Giving children a better start: preschool attendance and school-age profiles

We study the effect of pre-primary education on children's subsequent school outcomes by exploiting a unique feature of the Uruguayan household survey (ECH) that collects retrospective information on preschool attendance. A rapid expansion in the supply of pre-primary places over the last decade generates sufficient variation in the data to warrant identification. Using a within household estimator that only exploits differences in exposure across siblings, we find small gains from preschool attendance at early ages that magnify as children grow up. By age 16, children that attended preschool have accumulated more than 1 extra year of education and are 27 percentage points more likely to be in school compared to their siblings with no preschool education. We speculate that early grade repetition harms subsequent school progression and that pre-primary education appears as a successful policy option to prevent early grade failure and its long lasting consequences

Politics in the Family Nepotism and the Hiring Decisions of Italian Firms

This paper studies the effect of family connections to politicians on individuals' labor market outcomes. Using data for Italy spanning more than three decades on a sample of almost one million individuals plus data on the universe of individuals holding political office, we show that politicians extract significant rents, in terms of private sector jobs, for their family members. We present evidence consistent with the hypothesis that this phenomenon is a form of corruption, i.e., a quid pro quo exchange between firms and politicians, although arguably an inferior substitute for easier-to-detect modes of rent appropriation on the part of politicians

Investigaciones en ecosistemas acuáticos y terrestres que muestran disturbios en áreas del Monte Austral – Patagonia argentina

En la Facultad de Ciencias del Ambiente y la Salud de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue funciona el “Centro de Estudios Para el Hábitat Sustentable” que coordina y gestiona procesos de investigación sobre Desarrollo Sustentable y el “Laboratorio de Investigaciones Ecológicas de Norpatagonia” que realiza estudios relacionados con sistemática y biodiversidad, ecología de poblaciones y comunidades. El objetivo del trabajo es comentar líneas de investigación relacionadas a perturbaciones ecológicas en ecosistemas del Monte Austral, realizadas por docentes-investigadores nucleados en dichas organizaciones. La metodología empleada se basa en: salidas a campo para relevar flora y fauna, determinar heterogeneidad ambiental/ecológica y especies clave e indicadoras, tomar muestras de suelo y agua de ambientes contaminados para análisis microbiológicos, y análisis estadístico de los datos. Algunas de estas investigaciones aún están en desarrollo, los resultados preliminares demuestran: contaminación de origen fecal en arroyos y suelos regionales urbanos, presencia de microorganismos hidrocarburolíticos en suelos contaminados por actividad petrolera, disminución de la cobertura vegetal y alteración en la composición y distribución de la fauna de los ecosistemas del Monte Austral. Conclusión: para mitigar estos disturbios se debe insistir en la educación ambiental, fomentando el respeto y valoración de los recursos naturales y mejorar la gestión urbano/ambiental.Universidad Nacional de La Plat

Investigaciones en ecosistemas acuáticos y terrestres que muestran disturbios en áreas del Monte Austral – Patagonia argentina

En la Facultad de Ciencias del Ambiente y la Salud de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue funciona el “Centro de Estudios Para el Hábitat Sustentable” que coordina y gestiona procesos de investigación sobre Desarrollo Sustentable y el “Laboratorio de Investigaciones Ecológicas de Norpatagonia” que realiza estudios relacionados con sistemática y biodiversidad, ecología de poblaciones y comunidades. El objetivo del trabajo es comentar líneas de investigación relacionadas a perturbaciones ecológicas en ecosistemas del Monte Austral, realizadas por docentes-investigadores nucleados en dichas organizaciones. La metodología empleada se basa en: salidas a campo para relevar flora y fauna, determinar heterogeneidad ambiental/ecológica y especies clave e indicadoras, tomar muestras de suelo y agua de ambientes contaminados para análisis microbiológicos, y análisis estadístico de los datos. Algunas de estas investigaciones aún están en desarrollo, los resultados preliminares demuestran: contaminación de origen fecal en arroyos y suelos regionales urbanos, presencia de microorganismos hidrocarburolíticos en suelos contaminados por actividad petrolera, disminución de la cobertura vegetal y alteración en la composición y distribución de la fauna de los ecosistemas del Monte Austral. Conclusión: para mitigar estos disturbios se debe insistir en la educación ambiental, fomentando el respeto y valoración de los recursos naturales y mejorar la gestión urbano/ambiental.Universidad Nacional de La Plat

Investigaciones en ecosistemas acuáticos y terrestres que muestran disturbios en áreas del Monte Austral – Patagonia argentina

En la Facultad de Ciencias del Ambiente y la Salud de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue funciona el “Centro de Estudios Para el Hábitat Sustentable” que coordina y gestiona procesos de investigación sobre Desarrollo Sustentable y el “Laboratorio de Investigaciones Ecológicas de Norpatagonia” que realiza estudios relacionados con sistemática y biodiversidad, ecología de poblaciones y comunidades. El objetivo del trabajo es comentar líneas de investigación relacionadas a perturbaciones ecológicas en ecosistemas del Monte Austral, realizadas por docentes-investigadores nucleados en dichas organizaciones. La metodología empleada se basa en: salidas a campo para relevar flora y fauna, determinar heterogeneidad ambiental/ecológica y especies clave e indicadoras, tomar muestras de suelo y agua de ambientes contaminados para análisis microbiológicos, y análisis estadístico de los datos. Algunas de estas investigaciones aún están en desarrollo, los resultados preliminares demuestran: contaminación de origen fecal en arroyos y suelos regionales urbanos, presencia de microorganismos hidrocarburolíticos en suelos contaminados por actividad petrolera, disminución de la cobertura vegetal y alteración en la composición y distribución de la fauna de los ecosistemas del Monte Austral. Conclusión: para mitigar estos disturbios se debe insistir en la educación ambiental, fomentando el respeto y valoración de los recursos naturales y mejorar la gestión urbano/ambiental.Universidad Nacional de La Plat

baseline predictive factors for efficacy of anti pd1 used in first line in melanoma patients an italian melanoma intergroup study

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Immune-inflammatory biomarkers as prognostic factors for immunotherapy in pretreated advanced urinary tract cancer patients: an analysis of the Italian SAUL cohort

Background: Reliable and affordable prognostic and predictive biomarkers for urothelial carcinoma treated with immunotherapy may allow patients' outcome stratification and drive therapeutic options. The SAUL trial investigated the safety and efficacy of atezolizumab in a real-world setting on 1004 patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who progressed to one to three prior systemic therapies.Patients and methods: Using the SAUL Italian cohort of 267 patients, we investigated the prognostic role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) and the best performing one of these in combination with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) with or without lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Previously reported cut-offs (NLR >3 and NLR >5; SII >1375) in addition to study-defined ones derived from receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were used.Results: The cut-off values for NLR and SII by the ROC analysis were 3.65 (sensitivity 60.4; specificity 63.0) and 884 (sensitivity 64.4; specificity 67.5), respectively. The median overall survival (OS) was 14.7 months for NLR <3.65 [95% confidence interval (CI) 9.9-not reached (NR)] versus 6.0 months for NLR >= 3.65 (95% CI 3.9-9.4); 14.7 months for SII <884 (95% CI 10.6-NR) versus 6.0 months for SII >= 884 (95% CI 3.7-8.6). The combination of SII, PD-L1, and LDH stratified OS better than SII plus PD-L1 through better identification of patients with intermediate prognosis (77% versus 48%, respectively). Multivariate analyses confirmed significant correlations with OS and progression-free survival for both the SII + PD-L1 + LDH and SII PD-L1 combinations.Conclusion: The combination of immune-inflammatory biomarkers based on SII, PD-L1, with or without LDH is a potentially useful and easy-to-assess prognostic tool deserving validation to identify patients who may benefit from immunotherapy alone or alternative therapies

The European Legal Framework on Cybercrime

This article analyzes the European legal framework on cybercrime. Initially, it argues the challenges of cybercrime to traditional criminal justice systems. Subsequently, it focuses on the criminal law framework on cybercrime with a mainly European perspective. The European legal framework provides a three-path solution: the reduction of frictions among national legislations, the introduction of new investigative powers and the facilitation of international cooperation. The article presents and discusses each solution. Further, it argues that the effective implementation of the main legal instruments does not seem to depend on the legal enforceability of these international measures. Contrarily, other, non legal, factors such as national security, politics, the economy and the public opinion appear to stimulate the spontaneous implementation of the European legal framework. In this context, the added value of the EU action is rather low, although the Treaty of Lisbon and the Stockholm Programme may improve this situation in the long ter

Meeting the governance challenges of integrated health and social care

Background Many countries are experimenting with novel ways of organising and delivering more integrated health and social care. Governance is relatively neglected as a focus of attention in this context but addressing governance challenges is key for successful collaboration. Methods Cross-country case analysis involving document review and semi-structured interviews with 27 local, regional and national level stakeholders in Italy, the Netherlands and Scotland. We used the Transparency, Accountability, Participation, Integrity and Capability (TAPIC) framework to structure our analytical enquiry to explore factors that influence the governance arrangements in each system. Results Governance arrangements ranged from informal agreements in the Netherlands to mandated integration in Scotland. Novel service models were generally participative involving a wide range of stakeholders, including the public, although integration was seen to be driven, largely, from a health perspective. In Italy and Scotland some reversion to ‘command & control’ was reported in response to the imperatives of the Covid-19 pandemic. Policies, budgets, auditing and reporting systems that are clearly aligned at all levels were seen to help with implementing innovations in service organisation. Where alignment was lacking, cooperation and integration was suboptimal, regardless of whether governance arrangements were statutory or not. There was wide recognition of the importance of buy-in. Enablers of greater engagement included visible leadership, time and long-standing working relationships. Lack of suitable indicators and openness to data sharing to measure integration hindered working relationships and thus the successful delivery of integrated services. Conclusions Our study provides important insights into how to more effectively and efficiently govern service delivery structures within care systems. We will discuss approaches to governance that help support more resilient integrated care systems. Key messages • Different governance arrangements face common challenges to greater integration of care. Enablers include strong leadership, inclusivity and openness to work across traditional boundaries. • Meeting the governance challenges of integrated health and social care requires clear lines of accountability, aligned policies, budgets and reporting systems

Analisis Hidrolika Bangunan Krib Permeabel pada Saluran Tanah (Uji Model Laboratorium)

One of the structures to protect river bank erosion is groyne. Groyne can serve and control water flow, reducing flow velocity and scour of river bank. The purposes of this study is to analyze the changes in the river bed elevation (morphology) and the depth of scour in the upstream groyne caused by the permeable groyne installed at the river meanders. The experiment was conducted at Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics Laboratory, Sriwijaya University. The study tested the hydraulics models, a trapezoidal channel, meanders angle of 90˚, five permeable groynes at meanders, and the water flowing in the channels was clear water. The observations were carried out with a flow rate was 63,32 Lt / min, three variations of permeable groynes angle were 45˚, 90˚ and 135˚ to the upstream within 1 hour, 2,5 hours and 4 hours for each angle variations . The results of this study showed that the flow velocity of meanders was decreasing to the end of the meanders, and the changes of channel only occurred at the riverbed. Maximum riverbed changes (Bt / Bo) for permeable groyne angle of 45˚, 90˚ and 135 ˚ were 1,376 cm, 1,346 cm dan 1,452 cm. The maximum depth of scour (ds/y) for permeable groyne angle of 45˚, 90˚ and 135˚ were 1,05 cm, 0,95 cm dan 1,17 cm. Thus, permeable groyne with angle of 90 proved to be the best with the smallest riverbed changes (Bt /Bo) was 1,346 cm and the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0,9384, and also the smallest scour depth (ds/y) was 0,95 cm and the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0,8317 compared to other groyne permeable angles