The present work aims to propose a systematic study and interpretation of a variable response in relation to three factors, using a model of Joint Table Analysis, the Tucker3 model, as well as the joint biplot graph. The proposed method seems efficient and suitable for separating standard technical response, and the pattern of noise contained in a three inputs table, as well as allows its interpretation. The joint plot graph facilitates the study and interpretation of the data structure and provides additional information on these. In our application the aim is to identify the combinations of genotypes, locations and years that contribute or not to a high yield of bean cultivars.

Analysis and interpretation of behavior–environment relations are increasingly being conducted with data that have been derived descriptively. This paper provides an overview of the logic that underlies a sequential analytic approach to the analysis of descriptive data. Several methods for quantifying sequential relations are reviewed along with their strengths and weaknesses. Data from descriptive analyses are used to illustrate key points. Issues germane to contingency analysis in natural environments are discussed briefly. It is concluded that the conceptual distinctions among contiguity, contingency, and dependency are critical if the logic of sequential analysis is to be extended successfully to a behavior-analytic account of reinforcement in natural environments.

Relational frame theory (RFT) is a contemporary behavior-analytic account of language and cognition. Since it was first outlined in 1985, RFT has generated considerable controversy and debate, and several claims have been made concerning its evidence base. The present study sought to evaluate the evidence base for RFT by undertaking a citation analysis and by categorizing all articles that cited RFT-related search terms. A total of 174 articles were identified between 1991 and 2008, 62 (36%) of which were empirical and 112 (64%) were nonempirical articles. Further analyses revealed that 42 (68%) of the empirical articles were classified as empirical RFT and 20 (32%) as empirical other, whereas 27 (24%) of the nonempirical articles were assigned to the nonempirical reviews category and 85 (76%) to the nonempirical conceptual category. In addition, the present findings show that the majority of empirical research on RFT has been conducted with typically developing adult populations, on the relational frame of sameness, and has tended to be published in either The Psychological Record or the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Overall, RFT has made a substantial contribution to the literature in a relatively short period of time.

The experimental analysis of behavior began as an inductively oriented, empirically based scientific field. As the field grew, its distinctive system of science—radical behaviorism—grew with it. The continuing growth of the empirical base of the field has been accompanied by the growth of the literature on radical behaviorism and its implications. In this article the case is made that radical behaviorism is more than an abstract description of the assumptions and practices of the field; it is an active area of research within the field itself, and that such theoretical research is of great importance to the development of the field. Some of the characteristics of radical behaviorism are described in brief, along with the functions of organization, clarification, and extension of various aspects of behavior-analytic science. Research examples are given from the areas of work on the system itself, behavior-analytic theory, and implications of behavior analysis for issues and findings in other fields. The unique characteristics of radical behaviorism provide an integrative and generative scientific framework for the continuing development of behavior analysis.

A task force authorized by the Executive Council of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) generated the statement below concerning the techniques called restraint and seclusion. Members of the task force independently reviewed the scientific literature concerning restraint and seclusion and agreed unanimously to the content of the statement. The Executive Council accepted the statement, and it was subsequently approved by a two-thirds majority vote of the general membership. It now constitutes official ABAI policy. The position statement is posted on the ABAI Web site (www.abainternational.org/ABA/statements/RestraintSeclusion.asp). The purpose of the position statement is to provide guidance to behavior analysts and other professionals interested in the position of ABAI on these controversial topics. In extreme cases, abuses of procedures erroneously used in the name of behavior analysis are not defensible. On the other hand, behavior analysts acting ethically and in good faith are provided with guidelines for sound and acceptably safe practice. To the extent that behavior-analytic positions influence public policy and law, this statement can be presented to officials and lawmakers to guide informed decision making. At the conclusion of the document...

The detection and subsequent removal of land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) from many developing countries are slow, expensive, and dangerous tasks, but have the potential to improve the well-being of millions of people. Consequently, those involved with humanitarian mine and UXO clearance are actively searching for new and more efficient detection technologies. Remote explosive scent tracing (REST) using trained dogs has the potential to be one such technology. However, details regarding how best to train, test, and deploy dogs in this role have never been made publicly available. This article describes how the key characteristics of applied behavior analysis, as described by Baer, Wolf and Risley (1968, 1987), served as important objectives for the research and development of the behavioral technology component of REST while the author worked in humanitarian demining.

This Sourcebook deals with social analysis in policy reform, encompassing the transition from gaining a better understanding of the distributional impacts of proposed or continuing reform to influencing a more informed and locally embedded process of policy review and design. In a generic sense, the term "social analysis" encompasses institutional, political, and social analyses. These three overlapping areas, derived from different disciplinary backgrounds, focus on the rules and relations that underpin and influence reform outcomes: Institutional analysis looks at the rules that people develop to govern group behavior and interaction in political, economic, and social spheres of life. Institutional analysis is based on an understanding that these rules-whether formally constructed or informally embedded in cultural practice-mediate and distort, sometimes fundamentally, the expected impacts of policy reform. Political analysis looks at the structure of power relations and often-entrenched interests of different stakeholders that affect decision making and distributional outcomes. Political analysis is built on recognition that political interests underpin many areas of policy debate and economic reform...

Planning, design and operational decisions are made under complex circumstances of multiple objectives, conflicting interests and participation of multiple stakeholders. Selection of alternatives can be performed by means of traditional economics-based methods, such as benefit-cost analysis. Alternatively, analyses of decision problems, including water resource allocation problems, which involve trade-offs among multiple criteria, can be undertaken using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). MCDA is used to assist decision makers (DMs) in prioritising or selecting one or more alternatives from a finite set of available alternatives with respect to multiple, usually conflicting, criteria. In the majority of decision problems, MCDA is complicated by input parameters that are uncertain and evaluation methods that involve different assumptions. Consequently, one of the main difficulties in applying MCDA and analysing the resultant ranking of the alternatives is the uncertainty in the input parameter values (i.e. criteria weights (CWs) and criteria performance values (PVs)). Analysing the sensitivity of decisions to various input parameter values is, therefore, an integral requirement of the decision analysis process. However, existing sensitivity analysis methods have numerous limitations when applied to MCDA...

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited; This report outlines an approach for quantitative operations analysis of aspects of Fleet Battle Experiments (FBEs) using the methodology underlying the Battlespace Information War (BAT/IW) analytical tool. The general approach of this analysis methodology is to focus on a specific experimental initiative from one or more FBEs, such as Time Critical Targeting (TCT). BAT/IW models are then tailored to the experimental situation using actual data obtained from one or more experiments and the experiment systems architecture. After the models and actual data are reconciled, further analysis tasks are undertaken, such as predictions of the effects of attack intensity, and/or of C4ISR response time reduction. BAT/IW modeling helps analyze and understand the system-level impact of sensor data quality, including timeliness, as one contributor to total operation/campaign success. BAT/IW modeling also accounts for the latency involved in processing information, including communications delays, decision time, waiting, etc. An example is developed to show how operational data obtained during FBE Foxtrot can be quantitatively analyzed to indicate important sensitivities.--Report documentation page.

Includes the full text version as well as the chapters broken out into separate pdfs.; This handbook is a result of the effort by the Defense Economic Analysis Council, Handbook Committee, representing the Services and Agencies of the Department of Defense. It is designed as a starting point for personnel who have little or no experience with Economic Analysis. The Council is guided by the thoughts of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), The Honorable Robert C. Moot

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or U.S. Government.; This report contains project summaries of the research projects in the Department of Defense Analysis. A list of recent publications is also included, which consists of conference presentations and publications, books, contributions to books, published journal papers, and technical reports. Thesis abstracts of students advised by faculty in the Department are also included.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; This thesis is a descriptive organizational analysis of MCRDSD. The study describes MCRDSD in terms of its direction, tasks, people, structure, processes, culture, outputs and outcomes using systems analysis and Mintzberg's configuration theory. Based on document reviews, model comparisons, and semi-structured interviews, e-mail and phone conversations with approximately 30 Depot personnel, MCRDSD fulfills its basic mission but is not aligned for optimum performance. The following conclusions pertain: the current organizational structure of MCRDSD may not be optimized towards overall performance; cognizance over the POI resides at too high a level, is too rigid and implementing change too difficult; and Depot priority of making Marines is too often subordinated to the public relations effort. Recommendations are offered to assist Depot leadership in making systematic change to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the depot. With changes in organizational structure, reprioritization of tasks, and adoption of oversight over the POI, MCRDSD can enhance it's command climate, efficiency of the recruit training process, and the quality of basic trained Marine produced.; Major...

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; An operational analysis of the delays incurred in Underway Replenishments of the Pacific Fleet, December, 1967 - April, 1969, is conducted. Twenty specific delays are analyzed from the UNREP data of which more than 80%, was from UNREPs conducted in Southeast Asia by supply ships providing logistic support to naval units engaged in combat operations. Delay occurrence distributions are derived; delay time distributions are derived, and tested for goodness-of-fit with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Delay as a function of the following UNREP attributes is analyzed: supply ship class, receiver ship type, time: day or night, location: EASTPAC or WESTPAC, simultaneous receivers or a single receiver, delivery method, product delivered, length of supply ship deployment, and weather. Hypothesis testing of delay occurrence parameters for UNREP attributes is done, and causes of delays are discussed. A method, based on the use of conditional probabilities and Bayes' Theorem, of predicting a delay occurrence prior to an UNREP when the UNREP attributes are known is presented; http://archive.org/details/delayanalysisofp00doug; Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; This thesis analyzes the impact of participation in the Navy's Tuition Assistance (TA) program on the retention of first-term Navy enlisted personnel and the job performance of both first and second-term Navy enlisted personnel. This thesis estimates the effect of overall TA usage. It also analyzes differential effects of course delivery methods, comparing Distance Learning (DL) with face-to-face classes. Finally, the thesis investigates differences in course completion between DL and non-DL classes. To adjust for selection bias in the course completion and job performance models, the thesis estimates fixed-effects models that net out unobserved individual attributes. In retention models, selection issues are addressed by restricting the sample to recruits with similar motivation at the time of enrollment as TA participants. Data is analyzed for 10 accession cohorts, who entered the Navy between 1994 and 2004, to control for economic or other outside factors that may affect promotion or reenlistment. The analysis indicates that TA students enrolled in DL classes have lower course completion rates and lower grade point averages than sailors enrolled in traditional classes. However...

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited; This research was conducted in response to a request by Total Force Structure Division (TFSD), Capabilities Development Directorate (CDD), Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC) and will serve to provide the TFSD with recommendations for any potential improvements that can be made to the current troop-to-task analysis instructions or the process by which it is conducted. In this context, a troop-to-task analysis is a methodological process of matching the suitable number and quality of personnel and equipment to a unit's Mission Essential Task List (METL) for the purpose of justifying the need for uncompensated force structure. The study finds that the current template will adequately provide a simple but often subjective analysis from the unit requesting uncompensated force structure. If a more thorough analysis is desired or required, recommendations include further development of standardized troop-to-task business rules, the continued use or new development of existing proprietary contractual analytical software, or a restructuring of the current force structure analysis divisions, e.g., conduct third-party troop-to-task analysis vice relying on those provided by the requesting units.; US Marine Corps (USMC) author

Knowing which method parameters may be mutated during a method'sexecution is useful for many software engineering tasks. We presentan approach to discovering parameter immutability, in which severallightweight, scalable analyses are combined in stages, with each stagerefining the overall result. The resulting analysis is scalable andcombines the strengths of its component analyses. As one of thecomponent analyses, we present a novel, dynamic mutability analysisand show how its results can be improved by random input generation.Experimental results on programs of up to 185 kLOC demonstrate that,compared to previous approaches, our approach increases both scalabilityand overall accuracy.

Behavior analysis as a discipline currently is doing relatively well. How it will do in the future is unclear and depends on how the field, and the world at large, changes. Five current characteristics of the discipline that appear to reduce the probability that it will survive and prosper are discussed and suggestions for improvement are offered. The areas of concern are (a) the small size and limited power of the discipline, (b) the growing focus of applied behavior analysis on autism spectrum disorders and little else, (c) the esoteric nature of much basic research, (d) the proliferation of “applied” research that really isn't applied, and (e) the widespread use of imprecise and potentially harmful technical language.

Zen's challenge for behavior analysis is to explain a repertoire that renders analysis itself meaningless—a result following not from scientific or philosophical arguments but rather from a unique verbal history generated by Zen's methods. Untying Zen's verbal knots suggests how meditation's and koans' effects on verbal behavior contribute to Enlightenment and Samādhi. The concept of stimulus singularity is introduced to account for why, within Zen's frame of reference, its methods can be studied but its primary outcomes (e.g., Samādhi and Satori) cannot be described in any conventional sense.

The procedures described by Sloman et al. (2005) were extended to an analysis of teachers' responses to problem behavior after they had been taught to withhold potential sources of positive and negative reinforcement following instances of problem behavior. Results were consistent with those reported previously, suggesting that escape from child problem behavior may shape and maintain adult behavior that is potentially countertherapeutic.

11 páginas, 6 figuras, 4 tablas.-- El PDF del artículo es su versión post-print.; A new statistical approach for preliminary risk evaluation of breakage in tailings dam is presented and illustrated by a case study regarding the Mediterranean region. The objective of the proposed method is to establish an empirical scale of risk, from which guidelines for prioritizing the collection of further specific information can be derived. The method relies on a historical database containing, in essence, two sets of qualitative data: the first set concerns the variables that are observable before the disaster (e.g., type and size of the dam, its location, and state of activity), and the second refers to the consequences of the disaster (e.g., failure type, sludge characteristics, fatalities categorization, and downstream range of damage). Based on a modified form of correspondence analysis, where the second set of attributes are projected as “supplementary variables” onto the axes provided by the eigenvalue decomposition of the matrix referring to the first set, a “qualitative regression” is performed, relating the variables to be predicted (contained in the second set) with the “predictors” (the observable variables). On the grounds of the previously derived relationship...