Picture: Rain Droplet

May 6, 2007 at 11:24 am (Picture)

Kyoto: In the Rain, originally uploaded by micpohling.

… Spring shower…

Comments

Europe: Life Satisfaction (II) - on the States of Economy, Government, Education and Health Services

May 6, 2007 at 1:44 am (Health, OECD, Social, Statistic)

Continued from previous post, a closer look at the satisfaction level at various sector, namely:

1. The present state of economy

Danish are pretty satisfied with their state of economy, averagely score as high as 6.99 out of 10 satisfaction scale. This is followed by Luxembourg and Finland, scored 6.56 and 6.36 respectively. On the other hand, Portugese are not very satisfied with the economy doing there, on average they only give 2.78 out of 10 scale. The same feeling could be said to the people in Germany (3.18) and Greece (3.51).

2. With national government

Let’s move on to what is the satisfaction level of people onto their government: Luxembourg and Denmark people is quite satisfied with their government (6.28 and 6.05 out of 10 scale respectively) while people in Portugal, Germany and Czech Rep. were not quite satisfied. The score is pretty low, as low as 2.93 (Portugal), Germany (3.26) and 3.64 for Czech Rep.

3. State of education nowadays

It seemed that Finns are highly satisfied with the current state of education systems in their country, and they were giving high score for it: 7.89 out of 10. This is closely followed by Denmark (7.32) and Iceland (6.85). On the another end of satisfaction spectrum, Portugal (again) and Germany (again) are not quite satsfied with the state of education:on average, they only gave the score of 3.78 and 4.35 respectively.

4. State of health services in state nowadays

Finally, the subjective satisfaction feeling on health services in selected Europe countries is compared. People in Belgium and Luxembourg gave thumbs up for the health services while Portugal and Ireland scored the lowest satisfaction point.

All in all, people in countries like Denmark, Luxembourg, Iceland and Finland are quite satisfied on the aspect of economy, government, education and health services. Portugal is consistently dissatisfied with these aspects and it is no surprise they also scored lowest point on satisfaction with life as a whole.

Source: European Social Value Survey, 2002 and 2004.

Comments

Gene: Monogamous?

May 6, 2007 at 1:43 am (Gene, Science, Social)

Source: Gene treatment stops frisky voles being love rats, 17-06-2004

Not done on human yet.

When the brains of male meadow voles, usually the most promiscuous of lovers, are enhanced with a gene called the vasopressin receptor, they instantly reform their loose ways and form lasting pair bonds instead.

Because vasopressin is also active in the human brain, the remarkable experiment at Emory University in Atlanta, suggests that differing levels of the hormone could explain why some people find it harder to stay faithful than others.

“It is intriguing to consider that individual differences in vasopressin receptors in humans might play a role in how differently people form relationships,” Larry Young, who led the research, said.

Vasopressin and its receptors may also be implicated in drug addiction and social disorders such as autism, both of which affect the brain’s reward centre.

The Emory experiment, details of which are reported today in the journal Nature, has now proved this theory beyond reasonable doubt. In the study Dr Young’s team took the gene for the vasopressin receptor from the prairie vole and bound it to a harmless virus.

Dr Young said that while more than one gene and hormone is probably involved in regulating human monogamy and pair-bonding, the results have powerful implications for understanding the biological and chemical origins of relationships. “Our study provides evidence in a comparatively simple animal model that changes in the activity of a single gene can profoundly change the fundamental social behaviour of an entire species,” he said.

2 Comments