Earnings inequality and in-work-poverty

Earnings are one of the most relevant dimensions of job quality. They are the main reward within the employment relation, the one most valued by workers and the most multi-faceted instrument for achieving other goals. Very frequently, it is also closely associated with other objective and subjective dimensions of employment quality. Still, sociological and politics research only rarely consider the monetary components of employment quality. In the last two decades, different factors stemming from the process of globalization, the evolution of the economy, changes in the labour market and social protection institutions and policies have led to changes in the level and patterns of earnings and income inequality. This contribution does not intend to draw a detailed picture of the state of that research; it rather aims to provide a quick glance into the situation and the most recent long or medium-term wage trends in a comparative international and European perspective. It is divided into 6 sections. The first deals with our level of knowledge about the impact of economic globalization on earnings inequalities. Sections 2 and 3 are devoted to the dynamics and present situation of the incidence of low paid work and in-work poverty respectively. Section 4 reflects on the different social, labour market and tax policies that may potentially rescue people from low pay and in-work poverty. Section 5 evaluates existing data and indicators. Finally, section 6 includes some tentative proposals for future research

A Comparative Study of the Efficacy of an Intervention with a Nutritional Supplement for Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Randomized Trial.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) involves heterogeneous diseases that affect the renal structure and function. Malnutrition plays a crucial role during patients with CKD on hemodialysis (HD) treatment and is associated with an increased rate and duration of hospitalizations. The aim of this randomized, parallel, intervention-controlled trial was to assess whether the use of daily supplementation with a new nutritional product developed by the Grand Fontaine Laboratories improves the nutritional status and anthropometric parameters of stage 5 CKD patients, compared with standard renal dietary advice, after three months of follow-up. Dietary intake, anthropometric measurements, physical activity, and blood samples were collected at baseline and after three months of intervention. Significant improvements were observed within the intervention group in body weight (1.5 kg [95% CI: 0.9 to 2.12 kg]) and BMI (0.54 kg/m2 [95% CI: 0.31 to 0.77]; p-value between groups, 0.002 and 0.006, respectively). In the control group, significant decreases were observed in transferrin saturation (−5.04% [95% CI: −8.88 to −1.21]) and alpha-tocopherol levels (−3.31 umol/L [95% CI: −6.30 to −0.32]). We concluded that daily dietary intake of a specific renal nutritional complement in CKD patients with or at risk of malnutrition may prevent deterioration in nutritional parameters

Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) clones from Paraguayan children

Introduction: Staphylococcus aureus is considered one of the most important human pathogens, and its levels of resistance to methicillin have increased even in strains isolated from people without nosocomial risk factors. Molecular analysis is essential for understanding the patterns of dissemination. The objective of this study was to identify community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA) clones that infected Paraguayan children patients in two periods of time. Methodology: An observational, descriptive study was designed to determine the genetic variability of 115 isolates of CA-MRSA recovered from children who attended four reference centers in Paraguay between 2009-2010 and 2012-2013. Results: The combined use of Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), Multi-Locus Sequencing Typing, Multi-Locus Variable Analysis (MLVA) and Spa typing techniques allowed the identification of two dominant clones: ST30-IV-t019 (77%) and ST5-IV-t311 (10%), and the establishment of the former as the leading cause of CA-MRSA infections in children during the study period. Conclusions: This is the first study that provides epidemiological information as well as microbiological and molecular characteristics of CA-MRSA isolates recovered from children from Asunción and the Central Department of Paraguay.Fil: Rodríguez, Fátima. Universidad Nacional de Asunción; ParaguayFil: Salinas, Claudia. Universidad Nacional de Asunción; ParaguayFil: Fernández, Silvina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Haim, Maria Sol. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Mollerach, Marta Eugenia. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Basualdo, Wilma. Hospital Central Instituto de Previsiín Social; Paraguay. Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social; ParaguayFil: Castro, Héctor. Hospital Central Instituto de Previsiín Social; Paraguay. Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social; ParaguayFil: Quiñónez, Beatriz. Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social; ParaguayFil: Arguello, Rocío. Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social; ParaguayFil: Rodríguez, Mónica. Hospital Central Instituto de Previsiín Social; ParaguayFil: Grau, Lorena. Hospital Central Instituto de Previsiín Social; ParaguayFil: Espínola, Carmen. Hospital Central Instituto de Previsiín Social; ParaguayFil: Velázquez, Gladys. Hospital Central Instituto de Previsiín Social; ParaguayFil: Samudio, Gloria. Hospital Nacional, Panama; PanamáFil: Gómez, Gloria. Hospital Nacional, Panama; PanamáFil: Campuzano, Ana. Hospital de Clínicas; ParaguayFil: Ortellado, Juana. Hospital de Clínicas; ParaguayFil: Almada, Patricia. Hospital de Clínicas; ParaguayFil: Guillén, Rosa. Universidad Nacional de Asunción; Paragua

Estrategias emocionales para promover la excelencia del alumnado

[ES] Esta comunicación describe el trabajo desarrollado en el último año por el Equipo de Innovación y Calidad Educativa (EICE) GRIPAU en la UPV. Este es un equipo multidisciplinar de profesores tiene como uno de sus principales objetivos desarrollar estrategias que favorezcan la motivación del alumnado como herramienta para que estos alcancen un aprendizaje significativo, y en última instancia, la excelencia en su aprendizaje. Esta excelencia se define no solo considerando el aprendizaje de contenidos teóricos, sino también mediante el desarrollo de competencias y habilidades, sensibilización con el entorno, y desarrollo del pensamiento crítico. En primer lugar, se han definido una serie de estrategias que potencialmente pueden permitir este aprendizaje significativo, estableciendo unas líneas comunes de actuación. Estas estrategias han sido aplicadas en ocho asignaturas de áreas de conocimiento muy dispares, y evaluadas mediante una metodología común que consiste en el seguimiento de resultados objetivos y el análisis encuestas pasadas a los alumnos al principio y al final de la asignatura. En general, las metodologías utilizadas han sido valoradas positivamente por parte de los alumnos y se ha observado una tendencia a mejorar el desarrollo de determinadas competencias transversales en función de las metodologías empleadas. Puede concluirse que favorecer la reflexión del alumno acerca de su propio aprendizaje es una estrategia de motivación que favorece un aprendizaje profundo[Otros] This paper describes the work developed during the last year by the Team in Education Innovation and Quality GRIPAU in the UPV. To this multidisciplinary team of professors, developing strategies to enhance student¿s motivation is one of the main goals. These strategies may allow students a significant learning, and thus the excellence in their learning. An excellent learning may be defined not only considering theoretical contents, but also the development of certain capabilities, sensitization with their environment or development of critical thinking. To this aim, a series of strategies potentially enhancing this learning have been defined. These strategies have been applied in eight subjects belonging to very different areas of knowledge and evaluated using a common methodology consisting in surveys to students at the beginning and at the end of the course. In general, the methodologies used in this study were positively rated by students and a tendency to improve the development of certain cross competences was detected. It can be concluded that enhancing student¿s reflection on his own learning is an effective strategy to motivate students and promote an excellent learning.Rodríguez León, A.; Martínez García, A.; Jiménez Belenguer, AI.; Moreno-Ramón, H.; Guillén Guillamón, IE.; Cabedo Fabres, M.; Calvet, S.... (2014). Estrategias emocionales para promover la excelencia del alumnado. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1012-1025. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/168755S1012102

Thrombotic microangiopathy in patients with malignant hypertension

10 p.-4 fig.-4 tab.Background: Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is a complication of malignant hypertension (mHTN) attributed to high blood pressure (BP). However, no studies have investigated in patients with mHTN of different aetiologies whether the presence of TMA is associated with specific causes of mHTN.Methods: We investigated the presence of TMA (microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia and thrombocytopenia) in a large and well-characterized cohort of 199 patients with mHTN of different aetiologies [primary HTN 44%, glomerular diseases 16.6%, primary atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome (aHUS) 13.1%, renovascular HTN 9.5%, drug-related HTN 7%, systemic diseases 5.5%, endocrine diseases 4.5%]. Outcomes of the study were kidney recovery and kidney failure.Results: Patients with TMA [40 cases (20.1%)] were younger, were more likely female and had lower BP levels and worse kidney function at presentation. Their underlying diseases were primary aHUS (60%), drug-related mHTN (15%), glomerular diseases [all of them immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN); 10%], systemic diseases (10%) and primary HTN (5%). The presence of TMA was 92.3% in primary aHUS, 42.9% in drug-related HTN, 36.4% in systemic diseases, 12.1% in glomerular diseases and 2.3% in primary HTN. No patient with renovascular HTN or mHTN caused by endocrine diseases developed TMA, despite BP levels as high as patients with TMA. A higher proportion of TMA patients developed kidney failure as compared with patients without TMA (56.4% versus 38.9%, respectively).Conclusions: The presence of TMA in patients with mHTN should guide the diagnosis towards primary aHUS, drug-related mHTN, some systemic diseases and IgAN, while it is exceptional in other causes of mHTN.Work in this study was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional [ISCIII/FEDER;grants PI13/02502 and PICI14/00350 (to M.P.) and PI16/01685 and PI19/01624 (to M.P. and T.C.)]; the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad/FEDER [SAF2015-66287-R and PID2019-104912RB-I00 (to S.R.d.C.)]; the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades’ [RTI2018-095955-B-100 (to E.G.J.)]; the Autonomous Region of Madrid [S2017/BMD-3673 (to E.G.J., S.R.d.C. and M.P.)] and Red de Investigación Renal [RD12/0021/0029 (to M.P.)].Peer reviewe

Impact of interstitial lung disease on the survival of systemic sclerosis with pulmonary arterial hypertension

To assess severity markers and outcomes of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with or without pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH-SSc/non-PAH-SSc), and the impact of interstitial lung disease (ILD) on PAH-SSc. Non-PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish SSc registry and PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish PAH registry were included. A total of 364 PAH-SSc and 1589 non-PAH-SSc patients were included. PAH-SSc patients had worse NYHA-functional class (NYHA-FC), worse forced vital capacity (FVC) (81.2 ± 20.6% vs 93.6 ± 20.6%, P < 0.001), worse tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (17.4 ± 5.2 mm vs 19.9 ± 6.7 mm, P < 0.001), higher incidence of pericardial effusion (30% vs 5.2%, P < 0.001) and similar prevalence of ILD (41.8% vs. 44.9%). In individuals with PAH-SSc, ILD was associated with worse hemodynamics and pulmonary function tests (PFT). Up-front combination therapy was used in 59.8% and 61.7% of patients with and without ILD, respectively. Five-year transplant-free survival rate was 41.1% in PAH-SSc patients and 93.9% in non-PAH-SSc patients (P < 0.001). Global survival of PAH-SSc patients was not affected by ILD regardless its severity. The multivariate survival analysis in PAH-SSc patients confirmed age at diagnosis, worse NYHA-FC, increased PVR, reduced DLCO, and lower management with up-front combination therapy as major risk factors. In conclusion, in PAH-SSc cohort risk of death was greatly increased by clinical, PFT, and hemodynamic factors, whereas it was decreased by up-front combination therapy. Concomitant ILD worsened hemodynamics and PFT in PAH-SSc but not survival regardless of FVC impairment

Genetic diagnosis of X-linked dominant hypophosphatemic rickets in a cohort study: Tubular reabsorption of phosphate and 1,25(OH)2D serum levels are associated with PHEX mutation type

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetic Hypophosphatemic Rickets (HR) is a group of diseases characterized by renal phosphate wasting with inappropriately low or normal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃(1,25(OH)₂D) serum levels. The most common form of HR is X-linked dominant HR (XLHR) which is caused by inactivating mutations in the <it>PHEX </it>gene. The purpose of this study was to perform genetic diagnosis in a cohort of patients with clinical diagnosis of HR, to perform genotype-phenotype correlations of those patients and to compare our data with other HR cohort studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty three affected individuals from 36 non related families were analyzed. For the genetic analysis, the <it>PHEX </it>gene was sequenced in all of the patients and in 13 cases the study was complemented by mRNA sequencing and Multiple Ligation Probe Assay. For the genotype-phenotype correlation study, the clinical and biochemical phenotype of the patients was compared with the type of mutation, which was grouped into clearly deleterious or likely causative, using the Mann-Whitney and Fisher's exact test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mutations in the <it>PHEX </it>gene were identified in all the patients thus confirming an XLHR. Thirty four different mutations were found distributed throughout the gene with higher density at the 3' end. The majority of the mutations were novel (69.4%), most of them resulted in a truncated PHEX protein (83.3%) and were family specific (88.9%). Tubular reabsorption of phosphate (TRP) and 1,25(OH)₂D serum levels were significantly lower in patients carrying clearly deleterious mutations than in patients carrying likely causative ones (61.39 ± 19.76 vs. 80.14 ± 8.80%, p = 0.028 and 40.93 ± 30.73 vs. 78.46 ± 36.27 pg/ml, p = 0.013).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>PHEX </it>gene mutations were found in all the HR cases analyzed, which was in contrast with other cohort studies. Patients with clearly deleterious <it>PHEX </it>mutations had lower TRP and 1,25(OH)₂D levels suggesting that the <it>PHEX </it>type of mutation might predict the XLHR phenotype severity.</p

Corrigendum to ‘a horizon scan exercise for aquatic invasive alien species in Iberian inland waters’

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impact of interstitial lung disease on the survival of systemic sclerosis with pulmonary arterial hypertension

To assess severity markers and outcomes of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with or without pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH-SSc/non-PAH-SSc), and the impact of interstitial lung disease (ILD) on PAH-SSc. Non-PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish SSc registry and PAH-SSc patients from the Spanish PAH registry were included. A total of 364 PAH-SSc and 1589 non-PAH-SSc patients were included. PAH-SSc patients had worse NYHA-functional class (NYHA-FC), worse forced vital capacity (FVC) (81.2 +/- 20.6% vs 93.6 +/- 20.6%, P < 0.001), worse tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (17.4 +/- 5.2 mm vs 19.9 +/- 6.7 mm, P < 0.001), higher incidence of pericardial effusion (30% vs 5.2%, P < 0.001) and similar prevalence of ILD (41.8% vs. 44.9%). In individuals with PAH-SSc, ILD was associated with worse hemodynamics and pulmonary function tests (PFT). Up-front combination therapy was used in 59.8% and 61.7% of patients with and without ILD, respectively. Five-year transplant-free survival rate was 41.1% in PAH-SSc patients and 93.9% in non-PAH-SSc patients (P < 0.001). Global survival of PAH-SSc patients was not affected by ILD regardless its severity. The multivariate survival analysis in PAH-SSc patients confirmed age at diagnosis, worse NYHA-FC, increased PVR, reduced DLCO, and lower management with up-front combination therapy as major risk factors. In conclusion, in PAH-SSc cohort risk of death was greatly increased by clinical, PFT, and hemodynamic factors, whereas it was decreased by up-front combination therapy. Concomitant ILD worsened hemodynamics and PFT in PAH-SSc but not survival regardless of FVC impairment