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We provide novel estimates of gender differences in the allocation of time by Italian adults and document their trends over the span 2002-2014, pooling three time-use surveys run by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). The positive gap (females-males) in time devoted to Household work and the negative gap in Market work and Leisure are found to have narrowed over the observed period, mainly due to changes in women's time allocation, while the positive gap in time devoted to Child care remained substantially constant. In 2014, the sharing of family duties appears still heavily unbalanced even when we look at the subsample of full-time working parents. Full-time working mothers devote to Market work about 4 hours per week less than their partners, but they devote 14 hours per week more to Household work and 3 hours and a half more to Basic child care. This translates in 13 hours per week more total (paid and unpaid) work and 11 hours per week less Leisure. On the positive side, the gender gap in time devoted to Quality child care exhibits a reversed sign in 2014. The change is driven by weekend days, when partners of full-time working mothers become the main provider of this type of care.

The milk addiction paradox refers to an empirical finding in which commodities that are typically considered to be non addictive, such as milk, appear instead to be addictive. This result seems more likely when there is persistence in consumption and when using aggregate data, and it suggests that the AR(2) model typically used in the addiction literature is prone to produce spurious result in favor of rational addiction. Using both simulated and real data, we show that the milk addiction paradox disappears when estimating the data using an AR(1) linear specification that describes the saddle-path solution of the rational addiction model. The AR(1) specification is able to correctly discriminate between rational addiction and simple persistence in the data, to test for the main features of rational addiction, and to produce unbiased estimates of the short and long-run elasticity of demand. These results hold both with individual and aggregated data, and they suggest that, for testing rational addiction, the AR(1) model is a better empirical alternative than the canonical AR(2) model.

It is now more than a decade since the judgment in Halifax, and nearly two since it was referred to the CJEU by a UK court. It is hard to overstate its significance: the decision is arguably one of the most important ever delivered by the Court within the field of taxation, and beyond. Whilst there seems to be unanimous agreement as regards the existence of the principle, its exact nature is still a contested issue. In particular, the question that still lingers is whether the principle of prohibition of abuse of law should be characterised as a general principle, or as an interpretative principle. This short paper presents the case in favour of characterising the principle of prohibition of abuse of law as a general principle of EU, arguing that not only does it display the key characteristics of such principles but that, following the most recent CJEU decisions, its characterisation as such is now settled case law.

This paper estimates the potential distributional consequences of the first phase of the COVID-19 lockdowns on poverty and labour income inequality in 20 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. We estimate the share of individuals that are potentially able to remain active under the lockdown by taking into account individuals’ teleworking capacity but also whether their occupation is affected by legal workplace closures or mobility restrictions. Furthermore, we compare the shares under the formal (de jure) lockdown policies assuming perfect compliance with the shares under de facto lockdowns where there is some degree of non-compliance. We then estimate individuals’ potential labour income losses and examine changes in poverty and labour income inequality. We find an increase in poverty and labour income inequality in most of the LAC countries due to social distancing; however, the observed changes are lower under de facto lockdowns, revealing the potential role of non-compliance as a coping strategy during the lockdowns. Social distancing measures have led to an increase in inequality both between and within countries. Lastly, we show that most of the dispersion in the labour income loss across countries is explained by the sectoral/occupational employment structure of the economies.

This report is the eighth in an annual series of publications, dating back to 2012, designed to share the latest stories, trends and research in social media usage from across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Using a wide variety of academic, industry and media sources, this White Paper identifies important insights from social media’s development over the previous year. Of particular note in 2019 is the continued, growing, importance of social media in the lives of Arab Youth, outside of Saudi Arabia and Turkey the declining usage of Twitter (once the poster child social network for the Arab Spring,) as well as greater scrutiny of social media usage by platform owners and governments alike. Last year’s report highlighted the increasing weaponization of social networks, a trend which continued in 2019. Facebook, Twitter and Telegram each closed hundreds of accounts due to inappropriate use by state sponsored actors and terrorist groups. Social networks were also the target of governments across MENA, in the midst of protests in many countries throughout the region. Meanwhile, the importance of social video and visually-led social networks, continued to grow from strength to strength. Snapchat introduced new advertising formats to the region and other exclusive functionality, Google highlighted the importance of YouTube in supporting parents and parenting, and in major markets such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Twitter has emerged as a leading platform for online video consumption. The year ahead is likely to result in a continuation of many of the trends outlined in this report, as social media becomes increasingly engrained across the lives of businesses, governments and residents across the MENA region.

We consider a broad class of intertemporal economic problems and characterize the short-run and long-run responses of the demand for a good to a permanent increase in its market price. Depending on the interplay between self-productivity and time discounting, we show that dynamic substitution effects can generate price elasticities of opposite signs in the short run and in the long run. (JEL D11, D15, H20, J22, J24)

How large are government spending and tax multipliers? The fiscal proxy-SVAR literature provides heterogenous estimates, depending on which proxies - fiscal or non-fiscal - are used to identify fiscal shocks. We reconcile the existing estimates via a flexible vector autoregressive model that allows to achieve identification in presence of a number of structural shocks larger than that of the available instruments. Our two main findings are the following. First, the estimate of the tax multiplier is sensitive to the assumption of orthogonality between total factor productivity (non-fiscal proxy) and tax shocks. If this correlation is assumed to be zero, the tax multiplier is found to be around one. If such correlation is non-zero, as supported by our empirical evidence, we find a tax multiplier three times as large. Second, we find the spending multiplier to be robustly larger than one across different models that feature different sets of instruments. Our results are robust to the joint employment of different fiscal and non-fiscal instruments.

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of cash usage in a selection of European Union (EU) countries over the 2003–2016 period, based on a set of technological, socioeconomic, and socio-cultural indicators and cost components. Our results reveal the existence of both common and region-specific determinants for the EU advanced and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In both groups cash usage is determined by payment system characteristics. Additionally, in the EU advanced countries cash usage can also be explained by the level of economic development and income inequalities and proliferation of Internet. In contrast, cash usage in CEE countries is negatively associated with consumer confidence and is inversely related to the technological progress, expressed in terms of mobile users.

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence (AI) systems has precipitated a rise in ethical and human rights-based frameworks intended to guide the development and use of these technologies. Despite the proliferation of these "AI principles," there has been little scholarly focus on understanding these efforts either individually or as contextualized within an expanding universe of principles with discernible trends. To that end, this white paper and its associated data visualization compare the contents of thirty-six prominent AI principles documents side-by-side. This effort uncovered a growing consensus around eight key thematic trends: privacy, accountability, safety and security, transparency and explainability, fairness and non-discrimination, human control of technology, professional responsibility, and promotion of human values. Underlying this “normative core,” our analysis examined the forty-seven individual principles that make up the themes, detailing notable similarities and differences in interpretation found across the documents. In sharing these observations, it is our hope that policymakers, advocates, scholars, and others working to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of AI will be better positioned to build on existing efforts and to push the fractured, global conversation on the future of AI toward consensus.

Crude oil recovery processes generate large volumes of crude oil-contaminated water. Crude oil-contaminated water was noted to contain hydrocarbons (including saturates and aromatics) as well as non-hydrocarbons. Some hydrocarbons in the contaminated water are found to be carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and genotoxic to humans and other organisms. Thus, the exposure of human being and other organism like fishes in the marine environment to these hydrocarbons through skin contact to such contaminated water or consumption of contaminated food and water may be very dangerous. The remediation of such oil contaminated water has become a crucial problem in oil producing countries and requires more drastic attention. Several technologies have been deployed at solving this problem. Utilization of agricultural wastes as adsorbents has however, been found to be more attractive to researches due to its environmental friendly tendencies and economic viability. This paper reviewed the attempt of researchers at addressing this problem by using agricultural wastes like banana peel, rice husk, etc as sorbent for removal of the oil from the crude oil-contaminated water. It was observed that agricultural wastes compete favourably with synthetic adsorbents in oil removal from crude oil contaminated water. Though many agricultural products have been investigated, there are some like plantain peel, papaya peel and water melon rind that need to be considered for this treatment.

Background: Lower serum chloride is associated with a higher risk of mortality in the general population. However, the association has received little attention in peritoneal dialysis patients. The study aimed to examine the association between serum chloride and mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients. Methods: In this multicenter retrospective cohort study, 2376 Chinese incident patients on peritoneal dialysis between January 1, 2005, and March 31, 2020, were enrolled. Patients were grouped according to quartiles of serum chloride at baseline. The associations of baseline serum chloride and cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality were evaluated using cause-specific hazards models. Findings: Of 2376 patients, the median age was 48.0 (38.0,58.0) years, 50.1% of patients were men. The median serum chloride levels were 103.0 (99.0,106.9) mmol/L. During 9304.5 person-years of follow-up, 462 patients died, of which 235 deaths were caused by cardiovascular disease. The highest quartile group was associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality (adjusted hazards ratio [HR], 3.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.86 to 5.23) and all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.53 to 3.07) compared with the lowest quartile (P for trend

Background Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex common disease that disproportionately impacts minority ethnic groups in the United Kingdom (UK). Socioeconomic deprivation (SED) is widely considered as a potential explanation for T2D ethnic disparities in the UK, whereas the effect of genetic ancestry (GA) on such disparities has yet to be studied. Methods We leveraged data from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study, with participants enrolled between 2006 and 2010, to model the relationship between SED (Townsend index), GA (clustering principal components of whole genome genotype data), and T2D status (ICD-10 codes) across the three largest ethnic groups in the UK – Asian, Black, and White – using multivariable logistic regression. Findings The Asian group shows the highest T2D prevalence (17·9%), followed by the Black (11·7%) and White (5·5%) ethnic groups. We find that both SED (OR: 1·11, 95% CI: 1·10–1·11) and non-European GA (OR South Asian versus European: 4·37, 95% CI: 4·10–4·66; OR African versus European: 2·52, 95% CI: 2·23–2·85) are significantly associated with the observed T2D disparities. GA and SED show significant interaction effects on T2D, with SED being a relatively greater risk factor for T2D for individuals with South Asian and African ancestry, compared to those with European ancestry. Interpretation The significant interactions between SED and GA underscore how the effects of environmental risk factors can differ among ancestry groups, suggesting the need for group-specific interventions. Funding This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Distinguished Scholars Program (DSP) to LMR and the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at NIH.

This chapter focuses on the inner rationale and consequences of four different archetypal positions regarding how ethical and political values are tackled in welfare economics. Welfare economics is standardly associated with the welfarist framework, for which social welfare is based on individual utility only. Beyond this, we distinguish the value-neutrality claim – for which ethical values should be and are out of the scope of welfare economics –, the value confinement ideal – for which ethical values are acceptable if they are minimal and consensual–, the transparency requirement – for which any ethical values may be acceptable in the welfare economics framework if explicit and formalized –, and the entanglement claim – which challenges the very possibility of demarcation between facts and values.

An effective response to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will involve a range of complementary preventive modalities. The current studies were conducted to evaluate the in vitro SARS-CoV-2 antiviral and virucidal activity of astodrimer sodium, a dendrimer with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, including against enveloped viruses in in vitro and in vivo models, that is marketed for antiviral and antibacterial applications. We report that astodrimer sodium inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero E6 and Calu-3 cells, with 50% effective concentrations (EC50) for i) reducing virus-induced cytopathic effect of 0.002 to 0.012 mg/mL in Vero E6 cells, and ii) infectious virus release by plaque assay of 0.019 to 0.031 mg/mL in Vero E6 cells and 0.031 to 0.045 mg/mL in Calu-3 cells. The selectivity index (SI) in these assays was as high as 2197. Astodrimer sodium was also virucidal, reducing SARS-CoV-2 infectivity by >99.9% (>3 log10) within 1 minute of exposure, and up to >99.999% (>5 log10) shown at astodrimer sodium concentrations of 10 to 30 mg/mL in Vero E6 and Calu-3 cell lines. Astodrimer sodium also inhibited infection in a primary human airway epithelial cell line. The data were similar for all investigations and were consistent with the potent antiviral and virucidal activity of astodrimer sodium being due to inhibition of virus-host cell interactions, as previously demonstrated for other viruses. Further studies will confirm if astodrimer sodium binds to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and physically blocks initial attachment of the virus to the host cell. Given the in vitro effectiveness and significantly high SI, astodrimer sodium warrants further investigation for potential as a nasally administered or inhaled antiviral agent for SARS-CoV-2 prevention and treatment applications.

Background Academic bullying is a topic of significant interest of late, with high profile cases featured in scientific journals. Our aim is to document the nature and extent of academic bullying behaviors, examining who are the primary targets and perpetrators as well as the responses to and outcomes of bullying. Methods We developed a cross-sectional global survey aimed primarily at those in academic science institutions. The survey was administered via Qualtrics and data were collected (between November 2019 and July 2021) from 2006 individuals whose participation was solicited through various means including advertisements in Science and Nature magazines and the American Chemical Society. Findings Among the 2006 survey participants, the majority of targets were graduate students or postdocs. An overwhelming proportion of participants reported either experiencing (84%) or witnessing (59%) abusive supervision, or both (49%). While a majority of perpetrators were male, they were proportionately no more likely to abuse than females. Perpetrators were more likely from the highest-ranked institutions and they were most likely PIs. Females were more likely to report being bullied but their scores on the Tepper abusive supervision scale and the contextual behavior checklist we developed were not greater than male targets. Male targets actually reported higher levels of certain bullying behaviors. While international scholars were no more likely to report being bullied, the severity of the behaviors they reported was significantly greater. Targets (64%) were most likely to use avoidant tactics (not reporting and relying on family/friends for support) in response to bullying due to fear of retaliation (61%). The small percentage that did report the abuse (29%) overwhelmingly reported unfair and biased (58%) outcomes. Additional qualitative analysis of open-ended comments revealed similar patterns. We also noticed that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated academic bullying and changed the patterns of behaviors possibly due to the remote nature of interactions. Open-ended responses from targets are analyzed with examples provided. Interpretation Our results elucidated the various forms of abuse, the most likely perpetrators and targets, as well as the typical reactions of targets and witnesses. We investigated the results of targets’ actions following chronic bullying. Our findings highlight the domain, extent, and dynamics of academic bullying to hopefully motivate the scientific community to take action. Funding None.

The establishment of a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism (SDRM) is one of the important issues in the academic debate on a viable constitution for the European Monetary Union (EMU). Yet the topic seems to be taboo in official reform contributions to the debate. Against this backdrop, the article identifies the SDRM interests of key players, including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Central Bank and national governments. The empirical section takes advantage of the recently established EMU Positions Database. The findings confirm political economy expectations: Low-debt countries support an EMU constitution that includes an insolvency procedure whereas a coalition of high-debt countries and European institutions oppose it. The analysis points towards a possible political-economic equilibrium for coping with sovereign insolvencies: an institutional set-up without an SDRM and with hidden transfers. Recent European fiscal innovations in response to the Covid-19 solvency shock confirm this prediction.

I revisit the 1918–20 pandemic and ask whether it led to a reversal in the rise of trade and financial globalization that preceded it. Using annual data for 17 countries for the 1870–1928 period, a variety of tests and techniques are used to draw some robust conclusions. Overall, the pandemic a century ago interrupted, but did not put an end, to the first globalization of the twentieth century. However, two blocs consisting of combatant and non-combatant countries, experienced significantly different consequences. Globalization was sharply curtailed for the combatant countries while there were few, if any, consequences for globalization in the non-combatant group of countries. That said, there was considerable resilience especially in trade openness among several of the combatant economies. Perhaps changes in the make-up of economic blocs, post-pandemic, is a fallout from shocks of this kind. While there are lessons for the ongoing COVID pandemics differences between the 1920s and today also play a role. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10368-021-00526-1.

The burgeoning demand and use of diesel engines in various fields cause emission of exhaust gases like NOx and CO that lead to serious environmental pollution and hazards like global warming, respiratory problems, and so on, has necessitated a reduction in the use of diesel and addition of suitable biodiesel. Mahua biodiesel blend has also been considered as a safe renewable fuel for conventional engines. This is due to its desirable properties such as rapid growth rate, higher productivity, and the ability to utilize CO2 into fuel. The introduction of an antioxidant, preferably n-butanol eliminates these harmful emissions from the diesel engine. In this experimental investigation, mahua biodiesel blend mixed with n-butanol has been used as test fuel in a conventional engine. Because of the special character n-butanol has been chosen for use with the mahua biodiesel blend. About 20–30 vol.% of n-butanol has been blended with 80 vol.% of diesel and tested. The manufacturer set injection timing was 23oCA bTDC. The injection timing is preferably between 21oCA bTDC and 25oCA bTDC. Nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide are reduced by 49 percent and 5.88 percent, respectively, when a blend of B20 + D80 + 30% n-butanol is used at 21oCA bTDC relative to diesel fuel. The smoke and hydrocarbon emission of blend B20 + D80 + 30% n-butanol at 25oCA bTDC is reduced by 40% and 38.07%, respectively, related to diesel. The brake thermal efficiency for entire injection timing has been identified to be increased correlated to all other test blends. The brake thermal efficiency in blend B20 + D80 + 30% n-butanol of 25oCA bTDC is increased by 15.30%, when compared with diesel fuel. These promising results assure that mahua biodiesel blend containing antioxidant would be eco-friendly fuel.

Background: Inflammation and apoptosis play a crucial role in the progression of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Suppressor of cytokine signaling 2 (SOCS2) is one of classic negative regulators of cytokine signaling, which has recently been described as anti-inflammatory mediators. However, the role of SOCS2 in macrophages during NASH progression and the relationship among SOCS2, inflammation, apoptosis and NASH is largely unknown. Herein, we aimed to study the function of SOCS2 in NASH progression. Methods: We detected SOCS2 expression in macrophages in human subjects without steatosis, with simple steatosis and with NASH to confirm the relationship between SOCS2 and NASH. Free fatty acids was used to establish stress environment in RAW cell lines stably overexpressing or knockdown SOCS2. In vitro and vivo assays also performed to study the molecular function of SOCS2 in NASH progression. Findings: Our human samples and NASH model in vitro illustrated that SOCS2 is decreased in macrophages during NASH progression and is negatively correlated to NASH level. Meanwhile, In vitro assays show SOCS2 overexpression in macrophages suppresses inflammation and apoptosis via inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway, while SOCS2 knock-down in macrophages caused an increased activation of NF-κB, which can be blocked by ammonium 1-pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDTC). In addition SOCS2 in macrophages also suppresses inflammation via limiting the activation of inflammasomes. Consist with these, our BMT model also confirm the SOCS2 function in macrophages during NASH. Interpretation: Our data strongly indicate that SOCS2 plays a inhibitor of inflammation and apoptosis via NF-κB signal pathway and inflammasome signal pathway in macrophages during NASH. Further studies are required to explore the potential prevention and therapeutic strategies of SOCS2 for this common liver disease. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81970499 and 81770561), Jiangsu Medical Leading Talent, Innovation Team (No. CXTDA2017033), and Jiangsu Province “333” project (No. BRA2014332) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81972675). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest relevant to the present manuscript. Ethics Approval Statement: All procedures that involved human sample collection were approved by the tissue bank of The Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University (Nanjing, China). Informed consent for gene expression analysis of tissue was obtained from each patient before surgery, and the study was approved by our institutional ethics committee. The ethics committe of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University approved this study, (Ethics Number: 2018-SRFA-034).

[Background] Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is affecting more people globally. Indeed, NAFLD is a spectrum of metabolic dysfunctions that can progress to hepatocellular carcinoma (NAFLD-HCC). This development can occur in a non-cirrhotic liver and thus, often lack clinical surveillance. The aim of this study was to develop non-invasive surveillance method for NAFLD-HCC., [Methods] Using comprehensive ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography mass-spectrometry, we investigated 1,295 metabolites in serum from 249 patients. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was calculated for all detected metabolites and used to establish their diagnostic potential. Logistic regression analysis was used to establish the diagnostic score., [Findings] We show that NAFLD-HCC is characterised by a complete rearrangement of the serum lipidome, which distinguishes NAFLD-HCC from non-cancerous individuals and other HCC patients. We used machine learning to build a diagnostic model for NAFLD-HCC. We quantified predictive metabolites and developed the NAFLD-HCC Diagnostic Score (NHDS), presenting superior diagnostic potential compared to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Patients’ metabolic landscapes show a progressive depletion in unsaturated fatty acids and acylcarnitines during transformation. Upregulation of fatty acid transporters in NAFLD-HCC tumours contribute to fatty acid depletion in the serum., [Interpretation] NAFLD-HCC patients can be efficiently distinguished by serum metabolic alterations from the healthy population and from HCC patients related to other aetiologies (alcohol and viral hepatitis). Our model can be used for non-invasive surveillance of individuals with metabolic syndrome(s), allowing for early detection of NAFLD-HCC. Therefore, serum metabolomics may provide valuable insight to monitor patients at risk, including morbidly obese, diabetics, and NAFLD patients., We thank all funding sources: The laboratory of JBA is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (14040, 0058419), Danish Cancer Society (R98-A6446, R167-A10784, R278-A16638), and the Danish Medical Research Council (4183-00118A, 1030-00070B). Data used for validation in this study provided by JMB was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and ’Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ grants (PI18/01075, Miguel Servet Programme CON14/00129 and CPII19/00008) co-financed by ’Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER); CIBERehd, Spain; IKERBASQUE, Basque foundation for Science, Spain; BIOEF (Basque Foundation for Innovation and Health Research: EiTB Maratoia BIO15/CA/016/BD); Department of Health of the Basque Country (2017111010), Euskadi RIS3 (2019222054, 2020333010); Department of Industry of the Basque Country (Elkartek: KK-2020/00008), AECC Scientific Foundation and European Commission Horizon 2020 program (ESCALON project no.: 825510). Similarly, MAJ was funded by grants from the Fondo Nacional De Ciencia y Tecnología de Chile (FONDECYT #1191145 to M.A.) and the Comisión Nacional de Investigación, Ciencia y Tecnología (CONICYT, AFB170005, CARE Chile UC).

Background: Prevalence of smoking in Central Queensland (CQ), Australia was higher than state and national averages. A regional smoking cessation initiative (“10,000 Lives”) was launched to promote available interventions (e.g. Quitline). We investigated the impact of “10,000 Lives” on referral to and use of Quitline services. Methods: We conducted interrupted time series analysis using a segmented Poisson regression model to measure the impact of “10,000 Lives” on monthly referrals to and use of Quitline services (program participation, Quitline calls and nicotine replacement therapies dispatched by Quitline), in CQ compared to other areas in the state (control population). The control population was regional areas in Queensland with a comparable smoking prevalence and similar access to Quitline’s Intensive Quit Support Program. We calculated the level and trend changes of outcomes in CQ relative to control after “10,000 Lives” commenced. The models were checked for autocorrelation and seasonality and adjusted accordingly. Findings: Mean monthly numbers of referral to, participation in, and interaction with Quitline, and NRT gum, lozenge and patch dispatches from Quitline in CQ increased by 277·2%, 154·9% and 242·7% and, 573·9%, 1170·6% and 740·9% respectively after “10,000 Lives” introduction. The result was validated by the controlled interrupted time series analysis which showed 238·5%, 248·6% and 251·6% and, 93·6%, 141·4% and 121.6% relative increase in CQ compared to control for the monthly rates of these outcomes. Interpretation: Our study demonstrates a low-cost health promotion initiative can promote and boost the referral to and use of Quitline smoking cessation services. Funding Statement: The research is funded by the collaborative research grant between School of Public Health at University of Queensland and Central Queensland Public Health Unit which is awarded by the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CQHHS93907). Declaration of Interests: Lead author (AK) is supported by a University of Queensland Research Training Scholarship and a Research Higher Degree Top-up Scholarship; Dr. Gartner reports grants from Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service, during the conduct of the study; Dr. Green reports grants from Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service, during the conduct of the study; Dr. Lawler reports a collaborative research grant between School of Public Health at University of Queensland and Central Queensland Public Health Unit which is awarded by the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CQHHS93907), Australia, for the conduct of the study; r. Khandaker reports grants from Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service, during the conduct of the study. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the CQHHS Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approved (HREC/2019/QCQ/50602) which was subsequently ratified by the HREC of the University of Queensland (Clearance Number: 2019001760).

Pure microalgae cultivation in organic wastes may be hampered by their low adaptation to extreme growth conditions and by the risk of microbial contamination. This work aimed to isolate self-adapted microalgae-microbial consortia able to survive in organic wastes characterized by extreme conditions, to be then proposed for technological application in removing carbon and nutrients from wastes’ streams. To do so, sixteen organic wastes with different origins and consistency were sampled. Twelve microbial consortia were isolated from wastes and their eukaryotic and prokaryotic compositions were analyzed by next generation sequencing. Eight eukaryotic communities were dominated by Chlorophyta, led by Chlorella, able to survive in different wastes regardless of chemical-biological properties. Tetradesmus, the second most represented genus, grew preferentially in substrates with less stressing chemical-physical parameters. Chlorella and Tetradesmus were mostly isolated from cow slurry and derived wastes which proved to be the best local residual organic source.

Background: Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder with high rates of infertility and pelvic pain. However, its pathogenesis and diagnostic biomarkers remain unclear. This study aimed to elucidate potential hub genes and key pathways associated with endometriosis in ectopic endometrium (EC) and eutopic endometrium (EU). Material and Method: EU and EC-associated microarray datasets were obtained from the gene expression omnibus (GEO) database. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses and gene set enrichment analysis were performed to obtain further biological insight into the EU and EC-associated genes. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to find clinically significant modules of highly-correlated genes. The hub genes that belong to both weighted gene co-expression network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network were identified using Venn diagram. Results: We obtained EC and EU-associated microarray datasets GSE7305 and GSE120103. Genes in EC were mainly enriched in the immune response and immune cell trafficking, and genes in EU were mainly enriched in stress response and steroid hormone biosynthesis. PPI networks and weighted gene co-expression networks were constructed. EC-associated blue module, EU-associated magenta module and their function annotations were identified. 12 hub genes in EC and 16 hub genes in EU were recognized and further validated. Conclusion: Our study identified for the first time the hub genes and enrichment pathways in the EC and EU using WGCNA, which may provide a comprehensive understanding of the pathogenesis of endometriosis and have important clinical implications for the treatment and diagnosis of endometriosis. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 81671437, 81771558], Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province [grant number 2020JJ4814], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities 287 of Central South University [grant number 2020zzts285]. Declaration of Interest: None to declare.

Background: Quantifying the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 associated with community exposures, may provide an evidence base for implementing preventive measures. Here, we investigated potential determinants for infection in Denmark in a situation where society was only partially open. Methods: We conducted a national matched case-control study. Cases were recent RT-PCR test-positives, while controls, individually matched on age, sex and residence, had not previously tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Questions concerned person contact and community exposures. Telephone interviews were performed over a seven-day period in December 2020. We included 300 cases and 317 controls and determined odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) by conditional logistical regression with adjustment for household size and country of origin. Findings: Contact (OR=4·9,95%CI:2·4-10), and close contact (OR=13, 95%CI:6·7-25), with a person with a known SARS-CoV-2 infection were main determinants. Contact most often took place in the household or work place. Community determinants included: events with singing (OR=2.1, 95%CI:1·1-4·1), attending fitness centre (OR=1·8, 95%CI:1·1-2·8) and consumption of alcohol in a bar (OR=10, 95%CI:1·5-65). Other community exposures appeared not to be associated with infection, these included shopping at supermarkets, travel by public transport, dining at restaurants and private social events with few participants. Interpretations: Events with singing and fitness centres were associated with transmission risks. Other than that, the restrictions in place at the time of the study appeared to be sufficient to reduce transmission of disease in the public space, which instead took place following direct exposures to people with known SARS-CoV-2 infections. Funding Information: None. Declaration of Interests: All authors have nothing to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was performed as a national disease surveillance project, registered with the Danish Data Protection Agency (reg no 20/10133) and approved regarding legal, ethical and cyber-security issues. Participation was voluntary and participants received information about the selection procedure, risks associated with participation, data security, legal rights, including the right to withdraw from the study, and the use of their information at the start of the interview. The collaboration with the polling company was regulated by a data processing agreement and carried out on commercial terms.

Background: China’s three inactivated enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) vaccines are the first and currently world’s only EV-A71 vaccines approved by a national regulatory authority and used to prevent EV-A71 associated diseases. The three vaccines vary by vaccine strain, manufacturing cell substrate, and antigen dose, but no head-to-head comparisons of these vaccines have been done. We compared immunogenicity of the vaccines in children 6-35 months old. Methods: We recruited healthy children aged 6-35 months who resided in a study site county into a multicentre, open-label, non-inferiority, three-group, randomised controlled trial that was conducted in five counties in China. Enrolled children were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to receive two doses of one of the three EV-A71 vaccines. The primary outcome was the proportion of children with EV-A71 neutralizing antibody seroconversion 4 weeks after the second dose; a secondary outcome was adverse events in the 4 weeks after each dose. Analyses of immunogenicity included all children who completed the study (per-protocol analysis). Safety analysis included all children completed safety follow-up after one or two doses. We used a 10% margin to establish non-inferiority. This trial was registered on a World Health Organization platform: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1900026663). Findings: 1631 children were assessed for eligibility between Nov 4 and Nov 20, 2019. Of 1500 (92%) enrolled children, 500 were assigned to vaccine A, B, or C group; 483 in group A,484 in group B and 487 in group C completed the study. Before dose one, the seropositive rates in group A, B, and C were 9.7%, 7.2%, and 7.0%. Four weeks after the 2 nd dose, seroconversion rates of group A, B, and C were 98.8%, 99.4% and 99.8%, which were mutually non-inferior in all two-group comparisons. There were no serious adverse events in any group and no evidence of a difference among the three groups in the incidence of local adverse event or systemic adverse event. Fever was the most common adverse event. All children with reported adverse events recovered. Interpretation: Non-inferior and high seroconversion rates and equivalent safety of three EV-A71 vaccines supports selection any of the vaccines to prevent EV-A71-associated diseases. These results may be useful for regulators, vaccine policy makers, and immunization programs in China and in countries where EV-A71 is endemic. Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1900026663). Funding: National Science and Technology Major Project (No:2016ZX09101120-004) Declaration of Interest: None to declare. Ethical Approval: The study was approved by the Ethical Review Committee of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (approval number 201934). This study is registered on a World Health Organization platform: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR), number ChiCTR1900026663.

We study the reaction of investors to tail events across trading institutions. We conduct experiments in which investors bid on a financial asset that delivers a small positive reward in more than 99% of the cases and a large loss otherwise. The baseline treatment uses a repeated BDM mechanism whereas the market treatment replaces the uniform draw of the BDM mechanism by a uniform draw over the bids of the other participants. Our design is such that bids should not differ across treatments in normal times while allowing for potential differences to emerge after tail events have occurred. We find that markets tend to exacerbate the reaction of investors to tail losses and we attribute this effect to emotions.

Background: Pathological neovascularization in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. Increasing evidence shows that cells of myeloid lineage play important roles in controlling pathological endothelium formation. Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) pathway has been linked to neovascularization. Methods: We utilised a laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) mouse model to investigate the neovascular aspect of human AMD. In several cell lineage reporter mice, bone marrow chimeric mice and Socs3 loss-of-function (knockout) and gain-of-function (overexpression) mice, immunohistochemistry, confocal, and choroidal explant co-culture with bone marrow-derived macrophage medium were used to study the mechanisms underlying pathological CNV formation via myeloid SOCS3. Findings: SOCS3 was significantly induced in myeloid lineage cells, which were recruited into the CNV lesion area. Myeloid Socs3 overexpression inhibited laser-induced CNV, reduced myeloid lineage-derived macrophage/microglia recruitment onsite, and attenuated pro-inflammatory factor expression. Moreover, SOCS3 in myeloid regulated vascular sprouting ex vivo in choroid explants and SOCS3 agonist reduced in vivo CNV. Interpretation: These findings suggest that myeloid lineage cells contributed to pathological CNV formation regulated by SOCS3. Funding: This project was funded by NIH/NEI (R01EY030140, R01EY029238), BrightFocus Foundation, American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF), and Boston Children's Hospital Ophthalmology Foundation for YS and the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (U01HL098166) for PZ.

The study evaluates the characteristics of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations from 2005 to 2020 in eight cities in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), Midwestern Brazil, using data available from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). The average concentration varies from 2981 × 1015 molecules/cm2 in Campo Grande, where commercial, industrial and vehicular activities take place, to 2906 × 1015 molecules/cm2 in Corumbá and 3035 × 1015 molecules/cm2 in Porto Murtinho, regions of livestock and biomass burning. The results, based on the Mann–Kendall (MK) test, show a significant increase (p

Background: Real-world clinical data to support the use of casirivimab-imdevimab for the treatment of outpatients with mild to moderate coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is needed. This study aimed to assess the outcomes of casirivimab-imdevimab treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19. Methods: A retrospective cohort of 696 patients who received casirivimab-imdevimab between December 4, 2020 and April 9, 2021 was compared to a propensity-matched control of 696 untreated patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 at Mayo Clinic sites in Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Primary outcome was rate of hospitalization at days 14, 21 and 28 after infusion. Findings: The median age of the antibody-treated cohort was 63 years (interquartile range, 52-71); 45·5% were ≥65 years old; 51·4% were female. High-risk characteristics were hypertension (52·4%), body mass index ≥35 (31·0%), diabetes mellitus (24·6%), chronic lung disease (22·1%), chronic renal disease (11·4%), congestive heart failure (6·6%), and compromised immune function (6·7%). Compared to the propensity-matched untreated control, patients who received casirivimab-imdevimab had significantly lower all-cause hospitalization rates at day 14 (1·2% vs 3·4%; Odds Ratio [OR], 0·26; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0·11-0·64), day 21 (1·2% vs 4·2%; OR, 0·22; 95% CI: 0·09-0·52), and day 28 (1·3% vs 4·9%; OR, 0·21; 95% CI: 0·09-0·48). Rates of intensive care unit admission and mortality at days 14, 21 and 28 were similarly low for antibody-treated and untreated groups. Interpretation:Among high-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, casirivimab-imdevimab treatment was associated with a significantly lower rate of hospitalization. Funding Information: This work was funded by an intramural grant from Mayo Clinic to RRR. Declaration of Interests: CP, AP, AV, and PL are employees of nference and have financial interests in the company. JCO is supported by grants from nference, and is a paid consultant for Elsevier, Inc. and Bates College. ADB is supported by grants from NIAID (grants AI110173 and AI120698) Amfar (#109593) and Mayo Clinic (HH Shieck Khalifa Bib Zayed Al-Nahyan Named Professorship of Infectious Diseases). ADB is a paid consultant for Abbvie and Flambeau Diagnostics, is a paid member of the DSMB for Corvus Pharmaceuticals and Equilium, owns equity for scientific advisory work in Zentalis and Nference, and is founder and President of Splissen therapeutics. RRR is supported by research grants from Regeneron, Roche, Gilead and the Mayo Clinic, and is a member of DSMB for Novartis. All other have nothing to disclose. Ethics Approval Statement: The Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board approved this study. Informed consent was waived and patients without research authorization were excluded.

In this paper we discuss general identification results for Structural Vector Autoregressions (SVARs) with external instruments, considering the case in which r valid instruments are used to identify g Ï 1 structural shocks, where r Ï g. We endow the SVAR with an auxiliary statistical model for the external instruments which is a system of reduced form equations. The SVAR and the auxiliary model for the external instruments jointly form a "larger" SVAR characterized by a particularly restricted parametric structure, and are connected by the covariance matrix of their disturbances which incorporates the "relevance" and "exogeneity" conditions. We discuss identification results and likelihood-based estimation methods both in the "multiple shocks" approach, where all structural shocks are of interest, and in the "partial shock" approach, where only a subset of the structural shocks is of interest. Overidentified SVARs with external instruments can be easily tested in our setup. The suggested method is applied to investigate empirically whether commonly employed measures of macroeconomic and financial uncertainty respond on-impact, other than with lags, to business cycle fluctuations in the U.S. in the period after the Global Financial Crisis. To do so, we employ two external instruments to identify the real economic activity shock in a partial shock approach.

There is a great deal of buzz surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the notion, simply put, that nearly everything not currently connected to the Internet from gym shorts to factories soon will be. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is one application of this trend and involves the use of IoT technologies in manufacturing. It holds the promise to revolutionize manufacturing, but there are a number of outstanding cybersecurity and data privacy issues impacting the realization of the myriad benefits promised by IIoT proponents. This white paper analyzes some of these, focusing on: (1) critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity due diligence, (2) trends in transatlantic data privacy protections, and (3) the regulation of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. The paper concludes with a list of options for state and federal policymakers to consider in an effort to harden the IIoT along with the supply chains critical to the continued development of smart factories.

In recent years European financial regulation has experienced a tremendous reorientation with respect to the shadow banking system, which manifested first and foremost in its reframing as market-based finance. Initially identified as a source of systemic risk certain initiatives did not only fall much behind the envisaged changes but all to the contrary have been substantially modified in a way that they now aim at revitalizing these activities. The reorientation of European regulatory agency on shadow banking post-crisis, from curtailing it to facilitating resilient market-based finance, has been a cause for irritation by academic observers, dismissed by some as mere rebranding or taken as a sign of regulatory capture. All to the contrary, this paper documents the central role of regulatory agency in shadow banking’s reconfiguration. It does so by analyzing the European initiatives concerning the regulation of Asset-Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) and another prime example of shadow banking, Money Market Mutual Funds (MMFs). Based on documentary analysis and expert interviews we trace the way the recently published EU frameworks for MMFs and ABCP have been designed (in particular the STS, CRR and MMF regulation in 2017). Furthermore, we show how they have been transformed in such a way that their final versions allow to re-establish the shadow banking chain linking MMFs, the ABCP market and arguably the regular banking system. This transformation is driven by a new form of pro-active European regulatory agency which aims at creating a regulatory infrastructure able to sustain the orderly flow of real economy debt. Far from being captured by the industry, they did so consciously and in cooperation with private actors in order to maintain a channel for credit creation outside of bank credit, a task made more complicated by the rushed politicized final negotiations coupled with technical complexity. This paper thereby contributes to a new strand of literature, seeing the creation and reconfiguration of the shadow banking system as characterized by the active and conscious role of state actors.

This paper develops a theoretical model as a foundation of empirical analysis of the transmission channel of non-performing loans (NPLs) on bank cost of capital, credit and liquidity creation in the Eurozone. Empirical results confirm the model’s predictions and suggest that holding non-performing loans increases the cost of capital for banks in the short-term and the long-term. Moreover, the increased cost of capital reduces credit and liquidity creation, and the more so the less capitalized is the bank. This phenomenon is found to be economically more significant for European periphery country banks than for core country banks. The identification of the transmission channel is robust to the Granger predictability test.

This work investigates the relationship between proxies of innovation activities, such as patents and trademarks, and firm performance in terms of revenues and growth. By resorting to the virtual universe of Italian manufacturing firms we provide a rather complete picture of the innovation activities of Italian firms, in terms of patents and trademarks, and we study whether the two instruments for protecting Intellectual Property (IP) exhibit complementarity or substitutability. In addition, and to our knowledge novel, we propose a measure of concordance (or proximity) between the patents and trademarks owned by the same firm and we then investigate whether such concordance appears to exert any effect on performance.

This short paper explains the reasons and modalities of equalisation levies in the context of the digitalisation of the economy, and examines whether they would be covered by OECD-patterned tax treaties.

This short paper discusses the introduction of a general reverse-charge mechanism in the EU VAT system to address missing trader fraud. It argues that this move presents significant disadvantages, the most important of which is that it effectively transforms the VAT into a de facto Retail Sales Tax (RST), by removing the self-enforceability features that characterises it. It concludes that whilst a generalised reverse-charge mechanism may well kill missing trader fraud, in the process it may also give birth to a widespread, more fundamental, VAT compliance problem that will be much harder to either contain, or combat.

We provide novel evidence on the existence and the extent of intergenerational transmission of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education using a recent large administrative dataset of Italian graduates obtained from the Almalaurea data. Parental influence on two STEM educational outcomes (high school and university degree completion) is strong and, net of student's time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, proves to be stronger at the stage of the educational career closer to labour market entry. At this stage, the influence of fathers outweighs the one of mothers and is larger for sons than for daughters. The documented STEM intergenerational transmission is not driven by liberal profession of parents for most of STEM fields, while it is for some non-STEM fields (economic and legal studies), consistently with the presence of entry barriers in some professions.

I introduce binscatterhist, a command that extends the functionality of the popular binscatter command (Stepner, 2013, Statistical Software Components S457709, Department of Economics, Boston College). binscatter allows researchers to summarize the relationship between two variables in an informative and versatile way by collapsing scattered points into bins. However, information about the variables’ frequencies gets lost in the process. binscatterhist solves this issue by allowing the user to further enrich the graphs by plotting the variables’ underlying distribution. The binscatterhist command includes options for different regression methods, including reghdfe (Correia, 2014, Statistical Software Components S457874, Department of Economics, Boston College) and areg, and robust and clustered standard errors, with automatic reporting of estimation results and sample size., The Stata Journal, 22 (2), ISSN:1536-867X, ISSN:1536-8734

Background: The Timeless (TIM) and its interacting partner TIPIN protein complex is well known for its role in replication checkpoint and normal DNA replication processes. TIM appears to be an essential component of the DNA damage response. Recent studies revealed the involvement of TIM and TIPIN in human malignancies; however, no evidence is available regarding TIM/TIPIN protein complex expression and its potential role in melanoma. Therefore, we investigated the role of TIM as well as TIPIN in melanoma. Methods: To assess the role of TIM/TIPIN in melanoma, we analyzed TIM/TIPIN expression data from the publicly accessible TCGA online database, Western blot analysis, and RT-qPCR in a panel of melanoma cell lines. Lentivirus-mediated TIM/TIPIN knockdown in A375 melanoma cells was used to examine cell proliferation, colony formation, and apoptosis. A xenograft tumor formation assay was performed using shTIM, shTIPIN, and shMock cells. Findings: The TIM/TIPIN complex was frequently overexpressed in melanoma cells compared to normal melanocytes. We also discovered that the overexpression of TIM and TIPIN was significantly associated with poorer prognosis of melanoma patients. Furthermore, we observed that shRNA-mediated knockdown of TIM and TIPIN reduced cell viability and proliferation due to the induction of apoptosis and increased levels of γH2AX, a marker of DNA damage. In a xenograft tumor nude mouse model, shRNA-knockdown of TIM/TIPIN significantly reduced tumor growth. Interpretation: Our results suggest that TIM and TIPIN play an important role in tumorigenesis of melanoma, which might reveal novel approaches for the development of new melanoma therapies. Further mechanistic investigations are needed to determine this complex’s potential as a biomarker of melanoma susceptibility. Targeting TIM/TIPIN might be a potential therapeutic strategy against melanoma. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Hormel Foundation (Z. Dong). Declaration of Interests: All authors have agreed to publish this manuscript and declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: All animal studies were performed following the guidelines approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Protocol ID: 1803-35739A).

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we scrutinize what has been established in the literature on whether entrepreneurship can cause and resolve extreme events, the immediate and long-run impacts of extreme events on entrepreneurship, and whether extreme events can positively impact (some) entrepreneurship and innovation. Based on this, we utilize a partial equilibrium model to provide several conjectures on the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurship, and to derive policy recommendations for recovery. We illustrate that while entrepreneurship recovery will benefit from measures such as direct subsidies for start-ups, firms’ revenue losses, and loan liabilities, it will also benefit from aggregate demand-side support and income redistribution measures, as well as from measures that facilitate the innovation-response to the Keynesian supply-shock caused by the pandemic, such as access to online retail and well-functioning global transportation and logistics.

We document a causal effect of the conservative Fox News Channel in the USA on physical distancing during COVID-19 pandemic. We measure county-level mobility covering all US states and District of Columbia produced by GPS pings to 15–17 million smartphones and zip-code-level mobility using Facebook location data. Using the historical position of Fox News Channel in the cable lineup as the source of exogenous variation, we show that increased exposure to Fox News led to a smaller reduction in distance traveled and a smaller increase in the probability of staying home after the national emergency declaration in the USA. Our results show that slanted media can have a harmful effect on containment efforts during a pandemic by affecting people’s behavior.

Introduction:\ud This systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluated the efficacy and safety of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes, ENDS) in helping people who smoke to achieve abstinence compared with electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS, no nicotine) or any smoking cessation comparator treatment or combination of treatments at 24–26 weeks and at 52 weeks.\ud \ud Methods:\ud Systematic review techniques involved searches of three databases in February 2020 with update searches run on 14 May 2021, two-person independent screening, two-person independent assessment of bias, formal extraction of data with verification by a second person, a feasibility assessment to decide if meta-analysis was appropriate, and network meta-analysis (NMA) of data at 24–26 weeks. Data at 52 weeks were narratively summarized.\ud \ud Results:\ud Ten RCTs met the inclusion criteria, eight for efficacy and ten for safety. Eight of the nine RCTs were assessed as at high risk of bias. The sample sizes of the RCTs were 30–2012. Using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) as the reference treatment, the incidences of smoking cessation at 24–26 weeks were comparable between ENDS and NRT groups (RR=1.17; 95% CrI: 0.66–1.86). Three sensitivity analyses were carried out indicating the main findings for 24–26 weeks were robust to assumptions. The findings at 52 weeks were inconclusive.\ud \ud Conclusions:\ud This systematic review and NMA indicates that there is no clear evidence of a difference in effect between nicotine containing e-cigarettes and NRT on incidences of smoking cessation at 24–26 weeks, and substantial uncertainty remains.

Background: Development and implementation of effective family-based intervention and treatment strategies during COVID-19, and future public health crises, will require a detailed understanding of the ways that COVID-19 has affected parents, children, and families. Qualitative and mixed-methods research is an important means of gaining such detailed information, particularly in the early phases of the pandemic, when the research community continues to explore the meaning of this experience. Methods: We employed thematic analysis to identify themes in parents’ and children’s reflective writing about COVID-19, and explored how citation of certain themes mapped onto quantitative measures of distress commonly used in past psychosocial research on pandemics. Data were collected from N = 56 parents and N = 43 children between April to May 2020.Findings: Analysis of parent and child written reports revealed positive and negative thematic content, though parents expressed more positive themes than children. The most common themes identified from parent reports surrounded concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on their children, health concerns for others, and the stressful balancing act of parenting, schooling, and working from home. In addition, many parents reported gratitude for what they had, and reflected on the upsides of the pandemic for family relations. For children, the most common themes identified surrounded missing school and social relationships. When children expressed positive themes, they tended to be more egocentric reflections (e.g. learning to ride a bike). Both parent and child thematic content mapped onto parent-proxy and parent-self reported quantitative dimensions of parent and child distress. Finally, we observed that parents who reflected on gratitude in their written reports exhibited a decrease in negative affect pre- to -post-writing.Interpretation: Both parents and children are suffering from reduced wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with the burdens imposed by the closure of in-person schooling. The psychosocial impact of the pandemic on families would likely be even greater in magnitude within less advantaged populations. Future research and policy should focus on identifying how to fulfill children’s social needs and lessen the caregiving burdens during this time.