title: Time to vote?

authors: Gibson, John

subjects: opportunity cost

abstract: Despite the centrality of voting costs to the paradox of voting, little effort has been made to measure these costs accurately, outside of a few spatially limited case studies. In this paper, we apply Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools to validated national election survey data from New Zealand. We calculate distance and travel time by road from the place of residence to the nearest polling place and combine our time estimate with imputed wages for all sample members. Using this new measure of the opportunity cost of voting to predict turnout at the individual level, we find that small increases in the opportunity costs of time can have large effects in reducing voter turnout.

text: Time to vote? Despite the centrality of voting costs to the paradox of voting, little effort has been made to measure these costs accurately, outside of a few spatially limited case studies. In this paper, we apply Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools to validated national election survey data from New Zealand. We calculate distance and travel time by road from the place of residence to the nearest polling place and combine our time estimate with imputed wages for all sample members. Using this new measure of the opportunity cost of voting to predict turnout at the individual level, we find that small increases in the opportunity costs of time can have large effects in reducing voter turnout.

year: 2012

title: Caffeine-carbohydrate mouth-rinsing counter-acts an observed negative effect of mouth-rinsing procedure during sprint-endurance training performance in fasted athletes: A pilot study

authors: Washif, Jad Adrian

subjects: Athletics

abstract: Carbohydrate mouth-rinsing has been reported to benefit endurance performance in athletes intermittently fasting; however, in the fasted state, the effects of combined caffeine and carbohydrate (CAF-CHO) mouth-rinsing on sprint-endurance performance are unknown. We determined the effects of CAF-CHO mouth-rinsing on kinetics, kinematics, and perceptual measures during a sprint-endurance performance commonly performed by track and field athletes in Muslim athletes fasting during Ramadan. In a randomised and counterbalanced single-blind study, ten national-level male sprinters and sprint/middle-distance runners (21.0 ± 2.0 y) participated in this study. They performed three sprint-endurance sessions on a non-motorised treadmill within the second and third weeks of Ramadan. Each session consisted of 3x15-s all-out sprints, with 2-min active recovery between each sprint. In each session, athletes either did not mouth rinse (NMR), or rinsed with 25 mL of CAF-CHO (4 g carbohydrate, 5 mg caffeine), or a placebo solution (PLA) prior to warm-up (30-min pre-trial), 1-min pre-trial, and mid-way through every recovery period. CAF-CHO maximised total sprint distance relative to NMR (210.3 ± 7.8 vs. 208.7 ± 9.1 m, d = 0.20), whilst counteracted the attenuation following PLA (204.6 ± 8.7 m; d = 0.66). Relative to NMR, CAF-CHO increased perceived activation prior to each sprint (p < 0.05, d = 1.23–2.05). Post-trial perceived exertion was lower for CAF-CHO (d = 0.12) and PLA (d = 0.58) compared to NMR (p > 0.05). Athletes indicated ‘no’ (50%) or ‘unsure’ (50%) whether mouth-rinsing would improve performance. The results suggest that CAF-CHO has a potential to optimise, and counter-act the negative effect of mouth-rinsing in Ramadan-fasted Muslims having a negative attitude towards this procedure.

text: Caffeine-carbohydrate mouth-rinsing counter-acts an observed negative effect of mouth-rinsing procedure during sprint-endurance training performance in fasted athletes: A pilot study Carbohydrate mouth-rinsing has been reported to benefit endurance performance in athletes intermittently fasting; however, in the fasted state, the effects of combined caffeine and carbohydrate (CAF-CHO) mouth-rinsing on sprint-endurance performance are unknown. We determined the effects of CAF-CHO mouth-rinsing on kinetics, kinematics, and perceptual measures during a sprint-endurance performance commonly performed by track and field athletes in Muslim athletes fasting during Ramadan. In a randomised and counterbalanced single-blind study, ten national-level male sprinters and sprint/middle-distance runners (21.0 ± 2.0 y) participated in this study. They performed three sprint-endurance sessions on a non-motorised treadmill within the second and third weeks of Ramadan. Each session consisted of 3x15-s all-out sprints, with 2-min active recovery between each sprint. In each session, athletes either did not mouth rinse (NMR), or rinsed with 25 mL of CAF-CHO (4 g carbohydrate, 5 mg caffeine), or a placebo solution (PLA) prior to warm-up (30-min pre-trial), 1-min pre-trial, and mid-way through every recovery period. CAF-CHO maximised total sprint distance relative to NMR (210.3 ± 7.8 vs. 208.7 ± 9.1 m, d = 0.20), whilst counteracted the attenuation following PLA (204.6 ± 8.7 m; d = 0.66). Relative to NMR, CAF-CHO increased perceived activation prior to each sprint (p < 0.05, d = 1.23–2.05). Post-trial perceived exertion was lower for CAF-CHO (d = 0.12) and PLA (d = 0.58) compared to NMR (p > 0.05). Athletes indicated ‘no’ (50%) or ‘unsure’ (50%) whether mouth-rinsing would improve performance. The results suggest that CAF-CHO has a potential to optimise, and counter-act the negative effect of mouth-rinsing in Ramadan-fasted Muslims having a negative attitude towards this procedure.

year: 2022-01-01

title: /u/ fronting and /t/ aspiration in Māori and New Zealand English

authors: Maclagan, Margaret

subjects: Maori

abstract: This article examines the relationship between the frontness of /u/ and the aspiration of /t/ in both Māori and New Zealand English (NZE). In both languages, these processes can be observed since the earliest recordings dating from the latter part of the nineteenth century. We report analyses of these developments for three groups of male speakers of Māori spanning the twentieth century. We compare the Māori analyses with analyses of related features of the speakers' English and of the English of monolingual contemporaries. The occurrence of these processes in Māori cannot be seen simply as interference from NZE as the Māori-speaking population became increasingly bilingual. We conclude that it was the arrival of English with its contrast between aspirated and unaspirated plosives, rather than direct borrowing, that was the trigger for the fronting of the hitherto stable back Māori /u/ vowel together with increased aspiration of /t/ before both /i/ and /u/.

text: /u/ fronting and /t/ aspiration in Māori and New Zealand English This article examines the relationship between the frontness of /u/ and the aspiration of /t/ in both Māori and New Zealand English (NZE). In both languages, these processes can be observed since the earliest recordings dating from the latter part of the nineteenth century. We report analyses of these developments for three groups of male speakers of Māori spanning the twentieth century. We compare the Māori analyses with analyses of related features of the speakers' English and of the English of monolingual contemporaries. The occurrence of these processes in Māori cannot be seen simply as interference from NZE as the Māori-speaking population became increasingly bilingual. We conclude that it was the arrival of English with its contrast between aspirated and unaspirated plosives, rather than direct borrowing, that was the trigger for the fronting of the hitherto stable back Māori /u/ vowel together with increased aspiration of /t/ before both /i/ and /u/.

year: 2009