Islamic finance and conventional financial systems. Market trends, supervisory perspectives and implications for central banking activity

The paper analyses Islamic finance from the central bank and supervisory authorityÂ’s perspective, focusing on the European and Italian context. It depicts a rapidly expanding sector, with recent annual growth rates of between 10 and 15 percent and a geographical presence that now reaches several Western countries. Future prospects, however, could be hampered by problems concerning the standardization of products, governance structure, supervisory regulation, monetary policy instruments, and liquidity management. Islamic intermediaries are not necessarily riskier than traditional counterparts but their operational structure tends to be more complex. Key issues in supervision include the treatment of investment accounts and transparency. It has been seen that there are limits to the efficiency of the monetary policy instruments developed so far to remedy the prohibition of interest; moreover, the growth of interbank and money markets is hindered by a shortage of "Shari'ah-compliant" products. Problems arising from the participation of Islamic banks in payment systems are also discussed.Islamic finance, Islamic financial institutions, supervision, monetary policy instrments, payment systems

Pericarditis after SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Another Pebble in the Mosaic of Long COVID?

With the emerging success of the COVID-19 vaccination programs, the incidence of acute COVID-19 will decrease. However, given the high number of people who contracted SARS-CoV-2 infection and recovered, we will be faced with a significant number of patients with persistent symptoms even months after their COVID-19 infection. In this setting, long COVID and its cardiovascular manifestations, including pericarditis, need to become a top priority for healthcare systems as a new chronic disease process. Concerning the relationship between COVID-19 and pericardial diseases, pericarditis appears to be common in the acute infection but rare in the postacute period, while small pericardial effusions may be relatively common in the postacute period of COVID-19. Here, we reported a series of 7 patients developing pericarditis after a median of 20 days from clinical and virological recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection. We excluded specific identifiable causes of pericarditis, hence we speculate that these cases can be contextualized within the clinical spectrum of long COVID. All our patients were treated with a combination of colchicine and either ASA or NSAIDs, but four of them did not achieve a clinical response. When switched to glucocorticoids, these four patients recovered with no recurrence during drug tapering. Based on this observation and on the latency of pericarditis occurrence (a median of 20 days after a negative nasopharyngeal swab), could be suggested that post-COVID pericarditis may be linked to ongoing inflammation sustained by the persistence of viral nucleic acid without virus replication in the pericardium. Therefore, glucocorticoids may be a suitable treatment option in patients not responding or intolerant to conventional therapy and who require to counteract the pericardial inflammatory component rather than direct an acute viral injury to the pericardial tissue

O cotidiano dos pais de crianças com câncer e hospitalizadas El cotidiano de los padres de los niños hospitalizados con cáncer: los retos de la enfermería The daily routine of parents of children hospitalized with cancer: nursing challenges

O estudo busca compreender o cotidiano dos pais com criança hospitalizada em uma unidade de oncologia e hematologia pediátrica de um hospital geral. Trata-se de uma investigação qualitativa, na qual foram entrevistados 13 familiares responsáveis pelos cuidados da criança. A partir da análise temática dos dados, emergiram três categorias: alterações no cotidiano familiar; principais sentimentos vivenciados pelos pais; dificuldades no tratamento e estratégias utilizadas. Conclui-se que cada família é única e apresenta dinâmicas diferentes de organização frente à experiência de câncer, no entanto, o desafio da enfermagem é articular essas diferenças e inseri-las no cuidado, amenizando o cotidiano da hospitalização.<br>El estudio trata de comprender la vida cotidiana de los padres con niños hospitalizados en una unidad de oncología pediátrica y hematología en un hospital general. Esta es una investigación cualitativa, en la que se entrevistó a 13 familiares cuidadores de los niños. A partir del análisis temático de los datos revelaron tres categorías: cambios en la vida diaria de la familia, los sentimientos principales experimentados por los padres, las dificultades en el tratamiento y las estrategias utilizadas. De ello se desprende que cada familia es única y tiene diferentes dinámicas de organización ante la experiencia del cáncer, sin embargo, el reto de la enfermería es articular estas diferencias e inserftarlas en la atención, lo que facilita la hospitalización diaria.<br>This study seeks to understand the daily lives of parents with hospitalized children in a unit of pediatric oncology and hematology at a general hospital. This is a qualitative research, in which 13 family caregivers were interviewed. Three categories resulted from the thematic analysis: changes in daily family life; main feelings experienced by parents, difficulties in treatment and strategies used. It was concluded that each family is unique and has different organization dynamics towards the cancer experience, however, the nursing challenge is to articulate these differences and include them in the care process, thus facilitating the daily hospitalization routine