Effect of Labor Division between Wife and Husband on the Risk of Divorce: Evidence from German Data

Using German panel data from 1984 to 2007, we analyze the impact of labor division between husband and wife on the risk of divorce. Gary Becker's theory of marriage predicts that specialization in domestic and market work, respectively, reduces the risk of separation. Traditionally, the breadwinner role is assigned to the husband, however, female labor force participation and their wages have risen substantially. Our results suggest that there are gender-specific differences, e.g. female breadwinner-couples have a substantially higher risk of divorce than male breadwinner-couples. In contrast, the equal division does not significantly alter the probability of separation.Divorce, labor division, Germany

Effect of Labor Division between Wife and Husband on the Risk of Divorce: Evidence from German Data

Using German panel data from 1984 to 2007, we analyze the impact of labor division between husband and wife on the risk of divorce. Gary Becker’s theory of marriage predicts that specialization in domestic and market work, respectively, reduces the risk of separation. Traditionally, the breadwinner role is assigned to the husband, however, female labor force participation and their wages have risen substantially. Our results suggest that there are gender-specific differences, e.g. female breadwinner-couples have a substantially higher risk of divorce than male breadwinner-couples. In contrast, the equal division does not significantly alter the probability of separation.divorce, labor division, Germany

A case of porphyria cutanea tarda in the setting of hepatitis C infection and tobacco usage

Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is the most common type of porphyria, presenting in middle-aged patients with a photodistributed vesiculobullous eruption, milia, and scars. Porphyria cutanea tarda occurs in relation to inhibition of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase, a key enzyme in the heme biosynthesis pathway. A number of genetic and acquired factors increase susceptibility to PCT by reducing uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase activity. A handful of other vesiculobullous conditions may mimic PCT both clinically and histologically; therefore, both skin biopsy and laboratory evaluation are helpful in confirming the diagnosis. We report a case of PCT in the setting of cigarette usage and untreated hepatitis C infection

Impact of Educational and Religious Homogamy on Marital Stability

Using a rich panel data set from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we test whether spouses who are similar to each other in certain respects have a lower probability of divorce than dissimilar spouses. We focus on the effect of homogamy with respect to education and church attendance. Gary Becker's theory of marriage predicts that usually, positive assortative mating is optimal. Our results, however, suggest that homogamy per se does not increase marital stability but higher education and religiousness.divorce, homogamy, education

Impact of educational and religious homogamy on marital stability

Using a rich panel data set from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we test whether spouses who are similar to each other in certain respects have a lower probability of divorce than dissimilar spouses. We focus on the effect of homogamy with respect to education and church attendance. Gary Becker's theory of marriage predicts that usually, positive assortative mating is optimal. Our results, however, suggest that homogamy per se does not increase marital stability but higher education and religiousness

Honey, why don't you see a doctor? Spousal impact on health behavior

Married individuals are usually found to be in better health than singles but it is not fully known why. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel we test one possible explanation, namely that two spouses encourage each other to a health-promoting behavior and monitor it. Therefore, we analyze the direct spousal impact on seeking medical advice, physical activity, and eating habits controlling for selection, positive assortative mating, and shared unobserved influences of the environment. While we find no causal effect regarding a health-conscious diet, the impact of the partner's doing sports is substantial. Moreover, females affect their male spouses in seeking medical advice but not the other way around. The latter result may explain why men usually benefit more from marriages than women

Integration of Epidemiological Evidence in a Decision Support Model for the Control of Campylobacter in Poultry Production

The control of human Campylobacteriosis is a priority in public health agendas all over the world. Poultry is considered a significant risk factor for human infections with Campylobacter and risk assessment models indicate that the successful implementation of Campylobacter control strategies in poultry will translate on a reduction of human Campylobacteriosis cases. Efficient control strategies implemented during primary production will reduce the risk of Campylobacter introduction in chicken houses and/or decrease Campylobacter concentration in infected chickens and their products. Consequently, poultry producers need to make difficult decisions under conditions of uncertainty regarding the implementation of Campylobacter control strategies. This manuscript presents the development of probabilistic graphical models to support decision making in order to control Campylobacter in poultry. The decision support systems are constructed as probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) which integrate knowledge and use Bayesian methods to deal with uncertainty. This paper presents a specific model designed to integrate epidemiological knowledge from the United Kingdom (UK model) in order to assist poultry managers in specific decisions related to vaccination of commercial broilers for the control of Campylobacter. Epidemiological considerations and other crucial aspects including challenges associated with the quantitative part of the models are discussed in this manuscript. The outcome of the PGMs will depend on the qualitative and quantitative data included in the models. Results from the UK model and sensitivity analyses indicated that the financial variables (cost/reward functions) and the effectiveness of the control strategies considered in the UK model were driving the results. In fact, there were no or only small financial gains when using a hypothetical vaccine B (able to decrease Campylobacter numbers from two to six logs in 20% of the chickens with a cost of 0.025 £/chicken) and reward system 1 (based on similar gross profits in relation to Campylobacter levels) under the specific assumptions considered in the UK model. In contrast, significant reductions in expected Campylobacter numbers and substantial associated expected financial gains were obtained from this model when considering the reward system 2 (based on quite different gross profits in relation to Campylobacter levels) and the use of a hypothetical cost-effective vaccine C (able to reduce the level of Campylobacter from two to six logs in 90% of the chickens with a cost of 0.03 £/chicken). The flexibility of probabilistic graphical models allows for the inclusion of more than one Campylobacter vaccination strategy and more than one reward system and consequently, diverse potential solutions for the control of Campylobacter may be considered. Cost-effective Campylobacter control strategies that can significantly reduce the probability of Campylobacter introduction into a flock and/or the numbers of Campylobacter in already infected chickens, and translate to an attractive cost-reward balance will be preferred by poultry producers

Two coupled Josephson junctions: dc voltage controlled by biharmonic current

We study transport properties of two Josephson junctions coupled by an external shunt resistance. One of the junction (say, the first) is driven by an unbiased ac current consisting of two harmonics. The device can rectify the ac current yielding a dc voltage across the first junction. For some values of coupling strength, controlled by an external shunt resistance, a dc voltage across the second junction can be generated. By variation of system parameters like the relative phase or frequency of two harmonics, one can conveniently manipulate both voltages with high efficiency, e.g., changing the dc voltages across the first and second junctions from positive to negative values and vice versa.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Condens. Matter (2012

Mechanical operations of the spirit : the Protestant object in Swift and Defoe

textThis study revises a dominant narrative of the eighteenth-century, in which a secular modernity emerges in opposition to religious belief. It argues that a major challenge for writers such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, and for English subjects generally, was to grasp the object world--including the modern technological object--in terms of its spiritual potential. I identify disputes around the liturgy and common prayer as a source of a folk psychology concerning mental habits conditioned by everyday interactions with devotional and cultural objects. Swift and Defoe therefore confront even paradigmatically modern forms (from trade items to scientific techniques) as a spiritual ecology, a network of new possibilities for practical piety and familiar forms of mental-spiritual illness. Texts like A Tale of a tub (1704) and Robinson Crusoe (1719) renew Reformation ideals for the laity by evaluating technologies for governing a nation of souls. Swift and Defoe's Protestantism thus appears as an active guide to understanding emotions and new experience rather than a static body of doctrine. Current historiography neglects the early modern sense that sectarian objects and rituals not only discipline religious subjects, but also provoke ambivalence and anxiety: Swift's Tale diagnoses Catholic knavery and Puritan hypocrisy as neurotic attempts to extract pleasure from immiserating styles of material praxis. Crusoe, addressed to more radical believers in spaces of trade, sees competent spiritual, scientific and commercial practice on the same plane, as techniques for overcoming fetishistic desires. Swift's orthodoxy of enforced moderation and Defoe's oddly worldly piety represent likeminded formulae for psychic reform, and not--as often alleged--conflicts between sincere belief and political or commercial interests. Gulliver's travels (1726) and A Journal of the plague year (1722) also link mind and governance through different visions of Protestant polity. Swift sees alienation from the national church--figured by a Crusoe or Gulliver--as refusal of common sense and problem solving. Defoe points to religious schism, exemplified by dissenters' exclusion from state church statistics, as a moral and medical failure: the city risks creating selfish citizens who also may overlook data needed to combat the plague.Englis

Elucidating the aetiology of human Campylobacter coli infections

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