Urban heritage fragility and antifragility:Matera and the 2019 European Capital of Culture

The city of Matera is known internationally for its prehistoric built heritage and for being the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. Until the Covid-19 pandemic, the heritage area of the “Sassi” used to attract significant numbers of tourists and day-trippers. This exerted significant pressure on this fragile part of the city. The plans for the Matera-Basilicata 2019 European Capital of Culture (ECoC) included measures that focused on the Sassi and others that intended to expand the set of heritage and cultural attractions in other parts of the city, as well as to strengthen the social and economic system of Matera as an innovation hub for the region. While the mega-event planning and delivery improved accessibility, public spaces and the local cultural economy, the ECoC did not significantly and directly reduce the fragility of the city’s heritage. This contribution discusses the relationship between urban heritage and mega-event policies and discusses it in the light of a fragility/antifragility theoretical framework

Cultural Transformations: The Impacts of Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Main Evaluation, Findings and Reflections

This report forms an important output in the overall process of monitoring, evaluation and research to measure the impacts of Hull UK City of Culture 2017. It provides an assessment of the project across all five impact areas, drawing on a range of primary and secondary data. These data were collected to study the extent to which Hull 2017 activities delivered the nine aims and 20 objectives set out for the project by key funders, stakeholders and partner organisations. The research was carried out by the the Culture, Place and Policy Institute (University of Hull), by the Monitoring and Evaluation team at Hull UK City of Culture 2017 Ltd, and by external consultants, supported by the strategic planning and partnership team at Hull City Council

Ultrasound-guided laser ablation for local control of neck recurrences of medullary thyroid cancer. A feasibility study.

Surgery is the standard treatment for cervical metastases of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) diagnosed after initial surgical treatment. Repeated neck dissections, however, carry an elevated risk of complications, have an adverse impact on the quality of life, and sometimes do not achieve cure of the disease Clinical case: In a patient who had undergone two cervical neck dissections complicated by accessory nerve injury, an US-guided laser ablation (LA) of a lymph node metastasis of MTC was performed. LA was performed with two treatments during a five month period. The procedure was carried out with one optical fiber and an energy delivery of 3300 and 360 Joules. Treatments were well tolerated and resulted in complete structural and biochemical cure during a 12 month follow-up. No major complication was registered.LA is a promising tool for the management of relapsing cervical metastases that are localized in non- critical areas and are characterized by low progression rate. Advantages of LA are the outpatient setting, the absence of general anesthesia, the tolerability and the safety of the procedure. Thus, LA may be considered as an alternative approach to surgery or active surveillance for the management of local recurrences of MTC in selected patients

Critical evaluation of an intercalibration project focused on the definition of new multi-element soil reference materials (AMS-MO1 and AMS-ML1)

Soils are complex matrices and their geochemical investigation necessarily needs reliable Certified Reference Materials (CRMs), i.e. standards, to support analytical precision and accuracy. In particular, the definition of soil multi-element CRMs is particularly complex and involves an inter-laboratory program that employs numerous analytical techniques. In this study, we present the results of the inter-calibration experiment focused on the certification of two new soil standards named AMS-ML1 and AMS-MO1. The two soils developed on sandstone and serpentinite parent materials, respectively. The experiment involved numerous laboratories and focused on the evaluation of soil physicochemical parameters and geochemical analyses of major and trace elements by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Inductive Coupled Plasma techniques (ICP-OES and ICP-MS). The data was statistically elaborated. Three levels of repeatability and accuracy in function of the different analytical methods and instrumentation equipment was observed. The statistical evaluation of the results obtained by ICP-OES on Aqua Regia extracts (i.e., Lilliefors test for normally, Grubbs test for outliers, Cochran test for outliers in variances and ANOVA) allowed to computed some certified values for the two proposed soil standards. This preliminary study will represent the first step of a more thorough intercalibration ring-test involving a higher number of laboratories, in order to propose the investigated matrices as CRMs

Guest editorial : the uses and misuses of the evaluation of cities and capitals of culture

Evaluation has become a central feature of policymaking, used and often misused to shape and influence policy goals, priorities and practices. In the case of cultural mega events such as the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) and the UK City of Culture (UKCoC), which are the focus of this special issue, evaluation is a significant mechanism to shape, justify and inform urban cultural policies. Since the publication of the Myerscough (1994) and Palmer and Palmer/Rae Associates (2004) reports, the reputation of the ECoC initiative has been consolidated as an effective catalyst and accelerator for culture-led urban regeneration. After the emergence of the ECoC, many other international and national City of Culture (CoC) initiatives were established across the globe, including the UKCoC. Many policymakers highlight the benefits outlined in evaluation studies at different stages, ranging from the participation in competitive bidding and the implementation of a programme of cultural activities to post-event and legacy actions

Thyroid autoantibodies and breast cancer

Dear Editor We read with interest the recent article by Shi and colleagues (2014) reporting a meta-analysis on the relationship between thyroid hormones, thyroid autoantibodies and breast cancer (BC). In the paper, the authors analyzed eight different studies, including 4,189 participants, and concluded that serum levels of free-triiodothyronine, thyroperoxidase and thyroglobulin autoantibodies are higher in patients affected by BC, compared with the control group. These findings are in agreement with the meta-analysis reported by Hardefeldt and colleagues, showing an increased risk of BC in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease, and with a recent article by our group in which the prevalence of BC in 3,921 female patients affected by both benign and malignant thyroid diseases was evaluated (Hardefeldt et al., 2012; Prinzi et al., 2014). In the latter, we showed that the prevalence of BC in patients affected by thyroid disease, as a whole, was significantly higher, compared to the general population (OR 3.3). Moreover, the age-matched analysis showed that the risk of BC was higher in younger patients (0–44 yr, OR 15.2), to decline with the increasing age. In the same study, when patients were dichotomized based on the presence or the absence of thyroglobulin and/or thyroperoxidase autoantibodies, both groups showed a higher risk of BC, compared to the general female population. When the two groups were compared to each other, however, the risk of BC was significantly lower in autoantibody positive patients. Thus, as clearly stated in our article, among patients affected by thyroid diseases, the presence of thyroid autoantibodies may have a protective role against BC (Prinzi et al., 2014). As a consequence, the sentence reported by Shi and colleagues in the Discussion section of their article stating that their findings are in disagreement with our data is not correct and should be, if at all possible, amended