How lifestyle can improve health expenses

Physical activity is important for the prevention of many diseases and to improve the conditions of sick people. “Exercise is medicine” is the new address for prevention and therapy. The boys also benefit of the sport activity for their psychological maturation. In addition, there is the damage from poor nutrition, alcohol dependence and the overuse of pharmacologically active substances, misuse of drugs, even those permitted. It is therefore necessary to increase the quantity/quality of time devoted to physical activity, both at school and outside school, but above all, it is vital the dissemination of knowledge of the problem. A widespread information / training, along with a sport and proper medical supervision into every type of school, would lead to a sharp reduction in public spending, much higher than the 80 million of which we have just spoken, with an almost negligible investment. The ideal would be to set up in School a course of education to health, with the principles of nutrition and physical activity, in order to improve the lifestyles and reduce health spending through health education, proper nutrition and sports activities. 1-2 hours a week would be enough to communicate to children, and indirectly their families and the families of the future, what are the criteria for a healthy life. It is however, necessary to have suitably qualified teachers for the treatment and dissemination of health prevention principles of proper nutrition and the correct approach to sports activities. A specific training should be therefore held in the University. Health education cannot be done by the science teachers or those of motor sciences, alone; they must have a physician specially trained to coordinate, perhaps in co-presence, the interventions

Lisp, Jazz, Aikido -- Three Expressions of a Single Essence

The relation between Science (what we can explain) and Art (what we can't) has long been acknowledged and while every science contains an artistic part, every art form also needs a bit of science. Among all scientific disciplines, programming holds a special place for two reasons. First, the artistic part is not only undeniable but also essential. Second, and much like in a purely artistic discipline, the act of programming is driven partly by the notion of aesthetics: the pleasure we have in creating beautiful things. Even though the importance of aesthetics in the act of programming is now unquestioned, more could still be written on the subject. The field called "psychology of programming" focuses on the cognitive aspects of the activity, with the goal of improving the productivity of programmers. While many scientists have emphasized their concern for aesthetics and the impact it has on their activity, few computer scientists have actually written about their thought process while programming. What makes us like or dislike such and such language or paradigm? Why do we shape our programs the way we do? By answering these questions from the angle of aesthetics, we may be able to shed some new light on the art of programming. Starting from the assumption that aesthetics is an inherently transversal dimension, it should be possible for every programmer to find the same aesthetic driving force in every creative activity they undertake, not just programming, and in doing so, get deeper insight on why and how they do things the way they do. On the other hand, because our aesthetic sensitivities are so personal, all we can really do is relate our own experiences and share it with others, in the hope that it will inspire them to do the same. My personal life has been revolving around three major creative activities, of equal importance: programming in Lisp, playing Jazz music, and practicing Aikido. But why so many of them, why so different ones, and why these specifically? By introspecting my personal aesthetic sensitivities, I eventually realized that my tastes in the scientific, artistic, and physical domains are all motivated by the same driving forces, hence unifying Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido as three expressions of a single essence, not so different after all. Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido are governed by a limited set of rules which remain simple and unobtrusive. Conforming to them is a pleasure. Because Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido are inherently introspective disciplines, they also invite you to transgress the rules in order to find your own. Breaking the rules is fun. Finally, if Lisp, Jazz, and Aikido unify so many paradigms, styles, or techniques, it is not by mere accumulation but because they live at the meta-level and let you reinvent them. Working at the meta-level is an enlightening experience. Understand your aesthetic sensitivities and you may gain considerable insight on your own psychology of programming. Mine is perhaps common to most lispers. Perhaps also common to other programming communities, but that, is for the reader to decide..

Price Transmission Along the Canadian Beef Supply Chain and the Impact of BSE

This study investigates the dynamics of price transmission between the Canadian beef markets along the supply chain and the impact of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) on prices. Retail price models are estimated for the provinces accounting for the major share of national demand, while farm price models are estimated for the beef cattle producing provinces. A model for the processing level is also estimated with national industrial prices of beef and provincial farm prices of beef cattle. The results indicate that retail beef prices in the major consuming provinces adjust either faster or at a greater magnitude to increases in industrial prices than to decreases. Furthermore, industrial prices adjust faster and at a greater magnitude in response to rising farm prices of beef cattle in Ontario and Quebec than when they fall. The impact of BSE on retail prices has been small and negative for Alberta and Ontario, and positive for Quebec and British Columbia. The impact of BSE on industrial prices has also been small and positive. On the contrary, strong and sustained negative influence of BSE on farm prices is evident in the results for the beef cattle producing provinces.Price Transmission, Beef Prices, BSE, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis,

Diagnostic error reduction in the United States and Italy through the intervention of diagnostic management teams

A major challenge to most countries is the growing cost of healthcare. The cost of laboratory testing is approximately 3% of the total clinical costs. On the other hand, waste from inappropriate admissions to clinical departments is reported to be as high as 15%. A frequently used approach to save dollars in healthcare is the random reduction in the budget for laboratories, with a focus on reduction of the number of unnecessary laboratory tests. The World Health Assembly has approached the problem by publishing a list of essential in vitro diagnostic tests, in order to achieve a global rationalization of the problem. A much more thoughtful strategy to saving healthcare finance is to improve the efficiency of the diagnostic process. This report presents an opportunity to reduce diagnostic error and increase the efficiency of diagnostic testing. Reduction in time to a correct diagnosis provides a major financial as well as a clinical benefit. In addition, reducing both overutilization and underutilization of laboratory tests while achieving the correct diagnosis is a major benefit to challenged healthcare budgets. One approach taken to achieve major savings in healthcare has been the creation of “Diagnostic Management Teams,” composed of experts in specialty areas of medicine who are primarily based in the clinical laboratory to advise physicians on the selection of only necessary tests and the interpretation of complex test results

Canada - Mexico Agricultural Economies and Trade Under Closer North American Relations

Continued expansion of economic and security relations between Canada, United States, and Mexico are expected in the years to come. The United States is by far the largest export market for both Canada and Mexico with each nation exporting over 80% of their products to this large economy. However, trade between Canada and Mexico has also grown significantly since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) a decade ago. The two-way trade between Canada and Mexico has more than doubled from Cdn $6.5 billion in 1995 to Cdn$15.1 billion in 2002, according to official Statistics Canada trade statistics. A recent merchandise trade reconciliation study undertaken between Statistics Canada and a Mexican Working Group on Foreign Trade Statistics has determined that the two-way trade was closer to Cdn $19 billion in 2001. This result ranks Canada as Mexico's second most important export market and ranks Mexico as Canada's fourth most important export market in 2001. In comparison, Mexico was ranked as Canada's 15th most important export market in 1995. This research study provides an overview of the trading relationship between Canada and Mexico with particular emphasis on agricultural trade. Approximately one-fifth of Canadian exports to Mexico are agricultural goods. Therefore, it is important to both countries that awareness is generated as to the nature of our bi-lateral trade and the changing socio-economic conditions that will enhance or hinder our trading relationship.International Relations/Trade,

White Woods and Blue Jasmine: Woody Allen Rewrites A Streetcar Named Desire

The film\u27s reviewers almost invariably commented on the parallels with Streetcar, many noting, too, that Cate Blanchett, who plays the title character, Jasmine, had also successfully played Blanche Dubois in Liv Ullmann\u27s 2009 production of the play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.2 But for all the similarities in character types and plot structure and for all the allusions to specific lines in Streetcar, the themes of Blue Jasmine are very different from those of Williams\u27s play because the story that Allen tells also channels the fall of Bernie Madoff and his wife, Ruth. The flashbacks are a filmic equivalent for Williams\u27s gradual exposition of Blanche\u27s story recounted by Stanley, Stella, and Blanche herself! Since many of the flashbacks represent what Jasmine is remembering when she detaches herself from the present (talking to herself, staring into space), they also correspond to Williams\u27s expressionist use of visual and aural effects-the glaring light of the passing train, the music of the Varsouviana-to convey Blanche\u27s consciousness, her memory of the night her young husband shot himself. Most of Woody Allen\u27s allusions to Tennessee Williams in his films and writings have been to A Streetcar Named Desire.1 So it is not surprising that Streetcar (1947) is written all over Allen\u27s recent film, Blue Jasmine (2013). Allen goes beyond adopting and adapting plot lines and characters from Williams\u27s play. He has so deeply assimilated the earlier work that motifs and lines of dialogue, often transferred to different characters or situations, become the imaginative counters with which he constructs his own screenplay. The film\u27s reviewers almost invariably commented on the parallels with Streetcar, many noting, too, that Cate Blanchett, who plays the title character, Jasmine, had also successfully played Blanche Dubois in Liv Ullmann\u27s 2009 production of the play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.2 But for all the similarities in character types and plot structure and for all the allusions to specific lines in Streetcar, the themes of Blue Jasmine are very different from those of Williams\u27s play because the story that Allen tells also channels the fall of Bernie Madoff and his wife, Ruth. In this essay I will review the similarities between Blue Jasmine and A Streetcar Named Desire, explore the implications of the allusions and the changes Allen makes, and suggest how the post-World War II play works in the postMadoff film