Decision-making of English Netball Superleague umpires: Contextual and dispositional influences

Objectives. The decisions made by officials have a direct bearing on the outcomes of competitive sport contests. In an exploratory study, we examine the interrelationships between the decisions made by elite netball umpires, the potential contextual and environmental influences (e.g., crowd size), and the umpires’ dispositional tendencies – specifically, their propensity to deliberate and ruminate on their decisions. Design/Method. Filmed footage from 60 England Netball Superleague matches was coded using performance analysis software. We measured the number of decisions made overall, and for home and away teams; league position; competition round; match quarter; and crowd size. Additionally, 10 umpires who officiated in the matches completed the Decision-Specific Reinvestment Scale (DSRS). Results. Regression analyses predicted that as home teams’ league position improved the number of decisions against away teams increased. A model comprising competition round and average league position of both teams predicted the number of decisions made in matches, but neither variable emerged as a significant predictor. The umpire analyses revealed that greater crowd size was associated with an increase in decisions against away teams. The Decision Rumination factor was strongly negatively related to the number of decisions in Quarters 1 and 3, this relationship was driven by fewer decisions against home teams by umpires who exhibited higher Rumination subscale scores. Conclusions. These findings strengthen our understanding of contextual, environmental, and dispositional influences on umpires’ decision-making behaviour. The tendency to ruminate upon decisions may explain the changes in decision behaviour in relation to the home team advantage effect

Application of a stochastic modeling to evaluate tuberculosis onset in patients treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors

In this manuscript we apply stochastic modeling to investigate the risk of reactivation of latent mycobacterial infections in patients undergoing treatment with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors. First, we review the perspective proposed by one of the authors in a previous work and which consists in predicting the occurrence of reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection or newly acquired tuberculosis during treatment; this is based on variational procedures on a simple set of parameters (e.g. rate of reactivation of a latent infection). Then, we develop a full analytical study of this approach through a Markov chain analysis and we find an exact solution for the temporal evolution of the number of cases of tuberculosis infection (re)activation. The analytical solution is compared with Monte Carlo simulations and with experimental data, showing overall excellent agreement. The generality of this theoretical framework allows to investigate also the case of non-tuberculous mycobacteria infections; in particular, we show that reactivation in that context plays a minor role. This may suggest that, while the screening for tuberculous is necessary prior to initiating biologics, when considering non-tuberculous mycobacteria only a watchful monitoring during the treatment is recommended. The framework outlined in this paper is quite general and could be extremely promising in further researches on drug-related adverse events.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure

Corporeality, equality and education. A biopedagogical perspective

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Development and Characterization of Synthetic Glucopyranosyl Lipid Adjuvant System as a Vaccine Adjuvant

Innate immune responses to vaccine adjuvants based on lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a component of Gram-negative bacterial cell walls, are driven by Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 and adaptor proteins including MyD88 and TRIF, leading to the production of inflammatory cytokines, type I interferons, and chemokines. We report here on the characterization of a synthetic hexaacylated lipid A derivative, denoted as glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvant (GLA). We assessed the effects of GLA on murine and human dendritic cells (DC) by combining microarray, mRNA and protein multiplex assays and flow cytometry analyses. We demonstrate that GLA has multifunctional immunomodulatory activity similar to naturally-derived monophosphory lipid A (MPL) on murine DC, including the production of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, DC maturation and antigen-presenting functions. In contrast, hexaacylated GLA was overall more potent on a molar basis than heterogeneous MPL when tested on human DC and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). When administered in vivo, GLA enhanced the immunogenicity of co-administered recombinant antigens, producing strong cell-mediated immunity and a qualitative TH1 response. We conclude that the GLA adjuvant stimulates and directs innate and adaptive immune responses by inducing DC maturation and the concomitant release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines associated with immune cell trafficking, activities which have important implications for the development of future vaccine adjuvants