An Attempt at Creating Total Theatre. Scene del potere by Domenico Guaccero

When approaching Scene del potere – ‘azione scenica’ conceived and developed by Domenico Guaccero over the span of nearly a decade (1961–1968) and staged for the first and only time on 30 December 1968 at Palermo’s Teatro Biondo – there is a high risk of being overwhelmed by the preparatory materials alone. The bulk of the textual and scenic-dramaturgical preliminary materials that leads from the first draft, tentatively titled Il potere, to the 1965 Scene del potere and its Palermo debut, is of a multifold entity. Its amount of sources, formative elements and programmatic intent is both fascinating and confusing in its labyrinthine combinations. Let it suffice to point out that the textual and scenic-dramaturgical preparatory materials consist of more than one hundred pages of handwritten and typed notes, summaries, sketches, drawings, newspaper and magazine clippings. The Fondo Domenico Guaccero also preserves letters regarding the inception and outcomes of the project, a ‘skeleton’ score of the preliminary draft Il potere and a handwritten copy of 1968’s final score of Scene del potere. Among these sources we can also find a photocopy of the score with side-notes by Egisto Macchi. It is therefore no wonder that the essays written on Scene del potere have mainly focused on the groundwork and on the composer’s programmatic intent. Given such considerations, the present article aims at offering an in-depth examination of Scene del potere, seen not as its initiatory process but observed in its completion: the final version of 1968. Through a detailed study of the score, it is possible to determine whether and how the composer’s programmatic intent found its fulfilment in the ultimate outcome of his work

Association of viral load with TRAIL, IP-10, CRP biomarker signature and disease severity in children with respiratory tract infection or fever without source : A prospective, multicentre cohort study

Background To investigate the association of viral load (VL) with (i) tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), interferon gamma-induced protein-10, C-reactive protein, and a combinatorial score (BV score), and (ii) clinical severity. Study Design In this prospective, multicentre cohort substudy, children with respiratory tract infection or fever without source were enrolled. VL for influenza virus, rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and adenovirus was measured from nasopharyngeal swabs. The reference standard diagnosis was established based on expert panel adjudication. Results Of 1140 recruited patients, 333 had a virus monodetection. VL for the aggregated data set correlated with TRAIL and IP-10 levels, with the length of oxygen therapy, and inversely with the BV score. At a single viral level, only the influenza VL yielded a correlation with TRAIL, IP-10 levels, and the BV score. Children with a viral reference standard diagnosis had significantly higher VL than those with bacterial infection (p = 0.0005). Low TRAIL (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 0.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39–0.91) and young age (IRR 0.62, 95% CI 0.49–0.79) were associated with a longer hospital stay, while young age (IRR 0.33, 95% CI 0.18–0.61), low TRAIL (IRR 0.25, 95% CI 0.08–0.76), and high VL (IRR 1.16, 95% CI 1.00–1.33) were predictive of longer oxygen therapy. Conclusion These findings indicate that VL correlates with biomarkers and may serve as a complementary tool pertaining to disease severity