Well-being and working from home during COVID-19

PurposeThe authors track the well-being of individuals across five European countries during the course of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and relate their well-being to working from home. The authors also consider the role of pandemic-policy stringency in affecting well-being in Europe.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have four waves of novel harmonised longitudinal data in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Sweden, covering the period May–November 2020. Well-being is measured in five dimensions: life satisfaction, a worthwhile life, loneliness, depression and anxiety. A retrospective diary indicates whether the individual was working in each month since February 2020 and if so whether at home or not at home. Policy stringency is matched in per country at the daily level. The authors consider both cross-section and panel regressions and the mediating and moderating effects of control variables, including household variables and income.FindingsWell-being among workers is lower for those who work from home, and those who are not working have the lowest well-being of all. The panel results are more mitigated, with switching into working at home yielding a small drop in anxiety. The panel and cross-section difference could reflect adaptation or the selection of certain types of individuals into working at home. Policy stringency is always negatively correlated with well-being. The authors find no mediation effects. The well-being penalty from working at home is larger for the older, the better-educated, those with young children and those with more crowded housing.Originality/valueThe harmonised cross-country panel data on individuals' experiences during COVID-19 are novel. The authors relate working from home and policy stringency to multiple well-being measures. The authors emphasise the effect of working from home on not only the level of well-being but also its distribution.

FORM OF SEISMIC HORIZON ON TIME SECTION AND REFLECTED WAVE COMMON SHOT POINT TRAVEL TIME CURVE IN TRANSITION ZONE FOR THE CASE OF COMPLICATION OF TARGET HORIZON COVER BY FAULT

The paper is devoted to study of reflection pattern (seismic horizon) and CSP travel time curve of reflected wave when the base of seismic oscillations receivers is within transition zone, i.e. the portion of base is in one flank while the other part is already in the next flank. The equation has been derived for travel time curve of zero-offset survey, i.e. reflection pattern) for the case when target horizon cover is complicated by fault. The other equation derived is the equation of traveltime curve of CSP of reflected wave, which upgoing rays are refracted on the fault line. For this, we have used the equation of traveltime curve of normal reflections refracted on the fault line. Based on derived formulae we have calculated traveltime curves of CSP for various models of environment. Analysis of these models has shown that while passing through seismic waves receiver base over the faulted zone the travel time curve is divided into two cuts with differing curvature and various time offsets relative to each other depending on velocity section difference from the fault line leading to the impression that these two cuts are not the sections of the same travel time curve.

Spallation reaction study for long-lived fission products in nuclear waste

Spallation reaction for the long-lived fission product 107Pd has been studied for the purpose of nuclear waste transmutation. The isotopic-distribution cross sections on both proton and deuteron were obtained at 118 MeV/nucleon in inverse kinematics at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. A large cross-section difference was found between the proton and deuteron results for the light-mass products. The data were compared with the SPACS semi-empirical parameterization and the PHITS calculations including both the intranuclear cascade and evaporation processes. In addition, the potential of spallation reaction for transmutation of 107Pd is discussed.