Explaining tourists´ support for environmental protection

Any movement towards sustainable tourism is dependent not only upon the industry and other key stakeholders but also the demand side, namely the tourists. Yet, there is a limited literature from the demand point of view. In this area, contributions to an understanding of tourists’ support to sustainable development are necessary. This paper analyzes the main determinants in tourist behavior regarding the environmental considerations when they are making decisions about their holiday plans. General literature on this issue highlights the need to consider socio-economic variables of the individual as well as the attributes related of their style of living. If the econometric model takes into account all these variables simultaneously, then the linkage between contextual changes and tourists´ behaviour is enriched and it may be estimated more accurately. In this sense, a multilevel approach using a random-intercept logistic models is proposed, since tourists belong to a country are affected by the same contextual variables. The analysis comprises a joint dataset composed by microdata belong to the survey Attitudes of Europeans Towards Tourism, which corresponds to Flash Eurobarometer 281, macrodata from Eurostat (GDP in pps and GDP growth) and additional variables profiles from the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index. Country-specific effects are calculated across the EU-27 countries, which corroborated that attitudes to the sustainable tourism are heterogeneous geo-graphically. The higher the level of GDP, the lower the level of tourists´ support. These results could be explained because tourists of richer countries already have to pay more tax for envi-ronmental protection. Age, gender and educational attainment are relevant. Motivations for travelling, size of the community, type of the destination, and environmental sustainability indi-cators of the place of residence are also important factors.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The labor market in the Spanish hospitality industry: An overview from a gender perspective

The main objective of this work is to analyze the labour market of the hospitality industry in Spain from a gender perspective. For this proposal, we analyze the effects of educational mismatch on workers’ occupational mobility and on gender wage inequality. In addition to these effects, the decomposition of the gender wage gap, based on an explicit theoretical approach, is controlled by different types of gender segregation and indicators of internal and external mobility. Our indicator of workers' educational mismatch is based on the comparison between the worker's level of education and the educational level required to perform his/her job; the analysis of internal and external labour mobility is based on logit models and for analyzing the gender wage gap decomposition we used a version of the well-known Oaxaca-Ramson´s (1994) approach. The data source used in this study is generated for a survey which collected the opinion of 2476 workers in hospitality firms with 7 or more employees. The evidence shows not only that external mobility is far higher than internal mobility in this sector, but also that is the main cause of wage inequality between men and women. This fact can be explained by labor discrimination against women who have no access to labor improvements in the same conditions than men. Educational mismatch has a limited effect on internal and external mobility for both genders. Thus, entry positions do not serve as first step in the worker´s future career in this sector. Finally, gender discrimination, which explains most of the gender wage inequality, is mainly due to horizontal segregation effect and discrimination of women regarding external mobility.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Exploring the antigenic relatedness of influenza virus haemagglutinins with strain-specific polyclonal antibodies

Alternative methods to the standard haemagglutination inhibition (HI) and neutralization tests to probe the antigenic properties of the influenza virus haemagglutinin (HA) were developed in this study. Vaccinia virus recombinants expressing reference HAs were used to immunize rabbits from which polyclonal antibodies were obtained. These antibodies were subtype specific but showed limited intra-subtype strain specificity in ELISA. The discriminatory capacity of these antibodies was, however, markedly increased after adsorption to cells infected with heterologous influenza viruses, revealing antigenic differences that were otherwise undistinguishable by standard HI and neutralization tests. Furthermore, the unadsorbed antibodies could be used to select escape mutants of the reference strain, which after sequencing unveiled amino acid changes responsible of the noted antigenic differences. These procedures therefore provide alternative methods for the antigenic characterization of influenza HA and might be useful in studies of HA antigenic evolution.This work was supported by grants (JAM) GR09/0039, (IC) GR09/0040 and (JAM) SAF2012-31217.S

Mutations in Coding and Non-Coding Regions in Varicella-Zoster Virus Causing Fatal Hemorrhagic Fever Without Rash in an Immunocompetent Patient: Case Report

Introduction: We report the case of a fatal hemorrhagic varicella primary infection in an immunocompetent man and whole-genome characterization of the virus for the investigation of biomarkers of virulence. Case: A 38-year-old patient born in Nigeria presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain and subsequently developed fatal hemorrhagic disease without skin rash. Extensive laboratory tests including serology and PCR for arenaviruses, bunyaviruses and ebolaviruses were negative. Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) PCR of sera, liver and spleen tissue samples from autopsy revealed the presence of VZV DNA. Primary infection by varicella-zoster virus with hemorrhagic manifestations was diagnosed after virological testing. The VZV genome was sequenced using a mWGS approach. Bioinformatic analysis showed 53 mutations across the genome, 33 of them producing non-synonymous variants affecting up to 14 genes. Some of them, such as ORF11 and ORF 62, encoded for essential functions related to skin or neurotropism. To our knowledge, the mutations reported here have never been described in a VZV causing such a devastating outcome. Discussion: In immunocompetent patients, viral factors should be considered in patients with uncommon symptoms or severe diseases. Some relevant mutations revealed by using whole genome sequencing (WGS) directly from clinical samples may be involved in this case and deserves further investigation. Conclusion: Differential diagnosis of varicella-zoster virus in immunocompetent adults should be considered among patients with suspected VHF, even if the expected vesicular rash is not present at admission and does not arise thereafter. Whole genome sequencing of strains causing uncommon symptoms and/or mortality is needed for epidemiological surveillance and further characterization of putative markers of virulence. Additionally, this report highlights the recommendation for a VZV vaccination policy in non-immunized migrants from developing countries.This work was supported by a grant from Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Project code MPY1372/12. The journal’s Rapid Service fee was paid by Consorcio Centro de Investigación en Red (CIBER). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.S

Characterization of an enhanced antigenic change in the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza virus haemagglutinin

Murine hybridomas producing neutralizing mAbs specific to the pandemic influenza virus A/California/07/2009 haemagglutinin (HA) were isolated. These antibodies recognized at least two different but overlapping new epitopes that were conserved in the HA of most Spanish pandemic isolates. However, one of these isolates (A/Extremadura/RR6530/2010) lacked reactivity with the mAbs and carried two unique mutations in the HA head (S88Y and K136N) that were required simultaneously to eliminate reactivity with the murine antibodies. This unusual requirement directly illustrates the phenomenon of enhanced antigenic change proposed previously for the accumulation of simultaneous amino acid substitutions at antigenic sites of the influenza A virus HA during virus evolution (Shih et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 104 , 6283-6288, 2007). The changes found in the A/Extremadura/RR6530/2010 HA were not found in escape mutants selected in vitro with one of the mAbs, which contained instead nearby single amino acid changes in the HA head. Thus, either single or double point mutations may similarly alter epitopes of the new antigenic site identified in this work in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus HA. Moreover, this site is relevant for the human antibody response, as shown by competition of mAbs and human post-infection sera for virus binding. The results are discussed in the context of the HA antigenic structure and challenges posed for identification of sequence changes with possible antigenic impact during virus surveillance.This work was supported in part by grants GR09/0023 (A. N.), GR09/0039 (J. A. M.) and GR09/0040 (I. C.) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III under a special research programme on pandemic flu. Additionally, the Biología Viral Unit is supported currently by grant SAF2012-31217 from Plan Nacional I+D+i.S

RNase H2, mutated in Aicardi-Goutières syndrome, promotes LINE-1 retrotransposition

Long INterspersed Element class 1 (LINE-1) elements are a type of abundant retrotransposons active in mammalian genomes. An average human genome contains ~100 retrotransposition-competent LINE-1s, whose activity is influenced by the combined action of cellular repressors and activators. TREX1, SAMHD1 and ADAR1 are known LINE-1 repressors and when mutated cause the autoinflammatory disorder Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS). Mutations in RNase H2 are the most common cause of AGS, and its activity was proposed to similarly control LINE-1 retrotransposition. It has therefore been suggested that increased LINE-1 activity may be the cause of aberrant innate immune activation in AGS. Here, we establish that, contrary to expectations, RNase H2 is required for efficient LINE-1 retrotransposition. As RNase H1 overexpression partially rescues the defect in RNase H2 null cells, we propose a model in which RNase H2 degrades the LINE-1 RNA after reverse transcription, allowing retrotransposition to be completed. This also explains how LINE-1 elements can retrotranspose efficiently without their own RNase H activity. Our findings appear to be at odds with LINE-1-derived nucleic acids driving autoinflammation in AGS.M.B.-G. is funded by a “Formacion Profesorado Universitario” (FPU) PhD fellowship from the Government of Spain (MINECO, Ref FPU15/03294), and this paper is part of her thesis project (“Epigenetic control of the mobility of a human retrotransposon”). R.V.-A. is funded by a PFIS Fellowship from the Government of Spain (ISCiii, FI16/00413). O.M. is funded by an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship (ALTF 7-2015), the European Commission FP7 (Marie Curie Actions, LTFCOFUND2013, GA-2013-609409) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2ZHP3_158709). S.R.H. is funded by the Government of Spain (MINECO, RYC-2016-21395 and SAF2015-71589-P). A.P.J’s laboratory is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC University Unit grant U127527202). J.L.G.P’s laboratory is supported by CICEFEDER- P12-CTS-2256, Plan Nacional de I+D+I 2008-2011 and 2013-2016 (FISFEDER- PI14/02152), PCIN-2014-115-ERA-NET NEURON II, the European Research Council (ERC-Consolidator ERC-STG-2012-233764), by an International Early Career Scientist grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (IECS-55007420), by The Wellcome Trust-University of Edinburgh Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISFF2) and by a private donation from Ms Francisca Serrano (Trading y Bolsa para Torpes, Granada, Spain)

Changes in PRC1 activity during interphase modulate lineage transition in pluripotent cells

The potential of pluripotent cells to respond to developmental cues and trigger cell differentiation is enhanced during the G1 phase of the cell cycle, but the molecular mechanisms involved are poorly understood. Variations in polycomb activity during interphase progression have been hypothesized to regulate the cell-cycle-phase-dependent transcriptional activation of differentiation genes during lineage transition in pluripotent cells. Here, we show that recruitment of Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1) and associated molecular functions, ubiquitination of H2AK119 and three-dimensional chromatin interactions, are enhanced during S and G2 phases compared to the G1 phase. In agreement with the accumulation of PRC1 at target promoters upon G1 phase exit, cells in S and G2 phases show firmer transcriptional repression of developmental regulator genes that is drastically perturbed upon genetic ablation of the PRC1 catalytic subunit RING1B. Importantly, depletion of RING1B during retinoic acid stimulation interferes with the preference of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) to induce the transcriptional activation of differentiation genes in G1 phase. We propose that incremental enrolment of polycomb repressive activity during interphase progression reduces the tendency of cells to respond to developmental cues during S and G2 phases, facilitating activation of cell differentiation in the G1 phase of the pluripotent cell cycle

Teaching Urology to Undergraduates: A Prospective Survey of What General Practitioners Need to Know

Background: Higher education training in Medicine has considerably evolved in recent years. One of its main goals has been to ensure the training of students as future adequately qualified general practitioners (GPs). Tools need to be developed to evaluate and improve the teaching of Urology at the undergraduate level. Our objective is to identify the knowledge and skills needed in Urology for the real clinical practice of GPs. Methods: An anonymous self-administered survey was carried out among GPs of Primary Care and Emergencies which sought to evaluate urological knowledge and necessary urological skills. The results of the survey were exported and descriptive statistics were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 19.0. Results and limitations: A total of 127 answers were obtained, in which ‘Urological infections’, ‘Renal colic’, ‘PSA levels and screening for prostate cancer’, ‘Benign prostatic hyperplasia’, ‘Hematuria’, ‘Scrotal pain’, ‘Prostate cancer diagnosis’, ‘Bladder cancer diagnosis’, ‘Urinary incontinence’, and ‘Erectile dysfunction’ were rated as Very high or High formative requirements (>75%). Regarding urological skills, ‘Abdominal examination’, ‘Interpretation of urinalysis’, ‘Digital rectal examination’, ‘Genital examination’, and ‘Transurethral catheterization’ were assessed as needing Very high or High training in more than 80% of the surveys. The relevance of urological pathology in clinical practice was viewed as Very high or High in more than 80% of the responses. Conclusions: This study has shown helpful results to establish a differentiated prioritization of urological knowledge and skills in Primary Care and Emergencies. Efforts should be aimed at optimizing the teaching in Urology within the Degree of Medicine which consistently ensures patients’ proper care by future GPs

Suppressive Antibiotic Therapy in Prosthetic Joint Infections: A Multicentre Cohort Study

Objectives: The aim was to describe the effectiveness of suppressive antibiotic treatment (SAT) in routine clinical practice when used in situations in which removal of a prosthetic implant is considered essential for the eradication of an infection, and it cannot be performed. Methods: This was a descriptive retrospective and multicentre cohort study of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) cases managed with SAT. SAT was considered to have failed if a fistula appeared or persisted, if debridement was necessary, if the prosthesis was removed due to persistence of the infection or if uncontrolled symptoms were present. Results: In total, 302 patients were analysed. Two hundred and three of these patients (67.2%) received monotherapy. The most commonly used drugs were tetracyclines (39.7% of patients) (120/302) and cotrimoxazole (35.4% of patients) (107/302). SAT was considered successful in 58.6% (177/302) of the patients (median time administered, 36.5 months; IQR 20.75-59.25). Infection was controlled in 50% of patients at 5 years according to Kaplan-Meier analysis. Resistance development was documented in 15 of 65 (23.1%) of the microbiologically documented cases. SAT failure was associated with age <70 years (sub-hazard ratio (SHR) 1.61, 95% CI 1.1-2.33), aetiology other than Gram-positive cocci (SHR 1.56, 95% CI 1.09-2.27) and location of the prosthesis in the upper limb (SHR 2.4, 95% CI 1.5-3.84). SAT suspension was necessary due to adverse effects in 17 of 302 patients (5.6%). Conclusions: SAT offers acceptable results for patients with PJI when surgical treatment is not performed or when it fails to eradicate the infection