Conflicts of Interest Distort Public Evaluations: Evidence from the Top 25 Ballots of NCAA Football Coaches

This paper provides a study on conflicts of interest among college football coaches participating in the USA Today Coaches Poll of top 25 teams. The Poll provides a unique empirical setting that overcomes many of the challenges inherent in conflict of interest studies, because many agents are evaluating the same thing, private incentives to distort evaluations are clearly defined and measurable, and there exists an alternative source of computer rankings that is bias free. Using individual coach ballots between 2005 and 2010, we find that coaches distort their rankings to reflect their own team's reputation and financial interests. On average, coaches rank teams from their own athletic conference nearly a full position more favorably and boost their own team's ranking more than two full positions. Coaches also rank teams they defeated more favorably, thereby making their own team look better. When it comes to ranking teams contending for one of the high-profile Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games, coaches favor those teams that generate higher financial payoffs for their own team. Reflecting the structure of payoff disbursements, coaches from non-BCS conferences band together, while those from BCS conferences more narrowly favor teams in their own conference. Among all coaches an additional payoff between $3.3 and$5 million induces a more favorable ranking of one position. Moreover, for each increase in a contending team's payoff equal to 10 percent of a coach's football budget, coaches respond with more favorable rankings of half a position, and this effect is more than twice as large when coaches rank teams outside the top 10.

When More is Better-Design Principles for Prediction Markets in Defense Acquisition Cost Forecasting

Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Progra

Quantification of voriconazole in plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A convenient liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the quantification of the triazole antifungal agent voriconazole in plasma samples is described. Fenbuconazole is used as an internal standard. After protein precipitation, automated solid-phase extraction is applied. Electrospray ionization in the positive mode is used and the following mass transitions are recorded: voriconazole, 350 -> 127; and fenbuconazol, 337 -> 125. The analytical run time is 4 min. The response was linear from 78 to 5000 mu g/L. The total coefficient of variation (n=16) was 12.6% for a low-concentration pool (143 mu g/L), 4.7% for a medium-concentration pool (419 mu g/L), and 5.0% for a high-concentration pool (4304 mu g/L). The method is proposed for future investigations that should be performed to test the hypothesis that therapeutic drug monitoring of voriconazole is clinically useful

Multicultural competency, training, and outreach and setting : a quantitative study with college counselors

This study looked at differences in multicultural competencies of college counselors by training, outreach, institutional setting, and demographic characteristics and their relationship to multicultural counseling competencies as measured by the Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale. Using a non-experimental cross-sectional design, this study gathered information from 77 college counselors responding to a web-based, self-report survey. The participants for this study were drawn from a non-probability sample of college counseling center staff currently employed at a college counseling center and currently providing counseling services to college or university students. The study found that training, outreach and certain institutional setting characteristics, such as offering multicultural training, counseling staff diversity, and offering counselors more contact with students of color, were related to higher levels of multicultural knowledge and skills in the sampled college counselors. The results support the provision of in-house multicultural competency training, counselor outreach activities to minority student groups, as well as the importance of hiring and retaining counselors of color. Research implications include the need for further research on outreach activities, ethnic identity in college counselors, updated measurement instruments, and more objective measures of outcomes and counselor\u27s multicultural competency

How Weapon Systems are Like Jelly Beans : Prediction Markets as an Information Aggregation Tool for Effective Project Management in Defense Acquisition Projects

Symposium Presentation (for Acquisition Research Program)Symposium PresentationAcquisition Research ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Conceitos matemáticos e interdisciplinaridade

Anais do II Seminário Seminário Estadual PIBID do Paraná: tecendo saberes / organizado por Dulcyene Maria Ribeiro e Catarina Costa Fernandes — Foz do Iguaçu: Unioeste; Unila, 2014A presente pesquisa, realizada no ciclo I do ensino fundamental de uma Escola Municipal de Curitiba, teve por objetivo analisar a construção de ideias matemáticas em um contexto interdisciplinar na educação básica. Como metodologia foi utilizada a fenomenologia, integrada à hermenêutica como técnica de interpretação. A partir das observações in loco, constatou-se que os estudantes necessitam desenvolver as noções de conceitos matemáticos e aplicar estratégias pedagógicas interdisciplinares que os levem à compreensão dos conteúdos matemáticos. Todavia, o estudo deixou evidente que a interdisciplinaridade é ainda um desafio, não só para o estudante como também para o docente. Assim, é fundamental formar um pedagogo, com saberes fundamentais para ser professor e atuar no espaço escolar, portanto participativo e ético em suas ações para superar essa e outras dificuldade

Antimicrobial treatment challenges in the era of carbapenem resistance

Infections due to carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria are burdened by high mortality and represent an urgent threat to address. Clinicians are currently at a dawn of a new era in which antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacilli is being dealt with by the availability of the first new antibiotics in this field for many years. Although new antibiotics have shown promising results in clinical trials, there is still uncertainty over whether their use will improve clinical outcomes in real world practice. Some observational studies have reported a survival benefit in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae bloodstream infections using combination therapy, often including “old” antibiotics such as colistin, aminoglycosides, tigecycline, and carbapenems. These regimens, however, are linked to increased risk of antimicrobial resistance, and their efficacy has yet to be compared to new antimicrobial options. While awaiting more definitive evidence, antibiotic stewards need clear direction on how to optimize the use of old and novel antibiotic options. Furthermore, carbapenem-sparing regimens should be carefully considered as a potential tool to reduce selective antimicrobial pressure