Oklahoma State University–Stillwater

About: Oklahoma State University–Stillwater is a education organization based out in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Large Hadron Collider. The organization has 18267 authors who have published 36743 publications receiving 1107500 citations. The organization is also known as: Oklahoma State University & OKState.

Decision support system effectiveness: a review and an empirical test

Abstract: Despite the increasing popularity of decision support systems DSS, effectiveness of such systems remains unproven. Past research claiming usefulness of the DSS has relied largely on anecdotal or case data. The relatively few laboratory experiments report mixed results regarding the effects of a decision aid. This study reviews the results of prior investigations and examines the effectiveness of DSS-aided decision makers relative to decision makers without a DSS over an eight-week period. An executive decision making game was used in two sections of a business strategy course. Three-person teams in one section used a DSS while the teams in the other section played the game without such an aid. Various measures of decision quality were recorded. Overall, the groups with access to the DSS made significantly more effective decisions in the business simulation game than their non-DSS counterparts. The DSS groups took more time to make their decisions than the non-DSS groups at the beginning of the experiment. However, the decision times converged after the third week. The DSS teams reported investigating more alternatives and exhibited a higher confidence level in their decisions than the non-DSS groups, but these differences were not statistically significant.

Neutral-donor–bound-exciton complexes in ZnO crystals

Abstract: Neutral-donor--bound-exciton transitions have been observed in ZnO. The isolated neutral donors are made up of defect pair complexes. The neutral-donor nature of these pair complexes was determined from magnetic-field measurements and from two-electron transitions. Excited states of the neutral-donor bound excitons were observed in the form of rotator states analogous to rotational states of the ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ molecule.

A survey of DNA motif finding algorithms.

Abstract: Background: Unraveling the mechanisms that regulate gene expression is a major challenge in biology. An important task in this challenge is to identify regulatory elements, especially the binding sites in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) for transcription factors. These binding sites are short DNA segments that are called motifs. Recent advances in genome sequence availability and in highthroughput gene expression analysis technologies have allowed for the development of computational methods for motif finding. As a result, a large number of motif finding algorithms have been implemented and applied to various motif models over the past decade. This survey reviews the latest developments in DNA motif finding algorithms. Results: Earlier algorithms use promoter sequences of coregulated genes from single genome and search for statistically overrepresented motifs. Recent algorithms are designed to use phylogenetic footprinting or orthologous sequences and also an integrated approach where promoter sequences of coregulated genes and phylogenetic footprinting are used. All the algorithms studied have been reported to correctly detect the motifs that have been previously detected by laboratory experimental approaches, and some algorithms were able to find novel motifs. However, most of these motif finding algorithms have been shown to work successfully in yeast and other lower organisms, but perform significantly worse in higher organisms. Conclusion: Despite considerable efforts to date, DNA motif finding remains a complex challenge for biologists and computer scientists. Researchers have taken many different approaches in developing motif discovery tools and the progress made in this area of research is very encouraging. Performance comparison of different motif finding tools and identification of the best tools have proven to be a difficult task because tools are designed based on algorithms and motif models that are diverse and complex and our incomplete understanding of the biology of regulatory mechanism does not always provide adequate evaluation of underlying algorithms over motif models.

Pyric Herbivory: Rewilding Landscapes through the Recoupling of Fire and Grazing

Abstract: Our understanding of fire and grazing is largely based on small-scale experimental studies in which treatments are uniformly applied to experimental units that are considered homogenous. Any discussion of an interaction between fire and grazing is usually based on a statistical approach that ignores the spatial and temporal interactions on complex landscapes. We propose a new focus on the ecological interaction of fire and grazing in which each disturbance is spatially and temporally dependent on the other and results in a landscape where disturbance is best described as a shifting mosaic (a landscape with patches that vary with time since disturbance) that is critical to ecological structure and function of many ecosystems. We call this spatiotemporal interaction pyric herbivory (literal interpretation means grazing driven by fire). Pyric herbivory is the spatial and temporal interaction of fire and grazing, where positive and negative feedbacks promote a shifting pattern of disturbance across the landscape. We present data we collected from the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in the southern Great Plains of North America that demonstrates that the interaction between free-roaming bison (Bison bison) and random fires promotes heterogeneity and provides the foundation for biological diversity and ecosystem function of North American and African grasslands. This study is different from other studies of fire and grazing because the fires we examined were random and grazing animals were free to roam and select from burned and unburned patches. For ecosystems across the globe with a long history of fire and grazing, pyric herbivory with any grazing herbivore is likely more effective at restoring evolutionary disturbance patterns than a focus on restoring any large vertebrate while ignoring the interaction with fire and other disturbances.

Experimental Auctions: Methods and Applications in Economic and Marketing Research

Abstract: Economists, psychologists, and marketers are interested in determining the monetary value people place on non-market goods for a variety of reasons: to carry out cost-benefit analysis, to determine the welfare effects of technological innovation or public policy, to forecast new product success, and to understand individual and consumer behavior. Unfortunately, many currently available techniques for eliciting individuals' values suffer from a serious problem in that they involve asking individuals hypothetical questions about intended behavior. Experimental auctions circumvent this problem because they involve individuals exchanging real money for real goods in an active market. This represents a promising means for eliciting non-market values. Lusk and Shogren provide a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of experimental auctions. It will be a valuable resource to graduate students, practitioners and researchers concerned with the design and utilization of experimental auctions in applied economic and marketing research.