Perceptions of variation and change in German and Swedish address1

German and Swedish speakers diverge in contemporary address practice. The Swedish T form has become unmarked, with V limited to very specific situations. Apart from some specific T or V contexts, German now has coexistent systems, one with T, the other with V as the unmarked form, with different speakers or networks preferring one or the other. In an ongoing project, focus groups and participant observation in Austria, (eastern and western) Germany and Sweden and with Swedish speakers in Finland have identified factors and contexts determining degree of social distance and hence address choice. First name use is more marked than T use in Swedish but the two are closely linked in German. National variation is more substantial in Swedish than in German. In both languages there is some reversal of liberalization and distaste for imposition of the address form.     

On a representation theorem of Schmeidler

In the present paper we consider functionals which occur naturally in the context of generalized certainty equivalents. The common feature of these functionals is that they behave additively for similarly ordered functions. It will be shown that this property allows to associate in a natural way certain martingales to the functions (acts) in question. As a consequence of elementary facts from martingale limit theory we derive an integral representation if the functional has an additional continuity property.     

新马克思主义美学的适时性

新马克思主义美学通过将审美与作为整体的社会联系起来,用一种充满活力的方式揭示了诸如艺术哲学、自然美学和日常生活审美化理论之类的美学的主要领域。它预见了艺术通过在日常生活中的实现而被扬弃,最终成为人类生活的富足状态。新马克思主义美学的主要倾向在于,根据艺术对社会导向和文化导向所产生的重要改变来讨论和阐明艺术的作用。这种对于将艺术深植于社会之中的关切,使得新马克思主义美学具有高度的适时性。新马克思主义美学的优越性,在于它看到了现代社会总是具有两面性。它之所以优于其他学派如实用主义或解释学,在于它用这样一种方式来反思艺术,即艺术既在社会领域之内又在社会领域之外而存在,艺术既是“社会事实”又是“自律的”。其中,它对自律艺术和对商业化艺术的关注,无论是在罗蒂还是在伽达默尔那里,都没有这种双重轨迹的见解。     

On σ-coherence and a theorem of heath and sudderth

For the important case that the space of the possible states of nature is a compact Hausdorff space it is easy to generalize a result of Heath and Sudderth (1978) to the countably additive setting. No topological assumption is made on the space of observations. We also observe that posteriors need not always exist.     

Who benefits from labor market institutions? Evidence from surveys of life satisfaction

This paper investigates the welfare effects of labor market institutions, placing an emphasis on how the institutions’ effects are differentiated by socio-demographic subgroups. We study how life satisfaction is affected by employment protection and the level and duration of unemployment benefit payments. Using data for almost 370,000 individuals in ten European countries, 1975-2002, we find that more employment protection and a higher benefit replacement rate increase the life satisfaction of the average citizen. At the subgroup level, different segments of the population are affected differently by the two categories of labor market institutions. While employment protection is valued especially by employed persons of intermediate age, it is less beneficial for women/housewives and for older persons. More generous unemployment insurance is valued especially by these latter subgroups and by the unemployed.     

The role of mitochondria in conserved mechanisms of aging

The European research project MiMage, supported by the European Community's Sixth Framework for Research and Technological Development, focuses on elucidating the role of mitochondria in conserved mechanisms of aging. This Perspective summarizes a selection of talks presented in April 2006 at the second MiMage symposium by members from participating laboratories and invited speakers.     

Perception of Mobile Phone and Base Station Risks

Perceptions of risks associated with mobile phones, base stations, and other sources of electromagnetic fields (EMF) were examined. Data from a telephone survey conducted in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland are presented (N = 1,015). Participants assessed both risks and benefits associated with nine different sources of EMF. Trust in the authorities regulating these hazards was assessed as well. In addition, participants answered a set of questions related to attitudes toward EMF and toward mobile phone base stations. According to respondents' assessments, high-voltage transmission lines are the most risky source of EMF. Mobile phones and mobile phone base stations received lower risk ratings. Results showed that trust in authorities was positively associated with perceived benefits and negatively associated with perceived risks. People who use their mobile phones frequently perceived lower risks and higher benefits than people who use their mobile phones infrequently. People who believed they lived close to a base station did not significantly differ in their level of risks associated with mobile phone base stations from people who did not believe they lived close to a base station. Regarding risk regulation, a majority of participants were in favor of fixing limiting values based on the worst-case scenario. Correlations suggest that belief in paranormal phenomena is related to level of perceived risks associated with EMF. Furthermore, people who believed that most chemical substances cause cancer also worried more about EMF than people who did not believe that chemical substances are that harmful. Practical implications of the results are discussed.