A functional MRI study on how oxytocin affects decision making in social dilemmas: Cooperate as long as it pays off, aggress only when you think you can win.

We investigate if the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT), known to moderate social behaviour, influences strategic decision making in social dilemmas by facilitating the integration of incentives and social cues. Participants (N=29) played two economic games with different incentive structures in the fMRI scanner after receiving OT or placebo (following a double blind, within-subject design). Pictures of angry or neutral faces (the social cues) were displayed alongside the game matrices.

Trust as commodity: social value orientation affects the neural substrates of learning to cooperate.

Individuals differ in their motives and strategies to cooperate in social dilemmas. These differences are reflected by an individual's social value orientation: proselfs are strategic and motivated to maximize self-interest, while prosocials are more trusting and value fairness. We hypothesize that when deciding whether or not to cooperate with a random member of a defined group, proselfs, more than prosocials, adapt their decisions based on past experiences: they 'learn' instrumentally to form a base-line expectation of reciprocity.

Use of neuraminidase inhibitors in primary health care during pandemic and seasonal influenza between 2009 and 2013.

Background: In a context of controversy about influenza antiviral treatments, this study assessed primary health-care physicians' prescription of neuraminidase inhibitors (NIs) in France during pandemic and seasonal influenza between 2009 and 2013.

Methods: This observational study, using data recorded in three national databases, estimated the rate of NI prescription among influenza-like illness (ILI) patients seen in GP and paediatrician consultations, and determined factors associated with this prescription according to a multivariate analysis. NI delivery by pharmacists was also evaluated.

Oxytocin does not make a face appear more trustworthy but improves the accuracy of trustworthiness judgments.

Previous research on the relation between oxytocin and trustworthiness evaluations has yielded inconsistent results. The current study reports an experiment using artificial faces which allows manipulating the dimension of trustworthiness without changing factors like emotions or face symmetry. We investigate whether (1) oxytocin increases the average trustworthiness evaluation of faces (level effect), and/or whether (2) oxytocin improves the discriminatory ability of trustworthiness perception so that people become more accurate in distinguishing faces that vary along a gradient of trustworthiness.

A method to assess seasonality of urinary tract infections based on medication sales and google trends.

Background: Despite the fact that urinary tract infection (UTI) is a very frequent disease, little is known about its seasonality in the community.

Methods And Findings: To estimate seasonality of UTI using multiple time series constructed with available proxies of UTI. Eight time series based on two databases were used: sales of urinary antibacterial medications reported by a panel of pharmacy stores in France between 2000 and 2012, and search trends on the Google search engine for UTI-related terms between 2004 and 2012 in France, Germany, Italy, the USA, China, Australia and Brazil.

Estimating the excess of inappropriate prescriptions of anti-dopaminergic anti-emetics during acute gastroenteritis epidemics in France.

Purpose: Anti-dopaminergic anti-emetics (ADA) use for the treatment of nausea associated with gastroenteritis (GE) can be considered inappropriate, as their effects are not supported by evidence of clinical efficacy and can potentially induce serious adverse events.

Objective: This study quantifies the suboptimal consumption of ADA attributable to seasonal GE epidemics in France and its cost.

Methods: GE epidemiological data were collected and transmitted by the general practitioners (GPs) of Sentinelles network.

The Chikungunya epidemic on La Réunion Island in 2005-2006: a cost-of-illness study.

Background: This study was conducted to assess the impact of chikungunya on health costs during the epidemic that occurred on La Réunion in 2005-2006.

Methodology/principal Findings: From data collected from health agencies, the additional costs incurred by chikungunya in terms of consultations, drug consumption and absence from work were determined by a comparison with the expected costs outside the epidemic period. The cost of hospitalization was estimated from data provided by the national hospitalization database for short-term care by considering all hospital stays in which the ICD-10 code A92.

A method for selecting and monitoring medication sales for surveillance of gastroenteritis.

Purpose: Monitoring appropriate categories of medication sales can provide early warning of certain disease outbreaks. This paper presents a methodology for choosing and monitoring medication sales relevant for the surveillance of gastroenteritis and assesses the operational characteristics of the selected medications for early warning.

Methods: Acute diarrhoea incidences in mainland France were obtained from the Sentinelles network surveillance system for the period 2000-2009.

Medication sales and syndromic surveillance, France.

Although syndromic surveillance systems using nonclinical data have been implemented in the United States, the approach has yet to be tested in France. We present the results of the first model based on drug sales that detects the onset of influenza season and forecasts its trend. Using weekly lagged sales of a selected set of medications, we forecast influenzalike illness (ILI) incidence at the national and regional level for 3 epidemic seasons (2000-01, 2001-02, and 2002-03) and validate the model with real-time updating on the fourth (2003-04).