"Sexism in the Schools" conference at P.S. 41 about sex bias in high schools

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Bias on the Bench: How Judges’ Legal Backgrounds Influence Their Decisions

The ideal conception of a judge is that of a neutral arbitrator. However, there exist good reasons to believe that personal characteristics, including professional experiences, bias judges. Such suspicions inspired two hypotheses: (1) judges that are former prosecutors are biased in favor of the government in criminal appeals; (2) judges that are former criminal defense attorneys are biased in favor of the criminal appellant. These hypotheses were tested by gathering professional information about state supreme court judges in the south during the years from 1995 until 1998. That was then matched to an existing database that recorded those judges’ demographics and decisions in criminal appeals during that time. Logistic regressions of that data revealed that despite when other characteristics, including gender, race, and legal experience, were accounted for, criminal defense remained a statistically significant predictor. Judges with a background in criminal defense were more likely to reverse criminal court decisions. In contrast, prosecutorial experience was not a good predictor of how a judge ruled. Judges that had backgrounds in prosecution did not rule much differently than those that did not have such a background.

Liberal bias and the five-factor model.

Duarte et al. draw attention to the "embedding of liberal values and methods" in social psychological research. They note how these biases are often invisible to the researchers themselves. The authors themselves fall prey to these "invisible biases" by utilizing the five-factor model of personality and the trait of openness to experience as one possible explanation for the under-representation of political conservatives in social psychology. I show that the manner in which the trait of openness to experience is conceptualized and measured is a particularly blatant example of the very liberal bias the authors decry.

Projeto de extensão colônia de férias cefd/ufsm : Relato de experiência

Essa pesquisa trata-se de um relato de experiência sobre o Projeto de Extensao Colônia de Férias na formaçao inicial dos acadêmicos da graduaçao em Educaçao Física Licenciatura e Bacharelado da UFSM. A pesquisa assume os pressupostos da abordagem qualitativa, e com vistas a alcançar os objetivos do estudo, optou se pela pesquisa exploratória. A coleta dos dados ocorreu por meio da pesquisa documental e entrevistas semiestruturadas, sendo os entrevistados acadêmicos do Curso de Educaçao Física Licenciatura e Bacharelado. Os dados foram analisados a partir da Análise de Conteúdo. Conclui-se que o Projeto teve relevância significativa para a formaçao inicial dos monitores envolvidos, por ser um espaço de vivência educativa, de formaçao profissional e de diálogo com a comunidade universitária

Projeto de extensão colônia de férias cefd/ufsm : Relato de experiência

Essa pesquisa trata-se de um relato de experiência sobre o Projeto de Extensao Colônia de Férias na formaçao inicial dos acadêmicos da graduaçao em Educaçao Física Licenciatura e Bacharelado da UFSM. A pesquisa assume os pressupostos da abordagem qualitativa, e com vistas a alcançar os objetivos do estudo, optou se pela pesquisa exploratória. A coleta dos dados ocorreu por meio da pesquisa documental e entrevistas semiestruturadas, sendo os entrevistados acadêmicos do Curso de Educaçao Física Licenciatura e Bacharelado. Os dados foram analisados a partir da Análise de Conteúdo. Conclui-se que o Projeto teve relevância significativa para a formaçao inicial dos monitores envolvidos, por ser um espaço de vivência educativa, de formaçao profissional e de diálogo com a comunidade universitária

Projeto de extensão colônia de férias cefd/ufsm : Relato de experiência

Essa pesquisa trata-se de um relato de experiência sobre o Projeto de Extensao Colônia de Férias na formaçao inicial dos acadêmicos da graduaçao em Educaçao Física Licenciatura e Bacharelado da UFSM. A pesquisa assume os pressupostos da abordagem qualitativa, e com vistas a alcançar os objetivos do estudo, optou se pela pesquisa exploratória. A coleta dos dados ocorreu por meio da pesquisa documental e entrevistas semiestruturadas, sendo os entrevistados acadêmicos do Curso de Educaçao Física Licenciatura e Bacharelado. Os dados foram analisados a partir da Análise de Conteúdo. Conclui-se que o Projeto teve relevância significativa para a formaçao inicial dos monitores envolvidos, por ser um espaço de vivência educativa, de formaçao profissional e de diálogo com a comunidade universitária

Fidelity bias in mollusk assemblages from coastal lagoons of Southern Brazil

The South America southern coast exhibits many outcrops with abundant shell beds, from the Pleistocene through the Recent. How much biological information is preserved within these shell beds? Or, what is the actual probability a living community has to leave a fossil record corresponding to these shell deposits? Although ecological and biogeographical aspects might had been pointed, considering these temporal scales, up to the moment there is no taphonomically-oriented studies available. Quantitative comparisons between living (LAs), death (DAs) and fossil assemblages (FAs) are important not only in strictly taphonomic studies, but have grown a leading tool for conservation paleobiology analysis. Comparing LAs, DAs and FAs from estuaries and lagoons in the Rio Grande do Sul Coastal Plain makes possible to quantitatively understand the nature and quantity of biological information preserved in fossil associations in Holocene lagoon facies. As already noted by several authors, spatial scale parts the analysis, but we detected that the FAs refl ects live ones, rather than dead ones, as previously not realized. The results herein obtained illustrates that species present in DA are not as good preserved in recent (Holocene) fossil record as originally thought. Strictly lagoon species are most prone to leave fossil record. The authors consider that the fi delity pattern here observed for estuarine mollusks to be driven by (i) high temporal and spatial variability in the LAs, (ii) spatial mixing in the DA and (iii) differential preservation of shells, due to long residence times in the taphonomically active zone.

A Bias Compensated Cross-Relation approach to Thermocouple Characterisation

The measurement of fast changing temperature fluctuations is a challenging problem due to the inherent limited bandwidth of temperature sensors. This results in a measured signal that is a lagged and attenuated version of the input. Compensation can be performed provided an accurate, parameterised sensor model is available. However, to account for the in influence of the measurement environment and changing conditions such as gas velocity, the model must be estimated in-situ. The cross-relation method of blind deconvolution is one approach for in-situ characterisation of sensors. However, a drawback with the method is that it becomes positively biased and unstable at high noise levels. In this paper, the cross-relation method is cast in the discrete-time domain and a bias compensation approach is developed. It is shown that the proposed compensation scheme is robust and yields unbiased estimates with lower estimation variance than the uncompensated version. All results are verified using Monte-Carlo simulations.

The effect of changing the built environment on physical activity: a quantitative review of the risk of bias in natural experiments.

BACKGROUND:
Evidence regarding the association of the built environment with physical activity is influencing policy recommendations that advocate changing the built environment to increase population-level physical activity. However, to date there has been no rigorous appraisal of the quality of the evidence on the effects of changing the built environment. The aim of this review was to conduct a thorough quantitative appraisal of the risk of bias present in those natural experiments with the strongest experimental designs for assessing the causal effects of the built environment on physical activity.

METHODS:
Eligible studies had to evaluate the effects of changing the built environment on physical activity, include at least one measurement before and one measurement of physical activity after changes in the environment, and have at least one intervention site and non-intervention comparison site. Given the large number of systematic reviews in this area, studies were identified from three exemplar systematic reviews; these were published in the past five years and were selected to provide a range of different built environment interventions. The risk of bias in these studies was analysed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool: for Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ACROBAT-NRSI).

RESULTS:
Twelve eligible natural experiments were identified. Risk of bias assessments were conducted for each physical activity outcome from all studies, resulting in a total of fifteen outcomes being analysed. Intervention sites included parks, urban greenways/trails, bicycle lanes, paths, vacant lots, and a senior citizen's centre. All outcomes had an overall critical (n = 12) or serious (n = 3) risk of bias. Domains with the highest risk of bias were confounding (due to inadequate control sites and poor control of confounding variables), measurement of outcomes, and selection of the reported result.

CONCLUSIONS:
The present review focused on the strongest natural experiments conducted to date. Given this, the failure of existing studies to adequately control for potential sources of bias highlights the need for more rigorous research to underpin policy recommendations for changing the built environment to increase physical activity. Suggestions are proposed for how future natural experiments in this area can be improved.

A Bias Compensated Cross-Relation approach to Thermocouple Characterisation

The measurement of fast changing temperature fluctuations is a challenging problem due to the inherent limited bandwidth of temperature sensors. This results in a measured signal that is a lagged and attenuated version of the input. Compensation can be performed provided an accurate, parameterised sensor model is available. However, to account for the influence of the measurement environment and changing conditions such as gas velocity, the model must be estimated in-situ. The cross-relation method of blind deconvolution is one approach for in-situ characterisation of sensors. However, a drawback with the method is that it becomes positively biased and unstable at high noise levels. In this paper, the cross-relation method is cast in the discrete-time domain and a bias compensation approach is developed. It is shown that the proposed compensation scheme is robust and yields unbiased estimates with lower estimation variance than the uncompensated version. All results are verified using Monte-Carlo simulations.

Exchange-Bias-Dünnschichtsysteme - Charakterisierung, Modellierung und Anwendung

In dieser Arbeit werden Exchange-Bias-Dünnschichtsysteme untersucht. Ein Fokus der Arbeit liegt auf der magnetooptischen Aktivität dieser Systeme und im speziellen wie sich diese optimieren lässt. Der zweite Fokus der Arbeit ist die Modellierung dieser Systeme. Aufbauend auf einem polykristallinen Ansatz wird eine neue rotierbare magnetische Anisotropie eingeführt, welche die Relaxationszeiten thermisch instabiler Körner im AF berücksichtigt.

Memory Bias for Anxiety Prior to Academic Achievement Situations: Influences of Time, Mood, Personality and Post-Event-Processing

The current thesis examines memory bias for state anxiety prior to academic achievement situations like writing an exam and giving a speech. The thesis relies on the reconstruction principle, which assumes that memories for past emotions are reconstructed rather than stored permanently and accurately. This makes them prone to memory bias, which is af-fected by several influencing factors. A major aim is to include four important influencing factors simultaneously. Early research on mood and emotional autobiographical memory found evidence for the existence of a propositional associative network (Bower, 1981; Col-lins & Loftus, 1975), leading to mood congruent recall. But empirical findings gave also strong evidence for the existence of mood incongruent recall for one’s own emotions, which was for example linked to mood regulation via mood repair (e.g. Clark & Isen, 1982), which seems to be associated to the personality traits extraversion and neuroticism (Lischetzke & Eid, 2006; Ng & Diener, 2009). Moreover, neuroticism and trait anxiety are related to rumination, which is seen as negative post-event-processing (e.g. Wells & Clark, 1997). Overall, the elapsed time since the emotional event happened should have an impact on recall of emotions. Following the affect infusion model by Robinson and Clore (2002a), the influence of personality on memory bias should increase over time. Therefore, three longitudinal studies were realized, using naturally occurring as well as laboratory settings. The used paradigm was equivalent in all studies. Subjects were asked about their actual state anxiety prior to an academic achievement situation. Directly after the situation, cur-rent mood and recall of former anxiety were assessed. The same procedure was repeated a few weeks later. Personality traits and post-event-processing were also assessed. The results suggest a need to have a differentiated view on predicting memory bias. Study 1 (N = 131) as well as study 3 (N = 53) found evidence for mood incongruent memory in the sense of mood repair and downward regulation as a function of personality. Rumination was found to cause stable overestimation of pre-event anxiety in study 2 (N = 141) as well as in study 3. Although the relevance of the influencing factors changed over time, an increasing relevance of personality could not consistently be observed. The tremendously different effects of the laboratory study 2 indicated that such settings are not appropriate to study current issues. Theoretical and psychotherapeutically relevant conclusions are drawn and several limitations are discussed.

Movimentos e Lutas Estudantis em Serviço Social nas Últimas Décadas em Portugal e no Brasil

A presente dissertação, intitulada “Movimentos e Lutas Estudantis em Serviço Social nas últimas décadas em Portugal e no Brasil – uma primeira aproximação”, foi realizada no âmbito do Protocolo de Cooperação estabelecido entre o Instituto Superior Miguel Torga (ISMT) e a Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), no âmbito do Mestrado em Serviço Social. Resgata aspectos históricos e actuais das mobilizações dos estudantes de Serviço Social em Portugal e do Movimento Estudantil em Serviço Social no Brasil. Em Portugal, a organização dos estudantes de Serviço Social inicia-se com pós 1974. As suas lutas estão vinculadas ao acesso à igualdade de direitos sociais relativamente aos estudantes do ensino superior público, pela integração da formação no sistema universitário público e pela atribuição do grau académico de licenciatura. A dissertação também dá conta da actual situação da organização estudantil nas Instituições de Ensino Superior onde é ministrado o 1º ciclo da formação em Serviço Social, analisando as dinâmicas das suas Associações de Estudantes e a participação dos estudantes nas mesmas, principalmente de Serviço Social. O Movimento Estudantil em Serviço Social no Brasil, pela sua trajectória história e pela sua estrutura organizativa apresenta-se como uma referência. Esta investigação é o primeiro passo para a construção da identidade dos estudantes de Serviço Social portugueses.

Black and Blue: Exploring Racial Bias and Law Enforcement in the Killings of Unarmed Black Male Civilians

In late 2014, a series of highly publicized police killings of unarmed Black male civilians in the United States prompted large-scale social turmoil. In the current review, we dissect the psychological antecedents of these killings and explain how the nature of police work may attract officers with distinct characteristics that may make them especially well-primed for negative interactions with Black male civilians. We use media reports to contextualize the precipitating events of the social unrest as we ground our explanations in theory and empirical research from social psychology and industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. To isolate some of the key mechanisms at play, we disentangle racial bias (e.g., stereotyping processes) from common characteristics of law enforcement agents (e.g., social dominance orientation), while also addressing the interaction between racial bias and policing. By separating the moving parts of the phenomenon, we provide a more fine-grained analysis of the factors that may have contributed to the killings. In doing so, we endeavor to more effectively identify and develop solutions to eradicate excessive use of force during interactions between “Black” (unarmed Black male civilians) and “Blue” (law enforcement).

Quantifying Selection Bias from Birth History Estimates of Child Mortality

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08