Most Popular Books by Jen Wang

One of the major categories addressing reliability of criterion-referenced testing is suggested by the concept of decision-consistency--the consistency of mastery-nonmastery classification across repeated measures with one test form or parallel test forms. The purpose of this study is to investigate the accuracy of four decision-consistency approaches in estimating reliability of criterion-referenced tests: (1) Swaminathan method, (2) Huynh method, (3) Subkoviak method, and (4) Marshall method. A computer simulation of test performance was used to investigate the effects of the test variability, the number of items, the number of examinees, and the cut-off scores on the accuracy of estimates derived from these four methods. For each of the six combinations of number of item (n = 5, 10, 20) and number of examinees (N = 15, 30), three matrices were constructed with elements p(,ij) (i = 1,2,...,N; j = 1,2,..., n) representing the true probability of success for the i(''th) examinee on the j(''th) item. These matrices were used in simulating the responses of three hypothetical groups (low, medium, and high true score variability) of N examinees to n items. The computer simulation for each of the 18 tests was accomplished by a Fortran program over 100 replications. Means and the mean deviations of each estimate from true agreement index over 100 replications were computed as evaluative indices. The results indicate that: (1) As number of examinees decreased from 30 to 15, the mean estimates of agreement index remain unchanged; (2) The effect of cut-off score changes on the mean estimates is a function of true score variabilities and methods; (3) The mean estimates increase with increasing test length and true score variability under most conditions studied; and (4) All things considered, the Huynh and Subkoviak methods are quite similar to each other. These two methods tend to underestimate under most of the conditions and tend to provide smaller standard error of estimates. Marshall''s method is less sensitive to cut-off score changes. Swaminathan''s estimator is closer to "true" agreement index, compared to other methods, although it tends to underestimate. The variability of estimator for Swaminathan''s method is always larger than the variability of estimator for other methods.

We show that investment under financing constraints can be modeled as a one-sided deviation from a frictionless investment level, and that effects of financing constraints can be identified and quantified by imposing a distributional assumption on the effects. Panel data on Taiwanese manufacturing firms between 1989 and 1996 are used in the estimation. This period chronicles important financial reforms in the Taiwanese markets, thus providing a unique opportunity to test the financing constraint hypothesis. Estimation results show that cash flow not only have the first order effect of reducing the level of constraints, but also has the second order effect of reducing the variance of the constraints. The use of the quantitative measures of financing constraints in the post-estimation analysis yields two interesting findings: (1) Some of the sorting criteria used in the literature do not have significant and monotonic relationships with the degrees of financing constraint, resulting in problematic sample separations. (2) The effects of financial liberalization in Taiwan are such that the investment efficiency improved over time for a typical firm, and the improvement was particularly large for smaller firms.

Ash has always felt alone. Adults ignore the climate crisis. Other kids Ashs age are more interested in pop stars and popularity contests than in fighting for change. Even Ashs family seems to be sleepwalking through life. The only person who ever seemed to get Ash was their Grandpa Edwin.

“BEST FRIENDS MAKE THE BEST ADVENTURES Return to the Land of Ooo with this all-new collection of your favorite stories about best friends of all in Adventure Time—Fionna and Cake! From the most delicious friendship cream puffs to the quest for a perfect fairytale birthday, there’s nothing that Fionna and Cake won’t do for each other! But even when things don’t go as planned, these two best friends will show you there’s nothing stronger than their bond - even if that means adventures into the far off lands full of danger and surprises around every corner.”-- cover page 4.

Final issue! The Floop Master is revealed, and Cake takes on the rest of the tournament!

"Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of irreversible blindness among adults, age 60 and older, in developed countries. While oxidative stress is implicated in the pathogenesis of AMD, clinical studies have shown that dietary antioxidants can delay progression of AMD. Currently, there is no FDA-approved treatment for AMD. Therefore, we hypothesized that N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA), a thiol antioxidant, would protect retinal pigment epithelium and impede the progression of retinal degeneration. The goal of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of NACA in preventing retinal pigment epithelial cell and photoreceptor death in AMD models. To achieve this, we used the oxidants tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) and sodium iodate (NaIO3) in a cell model and an animal model to evaluate the effects of NACA. Our data suggest that pretreatment with NACA reduces the sub-lethal (but not lethal) effects of TBHP in primary cultures of human retinal pigment epithelial cells. NACA significantly improves cell survival when administered prior to and during the occurrence of oxidative damage similar to that observed in the development of dry AMD. In the chemically- induced retinal degeneration animal model, NACA eye drops partially prevented reduction in visual function, as determined from electroretinograms (ERG) recorded 36 hours after NaIO3 injection. Other toxic effects were observed at a later time point after NaIO3 injection: increased lipid peroxidation (as measured by formation of 4-hydroxynonenal, 4-HNE), elevated cysteine levels, and death of photoreceptors resulting in outer nuclear layer thinning. NACA eye drops reversed these toxic effects. In conclusion, this potent antioxidant should continue to be investigated as a treatment for AMD"--Abstract, page iv.