A gyermekvállalás időzítésével kapcsolatos lakossági attitűdök egyes bizonytalansági tényezők tükrében

A fiatalok felnőtté válásának folyamata napjainkban nemcsak egyre későbbi életkorra tolódik ki, de sokszor a mérföldkövek hagyományos sorrendje is felborul. Az egyének maguk építhetik fel ugyan életútjukat, de a döntés és a következményekért történő felelősségvállalás szintén rájuk hárul. Ezzel párhuzamosan a globalizáció által generált gazdasági és társadalmi változások a bizonytalanság növekedését eredményezik az állami, a piaci és az egyéni szereplők szintjén egyaránt. A fiataloknak nemcsak hogy nem állnak rendelkezésükre minták, de az életüket hosszú távra meghatározó döntéseiket ebben a megváltozott, bizonytalan térben kell meghozniuk. Válaszul sokszor elhalasztják a fiatal felnőttkor egyes életeseményeit. Tanulmányunkban a társadalmi gondolkodás oldaláról vizsgáltuk meg a szülővé válás időzítését. A European Social Survey 2008. évi adatai segítségével megmutatjuk egyrészt, mi befolyásolja az egyének elképzeléseit a gyermekvállalás "ideális" életkori normájáról. Másrészt, hogy a közvélemény mely tényezőkben látja a "késői" gyermekvállalás fő okait, s a vélemények miként változnak az alapvető társadalmi és demográfiai ismérvek szerint. Elemzéseinkben kiemelt figyelmet fordítunk a munkanélküliség és az általános bizonytalanság hatására, valamint a szülővé válásra legesélyesebb 26–35 éves korcsoportra.

Nagyobb kockázat, nagyobb növekedési ütem - kockázat nélkül nincs növekedés! Hozzászólás Thomas Piketty A tőke a 21. században című könyvéhez (Why are interest rates higher than growth rates? A comment on Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century)

E rövid írás aktualitását az adja, hogy nemrégen jelent meg magyarul Thomas Piketty híres könyve: A tőke a 21. században. A könyv központi gondolata, hogy az elmúlt kétszáz év átlagában a gazdaság átlagos növekedési üteme, a g jelentősen elmarad az r értékétől, vagyis a tőke átlagos hozamától. A nevezetes r>g összefüggés egyik lehetséges oka, hogy az r szórása nagyobb, mint a g-é. A nagyobb szórás mögött nagyobb kockázati motívumok állhatnak. Ebből következően a Piketty által javasolt adókat jelentős mértékben a pénzügyi tőkének kellene viselnie. ____ The immediacy of this note derives from the fact that Picatty's famous Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been recently published in Hungarian. The central issue in the book is that taking the average of 200 years, the mean growth rate g is lower than the average return on capital r. One possible explanation of this famous r > g inequality may be that the standard deviation of r is greater than that of g because of the greater appetite for risk. The implication to draw from this is that financial capital should bear the majority of the taxes being suggested by Piketty.

How to Explain CouchSurfing's Success?

In this paper we describe the social network of CouchSurfing as an innovative, non-monetary model for the traditional international hospitality and travel market. This paper is written to describe our understanding of how it can operate and expand in spite of potential risks and uncertainties. We present the results of an exploratory qualitative research project that was conducted in Hungary in 2012/13. The findings indicate that: (1) a high level of trust as a personality trait characterizes members; (2) trust can be interpreted as a strong cultural rule; (3) members perceive a low level of risk and have limited practical knowledge about the safety features of the system; and (4) trust towards a given member is not based on rational calculation but on emotions.

A gazdasági válság hatásai a férfiak és a nők munkaerő-piaci helyzetére Kelet-Közép-Európában

Tanulmányunkban azt vizsgáljuk, hogyan hatott a 2008-as gazdasági válság a nemek munkaerő-piaci helyzetére Kelet-Közép-Európában. Amellett érvelünk, hogy bár a vizsgált régióban a foglalkozási szegregáció jobban megvédte a női, mint a férfi munkaerőt, azonban a fejlettebb gazdaságokkal szemben itt csökkent a női foglalkoztatás, emelkedett a nők szegénységi rátája. A nemek szerinti különbségek a válság hatásának percepciójában is tetten érhetők voltak. Elemzésünkhöz a European Social Survey 2010-es adatfelvételét és az EU SILC adatait használtuk.

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Photo from the Wolfsonian ArtBasel event on 12/2/2051

Seawater carbonate chemistry and biological processes during experiments with early life stages of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, 2010

Several experiments have shown a decrease of growth and calcification of organisms at decreased pH levels. There is a growing interest to focus on early life stages that are believed to be more sensitive to environmental disturbances such as hypercapnia. Here, we present experimental data, acquired in a commercial hatchery, demonstrating that the growth of planktonic mussel (Mytilus edulis) larvae is significantly affected by a decrease of pH to a level expected for the end of the century. Even though there was no significant effect of a 0.25-0.34 pH unit decrease on hatching and mortality rates during the first 2 days of development nor during the following 13-day period prior to settlement, final shells were respectively 4.5±1.3 and 6.0±2.3% smaller at pHNBS~7.8 (pCO2~1100-1200 µatm) than at a control pHNBS of ~8.1 (pCO2~460-640 µatm). Moreover, a decrease of 12.0±5.4% of shell thickness was observed after 15d of development. More severe impacts were found with a decrease of ~0.5 pHNBS unit during the first 2 days of development which could be attributed to a decrease of calcification due to a slight undersaturation of seawater with respect to aragonite. Indeed, important effects on both hatching and D-veliger shell growth were found. Hatching rates were 24±4% lower while D-veliger shells were 12.7±0.9% smaller at pHNBS~7.6 (pCO2~1900 µatm) than at a control pHNBS of ~8.1 (pCO2~540 µatm). Although these results show that blue mussel larvae are still able to develop a shell in seawater undersaturated with respect to aragonite, the observed decreases of hatching rates and shell growth could lead to a significant decrease of the settlement success. As the environmental conditions considered in this study do not necessarily reflect the natural conditions experienced by this species at the time of spawning, future studies will need to consider the whole larval cycle (from fertilization to settlement) under environmentally relevant conditions in order to investigate the potential ecological and economical losses of a decrease of this species fitness in the field.

Data compilation on the biological response to ocean acidification: environmental and experimental context of data sets and related literature

The exponential growth of studies on the biological response to ocean acidification over the last few decades has generated a large amount of data. To facilitate data comparison, a data compilation hosted at the data publisher PANGAEA was initiated in 2008 and is updated on a regular basis (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.149999). By January 2015, a total of 581 data sets (over 4 000 000 data points) from 539 papers had been archived. Here we present the developments of this data compilation five years since its first description by Nisumaa et al. (2010). Most of study sites from which data archived are still in the Northern Hemisphere and the number of archived data from studies from the Southern Hemisphere and polar oceans are still relatively low. Data from 60 studies that investigated the response of a mix of organisms or natural communities were all added after 2010, indicating a welcomed shift from the study of individual organisms to communities and ecosystems. The initial imbalance of considerably more data archived on calcification and primary production than on other processes has improved. There is also a clear tendency towards more data archived from multifactorial studies after 2010. For easier and more effective access to ocean acidification data, the ocean acidification community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the data archiving effort, and help develop standard vocabularies describing the variables and define best practices for archiving ocean acidification data.

Data on the biogeochemical cycle of methane in the ocean

Geological, mineralogical and microbiological aspects of the methane cycle in water and sediments of different areas in the oceans are under consideration in the monograph. Original and published estimations of formation- and oxidation rates of methane with use of radioisotope and isotopic methods are given. The role of aerobic and anaerobic microbial oxidation of methane in production of organic matter and in formation of authigenic carbonates is considered. Particular attention is paid to processes of methane transformation in areas of its intensive input to the water column from deep-sea hydrothermal sources, mud volcanoes, and cold methane seeps.

Stable isotope ratios of planktonic foraminifera from North Atlantic surface sediments

We measured the oxygen isotopic composition of the deep-dwelling foraminiferal species G. inflata, G. truncatulinoides dextral and sinistral, and P. obliquiloculata in 29 modern core tops raised from the North Atlantic Ocean. We compared calculated isotopic temperatures with atlas temperatures and defined ecological models for each species. G. inflata and G. truncatulinoides live preferentially at the base of the seasonal thermocline. Under temperature stress, i.e., when the base of the seasonal thermocline is warmer than 16°C, G. inflata and G. truncatulinoides live deeper in the main thermocline. P. obliquiloculata inhabits the seasonal thermocline in warm regions. We tested our model using 10 cores along the Mauritanian upwelling and show that the comparison of d18O variations registered by the surficial species G. ruber and G. bulloides and the deep-dwelling species G. inflata evidences significant glacial-interglacial shifts of the Mauritanian upwelling cells.

Refletir e Agir em contexto de Educação de Infância e em contexto de Primeiro Ciclo do Ensino Básico – Brincadeira Livre no Jardim de Infância

O presente relatório refere-se ao Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e encontra-se dividido em duas partes. A Parte I refere-se à dimensão reflexiva, na qual é apresentada uma reflexão acerca do percurso percorrido ao longo da Prática Pedagógica em cada um dos contextos envolvidos: creche, jardim-de-infância e 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Esta reflexão será estruturada tendo em conta os seguintes referentes: observação, planificação e intervenção, aprendizagens e, por fim, dificuldades. Para além disso, considera-se o papel investigativo do educador/professor. A dimensão investigativa, presente na Parte II do relatório, diz respeito a um estudo realizado no segundo semestre do mestrado, correspondente à Prática Pedagógica no jardim de infância. A temática do estudo centra-se na brincadeira livre no jardim de infância para a qual se formulou a seguinte questão de partida: “Quais as aprendizagens que a criança realiza no tempo da brincadeira livre no jardim de infância?” Através da recolha de dados e, posterior, organização e análise pode sugerir-se que foram diversas as aprendizagens realizadas pelas crianças.

Pax3 expression enhances PDGF-B-induced brainstem gliomagenesis and characterizes a subset of brainstem glioma.

High-grade Brainstem Glioma (BSG), also known as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), is an incurable pediatric brain cancer. Increasing evidence supports the existence of regional differences in gliomagenesis such that BSG is considered a distinct disease from glioma of the cerebral cortex (CG). In an effort to elucidate unique characteristics of BSG, we conducted expression analysis of mouse PDGF-B-driven BSG and CG initiated in Nestin progenitor cells and identified a short list of expression changes specific to the brainstem gliomagenesis process, including abnormal upregulation of paired box 3 (Pax3). In the neonatal mouse brain, Pax3 expression marks a subset of brainstem progenitor cells, while it is absent from the cerebral cortex, mirroring its regional expression in glioma. Ectopic expression of Pax3 in normal brainstem progenitors in vitro shows that Pax3 inhibits apoptosis. Pax3-induced inhibition of apoptosis is p53-dependent, however, and in the absence of p53, Pax3 promotes proliferation of brainstem progenitors. In vivo, Pax3 enhances PDGF-B-driven gliomagenesis by shortening tumor latency and increasing tumor penetrance and grade, in a region-specific manner, while loss of Pax3 function extends survival of PDGF-B-driven;p53-deficient BSG-bearing mice by 33%. Importantly, Pax3 is regionally expressed in human glioma as well, with high PAX3 mRNA characterizing 40% of human BSG, revealing a subset of tumors that significantly associates with PDGFRA alterations, amplifications of cell cycle regulatory genes, and is exclusive of ACVR1 mutations. Collectively, these data suggest that regional Pax3 expression not only marks a novel subset of BSG but also contributes to PDGF-B-induced brainstem gliomagenesis.

A systematic review of evidence for silver nanoparticle-induced mitochondrial toxicity

© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016.Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are extensively used for their antibacterial properties in a diverse set of applications, ranging from the treatment of municipal wastewater to infection control in hospitals. However, the properties of AgNPs that render them conducive to bactericidal use in commerce may influence their potential toxicity to non-bacterial organisms. Based on the physiological and phylogenetic similarities between bacteria and mitochondria within eukaryotic cells, mitochondria are a likely intracellular target of AgNP toxicity. Mitochondria-specific outcomes of AgNP exposures have been identified in multiple cell types, including (but not limited to) loss of membrane potential, inhibition of enzymes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, and changes in calcium sequestration. However, the biological significance of mitochondrial toxicity due to AgNP exposure is currently incompletely understood. This review examines the existing evidence of mitochondrial toxicity induced by AgNP exposure, with discussions of the role of the physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles themselves in mitochondrial toxicity. The impacts of potentially differential cell- and tissue-specific significance of AgNP-induced mitochondrial dysfunction are also discussed.

Conservative fluid management or deresuscitation for patients with sepsis or acute respiratory distress syndrome following the resuscitation phase of critical illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

It is unknown whether a conservative approach to fluid administration or deresuscitation (active removal of fluid using diuretics or renal replacement therapy) is beneficial following haemodynamic stabilisation of critically ill patients.

Purpose

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of conservative or deresuscitative fluid strategies in adults and children with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis or systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in the post-resuscitation phase of critical illness.

Methods

We searched Medline, EMBASE and the Cochrane central register of controlled trials from 1980 to June 2016, and manually reviewed relevant conference proceedings from 2009 to the present. Two reviewers independently assessed search results for inclusion and undertook data extraction and quality appraisal. We included randomised trials comparing fluid regimens with differing fluid balances between groups, and observational studies investigating the relationship between fluid balance and clinical outcomes.

Results

Forty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Marked clinical heterogeneity was evident. In a meta-analysis of 11 randomised trials (2051 patients) using a random-effects model, we found no significant difference in mortality with conservative or deresuscitative strategies compared with a liberal strategy or usual care [pooled risk ratio (RR) 0.92, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.82–1.02, I2 = 0 %]. A conservative or deresuscitative strategy resulted in increased ventilator-free days (mean difference 1.82 days, 95 % CI 0.53–3.10, I2 = 9 %) and reduced length of ICU stay (mean difference −1.88 days, 95 % CI −0.12 to −3.64, I2 = 75 %) compared with a liberal strategy or standard care.

Conclusions

In adults and children with ARDS, sepsis or SIRS, a conservative or deresuscitative fluid strategy results in an increased number of ventilator-free days and a decreased length of ICU stay compared with a liberal strategy or standard care. The effect on mortality remains uncertain. Large randomised trials are needed to determine optimal fluid strategies in critical illness.

Citizenship formation for a new millennium in Sweden : a prognosis of our time

The aim of this article is to forecast the present situation of citizenship formation in the field of Swedish education. In highlighting trends and tendencies in the educational assignment to provide for democratic citizenship in the first decade of the 21st century, which can be characterised as lacking collective visions for change, three depictions of citizenship are prevailing: citizenship formation for deliberation, for entrepreneurship and for therapeutic intervention. These depictions are analysed in terms of the direction for action taking and attention that they stress and produce as concerns citizenship in the making. The first one, citizenship formation for deliberation, stresses an inward-looking and inward-feeling citizenship. The second one, citizenship formation for entrepreneurship, stresses an inward-looking and outward-making citizenship, and the third one, citizenship formation for therapeutic intervention, stresses an inward-looking and outward-making citizenship. Taking on this forecast, which actualises democracy as something that is already achieved as a consequence of an assumedly post political situation, we argue that citizenship as well as society itself risks being pictured as apolitical and democratically “saturated.” This situation is hazardous, we argue, as it does not open up for change to come into question as desirable or even possible. Put differently, it leaves us with the notion that things have to be as they are, as we are living in the best of worlds. 

Ticking Boxes: (re)constructing the wristwatch as a luxury object

Today the high-price mechanical wristwatch is recognized as a luxury object redolent with notions of adventure, sporting achievement, elevated social status, and technical precision. Through an examination of the segmentation of the current luxury wristwatch market and key moments in the historical development of the wristwatch, this article will explain why these connotations exist. In particular, the article will explain the role that the early development of the wristwatch as a piece of military technical equipment and the mechanical wristwatch’s revitalization as a luxury good in response to the development of commercial quartz timekeeping technology have played in reconstructing the wristwatch as an object type. By utilizing network theory and the analytical tool of complexity, and drawing on fieldwork undertaken in London and Switzerland amongst the manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers of high-value wristwatches, the article will explain how the wristwatch can simultaneously be seen as functional tool, fashion statement, status symbol, and anachronism. This insight into the true nature of the wristwatch as a multivalent and semiotically charged object will also be used to inform reflections on the likely impact of generally perceived current threats to the luxury watch industry: the rise in ethical material sourcing campaigns, the stubborn gender imbalance in watch sales, and the recent appearance of smart watches and similar digital devices.