The Dempster-Shafer “theory of evidence” encompasses and extends the Bayes Theorem-based decision making machinery. Dempster-Shafer’s innovation is the introduction of lower and upper bounds, designated “belief” and “plausibility”, that are attached to probability estimates. The Dempster-Shafer algebra provides for propagation of and reasoning about these quantities according to an algebra whos...

Subjective evaluation of the horse in motion is the standard of practice for detection and evaluation of lameness in horses. Techniques for subjective evaluation are first learned in veterinary school and later developed by collegial transfer of knowledge, study of standard veterinary texts, and by experience. Nothing is better than experience at improving this skill. How one looks and what one...

Large multi-day conferences have often been criticized as ineffective ways to improve social outcomes and to influence policy or practice. Unfortunately, many conference evaluations have also been inadequate in determining the impact of a conference on its associated social sector, with little evidence gathered or analyzed to substantiate or refute these criticisms. The aim of this scoping revi...

Choosing which ventilator to purchase can dramatically affect what type of care patients get, practitioners’ working environment, and the hospital’s “bottom line.” Choosing a ventilator is a complicated process, often confounded by competing stakeholders. Trying to balance the desires of the hospital management, physicians, and respiratory therapists can be tricky. Getting the right equipment f...

'Objective' evaluation means evaluation using numbers (metrics) which can be calculated without intervention by humans. An obvious advantage is that human eeort is reduced. It is also claimed that it is less biased by human opinion, but in this text it is shown that there are a lot of choices to be made when applying these methods, which introduces bias at a diierent level. Two objective evalua...

One of the more significant changes in the variables. Variables found to be significant U. S. agricultural industry in recent years has were: total debt divided by total assets, reabeen the increased use of credit to finance prosonable farm value, total liabilities, marital duction and capital expenditures. Since 1970, status, family living expense as a percentage of outstanding farm debt has m...