Pairwise comparison locomotion scoring for dairy cattle.

Conventional locomotion scoring is a subjective, absolute, and discrete assessment of locomotion. Here we assess pairwise comparison scoring to improve upon the limited intra- and interobserver consistency typical of conventional locomotion scoring. Five observers performed conventional 4-level locomotion scoring using 50 video recordings of dairy cattle, and also assessed 90 pairs of videos (composed from the same 50 recordings) using relative pairwise scoring.

Recommendations for describing statistical studies and results in general readership science and engineering journals.

This paper recommends how authors of statistical studies can communicate to general audiences fully, clearly, and comfortably. The studies may use statistical methods to explore issues in science, engineering, and society or they may address issues in statistics specifically. In either case, readers without explicit statistical training should have no problem understanding the issues, the methods, or the results at a non-technical level.

Shackling the shoulders of giants. A report on excerpts from the National Academies' Symposium on the Role of Scientific and Technical Data and Information in the Public Domain, Washington, DC, September 5-6, 2002.

This paper informally summarizes a two-day symposium held at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.

The misuse of statistics: concepts, tools, and a research agenda.

This paper presents concerns regarding misuse of statistics in scientific work, especially in biomedical research. The paper discusses what is meant by "misuse." It appears that misuse arises from various sources: degrees of competence in statistical theory and methods, honest error in the application of methods, egregious negligence, and deliberate deception (misconduct.