Hasil untuk "History of Italy"

Confalonieri F, Gaeta A, Gibertini M et al.

Filippo Confalonieri,1,* Alessandro Gaeta,2,* Matteo Gibertini,3 Giaomo Edoardo Bravetti,3 Antonio Campo,3 Vanessa Ferraro,4 Gianluca Scatigna,3 Gian Maria Cavallini,5 Goran Petrovski,6– 9 Tommaso Verdina3 1Department of Ophthalmology, Montecchi Hospital of Suzzara, Suzzara, Mantua, 46029, Italy; 2Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties (DIMI), Università Di Genova, Genova, 16132, Italy; 3Department of Ophthalmology, AOU Policlinico Hospital of Modena, Modena, Italy; 4Ophthalmology Unit, AUSL-IRCCS Di Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy; 5Department of Surgical, Medical, Dental & Morphological Sciences with Interest Transplant, Oncological & Regenerative Medicine, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy; 6Institute for Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0450, Norway; 7Department of Ophthalmology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, 0450, Norway; 8Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Centre, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, 21000, Croatia; 9Uklonetwork, University St. Kliment Ohridski-Bitola, Bitola, 7000, North Macedonia*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Alessandro Gaeta, Email alessandrogaeta01@gmail.comPurpose: To assess the impact of cigarette smoking on corneal endothelial cell density (ECD), central corneal thickness (CCT), and endothelial morphology following cataract surgery in older adults, and to determine whether smoking independently predicts postoperative endothelial cell loss.Methods: Prospective, observational cohort study conducted at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Patients over 40 years of age undergoing cataract surgery were enrolled and classified as smokers or non-smokers. ECD, CCT, polymegathism, and pleomorphism were assessed preoperatively and at 1 and 3 months postoperatively using specular microscopy. Smoking exposure was quantified in Pack-Years. Statistical analyses included Student’s t-tests, multivariate linear regression, and Cohen’s d for effect size estimation.Results: A total of 80 eyes from 80 patients were analyzed. Smokers had significantly lower baseline ECD (2294.8 vs 2523.9 cells/mm2; p = 0.0005) and greater CCT (556.2 vs 538.4 μm; p = 0.004) compared to non-smokers. Postoperative ECD loss was significantly greater in smokers at 1 and 3 months (p < 0.001), with increased CCT and more severe morphological changes. Multivariate analysis confirmed smoking as an independent predictor of endothelial loss (β = − 0.48; p < 0.001). The effect size for ECD reduction was large (Cohen’s d = 1.2).Conclusion: Cigarette smoking is associated with accelerated endothelial cell loss and impaired corneal recovery after cataract surgery. Smoking history should be systematically incorporated into preoperative risk assessments and patient counseling, with consideration for enhanced perioperative monitoring in smokers.Keywords: cigarette smoking, cataract surgery, phacoemulsification, corneal endothelial cells, endothelial cell density, central corneal thickness, polymegathism

Greta Mazzetti, Giulia Paganin, Antonella Mastrocola et al.

ObjectivesTo assess the long-term impact of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model on employment outcomes among individuals with severe mental illnesses (SMIs) and personality disorders (PDs) in Italy, and to examine the role of sociodemographic and clinical factors over a 42-month period.MethodsWe analyzed a 42-month longitudinal cohort of 1,408 IPS participants from seven Community Mental Health Centers in northern Italy. Data on demographics, diagnoses, and employment history were collected. Employment outcomes were compared across diagnostic groups and by nativity using Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests.ResultsEmployment rates varied significantly by diagnosis. Participants with schizophrenia, PDs, and depression achieved higher job acquisition rates, whereas those with addiction disorders and milder psychiatric conditions faced greater barriers. Native participants were more likely to obtain employment, although job retention rates were comparable between groups. Job tenure differed across diagnoses, with those with addiction disorders showing shorter employment durations.ConclusionThe IPS model improves employment for individuals with SMIs and PDs, though disparities by diagnosis and nativity remain. Tailored interventions are needed to promote more inclusive and equitable vocational rehabilitation.

Aziz MOSTEFAOUI

Fourteenth-century Europe was marked by the Renaissance, the large movement of European awakening that started in Italy and encompassed scientific, political, economic, social, and cultural fields. One of the results of this movement was an unprecedented wave of explorations of the lands outside Europe, pioneered by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century. These explorations allowed Portugal to create trading posts and build castles along the West African coasts and establish sugarcane plantations on the Atlantic islands which relied on African slave labor. However, the discovery of the Americas in 1492 dramatically increased the demand for African slaves. This paper traces back the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the atrocities committed against African slaves, and it attempts to highlight the wrongs done to them for centuries in the name of economic progress dictated by the capitalist system. Résumé L’Europe du XIVe siècle a été marquée par la Renaissance qui a englobé les domaines scientifique, politique, économique, social et culturel. L’un des résultats de ce mouvement fut une vague d’explorations sans précédent des terres hors d’Europe au XVe siècle, initiée par les Portugais. Ces explorations ont permis au Portugal de créer des postes commerciaux et de construire des forts le long des côtes de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et d'établir des plantations de canne à sucre sur les îles de l'Atlantique qui reposaient sur la main-d'œuvre des esclaves africains. Cependant, la découverte des Amériques en 1492 a considérablement accru la demande d’esclaves africains.Cet article retrace l'histoire de la traite transatlantique des esclaves et des atrocités commises contre les esclaves africains, et tente de mettre en lumière les torts qui leur ont été causés pendant des siècles au nom du progrès économique dicté par le système capitaliste.

G. Aad, E. Aakvaag, B. Abbott et al.

Searches for exclusive decays of the Higgs boson into D⁎γ and of the Z boson into D0γ and Ks0γ can probe flavour-violating Higgs boson and Z boson couplings to light quarks. Searches for these decays are performed with a pp collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136.3 fb−1 collected at s=13TeV between 2016–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In the D⁎γ and D0γ channels, the observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits on the respective branching fractions are B(H→D⁎γ)<1.0(1.2)×10−3, B(Z→D0γ)<4.0(3.4)×10−6, while the corresponding results in the Ks0γ channel are B(Z→Ks0γ)<3.1(3.0)×10−6.

A. Colao, P. Piscitelli, Manuela Pulimeno et al.

UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Chair on Health Education and Sustainable Development, Federico II University, Naples 80131, Italy (AC, PP, MP, SC, AM); Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, Milan, Italy (PP, AM); Human Relations Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy (MP); Department of History, Society, and Human Studies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy (SC); and UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education, Paris, France (SG)

William J. Wolf

I apply Dawid's Meta-Empirical Assessment (MEA) methodology to the theory of cosmological inflation. I argue that applying this methodology does not currently offer a compelling case for ascribing non-empirical confirmation to cosmological inflation. In particular, I argue that despite displaying strong instances of Unexpected Explanatory Coherence (UEA), it is premature to evaluate the theory on the basis of the No Alternatives Argument (NAA). More significantly though, I argue that the theory of cosmological inflation fails to sustain a convincing Meta-Inductive Argument (MIA) because the empirical evidence and theoretical successes that it seeks to draw meta-empirical support from do not warrant a meta-inductive inference to inflation. I conclude by assessing how future developments could pave the way towards crafting a more compelling case for the non-empirical confirmation of cosmological inflation.

Jules Morand, Shoichi Yip, Yannis Velegrakis et al.

Using anonymized mobility data from Facebook users and publicly available information on the Italian population, we model the circulation of people in Italy before and during the early phase of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (COVID-19). We perform a spatial and temporal clustering of the movement network at the level of fluxes across provinces on a daily basis. The resulting partition in time successfully identifies the first two lockdowns without any prior information. Similarly, the spatial clustering returns 11 to 23 clusters depending on the period ("standard" mobility vs. lockdown) using the greedy modularity communities clustering method, and 16 to 30 clusters using the critical variable selection method. Fascinatingly, the spatial clusters obtained with both methods are strongly reminiscent of the 11 regions into which emperor Augustus had divided Italy according to Pliny the Elder. This work introduces and validates a data analysis pipeline that enables us: i) to assess the reliability of data obtained from a partial and potentially biased sample of the population in performing estimates of population mobility nationwide; ii) to identify areas of a Country with well-defined mobility patterns, and iii) to distinguish different patterns from one another, resolve them in time and find their optimal spatial extent. The proposed method is generic and can be applied to other countries, with different geographical scales, and also to similar networks (e.g. biological networks). The results can thus represent a relevant step forward in the development of methods and strategies for the containment of future epidemic phenomena.

Patrick M. Duerr, William J. Wolf

The paper re-examines the principal methodological questions, arising in the debate over the cosmological standard model's postulate of Dark Matter vs. rivalling proposals that modify standard (Newtonian and general-relativistic) gravitational theory, the so-called Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and its subsequent extensions. What to make of such seemingly radical challenges of cosmological orthodoxy? In the first part of our paper, we assess MONDian theories through the lens of key ideas of major 20th century philosophers of science (Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, and Laudan), thereby rectifying widespread misconceptions and misapplications of these ideas common in the pertinent MOND-related literature. None of these classical methodological frameworks, which render precise and systematise the more intuitive judgements prevalent in the scientific community, yields a favourable verdict on MOND and its successors -- contrary to claims in the MOND-related literature by some of these theories' advocates; the respective theory appraisals are largely damning. Drawing on these insights, the paper's second part zooms in on the most common complaint about MONDian theories, their ad-hocness. We demonstrate how the recent coherentist model of ad-hocness captures, and fleshes out, the underlying -- but too often insufficiently articulated -- hunches underlying this critique. MONDian theories indeed come out as severely ad hoc: they do not cohere well with either theoretical or empirical-factual background knowledge. In fact, as our complementary comparison with the cosmological standard model's Dark Matter postulate shows, with respect to ad-hocness, MONDian theories fare worse than the cosmological standard model.

Marisa Milena Scherrer, Stefan Zerbe, Joshua Petelka et al.

The use of traditional medicinal plants plays an important role especially in remote rural and marginalized landscapes at different latitudes. In the development of nature conservation strategies based on local knowledge and sustainable resource management, medicinal herbs have been hypothesized to be cultural key stone species. Environmental education is a crucial driver for fostering environmental literacy and preserving local knowledge across generations. We conducted semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Autonomous Province of Bozen-South Tyrol (N Italy) to gain insights into, and reflections on, the cultural value of traditional medicinal plants and their interplay within the local landscape, nature conservation and their role in environmental education and knowledge transfer across generations. We also used a combination of purposive and snowball sampling to identify relevant actors. The different voices collected in the study clearly highlight the role of medicinal herbs in healthcare, for cultural identity of local communities and demonstrate a growing commercial market niche that maintains the local economy and services, including widespread offers related to environmental education, that have not, unfortunately, been used yet in the formal curricula of local schools. The latter is crucial for a holistic approach taking medicinal plants as an ideal vehicle to connect especially children with nature and history of South Tyrol, strengthening health education and overall environmental literacy, including species knowledge. However, the revival of herbal medicine and related knowledge do not prevent the continuous loss of local traditional knowledge regarding medicinal plants, recipes and use. More species and their uses are being forgotten due to superficialisation of knowledge and of mainstreaming and homogenization of the global market of herbal medicine. Safeguarding the natural and cultural treasures of South Tyrol for future generations is in the hands of the local communities.

Shaiban Ahmed, David Le, Taeyoon Son et al.

Chromatic dispersion is a common problem to degrade the system resolution in optical coherence tomography (OCT). This study is to develop a deep learning network for automated dispersion compensation (ADC-Net) in OCT. The ADC-Net is based on a redesigned UNet architecture which employs an encoder-decoder pipeline. The input section encompasses partially compensated OCT B-scans with individual retinal layers optimized. Corresponding output is a fully compensated OCT B-scans with all retinal layers optimized. Two numeric parameters, i.e., peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity index metric computed at multiple scales (MS-SSIM), were used for objective assessment of the ADC-Net performance. Comparative analysis of training models, including single, three, five, seven and nine input channels were implemented. The five-input channels implementation was observed as the optimal mode for ADC-Net training to achieve robust dispersion compensation in OCT

D. Tasselli, S. Ricci, P. Bianchi et al.

This study aims to present an overview of how climate change brought about by events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flares and variations in solar activity, etc. have characterized the area of central Italy, analyzing and comparing astronomical, geological, meteorological, seismological, historical and climatic data, taking as reference some specific locations in the period between 1250 and 1350. The ultimate goal is to understand how long-term climatic and geological events in this geographical area have changed the territory both from a natural and anthropic point of view, leading to highlight the occurrence of extreme events such as wave of plague of the period 1347-1351. The analysis is performed using a statistical-historical approach and particular attention is paid to minimize any effect due to the error in the event of a lack of data.

S. B. F. Dorch, J. O. Petersen

About fifty years after the work that astronomer Tycho Brahe carried out while living on the island of Hven had made him world famous, King Christian IV of Denmark built the Trinity Buildings in Copenhagen. The Tower observatory was opened in 1642, and it housed the astronomers from the University of Copenhagen until 1861 when a new, modern observatory was built at Østervold in the eastern part of the city. In 1996, all the University astronomers from the observatories at Østervold and the small town of Brorfelde were relocated to the Rockefeller Buildings at Østerbro, and the two observatories were closed. In this paper we focus on the library at the observatory in Østervold, and its subsequent fate following the close-down of that observatory.

Giorgio Vittorio Dal Piaz, Roberto Scoth

Felice Giordano (1825-1892), a piedmontese hydraulic engineer and mining specialist, was a fellow student and a faithful friend of Quintino Sella (1827-1884), both graduated at the University of Turin, upgraded at the École des Mines in Paris and were then recruited by the Royal Corps of Mines of the Sardinia Kingdom. Giordano's life, free of family ties, was devoted full time to institutions, field research, mountaineering and adventure, with a view to implementing the projects and requests of Quintino unable to share field work, burdened as he was by his high political and ministerial role. The correspondence sent by Felice Giordano to Quintino Sella covers a period of 37 years, from 1847 to 1884. A first group of 81 letters have been transcribed, commented and published within a project promoted by the History Studies Center of the University of Turin, mainly referring to Giordano’s stay in Sardinia as director of the local mining district. Back to Turin and promoted to chief engineer, Giordano was in charge of the Inspectorate of the Italian Royal Corps of Mines, first in Turin until 1868, then in Florence, the temporary capital, and from 1871 definitively in Rome, where he subsequently became director of the Geological Survey: the newly founded Servizio Geologico d’Italia” aimed at creaing the geological map of Italy, the “great enterprise” conceived by Quintino Sella. The present study deals with a second group of 71 letters exchanged by Giordano and Sella between 1859 and 1875. These letters besides attesting the strong friendship that bound Felice and Quintino, not only in the professional field, but also in the sphere of personal events and affections, deal with two main themes: i) the onerous duties of office, carried out either at headquarters or with frequent missions to evaluate the mining and industrial activities of the newborn Kingdom of Italy, from the Alps to Sicily, and to point out functions, problems and needs of the Royal Corps of Mines; ii) the mountaineering feats, from the ascent of Mont Blanc (1864) to the lost competition for the conquest of the Matterhorn (1865), followed by an epic assault failed due to bad weather (1866), up to the “revenge” of the personal ascent (1868) performed with the main objective of describing step-bystep the geology of the Gran Becca. The last five letters refer to the adventurous journey around the world that Giordano made from 1872 to 1876 on confidential assignment to explore the ‘Far East’ and to look for suitable places to establish penitential colonies and activate new commercial relationships, concluding with a negative evaluation. These amazing activities were always carried out with strictness, the technical competence of the engineer-geologist, the curiosity of the scientist and the spirit of service that distinguished his entire life. All that with his unassuming way – belittling his successes – that Quintino friendly reproached.

Miryana Dimitrova

Daga (the Bulgarian word for “rainbow”) was a Bulgarian comic magazine launched in 1979 and regularly published until 1992. Its remarkably westernized aesthetic greatly impacted an entire generation of readers. Included in its variety of stories (history, sci-fi, literary classics) is an action-packed account of Spartacus’ exploits. For ten consecutive issues (1979–1983), the story spanned the hero’s life from a more fanciful narrative of his early years in Thrace to the better-documented events in Italy and his death. The paper explores the plotline, characterization, and visual aspects of “Spartak” to reveal the eponymous hero’s significance for young Bulgarian readers in the 1980s. Drawing on the cultural and historical context, I argue that Spartacus was well suited to serve as a role model and a national hero by embodying the proletarian anti-imperialist struggle and also, notably, because of his supposed place of birth near the river Strimon in modern-day Bulgaria. I also look at examples of contemporary comics, including a new graphic novel based on Daga’s story published in 2020, and consider the transmutations of the hero to suit the post-communist (and anti-communist) ideological agenda, characterized by a departure from the proletarian image of Spartacus in favor of more conservative, aristocratic features.

D. Oxoli, A. Vavassori, J. R. Cedeno Jimenez et al.

Green areas such as natural and periurban parks embed key assets for biodiversity and landscape preservation and environmental education. In most cases, they also boost local economic growth for their hosting territories thanks to the establishment of eco-tourism activities. Nevertheless, coordinated management and promotion actions between policymakers and promoters remain vital for the sustainable exploitation of these green areas. The knowledge of visitors dynamics across natural parks is necessary information necessary to drive parks management policies while being often a complex data to collect. To that end, this paper proposes the use of user-generated geodata, namely users’ location records provided by the Facebook Data for Good program, to assess visitors’ turnout for the natural parks of the Insubria Region, between Southern Switzerland and Northern Italy. The Open Data Cube technology, originally developed for managing satellite Earth observation data, was here adapted for processing and analysing the considered user-generated geodata. Space-time patterns of Facebook users’ presence in the period May 2020 – December 2021 were extracted to infer visitors’ fluxes and destinations preferences. Results pointed out differences between Italian and Swiss parks by outlining also most visited locations within each park. Despite limitations related to data representativeness (limited sample of Facebook app users with location history enabled on their devices) the integration of user-generated geodata in a cutting-edge and free and open-source data management platform, such as the Open Data Cube, turned out to be promising for the improvement of natural areas management practices.

Alessia D'Agostino, Gabriele Di Marco, Silvia Marvelli et al.

Abstract Grotta Mora Cavorso (Jenne, Latium), a complex karstic system in Central Italy, has returned one of the most precious Prehistoric palaeontological and anthropological heritage. Through the analysis of pollen spectra and charcoals from cave stratigraphic levels (Late Pleistocene final phases—Holocene), the overall vegetation trend of the site was pointed out. Although taphonomy and palynology of cave deposits are complex, pollen assemblage represents a reliable source for inferring past vegetation; indeed, climatic, environmental, and cultural interactions determine fossil pollen record. Site formation processes and postdepositional bias should be generally considered in the analysis of stratigraphic sequences used to define paleoenvironmental conditions. The sediment deposits from Grotta Mora Cavorso showed a vegetation pattern point in out a progressive increase in woody plants from lower levels upward. Palynological investigations highlighted a changing environment predominantly characterized by cooler and perhaps more humid conditions than today, with plant subalpine and marsh communities nearby the cave. The ecological requirements of the identified plant taxa supplied useful indications to reconstruct ancient and modern environments of the Simbruini Mounts and the Upper Aniene River valley. This scenario, in accordance with previous faunistic and carpological findings and palynological analyses from Latium, provided a further perspective on the vegetation history, biodiversity, and climate of an important crossroads between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian coasts.

Denise Rossato Silva, Alana Ambos Freitas, Amanda Reis Guimarães et al.

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate lung function in a cohort of patients with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis in Brazil, as well as to evaluate the decline in lung function over time and compare it with that observed in similar cohorts in Mexico and Italy. Methods: The three cohorts were compared in terms of age, smoking status, pulmonary function test results, six-minute walk test results, and arterial blood gas results. In the Brazilian cohort, pulmonary function test results, six-minute walk test results, and arterial blood gas results right after the end of tuberculosis treatment were compared with those obtained at the end of the follow-up period. Results: The three cohorts were very different regarding pulmonary function test results. The most common ventilatory patterns in the Brazilian, Italian, and Mexican cohorts were an obstructive pattern, a mixed pattern, and a normal pattern (in 58 patients [50.9%], in 18 patients [41.9%], and in 26 patients [44.1%], respectively). Only 2 multidrug-resistant tuberculosis cases were included in the Brazilian cohort, whereas, in the Mexican cohort, 27 cases were included (45.8%). Mean PaO2 and mean SaO2 were lower in the Mexican cohort than in the Brazilian cohort (p < 0.0001 and p < 0.002 for PaO2 and SaO2, respectively). In the Brazilian cohort, almost all functional parameters deteriorated over time. Conclusions: This study reinforces the importance of early and effective treatment of drug-susceptible tuberculosis patients, because multidrug-resistant tuberculosis increases lung damage. When patients complete their tuberculosis treatment, they should be evaluated as early as possible, and, if post-tuberculosis lung disease is diagnosed, they should be managed and offered pulmonary rehabilitation because there is evidence that it is effective in these patients.

Katharina T. Paul, Bettina M. Zimmermann, Paolo Corsico et al.

Vaccine uptake is essential to managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccine hesitancy is a persistent concern. At the same time, both decision-makers and the general population have high hopes for COVID-19 vaccination. Drawing from qualitative interview data collected in October 2020 as part of the pan-European SolPan study, this study explores early and anticipatory expectations, hopes and fears regarding COVID-19 vaccination across seven European countries. We find that stances towards COVID-19 vaccines were shaped by personal lived experiences, but participants also aligned personal and communal interests in their considerations. Trust, particularly in expert institutions, was an important prerequisite for vaccine acceptance, but participants also expressed doubts about the rapid vaccine development process. Our findings emphasise the need to move beyond the study of factors driving vaccine hesitancy, and instead to focus on how people personally perceive vaccination in their particular social and political context.

J. Heck, J. Berthiller, S. Vaccarella et al.

Giulia Bertaglia, Walter Boscheri, Giacomo Dimarco et al.

In this paper we introduce a space-dependent multiscale model to describe the spatial spread of an infectious disease under uncertain data with particular interest in simulating the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy. While virus transmission is ruled by a SEIAR type compartmental model, within our approach the population is given by a sum of commuters moving on a extra-urban scale and non commuters interacting only on the smaller urban scale. A transport dynamic of the commuter population at large spatial scales, based on kinetic equations, is coupled with a diffusion model for non commuters at the urban scale. Thanks to a suitable scaling limit, the kinetic transport model used to describe the dynamics of commuters, within a given urban area coincides with the diffusion equations that characterize the movement of non-commuting individuals. Because of the high uncertainty in the data reported in the early phase of the epidemic, the presence of random inputs in both the initial data and the epidemic parameters is included in the model. A robust numerical method is designed to deal with the presence of multiple scales and the uncertainty quantification process. In our simulations, we considered a realistic geographical domain, describing the Lombardy region, in which the size of the cities, the number of infected individuals, the average number of daily commuters moving from one city to another, and the epidemic aspects are taken into account through a calibration of the model parameters based on the actual available data. The results show that the model is able to describe correctly the main features of the spatial expansion of the first wave of COVID-19 in northern Italy.