The objective interpretation of histopathological data: an application to the ageing of ovine bruises

Muscle and adipose tissue from a total of 178 experimental bruises inflicted on sheep and aged from 1 to 72 h old were processed for light microscopic examination. Five observed histopathological features of inflammation and repair were scored semiquantitatively on a scale of 1-4 according to their degrees of change from the normal state. These data were evaluated mathematically using a Bayesian probability model designed for the purpose. The model was able to age bruises with an acceptable degree of accuracy only as either 1-20 h or 24-72 h old but within these constraints a degree of confidence in excess of 90% was achieved. The exact performance of the model depended on the nature and number of tissue samples examined but mathematical ageing was superior to interpretative ageing based on personal experience.     

Evaluating Public Sector R&D Programs: The Advanced Technology Program's Investment in Wavelength References for Optical Fiber Communications

Griliches (1958) [Journal of Political Economy,66: 419--431] and Mansfield et al. (1977) [Quarterly Journal of Economics 91: 221--240] pioneered the application of fundamental economic insight to the development of measurements of private and social rates of return to innovative investments. This paper illustrates field-based methods for measuring the social rates of return to innovative investments by the public sector. The case study described herein relates to the development of an improved standard reference material for the measurement of the wavelength of light in an optical fiber network.     

The Entrepreneur as Innovator

Throughout intellectual history as we know it, the entrepreneur has worn many faces and played many roles. One of those roles is innovator. This essay establishes a chronological trace of the entrepreneur as innovator in an effort to place contemporary writings within a proper historical perspective.     

A COMPARISON OF CHANGES IN POLICE AND GENERAL HOMICIDES: 1930–1998*

This paper presents a new data series for homicides of law enforcement officers. Available for more than two centuries, it is much longer than series previously examined. Police killings had two extreme peaks, one in the 1920s and another in the 1970s. We use the post‐1930 part of the series in a time‐series regression to explore structural conditions that affect police killings in the short term. Economic conditions, prison populations, and World War II have considerably larger impacts on police killings than on homicide generally. Police killings are less affected by demographic changes and by the crack epidemic.