The effects of financial education in the workplace: Evidence from a survey of employers

We examine the effects of education on financial decision-making skills by identifying an interesting source of variation in pertinent training. During the 1990s, an increasing number of individuals were exposed to programs of financial education provided by their employers. If, as some have argued, low saving frequently results from a failure to appreciate economic vulnerabilities, then education of this form could prove to have a powerful effect on behavior. The current article undertakes an analysis of these programs using a previously unexploited survey of employers. We find that both participation in and contributions to voluntary savings plans are significantly higher when employers offer retirement seminars. The effect is typically much stronger for nonhighly compensated employees than for highly compensated employees. The frequency of seminars emerges as a particularly important correlate of behavior. We are unable to detect any effects of written materials, such as newsletters and summary plan descriptions, regardless of frequency. We also present evidence on other determinants of plan activity. © 2008 Western Economic Association International.

Cytocidal amino acid starvation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans acetolactate synthase (ilv2{Delta}) mutants is influenced by the carbon source and rapamycin.

The isoleucine and valine biosynthetic enzyme acetolactate synthase (Ilv2p) is an attractive antifungal drug target, since the isoleucine and valine biosynthetic pathway is not present in mammals, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ilv2Delta mutants do not survive in vivo, Cryptococcus neoformans ilv2 mutants are avirulent, and both S. cerevisiae and Cr. neoformans ilv2 mutants die upon isoleucine and valine starvation. To further explore the potential of Ilv2p as an antifungal drug target, we disrupted Candida albicans ILV2, and demonstrated that Ca. albicans ilv2Delta mutants were significantly attenuated in virulence, and were also profoundly starvation-cidal, with a greater than 100-fold reduction in viability after only 4 h of isoleucine and valine starvation. As fungicidal starvation would be advantageous for drug design, we explored the basis of the starvation-cidal phenotype in both S. cerevisiae and Ca. albicans ilv2Delta mutants. Since the mutation of ILV1, required for the first step of isoleucine biosynthesis, did not suppress the ilv2Delta starvation-cidal defects in either species, the cidal phenotype was not due to alpha-ketobutyrate accumulation. We found that starvation for isoleucine alone was more deleterious in Ca. albicans than in S. cerevisiae, and starvation for valine was more deleterious than for isoleucine in both species. Interestingly, while the target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway inhibitor rapamycin further reduced S. cerevisiae ilv2Delta starvation viability, it increased Ca. albicans ilv1Delta and ilv2Delta viability. Furthermore, the recovery from starvation was dependent on the carbon source present during recovery for S. cerevisiae ilv2Delta mutants, reminiscent of isoleucine and valine starvation inducing a viable but non-culturable-like state in this species, while Ca. albicans ilv1Delta and ilv2 Delta viability was influenced by the carbon source present during starvation, supporting a role for glucose wasting in the Ca. albicans cidal phenotype.

Ferrochelatase is a conserved downstream target of the blue light-sensing White collar complex in fungi.

Light is a universal signal perceived by organisms, including fungi, in which light regulates common and unique biological processes depending on the species. Previous research has established that conserved proteins, originally called White collar 1 and 2 from the ascomycete Neurospora crassa, regulate UV/blue light sensing. Homologous proteins function in distant relatives of N. crassa, including the basidiomycetes and zygomycetes, which diverged as long as a billion years ago. Here we conducted microarray experiments on the basidiomycete fungus Cryptococcus neoformans to identify light-regulated genes. Surprisingly, only a single gene was induced by light above the commonly used twofold threshold. This gene, HEM15, is predicted to encode a ferrochelatase that catalyses the final step in haem biosynthesis from highly photoreactive porphyrins. The C. neoformans gene complements a Saccharomyces cerevisiae hem15Delta strain and is essential for viability, and the Hem15 protein localizes to mitochondria, three lines of evidence that the gene encodes ferrochelatase. Regulation of HEM15 by light suggests a mechanism by which bwc1/bwc2 mutants are photosensitive and exhibit reduced virulence. We show that ferrochelatase is also light-regulated in a white collar-dependent fashion in N. crassa and the zygomycete Phycomyces blakesleeanus, indicating that ferrochelatase is an ancient target of photoregulation in the fungal kingdom.

Neutralization activity in a geographically diverse East London cohort of human immunodeficiency virus type 1-infected patients: clade C infection results in a stronger and broader humoral immune response than clade B infection.

The array of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) subtypes encountered in East London, an area long associated with migration, is unusually heterogeneous, reflecting the diverse geographical origins of the population. In this study it was shown that viral subtypes or clades infecting a sample of HIV type 1 (HIV-1)-positive individuals in East London reflect the global pandemic. The authors studied the humoral response in 210 treatment-naïve chronically HIV-1-infected (>1 year) adult subjects against a panel of 12 viruses from six different clades. Plasmas from individuals infected with clade C, but also plasmas from clade A, and to a lesser degree clade CRF02_AG and CRF01_AE, were significantly more potent at neutralizing the tested viruses compared with plasmas from individuals infected with clade B. The difference in humoral robustness between clade C- and B-infected patients was confirmed in titration studies with an extended panel of clade B and C viruses. These results support the approach to develop an HIV-1 vaccine that includes clade C or A envelope protein (Env) immunogens for the induction of a potent neutralizing humoral response.

Accuracy of proactive case finding for mental disorders by community informants in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Accurate detection of persons in need of mental healthcare is crucial to reduce the treatment gap between psychiatric burden and service use in low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries. AIMS: To evaluate the accuracy of a community-based proactive case-finding strategy (Community Informant Detection Tool, CIDT), involving pictorial vignettes, designed to initiate pathways for mental health treatment in primary care settings. METHOD: Community informants using the CIDT identified screen positive (n = 110) and negative persons (n = 85). Participants were then administered the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). RESULTS: The CIDT has a positive predictive value of 0.64 (0.68 for adults only) and a negative predictive value of 0.93 (0.91 for adults only). CONCLUSIONS: The CIDT has promising detection properties for psychiatric caseness. Further research should investigate its potential to increase demand for, and access to, mental health services.

An online daily diary study of alcohol use using Amazon's mechanical turk

Introduction and Aims: In recent years, unprecedented levels of Internet access and the widespread growth of emergent communication technologies have resulted in significantly greater population access for substance use researchers. Despite the research potential of such technologies, the use of the Internet to recruit individuals for participation in event-level research has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief account of the methods and results from an online daily diary study of alcohol use. Design and Methods: Participants were recruited using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Eligible participants completed a brief screener assessing demographics and health behaviours, with a subset of individuals subsequently recruited to participate in a 2 week daily diary study of alcohol use. Results: Multilevel models of the daily alcohol data derived from the Mechanical Turk sample (n=369) replicated several findings commonly reported in daily diary studies of alcohol use. Discussion and Conclusions: Results demonstrate that online participant recruitment and survey administration can be a fruitful method for conducting daily diary alcohol research. © 2014 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.