Law, human capital, and the emergence of free city-states in medieval Italy

In this paper, we study how the birth of the first universities in Italy affected the emergence of the Italian free cities-states (the commune) in the period 1000-1300 a.d. Exploiting a panel dataset of 121 cities, we show that after the foundation of a new university the distance between each city in the sample and the university negatively predicts the timing of the birth of communal institutions in the city. Our evidence is consistent with the idea that universities in the Middle Ages provided the necessary juridical knowledge and skills to build legal capacity and develop broader-based institutions.This paper considers how the foundation of the first universities in Italy affected the emergence of free city-states (the communes) in the period 1000-1300 CE. Exploiting a panel dataset of 121 cities, we show that the time variant distance of the sample cities to their closest university is inversely correlated with the probability of their transition to communal institutions. Our evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the medieval universities provided the useful juridical knowledge and skills for building legal capacity and developing communal institutions

Small and large intestine (I): malabsorption of nutrients

Numerous disorders can alter the physiological mechanisms that guarantee proper digestion and absorption of nutrients (macro-and micronutrients), leading to a wide variety of symptoms and nutritional consequences. Malabsorption can be caused by many diseases of the small intestine, as well as by diseases of the pancreas, liver, biliary tract, and stomach. This article provides an overview of pathophysiologic mechanisms that lead to symptoms or complications of maldigestion (de-fined as the defective intraluminal hydrolysis of nutrients) or malabsorption (defined as defective mucosal absorption), as well as its clinical consequences, including both gastrointestinal symptoms and extraintestinal manifestations and/or laboratory abnormalities. The normal uptake of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals by the gastrointestinal tract (GI) requires several steps, each of which can be compromised in disease. This article will first describe the mechanisms that lead to poor assimila-tion of nutrients, and secondly discuss the symptoms and nutritional consequences of each specific disorder. The clinician must be aware that many malabsorptive disorders are manifested by subtle disorders, even without gastrointestinal symptoms (for example, anemia, osteoporosis, or infertility in celiac disease), so the index of suspicion must be high to recognize the underlying diseases in time. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Detection of People Boarding/Alighting a Metropolitan Train using Computer Vision

This paper has been presented at : 9th International Conference on Pattern Recognition Systems (ICPRS 2018)Pedestrian detection and tracking have seen a major progress in the last two decades. Nevertheless there are always appli-cation areas which either require further improvement or that have not been sufficiently explored or where production level performance (accuracy and computing efficiency) has not been demonstrated. One such area is that of pedestrian monitoring and counting in metropolitan railways platforms. In this paper we first present a new partly annotated dataset of a full-size laboratory observation of people boarding and alighting from a public transport vehicle. We then present baseline results for automatic detection of such passengers, based on computer vi-sion, that could open the way to compute variables of interest to traffic engineers and vehicle designers such as counts and flows and how they are related to vehicle and platform layout.The authors gratefully acknowledge the Chilean National Science and Technology Council (Conicyt) for its funding under grants CONICYT-Fondecyt Regular nos. 1140209 (“OBSERVE”) , 1120219, and 1080381 . S.A. Velastin is grateful to funding received from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 600371, el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (COFUND2013-51509) and Banco Santander. Finally, we are grateful to NVIDIA for its donation as part of its academic GPU Grant Program

Efficient waterlines cleaning protocols in post-weaning rooms: a new way to reduce antibiotic consumption?

In this study, we have chosen a sensitive period, the weaning period, to evaluate in pig farms the effects of different mechanical and chemical waterlines cleaning protocols similar to those used in poultry farms. The experiment has been set up during the down period in two post-weaning rooms with two different protocols. They combined the mechanical action of draining, one detergent (either alkaline or enzymatic), another draining state, and finally one acid used at an antibacterial concentration. To follow the bacteriological quality of water during protocols, we have counted the total flora at 22°C and 37°C in water. Before and after the experiment, cotton swabs were applied into the pipes to evaluate the biofilm. Bacterial concentration in water increased along the pipelines: total flora was higher at watering place than at the entry of the building. Both protocols combining mechanical and chemical procedures reduced total flora, improved water quality and cleanliness of pipes. Our results show that waterlines cleaning protocols used in poultry farms can be transferred in post-weaning rooms. By reducing water’s total flora and the formation of biofilms, they could be part of the health prevention measures for troubles which are linked to a poor water quality

Emergency admission for cancer: a matter of survival?

The objective of this study was to compare the pre-hospital health care process, clinical characteristics at admission and survival of patients with a digestive tract cancer first admitted to hospital either electively or via the emergency department. The study involved cross-sectional analysis of information elicited through personal interview and prospective follow-up. The setting was a 450-bed public teaching hospital primarily serving a low-income area of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Two hundred and forty-eight symptomatic patients were studied, who had cancer of the oesophagus (n = 31), stomach (n = 70), colon (n = 82) and rectum (n = 65). The main outcome measures were stage, type and intention of treatment and time elapsed from admission to surgery; the relative risk of death was calculated using Cox's regression. There were 161 (65%) patients admitted via the emergency department and 87 (35%) electively. The type of physician seen at the first pre-hospital visit had more often been a general practitioner in the emergency than in the elective group (89% vs 75%, P < 0.01). Emergency patients had seen a lower number of physicians from symptom onset until admission, but two-thirds had made repeated visits to a primary care physician. Emergency patients were less likely to have a localized tumour and a diagnosis of cancer at admission, and surgery as the initial treatment. Median survival was 30 months for elective patients and 8 months for emergency patients (P < 0.001), and the relative risk of death (RR) was 1.83 (95% confidence interval, CI, 1.32-2.54). After adjustment for strong prognostic factors, emergency patients continued to experience a significant excess risk (RR = 1.58; CI 1.10-2.27). In conclusion, in digestive tract cancers, admission to hospital via the emergency department is a clinically important marker of a poorer prognosis. Emergency departments can only partly counterbalance deficiencies in the effectiveness of and integration among the different levels of the health system

Salmonella control within the pyramidal structured network of pigs\u27 movements in France

Due to economical and public health consequences, control of Salmonella spread within pig herds is a major concern for the swine industry. A better understanding of the links between herds as well as between herds and slaughterhouses within a production stmcture is then needed to assess the effect of possible control measures at this level. In the French pork production chain, herds have specific links between them: some herds being animals suppliers for others. This organization induces a specific complex network in which the contacts between herds are hierarchized, dynamic and directed. We present here a modelling approach to assess the effect of control measure implementation on the Salmonella spread within the pyramidal structure of French pork production chain, coupled with the within-herd dynamics to represent the spread of Salmonella. Firstly, the susceptibility of the pyramidal organization to an external infection is tested. The number of infected herds at the end of the simulation is highly variable according to the initial infected herd (type of herd, level of the pyramid). Secondly, we assess the effect of a control measure implementation on the seroprevalence in groups of slaughter pigs. This measure, which consists in restricting animals\u27 purchases according to the infectious status of herds combined with a reduction of within herd transmission of Salmonella, leads to decrease the number of highly contaminated herds. This modeling approach allows us to investigate the impact of control measures both at the within and the between-herds level

La evidencia social del sufrimiento. Salud mental, políticas globales y narrativas locales

El propósito de este artículo es explorar las posibilidades de la mirada etnográfica en el campo de la llamada “rehabilitación psicosocial de los trastornos mentales severos”. Partiendo de una crítica al individualismo metodológico y epistemológico de algunas aproximaciones “psi” (psiquiatría biológica o neokraepelinismo, terapia cognitivo-conductual, psicoanálisis, etc.) y de las políticas estandarizadas de reinserción, se defiende una orientación teórico-práctica centrada en lo que aquí denominamos la “evidencia social del sufrimiento”. Para ilustrar esta aproximación se comparan dos experiencias de intervención-acción-participación diversas y deslocalizadas geográficamente: la primera en el Área Metropolitana de Porto Alegre (el Taller de Expresión de Novo Hamburgo) y la segunda en Barcelona (Radio Nikosia). A pesar de las diferencias locales, ambas experiencias confluyen en varios aspectos, como la creación de nuevos territorios de escucha e interacción social no asociados al campo terapéutico y nosológico, la aplicación de una metodología dialógica desarrollada desde la mirada etnográfica, el rescate del mundo narrativo de los afectados y la habilitación de nuevas identidades sociales. Finalmente, el texto indica algunas orientaciones para repensar las intervenciones en salud mental desde la “evidencia social del sufrimiento”