The influence of and change in procedural justice on self-rated health trajectories: Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health results

Objectives: Procedural justice perceptions are shown to be associated with minor psychiatric disorders, long sickness absence spells and poor self-rated health, but previous studies have rarely considered how changes in procedural justice influence changes in health. Methods: Data from four consecutive biennial waves of the Swedish Longitudinal Survey of Health (SLOSH) study (N=5,854) were used to examine trajectories of self-rated health. Adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic position, and marital status, we study the predictive power of change in procedural justice perceptions using individual growth curve models within a multilevel framework. Results: The results show that self-rated health trajectories slowly decline over time. The rate of change was influenced by age and sex, with older people and women showing a slower rate of change in self-rated health. After adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic position, and marital status, procedural justice was significantly associated with self-rated health. Also, improvements in procedural justice were associated with improvements in self-rated health. Additionally, a reverse relationship with self-rated health and change in self-rated health predicting procedural justice was found. Conclusions: Our findings support the idea that procedural justice at work is a crucial aspect of the psychosocial work environment and that changes towards more procedural justice could influence self-rated health positively. The reciprocal association of procedural justice and self-rated health warrants further research

Soluble gC1qR is an autocrine signal that induces B1R expression on endothelial cells

Bradykinin (BK) is one of the most potent vasodilator agonists known and belongs to the kinin family of proinflammatory peptides. BK induces its activity via two G protein-coupled receptors: BK receptor 1 (B1R) and BK receptor 2. Although BK receptor 2 is constitutively expressed on endothelial cells (ECs), B1R is induced by IL-1β. The C1q receptor, receptor for the globular heads of C1q (gC1qR), which plays a role in BK generation, is expressed on activated ECs and is also secreted as soluble gC1qR (sgC1qR). Because sgC1qR can bind to ECs, we hypothesized that it may also serve as an autocrine/paracrine signal for the induction of B1R expression. In this study, we show that gC1qR binds to ECs via a highly conserved domain consisting of residues 174-180, as assessed by solid-phase binding assay and deconvolution fluorescence microscopy. Incubation of ECs (24 h, 37°C) with sgC1qR resulted in enhancement of B1R expression, whereas incubation with gC1qR lacking aa 174-180 and 154-162 had a diminished effect. Binding of sgC1qR to ECs was through surface-bound fibrinogen and was inhibited by anti-fibrinogen. In summary, our data suggest that, at sites of inflammation, sgC1qR can enhance vascular permeability by upregulation of B1R expression through de novo synthesis, as well as rapid translocation of preformed B1R

Isolation, cDNA cloning, and overexpression of a 33-kD cell surface glycoprotein that binds to the globular 'heads' of C1q

This work describes the functional characterization, cDNA cloning, and expression of a novel cell surface protein. This protein designated gC1q-R, was first isolated from Raji cells and was found to bind to the globular 'heads' of C1q molecules, at physiological ionic strength, and also to inhibit complement-mediated lysis of sheep erythrocytes by human serum. The NH 2-terminal amino acid sequence of the first 24 residues of the C1q- binding protein was determined and this information allowed the synthesis of two degenerate polymerase chain reaction primers for use in the preparation of a probe in the screening of a B cell cDNA library. The cDNA isolated, using this probe, was found to encode a pre-pro protein of 282 residues. The NH 2 terminus of the protein isolated from Raji cells started at residue 74 of the predicted pre-pro sequence. The cDNA sequence shows that the purified protein has three potential N-glycosylation residues and is a highly charged, acidic molecule. Hence, its binding to C1q may be primarily but not exclusively due to ionic interactions. The 'mature' protein, corresponding to amino acid residues 74-282 of the predicted pre-pro sequence, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and was purified to homogeneity. This recombinant protein was also able to inhibit the complement-mediated lysis of sheep erythrocytes by human serum and was shown to be a tetramer by gel filtration in nondissociating conditions. Northern blot and RT-PCR studies showed that the C1q-binding protein is expressed at high levels in Raji and Daudi cell lines, at moderate levels in U937, Molt-4, and HepG2 cell lines, and at a very low level in the HL60 cell line. However, it is not expressed in the K562 cell line. Comparison of gC1q-R NH 2-terminal sequence with that of the receptor for the collagen-like domain of C1q (cC1q-R) showed no similarity. Furthermore, antibodies to gC1q-R or an 18-amino acid residue- long NH 2-terminal synthetic gC1q-R peptide did not cross-react with antibodies to cC1q-R. Anti-gC1q-R immunoblotted a 33-kD Raji cell membrane protein, whereas anti cC1q-R recognized a molecule of ~60 kD. The NH 2- terminal sequence of gC1g-R appears to be displayed extracellularly since anti-gC1g-R peptide reacted with surface molecules on lymphocytes, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and platelets, as assessed by flow cytometric and confocal laser scanning microscopic analyses. In addition, all or part of the gC1q binding domain may reside within the 24 amino acid stretch of the NH 2-terminal sequence of gC1q-R since the 18 amino acid residue long- synthetic peptide corresponding to this region inhibited serum C1q hemolytic activity. The data presented in this report suggest that there are at least two types of C1q-R which appear to be expressed on the same type of cells and these receptors individually or in concert may contribute to the diversity of C1q-mediated responses.published_or_final_versio

The human gC1qR/p32 gene, C1qBP. Genomic organization and promoter analysis

gC1qR is an ubiquitously expressed cell protein that interacts with the globular heads of C1q (gC1q) and many other ligands. In this study, the 7.8-kilobase pair (kb) human gC1qPJp32 (C1qBP) gene was cloned and found to consist of 6 exons and 5 introns. Analysis of a 1.3-kb DNA fragment at the 5′-flanking region of this gene revealed the presence of multiple TATA, CCAAT, and Sp1 binding sites. Luciferase reporter assays performed in different human cell lines demonstrated that the reporter gene was ubiquitously driven by this 1.3-kb fragment. Subsequent 5′ and 3′ deletion of this fragment confined promoter elements to within 400 base pairs (bp) upstream of the translational start site. Because the removal of the 8-bp consensus TATATATA at -399 to -406 and CCAAT at -410 to -414 did not significantly affect the transcription efficiency of the promoter, GC-rich sequences between this TATA box and the translation start site may be very important for the promoter activity of the C1qBP gene. One of seven GC-rich sequences in this region binds specifically to PANC-1 nuclear extracts, and the transcription factor Sp1 was shown to bind to this GC-rich sequence by the supershift assay. Primer extension analysis mapped three major transcription start regions. The farthest transcription start site is 49 bp upstream of the ATG translation initiation codon and is in close proximity of the specific SP1 binding site.postprin

Recessionary changes at work and employee well-being: the protective roles of national- and workplace institutions

The recession following the 2008 financial crisis brought major changes to employees’ experiences at work. We investigate the adverse effects of two of such changes: perceived organizational distress and job deterioration. We also examine the extent to which institutions at national level (employment protection legislation and collective bargaining coverage) and at workplace level (employment contract and union membership) may act as buffers against these effects. Using data from 21 European countries, we show that recessionary changes were associated with reduced psychological well-being and greater levels of work–nonwork interference

Socioeconomic Determinants of Livestock Production Technology Adoption in Northern Ghana

The Northern region of Ghana hosts the largest number of livestock producers compared to the other regions, but output is still low despite the introduction of improved technologies which have the potential to increase livestock yields when adopted and provide better livelihoods to participating households. Consequently, adoption of improved technologies has been low, slow and uncertain. This study set out to examine factors that influence the adoption of livestock production technologies. One hundred and fifty (150) livestock farmers were randomly sampled from six communities in three districts of the region. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics and a logit regression model. The results showed that the low level of awareness of livestock production technologies have contributed to the low adoption by farmers. The logit regression results disclosed that the likelihood to adopt livestock production technology was significantly explained for 56% by extension contact, intent of producing livestock, number of children, herd size (for some animals species), source of stock, farm record keeping, education and gender. 44% of variation in adoption is therefore caused by other factors. It is recommended that any intervention to increase the adoption of livestock production technology should focus on creating greater awareness and also consider the specific policy variables that influence adoption

Banking in sub-Saharan Africa: Recent trends and digital financial inclusion

This study follows-up on our 2015 study on “Recent Trends in Banking in sub-Saharan Africa - From Financing to Investment”. Against the background of a rapidly evolving context for the SSA banking industry, the Economics Department of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has coordinated this volume, which combines in-house expertise on the region with contributions from leading specialists from the local financial sector and from international financial institutions and research centres. For this third edition of EIB’s study of banking sectors in SSA, the sections devoted to banking sector development in each sub-region have been complemented with a fresh look at digital financing services and the conditions necessary for them to blossom and increase financial inclusion. The study aims to provide an overview of structural development and recent market trends in the region. It outlines some of the key challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. It also presents the results of the second edition of the EIB Survey of Pan-African Banks, a unique survey targeting the largest multi-country players in SSA, as well as containing more detailed structural analysis on long-term housing financing and long-term investment. As such, the report sets the basis for optimising the EIB’s initiatives in SSA

Financing renewable energy: Who is financing what and why it matters

Successful financing of innovation in renewable energy (RE) requires a better understanding of the relationship between different types of finance and their willingness to invest in RE. We study the ‘direction’ of innovation that financial actors create. Focusing on the deployment phase of innovation, we use Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) data to construct a global dataset of RE asset finance flows from 2004 to 2014. We analyze the asset portfolios of different RE technologies financed by different financial actors according to their size, skew and level of risk. We use entropy-based indices to measure skew, and construct a heuristic index of risk that varies with the technology, time, and country of investment to measure risk. We start by comparing the behavior of private and public types of finance and then disaggregate further along 11 different financial actors (e.g. private banks, public banks, and utilities) and 11 types of RE technologies that are invested in (e.g. different kinds of power generation from solar radiation, wind or biomass). Financial actors vary considerably in the composition of their investment portfolio, creating directions towards particular technologies. Public financial actors invest in portfolios with higher risk technologies, also creating a direction; they also increased their share in total investment dramatically over time. We use these preliminary results to formulate new research questions about how finance affects the directionality of innovation, and the implications for RE policies

Field and chirality effects on electrochemical charge transfer rates: Spin dependent electrochemistry

This work examines whether electrochemical redox reactions are sensitive to the electron spin orientation by examining the effects of magnetic field and molecular chirality on the charge transfer process. The working electrode is either a ferromagnetic nickel film or a nickel film that is coated with an ultrathin (5\u201330 nm) gold overlayer. The electrode is coated with a self-assembled monolayer that immobilizes a redox couple containing chiral molecular units, either the redox active dye toluidine blue O with a chiral cysteine linking unit or cytochrome c. By varying the direction of magnetization of the nickel, toward or away from the adsorbed layer, we demonstrate that the electrochemical current depends on the orientation of the electrons\u2019 spin. In the case of cytochrome c, the spin selectivity of the reduction is extremely high, namely, the reduction occurs mainly with electrons having their spin-aligned antiparallel to their velocity