“Minnesota slots”: An observational study of pull tab gambling

A study of pull tab gambling in Minnesota was undertaken to describe the state's most popular form of gambling. The study also focused on the detection of any abuses or addictive problems that might be associated with it. Pull tab gambling is similar to slot machine gambling. The game, fundamentals of play, and some of the behaviors of pull tab gamblers are described. Various playing patterns and strategies, pull tab etiquette, the numbers and types of players, amounts of money bet, player's wins and losses, house profits, gambling abuses, behaviors which may indicate problem gambling, and dealer/player relationships are discussed. The study concludes with suggestions to help minimize some of the actual and potential problems and abuses that accompany pull tab gambling.This study was supported by funding from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Mental Health Division. The information presented here is based on a report (Schaefer & Aasved, 1990) submitted to that agency.The authors would like to thank Drs. Sue Fisher and Mark Griffiths for their helpful suggestions and comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Retaliatory use of public standards in trade

This research investigates the extent to which countries use public standards as a means of political retaliation in the international policy arena. We match World Trade Organization notifications of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) standards with SPS committee data on Specific Trade Concerns and annual, bilateral trade flows to test whether countries targeted with a public standard respond with a trade barrier of their own. We find that this type of retaliatory behavior exists for economically strategic goods. Our results suggest that about 1000 bilateral trade flows globally—or just over $11.8 billion in trade—were subject to retaliatory standards in 2015.     

A New Lens on High School Dropout: Use of Correspondence Analysis and the Statewide Longitudinal Data System

The combination of log-linear models and correspondence analysis have long been used to decompose contingency tables and aid in their interpretation. Until now, this approach has not been applied to the education Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), which contains administrative school data at the student level. While some research has been conducted using the SLDS, its primary use is for state education administrative reporting. This article uses the combination of log-linear models and correspondence analysis to gain insight into high school dropouts in two discrete regions in Kentucky, Appalachia and non-Appalachia, defined by the American Community Survey. The individual student records from the SLDS were categorized into one of the two regions and a log-linear model was used to identify the interactions between the demographic characteristics and the dropout categories, push-out and pull-out. Correspondence analysis was then used to visualize the interactions with the expanded push-out categories, boredom, course selection, expulsion, failing grade, teacher conflict, and pull-out categories, employment, family problems, illness, marriage, and pregnancy to provide insights into the regional differences. In this article, we demonstrate that correspondence analysis can extend the insights gained from SDLS data and provide new perspectives on dropouts. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

‘Irrationality’ of managerial judgments: Implications for information systems

Four principal factors affecting rational information processing behavior in organizations are discussed. These are: (1) the nature and attributes of the messages received from the Management Information and Decision System (MIDS); (2) The personal qualities and attitudes of the manager himself; (3) the degree of social interaction; and (4) if a collective is involved, the format and group decision function used in arriving at a group position. Ways in which information specialists and operations researchers can counter, ameliorate, and exploit managers' judgmental biases and inconsistencies are then proposed. Areas for further research are suggested.     

Using crushed waste bricks for urban greening with contrasting grassland mixtures: no negative effects of brick-augmented substrates varying in soil type,moisture and acid pre-treatment

Ecological restoration aims at supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services, and urban greening is a great opportunity to achieve this goal. This is facilitated by species-rich seed mixtures based on local provenances, which are designed for certain nutrient and moisture regimes based on functional plant traits. Such grassland mixtures might be cultivated on crushed waste bricks, which would be a new component of water-holding urban substrates. Thus, we studied the effects of brick quantity and quality, acid pre-treatment of bricks, soil type and moisture on biomass of designed seed mixtures. Three greenhouse experiments were conducted, with substrates consisting of different brick ratios (5% vs. 30%), brick types (clean production waste vs. demolition material), and brick treatments (acid vs. control) tested on three trait-based mixtures and a non-regional commercial standard mixture. The trait-based mixtures included information on specific leaf area, seed mass and grass-to-legume ratio. There were no negative effects of demolition bricks, soil texture and moisture on grassland biomass. Acid-treated clean porous bricks improved biomass production of the standard and intermediate mixtures, while the effect was minimal with demolition bricks. Designed seed mixtures had a biomass similar to the standard mixture under dry conditions but did not benefit from high moisture like the standard mixture. In conclusion, waste bricks are a useful additive for urban restoration substrates to save raw material, and specifically designed regional mixtures can replace commercial grassland types on these substrates.