Influence of gender determinants on informal care and health service utilization in Spain: Ten years after the approval of the equality law

The existence of gender inequalities in health, in the use of health services, and in the development of informal care has been demonstrated throughout scientific literature. In Spain, a law was passed in 2007 to promote effective equality between men and women. Despite this, different studies have shown that the previous gender inequalities are still present in Spanish society. For all these reasons, the objective of this paper is to study the differences by sex in informal care and in the use of emergency care, and to identify the existence of gender inequalities in Spain 10 years after the adoption of the aforementioned equality law. In this case, we development a cross-sectional study based on the 2017 Spanish National Health Survey of the Spanish population aged 16 and over. To analyze the influence of gender determinants on informal care and emergency care utilization, logistic regressions were performed, model 1 was adjusted for age, and model 2 was further adjusted too by the variables of the Andersen care demand model. The results showed that informal care and the use of the emergency care continues to be higher in women than in men. Informal care in women was related to a higher level of education. In emergency care, the older the age, the lower the probability of utilization, and living in a rural municipality was related to a higher probability of utilization for both sexes. Finally, we concluded that there is still a need for studies that analyze gender inequalities in different contexts, such as the informal care and the use of health services. This is especially relevant in Spain, where economic changes have led to a change in roles, mainly for women, and new management strategies are needed to achieve equity in care and effective equality between men and women

Assemblages of carabid beetles (Col. Carabidae) and ground-dwelling spiders (Araneae) in natural and artificial regeneration of pine forests

Carabid beetles and spiders are at the top of the hierarchy of general invertebrate predators, which can help to reduce the abundance of harmful forest pests. They are also frequently used as environmental indicators. In this paper we analyzed the abundance, species richness and changes in carabid beetle and spider assemblages in three treatments of pine forest regeneration – natural, natural with soil prepared by ploughing and artificial with seedlings planted in ploughed soil. The most beneficial forest regeneration treatment variant of forest regeneration for carabid beetles and spiders was the natural regeneration of pine stands without any preceding soil preparation. Both taxa responded strongly to soil ploughing. We also noted the replacement of forest species by less sensitive open area species. In carabid assemblages, large changes in the trophic structure were observed, as predatory species were replaced by hemizoophages in the ploughed treatments

Guidance and Leakage properties of chiral optical fibers

The field theory of guided waves in optical fibers with step-index profiles and in which both core and cladding are chiral isotropic media is developed. We show that both surface and semileaky modes can propagate in optically active fibers. To shed light on the guidance and leakage properties of chiral isotropic fibers we present a physical interpretation and several numerical results. The new leakage effect associated with semileaky modes is an important property that cannot be neglected in the analysis of chiral optical fibers but that, nevertheless, has been systematically disregarded in the literature

Sr-bearing high-pressure tourmaline from the Kreuzeck Mountains, Eastern Alps, Austria

A detailed investigation was conducted on high-pressure (~1.4 GPa) tourmaline from an Eoalpine mafic eclogite, which occurs in the Kreuzeck Mountains, Eastern Alps, Austria. Tourmaline from this locality contains the highest amount of Sr²⁺ (up to 0.68 wt% SrO) known to date. The space group is R3m with unit-cell parameters a = 15.944(1), c = 7.202(1) Å, V = 1585.5(3) ų. Analyses by a combination of electron microprobe, optical absorption spectroscopy and crystal-structure refinement (R1 = 1.31%) result in the structural formula ^X(Na_(0.85)Ca_(0.08)Sr_(0.06)K_(0.01))_(Σ1.00)^Y(Mg_(1.68)Al_(0.70) Fe_(0.37)³⁺Ti_(0.10)⁴⁺Fe_(0.11)²⁺Ca_(0.03)Cr_(0.01)³⁺)_(Σ3.00)^Z (Al_(5.15)Mg_(0.80)Fe_(0.05)³⁺)_(Σ6.00)^T(Si_(5.82)B_(0.10)Al_(0.08)O_(18)) (BO₃)₃^V(OH)₃^W [O_(0.45)(OH)_(0.35)F_(0.20)]. The T site contains mainly Si and additionally small amounts of B and Al. According to optical absorption spectroscopy (using the band near 1120 nm), the Fe³⁺/Fe ratio is 79 ± 2%, suggesting that this high-pressure tourmaline crystallized under oxidizing conditions. It has a significant oxy-dravite component. A near-rim zone contains 0.6 wt% Cr₂O₃, 0.5 wt% PbO₂, 0.2 wt% NiO and 0.1 wt% V₂O₃. Only a small F content was found by structure refinement. There is no evidence for significant X-site vacancy in the investigated tourmaline zones. We assume that the original boron source for tourmaline crystallization in the eclogite, i.e. tourmaline-bearing pegmatites in the country-rock, were influenced by a Sr-bearing marble

Numerical simulation of “sand-like” polymer flow during rotational moulding using smoothed particle hydrodynamics method

Rotational moulding is a versatile polymer shaping process used to create enclosed parts from powdered precursors using heat and multi-axis rotation. Controlling the heating process and mould motion is critical to producing high-quality parts, and failures due to incorrect mould coverage or variable wall thickness are common. To date, limited simulation tools exist to predict the motion of the powder within the mould, and operators rely on unreliable prior experience to avoid defects. This paper presents an SPH simulation framework to predict particle flow patterns and powder contact time within a rotating mould. The powder-to-wall contact time was derived from the transient rigid body force (RBF) of different sensors on the mould. The method was compared with the results of DEM simulation and validated by the particle flow pattern of two experimental results. Results showed that the SPH method was capable of simulating particle flow macroscopic properties. The great computing efficiency of SPH compared to DEM simulation was also demonstrated

Endoscopy during the Covid-19 outbreak : experience and recommendations from a single center in a high-incidence scenario

A dramatic SARS-Cov-2 outbreak is hitting Italy hard. To face the new scenario all the hospitals have been re-organised in order to reduce all the outpatient services and to devote almost all their personnel and resources to the management of Covid-19 patients. As a matter of fact, all the services have undergone a deep re-organization guided by: the necessity to reduce exams, to create an environment that helps reduce the virus spread, and to preserve the medical personnel from infection. In these days a re-organization of the endoscopic unit, sited in a high-incidence area, has been adopted, with changes to logistics, work organization and patients selection. With the present manuscript, we want to support gastroenterologists and endoscopists in the organization of a \u201cnew\u201d endoscopy unit that responds to the \u201cnew\u201d scenario, while remaining fully aware that resources, availability and local circumstances may extremely vary from unit to unit

Consumo de medicamentos não sujeitos a receita médica: fatores associados

Medicamentos não sujeitos a receita médica são aqueles que se destinam ao tratamento de patologias com grau de gravidade inferior e que podem ser adquiridos sem receita médica, devido à sua elevada segurança e eficácia. Contudo, o seu uso inadequado pode acarretar vários riscos, levando ao aumento da mortalidade, morbidade, reações adversas e interações medicamentosas. A grande disponibilidade destes medicamentos leva à automedicação, arriscando-se a retardar o tratamento de uma patologia de maior gravidade. O objetivo do presente trabalho foi caracterizar o perfil de consumo de Medicamentos não Sujeitos a Receita Médica (MNSRM) e os fatores associados. O estudo é do tipo transversal, observacional e descritivo-correlacional. A população alvo foram os residentes nos concelhos de Baião, Porto de Mós e Santa Maria da Feira. A amostra, constituída por 390 indivíduos, foi do tipo acidental pelo que se considera não probabilística. O instrumento de recolha de dados que se utilizou foi um questionário. Para a análise estatística usaram-se medidas de tendência central e dispersão e aplicou-se o teste do qui-quadrado através do programa informático SPSS 23. Verificou-se que o género feminino é o maior consumidor de MNSRM (82,6%) e com a idade este consumo vai diminuindo. A idade mostrou diferenças estatisticamente significativas e relação ao uso de MNSRM (p-value = 0.040). A maioria dos inquiridos pratica automedicação (88,2%), pelo menos 4x/ano, devido a “pouca gravidade da situação” (66,2%). A gripe, constipação e tosse foram as situações que mais justificaram o uso de MNSRM (85,4%) e foram os analgésicos e antipiréticos (92,8%) os medicamentos mais utilizados. Quanto ao papel do profissional de Farmácia no aconselhamento de MNSRM verificou-se que os indivíduos solicitam aconselhamento (96,2%), que este é maioritariamente realizado com uma postura e linguagem adequadas, recolhendo todas as informações sobre o problema e mostrando boa disponibilidade para responder às dúvidas do utente. Os utentes confiam e seguem as recomendações dos profissionais de Farmácia aquando do aconselhamento. O consumidor de MNSRM é do sexo feminino, com idade entre os 18-24 anos e com o ensino secundário. Apresenta um conhecimento suficiente em relação aos MNSRM adquirido maioritariamente através dos profissionais de Farmácia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Entanglement between Demand and Supply in Markets with Bandwagon Goods

Whenever customers' choices (e.g. to buy or not a given good) depend on others choices (cases coined 'positive externalities' or 'bandwagon effect' in the economic literature), the demand may be multiply valued: for a same posted price, there is either a small number of buyers, or a large one -- in which case one says that the customers coordinate. This leads to a dilemma for the seller: should he sell at a high price, targeting a small number of buyers, or at low price targeting a large number of buyers? In this paper we show that the interaction between demand and supply is even more complex than expected, leading to what we call the curse of coordination: the pricing strategy for the seller which aimed at maximizing his profit corresponds to posting a price which, not only assumes that the customers will coordinate, but also lies very near the critical price value at which such high demand no more exists. This is obtained by the detailed mathematical analysis of a particular model formally related to the Random Field Ising Model and to a model introduced in social sciences by T C Schelling in the 70's.Comment: Updated version, accepted for publication, Journal of Statistical Physics, online Dec 201