Sexual Compulsivity, the Internet, and Sexual Behaviors Among Men in a Rural Area of the United States

This is the publisher's version, which is also found by way of http://online.liebertpub.com/toc/apc/24/9Sexual compulsivity has been associated with higher frequencies of sexual behaviors that may increase risk for transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI). In a rural midwestern region where social and community resources for the sexual health of men who have sex with men (MSM) are relatively few, the patterns of partner-seeking and sexual behavior, and their relations to sexual compulsivity, may be different than findings from other assessments of men in urban centers. Using a community-based participatory approach (CBPR), data were collected from 309 men who were primarily white, identified as gay or homosexual, and had a mean age of 29.37 years (SD¼11.33), to explore relations between scores on a measure of sexual compulsivity and their sexual partner-seeking, drug and alcohol use, and sexual behaviors with men and women. The majority of men reported having engaged in sexual activity with men in the past 30 days. Those scoring higher than the sample mean (1.65 [SD¼0.66]) on the sexual compulsivity measure reported patterns of having sex with partners met online and having been the insertive or receptive partner in unprotected anal intercourse. Given the unique patterns of sexual partner-seeking in this area, interventions to decrease sexual risk-taking should take into account that the vast majority of men in rural areas are using the Internet to locate sexual partners, and prevention messages focused on rural contexts need to be tailored to include men who have a propensity for sexually compulsive behaviors. Additionally, interventions created for virtual spaces may be more sustainable with rural communities than traditional approaches to HIV/STI prevention

The commercialization of genome-editing technologies

<p>The emergence of new gene-editing technologies is profoundly transforming human therapeutics, agriculture, and industrial biotechnology. Advances in clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) have created a fertile environment for mass-scale manufacturing of cost-effective products ranging from basic research to translational medicine. In our analyses, we evaluated the patent landscape of gene-editing technologies and found that in comparison to earlier gene-editing techniques, CRISPR has gained significant traction and this has established dominance. Although most of the gene-editing technologies originated from the industry, CRISPR has been pioneered by academic research institutions. The spinout of CRISPR biotechnology companies from academic institutions demonstrates a shift in entrepreneurship strategies that were previously led by the industry. These academic institutions, and their subsequent companies, are competing to generate comprehensive intellectual property portfolios to rapidly commercialize CRISPR products. Our analysis shows that the emergence of CRISPR has resulted in a fivefold increase in genome-editing bioenterprise investment over the last year. This entrepreneurial movement has spurred a global biotechnology revolution in the realization of novel gene-editing technologies. This global shift in bioenterprise will continue to grow as the demand for personalized medicine, genetically modified crops and environmentally sustainable biofuels increases. However, the monopolization of intellectual property, negative public perception of genetic engineering and ambiguous regulatory policies may limit the growth of these market segments.</p