Fear and Foxes: An Educational Primer for Use with "Anterior Pituitary Transcriptome Suggests Differences in ACTH Release in Tame and Aggressive Foxes".

The way genes contribute to behavior is complicated. Although there are some single genes with large contributions, most behavioral differences are due to small effects from many interacting genes. This makes it hard to identify the genes that cause behavioral differences. Mutagenesis screens in model organisms, selective breeding experiments in animals, comparisons between related populations with different behaviors, and genome-wide association studies in humans are promising and complementary approaches to understanding the heritable aspects of complex behaviors. To connect genes to behaviors requires measuring behavioral differences, locating correlated genetic changes, determining when, where, and how these candidate genes act, and designing causative confirmatory experiments. This area of research has implications from basic discovery science to human mental health

Quality of life and chronic pain four years after gastrointestinal surgery

PURPOSE: Little is known about the prevalence of chronic postsurgical pain after gastrointestinal surgery. This study was designed to assess the prevalence of chronic pain and quality of life in a cohort of patients who underwent surgery for benign and malignant gastrointestinal disease. METHODS: A prospective cohort design was used to assess quality of life and morbidity at four years postoperatively in 435 patients who had upper, hepatopancreaticobiliary, small-bowel, and/or colorectal anastomotic surgery in 1999 at one regional center in Northeast Scotland. Chronic pain and quality of life were assessed by postal survey using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life-C30 questionnaire and McGill Pain Questionnaire. RESULTS: Of the 435 patients recruited in 1999, 135 (31 percent) had died by censor date in 2003. There was a 74 percent (n = 202) response rate from surviving patients eligible for follow-up. Prevalence of chronic pain at four years postoperatively was 18 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 13-23 percent). Pain was predominantly neuropathic in character; a subgroup reported moderate-to-severe pain. Risk factors for chronic postsurgical pain included female gender, younger age, and surgery for benign disease. Compared with those who were pain-free at follow-up, patients with chronic pain had poorer functioning, poorer global quality of life, and more severe symptoms, independent of age, gender, and cancer status. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of chronic pain after laparotomy for gastrointestinal malignancy and nonmalignant conditions at four years after surgery was 18 percent. These patients had significantly poorer quality of life scores independent of age, gender, and cancer status.Dr. Julie Bruce is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) Special Training Fellowship in Health Services & Health of the Public Research

Detecting binocular 3-D motion in static 3-D noise: No effect of viewing distance.

Relative binocular disparity cannot tell us the absolute 3-D shape of an object, nor its 3-D trajectory if it is moving, unless the visual system has independent access to how far away the object is at any moment. Indeed, as the viewing distance is changed, the same disparate retinal motions will correspond to very different real 3-D trajectories. In this paper we were interested in whether binocular 3-D motion detection is affected by viewing distance. We used a visual search task in which the observer is asked to detect a target dot, moving in 3-D, amidst 3-D stationary distractor dots. We found that distance does not affect detection performance. Motion-in-depth is consistently harder to detect than the equivalent lateral motion, for all viewing distances. For a constant retinal motion with both lateral and motion-in-depth components, detection performance is constant despite variations in viewing distance that produce large changes in the direction of the 3-D trajectory. We conclude that binocular 3-D motion detection relies on retinal, not absolute visual signals

REGULATORY TARGETS AND REGIMES FOR FOOD SAFETY: A COMPARISON OF NORTH AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN APPROACHES

Food quality, international trade, harmonization, mutual recognition, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Taxes and Entrepreneurial Activity: Theory and Evidence for the U.S.

Entrepreneurial activity is presumed to generate important spillovers, potentially justifying tax subsidies. How does the tax law affect individual incentives? How much of an impact has it had in practice? We first show theoretically that taxes can affect the incentives to be an entrepreneur due simply to differences in tax rates on business vs. wage and salary income, due to differences in the tax treatment of losses vs. profits through a progressive rate structure and through the option to incorporate, and due to risk-sharing with the government. We then provide empirical evidence using U.S. individual tax return data that these aspects of the tax law have had large effects on actual behavior.

The Social and Economic Impact of Native American Casinos

In the late 1980s, a series of legal rulings favorable to tribes and the subsequent passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 legalized gaming operations on reservations in many states. Today, there are over 310 gaming operations run by more than 200 of the nations' 556 federally-recognized tribes. Of these operations, about 220 are Las Vegas' style casinos with slot machines and/or table games. We use a simple difference-in-difference framework where we compare economic outcomes before and after tribes open casinos to outcomes over the same period for tribes that do not adopt or are prohibited from adopting gaming. Four years after tribes open casinos, employment has increased by 26 percent, and tribal population has increased by about 12 percent, resulting in an increase in employment to population ratios of five percentage points or about 12 percent. The fraction of adults who work but are poor has declined by 14 percent. Tribal gaming operations seem to have both positive and negative spillovers in the surrounding communities. In counties where an Indian-owned casino opens, we find that jobs per adult increase by about five percent of the median value. Given the size of tribes relative to their counties, most of this growth in employment is due to growth in non-Native American employment. The increase in economic activity appears to have some health benefits in that four or more years after a casino opens, mortality has fallen by 2 percent in a county with a casino and an amount half that in counties near a casino. Casinos do, however, come at some cost. Four years after a casino opens, bankruptcy rates, violent crime, and auto thefts and larceny are up 10 percent in counties with a casino.

Calm after the storms : income distribution in Chile, 1987-94

This paper uses Vietnam as a case study in rapidly assessing the strengths and weaknesses of an existing system of transfers and safety nets. Data are taken to be weak; in particular, rigorous ex-post evaluations of the components of the existing social security system are not available in time to inform policy choices. So the aim is instead to provide a broad qualitative assessment, also pointing to key issues on which knowledge needs to improve. The paper provides a critical overview of the existing public poverty and safety net programs in Vietnam that aim to help and protect those outside the formal employment sectors, notably those in the rural economy and urban informal sector. It begins with a brief examination of the principal sources of vulnerability for Vietnamese households and what is known about household coping strategies. This is followed by a description of the various transfers and safety nets that are currently available to address low incomes and vulnerability for individuals outside the formal employment system and hence not covered by the government's social security benefits. Naturally, much of the focus is on rural households and individuals.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Services&Transfers to Poor,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Inequality,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Governance Indicators,Services&Transfers to Poor

Employees’ Financial Insecurity and Health: The Underlying Role of Stress and Work–Family Conflict Appraisals

Data from two longitudinal samples were utilized to elucidate underlying mechanisms of the well‐established relationship between financial insecurity and health outcomes, stemming from the theoretical rationale of conservation of resources and cognitive appraisal theories. Study 1 (n = 80) consisted of low‐wage food manufacturing employees working full time, while Study 2 (n = 331) was consisted of a larger, heterogeneous sample of full‐time workers representing multiple occupations. Respondents were surveyed on financial insecurity, work‐to‐family conflict (WFC), stress, and health outcomes at two time periods, 3 months apart. Results across our studies provided support for the direct effects of financial insecurity on WFC and stress. In addition, appraisals of WFC and stress serve as significant mediators of the relationship between financial insecurity and health outcomes, including a significant overall lagged effect across time, and perceived stress accounting for the largest proportion of variance in the lagged relationship among Time 1 financial insecurity and Time 2 health outcomes. Besides support for conservation of resources and cognitive appraisal theories, practically, our studies suggest that workplace initiatives to reduce financial insecurity could positively influence employees’ work–family, stress, and health experiences