Union members are more likely to give to charity, and to give more when they do

While union membership has benefits to workers themselves, could these benefits have spill over effects that are also a boon to society? Jonathan Booth and Mark Williams look at the effects that union membership has on charitable giving, and find that being a union member makes people 5 percent more likely to give to charity, and also to give 30 percent more than non-union members. These findings, they argue, may have important implications for society in a time of declining union membership

Genealogy of today\u27s contributors to accounting research

This paper explores the intellectual roots of some of today\u27s major contributors to accounting research. Specifically, twenty-four present-day contributors were identified through their publication records and editorial service. For each of these contributors, the dissertation chairman was identified and assumed to be the primary mentor; in turn, dissertation chairmen for these individuals were also identified. Several iterations of this process produced four generations of accounting genealogy. The intellectual roots depicted in this paper highlight noteworthy linkages with members of the Accounting Hall of Fame, recipients of the Outstanding Educators Award, and with education in the discipline of economics

LAND APPLICATION OF SWINE WASTE: REGULATION AND PRODUCER PRACTICES IN OKLAHOMA

Livestock Production/Industries,

Does a monetary incentive improve the response to a postal questionnaire in a randomised controlled trial? : the MINT incentive study

Background: Sending a monetary incentive with postal questionnaires has been found to improve the proportion of responders, in research in non-healthcare settings. However, there is little research on use of incentives to improve follow-up rates in clinical trials, and existing studies are inconclusive. We conducted a randomised trial among participants in the Managing Injuries of the Neck Trial (MINT) to investigate the effects on the proportion of questionnaires returned and overall non-response of sending a £5 gift voucher with a follow-up questionnaire. Methods: Participants in MINT were randomised to receive either: (a) a £5 gift voucher (incentive group) or (b) no gift voucher (no incentive group), with their 4 month or 8 month follow-up questionnaire. We recorded, for each group, the number of questionnaires returned, the number returned without any chasing from the study office, the overall number of non-responders (after all chasing efforts by the study office), and the costs of following up each group. Results: 2144 participants were randomised, 1070 to the incentive group and 1074 to the no incentive group. The proportion of questionnaires returned (RR 1.10 (95% CI 1.05, 1.16)) and the proportion returned without chasing (RR 1.14 (95% CI 1.05, 1.24) were higher in the incentive group, and the overall non-response rate was lower (RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.53, 0.87)). Adjustment for injury severity and hospital of recruitment to MINT made no difference to these results, and there were no differences in results between the 4-month and 8-month follow up questionnaires. Analysis of costs suggested a cost of £67.29 per additional questionnaire returned. Conclusion: Monetary incentives may be an effective way to increase the proportion of postal questionnaires returned and minimise loss to follow-up in clinical trials

Late Light Curves of Normal Type Ia Supernovae

We present late-epoch optical photometry (BVRI) of seven normal/super-luminous Type Ia supernovae: SN 2000E, SN 2000ce, SN 2000cx, SN 2001C, SN 2001V, SN 2001bg, SN 2001dp. The photometry of these objects was obtained using a template subtraction method to eliminate galaxy light contamination during aperture photometry. We show the optical light curves of these supernovae out to epochs of up to ~640 days after the explosion of the supernova. We show a linear decline in these data during the epoch of 200-500 days after explosion with the decline rate in the B,V,& R bands equal to about 1.4 mag/100 days, but the decline rate of the I-band is much shallower at 0.94 mag/100 days.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Current utility of the ankle-brachial index (ABI) in general practice: implications for its use in cardiovascular disease screening

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a marker of systemic atherosclerosis and associated with a three to six fold increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes. Furthermore, it is typically asymptomatic and under-diagnosed; this has resulted in escalating calls for the instigation of Primary Care PAD screening via Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) measurement. However, there is limited evidence regarding the feasibility of this and if the requisite core skills and knowledge for such a task already exist within primary care. This study aimed to determine the current utility of ABI measurement in general practices across Wales, with consideration of the implications for its use as a cardiovascular risk screening tool