Selection of Statistical Software for Solving Big Data Problems: A Guide for Businesses, Students, and Universities

The need for analysts with expertise in big data software is becoming more apparent in today’s society. Unfortunately, the demand for these analysts far exceeds the number available. A potential way to combat this shortage is to identify the software taught in colleges or universities. This article will examine four data analysis software—Excel add-ins, SPSS, SAS, and R—and we will outline the cost, training, and statistical methods/tests/uses for each of these software. It will further explain implications for universities and future students

Did bankruptcy reform cause mortgage default rates to rise?

This paper argues that the U.S. bankruptcy reform of 2005 played an important role in the mortgage crisis and the current recession. When debtors file for bankruptcy, credit card debt and other types of debt are discharged - thus loosening debtors' budget constraints. Homeowners in financial distress can therefore use bankruptcy to avoid losing their homes, since filing allows them to shift funds from paying other debts to paying their mortgages. But a major reform of U.S. bankruptcy law in 2005 raised the cost of filing and reduced the amount of debt that is discharged. The authors argue that an unintended consequence of the reform was to cause mortgage default rates to rise. Using a large dataset of individual mortgages, they estimate a hazard model to test whether the 2005 bankruptcy reform caused mortgage default rates to rise. Their major result is that prime and subprime mortgage default rates rose by 14 percent and 16 percent, respectively, after bankruptcy reform. The authors also use difference-in-difference to examine the effects of three provisions of bankruptcy reform that particularly harmed homeowners with high incomes and/or high assets and find that the default rates of affected homeowners rose even more. Overall, they calculate that bankruptcy reform caused the number of mortgage defaults to increase by around 200,000 per year even before the start of the financial crisis, suggesting that the reform increased the severity of the crisis when it came.Bankruptcy ; Law and legislation ; Foreclosure ; Default (Finance) ; Mortgage loans ; Global financial crisis

A 2-Question Summative Score Correlates with the Maslach Burnout Inventory

Introduction: There is a high prevalence of burnout among emergency medicine (EM) residents. The Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) is a widely used tool to measure burnout. The objective of this study was to compare the MBI-HSS and a two-question tool to determine burnout in the EM resident population.Methods: Based on data from the 2017 National Emergency Medicine Resident Wellness Survey study, we determined the correlation between two single-item questions with their respective MBI subscales and the full MBI-HSS. We then compared a 2-Question Summative Score to the full MBI-HSS with respect to primary, more restrictive, and more inclusive definitions of burnout previously reported in the literature.Results: Of 1,522 residents who completed the survey 37.0% reported “I feel burned out from my work,” and 47.1% reported “I have become more callous toward people since I took this job” once a week or more (each item >3 on a scale of 0-6). A 2-Question Summative Score totaling >3 correlated most closely with the primary definition of burnout (Spearman’s rho 0.65 [95% confidence interval 0.62-0.68]). Using the summative score, 77.7% of residents were identified as burned out, compared to 76.1% using the full MBI-HSS, with a sensitivity and specificity of 93.6% and 73.0%, respectively.Conclusion: An abbreviated 2-Question Summative Score correlates well with the full MBI-HSS tool in assessing EM resident physician burnout and could be considered a rapid screening tool to identify at-risk residents experiencing burnout

The Impact of DISC in Construction Dialogue

Personality tests look to categorize individuals based on their values, identity, psychological traits, and/or perspectives. The DISC (dominance, influential, steady, complaint) assessment is one of the major personality tests. Multiple industries like healthcare and sales have utilized DISC to foster better overall communication from work relations and positive success. Construction management (CM) is a similar industry with heavy emphasis on influence and focus. Utilizing DISC in the construction industry can achieve similar effects to the healthcare and sales industry. To analyze the potential effectiveness of DISC in the construction industry, a survey was distributed to one class of CM majors roleplaying three scenarios common in the industry. This survey will be taken before the two-hour class discussion about DISC along with the actual DISC personality test. The survey would be revisited after and re-answered now with the new knowledge of the DISC discussion along with a three-question reflection analyzing their perceived effectiveness and helpfulness of the DISC personality. Overall, most of the survey group perceived DISC as a helpful tool in navigating CM scenarios and would be a potential tool used in the future. The adoption of DISC in construction can foster better work environments, working relationships, and effective leadership

TurnUp: The Youth Activism App

TurnUp is an organization that focuses on empowering and connecting young activists through their training program and social networking application. Throughout my internship, I contributed to TurnUp as a general intern as well as a co-team leader. I performed weekly tasks exploring the impact of various topics on young people, engaging in grassroots activism, and working with my team members. The objective of my business project was to work with a curriculum presented to TurnUp by YouthQuake, an organization dedicated to educating students through an action civics program. I was tasked with matching and adapting the YouthQuake curriculum to suit the TurnUp training program and TurnUp’s mission and values. I analyzed the YouthQuake curriculum, gauged suitability to the TurnUp training program, and developed task sheets for future implementation. Finally, I surveyed the TurnUp community to gain a general response to the adapted curriculum. Based on the feedback from the TurnUp community, those surveyed found the proposed curriculum to be engaging and have value. Feedback responses also included general comments and suggestions for boosting engagement, improving clarity and organization, and possible concerns. Throughout my internship, I developed a deeper understanding of TurnUp and learned how to create an effective and engaging activism-related curriculum.https://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/intern_reports_2021/1002/thumbnail.jp