Migrant workers and the digital transformation in the EU

The aim of this report is to provide insights on the implications that structural changes in the labour market related to the Digital Transformation (DT) could have on the integration of EU mobile citizens and third country nationals working in the EU. A comprehensive analysis of the changing nature of the EU labour markets and the effects of DT is provided in the upcoming European Commission’s 2018 Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) review. Building upon these general findings, this report contributes to the debate from a migration-specific point of view by providing evidence on the extent to which migrants are employed in occupations that are potentially prone to automation and therefore may disappear in future. The analysis is based on data drawn from EU LFS 2015-2016 and PIAAC 2012 surveys. The results show that: • Third country nationals tend to be more concentrated in occupations characterized by high routine intensity and thus more prone to automation (e.g. elementary occupations), followed by EU mobile citizens and by natives. • Both EU mobile citizens and third country nationals have a higher likelihood of being employed in jobs with high automation potential than nationals, even when socio-demographic characteristics are taken into account. However, the likelihood decreases as educational attainment increases, for all but more so for migrants. • Major differences between EU mobile citizens and third country nationals appear when considering their length of residence. The results show that among EU mobile citizens, recent migrants have higher odds of being employed in a job with high automation potential compared to long-term migrants. On the contrary, in the case of third country nationals, long term migrants report higher odds of working in a job with high automation potential than recent migrants. • Both EU mobile citizens and third country nationals are less likely to receive professional training in comparison to nationals. This lower investment in the human capital of migrants can hamper migrants’ opportunities to transition to other jobs once they would lose their jobs due to the DT. • Both EU mobile citizens and third country nationals are more likely to be on fixed-term contracts with a shorter horizon compared to natives, with risk of non-renewal of contract in case of economic and technological shocks. • In summary, the vulnerability of migrants in the labour market is furthermore reinforced by the fact that they tend to be concentrated in jobs with high automation potential which, in turn, are associated to lower training and more widespread use of fixed-term contracts.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

svr 24 achievement two weeks after a tripled dose of daclatasvir in an hcv genotype 3 patient

Abstract Directly-acting antivirals (DAA) have changed the chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection therapeutic scenario allowing virus eradication in more than 95% of patients, independently from the genotype, with 12 to 24-week treatment regimens. We describe a 51-year-old Pakistani man with a chronic HCV-genotype 3 (GT3a) infection with moderate liver fibrosis, who achieved sustained virological response (SVR) 24 after a tripled dose of Daclatasvir (DCV) taken erroneously associated to Sofosbuvir (SOF). The patient had a concomitant intestinal TB infection whose treatment had been delayed in order to firstly eradicate HCV to reduce the liver toxicity of anti-mycobacterial drugs. Thanks to the cultural mediator support, we explained to the patient the correct posology of each drug to take during the day consisting of 12 week SOF (400 mg daily) plus DCV (60 mg daily) regimen. He returned 13 days after for a programmed visit and we were surprised to learn that he had taken 3 pills of DCV (180 mg/daily) instead of one, thus ending DCV assumption after only 9 days while SOF was taken correctly. He complained no symptoms. We immediately performed blood test that showed alteration of lactate dehydrogenase, creatine phosphokinase, and creatin kinase MB activity. At day 15 we stopped SOF closely monitoring the patient. Blood test alterations returned normal after one week of treatment suspension, HCV viremia remained suppressed after 4, 12 and 24 weeks proving HCV eradication. If confirmed, these data could suggest that higher doses of DCV, if tolerated, might be employed in short-time HCV-GT3 treatment

Esperienze urbane. Spazi pubblici e citt\ue0 contemporanea

Come un modulo formativo, sviluppato nell\u2019ambito dei percorsi in continuit\ue0 e alternanza scuola-universit\ue0, pu\uf2 offrire l\u2019opportunit\ue0 per sperimentare nuovi modi per costruire e trasmettere conoscenze sulla citt\ue0 e sul suo progetto? \uc8 questa la domanda che ha guidato le autrici nell'organizzazione di un processo di esplorazione e progetto degli spazi pubblici in un quartiere di edilizia pubblica di Trieste. Un processo di apprendimento fondato sul fare esperienza dello e nello spazio urbano, mettendo in campo diversi sguardi e competenze (dell'etnografo, dell'urbanista, dell'artista), e utilizzando categorie di lettura percettiva. Un percorso formativo e di riflessione che ha portato a interrogarsi su significati, forme e possibilit\ue0 di riqualificazione degli spazi aperti pubblici, ma anche sul ruolo che l'Universit\ue0 pu\uf2 rivestire nel promuovere una rinnovata consapevolezza dei valori spaziali della citt\ue0 e sulla necessit\ue0 di contribuire a supportare forme di cittadinanza pi\uf9 attiva

Gaps in the EU Labour Market Participation Rates: an intersectional assessment of the role of gender and migrant status

This KCMD study uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) to analyse how intersecting social statuses shape labour market participation. The report focuses on the intersection between gender and migrant status and assesses the likelihood of EU mobile and non-EU born women to participate in the EU’s labour market. Additionally, it considers how education, marital status and parenthood, highlighted by research as key determinants of labour market participation, interact with gender and migrant status. Overall, our report confirms that intersectionality is a fruitful analytical approach for improving the understanding of the different and complex mechanisms that may shape labour market participation of women. In particular, in light of the interrelated effects of gender and migrant status, the report points to the need for a comprehensive strategy for the integration of non-native women (both EU mobile and non-EU born) in the labour market.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

Nutraceuticals and Herbal Food Supplements for Weight Loss: Is There a Prebiotic Role in the Mechanism of Action?

Numerous nutraceuticals and botanical food supplements are used with the intention of modulating body weight. A recent review examined the main food supplements used in weight loss, dividing them according to the main effects for which they were investigated. The direct or indirect effects exerted on the intestinal microbiota can also contribute to the effectiveness of these substances. The aim of this review is to evaluate whether any prebiotic effects, which could help to explain their efficacy or ineffectiveness, are documented in the recent literature for the main nutraceuticals and herbal food supplements used for weight loss management. Several prebiotic effects have been reported for various nutraceutical substances, which have shown activity on Bifidobacterium spp., Lactobacillus spp., Akkermansia muciniphila, Faecalibacterium prausnitzi, Roseburia spp., and the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio. Different prebiotics have beneficial effects on weight and the related metabolic profile, in some cases even acting on the microbiota with mechanisms that are completely independent from those nutraceuticals for which certain products are normally used. Further studies are necessary to clarify the different levels at which a nutraceutical substance can exert its action

Low achievers, teaching practices and learning environment

The importance of reducing the incidence of low achievement is clearly recognized by the European Union, which – within its strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training – has set the objective of reducing the share of low-achieving 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading and science below 15% by 2020. This report uses data from the 2015 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to analyse the relationship between teaching practices – teacher-directed instruction, enquiry-based teaching, and adaptive instruction – and the likelihood that students are low achievers in science. Results show that teaching practices are strongly related with the probability of being a low-achieving student. Moreover, some complementarity exists between teaching practices. Properly combining different instruction methods leads to lower levels of underachievement in science. In particular, better outcomes are found in situations with high levels of adaptive instruction and teacher-directed methods, and medium intensity of enquiry-based practices.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

Microbial Community Dynamics in Mother’s Milk and Infant’s Mouth and Gut in Moderately Preterm Infants

Mother’s own milk represents the optimal source for preterm infant nutrition, as it promotes immune defenses and gastrointestinal function, protects against necrotizing enterocolitis, improves long-term clinical outcome and is hypothesized to drive gut microbiota assembly. Preterm infants at birth usually do not receive their mother’s milk directly from the breast, because active suckling and coordination between suckling, swallowing and breathing do not develop until 32–34 weeks gestational age, but actual breastfeeding is usually possible as they grow older. Here, we enrolled moderately preterm infants (gestational age 32–34 weeks) to longitudinally characterize mothers’ milk and infants’ gut and oral microbiomes, up to more than 200 days after birth, through 16S rRNA sequencing. This peculiar population offers the chance to disentangle the differential contribution of human milk feeding per se vs. actual breastfeeding in the development of infant microbiomes, that have both been acknowledged as crucial contributors to short and long-term infant health status. In this cohort, the milk microbiome composition seemed to change following the infant’s latching to the mother’s breast, shifting toward a more diverse microbial community dominated by typical oral microbes, i.e., Streptococcus and Rothia. Even if all infants in the present study were fed human milk, features typical of healthy, full term, exclusively breastfed infants, i.e., high percentages of Bifidobacterium and low abundances of Pseudomonas in fecal and oral samples, respectively, were detected in samples taken after actual breastfeeding started. These findings underline the importance of encouraging not only human milk feeding, but also an early start of actual breastfeeding in preterm infants, since the infant’s latching to the mother’s breast might constitute an independent factor helping the health-promoting assembly of the infant gut microbiome

Treatment of Graft versus Host Disease with Mesenchymal Stromal Cells: A Phase I Study on 40 Adult and Pediatric Patients

Abstract This phase I multicenter study was aimed at assessing the feasibility and safety of intravenous administration of third party bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) expanded in platelet lysate in 40 patients (15 children and 25 adults), experiencing steroid-resistant grade II to IV graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Patients received a median of 3 MSC infusions after having failed conventional immunosuppressive therapy. A median cell dose of 1.5 × 10 6 /kg per infusion was administered. No acute toxicity was reported. Overall, 86 adverse events and serious adverse events were reported in the study, most of which (72.1%) were of infectious nature. Overall response rate, measured at 28 days after the last MSC injection, was 67.5%, with 27.5% complete response. The latter was significantly more frequent in patients exhibiting grade II GVHD as compared with higher grades (61.5% versus 11.1%, P = .002) and was borderline significant in children as compared with adults (46.7 versus 16.0%, P = .065). Overall survival at 1 and 2 years from the first MSC administration was 50.0% and 38.6%, with a median survival time of 1.1 years. In conclusion, MSC can be safely administered on top of conventional immunosuppression for steroid resistant GVHD treatment. Eudract Number 2008-007869-23, NCT01764100

Self-perceived normality in defecation habits

Background: Available information on normal bowel habits was mainly gathered by means of telephone interviews or mailed questionnaires. Aims: We undertook a prospective study to evaluate the defecatory habits in subjects perceiving themselves as normal concerning this function. Subjects and Methods: A questionnaire (4-week diary with "yes-no" daily answers to six questions concerning bowel habits) was distributed to 204 subjects perceiving their defecation behaviour as normal. Results: The completed questionnaire was returned by 140 subjects. No significant differences were found between sexes or age groups for any variable, even though straining at stool and feeling of incomplete and/or difficult evacuation showed a trend to increase with age. No subject had less than three bowel movements per week or more than three per day. The percentage of symptoms linked to an abnormal defecatory behaviour was well below 10%. Fifty-five percent of subjects reported at least one parameter of abnormal functioning; the most frequent was straining at stool and the rarer was the manual manoeuvres to help defecation. Conclusions: In normal subjects the prevalence of symptoms considered in Rome II criteria as part of an abnormal defecatory behaviour (in more than 25% of defecations) is well below 10%, manual manoeuvres are almost never used to help defecation, and the frequency of defecations is at least three per week. © 2005 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l