Austin Bradford Hill: simply the best

Austin Bradford Hill was born on July 8, 1897, third son of Sir Leonard Erskine Hill, a distinguished medical physiologist, Professor of Physiology at The London Hospital. He grew up in an upper class Victorian family. Sir Leonard, who created an ingenious instrument for blood pressure measuring, had a deep influence on his son. In fact, Bradford decided to follow his father example. He attended Chigwell Grammar School, which was established in 1629, but unfortunately, Bradford’s decision to join the Faculty of Medicine coincided with a really big event: First World War. Bradford entered British naval aviation and..

Avedis Donabedian: The Giant

“Giant” is the most frequent word in commemorating Avedis Donabedian. Rarely there was such agreement among scholars worldwide to define the role of a scientist in the field of Public Health. And it’s impossible to disagree. Avedis Donabedian had a really huge role in the progress in Public Health studies. It’s not exaggerated even to say that his insights influenced all scientific research

Lorenzo Tomatis: A Great Doctor in the Broadest Sense

Lorenzo Tomatis was a great doctor in the broadest sense: he gave a major contribution to cancer research, devoting himself to study cancer causes and prevention. His job was not only to serve Public Health but to denounce social and health inequalities without threats by political and economic constraints

Ernst L. Wynder: A Pioneer of No Tobacco World

Ernst L Wynder was a great epidemiologist who devoted his career to investigate harmful effects of tobacco smoke, in particular his studies represent a landmark in the history of epidemiological research on lung cancer. The commitment of Ernst Wynder was not limited to the risk factors related to tobacco. In fact, he studied also the role of nutritional factors in the incidence of tumors. His talent, enthusiasm and tireless energy have allowed him to obtain a complete victory despite the difficulties and the initial loneliness

Archie’s beautiful adventure

Archibald “Archie” Cochrane is the brilliant creator of the evidence-based medicine (EBM). His book “Effectiveness and Efficiency: random reflections on health services” is one of the fundamental texts of Medicine today. For his influence on the progress of medicine, Cochrane may be considered one of the greater physicians of all time. He gave an exceptional boost to the improvement of medical practice worldwide. Cochrane’s vision of medicine and his great scientific achievements are still alive through the Cochrane Collaboration, an organization which provides valuable impulses to improving the quality of medical care. Also he was a great epidemiologist, very proud of his epidemiological work, and his life is interesting for adventurous events and extraordinary examples of righteousness and generosity

Charles Everett Koop: the “Family doctor of America”

Charles Everett Koop was a great Surgeon General, probably the most influential in the history of the United States of America. He never missed courage in his life and often he had used it to tackle professional and personal tough problems. In his public activity, he faced controversial health problems of American people as smoking, abortion and the first occurrence of the epidemic Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Koop was a rigorous man. The lodestar that guided Koop in his work, as a public servant was to do the best for health of Americans. In his prestigious and difficult role, he faced the pressing problems of health of millions of people trying to avoid political influence. During his mandate of eight years, Koop increased the influence and authority of his role. His appearance and behaviour were unmistakable: Lincolnesque beard and uniform, conduct hard and pure, exclusively oriented to the health of citizens, over the personal conveniences, political pressure and lobbying. An exemplary man, who for his passion for medicine and his sincere interest in promoting public health, was affectionately considered the "Family Doctor of America"

A Simulation Model for a Hybrid-Electric Craft in Restricted Waters

Sustainable mobility is one of the most challenging issues for passenger transport inside environmental protected areas and ecologically fragile environments. To reduce the pollutant emissions, the adoption of electric or hybrid-electric solutions for crafts propulsion is a suitable option for green navigation. However, the operation in restricted basin leads also to specific critical issues for the vessel sailing, as dealing with shallow or restricted waters and transit under low air-gap bridges. The combination of these constraints with the adoption of a hybrid-electric propulsion system increases the design difficulties also for a small craft, requiring the use of advanced simulation models to assess the vessel performances. This work presents a simulation model for a small passenger craft that will operate in the Grado Lagoon. The model combines the hydrodynamic issues of manoeuvring and propulsion in restricted water with the simulation of the electric loads and capacity of the energy storage system installed onboard. The simulations performed with the developed simulation system are in accordance with data measured during trials on a prototype of the vessel. The developed model is a powerful tool for designers in order to rapidly assess the green capabilities of new projects since the early design stages

Gaetano Pieraccini: Public Health giant who created Italian Social Medicine

It’s well known all over the world that Italy is the birthplace of Bernardino Ramazzini (1633 - 1714), the real founder of occupational medicine, and that Italian doctors had a great importance in scientific and cultural development in occupational medicine. One of the most celebrated of them was Luigi Devoto, Professor of Medical Pathology at Pavia in 1901, who undertook a free course of Occupational medicine, creating in the same year the fortnightly journal "Work" - that became "Occupational medicine" since 1925 - and opening a Labour Clinic in Milan in 1910. In 1907 the first two Italian schools of occupational medicine arose in Milan and in Naples. In 1901 Giulio Yule Giglioli wrote the first systematic treatise about workers’ diseases. In this cultural background Gaetano Pieraccini grew and developed his original cultural approach to the field of occupational medicine, which got from him a new dimension: the Social Medicine

Gaetano pieraccini: Public health giant who created Italian social medicine

It\u2019s well known all over the world that Italy is the birthplace of Bernardino Ramazzini (1633 -1714), the real founder of occupational medicine, and that Italian doctors had a great importance in scientific and cultural development in occupational medicine. One of the most celebrated of them was Luigi Devoto, Professor of Medical Pathology at Pavia in 1901, who undertook a free course of Occupational medicine, creating in the same year the fortnightly journal "Work" -that became "Occupational medicine" since 1925 -and opening a Labour Clinic in Milan in 1910. In 1907 the first two Italian schools of occupational medicine arose in Milan and in Naples. In 1901 Guido Yule Giglioli wrote the first systematic treatise about workers\u2019 diseases. In this cultural background, Gaetano Pieraccini grew and developed his original cultural approach to the field of occupational medicine, which got from him a new dimension: the Social Medicine

Transitional dynamics in a growth model with government spending, technological progress and population change

Abstract This paper extends public spending-based growth theory along three directions: we assume that exogenous and constant technological progress does exist and that both population change and the ratio of government expenditure to income follow a logistic trajectory. By focusing on the choices of a benevolent social planner we find that, if the inverse of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption is sufficiently high, the ratio of consumption to private physical capital converges towards zero when time goes to infinity. Through two examples we see that, depending on the form of the underlying aggregate production function and on whether, for given production function, technological progress equals zero or a positive constant, our model may or may not yield an asymptotic balanced growth path (ABGP) equilibrium. When there is no exogenous technological progress, an equilibrium where population size, the ratio of government spending to total income and the ratio of consumption to private physical capital are all constant does exist and the equilibrium is a saddle point. In case of positive technological progress numerical simulations show that the model still exhibits an ABGP equilibriu