International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined<5 × 10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist

Cooperation and Social Choice: How Foresight Can Induce Fairness

I present three models of dynamic agenda formation and policy selection, and demonstrate that in each, outcomes emerge which are in keeping with those predicted by cooperative solution concepts such as the von Neumann-Morgenstern stable set and the core. These outcomes are a consequence of players "thinking ahead," or conditioning how they bargain on the notion that policies selected today should stand up to tomorrow's agenda. Players are induced into taking the payoffs of others into account when voting over and proposing policies, not because of a behavioral assumption such as altruism or inequality aversion, but because they know that the behavior of others in large part determines which policies are enacted in the future. In this sense, fairness is induced through the foresight of the players involved

Institutions and Sorting in a Model of Metropolitan Fragmentation

I construct a theoretical and computational model of municipal fragmentation and Tiebout competition and show that factors such as income heterogeneity, political institutions, and the discretionary power of municipalities to tax can substantially affect both where individuals choose to live and how cities form. Conclusions are drawn about the types of cities that form when secession is an option. These conclusions support the idea that increasing the range of choices available to municipalities and to individuals can actually leave a majorit