Being hit twice: The psychological consequences of the economic crisis and an earthquake

BACKGROUND: The Great Recession has caused worldwide tangible costs in terms of cuts in employment and income, which have been widely recognised also as major social determinants of mental health. Italy has not been spared from the financial crisis with severe societal and mental health consequences. In addition, a strong earthquake hit the province of Modena, Italy, in 2012, that is, amid the crisis. AIMS: In this study, we explored and investigated the possible additional impact of concurrent events such as economic crisis and a natural disaster. METHODS: Our analysis elaborated data from two local surveys, ICESmo2 (2006) and ICESmo3 (2012), and a national survey carried out in 2013 by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)). A regression model was adopted to distinguish the effect of the crisis and the earthquake. RESULTS: Our analysis confirmed the negative effect of the economic crisis on psychological wellbeing, but within the province of Modena such an effect resulted as even stronger compared with the rest of Italy, particularly within those areas struck by the earthquake. CONCLUSION: Being hit by a combination of two major negative events might have a significantly increased negative effect on psychological health. The higher repercussion observed is not only attributable to the occurrence of a natural disaster but can be reasonably related to the additional effect of unemployment on psychological dimensions

New Italian Tax Regime to Attract High Net Worth Individuals

This note discusses the main features and open issues of the new special tax regime for high net worth individuals, pursuant to which non-resident individuals transferring their tax residence to Italy can opt to pay a lump-sum substitute tax of EUR 100,000 per year, in lieu of ordinary taxation, on all of their non-Italian-sourced income

Dynamic modeling of a Supercritical Helium closed loop with the 4C code

A new Modelica library has been developed, which provides the framework for the drag-and-drop cryogenic circuit modeling capability of the Cryogenic Circuit Conductor and Coil (4C) code. The code has been applied to the simulation of a thermal-hydraulic transient in a closed supercritical helium (SHe) loop, driven by a pulsed heat load and including multiple feedback controls. The 4C results are in good qualitative agreement with those of the Vincenta cod

Numerical Investigation of the Dynamic Effects on the Fatigue Behaviour of a Transmission Chain in a Hybrid Power Unit

This paper is part of an activity related to a speci ̄c hybridization process for an existing and commercialized motorcycle engine. The electric motor is mechanically connected to the engine using the original valvetrain transmission chain leading to a P0 hybrid architecture. The aim of this work is to analyze the structural behavior of the chain now used as torque transmission device. Although, on one side, the maximum torque of the electric motor induces a stress state on the chain lower than its fatigue limit, on the other side, the dynamic behavior of the system strongly in°uences the maximum stress on the chain. In fact, the main source of load on the chain is derived from the torsional oscillation of the system. Engines' rotational speed irregularity can be easily estimated through common analytical approaches which consider the contribution of combustion and inertial forces on the instantaneous torque produced by the crank mechanism and the overall inertia of the moving parts. In addition, more detailed lumpedparameters and Multibody dynamic models are here developed in order to estimate the actual instantaneous engine speed taking into account the onset of possible high-order vibration phenomena. Speci ̄cally, the in°uence of the torsional vibration behavior of the internal combustion engine is investigated on the resulting stress on the chain. Finally, the structural chain integrity is assessed by performing a fatigue analysis considering the actual operating conditions

The cooking therapy for cognitive rehabilitation of cerebellar focal lesions.

The neurorehabilitation of cerebellar damage in neurological patients (i.e., stroke or multiple sclerosis) remains sparsely studied. This case report is aimed at providing evidence on the development of a new cognitive approach targeting cerebellar functions. We hope that our paper will stimulate an interesting scientific debate (http://neurosciencenews.com/chef-neurobiology-6196/), which comes from our previous study demonstrating the tight relationship between cooking activity and the cerebellar functioning: (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171457; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2018.01.037)