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The labor market performance of immigrants relative to natives has been widely studied but its gender dimension has been relatively neglected. Our paper aims at revisiting labor market convergence between immigrants and natives and examining this under-studied dimension in a comprehensive study of the EU-15 countries and Switzerland over the period 1999-2018. We measure convergence of labor market outcomes for male and female migrants to similar natives before and after the Great Recession and across countries of destination. Our results show that in most countries female migrants start with a larger employment gap but converge more rapidly than male migrants do. We also provide a broad overview of the role of potential factors such as economic conditions, labor markets structure, institutions and attitudes towards immigrants and women and their association with employment convergence of all immigrants and female immigrants specifically. While the analysis provides an interesting insight, we do not identify very significant factors at the national level. We find a very strong correlation between attitudes towards immigrants and their employment convergence across sub-national regions.

Hospitals are responsible for delivering healthcare services to patients in need. These services are large and complex and get affected by multiple interacting actors, such as doctors, nurses, patients, citizens, medical suppliers, health insurance providers. Lately, hospitals around the world are one of the main targets when it comes to terrorist attacks, the cyber realm being the principal source. The healthcare sector is particularly vulnerable due to heavy involvement in patient personal and health information, time constraints, and complex day-to-day operations. In addition to cyber-threats, physical threats are increasingly growing and even healthcare facilities are not immune to them. Malicious intended people created cyber threatening attacks with the purpose to systematically collect evidence against the healthcare system, to advocate for the end of such attacks, and to endanger people's lives or to use the stolen personal data for bad intended actions. Henceforth it is necessary to build a platform that will get alerts and incidents at a fast pace in real-time to prevent any casualties at low cost. SAFECARE project aims to offer protection to hospitals and increase the compliance for the European regulations and security regarding ethics and privacy for health services. This paper presents a solution that will enhance security in hospitals. The primary platform will be built based on a BTMS (Building Threat Monitoring System) where events, incidents, and alerts will be transmitted by sensors from hospital rooms in real-time. Several scenarios were thought to simulate different types of attacks against hospitals and according to the scenarios, various prototypes will be built for assuring the security of the personal and patients from various hospitals.

Insecticides are commonly utilized to control mosquito larvae in rice fields. They can, however, have negative effects on both vertebrates and non-target invertebrate species. In this study, we examined the effects of pulse exposition to different concentrations of cypermethrin (0.15, 0.015, 0.0015 mg/L) and diflubenzuron (0.15, 0.015, 0.0015 mg/L) on egg hatching rate, larval growth, and larval survival in a damselfly, Ischnura elegans, and on survival of a crustacean, Daphnia magna. Insecticide exposure had significant negative effects on hatching rate in damselfly eggs. Exposed damselfly larvae also grew less and showed a higher mortality than control larvae. In Daphnia, the acute toxicity test (ISO 6341 in Water quality—determination of the inhibition of the mobility of Daphnia magna Straus (Cladocera, Crustacea)—acute toxicity test, Int Organ Stand Geneve, Geneva, 2012) showed an increased inhibition of mobility in the presence of insecticides. We observed a proportional response in relation to insecticide concentration, such that the highest exposure levels showed the largest reduction of vital performances. Our highest tested values correspond to those currently employed in agriculture. This study suggests that exposure to two common insecticides strongly affects non-target invertebrates even at very low concentration levels (cypermethrin 0.0015 mg/L and diflubenzuron 0.0015 mg/L).

In the present study, we investigated the health status of marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) caged and deployed at three different sites on the Sardinian coastline characterized by different levels of contamination: Fornelli (F, the reference site), Cala Real (CR), and Porto Torres (PT). A new low density oligonucleotide microarray was used to investigate global gene expression in the digestive gland of mussels. Target genes were selected to cover most of the biological processes involved in the stress response in bivalve mollusks (e.g. DNA metabolism, translation, immune response, cytoskeleton organization). A battery of classical biomarkers was also employed to complement the gene expression analyses. Chemical analysis revealed higher loads of heavy metals (Pb and Cu) and total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at PT compared to the other sites. In mussels deployed at CR, functional genomics analysis of the microarray data rendered 78 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in 11 biological processes. Animals exposed at PT had 105 DEGs that were characterized by the regulation of 14 biological processes, including mitochondrial activity, adhesion to substrate, DNA metabolism, translation, metal resistance, and cytoskeleton organization. Biomarker data (lysosomal membrane stability, lysosomal/cytoplasm volume ratio, lipofuscin accumulation, metallothionein content, micronucleus frequency, and cytoskeleton alteration) were in trend with transcriptomic output. Biomarker data were integrated using the Mussel Expert System (MES), allowing defining the area in which the presence of chemicals is toxic for mussels. Our study provides the opportunity to adopt a new approach of integrating transcriptomic (microarray) results with classical biomarkers to assess the impact of pollutants on marine mussels in biomonitoring programs.

Lysosomal membrane stability (LMS) has been used in various organisms as a very sensitive biomarker of stress. However, despite the abundance of data about regulation of the autophagic process in mammals, in the invertebrates there is only limited mechanistic understanding. Marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis Lam.) are bivalve molluscs, widely used as models in ecotoxicology and as environmental bioindicators of sea water quality. In order to elucidate this fundamental process, in the present study, mussels were exposed for 3 days to a “priority”, ubiquitous environmental contaminant, benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) at different concentrations (i.e. 5, 50, 100 μg/L seawater). B[a]P accumulated in lysosomes of digestive tubule epithelial cells (digestive cells) and in enlarged lipid-rich lysosomes (autolysosomes) as detected by immunofluorescence and UV-fluorescence. B[a]P also activated the autophagic process with a marked decrease of LMS and concurrent increase in lysosomal/cytoplasmic volume ratio. Dephosphorylation of mTOR contributes to increased lysosomal membrane permeability and induced autophagy. B[a]P induced a decrease in phosphorylated (active form) mTOR. The probable role of mTOR in cell signalling and the regulation of the cellular responses to the contaminants has been also confirmed in a field study, where there was significant inactivation of mTOR in stressed animals. Statistical and network modelling supported the empirical investigations of autophagy and mTOR; and was used to integrate the mechanistic biomarker data with chemical analysis and DNA damage.

The effect of Cr(VI) as a soil contaminant on the edaphic worm Eisenia andrei was studied by evaluating the activity of Ca2 +-ATPase in the intestinal mucosa. In eukaryotes, Ca2 +-ATPase is a key mediator of cell signaling although comparatively little is known about its activity in earthworms. Size and anatomical constraints (i.e. small and complex) led us to develop and optimize a cyto-biochemical method to measure Ca2 +-ATPase activity in earthworms. The principal site of enzyme activity was found to be the post clitellar intestinal tract; immunohistochemistry then identified plasma membrane Ca2 +-ATPase (PMCA ATPase) in the apical area of the intestinal epithelium. Earthworms exposed for 28 days to OECD soil contaminated with 1, 2, and 15 mg/Kg Cr(VI) demonstrated about 70% inhibition of Ca2 +-ATPase activity at the low Cr (VI) concentration (the half of the Italian law limit for residential areas), rising to approximately 84% inhibition at the highest concentration. Reduced enzyme activity was accompanied by decreased enzyme content and reduced lysosomal membrane stability (LMS), which is a well established early warning biomarker of stress. These data demonstrate the potential utility of Ca2 +-ATPase activity as a sensitive parameter with which to detect environmental stress in earthworms.

Bone marrow ABO incompatible transplantations require graft manipulation prior to infusion to avoid potentially lethal side effects. We analyzed the influence of pre-manipulation factors (temperature at arrival, transit time, time of storage at 4°C until processing and total time from collection to red blood cell depletion) on the graft quality of 21 red blood cell depletion procedures in ABO incompatible pediatric transplants. Bone marrow collections were processed using the Spectra Optia® (Terumo BCT) automated device. Temperature at arrival ranged between 4°C and 6°C, median transit time was 9.75h (range 0.33-28), median time of storage at 4°-6°C until processing was 1.8h (range 0.41-18.41) and median time from collection to RBC depletion was 21h (range1-39.4). Median percentage of red blood cell depletion was 97.7 (range 95.4-98.5), median mononuclear cells recovery was 92.2% (range 40-121.2), median CD34+ cell recovery was 93% (range 69.9-161.2), median cell viability was 97.7% (range 94-99.3) and median volume reduction was 83.9% (range 82-92). Graft quality was not significantly different between BM units median age. Our preliminary data show that when all good manifacturing practices are respected the post-manipulation graft quality is excellent also for those units processed after 24h.