University of Kansas

About: University of Kansas is a education organization based out in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 38183 authors who have published 81381 publications receiving 2986312 citations. The organization is also known as: KU & Univ of Kansas.

Empathy, Attitudes, and Action: Can Feeling for a Member of a Stigmatized Group Motivate One to Help the Group?

Abstract: Research reveals that inducing empathy for a member of a stigmatized group can improve attitudes toward the group as a whole. But do these more positive attitudes translate into action on behalf of the group? Results of an experiment suggested an affirmative answer to this question. Undergraduates first listened to an interview with a convicted heroin addict and dealer; they were then given a chance to recommend allocation of Student Senate funds to an agency to help drug addicts. (The agency would not help the addict whose interview they heard.) Participants induced to feel empathy for the addict allocated more funds to the agency. Replicating past results, these participants also reported more positive attitudes toward people addicted to hard drugs. In addition, an experimental condition in which participants were induced to feel empathy for a fictional addict marginally increased action on behalf of, and more positive attitudes toward, drug addicts.

Accelerated ice discharge from the Antarctic Peninsula following the collapse of Larsen B ice shelf

Abstract: acceleration exceeds 27 km 3 per year, and ice is thinning at rates of tens of meters per year. We attribute this abrupt evolution of the glaciers to the removal of the buttressing ice shelf. The magnitude of the glacier changes illustrates the importance of ice shelves on ice sheet mass balance and contribution to sea level change. INDEX TERMS: 1827 Hydrology: Glaciology (1863); 1863 Hydrology: Snow and ice (1827); 3349 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Polar meteorology; 6924 Radio Science: Interferometry; 9310 Information Related to Geographic Region: Antarctica. Citation: Rignot, E., G. Casassa, P. Gogineni, W. Krabill, A. Rivera, and R. Thomas (2004), Accelerated ice discharge from the Antarctic Peninsula following the collapse of Larsen B ice shelf, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L18401, doi:10.1029/ 2004GL020697.

LERS-A System for Learning from Examples Based on Rough Sets

Abstract: The paper presents the system LERS for rule induction. The system handles inconsistencies in the input data due to its usage of rough set theory principle. Rough set theory is especially well suited to deal with inconsistencies. In this approach, inconsistencies are not corrected. Instead, system LERS computes lower and upper approximations of each concept. Then it induces certain rules and possible rules. The user has the choice to use the machine learning approach or the knowledge acquisition approach. In the first case, the system induces a single minimal discriminant description for each concept. In the second case, the system induces all rules, each in the minimal form, that can be induced from the input data. In both cases, the user has a choice between the local or global approach.

Ecological niche conservatism: a time-structured review of evidence

Abstract: Aim To evaluate the evolutionary conservatism of coarse-resolution Grinnellian (or scenopoetic) ecological niches. Location Global. Methods I review a broad swathe of literature relevant to the topic of niche conservatism or differentiation, and illustrate some of the resulting insights with examplar analyses. Results Ecological niche characteristics are highly conserved over short-to-moderate time spans (i.e. from individual life spans up to tens or hundreds of thousands of years); little or no ecological niche differentiation is discernible as part of the processes of invasion or speciation. Main conclusions Although niche conservatism is widespread, many methodological complications obscure this point. In particular, niche models are frequently over-interpreted: too often, they are based on limited occurrence data in high-dimensional environmental spaces, and cannot be interpreted robustly to indicate niche differentiation.