The relationship between payroll and performance disparity in major league baseball: an alternative measure

This paper introduces an alternative method of measuring competitive balance in major league baseball and employs it to assess both payroll (talent) disparity and performance (wins) disparity for 30 selected years between 1929 and 2002. Attention is devoted to the impact of two critical events in the evolution of the game: the influx of non-white players and the advent of free agency. The joint effect of these events was to increase payroll disparity while simultaneously reducing performance disparity. A single equation regression model found the effect of payroll disparity on wins disparity in the post free agency period to be positive and significant. The increasing disparity in payrolls since the mid 1990s, particularly in the American League, suggests that the luxury tax has been ineffectual and that greater performance disparity can be expected in the near future.

Assessing alternative competitive balance measures for sports leagues: a theoretical examination of standard deviations, gini coefficients, & the index of dissimilarity

This note provides a theoretical analysis of the use of standard deviations, Gini coefficients, and the Index of Dissimilarity to assess competitive balance in sports leagues. Limitations are identified for all three techniques. Each of these techniques is found to be affected by the introduction of more teams, unbalanced schedules, and inter-league play.

The adjusted churn: an index of competitive balance for sports leagues based on changes in team standings over time

This paper introduces an index called the adjusted churn, designed to measure competitive balance in sports leagues based on changes in team standings over time. This is a simple yet powerful index that varies between zero and one. A value of zero indicates no change in league standings from year to year and therefore minimal competitive balance. A value of one indicates the maximum possible turnover in league standings from year to year and therefore a high level of competitive balance. Application of this index to Major League Baseball suggests that there has been a significant decline in competitive balance in MLB since the 1990s with the most severe decline occurring in the American League. This index also indicates minimal competitive balance for the American League Eastern Division of MLB from 1998 to 2003

The factors affecting team performance in the NFL: does off-field conduct matter?

This paper contains a statistical analysis of the factors that contribute to team wins in the NFL. The variables examined are divided into offensive, defensive, and special teams categories. In addition, net turnovers, penalties, and off-field conduct, as measured by team arrests, are also included as independent variables. The results show that the quarterback rating has the largest impact on team wins followed by field goal percentage, opponent's passing yards per game, and opponent''s rushing yards per game. Team arrests were not found to have a statistically significant impact on team performance.

Benzodiazepine Boom: Tracking Etizolam, Pyrazolam, and Flubromazepam from Pre-UK Psychoactive Act 2016 to Present Using Analytical and Social Listening Techniques

© 2024 The Author(s). Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Introduction: The designer benzodiazepine (DBZD) market continues to expand whilst evading regulatory controls. The widespread adoption of social media by pro-drug use communities encourages positive discussions around DBZD use/misuse, driving demand. This research addresses the evolution of three popular DBZDs, etizolam (E), flubromazepam (F), and pyrazolam (P), available on the drug market for over a decade, comparing the quantitative chemical analyses of tablet samples, purchased from the internet prior to the implementation of the Psychoactive Substances Act UK 2016, with the thematic netnographic analyses of social media content. Method: Drug samples were purchased from the internet in early 2016. The characterisation of all drug batches were performed using UHPLC-MS and supported with 1H NMR. In addition, netnographic studies across the platforms X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit, between 2016–2023, were conducted. The latter was supported by both manual and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven thematic analyses, using numerous.ai and ChatGPT, of social media threads and discussions. Results: UHPLC-MS confirmed the expected drug in every sample, showing remarkable inter/intra batch variability across all batches (E = 13.8 ± 0.6 to 24.7 ± 0.9 mg; F = 4.0 ± 0.2 to 23.5 ± 0.8 mg; P = 5.2 ± 0.2 to 11.5 ± 0.4 mg). 1H NMR could not confirm etizolam as a lone compound in any etizolam batch. Thematic analyses showed etizolam dominated social media discussions (59% of all posts), with 24.2% of posts involving sale/purchase and 17.8% detailing new administration trends/poly-drug use scenarios. Artificial intelligence confirmed three of the top five trends identified manually. Conclusions: Purity variability identified across all tested samples emphasises the increased potential health risks associated with DBZD consumption. We propose the global DBZD market is exacerbated by surface web social media discussions, recorded across X and Reddit. Despite the appearance of newer analogues, these three DBZDs remain prevalent and popularised. Reporting themes on harm/effects and new developments in poly-drug use trends, demand for DBZDs continues to grow, despite their potent nature and potential risk to life. It is proposed that greater controls and constant live monitoring of social media user content is warranted to drive active regulation strategies and targeted, effective, harm reduction strategies.Peer reviewe

Casino Gambling as an Economic Development Strategy

: Casino gambling has experienced dramatic growth in the USA during the past seven years. Because this growth has occurred recently, there have been few systematic studies of its effects. This paper uses quasi-experimental control group methods to study 68 counties where casinos were opened during the period 1989-93 and three multi-casino counties. Results show that casino gambling is adopted by economically struggling counties and that it can be a successful development strategy. The effects trickle down to other sectors of the economy, including recipients of income maintenance payments. On the downside, local governments and local workers do not appear to reap the lion's share of benefits, as much of the income generated by casinos is dissipated through leakages outside the host county. Finally, some casino types and locations are marginally better than others, but currently these factors are not prominent determinants of casino effects. Acknowledgements: This research was supporte..

Draft Genome Sequences of Klebsiella pneumoniae Strains Isolated from Immunocompromised NOD-scid Gamma Research Mice

Thirteen Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates cultured from feces, intestines, liver, lungs, and blood from immunocompromised NOD-scid gamma (NSG) mice with clinical illness, housed at a biomedical research institute, were sequenced using Illumina MiSeq technology for elucidation of pathogenic potential and genes encoding antibiotic resistance