Television Revenue and the Structure of Athletic Contests: The Case of the National Basketball Association
This study points out that changes in the format of the playoffs in the National Basketball Association have had the effect of lengthening the championship series and reducing the variance in the length of the series. These are valuable goals for the organization because they provide higher television ratings and revenues for the teams involved. Empirical evidence presented here suggests that viewership among 1.2 million additional households is at stake.
The Home-Court Advantage: How Large is it, and Does it Vary from Team to Team?
Abstract College basketball fans often speculate on the extent and nature of the home-court advantage. In this article, it is shown how questions about the size of the home-court advantage and about team-to-team differences in the home-court advantage can be addressed by fitting three different linear models to the outcomes of college basketball games. This approach was applied to data from the 1991–1992 college basketball season. The advantage of playing at home (in relation to playing on a neutral court) was estimated to be 4.68 ± 0.28 points. The effect of team-to-team differences in the home-court advantage was found to be relatively small.
Peritoneal eosinophils during intermittent peritoneal dialysis.
Peritoneal eosinophil counts were investigated in 61 intermittent dialysis patients over the course of 1 year. The peritoneal eosinophil percentage fell from 18 +/- 2% (mean +/- SEM) in the first 2 months of dialysis to 3 +/- 0.4% after 6 months of dialysis. Absolute eosinophils per cubic millimeter fell from 586 +/- 126 to 61 +/- 18 (p less than 0.01 for both percentage and absolute values). There was a wide range in the mean eosinophil percentages per patient in the first 6 months of dialysis (0-84%) that narrowed to 0-9% after 6 months. The majority of the high initial eosinophil counts resolved after 2 months. Peripheral eosinophilia was seen in 8 of the 10 patients with the highest mean peritoneal eosinophil percentages during the first 2 months of dialysis. Patients who developed peritonitis had a significantly lower percentage of eosinophils in the first 1.5 months of dialysis than patients who did not develop peritonitis. At the time of diagnosis of peritonitis, the peritoneal eosinophil count was near zero. 4 cases of peritoneal eosinophilia which developed after antibiotic therapy are described.