WP 55 - Part-time employment: A comparative analysis of Spain and the Netherlands

Most industrialized countries have seen part-time employment as a percentage of total employment increase in the last decade. This paper presents the results of a comparative study of part-time employment in Spain and the Netherlands. The project comprised a legal comparative study of the effectiveness of the normative solutions provided by the Dutch and Spanish legal orders regarding the protection of part-time workers and the promotion of part-time employment, with special attention paid to the gender dimension of part-time work in both countries; and an analysis, based on data extracted from the European Community Household Panel (1995-2001), of the determinants of part-time employment in both countries and an examination of the extent to which part-time jobs are used as stepping-stones to full-time positions. We found significant country differences regarding females’ decisions to take part-time jobs. We also found that, in general, Dutch females are not less likely than their male counterparts to increase the number of hours they work. However, this applies only to those females who are part of a couple or have children younger than 12 years. In Spain, females are 2.6 times less likely than their male counterparts to switch from a part-time to a full-time job. JEL classification: J22, J71, K31, K33Part-time employment, discrimination, gender differences, multinomial logit

The socioeconomic gradient in health: The role of intra-household resource allocation

This paper aims to analyse the impact of different household financial regimes on the health status of males and females in a number of European countries. Using the EU-SILC 2010 on intra-household sharing of resources, we find that each member of the couple is worse off if his/her partner has most decision-making responsibilities. Additionally, the presence of children in the household plays a role in the effect that household financial regimens exert on individual self-assessed health, especially among females. We conclude that family arrangements regarding resource allocation and decision-making have important consequences and should be given some attention in the task of identifying individuals predisposed to health problems.Universidad de Málaga Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. ECO2012-33993,and ECO2015-63734-P (MINECO/FEDER) and the Fundación Ramón Areces (Research Project: Determinants of social exclusion and recommendations for combating it

Interference-free determination of Ca in ultrapure water, concentrated acids and hydrogen peroxide using isotope dilution, ICP-MS and CH3F as a reaction gas

An analytical method was developed for Ca determination in ultrapure water, concentrated acids and hydrogen peroxide by ICP-MS, using CH3F as reaction gas in the dynamic reaction cell (DRC) and isotopic dilution (ID) as strategy of calibration for improve the accuracy and allow interference- free Ca determination

A CONICAL SPOUTED BED REACTOR FOR THE VALORISATION OF WASTE TIRES

A pilot plant provided with a conical spouted bed reactor has been used for the valorisation of waste tires by thermal pyrolysis in continuous mode. The effect of pyrolysis temperature on product distribution and properties has been studied in the temperature range from 425 to 600 ºC. This variable has proven to have an important effect on product distribution. Thus, pyrolysis oil yield was reduced from 64.3 wt% at 425 ºC to 55.9 wt% at 600 ºC. However, the quality of carbon black was improved operating at high temperatures (increasing BET surface area values). High yields of certain interesting chemicals have been obtained in the liquid fraction, such as limonene (19.3 wt%), isoprene (5.7 wt%) and styrene (6.1 wt%)

A new genus and species of Entomobryidae (Collembola, Entomobryomorpha) from the Iberian peninsula

A new genus and species, Hispanobrya barrancoi Jordana and Baquero, gen. n., sp. n. is described. It was found in the Gador Mountain range (Almer a, Spain). This genus is similar to Capbrya Barra, 1999, from South Africa. The distinguishing characteristics of the new genus are the presence of a post-antennal organ (PAO), no clear tenent hair, a characteristic unguis, the presence of a reduced trochanteral organ, and flattened body setae. The distribution of the bothriotricha is similar to that of the genus Capbrya

Secco painting technique revealed in non-restored Pompeian murals by analytical and imaging techniques

The fresco technique appears to have been widely used on Roman mural paintings. The close observation of many of such murals suggests, however, the application of a secco technique over the fresco background. In this work, for the first time, fragments from Pompeian mural paintings that had never been restored have been investigated by optical microscopy, reflectance transformation imaging, micro-Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence, micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, and Direct Temperature-resolved Mass Spectrometry. A small number of fragments from restored paintings from the same Archaeological Park was also analyzed by the same techniques for the sake of comparison. The results of this multi-analytical approach that involves - for the first time on this type of samples - scientific photographic investigation, point out to the use of a protein- based medium, most probably egg, to execute the secco layers. On the other hand, wax was ubiquitous in samples taken from restored mural paintings. This last evidence further highlights the importance of selecting appropriate candidates for the study of original organic binders.Silvia Pérez-Diez: “la Caixa” Foundation-Fellowship code LCF/BQ/ES18/11670017 Francesco Caruso: Maria Zambrano fellowship from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/ EHU), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. Project DEMESOS (PES21/85), UPV/EH

Influence of the van der Waals interaction in the dissociation dynamics of N2 on W(110) from first principles

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Using ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) calculations, we investigate the role of the van der Waals (vdW) interaction in the dissociative adsorption of N2 on W(110). Hitherto, existing classical dynamics calculations performed on six-dimensional potential energy surfaces based on density functional theory (DFT), and the semi-local PW91 and RPBE [Hammer et al. Phys. Rev. B 59, 7413 (1999)] exchange-correlation functionals were unable to fully describe the dependence of the initial sticking coefficient on the molecular beam incidence conditions as found in experiments. N2 dissociation on W(110) was shown to be very sensitive not only to short molecule-surface distances but also to large distances where the vdW interaction, not included in semilocal-DFT, should dominate. In this work, we perform a systematic study on the dissociative adsorption using a selection of existing non-local functionals that include the vdW interaction (vdW-functionals). Clearly, the inclusion of the non-local correlation term contributes in all cases to correct the unrealistic energy barriers that were identified in the RPBE at large molecule-surface distances. Among the tested vdW-functionals, the original vdW-DF by Dion et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 246401 (2004)] and the ulterior vdW-DF2 give also an adequate description of the N2 adsorption energy and energy barrier at the transition state, i.e., of the properties that are commonly used to verify the quality of any exchange-correlation functional. However, the results of our AIMD calculations, which are performed at different incidence conditions and hence extensively probe the multi-configurational potential energy surface of the system, do not seem as satisfactory as the preliminary static analysis suggested. When comparing the obtained dissociation probabilities with existing experimental data, none of the used vdW-functionals seems to provide altogether an adequate description of the N2/W(110) interaction at short and large distances.The authors acknowledge financial support by the Gobierno Vasco-UPV/EHU project IT756-13 and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Grant No. FIS2013-48286-C02-02-P).Peer Reviewe

Dynamical reorganization of the pluripotency transcription factors Oct4 and Sox2 during early differentiation of embryonic stem cells

Pluripotency maintenance requires transcription factors (TFs) that induce genes necessary to preserve the undifferentiated state and repress others involved in differentiation. Recent observations support that the heterogeneous distribution of TFs in the nucleus impacts on gene expression. Thus, it is essential to explore how TFs dynamically organize to fully understand their role in transcription regulation. Here, we examine the distribution of pluripotency TFs Oct4 and Sox2 in the nucleus of embryonic stem (ES) cells and inquire whether their organization changes during early differentiation stages preceding their downregulation. Using ES cells expressing Oct4-YPet or Sox2-YPet, we show that Oct4 and Sox2 partition between nucleoplasm and a few chromatin-dense foci which restructure after inducing differentiation by 2i/LIF withdrawal. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy showed distinct changes in Oct4 and Sox2 dynamics after differentiation induction. Specifically, we detected an impairment of Oct4-chromatin interactions whereas Sox2 only showed slight variations in its short-lived, and probably more unspecific, interactions with chromatin. Our results reveal that differentiation cues trigger early changes of Oct4 and Sox2 nuclear distributions that also include modifications in TF-chromatin interactions. This dynamical reorganization precedes Oct4 and Sox2 downregulation and may contribute to modulate their function at early differentiation stages.Fil: Verneri, Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez Echegaray, Camila. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Oses Oliveto, Camila Maite. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Stortz, Martin Dario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Guberman, Alejandra Sonia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Levi, Valeria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química Biológica de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentin

A new genus and species of Collembola from caves of south Iberian Peninsula (Collembola, Poduromorpha, Onychiuridae)

A new genus and species of Onychiuridae (Collembola, Poduromorpha) from caves in the south of the Iberian Peninsula is described. The usual dichotomous keys would locate this species somewhere between the genera Protaphorura Absolon and Heteronychiurus Bagnall. The new genus has four rows of setae on abdominal tergite VI, rudimentary furca as a cuticular fold and an anterior granulated area, 2+2 dorsal pseudocelli on the posterior part of the head, 1+1 dorsal pseudocelli on thoracic tergite I, 2+2 dorsal pseudocelli on abdominal tergite V, 1+1 pseudopores in each thoracic sternite, and the microsensillum on the basal part of the apical third of the antennal segment IV

Photoperiod sensitivity affects flowering duration in wheat

Flowering and successful pollination in wheat are key determinants of both quantity and quality of grain. Bread wheat line ‘Paragon’, introgressed with single or multiple day length insensitivity alleles was used to dissect the effects on the timing and duration of flowering within a hierarchical plant architecture. Flowering of wheat plants was observed in a series of pot-based and field experiments. Ppd-D1a was the most potent known allele affecting the timing of flowering, requiring the least thermal time to flowering across all experiments. The duration of flowering for individual lines was dominated by the shift in the start of flowering in later tillers and the number of tillers per plant, rather than variation in flowering duration of individual spikes. There was a strong relationship between flowering duration and the start of flowering with the earliest lines flowering for the longest. The greatest flowering overlap between tillers was recorded for the Ppd-1b. Across all lines, a warmer environment significantly reduced the duration of flowering and the influence of Ppd-1a alleles on the start of flowering. These findings provide evidence of pleiotropic effects of the Ppd-1a alleles, and have direct implications for breeding for increased stress resilient wheat varieties