Do Individual-level Value Preferences Impact Country-level Social Cohesion? An Exploratory Multi-level Analysis Based on ESS Data

This chapter links macro-level social cohesion to individual value preferences. It explores the predictive, concomitant, and consequential character of cohesion in relation to individual value preferences. Is it that prior cohesion predicts later value preferences? Or is it that certain earlier value preferences impact later social cohesion? Or is there, if at all, only contemporaneous covariation? To answer these research questions, ESS values data from rounds 1-4 (2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 waves) were separately linked with country-level social cohesion scores from (1) a prior time period, (2) the same time period, and (3) a later time period [e.g., ESS values data from 2008 were linked with social cohesion scores from (1) 1996-2003, (2) 2004-2008, and (3) 2009- 2012]. Multilevel regression analyses show that conservation and self-enhancement values are negatively related to social cohesion, whereas self-transcendence and openness values exhibit a positive relationship. Evidence remains inconclusive with respect to the causal direction. If one wants to interpret small differences between the obtained coefficients, it seems that security values are rather a consequence than a concomitant or cause of cohesion whereas for self-direction we rather find a vice-versa relationship

Multitier self-consistent GWGW+EDMFT

We discuss a parameter-free and computationally efficient ab initio simulation approach for moderately and strongly correlated materials, the multitier self-consistent $GW$+EDMFT method. This scheme treats different degrees of freedom, such as high-energy and low-energy bands, or local and nonlocal interactions, within appropriate levels of approximation, and provides a fully self-consistent description of correlation and screening effects in the solid. The ab initio input is provided by a one-shot $G^0W^0$ calculation, while the strong-correlation effects originating from narrow bands near the Fermi level are captured by a combined $GW$ plus extended dynamical mean-field (EDMFT) treatment. We present the formalism and technical details of our implementation and discuss some general properties of the effective EDMFT impurity action. In particular, we show that the retarded impurity interactions can have non-causal features, while the physical observables, such as the screened interactions of the lattice system, remain causal. We then turn to stretched sodium as a model system to explore the performance of the multitier self-consistent $GW$+EDMFT method in situations with different degrees of correlation. While the results for the physical lattice spacing $a_0$ show that the scheme is not very accurate for electron-gas like systems, because nonlocal corrections beyond $GW$ are important, it does provide physically correct results in the intermediate correlation regime, and a Mott transition around a lattice spacing of $1.5a_0$. Remarkably, even though the Wannier functions in the stretched compound are less localized, and hence the bare interaction parameters are reduced, the self-consistently computed impurity interactions show the physically expected trend of an increasing interaction strength with increasing lattice spacing.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figure

Electron correlation and magnetism at the LaAlO3_3/SrTiO3_3 interface: A DFT+DMFT investigation

We shed light on the interplay between structure and many-body effects relevant for itinerant ferromagnetism in LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ heterostructures. The realistic correlated electronic structure is studied by means of the (spin-polarized) charge self-consistent combination of density functional theory (DFT) with dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) beyond the realm of static correlation effects. Though many-body behavior is also active in the defect-free interface, a ferromagnetic instability occurs only with oxygen vacancies. A minimal Ti two-orbital $e_g$-$t_{2g}$ description for the correlated subspace is derived. Magnetic order affected by quantum fluctuations builds up from effective double exchange between nearly-localized $e_g$ and mobile $xy$ electrons.Comment: refinements, final versio

Rendering Borders Obsolete: Cross-Cultural and Cultural Psychology as an Interdisciplinary, Multi-Method Endeavor

A peer-reviewed book based on presentations at the XIX Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2008, Bremen, Germany. (c) 2011, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychologyhttps://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/iaccp_proceedings/1003/thumbnail.jp