Fired and pregnant: gender differences in job flexibility outcomes after job loss

We study whether women and men cope with job loss differently, focusing on the importance of workers’ job flexibility and household setting. Our empirical analysis is based on Dutch administrative monthly micro data over the period 2006-2017 using a quasi-experimental design involving job loss following firm bankruptcy. We find for displaced women, but not for displaced men, a persistence in job flexibilities involving limited working hours and short commutes. Importantly, job loss results in a smaller loss in hourly wages and longer unemployment for women, narrowing the gender wage gap but widening the gender employment gap. Also, we show that female workers who are pregnant when job loss occurs experience large losses in employment and conditional on re-employment take up a flexible job. Policy advice is to put a safety net in place to protect pregnant women against the long-term consequences of job loss

Solvates, salts, and cocrystals : a proposal for a feasible classification system

The design of pharmaceutical cocrystals has initiated widespread debate on the classification of cocrystals. Current attempts to classify multicomponent crystals suffer from ambiguity, which has led to inconsistent definitions for cocrystals and for multicomponent crystals in general. Inspired by the work of Aitipamula et al. (Cryst. Growth Des. 2012, 12, 2147-2152), we present a feasible classification system for all multicomponent crystals. The present classification enables us to analyze and classify multicomponent crystal structures present in the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). This reveals that all seven classes proposed are relevant in terms of frequency of occurrence. Lists of CSD refcodes for all classes are provided. We identified over 5000 cocrystals in the CSD, as well as over 12 000 crystals with more than two components. This illustrates that the possibilities for alternative drug formulations can be increased significantly by considering more than two components in drug design

FES-project Detectie Phytophthora met behulp van padlock probes en micro-array

De laatste jaren heeft de ontwikkeling van (moleculaire) detectiemethoden van planten-pathogenen een hoge vlucht genomen en inmiddels vinden deze methoden hun weg naar toepassing in de praktij

Crystal structure prediction of organic pigments: quinacridone as an example

The structures of the α, β and γ polymorphs of quinacridone were predicted using Polymorph Predictor software in combination with X-ray powder diffraction patterns of limited quality. The present work demonstrates a method to obtain crystal structures of industrially important pigments when only a low-quality powder pattern is available

Taxonomie van plant-pathogene schimmels als basis voor identificatie en detectie: resultaten van het Uitvoeringsconsortium Schimmels

Plant-pathogene schimmels worden traditioneel geïdentificeerd op basis van morfologische karakteristieken. Dit is over het algemeen tijdrovend, veel expertise en leidt vaak tot misidentificatie. Het doel van het werk uitgevoerd door het Uitvoeringsconsortium Schimmels was dan ook gericht op de verbetering van detectie- en identificatietechnieken van plant pathogene schimmels met de nadruk op quarantaineorganismen. Op grond van het economische, wetenschappelijke, en ecologische belang, de aanwezigheid van Q-organismen, en de wetenschappelijke startpositie binnen Nederland is in eerste instantie de keuze gevallen op de geslachten Colletotrichum, Phoma, en Phytophthora. De gegenereerde dat zijn opgenomen in de Q-bank

Screening approach for identifying cocrystal types and resolution opportunities in complex chiral multicomponent systems

Cocrystallization of racemic-compound-forming chiral molecules can result in conglomerate cocrystals or diastereomerically related cocrystals, which enable the application of chiral separation techniques such as preferential crystallization and classic resolution. Here, a systematic method to identify the types and phase diagrams of cocrystals formed by chiral target compounds and candidate coformers in a particular solvent system is presented, which allows the design of suitable chiral resolution processes. The method is based on saturation temperature measurements of specific solution compositions containing both enantiomers of chiral molecules and a coformer. This method is applied to analyze three different systems. For racemic phenylalanine (Phe) in water/ethanol mixtures one of the enantiomers selectively cocrystallizes with the opposite enantiomer of valine (Val), forming the more stable diastereomerically related cocrystal. The racemic compound ibuprofen crystallizes with the nonchiral coformer 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane (BPN) as racemic compound cocrystals. More interestingly, when it is combined with trans-1-(2-pyridyl)-2-(4-pyridyl)ethylene (BPE), the racemic compound ibuprofen cocrystallizes as a conglomerate, which in principle enables the application of preferential crystallization of this racemic compound. The systematic method shows the benefit of using pseudo-binary phase diagrams. Such pseudo-binary phase diagrams depict the saturation temperature on a very specific route through the quaternary phase diagram, allowing the identification of various cocrystal types as well as the corresponding cocrystallization conditions. The systematic method can be used to identify a suitable solid phase for chiral separation, and the obtained phase diagram information enables the performance of a crystallization-mediated chiral resolution process design. Such a guideline for a chiral resolution process design has never been reported for conglomerate cocrystal systems such as IBU:BPE, presented in this study

Towards continuous deracemization via racemic crystal transformation monitored by in-situ Raman spectroscopy

In this work, we demonstrate a semi-batch solid-state deracemization process for N-(2- chlorobenzylidene)-phenylglycine amide (NCPA), a complex chiral polymorphic system that involves three types of crystalline racemates (racemic compound and conglomerate forms I and II). In this process, gradually fed metastable racemic compound crystals are converted in situ to crystals of the preferred (seeded) enantiomer under grinding conditions through a series of solvent- mediated transformations in a racemizing solution. The phase diagram for this system shows that while conglomerate form II is stable at the conditions examined (acetonitrile at 21°C), form I crystals of a single enantiomer (used as seeds) are unstable at (nearly) racemic compositions and convert to the racemic compound upon addition of the racemization catalyst. Thus, care needs to be exercised in order to fully convert form I to form II before addition of the racemization catalyst in order to prevent the undesired crystallization of the racemic compound. This can be achieved by adding a small amount of water, which is found to enhance the nucleation and growth kinetics of the most stable conglomerate form II, eventually leading to complete deracemization. Importantly, we show that this special deracemization process can be easily monitored online by Raman spectroscopy, which gives access to the evolution of the solid phase composition. For the studied system, this information can in turn be used to directly estimate the solid-phase enantiomeric excess online throughout the process, as long as conglomerate crystals of the counter enantiomer do not form