Karissime Gotifride : historical essays presented to Godfrey Wettinger on his seventieth birthday

When Godfrey Wettinger and Michael Fsadni O.P. discovered Pietro Caxaro's Cantilena on the 22nd September 1966 they not only discovered the earliest known poem in Maltese but the most intriguing one as well. After 33 years scholars are still battling with its linguistic, metric and semantic obscurities, each one naturally examining it from his own viewpoint (Montebello lists no fewer than 52 titles which appeared up to 1990 in his bibliography on pages 57-61). This is as it should be, but I can't help expressing my disappointment that my emendatio, published in the Journal of Maltese Studies, n. 16 in 1986 was met with a certain reluctance, except for Cassola and Montebello?peer-reviewe

An advection-robust Hybrid High-Order method for the Oseen problem

In this work, we study advection-robust Hybrid High-Order discretizations of the Oseen equations. For a given integer $k\ge 0$, the discrete velocity unknowns are vector-valued polynomials of total degree $\le k$ on mesh elements and faces, while the pressure unknowns are discontinuous polynomials of total degree $\le k$ on the mesh. From the discrete unknowns, three relevant quantities are reconstructed inside each element: a velocity of total degree $\le(k+1)$, a discrete advective derivative, and a discrete divergence. These reconstructions are used to formulate the discretizations of the viscous, advective, and velocity-pressure coupling terms, respectively. Well-posedness is ensured through appropriate high-order stabilization terms. We prove energy error estimates that are advection-robust for the velocity, and show that each mesh element $T$ of diameter $h_T$ contributes to the discretization error with an $\mathcal{O}(h_T^{k+1})$-term in the diffusion-dominated regime, an $\mathcal{O}(h_T^{k+\frac12})$-term in the advection-dominated regime, and scales with intermediate powers of $h_T$ in between. Numerical results complete the exposition

Open and / or laparoscopic surgical treatment of liver hydatic cysts

Hydatid disease is a severe parasitic disease with a widely ranging distribution. In the human being the liver is the most frequent organ affected. 1 The treatment should be individualized to the morphology, size, number and location of the cysts, that is why a variety of surgical operations have been advocated from complete resection like total pericystectomy or partial hepatectomy to laparoscopy to a minimally invasive procedures like percutaneous aspiration of cysts to conservative drug therapy. 3-4 This study compares laparoscopic versus open management of the hydatid cyst of liver the surgical approach to liver echinococcosis is still a controversial issue and shows our results of surgical treatment of liver hydatid cysts during a 3-years period

A Metric Encoding for Bounded Model Checking (extended version)

In Bounded Model Checking both the system model and the checked property are translated into a Boolean formula to be analyzed by a SAT-solver. We introduce a new encoding technique which is particularly optimized for managing quantitative future and past metric temporal operators, typically found in properties of hard real time systems. The encoding is simple and intuitive in principle, but it is made more complex by the presence, typical of the Bounded Model Checking technique, of backward and forward loops used to represent an ultimately periodic infinite domain by a finite structure. We report and comment on the new encoding technique and on an extensive set of experiments carried out to assess its feasibility and effectiveness

Trading religious and daily goods : Franciscans in semi-rural Palestine

This chapter discusses how patterns of interaction were influenced by the beginning of the missionary activity in the 1620s and influenced it in turn. Bethlehem is located eight kilometers south of Jerusalem; the village and the neighboring Bayt Jala were the most populous villages of the district, respectively numbering 287 and 239 households at the end of the fifteenth century. The friars’ investments are equally significant when considered in the light of their involvement in village life. Land was very important both for the sociopolitical life of the community and as a means of subsistence. The reconstruction of the friars’ entanglements with local Bethlehem society shows differences and similarities with other Catholic missions in Asia. The case of the Franciscans in Palestine sheds new light on the meaning of the term “localized actors” for missionaries. Mediterranean trade, leading the Catholic community to acquire not only economic power but also unprecedented social prestige

Infectious agents in atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases through oxidative stress

Accumulating evidence demonstrates that vascular oxidative stress is a critical feature of atherosclerotic process, potentially triggered by several infectious agents that are considered as risk co-factors for the atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). C. pneumoniae has been shown to upregulate multiple enzymatic systems capable of producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as NADPH oxidase (NOX) and cyclooxygenase in vascular endothelial cells, NOX and cytochrome c oxidase in macrophages as well as nitric oxide synthase and lipoxygenase in platelets contributing to both early and late stages of atherosclerosis. P. gingivalis seems to be markedly involved in the atherosclerotic process as compared to A. actinomycetemcomitans contributing to LDL oxidation and foam cell formation. Particularly interesting is the evidence describing the NLRP3 inflammasome activation as a new molecular mechanism underlying P. gingivalis-induced oxidative stress and inflammation. Amongst viral agents, immunodeficiency virus-1 and hepatitis C virus seem to have a major role in promoting ROS production, contributing, hence, to the early stages of atherosclerosis including endothelial dysfunction and LDL oxidation. In conclusion, oxidative mechanisms activated by several infectious agents during the atherosclerotic process underlying CVDs are very complex and not well-known, remaining, thus, an attractive target for future research

Nomenclature and syntaxonomic notes on some high-rank syntaxa of the European grassland vegetation

We present descriptions of a new order (Ranunculo cortusifolii-Geranietalia reuteri) and of a new alliance (Stachyo lusitanicae-Cheirolophion sempervirentis) for the herbaceous fringe communities of Macaronesia and of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, respectively. A new alliance, the Polygalo mediterraneae-Bromion erecti (mesophilous post-cultural grasslands), was introduced for the Peninsular Italy. We further validate and typify the Armerietalia rumelicae (perennial grasslands supported by nutrient-poor soils on siliceous bedrocks at elevations characterized by the submediterranean climate of south-central Balkan Peninsula), the Securigero-Dasypyrion villosae (lawn and fallow-land tall-grass annual vegetation of Italy), and the Cirsio vallis-demoni-Nardion (acidophilus grasslands on siliceous substrates of the Southern Italy). Nomenclatural issues (validity, legitimacy, synonymy, formal corrections) have been discussed and clarified for the following names: Brachypodio-Brometalia, Bromo pannonici-Festucion csikhegyensis, Corynephoro-Plantaginion radicatae, Heleochloion, Hieracio-Plantaginion radicatae, Nardetea strictae, Nardetalia strictae, Nardo-Callunetea, Nardo-Galion saxatilis, Oligo-Bromion, Paspalo-Heleochloetalia, Plantagini-Corynephorion and Scorzoneret alia villosae