Shared variance of oculomotor phenotypes in a large sample of healthy young men

This study used canonical correlation analysis to investigate patterns of shared variance between parameters measured in seven different occulomotor function tasks, namely the visually guided saccade task, the antisaccade task, the closed-loop smooth-pursuit task, the open-loop smooth-pursuit task, and three active visual fixation tasks. These tasks were performed by 2130 young army recruits. Only a small percentage (1–10%) of shared variance existed between sets of parameters for all oculomotor function tasks measured. The most correlated tasks were the visually guided saccade and the antisaccade. The first common factor correlated with speed of performance between these tasks (latency), while the second and third correlated with accuracy of performance. Better performance in active visual fixation tasks correlated with better performance accuracy (lower error rate) and increased speed (lower latency) in the antisaccade and saccade tasks as well as better performance in the closed-loop smooth-pursuit task (increase in gain and decrease in the rate of unwanted saccades during pursuit). Better performance in the closed-loop smooth-pursuit task (increased gain and decreased number of unwanted saccades) also correlated with increased accuracy and increased speed of performing saccades and antisaccades. Finally, the open-loop fixation task had no correlation with all other oculomotor tasks except for a very weak negative correlation with the closed-loop pursuit task where better performance (increased gain) in one correlated with worse performance (decreased gain) in the other. The results of this analysis showed that a small percentage of variance is shared among different oculomotor function tasks. The structure of this shared variance could be used to derive common oculomotor function indices to study their relation to genetic and other sources of inter-subject variation. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

State‐led wage devaluation in Southern Europe in the wake of the Eurozone crisis

South European labour markets have gone through a substantial level of downward adjustment in wages (internal devaluation) and liberalisation in the aftermath of the Eurozone crisis. Yet, there have been differences in the extent of change between Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. These differences cannot be explained by the size of the economic crisis alone. While existing analyses focus on the extent of external pressure or party ideologies, this article focuses on the pre‐existing level of regulation by the state as opposed to regulation by social partners. It shows that devaluation and liberalisation were the most extensive in countries where governments possessed more tools to force down wages (statutory job protection, state regulations of collective bargaining, minimum wages), sometimes even against the will of employers. In contrast, countries with a higher level of autonomy for social partners (and fewer policy instruments available to governments to influence wages) devalued less. In some cases, the crisis led to more power to the state, rather than less. The article shows that state intervention can be a facilitator rather than a barrier to wage adjustment.The politics and administration of institutional chang