Do Exercise Motives Predict Obligatory Exercise?

Few studies have examined whether factors predicting obligatory exercise differ by gender. 303 participants completed the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire and the Reason for Exercise Inventory. All variables correlated significantly. However, the correlation between exercising for fitness and obligatory exercise was significantly stronger in women than men. In women, obligatory exercise was predicted by exercising to improve body tone, fitness, and to enhance mood; in men, obligatory exercise was predicted by exercising to improve body tone, enjoyment, and perceived attractiveness. Implications for treatment are discussed

Understanding right from wrong: A quantitative study exploring accidental bullying in British school children.

This study aimed to investigate a controversial new sub-type of bullying known as accidental bullying, which claims to explain why some children and young people can unknowingly bully others. This study did this by exploring possible causes including individual’s abilities to recognise bullying, and levels of kindness and moral disengagement. A total of 421 participants (females: n = 19, males: n = 180, undisclosed: n = 48) completed questionnaires within Primary and Secondary British schools. The data was subjected to several forms of analyses that included Pearson’s correlations, simple linear regression’s, a hierarchical multiple regression, and a series of two-way between subjects ANOVA’s. The findings identified that 84 % of the participants had previously accidentally bullied, and that primary school students were more likely to accidentally bully than secondary school students. In addition to this, an individual’s poor ability to recognise bullying behaviours was found as a significant negative predictor of accidental bullying. Furthermore, if individuals have low levels of kindness and high levels of moral disengagement, they are more likely to have a poor ability to recognise bullying behaviours. In conclusion, this study identified that it is possible that accidental bullying is taking place within British schools at a higher frequency than traditional bullying. Future studies may wish to further understand the complexities of accidental bullying to support educators to identify and address this often hidden form of bullying

Piling On? An Empirical Study of Parallel Derivative Suits

Using a sample of all companies named as defendants in securities class actions between July 1, 2005 and December 31, 2008, we study parallel suits relying on state corporate law arising out of the same allegations as the securities class actions. We test several ways that parallel suits may add value to a securities class action. Most parallel suits target cases involving obvious indicia of wrongdoing. Moreover, we find that although a modest percentage of parallel suits are filed first, over 80 percent are filed after a securities class action (termed “follow-on” parallel suits). We find that parallel suits and, in particular, follow-on parallel suits sometimes target individual officers not already named as defendants in the securities class action. Suing more officers, however, does not positively correlate with an increase in settlement incidence, monetary recovery amounts, or attorney fees. Parallel suits sometimes result in settlements when the corresponding class action is dismissed; however, only rarely do the parallel suit settlements provide monetary recovery for investors. We find that follow-on parallel suits often result in nonmonetary, corporate governance settlements, particularly for frequent-filing plaintiffs’ attorneys. Corporate governance settlements correlate with significantly lower attorney hours and attorney fees for the plaintiffs’ attorneys. We conclude that such settlements are used to justify fees in cases in which there is no monetary recovery

The Business of Securities Class Action Lawyering

Plaintiffs’ lawyers in the United States play a key role in combating corporate fraud. Shareholders who lose money as a result of fraud can file securities class actions to recover their losses, but most shareholders do not have enough money at stake to justify overseeing the cases filed on their behalf. As a result, plaintiffs’ lawyers control these cases, deciding which cases to file and how to litigate them. Recognizing the agency costs inherent in this model, the legal system relies on lead plaintiffs and judges to monitor these lawyers and protect the best interests of absent class members. Yet there is remarkably little data on the business of securities class action lawyers, leaving lead plaintiffs and judges to oversee this area without the tools to understand how it works.This Article looks inside the black box of securities class action lawyering to explore the business behind these cases. Our study includes hand-collected data on all securities fraud class actions against public corporations filed between 2005 and 2018, a total of nearly 2500 cases. We find that the business of securities class action lawyering is far more complex than prior scholarship has recognized. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there are not two tiers of plaintiffs’ law firms; instead, there are multiple tiers of firms, each with its own client base, litigation patterns, and revenue model. Our study gives lead plaintiffs and judges the data and tools they need to understand these tiers and to compare the performance of the law firms within them. We also examine how these law firms are compensated, finding that judges’ fee awards fail to account for the difficulty of cases or the risk of non-recovery in any systematic way. These fees are crucial to ensuring that law firms pursue the right cases on behalf of shareholders, so we suggest ways that judges can use data to improve fee awards. As we will see, the path to reforming securities class actions starts with understanding the business behind them

Can we make a difference here?: A discourse analysis of professionals talking about children who are exploited through County Lines in the UK.

This thesis will be presented in three sections. It includes a major literature review, an empirical report, and a major research reflective account. Part One: Major literature review Part one of this thesis provides a detailed literature review of the exploitation of children through County Lines. This section begins with an overview of the historical and legislative context, the key descriptions and definitions, and the different theoretical perspectives surronding child exploitation. The critical review of the literature is then presented, along with details of the literature search. The role of the Educational Psychologist (EP) is then considered in relation to child exploitation to understand this topic through the lens of educational psychology. This section then concludes with a summary of the research rationale and research questions. Part Two: Empirical Report Part two of this thesis presents an empirical study about how professionals talk about children who are exploited through County Lines. The empirical report begins with a summary of the relevant literature and a comprehensive outline of the discursive psychology methodology and research procedure. The findings of the study are then presented and discussed in detail. The empirical report then concludes with a summary of the strengths and limitations of the study, possible implications, and areas for future research. Part Three: Major Research Reflective Account Part three of the thesis provides a critical appraisal of the research process. The first section of the reflective account outlines the researcher’s motivations for the study and then critically reflects on the key methodological decisions. The second section of the reflective account considers the contribution this study has made to the broader knowledge base of child exploitation and then outlines the plans for disseminating the findings of this stud

Paying for Performance? Attorneys’ Fees in Securities Fraud Class Actions

This Article studies whether plaintiffs\u27 lawyers matter in securities class actions. We use inverse propensity score weighting (IPW) to compare the results in cases led by top-tier firms against those brought by lower-tier firms. This technique addresses case selection effects by using all of the cases led by a top-tier firm and then weighting the cases led by lower-tier firms based on how similar these cases are to the cases led by top-tier firms. We do find that top-tier lawyers obtain better outcomes for shareholders in a subset of securities class actions, specifically the cases against the larger (although not the very largest) companies. Outside of these cases, we find that most of the difference in the results obtained by top-tier and lower-tier firms disappears when we balance observable characteristics using the IPW technique. Although the top-tier firms do not get better results in most cases, they do invest more hours and money into their cases

Coalitions among Plaintiffs’ Attorneys in Securities Class Actions

This paper examines contests among plaintiffs’ firms to become lead counsel in securities fraud class actions. We study lead plaintiff appointments in all federal securities class actions involving a disclosure claim from 2005 to 2016. We find that law firms’ decisions to combine correspond primarily with the existence of relationships—either with clients or between firms—rather than case characteristics. In the case of initial motions, the presence of a relationship between attorney firms and certain institutional investor movants for lead plaintiff corresponds with motions that propose multiple lead counsel. We also find that although the typical class action has several lead plaintiff motions, many of these motions will either withdraw or combine before the judge chooses the lead plaintiff and lead counsel. When motions combine, the number of selected lead counsel typically increases. The existence of prior relationships between law firms corresponds with the decision to withdraw or combine. Finally, we find that the correspondence of prior relationships between law firms on decisions to withdraw or combine does not increase with our proxies for the importance of synergies between law firms

The Business of Securities Class Action Lawyering

Plaintiffs’ lawyers in the United States play a key role in combating corporate fraud. Shareholders who lose money as a result of fraud can file securities class actions to recover their losses, but most shareholders do not have enough money at stake to justify overseeing the cases filed on their behalf. As a result, plaintiffs’ lawyers control these cases, deciding which cases to file and how to litigate them. Recognizing the agency costs inherent in this model, the legal system relies on lead plaintiffs and judges to monitor these lawyers and protect the best interests of absent class members. Yet there is remarkably little data on the business of securities class action lawyers, leaving lead plaintiffs and judges to oversee this area without the tools to understand how it works. This Article looks inside the black box of securities class action lawyering to explore the business behind these cases. Our study includes hand-collected data on all securities fraud class actions against public corporations filed between 2005 and 2018, a total of nearly 2500 cases. We find that the business of securities class action lawyering is far more complex than prior scholarship has recognized. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there are not two tiers of plaintiffs’ law firms; instead, there are multiple tiers of firms, each with its own client base, litigation patterns, and revenue model. Our study gives lead plaintiffs and judges the data and tools they need to understand these tiers and to compare the performance of the law firms within them. We also examine how these law firms are compensated, finding that judges’ fee awards fail to account for the difficulty of cases or the risk of non-recovery in any systematic way. These fees are crucial to ensuring that law firms pursue the right cases on behalf of shareholders, so we suggest ways that judges can use data to improve fee awards. As we will see, the path to reforming securities class actions starts with understanding the business behind them

Glossitis in an older non-corgi dog: Diagnosis and long-term follow-up.

A 9-year-old spayed female 18.8 kg mixed breed boxer dog was referred for evaluation of a 7-month history of difficulty swallowing and prehending food, regurgitation, hypersalivation, and an abnormal dorsiflexion of the tongue. Prior to referral, a barium study was performed, which revealed a mildly dilated esophagus. Treatment with sucralfate, cisapride, and prednisone was initiated. Physical examination revealed bilateral, symmetric atrophy of the temporalis muscles, dorsiflexion of the distal aspect of the tongue with concurrent muscle atrophy, and a reduced gag reflex. Electrodiagnostic examinations revealed spontaneous electrical activity in the muscles of mastication and tongue. Biopsies from the right temporalis, tongue, and biceps femoris muscles were collected. An immune-mediated myositis with fibrosis, scattered CD3, CD4, and CD8+ T-lymphocytes, and upregulation of markers for major histocompatibility antigens were observed in the tongue and temporalis muscles. The dog was treated with a tapering course of prednisone over 2 months and cyclosporine long-term. The dog was maintained on cyclosporine alone for > 2 years and clinical signs remained static, although multiple episodes of aspiration pneumonia occurred. Ultimately, euthanasia was performed due to chronic kidney disease with associated anemia, lethargy, and anorexia

Associations of presenting symptoms and subsequent adverse clinical outcomes in people with unipolar depression: a prospective natural language processing (NLP), transdiagnostic, network analysis of electronic health record (EHR) data

Objective: To investigate the associations of symptoms of mania and depression with clinical outcomes in people with unipolar depression. Design: A natural language processing electronic health record study. We used network analysis to determine symptom network structure and multivariable Cox regression to investigate associations with clinical outcomes. Setting: The South London and Maudsley Clinical Record Interactive Search database. Participants: All patients presenting with unipolar depression between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2018. Exposure: (1) Symptoms of mania: Elation; Grandiosity; Flight of ideas; Irritability; Pressured speech. (2) Symptoms of depression: Disturbed mood; Anhedonia; Guilt; Hopelessness; Helplessness; Worthlessness; Tearfulness; Low energy; Reduced appetite; Weight loss. (3) Symptoms of mania or depression (overlapping symptoms): Poor concentration; Insomnia; Disturbed sleep; Agitation; Mood instability. Main outcomes: (1) Bipolar or psychotic disorder diagnosis. (2) Psychiatric hospital admission. Results: Out of 19 707 patients, at least 1 depression, overlapping or mania symptom was present in 18 998 (96.4%), 15 954 (81.0%) and 4671 (23.7%) patients, respectively. 2772 (14.1%) patients subsequently developed bipolar or psychotic disorder during the follow-up period. The presence of at least one mania (HR 2.00, 95% CI 1.85 to 2.16), overlapping symptom (HR 1.71, 95% CI 1.52 to 1.92) or symptom of depression (HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.61) were associated with significantly increased risk of onset of a bipolar or psychotic disorder. Mania (HR 1.95, 95% CI 1.77 to 2.15) and overlapping symptoms (HR 1.76, 95% CI 1.52 to 2.04) were associated with greater risk for psychiatric hospital admission than symptoms of depression (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.88). Conclusions: The presence of mania or overlapping symptoms in people with unipolar depression is associated with worse clinical outcomes. Symptom-based approaches to defining clinical phenotype may facilitate a more personalised treatment approach and better predict subsequent clinical outcomes than psychiatric diagnosis alone