No extension without representation? Evidence from a natural experiment in collective bargaining

In many countries, collective bargaining coverage is enhanced by government-issued extensions that widen the reach of collective agreements beyond their signatory parties to all firms and workers in the sector. This paper analyzes the causal impact of extensions using a natural experiment in Portugal that resulted in a sharp and unanticipated decline in the extension probability of agreements. Our results, based on a regression discontinuity design, indicate that extensions had a negative impact on employment growth. This effect is concentrated among nonaffiliated firms, which may reflect the limited representativeness of employer associations

Neutrophil apoptosis, phagocytosis and oxidative metabolism in septic patients

Sepse denota a continuidade de um processo de injuria tecidual onde a disfuncao organica multipla representa sua expressao mais grave. Trata-se de uma condicao patologica associada a altas taxas de mortalidade. Diferentes linhagens celulares estao relacionadas a sua fisiopatogenia. Neutrofilos, por exemplo, sao as primeiras celulas da linha de defesa a migrarem para os sitios de inflamacao e/ou infeccao. Suas funcoes primarias incluem fagocitose de bacterias, elaboracao de enzimas oxidativas e nao oxidativas de degradacao, e formacao de fatores quimiotaticos para recrutar outras celulas inflamatorias. O objetivo desse estudo foi avaliar os efeitos da sepse grave e do choque septico na apoptose e na funcao de neutrofilos, sendo esta analisada pela capacidade fagocitica e pelo metabolismo oxidativo. Para tanto, foram incluidos 10 pacientes com quadro clinico e laboratorial de sepse grave ou choque septico com menos de 48 horas de evolucao, classificados de acordo com as definicoes do consenso de 1992 do American College of Chest Physicians / Society of Critical Care Medicine Consensus Conference, internados em Unidade de Terapia Intensiva do Hospital São Paulo, e 10 individuos sadios, maiores de 18 anos, que nao se encontravam em uso de nenhum medicamento, considerados controles. De cada paciente ou voluntario sadio foram coletadas amostras de 10 ml de sangue arterial ou venoso periferico em tubos estereis com 100 U de heparina para realizacao dos ensaios de apoptose, fagocitose e metabolismo oxidativo, utilizando citometria de fluxo...(au)BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertaçõe

Antiophidian properties of plant extracts against Lachesis muta venom

Snakebites comprise a serious health problem in several countries due to their global incidence, which exceeds 2.5 million per year, and the elevated number of victim fatalities. To counteract envenomations, antivenoms have been used regularly for more than a century. Apart from side effects including anaphylactic reactions, antivenoms are not able to efficiently neutralize local tissue damage, which contributes to increasing the severity and morbidity observed in patients. This fact, in turn, may be responsible for economic hardship, particularly in rural populations of developing countries. In the present work, we evaluated the antiophidian properties of 12 Brazilian plant extracts against the hemolytic, coagulant, hemorrhagic and proteolytic effects of Lachesis muta venom. Taken together, our data revealed that most of these aqueous products were capable of inhibiting those activities at different levels, except for Sapindus saponaria extract. In contrast, Stryphnodendron barbatiman extract completely neutralized all the analyzed biological activities. Thus, we may conclude that Brazilian flora may also be useful against L. muta accidents.(FAPERJ) Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de JaneiroFAPESPCNPqCoordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES)International Foundation for Science (IFS, Sweden

The Barca Way

Magazine article

Are there asymmetries in the effects of training on the conditional male wage distribution?

Recent studies have used quantile regression (QR) techniques to estimate the impact of education on the location, scale and shape of the conditional wage distribution. In our paper we investigate the degree to which work-related training – another important form of human capital – affects the location, scale and shape of the conditional wage distribution. Using the first six waves of the European Community Household Panel, we utilise both ordinary least squares and QR techniques to estimate associations between work-related training and wages for private sector men in ten European Union countries. Our results show that, for the majority of countries, there is a fairly uniform association between training and hourly wages across the conditional wage distribution. However, there are considerable differences across countries in mean associations between training and wages