Reexamining the Economics of Marital Infidelity

This study utilizes data from the National Youth Survey to reevaluate key conclusions made by Fair (1978). While Fair (1978) used data collected from mail-in surveys, the National Youth Survey was collected using standard probability techniques. This paper also extends Fair (1978), by including an explicit variable for wage rate. While this study supports some of Fair's empirical findings, other estimates contradict Fair in several key ways. For example, this paper finds that the coefficients of occupation and education are both statistically significant but the signs are opposite to those in Fair (1978). An even more noteworthy contradiction is the negative relationship between years of marriage and infidelity; this suggests that marriage longevity is positively related to that of match quality of the relationship.extramarital affairs, marriage, wages, match quality

The influence of free-stream turbulence on separation of turbulent boundary layers in incompressible, two-dimensional flow

Experiments were conducted to determine if free-stream turbulence scale affects separation of turbulent boundary layers. In consideration of possible interrelation between scale and intensity of turbulence, the latter characteristic also was varied and its role was evaluated. Flow over a 2-dimensional airfoil in a subsonic wind tunnel was studied with the aid of hot-wire anemometry, liquid-film flow visualization, a Preston tube, and static pressure measurements. Profiles of velocity, relative turbulence intensity, and integral scale in the boundary layer were measured. Detachment boundary was determined for various angles of attack and free-stream turbulence. The free-stream turbulence intensity and scale were found to spread into the entire turbulent boundary layer, but the effect decreased as the airfoil surface was approached. When the changes in stream turbulence were such that the boundary layer velocity profiles were unchanged, detachment location was not significantly affected by the variations of intensity and scale. Pressure distribution remained the key factor in determining detachment location

Do more online instructional ratings lead to better prediction of instructor quality?

Online instructional ratings are taken by many with a grain of salt. This study analyzes the ability of said ratings to estimate the official (university-administered) instructional ratings of the same respective university instructors. Given self-selection among raters, we further test whether more online ratings of instructors lead to better prediction of official ratings in terms of both R-squared value and root mean squared error. We lastly test and correct for heteroskedastic error terms in the regression analysis to allow for the first robust estimations on the topic. Despite having a starkly different distribution of values, online ratings explain much of the variation in official ratings. This conclusion strengthens, and root mean squared error typically falls, as one considers regression subsets over which instructors have a larger number of online ratings. Though (public) online ratings do not mimic the results of (semi-private) official ratings, they provide a reliable source of information for predicting official ratings. There is strong evidence that this reliability increases in online rating usage. Accessed 6,372 times on https://pareonline.net from February 22, 2011 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right

Is Offense Worth More than Defense in the National Basketball Association?

Motivated by the popular sports saying, “Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships,” we use Forbes revenue data to quantify whether offense really does sell more ‘tickets’ than defense in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Employing team offensive and defensive win shares as measures of offensive and defensive proficiency, we find offensively oriented teams generate the same amount of revenue as do defensively oriented teams, other things equal. Our results suggest that both profit-maximizing and win-maximizing teams should value offensively and defensively players equivalently (per unit). Thus, in an efficient free agent market, we would expect equilibrium player salaries for offensive and defensive production to be statistically equal (per unit). Coupled with recent findings that NBA teams pay players significantly more for offensive production than for defensive production (Ehrlich, Sanders and Boudreaux 2019), our current results indicate the existence of disequilibrium in the NBA free agent market. In an additional test of fan preferences, we transform existing Forbes revenue data into pre-revenue sharing revenue estimates based on the NBA’s current pool plan. Econometric results based on pre-revenue sharing revenue data provide further evidence that fans do not prefer offense to defense

The Effect of Attendance on Home Field Advantage in the National Football League: A Natural Experiment

While economists have previously noted that home field advantage is affected by crowd density, isolating this effect is difficult since crowd size is likely endogenous with team ability and game matchup. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique natural experiment since local governments have introduced safety protocols that varies widely across the United States. These safety protocols have limited attendance in varying ways for live sporting events, including National Football League games. Given the differential (and exogenous) attendance restrictions, we were able to isolate three broad categories of attendance: 1) games without attendance restrictions (seasons 2016-2019), 2) games with limited in-person attendance, and 3) games without fans. We developed a model to predict the home team point differential, which allowed us to estimate home field advantage of these broad categories. We found that playing in partially full stadiums does not impact relative home team performance (compared to 2016-19 seasons). Conversely, we found that playing with no fans completely eliminates home field advantage. We also tested if fan density mattered in partial attendance game and found that attendance percentage does not statistically affect the home point differential. Hence, our results reveal that the presence of fans matters but the density of fans does not. Furthermore, we were able to compare these results with the ‘predictions’ offered by the betting market. We found that the betting market correctly predicted that games with partial attendance (due to social distancing) did not impact home field advantage in a statistically significant way and that home team performance would suffer in games played without attendance. Finally, we find evidence that the betting market exhibited a ‘learning effect’ since the market predicted an increasingly strong ‘no fan’ effect as the season progressed

Two contemporaneous mitogenomes from terminal Pleistocene burials in eastern Beringia

Pleistocene residential sites with multiple contemporaneous human burials are extremely rare in the Americas. We report mitochondrial genomic variation in the first multiple mitochondrial genomes from a single prehistoric population: two infant burials (USR1 and USR2) from a common interment at the Upward Sun River Site in central Alaska dating to ~11,500 calendar years before present (cal B.P.). Using a targeted capture method and next-generation sequencing we determined that the USR1 infant possessed variants that define mitochondrial lineage C1b, while the USR2 genome falls at the root of lineage B2, allowing us to refine younger coalescence age estimates for these two clades. C1b and B2 are rare to absent in modern populations of Northern North America. Documentation of these lineages at this location in the Late Pleistocene provides evidence for the extent of mitochondrial diversity in early Beringian populations, which supports the expectations of the Beringian Standstill Model

Effects of increasing stocking density on finishing pig performance

A total of 1,201 finishing pigs (initially 63 lb) were used in a 99-d growth trial to evaluate the effects of increasing stocking density on finishing pig growth performance. Single-sex pens of barrows and gilts were blocked to minimize variation due to gender and barn location. There were 12 pens per block with 3 replication pens per treatment within each block. Pens of pigs were randomly allotted to 1 of 4 treatments with 12 pens per treatment. Treatments were stocking pens with 22, 24, 26, or 28 pigs each, allowing 8.2, 7.5, 6.9, and 6.4 ft2 per pig, respectively. Pens of pigs were weighed and feed intake was determined on d 0, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, and 99 to calculate ADG, ADFI, and F/G. Pigs were fed common diets throughout the trial. No adjustments were made at the pen level to account for space increases because of removed pigs. Overall, as stocking density increased, ADG and ADFI decreased (linear; P \u3c 0.001), but there were no differences (linear; P = 0.99) in F/G. These performance differences resulted in off-test (d 99) pig weights decreasing (linear, P \u3c 0.001) as stocking density increased. These data indicate that in this commercial barn, finisher pig ADG and ADFI improved as the number of pigs in each pen was reduced. However, based on an economic model, income over feed and facility cost per pig placed was numerically optimized when pens were stocked with 24 pigs each, allowing 7.5 ft2 of floor space per pig.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 18, 201

Effects of increasing hominy feed in diets on finishing pig performance

A total of 1,035 finishing pigs (initially 79.4 lb) were used in an 84-d growth trial to evaluate the effects of increasing hominy feed on finishing pig growth performance. Pens of pigs were blocked by average initial pig BW and randomly allotted to 1 of 4 dietary treatments (10 pens per treatment) with initial weights balanced across the treatment groups. Treatments were increasing levels (0%, 12.5%, 25%, and 37.5%) of corn hominy feed added to a corn-soybean meal-based diet. All treatment diets were fed in 4 phases, and hominy feed inclusion was constant among phases. Increasing hominy feed resulted in a linear decrease (P 0.35) in F/G. The lower feed consumption and poorer growth performance resulted in pigs fed diets containing any level of hominy feed weighing less than pigs fed standard corn-soybean meal-based diets at the end of the trial. These data indicate that adding corn hominy feed as an alternative ingredient in swine diets is a viable option; however, a decrease in performance should be considered when deciding if it is cost-effective to include hominy feed in finishing diets

Electron microscopy as an emerging analytical tool for characterizing vaccines

Characterization of nanoparticles and biologics is a critical step in the development of important new pharmaceutical products and biosimilars. Biologics pose unique characterization challenges that require an interdisciplinary approach in which several orthogonal methods are used to provide a complete picture. The physical characteristics of a biological product include properties such as the size, shape, morphology and aggregation state of the particles. These properties are often dependent on the specific environment of the particles and thus ideally must be assessed under conditions that reflect the final formulation of the pharmaceutical. Electron microscopy (EM) and in particular cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM), has a unique advantage in that it provides a direct means of observing the individual particles in a sample, preserved in their natural hydrated state (cryoEM), simultaneously providing information on homogeneity, size distribution, titer, morphology, preservation state, flexibility, and aggregation state. For particles with a regular size and shape, particle averaging methods can provide 3D structural information, complementing X-ray crystallography analysis. We will demonstrate the use of EM as an analytical and structural characterization tool by presenting a number of case studies as highlights. Specifically, we will discuss the characterization of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) VLPs in GARDASIL®, including the structure of the VLPs alone, on adjuvants, and when interacting with neutralizing antibodies [1]. We will also show how TEM was used as a non-intrusive tool to understand the structure and function of Hepatitis B surface antigen (rHBsAg) VLPs, the active component in the HBV vaccine [2]. We will furthermore demonstrate how TEM can be used to provide supporting information for characterization of a biosimilar drug delivery nanoparticle, a recombinant tuberculosis vaccine antigen, interacting with a lipid-based adjuvant [3], and a bi-specific, tetravalent immunoglobulin G-like molecule [4]. References: [1] Zhao Q, et al. 2013. Characterization of virus-like particles in GARDASIL(R) by cryo transmission electron microscopy. Hum Vaccin Immunother.10:1-6. [2] Mulder AM, et al. 2012. Toolbox for non-intrusive structural and functional analysis of recombinant VLP based vaccines: a case study with hepatitis B vaccine. PLoS One 7:e33235. [3] Fox CB, et al. 2014. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy of recombinant tuberculosis vaccine antigen with anionic liposomes reveals formation of flattened liposomes. Int J Nanomedicine 9:1367-77. [4] Correia I, et al. 2013.The structure of dual-variable-domain immunoglobulin molecules alone and bound to antigen. MAbs. 5:364-72

Effects of piglet birth weight and litter size on the preweaning growth performance of pigs on a commercial farm

A total of 2,204 pigs (PIC 327 sired) were used to evaluate the effects of piglet birth weight and litter size on preweaning piglet performance. At a commercial sow farm, all pigs born alive for 22 consecutive days were identified individually at birth with a numbered ear tag. Each sow was assigned a body condition score (BCS; 1 = very thin to 5 = very fat), and the number of total born, live born, and born dead as well as the individual gender, birth weight, and identification of piglets were recorded within 18 h of parturition and before the movement of pigs to equalize litter size. During lactation, all pigs fostered, removed, or found dead were weighed, and the event was recorded. No litters were provided creep feed or supplements during lactation. Pigs were individually weighed and assigned a BCS (1 = emaciated, 2 = thin, or 3 = full-bodied) at weaning over 6 weaning days during a 19-d period, which resulted in a mean weaning age of 25 d. For data analysis, individual birth weight was used to assign pigs to 4 birth weight categories (≤ 2.3 lb, 2.4 to 3.3 lb, 3.4 to 4.3 lb, and ≥ 4.4 lb), and the number of total born in each pig’s litter of origin was used to assign pigs to 3 total born categories (≤ 11, 12 to 14, and ≥ 15). As expected, birth weight was greater (P \u3c 0.0001) for pigs of heavier birth weight categories. Pigs of heavier birth weight categories were associated (P \u3c 0.02) with a decreased number of total and live born. Also, preweaning ADG, weaning weight, weaning BCS, and preweaning mortality were improved (P \u3c 0.0001) for pigs of heavier birth weight categories. Birth weight decreased (P \u3c 0.04) for pigs of greater total born categories, and an increased sow BCS was associated (P \u3c 0.0001) with total born category ≥ 15. As expected, the litter total born, as well as live born and number born dead, increased (P \u3c 0.0001) with greater total born categories. Preweaning ADG (0.51, 0.50, and 0.50 lb/d, respectively) and weaning weight (16.3, 15.9, and 15.8 lb, respectively) were modestly improved (P \u3c 0.04) for pigs from the smallest total born category compared with the 2 larger categories. These data indicate that low-birth-weight pigs had poorer preweaning growth performance and survivability. Although larger litters resulted in a greater number of low-birth-weight pigs, the number of heavier pigs also increased. In addition to increasing litter size, maximizing reproductive and economic efficiency of swine requires identifying methods to improve birth weight and performance of the lightest pigs born.; Swine Day, Manhattan, KS, November 19, 200