The reform of IMF quotas: the way towards the 2008 resolution

Policy evaluation based on the estimation of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with aggregate macroeconomic time series rests on the assumption that a representative agent can be identified, whose behavioural parameters are independent of the policy rules. Building on earlier work by Geweke, the main goal of this paper is to show that the representative agent is in general not structural, in the sense that its estimated behavioural parameters are not policyindependent. The paper identifies two different sources of nonstructurality. The latter is shown to be a fairly general feature of optimizing representative agent rational expectations models estimated on macroeconomic data.International Relations, International Monetary Fund, governance Classification JEL: F53, F59

Opportunities and Benefits of People Analytics for HR Managers and Employees: Signals in the Grey Literature

With its promise to help leaders better understand and optimize their workforce, People Analytics is attracting increasing attention in Human Resource (HR) Management and has been recently defined as one of the top 10 HR technology disruptions that could transform the way we work and manage organizations. Despite this optimism, and the growing market in People Analytics tools and services, recent literature reviews show that it has been largely unexplored as a research topic, and it is little understood beyond HR innovators. We are currently analyzing social media, and the ‘grey literature’ it points to, to obtain insights into how scholars, business innovators, and HR are talking about the benefits and opportunities of People Analytics and the key sources of knowledge or evidence guiding this narrative. The provisional results reported here illustrate how we analyzed relevant Tweets with reference to an existing framework for classifying PA benefits for different HRM practices. This analysis, and our broader scoping review, aim to provide new insights for HR practitioners and academic researchers

The Ethics of People Analytics:Risks, Opportunities and Recommendations

Purpose: This research analyzed the existing academic and grey literature concerning the technologies and practices of people analytics (PA), to understand how ethical considerations are being discussed by researchers, industry experts and practitioners, and to identify gaps, priorities and recommendations for ethical practice. Design/methodology/approach: An iterative “scoping review” method was used to capture and synthesize relevant academic and grey literature. This is suited to emerging areas of innovation where formal research lags behind evidence from professional or technical sources. Findings: Although the grey literature contains a growing stream of publications aimed at helping PA practitioners to “be ethical,” overall, research on ethical issues in PA is still at an early stage. Optimistic and technocentric perspectives dominate the PA discourse, although key themes seen in the wider literature on digital/data ethics are also evident. Risks and recommendations for PA projects concerned transparency and diverse stakeholder inclusion, respecting privacy rights, fair and proportionate use of data, fostering a systemic culture of ethical practice, delivering benefits for employees, including ethical outcomes in business models, ensuring legal compliance and using ethical charters. Research limitations/implications: This research adds to current debates over the future of work and employment in a digitized, algorithm-driven society. Practical implications The research provides an accessible summary of the risks, opportunities, trade-offs and regulatory issues for PA, as well as a framework for integrating ethical strategies and practices. Originality/value: By using a scoping methodology to surface and analyze diverse literatures, this study fills a gap in existing knowledge on ethical aspects of PA. The findings can inform future academic research, organizations using or considering PA products, professional associations developing relevant guidelines and policymakers adapting regulations. It is also timely, given the increase in digital monitoring of employees working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic

A Stage-Based Approach to Therapy in Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that features progressive, disabling motor symptoms, such as bradykinesia, rigidity, and resting tremor. Nevertheless, some non-motor symptoms, including depression, REM sleep behavior disorder, and olfactive impairment, are even earlier features of PD. At later stages, apathy, impulse control disorder, neuropsychiatric disturbances, and cognitive impairment can present, and they often become a heavy burden for both patients and caregivers. Indeed, PD increasingly compromises activities of daily life, even though a high variability in clinical presentation can be observed among people affected. Nowadays, symptomatic drugs and non-pharmaceutical treatments represent the best therapeutic options to improve quality of life in PD patients. The aim of the present review is to provide a practical, stage-based guide to pharmacological management of both motor and non-motor symptoms of PD. Furthermore, warning about drug side effects, contraindications, as well as dosage and methods of administration, are highlighted here, to help the physician in yielding the best therapeutic strategies for each symptom and condition in patients with PD

Tyrosine Phosphorylation of Eps15 Is Required for Ligand-Regulated, but Not Constitutive, Endocytosis

Membrane receptors are internalized either constitutively or upon ligand engagement. Whereas there is evidence for differential regulation of the two processes, little is known about the molecular machinery involved. Previous studies have shown that an unidentified kinase substrate is required for endocytosis of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), the prototypical ligand-inducible receptor, but not of the transferrin receptor (TfR), the prototypical constitutively internalized receptor. Eps15, an endocytic protein that is tyrosine phosphorylated by EGFR, is a candidate for such a function. Here, we show that tyrosine phosphorylation of Eps15 is necessary for internalization of the EGFR, but not of the TfR. We mapped Tyr 850 as the major in vivo tyrosine phosphorylation site of Eps15. A phosphorylation-negative mutant of Eps15 acted as a dominant negative on the internalization of the EGFR, but not of the TfR. A phosphopeptide, corresponding to the phosphorylated sequence of Eps15, inhibited EGFR endocytosis, suggesting that phosphotyrosine in Eps15 serves as a docking site for a phosphotyrosine binding protein. Thus, tyrosine phosphorylation of Eps15 represents the first molecular determinant, other than those contained in the receptors themselves, which is involved in the differential regulation of constitutive vs. regulated endocytosis

Prevention of Excessive Endothelin-1 Release in Sclerotherapy: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.

Abstract BACKGROUND The foam sclerotherapy technique has become one of the most commonly used treatments for superficial venous insufficiency. Despite excellent results, few visual/neurologic disturbances have been recently reported; their pathogenesis is still debated but a correlation with endothelin-1 (ET-1) release from the treated vein has been proposed. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this work was to evaluate the ET-1 release after sclerotherapy and to investigate the effects of the anti-endothelin drug aminaphtone. METHODS AND MATERIALS As in vitro sclerotherapy model, an endothelial cell culture, mimicking vascular endothelium, was pretreated with aminaphtone and exposed to detergents. Cell survival and ET-1 release were measured. In in vivo experiments, 45 rats, fed with different aminaphtone-rich diets, were subjected to sclerotherapy, and the systemic ET-1 was measured. RESULTS A minaphtone cell exposure caused a statistically significant reduction in ET-1 release, both before and after in vitro sclerotherapy. Rats fed with aminaphtone showed a trend toward reduced mortality and a significant decrease of ET-1 release after sclerotherapy. CONCLUSION This is the first study in which an anti-endothelin agent was able to cause a significant reduction of ET-1 release during sclerotherapy. Although clinical studies are required, these findings might advocate the use of anti-endothelin agents in prophylaxis of neurologic or visual disturbances after sclerotherapy

Neuronal Spike Shapes (NSS): A straightforward approach to investigate heterogeneity in neuronal excitability states

The mammalian brain exhibits a remarkable diversity of neurons, contributing to its intricate architecture and functional complexity. The analysis of multimodal single-cell datasets enables the investigation of cell types and states heterogeneity. In this study, we introduce the Neuronal Spike Shapes (NSS), a straightforward approach for the exploration of excitability states of neurons based on their Action Potential (AP) waveforms. The NSS method describes the AP waveform based on a triangular representation complemented by a set of derived electrophysiological (EP) features. To support this hypothesis, we validate the proposed approach on two datasets of murine cortical neurons, focusing it on GABAergic neurons. The validation process involves a combination of NSS-based clustering analysis, features exploration, Differential Expression (DE), and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. Results show that the NSS-based analysis captures neuronal excitability states that possess biological relevance independently of cell subtype. In particular, Neuronal Spike Shapes (NSS) captures, among others, a well-characterized fast-spiking excitability state, supported by both electrophysiological and transcriptomic validation. Gene Ontology Enrichment Analysis reveals voltage-gated potassium (K+) channels as specific markers of the identified NSS partitions. This finding strongly corroborates the biological relevance of NSS partitions as excitability states, as the expression of voltage-gated K+ channels regulates the hyperpolarization phase of the AP, being directly implicated in the regulation of neuronal excitabilit

Pseudo solid-appearing pancreatic serous microcystic adenomas: Histologic diagnosis with the EUS core biopsy fork-tip needle

Background and Objectives: Despite rarely, serous cystic adenoma (SCA) can assume a pseudo-solid aspect mimicking other pancreatic neoplasm as neuroendocrine tumor. EUS-FNA cytology has low diagnostic accuracy due to the scant cellularity of the collected samples. Histological diagnosis is usually made after resection. Recently, end-cutting needles for EUS-fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB), which obtain tissue cores by penetrating the lesions, have been developed. We aimed to assess the capability of EUS-FNB with SharkCore (TM) needles in the preoperative diagnosis of serous cystic adenoma pseudo-solid-appearing on imaging (Sa-SCA). Materials and Methods: Between January 2016 and January 2018, data from consecutive adult patients, who were referred for EUS-FNB of a solid pancreatic lesion and were diagnosed with having SCA, were retrieved from a single-center institutional database. Results: Two patients were excluded because of microcystic aspect at EUS. Histological diagnosis of SCA was made by EUS-FNB in the remaining 7 patients (5 females; mean age of 62.5 years). Lesions (mean size of 19.8 mm) were hypervascular on cross-sectional imaging, slightly hyperdense magnetic resonance imaging with T2-weighted images can, and negative at Ga-68-somatostatin receptor positron emission tomography and (18)fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography. EUS-FNB samples were judged adequate for a definitive diagnosis in all cases, achieving specimens suitable for histological evaluation and several ancillary stains. Histochemical positivity for periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and PAS with diastase digestion was observed in 7/7 cases. Immunohistochemical positivity for alpha-inhibin (7/7), GLUT1 (6/6), MUC6 (5/5), and negativity for synaptophysin (7/7) and chromogranin A (2/2) favored SCA diagnosis. Conclusions: In the case of preoperative workup suspected for Sa-SCA, a "forward acquiring" needle could improve the rate of preoperative histological diagnosis