Institutionalization of athletic conferences for wage comparison in collective bargaining in High Schools in the US: A natural experiment

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 808-828
Author(s):  
Heejoon Park

AbstractSocial comparison plays an important role in collective bargaining. However, due to self-serving bias, the bargaining parties rarely agree on appropriate referents. In this respect, Wisconsin teachers’ collective bargaining provides an intriguing case because there is consensus on an appropriate comparison group: the schools’ athletic conferences. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the use of athletic conferences as referents is institutionalized beyond their technical merits. Using conference realignment as a natural experiment, this paper shows that when the bargaining parties experienced conference realignment, they changed their comparison groups. Because this realignment can be regarded as exogenous to collective bargaining, such changes in comparison groups are unlikely to be accounted for by technical factors, thus providing support for institutional theory.

Author(s):  
Peter L. Hinrichs

: This Economic Commentary studies the behavior of colleges when they are asked to list a set of comparison group colleges in annual data reporting for the US Department of Education but are given little direction on how to do so. I find that, relative to themselves, colleges tend to list for comparison colleges that are more selective, are larger, and have better resources. One possible interpretation of these findings is that colleges overestimate where they stand relative to others, although an alternative interpretation is that colleges have accurate views but list comparison institutions based on aspirations.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Beals ◽  
Melissa Birkett

Self-compassion and empathy are positively associated with mental health, physical health, and well-being. Caregivers higher in self-compassion and empathy show increased caring and supportive behavior. Cultivating self-compassion and empathy have been suggested to enhance positive outcomes, however descriptive information about these constructs is lacking for caregiver and comparison groups. The current study examined self-compassion and empathy among caregivers (self-identified parents of at least one child under 18 years of age; n=335) and a comparison group (n=215). Caregivers had higher scores of total self-compassion and empathy, with lower scores of self-judgement, isolation, and overidentification (self-compassion subscales), and personal distress (empathy subscale). Describing self-compassion and empathy in caregiver and comparison groups has implications for key health outcomes and highlights differences in self- and other-directed constructs in a diverse sample of adults.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullahi Ahmad ◽  
Aurelia Prom ◽  
John Bradley ◽  
Mamadou Ndiath ◽  
Blessed Etoketim ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Treatment of clinical Plasmodium falciparum malaria with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) and amodiaquine (AQ) is associated with increased post-treatment gametocyte carriage. The effect of seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) with SP and AQ on gametocyte carriage was assessed in asymptomatic P. falciparum infected children. Methods The study was carried out in eastern Gambia. Asymptomatic P. falciparum malaria infected children aged 24–59 months old who were eligible to receive SMC (SMC group) and children 5–8 years that were not eligible to receive SMC (comparison group) were recruited. Gametocytaemia was determined by molecular methods before and after SMC administration. Gametocyte carriage between the groups was compared using the chi-squared test and within-person using conditional logistic regression. Results During the 2017 and 2018 malaria transmission seasons, 65 and 75 children were recruited in the SMC and comparison groups, respectively. Before SMC administration, gametocyte prevalence was 10.7% (7/65) in the SMC group and 13.3% (10/75) in the comparison group (p = 0.64). At day 13 (IQR 12, 13) after SMC administration, this was 9.4% (5/53) in children who received at least the first dose of SMC treatment and 12.7% (9/71) for those in the comparison group (p = 0.57). Similarly, there was no difference in prevalence of gametocytes between children that adhered to all 3-day doses of SMC treatment 15.6% (5/32) and those in the comparison group (p = 0.68). In the SMC group, within-group gametocyte carriage was similar before and after SMC administration in children that received at least the first dose of SMC treatment (OR 0.6, 95% CI 0.14–2.51; p = 0.48) and in those that adhered to all 3-day doses of SMC treatment (OR 1.0, 95% CI 0.20–4.95; p = 1.0). Conclusion In this study with relative low gametocyte prevalence prior to SMC treatment, no evidence was observed that SMC treatment increased gametocyte carriage in asymptomatic P. falciparum malaria infected children.


2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Furtado Volcov ◽  
Eliana Moreira Pinheiro ◽  
Miriam Harumi Tsunemi ◽  
Fernanda Gaspar do Amaral ◽  
Ariane Ferreira Machado Avelar ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objectives: to compare the parameters of the activity/rest cycle of early postpartum breastfeeding women under a controlled and uncontrolled long wavelength ray light regimen. Methods: quasi-experimental study with breastfeeding women and their babies during postnatal rooming-in, São Paulo, Brazil. Participants were allocated to either an experimental (intervention) or a comparison group. The intervention involved exposure of the woman in a controlled room with artificial long wavelength ray light at night. Each woman’s level of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin at 24 hours and activity/rest times was analyzed. Results: the mean activity/rest times of women in the experimental and comparison groups were similar. The mean percentages of total load of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin during the day and night were similar (p=0.09). At 24 hours, the experimental group presented a significantly lower mean percentage of total load compared to the comparison group (p=0.04). Conclusions: women who stayed in the room with long-wavelength artificial light showed no difference in activity/rest and 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels in the early postpartum period.


2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Brunner ◽  
Kai Jörg Sandner

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 56-61
Author(s):  
Lidya P. Khoroshinina ◽  
Alexander V. Shabrov ◽  
Leonid G. Buynov

The problem of children's starvation remains relevant and actual at the present time, as in the 21st century experts from the leading countries of the world coordinate their efforts to create programs aimed at eliminating extreme poverty and hunger of. At the same time, the analysis of obesity prevalence typical for the population of some countries of the world, indicates an increase in the number of obese people in both economically developed and developing countries. In this article we are talking about the common severe degree of abdominal obesity in people of older age groups, survivors in childhood, long periods of fasting. Studied 594 history and Protocol of autopsy of people in older age groups, born from 1927 to 1941 and the dead on the hospital for war veterans in St. Petersburg from 1989 to 2000. The whole array of documents was structured by sex, age, the fact of living in the blockaded Leningrad. Severe degree of obesity was considered to be exceeded more than 7 cm of thickness of deep abdominal subcutaneous layer of adipose tissue. It is well established that former young residents of the besieged Leningrad, regardless of gender, age, die sooner than men and women in the comparison groups; men who survived long periods of starvation in children, were dying earlier than men in the comparison group and earlier than women of the main group; women who have experienced a long period of starvation before the age of 11 years, often dying because of cardiovascular diseases than women in the corresponding subgroup comparisons; the emergence of pronounced obesity in older age-governmental groups from the former young residents of the blockaded Leningrad, determined by elk not only the fact of prolonged fasting, but child sex and age, which accounted for starvation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sanders ◽  
Karen Tindall ◽  
Alex Gyani ◽  
Susannah Hume ◽  
Min-Taec Kim ◽  
...  

Importance: Wearable devices are widely used in an effort to increase physical activity and consequently to improve health. The evidence for this is patchy, and it does not appear that wearables alone are sufficient to achieve this end.Objective: To determine whether social comparisons in a workplace setting can increase the effectiveness of wearables at promoting physical activity.Design: A four week randomized controlled trial conducted in November 2015 with employees of a large firm. Participants were randomised to one of two treatment conditions (control vs social comparison) at team level, and teams are formed into ‘leagues’ based on their activity levels before the study. Impact is measured through wearable devices issued to all participants throughout the study duration.Setting: Offices of a large Australian employer.Participants: 646 employees of an Australian employer, issued with wearable activity trackers prior to the beginning of the study. Intervention(s) (for clinical trials) or Exposure(s) (for observational studies). Participants used a wearable device to track steps. Participants had been wearing these for at least four weeks at the outset of the trial, establishing a baseline level of activity. Teams (n=646, k=49), were randomly assigned to either control (k=24), or a social comparison (k=25) treatment. All participants took part in a step-count competition between their team and others at their employer, in which their team’s ranking within a mini-league of five teams, as well as their own activity was communicated each week. The control group had access to the usual features of the wearable, while the social comparison group received additional information about the performance of the other teams in their league, including how far behind and ahead their nearest rival teams were.Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): Number of steps taken per day on average, measured by the wearable devices issued to all participants. Results: A total of 646 participants were included in the study. Compared to the control, participants in the social comparison group took significantly more steps per day during the trial period (an additional 620 steps, 8.2%, p<0.001). These effects are largest in both relative and absolute terms for people whose prior steps were in the bottom quartile of steps (an additional 948 steps, 40%, p<0.001), while the effect on people with highest levels of activity was a precisely estimated null (an additional 6 steps, 0.01%, p=0.98).Conclusions and Relevance: Social comparison increased the effectiveness of wearables at improving physical activity, particularly for those with the lowest baseline activity.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-489
Author(s):  
Leslie Corsa ◽  
Reuel A. Stallones

Inquiry was made into certain factors related or believed to be related to the occurrence of accidental poisoning of children by interviewing members of the families of 466 children reported as poison cases from the hospitals of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, California. Two other groups, one drawn from the birth certificate files, and one selected from families residing near the families of the poisoned children, were interviewed for comparison. The poison cases were similar in most respects to those reported previously in the literature. The risk of poisoning reached an abrupt peak at 29 months of age and was slightly higher for boys than for girls. Aspirin and other drugs were the offending materials in two-thirds of the cases. Mothers were responsible for the supervision of the poisoned child in over 80% of the events. The families of the poison case group and the comparison groups were more remarkable in their similarities than in their differences. Although they were similar in composition, the parents of the poisoned children were, on the average, 3 to 5 years younger than the parents of the comparison group families. The mothers of the poisoned children were 3 times as likely to have jobs outside the home as were the mothers in the comparison group. The families of the poison cases reported previous similar incidents involving their children more often than the families of the comparison groups. This study indicates to some degree the complexity of the factors that apparently influence the risk of childhood poisoning other than simply the availability and accessibility of toxic materials.


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