NEETs in Latin America and the Caribbean: Skills, Aspirations, and Information

This paper studies the role of cognitive skills, socioemotional skills, aspirations and expectations on the likelihood of being NEET (not in education, employment or training) using a novel sample of 15 to 24 year old residents of seven Latin American and Caribbean countries. After controlling for sociodemographic household conditions, we find that numeracy and literacy skills, core self‐evaluation, extraversion and educational aspirations are robust correlates of being NEET. We also find cross country heterogeneity. That is, in some countries, passion and perseverance for long‐term goals, neuroticism and labour market information biases are additional factors associated with being NEET

CVD of CrO2: towards a lower temperature deposition process

We report on the synthesis of highly oriented a-axis CrO2 films onto (0001) sapphire by atmospheric pressure CVD from CrO3 precursor, at growth temperatures down to 330 degree Celsius, i.e. close to 70 degrees lower than in published data for the same chemical system. The films keep the high quality magnetic behaviour as those deposited at higher temperature, which can be looked as a promising result in view of their use with thermally sensitive materials, e.g. narrow band gap semiconductors.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

[Fetal growth and activity at 20 to 24 weeks of gestation (preliminary study)].

BACKGROUND: Recent researches show that psychological development begins much before birth and prenatal influences can explain a significant part of the future variability in infants' behaviour and development. AIMS: The aim of this study was to characterize the fetal development between 20 and 24 weeks of gestation, related to the measures of fetal growth-- iparietal diameter, abdominal circumference, head circumference, femur length and fetal weight-- and fetal activity--fetal heart rate and fetal movements. We also tried to establish if there are any differences in these measures related to the mothers' and fetus' sociodemographic features, obstetrical conditions and exposure to drugs. METHOD: The sample of this study involved 48 fetus (52.1% female and 47.9% male) with an estimated gestational age (GA) between 20-24 weeks (Mean = 21 weeks and 1 day), whose mothers had appointments at the Obstetric and Gynaecological medical consultation of Júlio Dinis Maternity Hospital (MJD, Oporto). A video tape of the fetal behaviour was made and ultrasound biometry measurements were collected from the morphological ultrasound report. RESULTS: A statistical analysis of fetal data, after gestational age control, showed differences in fetal growth measures related to mothers' occupational status [F(1,41) = 7.28; p = .000], marital status [F(1,41) = 2.61; p = .04], household arrangements [F(1,41) = 2.91; p = .03] and coffee consumption [F(1,40) = 2.55; p = .05]. Differences in fetal activity measures (fetal heart rate) associated to fetus gender [F(1,16) = 5.84; p = .009] were also found. CONCLUSIONS: We can conclude about the sensibility of fetal development to prenatal factors related to the mothers' and fetus' sociodemographic features and exposure to drugs.Esta investigação foi financiada pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, no âmbito do projecto FCT POCTI/SAUESP, 56397/2004 e da Bolsa de Doutoramento SFRH/BD/13768/200

Estudo da sinistralidade laboral em meio hospitalar - Aspeto fundamental para a integração da segurança no trabalho na gestão de unidades de saúde

O tipo de atividade profissional e as condições em que é desempenhada constituem fatores determinantes do risco para a saúde dos trabalhadores. Os últimos estudos realizados sobre acidentes de trabalho nas instituições de saúde revelam um aumento da incidência dos acidentes de trabalho com o consequente aumento do absentismo laboral e dos encargos financeiros inerentes.Realizamos um estudo descritivo-correlacional, retrospetivo, compreendendo um período de análise de quatro anos, utilizando os dados do serviço de saúde ocupacional, relatórios anuais e balanços sociais de cada ano em estudo. Os resultados revelaram um aumento progressivo do índice de frequência e do índice de gravidade dos acidentes de trabalho. O maior número de acidentes ocorreu nos enfermeiros, a trabalhar por turnos. A lesão mais declarada é a picada e as mãos o local mais atingido, no entanto são os esforços excessivos e a cervicalgia/lombalgia que produzem uma maior incapacidade para o trabalho com o consequente aumento dos dias de absentismo. Constatamos que o tempo em dias perdido vai gradualmente aumentando ao longo dos 4 anos, assim como as implicações financeiras. Os gestores de topo devem tomar medidas no sentido de garantir uma melhor qualidade de vida dos profissionais, contribuindo para uma melhoria da qualidade da prestação de serviços nas unidades de saúde, preservando os recursos humanos e proporcionando dotações seguras de técnicos de saúde/utente

Women's perinatal depression: Anhedonia-related symptoms have increased in the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: The prevalence of perinatal depression increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may be due to changes in the profile of specific depressive symptoms.Aims: To analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the (1) prevalence and severity of specific depressive symptoms; and on the (2) prevalence of clinically significant symptoms of depression during pregnancy and postpartum.Methods: Pregnant and postpartum women recruited before (n = 2395) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 1396) completed a sociodemographic and obstetric questionnaire and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). For each item, scores & GE;1 and & GE; 2 were used to calculate the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms, respectively.Results: The prevalence and severity of symptoms of depression were significantly higher during the COVID-19 pandemic. The prevalence of specific symptoms increased by >30%, namely being able to laugh and see the funny side of things (pregnancy 32.6%, postpartum 40.6%), looking forward with enjoyment to things (pregnancy 37.2%, postpartum 47.2%); and feelings of sadness/miserable or unhappiness leading to crying during postpartum (34.2% and 30.2%, respectively). A substantial increase was observed in the severity of specific symptoms related to feelings that things have been getting on top of me during pregnancy and the postpartum period (19.4% and 31.6%, respectively); feeling sad or miserable during pregnancy (10.8%); and feeling scared/panicky during postpartum (21.4%).Conclusion: Special attention should be paid to anhedonia-related symptoms of perinatal depression to ensure that they are adequately managed in present and future situations of crisis.This study was and supported by the Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013) , University of Minho, by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement, under the Grant No. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653. This research was supported by the FEDER Funds through the Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (COMPETE) and by National Funds through FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia) under the Grant No. PTDC/SAU/SAP/116738/2010. Fundacao Bial, under the project with the reference 157/12 and by the FCT- Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the projects PTDC/PSI-PCL/119152/2010, HEI-Lab R & amp;D Unit UIDB/05380/2020, UIDB/04750/2020, and LA/P/0064/2020. It was supported by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653) . Raquel Costa was supported by the FSE and FCT under the Post-Doctoral Grant SFRH/BPD/117597/2016 [RC] . Tiago Miguel Pinto [TMP] was supported by the FSE and FCT under the individual grant SFRH/BD/115048/2016. Ana Conde was supported a doctoral grant for Science in Measure IV.3 and co-funded under the 2010 Science and Innovation Operational Program (POCI 2010) from Science and Technology Foundation, Government of the Portuguese Republic (Ref. SFRH/BD/13768/2003) [AC] . The work developed by ProChild CoLAB was supported by: (i) NORTE-06-3559-FSE-000044, integrated in the invitation NORTE-59-2018-41, aiming to hire Highly Qualified Human Resources, co-financed by the Regional Operational Programme of the North 2020, thematic area of Competitiveness and Employment, through the European Social Fund (ESF) and (ii) Mission Interface Program from the Resilience and Recuperation Plan, notice no 01/C05-i02/2022, aiming to guarantee public core funding to strengthen the network of interface institutions, as defined in the legal regime in force, approved by Decree-Law no. 63/2019, of May 16th, as well as in its 1st review on 'Technology and Innovation Centres-CTI' and 'Collaborative Laboratories-CoLABs', approved by Decree-Law no. 126-B/2021, of December 31st. Ana Mesquita is supported from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and from EU through the European Social Fund and from the Human Potential Operational Program-IF/00750/2015. This article is based upon work from COST Action CA18138 Research Innovation and Sustainable Pan-European Network in Peripartum Depression Disorder (Riseup-PPD) , supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology; https:// www.cost.eu/) . The funders had no role in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication