Effectiveness of thymus vulgaris essential oil on ovine mammary pustular dermatitis

The effectiveness of Thymus vulgaris L. Essential Oil (TvEO) for topical use in 21 sheep affected by mammary pustular dermatitis (MPD), not subjected to previous antibacterial therapy, was studied. After the evaluation of the antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated microorganisms(Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus) in milk samples to TvEO, some antimicrobials drugs (amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, doxycycline, florfenicol and enrofloxacin) and Citrus bergamia Risso et Poiteau EO (CvEO), the sheep, divided in two groups, were treated topically for 7 days with TvEO(13 animals) and CvEO (8 animals) respectively. The results showed that only TvEO induced a decrease in clinical signs 3 days after treatment and the complete disappearance of udder lesions after 7 days. No revival of infection was observedin the following months. The use of TvEOcould be an alternative to antibiotic treatment in ovine affected by MP

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A New Fast Motion Estimation and Mode Decision algorithm for H.264 Depth Maps encoding in Free Viewpoint TV

In this paper, we consider a scenario where 3D scenes are modeled through a View+Depth representation. This representation is to be used at the rendering side to generate synthetic views for free viewpoint video. The encoding of both type of data (view and depth) is carried out using two H.264/AVC encoders. In this scenario we address the reduction of the encoding complexity of depth data. Firstly, an analysis of the Mode Decision and Motion Estimation processes has been conducted for both view and depth sequences, in order to capture the correlation between them. Taking advantage of this correlation, we propose a fast mode decision and motion estimation algorithm for the depth encoding. Results show that the proposed algorithm reduces the computational burden with a negligible loss in terms of quality of the rendered synthetic views. Quality measurements have been conducted using the Video Quality Metric

La sostenibilita' dei trattamenti ad alto costo: il caso dell'ormone della crescita

Over last decades, National Health Systems found themselves involved in an ever more complex reality. Population growth, quality of life and life expectancy improvement are challenging their sustainability. Biomedical and pharmaceutical advancements, along with high-cost drugs development triggered a severe increase in health expenditure. The development of tools capable of granting patients access to the needed therapies, favouring an efficient allocation of resources as well, becomes essential in this context. That is why we aimed to find solutions to cut unnecessary costs while ensuring patients' health. In the pharmaeconomical analysis of the Veneto region situation, we focused onto high-cost therapies. Amongst them, human Growth Hormone (hGH) revealed itself as the drug with the highest potential risk and off-label use. In 2013 we planned the GH Registry, a web-based information system which supports all the activities of the GH healthcare network and guarantees both the a priori monitoring, ensuring that GH prescriptions comply with the national guidelines, and the monitoring of its everyday use in real clinical practice. The cooperation among all professionals generates a unique shared pathway supporting the global patient care. All clinical data such as history, prescriptions, follow-up data and drugs supply have been collected in the Registry, and put online through the information system, available to the specialists who follow the patient. With the implementation of GH Registry, we finally achieved a better GH prescription homogeneity throughout the Veneto area, limiting inappropriate GH treatments. We performed a descriptive analysis - based on the data collected by the system - on GH-treated patients typologies, examined follow-up Centres activities, and observed the different drugs and biosimilar distribution, based on patients' pathology, sex and age. Later, we compared data collected before the Registry implementation to present data. In 2011, there were 887 GH-treated patients, while today there are only 743 of them, 16% fewer. The health expenditure decreased of 22.6%, thanks to a better prescription appropriateness and to an increased biosimilar usage, rised from 5% to 16% of total prescriptions. In addition, GH Registry allowed us to collect data for an epidemiologic analysis in order to establish the efficacy of the hGH therapy, in real-life conditions. GH Registry, tested in the Veneto region reality, has proved itself as a solid tool, capable of granting therapeutic appropriateness, safety of use in patients, and cost-avoidance for this high-cost drug. It is now necessary to raise awareness among the different professionals involved in the Registry, in order to obtain a better and more frequent update of the patients' data, which could allow us to perform even more prompt and accurate analyses

Studying Rate Control Methods for UHDTV Delivery Using HEVC

Since the early video coding standardisation efforts, rate control has been considered essential for almost any application, and has therefore been extensively studied. With the advent of improved video coding standards, such as the current stateof-the-art High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, and the introduction of advanced flexible coding tools, previous Rate-Distortion (RD) models used for rate control have become obsolete. To address this issue, some rate control methods have been recently proposed specifically for HEVC which introduce many useful features, such as a robust correspondence between the rate and Lagrange multiplier . However, when applying these rate control methods on sequences in the new Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) format, degraded coding performance was observed. In this paper, an analysis of the state-of-the-art HEVC rate control method was performed and two directions for its improvement were evaluated. These improvements target frame-level bit-allocation and model parameter initialisation. When compared to the rate control method implemented in the HEVC reference software, these improvements result in reduced BDrate losses of 3:1% and 2:1%, versus the 8:8% provided by the reference algorithm. Moreover, the proposed improvements improve the accuracy in hitting the target bit-rate./p

Adaptive Quantisation in HEVC for Contouring Artefacts Removal in UHD Content

Contouring artefacts affect the visual experience of some particular types of compressed Ultra High Definition (UHD) sequences characterised by smoothly textured areas and gradual transitions in the value of the pixels. This paper proposes a technique to adjust the quantisation process at the encoder so that contouring artefacts are avoided. The devised method does not require any change at the decoder side and introduces a negligible coding rate increment (up to 3.4% for the same objective quality). This result compares favourably with the average 11.2% bit-rate penalty introduced by a method where the quantisation step is reduced in contour-prone areas

The City of the Sun. Roman primacy and ecclesiology in the papal correspondence with the Greek East. (Eleventh-Thirteenth centuries)

La tesi analizza la teologia e l’ecclesiologia del primato romano nella corrispondenza ufficiale del papato verso l’Oriente greco da dopo lo scontro del 1054 fino al pontificato di Innocenzo III (1198-1216). Partendo dallo studio delle categorie primaziali e dei lessemi ecclesiologici presenti nelle lettere pontificie al mondo bizantino, e analizzando i contesti storici in cui si situarono i dialoghi diplomatici e i tentativi unionisti tra le chiese, questo lavoro si è proposto di leggere le fonti in modo sia analitico che critico. Nel primo livello d’analisi si è presa in esame la teologia del primato, il suo sviluppo, come essa venne costantemente ribadita e quali strumenti retorici furono messi in campo per tentare di imporla all’Oriente greco. Nel secondo livello si è indagato il rapporto tra le teorizzazioni primaziali e la loro effettiva applicazione, notando di conseguenza come l’Ostpolitik papale fosse il più delle volte dettata dalle necessità politiche del momento piuttosto che dall’intransigente applicazione della norma. Infine, si è affrontato il tema del valore che questi dialoghi ecclesiali e confronti ecclesiologici potevano assumere per Roma, arrivando all’ipotesi che i papi dell’XI-XIII secolo non ammettessero in realtà un confronto speculativo sul primato romano, poiché tali contatti erano dettati solamente da politica ecclesiastica, in cui non esisteva discussione o reale volontà di arrivare all’unione delle chiese, ma solo la ricerca di nuove strategie per imporre il primato universale della sede di san Pietro.The thesis analyses the theology and ecclesiology of the Roman primacy in the papal correspondence with the Greek East from the clash of 1054 to the pontificate of Innocent III (1198-1216). Starting from the study of primatial categories and the ecclesiological lexicon in the papal letters to the Byzantine world, and analysing the historical contexts in which diplomatic dialogues and attempts of unification between churches occurred, this work proposes to read the sources both analytically and critically. The first level of analysis considers the theology of the primacy, its development, how it was constantly reiterated, and which rhetorical instruments were used to try to impose it to the Greek East. The second stage investigates the relationship between primatial theories and their pratical and eventual application, arguing that the papal Ostpolitik was mainly dictated by the political needs of the moment rather than the strict application of the norm. Finally, this work considers the value that these ecclesiastical dialogues and ecclesiological confrontations had for Rome, showing how the popes of the eleventh-thirteenth centuries did not accept a speculative discussion on the Roman primacy, but it was only ecclesiastical policy, where there was no discussion or real will to unify the churches, only the search for new strategies to impose the universal primacy of St Peter's See

Nove noites e Mongólia, torções no limite entre ficção e verdade

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação de Literatura, Florianópolis, 2014.2014-08-06T17:57:21