OBJECTIVE To describe general data on nucleic acid/serology testing and report the first hepatitis B-nucleic acid testing yield case of an immunized donor in Brazil. METHODS A total of 24,441 donations collected in 2010 and 2011 were submitted to individual nucleic acid testing for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus using the TaqMan((r)) MPX kit (Roche) on the Cobas s20...

Bio-molecular reagents like antibodies required in experimental biology are expensive and their effectiveness, among other things, is critical to the success of the experiment. Although such resources are sometimes donated by one investigator to another through personal communication between the two, there is no previous study to our knowledge on the extent of such donations, nor a central plat...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Donor plasmapheresis involves the removal of a weight-adjusted volume of plasma and the return of cellular components to the donor. Although plasma volume generally returns to normal, some residual effect on vital signs may be possible. This analysis was performed to determine the possible effects of plasmapheresis on blood pressure. MATERIALS AND METHODS A 16-week s...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES To assess the cost and effectiveness of adding a system of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to the current enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) screening for hepatitis C virus (HCV) in blood donations. MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis comparing three HCV screening strategies in French blood donors: detection of antibodies a...

This paper assesses the relevance and time-to-expiry of pharmaceutical donations by the USA by means of a convenience sample of two private voluntary organizations. Data were collected on 16,566 donations shipped between 1994 and 1997 for the two organizations to a total of 129 countries. For three field study countries (Armenia, Haiti, and the United Republic of Tanzania), between 37% and 65% ...

We present evidence from a natural field experiment and structural model designed to shed light on the efficacy of alternative fundraising schemes. In conjunction with the Bavarian State Opera, we mailed 25,000 opera attendees a letter describing a charitable fundraising project organized by the opera house. Recipients were randomly assigned to six treatments designed to explore behavioral resp...

Blood donations in England and Wales are collected from healthy donors who do not acknowledge factors associated with an increased risk of bloodborne infections. All donations issued for transfusion since the early 1970s have been tested for hepatitis B surface antigen as a marker of transmissible hepatitis B virus. These measures have resulted in low rates of transmission by transfusion but ha...

How Can Bill and Melinda Gates Increase Other People's Donations to Fund Public Goods?* We develop a simple theory which formally describes how charities can resolve the information asymmetry problems faced by small donors by working with large donors to generate quality signals. To test the model, we conducted two large-scale natural field experiments. In the first experiment, a charity focusi...

Anonymity is often offered in economic experiments in order to eliminate observer effects and induce behavior that would be exhibited under private circumstances. However, anonymity differs from privacy in that interactants are only unaware of each others' identities, while having full knowledge of each others' actions. Such situations are rare outside the laboratory and anonymity might not mee...

Older adults have been shown to avoid negative and prefer positive information to a higher extent than younger adults. This positivity bias influences their information processing as well as decision-making. We investigate age-related positivity bias in charitable giving in two studies. In Study 1 we examine motivational factors in monetary donations, while Study 2 focuses on the emotional effe...