Do Labor Market Institutions Influence Suicide Mortality? An International Panel Data Analysis

We examine the economic and social determinants of suicide mortality in a panel of 25 OECD countries over the period 1970 - 2011 and explicitly analyze the effects of unemployment and labor market institutions on suicide rates. In line with a large body of literature our results suggest that unemployment increases suicide mortality, while real economic growth tends to decrease suicides. The results also indicate that unemployment benefits decrease suicides of males, while relatively strict employment protection regulations have a positive influence on suicide mortality. These findings indicate that labor market institutions may influence job satisfaction and the quality of life in industrial countries. We suggest taking into account the role of labor market institutions when analyzing the effects of institutional and economic determinants on health

Past and Present in “Cat in the Rain” and “Old Man at the Bridge”

Les deux nouvelles sont basées sur un schéma temporel confrontant la vie traditionnelle à l’expérience moderne. Dans “Cat in the Rain”, la jeune femme rêve de manière nostalgique d’une vie plus féminine dans le cadre gracieux et bien ordonné d’un monde révolu. Par contre, la vie mouvementée du jeune couple, perpétuellement en voyage, sans demeure fixe ni animaux domestiques, représente une forme moderne d’existence, individualiste et sans attaches profondes. Le symbole principal de l’incohérence de cette modernité est la coiffure à la garçonne de la jeune femme qui, d’une part, indique un manque de stabilité et de fiabilité, et, d’autre part, accentue la projection libre et audacieuse de soi-même. D’une manière comparable, le paysan épuisé dans “Old Man at the Bridge” représente un mode de vie statique, rural, proche de la nature, lequel mode de vie est en voie de disparition, menacé par la guerre mécanisée. Le narrateur de ce récit à la première personne fait partie lui-même de la modernité: un combattant cosmopolite qui, au fond, appartient au monde de la machine et de la mobilité, non à celui de la vie pastorale et du traditionalisme. En fin de compte, les protagonistes de Hemingway sont fascinés par le déracinement, la liberté et le nihilisme que leur offre la modernité. Ils ne prennent pas au sérieux la nostalgie du bon vieux temps.The two stories are based on a time scheme which confronts customary life and the modern experience. In “Cat in the Rain,” the American girl dreams nostalgically about a ‘womanly’ lifestyle in an old-fashioned, well-ordered world of yore. The couple’s restless traveling, on the other hand, without household things and domestic animals, represents the modern form of existence, individualistic and without deeper ties. The chief symbol of the incoherence of modernity is the young wife’s boyish haircut, indicating a lack of stability and reliability – but also highlighting the daring challenge of unfettered self-projection. Similarly, the exhausted peasant of “Old Man at the Bridge” stands for a static culture of kinship and embeddedness in nature, which is about to be destroyed by modern mechanized warfare. The first-person narrator of this story is part of the modern sphere, too: a cosmopolitan fighter who basically belongs to the realm of machinery and mobility, not to pastoral life and to a tradition-oriented mentality. When all is said and done, Hemingway’s protagonists are thrilled by modern uprootedness, freedom, and nihilism, and they do not take seriously the nostalgic hankering for the Good Old Times

Modelling of Energy-Crops in Agricultural Sector Models - A Review of Existing Methodologies

The present report provides an overview of the different methodologies applied in partial and general equilibrium models used to analyse biofuel policies in Europe, as well as their methodological pros and cons. While the LEITAP model is included as a general equilibrium model covering biofuel demand, partial equilibrium models are represented by ESIM, FAPRI, AGLINK/COSIMO, RAUMIS, AGMEMOD (agricultural models); POLES and PRIMES (energy sector); and EUFASOM/ENFA (forestry sector). The study is highly relevant for the current modelling work at IPTS, where models such as ESIM and AGLINK play an important role in the Integrated Modelling Platform for Agro-economic Commodity and Policy Analysis (iMAP) of the AGRILIFE Unit. Additionally, the POLES model is currently part of the model portfolio used by the Competitiveness & Sustainability Unit in several studies analysing possible technological pathways of energy production and demand for bioenergy in Europe, a result of implementing the biofuel directive. This compilation of information is also important since the implicit and explicit treatment of bioenergy, either as a demand shock to the processing of oilseeds or feedstock for bioethanol and biodiesel, or as the introduction of a biofuel-sector into a computational general equilibrium (CGE) is foreseen in the short-term by other economic models used at IPTS.JRC.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Conditions for the freezing phenomena of geometric measure of quantum discord for arbitrary two-qubit X states under non-dissipative dephasing noises

We study the dynamics of geometric measure of quantum discord (GMQD) under the influences of two local phase damping noises. Consider the two qubits initially in arbitrary X-states, we find the necessary and sufficient conditions for which GMQD is unaffected for a finite period. It is further shown that such results also hold for the non-Markovian dephasing process.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Features of informatization of education in Poland and Ukraine

У тезах описуються пріоритети політики ЄС у сфері інформатизації освіти в контексті реалізації програми «Освіта та професійна підготовка 2020» за прикладом Польщі. Розглядаються стратегічні європейські документи щодо інформатизації освіти, розвитку цифрових компетентностей і переходу до відкритої освіти. Окреслено інфраструктуру розвитку дистанційної освіти у Республіці Польща.The theses describe the priorities of EU policy in the field of informatization of education in the context of the implementation of the program "Education and Training 2020", for example in Poland. The strategic European documents concerning informatization of education, development of digital competences and transition to open education are considered. The infrastructure of development of distance education in the Republic of Poland is outlined

Identification of regulatory variants associated with genetic susceptibility to meningococcal disease.

Non-coding genetic variants play an important role in driving susceptibility to complex diseases but their characterization remains challenging. Here, we employed a novel approach to interrogate the genetic risk of such polymorphisms in a more systematic way by targeting specific regulatory regions relevant for the phenotype studied. We applied this method to meningococcal disease susceptibility, using the DNA binding pattern of RELA - a NF-kB subunit, master regulator of the response to infection - under bacterial stimuli in nasopharyngeal epithelial cells. We designed a custom panel to cover these RELA binding sites and used it for targeted sequencing in cases and controls. Variant calling and association analysis were performed followed by validation of candidate polymorphisms by genotyping in three independent cohorts. We identified two new polymorphisms, rs4823231 and rs11913168, showing signs of association with meningococcal disease susceptibility. In addition, using our genomic data as well as publicly available resources, we found evidences for these SNPs to have potential regulatory effects on ATXN10 and LIF genes respectively. The variants and related candidate genes are relevant for infectious diseases and may have important contribution for meningococcal disease pathology. Finally, we described a novel genetic association approach that could be applied to other phenotypes

Hemingway’s Francis Macomber in Pirandellian and Freudian Perspectives

Catalogues possible models for the story’s main characters (including Philip Percival, Pauline Pfeiffer, and Hemingway himself) along with literary sources. Notes parallels in plot and characterization with Luigi Pirandello’s novel, Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio Operatore (1915). Provides a psychoanalytic reading of Wilson as the idealized father-figure, Macomber as the immature son, and Margot as “the mother-imago of the infantile scenario, emotionally cold, controlling, intrusive.