Heat shock resistance traits in specimens of the seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla originating from native and non-native populations

We compared the responses of native and non-native populations of the seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla to heat shock in common garden-type experiments. Specimens from six native populations in East Asia and from eight non-native populations in Europe and on the Mexican Pacific coast were acclimated to two sets of identical conditions before their resistance to heat shock was examined. The experiments were carried out twice - one time in the native range in Qingdao, China and one time in the invaded range in Kiel, Germany - to rule out effects of specific local conditions. In both testing sites the non-native populations survived heat shock significantly better than the native populations, The data underlying this statement are presented in https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.859335. After three hours of heat shock G. vermiculophylla exhibited increased levels of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and of a specific isoform of haloperoxidase, suggesting that both enzymes could be required for heat shock stress management. However, the elevated resistance toward heat shock of non-native populations only correlated with an increased constitutive expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70). The haloperoxidase isoform was more prominent in native populations, suggesting that not only increased HSP70 expression, but also reduced allocation into haloperoxidase expression after heat shock was selected during the invasion history. The data describing expression of HSP70 and three different isoforms of haloperoxidase are presented in https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.859358.

The determinants of rural electrification in Bihar, India

This paper explores intra-state disparity in access to electricity and examines the determinants of electrification at the village level in Bihar, one of the underdeveloped states in India. Our field survey of 80 villages in 5 districts conducted in 2008-09 found that 48 villages (60%) are electrified when using the definition of electrification that a village is electrified if any one household in the village is connected to electricity. The degrees of “electrification” in terms of the proportion of household connection and available hours of electricity remain by and large low, and at the same time differ across districts, villages and seasons. In the processes of electrification, approximately 40% of villages have been electrified in recent years. Based on the basic findings of the survey, this paper examines the electrification processes and how it has changed in recent years. The econometric analyses demonstrate that location is the most important determinant of a village’s electricity connection. Another important finding is that with the rapid progress of rural electrificationunder the recent government programme and the tendency to connect the villages which are easily accessible, the collective bargaining power of the village, which used to significantly affect the process of electrification, has lost influence. This adversely affects remote villages. In order to extend electricity supplies to remote and geographically disadvantaged villages, the government needs to consider seriously other options for sustainable electricity supply, such as decentralized distribution of electricity rather than the conventional connection through the national/local grids.

Six not so easy pieces in intermediate band solar cell research

The concept of "intermediate band solar cell" (IBSC) is, apparently, simple to grasp. However, since the idea was proposed, our understanding has improved and we feel now that we can explain better some concepts than we initially introduced. Clarifying these concepts is important, even if they are well-known for the advanced researcher, so that efforts can be driven in the right direction from start. The six pieces of this work are: Does a miniband need to be formed when the IBSC is implemented with quantum dots?; What are the problems of each of the main practical approaches that exist today? What are the simplest experimental techniques to demonstrate whether an IBSC is working as such or not? What is the issue with the absorption coefficient overlap? and Mott's transition? What the best system would be, if any?

Components of verbal working memory: Evidence from neuroimaging

We review research on the neural bases of verbal working memory, focusing on human neuroimaging studies. We first consider experiments that indicate that verbal working memory is composed of multiple components. One component involves the subvocal rehearsal of phonological information and is neurally implemented by left-hemisphere speech areas, including Broca’s area, the premotor area, and the supplementary motor area. Other components of verbal working memory may be devoted to pure storage and to executive processing of the contents of memory. These studies rest on a subtraction logic, in which two tasks are imaged, differing only in that one task presumably has an extra process, and the difference image is taken to reflect that process. We then review studies that show that the previous results can be obtained with experimental methods other than subtraction. We focus on the method of parametric variation, in which a parameter that presumably reflects a single process is varied. In the last section, we consider the distinction between working memory tasks that require only storage of information vs. those that require that the stored items be processed in some way. These experiments provide some support for the hypothesis that, when a task requires processing the contents of working memory, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is disproportionately activated.

Regulation of excitatory transmission at hippocampal synapses by calbindin D28k.

Distinct subpopulations of neurons in the brain contain one or more of the Ca(2+)-binding proteins calbindin D28k, calretinin, and parvalbumin. Although it has been shown that these high-affinity Ca(2+)-binding proteins can increase neuronal Ca2+ buffering capacity, it is not clear which aspects of neuronal physiology they normally regulate. To investigate this problem, we used a recently developed method for expressing calbindin D28k in the somatic and synaptic regions of cultured hippocampal pyramidal neurons. Ninety-six hours after infection with a replication-defective adenovirus containing the calbindin D28k gene, essentially all cultured hippocampal pyramidal neurons robustly expressed calbindin D28k. Our results demonstrate that while calbindin D28k does not alter evoked neurotransmitter release at excitatory pyramidal cell synapses, this protein has a profound effect on synaptic plasticity. In particular, we show that calbindin D28k expression suppresses posttetanic potentiation.

Understanding sickness presenteeism through the experience of immigrant workers in a context of economic crisis

Background: Previous economic recessions show that immigrant workers may experience longer periods of unemployment, a situation that may lead employees to presenteeism, the act of working in spite of a health problem. This study explored perceptions about the factors that lead to presenteeism in immigrant workers considering the context of economic crisis. Methods: Six focus group discussions were held (February 2012), with men and women from Colombia, Ecuador, and Morocco (n = 44) living in Spain and selected by theoretical sample. A qualitative content analysis was performed. Results: Four categories were identified as factors that influence the occurrence of presenteeism in a context of economic crisis: poor employment conditions, fear of unemployment, employer/employee relationship, and difficulties in finding temporary replacement workers. Furthermore, musculoskeletal, respiratory, and mental problems were related to presenteeism. Conclusions: It is important to develop strategies to protect workers from negative working conditions that are associated with deterioration of health.

From the boom to the crisis: changes in employment conditions of immigrants in Spain and their effects on mental health

Background: Migrant workers have been one of the groups most affected by the economic crisis. This study evaluates the influence of changes in employment conditions on the incidence of poor mental health of immigrant workers in Spain, after a period of 3 years, in context of economic crisis. Methods: Follow-up survey was conducted at two time points, 2008 and 2011, with a reference population of 318 workers from Colombia, Ecuador, Morocco and Romania residing in Spain. Individuals from this population who reported good mental health in the 2008 survey (n = 214) were interviewed again in 2011 to evaluate their mental health status and the effects of their different employment situations since 2008 by calculating crude and adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for sociodemographic and employment characteristics. Findings: There was an increased risk of poor mental health in workers who lost their jobs (aOR = 3.62, 95%CI: 1.64–7.96), whose number of working hours increased (aOR = 2.35, 95%CI: 1.02–5.44), whose monthly income decreased (aOR = 2.75, 95%CI: 1.08–7.00) or who remained within the low-income bracket. This was also the case for people whose legal status (permission for working and residing in Spain) was temporary or permanent compared with those with Spanish nationality (aOR = 3.32, 95%CI: 1.15–9.58) or illegal (aOR = 17.34, 95%CI: 1.96–153.23). In contrast, a decreased risk was observed among those who attained their registration under Spanish Social Security system (aOR = 0.10, 95%CI: 0.02–0.48). Conclusion: There was an increase in poor mental health among immigrant workers who experienced deterioration in their employment conditions, probably influenced by the economic crisis.

The eight hours day for wage earning women: United States Supreme Court upholds the California law : List of eight hours laws

National Consumers' League.

Differences between groups of family physicians with different attitudes towards at-risk drinkers : a post hoc study of the ODHIN survey in Portugal

Copyright © 2016 Frederico Rosário et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Towards a new design of South American integration? Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Special Issue January 2013

The design of South American integration is becoming different. This has been quite common in the trajectory of over six decades of initiatives aimed at generating institutional frameworks to facilitate regional integration. However, even when it has become apparent that the previous design is undergoing a new process of change, it would be difficult to predict for how long the one that is beginning to take shape will remain in effect. The experience of recent decades suggests great caution in forecasts that are optimistic about any eventual longevity. Several factors are contributing to this redesign. Some are external to the region while others are endogenous. The combination of these factors will influence the future design of South American integration. If past lessons are correctly capitalized and certain advantage is derived from the leeway provided by a decentralized international system with multiple options, we can anticipate that what will predominate in the region will be multidimensional integration agreements (with political and economic objectives at the same time) and with cross-memberships and commitments. If this were the case, the actual impact on regional governance, social and productive integration and the competitive insertion at a global scale will depend largely on the following factors: the quality and sustainability of the strategy for development and global and regional insertion of each country; the combination of a reasonable degree of flexibility and predictability in the commitments made and their corresponding ground rule, and the density of the network of cross-interests that can be achieved as a result of the respective regional integration agreements, reflected in multiple transnational social and production networks.

Identifying Factor Productivity from Micro-data: The case of EU agriculture. Factor Markets Working Paper No. 34, January 2013

The classical problem of agricultural productivity measurement has regained interest owing to recent price hikes in world food markets. At the same time, there is a new methodological debate on the appropriate identification strategies for addressing endogeneity and collinearity problems in production function estimation. We examine the plausibility of four established and innovative identification strategies for the case of agriculture and test a set of related estimators using farm-level panel datasets from seven EU countries. The newly suggested control function and dynamic panel approaches provide attractive conceptual improvements over the received ‘within’ and duality models. Even so, empirical implementation of the conceptual sophistications built into these estimators does not always live up to expectations. This is particularly true for the dynamic panel estimator, which mostly failed to identify reasonable elasticities for the (quasi-) fixed factors. Less demanding proxy approaches represent an interesting alternative for agricultural applications. In our EU sample, we find very low shadow prices for labour, land and fixed capital across countries. The production elasticity of materials is high, so improving the availability of working capital is the most promising way to increase agricultural productivity.

Off-farm Labour Decision of Italian Farm Operators. Factor Markets Working Document No. 61, August 2013

This paper analyses the factors affecting off-farm labour decisions of Italian farm operators. Using micro-level data from the Farm Business Survey (REA) over the pre- and post-2003 CAP reform periods, we investigated the impact that operator, family, farm and market characteristics exert on these choices. Among other things, the paper focuses also on the differential impact of those variables for operators of smaller and larger holdings. The main results suggest that operator and family characteristics have a significant impact on the decision to participate in off-farm work more for smaller than for bigger farms. By contrast, farm characteristics are more relevant variables for bigger farms. In particular, decoupled farm payments, by increasing the marginal productivity of farm labour, lower the probability of working off the farm only in bigger farms, while coupled subsidies in pre-reform years do not have a significant impact on labour decisions. Finally, we show that, after accounting for the standard covariates, local and territorial labour market characteristics generally have a low effect on off-farm work operators’ choices.

Mean arterial pressure and vasopressor load after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: Associations with one-year neurologic outcome

THE AIM OF THE STUDY There are limited data on blood pressure targets and vasopressor use following cardiac arrest. We hypothesized that hypotension and high vasopressor load are associated with poor neurological outcome following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). METHODS We included 412 patients with OHCA included in FINNRESUSCI study conducted between 2010 and 2011. Hemodynamic data and vasopressor doses were collected electronically in one, two or five minute intervals. We evaluated thresholds for time-weighted (TW) mean arterial pressure (MAP) and outcome by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and used multivariable analysis adjusting for co-morbidities, factors at resuscitation, an illness severity score, TW MAP and total vasopressor load (VL) to test associations with one-year neurologic outcome, dichotomized into either good (1-2) or poor (3-5) according to the cerebral performance category scale. RESULTS Of 412 patients, 169 patients had good and 243 patients had poor one-year outcomes. The lowest MAP during the first six hours was 58 (inter-quartile range [IQR] 56-61) mmHg in those with a poor outcome and 61 (59-63) mmHg in those with a good outcome (p<0.01), and lowest MAP was independently associated with poor outcome (OR 1.02 per mmHg, 95% CI 1.00-1.04, p=0.03). During the first 48h the median (IQR) of the TW mean MAP was 80 (78-82) mmHg in patients with poor, and 82 (81-83) mmHg in those with good outcomes (p=0.03) but in multivariable analysis TWA MAP was not associated with outcome. Vasopressor load did not predict one-year neurologic outcome. CONCLUSIONS Hypotension occurring during the first six hours after cardiac arrest is an independent predictor of poor one-year neurologic outcome. High vasopressor load was not associated with poor outcome and further randomized trials are needed to define optimal MAP targets in OHCA patients.

Tabulation of labor provisions in codes approved by August 8, 1934.

Mode of access: Internet.

Proposed adoption of a four-day, forty-hour workweek, without payment of time and one-half overtime compensation for work days exceeding eight hours.

Reproduction of typescript.