Price, Income & Unemployment Effects on Greek Professional Football

Based on data of 26 Greek professional football clubs of Division A’ and B’ for 16 seasons (1991/92-2006/07), we investigate the effect of sporting and economic variables on the attendance in Greek football stadia. Price, income and unemployment are found to be statistically significant in the small Greek football market, while controlling for classic sporting determinants of demand such as success, entertainment and promotion/relegation. We include two more dummy variables; one for the new stadia constructed for the Olympic Games of 2004 and one for the enthusiasm effect of the EURO 2004 victory by the Greek National Team.Greek Football, Football Demand, Attendance

Articles and clitics in English as L2 or L3: evidence from Greek and Turkish/Greek speakers*

This paper reports on a pilot study which investigates the acquisition of English pronouns and determiners at beginner level by adolescent speakers of Greek as L1 or L2. The L2 speakers of Greek are native Turkish speakers born and educated in Greece. Testing involved tasks in English and Greek and aimed at eliciting English pronominal objects and determiners. Given that for the Turkish/Greek speakers (i) English is L3, and that (ii) Turkish lacks determiners and clitics, the acquisition of English determiners and object pronouns presents an interesting case. English lacks pronominal clitics but, unlike Turkish, it disallows null objects. Furthermore, the absence of a determiner system in Turkish and its availability in Greek and English pose an interesting question regarding the acquisition of these categories by Turkish L1 speakers, who are expected to deviate from native-like performance in the form of omission. However, knowledge of Greek L2 could, in principle, interfere with English L3 acquisition of these elements in facilitating their use. In order to answer this question, the same tasks were used with L1 Greek learners of English. The results of the data analysis shed light to the role of Greek as L1 and L2 in the acquisition of determiners and object pronouns

Sarcopenia: why it matters in general practice

Rosenberg introduced the term sarcopenia in the late 1980s from the Greek words ‘sarx’ (flesh) and ‘penia’ (lack/poverty) to describe an important change in body composition and function; a decline in lean body mass.1 Questions arising at the time included whether this was a disease or part of the normal ageing process, or when it was that this decline reached a critical point to be considered a disease. In the last two decades there has been a growing research interest in this field, and sarcopenia was recognised as a disease in the 10th Edition of the International Classification of Diseases in 2016. Yet, a diagnosis of sarcopenia is very rarely made or documented in medical records; despite being a clinical entity, it is not acknowledged as one that deserves attention in general practice. This article aims to approach the topic of sarcopenia based on published guidelines and debate about its importance and challenges from a primary care perspective

Association of Alternative Dietary Patterns with Osteoporosis and Fracture Risk in Older People: A Scoping Review

Purpose: Although the Mediterranean diet has been associated with a lower risk of hip fracture, the effect of other dietary patterns on bone density and risk of fracture is unknown. This scoping review aims to investigate the association between adherence to alternative dietary patterns (other than the traditional Mediterranean diet) and osteoporosis or osteoporotic fracture risk in older people. Methods: A systematic search was carried out on three electronic databases (Medline, EMBASE, and Scopus) to identify original papers studying the association between alternative dietary patterns (e.g., Baltic Sea Diet (BSD), modified/alternative Mediterranean diet in non-Mediterranean populations, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)) assessed using ‘prior’ methods (validated scores) and the risk of osteoporotic fracture or Bone Mineral Density (BMD) in people aged ≥50 (or reported average age of participants ≥ 60). Results from the included studies were presented in a narrative way. Results: Six observational (four prospective cohort and two cross-sectional) studies were included. There was no significant association between BMD and BSD or DASH scores. Higher adherence to DASH was associated with a lower risk of lumbar spine osteoporosis in women in one study, although it was not associated with the risk of hip fracture in another study with men and women. Higher adherence to aMED (alternative Mediterranean diet) was associated with a lower risk of hip fracture in one study, whereas higher adherence to mMED (modified Mediterranean diet) was associated with a lower risk of hip fracture in one study and had no significant result in another study. However, diet scores were heterogeneous across cohort studies. Conclusions: There is some evidence that a modified and alternative Mediterranean diet may reduce the risk of hip fracture, and DASH may improve lumbar spine BMD. Larger cohort studies are needed to validate these findings

Measurement of competitive balance in professional team sports using the Normalized Concentration Ratio

Competitive balance is an important concept in professional team sports; its measurement is, therefore, a critical issue. One of the most widely used indices, which was introduced for the estimation of seasonal competitive balance is the Concentration Ratio, which is a relatively simple index and measures the extent to which a league is dominated by a particular number of teams. However, it is shown that both the total number of league teams and the number of dominant teams under examination affects the index's boundaries, which results in a misleading interpretation concerning the level of competitive balance. Thus, we introduce the Normalized Concentration Ratio for the study of competitive balance across leagues or seasons.competitive balance, concentration ratio, professional sports, sport league

Nutritional interventions for heart failure patients who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition or cachexia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Malnutrition is common in heart failure (HF), and it is associated with higher hospital readmission and mortality rates. This review aims to answer the question whether nutritional interventions aiming to increase protein and energy intake are effective at improving outcomes for patients with HF who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition or cachexia. Systematic searches of four databases (Medline, Embase, CINAHL and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)) were conducted on 21 June 2019. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or other interventional studies using protein or energy supplementation for adult HF patients who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition or cachexia were included. Two independent reviewers assessed study eligibility and risk of bias. Five studies (four RCTs and one pilot RCT) met the inclusion criteria. The majority of studies were small and of limited quality. The pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) for body weight showed a benefit from the nutritional intervention by 3.83 kg (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.17 to 7.50, P = 0.04) from three trials with no significant benefit for triceps skinfold thickness (WMD = - 2.14 mm, 95% CI - 9.07 to 4.79, P = 0.55) from two trials. The combination of personalized nutrition intervention with conventional treatment led to a decrease in all-cause mortality and hospital readmission in one study. Findings of this review suggest that nutritional interventions could potentially improve outcomes in HF patients who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. However, the strength of the evidence is poor, and more robust studies with a larger number of participants are needed

Validation of the Greek translation of the cognitive disorders examination (Codex) for the detection of dementia in primary care

OBJECTIVE: To validate the Greek translation of the Cognitive Disorders Examination (Codex) and to investigate its potential for implementation for the detection of dementia in the Greek population. / METHOD: Subjects aged ≥60 years with and without dementia, based on the diagnostic criteria DSM-IV-TR, were included in the study. Translation of the test Codex from French to Greek and back-translation from Greek to French were conducted to verify the validity of the translation. The Greek version of the Codex and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) were administered to 17 patients with dementia and 27 patients without dementia. / RESULTS: The median age of the participants was 82 years (range 61–93 years) for patients with dementia and 73 years (range 61–84 years) for patients without dementia. The average level of education was 9.0 years (range 2–20 years) for patients with dementia and 10.5 years (range 3–16 years) for those without. The average score on the MMSE was 15.7 (range 7–27) for patients with dementia and 28.3 (range 25–30) for those without dementia. The sensitivity of Codex for the detection of dementia was 94.1% and its specificity was 88.9%. / CONCLUSIONS: The Greek version of Codex can detect dementia reliably. Its validation as a diagnostic tool for use in the Greek population will require testing on a larger sample of individuals