L’Islam e la sua rappresentazione nella cultura italiana

Different groups of citizens from Latium region, distributed by gender and age, and belonging to the medium-high socio-economic-cultural class, were asked in 2002, 2004 and 2005 to express what was coming to their mind, their associations and fantasies about Islam and islamic populations. The data were processed with the Emotional Text Analysis. The results of these three research studies are presented, which show a progressive accentuation of the pejorative stereotypes towards the islamic populations

Lämmermast mit verschiedenen Rassen auf extensivem Grünland: erste Ergebnisse

Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die mögliche Nutzung von extensivem Grünland für die Mast von Merino-Lämmern und reinrassigen Waldschaf-Lämmern unter verschiedenen Besatzraten zu untersuchen. Während der ersten Weidemonate im Jahr 2017 wurden Merino-Lämmer unter Ausnutzung der hohen Graswachstumsintensität geweidet. Die Waldschaf-Lämmer wurden in der zweiten Hälfte der Vegetationsperiode im Jahr 2017 mit geringerer Wachstumsintensität der Weide bis zum Ende dieser Weidezeit geweidet. Beide Rassen wurden in zwei getrennten Paddocks mit unterschiedlichen Besatzraten und Graswachstumshöhen beweidet. Das gleiche Verfahren wird im Jahr 2018 wiederholt. Ergebnisse des ersten Jahres 2017 werden vorgestellt

Osteoid Osteoma of the Atlas in a Boy: Clinical and Imaging Features-A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Osteoid osteoma is a benign osteoblastic tumor, quite uncommon in the spine. We report a case of an osteoid osteoma involving the atlas in a 6-year-old boy, who presented with suboccipital pain and torticollis. Initial radiological findings were ambiguous as magnetic resonance imaging showed mainly edema of upper cervical soft tissues. The subsequent computed tomography depicted a lesion of left lamina of C1. As conservative treatment failed, the lesion was surgically resected and the patient became pain free. To our knowledge, this is the first case of osteoid osteoma involving the atlas associated with abnormal soft tissue reaction reported in literature

Mobility and Migrations in the Rural Areas of Mediterranean EU Countries

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the ambivalent nature of contemporary migrations in European rural areas. The growing presence of immigrants in these areas is a direct result of the restructuring of agriculture and global agri-food chains. Evidence indicates that while agricultural work and rural settings are decreasingly attractive to local populations, they represent a favourable environment to international newcomers, due to the higher chances to access livelihood resources. The non-visibility and informality that characterise rural settings and agricultural work arrangements provide on the one side opportunities for employment, while also fostering illegal labour practices and situations of harsh exploitation

Protective intraoperative ventilation with higher versus lower levels of positive end-expiratory pressure in obese patients (PROBESE): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) increase the morbidity and mortality of surgery in obese patients. High levels of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) with lung recruitment maneuvers may improve intraoperative respiratory function, but they can also compromise hemodynamics, and the effects on PPCs are uncertain. We hypothesized that intraoperative mechanical ventilation using high PEEP with periodic recruitment maneuvers, as compared with low PEEP without recruitment maneuvers, prevents PPCs in obese patients. Methods/design The PRotective Ventilation with Higher versus Lower PEEP during General Anesthesia for Surgery in OBESE Patients (PROBESE) study is a multicenter, two-arm, international randomized controlled trial. In total, 2013 obese patients with body mass index ≥35 kg/m2 scheduled for at least 2 h of surgery under general anesthesia and at intermediate to high risk for PPCs will be included. Patients are ventilated intraoperatively with a low tidal volume of 7 ml/kg (predicted body weight) and randomly assigned to PEEP of 12 cmH2O with lung recruitment maneuvers (high PEEP) or PEEP of 4 cmH2O without recruitment maneuvers (low PEEP). The occurrence of PPCs will be recorded as collapsed composite of single adverse pulmonary events and represents the primary endpoint. Discussion To our knowledge, the PROBESE trial is the first multicenter, international randomized controlled trial to compare the effects of two different levels of intraoperative PEEP during protective low tidal volume ventilation on PPCs in obese patients. The results of the PROBESE trial will support anesthesiologists in their decision to choose a certain PEEP level during general anesthesia for surgery in obese patients in an attempt to prevent PPCs. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02148692. Registered on 23 May 2014; last updated 7 June 2016. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-017-1929-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

The Siena Micro Simulation Model (SM2) for net-gross conversion of EU-SILC income variables

In interview surveys collecting information on personal income, the respondents may report income amounts as gross or net of taxes and other deductions. These data must be made homogenous before use for analysis, especially when undertaking comparisons across population groups and countries. The Siena Microsimulation Model (SM2) has been developed as a practical tool providing a robust and convenient procedure for the conversion between net and gross forms of household income. In this paper we describe the logic and structure of the SM2. Starting from data on household and personal income given in different forms, and on the basis of the prevailing tax regime in a country, the SAS routines of the model are designed to estimate full information on income by component, with a breakdown of gross amounts into taxes, social insurance contributions of various types, and net income. Given this specific purpose, SM2 is not meant to be an alternative to general tax-benefit simulation models, but as a complementary tool which those models can usefully exploit. The usefulness of SM2, of course, goes beyond these specific objectives. The distinguishing feature of SM2 is that it can handle diverse taxbenefit regimes using a common logic and a standard set of procedures making it particularly useful for multi-country comparative application; these are explained in the paper in some detail. The immediate context for the development of SM2 has been the requirements of EU-SILC (EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions). Recently SM2 has been implemented for Italy based on EU-SILC data. The application and some results from it are described. Applications have also been developed for France, Spain and Greece. Selected aspects of these applications are illustrated for France and Spain

Fostering fashion retail experiences through virtual reality and voice assistants

This paper discusses the potential of using vocal commands in a virtual reality (VR) fashion store. In fact, online fashion shopping has bloomed in the last ten years, as technological developments are continuously fostering the evolution of fashion e-commerce and branding strategies. The advance in virtual reality devices, which are approaching the consumers' sphere, cannot but further support such trend.However, such commercial opportunity turns into the challenge of making VR-based shopping experiences enjoyable and easy-to-use to the whole class of users. To this aim, in this paper we resort to one of the most desirable ways a non-expert would use to interact with a new environment: voice. For this reason, the current study explores the benefits of speaking and verbally interacting with a VR assistant, which embodies a salesman at the service of customers. Motivated by an increasing acceptance of voice assistants, we designed and implemented an immersive VR experience where the Amazon Alexa virtual assistant is integrated and exploited, to build a proof of concept. To evaluate our proposal, we selected a specific group of fashion-experts, i.e. demanding and non tech-savvy, which tested our application and appraised the perceived comfort and appreciation of the virtual experience. The preliminary results suggest how working on the VR interface and interaction modalities could open the door to a new wave of fashion e-commerce platforms, supporting a widespread adoption of VR into everyday routines

Laying the path to consumer-level immersive simulation environments

Virtual reality is slowly transitioning from a specialized laboratory-only technology, to a consumer electronics appliance. In this transition, two interesting research questions amount to how 2D-based content and applications may benefit (or be hurt) by the adoption of 3D-based immersive environments and to how to proficiently support such integration. Acknowledging the relevance of the former, we here consider the latter question, focusing our attention on the diversified family of PC-based simulation tools and platforms. VR-based visualization is, in fact, widely understood and appreciated in the simulation arena, but mainly confined to high performance computing laboratories. Our contribution here aims at characterizing the simulation tools which could benefit from immersive interfaces, along with a general framework and a preliminary implementation which may be put to good use to support their transition from uniquely 2D to blended 2D/3D environments