The contribution of the disabled to the attainment of the Europe 2020 strategy headline targets

In 2009 the European Council published its Europe 2020 Strategy in which it fixed a number of social, educational and economic targets to be achieved by 2020. However, given the current economic crisis, the majority of European countries are struggling to attain these goals. In this framework, this study seeks to quantify the potential contribution of one of the most disadvantaged groups, Europe’s disabled, to the attainment of the Europe 2020 Strategy targets via the monitoring of a number of indicators. The impact of changes in the situation of the disabled is simulated using micro data drawn from the 2009 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Our results show that improving the socioeconomic situation of the disabled could be crucial for attaining the Europe 2020 targets. However, future policy designs at the national level will need to take into account the actual definition of disability that is employed, the heterogeneity of circumstances to be found within such a definition, and the gap between the situation of the disabled and non disabled populations

The distribution of skills among the European adult population and unemployment: a comparative approach [WP]

The most painful effect of the Great Recession in European countries has been the surge in unemployment rates during a period that has been characterised most notably by an increase in income inequality and the heterogeneous pattern of this inequality by educational level. Thus, workers with low levels of educational attainment were among the first to lose their jobs. This paper addresses two main research questions: first, it estimates the importance of the level of skills and education on the probability of being unemployed; and, second, it provides evidence of the impact of inequalities in the previous socioeconomic and cultural background of individuals on the probability of being unemployed. These two objectives are assessed using data for 24 jurisdictions participating in the first round of the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Skill levels play a central role in explaining unemployment in Europe and act as an indirect channel via which a family’s sociocultural background has an impact on its labour market status

Impacte del sistema de beques de menjador de Catalunya sobre la igualtat d'oportunitats educatives

L'objectiu principal de les beques escolars és incrementar la igualtat d'oportunitats educatives. Els ajuts de menjador per motius socioeconòmics de Catalunya, gestionats pels consells comarcals des de l'any 1996, constitueixen un bon exemple. Els canvis demogràfics i socioeconòmics experimentats han provocat que part de les necessitats que pretenien ser cobertes mitjançant aquests ajuts hagin quedat desateses. Aquest article detecta punts febles dins l'actual sistema d'ajuts de menjador per motius socioeconòmics i planteja reflexions per a la seva hipotètica adaptació a la nova realitat a la qual s'enfronta

Genome-scale definition of the transcriptional programme associated with compromised PU.1 activity in acute myeloid leukaemia.

Transcriptional dysregulation is associated with haematological malignancy. Although mutations of the key haematopoietic transcription factor PU.1 are rare in human acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), they are common in murine models of radiation-induced AML, and PU.1 downregulation and/or dysfunction has been described in human AML patients carrying the fusion oncogenes RUNX1-ETO and PML-RARA. To study the transcriptional programmes associated with compromised PU.1 activity, we adapted a Pu.1-mutated murine AML cell line with an inducible wild-type PU.1. PU.1 induction caused transition from leukaemia phenotype to monocytic differentiation. Global binding maps for PU.1, CEBPA and the histone mark H3K27Ac with and without PU.1 induction showed that mutant PU.1 retains DNA-binding ability, but the induction of wild-type protein dramatically increases both the number and the height of PU.1-binding peaks. Correlating chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) Seq with gene expression data, we found that PU.1 recruitment coupled with increased histone acetylation induces gene expression and activates a monocyte/macrophage transcriptional programme. PU.1 induction also caused the reorganisation of a subgroup of CEBPA binding peaks. Finally, we show that the PU.1 target gene set defined in our model allows the stratification of primary human AML samples, shedding light on both known and novel AML subtypes that may be driven by PU.1 dysfunction.X18.1.1 cells were kindly donated by Dr Wendy Cook (LaTrobe University, Melbourne). MSCV-puro-PuER plasmid was kindly donated by Dr Peter Laslo (University of Leeds). ChIP sequencing was performed at the Genomics Core Facility, CRUK Cambridge Institute. Research in the Göttgens laboratory is supported by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, the MRC, BBSRC, CRUK, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and core infrastructure support by the Wellcome Trust to the Wellcome Trust and MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and CIMR. JIS is supported by CRUK and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/leu.2015.17

Hell to touch the sky? Private tutoring and academic achievement in Korea

Although not exclusive to the Republic of Korea’s educational system, the pervasiveness of private tutoring, and its consequences, serve to distinguish it from Systems operated in other countries. However, the identification of inefficiencies linked to this phenomenon have seen the educational authorities struggling against private tutoring since the 1980s. Yet, public policies have systematically failed because of the widely held belief that private tutoring services increase students’ academic performance. This paper quantifies the impact of time spent in private tutoring on the performance of students in the three competence fields assessed in the PISA-2006 (Programme for International Student Assessment). Instrumental variables are applied in a multilevel model framework in an attempt at addressing the endogeneity of the effects of private tutoring on acadèmic performance. Our results indicate that the impact of time dedicated to private tutoring on academic performance depends on the particular competence: positive for mathematics,positive but decreasing for reading, and non-significant for science

El presente de la cirugía artroscópica. ¿Dónde está el límite?

La cirugía artroscópica ha supuesto un importante avance en las técnicas terapéuticas y diagnósti - cas dentro del campo de la cirugía ortopédica, convirtiéndose en estas dos últimas décadas en uno de los grandes pilares de la cirugía mínimamente invasiva de grandes y pequeñas articulaciones, permitiendo la realización de técnicas quirúrgicas que hace unos años hubiese sido impensable. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las indicaciones y técnicas quirúrgicas artroscópicas que actualmente realizamos en nuestro equipo basándonos en niveles de evidencia científica y una valoración del futuro de la cirugía artroscópica.Arthroscopic surgery has involved a great advance in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques within orthopedic surgery field. For twenty years now, it has become as one of the great pillars of minimally invasive surgery of large and small joints, allowing the realization of surgical techniques that a few years ago would be unthinkable. Aim of this study is to analyze currently indications and arthroscopic surgical techniques performed in our work team based on levels of scientific evidence and the assessment of arthroscopic surgery in the future

Correlation of banana productivity levels and soil morphological properties using regularized optimal scaling regression

Soil morphological properties described in the field, such as texture, consistence or structure, provide a valuable tool for the evaluation of soil productivity potential. In this study, we developed a regression model between the soil morphological variables of banana plantations and a crop Productivity Index (PI) previously developed for the same areas in Venezuela. For this, we implemented categorical regression, an optimal scaling procedure in which the morphological variables are transformed into a numerical scale, and can thus be entered in a multiple regression analysis. The model was developed from data from six plantations growing “Gran Nain” bananas, each with two productivity levels (high and low), in two 4-ha experimental plots, one for each productivity level. Sixty-three A horizons in thirty-six soils were described using 15 field morphological variables on a nominal scale for structure type, texture and hue, and an ordinal scale for the rest (structure grade, structure size, wet and dry consistence, stickiness, plasticity, moist value, chroma, root abundance, root size, biological activity and reaction to HCl). The optimum model selected included biological activity, texture, dry consistence, reaction to HCl and structure type variables. These variables explained the PI with an R2 of 0.599, an expected prediction error (EPE) of 0.645 and a standard error (SE) of 0.135 using bootstrapping, and EPE of 0.662 with a SE of 0.236 using 10-fold cross validation. Our study showed how soil quality is clearly related to productivity on commercial banana plantations, and developed a way to correlate soil quality indicators to yield by using indicators based on easily measured soil morphological parameters. The methodology used in this study might be further expanded to other banana-producing areas to help identify the soils most suitable for its cultivation, thereby enhancing its environmental sustainability and profitability

Preliminary study of variables related to abuse episodes in a sample of men and women

La violencia doméstica exige una consideración psicológica del problema, analizando las interacciones de las personas que participan en los episodios de agresión, que configuran un contexto psicológico que requiere ser analizado en su totalidad para poder explicar, prevenir y predecir situaciones posteriores. Material y métodos: La muestra estuvo constituida por 31 mujeres y 36 hombres con experiencias de maltrato. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron la CTS (Conflict Tactics Scale, Straus 1999) y AEVD (Autoinforme para la Evaluación de variables asociadas a la Violencia Doméstica, adaptado Zarza, 2001), que medían las variables datos sociodemográficos, violencia en la familia de referencia, violencia en la pareja en toda la relación y en el último año de convivencia y áreas de discusión durante la relación. Resultados: Los resultados indican que la violencia ejercida por uno de los miembros de la pareja está estrechamente ligada a la violencia sufrida por el mismo. Ambas variables interactúan entre sí, siendo en todo momento las que mayor peso predictivo tienen en los modelos explicativos de la violencia. Otras variables contempladas en los modelos son la frecuencia de discusiones y la violencia en la familia de referencia. Esta última variable sólo aparece relacionada con la violencia ejercida en la muestra de varones. Discusión: El fenómeno de la violencia doméstica se presenta como fruto de la ocurrencia de interacciones violentas entre los miembros de la pareja. La violencia se acaba convirtiendo en una forma de interacción aprendida desde la infancia a lo largo de toda la vida de los individuos y fuertemente arraigada en determinados patrones culturales. Consideramos que una parte de la ayuda ha de venir del análisis riguroso del fenómeno y de actuaciones que se deriven del mismo, haciendo caso omiso de posturas emocionales y actuaciones viscerale