The elderly care and domestic services sector during the recent economic crisis. The case of Italy, Spain and France.

Over the past ten years in Italy, Spain and France, the demographic pressure and the increasing women’s participation in labour market have fuelled the expansion of the private provision of domestic and care services. In order to ensure the difficult balance between affordability, quality and job creation, each countries’ response has been different. France has developed policies to sustain the demand side introducing instruments such as vouchers and fiscal schemes, since the mid of the 2000s. Massive public funding has contributed to foster a regular market of domestic and care services and France is often presented as a “best practices” of those policies aimed at encouraging a regular private sector. Conversely in Italy and Spain, the development of a private domestic and care market has been mostly uncontrolled and without a coherent institutional design: the osmosis between a large informal market and the regular private care sector has been ensured on the supply side by migrant workers’ regularizations or the introduction of new employment regulations . The analysis presented in this paper aims to describe the response of these different policies to the challenges imposed by the current economic crisis. In dealing with the retrenchment of public expenditure and the reduced households’ purchasing power, Italy, Spain and France are experiencing greater difficulties in ensuring a regular private sector of domestic and care services. In light of that, the paper analyses the recent economic conjuncture presenting some assumptions about the future risk of deeper inequalities rising along with the increase of the process of marketization of domestic and care services in all the countries under analysis.    

The Spanish reforms on domestic work regulation

This paper analyses the latest Spanish reforms regarding domestic work. The Spanish legislator, doubtlessly influenced by the ILO Domestic Work Convention nº 189 – which, however, was not later ratified in Spain- made a deep reform on domestic work in 2011. This legal reform implied a striking change that affected both working conditions and social security of employees in the family home. The aim of this reform has been to bring the regulation in domestic work closer to the general regulation for other workers, although maintaining certain specialties. Regarding working conditions, their setting as “particular employment relationship” has been held. However, the differences between this relationship and the common ones have been reduced. As for social security, domestic employees have been incorporated into the General Social Security System, but with important specialties, thus erasing the Special Domestic Employees System. The paper also examines the legal changes that have taken place in this field after the new Government arose.

Migrant domestic workers, vulnerability and the law: immigration and employment laws in Cyprus and Spain

The intersection of gender, welfare and immigration regimes has been one of the main focus of a rich scholarship on paid domestic work in Europe. This article brings into the discussion the nexus of employment and immigration law regimes to reflect on the role of legal regulation in structuring and reducing the vulnerability of domestic workers. I analyse this nexus by looking at the cases of Cyprus and Spain, two states falling under the cluster of Southern Mediterranean welfare regimes, that share certain characteristics in terms of immigration regimes, but have substantially different employment law regulation models. The first part sketches the debate on the employment law regulation of domestic work. The second part starts by giving an overview of the immigration regimes of Cyprus and Spain in relation to migrant domestic workers and then proceeds to analyse the two countries’ models and substance of employment law regulation in domestic work. The comparison of these two divergent approaches informs the debate on how the legal regulation of domestic work should be best structured. In Spain there have been recent dynamic legislative changes in the employment law regulation of domestic work. The final part of the article traces these changes and reflects on why such processes have not taken place in Cyprus.

The gendered effects of family migration law: contextual interpretation as a possible judicial remedy

At all normative levels, family migration law can disproportionally and negatively affect immigrant women’s rights in this field, producing gendered effects. In some cases, such effects are related to the normative and judicial imposition of unviable family-related models (e.g., the ʻgood mother ̕ the one-breadwinner family, or a rigid distinction between productive and reproductive work). In other cases, they are due to family migration law’s overlooking of the specific needs and difficulties of immigrant women, within their families and in the broader context of their host countries’ social and normative framework.To effectively expose and correct this gender bias, in this article I propose an alternative view of immigrant women’s right to family life, as a cluster of rights and entitlements rather than as a mono-dimensional right. As a theoretical approach, this construction is better equipped to capture the complex experiences of immigrant women in the European legal space, and to shed light on the gendered effects generated not by individual norms but by the interaction of norms that are traditionally assigned to separated legal domains (e.g., immigration law and criminal law). As a judicial strategy, this understanding is capable of prompting a consideration by domestic and supranational courts of immigrant women not as isolated individuals, but as ‘individuals in context’. I shall define this type of approach as ‘contextual interpretation’, understood as the consideration of immigrant women in the broader contexts of their families, their host societies and the normative frameworks applicable to them. Performed in a gendersensitive manner, a contextual judicial interpretation has the potential to neutralize the gendered effects of certain family migration norms. To illustrate these points, I will discuss selected judicial examples offered by the European Court on Human Rights, as well as from domestic jurisdictions of countries with a particularly high incidence of immigrant women (Italy and Spain).

Genome-wide association study reveals greater polygenic loading for schizophrenia in cases with a family history of illness

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of schizophrenia have yielded more than 100 common susceptibility variants, and strongly support a substantial polygenic contribution of a large number of small allelic effects. It has been hypothesized that familial schizophrenia is largely a consequence of inherited rather than environmental factors. We investigated the extent to which familiality of schizophrenia is associated with enrichment for common risk variants detectable in a large GWAS. We analyzed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data for cases reporting a family history of psychotic illness (N = 978), cases reporting no such family history (N = 4,503), and unscreened controls (N = 8,285) from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC1) study of schizophrenia. We used a multinomial logistic regression approach with model-fitting to detect allelic effects specific to either family history subgroup. We also considered a polygenic model, in which we tested whether family history positive subjects carried more schizophrenia risk alleles than family history negative subjects, on average. Several individual SNPs attained suggestive but not genome-wide significant association with either family history subgroup. Comparison of genome-wide polygenic risk scores based on GWAS summary statistics indicated a significant enrichment for SNP effects among family history positive compared to family history negative cases (Nagelkerke's R(2 ) = 0.0021; P = 0.00331; P-value threshold <0.4). Estimates of variability in disease liability attributable to the aggregate effect of genome-wide SNPs were significantly greater for family history positive compared to family history negative cases (0.32 and 0.22, respectively; P = 0.031). We found suggestive evidence of allelic effects detectable in large GWAS of schizophrenia that might be specific to particular family history subgroups. However, consideration of a polygenic risk score indicated a significant enrichment among family history positive cases for common allelic effects. Familial illness might, therefore, represent a more heritable form of schizophrenia, as suggested by previous epidemiological studies.

Work-to-family spillover: Gender differences in Hungary

It is crucial to understand the role that labor market positions might play in creating gender differences in work–life balance. One theoretical approach to understanding this relationship is the spillover theory. The spillover theory argues that an individual’s life domains are integrated; meaning that well-being can be transmitted between life domains. Based on data collected in Hungary in 2014, this paper shows that work-to-family spillover does not affect both genders the same way. The effect of work on family life tends to be more negative for women than for men. Two explanations have been formulated in order to understand this gender inequality. According to the findings of the analysis, gender is conditionally independent of spillover if financial status and flexibility of work are also incorporated into the analysis. This means that the relative disadvantage for women in terms of spillover can be attributed to their lower financial status and their relatively low access to flexible jobs. In other words, the gender inequalities in work-to-family spillover are deeply affected by individual labor market positions. The observation of the labor market’s effect on work–life balance is especially important in Hungary since Hungary has one of the least flexible labor arrangements in Europe. A marginal log-linear model, which is a method for categorical multivariate analysis, has been applied in this analysis.

Shakespeare and the Colonial Encounter in India in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-03

Empowering single mothers in Iran : Applying a problem-solving model in learning groups to develop participants' capacities to improve their lives

Since 2000, a problem-solving model has been taught to the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child, and teachers and  students of social work in two universities in Iran. Since 2006, with the initiation of UNICEF, social workers, psychologists  and even some psychiatrists in Iran have been learning this model. In 2008, a group of researchers created an empowerment-oriented  psycho-social group and private intervention project to assess whether a group of Iranian single mothers could use this model, which was traditionally used by professionals only, to effectively and independently meet challenges in their own lives. Our results show that all women used the model effectively and, consequently, made more deliberate decisions to improve their life situations. Some of the women succeeded in finding a job and many improved their family relationships. This study suggests that empowerment-oriented social work can help many clients to achieve their goals, and that this psycho-social intervention project can be a useful model for social work in Iran and many other societies.

A fuzzy clustering approach to a demand response model

This paper proposes a novel demand response model using a fuzzy subtractive cluster approach. The model development provides support to domestic consumer decisions on controllable loads management, considering consumers' consumption needs and the appropriate load shape or rescheduling in order to achieve possible economic benefits. The model based on fuzzy subtractive clustering method considers clusters of domestic consumption covering an adequate consumption range. Analysis of different scenarios is presented considering available electric power and electric energy prices. Simulation results are presented and conclusions of the proposed demand response model are discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Generation and Characterisation of a Canine EGFP-HMGA2 Prostate Cancer In Vitro Model

The architectural transcription factor HMGA2 is abundantly expressed during embryonic development. In several malignant neoplasias including prostate cancer, high re-expression of HMGA2 is correlated with malignancy and poor prognosis. The let-7 miRNA family is described to regulate HMGA2 negatively. The balance of let-7 and HMGA2 is discussed to play a major role in tumour aetiology. To further analyse the role of HMGA2 in prostate cancer a stable and highly reproducible in vitro model system is precondition. Herein we established a canine CT1258-EGFP-HMGA2 prostate cancer cell line stably overexpressing HMGA2 linked to EGFP and in addition the reference cell line CT1258-EGFP expressing solely EGFP to exclude EGFP-induced effects. Both recombinant cell lines were characterised by fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry. The proliferative effect of ectopically overexpressed HMGA2 was determined via BrdU assays. Comparative karyotyping of the derived and the initial CT1258 cell lines was performed to analyse chromosome consistency. The impact of the ectopic HMGA2 expression on its regulator let-7a was analysed by quantitative real-time PCR. Fluorescence microscopy and immunocytochemistry detected successful expression of the EGFP-HMGA2 fusion protein exclusively accumulating in the nucleus. Gene expression analyses confirmed HMGA2 overexpression in CT1258-EGFP-HMGA2 in comparison to CT1258-EGFP and native cells. Significantly higher let-7a expression levels were found in CT1258-EGFP-HMGA2 and CT1258-EGFP. The BrdU assays detected an increased proliferation of CT1258-HMGA2-EGFP cells compared to CT1258-EGFP and native CT1258. The cytogenetic analyses of CT1258-EGFP and CT1258-EGFP-HMGA2 resulted in a comparable hyperdiploid karyotype as described for native CT1258 cells. To further investigate the impact of recombinant overexpressed HMGA2 on CT1258 cells, other selected targets described to underlie HMGA2 regulation were screened in addition. The new fluorescent CT1258-EGFP-HMGA2 cell line is a stable tool enabling in vitro and in vivo analyses of the HMGA2-mediated effects on cells and the development and pathogenesis of prostate cancer.

Nme Gene Family Evolutionary History Reveals Pre-Metazoan Origins and High Conservation between Humans and the Sea Anemone, Nematostella vectensis

Background: The Nme gene family is involved in multiple physiological and pathological processes such as cellular differentiation, development, metastatic dissemination, and cilia functions. Despite the known importance of Nme genes and their use as clinical markers of tumor aggressiveness, the associated cellular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Over the last 20 years, several non-vertebrate model species have been used to investigate Nme functions. However, the evolutionary history of the family remains poorly understood outside the vertebrate lineage. The aim of the study was thus to elucidate the evolutionary history of the Nme gene family in Metazoans. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using a total of 21 eukaryote species including 14 metazoans, the evolutionary history of Nme genes was reconstructed in the metazoan lineage. We demonstrated that the complexity of the Nme gene family, initially thought to be restricted to chordates, was also shared by the metazoan ancestor. We also provide evidence suggesting that the complexity of the family is mainly a eukaryotic innovation, with the exception of Nme8 that is likely to be a choanoflagellate/metazoan innovation. Highly conserved gene structure, genomic linkage, and protein domains were identified among metazoans, some features being also conserved in eukaryotes. When considering the entire Nme family, the starlet sea anemone is the studied metazoan species exhibiting the most conserved gene and protein sequence features with humans. In addition, we were able to show that most of the proteins known to interact with human NME proteins were also found in starlet sea anemone. Conclusion/Significance: Together, our observations further support the association of Nme genes with key cellular functions that have been conserved throughout metazoan evolution. Future investigations of evolutionarily conserved Nme gene functions using the starlet sea anemone could shed new light on a wide variety of key developmental and cellular processes.

Nonparametric Evaluation of Quantitative Traits in Population-Based Association Studies when the Genetic Model is Unknown

Statistical association between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotype and a quantitative trait in genome-wide association studies is usually assessed using a linear regression model, or, in the case of non-normally distributed trait values, using the Kruskal-Wallis test. While linear regression models assume an additive mode of inheritance via equi-distant genotype scores, Kruskal-Wallis test merely tests global differences in trait values associated with the three genotype groups. Both approaches thus exhibit suboptimal power when the underlying inheritance mode is dominant or recessive. Furthermore, these tests do not perform well in the common situations when only a few trait values are available in a rare genotype category (disbalance), or when the values associated with the three genotype categories exhibit unequal variance (variance heterogeneity). We propose a maximum test based on Marcus-type multiple contrast test for relative effect sizes. This test allows model-specific testing of either dominant, additive or recessive mode of inheritance, and it is robust against variance heterogeneity. We show how to obtain mode-specific simultaneous confidence intervals for the relative effect sizes to aid in interpreting the biological relevance of the results. Further, we discuss the use of a related all-pairwise comparisons contrast test with range preserving confidence intervals as an alternative to Kruskal-Wallis heterogeneity test. We applied the proposed maximum test to the Bogalusa Heart Study dataset, and gained a remarkable increase in the power to detect association, particularly for rare genotypes. Our simulation study also demonstrated that the proposed non-parametric tests control family-wise error rate in the presence of non-normality and variance heterogeneity contrary to the standard parametric approaches. We provide a publicly available R library nparcomp that can be used to estimate simultaneous confidence intervals or compatible multiplicity-adjusted p-values associated with the proposed maximum test.

Existence and wandering of bumps in a spiking neural network model

We study spatially localized states of a spiking neuronal network populated by a pulse coupled phase oscillator known as the lighthouse model. We show that in the limit of slow synaptic interactions in the continuum limit the dynamics reduce to those of the standard Amari model. For non-slow synaptic connections we are able to go beyond the standard firing rate analysis of localized solutions allowing us to explicitly construct a family of co-existing one-bump solutions, and then track bump width and firing pattern as a function of system parameters. We also present an analysis of the model on a discrete lattice. We show that multiple width bump states can co-exist and uncover a mechanism for bump wandering linked to the speed of synaptic processing. Moreover, beyond a wandering transition point we show that the bump undergoes an effective random walk with a diffusion coefficient that scales exponentially with the rate of synaptic processing and linearly with the lattice spacing.

Development Begins at Home: Women and the Domestic Economy in Brazil, 1945-1975

A number of historians of twentieth-century Latin America have identified ways that national labor laws, civil codes, social welfare programs, and business practices contributed to a gendered division of society that subordinated women to men in national economic development, household management, and familial relations. Few scholars, however, have critically explored women's roles as consumers and housewives in these intertwined realms. This work examines the Brazilian case after the Second World War, arguing that economic policies and business practices associated with “developmentalism” [Portuguese: desenvolvimentismo] created openings for women to engage in debates about national progress and transnational standards of modernity. While acknowledging that an asymmetry of gender relations persisted, the study demonstrates that urban women expanded their agency in this period, especially over areas of economic and family life deemed "domestic." This dissertation examines periodicals, consumer research statistics, public opinion surveys, personal interviews, corporate archives, the archives of key women’s organizations, and government officials’ records to identify the role that women and household economies played in Brazilian developmentalism between 1945 and 1975. Its principal argument is that business and political elites attempted to define gender roles for adult urban women as housewives and mothers, linking their management of the household to familial well-being and national modernization. In turn, Brazilian women deployed these idealized roles in public to advance their own economic interests, especially in the management of household finances and consumption, as well as to expand legal rights for married women, and increase women’s participation in the workforce. As the market for women's labor expanded with continued industrialization, these efforts defined a more active role for women in the economy and in debates about the trajectory of national development policies.

Effect of grape seed extract on oxidative, color and sensory stability of pre-cooked, frozen, re-heated beef sausage model system

The processing of meats at the factory level can trigger the onset of lipid oxidation, which can lead to meat quality deterioration. Warmed over flavor is an off-flavor, which is associated with oxidative deterioration in meat. To avoid or delay the auto-oxidation process in meat products, synthetic and natural antioxidants have been successfully used. Grape (Vitis Vinifera) is of special interest due to its high content of phenolic compounds. Grape seed extract sold commercially as a dietary supplement, has the potential to reduce lipid oxidation and WOF in cooked ground beef when added at 1%. The objective of study 1 was to compare the antioxidant activity of natural antioxidants including grape seed extract and some herbs belonging to the Lamiaciae family: rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis), sage (Salvia Officinalis) and oregano (Origanum Vulgare) with commercial synthetic antioxidants like BHT, BHA, propyl gallate and ascorbic acid using the ORAC assay. All sample solutions were prepared to contain 1.8 gm sample/10 ml solvent. The highest antioxidant activity was observed for the grape seed extract sample (359.75 µM TE), while the lowest was observed for BHA, propyl gallate and rosemary also showed higher antioxidant potential with ORAC values above 300 μmol TE/g. ORAC values obtained for ascorbic acid and Sage were between 250-300μ mol TE/g while lowest values were obtained for Butylated Hydroxytoluene (28.50 µM TE). Based on the high ORAC values obtained for grape seed extract, we can conclude that byproducts of the wine/grape industry have antioxidant potential comparable to or better than those present in synthetic counterparts. The objective of study 2 was to compare three levels of grape seed extract (GSE) to commonly used antioxidants in a pre-cooked, frozen, stored beef and pork sausage model system. Antioxidants added for comparison with control included grape seed extract (100, 300, 500 ppm), ascorbic acid (AA, 100 ppm of fat) and propyl gallate (PG, 100 ppm of fat). Product was formed into rolls, frozen, sliced into patties, cooked on a flat griddle to 70C, overwrapped in PVC, and then frozen at –18C for 4 months. GSE- and PG-containing samples retained their fresh cooked beef odor and flavor longer (p<0.05) than controls during storage. Rancid odor and flavor scores of GSE-containing samples were lower (p<0.05) than those of controls after 4 months of storage. The L* value of all samples increased (p<0.05) during storage. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) of the control and AA-containing samples increased (p<0.05); those of GSE-containing samples did not change significantly (p>0.05) over the storage period.