Jobs as Lancaster Goods: Facets of Job Satisfaction and Overall Job Satisfaction

Overall job satisfaction is likely to reflect the combination of partial satisfactions related to various features of one’s job, such as pay, security, the work itself, working conditions, working hours, and the like. The level of overall job satisfaction emerges as the weighted outcome of the individual’s job satisfaction with each of these facets. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent and importance of partial satisfactions in affecting and explaining overall job satisfaction. Using the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) a two layer model is estimated which proposes that job satisfaction with different facets of jobs are interrelated and the individual’s reported overall job satisfaction depends on the weight that the individual allocates to each of these facets. For each of the ten countries examined, satisfaction with the intrinsic aspects of the job is the main criterion which workers use to evaluate their job and this is true for both the short and the long term.European Commissio

Do Economic Inequalities Harm Health? Evidence from Europe

Until recently, there has been a consensus among empirical health economists that there is an association between income inequality and individual health, in line with Wilkinson’s (1992) idea that the psychosocial effects of the former are detrimental to the latter. However, using US data, Mellor and Milyo (2002) (MM) found no evidence of such association and claimed that the previously reported results are statistical artefacts, arising from the use of aggregate data. This paper uses the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to check the robustness of MM results. It replicates the MM methodology to assess the effect of country-level income inequality on individuals’ health. It is shown that income inequality, whether measured at the regional or the national level, systematically harms individuals’ health, regardless of their positions in the income distribution. The results are also robust to a number of aspects MM do not account for. First, random effect models are estimated to account for unobserved heterogeneity. Second, self-assessed and objective measures of health status are also considered. Third, besides the traditional aggregate measures of income inequality, a further measure is constructed reflecting first, how unequal the distribution is and second the relative position of individuals in the income distribution of their own country

Identifying causal paths between health and socio-economic status: Evidence from European older workforce surveys

relationship. In addition, such a relationship takes place early in life and keeps on evolving over time so that both one’s health and SES at a given point in time result from the cumulative effects of this spiral. Thus, only by simultaneously accounting for both pathways as well as for their dynamics would one be able to provide a clear picture of both the process of health accumulation and the dynamics of SES formation. We estimate a structural model where a variety of causal paths between different health dimensions and SES measures as well as their dynamics are simultaneously accounted for. This allows distinction between significant causal paths and insignificant ones, while accounting for endogeneity as well as for cofounders. We use the SOCIOLD survey where the targeted population is that of the older workforce (50 and older) from six EU countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, the Netherlands and the UK). Our results show that (i) reverse causality is indeed a crucial issue: one’s previous socio-economic status influences current health and previous health influences current socioeconomic status, (ii) there are cumulative effects in the sense that both health and socio-economic statuses depend on their past values and (iii) the results are sensitive to whether simultaneity is explicitly accounted for or not.Health status; Socio-economic status; Causal paths; Asymptotic least squares

Children's First Names and Immigration Background in France

We present evidence indicating that immigrants and especially those from the Maghreb/Middle-East give first names to their children that are different from those given by the French majority population. When it comes to natives with an immigrant background, these differences are very little pronounced. Being born and raised up in France as well as being exposed to the French society and culture through residence, citizenship and the educational system draws individuals with or without immigrant background into similar ways of expressing belongings when choosing first names for their children, indicating the very strong assimilating forces in the French society.First names; Immigration

Children's first names and immigration background in France

We present evidence indicating that immigrants and especially those from the Maghreb/Middle-East give first names to their children that are different from those given by the French majority population. When it comes to natives with an immigrant background, these differences are very little pronounced. Being born and raised up in France as well as being exposed to the French society and culture through residence, citizenship and the educational system draws individuals with or without immigrant background into similar ways of expressing belongings when choosing first names for their children, indicating the very strong assimilating forces in the French society.First names; integration; belonging; immigrants.

An equity perspective on access to, enrolment in and finance of tertiary education

The failure to achieve equitable access to university studies has turned the focus to the funding of European higher education systems. Since the large amounts of public subsidies injected in tertiary-level education have not succeeded in reducing disparities in access for children from different social backgrounds, this is seen as compelling evidence for there being a need to revise higher education financing not only on efficiency but also on equity grounds. Such policies are already pursued, planned or intensively discussed in most of Europe. More equitable access to and participation in university education through changes in the funding sources and mechanisms is a challenging policy with long-term implications. Hence, it should preferably be based on reliable empirical evidence. This raises the question of what the theoretical and empirical literature actually tells us about these matters. How severe is the under-representation of students from a socially disadvantaged background? Has this inequality changed over time across and within European countries? What role does funding play? Have the changes in funding systems already undertaken in several European countries improved the participation of students from low-income families? This review paper aims to answer these important questions by drawing together the available evidence, by contrasting it against pursued educational policies and by pointing to still existing knowledge gaps

Diets containing shrimp protein hydrolysates provided protection to European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) affected by a Vibrio pelagius natural infection outbreak

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the dietary supplementation of shrimp protein hydrolysate (SPH) on somatic growth performance, innate immune response in juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and their differential cumulative mortality when affected by a Vibrio pelagius natural infection outbreak. A diet containing 20% fish meal (FM) was used as a control, whereas three other diets differing in the level of FM inclusion (75 and 25% FM replacement by plant protein sources) and the inclusion of the additive (5% FM, 5% FM + 5% SPH and 15% FM + 5% SPH) were tested. After 110 days, there were no statistically significant differences in somatic growth parameters nor proximate composition in fish fed different experimental diets (P > 0.05), while the humoral non-specific immune responses (lysozyme, bacteriolytic and complement activities) were significantly enhanced by the inclusion of SPH in diets (P < 0.05). Additionally, an outbreak of the pathogenic bacteria V. pelagius, a bacterial species previously described as producer of the virulence factor hemolysin, occurred in all experimental tanks (4 replicates per diet) due to crowding and repeated handling stress for fish sorting. Survival rates among different experimental groups ten days after the bacterial epizootic differed depending on the diets, with groups containing SPH showing the best results (P < 0.05). In particular, fish fed the 15% FM + 5% SPH diet showed the highest survival rate (96.4 ± 5.0%), followed by those fed the 5% FM5 + 5% SPH5 (61.8 ± 16.3%). In contrast, survival rates in fish fed diets deprived of the additive (20% FM and 5% FM5 diets) were the lowest ones (32.0 ± 6.7% and 38.2 ± 13.5%, respectively). The present study showed that SPH can be incorporated in aquafeeds with high levels of FM substitution by PP sources without detrimental impact on the somatic growth performance of fish. In addition, the non-specific humoral immunity in seabass and their survival when affected by an epizootic outbreak of V. pelagius were positively affected, which showed the immunomodulatory benefits of shrimp protein hydrolysate to promote health and prevent diseases in fish.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Effect of Face Blurring on Human Pose Estimation: Ensuring Subject Privacy for Medical and Occupational Health Applications

The face blurring of images plays a key role in protecting privacy. However, in computer vision, especially for the human pose estimation task, machine-learning models are currently trained, validated, and tested on original datasets without face blurring. Additionally, the accuracy of human pose estimation is of great importance for kinematic analysis. This analysis is relevant in areas such as occupational safety and clinical gait analysis where privacy is crucial. Therefore, in this study, we explore the impact of face blurring on human pose estimation and the subsequent kinematic analysis. Firstly, we blurred the subjects’ heads in the image dataset. Then we trained our neural networks using the face-blurred and the original unblurred dataset. Subsequently, the performances of the different models, in terms of landmark localization and joint angles, were estimated on blurred and unblurred testing data. Finally, we examined the statistical significance of the effect of face blurring on the kinematic analysis along with the strength of the effect. Our results reveal that the strength of the effect of face blurring was low and within acceptable limits (<1°). We have thus shown that for human pose estimation, face blurring guarantees subject privacy while not degrading the prediction performance of a deep learning model

Changing Focus: Exploring Images of Women and Empowerment in Egypt

In moving away from prescriptive one?way communications exercises, participatory development communications use better strategies to engage communities and capture nuance. This article examines a communications case study in Egypt: a photography competition aimed at understanding how local photographers depict women and empowerment in their images. Opportunities for discussion and self?reflection provide cultural producers the space to delve into how they see women and how they then choose to represent them. This type of communications initiative actively courts a richer understanding of empowerment, leaving room for the complexities this might entail