Emerging psychosocial risks and their regulatory dimensions: an international perspective

De acuerdo con las últimas estimaciones a nivel europeo, los riesgos psicosociales tradicionales, y las diferentes formas de violencia laboral en particular, afectan a más de 40 millones de trabajadores en toda Europa (Eurofound, 2017). Los riesgos laborales de origen psicosocial son considerados como un área emergente de estudio, en comparación con los riesgos más relacionados con la seguridad, con la seguridad, salud y bienestar físico que tradicionalmente han acaparado un mayor interés a nivel regulatorio. Las condiciones de trabajo (incluyendo la organización del trabajo, la intensidad del trabajo, los niveles de estrés, estilos de dirección pobres y mala gestión de la conciliación entre la vida personal y profesional) (Eurofound, 2015) están sufriendo nuevos desafíos, debido a factores como la globalización, el empleo precario y la digitalización. Ante esta situación los entornos laborales están evolucionando e introduciendo nuevas formas de trabajo que necesitan ser tratadas por el legislador. En este escenario, la prevención de riesgos psicosociales a través de la regulación juega un papel clave en la protección de la seguridad, salud y bienestar ocupacional de los trabajadores. Teniendo en cuenta este contexto cabe preguntarse si la actual normativa soporta la gestión efectiva de estos riesgos. El solo hecho de continuar haciendo las cosas de la misma manera a nivel normativo ha demostrado no ser el camino adecuado. La realidad es que los riesgos psicosociales (tradicionales y emergentes) no son correctamente reportados, reconocidos, regulados y protegidos por la regulación nacional e internacional en su mayoría. Son frecuentemente desatendidos por regulación en materia de seguridad y salud ocupacional y de derecho laboral, lo que provoca que sean menos efectivos cuando se trata de superar barreras legales. A pesar de esto, un deber general de protección y la obligación de promover la salud y el bienestar en el entorno laboral (física, psicológica, moral y social) en el entorno laboral es una de las características claves de las actuales relaciones laborales. El objeto de esta investigación es analizar el panorama normativo y regulador de los riesgos psicosociales, incluyendo aquellos mecanismos legales que aplican a estos riesgos, a través de la investigación de las posibilidades y las limitaciones en las intervenciones reguladoras en este ámbito. Este proyecto de investigación se ha basado en una revisión bibliográfica de literatura y normativa para identificar las estrategias de regulación en gestión de riesgos psicosociales y entender como los actuales tratamientos han funcionado hasta ahora. Además, se concibió un cuestionario para ayudar a enmarcar el contexto de las preguntas de investigación usadas durante la fase final de la investigación, caracterizada por una serie de entrevistas con diferentes profesionales para tratar no sólo estas cuestiones sino otras materias como las percepciones públicas y sociales de esta problemática o como estos riesgos han sido tratado en diferentes marcos reguladores. Los participantes en este proyecto forman un elenco multidisciplinar con interés en el área de riesgos psicosociales categorizados de la siguiente manera: - Expertos en regulación o en derecho. - Expertos académicos o en investigación. - Profesionales de seguridad y salud ocupacional. - Expertos en el área de gestión de riesgos psicosociales, consultores en áreas de bienestar, salud y condiciones de trabajo. Este proyecto ayudará a determinar lo que funciona y no funciona en regulación de riesgos psicosociales y proporcionará una imagen actualizada de como interaccionan las intervenciones en materia reguladora con normas y percepciones sociales.According to the latest figures, traditional psychosocial risks, and work-related forms of violence, in particular, affect more than 40 million workers across Europe (Eurofound, 2017). Work-related psychosocial risks are considered as an emerging object of study, in comparison to more traditional safety risks associated with physical health, safety and wellbeing, which attract a greater interest at a policy level. Working conditions (including work organisation, work intensity, stress levels, poor management, poor work–life balance) (Eurofound, 2015) are facing new challenges, due to factors such as precarious employment, globalisation and digitalisation. Working environments are evolving and introducing new forms of work that need to be addressed by policymakers. In this scenario, psychosocial risk prevention regulations will play a key role in protecting workers’ occupational safety and health (OSH) and wellbeing. Considering the context, are current laws making any difference?. Just carrying on doing the same things at a regulatory level has not demonstrated to be the right way forward. Arguably traditional and emerging psychosocial hazards aren’t being properly reported, recognised, regulated and protected against by most national or international regulations. They are frequently neglected by occupational safety and health and labour law regulations, which makes them less effective to overcome legal obstacles. Still, a general duty of care and the obligation to promote wellbeing (physical, psychological, moral and social) remain as key obligations for employers to comply with. The aim of this research is to review the policy and regulatory landscape for psychosocial risks, including those legal mechanisms applicable to emerging psychosocial risks, by researching the potential and shortcoming of policy interventions for psychosocial risks. The research involved a literature and policy review (grey literature) to help identify regulatory and policy strategies that tackle psychosocial risks and to understand how policy approaches have worked. In addition, a questionnaire was devised to help to settle the context for research questions used during the final stage of the research – a series of semi-structured interviews with different professionals to address not only the research questions but also public and social perceptions of how these risks have been tackled in their respective frameworks. Respondents represent a cross-section of professionals with an interest in different fields of psychosocial risks, categorised as follows: - policy experts; law/regulation experts. - research/academic experts. - occupational safety and health professionals. - psychosocial experts; consultants in the areas of wellbeing, health. The research findings will show what works and what doesn’t work in the regulation of psychosocial risks, by providing a broad picture and a wealth of information of how policy interventions in this area have interacted with norms and influence cultural perceptions.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en DerechoPresidente: Cristóbal Molina Navarrete ; Secretario: Sofía Olarte Encabo ; Vocal: Loïc Leroug

Why we need to review consent in the context of sexual violence?

Resumen. La violencia sexual está ampliamente arraigada y es un problema sistémico a nivel mundial. En su tratamiento jurídico esta problemática todavía es trivializada y carece de la debida relevancia en la agenda normativa. El incremento de sucesos mediáticos y una mayor visibilizacion de debates públicos en relación con el consentimiento en el contexto de la violencia sexual demuestran que existe una imperiosa necesidad de redefinir que constituye el consentimiento en el marco jurídico. Este término con un marcado enfoque de género todavía se enmarca en un espacio relacionado con la violencia sexual que no ha sido deliberadamente analizado por parte del legislador ni acompasado con los actuales tiempos.En este ámbito los legisladores han estado históricamente predispuestos por estereoti­pos culturales y normas sociales impuestas que han limitado un progreso natural en cómo se entiende e interpreta el consenso. La necesidad de abordar este debate a nivel nacional viene determinada por una mayor casuística existente en otras jurisdicciones (en su gran mayoría a nivel europeo) en la definición por parte de la ley sobre que es el consentimiento sexual. Ante esta situación cabe cuestionarse, ¿está el marco jurídico preparado para abordar esta problemática?Palabras clave: consentimiento, violencia sexual, abuso sexual, vionencia de géneroAbstract. Sexual violence is widespread and systemic worldwide**. At a legal level this issue still remains trivialised and largely neglected from the regulatory agenda. The increasing amount of protests and public debates following particular cases on issues related to consent in the context of sexual violence demonstrate the urgent need to redefine what constitutes sexual consent in the legal context. This term that entails a gender-based sexual violence con­notations still lacks from clarity from the perspective of a collective understanding. As a perva­sive issue it still requires fit for purpose regulations and to keep pace with times.In the legal scene legislators have been historically biased by cultural imposed stereotypes and social norms that have limited a natural progress in the way consent is understood and inter­preted. The need to address this legal debate at a national is justified by an increasing progress made in other jurisdictions (significant progress in European jurisdictions) in the definition of sexual consent in law. In order to address the issue the question that’s worth formulating is if the current regulatory framework for sexual consent law is appropriate from a legal standpoint.Keywords: consent, sexual violence, gender-based violence

Evaluación Superficial del Pavimento Flexible Aplicando el Método del PCI en un tramo de la Av. República de Polonia – Distrito de San Juan de Lurigancho

En la tesis “Evaluación Superficial del Pavimento Flexible Aplicando el Método del PCI en un tramo de la Av. República de Polonia – Distrito de San Juan de Lurigancho” tiene como objetivo principal realizar la evaluación superficial del pavimento flexible en un tramo de la Av. República de Polonia aplicando el método (PCI), con el fin de conocer la condición del pavimento flexible existente. El método (PCI); constituye el modo más completo para la evaluación y calificación objetiva de pavimentos, siendo ampliamente aceptado y formalmente adoptado como procedimiento estandarizado, y ha sido publicado por la ASTM como método de análisis y aplicación. Se desarrolló para obtener un índice de la integridad estructural del pavimento y de la condición operacional de la superficie, valor que cuantifica el estado en que se encuentra el pavimento para su respectivo tratamiento y mantenimiento. Se determinó que el 100 por ciento de la avenida no ha sido evaluado; por lo tanto con la aplicación de la metodología PCI, identificando los parámetros de evaluación, determinando el índice de condición y obteniendo la condición del pavimento, finalmente se puede realizar la evaluación superficial del pavimento para obtener el estado de conservación de las vías arteriales en estudio. Al realizar la evaluación superficial del pavimento flexible mediante el método Pavement Condition Index, en un tramo de la Av. República de Polonia se conoce que el estado de conservación en la sección 1 es “Malo” con un PCI de 26, mientras que la sección 2 presenta un estado de conservación “Bueno” con un PCI de 61

Learning Optimal Dynamic Treatment Regimes from Longitudinal Data

Studies often report estimates of the average treatment effect. While the ATE summarizes the effect of a treatment on average, it does not provide any information about the effect of treatment within any individual. A treatment strategy that uses an individual's information to tailor treatment to maximize benefit is known as an optimal dynamic treatment rule. Treatment, however, is typically not limited to a single point in time; consequently, learning an optimal rule for a time-varying treatment may involve not just learning the extent to which the comparative treatments' benefits vary across the characteristics of individuals, but also learning the extent to which the comparative treatments' benefits vary as relevant circumstances evolve within an individual. The goal of this paper is to provide a tutorial for estimating ODTR from longitudinal observational and clinical trial data for applied researchers. We describe an approach that uses a doubly-robust unbiased transformation of the conditional average treatment effect. We then learn a time-varying ODTR for when to increase buprenorphine-naloxone dose to minimize return-to-regular-opioid-use among patients with opioid use disorder. Our analysis highlights the utility of ODTRs in the context of sequential decision making: the learned ODTR outperforms a clinically defined strategy.Comment: Accepted for publication in American Journal of Epidemiolog

Resolving spin currents and spin densities generated by charge-spin interconversion in systems with reduced crystal symmetry

The ability to control the generation of spins in arbitrary directions is a long-sought goal in spintronics. Charge to spin interconversion (CSI) phenomena depend strongly on symmetry. Systems with reduced crystal symmetry allow anisotropic CSI with unconventional components, where charge and spin currents and the spin polarization are not mutually perpendicular to each other. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that the CSI in graphene-WTe induces spins with components in all three spatial directions. By performing multi-terminal nonlocal spin precession experiments, with specific magnetic fields orientations, we discuss how to disentangle the CSI from the spin Hall and inverse spin galvanic effects.We acknowledge support of the European Union's Horizon 2020 FET-PROACTIVE project TOCHA under Grant No. 824140 and of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI), Ministry of Science and Innovation, under Contracts No. PID2019-111773RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and SEV-2017-0706 Severo Ochoa. J F S acknowledges support from AEIunder contract RYC2019-028368-I/AEI/10.13039/50110001103, W S T and M V C from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Grant No. 881603 (Graphene Flagship), and I F A of a fellowship from 'la Caixa' Foundation (ID 100010434) with code LCF/BQ/DI18/11660030 and of H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant No. 713673. J S acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754558

Unprecedented Scissor Effect of Macromolecular Cross-linkers on the Glass Transition Temperature of Poly(N-vinylimidazole), Crystallinity Suppression of Poly(tetrahydrofuran) and Molecular Mobility by Solid State NMR in Poly(N-vinylimidazole)-l-poly(tetrahydrofuran) Conetworks

Unexpected correlations have been found between structural parameters and glass transition temperatures (Tg) of poly(N-vinylimidazole) (PVIm) and crystallinity of poly(tetrahydrofuran) (PTHF) in a series of novel, unique PVIm-l-PTHF amphiphilic conetworks synthesized in broad composition ranges via free radical copolymerisation of VIm and semicrystalline, methacrylate-telechelic PTHF macromolecular cross-linkers with varying Mn from 2170 to 10 000 g mol−1. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) investigations revealed microphase separation between the covalently bonded PVIm and PTHF components, that is two distinct Tgs corresponding to the respective polymers (PVIm and PTHF) were obtained in these optically clear, transparent materials. Complete microphase separation, i.e. absence of mixed phases, was also confirmed by solid state NMR measurements. The Tg of the PVIm phase significantly decreases with increasing PTHF content, and Fox–Flory type correlation was surprisingly found between the Tg of PVIm and its Mc (average molecular weight between cross-links). This striking finding indicates a unique, unpredicted scissor effect of the macromolecular PTHF cross-linker in these materials, i.e. with respect to glass transition, PVIm behaves as individual chains between cross-links. The molecular mobility in the PVIm chain segments obtained by solid state NMR investigations shows a similar trend as a function of Mc. In the DSC thermograms, the semicrystalline PTHF has a sharp endothermic melting peak (Tm) indicating partial crystallisation of this polymer. It was found that the Tm and the crystalline fraction (Xc) of the PTHF phase are suppressed by even a minimal content of PVIm phase in the conetworks. Even complete diminishing of Xc occurs in conetworks with lower than 40 wt% PTHF of the lowest Mn (2170 g mol−1). Unexpectedly, Tm linearly decreases with Mc in conetworks with constant Mn of PTHF. These data indicate that the decrease of both Tm and Xc of PTHF is not only composition dependent, but the MW of the macromolecular PTHF cross-linker and the Mc of the PVIm component also have effects on these parameters. These results also indicate that chemical bonding of polymer chains in conetworks yields novel materials with unprecedented property variation. This provides unique opportunities for fine tuning of the investigated fundamental material properties, i.e. Tg, Tm and Xc, within certain ranges in the novel PVIm-l-PTHF amphiphilic conetworks by selecting the proper synthesis parameters, that is, composition and MW of the telechelic PTHF macromonomer cross-linker

Recombinant anticoccidial vaccines - a cup half full?

Eimeria species parasites can cause the disease coccidiosis, most notably in chickens. The occurrence of coccidiosis is currently controlled through a combination of good husbandry, chemoprophylaxis and/or live parasite vaccination; however, scalable, cost-effective subunit or recombinant vaccines are required. Many antigens have been proposed for use in novel anticoccidial vaccines, supported by the capacity to reduce disease severity or parasite replication, increase body weight gain in the face of challenge or improve feed conversion under experimental conditions, but none has reached commercial development. Nonetheless, the protection against challenge induced by some antigens has been within the lower range described for the ionophores against susceptible isolates or current live vaccines prior to oocyst recycling. With such levels of efficacy it may be that combinations of anticoccidial antigens already described are sufficient for development as novel multi-valent vaccines, pending identification of optimal delivery systems. Selection of the best antigens to be included in such vaccines can be informed by knowledge defining the natural occurrence of specific antigenic diversity, with relevance to the risk of immediate vaccine breakthrough, and the rate at which parasite genomes can evolve new diversity. For Eimeria, such data are now becoming available for antigens such as apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) and immune mapped protein 1 (IMP1) and more are anticipated as high-capacity, high-throughput sequencing technologies become increasingly accessible

Leaching of pure chalcocite with reject brine and MnO2 from manganese

Chalcocite (Cu2S) has the fastest kinetics of dissolution of Cu in chlorinated media of all copper sulfide minerals. Chalcocite has been identified as having economic interest due to its abundance, although the water necessary for its dissolution is scarce in many regions. In this work, the replacement of fresh water by sea water or by reject brine with high chloride content from desalination plants is analyzed. Additionally, the effect of adding MnO2 from available manganese nodules in vast quantities at the bottom of the sea is studied. Reject brine shows better results than sea water, and the addition of MnO2 to the brine significantly increases the kinetics of chalcocite dissolution in a short time. H2SO4 concentration is found to be irrelevant when working at high concentrations of chloride and MnO2. The best results, 71% Cu extractions in 48 h, are obtained for reject brine, 100 mg of MnO2 per 200 g of mineral and H2SO4 0.5 mol/L. The results are expected to contribute to a sustainable process of dissolution of chalcocite by using the reject brine from desalination plantsThe authors thank the Scientific Equipment Unit-MAINI of the Universidad Católica del Norte for all the chemical analyses in this work. The authors are grateful for the contribution of the Scientific Equipment Unit-MAINI of the Universidad Católica del Norte for facilitating the chemical analysis of the solutions. Pedro Robles thanks the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso for the support provided. Pedro G. Toledo and Ricardo I. Jeldres thank Centro CRHIAM Project Anid/Fondap/15130015