Social Mobility in Latin America: A Review of Existing Evidence

This paper reviews evidence on social mobility in Latin America. Several studies have used data sets that collect intergenerational socio economic information. The data, though limited, suggest that social mobility is low in the region, even when compared with low social mobility developed countries like the United States and United Kingdom, with high levels of immobility at the lower and upper tails of the income distribution. While Latin America has improved education mobility in recent decades, which may have translated into higher mobility for younger cohorts, the region still presents, except for Chile, lower education mobility than in developed countries. The paper also reviews studies on the main determinants of the region's low levels of social mobility, including social exclusion, low access to higher education, and labor market discrimination

Review of tropospheric temperature, absolute humidity and integrated water vapour from the HAMSTRAD radiometer installed at Dome C, Antarctica, 2009-14

The HAMSTRAD (H2O Antarctica Microwave Stratospheric and Tropospheric Radiometers) instrument is a microwave radiometer installed at Dome C (Antarctica, 75\ub006'S, 123\ub021'E, 3233 m a.m.s.l.) dedicated to the tropospheric measurements of temperature, absolute humidity and integrated water vapour (IWV). The aim of the present paper is to review the entire HAMSTRAD dataset from 2009 to 2014 with a 7-minute integration time from 0 to 10 km by comparison with coincident radiosondes launched at 12h00 UTC at Dome C. Based upon an extensive evaluation of biases and time correlation coefficients (r), we can state: i) IWV is of excellent quality (r>0.98) and can be used without retrieving significant bias, ii) temperature is suitable for scientific analyses over 0-10 km with a high time correlation with radiosondes (r>0.80) and iii) absolute humidity is suitable for scientific analyses over 0-4 km with a moderate time correlation against radiosondes (r>0.70). The vertical distribution of temperature (0-10 km) and absolute humidity (0-4 km) is subject to biases that need to be removed if the analyses require the use of vertical profiling. The HAMSTRAD dataset is provided in open access to the scientific community

Protección social para la equidad y el crecimiento

Protección social para la equidad y el crecimiento ofrece recomendaciones de política para disminuir la vulnerabilidad económica de los pobres a los shocks y ayudarlos a enfrentar la caída de sus ingresos. La protección social se refiere a las intervenciones públicas --medidas relacionadas con el mercado laboral, redes de protección social, sistemas de pensiones y fondos de calamidades, entre otras-- que puedan suavizar el impacto de estos sucesos repentinos. Tales intervenciones se dirigen a los grupos de bajos ingresos cuyas condiciones de empleo son precarias o que tienen un acceso limitado a la seguridad social y otros sistemas de seguros. Estos grupos por lo general se encuentran cerca de los niveles de subsistencia y carecen de poder político o económico para presionar por aquellas políticas que puedan responder a sus necesidades durante los tiempos de crisis.

The value of Tc-99m tetrofosmin in the imaging of pituitary adenomas

Aim: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) are used in the diagnosis and follow-up of pituitary adenoma cases. Sometimes, these methods cannot display the post-operative residual tissue. It has been shown that some radionuclides were taken up by the pituitary adenomas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the uptake of the technetium-99m (Tc-99m) tetrofosmin (TF) in the pituitary adenoma and normal pituitary tissue and assess the ability of Tc-99m TF to predict tumor malignancy in pituitary gland. Methods: The patients with pituitary adenoma (7 invasive and 8 non-invasive) were compared with control group (no. 13). Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging of pituitary gland was performed in both groups. Tc-99m uptake indices were evaluated statistically with the use of Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The average tetrofosmin uptake index of pituitary adenoma is 2.44 +/- 1.54 for the patients and 1.69 +/- 0.71 for the control group. Any significant difference was not observed between the groups (p 0.3). The average index was calculated as 3.04 +/- 2.15 for invasive adenomas and 1.92 +/- 0.33 for the non-invasive group, and there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding uptake of the agent (p 0.53). Furthermore, it was determined that the invasive and non-invasive adenomas displayed an uptake of Tc-99m TF similar to normal pituitary tissue. Conclusions: Since the pituitary adenoma and normal pituitary tissue gave similar results regarding Tc-99m TF uptake, it was concluded that this agent would not be useful in the diagnosis of pituitary adenoma