Mattia Preti : architetto della Sacra Religione di Malta

Mattia Preti was primarily known to the Catholic world of the seventeenth century as a prolific painter and, since 1700, much ink has been spilled concerning his rich legacy of paintings in Rome, Naples, Malta and elsewhere, remarkable for the sophistications of their composition and execution and for their potential of admirably adorning sacred and profane interiors in true baroque style. By contrast very little ink has been spilled and still less research work has been carried out, concerning what I consider to be Mattia Preti’s praiseworthy architectural skills, particularly evident during the 1660-1699 period when he was serving the Religion of Malta. One notable exception was a contribution by the twentieth-century art historian, Chev. Vincenzo Bonello who was the first person who was brave enough to contribute a brief but concise article entitled Mattia Preti, Architetto to the proceedings of the XV congresso di storia dell’architettura, held in Malta in September 1967 and published in Rome in 1970. In this paper, I shall attempt to highlight some references to Mattia Preti’s architectural formation and post-1660 activity as an architect by focusing on what is revealed in at least four quasi-contemporary printed sources, before discussing some case-studies of his architectural activity in Malta.peer-reviewe

Предварительная оценка энергоэффективности зданий в условиях резко континентального климата

Construction of energy-efficient buildings becomes a top priority for many countries. Yet certain obstacles in achieving internal environment comfort standards remain in regions with extreme continental climate. In addition to engineering and economic challenges, there exist design process issues since design data should closely correspond with resulting performance of the building. This paper focuses on accurate energy demand estimation during design stage. Two types of buildings designed for Ural-Siberian region of Russia and for Kazakhstan are examined: detached and medium-rise apartment buildings. Most influential factors are taken into consideration and general recommendations on improving energy efficiency using effective combination of structural and engineering solutions are given. Adaptation of design procedure in terms of extreme continental climate made by means of simplified but precise Passive House planning tool is demonstrated.Строительство энергоэффективных зданий является приоритетным направлением для многих стран. Однако в регионах с суровым климатом часто возникают проблемы достижения нормативных показателей комфорта внутренней среды. В идеале проектные значения потребностей в электроэнергии на отопление и кондиционирование здания должны точно соответствовать итоговым показателям. В этой статье рассматриваются методики точного прогнозирования энергопотребления на стадии проектирования. Исследовано два типа зданий, проектируемых для Урало-Сибирского региона России и Казахстана: индивидуальный дом и многоквартирный дом средней этажности. Даны рекомендации по снижению энергопотребления зданий путем эффективного сочетания конструктивных и инженерных решений. Показан учет основных факторов, влияющих на энергетический баланс зданий. На примере Пакета проектирования пассивного дома 2007 приведен пример адаптации упрощенной, но достаточно точной методики расчета к резко континентальным климатическим условиям

Grading the severity of obstruction in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and morbid obesity

Grading the severity of obstruction in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and morbid obesity. N. Barbarito, E. De Mattia. Aim. To evaluate the severity of airway obstruction in patients affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the presence of concomitant restriction due to morbid obesity. Methods. Lung function test, six-minute walking distance (6MWD) test, body mass index measurement (BMI), and determination of dyspnoea using the Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnoea Scale (MMRC) were performed on each patient referred to our department according to their individual respiratory diagnosis or symptoms. Analysis was performed on smokers or ex-smokers patients, with both dyspnoea and chronic productive cough, showing non fully reversible airflow obstruction, with normal-weight (NW: BMI 22 to 24 kg/m2) or morbid-obesity (MO: BM

Surgical clip closure of the left atrial appendage

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common atrial arrhythmia, but it is not a benign disease. AF is an important risk factor for thromboembolic events, causing significant morbidity and mortality. The left atrial appendage (LAA) plays an important role in thrombus formation, but the ideal management of the LAA remains a topic of debate. The increasing popularity of surgical epicardial ablation and hybrid endoepicardial ablation approaches, especially in patients with a more advanced diseased substrate, has increased interest in epicardial LAA management. Minimally invasive treatment options for the LAA offer a unique opportunity to close the LAA with a clip device. This review highlights morphologic, electrophysiologic, and surgical aspects of the LAA with regard to AF surgery, and aims to illustrate the importance of surgical clip closure of the LAA

Use of the Intermittent Abdominal Pressure Ventilation to guarantee speech in a tracheostomized Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patient

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Prevalence of airflow obstruction according GOLD, ATS and ERS criteria in symptomatic ever-smokers referring to a Pulmonary Rehabilitation Department

Aim. To evaluate in a Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) setting the prevalence of airflow obstruction (AO) in either current or former smokers ≥45 years old both with dyspnoea and with chronic productive cough, using European Respiratory society (ERS) statement (FEV1/SVC <88 and <89% predicted in men and women, respectively), American Thoracic Society (ATS) statement (FEV1/FVC <75%), and Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) statement (FEV1/FVC <70%). Methods. Lung function tests were performed in each patient who was referred to our PR department due to respiratory diagnosis or symptoms. For analysis, in patients showing AO we used post-bronchodilator lung function values. Results. In 184 ever-smoker patients with symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the prevalence rates of AO were as follows: ERS = 89.7%, ATS = 76.6%, and GOLD = 63.6%. Patients with AO according ERS criteria showing moderate to severe (M/S) obstruction (i.e., FEV1 <70% predicted) were 119. Patients with ERS M/S AO but without AO using either ATS or GOLD criteria were 8.4% and 19.3%, respectively. Conclusions. Prevalence of AO is highly dependent on which guidelines it is based. ATS and particularly GOLD statement can cause a large under-diagnosis even of moderate to severe COPD. Diagnosis of COPD may be overlooked if SVC is not performed

Distinctive physiological muscle synergy patterns define the Box and Block Task execution as revealed by electromyographic features

Stroke survivors experience muscular pattern alterations of the upper limb that decrease their ability to perform daily-living activities. The Box and Block test (BBT) is widely used to assess the unilateral manual dexterity. Although BBT provides insights into functional performance, it returns limited information about the mechanisms contributing to the impaired movement. This study aims at exploring the BBT by means of muscle synergies analysis during the execution of BBT in a sample of 12 healthy participants with their dominant and non-dominant upper limb. Results revealed that: (i) the BBT can be described by 1 or 2 synergies; the number of synergies (ii) does not differ between dominant and non-dominant sides and (iii) varies considering each phase of the task; (iv) the transfer phase requires more synergies. Clinical Relevance— This preliminary study characterizes muscular synergies during the BBT task in order to establish normative patterns that could assist in understanding the neuromuscular demands and support future evaluations of stroke deficit

CDK4/6 Inhibitors in Breast Cancer Treatment: Potential Interactions with Drug, Gene, and Pathophysiological Conditions

Palbociclib, ribociclib, and abemaciclib belong to the third generation of cyclin-dependent kinases inhibitors (CDKis), an established therapeutic class for advanced and metastatic breast cancer. Interindividual variability in the therapeutic response of CDKis has been reported and some individuals may experience increased and unexpected toxicity. This narrative review aims at identifying the factors potentially concurring at this variability for driving the most appropriate and tailored use of CDKis in the clinic. Specifically, concomitant medications, pharmacogenetic profile, and pathophysiological conditions could influence absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination pharmacokinetics. A personalized therapeutic approach taking into consideration all factors potentially contributing to an altered pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic profile could better drive safe and effective clinical use

A structure function analysis of vst-cosmos agn

We present our sixth work in a series dedicated to variability studies of active galactic nuclei (AGN), based on the survey of the COSMOS field by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). Its 54 r-band visits over 3.3 yr and single-visit depth of 24.6 r-band mag make this dataset a valuable scaled-down version that can help forecast the performance of the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).This work is centered on the analysis of the structure function (SF) of VST-COSMOS AGN, investigating possible differences in its shape and slope related to how the AGN were selected, and explores possible connections between the AGN ensemble variability and the black-hole mass, accretion rate, bolometric luminosity, redshift, and obscuration of the source