Values in life domains in a cross-national perspective

The increase in international survey research projects investigating basic orientations reveals that the grand sociological theories fall short in explaining the often large differences between populations in contemporary societies that continue to exist. There is more than modernization to explain varieties. Institutions, culture, history, policies, all appear to affect people's values. Our review of current state-of-the-art cross-national research activities demonstrates that increasingly multilevel analysis techniques are applied to address either modernization or institutionalism, or both. From various theoretical perspectives, hypotheses are extracted about the impact of the context on values in aspecific domain. The selected studies include very different contextual features to explain varieties in domain-specific value orientations, which clearly proves that there are different mechanisms at work in the distinct value domains. The studies reveal that context matters, but also that it is essential to include individual-level characteristics, at least as controls. Quite often, the individual attributes appear differently distributed in different countries, which may be the main reason why differences in value orientations between countries remain. ZusammenfassungDie Zunahme an internationalen Umfrageforschungsprojekten, die grundlegende Wertorientierungen untersuchen, zeigt, dass die gro ss en soziologischen Theorien nicht ausreichen, um die oft gro ss en Unterschiede zwischen den Bevolkerungen in heutigen Gesellschaften zu erklaren. Es gibt mehr als nur Modernisierung, um die Unterschiede zu erklaren. Institutionen, Kultur, Geschichte und Politik scheinen alle die Werte der Menschen zu beeinflussen. Die vorliegende uberprufung der aktuellen internationalen landerubergreifenden Forschungsaktivitaten zeigt, dass zunehmend Mehrebenenanalysen verwendet werden, um entweder Modernisierung oder Institutionalismus oder beide theoretischen Ansatze gemeinsam zu untersuchen. Aus verschiedenen theoretischen Perspektiven werden Hypothesen uber die Auswirkungen des Kontexts auf Werte in einem bestimmten Lebensbereich generiert. Die ausgewahlten Studien untersuchen sehr unterschiedliche kontextuelle Merkmale, um die Varianz domanenspezifischer Wertorientierungen zu erklaren, was eindeutig belegt, dass unterschiedliche Mechanismen in den verschiedenen Lebensbereichen wirken. Die Studien zeigen, dass Kontext von Bedeutung ist, aber auch, dass es notwendig ist, Merkmale auf individueller Ebene zu berucksichtigen, zumindest als Kontrollvariablen. Haufig sind die individuellen Merkmale in den verschiedenen Landern unterschiedlich verteilt, was der Hauptgrund dafur sein kann, dass Unterschiede in den Wertorientierungen zwischen den Landern bestehen

Regulation of ATP binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) expression: cholesterol-dependent and - independent signaling pathways with relevance to inflammatory lung disease.

The role of the ATP binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) in maintaining cellular lipid homeostasis in cardiovascular disease is well established. More recently, the important beneficial role played by ABCA1 in modulating pathogenic disease mechanisms, such as inflammation, in a broad range of chronic conditions has been realised. These studies position ABCA1 as a potential therapeutic target in a diverse range of diseases where inflammation is an underlying cause. Chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are driven by inflammation, and as such, there is now a growing recognition that we need a greater understanding of the signaling pathways responsible for regulation of ABCA1 expression in this clinical context. While the signaling pathways responsible for cholesterol-mediated ABCA1 expression have been clearly delineated through decades of studies in the atherosclerosis field, and thus far appear to be translatable to the respiratory field, less is known about the cholesterol-independent signaling pathways that can modulate ABCA1 expression in inflammatory lung disease. This review will identify the various signaling pathways and ligands that are associated with the regulation of ABCA1 expression and may be exploited in future as therapeutic targets in the setting of chronic inflammatory lung diseases

Examining the role of ABC lipid transporters in pulmonary lipid homeostasis and inflammation

© The Author(s). 2017 Open Access Respiratory diseases including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are characterised by excessive and persistent inflammation. Current treatments are often inadequate for symptom and disease control, and hence new therapies are warranted. Recent emerging research has implicated dyslipidaemia in pulmonary inflammation. Three ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters are found in the mammalian lung - ABCA1, ABCG1 and ABCA3 - that are involved in movement of cholesterol and phospholipids from lung cells. The aim of this review is to corroborate the current evidence for the role of ABC lipid transporters in pulmonary lipid homeostasis and inflammation. Here, we summarise results from murine knockout studies, human diseases associated with ABC transporter mutations, and in vitro studies. Disruption to ABC transporter activity results in lipid accumulation and elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines in lung tissue. Furthermore, these ABC-knockout mice exhibit signs of respiratory distress. ABC lipid transporters appear to have a crucial and protective role in the lung. However, our knowledge of the underlying molecular mechanisms for these benefits requires further attention. Understanding the relationship between cholesterol and inflammation in the lung, and the role that ABC transporters play in this may illuminate new pathways to target for the treatment of inflammatory lung diseases

Popular explanations of poverty in Europe:Effects of contextual and individual characteristics across 28 European countries

In this contribution we describe and explain the differences in popular poverty attributions that exist within and between 28 European countries. On the basis of the existing literature we distinguish five predictors: awareness of the existence of poverty, personal experience of disadvantage, personal values, socio-demographic background and structural and cultural country-level characteristics. Using data from the European Values Survey (EVS) 1999/2000, we assess for most of these predictors the extent to which they relate directly to people’s partial ranking of popular poverty attributions. The results of rank-ordered logistic regression models show that differences in popular poverty explanations relate directly to whether one lives in a country with a Catholic tradition and a high level of poverty, their (subjective) experience of disadvantage and personal values. Furthermore, we find that the size of the various associations depends on people’s particular choices of poverty explanations