The prize for hard work: effort, educational attainment and the transmission of social inequality

The meritocratic paradigm, predominant in our society, consists of the idea that success in life is determined by the combination of ability and effort. However, individuals only have agency over effort, a concept that has remained understudied in comparison to its importance for equality of opportunity. Bridging interdisciplinary literature from sociology, economics and psychology, this thesis seeks to expand the knowledge on the relevance of effort for educational processes and the transmission of social inequality. To expand the knowledge on effort, two measures of actual exerted effort are employed. The first reflects test effort, measured with the PISA test. The second is an experimental measure of cognitive effort stemming from real-effort tasks. These measures are used in different contexts (Australia, Spain and cross-country) to analyze the impact of effort on short and long-run educational outcomes. Furthermore, the thesis tests mechanisms based on sociological theories through which effort could contribute to the reproduction of social inequality. The results demonstrate that effort is indeed a crucial determinant of educational attainment. The magnitude of the impact is comparable to the effect of cognitive skills. Nevertheless, effort also contributes to the transmission of social advantage. The specific mechanisms and the implications for the conception of meritocracy and equality of opportunity are discussed.This thesis has received funding from the European Reserarch Council (ERC) under the European Union 's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 758600).Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Sociales/ Social Sciences por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Mención InternacionalPresidente: Fabrizio Bernardi.- Secretario: Juan Jesús Fernández González.- Vocal: Heike Solg

Strive to Succeed? The Role of Persistence in the Process of Educational Attainment

This paper examines the role of effort in the process of educational attainment. First, I analyze the impact of effort on future tertiary educational attainment. Then, I test two sociological theories that argue that effort transmits educational inequality across generations. According to the first theory, parental background shapes the effort that children exert in education-related activities. The second theory argues that the drivers of effort in this context are educational expectations. I use a variable for effort that is measured directly over the course of the PISA test. Using a longitudinal dataset from Australia, I estimate different hierarchical and structural equations models. I find that the measure of effort is positively and significantly associated with the probability of having obtained a tertiary degree ten years later. Furthermore, the results show partial support for the second theory but not for the first one.The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 758600)

Effort and dynamics of educational inequality: Evidence from a laboratory study among primary school children

If opportunities were equal, effort would be the main driver of individual success. However, in real life, people do not start the “race of life” with the same endowments. Thus, the study of Inequality of Opportunity in the tradition of John Roemer is dedicated to measuring the share of achievements that is determined by effort – viewed as the only “legitimate” source that is under individual control – versus by circumstances – that is, the “illegitimate” sources of achievement beyond by the individual’s influence. However, effort is often measured either merely as the residual that is left after controlling for a vector of circumstances (such as socioeconomic background, race or gender) or with imperfect proxies such as self-reported psychological traits or attitudes towards learning. The aim of the paper is twofold: First, it intends to assess the importance of “real effort” for determining academic performance in contrast to circumstances. Using an accurate measure of cognitive effort, measured in the lab, we can compare its impact on school grades in Math and Spanish with the effect of having highly educated parents or high IQ. Second, the paper explores the role of teachers’ perception of student effort in their academic grades. We expect that the perception of the teachers will be very relevant for academic performance. Furthermore, we argue that although teachers’ perception of student effort is not the most accurate measure of effort, it might be an important mediator between cognitive effort and academic grades. Data stems from a lab experiment carried out with 380 5th grade students from primary schools in the metropolitan area of Madrid, Spain, during the school year 2019/2020. The schools were randomly selected from a sample stratified by neighborhood income quartile and type of school. All the students carried out three real-effort tasks adopted from economics and psychology (i.e. the Simon, AX and Slider tasks), covering different executive functions. This multidimensional measure of cognitive effort ensures a comprehensive approach to effort that minimizes the influence of ability. We also gathered information on various “circumstances” of the students – such as parental education, gender and IQ (Raven’s Progressive Matrices). Provisional results indicate that effort exerts a sizeable influence on student grades, similar to IQ in the magnitude of its predictive power. Nevertheless, the association between teachers’ perception of student effort and school grades is significantly larger, comparable with the effect of having parents with tertiary education. Furthermore, we find evidence that teachers’ perception of student effort is an important mediator between cognitive effort and school grades, although, interestingly, the magnitude varies depending on the subject.Funding Acknowledgement: This research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 758600)

Ensayos controlados aleatorizados en el desarrollo económico

La irrupción de un nuevo enfoque experimental en el desarrollo económico ha provocado un gran cambio en la manera de pensar las políticas de desarrollo. Los ensayos controlados aleatorizados son el principal método experimental de este nuevo enfoque. Este trabajo pretende analizar su funcionamiento y comprender por qué tienen tanta importancia en este campo. También intenta indagar en el papel que juegan los ensayos controlados aleatorizados en la actualidad en el desarrollo económico y sus posibilidades en el futuro

The tumor suppressor ING1 contributes to epigenetic control of cellular senescence

Cellular senescence is an effective tumor-suppressive mechanism that causes a stable proliferative arrest in cells with potentially oncogenic alterations. Here, we have investigated the role of the p33ING1 tumor suppressor in the regulation of cellular senescence in human primary fibroblasts. We show that p33ING1 triggers a senescent phenotype in a p53-dependent fashion. Also, endogenous p33ING1 protein accumulates in chromatin in oncogene- senescent fibroblasts and its silencing by RNA interference impairs senescence triggered by oncogenes. Notably, the ability to induce senescence is lost in a mutant version of p33ING1 present in human tumors. Using specific point mutants, we further show that recognition of the chromatin mark H3K4me3 is essential for induction of senescence by p33ING1. Finally, we demonstrate that ING1-induced senescence is associated to a specific genetic signature with a strong representation of chemokine and cytokine signaling factors, which significantly overlaps with that of oncogene-induced senescence. In summary, our results identify ING1 as a critical epigenetic regulator of cellular senescence in human fibroblasts and highlight its role in control of gene expression in the context of this tumor-protective response. Key words: cellular senescence; chromatin; ING1; p53; histone marks.This work is supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to IP (BFU2006-10882, SAF2009-09031) and FJB (CTQ2008-03115 ⁄ BQU)

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

1er. Coloquio de educación para el diseño en la sociedad 5.0

Las memorias del 1er. Coloquio de Educación para el Diseño en la Sociedad 5.0 debenser entendidas como un esfuerzo colectivo de la comunidad de académicos de la División de Ciencias y Artes para el Diseño, que pone de manifiesto los retos y oportunidades que enfrenta la educación en diseño en un contexto de cambio acelerado y rompimiento de paradigmas.El evento se realizó el pasado mes de mayo de 2018 y se recibieron más de 50 ponencias por parte de las profesoras y profesores de la División.Las experiencias y/o propuestas innovadoras en cuanto a procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje que presentan los autores en cada uno de sus textos son una invitación a reflexionar sobre nuestra situación actual en la materia, y emprender acciones en la División para continuar brindando una educación de calidad en diseño a nuestras alumnas, alumnos y la sociedad.Adicionalmente, se organizaron tres conferencias magistrales sobre la situación actual de la educación en Diseño y de las Instituciones de Educación Superior, impartidas por el Mtro. Luis Sarale, profesor de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo en Mendoza (Argentina), y Presidente en su momento, de la Red de Carreras de Diseño en Universidades Públicas Latinoamericanas (DISUR), el Dr. Romualdo López Zárate, Rector de la Unidad Azcapotzalco, así como del Mtro. Luis Antonio Rivera Díaz, Jefe de Departamento de Teoría y Procesos del Diseño de la División de la Ciencias de la Comunicación y Diseño, en la Unidad Cuajimalpa de nuestra institución.La publicación de estas memorias son un esfuerzo divisional, organizado desde la Coordinación de Docencia Divisional y la Coordinación de Tecnologías del Aprendizaje, del Conocimiento y la Comunicación, para contribuir a los objetivos planteados en el documento ACCIONES:Agenda CyAD2021, en particular al eje de Innovación Educativa. Es necesario impulsar a todos los niveles de la División espacios de discusión orientados a reflexionar sobre el presente y futuro en la educación del diseñador, que contribuya a mejorar la calidad de la docencia y favorezca al fortalecimiento de los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje.Finalmente, extiendo un amplio reconocimiento a todos los miembros de la División que hicieron posible este evento, así como a todos los ponentes y participantes por compartir su conocimiento para que la División sea cada día mejor

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Different paths of urbanization: the unconventional case of developing countries

Developing countries have undergone a process of rapid urbanization since the 1950s. However, some of them did not follow the “natural” path of urbanization, implying that additional factors also played an important role in the process of urbanization. This thesis examines common drivers of the urbanization process across countries in Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Thereby, it analyses the role of the two main engines of structural change -i.e. the “labor pull” and the “labor push”, as well as the influence of natural resources. Furthermore, this study examines regional specificities, especially focusing on the process of “premature deindustrialization” after 1990 and the impact of natural resources. The results suggest the “labor pull” to be crucial for urbanization, while indicating that the “labor push” is no longer required to foster higher urbanization rates. Moreover, natural resources emerge as an overall negative influence across regions on urbanization. Finally, the findings point to fundamentally different urbanization processes between the three regions, with especially diverging results for Sub-Saharan Africa