4,192 research outputs found
Two hearts and a loan? Mortgages, employment insecurity and earnings among young couples in six European countries
Homeownership is increasingly understood by policy makers and social scientists as a fundamental asset against poverty risks, especially in times of economic uncertainty. However, in several Western countries, homeownership among younger generations appears to be increasingly difficult to achieve, likely a result of growing employment instability and stringent criteria to access credit. This article uses multinomial logistic models and nationally representative EU-SILC data from six European countries to examine (a) to what extent precarious employment among young couples is linked to being a mortgage holder; (b) whether earned income can compensate for employment instability in being a mortgagee; (c) cross-national differences in the relationship between being a mortgage holder, earnings, and employment insecurity. Our results indicate that the higher the levels of employment insecurity, the lower the chances of being a mortgage holder in all countries. Moreover, we find that at a given level of employment insecurity, households with higher levels of earned income have higher chances of being mortgage holders than households with lower earned income. However, while earned income has a stronger effect in achieving a mortgage among couples who have secure employment in Italy, earnings are more important among couples with lower levels of employment security in France, the UK, Spain and Poland. These results suggest that the relationship between social inequalities and housing is partially mediated by the national context
Multi-Component Sequential Synthesis of Dihydroorotic Acid-Based Amphiphilic Molecules
An efficient multicomponent sequential process, which occurs
in mild condition has been exploited for the synthesis of systematically
modified amphiphilic molecules where the cationic head is tethered
to a lipophilic tail through a dihydroorotic acid linker. The process
is operatively simple, high yielding, and flexible. Such a strategy could
impact combinatorial synthesis of wide libraries of amphiphilic molecules
to be tested as transfection agents and/or as antimicrobials
School-based sexual health education interventions to prevent STI/HIV in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis
This is the final version of the article. Available from BioMed Central via the DOI in this record.BACKGROUND: School-based sexual health education has the potential to provide an inclusive and comprehensive approach to promoting sexual health among young people. We reviewed evaluations of school-based sexual health education interventions in sub-Saharan Africa to assess effectiveness in reducing sexually transmitted infections and promoting condom use. METHODS: We searched ten electronic databases, hand-searched key journals, and reference lists of included articles for potential studies. Data were extracted on outcomes, intervention characteristics, methods and study characteristics indicative of methodological quality. Where possible, data were synthesized using random effect meta-analysis. Intervention features found predominantly in effective interventions were noted. RESULTS: The initial search retrieved 21634 potentially relevant citations. Of these, 51 papers reporting on 31 interventions were included. No evaluation reported statistically significant effects on the incidence or prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Herpes Simplex Virus 2 infections. However, intervention participants reported statistically significant greater condom use in both randomised controlled trials and non-randomised trials for short (less than 6 months) follow-up periods (OR = 1.62, 95 % CI = 1.03-2.55 and OR = 2.88, 95 % CI = 1.41-5.90 respectively). For intermediate (6-10 months) and long-term (more than 10 months) follow-up periods, the effect was statistically significant (OR = 1.40, 95 % CI = 1.16-1.68) and marginally significant (OR = 1.22, 95 % CI = 0.99-1.50) among the randomised trials respectively. Only 12 of the 31 interventions reported implementation details, out of which seven reported on fidelity. CONCLUSION: School-based sexual health education has the potential to promote condom use among young people in sub-Saharan Africa. However, further work is needed to develop and evaluate interventions that have measurable effects on sexually transmitted infections.This work presents independent research funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), School for Public Health research and the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care of the South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC). The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of NIHR, the University of Exeter or the UK Department of Health
Functional Sequential Treatment Allocation
Consider a setting in which a policy maker assigns subjects to treatments,
observing each outcome before the next subject arrives. Initially, it is
unknown which treatment is best, but the sequential nature of the problem
permits learning about the effectiveness of the treatments. While the
multi-armed-bandit literature has shed much light on the situation when the
policy maker compares the effectiveness of the treatments through their mean,
much less is known about other targets. This is restrictive, because a cautious
decision maker may prefer to target a robust location measure such as a
quantile or a trimmed mean. Furthermore, socio-economic decision making often
requires targeting purpose specific characteristics of the outcome
distribution, such as its inherent degree of inequality, welfare or poverty. In
the present paper we introduce and study sequential learning algorithms when
the distributional characteristic of interest is a general functional of the
outcome distribution. Minimax expected regret optimality results are obtained
within the subclass of explore-then-commit policies, and for the unrestricted
class of all policies
The primordial environment of super massive black holes: large scale galaxy overdensities around QSOs with LBT
We investigated the presence of galaxy overdensities around four
QSOs, namely SDSS J1030+0524 (z = 6.28), SDSS J1148+5251 (z = 6.41), SDSS
J1048+4637 (z = 6.20) and SDSS J1411+1217 (z = 5.95), through deep -, -
and - band imaging obtained with the wide-field () Large
Binocular Camera (LBC) at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). We adopted
color-color selections within the vs plane to identify samples of
-band dropouts at the QSO redshift and measure their relative abundance and
spatial distribution in the four LBC fields, each covering
physical Mpc at . The same selection criteria were then applied to
-band selected sources in the 1 deg Subaru-XMM Newton Deep Survey
to derive the expected number of dropouts over a blank LBC-sized field
(0.14 deg). The four observed QSO fields host a number of candidates
larger than what is expected in a blank field. By defining as -band dropouts
objects with and undetected in the -band, we found
16, 10, 9, 12 dropouts in SDSS J1030+0524, SDSS J1148+5251, SDSS J1048+4637,
and SDSS J1411+1217, respectively, whereas only 4.3 such objects are expected
over a 0.14 deg blank field. This corresponds to overdensity significances
of 3.3, 1.9, 1.7, 2.5, respectively. By considering the total number of
dropouts in the four LBC fields and comparing it with what is expected in four
blank fields of 0.14 deg each, we find that high-z QSOs reside in overdense
environments at the level. This is the first direct and unambiguous
measurement of the large scale structures around QSOs. [shortened]Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
Response of Oyster Shell Ash Blended Cement Concrete in Sulphuric Acid Environment
An experimental investigation was carried out to study the potentials of oyster shell ash (OSA) to be used as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) exposed to sulphuric acid environment. Experiments were carried out by supplementing 5 – 20 % of OSA by weight of cement in concrete. The mix ratio used was 1:2:4 (binder, sand and granite) with water cement ratio maintained at 0.5. A total of 320 cube specimens (150mm x 150mm x 150mm) were cast and tested for compressive strength at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of curing in potable tap water and (5, 7.5 and 10 %) sulphuric acid solutions. It has been deduced that the compressive strength of concrete specimen progressively increased with longer curing periods and decreased with OSA content for specimen immersed in water whereas for specimen immersed in sulphuric acid solutions the compressive strength decreased with longer curing period, OSA content as well as sulphuric acid content. Generally, results of the statistical analysis showed that sulphuric acid concentrations, OSA contents and curing periods have significant effect on the compressive strength of concrete. The use of OSA as SCM did not mitigate the adverse effects of sulphuric acid on the compressive strength of cement blended with OSA. Keywords: Compressive strength, Oyster shell ash, Statistical analysis, Sulphuric acid environment, supplementary cementitious material DOI: 10.7176/CER/11-4-07 Publication date:May 31st 201
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International survey of Cronobacter sakazakii and other Cronobacter spp. in follow up formulas and infant food
A coordinated survey for Cronobacter and related organisms in powdered infant formula, follow up formula and infant foods was undertaken by 8 laboratories in 7 countries in recognition of and in response to the data needs identified in an FAO/WHO call for data in order to develop global risk management guidance for these products. The products (domestic and imported) were purchased from the local market and were categorised according to their principle ingredients. A total of 290 products were analysed using a standardised procedure of pre-enrichment in 225 ml Buffered Peptone Water (BPW), followed by enrichment in Enterobacteriaceae Enrichment (EE) broth, plating on the chromogenic Cronobacter Druggan–Forsythe–Iversen (DFI) agar and presumptive identification with ID 32 E. Presumptive Cronobacter isolates were identified using 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. Aerobic plate counts (APC) of the products were also determined on nutrient agar. Fourteen samples had APC > 105 cfu/g, 3 of which contained probiotic cultures. C. sakazakii was isolated from 27 products; 3/91 (3%) follow up formulas (as defined by Codex Alimentarius Commission), and 24/199 (12%) infant foods and drinks. Hence C. sakazakii was less prevalent in follow up formula than other foods given to infants over the same age range. A range of other bacteria were also isolated from follow up formulas, including Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Citrobacter freundii, and Serratia ficaria. There was significant variation in the reconstitution instructions for follow up formulas. These included using water at temperatures which would enable bacterial growth. Additionally, the definition of follow up formula varied between countries
The pain of low status: the relationship between subjective socio-economic status and analgesic prescriptions in a Scottish community sample
There is a strong positive relationship between objective measures of socioeconomic status (OSS) and general health. However, there is an increasing interest in the relationship between health and subjective socioeconomic status (SSS), which describes one’s perceived rank in relation to the rest of society, based on factors such as income, occupation, and education. While the relationship between SSS and general health is well2established, the relationship between SSS and pain has received little attention. Gathering both self2report questionnaire data and General Practitioner medical data from a large representative community sample in Scotland between 2012 and 2013 ( N = 1824), we investigated the relationship between SSS and prescriptions for analgesic drugs. We found that higher levels of SSS significantly predicted lower odds of participants having been prescribed at least one analgesic drug in the previous six months. We obtained this result even after controlling for OSS2related variables (education, occupational status, and geographical location) and demographic variables (age and gender). This suggests that, just like the relationship between SSS and general health, SSS has important effects on pain that go beyond the influence of OSS
Molecular analysis of a sunflower gene encoding an homologous of the B subunit of a CAAT binding factor
A genomic DNA fragment containing the
complete LEAFY COTYLEDON1-LIKE (HaL1L) gene was
retrieved by chromosome walking. Its sequence was confirmed
and elongated by screening a sunflower genomic
DNA BAC Library. HaL1L, whose cDNA had already
been sequenced and characterized, encodes a NF-YB subunit
of a CCAAT box-binding factor (NF-Y) involved in
the early stages of zygotic and somatic embryogenesis in
the Helianthus genus. In the HaL1L 50-flanking region,
elements specific to a putative TATA-box promoter and
two ‘‘CG isles’’ were identified. An investigation of the
methylation status of these CG rich DNA regions showed
that differentially methylated cytosines were recognizable
in the DNA of embryos on the fifth day after pollination in
comparison to leaf DNA suggesting that during plant
development epigenetic regulation of HaL1L transcription
was achieved by methylating cytosine residues. We also
searched the HaL1L nucleotide sequence for cis-regulatory
elements able to interact with other transcription factors
(TFs) involved in the HaL1L regulation. Of the elements
identified, one of the most intriguing is WUSATA, the
target sequence for the WUSCHEL (WUS) TF, which may
be part of a complex regulation network controlling
embryo development. In this article, we show that the
WUSATA target site, located in the intron of HaL1L, is
able to bind the TF WUS. Interestingly, we found auxin
and abscisic acid responsive motifs in the HaL1L promoter
region suggesting that this gene may additionally by under
hormonal control. Finally, the presence of a cytoplasmic
polyadenylation signal downstream to the coding region
indicates that this gene may also be controlled at the
translation level by a temporarily making the pre-synthesized
HaL1L mRNA unavailable for protein synthesis
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