Nuclear hormone receptors, metabolism, and aging: what goes around comes around. Transcription factors link lipid metabolism and aging-related processes

Previous studies have linked the mysterious and inevitable process of aging to essential processes such as metabolism, maturation, and fecundity. Each of these processes is controlled to a large extent by nuclear hormone receptors (NHRs). NHRs also play important roles in the control of periodical processes, the most recently implicated being circadian rhythm. This Review stresses the mounting evidence for tight relationships between each of these NHR-regulated processes and the processes of aging.     

Naturalising,Neutralising Women's Bodies: The “Headscarf Affair” and the Politics of Representation

The recent “headscarf affair” has created a divisive national crisis in several European countries. Like Turkey, France and Germany have introduced legislation prohibiting “conspicuous” religious symbols in government institutions. The article argues that interpretations of ‘Muslim’ female head covering as a sign of oppression ignore their resemblance to European symbols of ideal womanhood. The question of the ‘ethnicity’ of the symbol is thus elusive, and the assertion of categorical difference can be challenged on the level of citizenship law. Recent amendments to German citizenship law based on jus sanguinis have eased immigrants' adoption of citizenship, diminishing the contrast with the French jus soli. Thus, in Germany there has been a shift from the emphasis on the transmission of substance toward display of cultural competence through other forms of embodiment. In both Germany and France, in key social locations of state reproduction, national belonging and loyalty to the state must be demonstrated through linguistic competence and modes of bodily performance that mainly focus on women.     

What does Ubuntu solve? Thoughts on the rhetoric used in the making of the Heritage Transformation Charter

Following the drafting of the Heritage Transformation Charter, an academic study investigated one of the mandates of the Charter, that of oral traditions as part of South Africa’s living heritage. Through an engagement with the discursive elements of both the draft and final texts of the Charter, it found that the authors of the Charter considered Ubuntu as its underlying philosophy, which should inform not only the heritage sector but become an overarching principle for nation building. This approach transpired mostly through the use of rhetoric in the Charter texts, which seemingly placed the discussion of the concept of Ubuntu and to a certain degree the entire Charter firmly within a postcolonial Afro-centric position. Following some of the rhetoric with regard to Ubuntu, and considering the characteristics of rhetoric, its functions and manifestations, the paper will trace the effects of such rhetoric from within the context of a public document such as the Charter to the context of the wider South African society. Thereby, elaborating on the rhetoric around Ubuntu in the Charter texts, it will demonstrate in part how such rhetoric is used in shaping the wider postcolonial and post-apartheid discourse in the present socio-economic dispensation.     

How do mobile,internet and ICT diffusion affect the banking industry? An empirical analysis

Based on the World Development Indicators data provided by the World Bank, we investigate the effect of information and communication technology (ICT) on the profits and risk of financial distress of the EU 28 banking industry. Specifically, we address the question of whether and how ICT diffusion, adoption and infrastructure (e.g., ATM penetration) affect banking profitability and stability over the period 1995–2015. Our results show that ICT exerts a positive role in improving these performance measures. In addition, we find that overall financial stability in the banking industry is enhanced with the intensive adoption of both IT and financial technologies, which increase the distance to default.     

Application of Graph Theory to Cost‐Effective Fire Protection of Chemical Plants During Domino Effects

In the present study, we have introduced a methodology based on graph theory and multicriteria decision analysis for cost‐effective fire protection of chemical plants subject to fire‐induced domino effects. By modeling domino effects in chemical plants as a directed graph, the graph centrality measures such as out‐closeness and betweenness scores can be used to identify the installations playing a key role in initiating and propagating potential domino effects. It is demonstrated that active fire protection of installations with the highest out‐closeness score and passive fire protection of installations with the highest betweenness score are the most effective strategies for reducing the vulnerability of chemical plants to fire‐induced domino effects. We have employed a dynamic graph analysis to investigate the impact of both the availability and the degradation of fire protection measures over time on the vulnerability of chemical plants. The results obtained from the graph analysis can further be prioritized using multicriteria decision analysis techniques such as the method of reference point to find the most cost‐effective fire protection strategy.     

Using crushed waste bricks for urban greening with contrasting grassland mixtures: no negative effects of brick-augmented substrates varying in soil type,moisture and acid pre-treatment

Ecological restoration aims at supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services, and urban greening is a great opportunity to achieve this goal. This is facilitated by species-rich seed mixtures based on local provenances, which are designed for certain nutrient and moisture regimes based on functional plant traits. Such grassland mixtures might be cultivated on crushed waste bricks, which would be a new component of water-holding urban substrates. Thus, we studied the effects of brick quantity and quality, acid pre-treatment of bricks, soil type and moisture on biomass of designed seed mixtures. Three greenhouse experiments were conducted, with substrates consisting of different brick ratios (5% vs. 30%), brick types (clean production waste vs. demolition material), and brick treatments (acid vs. control) tested on three trait-based mixtures and a non-regional commercial standard mixture. The trait-based mixtures included information on specific leaf area, seed mass and grass-to-legume ratio. There were no negative effects of demolition bricks, soil texture and moisture on grassland biomass. Acid-treated clean porous bricks improved biomass production of the standard and intermediate mixtures, while the effect was minimal with demolition bricks. Designed seed mixtures had a biomass similar to the standard mixture under dry conditions but did not benefit from high moisture like the standard mixture. In conclusion, waste bricks are a useful additive for urban restoration substrates to save raw material, and specifically designed regional mixtures can replace commercial grassland types on these substrates.

     

Parental unemployment and children's educational attainment: How big is the role of aspirations?

Children exposed to parental unemployment have been found to lag behind in school, but research has struggled to pin down the underlying explanation. One hypothesis is that parental unemployment may dampen children's aspirations to do well and go far in school. Yet, few studies on parental unemployment have relied on actual measures of children's aspirations or devised a formal analysis of this mechanism. Using the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Waves 1–12, N = 1067), I investigate the role of educational aspirations in children's General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment. I compare adolescents exposed to parental unemployment before or only after the typical age at which GCSE exams are taken. In adjusted models, children exposed to parental unemployment before their GCSEs are around 6 percentage points less likely to attain any GCSE qualification by age 17. On average, children have high educational aspirations, although intentions to enrol in college or university are relatively lower among children exposed to an early spell of parental unemployment. Nevertheless, a hypothetical intervention setting these aspirations to the same level for all children only accounts for a modest portion of the educational penalty tied to an early spell of parental unemployment. Several sensitivity and robustness tests support this conclusion. This note seeks to stimulate more research on the mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational effects of unemployment. Findings cast doubts on the idea that children's aspirations, the target of broader policy discourse and interventions, are a crucial part of the equation.     

Development and International Migration: The Effect of Income on Regular and Irregular Migration Intentions to Europe

In recent years, the development-migration debate has re-gained popularity in policy circles, especially after the so-called “migration crisis” in Europe and the following approval of the European Agenda on Migration. Much of the empirical literature supports the idea that the relationship between international migration and incomes at origin follows hump-shaped patterns. A growing number of studies find that increasing economic development and financial resources in developing countries would allow a greater number of individuals to afford the costs of emigrating. However, this evidence heavily relies on measures of regular migration only. Using nationally representative data from 12 Middle East and North Africa countries, this study adopts a multinomial logit model to frame migration intentions, distinguishing between regular and irregular routes. The main finding is that the level of household income is associated negatively with the demand for irregular migration to Europe. Predictive margins clearly show that higher household incomes increase the probability of planning only regular migration, while decreasing that of considering also irregular migration. The policy implications are not negligible: improving economic conditions in countries of origin may be effective at deflecting migrants from irregular to regular routes.     

The evolution of employee engagement: Towards a social and contextual construct for balancing individual performance and wellbeing dynamically

Research demonstrates that high Employee Engagement (EE) sustains job satisfaction and performance among staff. This literature review analyses the evolution of EE, highlighting the theoretical frameworks used to explain the concept, the measurement scales adopted by researchers and the principal antecedents and outcomes relating to EE that have been progressively considered along the way. Three main findings emerge from the analysis. First, we highlight the social and relational nature of EE, providing a more sociological interpretation of this phenomenon. Second, we underscore the fact that EE is dynamic, and when combined with modern digital technologies, it can be studied through innovative approaches. Third, we discuss how EE could be a fundamental ingredient in shifting towards a human centred approach through which balancing individuals’ wellbeing and performance. We discuss the implications of these findings, highlighting the necessity to rethink EE in relation to the new normal ushered in by Covid-19, and the increasing role of hybrid working.