57 research outputs found
Credit shocks and the European Labour market
Más de cinco años después del inicio de la crisis de la deuda soberana en Europa, su impacto sobre las variables del mercado laboral no está claro. El objetivo de este documento es contribuir a llenar este vacío. Utilizamos datos cualitativos a escala de empresa para 24 países europeos, recopilados en la Wage Dynamics Network (WDN) del SEBC. Primero, construimos un conjunto de índices que miden las dificultades para acceder al mercado crediticio en los 24 países para el período 2010-2013. En segundo lugar, describimos la relación entre las dificultades crediticias y los ajustes en las variables laborales tanto en el margen extensivo como intensivo del empleo, así como en los salarios. Encontramos una correlación fuerte y significativa entre las dificultades crediticias y los ajustes a lo largo del margen extensivo y del margen intensivo. En cuanto a los salarios, en presencia de dificultades del mercado de crédito, las empresas reducen el componente variable de los salariosMore than five years after the start of the Sovereign debt crisis in Europe, its impact on labour market outcomes is not clear. This paper aims to fill this gap. We use qualitative firm-level data for 24 European countries, collected within the Wage Dynamics Network (WDN) of the ESCB. We first derive a set of indices measuring difficulties in accessing the credit market for the period 2010-13. Second, we provide a description of the relationship between credit difficulties and changes in labour input both along the extensive and the intensive margins as well as on wages. We find strong and significant correlation between credit difficulties and adjustments along both the extensive and the intensive margin. In the presence of credit market diffi culties, firms cut wages by reducing the variable part of wages. This evidence suggests that credit shocks can affect not only the real economy, but also nominal variable
Where Are You Going, Nephrology? Considerations on Models of Care in an Evolving Discipline
Nephrology is a complex discipline, including care of kidney disease, dialysis, and transplantation. While in Europe, about 1:10 individuals is affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD), 1:1000 lives thanks to dialysis or transplantation, whose costs are as high as 2% of all the health care budget. Nephrology has important links with surgery, bioethics, cardiovascular and internal medicine, and is, not surprisingly, in a delicate balance between specialization and comprehensiveness, development and consolidation, cost constraints, and competition with internal medicine and other specialties. This paper proposes an interpretation of the different systems of nephrology care summarising the present choices into three not mutually exclusive main models (“scientific”, “pragmatic”, “holistic”, or “comprehensive”), and hypothesizing an “ideal-utopic” prevention-based fourth one. The so-called scientific model is built around kidney transplantation and care of glomerulonephritis and immunologic diseases, which probably pose the most important challenges in our discipline, but do not mirror the most common clinical problems. Conversely, the pragmatic one is built around dialysis (the most expensive and frequent mode of renal replacement therapy) and pre-dialysis treatment, focusing attention on the most common diseases, the holistic, or comprehensive, model comprehends both, and is integrated by several subspecialties, such as
interventional nephrology, obstetric nephrology, and the ideal-utopic one is based upon prevention, and early care of common diseases. Each model has strength and weakness, which are commented to enhance discussion on the crucial issue of the philosophy of care behind its practical organization. Increased reflection and research on models of nephrology care is urgently needed if we wish to rise to the challenge of providing earlier and better care for older and more complex kidney patients with acute and chronic kidney diseases, with reduced budgets
BYKdb: the Bacterial protein tYrosine Kinase database
Bacterial tyrosine-kinases share no resemblance with their eukaryotic counterparts and they have been unified in a new protein family named BY-kinases. These enzymes have been shown to control several biological functions in the bacterial cells. In recent years biochemical studies, sequence analyses and structure resolutions allowed the deciphering of a common signature. However, BY-kinase sequence annotations in primary databases remain incomplete. This prompted us to develop a specialized database of computer-annotated BY-kinase sequences: the Bacterial protein tyrosine-kinase database (BYKdb). BY-kinase sequences are first identified, thanks to a workflow developed in a previous work. A second workflow annotates the UniProtKB entries in order to provide the BYKdb entries. The database can be accessed through a web interface that allows static and dynamic queries and offers integrated sequence analysis tools. BYKdb can be found at http://bykdb.ibcp.fr
Comparaison analytique des eaux-de-vie d'armagnac obtenues par distillation continue et double chauffe
Cette note présente les résultats des expériences suivantes :
• La comparaison des eaux-de-vie obtenues à partir d'un même vin distillé sur quatre types d'alambics;
• L'analyse d'une eau-de-vie obtenue par double distillation d'un vin différent;
• L'analyse sur les brouillis issus de la première chauffe des deux vins.
Elle donne également la moyenne des valeurs obtenues pour 28 eaux-de-vie distillées selon la méthode armagnacaise ainsi que l'écart type de variation
Dialysis Reimbursement: What Impact Do Different Models Have on Clinical Choices?
Allowing patients to live for decades without the function of a vital organ is a medical miracle, but one that is not without cost both in terms of morbidity and quality of life and in economic terms. Renal replacement therapy (RRT) consumes between 2% and 5% of the overall health care expenditure in countries where dialysis is available without restrictions. While transplantation is the preferred treatment in patients without contraindications, old age and comorbidity limit its indications, and low organ availability may result in long waiting times. As a consequence, 30-70% of the patients depend on dialysis, which remains the main determinant of the cost of RRT. Costs of dialysis are differently defined, and its reimbursement follows different rules. There are three main ways of establishing dialysis reimbursement. The first involves dividing dialysis into a series of elements and reimbursing each one separately (dialysis itself, medications, drugs, transportation, hospitalisation, etc.). The second, known as the capitation system, consists of merging these elements in a per capita reimbursement, while the third, usually called the bundle system, entails identifying a core of procedures intrinsically linked to treatment (e.g., dialysis sessions, tests, intradialyitc drugs). Each one has advantages and drawbacks, and impacts differently on the organization and delivery of care: payment per session may favour fragmentation and make a global appraisal difficult; a correct capitation system needs a careful correction for comorbidity, and may exacerbate competition between public and private settings, the latter aiming at selecting the least complex cases; a bundle system, in which the main elements linked to the dialysis sessions are considered together, may be a good compromise but risks penalising complex patients, and requires a rapid adaptation to treatment changes. Retarding dialysis is a clinical and economical goal, but the incentives for predialysis care are not established and its development may be unfavourable for the provider. A closer cooperation between policymakers, economists and nephrologists is needed to ensure a high quality of dialysis care
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