Immunobiology of pregnancy: from basic science to translational medicine

: Embryo implantation failure and spontaneous abortions represent the main causes of infertility in developed countries. Unfortunately, incomplete knowledge of the multiple factors involved in implantation and fetal development keeps the success rate of medically assisted procreation techniques relatively low. According to recent literature, cellular and molecular mechanisms of 'immunogenic tolerance' towards the embryo are crucial to establish an 'anti-inflammatory' state permissive of a healthy pregnancy. In this review we dissect the role played by the immune system in the endometrial-embryo crosstalk, with a particular emphasis towards the fork-head-box-p3 (Foxp3+) CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells and discuss the most recent therapeutic advances in the context of early immune-mediated pregnancy loss

Exploring the Question: “Does Empathy Work in the Same Way in Online and In-Person Therapeutic Settings?”

Providing remote psychotherapy using technology is a growing practice, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if in numerous studies video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP) was found to be clinically effective, some doubts continue to exist about how the psychotherapeutic alliance works in the online setting, and the characteristics of the empathic process are still poorly understood. This is an exploratory study aimed at analyzing the degree of empathy between the psychotherapist and client pair, and the degree of support perceived by the client who shall be referred to as the patient interchangeably in this study, comparing the sessions in person with those online, during the current pandemic, in order to discriminate the impact of empathy in the digital setting. The sample analyzed was composed of 23 patients with different severity of pathology engaged in online and in-person therapeutic sessions with five psychotherapists of different theoretical leanings. The scores of the support and empathy scale, obtained by both members of the psychotherapeutic couple in the two settings, were analyzed and compared. The test used belongs to an Italian adaptation of the Empathic Understanding (EU) of the Relationship Inventory. What emerged from comparing the scores was interesting: Unlike the psychotherapists, the patients perceived their therapists as significantly more empathic and supportive in the remote setting. These are rather important data, because the literature documents that client empathic perception measures represent a more accurate measure of the empathic relationship and, in general, can predict a good treatment outcome. Although these results need further investigation, they represent an important contribution in filling the scientific gap in the understanding of digital empathy. Also, this study provides new insights for future research on the characteristics and impact empathy has on the practice of remote psychotherapy

Health service utilization in IBD: comparison of self-report and administrative data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The reliability of self-report regarding health care utilization in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is unknown. If proven reliable, it could help justify self-report as a means of determining health care utilization and associated costs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The Manitoba IBD Cohort Study is a population-based longitudinal study of participants diagnosed within 7 years of enrollment. Health care utilization was assessed through standardized interview. Participants (n = 352) reported the total number of nights hospitalized, frequency of physician contacts in the prior 12 months and whether the medical contacts were for IBD-related reasons or not. Reports of recent antibiotic use were also recorded. Actual utilization was drawn from the administrative database of Manitoba Health, the single comprehensive provincial health insurer.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>According to the administrative data, 15% of respondents had an overnight hospitalization, while 10% had an IBD-related hospitalization. Self-report concordance was highly sensitive (92%; 82%) and specific (96%; 97%, respectively). 97% of participants had contact with a physician in the previous year, and 69% had IBD-related visits. Physician visits were significantly under-reported and there was a trend to over-report the number of nights in hospital.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Self-report data can be helpful in evaluating health service utilization, provided that the researcher is aware of the systematic sources of bias. Outpatient visits are well identified by self-report. The discordance for the type of outpatient visit may be either a weakness of self-report or a flaw in diagnosis coding of the administrative data. If administrative data are not available, self-report information may be a cost-effective alternative, particularly for hospitalizations.</p

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE : survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

Funding for the WEAVE facility has been provided by UKRI STFC, the University of Oxford, NOVA, NWO, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Isaac Newton Group partners (STFC, NWO, and Spain, led by the IAC), INAF, CNRS-INSU, the Observatoire de Paris, Région Île-de-France, CONCYT through INAOE, Konkoly Observatory (CSFK), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Lund University, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the Swedish Research Council, the European Commission, and the University of Pennsylvania.WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366-959 nm at R ∼ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ∼ 20,000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼ 3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼ 1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼ 0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey  ∼ 400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z 1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.PostprintPeer reviewe

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366$-$959\,nm at $R\sim5000$, or two shorter ranges at $R\sim20\,000$. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for $\sim$3 million stars and detailed abundances for $\sim1.5$ million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey $\sim0.4$ million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey $\sim400$ neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in $z<0.5$ cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in $\sim25\,000$ field galaxies at $0.3\lesssim z \lesssim 0.7$; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using $>1$ million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at $z>2$. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.Comment: 41 pages, 27 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366−959\,nm at R∼5000, or two shorter ranges at R∼20000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ∼400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z>2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator

Hispanic Ethnicity and Hidden Barriers to CPA Exam Success

The performance of Hispanic candidates on the CPA Exam has not been studied to identify predictors of performance. However, speculations have been made in the literature that, understandably, proficiency in the English language is a factor. Our study aims to combine the jurisdiction performance on the CPA Exam from 2015 and 2019 with U.S. Census Bureau estimates of the proportion of Hispanic residents that speak English to identify if there is an association to be found between language and performance. To this end, we explore whether the propensity of a Hispanic population to speak English is associated with improved performance. We begin with a descriptive analysis of Puerto Rico candidates and seven jurisdictions that had relatively high participation on the CPA Exam and the greatest proportion of Hispanics in their population. We found the Puerto Rico pass rate consistently below the other jurisdictions. This result suggests that the greater the proportion of Hispanic people, the lower the overall performance

Examination of the debate between flexible and fixed exchange rates: The choice of the optimal exchange rate system

This dissertation has examined the choice of the optimal exchange rate system, given a set of conditions which minimizes the variance of output. Given recent attempts at international exchange rate coordination and the ensuing discussion about the best type of exchange rate system, this has been a relevant and pertinent topic. A country supports the system which minimizes the variability of key economic variables (in particular, real output). If the country knows how real output is influenced by exogenous shocks, and to which shocks it is most susceptible, it can support the exchange rate system which insulates output from those disturbances, and thus the country can better attain its goals for domestic output. Research is applied to the Canadian economy from 1963 to 1988. The empirical results presented here confirm theoretical ideas about the ability of the exchange rate system to provide insulation. This study contributes to the body of economic literature because it provides empirical support for the choice of the optimal exchange rate system which did not previously exist

Por qué no existe un instrumento de medición de la responsabilidad social corporativa único, globalmente aceptado?

In recent decades the world of international business has experienced an ever increasing interest on issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), although this topic has been under the scrutiny of the academy for more than sixty years have not achieved consensus on such fundamental points as the definition of the concept itself. Similarly, with the elapse time various authors have introduced new terms, to refer to the same concept, often using them interchangeably. Along with the proliferation of definitions and different terms, have emerged to measure CSR mechanisms which have hampered comparability between indicators achieved by some other companies, and between companies of either country. The following document is to review the literature on the issue of measuring instruments Social Responsibility Corporate and identify the reasons why there is no single globally accepted measurement instrument.En las últimas décadas el mundo de los negocios internacionales ha experimentado un interés cada vez más creciente sobre el tema de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC), a pesar de que este tema ha estado bajo el escrutinio de la academia por más de sesenta años, aun no se logra consenso en puntos tan fundamentales como la definición del concepto mismo. De igual modo, con el trascurrir del tiempo distintos autores han introducido nuevos términos, para referirse al mismo concepto, muchas veces utilizándolos indistintamente. Conjuntamente con la proliferación de definiciones y términos han surgido distintos mecanismos para medir la RSC lo que ha dificultado la comparabilidad entre los indicadores alcanzados por unas empresas y otras, y entre las empresas de uno u otro país. El siguiente artículo tiene como objetivo revisar la literatura sobre el tema de los instrumentos de medición de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa e identificar las causas por las cuales no existe un único instrumento de medición globalmente aceptado