Sovrapposizioni culturali

Le due tavole, “Ricordo di avere visto una moschea dentro il tempio di Annone a Luxor” e “Sviluppo della decorazione di un vaso etrusco secondo una interpretazione ottocentesca”, avrebbero dovuto far parte di un più ampio e articolato progetto incentrato su un tema certamente legato a quelli tra i più cari allʼautore: il tema dellʼimmagine potenziale. Il progetto completo prevedeva la presenza di una terza tavola nella quale lʼimmagine sarebbe stata mentale, soltanto in potenza, per cui tradotta in una scritta, poiché la natura concettuale di tale immagine non avrebbe consentito una sua descrizione visiva. La presenza di una quarta tavola, dedicata alla utopica possibilità di impressionare una pellicola soltanto con la forza del pensiero, era solo ipotizzata sul piano concettuale. Questo lavoro, di chiara matrice concettuale, sarebbe stato quindi incentrato sul tema della “immagine potenziale”, argomento di grande interesse in seno alla produzione dellʼartista ma anche nel momento culturale che ha visto la nascita di questo progetto.The two figures “I remember I have seen a mosque inside the Amun Temple in Luxur” and “Development of the decoration of an Etruscan vase according to a nineteenth-century portrayal” were to be part of a broader and more structured project, centred on the theme of the potential image, a topic very dear to the author. The original project envisaged the presence of a third figure representing a mental image, merely potential, hence rendered in a writing. The conceptual nature of such an image would have not allowed any visual depiction. The presence of a fourth figure, devoted to the utopian possibility of exposing films with the only power of thoughts, was merely a working hypothesis. This work, of a cleary conceptual nature, was therefore to be centered on the theme of the “potential image”. Such topic takes on great importance for both the artist's production and the cultural context in which this project was conceived

Tappeti volanti

In questo disegno Franco Guerzoni immagina, nella chiave del tutto utopica dell’esercizio teorico più che in quella più concreta del progetto, la possibilità di realizzare dei tappeti volanti. Sul foglio, insieme alle forme disegnate dall’autore, vi è una poesia dell’amico Adriano Malavasi.In this drawing Franco Guerzoni speculates - with a theoretical exercise nearer to utopia than to a real project - about the possibility of realising flying carpets. On this drawing we can find, together with shapes and images by Guerzoni himself, a poetry written by his friend Adriano Malavasi

How the Black Swan damages the harvest: Extreme weather events and the fragility of agriculture in development countries

Climate change constitutes a rising challenge to the agricultural base of developing countries. Most of the literature has focused on the impact of changes in the means of weather variables on mean changes in production and has found very little impact of weather upon agricultural production. Instead, we focus on the relationship between extreme events in weather and extreme losses in crop production. Indeed, extreme events are of the greatest interest for scholars and policy makers only when they carry extraordinary negative effects. We build on this idea and for the first time, we adopt a conditional dependence model for multivariate extreme values to understand the impact of extreme weather on agricultural production. Specifically, we look at the probability that an extreme event drastically reduces the harvest of any of the major crops. This analysis, which is run on data for six different crops and four different weather variables in a vast array of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, shows that extremes in weather and yield losses of major staples are associated events. We find a high heterogeneity across both countries and crops and we are able to predict per country and per crop the risk of a yield reduction above 90% when extreme events occur. As policy implication, we can thus assess which major crop in each country is less resilient to climate shocks

Impact of Improvement in Walking Speed on Hospitalization and Mortality in Females with Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the principal cause of death in women. Walking speed (WS) is strongly related with mortality and CVD. The rate of all-cause hospitalization or death was assessed in 290 female outpatients with CVD after participation in a cardiac rehabilitation/secondary prevention program (CR/SP) and associated with the WS maintained during a moderate 1 km treadmill-walk. Three-year mortality rates were 57%, 44%, and 29% for the slow (2.1 ± 0.4 km/h), moderate (3.1 ± 0.3 km/h), and fast (4.3 ± 0.6 km/h) walkers, respectively, with adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of 0.78 (p = 0.24) and 0.55 (p = 0.03) for moderate and fast walkers compared to the slow walkers. In addition, hospitalization or death was examined four to six years after enrollment as a function of the change in the WS of 176 patients re-assessed during the third year after baseline. The rates of hospitalization or death were higher across tertiles of reduced WS, with 35%, 50%, and 53% for the high (1.5 ± 0.3 km/h), intermediate (0.7 ± 0.2 km/h), and low tertiles (0.2 ± 0.2 km/h). Adjusted HRs were 0.79 (p = 0.38) for the intermediate and 0.47 (p = 0.02) for the high tertile compared to the low improvement tertile. Improved walking speed was associated with a graded decrease in hospitalization or death from any cause in women undergoing CR/SP

Psychosocial determinants of healthcare use costs in kidney transplant recipients

IntroductionPsychosocial factors frequently occur in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), leading to behavioral alterations and reduced therapeutic adherence. However, the burden of psychosocial disorders on costs for KTRs is unknown. The aim of the study is to identify predictors of healthcare costs due to hospital admissions and emergency department access in KTRs.MethodsThis is a longitudinal observational study conducted on KTRs aged >18 years, excluding patients with an insufficient level of autonomy and cognitive disorder. KTRs underwent psychosocial assessment via two interviews, namely the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview 6.0 (MINI 6.0) and the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research Interview (DCPR) and via the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System Revised (ESAS-R) scale, a self-administrated questionnaire. Sociodemographic data and healthcare costs for hospital admissions and emergency department access were collected in the 2016–2021 period. Psychosocial determinants were as follows: (1) ESAS-R psychological and physical score; (2) symptomatic clusters determined by DCPR (illness behavior cluster, somatization cluster, and personological cluster); and (3) ICD diagnosis of adjustment disorder, anxiety disorder, and mood disorder. A multivariate regression model was used to test the association between psychosocial determinants and total healthcare costs.ResultsA total of 134 KTRs were enrolled, of whom 90 (67%) were men with a mean age of 56 years. A preliminary analysis of healthcare costs highlighted that higher healthcare costs are correlated with worse outcomes and death (p < 0.001). Somatization clusters (p = 0.020) and mood disorder (p < 0.001) were positively associated with costs due to total healthcare costs.ConclusionsThis study showed somatization and mood disorders could predict costs for hospital admissions and emergency department access and be possible risk factors for poor outcomes, including death, in KTRs

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Performance and Operation of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

The operation and general performance of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter using cosmic-ray muons are described. These muons were recorded after the closure of the CMS detector in late 2008. The calorimeter is made of lead tungstate crystals and the overall status of the 75848 channels corresponding to the barrel and endcap detectors is reported. The stability of crucial operational parameters, such as high voltage, temperature and electronic noise, is summarised and the performance of the light monitoring system is presented

Thirty-year changes (1970 to 2000) in bathymetry and sediment texture recorded in the Lagoon of Venice sub-basins, Italy.

A detailed comparison was made of two bathymetric charts of the Lagoon of Venice (LV) from 1970 and 2000, in tandem with a comparison of sediment grain size data. Analysis of the data revealed marked changes in both morphology and sedimentation, with more than 50% of the 400 km2 assessed in this study 15-20 cm shallower in 1970 than in 2000. The four sub-basins into which the LV is subdivided saw different patterns of change. The Northern basin A was identified as “pristine”, i.e. still in quasi-natural condition, with slight clay enrichment and a small degree of deepening (4-5 cm), essentially due to sea level rise (SLR). The bathymetry and sedimentology of the northern-central sub-basin B (identified as “urban”) and the southern-central basin C (identified as “open”) were affected by infill activities and excavation of industrial navigation channels in the 1970s, causing the loss of ~ 60 km2 of mudflats, and creating an “open” lagoon. The southernmost basin D (identified as “exploited-subsiding”) of the LV was found to be relatively unchanged and still in semi-natural condition. Comparison of sediment types showed depletion of fine-grained fractions ( 63 µm) was recorded, except in the southern-central sub-basin C where medium and coarse sand fractions declined. The results suggest that climate-related SLR accounts for a small fraction of bathymetric change, whilst variations in hydrodynamics (currents and wind patterns) and sediment supply are likely causal factors for the different evolution of the four sub-basins. Definition of the attributes of each sub-basin provided data that was essential not only for the LV but also for predicting the fate of transitional environments facing both anthropic (fishing, navigation, land use changes) as well natural (SLR, eustatism) forcing factors