Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Colombian labour market: Disentangling the effect of sector-specific mobility restrictions.

We assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and particularly the sector-specific mobility restrictions on the Colombian labour market. We exploit the sectoral and temporal variation of the restriction policies to identify their effect. Mobility restrictions significantly reduced employment, accounting for approximately a quarter of the total job loss between February and April of 2020. The remaining three quarters of the job losses could be attributed to the disease's regional patterns and other epidemiological and economic factors affecting the whole country. Therefore, we should expect important employment losses even in the absence of such restrictions. We also assess the effect of restrictions on the intensive margin, finding negative, although smaller effects on the number of hours worked and wages. Most of the employment effect is driven by salaried workers, while self-employment was more responsive to the disease spread. Finally, we find that women are disproportionally affected: mobility restrictions account for a third of the recent increase of the gender gap in salaried employment.

Effets de la pandémie de COVID­19 sur le marché du travail colombien : analyse des répercussions liées aux restrictions de mobilité par secteur. Dans cet article, nous évaluons les répercussions de la pandémie de COVID­19, et notamment des restrictions en matière de mobilité propres à chaque secteur, sur le marché du travail colombien. Nous nous appuyons sur les variations temporelles et sectorielles des politiques de restriction pour déterminer leurs effets. Les restrictions de mobilité ont sensiblement détérioré l'emploi en détruisant environ un quart du nombre total d'emplois supprimés entre février et avril 2020, les trois­quarts restants pouvant être imputés aux caractéristiques régionales de la pandémie ainsi qu'à d'autres facteurs épidémiologiques et économiques touchant l'ensemble du pays. Nous pourrions donc nous attendre à d'importantes destructions d'emplois, même en l'absence de telles restrictions. Nous évaluons également les effets des restrictions à la marge intensive, et nous constatons des effets négatifs mais plus faibles sur le nombre d'heures travaillées ainsi que sur les salaires. Les effets de ces restrictions sur l'emploi sont motivés en grande partie par les travailleurs salariés, les travailleurs indépendants se montrant plus réactifs face à la propagation de la maladie. Enfin, nous constatons que les femmes sont touchées de façon disproportionnée, les restrictions de mobilité comptant pour un tiers de l'accentuation récente de l'écart hommes­femmes en matière d'emploi salarié.

High intensity focused ultrasound ablation for atrial fibrillation: results from the National Spanish Registry.

BACKGROUND: A National Spanish Registry to compile all patients treated with high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) energy for atrial fibrillation (AF) was created to evaluate the safety and efficacy of AF surgical ablation. METHODS: A national Spanish registry was created, and ten hospitals using HIFU to ablate AF joined it. A total of 412 patients undergoing cardiac surgery between 2006 and February 2013 were included. AF was divided between paroxysmal AF (33%) and persistent AF (67%) with a mean AF duration of 29.3±108.2 months. Mean left atrial diameter was 51.2±6.5 mm. Mean underlying heart disease were aortic valve disease (49.3%), ischemic disease (25.2%) and mitral disease (33.2%) Clinical follow-up of patients and a 6 months postoperative echocardiogram were performed in all patients. RESULTS: A pacemaker implantation was needed in 4.9% of patients with a perioperative stroke in 2.5%. Rhythm at discharge from hospital was sinus rhythm in 58%, AF in 35.9% and atrial flutter in 0.8% of patients. Sinus rhythm restoration at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months follow-up was achieved in 66.1%, 63.8%, 63.9% and 45.9% of patients respectively. Multivariate analysis showed paroxysmal AF and sinus rhythm restoration in the operating theatre as factors related to sinus rhythm long term restoration. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish national registry showed an efficacy of AF ablation with the HIFU Epicor system of 66.1%, 63.8%, 63.9% and 45.9% at 6, 12, 24 and 36 months follow-up. There were no device-related complications.

Recurrent laryngeal nerve landmarks revisited.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this work was to evaluate, to prove their reliability, the different surgical landmarks previously proposed as a mean to locate the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN). METHODS: The necks of 143 (68 male and 76 female) human adult embalmed cadavers were examined. RLN origin and length and its relationship to different landmarks were recorded and results compared with those previously reported. Statistical comparisons were performed using the chi-square test (significance, p ≤ .05). RESULTS: Mostly, RLN is located anterior to the tracheoesophageal sulcus (41.6%), posterior to the inferior thyroid artery (35.8%), lateral to Berry's ligament (88.1%), below the inferior rim of the inferior constrictor muscle (90.4%), and entering the larynx before its terminal division (54.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The position of the RLN in relation to those structures classically considered as landmarks is highly variable. The most reliable relationships are those with Berry's ligament or the inferior constrictor muscle.

Anatomical variations of the superior thyroid and superior laryngeal arteries.

BACKGROUND: There are known to be variations in the origins of the superior thyroid artery (STA), an important surgical landmark, and 1 of its branches, the superior laryngeal artery (SLA). METHODS: Three hundred thirty human embalmed heminecks were dissected. The results of previous studies were reviewed, and a meta-analysis is presented. RESULTS: Four different origins for the STA were found. The most frequent was type I, from the carotid bifurcation (49%). Four different origins were also found for the SLA being the most frequent the type I in which the artery arose from STA (78%). The mean external diameters of STA and SLA were 0.26 and 0.20 cm, respectively, with no statistically significant differences by side or sex. CONCLUSION: Variations in the origin of STA and SLA from the carotid arterial tree and the similarity of their diameters mean that there is a significant possibility of their misidentified during surgery.