Modern Multi-line Slot Machine Games: The Effect of Lines Wagered on Winners,Losers, Bonuses,and Losses Disguised as Wins

We simulated the commercially available multi-line slot machine game “Money Storm,” including its bonus wins. Our results show that after a specified amount of time (such as 1 or 50 h), when players played a single line, there were marked differences between one player and the next—a few won a lot, others lost far more than average. When playing 20 lines there were fewer big winners and fewer players quickly losing a large percentage of their money. We simulated a Gambler’s Ruin scenario whereby players arrived with $100 and made $1 wagers until broke. Again we saw a reduction in the variability among player as the number of lines wagered increased, fewer players lost their entire bankroll quickly, and fewer players had big wins. The bonus wins in Money Storm contribute approximately 24 % to the payback of the game, and our simulations of bonus wins shows that with 20 lines wagered the players spend approximately 11 % of their time in bonus wins. With one line wagered, there are no losses disguised as wins while with 20 lines wagered the majority of hits are losses disguised as wins. Players using multi-line machines can thus tune the characteristics of the machine gambling experience to match their preferred pattern, though most seem in practice to bet on the most possible lines. Our results serve to inform researchers, counsellors, gamblers and others about how slot machines are designed, and the effect that wagering on multiple lines has on short-term and long-term play, bonus wins, and losses disguised as wins.     

A‐Way Express Courier

This article examines the social return on investment (SROI) of A‐Way Express Courier for the major stakeholder group of the organization, its employees. Specifically, it explores the mental health, employment, and standard of living outcomes that A‐Way provides for the employees who are consumer/survivors of the mental health system. Overall, the impacts of the organization contributed significantly to improvements in the health and quality of life of the employees. They also translate into economic benefits for the employees and the community. Because of A‐Way's roots in the consumer/survivor movement of the 1970s, the article suggests that positive psychology could be a valuable framework with which to explain A‐Way's impact.     

Household Economic Behavior in Post‐Socialist Rural Hungary*

Abstract This paper investigates the organization of household economic behavior in post‐socialist rural Hungary. Data from 751 randomly selected households in three rural regions of the country showed weak labor force attachment and heavy reliance on social welfare programs among these households. Self‐provisioning and interhousehold exchange were also prevalent. The data showed that interhousehold exchange is motivated by both economic and social logics. Interhousehold exchange appears to be more likely among better‐off households with more economic and social resources.     

Intimacy,Gender and Self Psychology: Considerations for Relationship Counselling

This paper reviews major conceptualisations of intimacy and the blocks, frequently attributed to gender, which are thought to contribute to problems in couple relationships. The paper concludes that gender is often not the limiting factor that inhibits intimacy in heterosexual couples. It may be more productive to consider individual rather than couple therapy to deal with impasses that appear to be associated with gender. Ideas from self psychology provide insights into how some requests for intimacy may be related to immature self‐object needs, which may better be handled through individual rather than couple therapy. A range of therapeutic goals and strategies that focus directly on intimacy are then outlined.     

Service user and carer feedback: simply pass/fail or a genuine learning tool?

Social Work Students in Britain are required to submit feedback from Service Users and Carers as part of their Practice Learning portfolios. The purpose of this is twofold—to demonstrate evidence of the student’s ability and to provide information for the student to reflect on and learn from. Members of the Service User and Carer Advisory group attached to a Social Work degree course believe this represents an opportunity for users and carers to influence future social work practice. In reality however, does this feedback actually make a difference? Group members reviewed user and carer feedback contained within student portfolios submitted during one academic year. They found that whilst there were some excellent examples of constructive criticism, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive towards students. The findings raised questions about how gathering Service User and Carer feedback is viewed and undertaken. Is the feedback seen more as a pass/fail issue or as an opportunity to learn from? Could there be better ways to gain constructive feedback for students? What conditions enable students to learn from the feedback that is gathered? This paper starts to explore these questions and suggests ideas for further research and training.     

Raptor nesting locations along an urban density gradient in the Great Basin,USA

Raptors are the most prevalent group of urban apex predators, and the majority of raptor genera in North America have been recorded using urban areas. Prior research assessments along urban-wildland gradients show that urban habitat preference varies by raptor species and that raptor nesting preferences within urban settings may vary. Attempts to understand the intra- and inter-specific nesting patterns along an urban gradient would advance extant knowledge. Here we present the locations of individual nest sites of nine raptor species along an urban gradient in Reno-Sparks, NV. We developed an urban density model based on the number of residents, number of employees, and building footprints and number of floors for built structures within each land parcel at four spatial scales, representing nest site, macrohabitat, average nearest-nest, and landscape scales. Cooper’s Hawks (Accipiter cooperii), Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus), and Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) nested across the widest range of the urban spectrum and closest to the urban core, whereas Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) and Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsonii) nested on the urban fringe. Urban density for all nest locations was lowest at the nest-site scale, and the highest at the average nearest-nest and landscape scales. Raptors tended to occupy a wide range of the building-area density spectrum but not the building-height or employee density spectrums indicative of the attractiveness of suburban habitat.

     

An urban stream can support a healthy population of coastal cutthroat trout

Urban Ecosystems - Urbanization presents numerous challenges to aquatic species. For fish, typical threats include altered flow dynamics, poor water quality, and degraded food webs. These threats...     

Communities of Place? New Evidence for the Role of Distance and Population Size in Community Attachment

Historically, ecological features of a community, such as population size, were considered fundamental aspects of the community experience. Yet methodological advances and the rise of globalization have challenged many classical assumptions rooted in the ecological tradition. Using recent data—the Montana Health Matters Study 2010 (N = 3,508)—we explore whether community attachment links with distance and population size in Montana. Surprisingly, a statistically significant relationship to community attachment appears only when distance from urban centers and community population size are modeled together. Perceived quality of community services partly explains this relationship, but only for the distance measure. Altogether, as globalization is undoubtedly transforming rural life, we argue that “communities of place” may still endure when distance to urban centers and population size are simultaneously accounted for.