Are people who participate in cultural activities more satisfied with life?

The influence of various aspects of life on wellbeing has been extensively researched. However, despite little empirical evidence, participation in leisure activities has been assumed to increase subjective wellbeing. Leisure is important because it is more under personal control than other sources of life satisfaction. This study asked whether people who participate in cultural leisure activities have higher life satisfaction than people who do not, if different types of leisure have the same influence on life satisfaction and if satisfaction is dependent on the frequency of participation or the number of activities undertaken. It used data from UKHLS Survey to establish associations between type, number and frequency of participation in leisure activities and life satisfaction. Results showed an independent and positive association of participation in sport, heritage and active-creative leisure activities and life satisfaction but not for participation in popular entertainment, theatre hobbies and museum/galleries. The association of reading hobbies and sedentary-creative activities and life satisfaction was negative. High life satisfaction was associated with engaging in a number of different activities rather than the frequency of participation in each of them. The results have implications for policy makers and leisure services providers, in particular those associated with heritage recreation. Subjective wellbeing measures, such as life satisfaction, and not economic measures alone should be considered in the evaluation of services. The promotion of leisure activities which are active and promote social interaction should be considered in programmes aimed at improving the quality of life

Happiness through leisure

Happiness is important to individuals. If one were to make a judgment based on the vast amount of self-help books available in any bookstore, the conclusion would have to be that happiness is a very important aspect of people’s lives. Whether such books actually provide any solutions to increase happiness is doubtful (Bergsma, 2008). Nevertheless, many are clearly interested in happiness

Fusion-Fission Hybrid Reactors

to the design of hybrid reactors and to inform the new generation of hybrid reactor researchers of the hybrid reactor data base developed in the seventies and early eighties

L-Band Quantum-dash Self-Injection Locked Multiwavelength Laser Source for Future WDM Access Networks

We propose and demonstrate a compact, cost-effective, multiwavelength laser source employing self-injection locking scheme on InAs/InP quantum-dash (Qdash) laser diode. The device is shown to exhibit Fabry-Perot modes or subcarriers selectivity of 1 to 16 between ∼1600-1610 nm, with corresponding mode power (side mode suppression ratio) variation of ∼10 (∼38) to ∼-2.5 (∼22) dBm (dB), and able to extend beyond 1610 nm, thereby encompassing >30 optical carriers. Then, we utilized a single self-locked optical carrier at 1609.6 nm to successfully transmit 128 Gb/s dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying signal over 20 km single mode fiber with ∼-16 dBm receiver sensitivity. To stem the viability of unifying the transceivers and addressing the requirements of next generation access networks, we propose self-seeded Qdash laser based wavelength division multiplexed passive optical network, capable of reaching a data capacity of 2.0 Tb/s (16 × 128, Gbs) in L-band