Prevalence of and potential influencing factors for alcohol dependence in europe.

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs), and alcohol dependence (AD) in particular, are prevalent and associated with a large burden of disability and mortality. The aim of this study was to estimate prevalence of AD in the European Union (EU), Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland for the year 2010, and to investigate potential influencing factors. The 1-year prevalence of AD in the EU was estimated at 3.4% among people 18-64 years of age in Europe (women 1.7%, men 5.2%), resulting in close to 11 million affected people. Taking into account all people of all ages, AD, abuse and harmful use resulted in an estimate of 23 million affected people. Prevalence of AD varied widely between European countries, and was significantly impacted by drinking cultures and social norms. Correlations with level of drinking and other drinking variables and with major known outcomes of heavy drinking, such as liver cirrhosis or injury, were moderate. These results suggest a need to rethink the definition of AUDs.

Holy harlots : authority, gender, and the body in medieval English hagiography

This doctoral dissertation aims at describing the representation of holy harlots (Mary Magdalene, Mary of Egypt, Pelagia, Thai's, Afra of Augsburg) in medieval English hagiography. These saints are unique representatives that combine both extremes of the feminine in the medieval imaginaire: she is both, as a saint, the Virgin Mary, the pure and virtuous woman, and, in her past as a prostitute, Eve, the evil female tempter who led all mankind to destruction. The initial question of this thesis is how did hagiographers negotiate the representation of a formerly sinful, sexually active, long- living woman as an authoritative saint? This thesis aims at finding elements of answer to this question, investigating the intersections between gender and authority in the saints' lives of repentant prostitutes in all the vernaculars of medieval England: Old English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English. It posits that the portrayal of holy harlots' authority and gender is dependent upon social, religious and literary shifts during the medieval period. My contention is that the harlot's gender portrayal changes over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, due notably to the rise of affective piety and the important influence of the romance genre over hagiography. In Anglo-Saxon England, the harlot's gender changes with the saint's conversion: a woman beforehand, her gender is portrayed after her repentance as ambiguous in order for her to become a saint. Her authority derives from her own sanctity in this case. From the twelfth century onward, however, the harlot, now often turned into a beautiful and landed romance lady, is more and more represented as a woman throughout her life, and becomes after her conversion a Bride of Christ. In this way, the dangerously free woman who roamed the streets and prostituted her body becomes less threatening after her conversion, being (re-)inscribed within the male dominated institution of marriage. She now draws her authoritative stance from her gendered intimacy with Christ: although she submits to Christ as his bride, she also gains greater authority than before by way of her privileged relationship with the Savior.

Neither Bad Apple nor Bad Barrel: How the Societal Context Impacts Unethical Behavior in Organizations

Every time another corporate scandal captures media headlines, the 'bad apple vs. bad barrel' discussion starts anew. Yet this debate overlooks the influence of the broader societal context on organizational behavior. In this article, we argue that misbehaviors of organizations (the 'barrels') and their members (the 'apples') cannot be addressed properly without a clear understanding of their broader context (the 'larder'). Whereas previously, a strong societal framework dampened the practical application of the Homo economicus concept (business actors as perfectly rational and egocentric utility-maximizing agents without any moral concern), specialization, individualization and globalization led to a business world disembedded from broader societal norms. This emancipated business world promotes a literal interpretation of Homo economicus among business organizations and their members. Consequently, we argue that the first step toward 'healthier' apples and barrels is to sanitize the larder, that is, adapt the framework in which organizations and their members evolve.Chaque fois qu'un nouveau scandale fait la une des médias, la question de savoir si le problème se situe au niveau des individus (des 'pommes isolées') ou au niveau des organisations (les 'caisses de pommes') refait surface. Ce débat tend néanmoins à sous-estimer l'influence du contexte sociétal plus large sur le comportement dans les organisations. Dans cet article, nous soutenons l'idée que les scandales éthiques dans les organisations ou parmi leurs membres ne peuvent être compris correctement sans une vision plus précise de leur contexte plus large (la 'cave à pommes'). Si dans le passé un contexte sociétal fort permettait d'adoucir les applications pratiques de l'Homo economicus (qui considère l'acteur économique comme un agent parfaitement rationnel et égocentrique cherchant à maximiser son utilité sans réflexion morale), l'individualisation et la globalisation ont conduit à un monde économique désencastré et déconnecté des normes sociales plus larges. Ce monde économique autonome promouvoit une interprétation littérale de l'Homo economicus parmi les entreprises et leurs employés. Il en résulte que le premier pas vers des pommes moins pourries passe par un assainissement de la cave, c'est-à-dire l'adoption d'un cadre socio-normatif qui permet un recadrage du contexte dans lequel les organisations économiques et leurs acteurs agissent.

Pale and dark reddish melanic tawny owls differentially regulate the level of blood circulating POMC prohormone in relation to environmental conditions.

Knowledge of the hormonal pathway controlling genotype-specific norms of reaction would shed light on the ecological factors to which each genotype is adapted. Environmentally mediated changes in the sign and magnitude of covariations between heritable melanin-based colouration and fitness components are frequent, revealing that extreme melanin-based phenotypes can display different physiological states depending on the environment. Yet, the hormonal mechanism underlying this phenomenon is poorly understood. One novel hypothesis proposes that these covariations stem from pleiotropic effects of the melanocortin system. Melanocortins are post-translationally modified bioactive peptides derived from the POMC prohormone that are involved in melanogenesis, anti-inflammation, energy homeostasis and stress responses. Thus, differential regulation of fitness components in relation to environmental factors by pale and dark melanic individuals may be due to colour-specific regulation of the POMC prohormone. Accordingly, we found that the degree of reddish melanic colouration was negatively correlated with blood circulating levels of the POMC prohormone in female tawny owls (Strix aluco) rearing a brood for which the size was experimentally reduced, but not when enlarged, and in females located in rich but not in poor territories. Our findings support the hypothesis that the widespread links between melanin-based colouration and fitness components may be mediated, at least in part, by the melanocortin system.

Plasticity in sex allocation in the plant Mercurialis annua is greater for hermaphrodites sampled from dimorphic than from monomorphic populations.

Plants are notoriously variable in gender, ranging in sex allocation from purely male through hermaphrodite to purely female. This variation can have both a genetic and an adaptive plastic component. In gynodioecious species, where females co-occur with hermaphrodites, hermaphrodites tend to shift their allocation towards greater maleness when growing under low-resource conditions, either as a result of hermaphrodites shifting away from an expensive female function, or because of enhanced siring advantages in the presence of females. Similarly, in the androdioecious plant Mercurialis annua, where hermaphrodites co-exist with males, hermaphrodites also tend to enhance their relative male allocation under low-resource conditions. Here, we ask whether this response differs between hermaphrodites that have been evolving in the presence of males, in a situation analogous to that supposed for gynodioecious populations, vs. those that have been evolving in their absence. We grew hermaphrodites of M. annua from populations in which males were either present or absent under different levels of nutrient availability and compared their reaction norms. We found that, overall, hermaphrodites from populations with males tended to be more female than those from populations lacking males. Importantly, hermaphrodites' investment in pollen and seed production was more plastic when they came from populations with males than without them, reducing their pollen production at low resource availability and increasing their seed production at high resource availability. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that plasticity in sex allocation is enhanced in hermaphrodites that have likely been exposed to variation in mating opportunities due to fluctuations in the frequency of co-occurring males.

Sexual protection behavior in HIV-positive gay men: testing a modified information-motivation-behavioral skills model.

This study on determinants of sexual protection behavior among HIV-positive gay men used the empirically tested information-motivation-behavioral skills (IMB) model. HIV-specific variables were added to the model to determine factors decisive for condom use with steady and casual partners. Data were collected using an anonymous, standardized self-administered questionnaire. Study participants were recruited at HIV outpatient clinics associated with the Eurosupport Study Group and the Swiss HIV Cohort Study. To identify factors associated with condom use, backward elimination regression analyses were performed. Overall, 838 HIV-infected gay men from 14 European countries were included in this analysis. About 53% of them reported at least one sexual contact with a steady partner; 62.5% had sex with a casual partner during the last 6 months. Forty-three percent always used condoms with steady partners and 44% with casual partners. High self-efficacy and subjective norms in favor of condom-use were associated with increased condom use with casual and steady partners, whereas feeling depressed was associated with decreased condom use with casual partners. Condoms were used less often with HIV-positive partners. Self-efficacy as an important behavioral skill to perform protection behavior was influenced by lower perceived vulnerability, higher subjective norms, and more positive safer sex attitudes. The IMB-model constructs appeared to be valid; however, not all the model predictors could be determined as hypothesized. Besides the original IMB constructs, HIV-specific variables, including sexual partners' serostatus and mental health, explained condom use. Such factors should be considered in clinical interventions to promote "positive prevention."

The policy-making structure of European regulatory networks and the domestic adoption of standards

European regulatory networks (ERNs) constitute the main governance instrument for the informal co-ordination of public regulation at the European Union (EU) level. They are in charge of co-ordinating national regulators and ensuring the implementation of harmonized regulatory policies across the EU, while also offering sector-specific expertise to the Commission. To this aim, ERNs develop 'best practices' and benchmarking procedures in the form of standards, norms and guidelines to be adopted in member states. In this paper, we focus on the Committee of European Securities Regulators and examine the consequences of the policy-making structure of ERNs on the domestic adoption of standards. We find that the regulators of countries with larger financial industries tend to occupy more central positions in the network, especially among newer member states. In turn, network centrality is associated with a more prompt domestic adoption of standards.

Global regulation of the knowledge-based economy: The rise of standards in educational services

This article examines the extent and limits of non-state forms of authority in international relations. It analyses how the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure for the tradability of services in a global knowledge-based economy relies on informal regulatory practices for adjustment of ICT-related skills. Companies and associations provide training and certification programmes as part of a growing market for educational services setting their own standards. The existing literature on non-conventional forms of authority in the global political economy has emphasised that the consent of actors subject to informal rules and explicit or implicit state recognition remains crucial for the effectiveness of those new forms of power. However, analyses based on a limited sample of actors tend toward a narrow understanding of the issues and fail to fully explore the differentiated space in which non-state authority is emerging. This paper examines the form of authority underpinning the global knowledge-based economy within the broader perspective of the issues likely to be standardised by technical ICT specification, the wide range of actors involved, and the highly differentiated space where standards become authoritative. The empirical findings highlight the role of different private actors in establishing international educational norms in this field. They also pinpoint the limits of profit-oriented standard-settings, notably with regard to generic norms.

Validación chilena del cuestionario de evaluación de apego en el adulto CAMIR

El objetivo de esta investigación fue examinar la confiabilidad y validez del instrumento de evaluación de apego en el adulto, "Cartes: Modèles Individuels de Relation (CAMIR), en la realidad sociocultural chilena. Este instrumento, basado en la teoría del apego, es un cuestionario de auto-reporte que evalúa los modelos operativos internos en adultos y otras escalas relacionadas al apego. Los participantes fueron 578 sujetos, 204 hombres y 374 mujeres, con edades entre 14 y 80 años. Los sujetos completaron el CAMIR y medidas de vínculo y sintomatología actual, a través del Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and Outcome Questionnaire OQ-45.2. A través del análisis estadístico de los resultados se evaluaron las características psicométricas del test y de analiz ó la posibilidad de generar normas locales para la prueba. Los resultados confirmaron que el CAMIR es un instrumento confiable y válido en la evaluación de los modelos internos de relación en adultos. This study was designed to estimate the validity and reliability of the "Cartes: Modèles Individuels de Relation (CAMIR), in Chile. This inventory, based on attachment's theory, it's a auto-questionnaire evaluates the working models in adults and other scales relating to attachment. Participants were 578 individuals, 204 males and 374 females, 14 a 80 years old. Individuals completed the CAMIR and measures of bond and actual symptoms, with the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and Outcome Questionnaire OQ-45.2. The general norms were obtained according to a statistical analysis of the results and to an evaluation of the psychometric characteristics of the test. The results confirmed that the psychometric characteristics of the CAMIR make it a reliable and valid tool to assess working models in adults.

Parental influences on pathogen resistance in brown trout embryos and effects of outcrossing within a river network.

Phenotypic plasticity can increase tolerance to heterogeneous environments but the elevations and slopes of reaction norms are often population specific. Disruption of locally adapted reaction norms through outcrossing can lower individual viability. Here, we sampled five genetically distinct populations of brown trout (Salmo trutta) from within a river network, crossed them in a full-factorial design, and challenged the embryos with the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas fluorescens. By virtue of our design, we were able to disentangle effects of genetic crossing distance from sire and dam effects on early life-history traits. While pathogen infection did not increase mortality, it was associated with delayed hatching of smaller larvae with reduced yolk sac reserves. We found no evidence of a relationship between genetic distance (W, FST) and the expression of early-life history traits. Moreover, hybrids did not differ in phenotypic means or reaction norms in comparison to offspring from within-population crosses. Heritable variation in early life-history traits was found to remain stable across the control and pathogen environments. Our findings show that outcrossing within a rather narrow geographical scale can have neutral effects on F1 hybrid viability at the embryonic stage, i.e. at a stage when environmental and genetic effects on phenotypes are usually large.

Maternal and paternal contributions to pathogen resistance dependent on development stage in a whitefish (Salmonidae)

It is often assumed that maternal and paternal contributions to offspring phenotype change over the lifetime of an individual. However, studies on parental effects typically suffer from the problems that heritabilities and maternal environmental effects are difficult to separate, and that both may depend on environmental factors and developmental stage. In order to experimentally disentangle maternal from paternal contributions and the likely effects of developmental stage from ecological effects, we sampled a natural population of the whitefish Coregonus palaea, used gametes for full-factorial in vitro fertilizations, raised over 10000 of the resulting offspring singly at controlled conditions, and exposed them at different points during embryonic development to one of two strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens that differed in their virulence characteristics (only one caused mortality, while both delayed hatching and reduced growth). Vulnerability to infection increased markedly over embryo development. This change coincided with a distinct shift in the importance of maternal to additive genetic effects on survival. Timing of exposure also affected the variance components for hatching time and larval length, but in a less consistent direction than the variance components for mortality. No significant genetic variation was found for any reaction norms across time points of exposure, indicating a uniformity among genotypes in how susceptibility changed over development. Phenotypes were also typically correlated across time points, which could constrain the evolution of the reaction norms. Our experiment demonstrates that the relative maternal and paternal contributions to susceptibility to an infection, and hence the evolutionary potential to respond to pathogen-induced selection, depends not only on the kind of pathogenic stress but also on the timing of the challenge.

Physical activity, bodyweight, health and fear of negative evaluation in primary school children.

Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is regarded as being the core feature of social anxiety. The present study examined how FNE is associated with physical activity (PA), body mass index (BMI) and perceived physical health (PPH) in children. Data were collected in a sample of 502 primary school children in first and fifth grades taking part in a randomized-controlled trial ("Kinder-Sportstudie KISS") aimed at increasing PA and health. PA was assessed by accelerometry over 7 days, PPH by the Child Health Questionnaire and FNE by the Social Anxiety Scale for Children--Revised. BMI z-scores were calculated based on Swiss norms. Cross-sectional analyses indicated that children high in FNE exercised less, reported lower levels of PPH and had higher BMI z-scores (P<0.01). Using mixed linear models, the school-based PA intervention did not manage to reduce FNE scores. Overweight children demonstrated a greater increase in FNE (P<0.05) indicating that enhanced weight may be a risk factor for FNE. In conclusion, the associations among high FNE, low PA and increased BMI should be considered when promoting an active lifestyle in children.

Legal europeanization as legal transformation : some insights from Swiss 'outer Europe'

The "Europeanization" of non-EU countries' laws is predominantly seen as an "export" of the EU acquis, especially in the case of so-called "quasi-member" states such as Switzerland. Based on an examination of the Swiss experience, this paper highlights the flaws of this conceptualization: the Europeanization of Swiss Law is a highly differentiated phenomenon, encompassing several forms of approximation to EU Law. All of these forms fall short of an "export" of norms, and result in the creation of something new: a "Europeanized law" that is similar to, but qualitatively different from, EU Law. Another drawback of the "export" metaphor is the emphasis it places on the isomorphism of positive legislation. Europeanization goes deeper than that. As shown in this paper, it is a process of transformation involving not only positive law, but also legal thinking. The Swiss case demonstrates how significant such deeper transformations can be: the Europeanization of positive law has induced an alteration of the traditional canon of legal interpretation. It also demonstrates how problematic such transformations can be: the above-mentioned alteration has not given rise to a new and universally accepted canon of interpretation. This reflects the tension between the need for clear "rules of reference" for EU legal materials - which are required in order to restore coherence and predictability to an extensively Europeanized legal system - and the reluctance to give a legal value to foreign legal materials - which is rooted in a traditional understanding of the concept of "law". Such tension, in turn, shows what deep and difficult transformations are required in order to establish a viable model of legal integration outside supranational structures.

Clairvoyance de l'utilité et de la désirabilité sociales dans les situations d'évaluation

Résumé Le concept de clairvoyance normative (Py & Somat, 1991), qui a vu le jour dans la continuité des études sur la norme d'internalité (Beauvois, 1984), traduit la connaissance du caractère normatif ou contre-normatif d'un type de comportements ou d'un type de jugements. Un certain nombre de recherches semble alors attester que la clairvoyance normative participe à l'obtention d'une évaluation positive. Toutefois, ces différentes recherches font toutes fi de l'idée qu'il existerait deux dimensions de la valeur sociale : l'utilité sociale et la désirabilité sociale. La prise en compte de ces deux dimensions, surtout si l'on admet que les normes sociales ne renvoient pas toutes à la même dimension (Beauvois, 1995 ; Dubois & Beauvois, 2005 ; Dubois, 2005), vient alors quelque peu compliquer le modèle liant clairvoyance normative et évaluation positive car elle suggère que la clairvoyance de certaines normes aidera avant tout à être bien évalué sur le plan de l'utilité sociale alors que la clairvoyance d'autres normes participera davantage à être évalué favorablement sur le plan de la désirabilité sociale. Ces réflexions ont été à la base de ce travail de thèse et ont conduit à la réalisation de notre première étude. Les quelques résultats inattendus que nous avons obtenus nous ont cependant incité par la suite à reconsidérer la pertinence de rattacher la notion de clairvoyance à certains types de contenu (internalité, autosuffisance, etc.), ce qui nous a amené à la proposition de deux nouvelles notions : la clairvoyance de l'utilité sociale et la clairvoyance de la désirabilité sociale. C'est dans l'optique de valider cette proposition que deux nouvelles études ont alors été réalisées. Si celles-ci appuient dans leur ensemble l'idée que les clairvoyances de l'utilité et de la désirabilité sociales seraient des indicateurs plus performants d'une évaluation sociale positive que ne le seraient les clairvoyances des normes sociales de jugement, elles n'ont néanmoins pas manqué de soulever de nouvelles questions. Cela nous a ainsi mené, dans un troisième temps, à nous interroger sur ce qui détermine la valeur en jeu dans une situation d'évaluation. Nos trois dernières études ont été construites dans ce dessein et ont participé, en conclusion de ce travail, à étayer l'idée que la clairvoyance de la valeur sociale des jugements ne permettrait l'obtention d'une évaluation positive que si celle-ci va de pair avec une certaine clairvoyance de la valeur sociale des éléments constitutifs de la situation d'interaction. Abstract The concept of normative clearsightedness (Py & Somat, 1991), born in continuity with studies on the norm of internality (Beauvois, 1984), reflects the knowledge of the normative or counter-normative nature of a type of behaviour or a type of judgement. Several researches appear to show that normative clearsightedness helps to obtain a positive evaluation. However, none of these researches takes into account the idea that there might be two dimensions of social value: social utility and social desirability. Considering those two dimensions, especially if we accept that not all social norms refer to the same dimension (Beauvois, 1995; Dubois & Beauvois, 2005; Dubois, 2005), somehow complicates the model linking normative clearsightedness with a positive evaluation. It suggests indeed that while clearsightedness of some norms will help first of all to get a good evaluation on the dimension of social utility, clearsightedness of other norms will help above all to get a good evaluation on the dimension of social desirability. These considerations were the foundation of this work and led to our first study. However, we reached some unexpected results that prompted us thereafter to reconsider the pertinence to attach the notion of clearsightedness to particular types of content (internality, self-sufficiency, etc.), which led us to propose two new notions: clearsightedness of social utility and clearsightedness of social desirability. Two new studies were thus executed to challenge this proposal. While these researches support as a whole that clearsightedness of social utility and social desirability are better indicators of positive evaluation than clearsightedness of social norms of judgement, they also raised new questions, which led us, in a third time, to wonder about what will determine the dominating social value in an evaluative situation. Our last three studies were designed to this purpose and helped to support the idea, in conclusion of this work, that the clearsightedness of the social value of judgements would bring a positive evaluation only if this clearsightedness is combined with a kind of clearsightedness of the social value of elements constituting the interaction's situation.