Household affiliation among young adult women and men in Italy and Norway: The significance of work, culture, and money

Italy and Norway are characterized by different co-residence rates of young adults with youth in Italy being more likely to live in their parents' house much longer than Norwegian youth. This paper aims at analysing the reasons of household's patterns in both countries by looking at cultural, income and employment factors allowing a gender comparisons of the different results. Particular attention is provided to the different effect of youth employment conditions on their living arrangements in the two countries. Multivariate analyses conducted on 2007 (a time where the economic prospects and the labour market situation were relatively un-dramatic in both countries) EU SILC microdata show a higher impact of income and employment condition on the living arrangements of Italian youth with a significant impact of the area where they live and dissimilarities by gender in the presence of different living arrangements and in the impact of the different factors. JEL: D1, J12, J13, J16, Z1

The Large-Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE)

The LSPE is a balloon-borne mission aimed at measuring the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at large angular scales, and in particular to constrain the curl component of CMB polarization (B-modes) produced by tensor perturbations generated during cosmic inflation, in the very early universe. Its primary target is to improve the limit on the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbations amplitudes down to r = 0.03, at 99.7% confidence. A second target is to produce wide maps of foreground polarization generated in our Galaxy by synchrotron emission and interstellar dust emission. These will be important to map Galactic magnetic fields and to study the properties of ionized gas and of diffuse interstellar dust in our Galaxy. The mission is optimized for large angular scales, with coarse angular resolution (around 1.5 degrees FWHM), and wide sky coverage (25% of the sky). The payload will fly in a circumpolar long duration balloon mission during the polar night. Using the Earth as a giant solar shield, the instrument will spin in azimuth, observing a large fraction of the northern sky. The payload will host two instruments. An array of coherent polarimeters using cryogenic HEMT amplifiers will survey the sky at 43 and 90 GHz. An array of bolometric polarimeters, using large throughput multi-mode bolometers and rotating Half Wave Plates (HWP), will survey the same sky region in three bands at 95, 145 and 245 GHz. The wide frequency coverage will allow optimal control of the polarized foregrounds, with comparable angular resolution at all frequencies.Comment: In press. Copyright 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibite

Complex Dynamics in Digital Nonlinear Oscillators: Experimental Analysis and Verification

A specific topology of Digital Nonlinear Oscillators (DNOs) has been implemented by using commercial off-the-shelf digital components to experimentally verify and demonstrate the capability of these circuits to support complex dynamics, independently from their implementation technology. In detail, a direct experimental evidence of the DNO dynamical behavior is presented at the analog level with a bifurcation diagram analysis, investigation of periodic and chaotic attractors, and dynamical stability. The autonomous circuit has been investigated as a source of entropy, adopting different figures of merit, including the Lempel–Ziv Complexity, to evaluate the dynamics measured under different operating conditions

Strategies for the Accurate Measurement of the Resonance Frequency in QCM-D Systems via Low-Cost Digital Techniques

In this paper, an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array)-based digital architecture for the measurement of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) oscillating frequency of transient responses, i.e., in QCM-D (QCM and Dissipation) applications, is presented. The measurement system is conceived for operations in liquid, with short QCM transient responses due to the large mechanical load. The proposed solution allows for avoiding the complex processing systems typically required by the QCM-D techniques and grants frequency resolutions better than 1 ppm. The core of the architecture is a reciprocal digital frequency meter, combined with the preprocessing of the QCM signal through mixing operations, such as a step-down of the input frequency and reducing the measurement error. The measurement error is further reduced through averaging. Different strategies are proposed to implement the proposed measurement solution, comprising an all-digital circuit and mixed analog/digital ones. The performance of the proposed architectures is theoretically derived, compared, and analyzed by means of experimental data obtained considering 10 MHz QCMs and 200 μs long transient responses. A frequency resolution of about 240 ppb, which corresponds to a Sauerbrey mass resolution of 8 ng/cm2, is obtained for the all-digital solution, whereas for the mixed solution the resolution halves to 120 ppb, with a measurement time of about one second over 100 repetitions

The effect of the crisis on material deprivation in Italy and Spain

The focus of this paper is on the analysis of the impact of the crisis on material deprivation in two South European countries: Italy and Spain. The countries chosen have been deeply hit by the economic downturn and the use of the available comparable microdata allows us to detect the most vulnerable collective in the crisis taking into account also gender differences. The microdata used are the Italian and Spanish Income and Living Conditions Surveys of 2007 and 2010. Our results confirm the growth of deprivation as a consequence of the economic crisis in both countries and show that women are more likely to face income poverty and deprivation

Measuring the impact of the crisis on unemployment and household income

The current economic crisis has significantly increased unemployment rates and its effect is more persistent than expected, leading to an increase in long term unemployment and inactivity. Among other effects, the experience of unemployment results in a decrease in purchasing power, a loss of human capital, a discouraging effect among the long-term unemployed and the inactive as well as wide-ranging social costs as a worsening of inequality and well-being indicators. The assessment of the costs of unemployment on individuals and households' living conditions is usually carried out using microeconomic data from household surveys that are however issued with delay. Hence, they do not allow for a prompt analysis of the impact of the economic cycle to guide policy makers. In the case of the European Income and Living Conditions Surveys (EU SILC) the data are available with a delay of at least one year and, additionally, we have to consider that the income data refers to the year before the survey (for instance, in the Italian case the last available microdata at the moment of writing this paper are from 2011). To solve this problem we carried out a microsimulation analysis using the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Surveys together with the Labour Force Survey (LFS) microdata. Therefore, we propose a methodology based on different sources of microdata that could provide the analysts and the policy makers with a more immediate analysis of the costs of unemployment. This would prove to be extremely useful in a time of high unemployment and budgetary restrictions as the one in which we find ourselves in today. The microsimulation technique developed in this paper is based on the imputation of transition probabilities and simulated income. Unlike other techniques such as the re- weighting approach, the microsimulation technique adopted here allows us to take into account the changes occurred in the composition of the unemployed. To test the validity of the proposed methodology we apply it to Italy, a European country severely hit by the crisis. We focus on the Italian economy since this country is a member of the Eurozone and its labour market has particular structural characteristics: a high degree of inflexibility in wage determination, rigidity in hiring and firing practices, very low achievement in terms of female labour-force participation and a strong duality between fixed-term and open-ended contracts. The country has an employment protection system corresponding to the Mediterranean model that is characterized by a rather low coverage of unemployment benefit moreover, the wide use of temporary contracts in hiring young workers to avoid the much higher dismissal costs of permanent contracts coupled with the deep recession, have resulted in a youth unemployment rate standing well over the European average. In Section 2 we introduce the methodology that will be used to microsimulate the effect of the crisis on income distribution and income poverty in Section 3 by relying on European surveys. In order to check its validity, we do progress with its application to Italy in Section 4. The final section will offer conclusions

Analysis of gender equality competence present in cultural positions

Articulating the gender dimension in organizations is not easy because their members have to be trained to adopt positions that facilitate the implementation of solutions that help to combat inequalities. The aim of this article was to identify the gender equality competence present in the three types of cultural positions Castells proposed in members of a City Council in Sevilla-Spain, who wanted to implement gender mainstreaming. The participants were 27 people (16 women and 11 men). The method used was discourse analysis. The obtained results show that, while all competences were present in the project position, in the resistance position, there was none. In the legitimizers, we observed inconsistency in the discourse presented. This arouses considerations on the importance of knowing the gender equality competences in order to implement gender mainstreaming in organization

The Show Must Go On: A Snapshot of Italian Academic Working Life during Mandatory Work from Home through the Results of a National Survey

During the COVID-19 pandemic, universities worldwide have provided continuity to research and teaching through mandatory work from home. Taking into account the specificities of the Italian academic environment and using the Job Demand-Resource-Recovery model, the present study provides, through an online survey, for the first time a description of the experiences of a large sample of academics (N = 2365) and technical and administrative staff (N = 4086) working in Italian universities. The study analyzes the main differences between genders, roles or work areas, in terms of some job demands, recovery experiences, and outcomes, all important dimensions to achieve goals 3, 4, and 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The results support the reflections on gender equality measures in universities and provide a general framework useful for further in-depth analysis and development of measures in order to improve well-being (SDG 3), quality of education (SDG 4), and gender equality (SDG 5)

Ozonated autohemotherapy: protection of kidneys from ischemia in rats subjected to unilateral nephrectomy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ozonated autohemotherapy (OA) has been previously successfully used in the treatment of patients affected by peripheral occlusive arterial disease. OA consists of an intrafemoral reinfusion of autologous blood previously exposed to a mixture of oxygen/ozone (O₂/O₃). This study analyzes the effects of OA in protecting rat kidney from ischemia and ischemia/reperfusion damage.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed OA 30 min before the induction of 60 min renal ischemia or at the induction of 60 min postischemic reperfusion in rats subjected to unilateral nephrectomy. In addition, to evidence the possible protection induced by O₂/O₃on endothelial functions, the present study analyzes the in vitro effects of O₂/O₃on oxygen consumption by human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>1) OA preserves rat kidney functions and architecture, as demonstrated by the improved levels of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen and by histology; 2) such protection does not correlate with the increase of plasmatic nitric oxide, but is compatible with a focal renal increase of renal βNADPH-diaphorase; 3) treatment of HUVEC with O₂/O₃significantly increases both the rate of oxygen consumption and the mitochondrial activity assessed by confocal microscopy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The preservation of the mitochondrial activity of endothelium could in vivo limit the endothelial dysfunction provoked by the Isc or Isc/R processes.</p

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2,9) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMP-1,2) as novel markers of stress response and atherogenesis in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) on conservative treatment

The system of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) may play a key role in atherogenesis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients by its impact on matrix accumulation. Connections with inflammation, stress, or endothelial dysfunction are also probable. However, the data on correlations between these parameters in CKD patients are scarce in adults and absent in children. The aim of our study was to evaluate serum concentrations of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2, as well as their correlations with markers of stress response (Hsp90-α, anti-Hsp60), endothelial dysfunction (sE-selectin), and inflammation (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) in CKD children treated conservatively. Thirty-seven patients were divided into two groups according to the CKD stage (gr.CKDI, 19 children with CKD stages 2–3; gr.CKDII, 18 subjects with CKD stages 4–5). Twenty-four age-matched healthy subjects served as controls. Serum concentrations of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, TIMP-2, Hsp90-α, anti-Hsp60, and sE-selectin were assessed by ELISA. Median values of MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2 were significantly higher in all CKD children vs. controls and were increased in patients with CKD stages 4–5 vs. CKD stages 2–3. Hsp90-α, anti-Hsp60, sE-selectin, and glomerular filtration rate predicted the values of MMPs and TIMPs. Chronic kidney disease in children is characterized by MMP/TIMP system dysfunction, aggravated by the progression of renal failure. Correlations between examined parameters, heat shock proteins, and markers of endothelial damage suggest the possibility of MMP/TIMP application as indicators of stress response and atherogenesis in children with CKD on conservative treatment