Total testosterone levels are correlated to metabolic syndrome components

Introduction: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of interrelated risk factors of metabolic origin. Some studies suggest a possible link between low total testosterone (TT) levels and the presence of MetS.

Aim: To analyze the strength and independence of associations between TT and MetS components in non-diabetic men.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 143 non-diabetic men older than 40 were analyzed.

Main outcomes measure: Blood samples were collected to evaluate metabolic profile and TT levels. MetS was defined as the presence of three or more of the following characteristics: fasting blood glucose levels?≥?100?mg/dL, triglyceride?≥?150?mg/dL, HDL-c??102?cm.

Results: Mean age of the study population was 61.5?±?8.61 years old. MetS was present in 47.9% of the individuals. Thirty-four men had low TT and MetS was observed in 23 (70%) against 50 (46%) in those with normal TT (≥?300?ng/dL) (OR 4.94, p?p?=?0.03) and HDL-c (Beta: 0.19; p?=?0.04) remained significantly correlated with TT levels.

Conclusions: Low TT levels were associated with MetS diagnosis. Abdominal obesity was the MetS component independently correlated to low TT levels.     

Marital and Reproductive Behavior in Italy After 1995: Bridging the Gap with Western Europe?

Despite a delay of 20–25 years, when it comes to cohabitation, Italy has now begun to resemble other Western countries. In addition, the increase in legal separations has accelerated since 1995, although their number still remains far from that observed in countries such as the USA, the UK, and France. Finally, Italy’s fertility decline has come to a halt: the cohort of women born in the early 1970s will likely have the same TFR as those born in the mid-1960s (around 1.55). Moreover, in the Centre–North areas, period TFR rose from 1.1 in 1995 to 1.35 children per woman 10 years later. The territorial diffusion of cohabitation, legal separation, out-of-wedlock births, and fertility recovery overlaps closely with that of the decline in births during the first half of the twentieth century. A similar geographical pattern has been observed for the diffusion of school enrolment, industrialization, secularization, and (during the last 20 years) foreign immigration.     

The Italian Labour Force Survey to estimate fertility

The own-children method (OCM) applied to the Italian Labour Force Survey (ILFS) is an alternative way to give information on fertility for the years before the survey. By deriving children information and the population at risk on the basis of parents’ characteristics, a large-scale dataset for fertility analysis in Italy becomes available, also to reconstruct event histories. The quality assessment provided by comparing the total fertility rate (TFR) calculated on ILFS with the official regional and national TFRs by ISTAT gives us usable outcomes.     

A 6/5-approximation algorithm for the maximum 3-cover problem

In the maximum cover problem, we are given a collection of sets over a ground set of elements and a positive integer w, and we are asked to compute a collection of at most w sets whose union contains the maximum number of elements from the ground set. This is a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem with applications to resource allocation. We study the simplest APX-hard variant of the problem where all sets are of size at most 3 and we present a 6/5-approximation algorithm, improving the previously best known approximation guarantee. Our algorithm is based on the idea of first computing a large packing of disjoint sets of size 3 and then augmenting it by performing simple local improvements.     

Moderators of Career Calling and Job-Search Behaviors Among Unemployed Individuals

We examined the relationship between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity in a cross-sectional study of Italian unemployed job seekers (N = 315). Structural equation modeling with observed variables and latent moderated structural equation models were adopted to test whether optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance moderate the relation between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity. Perceiving a calling was positively related with job-search clarity and intensity, and these relations were stronger in individuals with lower levels of optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance. This study suggests that perceiving a calling is an important personal resource that is related to a clearer job-search goal and to more intense job-search activities and can support job seekers in personal adverse conditions. These results suggest integrating job-search behaviors in the work-as-calling theory and that incorporating the construct of calling into career counselors' practices may increase the efficacy of job-search activities.     

The Effect of Changing Sexual, Marital and Contraceptive Behaviour on Conceptions, Abortions, and Births

A model is proposed to estimate the number of conceptions during a single year using scarce survey data, official data on births and abortions for the two years following the survey, and some parameters on contraception failure. The model is fitted for 1979, 1989, 1994 to Puglia, a Southern Italian region with a population of 4 millions. Simulations are also produced.The decrease in births is caused mainly by the decline in wanted births, whereas the decline in abortions is caused by diffusion of the pill, IUD, and condom. The rapid increase in the proportion of never-married women explains the slow decrease in unwanted births and conceptions, compared to the fast decline in wanted ones. This situation is different compared to other Western countries (e.g. France, UK, and USA) where the decline in TFR during the 1960s and 1970s was largely caused by the decline in unwanted fertility, thanks to improved modern contraception and sterilisation.     

Innovation and tradition: Reproductive and marital behaviour in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s

Fertility, nuptiality, reproductive behaviour and living arrangements of never-married women and legally separated women are examined in order to underline differences and similarities to other Western countries. Prospects for the future are also discussed to see whether Italy is in line with the frameworks recently proposed to interpret demographic changes. The results show that delay in the timing of events cannot provide a satisfactory explanation of Italian peculiarities.On examine ici la fécondité, la nuptialité, le comportement procréateur et l'organisation des modes de vie des femmes jamais mariées et de celles séparées légalement en vue de souligner les differénces et les similitudes avec d'autres pays occidentaux. Des perspectives d'avenir sont également discutées pour voir si l'Italie se conforme aux cadres récemment proposés pour interpréter les changements démographiques. Les résultats montrent que les délais d'apparition des changements ne peuvent fournir une explication satisfaisante des particularités.     

Oil and gas depletion: Diffusion models and forecasting under strategic intervention

Crude oil and natural gas depletion may be modelled by a diffusion process based upon a constrained life-cycle. Here we consider the Generalized Bass Model. The choice is motivated by the realistic assumption that there is a self-evident link between oil and gas extraction and the spreading of the modern technologies in wide areas such as transport, heating, cooling, chemistry and hydrocarbon fuels consumption. Such a model may include deterministic or semi-deterministic regulatory interventions. Statistical analysis is based upon nonlinear methodologies and more flexible autoregressive structure of residuals. The technical aim of this paper is to outline the meaningful hierarchy existing among the components of such diffusion models. Statistical effort in residual component analysis may be read as a significant confirmation of a well-founded diffusion process under rare but strong deterministic shocks. Applications of such ideas are proposed with reference to world oil and gas production data and to particular regions such as mainland U.S.A., U.K., Norway and Alaska. The main results give new evidence in time-peaks location and in residual times to depletion.     

Cohort Replacement and Homeostasis in World Population, 1950–2100

Using a simple empirical approach, we analyze world and regional‐level cohort replacement as determined by the key components of population dynamics, i.e. fertility, survival, and migration, for 1950–2010, using UN data. We define two kinds of homeostatic relationships among these components: fertility responses to mortality change (type I) and migration responses to changes in net reproduction (type II), and show that both can be observed to some degree in this period. We examine the extent of cohort replacement embodied in the medium‐variant UN population projections over 2010–2100 and consider how the international migration assumptions made in such projections would be affected by a homeostatic perspective.