This video was produced for WMRA Public Radio
Friday, September 30, 2016
Friday, September 23, 2016
The American Work Ethic... from a French Perspective
During this American election year, NPR has been exploring how people in other countries view the United States. WMRA’s Marguerite Gallorini gets the reaction of French immigrants to the U.S., in particular how they feel about a distinctly different approach the two countries take to work life and vacation time.
The European lifestyle, in particular that of the French, is often somewhat of a joke in the U.S., where work ethics seem to be different. An Ipsos Global and Reuters study found a few years ago that only 57% of Americans use their vacation days. That makes them the fifth most workaholic country on Earth. Meanwhile, that study showed French citizens leading the way in taking advantage of their vacations, with 89% taking all of their allotted time.
[French conversation at C’Ville Coffee]
I meet with Charlottesville French teacher Pascale Hapgood at C'Ville Coffee. She arrived in the U.S. almost 30 years ago, and is a lecturer at the University of Virginia. She also teaches at a foreign and English language center, and at a French educational association promoting French language and culture.
From what Pascale tells me, her perspective aligns completely with the study's results:
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| Pascale Hapgood / Picture: "Speak!" Language Center |
PASCALE HAPGOOD: This is much more serious here. People are dedicated to their job – at least in the kind of jobs that I've had and where I've worked. Nowadays with the technology we have, I see my husband constantly answering emails on vacation, you know... we go away at the beach, he's supposed to be completely off, but he says “I have to take this! I have to answer this!” In my mind, it's too much.
The French government seems to agree. In April, the National Assembly passed a so-called “right to disconnect” law, effective this coming January. The law will give workers the right to ignore emails, and will protect them from bosses that would punish them for not answering work emails in hours they're not supposed to be working.
Patrick Jones, a host of the travel and lifestyle news feed website Buzz60, explains what is at stake:
PATRICK JONES: They want to keep work at work. The new law would give employees the right to ignore calls, texts and emails from bosses on nights and weekends so they can go socialize. I know a lot of you being American capitalists starting freaking out now saying “oh the French are lazy” but let this information actually sink in. You would not get in trouble for ignoring emails! It doesn't take more than two seconds to search Google to find that our constant state of connectedness is killing us. Maybe it's a little lofty or unrealistic but isn't that what society should be trying to head towards?
But Pascale does not think the French model is perfect either – and it may not work in America, where the entrepreneurial spirit is deeply engrained in the nation’s history.
HAPGOOD: In France, it's not serious enough. People couldn't care less, what happens to the business... they don't think past their nose. They think “oh my little vacation,” but don't think of the good of the company, in the end.
[Kitchen sounds]
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| Serge Torres / Picture: Marguerite Gallorini |
For another French view, I checked in with pastry chef Serge Torres at a Charlottesville French restaurant.
SERGE TORRES: I've been in America since June 1993, and so I started to work in New York with my cousin Jacques Torres in New York.
This would be the beginning of a long career taking him through many restaurants throughout the country, and throughout the world. And what did he take from his varied experience in the US, compared to France?
SERGE TORRES: In America we have more flexibility, in comparison between America and France, they gave me more opportunity to work for different companies. They kind of give you the chance to try to show what you can do, more than look at your resume.That's what I like about America, the opportunity and diversity of work.
And what about France’s 35-hour work week policy? That may not be as different from the American dedication to work as you think. According to Fortune, French rules aren’t really that much different from those in place in the U.S. The French actually can work more than that, and they tend to work closer to 40 hours per week, just like Americans do. The main difference is French society tends to compensate in leisure time rather than in cash.
The main difference in working hours and income between France and the U.S. boils down to the fact that French law mandates five weeks of vacation – quite a culture shock for French people here.
This story appeared on WMRA.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Friday, September 16, 2016
Could Our Immune System Influence Social Behavior?
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| Picture: Center for Brain Immunology and Glia, UVa |
It has been known for some time that immune cells and their signals can induce changes in our central nervous systems -- or CNS. But the link between the immune system and social behavior was unknown – until recently, thanks to new research out of Charlottesville. WMRA's Marguerite Gallorini reports.
Dr. Jonathan Kipnis is the Director of the Neuroscience Department and of the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia -- or BIG for short -- at the University of Virginia. He's been looking into the immune system connection with the central nervous system of mice for quite some time.
JONATHAN KIPNIS: When I was a graduate student, we started to be interested in the role of the immune system in response to injured CNS, and then from there the question was is the immune system playing a role in a normal CNS.
The CNS is the part of the nervous system mainly consisting of the brain and spinal cord.
KIPNIS: And so I started my own lab, with which we try to understand what are the exact molecules the cells produce to affect brain function.
After more than ten years, they finally discovered that a special disease-fighting molecule – called interferon gamma – was also responsible for social behavior. Anthony Filiano, a post-doctoral research fellow in Kipnis’s team, explains their recent study:
ANTHONY FILIANO: We found that interferon gamma has a pro-social role, and this was really unexpected to us and it was fascinating.
This was unexpected because the interferon gamma molecule is produced by immune cells, called T-cells, themselves produced by the lymphatic system – a crucial part of the immune system. So, since it is part of the lymphatic system, so far interferon gamma was only known for its anti-pathogen nature as Anthony mentioned – that means it was only known for responding to bacteria, viruses or parasites.
So to arrive at the discovery of this other social role, the UVa team studied flies, zebrafish, mice and rats; and they noticed that, when these animals were social, they activated the T-cells, releasing interferon gamma.
FILIANO: And we found that mice that are deficient for these immune cells – their brain goes haywire, it’s this… hyper connectivity in a part of the brain that’s important for social behavior. And so these mice have social deficits, and patients with autism, they also have this hyper connectivity.
But researchers still didn’t know exactly where that interferon gamma was located or coming from. That is when Antoine Louveau, a postdoctoral fellow in the Kipnis lab since 2014, came in:
KIPNIS: So when Antoine came to the lab, the question he was interested about was to understand where the immune cells that affect the brain are located. And that’s when he started to look into the meninges more closely.
The meninges are three membranes that envelope the CNS. Louveau explains his research process.
ANTOINE LOUVEAU: So we were able to analyze the meninges of old tissues. And when we did that, we realized that the immune cells were very localized at specific spots in the meninges, and they were along those major blood vessels called sinuses. And when we looked very closely at those vessels, we realized that they were lymphatic vessels.
So that is how they made two discoveries at once: Antoine demonstrated a direct link between the brain and the immune system, contrary to decades of thinking that the brain was “immune privileged,” that is to say lacking a direct connection to the immune system. And, they found that interferon gamma might affect social behavior. But why are the immune system and social behavior correlated in the first place?
FILIANO: So we created this hypothesis that when organisms become social, they would activate this interferon gamma response pathway to protect against the spread of pathogens while aggregating.
Indeed, many creatures need to interact for the survival of their species – but this same contact also makes the spread of diseases easier. That is why interferon gamma both makes them social, while protecting them from diseases that could come from such social interactions. That also explains why deficiencies in the immune system can lead to neurological disorders, such as depression, social anxiety, autism-spectrum disorder, or frontotemporal dementia.
FILIANO: And our pre-clinical study in mice show that interferon gamma is necessary for normal social function. We think that this suggests that perhaps interferon gamma signaling pathway might be a target for these diseases.
But this will require further research in the years to come.
FILIANO : Yeah so we…keep the clinical trials to the experts (laughs). It’s too early, these studies have been just done on mice, and… a lot more work needs to be done.
More needs to be done, especially in transitioning the research from mice to humans. But this first step in better understanding the link between social interaction and the immune system is very good news for the fight against neurological diseases stemming from immune deficiency.
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