Money and happiness : rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction

Does money buy happiness, or does happiness come indirectly from the higher rank in society that money brings? Here we test a rank hypothesis, according to which people gain utility from the ranked position of their income within a comparison group. The rank hypothesis contrasts with traditional reference income hypotheses, which suggest utility from income depends on comparison to a social group reference norm. We find that the ranked position of an individual’s income predicts general life satisfaction, while absolute income and reference income have no effect. Furthermore, individuals weight upward comparisons more than downward comparisons. According to the rank hypothesis, income and utility are not directly linked: Increasing an individual’s income will only increase their utility if ranked position also increases and will necessarily reduce the utility of others who will lose rank

Host-Microbe Interactions : Fungi

Peer reviewedPostprin

Production of a Novel Copper-Binding Ligand by Marine Synechococcus (Cyanobacteria) in Response to Toxic Concentrations of Copper

Marine Synechococcus spp. are extremely sensitive to copper toxicity. Some strains have been shown to produce high-affinity, extracellular ligands of unknown structure which form complexes with free cupric ion. They are also known to produce metallothioneins (MT) in response to cadmium and zinc stress. In the present study, marine Synechococcus PCC 73109 (Agmenellum quadruplicatum BG-1) (Van Baalen) was exposed to three concentrations of CuSO4 for various times. Size exclusion chromatography, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and reverse phase HPLC were used to isolate an intracellular copper binding ligand of low molecular weight (\u3c 6,500 Da). The ligand was detected after exposure to ≥ 8 μM CuSO4 for 2 hr in BG-11 medium. The intracellular ligand was characterized by electrospray mass spectrometry, amino acid analysis and a universal assay for siderophores. The ligand was not MT, phytochelatin or a siderophore. It is not a peptide but it contains lysine and an unidentified UV 254-absorbing constituent. This compound is a novel copper-binding ligand previously not reported in Synechococcus spp

A rank based social norms model of how people judge their levels of drunkenness whilst intoxicated

Background: A rank based social norms model predicts that drinkers’ judgements about their drinking will be based on the rank of their breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the immediate environment, rather than their actual breath alcohol level, with lower relative rank associated with greater feelings of safety. This study tested this hypothesis and examined how people judge their levels of drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking whilst they are intoxicated in social drinking environments. Methods: Breath alcohol testing of 1,862 people (mean age = 26.96 years; 61.86 % male) in drinking environments. A subset (N = 400) also answered four questions asking about their perceptions of their drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking (plus background measures). Results: Perceptions of drunkenness and the health consequences of drinking were regressed on: (a) breath alcohol level, (b) the rank of the breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the same environment, and (c) covariates. Only rank of breath alcohol level predicted perceptions: How drunk they felt (b 3.78, 95 % CI 1.69 5.87), how extreme they regarded their drinking that night (b 3.7, 95 % CI 1.3 6.20), how at risk their long-term health was due to their current level of drinking (b 4.1, 95 % CI 0.2 8.0) and how likely they felt they would experience liver cirrhosis (b 4.8. 95 % CI 0.7 8.8). People were more influenced by more sober others than by more drunk others. Conclusion: Whilst intoxicated and in drinking environments, people base judgements regarding their drinking on how their level of intoxication ranks relative to that of others of the same gender around them, not on their actual levels of intoxication. Thus, when in the company of others who are intoxicated, drinkers were found to be more likely to underestimate their own level of drinking, drunkenness and associated risks. The implications of these results, for example that increasing the numbers of sober people in night time environments could improve subjective assessments of drunkenness, are discussed

Fluorescent antibody techniques for the diagnosis of enteric infections

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41673/1/705_2005_Article_BF01243819.pd

Immunologic response of infants to combined inactivated measles-poliomyelitis vaccine

The serologic response of young infants to combined, inactivated measles-poliomyelitis vaccine is described. Maternal antibodies to both diseases were present in many children at the age of 3 months and in some at the age of 5 months and when present, suppressed the primary response to vaccine. Booster injection of vaccine at the age of 18 months was successful in stimulating increased antibody titers in 96% of all the children. Booster doses of live attenuated measles virus instead of killed vaccine stimulated the production of comparable titers of antibody.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41676/1/705_2005_Article_BF01253838.pd

Coxsackie virus infections and heart disease

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33218/1/0000608.pd