The combination of social and personal contexts affects dominance hierarchy development in shore crabs, Carcinus maenas

Many animals that live in groups maintain competitive relationships, yet avoid continual fighting, by forming dominance hierarchies. We compare predictions of stochastic, individual-based models with empirical experimental evidence using shore crabs to test competing hypotheses regarding hierarchy development. The models test (1) what information individuals use when deciding to fight or retreat, (2) how past experience affects current resource-holding potential, and (3) how individuals deal with changes to the social environment. First, we conclude that crabs assess only their own state and not their opponent's when deciding to fight or retreat. Second, willingness to enter, and performance in, aggressive contests are influenced by previous contest outcomes. Winning increases the likelihood of both fighting and winning future interactions, while losing has the opposite effect. Third, when groups with established dominance hierarchies dissolve and new groups form, individuals reassess their ranks, showing no memory of previous rank or group affiliation. With every change in group composition, individuals fight for their new ranks. This iterative process carries over as groups dissolve and form, which has important implications for the relationship between ability and hierarchy rank. We conclude that dominance hierarchies emerge through an interaction of individual and social factors, and discuss these findings in terms of an underlying mechanism. Overall, our results are consistent with crabs using a cumulative assessment strategy iterated across changes in group composition, in which aggression is constrained by an absolute threshold in energy spent and damage received while fighting.

Governança Local i Sostenibilitat: reptes i oportunitats. El municipi de Ripollet cap a la sostenibilitat

A partir de la segona meitat de la dècada dels noranta, les ciutats d’Europa s’han compromès amb força a millorar els seus models de desenvolupament a través de l’adopció d’una visió estratègica que, incrementant la participació ciutadana i la cooperació entre els diversos actors, ha permès d’anar posant en pràctica esquemes de gestió econòmica, social i ambiental més sostenibles. A Espanya, Catalunya és una de les Comunitats Autònomes més actives en temes de desenvolupament local sostenible. El present treball intenta reflexionar sobre el món local i el seu compromís amb la sostenibilitat analitzant els resultats aconseguits. Concretament, el treball és el resultat d’una investigació duta a terme a Ripollet amb un grup significatiu d’empreses ubicades en els polígons industrials del municipi. L’objectiu específic de l’estudi ha estat analitzar les percepcions del món empresarial local sobre alguns punts imprescindibles per a la definició de qualsevol procés compartit de desenvolupament sostenible a escala local.

The generation and re-generation of social capital and enterprises in multi-stakeholders social cooperative enterprises: a system dynamic approach

Theories on social capital and on social entrepreneurship have mainly highlighted the attitude of social capital to generate enterprises and to foster good relations between third sector organizations and the public sector. This paper considers the social capital in a specific third sector enterprise; here, multi-stakeholder social cooperatives are seen, at the same time, as social capital results, creators and incubators. In the particular enterprises that identify themselves as community social enterprises, social capital, both as organizational and relational capital, is fundamental: SCEs arise from but also produce and disseminate social capital. This paper aims to improve the building of relational social capital and the refining of helpful relations drawn from other arenas, where they were created and from where they are sometimes transferred to other realities, where their role is carried on further (often working in non-profit, horizontally and vertically arranged groups, where they share resources and relations). To represent this perspective, we use a qualitative system dynamic approach in which social capital is measured using proxies. Cooperation of volunteers, customers, community leaders and third sector local organizations is fundamental to establish trust relations between public local authorities and cooperatives. These relations help the latter to maintain long-term contracts with local authorities as providers of social services and enable them to add innovation to their services, by developing experiences and management models and maintaining an interchange with civil servants regarding these matters. The long-term relations and the organizational relations linking SCEs and public organizations help to create and to renovate social capital. Thus, multi-stakeholder cooperatives originated via social capital developed in third sector organizations produce new social capital within the cooperatives themselves and between different cooperatives (entrepreneurial components of the third sector) and the public sector. In their entrepreneurial life, cooperatives have to contrast the "working drift," as a result of which only workers remain as members of the cooperative, while other stakeholders leave the organization. Those who are not workers in the cooperative are (stake)holders with "weak ties," who are nevertheless fundamental in making a worker's cooperative an authentic social multi-stakeholders cooperative. To maintain multi-stakeholder governance and the relations with third sector and civil society, social cooperatives have to reinforce participation and dialogue with civil society through ongoing efforts to include people that provide social proposals. We try to represent these processes in a system dynamic model applied to local cooperatives, measuring the social capital created by the social cooperative through proxies, such as number of volunteers and strong cooperation with public institutions. Using a reverse-engineering approach, we can individuate the determinants of the creation of social capital and thereby give support to governance that creates social capital.

Entrevista y urgencia social: un reto para las competencias profesionales del educador social

Si decimos que los seres humanos sólo son capaces de vivir como tales mediante la reconstrucción narrativa de sus experiencias, estamos teniendo en cuenta conceptos e ideas que recuerdan a algunos autores contemporáneos (Ricoeur, Gadamer) que defienden la importancia de ser reconocido como una creatura hecha de palabras. En la medida en que son interpretadas, traducidas, contextualizadas y ordenadas por los profesionales, la situación dialogal significativa cobra importancia. Desde esta perspectiva hemos planteado las asignaturas: Habilidades Sociales, Técnicas de Entrevista y Gestión de Situación de Crisis diseñadas para integrar los diferentes modelos teóricos y las variables que se presentan en la relación comunicativa con el usuario y en particular en la situación de entrevista. Se mostrará también el modo cómo en nuestro proceso formativo, basado en la simulación de situaciones, se fomenta el compromiso con el trabajo en equipo, la autocomprensión y enseña a crear un clima de trabajo cooperativo en el que se hace más eficaz la relación de ayuda. A través de la presentación en clase de un caso práctico en el cual se describen todos los procedimientos y las fases del que se compone el ejercicio de la práctica profesional –paso a paso-, se busca poner de manifiesto las competencias adquiridas, los modelos empleados y las habilidades sociales que han sido necesarias para afrontar con éxito la situación de urgencia social. Finalmente se deja abierta la cuestión sobre la manera en que incide y beneficia este aprendizaje en las futuras situaciones de manejo del estrés profesional (burn out).

Social Determinants of Child Health in Colombia: Can Community Education Moderate the Effect of Family Characteristics?

Contextual effects on child health have been investigated extensively in previous research. However, few studies have considered the interplay between community characteristics and individual-level variables. This study examines the influence of community education and family socioeconomic characteristics on child health (as measured by height and weight-for-age Z-scores), as well as their interactions. We adapted the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) framework to the context of child health. Using data from the 2010 Colombian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), weighted multilevel models are fitted since the data are not self-weighting. The results show a positive impact of the level of education of other women in the community on child health, even after controlling for individual and family socioeconomic characteristics. Different pathways through which community education can substitute for the effect of family characteristics on child nutrition are found. The interaction terms highlight the importance of community education as a moderator of the impact of the mother’s own education and autonomy, on child health. In addition, the results reveal differences between height and weight-for-age indicators in their responsiveness to individual and contextual factors. Our findings suggest that community intervention programmes may have differential effects on child health. Therefore, their identification can contribute to a better targeting of child care policies.

The Impacts of social networks on immigrants' employment prospect: the spanish case 1997-2007

This paper studies the extent to which social networks influence the employment stability and wages of immigrants in Spain. By doing so, I consider an aspect that has not been previously addressed in the empirical literature, namely the connection between immigrants' social networks and labor market outcomes in Spain. For this purpose, I use micro-data from the National Immigrant Survey carried out in 2007. The analysis is conducted in two stages. First, the impact of social networks on the probability of keeping the first job obtained in Spain is studied through a multinomial logit regression. Second, quantile regressions are used to estimate a wage equation. The empirical results suggest that once the endogeneity problem has been accounted for, immigrants' social networks influence their labor market outcomes. On arrival, immigrants experience a mismatch in the labor market. In addition, different effects of social networks on wages by gender and wage distribution are found. While contacts on arrival and informal job access mechanisms positively influence women's wages, a wage penalty is observed for men.

Santé buccale: déterminants sociaux d'un terrain majeur des inégalités [Oral health: social determinants of a health inequality]

The oral health of disadvantaged social groups is worse at all the ages than that of the favored groups. If tooth decay prevalence decreases, this disease is still unequally distributed: 20% of the children, those with the weakest socio-economic statute (SES), concentrate 60% of the decays. Edentulism strikes significantly more people with weak SES. The inequalities of oral health reflect those of general health. Evidence of the inequalities in oral health is exposed even in the developed countries. Different models of intervention are presented: risk groups identification and targeting by specific programs; oral health community approach which includes socio-economic and public health measures aiming all the population; insurance approach to be combined with the preceding ones.

Redox dysregulation in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: insights from animal models.

Abstract Significance: Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are classified as two distinct diseases. However, accumulating evidence shows that both disorders share genetic, pathological, and epidemiological characteristics. Based on genetic and functional findings, redox dysregulation due to an imbalance between pro-oxidants and antioxidant defense mechanisms has been proposed as a risk factor contributing to their pathophysiology. Recent Advances: Altered antioxidant systems and signs of increased oxidative stress are observed in peripheral tissues and brains of SZ and BD patients, including abnormal prefrontal levels of glutathione (GSH), the major cellular redox regulator and antioxidant. Here we review experimental data from rodent models demonstrating that permanent as well as transient GSH deficit results in behavioral, morphological, electrophysiological, and neurochemical alterations analogous to pathologies observed in patients. Mice with GSH deficit display increased stress reactivity, altered social behavior, impaired prepulse inhibition, and exaggerated locomotor responses to psychostimulant injection. These behavioral changes are accompanied by N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor hypofunction, elevated glutamate levels, impairment of parvalbumin GABA interneurons, abnormal neuronal synchronization, altered dopamine neurotransmission, and deficient myelination. Critical Issues: Treatment with the GSH precursor and antioxidant N-acetylcysteine normalizes some of those deficits in mice, but also improves SZ and BD symptoms when given as adjunct to antipsychotic medication. Future Directions: These data demonstrate the usefulness of GSH-deficient rodent models to identify the mechanisms by which a redox imbalance could contribute to the development of SZ and BD pathophysiologies, and to develop novel therapeutic approaches based on antioxidant and redox regulator compounds. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 18, 1428-1443.

Gender inequality in health among elderly people in a combined framework of socioeconomic position, family characteristics and social support

This study analyses gender inequalities in health among elderly people in Catalonia (Spain) by adopting a conceptual framework that globally considers three dimensions of health determinants : socio-economic position, family characteristics and social support. Data came from the 2006 Catalonian Health Survey. For the purposes of this study a sub-sample of people aged 65–85 years with no paid job was selected (1,113 men and 1,484 women). The health outcomes analysed were self-perceived health status, poor mental health status and long-standing limiting illness. Multiple logistic regression models separated by sex were fitted and a hierarchical model was fitted in three steps. Health status among elderly women was poorer than among the men for the three outcomes analysed. Whereas living with disabled people was positively related to the three health outcomes and confidant social support was negatively associated with all of them in both sexes, there were gender differences in other social determinants of health. Our results emphasise the importance of using an integrated approach for the analysis of health inequalities among elderly people, simultaneously considering socio-economic position, family characteristics and social support, as well as different health indicators, in order fully to understand the social determinants of the health status of older men and women.

Self-reported social class in adolescents: validity and relationship with gradients in self-reported health

Background: Analyzing social differences in the health of adolescents is a challenge. The accuracy of adolescent's report on familial socio-economic position is unknown. The aims of the study were to examine the validity of measuring occupational social class and family level of education reported by adolescents aged 12 to 18, and the relationship between social position and self-reported health.Methods: A sample of 1453 Spanish adolescents 12 to 18 years old from urban and rural areas completed a self-administered questionnaire including the Child Health and Illness Profile-Adolescent Edition (CHIP-AE), and data on parental occupational social class (OSC) and level of education (LE). The responsible person for a sub-sample of teenagers (n = 91) were interviewed by phone. Kappa coefficients were estimated to analyze agreement between adolescents and proxy-respondents, and logistic regression models were adjusted to analyze factors associated with missing answers and disagreements. Effect size (ES) was calculated to analyze the relationship between OSC, LE and the CHIP-AE domain scores.Results: Missing answers were higher for father's (24.2%) and mother's (45.7%) occupational status than for parental education (8.4%, and 8.1% respectively), and belonging to a non-standard family was associated with more incomplete reporting of social position (OR = 4,98; 95%CI = 1,3–18,8) as was agreement between a parent and the adolescent. There were significant social class gradients, most notably for aspects of health related to resilience to threats to illness.ConclusionAdolescents can acceptably self-report on family occupation and level of education. Social class gradients are present in important aspects of health in adolescents.

Social and medical vulnerability factors of emergency department frequent users in a universal health insurance system.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to identify the social and medical factors associated with emergency department (ED) frequent use and to determine if frequent users were more likely to have a combination of these factors in a universal health insurance system. METHODS: This was a retrospective chart review case-control study comparing randomized samples of frequent users and nonfrequent users at the Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland. The authors defined frequent users as patients with four or more ED visits within the previous 12 months. Adult patients who visited the ED between April 2008 and March 2009 (study period) were included, and patients leaving the ED without medical discharge were excluded. For each patient, the first ED electronic record within the study period was considered for data extraction. Along with basic demographics, variables of interest included social (employment or housing status) and medical (ED primary diagnosis) characteristics. Significant social and medical factors were used to construct a logistic regression model, to determine factors associated with frequent ED use. In addition, comparison of the combination of social and medical factors was examined. RESULTS: A total of 359 of 1,591 frequent and 360 of 34,263 nonfrequent users were selected. Frequent users accounted for less than a 20th of all ED patients (4.4%), but for 12.1% of all visits (5,813 of 48,117), with a maximum of 73 ED visits. No difference in terms of age or sex occurred, but more frequent users had a nationality other than Swiss or European (n = 117 [32.6%] vs. n = 83 [23.1%], p = 0.003). Adjusted multivariate analysis showed that social and specific medical vulnerability factors most increased the risk of frequent ED use: being under guardianship (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 15.8; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.7 to 147.3), living closer to the ED (adjusted OR = 4.6; 95% CI = 2.8 to 7.6), being uninsured (adjusted OR = 2.5; 95% CI = 1.1 to 5.8), being unemployed or dependent on government welfare (adjusted OR = 2.1; 95% CI = 1.3 to 3.4), the number of psychiatric hospitalizations (adjusted OR = 4.6; 95% CI = 1.5 to 14.1), and the use of five or more clinical departments over 12 months (adjusted OR = 4.5; 95% CI = 2.5 to 8.1). Having two of four social factors increased the odds of frequent ED use (adjusted = OR 5.4; 95% CI = 2.9 to 9.9), and similar results were found for medical factors (adjusted OR = 7.9; 95% CI = 4.6 to 13.4). A combination of social and medical factors was markedly associated with ED frequent use, as frequent users were 10 times more likely to have three of them (on a total of eight factors; 95% CI = 5.1 to 19.6). CONCLUSIONS: Frequent users accounted for a moderate proportion of visits at the Lausanne ED. Social and medical vulnerability factors were associated with frequent ED use. In addition, frequent users were more likely to have both social and medical vulnerabilities than were other patients. Case management strategies might address the vulnerability factors of frequent users to prevent inequities in health care and related costs.

Regional child care availability and fertility decisions in Spain

In this paper I explore two hypotheses: (1) Formal child care availability for children under three has a positive effect across contexts, according to the degree of adaptation of social institutions to changes in gender roles. Event history models with regional fixed effects are applied to data from the European Community Household Panel (1994-2001). The results show a significant and positive effect of regional day care availability on both, first and higher order births, while results are consistent with the second hypothesis only for second or higher order births.

What lies behind the devaluation of educational credentials?

Applying fixed-effects models to EULFS data on Spain from 1998 to2006, the paper explores the effects of educational expansion on theoccupational returns to education across different levels of education.We build an indicator of the positional value of education, based on theidea that the value of a given educational credential partly depends onthe percentage of labour market entrants who have reached that level atthe time when individuals enter the labour market -- it is higher whenfewer individuals have reached it, lower otherwise. Our analysis for theSpanish case shows that the decrease in the occupational returns toeducation goes in parallel with the decrease in the positional value ofeducation, but this devaluation of credentials has been stronger ingeneral education (e.g., in humanities or social sciences universitydegrees, or in upper secondary general education) than in specializededucation (e.g., in technical fields in the university, or in uppervocational training). We argue that the reason for this is most likely thatgeneral education provides a more diffuse signal of candidates’ skillsthan specialized education. We also find that this devaluation ofcredentials has been stronger in fields accessed by women in largernumbers in last decades.

Political mobilisation and models of trade unionism : Southern Europe in comparative perspective

The relationship between union membership and political mobilization has been studied under many perspectives, but quantitative cross-national analyses have been hampered by the absence of international comparable survey data until the first round of the European Social Survey (ESS-2002) was made available. Using different national samples from this survey in four moments of time (2002, 2004 and 2006), our paper provides evidence of cross-country divergence in the empirical association between political mobilisation and trade union membership. Cross-national differences in union members’ political mobilization, we argue, can be explained by the existence of models of unionism that in turn differ with respect to two decisive factors: the institutionalisation of trade union activity and the opportunities left-wing parties have available for gaining access to executive power.

Female stereotypes in household appliances advertising and their social role in Spain: the perpetuation of a no- longer-existing female condition

The following dissertation proposes a qualitative approach on the matter ofadvertising, society and construction of identity, based on the effect of householdappliances commercials in constructing female identity of Spanish women today.Conclusions will be drawn based on a juxtaposition of social background andadvertising content and on how Spanish women of today perceive the evolution offemale imagery depicted in advertisements. The aim is to demonstrate how muchcommercials mirrors society and how far it reinforces paradigms no longer existing