Nasal decolonization of Staphylococcus aureus with mupirocin: strengths, weaknesses and future prospects

Staphylococcus aureus in the nose is a risk factor for endogenous staphylococcal infection. UK guidelines recommend the use of mupirocin for nasal decolonization in certain groups of patients colonized with methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Mupirocin is effective at removing S. aureus from the nose over a few weeks, but relapses are common within several months. There are only a few prospective randomized clinical trials that have been completed with sufficient patients, but those that have been reported suggest that clearance of S. aureus from the nose is beneficial in some patient groups for the reduction in the incidence of nosocomial infections. There is no convincing evidence that mupirocin treatment reduces the incidence of surgical site infection. New antibiotics are needed to decolonize the nose because bacterial resistance to mupirocin is rising, and so it will become less effective. Furthermore, a more bactericidal antibiotic than mupirocin is needed, on the grounds that it might reduce the relapse rate, and so clear the patient of MRSA for a longer period of time than mupirocin

NASA geodetic applications of the Mark 3 VLBI system

The Mark 3 very long baseline interferometer system was used in monitoring the following geodetic phenomena: the regional deformation and strain accumulation related to large earthquakes in the plate boundary region of the western United States; contemporary relative plate tectonic motions of the North American, Pacific, South American, Eurasian, and Australian Plates; the internal deformation of continental and oceanic lithospheric plates with particular emphasis on North America and the Pacific; the rotational dynamics of the Earth and their possible correlation to earthquakes, plate motions, and other geophysical phenomena; and motions and deformation occurring in regions of high earthquake activity

Caught Stealing: Debunking the Economic Case for D.C. Baseball

District of Columbia mayor Anthony Williams has convinced Major League Baseball to move the Montreal Expos to D.C. in exchange for the city's building a new ballpark. Williams has claimed that the new stadium will create thousands of jobs and spur economic development in a depressed area of the city. Williams also claims that this can be accomplished without tax dollars from D.C. residents. Yet the proposed plan to pay for the stadium relies on some kind of tax increase that will likely be felt by D.C. residents. Our conclusion, and that of nearly all academic economists studying this issue, is that professional sports generally have little, if any, positive effect on a city's economy. The net economic impact of professional sports in Washington, D.C., and the 36 other cities that hosted professional sports teams over nearly 30 years, was a reduction in real per capita income over the entire metropolitan area. A baseball team in D.C. might produce intangible benefits. Rooting for the team might provide satisfaction to many local baseball fans. That is hardly a reason for the city government to subsidize the team. D.C. policymakers should not be mesmerized by faulty impact studies that claim that a baseball team and a new stadium can be an engine of economic growth

The Tate-Shafarevich group for elliptic curves with complex multiplication II

Let E be an elliptic curve over Q with complex multiplication. The aim of the present paper is to strengthen the theoretical and numerical results of \cite{CZS}. For each prime p, let t_{E/Q, p} denote the Z_p-corank of the p-primary subgroup of the Tate-Shafarevich group of E/Q. For each \epsilon 0, we prove that t_{E/Q, p} is bounded above by (1/2+\epsilon)p for all sufficiently large good ordinary primes p. We also do numerical calculations on one such E of rank 3, and 5 such E of rank 2, showing in all cases that t_{E/Q, p} = 0 for all good ordinary primes p < 30,000. In fact, we show that, with the possible exception of one good ordinary prime in this range for just one of the curves of rank 2, the p-primary subgroup of the Tate-Shafarevich group of the curve is zero (always supposing p is a good ordinary prime).Comment: 24 page

Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Subsidies for Sports Franchises, Stadiums, and Mega-Events?

This paper reviews the empirical literature assessing the effects of subsidies for professional sports franchises and facilities. The evidence reveals a great deal of consistency among economists doing research in this area. That evidence is that sports subsidies cannot be justified on the grounds of local economic development, income growth or job creation, those arguments most frequently used by subsidy advocates. The paper also relates survey evidence showing that economists in general oppose sports subsidies. In addition to reviewing the empirical literature, we describe the economic intuition that probably underlies the strong consensus among economists against sports subsidies.sports, subsidies, stadiums, arenas

Novelty Effects of New Facilities on Attendance at Professional Sporting Events

We investigate the possibility that new facilities affect attendance - the "novelty effect" - in professional baseball, basketball, and football from 1969-2001 by estimating the parameters of a reduced form attendance model. Our results indicate a strong, persistent novelty effect in baseball and basketball and little or no novelty effect in football. Our estimates of size and duration of the novelty effect imply that, in a new facility, at a minimum, a baseball team would sell an additional 2,561,702 tickets over the first eight seasons, a basketball team 446,936 over the first nine seasons, and a football team 163,436 over the first five seasons. This increase in attendance also suggests a corresponding increase in revenues that could be tapped to help defray the large public subsidies that state and local governments frequently provide to new stadium and arena construction projects.Professional Sports, Attendance, Novelty Effect

Game Attendance and Competitive Balance in the National Hockey League

We examine the relationship between attendance, uncertainty of outcome, and team quality in the National Hockey League. Based on results from a reduced form model of attendance at 6054 regular season NHL games from 2005/06 to 2009/10, we find evidence that attendance increases when fans expect the home team to win by a large margin. Attendance increases for home team underdogs, but the extent of that boost declines as the underdog status worsens. An asymmetric relationship exists between expected game outcomes and attendance, suggesting the need for an expanded definition of the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis.Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis; Attendance demand ; NHL

The Effect of Professional Sports on the Earnings of Individuals: Evidence from Microeconomic Data

This paper explores the impact of professional sports teams and stadiums on the wages of individuals employed in several narrowly defined occupational groups in cities in the United States. The occupational groups examined are among those that proponents of public funding of professional sports claim will benefit economically from these stadiums. Our analysis uses data from the March Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the period 1983 to 1998. Previous research focused on aggregate measures of income whereas here the focus is on the wages of individual workers. The results of the study conform conclusions of earlier research that the overall sports environment is frequently statistically significant as a determinant of earnings.