The Emergence of Esports through the Last Five Years

Esports has been a significant new topic over the past decade but their place in the sports industry has not been specifically defined over the years. The birth of what we know as Esports came upon us in 1972 and has only had exponentially grown in the success it has had over the past fifty years. It all started with a popular little arcade game that is still played to this day, Space Invaders. Space Invaders has evolved over the years, laying the foundation and the blueprint for success for companies to follow. Esports easily had a drastic take off when companies like ESPN, Twitch, and even YouTube were in coemptions to stream and support these athletes. Electronic Art Sports and NCAA were two companies that did collaborations to be successful in the gaming world until a case came upon with Ed O’Bannon. O’Bannon sued for being used with his likeliness and image without consent ultimately changing the landscape of things for NCAA and their athletes. The development over the last five years for Esports has changed the whole scope and for everyone within the industry

Inhibition of type I interferon induction and signalling by mosquito-borne flaviviruses

The Flavivirus genus (Flaviviridae family) contains a number of important human pathogens, including dengue and Zika viruses, which have the potential to cause severe disease. In order to efficiently establish a productive infection in mammalian cells, flaviviruses have developed key strategies to counteract host immune defences, including the type I interferon response. They employ different mechanisms to control interferon signal transduction and effector pathways, and key research generated over the past couple of decades has uncovered new insights into their abilities to actively decrease interferon antiviral activity. Given the lack of antivirals or prophylactic treatments for many flaviviral infections, it is important to fully understand how these viruses affect cellular processes to influence pathogenesis and disease outcome. This review will discuss the strategies mosquito-borne flaviviruses have evolved to antagonise type I interferon mediated immune responses

Public perceptions of changing the terminology for low-risk thyroid cancer: A qualitative focus group study

Objectives To investigate public perceptions of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in low-risk thyroid cancer and explore opinions regarding the proposed strategy to change the terminology of low-risk cancers. Design Qualitative study using focus groups that included a guided group discussion and presentation explaining thyroid cancer, overdiagnosis and overtreatment, and proposed communication strategies. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Setting Sydney, Australia. Participants Forty-seven men and women of various ages from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds with no personal history of thyroid cancer. Results Participants had low pre-existing general awareness of concepts of overdiagnosis and overtreatment and expressed concern regarding this new information in relation to thyroid cancer. Overall, participants understood why the strategy to change the terminology was being proposed and could see potential benefits including reducing the negative psychological impact and stigma associated with the term 'cancer'; however, many still had reservations about the strategy. The majority of the concerns were around their worry about the risk of further disease progression and that changing the terminology may create confusion and cause patients not to take the diagnosis and its associated managements seriously. Despite varied views towards the proposed strategy, there was a strong overarching desire for greater patient and public education around overdiagnosis and overtreatment in both thyroid cancer and cancer generally in order to complement any revised terminology and/or other mitigation strategies. Conclusions We found a strong and apparently widely held desire for more information surrounding the topic of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Careful consideration of how to inform both the public and current patients about the implications of a change in terminology, including changes to patients' follow-up or treatments, would be needed if such a change were to go ahead

An Analysis of Stability of Inter-bank Loan Network: A Simulated Network Approach

Research in the domain of Financial Contagion has come to the forefront in recent years. There has been a significant focus on this field since the recession of 2008. In this paper we take a look at simulation based modelling to stress test the stability of inter-bank loan networks of different structures. We look to analyze the effect of various parameters on the stability of these networks. We first simulate networks which are Homogeneous in nature. We then simulate a Heterogeneous (tiered) network. The model also introduces an endogenous loaning mechanism to imitate a more realistic inter bank loan market. We run simulations on these networks to gain a better understanding of the propagation of losses through the network. After studying the results of these simulations we come up with some interesting new insights about how parameters like connectivity and size of the network, effect a tiered intra-bank financial network. One of our key findings is that higher inter-tier connectivity is good for the stability of big banks but not so much for banks of smaller size