An exploratory study on consumers' purchase of counterfeits in the context of luxury designer brands.

Counterfeiting has become an economic problem that is of international importance and it has led to the formulation of various countermeasures that are based on lawful, political, administrative/business techniques. The luxury goods industry is unique in that it is an industry that relies strictly on marketing and promotion to sell products to a specified group of people. Although only selected few are able to afford luxury goods, the vast majority of people who are exposed to luxury goods advertisements generally developed aspirations of being able to own these products someday. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions and attitudes of the different buyer groups of luxury designer brands owners towards counterfeit luxury goods. It is conducted primarily as an exploratory study to understand consumers’ purchase of counterfeits in the context of luxury designer brands. Within this quantitative survey research, it comprises of literature reviews and questionnaire. The questionnaire was analysed using various tests, which included cross tabulations, reliability testing, factor analysis, ANOVA, t-tests, regression analysis and test for moderator. We believe that our recommendations would be useful as a guide for genuine luxury designer brands, with the addition of providing better insights for any future studies on the implications that can be drawn from this research

A meta-analysis of the cumulative incidence, risk factors, and clinical outcomes associated with chronic kidney disease after liver transplantation

10.1111/tri.14149TRANSPLANT INTERNATIONAL34122524-253

Placebo Adverse Events in Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Trials: A Pooled Analysis of 2,944 Participants

IntroductionIn the absence of an effective treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a randomized, placebo-controlled trial (RCT) remains the current gold standard study design in NASH. As NASH is a largely asymptomatic disease, the side effects of potential therapies require careful evaluation, therefore a pooled rate of the adverse events (AEs) in placebo-treated patients serves as a useful comparator for safety. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the rate of AEs among participants in the placebo arm of NASH RCTs.MethodsMedline, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched to include clinical trials in phase 2-4 NASH RCTs with placebo treatment arms. A pooled proportions of AEs were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed model with Clopper-Pearson intervals.ResultsA total of 41 RCTs (2,944 participants on placebo) were included in this meta-analysis. A total of 68% (confidence interval [CI] 55%-77%) of participants on placebo experienced an AE, 7.8% (5.7%-10%) experienced serious AEs and 3.1% (CI: 1.9%-5.1%) experienced AEs leading to discontinuation. A significantly higher proportion of participants experienced serious AEs in phase 3 studies compared to in phase 2 studies ( P < 0.01) and in pharmaceutical funded studies as compared to studies which were federal-funded studies ( P < 0.01). An analysis of clinical trials evaluating bile acid modulating agents determined that 10% (CI: 5.5%-18%) of participants receiving placebo developed pruritus.DiscussionThe present study summarizes the AEs with NASH placebo. Among participants in the placebo arm in NASH, two-third experienced an AE, and nearly 10% experienced a serious AE