Prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus Antibody in Patients With Sexually Transmitted Diseases Attending a Harrisburg, PA, STD Clinic

Objective: The prevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic population was studied, along with the prevalence of various STD agents, in an attempt to identify possible STD markers for the hepatitis C virus and help delineate the role of hepatitis C as an STD. The hepatitis C antibody rates found in the STD clinic were also compared with those found among patients attending a local OB/GYN clinic and those enrolled in a blood donor program, all from the same geographical area

Gender Differences in Sleep Deprivation Effects on Risk and Inequality Aversion: Evidence from an Economic Experiment

Excessive working hours—even at night—are becoming increasingly common in our modern 24/7 society. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is particularly vulnerable to the effects of sleep loss and, consequently, the specific behaviors subserved by the functional integrity of the PFC, such as risk-taking and pro-social behavior, may be affected significantly. This paper seeks to assess the effects of one night of sleep deprivation on subjects’ risk and social preferences, which are probably the most explored behavioral domains in the tradition of Experimental Economics. This novel cross-over study employs thirty-two university students (gender-balanced) participating to 2 counterbalanced laboratory sessions in which they perform standard risk and social preference elicitation protocols. One session was after one night of undisturbed sleep at home, and the other was after one night of sleep deprivation in the laboratory. Sleep deprivation causes increased sleepiness and decreased alertness in all subjects. After sleep loss males make riskier decisions compared to the rested condition, while females do the opposite. Females likewise show decreased inequity aversion after sleep deprivation. As for the relationship between cognitive ability and economic decisions, sleep deprived individuals with higher cognitive reflection show lower risk aversion and more altruistic behavior. These results show that one night of sleep deprivation alters economic behavior in a gender-sensitive way. Females’ reaction to sleep deprivation, characterized by reduced risky choices and increased egoism compared to males, may be related to intrinsic psychological gender differences, such as in the way men and women weigh up probabilities in their decision-making, and/or to the different neurofunctional substrate of their decision-making.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economic Competititveness (ECO2012-34928), Italian Ministry of University and Research MIUR (PRIN 20103S5RN3_002), Generalitat Valenciana (Research Projects Gruposo3/086), the Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas (IVIE), and the Ministero della Salute (RF-2009-1528677)

Some Transaction Cost Effects of Authoritarian Management

This paper studies the transaction cost economizing effects of authoritarian management in organizations and systems subject to higher transaction costs originating from various sources. We analyze the nature, mechanisms, and transaction cost aspects of the authoritarian management style. We argue that the higher the transaction costs of internal organization, the more autocratic the manager is likely to be. We discuss the features of authoritarian managers, illustrating some of our key hypotheses with the example of Henry Ford and his running of the Ford Motor Company. In the context of non-market economies, we relate authoritarian leadership to economic centralism in high transaction cost systems such as East European societies with significant transactional or organizational opportunism, as well as other sources of market failure

Genome-wide association study of advanced age-related macular degeneration identifies a role of the hepatic lipase gene (LIPC)

Advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of late onset blindness. We present results of a genome-wide association study of 979 advanced AMD cases and 1,709 controls using the Affymetrix 6.0 platform with replication in seven additional cohorts (totaling 5,789 unrelated cases and 4,234 unrelated controls). We also present a comprehensive analysis of copy-number variations and polymorphisms for AMD. Our discovery data implicated the association between AMD and a variant in the hepatic lipase gene (LIPC) in the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) pathway (discovery P = 4.53e-05 for rs493258). Our LIPC association was strongest for a functional promoter variant, rs10468017, (P = 1.34e-08), that influences LIPC expression and serum HDL levels with a protective effect of the minor T allele (HDL increasing) for advanced wet and dry AMD. The association we found with LIPC was corroborated by the Michigan/Penn/Mayo genome-wide association study; the locus near the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3 was corroborated by our replication cohort for rs9621532 with P = 3.71e-09. We observed weaker associations with other HDL loci (ABCA1, P = 9.73e-04; cholesterylester transfer protein, P = 1.41e-03; FADS1-3, P = 2.69e-02). Based on a lack of consistent association between HDL increasing alleles and AMD risk, the LIPC association may not be the result of an effect on HDL levels, but it could represent a pleiotropic effect of the same functional component. Results implicate different biologic pathways than previously reported and provide new avenues for prevention and treatment of AMD