Building a Soccer Dynasty

The soccer world operates as a free market. Buying, selling, and trading of players is vital to the success of a club. A successful soccer club brings a great deal of revenue and growth to a local economy. Therefore, clubs ought to be prudent when signing players. In this paper, we use ordinary least squares regressions on Major League Soccer player data from 2015-2018 to determine the effect strikers and goalkeepers have on team success. In other words, what is the marginal impact of a good striker relative to a bad one? A good goalkeeper relative to a mediocre one? Finally, we include salary data to determine if clubs are paying strikers and goalkeepers according to their performance and production over the course of a season

Economics of obesity - learning from the past to contribute to a better future

The discipline of economics plays a varied role in informing the understanding of the problem of obesity and the impact of different interventions aimed at addressing it. This paper discusses the causes of the obesity epidemic from an economics perspective, and outlines various justifications for government intervention in this area. The paper then focuses on the potential contribution of health economics in supporting resource allocation decision making for obesity prevention/treatment. Although economic evaluations of single interventions provide useful information, evaluations undertaken as part of a priority setting exercise provide the greatest scope for influencing decision making. A review of several priority setting examples in obesity prevention/treatment indicates that policy (as compared with program-based) interventions, targeted at prevention (as compared with treatment) and focused “upstream” on the food environment, are likely to be the most cost-effective options for change. However, in order to further support decision makers, several methodological advances are required. These include the incorporation of intervention costs/benefits outside the health sector, the addressing of equity impacts, and the increased engagement of decision makers in the priority setting process

Improving Safety on the International Space Station: Transitioning to Electronic Emergency Procedure Books on the International Space Station

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) originally designed the International Space Station (ISS) to operate until 2015, but have extended operations until at least 2020. As part of this very dynamic Program, there is an effort underway to simplify the certification of Commercial ]of ]the ]Shelf (COTS) hardware. This change in paradigm allows the ISS Program to take advantage of technologically savvy and commercially available hardware, such as the iPad. The iPad, a line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., was chosen to support this endeavor. The iPad is functional, portable, and could be easily accessed in an emergency situation. The iPad Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), currently approved for use in flight by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is a fraction of the cost of a traditional Class 2 EFB. In addition, the iPad fs ability to use electronic aeronautical data in lieu of paper in route charts and approach plates can cut the annual cost of paper data in half for commercial airlines. ISS may be able to benefit from this type of trade since one of the most important factors considered is information management. Emergency procedures onboard the ISS are currently available to the crew in paper form. Updates to the emergency books can either be launched on an upcoming visiting vehicle such as a Russian Soyuz flight or printed using the onboard ISS printer. In both cases, it is costly to update hardcopy procedures. A new operations concept was proposed to allow for the use of a tablet system that would provide a flexible platform to support space station crew operations. The purpose of the system would be to provide the crew the ability to view and maintain operational data, such as emergency procedures while also allowing Mission Control Houston to update the procedures. The ISS Program is currently evaluating the safety risks associated with the use of iPads versus paper. Paper products can contribute to the flammability risk and require manual updates that take time away from research tasks. The ISS program has recently purchased three iPads for the astronauts and the certification has been approved. The crew is currently using the iPads onboard. The results of this analysis could be used to discern whether the iPad is a viable option for use in emergencies by assessing the risk posture through the development of a quantitative probabilistic risk assessment (PRA)

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Behaviour in Children and Adolescents Accessing Residential or Intensive Home-Based Mental Health Services

Objective: There is a dearth of Canadian research with clinical samples of youth who self-harm, and no studies could be located on self-harm in children and youth accessing residential or intensive home-based treatment. The purposes of this report were to explore the proportion and characteristics of children and youth identified as self-harming at admission by clinicians compared to youth not identified as self-harming, compare self-harming children to adolescents, and to compare caregiver ratings of self-harm at intake to clinician ratings at admission. Method: This report was developed from a larger longitudinal, observational study involving 210 children and youth accessing residential and home-based treatment and their caregivers in partnership with five mental health treatment centres in southwestern Ontario. Agency data were gleaned from files, and caregivers reported on symptom severity at 12 to 18 months and 36 to 40 months post-discharge. Results: Fifty-seven (34%) children and youth were identified as self-harming at admission. The mean age was 11.57 (SD 2.75). There were statistically significant differences on symptom severity at intake between those identified as self-harming and those not so identified; most of these differences were no longer present at follow up. Children were reported to have higher severity of conduct disorder symptoms than adolescents at intake, and there was some consistency between caregiver-rated and clinician-rated self-harm. Children were reported to engage in a wide range of self-harming behaviours. Conclusion: These findings suggest that youth who were identified as self-harming at admission have elevated scores of symptom severity, self-harm can occur in young children and while many improve, there remains a concern for several children and youth who did not improve by the end of service. Children engage in some of the same types of self-harm behaviours as adolescents, and they also engage in behaviours unique to children

Ariel - Volume 12(13) Number 2

Editor Gary Fishbein Production & Business Manager Rich Davis Layout Editor Lynn Solomon Assistant Layout Editors Bessann Dawson Tonie Kline Becky A. Zuurbier Photography Editor Ben Alma

Avoiding Randomization Failure in Program Evaluation, with Application to the Medicare Health Support Program

We highlight common problems in the application of random treatment assignment in large-scale program evaluation. Random assignment is the defining feature of modern experimental design, yet errors in design, implementation, and analysis often result in real-world applications not benefiting from its advantages. The errors discussed here cover the control of variability, levels of randomization, size of treatment arms, and power to detect causal effects, as well as the many problems that commonly lead to post-treatment bias. We illustrate these issues by identifying numerous serious errors in the Medicare Health Support evaluation and offering recommendations to improve the design and analysis of this and other large-scale randomized experiments.Governmen

Using Cluster Analysis to Explore Associations between Cardiovascular Risk and Lifestyle Factors in a Workplace Wellness Program

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death in the United States with risk factors including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, obesity, smoking, physical inactivity, age, genetics, and unhealthy diets. A university-based workplace wellness program (WWP) consisting of an annual biometric screening assessment with targeted, individualized health coaching was implemented in an effort to reduce these risk factors while encouraging and nurturing ideal cardiovascular health.Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the prevalence of single and combined, or multiple, CVD risk factors within a workplace wellness dataset.Methods: Cluster analysis was used to determine CVD risk factors within biometric screening data (BMI, waist circumference, LDL, total cholesterol, HDL, triglycerides, blood glucose age, ethnicity, and gender) collected during WWP interventions.Results: The cluster analysis provided visualizations of the distributions of participants having specific CVD risk factors. Of the 8,802 participants, 1,967 (22.4%) had no CVD risk factor, 1,497 (17%) had a single risk factor, and 5,529 (60.5%) had two or more risk factors. The majority of sample members are described as having more than one CVD risk factor with 78% having multiple.Conclusion: Cluster analysis demonstrated utility and efficacy in categorizing participant data based on their CVD risk factors. A baseline analysis of data was captured and provided understanding and awareness into employee health and CVD risk. This process and analysis facilitated WWP planning to target and focus on education to promote ideal cardiovascular health

Ariel - Volume 12(13) Number 4

Co-Editors Gary Fishbein Lynn Solomon Business Manager Rich Davis Assistant Business Manager Jeff Lavanier Layout Editors Paul J. Berlin Tracy A. Glauser Photography Editor Ben Alma

Integration of Virtual Reality Procedural Training in a Flight Training Curriculum

As Virtual Reality (VR) technology becomes more affordable, integrating VR training into pilot training programs is becoming a focus of many flight schools and universities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of VR software and supporting devices as a familiarization and procedural trainer for private pilot students. This presentation will introduce the usage of the VR software for procedural training in the new private pilot training program implemented by the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus Flight Department. In this program, new private pilot students partake in a month-long program to learn basic skills and knowledge to prepare them for their upcoming flight lessons. The presentation will cover: 1) A brief introduction to the Commercial Aviation Augmented Reality Toolkit (CAART) software, 2) An outline of how this software is used in the overall layout of the training course, 3) A description of the equipment used including examples and a display of each of the three types of training delivery methods, 4) A discussion of the research plan currently underway and 5) A synopsis of relevant preliminary data regarding the experiences of participants in relation to usability, presence, satisfaction, and simulator sickness. The presentation will cumulate in a discussion outlining future research plans