Factors influencing the quality of life of empty nesters: Empirical evidence from Southwest China

Quality of life is a widely accepted concept based on the notion that people’s lives have been subject to rapid development and industrialization. This study aims to explore the impact of different factors on the quality of life of empty nesters in Southwest China. The main factors explored are resilience and social supports (SS), highlighted here from different perspectives. Moreover, the correlations between other variables and quality of life are shown here. This study experimented with a hierarchical multiple regression model from survey data with 3583 valid responses. It argued that both resilience and social supports, including family members and friends, are significantly correlated with the Chinese empty nesters’ quality of life. Family support and friend support play a significant mediating role in the association between resilience and quality of life. However, neither government nor nongovernmental support significantly influences the quality of life. Therefore, the hypothetical recommendations of this study have been partially confirmed. The findings of this study provide a more comprehensive understanding of the overall mental and physical health of Chinese empty nesters

Spectroscopic and photometric confirmation of chromospheric activity in four stars

We present analysis of medium resolution optical spectra and long term V band photometry of four cool stars, BD+13 5000, BD+11 3024, TYC 3557-919-1 and TYC 5163-1764-1. Our spectroscopic analysis reveals that the stars are giant or sub-giant from K0 or K1 spectral type, and all of them exhibit emission features in their Ca ii H& K lines. These features appear to be modulated with the rotation of the stars. Except BD+11 3024, we observe that the radial velocities of the target stars are not stable, which suggests that each of them might be a member of a binary system. Global analysis of photometric data indicates clear cyclic variation for BD+13 5000 and TYC 5163-1764-1 with a period of 8.0$\pm$0.3 and 5.04$\pm$0.04 year, respectively. Besides that, we observe a dramatic increase ($\sim$0\fm7) in the mean brightness of BD+11 3024, accompanied with a 2.87$\pm$0.12 cyclic variation, embedded into the global brightening trend, which indicates possible multiple cycles on this star.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in A

Selective Sirt2 inhibition by ligand-induced rearrangement of the active site.

Sirtuins are a highly conserved class of NAD(+)-dependent lysine deacylases. The human isotype Sirt2 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer, inflammation and neurodegeneration, which makes the modulation of Sirt2 activity a promising strategy for pharmaceutical intervention. A rational basis for the development of optimized Sirt2 inhibitors is lacking so far. Here we present high-resolution structures of human Sirt2 in complex with highly selective drug-like inhibitors that show a unique inhibitory mechanism. Potency and the unprecedented Sirt2 selectivity are based on a ligand-induced structural rearrangement of the active site unveiling a yet-unexploited binding pocket. Application of the most potent Sirtuin-rearranging ligand, termed SirReal2, leads to tubulin hyperacetylation in HeLa cells and induces destabilization of the checkpoint protein BubR1, consistent with Sirt2 inhibition in vivo. Our structural insights into this unique mechanism of selective sirtuin inhibition provide the basis for further inhibitor development and selective tools for sirtuin biology

Seeing the Forrest through the trees:Oculomotor metrics are linked to heart rate

Fluctuations in a person’s arousal accompany mental states such as drowsiness, mental effort, or motivation, and have a profound effect on task performance. Here, we investigated the link between two central instances affected by arousal levels, heart rate and eye movements. In contrast to heart rate, eye movements can be inferred remotely and unobtrusively, and there is evidence that oculomotor metrics (i.e., fixations and saccades) are indicators for aspects of arousal going hand in hand with changes in mental effort, motivation, or task type. Gaze data and heart rate of 14 participants during film viewing were used in Random Forest models, the results of which show that blink rate and duration, and the movement aspect of oculomotor metrics (i.e., velocities and amplitudes) link to heart rate–more so than the amount or duration of fixations and saccades. We discuss that eye movements are not only linked to heart rate, but they may both be similarly influenced by the common underlying arousal system. These findings provide new pathways for the remote measurement of arousal, and its link to psychophysiological features

Postindustrial fertility ideals, intentions, and gender inequality : a comparative qualitative analysis

We are grateful for financial support from the National Science Foundation (grant no. SES1123885) to Mary Brinton for the Japanese, Spanish, and U.S. portions of the project and from the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University for additional support of the Japan portion of the project. We also appreciate the financial support from the Agency for Administration of University and Research Grants (grant # 2013-BP-A-00043) and from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 657030 to Xiana Bueno for the Spanish portion of the project, and the financial support from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond/Swedish Foundation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (grant no. P11-1049:1) to Livia Oláh for the Swedish portion. An earlier draft of the paper benefited from the constructive comments of Eunsil Oh, Yun Zhou, and an anonymous reviewer.Altres ajuts: RJ/P11-1049:1Altres ajuts: NSF/SES1123885Fertility ideals remain centered on two children in most postindustrial societies, presenting a puzzle for demographers interested in very low fertility. This paper explores the conditions producing a gap between fertility ideals and intentions among young highly-educated adults in different postindustrial contexts. We employ in-depth interviews to analyze reasoning about fertility ideals and intentions in two countries with very low fertility (Japan and Spain) and two with slightly higher fertility (the U.S. and Sweden). We find that American and Swedish female interviewees are more likely than those in Japan and Spain to cite work-family conflict as a reason for their ideals-intentions gap. Our results also suggest that gender inequality is more important in generating low fertility intentions among highly-educated interviewees in Japan than Spain. Taken together, these findings suggest complexities in how gender inequality affects fertility intentions among the highly-educated in postindustrial contexts