Introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination into national immunisation schedules in Europe: Results of the VENICE 2007 survey

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The Diversity of Diversity: Implications of the Form and Process of Localised Urban Systems

This paper summarises research into localised urban systems which accounts for variations in styles of diversity within multi-cultural cities. New work builds on previous studies in London and Turin. The first produced an ideal type model of open:closed urban systems and evidence that the former have better capacity to incorporate incomers. The second revealed the need to adapt the model to account also for the process of diversity. This third phase combines ethnography with computer simulations to reveal emergent properties as well as present styles of urban systems, and to rank the variables driving change. The outcome will be a typology for users dealing with migrant settlement and urban regeneration.Typology of urban systems, Diversity, Relatedness, Process models, Ideal types

HPV genotypes in the oral cavity/oropharynx of children and adolescents: cross-sectional survey in Poland

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are a very complex group of pathogenic viruses, with more than 80 types, causing human infection. Given the prevalence of HPV infection and its relationship with the development of cervical and many other cancers, HPV vaccine development has been a major public health initiative worldwide in the last decade. The aim of the presented study was to identify HPV DNA by MY-PCR in 4,150 school children and adolescents, aged 10–18 years in the Wielkopolska region, Poland. All individuals were asked to fill in extensive questionnaires; further normal, oral squamous cells were collected from each pupil. Cellular DNA was isolated and used as a MY-PCR template to estimate the incidence of HPV-active infection. Forty five subjects (1.08% of the sample) were carriers of oropharyngeal HPVs. HPV status and variables of interest, such as age, gender, socioeconomical status, and risk factors (smoking and sexual intercourse history, alcohol consumption) were not correlated. The presence of HPVs in the oral cavity was cumulated in several schools of the region. DNA sequencing of MY-PCR products revealed only four HPV genotypes. The most frequent genotype was HPV11 (38/45 HPV-positive cases), while other more rare genotypes were HPV6 (3/45), HPV12 (3/45), and HPV57 (1/45). Conclusion: Our findings presented herein, reveal a relatively low prevalance of oropharyngeal HPVs in Polish adolescents and fill an important gap in the knowledge of oral HPV infections of children above 10 years and adolescents

Industrial Districts and the City: Relationships in the Knowledge Age. Evidence from the Italian Case

The spatial implications of fordist and district-based patterns of development have had a profound effect on the debate about the role of the city. While the city is reputed to be the crucial provider of basic public goods within the fordist model, its role seems more nuanced, if not disputable, when the district model prevails. This disregard for the city is probably due (a) to the fact that the revival of the debate on marshallian districts has placed strong emphasis on the agglomeration economies internal to the districts themselves, while relatively omitting the urban ones, when not emphasising the burden of urban diseconomies; (b) to the countryside roots of most district pioneers. The quarrel was further fuelled with the advent of ICTs, the fragmentation of the productive processes and the possibility of displacing phases at a global level. The paper argues that this is only the early part of the history. The advent of ICTs has had not only functional although important consequences on the internal organisation of firms and industry and on economic geography as a whole; it has also, however, made innovation and knowledge ? rather than cost-saving policies ? the crucial drivers of the competitiveness of firms and local economic systems. The notion of knowledge has profoundly changed too, and the main change consists in the shift that is occurring from Learning I to Learning II, that is from the “production and accumulation†of knowledge according to pre-established codes, to its “generation and articulation†thanks to an endless reshaping of cognitive codes. On this prospect, while firms, places and regions are increasingly conceptualised as Learning II milieus, cities are proving to be a crucial and irreplaceable milieu for knowledge generation. As a consequence, it is becoming necessary to reassess the relationships between industry and the city. Within this new situation, industrial districts may suffer a severe condition of marginality from the central driver of knowledge generation, owing to their lack of internal competences in dialoguing with the city, and/or the lack of suitable mediators.

Results of a vaccination campaign against human papillomavirus in the province of La Spezia, Liguria, Italy, March-December 2008

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The Symbolism of Space in Ethiopia

The present study starts from an Amhara text, Śǝrʿatä mängǝśt, “the first Ethiopian Constitution”, the basic elements of which were already in place in the fourteenth century, and which we analyze using a semiotic methodology. We argue that the concept of classification system is central to an understanding of culture and the semiotic systems constituting it, and we use a specific definition of the semiotic concept of code in order to study the structure of the classification system.Using an anthropological approach and applying a systematic semiotic methodology of analysis to Śǝrʿatä mängǝśt, it is possible to penetrate into the Ethiopian world view, articulated around a structured but flexible classification system. This system regulates, mainly through the royal, religious-cosmic and anthropomorphic codes, the organization and form of the royal camp. The spatial model attached to the system remained strikingly constant, in spite of certain modifications, for at least six centuries and was applied to all kinds of military camps; it also influenced the process of urbanization, since these camps were frequently the initial nuclei of later capitals and towns. Historically, this model resulted from the superimposition on an indigenous model of the Christian model of heavenly Jerusalem. The model had a wide scope: it was also applied to palaces, to churches starting in the sixteenth century or earlier, and to the country as a whole. The pivot and actual regulator of the model is the king, a legitimization strategy which reinforces his position of power and authority, both material and symbolic

Urbs/passion/politics: Venice in selected works of Ruskin and Pound

PhDThis thesis argues that the representations of Venice found in the works of John Ruskin and Ezra Pound can only fully be understood in the light of historico-political contexts such as the Austrian occupation of Venice, the rise of revolutionary Nationalism and Fascist uses of Venetian history. In contrast to critical approaches that concentrate on the construction of Venice as aestheticised fantasy, this project draws on a range of archival materials to place these two modern literary visions of Venice within their respective historical ‘moments’. The first chapter examines a range of cultural representations of Venice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Using examples from Ernest Hemingway, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Thomas Mann, it argues against the prevailing myth of the ‘Dream’ of Venice and proposes that literary and other representations of the city should be understood in relation to specific historical events and political anxieties. The second chapter focuses on Ruskin and demonstrates how his text The Stones of Venice can be seen as a counter to the nineteenth-century myth of the ‘dark legend’ of Venice as propagated by historians like Pierre Daru. The third chapter then demonstrates how Ruskin’s Venetian works can be situated within a spectrum of European Nationalist concerns, particularly examining how the 1848 Venice revolution and its aftermath creates an atmosphere of political tension in The Stones of Venice. The following two chapters on Ezra Pound place Pound’s Venetian engagement against the backdrop of early twentieth-century Italian Nationalism. Beginning by discussing the cultural uses of Venetian history under the Fascist regime, these chapters show how Pound’s engagement with the idea of a ‘renewed’ Venice proposed by Nationalist writers such as D’Annunzio, along with Pound’s own Fascist commitment, provide contexts for his visions of Venice in the Cantos. Thus the representations of the city in both writers are seen to be crucially connected to the political concerns of Nationalism and the Nationalistic use of Venetian history

Acoustemologies in Contact

"In this fascinating collection of essays, an international group of scholars explores the sonic consequences of transcultural contact in the early modern period. They examine how cultural configurations of sound impacted communication, comprehension, and the categorisation of people. Addressing questions of identity, difference, sound, and subjectivity in global early modernity, these authors share the conviction that the body itself is the most intimate of contact zones, and that the culturally contingent systems by which sounds made sense could be foreign to early modern listeners and to present day scholars. Drawing on a global range of archival evidence—from New France and New Spain, to the slave ships of the Middle Passage, to China, Europe, and the Mediterranean court environment—this collection challenges the privileged position of European acoustical practices within the discipline of global-historical musicology. The discussion of Black and non-European experiences demonstrates how the production of ‘the canon’ in the cosmopolitan centres of colonial empires was underpinned by processes of human exploitation and extraction of resources. As such, this text is a timely response to calls within the discipline to decolonise music history and to contextualise the canonical works of the European past. This volume is accessible to a wide and interdisciplinary audience, not only within musicology, but also to those interested in early modern global history, sound studies, race, and slavery.

A Comparison of the Portrayal of Visible Minorities in Textbooks in Canada and China

Canada and China are both multiethnic countries and have articulated a strong commitment to multicultural education. However, in the process of curricula control, decision makers, drawn from the mainstream culture, develop, implement, and interpret the formal curriculum. Consequently, the ethnic content included in the mainstream curriculum could be biased, fragmented, or with important omissions. This paper evaluates the portrayal of selected visible minorities in some currently used social studies (history) textbooks in Alberta and China, to reveal how knowledge of ethnic cultures is filtered through the dominant perspectives and to explore ways to educate all students to be responsible citizens. The analysis and discussions are situated within the conceptual framework of identity construction and critical pedagogy. Data are collected by observation, informal conversations and textbook analysis. Le Canada et la Chine sont tous les deux des pays multiethniques et ont formulé un engagement ferme pour une éducation multiculturelle. Cependant, durant le processus de contrôle des curricula, le curriculum formel a été développé, établi, et interprété par des responsables qui sont influencés par la culture du groupe dominant. Par conséquent, le contenu ethnique du curriculum pourrait être biaisé, fragmenté , ou marqué d’omissions importantes. L’intention de cet article est d’évaluer la représentation des minorités visibles, choisie dans quelques livres scolaires en usage dans les sciences humaines (histoire) en Alberta et en Chine, pour révéler comment la connaissance des cultures ethniques a été filtrée à travers les perspectives dominantes et pour explorer des directions afin d’éduquer tous les élèves à devenir des citoyens responsables. L’analyse et les discussions sont situées dans le cadre conceptuel de la construction d’identité et de la pédagogie critique. Les données ont été recueillies par des observations, des conversations informelles et de l’analyse des livres scolaires

The Diversity of Diversity: Implications of the Form and Process of Localised Urban Systems

This paper summarises research into localised urban systems which accounts for variations in styles of diversity within multi-cultural cities. New work builds on previous studies in London and Turin. The first produced an ideal type model of open:closed urban systems and evidence that the former have better capacity to incorporate incomers. The second revealed the need to adapt the model to account also for the process of diversity. This third phase combines ethnography with computer simulations to reveal emergent properties as well as present styles of urban systems, and to rank the variables driving change. The outcome will be a typology for users dealing with migrant settlement and urban regeneration