Developmental responses to fluctuations in environmental conditions in echinoid echinoderms

Animals that reside, reproduce, and develop in nearshore habitats are often exposed to strong fluctuations in abiotic conditions, including temperature and salinity. We studied the developmental responses of five echinoid echinoderms (sea urchins and sand dollars) to increased temperature and reduced salinity. We aimed to document two recently described phenomena: delay of hatching (DOH) and polyembryony. First, we found that DOH is a widespread response to reduced salinity. Hatching was delayed by 79% in Echinarachnius parma, 26% in Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, 22% in Lytechinus variegatus, and 17% in Dendraster excentricus. Only embryos of Arbacia punctulata failed to delay hatching in response to reduced salinity. Second, we observed polyembryony in both of the irregular echinoids studied (E. parma and D. excentricus). In D. excentricus, we tested the competency of twinned and normal embryos to reach metamorphosis. We found that twin embryos generated from a single egg are both capable of reaching metamorphosis. To investigate the mechanisms underlying polyembryony, we tested whether reduced Calcium levels in low salinity seawater reduce cell-cell adhesion and allow cells to separate and develop as multiple embryos within a fertilization envelope. We also tested whether osmotic stress caused swelling of the fertilization envelope, allowing embryos more room to produce multiples, or delay hatching into a later, larger stage. However, neither reduced Calcium levels nor osmotic stress alone appears sufficient to induce polyembryony. We currently hypothesize that early suppression of the hatching enzyme plays a major role in the delaying hatching and that the swelling of the hyaline layer within the fertilization envelope may facilitate polyembryony

Give me a reason to stay: an examination of multicultural individuals’ ability and willingness to contribute to culturally diverse teams

Multicultural individuals, because of their multiple identity affiliations, have access to different cultural knowledge sets. Studies have shown them to have greater cognitive and behavioural flexibility compared to monocultural individuals. They are often claimed to be uniquely positioned to contribute to culturally diverse teams because of their access to multiple cultural schemas. However, there are limited empirical studies, especially using field data, that have tested this assertion. Addressing this gap, this thesis uses a mixed methods approach, in the context of a multicultural healthcare organisation in Bahrain, to investigate how multicultural individuals can influence diverse teams’ processes and performance. In the first study, perspective taking behaviour is hypothesised to be a key mediating mechanism by which multicultural individuals can impact diverse teams. Building off the category-elaboration framework, this study uses a longitudinal research design to test a conditional process model. Results highlight the importance of perspective taking as a key mediating mechanism and the moderating effect of organisational inclusive climate. Contrary to what is often theorised, multicultural individuals were not found to impact team dynamics. The second study uses a combination of qualitative methods and adopts an inductive approach to investigate the first-hand accounts of how multicultural individuals negotiate their everyday dynamics in diverse teams. This second study provides novel insights as to how a cultural learning orientation (not access to cultural schemas) becomes an integral part of a multicultural individual’s identity and influences their ability and willingness to contribute to diverse teams. Analysis of multiculturals’ experiences indicate the criticality of a learning organisational culture. As one of the key contributions of this thesis, I propose that future research on multiculturals’ potential impact in organisations needs to consider not just their ability to contribute to organisations, but also the conditions under which they are willing to do so

Multiculturalism within individuals: a review, critique, and agenda for future research

In a globally connected world, it is increasingly common for individuals to belong to and be influenced by more than one culture. Based on a critique of conceptualizations from psychology, management, marketing, anthropology, and sociology, we bring clarity and consistency to conceptualizing and measuring multiculturalism at the individual level. We propose that individual-level multiculturalism is the degree to which someone has knowledge of, identification with, and internalization of more than one societal culture, and recommend methods to measure each dimension. Finally, we suggest how individual-level multiculturalism influences, and is influenced by, social networks and power dynamics in international organizations

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Utility of Opportunistic Infections, Joints’ Involvement and Accuracy of Various Screening Tests to Diagnose Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Background and Objectives: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an auto-immune disease in which the body mistakenly considers some parts of its own system as pathogens and attacks them. Prevalence is approximately 0.75% in India. About 40% of the diseased become work disabled within 5 years from the onset of symptoms. The objective of this paper is to assess the sign/symptoms, joints’ involvement, difficulties in daily activities and screening accuracy of serology tests of clinically suspected RA patients. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional cohort study design was conducted on two hundred ninety clinically suspected subjects who were referred by different OPDs of hospitals for screening. The profiles of study subjects were carried through a semi-structured, pre-tested schedule method. About 2 mL of blood samples were collected in a plain vial from each patient and tested for diagnostic tests RF, CRP and AntiCCP by using RF-Latex, CRP Latex and ELISA method, respectively, by the laboratory persons. Results: Joint pain shows to be a leading problem in RA as compared to other signs and symptoms. The majority of the study subjects suffer from knee problems (62%). Approximately equal numbers of RA-positive cases were screened by RF and AntiCCP tests. The CRP test screened about one-third of cases. CRP+ AntiCCP, RF+ AntiCCP and RF + CRP all have good sensitivity, and RF+ AntiCCP + CRP has a very high sensitivity for diagnosing RA. Conclusions: This study found that a substantiation of a major proportion of clinically suspected RA patients were suffering from knee pain. Predication of AntiCCP increased the possibility for the diagnosis of RA. However, RF was also moderately related to the diagnosis of RA, and the combination of both tests was more valuable