What Happened in Hazelwood: Statistics, Employment Discrimination, and the 80% Rule

1984 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Meier ◽  
Jerome Sacks ◽  
Sandy L. Zabell
Keyword(s):  
Employment Discrimination ◽  
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Significance Test ◽  
Black Teachers ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Statistical Significance Test ◽  
The Difference

Tests of statistical significance have increasingly been used in employment discrimination cases since the Supreme Court's decision in Hazelwood. In that case, the United States Supreme Court ruled that “in a proper case” statistical evidence can suffice for a prima facie showing of employment discrimination. The Court also discussed the use of a binomial significance test to assess whether the difference between the proportion of black teachers employed by the Hazelwood School District and the proportion of black teachers in the relevant labor market was substantial enough to indicate discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has proposed a somewhat stricter standard for evaluating how substantial a difference must be to constitute evidence of discrimination. Under the so-called 80% rule promulgated by the EEOC, the difference must not only be statistically significant, but the hire rate for the allegedly discriminated group must also be less than 80% of the rate for the favored group. This article argues that a binomial statistical significance test standing alone is unsatisfactory for evaluating allegations of discrimination because many of the assumptions on which such tests are based are inapplicable to employment settings; the 80% rule is a more appropriate standard for evaluating whether a difference in hire rates should be treated as a prima facie showing of discrimination.

scholarly journals Nonprescription Products of Internet Retailers for the Prevention and Management of Herpes Zoster and Postherpetic Neuralgia: Analysis of Consumer Reviews on Amazon

10.2196/24971 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. e24971
Author(s):  
Pengyi Zhu ◽  
Benjamin K P Woo
Keyword(s):  
Herpes Zoster ◽  
Postherpetic Neuralgia ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Aloe Vera ◽  
Consumer Preference ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Lemon Balm ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Care Costs

Background Herpes zoster affects approximately 1 million people annually in the United States, with postherpetic neuralgia as the most common complication. The frequent prescription of opioids as the first-line medication for herpes zoster or postherpetic neuralgia contributes to the increasing health care costs of their treatment. Despite the advent of internet retailers providing alternative products for the prevention and management these conditions, there are limited studies on the availability, ingredients, and consumer preference for the products. Objective This study used the internet retailer Amazon to determine the availability of products for the management of herpes zoster and postherpetic neuralgia, and assessed consumer preference based on listed ingredients. Methods The internet retailer Amazon was used to perform a search for products related to “shingles” in September 2020. Top products sorted by reviews and ratings were determined to be either shingles-specific (including “shingles” in either the product title or description) or shingles-nonspecific. Analysis of price, rating, type of vehicle, and ingredients was performed. The types of vehicles, ingredients, and percentages of positive and negative reviews related to “shingles” of the product groups were analyzed with a two-tailed two-sample proportions Z-test to assess the difference between shingles-specific and shingles-nonspecific products. Statistical significance was judged at P<.05. Results The top 131 products among over 3000 products retrieved were determined based on a rating of 4 or more stars after searching for the term “shingles” on Amazon. Forty-six of the 131 products (35.1%) were shingles-specific. Shingles-nonspecific products were more likely to have positive reviews mentioning “shingles” (P=.005). Vehicles, balms (P=.02), and salves (P=.04) were more likely to be shingles-specific, whereas tablets or capsules (P=.002) were more likely to be shingles-nonspecific. Among the ingredients analyzed, aloe vera was the top-ranked ingredient, included in 29 of the 131 total products (22.1%). Aloe vera (P=.01), lemon balm (P<.001), vitamin E (P=.03), and peppermint oil (P=.008) were more likely to be included in the shingles-specific products, whereas magnesium (P=.01) was more likely to be included in shingles-nonspecific products. Conclusions There is an abundance of products and ingredients being used for the management and treatment of shingles with certain ingredients preferred by consumers. There is a discrepancy between approved ingredients and the ingredients preferred by consumers. Furthermore, there are insufficient studies on ingredients used by consumers on internet retailers such as Amazon, and future studies can focus on the effectiveness of popular ingredients to decrease misinformation on the internet.

The Catholic and Jewish Court: Explaining the Absence of Protestants on the Nation's Highest Judicial Body

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-396
Author(s):  
Zachary Baron Shemtob
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Judicial Appointments ◽  
First Case ◽  
First Time ◽  
Roman Catholics

Following the 2006 retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor and the confirmation of Samuel Alito to succeed her, Roman Catholics formed a majority on the United States Supreme Court for the first time in this institution's 210-year history. This Catholic majority was further strengthened by the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor in 2009. Perhaps even more remarkably, by the time of Elena Kagan's first case in October of 2010, not a single Protestant sat on the nation's highest judicial body.By way of comparison, in 1960 the Court consisted of seven Protestants, one Catholic and one Jew; in 1985, eight Protestants and one Catholic sat on the Court. This phenomenon is further reflected in judicial appointments. Since 1985, only one Protestant has been appointed,4 Justice David Souter, compared to seven Catholics and three Jews. The prima facie reason for this transformation is simple: President Reagan began the Protestant erosion by appointing two Catholics; George H.W. Bush followed by appointing a Catholic; and Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama chose only Jewish and Catholic nominees. The deeper reasons, which are considerably more complex, are the focus of this article.

Sex Differences in Birth Order of Alcoholics

1971 ◽  
Vol 119 (553) ◽  
pp. 657-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard T. Blane ◽  
Herbert Barry ◽  
Herbert Barry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Birth Order ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
The Difference

Studies of birth order of male alcoholics, reviewed by Chen and Cobb (1960), Sampson (1965), and Barry, Barry, and Blane (1969), generally showed more last-born than first-born cases. This difference was found in samples of more than 500 cases hospitalized in Denmark (Martensen-Larsen, 1957); Austria (Navratil, 1959); Canada (de Lint, 1964b), and Norway (Steén, 1966). Most samples in the United States have shown the same trend but with smaller numbers of cases, so that the difference was short of statistical significance. Ambiguous results have been obtained from the few studies of birth order of female alcoholics, generally based on small samples. The present paper reports on the birth-order distributions of a relatively large sample of male and female out-patient alcoholics in the United States.

scholarly journals Statistical quality indicators for electron-density maps

2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian J. Tickle
Keyword(s):  
Electron Density ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Significance Test ◽  
Real Space ◽  
Structure Model ◽  
Space Correlation ◽  
The Real ◽  
Difference Density ◽  
Density Maps ◽  
The Difference

The commonly used validation metrics for the local agreement of a structure model with the observed electron density, namely the real-space R (RSR) and the real-space correlation coefficient (RSCC), are reviewed. It is argued that the primary goal of all validation techniques is to verify the accuracy of the model, since precision is an inherent property of the crystal and the data. It is demonstrated that the principal weakness of both of the above metrics is their inability to distinguish the accuracy of the model from its precision. Furthermore, neither of these metrics in their usual implementation indicate the statistical significance of the result. The statistical properties of electron-density maps are reviewed and an improved alternative likelihood-based metric is suggested. This leads naturally to a χ2 significance test of the difference density using the real-space difference density Z score (RSZD). This is a metric purely of the local model accuracy, as required for effective model validation and structure optimization by practising crystallographers prior to submission of a structure model to the PDB. A new real-space observed density Z score (RSZO) is also proposed; this is a metric purely of the model precision, as a substitute for other precision metrics such as the B factor.

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