Evaluating welfare reform under program heterogeneity and alternative measures of success

This paper aims at presenting an assessment of welfare reforms under a framework of program heterogeneity and alternative measures of success. We focus on a specific welfare program –Madrid’s Ingreso Madrileño de Integración (IMI)– which comprises heterogeneous subprograms. We test whether work-related subprograms perform better than general activities aimed at improving life skills. We also try to identify which work-related subprogram works best. The availability of a large database of administrative records (over 50,000 spells) matched with a special survey conducted for former welfare recipients makes possible to develop different types of evaluation strategies on the basis of multiple participation states. Our results show that intensive employment activities yield remarkably better results than general work-related schemes or life skills activities. However, increasing work participation does not automatically lift participants out of material hardship.welfare, poverty, program evaluation, multiple treatments.

Significado psicológico de vida y muerte en jóvenes

Abstract. The objective was to investigate the psychological meaning of life and death for young people. The investigation was conducted with 60 subjects of both sexes, distributed equally. The technique of natural semantic networks was used and the applications were made collective. It was found that life was defined by women in terms of enjoyment, problems and emotional attachments, in comparison to men who related to life's biological and natural aspects. Regarding death, both groups experienced bereavement stages; however, women manifested these aspects more openly, in contrast to men who mentioned the consequences and favorable aspects of death. The study did not lose sight of the fact that one's conception of life and death depends to a great extent on one's social and cultural context.

PVF1/PVR signaling and apoptosis promotes the rotation and dorsal closure of the Drosophila male terminalia

The Drosophila adult male terminalia originate from the genital disc. During the pupal stages, the external parts of terminalia evert from two ventral stalks; the everted left and right dorsal halves fuse at the dorsal midline. At the same time the male terminalia perform a 360 clockwise rotation. Several mutations are known to affect the rotation of the male terminalia, while none is known to affect dorsal closure. We show here that the Pvf1 gene, encoding one of the three Drosophila homologues of the mammalian VEGF/PDGF growth factors, is required for both processes. Males either mutant for Pvf1 or bearing a dominant negative form of Pvr or stasis (stai), the unique PVF receptor, do not complete either rotation or dorsal closure. Pvf1 expression in the genital disc is restricted to the A8 cells. However, PVF1/PVR signaling influences A8, A9 and A10 cells, suggesting that the PVF1 protein diffuses from its source. Flies hemizygous for the apoptotic genes hid, reaper and grim, or mutant for puckered which encodes a phosphatase that down-regulates the n-Jun-N terminal kinase pathway, lead to the same phenotypes as mutations in PVF1/PVR. Our results indicate that PVF1/PVR signaling functions not only in apoptotic phenomena but are also required during rotation and dorsal closure of the Drosophila male genital disc.Fil: Macias, Ana Maria. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Romero, Nuria Magdalena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Martín, Francisco. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; EspañaFil: Suárez, Leonardo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Rosa, Alberto Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Morata, Ginés. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Españ

Tooth morphology of Echimyidae (Rodentia, Caviomorpha): homology assessments, fossils, and evolution

Echimyidae constitute the most important radiation of caviomorph rodents in the Neotropical region, represented by 20 extant genera and several extinct species. Both in extant and fossil forms, this diversity is reflected by a significant morphological variation found in crown structures of the cheek teeth. Different hypotheses of primary homology have been proposed for these structures, which, in turn, support diverse dental evolutionary hypotheses. In this contribution we inspect the main structures (cusps and lophids) of the lower deciduous teeth and molars in extinct and extant Echimyidae, and establish their topological correspondences. Comparisons with cusps and lophids of Erethizontidae are emphasized. We explore the testing of alternative primary hypotheses of lophid correspondences in a cladistic context. Following a 'dynamic' approach, we select the hypothesis of primary homology, which produced the more parsimonious results, and evaluate the evolutionary transformations of the dental characters analysed. In this context, the phylogenetic relationships of living Myocastor coypus (Molina, 1782) with the extinct Tramyocastor and Paramyocastor are tested. Our results indicate that pentalophodonty is the derived condition for the lower molars in Echimyidae, that trilophodonty evolved independently at least three times during the evolutionary history of these rodents, and that tetralophodonty represents the plesiomorphic condition. This study shows that dental evolution in echimyids can be better understood when occlusal structures are expressed as reliably comparable characters, and when fossils are taken into account.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Tooth morphology of Echimyidae (Rodentia, Caviomorpha): Homology assessments, fossils, and evolution

Echimyidae constitute the most important radiation of caviomorph rodents in the Neotropical region, represented by 20 extant genera and several extinct species. Both in extant and fossil forms, this diversity is reflected by a significant morphological variation found in crown structures of the cheek teeth. Different hypotheses of primary homology have been proposed for these structures, which, in turn, support diverse dental evolutionary hypotheses. In this contribution we inspect the main structures (cusps and lophids) of the lower deciduous teeth and molars in extinct and extant Echimyidae, and establish their topological correspondences. Comparisons with cusps and lophids of Erethizontidae are emphasized. We explore the testing of alternative primary hypotheses of lophid correspondences in a cladistic context. Following a 'dynamic' approach, we select the hypothesis of primary homology, which produced the more parsimonious results, and evaluate the evolutionary transformations of the dental characters analysed. In this context, the phylogenetic relationships of living Myocastor coypus (Molina, 1782) with the extinct Tramyocastor and Paramyocastor are tested. Our results indicate that pentalophodonty is the derived condition for the lower molars in Echimyidae, that trilophodonty evolved independently at least three times during the evolutionary history of these rodents, and that tetralophodonty represents the plesiomorphic condition. This study shows that dental evolution in echimyids can be better understood when occlusal structures are expressed as reliably comparable characters, and when fossils are taken into account.Fil: Candela, Adriana Magdalena. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleontología Vertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Rasia, Luciano Luis. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleontología Vertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentin

Conservation of the noetherianity by perfect transcendental field extensions

Let k be a perfect field of characteristic p>0, k(t)per the perfect closure of k(t) and A a k-algebra. We characterize whether the ring A⊗kk(t)per is noetherian when A is the ring of formal power series in n indeterminates over k.Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior e Investigación Científic

How Do Modeling Choices and Erosion Zone Locations Impact the Representation of Connectivity and the Dynamics of Suspended Sediments in a Multi-Source Soil Erosion Model?

[Abstract] Soil erosion and suspended sediment transport understanding is an important issue in terms of soil and water resources management in the critical zone. In mesoscale watersheds (>10 km2) the spatial distribution of potential sediment sources within the catchment associated with rainfall dynamics is considered to be the main factor in the observed suspended sediment flux variability within and between runoff events. Given the high spatial heterogeneity that can exist for such scales of interest, distributed physically based models of soil erosion and sediment transport are powerful tools to distinguish the specific effect of structural and functional connectivity on suspended sediment flux dynamics. As the spatial discretization of a model and its parameterization can crucially influence how the structural connectivity of the catchment is represented in the model, this study analyzed the impact of modeling choices in terms of the contributing drainage area (CDA) threshold to define the river network and of Manning's roughness parameter (n) on the sediment flux variability at the outlet of two geomorphologically distinct watersheds. While the modeled liquid and solid discharges were found to be sensitive to these choices, the patterns of the modeled source contributions remained relatively similar when the CDA threshold was restricted to the range of 15 to 50 ha, with n restricted to the range 0.4–0.8 on the hillslopes and to 0.025–0.075 in the river. The comparison of the two catchments showed that the actual location of sediment sources was more important than the choices made during discretization and parameterization of the model. Among the various structural connectivity indicators used to describe the geological sources, the mean distance to the stream was the most relevant proxy for the temporal characteristics of the modeled sedigraphs.Francia. Agence Nationale de la Recherche; ANR-11-EQPX-0011This research has been supported by the Draix Bléone and OHMCV long-term observatories, funded by the National Institute of Science of the Universe, for access to datasets and the OZCAR research infrastructure (grant no. ANR-11-EQPX-0011)

Terapéutica biológica en oftalmología

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Basic learning of form

“Form is ‘what’, Design is ‘how’” (Kahn, 1960). Learning about the formal universe and the wide range of possibilities it offers should be one of the purposes of the early subjects in architectural studies. This article aims to explain the contents of a first course of architectural design and demonstrate how, using a methodology based on precise theoretical-practical tools and an active pedagogical dynamic, results are obtained that, on average, are very satisfactory. It shows that in twelve weeks’ time, students have acquired the tools they need to approach any design problem from its formPeer Reviewe