Getting ready for the marriage market? The association between divorce risks and investments in attractive body mass among married Europeans

This article explores to what extent married middle-aged individuals in Europe are governed by the risk of experiencing divorce, when shaping their physical appearance. The main result is that divorce risks, proxied by national divorce rates, are negatively connected to body mass index (BMI) among married individuals but unrelated to BMI among singles. Hence, it seems that married people in societies where divorce risks are high are more inclined to invest in their outer appearance. One interpretation is that high divorce rates make married people prepare for a potential divorce and future return to the marriage market

Can women have children and a career? IV evidence from IVF treatments

This paper introduces a new IV strategy based on IVF (in vitro fertilization) induced fertility variation among childless women to estimate the causal effect of having children on their career. For this purpose, we use administrative data on IVF treated women in Denmark. Because observed chances of IVF success do not depend on labor market histories, IVF treatment success provides a plausible instrument for childbearing. Our IV estimates indicate that fertility effects on earnings are: (i) negative, large, and long-lasting; (ii) driven by fertility effects on hourly earnings and not so much on labor supply; and (iii) much stronger at the extensive margin than at the intensive margin

"Practical Knowledge" and Perceptions of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance Among Drugsellers in Tanzanian Private Drugstores.

Studies indicate that antibiotics are sold against regulation and without prescription in private drugstores in rural Tanzania. The objective of the study was to explore and describe antibiotics sale and dispensing practices and link it to drugseller knowledge and perceptions of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. Exit customers of private drugstores in eight districts were interviewed about the drugstore encounter and drugs bought. Drugsellers filled in a questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions about antibiotics and resistance. Data were analyzed using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. Of 350 interviewed exit customers, 24% had bought antibiotics. Thirty percent had seen a health worker before coming and almost all of these had a prescription. Antibiotics were dispensed mainly for cough, stomachache, genital complaints and diarrhea but not for malaria or headache. Dispensed drugs were assessed as relevant for the symptoms or disease presented in 83% of all cases and 51% for antibiotics specifically. Non-prescribed drugs were assessed as more relevant than the prescribed. The knowledge level of the drugseller was ranked as high or very high by 75% of the respondents. Seventy-five drugsellers from three districts participated. Seventy-nine percent stated that diseases caused by bacteria can be treated with antibiotics but 24% of these also said that antibiotics can be used for treating viral disease. Most (85%) said that STI can be treated with antibiotics while 1% said the same about headache, 4% general weakness and 3% 'all diseases'. Seventy-two percent had heard of antibiotic resistance. When describing what an antibiotic is, the respondents used six different kinds of keywords. Descriptions of what antibiotic resistance is and how it occurs were quite rational from a biomedical point of view with some exceptions. They gave rise to five categories and one theme: Perceiving antibiotic resistance based on practical experience. The drugsellers have considerable "practical knowledge" of antibiotics and a perception of antibiotic resistance based on practical experience. In the process of upgrading private drugstores and formalizing the sale of antibiotics from these outlets in resource-constrained settings, their "practical knowledge" as well as their perceptions must be taken into account in order to attain rational dispensing practices

Upper limb amputees can be induced to experience a rubber hand as their own

We describe how upper limb amputees can be made to experience a rubber hand as part of their own body. This was accomplished by applying synchronous touches to the stump, which was out of view, and to the index finger of a rubber hand, placed in full view (26 cm medial to the stump). This elicited an illusion of sensing touch on the artificial hand, rather than on the stump and a feeling of ownership of the rubber hand developed. This effect was supported by quantitative subjective reports in the form of questionnaires, behavioural data in the form of misreaching in a pointing task when asked to localize the position of the touch, and physiological evidence obtained by skin conductance responses when threatening the hand prosthesis. Our findings outline a simple method for transferring tactile sensations from the stump to a prosthetic limb by tricking the brain, thereby making an important contribution to the field of neuroprosthetics where a major goal is to develop artificial limbs that feel like a real parts of the body

Hands help hearing: Facilitatory audiotactile interaction at low sound-intensity levels

Auditory and vibrotactile stimuli share similar temporal patterns. A psychophysical experiment was performed to test whether this similarity would lead into an intermodal bias in perception of sound intensity. Nine normal-hearing subjects performed a loudness-matching task of faint tones, adjusting the probe tone to sound equally loud as a reference tone. The task was performed both when the subjects were touching and when they were not touching a tube that vibrated simultaneously with the probe tone. The subjects chose on average 12% lower intensities (p<0.01) for the probe tone when they touched the tube, suggesting facilitatory interaction between auditory and tactile senses in normal-hearing subjects.Peer reviewe

Views on primary prevention of cardiovascular disease - an interview study with Swedish GPs

Background: General practitioners (GPs) have gradually become more involved in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), both through more frequent prescribing of pharmaceuticals and by giving advice regarding lifestyle factors. Most general practitioners are now faced with decisions about pharmaceutical or non-pharmaceutical treatment for primary prevention every day. The aim of this study was to explore, structure and describe the views on primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in clinical practice among Swedish GPs. Methods: Individual interviews were conducted with 21 GPs in southern Sweden. The interview transcripts were analysed using a qualitative approach, inspired by phenomenography. Results: Two main categories of description emerged during the analysis. One was the degree of reliance on research data regarding the predictability of real risk and the opportunities for primary prevention of CVD. The other was the allocation of responsibility between the patient and the doctor. The GPs showed different views, from being convinced of an actual and predictable risk for the individual to strongly doubting it; from relying firmly on protection from disease by pharmaceutical treatment to strongly questioning its effectiveness in individual cases; and from reliance on prevention of disease by non-pharmaceutical interventions to a total lack of reliance on such measures. Conclusions: The GPs' different views, regarding the rationale for and practical management of primary prevention of CVD, can be interpreted as a reflection of the complexity of patient counselling in primary prevention in clinical practice. The findings have implications for development and implementation of standard treatment guidelines, regarding long-time primary preventive treatment