ECOLABELS AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY: SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS

The public provision of information about the environmental performance of firms and products has generated considerable enthusiasm and become a common instrument of environmental regulation, even though the economic analysis of the social welfare properties of these policies is quite limited. This paper proposes a model for examining these properties.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Infected deep vein thrombophlebitis in people who inject drugs: missed opportunities and potential for alternative antimicrobial approaches.

Infected deep vein thrombophlebitis (i-DVT) in people who inject drugs (PWID) is a clinically challenging but poorly characterised disease. We undertook a retrospective observational study of 70 PWID presenting acutely with i-DVT to improve the clinical and microbiological characterisation of this disease. i-DVT was frequently associated with bacteraemia (59.1% patients with blood cultures obtained), groin abscesses (in 34.3%; of which 54.2% required surgical drainage), and septic pulmonary emboli (38.6%) requiring anticoagulation. Network analysis identified a cluster of patients presenting with respiratory symptoms but lacking typical DVT symptoms, more likely to have septic pulmonary emboli. A microbiologic diagnosis was frequently achieved (70%). Causative pathogens were predominantly gram-positive (S. aureus and streptococci, especially anginosus group), whereas gram-negative pathogens were identified very infrequently (in 6.1% of microbiological diagnoses). This suggests routine empiric therapy against gram-negative bacteria, though commonly administered, is not required. High rates of clinical cure (88.6%) were observed despite the complex nature of infections and independently of the highly variable intravenous and total antimicrobial durations received. There exists a rationale to devise pragmatic approaches to implement novel individualised treatment plans utilising oral antimicrobial therapy for i-DVT. Despite frequent healthcare interactions, opportunities to address HCV treatment and opioid substitution therapy were frequently missed during these acute admissions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s15010-021-01725-3

The Effects of Frustration and Social Desirability on Heterosexual Attraction

Walster, Walster, Piliavin and Schmidt\u27s (1973) finding that a selectively hard-to-get female was preferred over either an easy-to-get or a hard-to-get female was replicated for unfrustrated males. However, when males were mildly frustrated, they preferred females who had indicated attraction toward them. The implications of these results were discussed in terms of external rewards and the motivational state of individuals

Factors Influencing Willingness-to-Pay for the Energy Star Label

In the United States, nearly 17 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from residential energy use. Increases in energy efficiency for the residential sector can generate significant energy savings and emissions reductions. Consumer labels, such as USEPA’s Energy Star, promote conservation by providing consumers with information on energy usage for household appliances. This study examines how the Energy Star label affects consumer preferences for refrigerators. An online survey of a national sample of adults suggest that consumers are, on average, willing to pay an extra $249.82 to$349.30 for a refrigerator that has been awarded the Energy Star label. Furthermore, the results provide evidence that willingness to pay was motivated by both private (energy cost savings) and public (environmental) benefits.Energy Star, willingness-to-pay, eco-label, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Eligibility of patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia for early oral switch

To identify people with low-risk Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB), the SABATO investigators screened 5063 people, finding 213 (4·2%) meeting their eligibility criteria1. This low proportion of eligible patients led the authors to question if low-risk SAB is clinically relevant. We aimed to determine the clinical relevance of the SABATO definition of low-risk SAB, and if the trial population was representative of potentially eligible real-world patients. Data was collected retrospectively for 464 consecutive adults with SAB at our institution (Supplementary Figure), approved by the South East Scotland Research Ethics Committee (23/SS/0025). We then applied the SABATO inclusion and exclusion criteria to identify potentially eligible real-world patients.Of the 464 patients in our cohort, 71 (15·3%) would have been potentially eligible for inclusion in the trial. Acquisition of SAB in these patients was mainly nosocomial (35/71, 49·3%). Key cohort characteristics reported by the trial were very similar when comparing trial participants with potentially eligible real-world patients, although the median Charlson Comorbidity Index was lower in the trial cohort (Table). An intravenous catheter was the most common source of SAB in both cohorts, but there was a higher proportion of SAB from an unknown source in the real-world group (p=0·0015). An unknown source is a risk factor for complications2,3 and further evaluation combined with intensive follow-up of early oral switch should be considered in this group.Implanted prosthetic material is a component of the IDSA definition of complicated SAB4 but with certain caveats was not an absolute exclusion criterion in the SABATO trial. Nine potentially eligible real-world patients had prosthetic material in situ (n=4 cardiac devices and n=5 orthopaedic implants). This data was not reported for trial participants but could further increase confidence in applicability of the findings. No laboratory or physiology data from the time of the index blood culture was reported but might have been helpful to quantify disease severity and guide patient selection (Supplementary Table). We suggest this supports standardised collection and reporting of cohort characteristics in SAB trials to improve comparability between studies, which is often complicated by variability in the cohort characteristics reported5.We conclude that the sub-group of low-risk SAB studied in the SABATO trial is clinically relevant and find the similarities between randomised and real-world eligible patients re-assuring. Implementation of SABATO findings should be done cautiously and studied prospectively, especially when applied to patients with SAB of unknown source who were infrequently included in the trial.<br/