QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF THE LUMINANCE OF LASER SCANNER RADIATION FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF MATERIALS

The main aim of this experimentation is the evaluation of potentialities of terrestrial laser scanner technology to carry-out, beyond topographic and morphological detection, non-invasive materic analysis of the scanned objects, with the prospective to evaluate the conservation of historical landmarks and cultural heritage of which Italy is the world leading country. Coherent lasers in the visible light range may lead to optical diffraction phenomena thus allowing for structural investigation and chemical analysis of the scanned objects. Application of LST in the visible range (λ = 585 nm) to a set of solid samples commonly applied in the construction (building) industry, differing in the crystallinity of their respective lattice, led to the following conclusions: a linear correlation has been established between degree of crystallization of solids and returning luminance of lasers after diffraction onto the solids surface; Gauss distribution of luminance data from diffraction onto less crystalline (plastics, glass) materials has been much narrow than more crystalline ones (metals, alloys, plasters). Both findings confirm that laser diffraction methods may be applied for fast materic determinations after simple LST scanning of solid samples. Bragg modeling of data, extensively applied for Xray diffraction methods (XRD), may be truly co-opted to Laser Scanning

Challenges in dental statistics: data and modelling

The aim of this work is to present the reflections and proposals derived from the first Workshop of the SISMEC STATDENT working group on statistical methods and applications in dentistry, held in Ancona (Italy) on 28th September 2011. STATDENT began as a forum of comparison and discussion for statisticians working in the field of dental research in order to suggest new and improve existing biostatistical and clinical epidemiological methods. During the meeting, we dealt with very important topics of statistical methodology for the analysis of dental data, covering the analysis of hierarchically structured and over-dispersed data, the issue of calibration and reproducibility, as well as some problems related to survey methodology, such as the design and construction of unbiased statistical indicators and of well conducted clinical trials. This paper gathers some of the methodological topics discussed during the meeting, concerning multilevel and zero-inflated models for the analysis of caries data and methods for the training and calibration of raters in dental epidemiology

Whose Needs Does Service Serve? Complicating the Citizen Soldier Narrative

The growth of conscript militaries was integral to the creation of civil rights in European nation-states, which established militaries as a key site of claims-making. However, the United States military has diverged from these models, and most cases of inclusion or integration of social groups are not directly connected with claims-making. What has influenced the U.S. military’s responsiveness to pressures, both internal and external, and how has this changed over time? I employ a comparative historical approach to three cases—African-Americans, women, and non-heterosexuals—to unpack the U.S. military as a state institution and a site of claims-making. By incorporating elements unique to American institutions into existing models of militaries, I find that the U.S. military has become increasingly vulnerable to domestic political, international political, internal economic, and internal and external cultural pressures since the World War period. Despite its enormous economic and physical strength, the U.S. military is more responsive now than ever before to internal and external demands

Italian Deprivation Index and Dental Caries in 12-Year-Old Children: A Multilevel Bayesian Analysis

Evidence from the literature has shown that people with a lower socioeconomic status enjoy less good health than people with a higher socioeconomic status. The Italian deprivation index (DI) was used with the aim to evaluate the association between the DMFT index and risk factors for dental caries, including city population and DI. The study included 4,305 12-year-old children living in 38 cities classified by demographic size as small, midsize and large. Zero-inflated negative binomial multilevel regression models were used to assess risk factors for DMFT and to address excess of zero DMFT and overdispersion through a Bayesian approach. The difference in the average level of DMFT among children living in cities with different DI quintile was not statistically significant (p = 0.578). The DI and ln(population), included as city-level fixed effects in the two-level variance components model, were not statistically significant. Consuming sweet drinks on average increased the mean DMFT of a susceptible child, while having a highly educated mother reduced it. Un-observed heterogeneity among cities was detected for the probability to be non-susceptible to caries (city-level variance = 0.26 with 95% credibility interval 0.09–0.57), while no territorial effect was found for the mean DMFT of the susceptible children. Our results suggest that the DI and city population did not play a role in explaining between-city variability. Interventions against social deprivation can be influential on the perception of oral health in Italian 12-year-old children to the extent that they can also affect individual level factors

Contralateral prophylactic mastectomies. Correlations between primary tumor and histological findings of controlateral breast

Backgound: In Italy in 2015 48,000 new cases of breast carcinomas were diagnosed. Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have a significant risk of developing contralateral breast cancer during the rest of their lives and this risk is closely associated to the family history, to the onset of breast cancer at a young age and is expressed at about 0.5 to 1% of metachronous tumors per year. The purpose of this work was to evaluate which and how many neoplastic lesions were seen in the contralateral breast that underwent prophylactic mastectomy and to understand what factors predict the appearance of such lesions. Methods: 168 bilateral mastectomies were analyzed in patients with an average age of 47 years, carried out from July 2008 to April 2016, at the Breast Unit of the Sant’Andrea Hospital. We considered women of any age suffering from unilateral breast cancer without either clinical or radiological evidence of a malignant lesion in the contralateral breast and negative for mutations of the BRCA1-BRCA2 genes test. Of the 168 bilateral mastectomies 35 patients were excluded from the study because they underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy, another 35 patients because they were suffering from a bilateral neoplasia and 7 cases because they had mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes. Therefore the remaining 91 patients were included in the study. Results: Both the histological features of the primary tumor and any lesions found in the contralateral prophylactic breast were analyzed. Histological examination of the main breast showed 59 cases of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC), 17 cases of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC), 9 cases of In Situ Ductal Carcinoma (ISDC), 3 microinvasive ductal, 1 invasive tubular carcinoma, 1 in situ lobular and 1 widespread in situ. In the contralateral breast, the definitive histological examination revealed that 47 patients had an occult lesion in the prophylactic contralateral breast; in particular 2 cases of LIN 1, 7 cases of LIN2, 6 cases of lobular carcinoma in situ, 26 between DIN1A/DIN1A-B/DIN1B, 4 cases of carcinoma in situ and 2 cases of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. The correlation obtained from the observation of the main tumor has shown that in a total of 59 invasive ductal carcinoma 32 have a controlateral occult lesions and in a total of 17 cases of invasive lobular carcinoma 9 have an occult lesion in the prophylactic breast. Of these lesions, the multicentric relationship is that 50% of invasive ductal and invasive lobular carcinoma of the main breast have a contralateral lesion. Conclusion: In conclusion we would like to remind, as demonstrated by our follow-up data and as the literature reiterates, that this surgery does not improve patient survival. Certainly patients with unilateral breast cancer have many surgical therapies to be able to deal with not only having a bilateral mastectomy. The end point of this work is try to understand the risk factors of having a contralateral breast lesion to reduce the probability of a metachronous cance

Encountering Indigenous Knowledge. The journey of an Italian anthropologist researching Mäori and rugby

How can researchers coming from non-Indigenous realities and disciplines engage with Indigenous research and researchers? How can these encounters benefit Indigenous communities and knowl- edges (and those of the non-Indigenous researchers)? These are the questions elicited by my experience as an Italian doctoral student in anthropology engaging with cultural and academic communities that were not my own and happened to be Indigenous – specifically, Mäori. I set out to investigate the relationship between Mäori and rugby and located myself within Mäori studies, trying to understand and integrate Kaupapa Mäori research. Both the intricacy of the context and the multifacetedness of my own self-identifications and scientific background created a complex scenario. The historical connivance of anthropology with colonialism and the apparent non-urgency of the rugby topic further raised questions. This paper will elaborate on this journey, observing the potentialities of Indigenous approaches from an “external” perspective while purporting the possibility of a cross-cultural and cross- disciplinary approach to Indigenous research

Once were Warriors, now are Rugby Players? Control and Agency in the Historical Trajectory of the Māori Formulations of Masculinity in Rugby

In Māori society rugby has come to be viewed as a platform to maintain an indigenous model of masculinity as well as one of the main sites for the achievement of prestige. National and international representations of the Māori man as a rugby player—a present-day version of the Māori warrior—apparently corroborate the indigenous experience of rugby. This is the result of the more than one-century-long Māori negotiation with rugby, a practice where they were allowed to occupy a space. However, this phenomenon is made of multiple nuances, ambiguities and tensions, which reflect the constraints framing the indigenisation of rugby and major changes such as the urbanisation of Māori and the introduction of professionalism in rugby. This paper will explore the Māori formulations of masculinity in rugby, problematising the dominant axiomatic Māori warrior-rugby player and viewing the phenomenon as historical, contemporary and now taking new directions

The Global Warrior. Māori, rugby, and diasporic Indigeneity

Many Māori men today follow a career in rugby union to achieve a good life, tracing their trajectories as athletes and as men in a dynamic scenario of global mobility. Historically, Māori men have played a significant role in the illustrious New Zealand rugby. Their game has also contributed to restoring Māori’s “depleted manhood”. In Māori settings, rugby has come to be associated with mana “spiritual prestige or authority,” which makes players responsible towards their communities, and has become a privileged site for men to achieve recognition and leadership. In 1995, the professionalization of international rugby added opportunities for socioeconomic progress. Māori masculinities share the colonial construct of the noble (yet violent) warrior with other Indigenous masculinities. Moreover, the warrior conjures an effort to withstand cultural, social, and political vulnerability, which characterizes the Indigenous condition as much as struggle does