Science

Almas Heshmati, a professor of economics at Jönköping University in Sweden, used Excel’s autofill function to mend the data for one of his studies.He had marked anywhere from two to four observations before or after the missing values and dragged the selected cells down or up, depending on the case. The program then filled in the blanks. If the new numbers turned negative, Heshmati replaced them with the last positive value Excel had spit out.

But Heshmati’s data also showed that in several instances where there were no observations to use for the autofill operation, the professor had taken the values from an adjacent country in the spreadsheet. New Zealand’s data had been copied from the Netherlands, for example, and the United States’ data from the United Kingdom.

Replacing missing observations with substitute values – an operation known in statistics as imputation – is a common but controversial technique in economics that allows certain types of analyses to be carried out on incomplete data. Researchers have established methods for the practice; each comes with its own drawbacks that affect how the results are interpreted.

There is no evidence that Excel’s autofill function is among these methods, especially not when applied in a haphazard way without clear justification.

Researchers report one of the fastest and most sensitive approaches yet for detecting toxic per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) accumulating in the environment, which are linked to health risks ranging from cancers to birth defects.

"Climate change is, at its root, a tragedy of the commons. We can only fix it by working together, and working together typically implies government legislation," Hayhoe says.

"The true threat, however, is the delusion that our opinion of science somehow alters its reality. If we say we don’t believe in gravity and we step off the cliff, we’re still going down. Sea level will rise regardless of any legislation we may pass, and the climate is changing no matter how many politicians say it isn’t."

Social media corporations such as Facebook facilitate and even enable the tribalism and cultural polarisation, Hayhoe adds, that "lie at the root of so many of our problems today."

Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the University of Oxford, is facing scrutiny after a study published by one of its journals was flagged for using DNA collected from the Uyghur population in Xinjiang. Two further studies by Chinese researchers, published by the same journal under OUP, are also under investigation for potential violations of ethical standards.

The three studies in question were published in Forensic Sciences Research, a journal owned by the Academy of Forensic Science, which is a part of China’s Ministry of Justice. OUP announced that it would take over the journal in August 2022, and appears to have officially run it since January 2023. OUP did not offer more information on the acquisition.

Abstract

Using a sample of Standard and Poor’s 500 firms, we examine determinants and consequences of U.S. firms’ return-to-office (RTO) mandates. Results of our determinant analyses are consistent with managers using RTO mandates to reassert control over employees and blame employees as a scapegoat for bad firm performance. Also, our findings do not support the argument that managers impose mandate because they believe RTO increases firm values. Further, our difference in differences tests report significant declines in employees’ job satisfactions mandates but no significant changes in financial performance or firm values after RTO mandates. In summary, our research contributes to the ongoing debate over RTO versus working from home and has important implications for practitioners.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11325425

Engaging in music throughout your life is associated with better brain health in older age, according to a new study published by experts at the University of Exeter.

Scientists working on PROTECT, an online study open to people aged 40 and over, reviewed data from more than a thousand adults over the age of 40 to see the effect of playing a musical instrument—or singing in a choir—on brain health. Over 25,000 people have signed up for the PROTECT study, which has been running for 10 years.

The team reviewed participants' musical experience and lifetime exposure to music, alongside results of cognitive testing, to determine whether musicality helps to keep the brain sharp in later life.

The paper, "The relationship between playing musical instruments and cognitive trajectories: Analysis from a UK aging cohort," is published in International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.