Rebooting Europe: a framework for a post COVID-19 economic recovery. Bruegel Policy Brief Issue 1 | MAY 2020.

To slow the spread of COVID-19, European governments have adopted stringent containment measures. These have led to a severe recession and policymakers in European Union countries are providing generous support to help companies cope with the immediate consequences. The basic approach has been to provide generous and indiscriminate emergency support to help cash-strapped firms meet their immediate liquidity needs. But as lockdown measures continue and the recession gets deeper, a more comprehensive strategy for the future needs to be designed. The success of support measures as COVID-19 lockdowns are relaxed depends on the type of recovery the EU wants to achieve. At the same time, decisions taken today will have long-term implications for the single market and government debt. How should further fiscal support provided to companies be structured? What implications will different approaches have for the single market, government budgets and the EU’s climate strategy? Difficult trade-offs lie ahead: a speedier recovery could run counter to green ambitions; national rescues could hurt neighbouring markets. The hard choices in the next phases should follow a set of four principles, and the recovery effort should be structured around equity and recovery funds with borrowing at EU level

How can the European Union adapt to climate change? Bruegel Policy Contribution Issue n˚11/22 | June 2022.

Europe must increasingly deal with the harmful impacts of climate change, regardless of its success in reducing emissions. These impacts have significant cross-border effects and threaten to deepen existing divisions. Cooperation on adaptation, which is mostly seen as requiring local or regional efforts, may be useful, but the role of the European Union is ill-defined. We give an overview of how climate change might change Europe and how it might affect people and the economy. We also discuss what sort of adaptation policies are being pursued at EU level and on what grounds. We argue that a stronger adaptation governance framework would benefit adaptation efforts. We formulate three ideas to strengthen adaptation. First is a three-layered governance framework based on intensive cooperation to establish binding adaptation plans. Second is an EU-level insurance scheme against damages from climate change, with the size of national contributions tied to the achievement of self-chosen targets in adaptation plans. Our final suggestion is to increase ex-ante adaptation funding by targeting more spending under EU regional and agricultural policies specifically to adaptation in the most vulnerable regions

An effective economic response to the Coronavirus in Europe. Bruegel Policy Contribution Issue n ̊6 | March 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a major shock to the global and European economy. Most European countries need to take bold quarantine and lock-down measures, as has been done in Italy, to prevent an explosion of the epidemic which would lead to many deaths and the collapse of healthcare systems. The economic consequences of such measures are major, and are felt through both supply and demand-side channels. A coordinated and bold response by authorities is necessary: Ample national funds need to be provided to national health services. Targeted measures to support individuals (such as the self-employed), companies and the local communities most affected should be put in place or reinforced. Broad macroeconomic insurance needs to be provided because targeted measures will not cover the many second-round effects of the shock. To alleviate financial and cash-flow constraints, and to provide incentives to preserve employment, we recommend all EU member states agree to halve companies’ social security contributions for three months, or cut the payroll tax. Such measures could amount to support of some 2.5 percent of GDP and would be funded by increased national deficits. The European Central Bank should provide abundant liquidity, increase swap lines to ensure sufficient dollar liquidity and increase its sovereign-bond purchase programme to prevent distress in sovereign bond markets. ‘Whatever it takes’ needs to be the motto to preserve lives and reduce the impact on the economy of the epidemic

Single-photon detection and cryogenic reconfigurability in Lithium Niobate nanophotonic circuits

Lithium-Niobate-On-Insulator (LNOI) is emerging as a promising platform for integrated quantum photonic technologies because of its high second-order nonlinearity and compact waveguide footprint. Importantly, LNOI allows for creating electro-optically reconfigurable circuits, which can be efficiently operated at cryogenic temperature. Their integration with superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) paves the way for realizing scalable photonic devices for active manipulation and detection of quantum states of light. Here we report the first demonstration of these two key components integrated in a low loss (0.2 dB/cm) LNOI waveguide network. As an experimental showcase of our technology, we demonstrate the combined operation of an electrically tunable Mach-Zehnder interferometer and two waveguide-integrated SNSPDs at its outputs. We show static reconfigurability of our system with a bias-drift-free operation over a time of 12 hours, as well as high-speed modulation at a frequency up to 1 GHz. Our results provide blueprints for implementing complex quantum photonic devices on the LNOI platform

Neuroticism developmental courses - implications for depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience; a prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood

Background: Neuroticism is frequently discussed as a risk factor for psychopathology. According to the maturity principle, neuroticism decreases over the course of life, but not uniformly across individuals. However, the implications of differences in personality maturation on mental health have not been well studied so far. Hence, we hypothesized that different forms of neuroticism development from adolescence to young adulthood are associated with differences in depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience at the age of 25. Methods: A sample of 266 adolescents from the general population was examined three times over ten years (age at T0: 15, T1: 20 and T2: 25) using questionnaires, interviews and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). At all measurement points, neuroticism was assessed with the NEO inventory. At T2, diagnoses of major depression and anxiety disorders were captured with a structured clinical interview (M-CIDI). Phone-based EMA was used to assess emotional experience and affective instability over a two-week period at T2. Results: The best fitting model was a latent class growth analysis with two groups of neuroticism development. Most individuals (n = 205) showed moderate values whereas 61 participants were clustered into a group with elevated neuroticism levels. In both groups neuroticism significantly changed during the ten year period with a peak at the age of 20. Individuals with a higher absolute level were at 14-fold increased risk for depression and 7-fold risk for anxiety disorders at the age of 25. In EMA, increased negative affect and arousal as well as decreased positive emotions were found in this high group. Conclusions: Other than expected, personality did not mature in our sample. However, there was a significant change of neuroticism values from adolescence to young adulthood. Further, over 20% of our participants showed a neuroticism development which was associated with adverse outcomes such as negatively toned emotional experience and a heightened risk to suffer from depressive and anxiety disorders in young adulthood. These high-risk persons need to be identified early to provide interventions supporting continuous personality maturation

Delineamento de um percurso metodológico para análise de políticas Públicas de desenvolvimento: Os arranjos produtivos locais em questão

Local Productive Arrangements are part of a public policy proposal which focuses on the "local development", displayed as a form of development which is able to equate the vulnerabilities of companies and regional and local job markets in view of the trans-nationalization of capital, and its tendency to weakening formal employment. We intend to design a preliminary methodological course in order to provide parameters for analyses which aim at assessing to what extent such policy is successful. Conversely to the official perspective, this methodology suggests that such arrangements tend to reinforce the tendency to deregulating work relations, which are engrossed in productive chains of large corporations, favoring their headquarters in detriment of valuing the employment formally protected, and its social benefits. In order to do that, the Local Productive Arrangement – LPA of the clothing sector in Londrina-PR and adjacent regions - will be taken as the object of analysis.Os Arranjos Produtivos Locais se inserem dentro de uma proposta de política pública voltada ao chamado “desenvolvimento local”, que se apresenta como um tipo de desenvolvimento capaz de equacionar as vulnerabilidades das empresas e mercados de trabalho regional e local face à transnacionalização do capital, e sua tendência à debilitação do emprego formal. Pretende-se formular um percurso metodológico preliminar com o objetivo de fornecer parâmetros para análises que visem avaliar em que medida tal política vem tendo êxito. Contrariamente à perspectiva oficial, a metodologia aqui delineada aventa a hipótese de que tais arranjos tendem reiterar a tendência à desregulamentação das relações trabalho, açambarcadas nas cadeias produtivas das grandes corporações, favorecendo suas matrizes, em detrimento da valorização do emprego formalmente protegido e com seguridade social presente nas suas “franjas”. Para tanto, tomar-se-á como objeto o Arranjo Produtivo Local – APL do setor de confecções de Londrina-PR e região

The Projected Rotational Velocity Distribution of a Sample of OB stars from a Calibration based on Synthetic He I lines

We derive projected rotational velocities (vsini) for a sample of 156 Galactic OB star members of 35 clusters, HII regions, and associations. The HeI lines at $\lambda\lambda$4026, 4388, and 4471A were analyzed in order to define a calibration of the synthetic HeI full-widths at half maximum versus stellar vsini. A grid of synthetic spectra of HeI line profiles was calculated in non-LTE using an extensive helium model atom and updated atomic data. The vsini's for all stars were derived using the He I FWHM calibrations but also, for those target stars with relatively sharp lines, vsini values were obtained from best fit synthetic spectra of up to 40 lines of CII, NII, OII, AlIII, MgII, SiIII, and SIII. This calibration is a useful and efficient tool for estimating the projected rotational velocities of O9-B5 main-sequence stars. The distribution of vsini for an unbiased sample of early B stars in the unbound association Cep OB2 is consistent with the distribution reported elsewhere for other unbound associations.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

CARE/CARING: ELEMENTS AND DIMENSIONS FROM A PERSPECTIVEOF PERSONS ADMITTED TO A UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

Estudo descritivo e exploratório que desvela a perspectiva de pessoas internadas em um hospital universitário quanto aos elementos e dimensões de cuidar/cuidado. Os dados foram colhidos mediante uma entrevista semi-estruturada, constituída por sete perguntas, que buscavam identificar: atributos e sentimentos de quem cuida e de quem é cuidado, bem como as condições para que o cuidado se realize, as conseqüências do cuidado e o quê as pessoas fazem quando estão sendo cuidadas. As pessoas entrevistadas evidenciaram que o cuidado não se restringe aos procedimentos técnicos, ao conhecimento científico aplicado, as respostas às necessidades do cliente, pressupostas pelos cuidadores, relacionadas aos aspectos biológicos. Requer do cuidador competência clínica e interpessoal. A competência clínica é um constructo que engloba responsabilidade, busca do conhecimento, atenção, dedicação e competência em responder às necessidades de diagnóstico, cuidado, conforto e tratamento adequados, segundo as expectativas do cliente. A competência interpessoal é a soma de habilidades psicossociais, necessárias nas relações de cuidado. As habilidades psicossociais apontadas pelas pessoas deste estudo são: demonstrar vocação, possuir senso de humanidade, expressar afeição, estabelecer relacionamento humano fundamentado na sinceridade, bom humor, paciência, sensibilidade e cortesia. O cuidado representa a união entre dois seres humanos, construída a partir de suas experiências de vida, oportunidade em que acontece trocas, aprendizado e desenvolvimento mútuos, exigindo que ambos revelem o seu ser, e resgatem a humanidade existente em cada um. Ele se dá num contexto sócio-econômico, geográfico e cultural, no qual cuidador e ser-cuidado sofrem influências. Os clientes reconhecem a influência do ambiente e os papéis do ser-cuidado e do cuidador, assim como os atributos essenciais para aqueles que cuidam. Além disso, eles demonstram-se sensíveis às emoções dos cuidadores durante o processo de cuidado. Os enfermeiros necessitam sensibilizar-se para a elucidação dos elementos do cuidar/cuidado, analisando-os em cada contexto e momento histórico, pois eles apontam a direção, o método e a tecnologia para realizá-lo. Para isso, é necessário que a pesquisa em Enfermagem esteja bem articulada com a prática, e envolva todos os atores do cuidado: profissionais, clientes, família e comunidade.This descriptive and exploratory study unveils the inpatients’ perspective and dimensions of care/caring in an university hospital. Data were collected through a semistructured interview, with seven questions used to identify the one-cared and the care giver feelings and attributes, as well as the conditions for be cared, the results and what people do while is being cared. The interviewers found that caring is not only about technical procedures and scientific knowledge in practice. It demands that the caregiver must have clinical and interpersonal competence. Clinical competence is responsibility, the search of knowing, the attention, dedication, and competence to attend the client’s needs of proper diagnoses, care, comfort and treatment, by the clients expectation. Interpersonal competence is the psycho-social ability needed in caring relationship. The interpersonal abilities pointed by the clients in this study are: vocation, having sense of humanity, express affection, establish human relationship grounded in sincerity, good humor, patience, sensitivity and courtesy. Caring means an union between two human beings, built through sharing their life experiences, the revealing of their selves, resulting in mutual developing and learning and in bringing out the humanity inside each one of them. Caring happens in a social-economical, geographic and cultural context, where both caregiver and being-cared are influenced. The clients recognize the environmental influence and the being cared and the caregiver’s role, as well as the essential attributes for those who care. In addition, they show themselves sensitive to the caregiver’s emotions during the caring process. The nurses need to be aware towards the care/caring elements elucidation, analyzing them in each context and historical moment, because they show direction, method and technology to caring implementation. That’s why it is of major importance that the nursing researchers become very articulated with practice, bringing together all actors of caring: nursing professionals, client, family and community

Inferior turbinate reduction during rhinoplasty : is there any effect on rhinitis symptoms?

Introduction Inferior turbinate surgery is often performed concomitantly with rhinoseptoplasty. As inferior turbinates play a major role in allergic rhinitis, it seems reasonable to suggest that inferior turbinate surgery reduces allergy. Objective To assess the impact of nasal turbinate surgery on non-obstructive allergic symptoms (nasal discharge, sneezing, pruritus, and allergic conjunctivitis) and on the use of allergic medication in patients with allergic rhinitis undergoing rhinoseptoplasty. Methods Secondary analysis of aggregated data from two randomized controlled trials. Participants with allergic rhinitis aged 16 years were recruited. Data from two groups were analyzed: patients with rhinoseptoplasty and concomitant turbinate reduction (intervention group) and patients with rhinoseptoplasty only (control group). The 90-day postoperative frequency of non-obstructive allergic symptoms and of nasal steroid and oral antihistamine use were analyzed. Results A total of 100 patients were studied. The groups were similar in terms of allergic symptom intensity and mean age. The frequency of non-obstructive allergic symptoms decreased 90 days postoperative in both groups (p < 0.01). There was no difference between the groups in the frequency of non-obstructive allergic symptoms at 90 days (p ¼ 0.835). Topical nasal steroid and oral histamine antagonist use decreased in the intervention group at 90 days (p < 0.05). Conclusions Ninety days after the surgery, turbinate reduction performed in association with rhinoseptoplasty did not reduce the frequency of non-obstructive allergic symptoms more than rhinoplasty alone. However, the observed decrease in nasal steroid and oral antihistamine use suggests an impact of turbinate reduction on medication use in patients with allergic rhinitis undergoing rhinoseptoplasty