Determinants of Skills Shortages and Hard-to-Fill Vacancies in the Hospitality Sector

The aim of this paper is to analyse the regional determinants of hard-to-fill vacancies and skills shortages in the hospitality sector. The data source for this study was generated in the year 2000 and includes information on 181 hotels and 121 restaurants in Andalusia. The results of the estimations show that hourly net wages are the main instrument firms use to reduce hard-to-fill vacancies and skills shortages. However, there are several factors affecting the conditions of local labour markets — such as unemployment rates, the level of business activity, real estate prices and the location of the firm in relation to the main regional tourism destinations — that have a significant effect on the probability of having hard-to-fill vacancies and skills shortages.

Returns to overeducation and undereducation: evidence for the hospitality sector in Andalusia

The objetive of this piece of work is to estimate the returns to overeducation and infraeducation for those people who are working in the hospitality sector in Andalusia. Using a cross-section of workers from a representative survey carried out with European funds (project IFD97-0858), we compare educational attainment of workers and job-required education (reported by workers and managers) in order to obtain a general especification of the earnings function from allocation models of the labor market. These models contain the human capital specification and the job competition specification as special cases. The results show as an earnings especification that includes the possibility of mismatch between educational attainment and requirement is superior to one that only incorporates one or other of the two sides of the matching process. When we use the opinions of workers (managers) about educational requirements, the rate of return to years of adecuate education is 3,27% (3,64%). The rate of returns to overeducation is 1,4% (1,93%) and the penalty for each year of undereducation is 1,81% (2,25%) reduction in wages.

The relationship between amyloid structure and cytotoxicity

Self-assembly of proteins and peptides into amyloid structures has been the subject of intense and focused research due to their association with neurodegenerative, age-related human diseases and transmissible prion diseases in humans and mammals. Of the disease associated amyloid assemblies, a diverse array of species, ranging from small oligomeric assembly intermediates to fibrillar structures, have been shown to have toxic potential. Equally, a range of species formed by the same disease associated amyloid sequences have been found to be relatively benign under comparable monomer equivalent concentrations and conditions. In recent years, an increasing number of functional amyloid systems have also been found. These developments show that not all amyloid structures are generically toxic to cells. Given these observations, it is important to understand why amyloid structures may encode such varied toxic potential despite sharing a common core molecular architecture. Here, we discuss possible links between different aspects of amyloidogenic structures and assembly mechanisms with their varied functional effects. We propose testable hypotheses for the relationship between amyloid structure and its toxic potential in the context of recent reports on amyloid sequence, structure, and toxicity relationships

Análisis de las diferencias salariales por discapacidad en España: el caso de los varones

El objetivo de este trabajo es estimar las diferencias salariales entre las personas con discapacidad y sin discapacidad en España, descomponiendo tales diferencias entre los factores que más contribuyen a explicarlas. A partir de los microdatos del Panel de Hogares de la Unión Europea para el período 1995-2000, se estiman para una muestra de hombres ecuaciones de salarios para cada colectivo, corregidas por el sesgo de selección a través del método de estimación de dos etapas de Heckman. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que aunque un 57,02 por 100 de la diferencia salarial ofrecida es explicada por las diferencias en las características observadas (especialmente en el nivel educativo y el tipo de ocupación), una parte importante es atribuible a las diferencias en los rendimientos de tales características (42,98 por 100).Discapacidad, discriminación salarial, sesgo de selección

Mercado laboral de las personas discapacitadas en España

En este trabajo, partiendo de un análisis inicial basado en el estudio de las políticas públicas dirigidas a las personas discapacitadas y de los problemas en la definición de la discapacidad, se analizan las características sociodemográficas de las personas discapacitadas en edad de trabajan y aquellas que están trabajando. A partir de la información disponible en el Panel de Hogares de la Unión Europea para el año 1998, los resultados obtenidos permiten afirmar que uno de los principales obstáculos para la integración laboral de las personas discapacitadas se sitúa en la primera fase del proceso de inserción, es decir, en pasar de la inactividad a la actividad. Estos resultados tienen implicaciones en las futuras políticas públicas dirigidas a favorecer la integración laboral y social de este colectivo.________________________________In this piece of work, beginning with a preliminary analysis of the public policies for disabled persons and the problems associated to the concept of disability, we analyse the sociodemographics characteristics of working age and employed disabled persons in Spain. Using the data from the European Household Panel for 1998, our results show that the main barrier for the labour integration of the disabled person is found in the first phase of the process, this is to say, from the inactivity to labour activity. These results have implication for the future public policies lead to this specific group

A evolução dos desfibrilhadores implantáveis vantagens e limitações

Introdução: O Cardioversor-Desfibrilhador Implantável foi inventado em 1970, por Mirowski e Mower. Apresenta as capacidade de monitorizar constantemente o ritmo cardíaco, detectar episódios de Fibrilhação ou Taquicardia Ventricular e cessar estas actividades arrítmicas potencialmente fatais. Estes dispositivos médicos estão em contínua evolução, passando de grande sistemas abdominais com eléctrodos epicárdicos, para pequenos sistemas transvenosos e, mais recentemente, para aparelhos totalmente subcutâneos. Na base das permanentes inovações estavam as limitações terapêuticas iniciais, como também as consequências, agudas e crónicas, associadas às abordagens cirúrgicas. Actualmente, é uma terapia aceite na Prevenção Primária e Secundária da Morte Súbita Cardíaca. Objectivos: A presente dissertação pretende realizar uma revisão na evolução dos Cardioversor-Desfibrilhadores Implantáveis, observando as vantagens e limitações correspondentes a cada modelo. Para uma melhor compreensão do tema, é inicialmente abordado os factores envolvidos na Morte Súbita Cardíaca e os mecanismos que permitem a Desfibrilhação do coração, como também as directrizes mais actuais para o uso desta terapêutica. São também apresentados dois casos clínicos para possibilitar uma visão mais prática desta da realidade. Métodos: Para a elaboração deste trabalho efectuou-se a pesquisa de artigos científicos em bases de dados, como Pubmed, The New England Journal of Medicine, ResearchGate e B-on. Resultados: Constatou-se que os primeiros modelos de Desfibrilhadores Implantáveis, com eléctrodos epicárdicos, possibilitavam com grande sucesso a Desfibrilhação e o regresso ao ritmo cardíaco normal. No entanto, estavam associados a graves co-morbilidades devido à complexidade cirúrgica que requeriam. Para colmatar estes factos, desenvolveu-se os sistemas de eléctrodos transvenosos, que mantinham a eficácia terapêutica e adicionavam novas capacidades de tratamento com pacing. Este novo sistema apresentou vários efeitos adversos correlacionados com os eléctrodos intracardíacos e endovasculares. Como alternativa viável, criou-se recentemente, os Desfibrilhadores Subcutâneos, com implantação simples e livre de acessos venosos. Sendo adequado para doentes jovens e casos que não necessitam de tratamento com pacing. Conclusão: A análise, inferida ao longo desta dissertação, permitiu averiguar que a utilização de Desfibrilhadores Implantáveis significa uma melhoria na sobrevivência e diminuição da mortalidade de pacientes com alto risco para Morte Súbita Cardíaca. Conclui-se também, que estes dispositivos apresentam uma elevada capacidade de inovação tecnológica, o que permitirá mantê-los na linha da frente do combate às arritmias ventriculares fatais.Introduction: The Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator was invented in 1970, by Mirowski and Mower. It has the ability to constantly monitor the heart rhythm, detect episodes of Ventricular Tachycardia or Fibrillation and terminate these potentially fatal arrhythmic activities. These medical devices are continuously evolving, from major abdominal systems with epicardial leads, to small transvenous systems and, more recently, to totally subcutaneous devices. The initial therapeutic limitations, as well as the acute and chronic consequences associated to the surgical approaches, let to these constant innovations. Today, it’s an acceptable therapy for Primary and Second Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death. Objectives: This thesis intends to conduct a review of the evolution of Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators, analysing the advantages and limitations of each model. For a better understanding of the theme, initially are addressed the factors involved in the Sudden Cardiac Death and the mechanisms that allows the Defibrillation of the heart, besides the more current guidelines for the use of this therapy. Also feature, are two clinical cases to enable a more practical vision. Methods: For the preparation of this work a research of scientific articles was carried out in databases such as PubMed, The New England Journal of Medicine, ResearchGate and B-on. Results: It was found that the first models of the Implantable Defibrillators with epicardial leads, made possible the defibrillation and the return to a normal rhythm with great success. However, its were associated with serious co-morbilities due to the complexity required by the surgery. To address these facts, transvenous leads were developed, keeping the therapeutic efficacy and adding new pacing treatment. This new system had several adverse effects correlated with endovascular and intracardiac leads. In alternative, the Subcutaneous Defibrillator was created, with a simple and free of venous access implantation, suitable for young people and patients that don’t need pacing treatment. Conclusions: The analysis taken throughout this thesis allowed to verify that the use of Implantable Defibrillators means an improvement in the survival and decreased mortality in patients with high risk of Sudden Cardiac Death. Also, these devices have a high capacity for technological innovation, with will keep them at the forefront line against fatal ventricular arrhythmias

The physical dimensions of amyloid aggregates control their infective potential as prion particles

Transmissible amyloid particles called prions are associated with infectious prion diseases in mammals and inherited phenotypes in yeast. All amyloid aggregates can give rise to potentially infectious seeds that accelerate their growth. Why some amyloid seeds are highly infectious prion particles while others are less infectious or even inert, is currently not understood. To address this question, we analyzed the suprastructure and dimensions of synthetic amyloid fibrils assembled from the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) prion protein Sup35NM. We then quantified the ability of these particles to induce the [PSI(+)] prion phenotype in cells. Our results show a striking relationship between the length distribution of the amyloid fibrils and their ability to induce the heritable [PSI(+)] prion phenotype. Using a simple particle size threshold model to describe transfection activity, we explain how dimensions of amyloid fibrils are able to modulate their infectious potential as prions

Amyloid particles facilitate surface-catalyzed cross-seeding by acting as promiscuous nanoparticles

Amyloid seeds are nanometer-sized protein particles that accelerate amyloid assembly as well as propagate and transmit the amyloid protein conformation associated with a wide range of protein misfolding diseases. However, seeded amyloid growth through templated elongation at fibril ends cannot explain the full range of molecular behaviors observed during cross-seeded formation of amyloid by heterologous seeds. Here, we demonstrate that amyloid seeds can accelerate amyloid formation via a surface catalysis mechanism without propagating the specific amyloid conformation associated with the seeds. This type of seeding mechanism is demonstrated through quantitative characterization of the cross-seeded assembly reactions involving two nonhomologous and unrelated proteins: the human Aβ42 peptide and the yeast prion–forming protein Sup35NM. Our results demonstrate experimental approaches to differentiate seeding by templated elongation from nontemplated amyloid seeding and rationalize the molecular mechanism of the cross-seeding phenomenon as a manifestation of the aberrant surface activities presented by amyloid seeds as nanoparticles

The Open Cluster Chemical Analysis and Mapping Survey: Local Galactic Metallicity Gradient with APOGEE using SDSS DR10

The Open Cluster Chemical Analysis and Mapping (OCCAM) Survey aims to produce a comprehensive, uniform, infrared-based dataset for hundreds of open clusters, and constrain key Galactic dynamical and chemical parameters from this sample. This first contribution from the OCCAM survey presents analysis of 141 members stars in 28 open clusters with high-resolution metallicities derived from a large uniform sample collected as part of the SDSS-III/Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). This sample includes the first high-resolution metallicity measurements for 22 open clusters. With this largest ever uniformly observed sample of open cluster stars we investigate the Galactic disk gradients of both [M/H] and [alpha/M]. We find basically no gradient across this range in [alpha/M], but [M/H] does show a gradient for R_{GC} < 10 kpc and a significant flattening beyond R_{GC} = 10 kpc. In particular, whereas fitting a single linear trend yields an [M/H] gradient of -0.09 +/- 0.03$ dex/kpc --- similar to previously measure gradients inside 13 kpc --- by independently fitting inside and outside 10 kpc separately we find a significantly steeper gradient near the Sun (7.9 <= R_{GC} <= 10) than previously found (-0.20 +/- 0.08 dex/kpc) and a nearly flat trend beyond 10 kpc (-0.02 +/- 0.09 dex/kpc).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, ApJ letters, in pres

Tracing chemical evolution over the extent of the Milky Way's Disk with APOGEE Red Clump Stars

We employ the first two years of data from the near-infrared, high-resolution SDSS-III/APOGEE spectroscopic survey to investigate the distribution of metallicity and alpha-element abundances of stars over a large part of the Milky Way disk. Using a sample of ~10,000 kinematically-unbiased red-clump stars with ~5% distance accuracy as tracers, the [alpha/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] distribution of this sample exhibits a bimodality in [alpha/Fe] at intermediate metallicities, -0.9<[Fe/H]<-0.2, but at higher metallicities ([Fe/H]=+0.2) the two sequences smoothly merge. We investigate the effects of the APOGEE selection function and volume filling fraction and find that these have little qualitative impact on the alpha-element abundance patterns. The described abundance pattern is found throughout the range 5<R<11 kpc and 0<|Z|<2 kpc across the Galaxy. The [alpha/Fe] trend of the high-alpha sequence is surprisingly constant throughout the Galaxy, with little variation from region to region (~10%). Using simple galactic chemical evolution models we derive an average star formation efficiency (SFE) in the high-alpha sequence of ~4.5E-10 1/yr, which is quite close to the nearly-constant value found in molecular-gas-dominated regions of nearby spirals. This result suggests that the early evolution of the Milky Way disk was characterized by stars that shared a similar star formation history and were formed in a well-mixed, turbulent, and molecular-dominated ISM with a gas consumption timescale (1/SFE) of ~2 Gyr. Finally, while the two alpha-element sequences in the inner Galaxy can be explained by a single chemical evolutionary track this cannot hold in the outer Galaxy, requiring instead a mix of two or more populations with distinct enrichment histories.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap