Parents' experiences of flexible work arrangements in changing European workplaces

Various leaves and other forms of flexible working arrangements have been implemented in workplaces to support employees with family commitments. Some are a response to public policy, others developed voluntarily. However, research examining the effectiveness of these policies in a search for “good practices” often neglects the impact of specific national and workplace contexts. Some researchers are calling for more attention to social systems, especially at the macro and meso levels, and the relationships between them, to extend understanding of work family processes and experiences. We argue that this is critical for evaluating work-family policies and practices. However it is important to recognize that social systems are not static. They are dynamic and changing, particularly in the context of globalization processes. Drawing on data from six case studies of private sector organizations undergoing rapid change and transformation, carried out in six European states, as part of a qualitative cross-national EU project (Transitions)1 , this paper explores the impact of multiple layers of context on parents’ experiences of flexible working arrangements for managing work and family boundaries. The study shows that although various aspects of macro layers of context are important and it is easier to make use of flexibility to combine work and parenting in some national and workplace contexts than others, changes taking place at the workplace level in response to global competition and efficiency drives can undermine both regulatory and voluntary initiatives to enhance flexibility for parents. This is occurring across national boundaries. Some implications for debates on “good practices” and for future work-family research are discussed

Alcohol Exposure In Utero and Child Academic Achievement

We examine the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on child academic achievement. We use a genetic variant in the maternal alcohol-metabolism gene ADH1B to instrument for alcohol exposure, whilst controlling for the child’s genotype on the same variant. We show that the instrument is unrelated to an extensive range of parental characteristics and behaviour. OLS regressions suggest an ambiguous association between alcohol exposure and attainment but there is a strong social gradient in drinking, with mothers in higher socio-economic groups more likely to drink. In contrast to the OLS, the IV estimates show clear negative effects of prenatal alcohol exposur

Sense of entitlement to support for the reconciliation of employment and family life

This article explores young European women and men’s expectations of support - from the state and employers - for reconciling paid employment and family life. It is based on a qualitative study employing focus groups with young women and men in Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Ireland and the UK. Drawing on the concept of sense of entitlement, derived from social justice theory, it was expected that the type of welfare state and ‘gender contract’ that young adults have experienced will influence their sense of entitlement to support for work and family life. Findings indicate that participants perceived their entitlement to state and employer support differently across national context. However this is moderated by gender, parental and occupational status, and particularly by awareness of provisions in other countries in the case of state support, while perceived entitlement to employer support varies according to the specific policy considered, gender and perception of benefits to employers. Some implications for public policy makers and employers are discussed

Evidence of detrimental effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on offspring birthweight and neurodevelopment from a systematic review of quasi-experimental studies

Background: Systematic reviews of prenatal alcohol exposure effects generally only include conventional observational studies. However, estimates from such studi

Work-to-family enrichment and gender inequalities in eight European countries

All social roles have positive and rewarding as well as negative/problematic aspects. Research on the work–family interface has predominantly focused on conflicting roles. In contrast, this paper extends research on work–family enrichment (WFE), a positive aspect of work and gender differences in WFE in a cross-national context. Drawing upon social role theory and the culture sensitive theory on work–family enrichment, we examined gender differences in experiences of developmental WFE in a sample of service sector employees in eight European countries. In line with traditional gender roles, women reported more WFE than men. The relationship was moderated by both an objective and subjective measure of gender egalitarianism but in the opposite direction as hypothesized. The gender gap in WFE was larger in more gender-egalitarian countries, where women may be better able to transfer resources from the work domain to benefit their family role than in low egalitarian societies. National differences in labour market factors, family models and the public discourse on work–life balance mainly explain the unanticipated findings

Anti-erbB2 treatment induces cardiotoxicity by interfering with cell survival pathways

INTRODUCTION: Cardiac dysfunction is among the serious side effects of therapy with recombinant humanized anti-erbB2 monoclonal antibody. The antibody blocks ErbB-2, a receptor tyrosine kinase and co-receptor for other members of the ErbB and epidermal growth factor families, which is over-expressed on the surface of many malignant cells. ErbB-2 and its ligands neuregulin and ErbB-3/ErbB-4 are involved in survival and growth of cardiomyocytes in both postnatal and adult hearts, and therefore the drug may interrupt the correct functioning of the ErbB-2 pathway. METHODS: The effect of the rat-anti-erbB2 monoclonal antibody B-10 was studied in spontaneously beating primary myocyte cultures from rat neonatal hearts. Gene expression was determined by RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) and by rat stress-specific microarray analysis, protein levels by Western blot, cell contractility by video motion analysis, calcium transients by the FURA fluorescent method, and apoptosis using the TUNEL (terminal uridine nick-end labelling) assay. RESULTS: B-10 treatment induces significant changes in expression of 24 out of 207 stress genes analyzed using the microarray technique. Protein levels of ErbB-2, ErbB-3, ErbB-4 and neuregulin decreased after 1 day. However, both transcription and protein levels of ErbB-4 and gp130 increased several fold. Calreticulin and calsequestrin were overexpressed after three days, inducing a decrease in calcium transients, thereby influencing cell contractility. Apoptosis was induced in 20% cells after 24 hours. CONCLUSION: Blocking ErbB-2 in cultured rat cardiomyocytes leads to changes that may influence the cell cycle and affects genes involved in heart functions. B-10 inhibits pro-survival pathways and reduces cellular contractility. Thus, it is conceivable that this process may impair the stress response of the heart

Loneliness of Older Immigrant Groups in Canada: Effects of Ethnic-Cultural Background

This study aimed to explore the loneliness of several groups of older immigrants in Canadacompared to native-born older adults. Data from the Canadian General Social Survey, Cycle 22 (Nolder adults = 3,692) were used. The dependent variable is the 6 item De Jong Gierveld lonelinessscale. Determinants of loneliness included country of birth, ethnic background (cultural context);belongingness (community context) and social networks (social context). Results showed that onlysome immigrant groups are significantly lonelier than older adults born in Canada. Immigrants withsimilar language and culture are not lonelier; while those from countries that differ in nativelanguage/culture are significantly higher on loneliness. Multivariate analyses showed the importanceof cultural background, of composition of the network of relatives and friends, and of localparticipation and feelings of belonging to the Canadian society in explaining loneliness of olderimmigrants

Development and organization of polarity-specific segregation of primary vestibular afferent fibers in mice

A striking feature of vestibular hair cells is the polarized arrangement of their stereocilia as the basis for their directional sensitivity. In mammals, each of the vestibular end organs is characterized by a distinct distribution of these polarized cells. We utilized the technique of post-fixation transganglionic neuronal tracing with fluorescent lipid soluble dyes in embryonic and postnatal mice to investigate whether these polarity characteristics correlate with the pattern of connections between the endorgans and their central targets; the vestibular nuclei and cerebellum. We found that the cerebellar and brainstem projections develop independently from each other and have a non-overlapping distribution of neurons and afferents from E11.5 on. In addition, we show that the vestibular fibers projecting to the cerebellum originate preferentially from the lateral half of the utricular macula and the medial half of the saccular macula. In contrast, the brainstem vestibular afferents originate primarily from the medial half of the utricular macula and the lateral half of the saccular macula. This indicates that the line of hair cell polarity reversal within the striola region segregates almost mutually exclusive central projections. A possible interpretation of this feature is that this macular organization provides an inhibitory side-loop through the cerebellum to produce synergistic tuning effects in the vestibular nuclei. The canal cristae project to the brainstem vestibular nuclei and cerebellum, but the projection to the vestibulocerebellum originates preferentially from the superior half of each of the cristae. The reason for this pattern is not clear, but it may compensate for unequal activation of crista hair cells or may be an evolutionary atavism reflecting a different polarity organization in ancestral vertebrate ears

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival