10 selected Research Luxembourg results – May 2024

07 June 2024

This article was originally in French and German on science.lu 

What is the link between the economic and technological complexity of a society and gender norms?

Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg (FDEF)

Societies with very rigid gender norms are also the ones that are the least advanced in terms of economy and technology, meaning that at lower levels of economic and technological complexity, there is an inverse relationship between the rigidity of gender norms and this complexity.

These results were obtained by Prof. Skerdilajda Zanaj from the University of Luxembourg in collaboration with Prof. Athanasios Lapatinas from the University of Ioannina (Greece). They suggest that societies at the early stages of knowledge accumulation have more rigid gender norms, particularly concerning the role of women within households.

The continued accumulation of knowledge aligns with more adaptable gender norms, especially regarding the role of women in the public sphere. Further studies will be necessary to establish whether there is a direct causality between the two variables.

To the press release / To the publication

New genes associated with the risk of contracting Parkinson’s disease

Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB)

A specific set of small genetic variations is associated with a higher risk of contracting Parkinson’s disease. The genes in question regulate the mitochondria, these essential components of human cells.

The group of patients concerned is genetically defined by a specific mitochondrial deficiency. Knowing this, researchers were able to demonstrate that a treatment commonly used to dissolve gallstones, active ursodeoxycholic acid, is effective for these patients.

These results pave the way for better design of future clinical trials on Parkinson’s disease, with the establishment of appropriate risk scores, and will have a significant impact on precision medicine. Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease that is currently rapidly growing, affecting about 2% of the population over 60 years old.

To the press release / To the publication

Long COVID Companion: an app for better living with Long COVID

Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)

The LIH presents Long COVID Companion, an innovative app designed in collaboration with patients, experts, and the #apresJ20 Long COVID France association. Offering personalized support to manage Long COVID, it facilitates symptom tracking and contributes to ongoing research.

Its use could lead to a better understanding of the long-term impacts of COVID-19 as well as the significant societal impact.

The LIH describes the features of the application as follows: “Long COVID Companion includes several modules, such as overall health tracking, symptom monitoring, a voice journal to record users’ feelings, a medical and life journal to plan appointments and track activities, visualization of health progress with PDF reports, and information on Long COVID and support networks.”

To the press release

Type 1 diabetes: Tailor-made treatments using AI

Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)

Artificial intelligence is helping to understand type 1 diabetes (T1D). Thanks to AI, researchers have been able to identify for the first time seven distinct glycemic profiles in T1D. Glycemia is the blood sugar level: if it is too high, it endangers all the body’s organs; this is why diabetes, whether type 1 or 2, represents a major public health issue.

This discovery highlights the complexity of this disease and paves the way for personalized therapeutic approaches. It is an important step that could eventually improve the prognosis for people with type 1 diabetes.

T1D affects millions of people worldwide. Traditional methods of assessing glycemic control, whether through continuous glucose monitoring devices or standard laboratory tests, are limited by the high variability of the disease.

To the press release / To the publication

Employment: What are the data on the employment of Luxembourg residents?

STATEC 

Labor Day is an opportunity for STATEC to present some figures on Luxembourg employees. Of the 485,000 employees in the Grand Duchy, 47% are cross-border workers (half of whom come from France). One in four employees holds Luxembourgish nationality.

Regarding residents, 31% of women work part-time compared to only 7% of men. Temporary work is mostly involuntary and is also prevalent among young people. They are mainly affected by fixed-term employment contracts, which represent 8% of the contracts for resident employees.

Although the majority of resident employees are satisfied with their jobs, a quarter of workers claim that their salary does not match the work they provide. Sixty percent of employed residents use digital tools more than half the time, more than in other European countries.

To the publication

New publication on the relationship between the body, art, the artist, and the spectator

University of Luxembourg

Through around twenty studies dedicated to artistic productions of the 20th and 21st centuries, the authors of the book “The Body at Work: Creating, Living, Interacting” highlight the close and inseparable link between the body, the artist, and the spectator.

The topics covered include the physical body of the writer specifically, thus their own corporeality, which remains underexplored; “activist” bodies, strongly engaged through performance lectures; contemporary theater; and music videos. The relationship between the body, identity, and social perception in Francophone feminist literature (currently thriving) is also discussed.

This initial overview of a burgeoning field of research is aimed at researchers, students, and all curious individuals who are increasingly exploring the arts and literature in relation to corporeality.

To the press release (in French) / To the publication

Mortality following SARS-CoV-2 infection: can we predict it?

Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)

What is the risk of dying from a severe Sars-CoV-2 infection? A new machine learning model might provide an answer. Created by the LIH in collaboration with 15 institutions across Europe and Canada, the model can predict hospital mortality following a severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.

This advancement, recently published in a renowned international journal, paves the way for personalized care and will help mitigate the impact of this disease on health systems worldwide by identifying patients at high risk of poor outcomes or death.

By analyzing blood samples and clinical data from 1,286 COVID-19 patients collected between 2020 and 2023 in four major international cohorts, the researchers demonstrated the validity of their predictive model. An independent Canadian cohort study of 482 patients showed consistent performance of the tool.

To the press release / To the publication

Insulin resistance and Parkinson’s disease: how the former influences the latter

Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)

Insulin resistance, the mechanism underlying type 2 diabetes (T2D), compromises the neuronal activity of the midbrain, predisposing diabetic patients to Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers studied the pathological changes caused by insulin resistance in the human midbrain. To do this, they exposed organoids (in vitro cultures of stem cells from organs whose architecture and functionalities resemble the tissues they come from) from a part of the human brain, the midbrain, originating from healthy individuals, either to high concentrations of insulin, thus promoting insulin resistance, or to physiological concentrations of insulin. They demonstrated that insulin resistance compromises the metabolic efficiency of the organoids, leading to increased levels of oxidative stress (stress caused on metabolism by free radicals).

Thus, insulin resistance becomes an important target for the prevention of Parkinson’s disease.

To the press release / To the publication

Are Luxembourgers satisfied with their work?

STATEC 

The figures speak for themselves: 12% of Luxembourg employees are considering quitting their jobs; this is indicated by the latest analysis from STATEC. However, this figure varies considerably from one group to another: young people (25-34 years old) and women are more likely to want to resign. Nearly one in three employees dissatisfied with their working conditions is considering resigning, a rate 22 points higher than that of satisfied workers (8%), which highlights the importance of working conditions.

The article presents other benefits of workplace well-being and measures to improve it. Among the proposed solutions, optimizing the six dimensions of job quality is essential. This includes income and social benefits, working hours, work-life balance, discrimination, health and safety, worker representation, skills development and training, as well as stress.

According to the authors, more positive relationships in the workplace and a sense of usefulness are also associated with greater job satisfaction.

To the press release / To the publication

Sexual violence in sports: a concrete action plan

Luxembourg Institute of Research in Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and Science (LIROMS)

LIROMS publishes a book on sexual violence in sports to better understand, detect, and act against this scourge. It is the result of their nearly 25 years of experience on this subject and brings together 35 contributors.

The authors propose a multidisciplinary approach to sexual violence in sports, integrating available data on other forms of violence and in other fields to draw effective parallels. More than thirty French and international authors provide insights in three parts: 1) definitions and mechanisms, 2) identification, listening, and reporting, 3) action plan, prevention, and training. These three sections enable readers to increase the effectiveness of their actions through a better understanding of the workings and consequences of this type of violence.

To the press release

Author: Diane Bertel

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