Adapting to Crisis: A Binational Study on the Impact of Flexibility on Latent Profiles of Coping with COVID-19

Introduction. The high level of uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the general population’s well-being and ability to cope with daily challenges. Studies indicate that flexibility, defined as the ability to employ and adapt a variety of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral strategies in accordance with changing contextual demands, may significantly contribute to coping with long-term stressors such as COVID-19. Objectives. We aimed to investigate which facets of flexibility predict different latent coping profiles in Israel and Germany. Methods. 2330 Israelis and 743 Germans completed online questionnaires measuring cognitive, emotional and trauma-related regulatory flexibility, and cognitive, emotional, and behavioral coping with COVID-19. Results. Analyses revealed three distinct coping profiles in each country (high, medium and low). These profiles differed in both anxiety and depression symptoms with the low coping group experiencing clinically relevant symptoms both in Israel and in Germany. Additionally, cognitive flexibility and trauma-related regulatory flexibility, but not emotion regulatory flexibility, emerged as significant predictors of coping in both countries. Conclusions. Training cognitive and trauma-related regulatory flexibility may help individuals to better cope with psychosocial stressors such as COVID-19. Such trainings could be selectively administered to less flexible subpopulations, as well as adapted to the specific population characteristics.

An industrial case study: QbD to accelerate time-to-market of a drug product

The use of a Quality by Design (QbD) approach in the development of pharmaceutical products is known to bring many advantages to the table, such as increased product and process knowledge, robust manufacturing processes, and regulatory flexibility regarding changes during the commercial phase. However, many companies still adhere to a more traditional pharmaceutical process development—in some cases due to the difficulty of going from a theoretical view of QbD to its actual application. This article presents a real-world case study for the development of an industrial pharmaceutical drug product (oral solid dosage form) using the QbD methodology, demonstrating the activities involved and the gains in obtaining systematic process and product knowledge.

Emotionally intelligent people show more flexible regulation of emotions in daily life

Emotion regulation strategies have been characterized as adaptive or maladaptive; however, the ability to switch strategies to best suit the situation (regulatory flexibility and adaptability) underlies effective emotion regulation. Emotional intelligence may be a key capacity that enables flexible emotion regulation. We use experience sampling data from 165 participants to test whether emotional intelligence abilities (emotion understanding and management) predict variability in four emotion regulation strategies. Results show that both the emotion understanding and emotion management branches of emotional intelligence significantly relate to between-strategy variability (with moderate effect sizes), but only emotion understanding significantly predicts within-strategy variability. These findings support the hypothesis that emotional intelligence is an important predictor of the ability to flexibly vary emotion regulation depending on the situation.

The Economic and Climate Value of Flexibility in Green Energy Markets

This paper examines how enhanced flexibility across space, time, and a regulatory dimension affects the economic costs and CO$$_2$$ 2 emissions of integrating large shares of intermittent renewable energy from wind and solar. We develop a numerical model which resolves hourly dispatch and investment choices among heterogeneous energy technologies and natural resources in interconnected wholesale electricity markets, cross-country trade (spatial flexibility), energy storage (temporal flexibility), and tradable green quotas (regulatory flexibility). Taking the model to the data for the case of Europe’s system of interconnected electricity markets, we find that the appropriate combination of flexibility can bring about substantial gains in economic efficiency, reduce costs (up to 13.8%) and lower CO$$_2$$ 2 emissions (up to 51.2%). Regulatory flexibility is necessary to realize most of the maximum possible benefits. We also find that gains from increased flexibility are unevenly distributed and that some countries incur welfare losses.

A Mutualism, Affiliation and Status Seeking (MASS) Framework of Fundamental Affective Dynamics and their Survival Benefits

Primates have developed a unique set of complex drives for successful group living, yet theorists rarely contemplate their taxonomy and how such drives relate to affective dynamics fundamental for group success. Affective dynamics and drive fulfillment exert mutual influence on one another, ultimately collectively promoting or undermining survival. We first identify six core benefits of group living common among both humans and other animals, and from this foundation we propose three broad social drives that have evolved to preserve or enhance group living benefits: (i) Mutualism comprises cooperation, reciprocity, trust, and fairness; (ii) Affiliation comprises assimilation and belonging, whereby one aims to fit into the group through adherence to group norms and ideologies; (iii) Status-Seeking is represented by a drive to build one’s value in the group and acquire differential access to mates and other resources. We identify affective dynamics that facilitate each social drive: (i) Reactive flexibility involves qualitative shifts in affect in response to shifting goals, which facilitates mutualism; (ii) Affective synchrony is the reproduction of another individual’s emotions in oneself and facilitates social affiliation; (iii) Regulatory flexibility facilitates status-seeking through a broad repertoire of regulatory approaches during strategic behavioral pursuits. Finally, we posit that fulfilling Mutualism, Affiliation, and Status-Seeking (MASS) drives enhances the benefits of social living and supports development of fundamental affective dynamics.

Common Management through Institutional Architecture – What is the Scope of the UNCLOS Deep Seabed Mining Regime and the Role of the ISA within it?

Chapter 4 evaluates the role of common management in securing a common heritage framework for deep seabed mining beyond national jurisdiction (in the Area). To this end, Chapter 4 assesses the common management system for deep seabed mining within the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS provides a system of common rules applicable to the Area, together with the regulatory flexibility for this system to be developed and enforced, in practice, by a unique, unprecedented form of institutional power, wielded by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). The chapter includes analysis of the ISA’s progress towards development of the Mining Code, and the functioning of its contract-based licensing process, in practice. Chapter 4 addresses the means by which corporations may become participants in the regime (through state sponsorship, nationality and effective control requirements) and the extent to which the regime filters down to apply to them directly.

Bilateral and Regional Economic Rules and Regimes

This chapter canvasses the roles and nature of bilateral or regional economic treaties, and their potential implications for sustainable development. It then moves to analyse, firstly, whether and how, in bilateral and regional economic treaty texts, States provide exceptions in trade and investment treaties to prevent economic rules from constraining the regulatory flexibility of the Parties for social and environmental purposes in the field of sustainable development. Second, it discusses how States establish prescriptions and permissions for cooperation to resolve environmental and social problems that could be exacerbated by the bilateral or regional economic treaty, strengthening domestic laws and supporting efforts to mitigate potential environmental and social impacts. Third, it considers whether and how States agree permissions and prescriptions to liberalize trade and investment in specific economic sectors that they agree will contribute to sustainable development, encouraging technologies and industries prioritized in other international treaties on sustainable development.

SEC adopts offering reforms for BDCs and registered closed-end funds and issues a temporary exemptive order

Purpose To analyze and identify the key findings from the April 8, 2020, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (the “SEC”) recently approved rule amendments (“Adopted Rules”) extended to business development companies (“BDCs”) and registered closed-end funds and an Exemptive Order providing regulatory flexibility to BDCs. Design/methodology/approach Discusses the key takeaways and implications from the Adopted Rules and Exemptive Order. Findings The Adopted Rules provide BDCs and registered closed-end funds some of the more efficient registration, reporting, offering, and communication requirements currently applicable to operating companies. The Exemptive Order provides BDCs additional flexibility with respect to (1) the issuance and sale of senior securities and (2) the participation in certain joint transactions. Practical implications Firms and their representatives should heed the trends in both the substantial restitution FINRA is ordering and the related enforcement issues in the cases FINRA has brought. Originality/value Expert analysis and guidance from experienced asset management lawyers.

Regulatory Flexibility of Sustaining Daily Routines and Mental Health in Adaptation to Financial Strain: A Vignette Approach

A vignette approach was adopted to investigate flexibility of sustaining daily routines and whether and how this ability was related to mental health at different levels of financial strain. Three separate studies were conducted with community-dwelling adults (N = 1685) in the USA. In Study 1, we drafted, tested, and modified vignettes with reference to pilot data on the relevance of the scenarios and response options. In Study 2, regulatory flexibility of sustaining daily routines, as calculated in term of context sensitivity and responsiveness to feedback, was formulated correlations with self-reported instruments to demonstrate its concurrent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity. In Study 3, path analysis examined the associations of regulatory flexibility of sustaining daily routines with psychological distress and well-being, and the moderating effects of subjective financial strain on the associations. Results showed that the inverse associations of context sensitivity and responsiveness to feedback with depressive symptoms were stronger at medium/high levels relative to lower levels of perceived financial strain. The inverse association between context sensitivity and positive affect was significant only at higher levels of strain. Our findings could provide a feasible direction for developing scalable behavioral interventions for potential mental health problems, especially among those with a lower socioeconomic status.