Influence of competition level on referees’ decision-making in handball

The influence of competition level on referees’ decision-making was investigated. Referees’ decisions in 90 handball games (30 games X 3 competition levels) were observed in different situations related to the advantage rule, and 100 referees from two different levels of expertise were subsequently asked to offer explanations for the competition-level effects from the first part of the study. Results revealed that at the highest level of competition referees intervened less frequently with sporting sanctions, but more frequently with disciplinary sanctions. These effects were apparent mainly in immediate intervention situations and unsuccessful advantage situations, but not in successful situations. Referees explained these effects of competition level in terms of a player competence stereotype, in addition to referees’ different expertise across competition level. The implications of the findings for understanding how status-related stereotypes impact on intervention behavior are discussed.     

The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management: Origins,influences, issues and prospects

This paper chronicles the formation and development of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) up to 2002. It sets the GA's genesis within the context of other internationalisation initiatives undertaken by the wider public relations practitioner community and draws links between the formation of the GA and the emerging phenomenon of globalisation. The paper's intent is to describe the formation of the GA from a historical perspective, to understand the forces that led to its creation and to appreciate the different drivers and motivation of founding members. These factors provide a springboard to consider some of the issues that currently challenge GA, some of which were inherent in the governance model it chose at its inception.     

Towards an affirmative public domain

Two competing and yet complementary philosophical concepts form the foundation for the legal protection of intellectual property – ‘competing’ in that created works protected by copyright are unavailable for unrestricted use by others as a result of the economic monopoly given to the works’ owners, and ‘complementary’ in that the presumption is that works no longer protected by copyright serve as the basis for the creation of new copyrightable works. These unprotected works comprise the ‘public domain,’ which has never been affirmatively defined. In Golan v. Holder (2012), the US Supreme Court concluded that such a realm is constitutionally unimportant. This research contends, however, that the Court's decision is incorrect, that Golan, federal legislation, and international treaties threaten to bring larger and larger portions of cultural and intellectual content under the control of a property regime that does not understand the contradiction inherent in the notion of absolute property rights in intangible goods. The result is that the public domain is under tremendous pressure from those entities which have the most to gain from expanded authorial rights and from a weakened and less inclusive public domain. Citizens thus will have fewer rights to access and freely use their culture as they choose. The eventual significance of this evolution will be that further creativity and innovation will be stifled, the opposite of the intention of intellectual property law. In this article, we develop an affirmative definition of the public domain, which we believe will correct the imbalance in current intellectual property law.     

Engaging stakeholders through Twitter: How nonprofit organizations are getting more out of 140 characters or less

While it may seem difficult to communicate in a meaningful manner with 140 characters or less, Twitter users have found creative ways to get the most out of each Tweet by using different communication tools. This paper looks into how 73 nonprofit organizations use Twitter to engage stakeholders not only through their tweets, but also through other various communication methods. Specifically it looks into the organizations utilization of tweet frequency, following behavior, hyperlinks, hashtags, public messages, retweets, and multimedia files. After analyzing 4655 tweets, the study found that the nation's largest nonprofits are not using Twitter to maximize stakeholder involvement. Instead, they continue to use social media as a one-way communication channel as less than 20% of their total tweets demonstrate conversations and roughly 16% demonstrate indirect connections to specific users.     

What do Stakeholders Like on Facebook? Examining Public Reactions to Nonprofit Organizations’ Informational,Promotional, and Community-Building Messages

Although public relations scholarship has often discussed the possibilities of dialogue and engagement using social media, research has not truly explored this dynamic. Instead, research on social media platforms has focused on measuring the content and structure of organizational profiles. This study seeks to enhance the field's discussion about social media engagement by determining what organizational content individual stakeholders prefer on Facebook in terms of liking, commenting, and sharing. A content analysis of 1,000 updates from organizations on the Nonprofit Times 100 list indicates that, based on what they comment on and like, individuals prefer dialogic, as well as certain forms of mobilizational, messages; however, they are more likely to share one-way informational messages with their own networks. These findings are interpreted using practical and theoretical implications for the practice of public relations.     

The Effects of Merit-Based Scholarships on Educational Outcomes

This paper analyzes the effect of a statewide merit-based scholarship program on educational outcomes in Arizona. It tests whether Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) scholarship has an effect on a comprehensive set of educational outcomes such as the number of applicants, student admissions, first-year first-time enrollment, ACT scores of entering freshman, retention rates, as well as on the level of tuition and fees at the three schools targeted by the program; Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. Both difference-in-differences estimation as well as synthetic control methods shows that AIMS has an economically and statistically significant effect enrollment. Enrollment effects are greatest among African American and Hispanic students and are significant for both men and women. While point estimates suggest that AIMS also lead to increases in tuition and fees, these results are not robust to placebo tests.     

Positive Manhood Development: A Look at Approaches and Concerns from the Frontline

This mixed methods study, using the perspectives of administrators and frontline workers, identified the key developmental needs of African American boys involved in manhood development programs. Five conceptual themes emerged: values and behavior; men needed for guidance; successful organizations; economics and systems; and stable quality parenting. Themes from the conceptual clusters are compared to themes in the positive youth development literature, specifically the 40 developmental assets framework proposed by the Search Institute. The resulting distinctive ecological focus is rarely discussed in the youth development literature and may have implications for youth development interventions that target positive African American manhood development.     

In Search of the Optimum Harvey Wallbanger Recipe via Mixture Experiment Techniques

A Harvey Wallbanger is an alcoholic drink composed of three ingredients: orange juice, vodka, and Galliano. One of the authors (Sahrmann), a connoisseur of the libation, was perplexed upon discovering that different bartender handbooks listed different recipes for the drink. Determined to shed some light on this irksome problem, he issued invitations for an evening workshop session (party) to former and current attendees of an experimental-design training course taught within his company. A mixture experiment was designed and data collected using the class participants. This article describes the experimental design and the analysis of the data. The results of the experiment indicate that reducing the proportion of vodka produces better-flavored drinks. The results of the experiment were not entirely conclusive, however, so recommendations are made for future experimentation.