EU labour market behaviour during the Great Recession

This paper provides an analysis of the labour market adjustment to the 2008-2009 recession in terms of employment, unemployment, hours worked and wages. It highlights differences in the response of employment and unemployment across countries and different socioeconomic groups. For all EU Member States, it provides evidence of the developments during the crisis of the monthly job finding and separation rates. This helps to assess whether the increase in unemployment is due to an increase of job separation or to a decline in the job finding rate. The paper discusses the risks of jobless growth and compares the dynamics of unemployment and employment across different periods. It provides evidence of an asymmetric response over the cycle, with recessions being characterised by more job destruction than by job creation in the following recoveries. The analysis of the wage dynamics during the recession suggests that there has been an adjustment in the compensation per employee led by the variable component; yet, this has not been sufficient to avoid the increase in the nominal unit labour costs due to labour hoarding.Unemployment, Workers' flows, job separation, job finding rate, Okun's law,

EU labour market behaviour during the Great Recession

This paper provides an analysis of the labour market adjustment to the 2008-2009 recession. It highlights differences in the response of employment and unemployment across countries and different socioeconomic groups. For all EU Member States, it provides evidence of the developments during the crisis of the monthly job finding and separation rates. This helps to assess whether the increase in unemployment is due to an increase of job separation or to a decline in the job finding rate. The paper discusses the risks of jobless growth and compares the dynamics of unemployment and employment across different periods. It provides evidence of an asymmetric response over the cycle, with recessions being characterised by more job destruction than by job creation in the following recoveries. The analysis of the wage dynamics suggests that there has been an adjustment in the compensation per employee led by the variable component; yet, this has not been sufficient to avoid the increase in the nominal unit labour costs due to labour hoarding.european union eu recession labour markets unemeployment Workers' flows job separation job finding rate Okun's law arpaia curci

EU labour market behaviour during the Great Recession

This paper provides an analysis of the labour market adjustment to the 2008-2009 recession in terms of employment, unemployment, hours worked and wages. It highlights differences in the response of employment and unemployment across countries and different socioeconomic groups. For all EU Member States, it provides evidence of the developments during the crisis of the monthly job finding and separation rates. This helps to assess whether the increase in unemployment is due to an increase of job separation or to a decline in the job finding rate. The paper discusses the risks of jobless growth and compares the dynamics of unemployment and employment across different periods. It provides evidence of an asymmetric response over the cycle, with recessions being characterised by more job destruction than by job creation in the following recoveries. The analysis of the wage dynamics during the recession suggests that there has been an adjustment in the compensation per employee led by the variable component; yet, this has not been sufficient to avoid the increase in the nominal unit labour costs due to labour hoarding.Unemployment, Workers’ flows, job separation, job finding rate, Okun’s law

Enzymes discovery and characterization: microbial hydrolases for sustainable bioconversion and novel applications

The development of sustainable processes and the society needs to shift towards a circular bioeconomy have increased the demand for biocatalysts in biotechnology to support industrial processes. The discovery of novel enzymes with higher activity and stability than those of catalysts already available paves the way for improving current industrial bioprocesses and developing novel applications. Microbial enzymes represent the bulk of the enzymes market, being more active and stable, producing high yield, and microorganisms represent an easily exploitable source by modern metagenomics technique. Among the more sought-after enzymes for industrial and biotechnological purposes, glycoside hydrolases (GHs) and lipolytic enzymes have increased their impact in this field. The present thesis describes different strategies to identify novel enzymes and the evaluation of several GH activities for their potential exploitation in biotechnological applications. Chapter 2 reports the exploration of microbial consortia populating two mud pools in Pisciarelli solfatara using a shotgun metagenomic approach, that led to the identification of 586 putative CAZymes. In this work, I focused on the characterization of a GH109 with a previously unreported β-N-acetylglucosaminide/β-glucoside specificity. By using a genome mining approach, chapter 3 describes the identification of a novel thermophilic esterase (EstGtA3) from the thermophilic bacterium G. thermodenitrificans. The characterization revealed that the enzyme is active at 60°C and in a wide range of pH. Moreover, EstGtA3 showed an activating effect in n-hexane and other denaturing agents, making this enzyme suitable for biotechnological applications. More advanced studies on possible industrial applications of some GHs are reported in chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 4 the characterization of the mechanism of action of three thermostable GHs (LacS, XylS, and SsαFuc) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon S. solfataricus on xyloglucan oligosaccharides shows excellent operational stability at 65°C and pH 5.5 of the three enzymes. SsαFuc was able to remove all fucose residues, while LacS and XylS showed a strong synergy for the hydrolysis of these substrates. The last chapter, in collaboration with Novozymes A/S company, describes the characterization of three novel GH109 (NAg68, NAg69, and NAg71). Interestingly, these enzymes showed the ability to remove the immunogenic determinant N-acetylgalactosamine from the erythrocyte on the surface of group A blood, converting it into the universal donor group 0. In particular, NAg71 requires less enzyme concentration for conversion than the already available enzymes used for this biotechnological application

Novel Approaches Outside the Setting of Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma: The Case of Melflufen, Venetoclax, and Selinexor

Although the survival rate of patients with multiple myeloma has significantly improved in the last years thanks to the introduction of various classes of new drugs, such as proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory agents, and monoclonal antibodies, the vast majority of these subjects relapse with a more aggressive disease due to the acquisition of further genetic alterations that may cause resistance to current salvage therapies. The treatment of these often “triple” (or even more) refractory patients remains challenging, and alternative approaches are required to overcome the onset of that resistance. Immunotherapies with novel monoclonal, drug-conjugated, or bi-specific antibodies, as well as the use of chimeric antigen receptor T cells, have been recently developed and are currently investigated. However, other non-immunologic therapeutic regimens based on melfluflen, venetoclax, or selinexor, three molecules with new mechanisms of action, have also shown promising results in the setting of relapsed/refractory myeloma. Here we report themost recent literature data regarding these three drugs, focusing on their efficacy and safety in multiple myelom

EU labour market behaviour during the Great Recession

This paper provides an analysis of the labour market adjustment to the 2008-2009 recession in terms of employment, unemployment, hours worked and wages. It highlights differences in the response of employment and unemployment across countries and different socioeconomic groups. For all EU Member States, it provides evidence of the developments during the crisis of the monthly job finding and separation rates. This helps to assess whether the increase in unemployment is due to an increase of job separation or to a decline in the job finding rate. The paper discusses the risks of jobless growth and compares the dynamics of unemployment and employment across different periods. It provides evidence of an asymmetric response over the cycle, with recessions being characterised by more job destruction than by job creation in the following recoveries. The analysis of the wage dynamics during the recession suggests that there has been an adjustment in the compensation per employee led by the variable component; yet, this has not been sufficient to avoid the increase in the nominal unit labour costs due to labour hoarding

SARS-CoV-2 infection in fully vaccinated patients with multiple myeloma

No abstract availabl

Hydroxyapatite nanocrystals as a smart, pH sensitive, delivery system for kiteplatin

Hydroxyapatite (HA) nanocrystals are important inorganic constituents of biological hard tissues in vertebrates and have been proposed as a bone substitute or a coating material for prostheses in biomedicine. Hydroxyapatite is also amenable for its capacity to bind to a great variety of biomolecules and therapeutic agents. As drug carriers, apatite nanoparticles also have the advantage of pH dependent solubility and low toxicity. Thus HA nanoparticles are negligibly soluble at physiological pH but their dissolution is accelerated at lower pH such as that typically found in the vicinity of tumors. In the present study we have investigated the adsorption on and the release from biomimetic HA nanoparticles of two platinum derivatives of cis-1,4-diaminocyclohexane ([PtX2(cis-1,4-DACH)], X2 = Cl2 (1) and 1,1-cyclobutanedicarboxylate (CBDCA, 2)). The first of the two compounds proved to be active against colon cancer cells also resistant to oxaliplatin. The release has been investigated as a function of pH to mimic the different physiological environments of healthy tissues and tumors, and the in vitro cytotoxicity of the releasates from the HA matrices has been assessed against various human cancer cell lines. The results fully confirmed the potential of 1-loaded HA nanoparticles as bone-specific drug delivery devices

What Is New in the Treatment of Smoldering Multiple Myeloma?

Smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM), an asymptomatic plasma cell neoplasm, is currently diagnosed according to the updated IMWG criteria, which reflect an intermediate tumor mass between monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and active MM. However, SMM is a heterogeneous entity and individual case may go from an “MGUS-like” behavior to “early MM” with rapid transformation into symptomatic disease. This wide range of clinical outcomes poses challenges for prognostication and management of individual patients. However, initial studies showed a benefit in terms of progression or even survival for early treatment of high-risk SMM patients. While outside of clinical trials the conventional approach to SMM generally remains that of close observation, these studies raised the question of whether early treatment should be offered in high-risk patients, prompting evaluation of several different therapeutic approaches with different goals. While delay of progression to MM with a non-toxic treatment is clearly achievable by early treatment, a convincing survival benefit still needs to be proven by independent studies. Furthermore, if SMM is to be considered less biologically complex than MM, early treatment may offer the chance of cure that is currently not within reach of any active MM treatment. In this paper, we present updated results of completed or ongoing clinical trials in SMM treatment, highlighting areas of uncertainty and critical issues that will need to be addressed in the near future before the “watch and wait” paradigm in SMM is abandoned in favor of early treatmen

ATP Sensitive Potassium Channels in the Skeletal Muscle Function: Involvement of the KCNJ11(Kir6.2) Gene in the Determination of Mechanical Warner Bratzer Shear Force

The ATP-sensitive K-channels (KATP) are distributed in the tissues coupling metabolism with K ions efflux. KATP subunits are encoded by KCNJ8 (Kir6.1), KCNJ11 (Kir6.2), ABCC8 (SUR1), and ABCC9 (SUR2) genes, alternative RNA splicing give rise to SUR variants that confer distinct physiological properties on the channel. An high expression/activity of the sarco-KATP channel is observed in various rat fast-twitch muscles, characterized by elevated muscle strength, while a low expression/activity is observed in the slow twitch muscles characterized by reduced strength and frailty. Down-regulation of the KATP subunits of fast-twitch fibers is found in conditions characterized by weakness and frailty. KCNJ11 gene knockout mice have reduced glycogen, lean phenotype, lower body fat, and weakness. KATP channel is also a sensor of muscle atrophy. The KCNJ11 gene is located on BTA15, close to a QTL for meat tenderness, it has also a role in glycogen storage, a key mechanism of the postmortem transformation of muscle into meat. The role of KCNJ11 gene in muscle function may underlie an effect of KCNJ11 genotypes on meat tenderness, as recently reported. The fiber phenotype and genotype are important in livestock production science. Quantitative traits including meat production and quality are influenced both by environment and genes. Molecular markers can play an important role in the genetic improvement of animals through breeding strategies. Many factors influence the muscle Warner-Bratzler shear force including breed, age, feeding, the biochemical, and functional parameters. The role of KCNJ11gene and related genes on muscle tenderness will be discussed in the present review