Decreto Legislativo 81/2008. Quale prevenzione nei luoghi di lavoro?

A contribution in the medical field illustrates the historical evolution of the concepts of prevention and health to which it is necessary to refer for a discussion about health and safety in the workplace. Some contributions in the fields of labor law and organizational theory interpret the norms currently effective in Italy and the guidelines for the assessment of risks in work situations. What conception of prevention is implicitly assumed by the norms, and by the guidelines that the norms indicate? Are the current norms adequate to stimulate organizational choices aimed at preventing risks and discouraging harmful choices? Limits and contradictions hindering a real, effective, primary prevention are emphasized

Masticatory Functionality in Post-Acute-COVID-Syndrome (PACS) Patients with and without Sarcopenia

Musculoskeletal symptoms are common in both acute COVID-19 disease and post-acute sequelae (Post-Acute COVID Syndrome). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there are reduced levels of masticatory function in patients with PACS (Post Acute COVID Syndrome) who suffer from sarcopenia, under the hypothesis that the latter may also involve the masticatory muscles. This study includes 23 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 between February 2020 and April 2021 and currently suffering from PACS. Among these PACS patients, 13/23 (56%) suffer from sarcopenia, 5/23 (22%) complain of asthenia but do not suffer from sarcopenia and the remaining 5/23 (22%) do not present muscle symptoms (non-asthenic non-sarcopenic). Oral health indices of all patients were collected. The masticatory strength was assessed with a gnathodynamometer based on piezoresistive sensors, and the masticatory effectiveness was measured by administering the “chewing gum mixing ability test” by having patients perform 20 masticatory cycles on a two-color chewing gum and analyzing the outcome through the ViewGum© software. Moreover, we gathered data with a hand grip test and gait speed test. The data collected in this study show that PACS sarcopenic patients have decreased masticatory effectiveness and strength compared to PACS asthenic non-sarcopenic patients and PACS non-asthenic non-sarcopenic patients

How banks allocate loans in Italy: a long run perspective

Finance is a salient driver in promoting growth also by supporting changes in the specialization of production. Thus, it is paramount that finance goes to sunrise productive branches embodying more technology and so higher growth potential. Is it so in reality? We address this question by investigating the long-run allocation of bank loans in the bank-dependent Italian economy. We reach three main findings. First, banks lent more to the branches where value added was growing more rapidly, while loans went less to riskier sectors with higher bad loans ratios. Second, the allocation of loans was, however, insensitive to the growth of productivity and did not support the higher technology branches. Third, the allocation of loans to the more technology-oriented branches improved since the early 1990s, when credit markets were liberalized. Overall, in our assessment banks were rather following than leading productive transformations, but managed to avoid large scale misallocation of credit. Hence, we give banks just a pass grade

Manipulation of magnetic solitons under the influence of DMI gradients

Magnetic solitons are promising for applications due to their intrinsic properties such as small size, topological stability, ultralow power manipulation and potentially ultrafast operations. To date, research has focused on the manipulation of skyrmions, domain walls, and vortices by applied currents. The discovery of new methods to control magnetic parameters, such as the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) by strain, geometry design, temperature gradients, and applied voltages promises new avenues for energetically efficient manipulation of magnetic structures. The latter has shown significant progress in 2d material-based technology. In this work, we present a comprehensive study using numerical and analytical methods of the stability and motion of different magnetic textures under the influence of DMI gradients. Our results show that under the influence of linear DMI gradients, N\'eel and Bloch-type skyrmions and radial vortex exhibit motion with finite skyrmion Hall angle, while the circular vortex undergoes expulsion dynamics. This work provides a deeper and crucial understanding of the stability and gradient-driven dynamics of magnetic solitons, and paves the way for the design of alternative low-power sources of magnetization manipulation in the emerging field of 2d materials.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Low Noise Opto-Electro-Mechanical Modulator for RF-to-Optical Transduction in Quantum Communications

In this work, we present an Opto-Electro-Mechanical Modulator (OEMM) for RF-to-optical transduction realized via an ultra-coherent nanomembrane resonator capacitively coupled to an rf injection circuit made of a microfabricated read-out able to improve the electro-optomechanical interaction. This device configuration can be embedded in a Fabry-Perot cavity for electromagnetic cooling of the LC circuit in a dilution refrigerator exploiting the opto-electro-mechanical interaction. To this aim, an optically measured steady-state frequency shift of 380 Hz was seen with a polarization voltage of 30 V and a $Q$-factor of the assembled device above $10^6$ at room temperature. The rf-sputtered titanium nitride layer can be made superconductive to develop efficient quantum~transducers.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Endoscopic submucosal dissection of gastric neoplastic lesions: An Italian, multicenter study

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) allows removing neoplastic lesions on gastric mucosa, including early gastric cancer (EGC) and dysplasia. Data on ESD from Western countries are still scanty. We report results of ESD procedures performed in Italy. Data of consecutive patients who underwent ESD for gastric neoplastic removal were analyzed. The en bloc resection rate and the R0 resection rates for all neoplastic lesions were calculated, as well as the curative rate (i.e., no need for surgical treatment) for EGC. The incidence of complications, the one-month mortality, and the recurrence rate at one-year follow-up were computed. A total of 296 patients with 299 gastric lesions (80 EGC) were treated. The en bloc resection was successful for 292 (97.6%) and the R0 was achieved in 266 (89%) out of all lesions. In the EGC group, the ESD was eventually curative in 72.5% (58/80) following procedure. A complication occurred in 30 (10.1%) patients. Endoscopic treatment was successful in all 3 perforations, whereas it failed in 2 out of 27 bleeding patients who were treated with radiological embolization (1 case) or surgery (1 case). No procedure-related deaths at one-month follow-up were observed. Lesion recurrence occurred in 16 (6.2%) patients (6 EGC and 10 dysplasia). In conclusion, the rate of both en bloc and R0 gastric lesions removal was very high in Italy. However, the curative rate for EGC needs to be improved. Complications were acceptably low and amenable at endoscopy