The quality of jobs: the role of job security and the broader institutional context in European comparative case studies

This paper (1) explores workers' experiences of job quality in two economic sectors: manufacturing and knowledge industries. Drawing on comparative empirical research from three case studies in Poland, the UK and Belgium, it highlights tensions between the EU aspiration for 'more and better jobs' and the flexible strategies of companies reacting to market pressures. The objective of this paper is to explore employment security in the country context and to consider how organizations deliver job security in terms of workers' contractual status and its effects on job quality

Promoting Stakeholder Participation in a Learning-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

This research analysed monitoring and evaluation activities based on the Outcome Mapping methodology within the Zimbabwe Secondary Teacher Training Environmental Education Project (St2eep), an education for sustainability initiative in Zimbabwe. The majority of donorfunded environmental education programmes use conventional monitoring and evaluation approaches based on the logical frameworks (logframe) that guide the programme designs and management. Although research indicates significant problems with the implementation of these approaches, there are only a few documented examples of experiences with alternative monitoring and evaluation frameworks. The case of St2eep allowed us to compare three years of experiences with monitoring and evaluation based on the logframe, with two years of monitoring and evaluation based on Outcome Mapping. We evaluate how the project team and the donor organisation, VVOB (the Flemish Office for Development, Cooperation and Technical Assistance), have perceived the performance of Outcome Mapping with regards to the two main aims of monitoring and evaluation activities: accountability and learning. This is complemented with an analysis of monitoring documentation. The project team refers to the collaborative nature of monitoring and evaluation in St2eep, the principles of self-assessment and peer-assessment, combined with public recognition for project successes, as the key factors supporting learning and accountability through monitoring and evaluation in St2eep. The Outcome Mapping-based monitoring and evaluation system is shown to enhance ownership and participation of local stakeholders in the project’s monitoring and evaluation system

Fetal body MRI and its application to fetal and neonatal treatment: an illustrative review

This Review depicts the evolving role of MRI in the diagnosis and prognostication of anomalies of the fetal body, here including head and neck, thorax, abdomen and spine. A review of the current literature on the latest developments in antenatal imaging for diagnosis and prognostication of congenital anomalies is coupled with illustrative cases in true radiological planes with viewable three-dimensional video models that show the potential of post-acquisition reconstruction protocols. We discuss the benefits and limitations of fetal MRI, from anomaly detection, to classification and prognostication, and defines the role of imaging in the decision to proceed to fetal intervention, across the breadth of included conditions. We also consider the current capabilities of ultrasound and explore how MRI and ultrasound can complement each other in the future of fetal imaging

Terminal osseous dysplasia with pigmentary defects and cardiomyopathy caused by a novel FLNA variant

Terminal osseous dysplasia with pigmentary defects (TODPD), also known as digitocutaneous dysplasia, is one of the X‐linked filaminopathies caused by a variety of FLNA‐variants. TODPD is characterized by skeletal defects, skin fibromata and dysmorphic facial features. So far, only a single recurrent variant (c.5217G>A;p.Val1724_Thr1739del) in FLNA has found to be responsible for TODPD. We identified a novel c.5217+5G>C variant in FLNA in a female proband with skeletal defects, skin fibromata, interstitial lung disease, epilepsy, and restrictive cardiomyopathy. This variant causes mis‐splicing of exon 31 predicting the production of a FLNA‐protein with an in‐frame‐deletion of 16 residues identical to the miss‐splicing‐effect of the recurrent TODPD c.5217G>A variant. This mis‐spliced transcript was explicitly detected in heart tissue, but was absent from blood, skin, and lung. X‐inactivation analyses showed extreme skewing with almost complete inactivation of the mutated allele (>90%) in these tissues, except for heart. The mother of the proband, who also has fibromata and skeletal abnormalities, is also carrier of the FLNA‐variant and was diagnosed with noncompaction cardiomyopathy after cardiac screening. No other relevant variants in cardiomyopathy‐related genes were found. Here we describe a novel variant in FLNA (c.5217+5G>C) as the second pathogenic variant responsible for TODPD. Cardiomyopathy has not been described as a phenotypic feature of TODPD before

A systematic review on the use of quantitative imaging to detect cancer therapy adverse effects in normal-appearing brain tissue

Cancer therapy for both central nervous system (CNS) and non-CNS tumors has been previously associated with transient and long-term cognitive deterioration, commonly referred to as ‘chemo fog’. This therapy-related damage to otherwise normal-appearing brain tissue is reported using post-mortem neuropathological analysis. Although the literature on monitoring therapy effects on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is well established, such macroscopic structural changes appear relatively late and irreversible. Early quantitative MRI biomarkers of therapy-induced damage would potentially permit taking these treatment side effects into account, paving the way towards a more personalized treatment planning. This systematic review (PROSPERO number 224196) provides an overview of quantitative tomographic imaging methods, potentially identifying the adverse side effects of cancer therapy in normal-appearing brain tissue. Seventy studies were obtained from the MEDLINE and Web of Science databases. Studies reporting changes in normal-appearing brain tissue using MRI, PET, or SPECT quantitative biomarkers, related to radio-, chemo-, immuno-, or hormone therapy for any kind of solid, cystic, or liquid tumor were included. The main findings of the reviewed studies were summarized, providing also the risk of bias of each study assessed using a modified QUADAS-2 tool. For each imaging method, this review provides the methodological background, and the benefits and shortcomings of each method from the imaging perspective. Finally, a set of recommendations is proposed to support future research