Gambling in Great Britain:a response to Rogers

A recent issue of Practice: Social Work in Action featured a paper by Rogers that examined whether the issue of problem gambling was a suitable case for social work. Rogers’ overview was (in various places) out of date, highly selective, contradictory, presented unsupported claims and somewhat misleading. Rogers’ paper is to be commended for putting the issue of problem gambling on the social work agenda. However, social workers need up-to-date information and contextually situated information if they are to make informed decisions in helping problem gamblers

A study of superstitious beliefs among bingo players

This study was conducted in order to examine the beliefs players have regarding superstition and luck and how these beliefs are related to their gambling behaviour. A self-completion questionnaire was devised and the study was carried out in a large bingo hall in Nottingham, over four nights. 412 “volunteer” bingo players completed the questionnaires. Significant relationships were found in many areas. Many players reported beliefs in luck and superstition; however, a greater percentage of players reported having “everyday” superstitious beliefs, rather than those concerned with bingo

A cross-genre study of online gaming: player demographics, motivation for play, and social interactions among players

One key limitation with the contemporary online gaming research literature is that much of the published research has tended to examine only one genre of games (i.e., Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). Three relatively little studied online games are First Person Shooter (FPS) Games, Role Play Games (RPG) and Real Time Strategy (RTS) Games. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine player behaviour and characteristics in these three different online gaming genres. More specifically, the study examined the differences between the three different game genres in terms of: (i) the demographic profile, (ii) the social interactions of players including the number and quality of friends, and how gaming related to real life friendship, and (iii) motivations to play games. The sample comprised 353 self-selected players (156 who played FPS, 119 who played RPG and 78 who played RTS). The RPG genre had the highest percentage of female players. The number of hours played per week varied significantly between the genres. RPG players played significantly longer hours than FPS or RTS players. In relation to playing motivation, achievement levels were highest for the FPS genre with RPG genre having the lowest achievement levels RPG players had the highest immersion levels. RTS players were significantly less likely to report having made friends than players of the other two genres

The role of structural characteristics in video-game play motivation: a Q-methodology study

Until recently, there has been very little naturalistic study of what gaming experiences are like, and how gaming fits into people’s lives. Using a recently developed structural characteristic taxonomy of video games, this study examined the psycho-structural elements of computer games that motivate gamers to play them. Using Q-Sort methodology, 40 gamers participated in an online Q-sort task. Results identified six distinct types of gamers based on the factors generated: (a) story-driven solo gamers; (b) social gamers; (c) solo limited gamers; (d) hardcore online gamers; (e) solo control=identity gamers; and (f ) casual gamers. These gaming types are discussed, and a brief evaluation of similar and unique elements of the different types of gamer is also offered. The current study shows Q-methodology to be a relevant and applicable method in the psychological research of gaming

Studying the Perturbative Reggeon

We consider the flavour non-singlet Reggeon within the context of perturbative QCD. This consists of ladders built out of ``reggeized'' quarks. We propose a method for the numerical solution of the integro-differential equation for the amplitude describing the exchange of such a Reggeon. The solution is known to have a sharp rise at low values of Bjorken-x when applied to non-singlet quantities in deep-inelastic scattering. We show that when the running of the coupling is taken into account this sharp rise is further enhanced, although the Q^2 dependence is suppressed by the introduction of the running coupling. We also investigate the effects of simulating non-perturbative physics by introducing a constituent mass for the soft quarks and an effective mass for the soft gluons exchanged in the t-channel.Comment: LaTeX, 21 pages, 16 figure

Analysis of a Three Phase Induction Motor Directly from Maxwell's Equations

The torque developed in a three phase AC squirrel cage motor is usually expressed in terms of resistances and reactances of the stator, the rotor, and the motor as a whole. We use Maxwell's equations to find the torque in terms of geometrical parameters. This allows us to estimate the torque developed by a motor without knowing the details of its circuitry

Estimating Lorenz Curves Using a Dirichlet Distribution.

The Lorenz curve relates the cumulative proportion of income to the cumulative proportion of population. When a particular functional form of the Lorenz curve is specified it is typically estimated by linear or nonlinear least squares, estimation techniques that have good properties when the error terms are independently and normally distributed. Observations on cumulative proportions are clearly neither independent nor normally distributed. This paper proposes and applies a new methodology that recognises the cumulative proportional nature of the Lorenz curve data by assuming that the income proportions are distributed as a Dirichlet distribution. Five Lorenz-curve specifications are used to demonstrate the technique. Maximum likelihood estimates under the Dirichlet distribution assumption provide better-fitting Lorenz curves than nonlinear least squares and another estimation technique that has appeared in the literature.Gini coefficient; maximum likelihood estimation

On Calculation of the Extended Gini Coefficient.

The conventional formula for estimating the extended Gini coefficient is a covariance formula provided by Lerman and Yitzhaki (1989). We suggest an alternative estimator obtained by approximating the Lorenz curve by a series of linear segments. In a Monte Carlo experiment designed to assess the relative bias and efficiency of the two estimators, we find that, when using grouped data with 20 or less groups, our new estimator has less bias and lower mean squared error than the covariance estimator. When individual observations are used, or the number of groups is 30 or more, there is little or no difference in the performance of the two estimators.ESTIMATORS ; COEFFICIENTS ; EFFICIENCY

From adolescent to adult gambling: an analysis of longitudinal gambling patterns in South Australia [forthcoming]

Although there are many cross-sectional studies of adolescent gambling, very few longitudinal investigations have been undertaken. As a result, little is known about the individual stability of gambling behaviour and the extent to which behaviour measured during adolescence is related to adult behaviour. In this paper, we report the results of a 4-wave longitudinal investigation of gambling behaviour in a probability sample of 256 young people (50% male, 50% female) who were interviewed in 2005 at the age of 16-18 years and then followed through to the age of 20-21 years. The results indicated that young people showed little stability in their gambling. Relatively few reported gambling on the same individual activities consistently over time. Gambling participation rates increased rapidly as young people made the transition from adolescence to adulthood and then were generally more stable. Gambling at 15-16 years was generally not associated with gambling at age 20-21 years. These results highlight the importance of individual-level analyses when examining gambling patterns over time

The surface-tension-driven evolution of a two-dimensional annular viscous tube

We consider the evolution of an annular two-dimensional region occupied by viscous fluid driven by surface tension and applied pressure at the free surfaces. We assume that the thickness of the domain is small compared with its circumference so that it may be described as a thin viscous sheet whose ends are joined to form a closed loop. Analytical and numerical solutions of the resulting model are obtained and we show that it is well posed whether run forwards or backwards in time. This enables us to determine, in many cases explicitly, which initial shapes will evolve into a desired final shape. We also show how the application of an internal pressure may be used to control the evolution. This work is motivated by the production of non-axisymmetric capillary tubing via the Vello process. Molten glass is fed through a die and drawn off vertically, while the shape of the cross-section evolves under surface tension and any applied pressure as it flows downstream. Here the goal is to determine the die shape required to achieve a given desired final shape, typically square or rectangular. We conclude by discussing the role of our two-dimensional model in describing the three-dimensional tube-drawing process