Who settles for less? Subjective dispositions, objective circumstances, and housing satisfaction

In recent years there has been growing interest in individuals’ self-perceptions of their wellbeing on the grounds that these complement well-established objective indicators of welfare. However, individuals’ assessments depend on both objective circumstances and subjective, idiosyncratic dispositions, such as aspirations and expectations. We add to the literature by formulating a modelling strategy that uncovers how these subjective dispositions differ across socio-demographic groups. This is then tested using housing satisfaction data from a large-scale household panel survey from Australia. We find that there are significant differences in the way in which individuals with different characteristics rate the same objective reality. For instance, male, older, migrant, and Indigenous individuals rate equal housing conditions more favourably than female, younger, Australian-born, and non-Indigenous individuals. These findings have important implications for how self-reported housing satisfaction, and wellbeing data in general, are to be used to inform evidence-based policy

Analysis of <i>Leishmania chagasi</i> by 2-D Difference Gel Eletrophoresis (2-D DIGE) and Immunoproteomic: Identification of Novel Candidate Antigens for Diagnostic Tests and Vaccine

Identification of novel antigens is essential for developing new diagnostic tests and vaccines. We used DIGE to compare protein expression in amastigote and promastigote forms of Leishmania chagasi. Nine hundred amastigote and promastigote spots were visualized. Five amastigote-specific, 25 promastigote-specific, and 10 proteins shared by the two parasite stages were identified. Furthermore, 41 proteins were identified in the Western blot employing 2-DE and sera from infected dogs. From these proteins, 3 and 38 were reactive with IgM and total IgG, respectively. The proteins recognized by total IgG presented different patterns in terms of their recognition by IgG1 and/or IgG2 isotypes. All the proteins selected by Western blot were mapped for B-cell epitopes. One hundred and eighty peptides were submitted to SPOT synthesis and immunoassay. A total of 25 peptides were shown of interest for serodiagnosis to visceral leishmaniasis. In addition, all proteins identified in this study were mapped for T cell epitopes by using the NetCTL software, and candidates for vaccine development were selected. Therefore, a large-scale screening of L. chagasi proteome was performed to identify new B and T cell epitopes with potential use for developing diagnostic tests and vaccines.2030-01-0

Crystal structure refinement of chromites from two achondrites, their T-f(O2) conditions, and implications

Six Cr-spinel grains from NWA 6077 brachinite-like and NWA 725 winonaite achondrites have been studied by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and structural refinement. From a chemical point of view, spinels from NWA 6077 show Cr/(Cr + Al) (i.e., Cr#) and Mg/(Mg + Fe2+) (i.e., Mg#) values similar to other brachinites, while the Cr# of NWA 725 is lower than that of literature winonaites. Spinels from NWA 6077 and NWA 725 meteorites show similar cell edges, while the oxygen positional parameter is rather different being about 0.2629 for NWA 6077 and 0.2622 for NWA 725. Considering both parameters, NWA 725 shows structural features that are close to some terrestrial spinel occurrences as in komatiites, kimberlites, or included in diamonds; those from NWA 6077 show values that have no terrestrial analogs. Olivine-chromite closure temperature ranges from ~737 to ~765\ub0 C for NWA 725, being similar to that of literature winonaites and ~846 to ~884\ub0 C for NWA 6077. The logfO2 ranges from 19.8 to 20.5 and 17.0 to 17.9 for the two meteorites, respectively. The u values for terrestrial samples can give information about the cooling history of the samples. For the extraterrestrial samples, it seems that it can give information about the cooling only for spinels where it is lower than 0.2625. For higher values, it appears related only to the chemistry of the spinels