Strike Three: Umpires' Demand for Discrimination

We explore umpires' racial/ethnic preferences in the evaluation of Major League Baseball pitchers. Controlling for umpire, pitcher, batter and catcher fixed effects and many other factors, strikes are more likely to be called if the umpire and pitcher match race/ethnicity. This effect only exists where there is little scrutiny of umpires' behavior -- in ballparks without computerized systems monitoring umpires' calls, at poorly attended games, and when the called pitch cannot determine the outcome of the at-bat. If a pitcher shares the home-plate umpire's race/ethnicity, he gives up fewer runs per game and improves his team's chance of winning. The results suggest that standard measures of salary discrimination that adjust for measured productivity may generally be flawed. We derive the magnitude of the bias generally and apply it to several examples.

Strike Three: Umpires' Demand for Discrimination

We explore how umpires' racial/ethnic preferences are expressed in their evaluation of Major League Baseball pitchers. Controlling for umpire, pitcher, batter and catcher fixed effects and many other factors, strikes are more likely to be called if the umpire and pitcher match race/ethnicity. This effect only exists where there is little scrutiny of umpires' behavior – in ballparks without computerized systems monitoring umpires' calls, at poorly attended games, and when the called pitch cannot determine the outcome of the at-bat. If a pitcher shares the home-plate umpire's race/ethnicity, he gives up fewer hits, strikes out more batters, and improves his team's chance of winning. The general implication is that standard measures of salary discrimination that adjust for measured productivity may be flawed. We derive the magnitude of the bias generally and apply it to several examples.strategic interactions, worker evaluation, wage equations, economics of sports

Forthcoming Publications - A

This research introduces a unique multiple choice exam design to observe and measure the degree to which students copy answers from their peers. Using data collected from the exam, an empirical experiment is conducted to determine whether random seat assignment deters cheating relative to a control group of students allowed to choose their seats. Empirical results demonstrate a significant decline in measured cheating within the assigned seating sample. This study contributes to the literature by providing a measurement of actual cheating frequency among students, as opposed to relying on reported cheating in anonymous surveys, and by demonstrating that an easily implemented deterrent can significantly reduce instances of cheating

Columbia River Basin Water Law Institutions and Policies Survey: Report to the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission

Report to the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commissio

Deriving Multiple Benefits from Carbon Market-Based Savanna Fire Management: An Australian Example

Carbon markets afford potentially useful opportunities for supporting socially and environmentally sustainable land management programs but, to date, have been little applied in globally significant fire-prone savanna settings. While fire is intrinsic to regulating the composition, structure and dynamics of savanna systems, in north Australian savannas frequent and extensive late dry season wildfires incur significant environmental, production and social impacts. Here we assess the potential of market-based savanna burning greenhouse gas emissions abatement and allied carbon biosequestration projects to deliver compatible environmental and broader socio-economic benefits in a highly biodiverse north Australian setting.Drawing on extensive regional ecological knowledge of fire regime effects on fire-vulnerable taxa and communities, we compare three fire regime metrics (seasonal fire frequency, proportion of long-unburnt vegetation, fire patch-size distribution) over a 15-year period for three national parks with an indigenously (Aboriginal) owned and managed market-based emissions abatement enterprise. Our assessment indicates improved fire management outcomes under the emissions abatement program, and mostly little change or declining outcomes on the parks. We attribute improved outcomes and putative biodiversity benefits under the abatement program to enhanced strategic management made possible by the market-based mitigation arrangement.For these same sites we estimate quanta of carbon credits that could be delivered under realistic enhanced fire management practice, using currently available and developing accredited Australian savanna burning accounting methods. We conclude that, in appropriate situations, market-based savanna burning activities can provide transformative climate change mitigation, ecosystem health, and community benefits in northern Australia, and, despite significant challenges, potentially in other fire-prone savanna settings

Clinicians' Understanding of Preferences and Values of People with Hematological Malignancies at the End of Life: Concurrent Surveys

Background: People with hematological malignancies can deteriorate rapidly to a terminal event and have variable levels of engagement when transitioning to palliative and end-of-life care. Objectives: To describe end-of-life care values and preferences of people with hematological malignancies and explore whether these align with hematology clinicians' perceptions. Design: Two matched anonymous quantitative cross-sectional surveys explored: (1) patients' values and preferences around manner and timing of discussions regarding life expectancy and prognosis, involvement in decision making, and concurrent integration of palliative care with active treatment; and (2) clinicians' perceptions of their patients' values and preferences in relation to prognostic information. Settings/Participants: Concurrent online national surveys of people with hematological malignancies known to the Leukemia Foundation of Australia, and clinicians in Australia with membership to the Hematology Society of Australia and New Zealand. Results: Five hundred nine (38% response rate) patients (median age 64 [min 20, max 89, interquartile range 56-70]) and 272 clinicians (21% response rate) responded to the survey. If their health was deteriorating, most patients wanted honest prognostic and life expectancy information (87%); welcomed involvement in decision making (94%); felt they would be comfortable talking to the treating team about the possibility of death (86%); and would be comfortable seeing someone from a specialist palliative care team (74%). Clinicians generally underestimated most of these responses. Conclusion: Although our findings indicate that most people believe they would be comfortable discussing prognosis, life expectancy, and wishes at the end of life, clinicians were largely unaware of their preferences. This highlights the need to embed values clarification in routine care for each patient and family.</p

Reconstruction of the yeast Snf1 kinase regulatory network reveals its role as a global energy regulator

Highly conserved among eukaryotic cells, the AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) is a central regulator of carbon metabolism. To map the complete network of interactions around AMPK in yeast (Snf1) and to evaluate the role of its regulatory subunit Snf4, we measured global mRNA, protein and metabolite levels in wild type, Δsnf1, Δsnf4, and Δsnf1Δsnf4 knockout strains. Using four newly developed computational tools, including novel DOGMA sub-network analysis, we showed the benefits of three-level ome-data integration to uncover the global Snf1 kinase role in yeast. We for the first time identified Snf1's global regulation on gene and protein expression levels, and showed that yeast Snf1 has a far more extensive function in controlling energy metabolism than reported earlier. Additionally, we identified complementary roles of Snf1 and Snf4. Similar to the function of AMPK in humans, our findings showed that Snf1 is a low-energy checkpoint and that yeast can be used more extensively as a model system for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the global regulation of AMPK in mammals, failure of which leads to metabolic diseases

Signing While Driving: An Investigation of Divided Attention Resources Among Deaf Drivers

Safely operating vehicles require significant visual attention. While attention can be divided, cognitive resources are not limitless. Deaf and hearing participants engaged in a simulated driving task while simultaneously engaging in a conversation in their preferred language. Results indicated that hearing drivers may have a performance advantage over deaf drivers, though it is so minor that it will not likely be seen outside of the laboratory setting. The results also indicated differing cognitive processing among hearing and deaf drivers. The results may inform policy, reduce stigma, and serve as the base for future research on deaf-specific cognitive factors of driving

The effects of a combination of ion channel inhibitors in female rats following repeated mild traumatic brain injury

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), the ionic homeostasis of the central nervous system (CNS) becomes imbalanced. Excess Ca2+ influx into cells triggers molecular cascades, which result in detrimental effects. The authors assessed the effects of a combination of ion channel inhibitors (ICI) following repeated mTBI (rmTBI). Adult female rats were subjected to two rmTBI weight-drop injuries 24 h apart, sham procedures (sham), or no procedures (normal). Lomerizine, which inhibits voltage-gated calcium channels, was administered orally twice daily, whereas YM872 and Brilliant Blue G, inhibiting a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) and P2X7 receptors, respectively, were delivered intraperitoneally every 48 h post-injury. Vehicle treatment controls were included for rmTBI, sham, and normal groups. At 11 days following rmTBI, there was a significant increase in the time taken to cross the 3 cm beam, as a sub-analysis of neurological severity score (NSS) assessments, compared with the normal control (p &lt; 0.05), and a significant decrease in learning-associated improvement in rmTBI in Morris water maze (MWM) trials relative to the sham (p &lt; 0.05). ICI-treated rmTBI animals were not different to sham, normal controls, or rmTBI treated with vehicle in all neurological severity score and Morris water maze assessments (p &gt; 0.05). rmTBI resulted in increases in microglial cell density, antioxidant responses (manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) immunoreactivity), and alterations to node of Ranvier structure. ICI treatment decreased microglial density, MnSOD immunoreactivity, and abnormalities of the node of Ranvier compared with vehicle controls (p &lt; 0.01). The authors’ findings demonstrate the beneficial effects of the combinatorial ICI treatment on day 11 post-rmTBI, suggesting an attractive therapeutic strategy against the damage induced by excess Ca2+ following rmTBI

The Water Vapor Abundance in Orion KL Outflows

We present the detection and modeling of more than 70 far-IR pure rotational lines of water vapor, including the 18O and 17O isotopologues, towards Orion KL. Observations were performed with the Long Wavelength Spectrometer Fabry-Perot (LWS/FP; R~6800-9700) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) between ~43 and ~197 um. The water line profiles evolve from P-Cygni type profiles (even for the H2O18 lines) to pure emission at wavelengths above ~100 um. We find that most of the water emission/absorption arises from an extended flow of gas expanding at 25+-5 kms^-1. Non-local radiative transfer models show that much of the water excitation and line profile formation is driven by the dust continuum emission. The derived beam averaged water abundance is 2-3x10^-5. The inferred gas temperature Tk=80-100 K suggests that: (i) water could have been formed in the "plateau" by gas phase neutral-neutral reactions with activation barriers if the gas was previously heated (e.g. by shocks) to >500 K and/or (ii) H2O formation in the outflow is dominated by in-situ evaporation of grain water-ice mantles and/or (iii) H2O was formed in the innermost and warmer regions (e.g. the hot core) and was swept up in ~1000 yr, the dynamical timescale of the outflow.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ letters [2006 August 7] (5 pages 2, figures, not edited