Economic crisis in a stalemated democracy. The Italian case

In Southern Europe, the economic crisis (2008-2013) triggered a deeper political crisis, affecting a number of aspects of a representative democracy. Italy provides a particularly telling case of what happens when an economic crisis occurs in an unstable political context characterized by low government effectiveness, low efficiency, corruption, decline of electoral participation, fragmented and radicalized party competition, social inequality, high public debt, and other related features, here summarized in the model of “stalemated democracy”. On the basis of a comprehensive data set developed along with eight dimensions of democracy assessment and taking into account the policies pursued during the years of the crisis, we analyze the different effects of economic crisis—some of them expected, others more surprising—and how those effects characterize Italian political crisis and a new phase of great uncertainty. In the concluding remarks we offer an explanation of the role played by the economic crisis, focusing on the interplay between veto rules and actual veto players. Such an explanation is also relevant to see key, more in-depth aspects of Italian democracy during last twenty years and earlier.In Southern Europe, the economic crisis (2008-2013) triggered a deeper political crisis, affecting a number of aspects of a representative democracy. Italy provides a particularly telling case of what happens when an economic crisis occurs in an unstable political context characterized by low government effectiveness, low efficiency, corruption, decline of electoral participation, fragmented and radicalized party competition, social inequality, high public debt, and other related features, here summarized in the model of “stalemated democracy”. On the basis of a comprehensive data set developed along with eight dimensions of democracy assessment and taking into account the policies pursued during the years of the crisis, we analyze the different effects of economic crisis—some of them expected, others more surprising—and how those effects characterize Italian political crisis and a new phase of great uncertainty. In the concluding remarks we offer an explanation of the role played by the economic crisis, focusing on the interplay between veto rules and actual veto players. Such an explanation is also relevant to see key, more in-depth aspects of Italian democracy during last twenty years and earlier.Refereed Working Papers / of international relevanc

Bringing the Outside inside: Macro and Micro Factors to Put the Dialogue among Highest Courts into its Right Context

Without downplaying the importance of the dialogue that takes place among the ordinary domestic courts and the ECJ, the authors deem the interaction among the highest courts to be even more significant for the nature of European constitutional democracies, since it also impinges upon the way that constitutional courts affect the constitutional setting of national democracies in the European Union. In fact, the dialogue among the highest courts can heavily impact upon the balance between the democratic and the constitutional principle. Although different courts show a different propensity to engage in such interaction, a point that will be considered again in the concluding remarks, the intention of this paper is to analyse the institutional and cultural conditions that can be considered as important conditions in influencing positively or negatively the development of extra-systemic (voluntary) references. This will lead the authors to present an overview of the appointment mechanisms and the professional profiles of justices in six European constitutional courts: France, Italy, and UK (old Member States); Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary (new Member States). Some conclusive remarks will then be offered to point to the institutional mechanisms that should be put in place in order to make constitutional courts accountable, given the different patterns of judicial appointment and the different professional profiles displayed by judges sitting in those courts

Detection and genotyping of human Papillomavirus in urine samples from unvaccinated male and female adolescents in Italy

The introduction of vaccination against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in adolescent girls in 2006 has focused virological surveillance on this age group. As few studies have evaluated HPV infections in young populations, further data are needed in order to improve and extend prophylactic policy and to monitor epidemiological changes. The present study aimed at evaluating overall and type-specific HPV prevalence in both female and male adolescents in Italy. HPV DNA detection and genotyping was performed on urine samples collected from 870 unvaccinated adolescents (369 females, 501 males, 11-18 years of age) in five cities in Italy. Following DNA extraction by means of a commercial kit (NucliSENS®-miniMAG®, bioMérieux), the L1 gene fragment was PCR amplified and genotyped by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. HPV DNA was detected in 1.5% of all samples, and in 3% and 0.4% of samples from females and males, respectively. In approximately 70% of HPV DNA positive adolescents, the infection was due to a single genotype, with 88.9% of genotypes belonging to the HR-clade. The only two HPV-positive boys (14 and 18 years old) had HPV-70 genotype. Only one of the 11 HPV-infected girls was in the 11-14 age-group. HPV prevalence was 4.2% in girls aged 15-18 years and 60% of infections were due to vaccine types HPV-16 or HPV-6/-11. This is one of the few studies, the first conducted in Italy, on HPV infection in adolescents. Urine testing is the easier way of detecting HPV infection in younger populations. Our data revealed a very low HPV prevalence, and no infections were observed in the 12-year-old vaccine target population. The majority of infections were seen in females aged 15-18 years. Overall, more than 50% and 30% of the potentially persistent HPV infections detected in this group could have been prevented by the quadrivalent and the bivalent vaccines, respectively

Overview of radiomics in breast cancer diagnosis and prognostication.

Diagnosis of early invasive breast cancer relies on radiology and clinical evaluation, supplemented by biopsy confirmation. At least three issues burden this approach: a) suboptimal sensitivity and suboptimal positive predictive power of radiology screening and diagnostic approaches, respectively; b) invasiveness of biopsy with discomfort for women undergoing diagnostic tests; c) long turnaround time for recall tests. In the screening setting, radiology sensitivity is suboptimal, and when a suspicious lesion is detected and a biopsy is recommended, the positive predictive value of radiology is modest. Recent technological advances in medical imaging, especially in the field of artificial intelligence applied to image analysis, hold promise in addressing clinical challenges in cancer detection, assessment of treatment response, and monitoring disease progression. Radiomics include feature extraction from clinical images; these features are related to tumor size, shape, intensity, and texture, collectively providing comprehensive tumor characterization, the so-called radiomics signature of the tumor. Radiomics is based on the hypothesis that extracted quantitative data derives from mechanisms occurring at genetic and molecular levels. In this article we focus on the role and potential of radiomics in breast cancer diagnosis and prognostication

Mapping Protein Structure Changes with Cysteine Labeling Kinetics by Mass Spectrometry

Currently we observe a gap between theory and practices of patient engagement. If both scholars and health practitioners do agree on the urgency to realize patient engagement, no shared guidelines exist so far to orient clinical practice. Despite a supportive policy context, progress to achieve greater patient engagement is patchy and slow and often concentrated at the level of policy regulation without dialoguing with practitioners from the clinical field as well as patients and families. Though individual clinicians, care teams and health organizations may be interested and deeply committed to engage patients and family members in the medical course, they may lack clarity about how to achieve this goal. This contributes to a wide "system" inertia-really difficult to be overcome-and put at risk any form of innovation in this filed. As a result, patient engagement risk today to be a buzz words, rather than a real guidance for practice. To make the field clearer, we promoted an Italian Consensus Conference on Patient Engagement (ICCPE) in order to set the ground for drafting recommendations for the provision of effective patient engagement interventions. The ICCPE will conclude in June 2017. This document reports on the preliminary phases of this process. In the paper, we advise the importance of "fertilizing a patient engagement ecosystem": an oversimplifying approach to patient engagement promotion appears the result of a common illusion. Patient "disengagement" is a symptom that needs a more holistic and complex approach to solve its underlined causes. Preliminary principles to promote a patient engagement ecosystem are provided in the paper

Accuracy of Immunodiagnostic Tests for Active Tuberculosis Using Single and Combined Results: A Multicenter TBNET-Study

The clinical application of IFN-gamma release assays (IGRAs) has recently improved the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection. In a multicenter study of the Tuberculosis Network European Trialsgroup (TBNET) we aimed to ascertain in routine clinical practice the accuracy of a novel assay using selected peptides encoded in the mycobacterial genomic region of difference (RD) 1 for the diagnosis of active tuberculosis in comparison with tuberculin skin test (TST), QuantiFERON-TB GOLD In-Tube (Cellestis Ltd., Carnegie, Australia) and T-SPOT.TB (Oxfordimmunotec, Abingdon, UK)

La renovación de la palabra en el bicentenario de la Argentina : los colores de la mirada lingüística

El libro reúne trabajos en los que se exponen resultados de investigaciones presentadas por investigadores de Argentina, Chile, Brasil, España, Italia y Alemania en el XII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Lingüística (SAL), Bicentenario: la renovación de la palabra, realizado en Mendoza, Argentina, entre el 6 y el 9 de abril de 2010. Las temáticas abordadas en los 167 capítulos muestran las grandes líneas de investigación que se desarrollan fundamentalmente en nuestro país, pero también en los otros países mencionados arriba, y señalan además las áreas que recién se inician, con poca tradición en nuestro país y que deberían fomentarse. Los trabajos aquí publicados se enmarcan dentro de las siguientes disciplinas y/o campos de investigación: Fonología, Sintaxis, Semántica y Pragmática, Lingüística Cognitiva, Análisis del Discurso, Psicolingüística, Adquisición de la Lengua, Sociolingüística y Dialectología, Didáctica de la lengua, Lingüística Aplicada, Lingüística Computacional, Historia de la Lengua y la Lingüística, Lenguas Aborígenes, Filosofía del Lenguaje, Lexicología y Terminología