The role of patriotism in explaining the TV audience of national team games - Evidence from four international tournaments

In the literature addressing the determinants of TV audiences in sports, both the absolute and relative playing strength of the opponents play a prominent role. Regarding national team competitions, however, this study conjectures that patriotism matters as well. Analyzing the Swiss TV audience at 2 World Cups and 2 European Football Championships, this study finds strong evidence that TV ratings are highly affected by the sizes of the groups of foreign residents affiliated with the teams playing on the field

All cause and disease specific mortality in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis: Population based cohort study

Copyright © 2011 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. This articles was first published in: BMJ, 2011, Vol. 342, Issue 7798, pp. 638 - 638To examine all cause and disease specific mortality in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip

Human infections with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Switzerland, 2010-2014

Objectives: The aim of this study was to characterize a collection of 95 Shigatoxin-producing E.coli (STEC) isolated from human patients in Switzerland during 2010-2014. Methods: We performed O and H serotyping and molecular subtyping. Results: The five most common serogroups were O157, O145, O26, O103, and O146. Of the 95 strains, 35 (36.8%) carried stx1 genes only, 43 strains (45.2%) carried stx2 and 17 (17.9%) harbored combinations of stx1 and stx2 genes. Stx1a (42 strains) and stx2a (32 strains) were the most frequently detected stx subtypes. Genes for intimin (eae), hemolysin (hly), iron-regulated adhesion (iha), and the subtilase cytotoxin subtypes subAB1, subAB2-1, subAB2-2, or subAB2-3 were detected in 70.5, 83.2, 74.7, and 20% of the strains, respectively. Multilocus sequence typing assigned the majority (58.9%) of the isolates to five different clonal complexes (CC), 11, 32, 29, 20, and 165, respectively. CC11 included all O157:[H7] and O55:[H7] isolates. CC32 comprised O145:[H28] isolates, and O145:[H25] belonged to sequence type (ST) 342. CC29 contained isolates of the O26:[H11], O111:[H8] and O118:[Hnt] serogroups, and CC20 encompassed isolates of O51:H49/[Hnt] and O103:[H2]. CC165 included isolates typed O80:[H2]-ST301, all harboring stx2d, eae-ξ, hly, and 66.7% additionally harboring iha. All O80:[H2]-ST301 strains harbored at least 7 genes carried by pS88, a plasmid associated with extraintestinal virulence. Compared to data from Switzerland from the years 2000-2009, an increase of the proportion of non-O157 STEC infections was observed as well as an increase of infections due to STEC O146. By contrast, the prevalence of the highly virulent German clone STEC O26:[H11]-ST29 decreased from 11.3% during 2000-2009 to 1.1% for the time span 2010-2014. The detection of O80:[H2]-ST301 harboring stx2d, eae-ξ, hly, iha, and pS88 related genes suggests an ongoing emergence in Switzerland of an unusual, highly pathogenic STEC serotype. Conclusions: Serotyping and molecular subtyping of clinical STEC demonstrate that although STEC O157 predominates among STEC isolated from diseased humans, non-O157 STEC infections are increasing in Switzerland, including those due to STEC O146:[H2/H21/H28]-ST442/ST738 harboring subAB variants, and the recently emerged STEC O80:[H2]-ST301 harboring eae-ξ and pS88 associated extraintestinal pathogenic virulence genes

The liquidity advantage of the quote-driven market: Evidence from the betting industry

Even though betting exchanges are considered to be the superior business model in the betting industry due to less operational risk and lower information costs, bookmakers continue to be successful.We explain the puzzling coexistence of these two market structures with the advantage of guaranteed liquidity in the bookmaker market. Using matched panel data of over 1.8 million bookmaker and bettingexchange odds for 17,410 soccer matches played worldwide, we find that the bookmaker offers higherodds and bettor returns than the betting exchange when liquidity at the betting exchange is low

Suppression of HBV by Tenofovir in HBV/HIV coinfected patients : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Hepatitis B coinfection is common in HIV-positive individuals and as antiretroviral therapy has made death due to AIDS less common, hepatitis has become increasingly important. Several drugs are available to treat hepatitis B. The most potent and the one with the lowest risk of resistance appears to be tenofovir (TDF). However there are several questions that remain unanswered regarding the use of TDF, including the proportion of patients that achieves suppression of HBV viral load and over what time, whether suppression is durable and whether prior treatment with other HBV-active drugs such as lamivudine, compromises the efficacy of TDF due to possible selection of resistant HBV strains. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis following PRISMA guidelines and using multilevel mixed effects logistic regression, stratified by prior and/or concomitant use of lamivudine and/or emtricitabine. Results: Data was available from 23 studies including 550 HBV/HIV coinfected patients treated with TDF. Follow up was for up to seven years but to ensure sufficient power the data analyses were limited to three years. The overall proportion achieving suppression of HBV replication was 57.4%, 79.0% and 85.6% at one, two and three years, respectively. No effect of prior or concomitant 3TC/FTC was shown. Virological rebound on TDF treatment was rare. Interpretation: TDF suppresses HBV to undetectable levels in the majority of HBV/HIV coinfected patients with the proportion fully suppressed continuing to increase during continuous treatment. Prior treatment with 3TC/FTC does not compromise efficacy of TDF treatment. The use of combination treatment with 3TC/FTC offers no significant benefit over TDF alone

Suppression of HBV by Tenofovir in HBV/HIV Coinfected Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background:Hepatitis B coinfection is common in HIV-positive individuals and as antiretroviral therapy has made death due to AIDS less common, hepatitis has become increasingly important. Several drugs are available to treat hepatitis B. The most potent and the one with the lowest risk of resistance appears to be tenofovir (TDF). However there are several questions that remain unanswered regarding the use of TDF, including the proportion of patients that achieves suppression of HBV viral load and over what time, whether suppression is durable and whether prior treatment with other HBV-active drugs such as lamivudine, compromises the efficacy of TDF due to possible selection of resistant HBV strains.Methods:A systematic review and meta-analysis following PRISMA guidelines and using multilevel mixed effects logistic regression, stratified by prior and/or concomitant use of lamivudine and/or emtricitabine.Results:Data was available from 23 studies including 550 HBV/HIV coinfected patients treated with TDF. Follow up was for up to seven years but to ensure sufficient power the data analyses were limited to three years. The overall proportion achieving suppression of HBV replication was 57.4%, 79.0% and 85.6% at one, two and three years, respectively. No effect of prior or concomitant 3TC/FTC was shown. Virological rebound on TDF treatment was rare.Interpretation:TDF suppresses HBV to undetectable levels in the majority of HBV/HIV coinfected patients with the proportion fully suppressed continuing to increase during continuous treatment. Prior treatment with 3TC/FTC does not compromise efficacy of TDF treatment. The use of combination treatment with 3TC/FTC offers no significant benefit over TDF alone

Predictors of patterns of change in health-related quality of life in older women over 7 years: evidence from a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: the evaluation of the determinants of change over time in health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in older people is limited. This study aims to identify patterns of change in HR-QoL over 7 years and their determinants using data from the British Women's Heart and Health Study, a representative sample of older women (n = 4286). METHODS: longitudinal latent class analysis was used to identify subpopulations of women with similar HR-QoL trajectories from 1999-2000 to 2007. HR-QoL was measured using the EQ-5D. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression was used to model the association of identified trajectories with baseline predictors after multiple imputation of missing data. RESULTS: four distinct EQ-5D trajectories were suggested: high (19% of women), high decline (22%), intermediate (42%) and low decline (16%). Prevalent arthritis (OR = 13.4; 95% CI: 8.8, 20.5), diabetes (OR = 4.6; 95% CI: 1.5, 14.2) and obesity (OR = 3.9; 95% CI: 2.5, 6.0) were the strongest predicting health conditions of adverse changes in HR-QoL and physical activity the strongest predicting lifestyle factor (OR = 2.8; 95% CI: 2.0, 3.9). CONCLUSIONS: findings suggest that older women without obesity or pre-existing health conditions who undertake more physical activity are more likely to experience high HR-QoL, reinforcing the importance of these factors for healthy ageing

Meditation Awareness Training for individuals with fibromyalgia syndrome: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of participants' experiences

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a complex and poorly understood psychosomatic pain disorder. The illness has been the subject of controversy, both in terms of the alleged lack of interest and capability of the medical community to understand and support patients with FMS, and the burden that such individuals place upon economic and healthcare re- sources. Due to the lack of convincing data for the effectiveness of extant pharmacological and non-pharmacological FMS treatments, a recent direction in FMS research has been the empirical investigation of mindfulness and other meditation-based approaches. The present qualitative study explored whether following participation in a mindfulness-based intervention, patients with FMS report experiencing changes in (i) how they experience and relate to their illness and (ii) their attitudes towards societal participation, work and unemployment. Ten individuals with FMS were randomly selected from the intervention arm of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention known as Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) for the treatment of FMS. Transcripts of semi-structured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a robust and rigorous qualitative methodology for analysing sub jective experiences. Five super-ordinate themes emerged from the dataset: (i) reservations about participating,(ii) improvements in psychosomatic well-being,(iii) spiritual growth,(iv) awareness of impermanence and (v) increased sense of citizenship. MAT was experienced as both an acceptable and accessible intervention by individuals with FMS, and participants reported experiencing improvements in psychosocial functioning as well as an increased sense of societal responsibility. MAT appears to have utility for treating FMS and for changing the attitudes of some individuals with FMS towards community engagement and societal contribution

Relative efficacy of different types of exercise for treatment of knee and hip osteoarthritis: Protocol for network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Background: “Exercise” is universally recommended as a core treatment for knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA). However, there are very few head-to-head comparative trials to determine the relative efficacy between different types of exercise. The aim of this study is to benchmark different types of exercises against each other through the use of a common comparator in a network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Methods: This study will include only RCTs published in peer-reviewed journals. A systematic search will be conducted in several electronic databases and other relevant online resources. No limitations are imposed on language or publication date. Participants must be explicitly identified by authors as having OA. Interventions that involved exercise or comparators in any form will be included. Pain is the primary outcome of interest; secondary outcomes will include function and quality of life measures. Quality assessment of studies will be based on the modified Cochrane’s risk of bias assessment tool. At least two investigators will be involved throughout all stages of screening and data acquisition. Conflicts will be resolved through discussion. Conventional meta-analysis will be performed based on random effects model and network meta-analysis on a Bayesian model. Subgroup analysis will also be conducted based on study, patient and disease characteristics. Discussion: This study will provide for the first time comprehensive research evidence for the relative efficacy of different exercise regimens for treatment of OA. We will use network meta-analysis of existing RCT data to answer this question