Skills are considered a key determinant of workers’ labor market opportunities, especially in times of rapid technological change. However, existing research rarely conceptualizes and measures skills in their own right, instead relying on occupations as a proxy. How does this limit our understanding of the labor market structure and of wage inequality? In this article, we leverage a unique dataset of millions of online job postings in the United Kingdom to measure the skill profiles of jobs and analyze their similarity within and between occupational categories. Our data-driven approach reveals substantial discrepancies between occupational classifications and the actual skill content of jobs. We further demonstrate that job-level variation in skill content constitutes an independent source of wage inequality—one that is obscured by analyses at the occupational level. These findings challenge the conventional view of occupations as coherent bundles of skills, offering new avenues for analyzing labor market stratification.
O tempo presente se singulariza pela ruptura e pelo casuísmo. Ruptura e casuísmo que sugerem, atentos nós a um específico nódulo de preocupações, um esfumaçar dos limites entre o direito penal e o administrativo.
Criminal law and procedure, Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
N. Muthukumaran, B. Arulmurugan, Manikandan Manoharan
This study evaluates the compatibility of dissimilar welding between Inconel 59 and Austenitic Stainless Steel (AISI 904L) using CO₂ Laser Beam Welding. The investigation includes macro and microstructure analysis, mechanical property evaluation, and the effects of cryogenic treatment. Weld geometry was assessed macroscopically, confirming process feasibility. Microscopic analysis revealed fine equiaxed dendrites in the fusion zone with minimal secondary phase formation. XRD phase analysis confirmed phase stability, while residual stress analysis indicated reduced tensile stress in the fusion zone and compressive stress in adjacent regions. The fusion zone exhibited an average hardness of 236 HV, attributed to the refined dendritic structure. Cryogenic treatment improved weld performance, with tensile strength increasing by 5.5 % in shallow mode and 15.3 % in deep mode, alongside a 4.6 % enhancement in impact strength in deep cryogenic conditions. These results validate the feasibility of dissimilar welding between Alloy 59 and AISI 904L for applications requiring high strength and temperature resistance.
Background Objective measurements estimated that 1.57 billion people globally had hearing loss in 2019. However, where audiologists are sparse, self-reported measures have been suggested as alternatives to assess burden. Moreover, research suggests this number varies by gender, due to biological and social mechanisms. Further refining our knowledge of the global prevalence of hearing loss will provide better understanding of which groups are most affected and how to best allocate resources.Methods Using Gateway to Global Ageing data and the South African National Income Dynamics Study, we estimated the prevalence and men:women ratio of self-reported hearing loss and hearing aid use for 28 countries. Hearing loss was measured as having fair/poor hearing or reporting hearing aid use. We included 664 580 observations of individuals aged 50+ years.Results We found that the four countries with the highest levels of hearing loss (China 65%, South Korea 39%, Mexico 33%, Brazil 31%) also had the lowest reported hearing aid use (as low as 1% in China). Though men were more likely than women to report hearing loss in nearly all countries, especially in regions with higher hearing aid use (USA, Northern/Western Europe), China, South Korea and South Africa reported no gender difference. As the prevalence of hearing loss and hearing aid use increased with age, gender differences generally decreased.Conclusion International variation underscores the importance of country context in shaping perceived hearing and hearing aid use. Regions with high levels of hearing loss and low hearing aid use may be especially amenable to interventions.
Medicine (General), Infectious and parasitic diseases
Concealed smartphone use while driving (CSUWD), a prevalent and covert form of distracted driving, poses significant threats to road safety. However, the psychological determinants underlying this illegal behavior remain underexplored. A two-wave longitudinal study based on the expanding theory of planned behavior (TPB) investigates the intention and prospective behavior of CSUWD in China. In the first wave, 256 respondents assessed the standard TPB constructs, alongside extended constructs of descriptive norms, moral norms, and perceived risks. Subsequently, 156 participants reported their actual behavior in the second wave. Hierarchical multiple regression results revealed that the traditional TPB variables accounted for 57.1% of intention variance and 45.2% of behavior variance, while extended variables contributed an additional 11.7% to intention variance. All variables, except perceived crash risk, emerged as significant determinants of intention. Notably, the perceived risk of being caught and fined inversely correlated with intention, suggesting a potential disinhibition effect. Both perceived behavioral control and intention were significant determinants of subsequent behavior. The findings underscore the validity of TPB in predicting CSUWD, informing the design of non-legal interventions (e.g., public education advertisement, road awareness campaigns, and technological interventions) to mitigate CSUWD-related distracted driving and promote sustainable transportation systems.
RESUMO O turismo responsável exige ações igualmente responsáveis de operadores de turismo, governos, residentes e turistas. A teoria das cenas diz respeito aos esforços para a construção de belos ambientes naturais e culturais, oferecendo recursos adequados para as várias partes interessadas atuando nos quarteirões urbanos e permitindo que turistas e residentes desfrutem de qualidade de vida e de uma experiência ambiental restauradora profunda e de longo prazo. Ao mesmo tempo, o estudo também fornece aos gestores de quarteirões urbanos um recurso estratégico de desenvolvimento responsável e sustentável que considera de maneira abrangente os benefícios econômicos e sociais do desenvolvimento local. Este artigo examina uma amostra de 53 quarteirões culturais urbanos chineses, coleta comentários de turistas relacionados a esses espaços para classificá-los e organizá-los, extrai palavras-chave de materiais de avaliação de turistas e obtém tendências de demanda de mercado em diferentes dimensões da teoria das cenas. Em seguida, oferecemos sugestões de desenvolvimento para que esses quarteirões possam criar cenas que fortaleçam as áreas em termos de legitimidade, autenticidade e teatralidade da forma como delineado pela teoria das cenas.
This study aimed to analyze farmers' opinions, its role to household welfare, and the factors that influence the likelihood and intensity of exotic poultry adoption among rural chicken producers. To attain this, 155 households were targeted for interview. To this end, a multistage sampling procedure was administered to select households. Accordingly, quantitative data was backed by the qualitative data so as to bolster its credibility. Thus, the qualitative data was obtained through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The result revealed that for enhanced market demand of chickens and egg production capacity among other allied factors farmers were interested with its production though exposure to disease and predators, absence of rural vaccination services, and the need for more care were also identified as challenges of production. Furthermore, exotic poultry producers’ get advantage over their non-exotic poultry producers as a result of the sale of eggs and a live chicken. The producers improved their diets notably for egg and chicken meat. This also implies that exotic poultry producers were better at food diversification than their counter part using the days recall method. The model output, on the other hand, showed that household size, farming experience, farm size, sex, off/non-farm income, livestock holding, distance to market, and access to credit service were all statistically significant at 1 %. The study suggests that focusing on key factors influencing the adoption and use of exotic poultry will help maintain and increase their adoption rates.
Romeo Bandinelli, Gabriele Scozzafava, Bianca Bindi
et al.
The importance of traceability in food products in regard to consumer preferences, the difficulty of certifications in communicating credence attributes, and concerns about food safety, have led consumers to ask for more information about the credibility of information reported on the label with the product itself, due to the importance of traceability in food products. An objective of this study is to analyze the benefits of implementing blockchain technology in the supply chain for ancient wheat, as a technology capable of sharing reliable information about the products easily along the entire value chain. In particular, the aim is to evaluate how the consumer reacts when confronted with a package of ancient wheat pasta for which all the information on its origin and processing methods is available. In order to achieve these results, a survey based on the Technology Acceptance Model has been developed and conducted in the Italian country. Result indicates the importance of identifying an independent variable that represents the degree of security when faced with a threat that creates a circumstance, condition or event that can lead to economic hardship, for example, data destruction, disclosure, modification, fraud, waste, and abuse. The strength of blockchain lies precisely in its ability to guarantee the immutability of data throughout the supply chain, providing the end consumer with a high-quality product.
Systems engineering, Marketing. Distribution of products
Ubaldo Jorge Augusto de Filipe André, Ana Paula Sarmento do Santos, Onelis Portuondo Savón
et al.
Context: Today, quite a few environmental problems require swift responses toward adjustment, mitigation, and sustainability. Accordingly, how could university students acquire effective environmental education so they can play their social roles in balance with environmental protection?
Aim: To recommend methodological actions to contribute to student education at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the University of Namibe, Angola.
Methods: Consequently, this study took from qualitative methods of social research. Methods and techniques, such as analysis-synthesis, inductive-deductive, and documentary review for processing information about environmental education and climate change in university education.
Results: Five methodological guidelines for environmental education were established. They were inserted in subject Physics II, in the first year of the Marine Biology Bachelor Degree, with six general actions that link theory and practice, through the teaching process in the degrees of Oceanography, Marine Biology, and Marine Resources. The study demonstrated the fulfillment of learning objectives related to Sustainable Development Goals No. 13 and 14, based on UNESCO (2017) guidelines.
Conclusions: There is a potential for students to acquire environmental information through methodological actions by the staff, in terms of subject preparation at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the University of Namibe.
Corporate financial risks not only endanger the financial stability of digital industry but also cause huge losses to the macro-economy and social wealth. In order to detect and warn digital industry financial risks in time, this paper proposes an early warning system of digital industry financial risks based on improved K-means clustering algorithm. Aiming to speed up the K-means calculation and find the optimal clustering subspace, a specific transformation matrix is used to project the data. The feature space is divided into clustering space and noise space. The former contains all spatial structure information; the latter does not contain any information. Each iteration of K-means is carried out in the clustering space, and the effect of dimensionality screening is achieved in the iteration process. At the same time, the retained dimensions are fed back to the next iteration. The dimensional information of the cluster space is discovered automatically, so no additional parameters are introduced. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the proposed algorithm is higher than other algorithms in financial risk detection.
Tayachew Nega, Nigus Gabbiye Habtu, Assefa Tesfaye
et al.
The performance of gasification for Injera baking was explored in this study, as well as the effects of moisture content, and primary and secondary airflow rates. Primary air is used in the reactor of a biomass gasifier, which creates syngas that is burned by secondary air on the mitad's bottom side. An average temperature of averaged 185°C at the center and 170°C away from the center was observed; the size of the cone determines the temperature distribution on the metal surface. The reactor's narrower cone diameter allowed for a greater temperature only in the center and a more variable baked Injera eye appearance. The cone diameter has been reduced to 0.15 m of the mitad diameter to improve the temperature distribution on the mitad surface. The gasifier temperature is 800°C when the air/fuel ratio is 5.8 kg/kg and the moisture content of the wood is 16%. Gasification is improved by heating the primary air and changing the air-fuel ratio. The findings revealed that pre-heated air is more efficient for gasification and saves money on baking and fuel. Fuel efficiency (0.45) and time savings (0.12) were discovered in the new gasifier. Between gasification temperatures of 650 and 800°C, an effective Injera baking temperature (170–185°C) on the mitad surface was attained. Following the tests, the average specific wood fuel consumption (1.414 g/kg), char residue (317 g), and average Injera baking time were calculated. For each test of one baking cycle, this was found at the burning rate capability of both stoves, which is 6 kg/hr. Therefore, the fuel consumption and burning rate of fuel are depending on the amount of airflow rate.
J. C. P. Leendertse, J. C. P. Leendertse, A. I. Wierdsma
et al.
Background: Personal recovery (PR) is a subjective, multidimensional concept, and quantitative research using PR as an outcome is rapidly increasing. This systematic review is intended to support the design of interventions that contribute to PR in psychotic disorders, by providing an overview of associated factors and their weighted importance to PR: clinical factors, social factors, and socio-demographic characteristics are included, and factors related to the concept of PR (organized into CHIME dimensions).Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted from inception to March 2020. Quantitative studies that had used a validated questionnaire assessing the concept of PR were included. Mean effect sizes for the relationship between PR-scale total scores and related factors were calculated using meta-analyses. Sources of heterogeneity were examined using meta-regression tests.Results: Forty-six studies, that used (a total of) eight PR measures, showed that in clinical factors, affective symptoms had a medium negative association with PR-scale total scores (r = −0.44, 95%CI −0.50 to −0.37), while positive, negative and general symptoms had small negative correlations. No association was found with neuro-cognition. Social factors (support, work and housing, and functioning) showed small positive correlations. Gender and age differences had barely been researched. Large associations were found for PR-scale total scores with the CHIME dimensions hope (r = 0.56, 95%CI 0.48–0.63), meaning in life (r = 0.48, 95%CI 0.38–0.58) and empowerment (r = 0.53, 95%CI 0.42–0.63); while medium associations were found with connectedness (r = 0.34, 95%CI 0.43–0.65) and identity (r = 0.43, 95%CI 0.35–0.50). Levels of heterogeneity were high, sources included: the variety of PR measures, variations in sample characteristics, publication bias, variations in outcome measures, and cultural differences.Discussion: Most interventions in mental healthcare aim to reduce symptoms and improve functioning. With regard to stimulating PR, these interventions may benefit from also focusing on enhancing hope, empowerment, and meaning in life. The strength of these findings is limited by the challenges of comparing separate CHIME dimensions with questionnaires assessing the concept of PR, and by the high levels of heterogeneity observed. Future research should focus on the interaction between elements of PR and clinical and social factors over time.
Rawad Hodeify, Shoib Sarwar Siddiqui, Rachel Matar
et al.
Cisplatin (CDDP) is currently one of the most effective FDA-approved treatments for breast cancer. Previous studies have shown that CDDP-induced cell death in human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells is associated with disruption of calcium homeostasis. However, whether the sensitivity of breast cancer cells to cisplatin is associated with dysregulation of the expression of calcium-binding proteins (CaBPs) remains unknown. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the intracellular calcium chelator (BAPTA-AM) on viability of MCF-7 cells in the presence of toxic and sub-toxic doses of cisplatin. Furthermore, this study assessed the expression of CaBPs, calmodulin, S100A8, and S100A14 in MCF-7 cells treated with cisplatin. Cell viability was determined using MTT-based in vitro toxicity assay. Intracellular calcium imaging was done using Fluo-4 AM, a cell-permeant fluorescent calcium indicator. Expression of CaBPs was tested using real-time quantitative PCR. Exposure of cells to increasing amounts of CDDP correlated with increasing fluorescence of the intracellular calcium indicator, Fluo-4 AM. Conversely, treating cells with cisplatin significantly decreased mRNA levels of calmodulin, S100A8, and S100A14. Treatment of the cells with calcium chelator, BAPTA-AM, significantly enhanced the cytotoxic effects of sub-toxic dose of cisplatin. Our results indicated a statistically significant negative correlation between calmodulin, S100A8, and S100A14 expression and sensitivity of breast cancer cells to a sub-toxic dose of cisplatin. We propose that modulating the activity of calcium-binding proteins, calmodulin, S100A8, and S100A14, could be used to increase cisplatin efficacy, lowering its treatment dosage while maintaining its chemotherapeutic value.
The article examines the complex and fluctuant relationship which exists between the Moroccan regime and salafists from the 1970s until the ‘Arab Spring’. In each moment of this evolution, the regime opts for a pragmatic approach which consists in using this religious trend to meet pressing demands and priorities of a political and security nature. Ten years after breaking up with salafist groups, both quietists and jihadists, suspected to be responsible for the 2003 Casablanca attacks, the regime seeks henceforth to reconcile with salafis with the purpose to integrate them, or at least neutralise them, in the ongoing politico-religious reconfiguration process. Yet, this reconciliation, which aims to defuse the socio-political tensions and uncertainty the country has experienced in the aftermath of 2011 in addition to counterbalance the Islamists rising to power, is likely to challenge or even contradict certain ideological and doctrinal choices that have hitherto framed the religious policy since 2003.