The Spanish public retirement pensions system: Principal challenges and recent developments

This paper first describes the basic characteristics of the Spanish system of retirement pensions, before addressing its major challenges in the future and the principal solutions proposed. For this purpose, many of the works on social security published in Spain over the past years have been reviewed to provide a recent overview of technical discussions on this subject. Finally, the main reforms undertaken by the government since 1995 are described in some detail and assessed.     

Assessing international organizations’ support to social enterprise

This article takes stock of a sample of interventions and programmes across different countries and regions supported by international organizations to foster the development of social enterprise. The primary objective of the article is to generate a compilation of such interventions and draw some lessons about their potential contribution to the growth and sustainability of the sector. The results indicate that international organizations’ support to social enterprise has focused primarily on the provision of financial resources, notably loans and grants. While programmes remain largely unassessed, the few available rigorous evaluations show that social enterprise has the potential to be a cost‐effective mechanism to deliver basic social services to the poor. The article proposes a set of policy recommendations directed primarily to international organizations and the public administration to improve and enhance their support to the sector.     

Effect of Sexual Arousal on Cortical Coupling During Performance of the Tower of Hanoi Task in Young Men

Sexual arousal affects cognitive processing, which depends on the coordinated functioning among cortical areas. The aim of this research was to determine whether previous observation of videos with sexual content affects the degree of cortical electroencephalographic (EEG) coupling during performance of an executive task. Cortical EEG correlations were calculated in three groups of heterosexual men under three conditions: at rest; during observation of a video with neutral, aggressive, or erotic content; and while performing the Tower of Hanoi task (TOH). Based on self-reports, it was shown that the erotic video induced general and sexual arousal, while the aggressive video affected valence and general arousal. Task performance was similar in all three groups. During performance of TOH, only the erotic group showed a decreased correlation between prefrontal areas with an increased correlation between parietal and prefrontotemporal areas, specifically in the slow bands. It is likely that these changes in the degree of cortical coupling could be associated with the cognitive strategies or functional adaptations that participants require to adequately solve the task during a state of sexual arousal. These data could contribute to improving our understanding of the central nervous mechanisms that underlie the effect of sexual arousal on the cognitive processes involved in tasks like TOH.     

The relationship of salivary testosterone and male sexual dysfunction in opioid-associated androgen deficiency (OPIAD)

Background: Opioids are an effective treatment for chronic non-malignant pain (CNP). Long-term use risks and side effects such as opioid-induced androgen deficiency (OPIAD) exist. This could be measured by saliva testosterone (Sal-T).

Objectives: To evaluate OPIAD in long-term opioid use in CNP patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional study included CNP male outpatients under opioid treatment. Total-Testosterone (Total-T), Free-Testosterone (Free-T), Bio-Testosterone (Bio-T) and Sal-T were measured. Correlations were calculated by Spearman’s rho (SPSS 20).

Results: From 2012 to 2014, 134 from 249 (54%) consecutive male outpatients reported erectile dysfunction (ED), 37% of them related to opioids and 19% evidenced OPIAD. A total of 120 subjects (94 cases and 26 matched-controls) were included. A significantly lower luteinizing hormone, Total-T and Free-T were found, as well as, a significant correlation between Sal-T and Total-T (r?=?0.234, p?=?0.039), Bio-T (r?=?0.241, p?=?0.039), IIEF (r?=?0.363, p?=?0.003) and HAD-anxiety (r =??0.414, p?=?0.012) in OPIAD patients. Sal-T levels were significantly lower in patients with severe–moderate ED versus mild ED (p?=?0.045) and in patients with severe ED versus moderate–mild ED (p?=?0.036).

Conclusions: These data demonstrate the high prevalence of ED in long-term use of opioids, part of this is associated to OPIAD, which can be tested by Sal-T as a non-invasive approach.     

Differences Between Household Income from Surveys and Registers and How These Affect the Poverty Headcount: Evidence from the Austrian SILC

We take advantage of the fact that for the Austrian SILC 2008–2011, two data sources are available in parallel for the same households: register-based and survey-based income data. Thus, we aim to explain which households tend to under- or over-report their household income by estimating multinomial logit and OLS models with covariates referring to the interview situation, employment status and socio-demographic household characteristics. Furthermore, we analyze source-specific differences in the distribution of household income and how these differences affect aggregate poverty indicators based on household income. The analysis reveals an increase in the cross-sectional poverty rates for 2008–2011 and the longitudinal poverty rate if register data rather than survey data are used. These changes in the poverty rate are mainly driven by differences in employment income rather than sampling weights and other income components. Regression results show a pattern of mean-reverting errors when comparing household income between the two data sources. Furthermore, differences between data sources for both under-reporting and over-reporting slightly decrease with the number of panel waves in which a household participated. Among the other variables analyzed that are related to the interview situation (mode, proxy, interview month), only the number of proxy interviews was (weakly) positively correlated with the difference between data sources, although this outcome was not robust over different model specifications.     

Oxytocin discontinuation after the active phase of induced labor: A systematic review

Background

Oxytocin is the most widely used drug in the induction of labor, but it could have potential adverse effects that derive from uterine hyperstimulation.

Influence diagnostics in Gaussian spatial linear models

Spatial linear models have been applied in numerous fields such as agriculture, geoscience and environmental sciences, among many others. Spatial dependence structure modelling, using a geostatistical approach, is an indispensable tool to estimate the parameters that define this structure. However, this estimation may be greatly affected by the presence of atypical observations in the sampled data. The purpose of this paper is to use diagnostic techniques to assess the sensitivity of the maximum-likelihood estimators, covariance functions and linear predictor to small perturbations in the data and/or the spatial linear model assumptions. The methodology is illustrated with two real data sets. The results allowed us to conclude that the presence of atypical values in the sample data have a strong influence on thematic maps, changing the spatial dependence structure.     

Occupational Segregation and the Female–Male Wage Differentials: Evidence for Spain

Using matched employer–employee data from the Spanish labour market in 2010, we analyse the effects of industrial, establishment and occupational segregation on the gender wage differential, disaggregating the latter contribution by different groups of workers belonging to different occupational areas and responsibility levels. These workers are employed in 61 occupations within 26,492 establishments in 51 different industries. Since the matched employer–employee data exhibit a particular type of grouped structure, which contrasts the statistical properties of such data with the random sample case, we estimate the effects of each type of gender segregation on the wage gap using a robust specification. We find that the major part of the contribution of gender segregation is not explained by differences in the observable characteristics. Furthermore, the estimations show that the educational female advantage has helped to narrow the gender wage gap caused by occupational segregation within each establishment only for those groups of workers with the lowest educational requirements.