Economic structure and energy savings from energy efficiency in households

When an energy efficiency improvement occurs at the household level, several mechanisms, grouped under the name of the rebound effect, increase the available income and consumption, increasing the total energy consumption of the economic structure. The present research analyses the links between energy efficiency improvements in households, consumption, and the economic structure in an input-output framework. We examine, from an empirical perspective, the relationship between energy efficiency improvements and the economic structure, and between the direct and the indirect rebound effect. The limits of the input-output methodology in assessing the direct and indirect rebound effect have been empirically tested with respect to efficiency improvements of electricity uses in households in Catalonia

Association between low empathy and high burnout among primary care physicians and nurses in Lleida, Spain

Background: Burnout is a growing problem among healthcare professionals and may be mitigated and even prevented by measures designed to promote empathy and resilience. Objectives: We studied the association between burnout and empathy in primary care practitioners in Lleida, Spain and investigated possible differences according to age, sex, profession, and place of practice (urban versus rural). Methods: All general practitioners (GPs) and family nurses in the health district of Lleida (population 366 000) were asked by email to anonymously complete the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) between May and July 2014. Tool consistency was evaluated by Cronbach’s a, the association between empathy and burnout by Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and the association between burnout and empathy and sociodemographic variables by the v2 test. Results: One hundred and thirty-six GPs and 131 nurses (52.7% response rate) from six urban and 16 rural practices participated (78.3% women); 33.3% of respondents had low empathy, while 3.7% had high burnout. The MBI and JSPE were correlated (P<.001) and low burnout was associated with high empathy (P<.05). Age and sex had no influence on burnout or empathy. Conclusion: Although burnout was relatively uncommon in our sample, it was associated with low levels of empathy. This finding and our observation of lower empathy levels in rural settings require further investigation