak duality, strong duality, and complementary slackness results that are analogous to the duality results of linear programming. We also study properties of good penalties. Finally, we demonstrate the use of this dual approach in an adaptive inventory control problem with an unknown and changing demand distribution and in valuing options with stochastic volatilities and interest rates. These are complex problems of significant practical interest that are quite difficult to solve to optimality. In these examples, our dual approach requires relatively little additional computation and leads to tight bounds on the optimal values. © 2010 INFORMS.

Health Programming for Clergy: An Overview of Protestant Programs in the United States

The health of clergy is important, and clergy may find health programming tailored to them more effective. Little is known about existing clergy health programs. We contacted Protestant denominational headquarters and searched academic databases and the Internet. We identified 56 clergy health programs and categorized them into prevention and personal enrichment; counseling; marriage and family enrichment; peer support; congregational health; congregational effectiveness; denominational enrichment; insurance/strategic pension plans; and referral-based programs. Only 13 of the programs engaged in outcomes evaluation. Using the Socioecological Framework, we found that many programs support individual-level and institutional-level changes, but few programs support congregational-level changes. Outcome evaluation strategies and a central repository for information on clergy health programs are needed. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Information programs for technology adoption: The case of energy-efficiency audits

We analyze technology adoption decisions of manufacturing plants in response to government-sponsored energy audits. Overall, plants adopt about half of the recommended energy-efficiency projects. Using fixed effects logit estimation, we find that adoption rates are higher for projects with shorter paybacks, lower costs, greater annual savings, higher energy prices, and greater energy conservation. Plants are 40% more responsive to initial costs than annual savings, suggesting that subsidies may be more effective at promoting energy-efficient technologies than energy price increases. Adoption decisions imply hurdle rates of 50-100%, which is consistent with the investment criteria small and medium-size firms state they use. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cost-effectiveness of electricity energy efficiency programs

We analyze the cost-effectiveness of electric utility ratepayer-funded programs to promote demand-side management (DSM) and energy efficiency (EE) investments. We specify a model that relates electricity demand to previous EE DSM spending, energy prices, income, weather, and other demand factors. In contrast to previous studies, we allow EE DSM spending to have a potential longterm demand effect and explicitly address possible endogeneity in spending. We find that current period EE DSM expenditures reduce electricity demand and that this effect persists for a number of years. Our findings suggest that ratepayer funded DSM expenditures between 1992 and 2006 produced a central estimate of 0.9 percent savings in electricity consumption over that time period and a 1.8 percent savings over all years. These energy savings came at an expected average cost to utilities of roughly 5 cents per kWh saved when future savings are discounted at a 5 percent rate. Copyright © 2012 by the IAEE. All rights reserved.

Terminating links between emission trading programs

© 2015 Elsevier Inc.Links between emission trading programs are not immutable, as highlighted by New Jersey's exit from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in 2011. This raises the question of what to do with existing permits that are banked for future use-choices that have consequences for market behavior in advance of, or upon speculation about, delinking. We consider two delinking policies. One differentiates banked permits by origin, the other treats banked permits the same. We describe the price behavior and relative cost-effectiveness of each policy. Treating permits differently generally leads to higher costs, and may lead to price divergence, even with only speculation about delinking.