Human cadavers are crucial to medical science. While the debate on how to secure sufficient cadavers has focused primarily on donors' behaviors, procuring organizations' roles in increasing donations remain less explored. The United States offers a unique setting in which to examine this question since entrepreneurial ventures supplying cadavers for medical science have recently emerged alongsi...

We screened plasma samples (minipools of 96 samples, corresponding to 53,234 blood donations) from France that had been processed with solvent-detergent for hepatitis E virus RNA. The detection rate was 1 HEV-positive sample/2,218 blood donations. Most samples (22/24) from viremic donors were negative for IgG and IgM against HEV.

BACKGROUND Blood transfusion safety is based on reliable donor screening for transmissible infections such as the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS A novel HCV core-specific antibody was assayed on random single donations from 2007 first-time blood donors who tested negative for anti-HCV and HCV RNA on routine screening. Sample collection broke the code between donat...

BACKGROUND There has been continuing progress in measures to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infection, including introduction of serologic tests of increased sensitivity and the recent implementation of investigational NAT in small pools of samples. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS Data relating to all blood donations to the American Red Cross have been consolidated into a single database...

BACKGROUND Testing of blood donors for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA by means of nucleic acid amplification was introduced in the United States as an investigational screening test in mid-1999 to identify donations made during the window period before seroconversion. METHODS We analyzed all antibody-nonreactive donations that were confirmed to be ...

, to make substantial donations to the Parent Society and to the Jenner Trust and smaller contributions towards the funds of all the Post Graduate Medical Centres in the West of England. In April 1973 the Society of Medical Officers' of | Health changed its name to the Society of Community Medicine. In January 1973 the West of England branch (President?Dr. D. K. MacTaggart, Torbay) ^e'd a meeti...

OBJECTIVES To explore the nature of corporate gifts directed at PharmD programs and pharmacy student activities and the perceptions of administrators about the potential influences of such gifts. METHODS A verbally administered survey of administrative officials at 11 US colleges and schools of pharmacy was conducted and responses were analyzed. RESULTS All respondents indicated accepting c...

European economies are characterized by unionized labor markets and a pronounced governmental redistribution of income. This paper studies a model where those two features are combined with the possibility for individuals to make charitable contributions to the poor. The model exhibits equilibrium unemployment that increases with the degree of altruism. It is shown that a more progressive incom...

Costly signaling of commitment to a group has been proposed as an explanation for participation in religion and ritual. But if the signal’s cost is too small, freeriders will send the signal and behave selfishly later. Effective signaling may then be prohibitively costly. If the average level of signaling in a group is observable, but individual effort is not, then freeriders can behave selfish...