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Published on April 9, 2020 Fiscally sound governments will be able to pump money into their companies unhindered by state aid rules. The EU needs an equity fund to level things up. All great economic crises pose two equally important challenges: they drain the liquidity necessary for the functioning of businesses, large and small, and burn up their equity capital, or a substantial part of it. Of the two, the former is the immediate challenge amid the coronavirus-induced lockdowns. Providing liquidity to companies is the top priority to ensure their survival. Yet this doesn’t guarantee their healing, or their ultimate durability and growth. Equity capital, the stuff that’s needed to invest and thrive, is essential to the second stage of recovery.

The aim of the article is to study both the magnitude and structure of internal labour reserves in the Baltic countries as well as to discuss potential policy measures that might help to activate these reserves. despite the record-high employment rates recently posted by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, considerable internal labour reserves can still be found in some population groups. Among upper-middle-aged men, low employment might reflect a low incidence of lifelong learning, inadequate digital skills and rapidly deteriorating health condition. Low employment of youth mirrors the low prevalence of apprenticeships. in Lithuania and Latvia, there is also a postponed entry of young women into the labour market. These internal labour reserves total more than 25,000 people in Estonia, 55,000 in Latvia and 85,000 in Lithuania, corresponding to 4–7% of the total employment. The recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic may somewhat increase and change the structure of these labour reserves.

Autophagy is an intracellular catabolic process that controls infections both directly and indirectly via its multifaceted effects on the innate and adaptive immune responses. It has been reported that LPS stimulates this cellular process, whereas the effect of IL-36α on autophagy remains largely unknown. We, therefore, investigated how IL-36α modulates the endogenous and LPS-induced autophagy in THP-1 cells. The levels of LC3B-II and autophagic flux were determined by western blotting. The intracellular localization of LC3B was measured by immunofluorescence assay. The activation levels of signaling pathways implicated in autophagy regulation were evaluated by using a phosphokinase array. Our results showed that combined IL-36α and LPS treatment cooperatively increased the levels of LC3B-II and Beclin-1, stimulated the autophagic flux, facilitated intracellular redistribution of LC3B, and increased the average number of autophagosomes per cell. The IL36α/LPS combined treatment increased phosphorylation of STAT5a/b, had minimal effect on the Akt/PRAS40/mTOR pathway, and reduced the levels of phospho-Yes, phospho-FAK, and phospho-WNK1. Thus, this cytokine/PAMP combination triggers pro-autophagic biased signaling by several mechanisms and thus cooperatively stimulates the autophagic cascade. An increased autophagic activity of innate immune cells simultaneously exposed to IL-36α and LPS may play an important role in the pathogenesis of Gram-negative bacterial infections. SARS-CoV-2 can infect and replicate in esophageal cells and enterocytes, leading to direct damage to the intestinal epithelium. The infection decreases the level of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 receptors, thereby altering the composition of the gut microbiota. SARS-CoV-2 elicits a cytokine storm, which contributes to gastrointestinal inflammation. The direct cytopathic effects of SARS-CoV-2, gut dysbiosis, and aberrant immune response result in increased intestinal permeability, which may exacerbate existing symptoms and worsen the prognosis. By exploring the elements of pathogenesis, several therapeutic options have emerged for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, such as biologics and biotherapeutic agents. However, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the feces may facilitate the spread of COVID-19 through fecal-oral transmission and contaminate the environment. Thus, gastrointestinal SARS-CoV-2 infection has important epidemiological significance. The development of new therapeutic and preventive options is necessary to treat and restrict the spread of this severe and widespread infection more effectively.

The world as we have always known it ceased to exist on the eve of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, what propelled us into a drastic shift regarding both in our private professional lives. This gave rise to one of the most powerful technological tools which saw the light in the earlier 70s but had not been widely being used up till now: “Telecommuting”. Telecommuting is revolutionizing our world in the safest, quickest, and brightest way in every aspects of our lives. So, not only our way of life has changed for the best, but with it came the ugly harsh reality. As we already accustomed to real life, whereby in every society on one end there are always been those people well intentioned who abide by the law hence try to make the society a better place, and on the other end the outlaws who would not stop at anything to make the world go upside down for solely their own selfish interests, so do we have in the new ultra-modern “digital world”. The main difference between the “old normal” and the “new normal” is that criminals are getting harder to get caught as tracking them required well-qualified teams: “cybersecurity” and an incommensurable amount of time to get them down. In this thesis, we will first go through a brief definition of telecommuting, its advantages and inconveniences, what effects COVID-19 had and is still having on the financial, economic structures of the world and where our new normalcy is projecting us to in the nearest future. At the end, we will focus on the dangers usually encountered online and how to decrease those at-tacks intensities with the ever reliable and unfailing support of the cybersecurity teams. Maailma, jonka olemme aina tunteneet lakkasi olemasta COVID-19 pandemian puhkeamisen aattona, mikä pakotti meidät radikaaliin muutokseen sekä yksityis- että työelämässä. Sen suora seuraus on yhden tehokkaimpien teknisten välineiden syntyminen, joka näki valon 70-luvun alussa, mutta vasta nyt aletaan ottaa käyttöön maailmanlaajuisesti: “Etätyö”. Etätyö mullistaa meidän maailmamme ei vaan turvallisimmalla ja nopeimmalla mutta kirkkaimmalla tavalla kaikilta osin, jopa pienemmiltäkin osin. Meidän elämäntapamme on muuttunut parhaaksi mutta sen mukana tuli ruma, ankara todellisuus: “virtuaalielämän sivuvaikutukset” josta tullaan myös puhumaan tässä työssä. Kuten olemme jo tottuneet todellisessa elämässä, jokaisessa yhteyskunnassa on aina hyviä aikomuksia omaavia ihmisiä, jotka noudattavat lakia ja haluavat parantaa maailmaa tekemällä yhteiskunnasta paremman paikan elää. Samasta yhteiskunnasta löydetään myös ns. lainvastaiset, jotka pelkästään, ajavat omaa itsekästä etuaan. Sama tilanne vallitsee myös “digitaalisessa maailmassa”. Tärkein ja merkittävin “vanhan normaalin” ja “uuden normaalin” välinen ero on se, että rikollisten kiinnijäämisen aste (asteikolla: 0–10) on vanhassa normaalissa 5 ja uudessa normaalissa 10. Tämän vuoksi rikollisten jäljittäminen vaatii erittäin päteviä asiantuntijoita: “kyberturvallisuus tiimit” sekä lisäksi huomattavan määrän aikaa rikollisten kiinni saamiseen. Tässä opinnäytetyössä, käydään ensin läpi lyhyt määritelmä etätyöstä, sen eduista ja haitoista, siitä, mitä vaikutuksia COVID-19 oli ja on edelleen aiheuttamassa maailman taloudellisiin rakenteisiin ja mihin meidän uusi normaaliutemme heijastaa meitä lähitulevaisuudessa. Lopuksi keskitytään virtuaalimaailman tuomiin vaaroihin sekä suosituksiin millä keinoilla pystytään lisäämään digitaalisen maailman turvallisuutta kyberturvallisuustiimien avulla.

The majority of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals. Current routine surveillance is focused on known diseases and clinical syndromes, but the increasing likelihood of emerging disease outbreaks shows the critical importance of early detection of unusual illness or circulation of pathogens - prior to human disease manifestation. In this Viewpoint, we focus on one key pillar of preparedness—the need for early warning surveillance at the human, animal, environmental interface. The COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the scale of sequencing of pathogen genomes, and the current investments in global genomic surveillance offer great potential for a novel, truly integrated Disease X (with epidemic or pandemic potential) surveillance arm provided we do not make the mistake of developing them solely for the case at hand. Generic tools include metagenomic sequencing as a catch-all technique, rather than detection and sequencing protocols focusing on what we know. Developing agnostic or more targeted metagenomic sequencing to assess unusual disease in humans and animals, combined with random sampling of environmental samples capturing pathogen circulation is technically challenging, but could provide a true early warning system. Rather than rebuilding and reinforcing the pre-existing silo's, a real step forward would be to take the lessons learned and bring in novel essential partnerships in a One Health approach to preparedness.

HMI Probation is committed to reviewing, developing and promoting the evidence base for high-quality probation and youth offending services. Academic Insights are aimed at all those with an interest in the evidence base. We commission leading academics to present their views on specific topics, assisting with informed debate and aiding understanding of what helps and what hinders probation and youth offending services. This report was kindly produced by Dr Coral Sirdifield and Professor Charlie Brooker, highlighting the importance of maximising positive mental health outcomes for people under probation supervision – both for the individuals themselves and in terms of wider societal benefits. While there are various barriers, there are a number of steps that service users, professionals and policy makers can take to help overcome these barriers. There is also a role for researchers in strengthening the evidence base, with a need for investment in research and evaluation linked to potential models of good practice. Most immediately, those working in health and justice need to be aware of the potential for exacerbation of mental health issues due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of recovery planning work, systems need to be in place to ensure that both staff and those being supervised can access appropriate support.

Deep economic crises - the global financial crisis and the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic - have put some strains on and rekindled an older debate about the costs and benefits of central bank Independence. Central banks have been accorded more independence since the 1970s, which has helped bring down and keep inflation low and reduced the risk of fiscal crises. However, as their interventions in the economy with unconventional policies expand further beyond their original mandate, especially those pertaining to financial stability, critics have called for more oversight of their activities. That is because some of the central banks’ newfound responsibilities such as financial stability does not have a precise and unambiguous target or measure, making accountability difficult. The evidence in support of central bank independence remains strong, as highlighted in this brief. However, in light of the expansion of central banks’ power, reforms should aim to institute oversight of the newfound powers.

COVID-19 is associated with a systemic inflammatory response with activation of coagulation in symptomatic patients. The possibility of coagulopathies in peri- and postmenopausal women taking estrogen therapies makes it necessary to consider antithrombotic strategies, such as the use of low molecular weight heparins (LMWH) at specific prophylactic or treatment doses for each individual case, depending on the risk factors that each woman presents. For such reasons, a panel of experts from various Spanish scientific societies has met to develop usage re- commendations for managing menopausal women taking menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) or combined hormonal contraception (CHC) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This page summarises important considerations for the care of people with co-existing medical conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key points from guidance and position statements are summarised for each condition, and there is a link to the main BMJ Best Practice topic. This overview topic is continually reviewed and updated, and more conditions will be added to this list. Our full topic on Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) includes information on diagnosis and management, as well as prevention, differential diagnosis, epidemiology, aetiology, prognosis, and complications.