This study assessed smokers' beliefs about nicotine and the safety of nicotine medications and examined how these beliefs influence the use of nicotine medications. The data for this paper came from a nationally representative, random-digit-dialed telephone survey of 1,046 adults (18 years of age and older) current cigarette smokers conducted between May and September 2001. Respondents were que...

For students of medieval proportional systems who lack such documentary evidence as James Ackerman had, in relative abundance, for his groundbreaking 1949 study of the Cathedral of Milan, the only choice has been to turn to the buildings. Yet Ackerman warned that such an exercise was destined to fail: ‘the analysis of remaining monuments,’ he wrote, ‘provides insufficient evidence for [the] tas...

It is doubtful whether I shall be able to meet the high standards set by previous speakers. I shall not prove deep theorems. I shall not present astonishing new results. Instead of this I shall try to catch your attention by a fictitious dialogue. I shall employ the help of imaginary discussants like the “Bayesian” or the “experimentalist.” A “chairman” will determine who speaks next, but he sh...

It may have been Chebyshev who said that in the olden days the mathematical problems were posed by the gods, later by the demi-gods (Gauss, etc.) and nowadays by the technician. Modern demands by technology are growing and often (paradoxically) lamented by designers of courses and syllabi. Arguments that fundamentals have to be established rst, leave the fear that applications and philosophical...