Italian general election 2018: digital campaign strategies. Three case studies: Movimento 5 Stelle, PD and Lega

[EN] The advent of the Network Society has brought substantial transformations also in the politics, which, like other areas of society, is affected by important changes. The network, which regulates social relations, has become the place of political discussion and that is where the most substantial part of the electoral campaign for the 2018 general election took place. The object of our research is the observation of the political propaganda of the Movimento 5 Stelle, the Partito Democratico and the Lega (the three most voted parties in the Italian elections) through the institutional accounts of the political parties on Facebook. Once collected a research sample of 1,397 posts officially published online on the three monitored accounts, the aim of our analysis is to investigate the communication strategies of the parties in a phase of hybrid democracy crossed by a deep crisis of political representation. From our analysis it emerges how the three political forces, that refer to different electorates, organize their electoral propaganda, each according to their own strategyCalò, E.; Faggiano, MP.; Gallo, R.; Mongiardo, M. (2018). Italian general election 2018: digital campaign strategies. Three case studies: Movimento 5 Stelle, PD and Lega. En 2nd International Conference on Advanced Reserach Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2018). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 185-192. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2018.2018.8343OCS18519

design and evaluation of electric solutions for public transport

Abstract This study deals with the design and the evaluation of technological solutions for the electrification of public transport in urban areas. A Decision Support System (DSS) developed by ENEA † within the Research program on Electric System (RSE) has been adopted in order to verify the technical feasibility of several electric architectures of single bus lines and compare the investment and management costs, as well as the external costs due to vehicle emissions and noises, of the feasible solutions with respect to the conventional alternatives (Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, and diesel). The DSS has been applied to several bus lines located in the south-west area of the city of Rome, Italy, and covering different types of service: peripheral lines, main lines connecting suburbs with the city center and secondary lines going to the main metro stations. Input data for the DSS derived both by simulation and by open database available from the public transport operator in Rome (ATAC). Results show that a suitable electric architecture can be found for each of these lines with lower or comparable total costs with respect to the traditional alternatives. Finally, a sensitivity analysis has been performed considering several scenarios in terms of discount rate of recharge stations and batteries, battery's duration, price of conventional fuels

The effective protection of collective interests : the interplay between jurisprudence and legislation

Published online: 4 February 2022Collective actions are once again at the centre of political debate (and consequently of academic debate) at the European level following the intervention by the European Commission with the so-called New Deal for Consumers. The intervention was initially triggered by practical difficulties encountered by citizens in obtaining an effective remedy in the case of harmful conduct by companies, banks, investment funds, producers of consumer goods, providers of electronic services and so on

Prevalence and Epidemiological and Clinical Features of Bacterial Infections in a Large Cohort of Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 in Southern Italy: A Multicenter Study

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of bacterial infections and antimicrobial prescriptions in a large cohort of COVID-19 patients and to identify the independent predictors of infection and antibiotic prescription. Methods: All consecutive patients hospitalized for COVID-19 from March 2020 to May 2021 at 1 of the 17 centers participating in the study were included. All subjects showing a clinical presentation consistent with a bacterial infection with microbiological confirmation (documented infection), and/or a procalcitonin value >1 ng/mL (suspected infection) were considered as having a coinfection (if present at admission) or a superinfection (if acquired after at least 48 h of hospital stay). Results: During the study period, of the 1993 patients, 42 (2.1%) presented with a microbiologically documented infection, including 17 coinfections and 25 superinfections, and 267 (13.2%) a suspected infection. A total of 478 subjects (24.5%) received an antibacterial treatment other than macrolides. No independent predictors of confirmed or suspected bacterial infection were identified. On the contrary, being hospitalized during the second wave of the pandemic (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.18-1.97, p = 0.001), having a SOFA score & GE;3 (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.53-2.75, p < 0.001), a severe or critical disease (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.24-2.23, p < 0.001), and a high white blood cell count (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.004-1.06, p = 0.023) were all independently related to having received an antimicrobial prescription. Conclusions: Our study reported a high rate of antimicrobial prescriptions despite a limited number of documented or suspected bacterial infections among the large cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Pre-existing chronic kidney disease (CDK) was not associated with a severe clinical outcome of hospitalized COVID-19: results of a case-control study in Southern Italy

: The presence of co-morbidities is associated with a poor outcome in patients with COVID-19. The aim of the present study was to investigate the outcomes of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in order to assess its impact on mortality and severity of disease. We performed a multicenter, observational, 1:2 matched case-control study involving seventeen COVID-19 Units in southern Italy. All the adults hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 infection and with pre-existing CKD were included (Cases). For each Case, two patients without CKD pair matched for gender, age (+5 years), and number of co-morbidities (excluding CKD) were enrolled (Controls). Of the 2,005 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection followed during the study period, 146 patients with CKD and 292 patients without were enrolled in the case and control groups, respectively. Between the Case and Control groups, there were no statistically significant differences in the prevalence of moderate (17.1% vs 17.8%, p=0.27) or severe (18.8% and 13.7%, p=0.27) clinical presentation of COVID-19 or deaths (20.9% vs 28.1%, p=0.27). In the Case group, the patients dead during hospitalization were statistically higher in the 89 patients with CKD stage 4-5 compared to 45 patients with stages 1-3 CKD (30.3% vs 13.3%, p=0.03). Our data suggests that only CKD stage 4-5 on admission was associated with an increased risk of in-hospital death

In vitro and in vivo pharmacological characterization of the novel UT receptor ligand [Pen(5),DTrp(7),Dab(8)]urotensin II(4–11) (UFP-803)

1. The novel urotensin-II (U-II) receptor (UT) ligand, [Pen(5),DTrp(7),Dab(8)]U-II(4–11) (UFP-803), was pharmacologically evaluated and compared with urantide in in vitro and in vivo assays. 2. In the rat isolated aorta, UFP-803 was inactive alone but, concentration dependently, displaced the contractile response to U-II to the right, revealing a competitive type of antagonism and a pA(2) value of 7.46. 3. In the FLIPR [Ca(2+)](i) assay, performed at room temperature in HEK293(hUT) and HEK293(rUT) cells, U-II increased [Ca(2+)](i) with pEC(50) values of 8.11 and 8.48. Urantide and UFP-803 were inactive as agonists, but antagonized the actions of U-II by reducing, in a concentration-dependent manner, the agonist maximal effects with apparent pK(B) values in the range of 8.45–9.05. In a separate series of experiments performed at 37°C using a cuvette-based [Ca(2+)](i) assay and CHO(hUT) cells, urantide mimicked the [Ca(2+)](i) stimulatory effect of U-II with an intrinsic activity (α) of 0.80, while UFP-803 displayed a small (α=0.21) but consistent residual agonist activity. When the same experiments were repeated at 22°C (a temperature similar to that in FLIPR experiments), urantide displayed a very small intrinsic activity (α=0.11) and UFP-803 was completely inactive as an agonist. 4. In vivo in mice, UFP-803 (10 nmol kg(−1)) antagonized U-II (1 nmol kg(−1))-induced increase in plasma extravasation in various vascular beds, while being inactive alone. 5. In conclusion, UFP-803 is a potent UT receptor ligand which displays competitive/noncompetitive antagonist behavior depending on the assay. While UFP-803 is less potent than urantide, it displayed reduced residual agonist activity and as such may be a useful pharmacological tool

Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici

Il Rapporto “Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici” è un prodotto del Sistema Nazionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente (SNPA), che assicura le attività di monitoraggio del territorio e del consumo di suolo. Il Rapporto, insieme alla cartografia e alle banche dati di indicatori allegati, fornisce il quadro aggiornato dei processi di trasformazione della copertura del suolo e permette di valutare il degrado del territorio e l’impatto del consumo di suolo sul paesaggio e sui servizi ecosistemici

Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici. Edizione 2023.

Il Rapporto “Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici” è un prodotto del Sistema Nazionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente (SNPA), che assicura le attività di monitoraggio del territorio e del consumo di suolo. Il Rapporto, insieme alla cartografia e alle banche dati di indicatori allegati, fornisce il quadro aggiornato dei processi di trasformazione della copertura del suolo e permette di valutare il degrado del territorio e l’impatto del consumo di suolo sul paesaggio e sui servizi ecosistemici

Correction to: Comparative effectiveness and safety of non-vitamin K antagonists for atrial fibrillation in clinical practice: GLORIA-AF Registry

International audienceIn this article, the name of the GLORIA-AF investigator Anastasios Kollias was given incorrectly as Athanasios Kollias in the Acknowledgements. The original article has been corrected