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

The Density of Titanium(IV) Oxide Liquid

The density of TiO2 liquid in equilibrium with air has been measured at 1875° to 1925°C using an Ir double bob Archimedean method. The melt density data have been combined with data extrapolated from the CaSiO3─TiO2 join at 1600°C. A combined fit to these density data yields the following description of the density of liquid TiO2: ρ= 3.7611 - 0.00028T(°C), in the temperature range of 1600° to 1925°C. This expansivity value is consistent with those obtained on TiO2-rich melts using a Pt-based system at lower temperature and with multicomponent oxide data. The similarity between the volume of liquid TiO2 and that of crystalline rutile implies a dominantly octahedral coordination of Ti in the liquid state

Editorial

This is a guest-editorial introduction to a Special Issue on 'Sustainable HRM and Employee Well-being'. The article introduces the notion of Sustainable HRM, specifically in a well-being context, and briefly summarises the articles that are featured in the issue

Job satisfaction and self-employment: autonomy or personality?

Most studies in the economics discourse argue that the impact of self-employment on job satisfaction is mediated by greater procedural freedom and autonomy. Values and personality traits are considered less likely to explain the utility difference between self-employed and salaried workers. Psychology scholars suggest that entrepreneurial satisfaction also depends, at least in part, on specific values and personality traits. Utilising a large dataset derived from the 2006 European Social Survey, this study performs a complementary analysis by taking personality traits, personal values and indicators for workers’ autonomy explicitly into account. The empirical findings add further strength to economists’ argument that, net of values and personality traits, autonomy and independence are the mechanisms by which self-employment leads to higher levels of job satisfaction. These results hold true for both male and female sub-samples even when a multitude of socio-demographic characteristics, personal values and personality traits are controlled for

Social capital and job satisfaction: the case of Europe in times of economic crisis

This study uses data for 23 countries elicited from the 2010/11 wave of the European Social Survey to examine the stability of social capital as a predictor of job satisfaction at a time of economic crisis. The analysis reveals a remarkably resilient impact of social capital and its constituent components during the economic downturn. However, this resilience is much less pronounced when the focus is on countries where the crisis was most severe, suggesting an economic development threshold below which certain social capital components lose their associational impact. However, religious activity is significantly associated with workers’ job satisfaction in these economies, providing comfort during times of socio-economic difficulty. The extent of organizational trust, measured by proxy variables for participative decision-making, has by far the strongest association with job satisfaction. This suggests that employers need to think again about the way they treat their employees to maximize the benefits of social capital and, ultimately, improve the job satisfaction scores of their workers

Set Theory or Higher Order Logic to Represent Auction Concepts in Isabelle?

When faced with the question of how to represent properties in a formal proof system any user has to make design decisions. We have proved three of the theorems from Maskin's 2004 survey article on Auction Theory using the Isabelle/HOL system, and we have produced verified code for combinatorial Vickrey auctions. A fundamental question in this was how to represent some basic concepts: since set theory is available inside Isabelle/HOL, when introducing new definitions there is often the issue of balancing the amount of set-theoretical objects and of objects expressed using entities which are more typical of higher order logic such as functions or lists. Likewise, a user has often to answer the question whether to use a constructive or a non-constructive definition. Such decisions have consequences for the proof development and the usability of the formalization. For instance, sets are usually closer to the representation that economists would use and recognize, while the other objects are closer to the extraction of computational content. In this paper we give examples of the advantages and disadvantages for these approaches and their relationships. In addition, we present the corresponding Isabelle library of definitions and theorems, most prominently those dealing with relations and quotients.Comment: Preprint of a paper accepted for the forthcoming CICM 2014 conference (cicm-conference.org/2014): S.M. Watt et al. (Eds.): CICM 2014, LNAI 8543, Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. 16 pages, 1 figur

Shock-induced CO2 loss from CaCO3: Implications for early planetary atmospheres

Recovered samples from shock recovery experiments on single crystal calcite were subjected to thermogravimetric analysis to determine the amount of post-shock CO2, the decarbonization interval and the activation energy, for the removal of remaining CO2 in shock-loaded calcite. Comparison of post-shock CO2 with that initially present determines shock-induced CO2 loss as a function of shock pressure. Incipient to complete CO2 loss occurs over a pressure range of approximately 10 to approximately 70 GPa. Optical and scanning electron microscopy reveal structural changes, which are related to the shock-loading. The occurrence of dark, diffuse areas, which can be resolved as highly vesicular areas as observed with a scanning electron microscope are interpreted as representing quenched partial melts, into which shock-released CO2 was injected. The experimental results are used to constrain models of shock-produced, primary CO2 atmospheres on the accreting terrestrial planets

Optical characteristics of Nd:YAG optics and distortions at high power

The intensity profile and beam caustics of a fiber coupled high power Nd:YAG laser beam through a lens system are studied. The thermal lensing effect and its influence on the beam profile and focal position are discussed. Asymmetry of the intensity profile in planes above and below the focal plane is demonstrated. Also the influence of small pollutions on the protective window is explained. Three different methods are used to measure the occurrence\ud of thermal lensing and quantify these effects

Time domain simulations of dynamic river networks

The problem of simulating a river network is considered. A river network is considered to comprise of rivers, dams/lakes as well as weirs. We suggest a numerical approach with specific features that enable the correct representation of these assets. For each river the flow of water is described by the shallow water equations which is a system of hyperbolic partial differential equations and at the junctions of the rivers, suitable coupling conditions, viewed as interior boundary conditions are used to couple the dynamics. A different model for the dams is also presented. Numerical test cases are presented which show that the model is able to reproduce the expected dynamics of the system. Other aspects of the modelling such as rainfall, run-off, overflow/flooding, evaporation, absorption/seepage, bed-slopes, bed friction have not been incorporated in the model due to their specific nature