Saint Anselm College

About: Saint Anselm College is a education organization based out in Manchester, New Hampshire, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Politics & Nurse education. The organization has 255 authors who have published 522 publications receiving 7222 citations.

On filling-in missing attribute values for Bayes and fuzzy classifiers

Abstract: Multidimensional classification problems often must address the issue of missing attribute values. The solution for this problem in the case of two frequency based classifiers is discussed here. The Bayes approach of boosting low frequency values, or filling-in missing values is compared to the interpolation operation used in the fuzzy classifiers.

Heterogeneous Computing for Markov Models in Big Data

Abstract: Many Big Data problems, Markov Model related included, are solved using heterogenous systems: host + parallel programmable accelerator. The current solutions for the accelerator part - for example, GPU used as GPGPU - provide limited accelerations due to some architectural constraints. The paper introduces the use of a programmable parallel accelerator able to perform efficient vector and matrix operations avoiding the limitations of the current systems designed using "of-theshelf" solutions. Our main result is an architecture whose actual performance is a much higher percentage from its peak performance than those of the consecrated accelerators. The performance improvements we offer come from the following two features: the addition of a reduction network at the output of a linear array of cells and an appropriate use of a serial register distributed along the same linear array of cells. Thus, for a n-state Markov Model, instead of a solution with the size in O(n2) and an acceleration in O(n2=logn), we offer an accelerator with the size in O(n) and the acceleration in O(n).

Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way: Elite Party Actor Endorsements in Presidential Nominating Contests, 2004-2012

Abstract: Party elites influence the outcomes of presidential nomination contests through endorsements, financial support, encouragements to run, and other means. In this paper, we compare the patterns of elite endorsements of presidential candidates in four recent nomination contests – the Democratic races in 2004 and 2008 and the Republican contests in 2008 and 2012. We examine these contests with an eye not toward their eventual outcomes but to the manner in which a set of elite party actors – governors and members of Congress – made their public endorsements of candidates for the nominations including both the timing and (for Romney in 2012) their stated rationales as a communication to party members and the broader public. Our findings suggest that Republican officeholders are more reluctant than their Democratic counterparts to endorse candidates in contested presidential nomination contests, even – or perhaps particularly – when the field of candidates is less than stellar. Furthermore, in the case of Romney, they were strategic in offering rationales, emphasizing personal qualities earlier and the process later while downplaying ideology.

The conjoined twins of Malta: direct or indirect killing?

Abstract: In November 2000, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester, England, Jodie and Mary, conjoined since birth, underwent surgery to separate them. As a consequence of this surgery, Jodie lived and, as of this writing, appears to be thriving. Her twin sister, Mary, did not survive the surgery. Their story begins some eight months earlier on the island of Malta when their mother, who was approximately four months pregnant, had an ultrasound that revealed that she was carrying conjoined twins. A doctor at the hospital, who had trained at St. Mary’s Hospital and knew of its excellence, advised the parents to seek treatment there. Once in England, and at a latter stage of the pregnancy, it became clear that the difficulties with the twins were greater than had originally been thought. In light of these difficulties the doctors advised the parents to terminate the pregnancy. The couple, deeply religious Roman Catholics, refused this option and decided to continue with the pregnancy. The twins were born on August 8, 2000. From the time of their birth to the day of the surgery some four months later, the case of Jodie and Mary gripped the public interest and their case received intense international coverage in the media. Every aspect of the case, medical, legal, and ethical, was analyzed and commented on. In this present article, I will deal principally with the ethical issues surrounding the surgery and its aftermath. I will conclude, tentatively, that the surgery was morally permissible under the principle of double effect. In order to arrive at this tentative conclusion, I will examine first the medical condition of each of the twins prior to the surgery; second, I will look at the nature of the operation to separate the twins.1 Finally, based on the facts of the surgery, I will