Empowerment in the Public Sector: Testing the Influence of Goal Orientation

Empowerment has emerged as an important new issue in the public sector organization setting in the wake of mainstream new public management (NPM). Nevertheless, few studies in this frame have combined structural (managerial) and psychological (individual) approaches in an integrative study of empowerment. There is also a need to examine the moderating variables involved in this relationship, as well as to extend research on work motivation in public management. This study explores the effect of structural empowerment on psychological empowerment, and it also draws on goal orientation (GO) theory to examine the moderating role of employees’ GO in this link. The model is tested on a sample of 521 Spanish local authority employees. The results do not confirm the direct link between structural and psychological empowerment, but show that learning GO has considerable moderating power in this relationship, and its interaction with structural empowerment affects employees’ psychological empowerment levels

Brainiac Caspases: Beyond the Wall of Apoptosis

For the last two decades, caspases, a family of cysteine-aspartic proteases, have evolved from being considered solely as regulators of apoptosis or inflammation to having a wider range of functions. In this mini review, we focus on the most recent "non-apoptotic" roles of caspases in the CNS, particularly in neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Non-apoptotic caspase functions in microglia have already been reviewed extensively elsewhere. Here we discuss the involvement of caspases in the activation of the inflammasome, autophagy, and non-apoptotic forms of cell death such as necroptosis and pyroptosis. Also, we review the involvement of caspases in synapses and the processing of aggregates key to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. Likewise, we mention the recently described involvement of caspases in mitochondrial biogenesis, which is a function independent of the enzymatic activity. We conclude discussing the relevance that "new" functions of caspases have in the CNS and the future of this field of researchEspaña Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SAF2015-64171- R (MINECO/FEDER, EU)España Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Programa Ramón y Cajal: RYC-2017-21804

Histone Mutants Separate R Loop Formation from Genome Instability Induction

R loops have positive physiological roles, but they can also be deleterious by causing genome instability, and the mechanisms for this are unknown. Here we identified yeast histone H3 and H4 mutations that facilitate R loops but do not cause instability. R loops containing single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), versus RNA-DNA hybrids alone, were demonstrated using ssDNA-specific human AID and bisulfite. Notably, they are similar size regardless of whether or not they induce genome instability. Contrary to mutants causing R loop-mediated instability, these histone mutants do not accumulate H3 serine-10 phosphate (H3S10-P). We propose a two-step mechanism in which, first, an altered chromatin facilitates R loops, and second, chromatin is modified, including H3S10-P, as a requisite for compromising genome integrity. Consistently, these histone mutations suppress the high H3S10 phosphorylation and genomic instability of hpr1 and sen1 mutants. Therefore, contrary to what was previously believed, R loops do not cause genome instability by themselves.European Research Council ERC2014 AdG669898Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2013-42918-P, BFU2016-75058-

Mean Achievable Rates in Clustered Coordinated Base Station Transmission with Block Diagonalization

We focus on the mean achievable rate per user of the coordinated base station downlink transmission in a clustered cellular environment, with transmit power constraints at the base stations. Block Diagonalization is employed within the cluster to remove interference among users while the interference from other clusters remains. The average achievable rate per user is evaluated considering the effects of the propagation channel and the interference and a theoretical framework is presented to provide its analytical expression, validated by simulation results with different power allocation schemes. As an application, the number of cells of the cluster that maximizes the mean achievable rate per user is investigated. It can be seen that in most of the cases a reduced cluster size, close to seven cells, guarantees a rate very close to the maximum achievableThis work is partly funded by projects "GRE3N": TEC2011-29006-C03-03 and "COMONSENS": CSD2008-00010En-prens

Partial coordination in clustered base station MIMO transmission

This proceeding at: IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC, 2013), took place 2013, April, 7-10, in Shaghai (China)We present partial coordination strategies in a clustered cellular environment, evaluating the achievable rate in the downlink transmission. Block Diagonalization is employed for the coordinated users within the cluster to remove interference, while the interference from non-coordinated users remains. The achievable rate is evaluated resorting to an analytical expression conditioned on the position of the users in the cluster. A partial coordination approach is proposed to reduce the coordination complexity and overhead, where users close to the base station are not coordinated. Two approaches are considered, namely the non-coordinated users can be grouped and assigned separated resources from the coordinated ones, or they can be mixed.This work was supported by projects CSD2008-00010 “COMONSENS” and TEC2011-29006-C03-03 “GRE3N”

Achievable rate and fairness in coordinated base station transmission

This work focuses on the fairness in the distribution of the achievable rate per user in a cellular environment where clusters of base stations coordinate their transmissions in the downlink. Block Diagonalization is employed within the cluster to remove interference among users while the interference coming from other clusters remains. The probability distribution of the achievable rate per user shows a perfect match with a Gamma distribution so that a characterization in terms of mean and variance can provide a useful tool for the design of the clusters and the implementation of fairness strategies in a coordinated base station network with Block Diagonalization.This work is partly funded by the projects “GRE3N”: TEC2011-29006- C03-03, and “COMONSENS”: CSD2008-00010.Publicad

Mujer, salud y medio ambiente

Las diferencias de salud entre las mujeres y hombres han sido estudiadas en abundantes estudios, principalmente epidemiológicos, existiendo numerosas evidencias empíricas que demostrarían que las mujeres sufren, con mayor prevalencia que los hombres, ciertas enfermedades, acuden más veces a las consultas médicas y consumen más especialidades farmacéuticas que los hombres. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar cómo la salud de las mujeres se ve influida por las condiciones medioambientales. Se trataría de estudiar la posible presencia de una conexión entre el entorno medioambiental y la salud de las mujeres y comprobar si existe una construcción social de género en relación con la salud y la enfermedad.______________________________The differences in health between women and men have been analyzed in several studies (mainly epidemiological studies) which offer enough empirical evidence to demonstrate that women sufferfrom certain illnesses much more than men, go and see the doctor more often than men, and consume more medicines than men. The aim of the article is to analyze how women's health is influenced by environmental conditions. On the one hand, the article aims at studying the possible existence of a link between the environmental surroundings and women's health. On the other hand, it aims at finding out if there exists a social construction of gender in relation to health and illness

Bitloaded modified enhanced subcarrier index modulation OFDM for visible light communications

Proceeding of: 2nd International Conference on Wireless Communication Systems and Networks (MIC-Wireless 2015), Barcelona, August 7th-9th 2015This paper investigates the use of bit loading al- gorithms in order to use ESIM OFDM in frequency selective channels. This work focuses on maximizing the bit rate minimiz- ing the loss of spectral efficiency because of the insertion of idle subcarriers. Besides, the modified ESIM OFDM is generalized to support groups of subcarriers of arbitrary size based on the number of idle subcarriers. The effect of this generalization, as well as the new bit distribution after using bit loading, on the peak to average power ratio (PAPR) and the bit error rate (BER) are analyzed. Additionally a novel way to evaluate the BER in such a system is proposed. The proposed scheme is shown to outperform the original ESIM OFDM performance in terms of PAPR, at the cost of a small degradation of the BER. This improvement in the PAPR makes the proposed scheme a good candidate for Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) systems, andThis work has been partly funded by project TEC2014-59255-C3-3-R (ELISA

Fair Data: History and Present Context

In this paper, we discuss FAIR Data, why it exists, and who it applies to. We further review the principles of FAIR data and how they are managed in research centers. We also discuss the types of problems that researchers encounter, and what an information professional can do to assist them. At present, the vast majority of centers subscribe to the FAIR principles. However, both center and researcher face the arduous task of understanding, managing, and implementing the model. They must know data formats and standards. For a correct description and to facilitate data retrieval and interoperability, they must know about different types of metadata schemas. They must know about digital preservation and specific aspects of knowledge and information management. In addition, there are also ethical issues, intellectual property, and cultural differences. All these controversies translate into extra workload for researchers, who only get a return in the form of citations. It is critical to note that these information professionals can play a key role in the proper management of research data, and can help achieve the objectives described in the principles: making data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable

“MORBI-MORTALIDAD EN PACIENTES DEL SERVICIO DE NEONATOLOGÍA DEL HOSPITAL PARA EL NIÑO, IMIEM, DE ENERO 2006 A DICIEMBRE 2010”

INTRODUCCIÓN La morbilidad y mortalidad perinatal representa uno de los principales indicadores del desarrollo socio-cultural y del nivel de salud de un país, es un parámetro para medir la efectividad y calidad de los sistemas de salud y la calidad de vida de una población, y de esta manera plantear estrategias con la finalidad de mejorarla. OBJETIVO GENERAL 1. Determinar la tasa de morbilidad y mortalidad en los recién nacidos hospitalizados en el Servicio de Neonatología, en el Hospital para el Niño, IMIEM, de enero 2006 a diciembre 2010, con la finalidad de conocer las patologías mas frecuentes y realizar propuestas para brindar una mejor atención medica, tomar las medidas necesarias y disminuir la mortalidad en los recién nacidos ingresados en este servicio. OBJETIVOS ESPECÍFICOS 1. Describir las 10 principales causas de ingreso al servicio de Neonatología. 2. Conocer el género de los recién nacidos hospitalizados en el Servicio de Neonatología. MATERIAL Y MÉTODO Se revisaron todos los expedientes de los recién nacidos hospitalizados en el Servicio de Neonatología del Hospital para el Niño, IMIEM, durante enero 2006 a diciembre del 2010. RESULTADOS Durante los cinco años estudiados encontramos que las principales causas de morbilidad son la hiperbilirrubinemia, en primer lugar, continuando en frecuencia sepsis y neumonía, presentándose con mayor frecuencia en el género masculino y que las principales causas de mortalidad son sepsis, choque séptico y SDR, siendo la mortalidad más frecuente en el género masculino. CONCLUSIONES El presente estudio, nos aporta información acerca de la morbilidad y mortalidad en el Servicio de Neonatología del Hospital para el Niño, IMIEM, ya que el conocimiento oportuno del comportamiento epidemiológico de la morbilidad y mortalidad neonatal es de vital importancia, debido a que esto nos permite estar más preparados para brindar una mejor atención tanto en el diagnóstico como en el manejo terapéutico, y de tal forma disminuir los costos hospitalarios, obteniendo una mayor sobrevida y menos morbilidad. Así mismo de disminuir el número de pacientes con secuelas que pueden ser incapacitantes en diverso grado afectando al núcleo familiar y a nuestra sociedad. Concluyendo que con el conocimiento de los mismos, podemos prevenir y disminuir en la manera de lo posible los factores de riesgo en los paciente hospitalizados, implementando medidas de prevención y control que aseguren la identificación de factores de riesgo, mejorando la capacitación continua del personal medico y de enfermería, reforzando los programas de detección oportuna de pacientes de alto riesgo, fortaleciendo las medidas hospitalarias para prevenir las infecciones nosocomiales, con el fin de abatir la incidencia de morbilidad-mortalidad neonatal