Examining the relation between part-time work and happiness in dual-earner couples from a life course perspective: incorporating individual, couple and country characteristics

Research relating work hours to well-being has generated equivocal results: some find that working fulltime is related to greater happiness, while others find that those who work parttime are happier. Both findings may be true – linkages between work hours and well-being might differ depending on individual, couple and country characteristics. We use a life course perspective and focus on people’s gender, the presence and age of children, the partner’s work hours, and the country’s norms and policies. Furthermore, this paper is the first to explicitly test the key explanations for the relation between work hours and happiness. We analyze data from the 2012 module of the ISSP, in combination with country-level data from the OECD’s Family Database. Women are happier working part-time, while men are happier working fulltime. Both men and women are happier with a part-time working partner. These effects pertain only to people with school age children and not to childless people or those with preschool age children. Fulltime working fathers are happier partly because they adhere to gender role prescriptions. Norms and policies do not shape the relation between work hours and happiness. The current paper stresses that how work hours affect well-being is dependent on people’s life course context. Whether individuals are happier working fulltime or part-time depends on their gender, their parental status and the work hours of their partner. Furthermore, future studies should consider gendered explanations as our study provides tentative evidence that different mechanisms underlie the relation for men and women

DBTBS: a database of transcriptional regulation in Bacillus subtilis containing upstream intergenic conservation information

DBTBS, first released in 1999, is a reference database on transcriptional regulation in Bacillus subtilis, summarizing the experimentally characterized transcription factors, their recognition sequences and the genes they regulate. Since the previous release, the original content was extended by the addition of the data contained in 569 new publications, the total of which now reaches 947. The number of B. subtilis promoters annotated in the database was more than doubled to 1475. In addition, 463 experimentally validated B. subtilis operons and their terminators have been included. Given the increase in the number of fully sequenced bacterial genomes, we decided to extend the usability of DBTBS in comparative regulatory genomics. We therefore created a new section on the conservation of the upstream regulatory sequences between homologous genes in 40 Gram-positive bacterial species, as well as on the presence of overrepresented hexameric motifs that may have regulatory functions. DBTBS can be accessed at: http://dbtbs.hgc.jp

Reply to "Comment on 'Scalar-tensor gravity coupled to a global monopole and flat rotation curves' "

In Brans-Dicke theory of gravity we explain how the extra constant value in the formula for rotation velocities of stars in a galactic halo can be obtained due to the global monopole field. We argue on a few points of the preceding Comment and discuss improvement of our model.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX4 fil

Endothelial function in migraine: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Migraine has been associated with cardiovascular disorders. Endothelial dysfunction may be a mechanism underlying this association. The present study tested the hypothesis that endothelium-dependent vasodilation, basal endothelial nitric oxide release and endothelial fibrinolytic capacity are impaired in migraine patients. METHODS: Graded doses of sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 0.2 to 0.8 microg.min 1.dL-1 forearm), substance P (0.2 to 0.8 pmol.min-1.dL-1 forearm) and NG monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA, 0.1 to 0.4 micromol.min-1.dL-1 forearm) were infused into the brachial artery of 16 migraine patients with or without aura during a headache-free interval and 16 age- and sex-matched subjects without a history of migraine. Forearm blood flow (FBF) was measured by strain-gauge venous occlusion plethysmography. Local forearm release of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) in response to substance P infusion was assessed using the arteriovenous plasma concentration gradient. Responses to infused drugs were compared between patients and matched controls by analysis of variance. RESULTS: In both migraine patients and control subjects, SNP and substance P caused a dose-dependent increase, and L NMMA a dose-dependent decrease in FBF (P < 0.001 for all responses). In both groups, substance P caused an increase in t-PA release (P < 0.001). FBF responses and t-PA release were comparable between migraine patients and control subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of differences in endothelium-dependent vasodilation, basal endothelial nitric oxide production and stimulated t-PA release between migraine patients and healthy control subjects argues against the presence of endothelial dysfunction in forearm resistance vessels of migraine patients.status: publishe

Effective Vortex Mass from Microscopic Theory

We calculate the effective mass of a single quantized vortex in the BCS superconductor at finite temperature. Based on effective action approach, we arrive at the effective mass of a vortex as integral of the spectral function $J(\omega)$ divided by $\omega^3$ over frequency. The spectral function is given in terms of the quantum-mechanical transition elements of the gradient of the Hamiltonian between two Bogoliubov-deGennes (BdG) eigenstates. Based on self-consistent numerical diagonalization of the BdG equation we find that the effective mass per unit length of vortex at zero temperature is of order $m (k_f \xi_0)^2$ ($k_f$=Fermi momentum, $\xi_0$=coherence length), essentially equaling the electron mass displaced within the coherence length from the vortex core. Transitions between the core states are responsible for most of the mass. The mass reaches a maximum value at $T\approx 0.5 T_c$ and decreases continuously to zero at $T_c$.Comment: Supercedes prior version, cond-mat/990312

Atlas Toolkit: Fast registration of 3D morphological datasets in the absence of landmarks

Image registration is a gateway technology for Developmental Systems Biology, enabling computational analysis of related datasets within a shared coordinate system. Many registration tools rely on landmarks to ensure that datasets are correctly aligned; yet suitable landmarks are not present in many datasets. Atlas Toolkit is a Fiji/ImageJ plugin collection offering elastic group-wise registration of 3D morphological datasets, guided by segmentation of the interesting morphology. We demonstrate the method by combinatorial mapping of cell signalling events in the developing eyes of chick embryos, and use the integrated datasets to predictively enumerate Gene Regulatory Network states