Reflections on Fifteenth-Century Treatises: The Tractatus de Testibus by Nello da San Gimignano and Alberico Maletta

The essay deepen the study of fiftheenth-century tractatus de testibus, started with Tindaro Alfani (RSDI 2007 but 2008), by comparing the works by Nello from San Gimignano and Alberico Maletta. Analogies and differences between the texts’ frame and the doctrinal contents are analyzed. The article is part of a research which aims to demonstrate the role as laboratory of the fiftheenth-century tractatus as to the sixteenth century results: the fiftheenth-century jurists tested new languages and frames which made possible the synthesis of the contents of the Commentaria.Il saggio approfondisce l’analisi dei tractatus de testibus quattrocenteschi, iniziata con Tindaro Alfani (RSDI 2007 ma 2008), confrontando i lavori di Nello da San Gimignano e Alberico Maletta. Vengono osservate analogie e differenze nella strutture delle due opere, nell’impostazione della materia e nei contenuti dottrinali. Il lavoro costituisce parte di un percorso di ricerca che vuole dimostrare il ruolo di laboratorio della trattatistica quattrocentesca rispetto ai più noti risultati del secolo successivo: i giuristi del XV secolo sperimentarono nuovi linguaggi e strutture che consentirono l’elaborazione e la sintesi dei contenuti dei Commentaria

La repressione della resistenza in Tripolitania nelle carte del tribunale speciale per la difesa dello stato: motivi per una ricerca in corso

Ci si propone con questo breve intervento di indicare le linee fondamentali di una ricerca in corso sulle sentenze emesse dal 1927 al 1939 dal Tribunale Speciale per la Difesa dello Stato in Tripolitania conservate presso l’Archivio Centrale dello Stato. Mentre ormai è abbastanza chiaro quali fossero le metodologie di repressione attuate dal TSDS in Italia, la sua attività in Africa, le sue finalità e i limiti della sua capacità di intervento, sono ancora da esplorare. Tuttavia, dopo una prima ricognizione del materiale archivistico, risulta chiaro che l’esame delle sentenze di questo particolare organo giurisdizionale presuppone un approfondimento della complessa realtà coloniale, caratterizzata da frammentazioni etniche, religiose e culturali che si riflettono nelle vicende ventennali della resistenza libica contro gli Italiani. Tali frammentazioni non solo hanno reso accidentato e spesso sterile l’intervento dei colonizzatori prima ‘liberali’ e poi ‘fascisti’, ma hanno determinato dopo la conquista dell’indipendenza dello stato africano nel 1951 una sostanziale assenza di dialogo fra le storiografie europea e africana. Per questo motivo la storiografia sulla Libia è certo ricca, ma sconta difficoltà di ‘comunicazione’ dovute alle profonde differenze culturali, a partire dalla lingua araba, che hanno reso difficile il dialogo fra storici italiani e libici negli ultimi decenni dello scorso secolo.Cercheremo qui di dare conto di ciò che è emerso da una prima ricognizione bibliografica che ha per scopo, non va dimenticato, la comprensione dell’attività giurisdizionale del TSDS in colonia. In particolare ciò che si vuole comprendere è chi fosse il nemico che i fascisti tentarono di combattere con il loro tribunale di giustizia politica, con quali strumenti lo affrontarono, quanta fosse la distanza fra il nemico reale (per quanto è possibile anche per noi comprenderlo) e il nemico costruito dalla non comprensione e dalla propaganda della Metropoli. A questo scopo l’esposizione è stata organizzata intorno a due poli: i colonizzatori e i colonizzati.The aim of this brief work is to indicate the fundamental features of an ongoing research on the judgements issued from 1927 to 1939 by the Special Court forthe Defense of the State in Tripolitania preserved at the Central State Archive. While it is now quite clear which were the methods of repression implemented by the SCDS in Italy, its activity in Africa, its aims and the limits of its capacity to intervene, are still to be explored.However, after a quick survey of the archival material, it is clear that the examination of the judgements of this court implies a deeper insight into the complex colonial reality, characterized by ethnic fragmentation, religious and cultural events that are reflected in the twenty-year events of the Libyan resistance against the Italians.These fragmentations have not only made uneven and often sterile the intervention of the colonizers, who were first “liberal” and then “fascist”, but they also determined, after the conquest of the independence of the African state in 1951, a substantial lack of dialogue between European and African historiographies.For this reason, the historiography on Libya is certainly rich, but pays the consequences of a difficult communication due to the deep cultural differences, starting from the Arabic language, which have made difficult the dialogue between Italian and Libyan historians in the last decades of the last century.We will try here to give an account of what emerged from an initial bibliographical survey that has for purpose of understanding the SCDS judicial activity in the colony. In particular, what we want to understand is who was the enemy that the fascists tried to fight with their court of political justice, what tools they faced it with, how great was the distance between the real enemy (as much as it is possible for us to understand it) and the enemy created by the lack of understanding and by the propaganda of the Metropolis. For this purpose our work is organized around two poles: the colonizers and the colonized

Validation of a Driving Simulator for Road Tunnel Behavioural Studies

Introduction. According to European regulations, road tunnel safety is strategic in the management of national and international road corridors. Although the accident rate is lower in tunnels than on open roads, the severity of crashes in tunnels is higher due to the presence of hard lateral obstacles and limited space in case of lane departure. Driving simulation studies can support design decisions to assess the impact of any safety improvement albeit driving simulators must be validated to understand how the experimental results relate to real driving conditions. Method. This study deals with the behavioural validation of the fixed base driving simulator of the RSDS Lab for safety studies for tunnels. Field speed and lateral position data for vehicles were collected by image analysis of video sequences collected from the CCTV cameras in five sections of the Fréjus tunnel (Italy-France). The tunnel was faithfully modelled in the virtual scenario, and the same data were collected by extracting records at the same cameras’ stations. Thirty-five participants were involved in a between-subject experiment. Fifteen drivers with Italian B licenses drove a car, and twenty professional drivers with Italian C and/or D licenses drove a heavy truck. Results and Conclusions. Normality tests for data distributions and t-tests for the comparison between real and simulated data were conducted. The simulator achieved the relative validation for truck speeds (with values observed in the simulation always lower than those observed in real driving), and absolute validation with regard to truck lateral position. Opposite outcomes were obtained for cars, with absolute validity for speed and relative validity for lateral position. The relative-absolute validation of the driving simulator enables us to establish how experimental outcomes can be generalized to understand the impact of any safety countermeasure

Alternative Horizontal Markings along Curved Exit Ramp Terminals to Improve Driver-Safety-Related Performance

Previous investigation has revealed that diverging maneuvers along curved terminals lead to a deterioration in the longitudinal and transversal performances of drivers with respect to linear ones. As a countermeasure, innovative horizontal markings (HMs) may be used to compel drivers to drive more prudently and maintain better vehicle control. In this driving simulation study, the behavioral effects of alternative HMs along curved exit ramp terminals were investigated. Forty-eight voluntary par-ticipants drove along randomly assigned exit ramp terminals, the design of which involved combinations of the following input variables: (i) horizontal markings (standard HM1, with internal lane bands HM2, with external zebra stripes HM3); (ii) lighting conditions (day and night); (iii) traffic flow in the motorway (1,000 passenger cars per hour pc/h and 3,000 pc/h), and (iv) ramp terminal connection type (continuous and reverse). Longitudinal (i.e., speed) and transversal (i.e., lateral position and diverging abscissa) behavioral data were collected. HM2 leads to greater improvements in the level of road safety thanks to better longitudinal and transversal driver behavior. However, drivers did delay their exit from the motorway with respect to the baseline condition (HM1) independent of the connection type. No relevant improvements were observed with HM3, apart from speed reductions at the end of the terminal and more centered trajectories when approaching the ramp. Results also show that drivers tended to enter the reverse terminal later than the continuous one (where drivers correctly used the taper), thus revealing that the use of the innovative HMs was not able to compensate for this inappropriate behavior adopted along reverse terminals

Silk Fibroin Vascular Graft: From Design to In Vitro and In Vivo Test

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‘Mother and Child’ Technique with a New Catheter: Initial Experience

ABSTRACTThe our initial experience in this hospital with the GuideLiner™, a ‘child’ type rapid exchange guide catheter extension, designed to facilitate stent and balloon delivery in complex percutaneous coronary interventions, is reported. This guide catheter extension was used in one case of a complex coronary lesion, in another case of complex anatomy and in a third case with dissection of the left internal thoracic artery graft. All of the procedures were performed successfully. The GuideLiner™ can be used to treat complex artery lesions and to treat complications during the procedure

Electrospun Silk Fibroin Scaffolds for Tissue Regeneration: Chemical, Structural, and Toxicological Implications of the Formic Acid-Silk Fibroin Interaction

The dissolution of Bombyx mori silk !broin (SF) !lms in formic acid (FA) for the preparation of electrospinning dopes is widely exploited to produce electrospun SF scaffolds. The SilkBridge® nerve conduit is an example of medical device having in its wall structure an electrospun component produced from an FA spinning dope. Though highly volatile, residual FA remains trapped into the bulk of the SF nano!bers. The purpose of this work is to investigate the type and strength of the interaction between FA and SF in electrospun mats, to quantify its amount and to evaluate its possible toxicological impact on human health. The presence of residual FA in SF mats was detected by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy (new carbonyl peak at about 1,725 cm!1) and by solid state NMR, which revealed a new carbonyl signal at about 164.3 ppm, attributed to FA by isotopic 13C substitution. Changes occurred also in the spectral ranges of hydroxylated amino acids (Ser and Thr), demonstrating that FA interacted with SF by forming formyl esters. The total amount of FA was determined by HS-GC/MS analysis and accounted for 247 ± 20 !mol/g. The greatest part was present as formyl ester, a small part (about 3%) as free FA. Approximately 17% of the 1,500 !mol/g of hydroxy amino acids (Ser and Thr) theoretically available were involved in the formation of formyl esters. Treatment with alkali (Na2CO3) succeeded to remove the greatest part of FA, but not all. Alkali-treated electrospun SF mats underwent morphological, physical, and mechanical changes. The average diameter of the !bers increased from about 440 nm to about 480 nm, the mat shrunk, became stiffer (the modulus increased from about 5.5 MPa to about 7 MPa), and lost elasticity (the strain decreased from about 1 mm/mm to about 0.8 mm/mm). Biocompatibility studies with human adult dermal !broblasts did not show signi!cant difference in cell proliferation (313 ± 18 and 309 ± 23 cells/ mm2 for untreated and alkali-treated SF mat, respectively) and metabolic activity. An in-depth evaluation of the possible toxicological impact of residual FA was made using the SilkBridge® nerve conduit as case study, following the provisions of the ISO 10993-1 standard. The Potential Patient Daily Intake, calculated from the total amount of FA determined by HS-GC/MS, was 2.4 mg/day and the Tolerable Exposure level was set to 35.4 mg/day

INTEGRAL high energy sky: The keV to MeV cosmic sources

After almost 5 years of operation, ESA's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) Space Observatory has unveiled a new soft Gamma ray sky and produced a remarkable harvest of results, ranging from identification of new high energy sources, to the discovery of dozens of variable sources to the mapping of the Aluminum emission from the Galaxy Plane to the presence of electrons and positrons generating the annihilation line in the Galaxy central radian. INTEGRAL is continuing the deep observations of the Galactic Plane and of the whole sky in the soft Gamma ray range. The new IBIS gamma ray catalogue contains more than 420 sources detected above 20 keV. We present a view of the INTEGRAL high energy sky with particular regard to sources emitting at high energy, including Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), HESS/MAGIC counterparts and new view of the cosmic gamma ray diffuse background.Comment: Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A, in press. Proc. of Roma International Conference on Astroparticle Physics (RICAP'07