The client-oriented model of cultural competence in healthcare organizations

The paper aims to propose a new model of cultural competence in health organizations based on the paradigm of client orientation. Starting from a literature review, this study takes inspiration from dimensions that characterize the cultural competence of health organizations, and re-articulates them in more detail by applying a client orientation view. The resulting framework is articulated into six dimensions (formal references; procedures and practices; cultural competences of human resources; cultural orientation toward client; partnership with community; and self-assessment) that define the ability of a health organization to achieve its mission, acknowledging, understanding, and valorizing cultural differences of internal clients (staff) and external clients (consumers). This study makes an effort to address the paucity of studies linking approaches to managing cultural diversity in health organizations with cultural competence within the framework of client orientation

Collection of crop genetic resources in Italy, 2004

In September 2004, a collecting mission was carried out in Italy within the framework of an agreement between the Plant Genetics Institute (IGV), Bari, Italy of the National Research Council (CNR) and the Crop Science Institute of Kassel University (Germany). The mission collected 116 accessions belonging to 24 species, mainly cereals, pulses and vegetable landraces. The area receiving most attention were Carnia, Venetian lagoon, Po delta and Salento. Rare landraces were found out, such as "mugnoli" (a botanical form of Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenk), whosecultivation in the Salento area pre-dates that of broccoli. For each collecting site, information of past and present agricultural state is given, together with an assessment of the degree of crop genetic erosion. Italian agricultural biodiversity has been lost in great part, but some remote and isolated zones are still an important refuge for crop genetic resources. Material is being deposited in the IGV genebank

Middle Neolithic farming of open-air sites in SE France: new insights from archaeobotanical investigations of three wells found at Les Bagnoles (L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Dépt. Vaucluse, France)

Previous reviews of Middle Neolithic agricultural practice (4400–3500 cal bc) in southern France have highlighted a change in crop assemblages after 4000 cal bc, with a reduction of naked wheat and an increase of emmer and partly of einkorn. The recent investigation of three wells from the site of Les Bagnoles (4250–3800 cal bc) in the periphery of the southern Rhône valley yielded an unprecedented amount of waterlogged uncharred and charred plant macro remains that offer new insights into crop diversity and its changes over time. The results from the wells at Les Bagnoles were compared with other dated sunken features from open-air sites (in contrast to caves and rock shelters), with the aim of identifying patterns sug-gesting changes in the crop spectra between the early (MN1) and late (MN2) Middle Neolithic phases from taphonomically comparable contexts. The results from Les Bagnoles demonstrate that oil crops and pulses are underrepresented in dry sites and that they were a significant part of Middle Neolithic agriculture. They also indicate an increase in the representation of einkorn (instead of emmer) during MN2 that is also visible in other open-air sites. The comparison of the archaeobotani-cal results with silo storage capacity values as a proxy for average production capacity per household leads us to propose a possible drop in naked wheat productivity and opens new questions in factors affecting crop choice at the beginning of the 4th millennium cal bc

Collecting germplasm in Lesotho

Reports the findings of a collecting mission in Lesotho carried out by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria and the Germplasm Institute CNR, Bari, Italy in April 1988. The main objective was to collect genetic resources of cowpea and bambara groundnut, and gather information about wild species of the genus Vigna in the country. 46 accessions of local varieties of cowpea were collected, together with 26 Phaseolus vulgaris, 6 Triticum aestivum,24 Zea mays and 16 other accessions

Collecting of crop genetic resources in Italy, 2004

In September 2004, a collecting mission was carried out in Italy within the framework of an agreement between the Plant Genetics Institute (IGV), Bari, Italy, of the National research Council (CNR) and the Crop Science Institute of Kassel University (Germany). The mission collected 116 accessions belonging to 24 species, mainly cereals, pulses and vegetable landraces. The area receiving most attention were carnia, Venetian lagoon, Po delta and Salento. Rare landraces were found out, such as 'mugnoli' (a botanical form of Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenk), whose cultivation in the Salento area pre-dates that of broccoli. For each collecting site, information on past and present agricultural state is given, together with an assessment of the degree of crop genetic erosion. Italian agricultural biodiversity has been lost in great part, but some remote and isolated zones are still an important refuge for crop genetic resources. Material is being deposited in the IGV genebank