Impact of Home Field Advantage: Analyzed Across Three Professional Sports

We examined the impact of home-field advantage in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. We defined home-field advantage as winning more than 50% of the home games. Additionally, we took into consideration how season length could act as a moderator and influence the impact of home-field advantage. We collected data from the 2015 NBA and MLB seasons and the 2015 and 2016 NFL seasons to determine statistical significance. In total, we got data from 4,141 games to analyze. We found that there is statistical significance that the home team has a better chance of winning than the away team across the NFL, NBA, and MLB. We also found that season length has a significant impact on home team winning percentage

The New Politics of US Health Care Prices: Institutional Reconfiguration and the Emergence of All-Payer Claims Databases

Prices are a significant driver of health care cost in the United States. Existing research on the politics of health system reform has emphasized the limited nature of policy entrepreneurs’ efforts at solving the problem of rising prices through direct regulation at the state level. Yet this literature fails to account for how change agents in the states gradually reconfigured the politics of prices, forging new, transparency-based policy instruments called all-payer claims databases (APCDs), which are designed to empower consumers, purchasers, and states to make informed market and policy choices. Drawing on pragmatist institutional theory, this article shows how APCDs emerged as the dominant model for reforming health care prices. While APCD advocates faced significant institutional barriers to policy change, we show how they reconfigured existing ideas, tactical repertoires, and legal-technical infrastructures to develop a politically and technologically robust reform. Our analysis has important implications for theories of how change agents overcome structural barriers to health reform

School Social Work: Now More Than Ever

We are excited to publish our 5th volume of the International Journal of School Social Work, marking five continuous years of the journal\u27s publication. This issue is arriving at a crucial time for our schools and communities around the world, and in this brief essay, I argue that it\u27s never been a more exciting and consequential time to be a school social worker

The use of data in decision making for school-based social work

Industries are increasingly taking advantage of the access provided in the digital age to use data to inform business and practice-based decision making. The profession of social work has recently called for social workers to become more data-driven, through its Grand Challenge to leverage technology such as data-driven decision making for social good. School-Based Social Workers, who often work in educational contexts that demand they collect and use data are being asked to figure out ways to engage data to help promote evidence-informed practices and process level changes. Using a scoping review, this article looks at the state of the current literature on how this process is evolving. This information can help set the stage for a framework for the systematic application of data in social work settings

It’s About Time: Initial Findings From a Feasibility Study of a Time-Study Tool for School Social Workers in Michigan

Starting in late Summer of 2015, the two authors began collaborating on the pilot testing of a school social work (SSW) time-study tool with a sample of SSW in suburban Detroit (n=9). This article details the path towards the development of the time-study tool, drawing from the extant literature on workload and caseload issues in related special education fields, and resulting in the time-study tool that was first piloted with SSW in 2015-2016. Initial data from year one of the two-year 2015-2017 pilot project is shared in this article, along with qualitative data based on interviews with the SSW in the project, as well as reflections by the two authors on the implications of the work in this first pilot year. This article describes in detail the background for this project, the procedures followed, the initial results after year one, and how these findings informed plans for year two

Camaraderie, Collaboration, and Capacity Building: A Qualitative Examination of School Social Workers in a Year Long Professional Learning Community

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have become commonplace in K-12 schools for helping teachers collaborate to build their professional capacities and address school-based problems. However, rigorous research on the key components, mechanisms, and impact of PLCs has been limited overall, with virtually no research conducted on PLCs with school social workers (SSW). This article examines the first-year experiences of school mental health professionals (SMHP) in a two-year PLC made up largely of SSW from an array of schools and districts throughout metropolitan Chicago. Drawing on qualitative data gathered from three rounds of in-depth interviews with participants during the first year of the PLC, we find that the PLC drew participants who sought specific opportunities through the PLC to improve their knowledge and skills to lead their schools in advancing social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) services and supports in their schools. Through the professional camaraderie they quickly found among their PLC colleagues, participants engaged collaboratively to develop an array of interventions for their schools, strengthened their professional capacities, and enhanced their sense of professional self-efficacy. By the end of the first year, participants overwhelmingly cited their PLC experiences as beneficial to reducing SMHP professional isolation, creating a supportive, resource-rich group of SMHP colleagues, and rejuvenating their commitment to the profession and their ability to lead their schools in advancing SEMH services and supports. Implications for further research on PLCs and advancing the professional development of SSW are discussed

A Three-dimensional Deformable Brain Atlas for DBS Targeting. I. Methodology for Atlas Creation and Artifact Reduction.

BackgroundTargeting in deep brain stimulation (DBS) relies heavily on the ability to accurately localize particular anatomic brain structures. Direct targeting of subcortical structures has been limited by the ability to visualize relevant DBS targets.Methods and resultsIn this work, we describe the development and implementation, of a methodology utilized to create a three dimensional deformable atlas for DBS surgery. This atlas was designed to correspond to the print version of the Schaltenbrand-Bailey atlas structural contours. We employed a smoothing technique to reduce artifacts inherent in the print version.ConclusionsWe present the methodology used to create a three dimensional patient specific DBS atlas which may in the future be tested for clinical utility