An Egalitarian Regime Breeds Generosity: The Effect of Endowment Allocation Procedures on Social Preferences

We experimentally investigate the effect of endowment allocation procedures on social preferences using a two-stage dictator game. In the first stage, participants who were randomly selected as allocators had to perform a task in order to earn money. Better performance on the task resulted in higher earnings. In our baseline meritocratic treatment, the allocators' initial endowment was set equal to their individual earnings. We compared this with an egalitarian treatment whereby the allocators' initial endowment was set equal to the average earnings of all allocators. Essentially, high performers were taxed and under performers were subsidized by the high performers. In the second stage, the allocators had to divide their endowment with the recipients. We show that the allocators were more generous in the egalitarian treatment than in the meritocratic treatment. Interestingly, being taxed did not reduce the high performers' generosity but being subsidized did significantly increase the under performers' generosity. Thus, being treated kindly induced the under performers to reciprocate forward to other people.Other-regarding Behavior; Dictator Game; Endowment Allocation Procedures; Meritocratic; Egalitarian; Forward Reciprocity

Boeravinone B promotes fracture healing in ovariectomyinduced osteoporotic rats via the regulation of NF-κB p65/IκB-α/SIRT-1 signaling pathway

Purpose: To investigate the fracture-healing effect of boeravinone B in ovariectomy-induced (OVX) osteoporotic rats. Methods: Adult female Wistar rats (n = 30) were ovariectomized and after three months, the unilateral cross-tibial fractures were fixed with intramedullary nails. The rats were then randomly assigned to three groups of 10 rats each: normal control group, OVX group and 100 mg/kg body weight boeravinone B group. Boeravinone B was orally administered for a period of 5 weeks. The effect of boeravinone B on indices of bone formation and resorption was assessed. Levels of inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Western blotting was used to determine the expression levels of NF-κB p65, IкB-α and SIRT1 proteins. Results: There were significant increases in the activities of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and collagen type I fragment (CTX) level and serum osteocalcin (OC) of OVX group, when compared with normal control group (p < 0.05). However, treatment with boeravinone B significantly reduced the activities and levels of these parameters, relative to OVX group (p < 0.05). The levels of TNF-α and IL-1β significantly increased in OVX group, relative normal control group, but were significantly lower following treatment with boeravinone B (p < 0.05). Bone mineral content (BMC) was not significantly altered in OVX and boeravinone B-treated groups, when compared with normal control group (p > 0.05). There was significant reduction in bone mineral density (BMD) of OVX group relative to normal control group (p < 0.05). However, treatment with boeravinone B significantly increased the BMD, when compared with OVX group (p < 0.05). After Week 5 of treatment, boeravinone B significantly enhanced bone remodeling and formation of callus. Treatment with boeravinone B significantly reduced the expression levels of NF-κB p65 and IκB-α proteins, and significantly upregulated the expression of SIRT-1 (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results obtained in this study suggest that boeravinone B promotes the healing of fracture caused by osteoporosis via a mechanism involving NF-κB p65/IκB-α/SIRT-1 signaling pathway