there will be major changes in the leadership at the Mass Teachers Retirement System (MTRS) Its Executive Director Erika Glaster will be retiring at the end of 2024 a longtime MTRS employee and current Deputy Executive Director and Chief Benefits Officer Erika’s retirement marks the end of a 38-year career with the MTRS dating back to 1986 as a retirement counselor Erika has held several key management positions starting with Regional Director of the MTRS Western Regional Office that she founded in 1986 and culminating ten years ago when she became Executive Director According to Association President Frank Valeri “Over my years with the Association and before retiring with PERAC (Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission) I’ve had the privilege of working with Erika and experiencing firsthand the sheer wealth of her knowledge and skills Her commitment to improving public retirement was unwavering I’m very pleased that she will continue to be working with me on the Special COLA Study Commission next year I know that her contributions to the Commission will be invaluable we want to take this opportunity to thank you Erika for all of your service to the MTRS membership and the retirement community as a whole and welcome to Mass Retirees – your application is in the mail!” Deputy Executive Director and Chief Benefits Office Jonathan Osimo will become the new MTRS Executive Director beginning January 1 having begun as a retirement counselor in 1997 and serving as Western Regional Director at one time In his current role as Deputy Executive Director and Chief Benefits Officer he leads four departments within the member and employer services division I’ve known and worked with Jonathan for years – decades,” continues Valeri “No question in my mind that the (Teachers Retirement) Board made an excellent appointment to succeed Erika We look forward to working with you as Executive Director.” December 16, 2024 News County and Municipal Employees Association has been the leading voice for Massachusetts public retirees and their families Join with our 52,000 members as we continue the fight Phone: (617) 723-7283 • 11 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02108 Receive emails when new obituariesare published to our website Relating to the needs of area families takes a special kind of understanding; one which is nurtured over years of knowing what is most important we live to help those that are suffering from loss then help guide you through the best options for your loved one There's a reason why our office walls are filled with thank you cards from others who have gone through the same thing you are experiencing Please contact us in whichever way is the most convenient for you no obligation.Thank you for this opportunity to help you Your browser may not work with certain site. Upgrade now. Metrics details When people see a life-sized virtual body (VB) from first person perspective in virtual reality they are likely to have the perceptual illusion that it is their body Additionally such virtual embodiment can lead to changes in perception implicit attitudes and behaviour based on attributes of the VB To date the changes that have been studied are as a result of being embodied in a body representative of particular social groups (e.g. In our experiment participants alternately switched between a VB closely resembling themselves where they described a personal problem and a VB representing Dr Sigmund Freud from which they offered themselves counselling Here we show that when the counsellor resembles Freud participants improve their mood compared to the counsellor being a self-representation The improvement was greater when the Freud VB moved synchronously with the participant Synchronous VB movement was associated with a much stronger illusion of ownership over the Freud body This suggests that this form of embodied perspective taking can lead to sufficient detachment from habitual ways of thinking about personal problems so as to improve the outcome and demonstrates the power of virtual body ownership to effect cognitive changes In this paper we introduce a method that externalises a representation of the self to whom you are talking and additionally shows how you can occupy the body of that self and talk back—to yourself—thus engaging in a genuine self-conversation the term ‘counsellor’ refers to the externalised self-representation to whom you talk and the issue under discussion is the resolution of a personal problem In order to achieve this we exploit the capability of immersive virtual reality (IVR) to embody people in alternate body representations In particular we address the question as to whether the form of the counsellor body has an impact on self-knowledge demonstrated by positively or negatively influencing the mood associated with the participant’s personal problem Our general idea is that when the participants (all males) have a body ownership illusion over a counsellor body that represents another person this will allow them to find a more satisfactory outcome resulting in a positive influence on their mood compared to when the counsellor body is a lookalike representation of themselves In the research reported in this paper we embodied participants alternately in two virtual bodies such that they could have an extended conversation with themselves One body represented themselves and the other a counsellor with whom they would discuss a personal problem While embodying their own body (lookalike) representation they described the problem They then transferred to the counsellor body and from that perspective saw and heard their lookalike body describing the problem and then gave some insight into how the problem might be solved They would then transfer back to their own lookalike body and look at and listen to the counsellor body giving them the advice and then respond to it they could then once again see and hear this response from the perspective of the counsellor body and again respond to it This process of switching between the lookalike and counsellor body continued until the participant decided to stop (A) Stereo 1PP view from the participant in his lookalike body He sees himself from 1PP and also in the mirror to his left (B) Stereo 1PP view from the Freud body looking towards the lookalike representation of the participant He sees himself as Freud from 1PP and also in the mirror to his right Readers may fuse the two images in each of (A,B) into one stereo image by crossing their eyes (C) The participant with the HMD and the motion capture suit Note how the posture is reflected in (A) through the motion capture (D) The participant being scanned to make his lookalike body Our specific idea was that body ownership over the Freud body would afford participants realising solutions to their problem that they could not reach while embodied in their lookalike body In other words being in another body would give them access to problem solving resources beyond what would be possible while trapped in the confines of their own body and their normal way of thinking The different body would give them the opportunity for a new perspective both literally (they would of course see themselves from a different perspective) and operationally (the body associated with this different perspective representing another person in this case strongly associated with therapy) In order to explore this idea we conducted two conceptually distinct experiments The first (experiment 1) was a within-groups design (n = 12) Each participant experienced two trials separated by one week Each week they discussed a different problem with a counsellor but one week the counsellor was the Freud body and the other week it was the lookalike body (Self) In this experiment there was visuomotor synchrony so that the body moved according to the movements of the participant Hence we also refer to this as the synchronous (Sync) condition The purpose of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that body ownership of the Freud body would result in participants improving their mood more compared to being in the Self body Hence this experiment was to test the hypothesis that it was specifically the degree of body ownership of the Freud body that would account for the results—that the mood after the experiment would be more likely to be improved compared to before in the synchronous than in the asynchronous condition (This gives scores almost identical to the mean of the two and results reported below are not different using the mean) When participants arrived to the experiment after reading and completing all ethical approval documents they were asked to think about a personal problem that they would like to resolve They then assessed this using a Subjective Units of Discomfort scale ranging from 0 (peace For ethical reasons problems with a ranking higher than 4 were not accepted (something that was bothering them that could not be ignored but which can be managed although giving a bad feeling) which was used as a screening rather than as a response measure The POMS questionnaire was administered before the experiment and again afterwards The measure of interest is the difference between the post experimental total score and the pre-experiment total score (dPOMSTotal = PostPOMS—PrePOMS) The more negative the values the greater the mood improvement The SAM instrument was given before the experiment and again afterwards and our measures of interest are dSAMHappy and dSAMIntensity which are the post minus the pre experiment measures Several other pre- and post-questionnaires were given relating to participants’ overall evaluations of the experience and these are discussed in full in Supplementary Tables 1–4 Overall 22 male participants were recruited with mean ± SD age 24 ± 5. On a range of demographic variables there were no significant differences between the groups (Supplementary Table 5) The experiment was approved by the Comisión de Bioética de la Universitat de Barcelona and carried out in accordance with that approval Participants gave written informed consent Box plots for the body ownership related questions by condition (Table 1) The medians are shown as the thick horizontal lines and the boxes are the interquartile ranges (IQR) The whiskers extend from L = max(p25−1.5 × IQR p75 are the 25th and 75th percentiles respectively and x1 and xn are the smallest and largest data points respectively Points outside this range are shown individually Async and Sync refer to the asynchronous and synchronous virtual body movements and Self and Freud refer to the counsellor virtual bodies n = 12 for each of the other two conditions From Fig. 2 it is clear that there are no significant differences in experiment 1 (synchronous condition For LikeMe the Wilcoxon paired signed rank test returns P = 0.008 (two-sided) for the hypothesis that the difference between the two distributions (Self Hence we would conclude that the Sync&Self condition results in greater LikeMe scores than the Sync&Freud condition (Note that one questionnaire result was missing so that n = 11 for these comparisons) For the between groups experiment we compare the Freud counsellor representation between the synchronous and asynchronous conditions MeMirror and MyMovements the differences are significant (P = 0.003 0.0001 respectively Wilcoxon rank sum tests) For LikeMe the difference has P = 0.110 indicating that even with the Freud body in the synchronous condition there may be some propensity to evaluate the virtual body as looking like the participant more than in the asynchronous Box plots of pre- and post-experiment measures on POMS and SAM First we consider the within group comparison of the Freud versus the Self counsellor (experiment 1). We use mixed effects regression with Counsellor as the fixed effect and individual as the random effect (see Methods), with the results in Table 2 This shows an interaction between Counsellor and SUDS It is reasonable that the change in mood after the experience compared to before might be correlated with the SUDS since if the original level of discomfort was already low there is not much room for change The interaction effect shows that this improvement in mood is related to the type of counsellor and greater for the Freud counsellor Moreover the marginal difference between the dPOMSTotal for Freud and Self (i.e. eliminating the effect of SUDS) has 95% confidence interval -8.02 to -0.14 also indicating that the Freud condition results in a greater decrease in dPOMSTotal (corresponding to an improvement in mood) compared to the Self condition Table 3 shows significant main effects of SUDS and Counsellor for dSAMHappy The results suggest that holding all else constant that the Freud counsellor results in a greater improvement in happiness than the Self counsellor The 95% marginal confidence interval for dSAMHappy Freud minus Self is 0.17 to 1.43 A similar mixed effects regression for dSAMIntensity shows that the interaction term is significant (Table 4 In other words the greater the initial discomfort associated with the problem (SUDS) the less the arousal after the experimental counselling experience than before Taking the marginal difference between Freud and Self the 95% confidence interval is 0.02 to 1.64 Here we consider the between groups conceptual experiment 2 where the counsellor was always Freud and the condition was the visuomotor mapping of real movements to virtual counsellor movements (asynchronous or synchronous) Recall that visuomotor synchrony results in much greater levels of subjective body ownership and agency than asynchronous where the greater level of body ownership the greater the improvement in mood (i.e. The regression of dSAMHappy on SUDS and Condition is shown in Table 6 indicating an increase in dSAMHappy with the synchronous condition. If instead we use the body ownership variable then this becomes clear as shown in Table 7 Whether we use the actual visuomotor condition or the effect of the condition (Body Ownership) it seems that the level of body ownership in the Freud body had a positive impact on the SAMHappy response there are no significant main or interaction effects for dSAMIntensity on SUDS The types of conversations that occurred are illustrated with the following two In the first example the participant explained to the Freud counsellor that he was having trouble with his boss that “…his style of communication towards me sometimes with lack of manners even and I find that a bit… it makes me a bit uncomfortable and I find that discouraging for the work I’m doing.” Then embodied in the Freud body the participant replied: “Maybe a possible solution you could try is to talk directly to that person about the subject because maybe he’s not aware of the way he addresses you and maybe with the fact of you explaining and showing it and how it makes you feel uncomfortable it could be useful for that person to realize it and maybe solve it.” The participant then embodied back as himself said that he had tried that and then re-embodied as Freud said “If that is true then maybe the possibility that you have done something to that person that may have been uncomfortable for him can be considered and he’s responding in that way But I think the best solution is to sit down and talk it through in a civilized way.” Finally the participant agreed and ended the session What is interesting here is the possibility that the participant already knew that he might have done something to upset the boss to call forth the uncomfortable situation but that this was expressed when embodied as the counsellor In the second example a participant explained how much he missed a girl who he had been close friends with but she had moved to study elsewhere I recommend you to move on because it doesn’t really solve anything I think you should keep it as a good experience and memory but not something that keeps you from going on.” The participant embodied back in his own body replied: “It’s true it’s very true I shouldn’t be living in the past but it doesn’t have to be something that keeps you from going on from living your life and living the moment everyone follows his own path and you have to meet new people that gives you something else enjoying life.” This was the end of the session Overall under all conditions the self-counselling experience was positively evaluated by participants (Supplementary Tables 1–4) and tended to improve mood and happiness (Fig. 3) experiment 1 showed that the Freud body tended to further enhance these in comparison to the Self body Experiment 2 showed that the Freud body tended to result in greater mood improvement and happiness in the visuomotor synchronous condition than in the asynchronous condition Visuomotor synchrony strongly influences the illusions of body ownership and agency Therefore body ownership and agency specifically over the Freud body tended to have a greater positive influence on mood and happiness than the Self body as counsellor In what follows we discuss a number of possible explanations for this finding: generalisation of positive self-attributes to an outgroup similarity with the empty chair technique of gestalt therapy and the relationship between neural activation due to perspective taking and self processing Then after discussing how the study needs to be expanded we put it into the context of its potential use in the growing crisis caused by the shortage of provision for mental health problems the illusion of body ownership over an outgroup body leads to a physical association (an illusion of resemblance) between the self and that outgroup which in turn leads to the generalisation of positive self attributes towards the outgroup this explanation does not apply to the quite different setup of this experiment since there is no aspect that concerns bias towards an outgroup Perspective taking involves putting oneself in the shoes of another It is an imaginal and cognitive change of location to the position of another In our paradigm the participant actually interacts with the self from the perspective of a different location outside of the body since the result is different depending on whether it is the Freud or Self body the form of the body itself must play a role and so the result cannot simply be only to experiencing the scenario from a different perspective In other words if our result were only due to the effects of conversing with oneself from a different locational perspective then we should have found the same results for the Freud and Self body but the results of experiment 1 contradicts this In this method clients in a therapy session typically argue with an imaginary significant other sitting across from them in an empty chair This may also involve clients eventually sitting in that chair and then experiencing and arguing about the problem from the perspective of the significant other Typically this method is used to resolve outstanding issues with another person (a parent Our paradigm resembles this and a variant of it could be used for that purpose since in our case the other is a counsellor rather than someone with whom there is a problem The counsellor (whether Self or Freud) is intended to advise on how to resolve the problem rather than being the cause of the problem there may be similar perspective taking mechanisms involved in the operation of both methods which explain why the method works at the general level but cannot explain the different effects of the Freud and Self body representation In the virtual reality while embodied in a (non-lookalike) adult virtual body they saw a virtual crying child and delivered a previously learned compassionate speech to the child Afterwards participants were either embodied in the child or in a third person non-embodied condition In both cases they saw and heard the virtual body that they had previously embodied deliver the compassion speech The results suggested that those who were embodied in the child body reported a greater degree of self compassion after the experiment compared to before with no significant change in the non-embodied group In both conditions (embodied in the child or not embodied) participants witnessed their previous embodiment delivering the speech but the effect of the embodied condition was greater in improving self-compassion than the non-embodied Hence it must be the embodiment per se that is effective rather than just a change of perspective self-reassurance is positively associated with activity in the VMPFC (ventromedial PFC) compared to engaging in self-criticism All of this together gives the participant access to mental resources that are normally not accessible due to their habitual modes of thinking about themselves The original finding here is that this generalises to being able to enhance the capability for self-counselling suggesting the deep and surprising power of body ownership based on bottom up multisensory processing to generalise to higher level capabilities The mechanism involved remains to be explored with subsequent brain imaging studies This experiment cannot address the issue as to whether the result is due to the use of the Freud body specifically or whether any other body would have served just as well that the type of body that would be suitable for counselling is likely to be constrained it is unlikely that a body associated with negative attributes would be effective perhaps the content of the counselling would be quite different depending on the body representation used (e.g embodiment in a body representing high moral standards might lead to a quite different outcome compared to being embodied as an obvious criminal) This speculation is supported by the fact that the choice of Freud as counsellor was determined by a sample from the population from which the participants were drawn (see Methods) These are fascinating questions that remain open to significant further study It should be recalled that in this experiment the participants presented fairly mild personal problems and that the outcome assessments were only through questionnaires A further study is needed to consider whether more severe issues might be successfully addressed using this method going beyond questionnaires to look at actual outcomes and with long-term follow-up The UK government has started a programme to try to greatly increase access to such psychological therapies by the year 2020 such approaches are in sharp contrast to the method presented here which of course does not require any artificial intelligence to drive the therapist since the ‘therapist’ is actually also the client no matter how eminent a person that body represents cannot by itself give people access to new knowledge that they did not have before putting someone in the body of Albert Einstein might make them more open to learning physics but it is not in itself going to suddenly make them experts on the general theory of relativity In the case of personal problems addressed using the method of this paper The participants are already experts on the subject matter of their problem—since it pertains to themselves and their own lives What they lack perhaps is the ability to step back and be able view the problem from the point of view of being someone else who has some expertise at dealing with problems This is dissociation of the problem from the self and importantly an association between the (alternate) self and a personal problem-solving ability Moreover the participants also normally have full access to all the necessary information about their problem Hence as a simple method to begin to tackle uncomfortable issues in the lives of people our method might prove to be a useful and inexpensive approach prior to the step of accessing psychological therapy This possibility is feasible today with the advent of high quality immersive virtual reality displays and tracking at consumer prices and the massive growth expected in this industry in the coming years Hence conversations between yourself and yourself as Freud (or anyone else) could be a useful and natural first approach in personal counselling About 40 minutes later they returned to the laboratory (the time in between was to prepare the scanned body for display) They then completed the POMS and SAM questionnaires They were then asked to think of a personal problem that they would talk about with Freud if given the chance to and to rate it on the SUDS scale Participants were explicitly encouraged to choose a problem that was not too severe After this they experienced again embodiment in counsellor1 but this time with visuomotor synchrony and after 5 minutes they gave the ratings of the questions in Table 1 (See the next section for an explanation of the reason for this procedure) At the end of this session they removed the HMD, answered the POMS and SAM questionnaires and other questionnaires (Supplementary Tables 2–3) where the experimenter asked the participant to describe the general impression they had of the dialogue how the experience of changing perspective and counselling themselves had been whether the participant thought there were differences between thinking over a problem and discussing it in such a setting and what kind of problem they thought could be discussed in this setting Analysis of these recordings is left to a subsequent paper entirely based on techniques for the analysis of qualitative data For experiment 2 (between groups comparing synchronous and asynchronous) a further 10 participants were recruited The procedures differed from those described above in three respects they experienced the two embodiment phases in the opposite order—first synchronous visuomotor and then asynchronous visuomotor While in the body of the counsellor during the counselling session they always had asynchronous visuomotor The purpose was that the results of these 10 were for comparison with the visuomotor synchronous Freud results from experiment 1 We could have had the counsellor as an anonymous person then we would have had no control over the level of trust that participants would give to this person based on appearance (for example accidentally looking like someone with whom a participant had had a bad experience) Therefore we decided that it had to be a figure that everyone would know Freud was chosen as the counsellor after a number of informal surveys amongst the population from whom the participants were ultimately drawn 20 people around the campus were asked to choose a famous person that they wished they could talk to about a personal problem Among the choices the most popular ones were Sigmund Freud We then asked another 20 males around the campus what type of problem would they talk about with each of these three and Sigmund Freud turned out to be the popular choice for discussion about a personal problem There was also priming for Freud during the experiment in case participants might not have made the connection between the counsellor and Freud This was accomplished with a large picture of Freud on the wall of the experimental room they were asked to choose “…a personal problem that they would talk about with Freud.” When Freud as counsellor spoke the participant’s recorded voice was modified to have a lower pitch The voice transformation was performed using the SoundTouch Audio Processing Library (www.surina.net/soundtouch) and the operation applied was a pitch lowering by 2 semitones This had the effect of producing a deeper voice without distorting either the length or the speed of the audio The pitch lowering value was chosen after an informal survey in which an independent sample (n = 7) recorded their voice and were asked if they recognized their voice after different distortions ranging from half a semitone to 5 semitones and whether the distorted voice sounded natural A distortion of 2 semitones was found to be sufficient to make the voice not recognizable as the participants’ own The head-mounted display used was the Oculus DK2. This has a resolution of 960 × 1080 per eye, a Field of view 100° nominal, 84° horizontal. It includes a built-in head tracking device that performs sensor fusion at 1000 Hz of gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer data (https://www.oculus.com/dk2/) The computer program was executed on an Asus N750JK laptop with an Intel Core i7-4710HQ CPU with 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 850 M The environment was built with Unity3D 4.5.1 engine and Oculus 0.4.3 SDK legs and feet of the virtual body were moved independently by the real time whole body motion capture stream The mouth of the body could be opened and closed (based on the 3D scans of the participant’s open and closed mouth) and was moved in real time based on the participant’s voice input captured through a headset microphone approximating the participant’s mouth movements when speaking Conversations between self and self as Sigmund Freud – A virtual body ownership paradigm for self counselling Possible links between self-awareness and inner speech theoretical background underlying mechanisms and empirical evidence Self-awareness and the left inferior frontal gyrus: inner speech use during self-related processing Neural circuits associated with positive and negative self-appraisal Inner speech during silent reading reflects the reader’s regional accent Spatial limits on referred touch to an alien limb may reflect boundaries of visuo-tactile peripersonal space surrounding the hand Projecting sensations to external objects: evidence from skin conductance response Threatening a rubber hand that you feel is yours elicits a cortical anxiety response The Experimental Induction of Out-of-Body Experiences Video ergo sum: Manipulating bodily self-consciousness If I Were You : Perceptual Illusion of Body Swapping Towards a digital body: The virtual arm illusion First person experience of body transfer in virtual reality A threat to a virtual hand elicits motor cortex activation Measuring the effects through time of the influence of visuomotor and visuotactile synchronous stimulation on a virtual body ownership illusion Illusory ownership of a virtual child body causes overestimation of object sizes and implicit attitude changes Body Ownership Causes Illusory Self-Attribution of Speaking and Influences Subsequent Real Speaking Changing bodies changes minds: owning another body affects social cognition Transcending the Self in Immersive Virtual Reality Putting yourself in the skin of a black avatar reduces implicit racial bias Experiencing ownership over a dark-skinned body reduces implicit racial bias Mirror-touch synaesthesia changes representations of self-identity 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.01.020 (2013) Embodying an outgroup: the role of racial bias and the effect of multisensory processing in somatosensory remapping Drumming in immersive virtual reality: the body shapes the way we play Looking for myself: Current multisensory input alters self-face recognition Maximum likelihood estimation of the polychoric correlation coefficient Edits manual for the profile of mood states: POMS Long-term effects of popular dietary approaches on weight loss and features of insulin resistance Real-time self-regulation of emotion networks in patients with depression Quality-of-life assessment tools for men with prostate cancer Measuring emotion: the self-assessment manikin and the semantic differential Adult attachment predicts maternal brain and oxytocin response to infant cues Cardiac parasympathetic regulation in obese women with binge eating disorder Revealing Real-Time Emotional Responses: a Personalized Assessment based on Heartbeat Dynamics Perspective taking: Imagining how another feels versus imaging how you would feel Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself Resolving “unfinished business”: efficacy of experiential therapy using empty-chair dialogue doi: dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.63.3.419 (1995) Embodying Compassion: A Virtual Reality Paradigm for Overcoming Excessive Self-Criticism Distinct regions of the medial prefrontal cortex are associated with self-referential processing and perspective taking Reflecting upon feelings: an fMRI study of neural systems supporting the attribution of emotion to self and other Watching my mind unfold versus yours: An fMRI study using a novel camera technology to examine neural differences in self-projection of self versus other perspectives The neural correlates of direct and reflected self-knowledge Neural correlates of the first-person-perspective Neural correlates of first-person perspective as one constituent of human self-consciousness Reducing the silent burden of impaired mental health (ed NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care) (2009) The economic and social costs of mental health problems in 2009/10, &lt; http://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/pdfs/Economic_and_social_costs_2010.pdf> (2010) (Access Date: 14/03/2015) Compassionate mind training for people with high shame and self‐criticism: Overview and pilot study of a group therapy approach A SWOT analysis of the field of virtual reality rehabilitation and therapy Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 14 in Healing War Trauma A Handbook of Creative Approaches The relationship between virtual body ownership and temperature sensitivity Multisensory integration in ego-centric reference frames determines full-body ownership Sliding Perspectives: dissociating ownership from self-location during full body illusions in virtual reality The building blocks of the full body ownership illusion A method for generating an illusion of backwards time travel using immersive virtual reality—an exploratory study Download references This work was funded under the European Research Council Project TRAVERSE (#227985) Sanchez-Vives and Chris Barker for commenting on an earlier draft Spanlang Bernhard and Slater Mel contributed equally to this work Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats implemented and refined the body scanning with the help of S.O.; S.O performed the experiments with the help of R.P.; M.S analysed the data and interpreted the results; M.S wrote the paper with the help of all authors; all authors read and approved the manuscript The authors declare no competing financial interests Download citation Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Uxbridge resident Anthony “Tony” Osimo has been appointed director of operations for Quality Beverage’s Taunton Division “Tony Osimo has a proven track record as a business operations leader with over two decades experience in areas such as cost control safety and regulatory compliance as well as process reengineering,” said Theodore “Ted” Audet executive vice president and chief operating officer at Quality Beverage continuous improvement process development Osimo comes to Quality Beverage from National DCP where he served as director of operations for its Northeast distribution center based in Bellingham Osimo earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Nichols College hails from the archdiocese of Ancona-Osimo vineyards and sandy beaches on the Adriatic Sea Archbishop Menichelli spent 23 years working inside the Apostolic Signatura and another two as the secretary for the Congregation of Oriental Churches Yet what’s most noted about the Archbishop both from those years and in his 20 years since as a bishop (ten going on eleven in Ancona-Osimo) is his constant connection with the pastoral and the people has promoted pilgrimages and Corpus Christi processions and has been repeatedly chosen to do catechesis at World Youth Days for the Italian bishops In 2011 he held a Eucharistic Congress in Ancona; hundreds of thousands of people came Italian newspaper Il Messangero called him “the soul” of the event In 2013 Menichelli preached that “The first thing is to recover simplicity.. Is my episcopacy more valid if I wear a gold ring Is it worth more if I wear a gem-encrusted cross Or would it no longer be of service to people?” He himself has long been known for his own simple lifestyle and the tiny ancient Fiat Panda that he drives to visit the 206,00 plus Catholics of his archdiocese At Christmas Mass this year he pondered the loss of tenderness in society and reminded his listeners that kindness and affection are part of our vocation as Christians: “with tenderness we do not turn a blind eye to human ugliness.” His episcopal motto is “Sub Lumine Matris”—“Beneath the Mother’s Light.” How do you feel about being named cardinal How has your family reacted?I was writing the homily for the next Mass and I heard noise from the outside the noise came from the nuns that work at my house they had received the news Pope Francis made me a cardinal and they came to tell me shouting: “The Pope named you a cardinal!” “Really?” I was very surprised Last October I proposed my resignation to Francis I wanted to not be tied to a place anymore I received a lot from them; my mother taught me a lot about life “If you don’t say sorry to him you won’t have dinner!” she told me When I went to see my classmate and I apologized to him What do you hope for the church today?Concerning the clergy I know that to be married and grow a family is not easy This is their “priesthood” or another kind of priesthood that doesn’t want to proselytize but to evangelize by telling people the beauty of God in a credible and fresh way What is one message you feel the church should be offering to today’s world?The church has to communicate in a strong and honest way to serve the truth and to be committed to her educational mission What are the most pressing issues facing your region and community?I’d say unemployment the difficulty to find good jobs and the growing presence of migrants Migrants from poor countries are growing in number every day They need help and they need to be listened to I’d like [to see] reporters and media free to express their opinions in a constructive way They don’t have to be tied to any kind of power We need the right secularism (in Italian “laicità”) something that considers the human person as the center no matter her own political or religious belief a man who was ready to accept and welcome everyone and the Gospel is the best way to implement this kind of secularism and all the people involved in this kind of work can help build a community What has your region and your community taught you about God and the church?This land is filled with hardworking people who try to be welcoming and sharing of their own goods and they know that everybody has to be open to the changes For this reason the only possible answer is to avoid excesses and to embrace solidarity With foreigners coming to Europe from everywhere and this is what we have to find in one another passage from Scripture or figure from church history that you look to for support and encouragement?In this land the Virgin Mary has a special veneration She was working everyday and she shared her life with very humble people Finally: What are your hopes for next October’s Synod?Every person is a gift from God We have to rediscover this in the Gospel and in our everyday mission Return to New Cardinals Password reset instructions will be sent to your registered email address As a frequent reader of our website, you know how important America’s voice is in the conversation about the church and the world. We can't do it without you—America Media relies on generous support from our readers. Please visit our membership page to learn how you can invest in our work by subscribing to the magazine or making a donation If you’re already a subscriber or donor, thank you! If you login and register your print subscription number with your account, you’ll have unlimited access to the website. Please contact us at members@americamedia.org with any questions CHIARAVALLESE. Victory of Carlo Torbidoni - Gabriele Ragni (Chiaravallese) who at the end of a very hard-fought final got the better (12-11) of Daniele Casturà-Massimo Monachesi (Elpidiense). The Chiaravallese couple won at the Bocciofila Salaria of Centobuchi di Monteprandone the Monteprandone City Trophy. As many as 129 couples in the BCD categories. MAGNATERRA. Third place for Michele Magnaterra at the Bocciofila La Combattente in Fano in 3rd Barto Trophy HD Live, individual competition valid for the national ranking reserved for category A players. Volume 12 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630751 many countries worldwide have put lockdowns in place to prevent the virus from spreading Evidence shows that lockdown measures can affect mental health; it is important to identify the psychological characteristics making individuals more vulnerable the psychological attributes that characterize individuals with similar psychological responses to the COVID-19 home confinement; second to investigate whether different psychological characteristics We analyzed data from 393 participants who completed an online survey on their experiences during two different phases of the Italian lockdown characterized by more or less strict measures of confinement Two clusters were identified which included participants reporting a better (+ER) and worse (−ER) emotional response to the lockdown Individuals in the −ER group showed lower emotional stability even if lifting part of the restrictions decreased psychological distress among all participants a reduction in perceived stress was observed only among individuals with high resilience and resilience differently affected depression Our results suggest that different psychological interventions should be planned depending on the context: mental health professionals should focus on enhancing the individuals’ coping strategies to alleviate stress in emergencies while long-term intervention aiming at alleviating anxiety and depressive symptoms should focus on alexithymic tendencies and personality constructs showing that people that best adapted to lockdown presented higher levels of resilience and successful coping no study has so far considered all these factors together asked participants to rate their experiences during two different phases of the Italian lockdown The first phase (Phase 1) of the lockdown in Italy from the 10th of March to the 3rd of May was characterized by the strict enforcement of tight rules such as the absolute prohibition to leave one’s residence if not for health During the second phase of the lockdown (Phase 2) some of these restrictions were lifted allowing people to leave their houses again to visit families and to do physical activity The data analyzed here were collected through an online survey administered during the second week of Phase 2: participants rated their experiences during the two phases recollecting their experiences during the last 2weeks of Phase 1 and reporting their evaluations of the first 2weeks of Phase 2 Our first hypothesis was that individuals who showed a better adaptation during the lockdown would show lower levels of neuroticism and alexithymia and a higher level of resilience compared to individuals who suffered a stronger impact of the lockdown on their mental health we hypothesized that individuals with personal characteristics linked to higher adaptability would particularly benefit from the partial lift of restrictions that marked the beginning of Phase 2 of the lockdown The data used in this study was acquired as part of a bigger project investigating the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown (Cecchetto et al., 2021) The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Padova and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki 2013. Data were collected anonymously through an online Survey on the Qualtrics XM Platform, shared via social media through a snowballing procedure in which participants were asked to invite friends to participate in the study. The required minimum sample size was set using Green’s rule of thumb (Green, 1991) which yielded to a minimum number of participants of 154; however our main constrain was temporal as data was only collected from the 14th to the 19th of May 2020 The target of the survey were Italian residents 18 or more years old All respondents read the consent form and explicitly agreed to participate before starting the survey No compensation for participating in the study was given Six hundred thirty-five participants started the survey One hundred ninety-four participants were excluded for not completing the survey seven because of missing information (five because of missing information on their gender) two because they reported having contracted COVID-19 and 23 because they spent part or all of the lockdown outside the Italian territory 11 participants were excluded because they reported currently having a diagnosed psychiatric disorder The final sample comprised 393 participants The BRCS is a four-item scale measuring adaptive coping strategies Responses are collected on a 5-points Likert scale ranging from 1 = “does not describe me at all” to 5 = “describes me very well.” The sum score varies between 4 and 20 where higher scores indicate higher levels of resilience The TIPI is a short self-report measure of the big five personality traits (openness and emotional stability) in which each personality dimension is measured by two items All items are rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) Participants were asked to fill the questionnaires referring to the last 2weeks of the lockdown Phase 1 and the first 2weeks of the lockdown Phase 2 Data were cleaned and analyzed using the software R (R Core Team, 2017) All continuous variables were centered and scaled The dependent variables consisted of the GAD The final sample is composed of 293 women and 100 males aged between 18 and 74 (mean = 35.00 15.8% were alexithyimic and 84.2% not alexithyimic The mean of the BRCS score was 13.1 (SD = 3.4) With regard to the PHQ and GAD questionnaire 31.6% were above the cut-off for depression and 28.0% were above the cut-off for anxiety 21.1% were above the cut-off for depression and 20.6% were above the cut-off for anxiety The mean score for PSS during Phase 1 was 18.7 (SD = 3.1) and during Phase 2 was 18.1 (SD = 3.0) Since the cluster mean of cluster 1 is below cut-offs we defined this group as reporting a better emotional response to the lockdown (positive emotional response which presents cluster means above cut-offs includes participants with a negative emotional response to the lockdown (−ER) (A) Correlations between the six principal components with respect to changes in depression Shades of gray indicate a positive correlation whereas shades of red indicate negative correlations (B) Clusters of participants identified by k-means clustering +ER = group of participants with positive emotional response; −ER = group of participants with negative emotional response Further investigations showed that the two groups significantly differ in age [t(381.75) = 3.06 as group +ER includes older participants (mean = 37.12 SD = 14.14) than group −ER (mean = 32.97 SD = 12.66) and in distribution of women and men [χ2 (1) = 11.00 p < 0.001]: men were significantly more likely to be part of group +ER (67% of the total; p < 0.001) while the percentage of women did not significantly differ in the two groups (+ER The two groups also differ for the reported job before the lockdown [χ2 (3) = 90.90 p = 0.019]: as students were significantly more likely to be clustered in group −ER (61.74% p = 0.019) while none of the other groups presents significant difference in the distribution of the two groups) the two groups were also significantly different for the participants’ level of alexithymia [t(390.75) = −5.65 they were significantly different in the DIF [t(379.78) = −8.40 SD = 6.53] and in the DDF [t(389.59) = −4.55 the two groups differ for resilience [t(389.54) = 2.40 There was no significant difference in any trait of personality except for emotional stability [t(390.68) = 7.16 To evaluate the specific effects of personality and alexithymia dependent on the phase of the lockdown on stress we computed a LMM for each emotional measure The final model investigating PHQ included phase and ID as a random factor (initial AIC = 1,787.3 age indirectly correlated with depression [t(554.8) = −4.56 while age did not affect depression scores in Phase 2 [t(554.78) = −1.52 depression was higher in Phase 1 than in Phase 2 [younger: t(393) = −6.86 p < 0.001; older: t(393) = −1.76 Fit lines of the interaction effects between (A) age and phase in depression; (B) age and phase in stress; (C) resilience and phase in stress The final model investigating GAD included phase Extraversion and openness to experience of TIPI and ID as a random factor (initial AIC = 1,731.6 Results showed a main effect for each predictor [Phase: χ2 (1) = 14.40 p < 0.001; DIF: χ2 (1) = 78.88 p < 0.001; EOT: χ2 (1) = 10.06 p = 0.002; Emotional stability: χ2 (1) = 43.92 p < 0.001; Extraversion: χ2 (1) = 4.91 p = 0.027; Openness to experiences: χ2 (1) = 7.60 p = 0.006] meaning that Phase 1 predicted a higher level of anxiety than Phase 2 the two components of alexithymia showed an opposite effect: a higher level of difficulties to identify emotions predicted a higher level of anxiety but a higher level of external-oriented thinking predicted a lower level of anxiety higher levels of openness to experience predicted a higher level of anxiety while a higher level of emotional stability and extraversion predicted a lower level of anxiety The final model investigating PSS included phase and ID as random factors (initial AIC = 2,030.6 moreover it showed that in participants with higher levels of resilience [t(393) = −4.31 p < 0.001] the difference between phases is stronger than in participants with lower levels of resilience [t(393) = −1.52 we characterized our sample of participants based on their level of anxiety and depression to unravel the psychological characteristics (personality traits and resilience) of those who reported a stronger impact of the lockdown on mental health we explored more deeply the role of personality traits and depression in relation to the scope of the confinement This may contribute to the observed effect that students are more affected by the negative effects of lockdown than workers or unemployed individuals (the latter group included retired people students may have been more affected in terms of life changes Our results offer new evidence on the role of personality traits and alexithymic tendencies in making individuals differently vulnerable to psychological distress during the lockdown we reported measures from the same group of participants in the two phases Avoiding most of the risks associated with interindividual differences our within-subject comparison allows establishing a solid methodological background for a better understanding of the effects of personal features on psychological distress during the lockdown we observed that the severity of imposed restrictions had a different effect on mental health depending on the participants’ resilience and age exhibit a higher reduction in the stress level in Phase 2 This result may suggest that stronger resilience abilities helped individuals to recover in Phase 2 from the stress accumulated during Phase 1 the contrast between strict and soft lockdown was particularly relevant for young people since they reported a reduction of depression and stress in Phase 2 as compared to Phase 1 resilience affected specifically the level of stress but not that of depression and anxiety This suggests that coping strategies may be particularly useful in highly stressful situations and to cope with emergencies as their effect on mental health consists of reducing the perceived stress but not in protecting from long-term mood and anxiety disorders features that could have become useful in the current pandemic situation our findings suggest that while resilience can help cope with stress and personality play a major role in influencing anxiety and depression Two general considerations emerge from the present study While personality traits influenced individual anxiety and depression resilience only affected stress but did not influence anxiety and depression These results suggest that while personality impacts longer-term measures of emotional reaction resilience may help only in modulating the perceived level of stress during such an exceptionally arousing event This may offer a useful indication to mental health professionals as to the importance of different treatment goals depending on the context: during an emergency it may be particularly useful in alleviating stress to enhance individuals’ coping strategies while during long-term interventions focusing on anxiety and depressive symptoms a deeper work on personality constructs may be better indicated Our results suggest that interventions aiming at supporting the population during future lockdowns should therefore pay particular attention to individuals with alexithymic traits as they may be less likely to seek support while being in need of it we have tried to account for this issue by including gender as a fixed factor in the initial models our sample is rather small for an online survey; however for the sake of the particular experimental design and the extraordinary historical moment our survey was kept available only for 6days to be still able to collect reliable answers related to Phase 1 but at the same time to have people already felt the effects of Phase 2 the current study provides valuable information on the factors influencing mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown specifically in association with the influence of the scope of the confinement We find that alexithymia and personality traits significantly impact the individuals’ levels of stress and that resilience is a protective factor specifically against stress especially when lockdown restrictions are less strict These indications expand the current knowledge of the influence of individual differences on emotional well-being during such an exceptionally stressful situation and can offer an indication of the kind of interventions that governments could put in place to limit the negative effects of confinement during future lockdowns The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found below: the preprocessed datasets and the R code for the reported analyses can be found on the Open Science Framework database (https://osf.io/ukx5e/?view_only=746d4bfba444465e8d341bb63cf2eda9) The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of the University of Padova The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study and SO: development of the study concept and the study design SO and CC: data analysis under the supervision of MA MA and CG: supervision and project administration All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version CC was supported by a grant from MIUR (Dipartimenti di Eccellenza DM 11/05/2017 n 262) to the Department of General Psychology SO was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant PP00P1_170506/1 to SI) The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest Bruno Osimo for the English revision of the manuscript The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630751/full#supplementary-material Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions Google Scholar Twenty-five years with the 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale anxiety and depression during the pandemic in a large population enriched for healthcare providers Fitting linear mixed-effects models using {lme4} CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Google Scholar The impact of alexithymia on anxiety disorders: a review of the literature Generalized linear mixed models: a practical guide for ecology and evolution Cross validation of the factor structure of the 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale: an Italian multicenter study The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence Personality differences and COVID-19: are extroversion and conscientiousness personality traits associated with engagement with containment measures The spread of COVID-19 in the Italian population: anxiety Increased emotional eating during COVID-19 associated with lockdown NbClust: an R Package for determining the relevant number of clusters in a data set CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Psychometric properties of a revised version of the ten item personality inventory attachment style and resilience: the mediating role of alexithymia alexithymia factors and salivary cortisol in men exposed to a social stress test Di Giuseppe Psychological impact of coronavirus disease 2019 among Italians during the first week of lockdown More than words can say: a multi-disciplinary consideration of the psychotherapeutic evaluation and treatment of alexithymia Difficulty identifying feelings and automatic activation in the fusiform gyrus in response to facial emotion Alexithymia and autistic traits as possible predictors for traits related to depression and stress: a multivariate statistical approach Psychological resilience: a review and critique of definitions CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Interoceptive abilities in inflammatory bowel diseases and irritable bowel syndrome Fox, J., Weisberg, S., and Price, B. (2019). carData: Companion to Applied Regression Data Sets. Available at: https://cran.r-project.org/package=carData (Accessed February 08 Google Scholar Franceschini Poor sleep quality and its consequences on mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy Coping behaviors associated with decreased anxiety and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown An alternative "description of personality": the big-five factor structure A very brief measure of the big-five personality domains CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The big five traits as predictors of subjective and psychological well-being How many subjects does it take to do a regression analysis PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Hervé, M., and Hervé, M. M. (2020). Package ‘RVAideMemoire.’ Available at: https://CRAN.R-Project.Org/Package=RVAideMemoire (Accessed September 30 Google Scholar Depression is strongly associated with alexithymia in the general population Global stress response during a social stress test: impact of alexithymia and its subfactors Resilient coping in the general population: standardization of the brief resilient coping scale (BRCS) The patient health Questionnaire-2: validity of a two-item depression screener Anxiety disorders in primary care: prevalence doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-146-5-200703060-00004 lmerTest package: tests in linear mixed effects models CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Health anxiety and mental health outcome during COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: the mediating and moderating roles of psychological flexibility The association between alexithymia as assessed by the 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale and depression: a meta-analysis Prevalence of depression in the community from 30 countries between 1994 and 2014 The relationships between sensory processing sensitivity CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar An evaluation of the absolute and relative stability of alexithymia in patients with major depression A nationwide survey of psychological distress among italian people during the COVID-19 pandemic: immediate psychological responses and associated factors How personality relates to distress in parents during the Covid-19 lockdown: the mediating role of child’s emotional and behavioral difficulties and the moderating effect of living with other people Psychometric evaluation of three versions of the Italian perceived stress scale CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Morales-Vives Psychological variables related to adaptation to the COVID-19 lockdown in Spain CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Relationship between cortisol responses to stress and personality The 20-item Toronto alexithymia scale: III Reliability and factorial validity in a community population The impact of alexithymia on treatment response in psychiatric disorders: a systematic review Differential effects of alexithymia subscales on autonomic reactivity and anxiety during social stress Establishing the theoretical components of alexithymia via factor analysis: introduction and validation of the attention-appraisal model of alexithymia A nationwide survey of psychological distress among Chinese people in the COVID-19 epidemic: implications and policy recommendations R Core Team (2017). R: A language and environment for statistical computing (3.4.3). 3.4.3. Available at: http://www.r-project.org/ (Accessed February 08 Google Scholar COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures impact on mental health among the general population in Italy depression among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis Examining factors impacting online survey response rates in educational research: perceptions of graduate students Google Scholar Risk factors for post-injury mental health problems CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar extraversion and openness on stress responses CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Personality and coping: individual differences in responses to emotion The psychological impact of COVID-19 on the mental health in the general population The prevalence of ‘Alexithymic’ characteristics in psychosomatic patients PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Does gender influence online survey participation?: A record-linkage analysis of university faculty online survey response behavior Google Scholar The role of alexithymia in the mental health problems of home-quarantined university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in China “An overview of the alexithymia construct” in The handbook of emotional intelligence: Theory Google Scholar Stability of alexithymia in the general population: an 11-year follow-up Deployment of attention to emotional pictures varies as a function of externally-oriented thinking: an eye tracking investigation Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population: a systematic review Yu, H. (2017). bootcluster: Bootstrapping Estimates of Clustering Stability. Available at: https://cran.r-project.org/package=bootcluster (Accessed September 30 Google Scholar mental health – state of emotional and social well-being Ionta S and Cecchetto C (2021) The Influence of Personality and Alexithymia on Mental Health During COVID-19 Pandemic Received: 18 November 2020; Accepted: 25 January 2021; Published: 24 February 2021 Copyright © 2021 Osimo, Aiello, Gentili, Ionta and Cecchetto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Cinzia Cecchetto, Y2luemlhLmNlY2NoZXR0b0B1bmlwZC5pdA== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Commanding a horse to flawlessly execute several patterns may seem like a pretty impressive feat to the average spectator But the rider will probably get winces from equitation purists if he or she shows too much effort in the act who heads New Castle County Police's mounted unit said the fewer gestures the rider applies in dressage and they want to see them work as a team," she said Dressage was one of the events that headlined the mounted police competition at the annual North American Police Equestrian Conference Saturday at Carousel Park adding that county police hosted the event that will continue until Sunday evening "It speaks on how much they respect your department." Spectators were attentive Saturday as they watched officers from various mounted units perform formation drills Sunday's competition will show the obstacle course which Devine said brings the riders closer to what mounted police officers usually do on the job Including New Castle County Police and Delaware NAPEC this weekend saw officers from 22 agencies in 12 states Those agencies included state police from Kentucky and New Jersey City police departments from Richmond and Virginia Beach were also present said she really enjoyed the NAPEC workshops Friday where she was able to take some lessons from experienced riders and make new connections She said she has served on the mounted unit for four of her six years with the Parks Rangers Osimo said she's always had an interest in horses She said her job has given her access to more community-oriented activities whether it be tourists or people from Boston that have lived there their whole lives and never touched a horse," she said The equestrian event Saturday was split into a novice and expert section with the latter geared toward riders who have received awards in previous competitions Osimo conceded that she and her Percheron – Winston – still have room for improvement But she said she was glad that he pulled off the moves he doesn't usually like doing said she has a friend who works for the county so the park is a common spot to visit for her "I tell all my friends who have small kids that they should come up here," she said Jolly expressed admiration for the riders and horses "They put in so much time and effort to train the horses," Jolly said "It's nice to be able to acknowledge them for what they've done." While law enforcement transportation has evolved a great deal in recent decades mounted units still play a vital role in policing She said horses are obviously faster than a person on foot but can offer more mobility than police cruisers by being able to go through backyards cut across multiple lane highways or clear obstacles such as fences Devine said the horses also endear the communities to the mounted units which she said helps residents feel more comfortable around police "There's no better community policing tool," she said yranaivo@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @YannRanaivo Two Ferrari supercars were involved in a serious accident in Italy on March 4 The drivers of the two vehicles lost control and crashed into a wall the accident occurred around noon in Osimo The reason for the collision is still under investigation According to local police, the accident may have been caused by excessive speed which you can also see on the CCTV footage the police are already examining the footage captured by the security cameras witnesses immediately alerted emergency services and paramedics arrived at the scene to rescue the two drivers The two injured drivers were transported to the Doric hospital in Torrette Their conditions were reported to be not serious The firefighters of the Osimo detachment and the Ancona power plant also responded to the scene to extinguish the fire that engulfed the blue Ferrari Reports also stated that the two drivers were a Belgian and a Dutchman – both of whom were on vacation with friends residing in the Marche region This incident is a reminder of the importance of responsible driving and the potential consequences of excessive speed. But as a general rule of thumb, take your need for speed on race tracks, not on public roads, for your own and everyone's safety The Ferrari Purosangue Has Magic Suspension 2026 Jeep Compass Unveiled: Hybrid or EV With Up to 375 HP Lotus Emira With Yellow Exhaust Tips Pays Tribute to an F1 GOAT Mamma Mia: Ferrari's New Hot Wheels Sets Are Fantastic The Cadillac Celestiq Will Be as Rare as a Bugatti Ferrari Is Already Increasing Prices due to Tariffs SOUTHBRIDGE - William Cloutier of Southbridge died on Thursday He passed away peacefully at Southbridge Rehab & Healthcare Center in Southbridge with his family present 1926 the oldest son of the late William and Annette (Proulx) Cloutier He is predeceased by his wife Jeannette "Nette" (Loiselle) Cloutier who died on January 10 Cloutier of Sturbridge who died on December 9 He leaves two sons William Cloutier and his wife Cheryl Osimo Cloutier of Barnstable MA and Richard Cloutier and his wife Karen of Woodstock Bill also leaves six grandchildren Lisa Cloutier along with several beloved nieces and nephews He grew up in Southbridge and graduated from Wells High School and later received a degree in Engineering from Worcester Junior College He was a World War II veteran who proudly served in the Army Air Corps as a Flight Engineer Bill married his childhood sweetheart and soul-mate Jeannette Loiselle in November 1947 and they celebrated 66 years of marriage He worked as a sheet metal mechanic at Southbridge Sheet Metal and later at Arduini Manufacturing in Worcester eventually becoming Vice President of Manufacturing Later in his life he was President of Atlas Sheet Metal Corporation in Southbridge Bill loved his home and working in his yard He was an avid Red Sox fan and looked forward to opening day each baseball season There was nothing that he enjoyed more than being with his family from 4:00 to 6:00PM at Sansoucy Funeral Home at Notre Dame Church (Saint John Paul II Parish) 446 Main St Burial will follow at New Notre Dame Cemetery N In lieu of flowers the family asks that you consider a donation to these worthy groups; the American Heart Association and the Wounded Warriors Project In the semi-final Savoretti had beaten the Abruzzese 10-7 Gianluca Formicone (Vigasio-Villafranca), another top player and former world champion. Fourth place for Marco Sabbatini (Castelfidardo) who in the semi-final had to give way to Viscusi. Jumbo-Visma rider extends overall lead with another clinical final kick on punchy 'walls stage' beating Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) in Osimo in his first race of the season after shoulder surgery last year already won stages in Tortoreto and on the shortened summit showdown at Sassotetto this week cobbled climb to the line in Osimo on Saturday Geoghegan Hart and Movistar's Enric Mas tried to break his will in the closing few hundred metres but Roglič powered past without even getting out of the saddle to deny them the victory.  The 10-second time bonus for the stage win helped extend his lead to 18 seconds with one stage remaining.  Almeida moved into second overall after former race leader Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) lost contact on the final lap Geoghegan Hart climbed from sixth overall to third at 23 seconds with Kämna slipping off the podium into fourth "It was a bit tricky with a lot of guys all around [within a few seconds on GC] I managed to take it at the end so I'm super happy about it," Roglič said of the frantic finale The Jumbo-Visma rider is not calling the race won yet he knows from experience that bad luck can strike at any time having lost Paris-Nice in 2021 to a crash on the final stage "We know from experience that it's not finished until it's really finished tomorrow," Roglič said succinctly Geoghegan Hart was slightly frustrated to miss out on the stage but said Roglič is "one of the most impressive riders of his generation".  was pleased to move up one rung on the virtual final podium It was super chaotic but I was feeling good so I just did my race I think it went pretty good but the strongest guy won I'm happy with the whole week and of course we wanted to win but we can be happy with the podium The riders of the 2023 Tirreno-Adriatico faced a demanding 193-kilometre stage with the feared 'walls' of Osimo tackled on each of three laps of a 34.2-kilometre finishing circuit The attacks came from the gun as usual but when the dust settled there were 11 riders out front gaining a maximum lead of 3:12 on race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) before the midpoint of the stage.  Those riders were Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) Mike Teunissen and Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) Clément Russo (Arkéa-Samsic) Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco AlUla) and Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies) On the second assault of the walls of Osimo Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) attacked from the peloton and The pair dangled between the peloton and the breakaway and finally made it across with 50km to go not thrilled with the antics of Bahrain-Victorious surged on a climb and kicked Russo out of the lead group when the leaders hit the walls of Osimo with around 40km to go Zimmerman and Ferron had attacked and split the breakaway The antics ruined the leaders' chances.  Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) touched wheels and crashed just as Wout van Aert came to the head of the peloton and lit up the pace making quick work of deleting their 25-second gap Van Aert led across the penultimate KOM and soon an attack first from Alexander Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and then Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) drew out Movistar's Carlos Verona and Alex Aranburu The four riders gained a couple dozen seconds but were soon caught when the GC battle really kicked off on the final series of climbs in the final 5 kilometres A patient Roglič waited to surge until he absolutely needed to biding his time as Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) made their attacks and quickly marked the moves Enric Mas (Movistar) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) Woods attacked ahead of the final KOM and opened up a solid gap on the blue jersey group but could not withstand the pace of the Slovenian Geoghegan Hart surged in the final 500 metres pulling out Mas and Roglič and the race leader proved strongest in the cobbled finale Results powered by FirstCycling she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track Laura has a passion for all three disciplines When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads UCI governance and performing data analysis Today’s stage 6 of Tirreno-Adriatico 2023 was the penultimate stage of this year’s race and race organizer R.C.S Sport had designed an interesting and hilly 193-kilometer ride from Osimo Stazione to Osimo that culminated with cobbled sections in the final part of the stage.  In the stage finale Russian Alexandr Vlasov attacked for his Bora-Hansgrohe team along with always hard-working Frenchman Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and the Spanish Movistar Team duo of Carlos Verona and Alex Aranburu but other teams aiming for success in the general classification united in a fierce chase that ultimately brought back the escapees Roglic then attacked together with a select group of favorites on the race-animating cobbled streets of Osimo and ultimately won a sprint across the finish line to take the victory in the stage ahead of Tao Geoghegan Hart and Joao Almeida "I don’t think I’ve ever started a season so well It’s crazy that I have three stage wins in a row in a big race like Tirreno-Adriatico,” proud stage winner Roglic told Roadcycling.com after being celebrated on the podium “Before the stage we had a bit of a different plan than what happened today Wout (van Aert) was here to go for the stage win but plans changed again Everyone had to sacrifice their chances in order to protect the general classification and that gave me the chance to go for the stage win again,” Roglic explained.  “I want to stay focused to finish it all off tomorrow It’s really cool to be back and to race with the boys again I could already start the Giro d’Italia but it’s in May and we’ll see what will happen In the general classification Roglic now leads Tirreno-Adriatico by 18 seconds Almeida is in second place for UAE Team Emirates and Geoghegan Hart is third for his Ineos-Grenadiers outfit 23 seconds behind apparently unstoppable Roglic Former race leader Lennard Kämna (Team Bora-Hansgrohe) is now fourth Sunday’s stage 7 of Tirreno-Adriatico 2023 will be the final stage of this year’s race The route is designed as a hilly and flat ride on and near the east coast of Italy The stage is a short 154-kilometer ride that begins and concludes in San Benedetto del Tronto Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for coverage from Tirreno-Adriatico 2023 road bike shopcycling manager game All rights reserved. © 2024 Roadcycling.com® - part of Seven Sparkles Intl