Familiarity at Work: Awesome or Contempt? Assessing the Interplay among Familiarity, Leadership and Team Identification.

The purpose of this study was to examine competing hypotheses (positive vs. negative) on how organizational members' familiarity with multiple stakeholders differentially relates to members' social identity and perception of leadership styles grounded in relational and emotional factors. Specifically, we developed and tested a conceptual model wherein employees' familiarity with leaders, colleagues, and externals plays a differential role in predicting the extent to which they identify with their workgroup (i.e., group member prototypicality-GMP) and perceive transformational, authentic, leader-member exchange and servant leadership styles. Moreover, we examined the moderating effect of combat experience. We tested this nomological network using structural equation modeling and invariance analyses on a sample of 435 military personnel from the Italian Army (228 combat, 207 non-combat). Results indicated an invariant pattern of relationships among variables for combat and non-combat sub-samples. Specifically, familiarity with leaders positively predicted all leadership styles and GMP. Familiarity with colleagues positively predicted only GMP, whereas familiarity with externals did not predict GMP or leadership factors. Moreover, post hoc quadratic regressions showed a curvilinear inverted-U-shaped relationship between familiarity with colleagues and GMP. Militaries with low or high levels of familiarity with colleagues reported lower levels of GMP compared to militaries with moderate levels of familiarity with colleagues. Hence, at very high levels of familiarity with colleagues, GMP begins to decrease. Theoretical and practical implications of results are discussed in light of the increasing relevance of relational and emotional factors for military leadership, and the current pandemic and geopolitical turmoil.

Sequential continuous infusion of fludarabine and cytarabine associated with liposomal daunorubicin (DaunoXome) (FLAD) in primary refractory or relapsed adult acute myeloid leukemia patients.

A large proportion of adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) relapse after treatment, and some of them are resistant to primary induction chemotherapy. Sixty-one patients from seven hematological centers with poor-risk AML, primary refractory (n = 16), or relapsed (n = 45) were treated with a salvage regimen, including fludarabine (2 days) and cytarabine (3 days) in a sequential continuous infusion, associated with liposomal daunorubicin (3 days) (FLAD). Complete response rate was 44% and 56% for refractory and relapsed patients, respectively, with an overall response rate of 52% (32 of 61). Twenty-two patients (36%) were resistant to the salvage therapy. Seven patients (12%) died early during chemotherapy, four of them because of sepsis. Nineteen patients in complete remission (CR) underwent a stem-cell transplant (SCT) procedure: five autologous, nine from a HL-A identical sibling, and five from HL-A matched unrelated donors. Post-treatment aplasia and mucositis were major toxicities. Twenty patients (62.5%) relapsed after this treatment in a median of 7.3 months; ten patients relapsed after a SCT procedure. Nine patients are alive and disease free; three of them were rescued after a further cytotoxic treatment. The FLAD regimen proved to be an effective and well-tolerated treatment, with acceptable toxicity in this group of high-risk patients. A better response rate was obtained in the subgroup of relapsed patients, compared to patients treated for refractory disease. More then half (five of nine) of long-surviving patients are those who were submitted to a transplant procedure; thus, the main indication for FLAD seems to be to try to induce a rapid CR with minimum toxicity in order to perform a transplant as soon as possible.

Rapid reversion of Loeffler's endocarditis by imatinib in early stage clonal hypereosinophilic syndrome.

Endomyocardial fibrosis (Loeffler's endocarditis) is the main cause of poor outcome in Hyper Eosinophilic Syndrome (HES) and Eosinophilic Leukemia (EL). Reversion of the cardiac damage has been seldom reported, and thrombi can superimpose on infiltrated walls, originating oembolic complications. The tyrosine kynase inhibitor imatinib has been recently employed in patients affected by HES or EL, with impressive results. We have treated with imatinib a young patient affected by Loeffler's endocarditis during EL. Loeffler's endocarditis was studied by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography with and without the contrast agent SonoVue. Cytogenetics, FISH and molecular analysis showed the presence of the FIP1L1/PDGFRA fusion gene, recently detected in a majority of HES patients. Standard echocardiography revealed a large infiltration of the apical region, with apparently pedunculate corpora floating in the LV chamber; after SonoVue injection, a thick endo-myocardial infiltration involving papillary muscles and tendinous chords appeared, which simulated mobile thrombi at standard echography. Treatment with low dose imatinib caused rapid regression of both eosinophilic proliferation and endomyocardiopathy. The fusion gene FIP1L1-PDGFRA was found significantly decreased after a few months of treatment. Using a contrast echocardiographic approach, we demonstrated the non-thrombotic origin of the "in plus" image in our patient and its rapid resolution following imatinib treatment. Imatinib is an excellent candidate for first line treatment of Loeffler's endocarditis, especially when the FIP1L1/PDGFA fusion gene is detected.