Women at Greater Risk of Economic Insecurity: A Gender Analysis of the Rockefeller Foundation's American Worker Survey

Analyzes survey data for differences in anxiety over and experiences of economic insecurity between women and men, workers and non-workers, and parents and non-parents, as well as among women of different races/ethnicities, incomes, and education levels

Luxemburg's corporatist Scandinavian welfare system and incorporation of migrants

Luxembourg is the EU and OECD member state (MS) with a permanently increasing immigra-tion and the highest share of immigrants and cross border commuters within the labour force and more so within the competitive sector. Luxembourg has a typical Bismarckian corporatist welfare system, which has developed a gener-ous and broad welfare regime over the last 100 years with a further important push during the last two decades. Since then, benefits offered muted steadily to middle class standards and providers were merged to universalistic national bodies, leaving behind the different former corporatist providers. Due to a higher dependency on welfare benefits due to the economic downturn, nearly all MS modified from the 1970s onwards their original systems, mostly in the sense of a liberalization with cutbacks in comparison to the former more generous provisions. There has been a shift in responsibility from the state to the individual citizen via different means such as a non-increase of benefits, restricting eligibility (re-commodification), restructuring schemes in a radical way (recalibration) and cost containment measures (Pierson, 2001). Luxembourg however expanded and improved its system. What is the link between immigration and the outstanding evolution of the welfare system? The steady increase of young foreign contributors (immigrants and crossers) provided Luxem-bourg with the means to develop from a corporatist model to a Scandinavian with highest provi-sions, an emerging service sector and no significant retrenchment policy. Immigrants contribute, on average, more to the different welfare insurances than they use them, given their on average younger age, given a predominantly economic immigration and given higher employment rates than those of nationals.Migrants' incorporation; corporatist; universalistic welfare regime; Luxembourg; migrants' contribution

The State of the Luxembourg?s Welfare State: the Effects of the Crisis on a Corporatist Model Shifting to a Universalistic Model.

Luxembourg was able to develop, enlarge and improve its corporatist welfare system with Scandinavian standards, creating one of, if not the most substantial regime in the EU/OECD. Several aspects are outstanding: expansion and improvement took place over the last two decades; important reserves for the pension insurance allowed replacement rates being on top within OECD countries; corporatist elements had been reduced in favour of a higher impact of the State; defamilzation took place, thus a significant recalibration. There is no experience of cutbacks or significant cost containment measures leading to losses and a higher responsibility for the insured. The question is, how did Luxembourg manage to increase and improve its welfare offer, while other developed countries have had to cutback since the 1970s? And what was the impact of the financial crisis on welfare policies up to the end of 2009. Luxembourg has the most regulated labour market within OECD, but also the most diversified in terms of migration and cross border movements. Two factors are commonly considered putting welfare systems under pressure: globalisation and ageing effects. Luxembourg avoided the last one via its permanently rejuvenating immigration and cross border movement: age- and family-member-dependency ratios are extremely low for cross border commuters compared to those of residents. The extremely transnationalised labour force might be considered as an implicit ?globalising? answer. This small nation-state used its sovereignty taking advantage of the imbrication of national and transnational (EU) law: crossers contribute fully, but are not fully entitled to benefits. Immigration is sometimes considered to be a threat to the sustainability of welfare schemes; in Luxembourg however immigrants and crossers were the main factors for expansion.Luxembourg?s welfare system; Improvement; expansion; No cutback; Migration; Cross border movement

GLUT1 expression patterns in different Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes and progressively transformed germinal centers

Background: Increased glycolytic activity is a hallmark of cancer, allowing staging and restaging with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron-emission-tomography (PET). Since interim-PET is an important prognostic tool in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), the aim of this study was to investigate the expression of proteins involved in the regulation of glucose metabolism in the different HL subtypes and their impact on clinical outcome. Methods: Lymph node biopsies from 54 HL cases and reactive lymphoid tissue were stained for glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) and lactate exporter proteins MCT1 and MCT4. In a second series, samples from additional 153 HL cases with available clinical data were stained for GLUT1 and LDHA. Results: Membrane bound GLUT1 expression was frequently observed in the tumor cells of HL (49% of all cases) but showed a broad variety between the different Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes: Nodular sclerosing HL subtype displayed a membrane bound GLUT1 expression in the Hodgkin-and Reed-Sternberg cells in 56% of the cases. However, membrane bound GLUT1 expression was more rarely observed in tumor cells of lymphocyte rich classical HL subtype (30%) or nodular lymphocyte predominant HL subtype (15%). Interestingly, in both of these lymphocyte rich HL subtypes as well as in progressively transformed germinal centers, reactive B cells displayed strong expression of GLUT1. LDHA, acting downstream of glycolysis, was also expressed in 44% of all cases. We evaluated the prognostic value of different GLUT1 and LDHA expression patterns; however, no significant differences in progression free or overall survival were found between patients exhibiting different GLUT1 or LDHA expression patterns. There was no correlation between GLUT1 expression in HRS cells and PET standard uptake values. Conclusions: In a large number of cases, HRS cells in classical HL express high levels of GLUT1 and LDHA indicating glycolytic activity in the tumor cells. Although interim-PET is an important prognostic tool, a predictive value of GLUT1 or LDHA staining of the primary diagnostic biopsy could not be demonstrated. However, we observed GLUT1 expression in progressively transformed germinal centers and hyperplastic follicles, explaining false positive results in PET. Therefore, PET findings suggestive of HL relapse should always be confirmed by histology

Nodular lymphocyte predominant hodgkin lymphoma and T cell/histiocyte rich large B cell lymphoma : endpoints of a spectrum of one disease?

In contrast to the commonly indolent clinical behavior of nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL), T cell/histiocyte rich large B cell lymphoma (THRLBCL) is frequently diagnosed in advanced clinical stages and has a poor prognosis. Besides the different clinical presentations of these lymphoma entities, there are variants of NLPHL with considerable histopathologic overlap compared to THRLBCL. Especially THRLBCL-like NLPHL, a diffuse form of NLPHL, often presents a histopathologic pattern similar to THRLBCL, suggesting a close relationship between both lymphoma entities. To corroborate this hypothesis, we performed gene expression profiling of microdissected tumor cells of NLPHL, THRLBCL-like NLPHL and THRLBCL. In unsupervised analyses, the lymphomas did not cluster according to their entity. Moreover, even in supervised analyses, very few consistently differentially expressed transcripts were found, and for these genes the extent of differential expression was only moderate. Hence, there are no clear and consistent differences in the gene expression of the tumor cells of NLPHL, THRLBCL-like NLPHL and THRLBCL. Based on the gene expression studies, we identified BAT3/BAG6, HIGD1A, and FAT10/UBD as immunohistochemical markers expressed in the tumor cells of all three lymphomas. Characterization of the tumor microenvironment for infiltrating T cells and histiocytes revealed significant differences in the cellular composition between typical NLPHL and THRLBCL cases. However, THRLBCL-like NLPHL presented a histopathologic pattern more related to THRLBCL than NLPHL. In conclusion, NLPHL and THRLBCL may represent a spectrum of the same disease. The different clinical behavior of these lymphomas may be strongly influenced by differences in the lymphoma microenvironment, possibly related to the immune status of the patient at the timepoint of diagnosis