This article is about institutions as social mechanisms. Please see Organization for formal establishments.

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Institutions are social structures and social mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of two or more individuals. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior. The term, institution, is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public service. As structures and mechanisms of social order among humans, institutions are one of the principal objects of study in the social sciences, including sociology, political science and economics. Institutions are a central concern for law, the formal regime for political rule-making and enforcement. The creation and evolution of institutions is a primary topic for history.

Aspects of Institutions

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Although individual, formal organizations, commonly identified as "institutions," may be deliberately and intentionally created by people, the development and functioning of institutions in society in general may be regarded as an instance of emergence; that is, institutions arise, develop and function in a pattern of social self-organization, which goes beyond the conscious intentions of the individual humans involved.

As mechanisms of social cooperation, institutions are manifest in both objectively real, formal organizations, such as the U.S. Congress, the Roman Catholic Church or the Bank of England, and, also, in informal social order and organization, reflecting human psychology, culture, habits and customs. Most important institutions, considered abstractly, have both objective and subjective aspects: examples include money and marriage. The institution of money encompasses many formal organizations, including banks and government treasury departments and stock exchanges, which may be termed, "institutions," as well as subjective experiences, which guide people in their pursuit of personal economic well-being and wealth. Powerful institutions are able to imbue a paper currency with certain value, and to induce millions into cooperative production and trade in pursuit of economic ends abstractly denominated in that currency's units. The subjective experience of money is so pervasive and persuasive that economists talk of the "money illusion" and try to disabuse their students of it, in preparation for learning economic analysis.

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Human & Experimental Toxicology current issue

CYP2A6 activity in a healthy Spanish population: effect of age, sex, smoking, and oral contraceptives
Sinues, B, Fanlo, A, Mayayo, E, Carcas, C, Vicente, J, Arenaz, I, Cebollada, A Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
This study was performed to assess the influence of age, sex, smoking, and contraceptive use on CYP2A6 activity. In the metabolism of caffeine, the conversion of 1,7 dimethylxanthine (17X) to 1,7 dimethiylurate (17U) is catalyzed primarily by CYP2A6. CYP2A6 phenotype was determined by the urinary ratio 17U:17X in the interval of 4–5 h after caffeine intake in 179 healthy white Spaniards (102 women and 76 men). There were 99 non-smokers and 80 smokers. Among women, 26 were taking oral contraceptives. The age was the most important predictive factor of CYP2A6 activity (P < 0.001) with older subjects having higher activity. The influence of the gender was more modest (P = 0.07) with women exhibiting borderline increased values of the CYP2A6 marker than men. Tobacco smoking did not affect CYP2A6 activity. However, the CYP2A6 marker resulted to be strongly related to the use of oral contraceptives. The women users of oral contraceptives had higher values of CYP2A6 marker than both women not taking oral contraceptives and men (P < 0.001 in both comparisons). The results indicate that age, oral contraceptive use, and possibly gender should be controlled in epidemiological studies dealing with CYP2A6 activity and its relationship with xenobiotics exposure and genetic or pathological factor.
Etiology and outcome of patients presenting for poisoning to the emergency department in Taiwan: a prospective study
Lee, H-L, Lin, H-J, Yeh, S.-Y, Chi, C-H, Guo, H-R Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Poisoning is one of the most common reasons for visiting the emergency department in many countries, and the pattern varies from countries to countries and time to time. To compare the etiology and outcome of poisoning patients in different gender and age groups, we conducted a prospective study at the emergency departments of two medical centers in southern Taiwan between January 2001 and December 2002. All cases of poisoning, excluding patients diagnosed as cases of alcohol or food poisoning, were included, and relevant information was collected. There were 1512 cases of poisoning observed with a male to female ratio of 1:1.2 (684/828). Overall, drugs (49.9%) were the main agents involved, and a suicidal attempt (66.1%) was the predominant etiology. A total of 63 fatalities (4.2%) were observed and pesticides, especially paraquat, resulted in most fatalities. Patients aged 19–30 years constituted the most cases, and significant differences in exposure agents, causes, and fatality rates were found among different age and gender groups. The results are compatible with the trend reported by other Asian countries. This study also shows important differences existing in poisoning patients of different age and gender groups. Therefore, different poisoning-prevention strategies should be applied to different groups.
Analysis of T-cell proliferation and cytokine secretion in the individuals exposed to arsenic
Biswas, R, Ghosh, P, Banerjee, N, Das, J., Sau, T, Banerjee, A, Roy, S, Ganguly, S, Chatterjee, M, Mukherjee, A, Giri, A. Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Over six million people in nine districts of West Bengal, India are exposed to very high levels of arsenic primarily through their drinking water. More than 300,000 people showed arsenic-induced skin lesions in these districts. This is regarded as the greatest arsenic calamity in the world. Chronic arsenicosis causes varied dermatological signs ranging from pigmentation changes, hyperkeratosis to non-melanocytic cancer of skin, and also malignancies in different internal organs. Higher incidences of opportunistic infections are found in the arsenic-exposed individuals, indicating that their immune systems may be impaired somehow. We have thus investigated the effect of arsenic on T-cell proliferation and cytokine secretion in 20 individuals with arsenic-induced skin lesions and compared the results with 18 arsenic-unexposed individuals. A marked dose-dependent suppression of Concanavalin A (Con A) induced T-cell proliferation was observed in the arsenic-exposed individuals compared with the unexposed (P < 0.001) individuals. This correlated with a significant decrease in the levels of secreted cytokines by the T cells (TNF-, IFN-, IL2, IL10, IL5, and IL4) in the exposed individuals (P < 0.001). Thus it can be inferred that arsenic exposure can cause immunosuppression in humans.

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