Traditional vs. secular values and work-life well being across Europe

This paper examines how culture, defined in our analysis by reference to traditional versus secular values, affects the work-life balance across Europe. Specifically, we focus on the factors that affect the propensity of individuals across 30 European countries to exhibit behavioural patterns in the work and life domains consistent with the segmentation, spillover or compensation hypotheses. Testing the latter assertions, our empirical analysis replicates the study by Judge and Watanabe (1994) with data collected in 1999/00, thus bringing dated empirical results into a multi-country, contemporary realm. Based on self-reported job and life satisfaction measures, we then extend the empirical examination by controlling for different cultural values alongside a large set of standard economic and demographic factors. Our results emphasise the important role of views on secular versus traditional values as a main factor influencing respondents’ work-life balance and well being. The role of interpersonal trust features as a particularly prominent component in these results

Traditional versus secular values and the job–life satisfaction relationship across Europe

Using data from the European Values Survey (EVS), we examine the relationship between job and life satisfaction across Europe. We find that for the majority of employees job and life satisfaction are positively correlated, thus supporting the spillover hypothesis, whereby attitudes and practices developed in the life domain spill over into the work domain and vice versa. In contrast, we find little support for the compensation hypothesis, whereby employees who are dissatisfied in one domain seek compensatory rewards in the other domain. However, multivariate analysis reveals that the strength of the interaction between job and life satisfaction is mitigated by cultural values and interpersonal trust, as encapsulated in the ‘traditional versus secular values’ index reported in the EVS data. We thus find that predictors of the job–life satisfaction relationship vary across cultures and that such cross-cultural variations are systematically related to salient cultural values and beliefs. The latter findings raise important questions about the universal application of existing theories in the subjective well-being arena

Magnetic-domain-controlled vortex pinning in a superconductor/ferromagnet bilayer

Vortex pinning in a type-II superconducting Pb film covering a Co/Pt multilayer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is investigated. Different stable magnetic domain patterns like band and bubble domains can be created in the Co/Pt multilayer, clearly influencing the vortex pinning in the superconducting Pb layer. Most effective pinning is observed for the bubble domain state. We demonstrate that the pinning properties of the superconductor/ferromagnet bilayer can be controlled by tuning the size, density and magnetization direction of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for AP

Price Determinants of Ranch Horses Sold at Auction in Texas

A hedonic pricing model was used to determine parameters affecting ranch horse prices at two Texas auctions. Color, sex, age-sex interaction, sale order, and consigning ranch were all found to significantly affect price. Sire analysis found that progeny performance records did not significantly affect price.auction, hedonic model, ranch horses, Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries, C01, Q10,

Brain muscarinic cholinergic receptors in Huntington's disease

Muscarinic cholinergic receptors and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity were studied in postmortem brain tissue from patients with Huntington's disease and matched control subjects. In comparison with controls, reductions in ChAT activity were found in the hippocampus, but not in the temporal cortex in Huntington's disease. Patients with Huntington's disease showed reduced densities of the total number of muscarinic receptors and of M-2 receptors in the hippocampus while the density of M-1 receptors was unaltered. Muscarinic receptor binding was unchanged in the temporal cortex. These results indicate a degeneration in Huntington's disease of the septo-hippocampal cholinergic pathway, but no impairment of the innominato-cortical cholinergic system

Orientation training and job satisfaction: a sector and gender analysis

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we investigate how various types of job training impact upon employees’ job satisfaction and its domains. We find that orientation training exerts a significant positive effect on newcomer male employees’ job satisfaction in both the private and public sectors, but it increases the job satisfaction of newcomer female employees only in the public sector. Other types of job training have only a weak effect on job satisfaction. We attribute the predominance of orientation training as a strong predictor of job satisfaction to its important function of facilitating the workplace socialization of new employees by reducing the uncertainty about aspects of the job that are not always easily contractible

Activation Mobilizes the Cholesterol in the Late Endosomes-Lysosomes of Niemann Pick Type C Cells

A variety of intercalating amphipaths increase the chemical activity of plasma membrane cholesterol. To test whether intracellular cholesterol can be similarly activated, we examined NPC1 and NPC2 fibroblasts, since they accumulate large amounts of cholesterol in their late endosomes and lysosomes (LE/L). We gauged the mobility of intracellular sterol from its appearance at the surface of the intact cells, as determined by its susceptibility to cholesterol oxidase and its isotope exchange with extracellular 2-(hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin-cholesterol. The entire cytoplasmic cholesterol pool in these cells was mobile, exchanging with the plasma membrane with an apparent half-time of ∼3–4 hours, ∼4–5 times slower than that for wild type human fibroblasts (half-time ∼0.75 hours). The mobility of the intracellular cholesterol was increased by the membrane-intercalating amphipaths chlorpromazine and 1-octanol. Chlorpromazine also promoted the net transfer of LE/L cholesterol to serum and cyclodextrin. Surprisingly, the mobility of LE/L cholesterol was greatly stimulated by treating intact NPC cells with glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde. Similar effects were seen with wild type fibroblasts in which the LE/L cholesterol pool had been expanded using U18666A. We also showed that the cholesterol in the intracellular membranes of fixed wild-type fibroblasts was mobile; it was rapidly oxidized by cholesterol oxidase and was rapidly replenished by exogenous sterol. We conclude that a) the cholesterol in NPC cells can exit the LE/L (and the extensive membranous inclusions therein) over a few hours; b) this mobility is stimulated by the activation of the cholesterol with intercalating amphipaths; c) intracellular cholesterol is even more mobile in fixed cells; and d) amphipaths that activate cholesterol might be useful in treating NPC disease

Proposal for a Precision Measurement of |Vub|

A new method for a precision measurement of the CKM matrix element |Vub| is discussed, which combines good theoretical control with high efficiency and a powerful discrimination against charm background. The resulting combined theoretical uncertainty on |Vub| is estimated to be 10%.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTe