Visual impairment: its impact upon and implications for aesthetic experience

With this research programme, I will be looking at how visually impaired people interpret the sensory inputs that artwork evokes together with the spatial environment that visually impaired people engage with. The study intertwines concepts of aesthetics that have specific relevance for visually impaired people, together with the processes and concepts associated with vision. The study refers to some common beliefs regarding blindness and provides some evidence of links between art and blindness. The study reflects upon how human cognitive processes are different for blind people, the use of verbal description used by visually impaired people and comments upon the logical reasoning processes developed by people with sight loss. Finally the study teases out methods of media manipulation, the interplay of different sensory stimulus and the control that visually impaired people endeavour to exert over an unseen environment. The nature of this research will be developed into a programme which explores and revisits the central themes of study using a system of concentric evolution. (See methodology section.) As a result, this 'intertwining study' will examine the values of each strand of research and will provide data regarding the aesthetic understanding and creative processes used by people with visual impairment, together with an appreciation of the methods blind people engage with to understand and use spatial properties

Elective cancer surgery in COVID-19-free surgical pathways during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: An international, multicenter, comparative cohort study

PURPOSE As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19–free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19–free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19–free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19–free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score–matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19–free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Phonemic restoration in developmental dyslexia

The comprehension of fluent speech in one\u27s native language requires that listeners integrate the detailed acoustic-phonetic information available in the sound signal with linguistic knowledge. This interplay is especially apparent in the phoneme restoration effect, a phenomenon in which a missing phoneme is “restored” via the influence of top-down information from the lexicon and through bottom-up acoustic processing. Developmental dyslexia is a disorder characterized by an inability to read at the level of one\u27s peers without any clear failure due to environmental influences. In the current study we utilized the phonemic restoration illusion paradigm to examine individual differences in phonemic restoration across a range of reading ability, from very good to dyslexic readers. Results demonstrate that restoration occurs less in those who have high scores on measures of phonological processing. Based on these results, we suggest that the processing or representation of acoustic detail may not be as reliable in poor and dyslexic readers, with the result that lexical information is more likely to override acoustic properties of the stimuli. This pattern of increased restoration could result from a failure of perceptual tuning, in which unstable representations of speech sounds result in the acceptance of non-speech sounds as speech. An additional or alternative theory is that degraded or impaired phonological processing at the speech sound level may reflect architecture that is overly plastic and consequently fails to stabilize appropriately for speech sound representations. Therefore, the inability to separate speech and noise may result as a deficit in separating noise from the acoustic signal

Dysfunction of Rapid Neural Adaptation in Dyslexia

Identification of specific neurophysiological dysfunctions resulting in selective reading difficulty (dyslexia) has remained elusive. In addition to impaired reading development, individuals with dyslexia frequently exhibit behavioral deficits in perceptual adaptation. Here, we assessed neurophysiological adaptation to stimulus repetition in adults and children with dyslexia for a wide variety of stimuli, spoken words, written words, visual objects, and faces. For every stimulus type, individuals with dyslexia exhibited significantly diminished neural adaptation compared to controls in stimulus-specific cortical areas. Better reading skills in adults and children with dyslexia were associated with greater repetition-induced neural adaptation. These results highlight a dysfunction of rapid neural adaptation as a core neurophysiological difference in dyslexia that may underlie impaired reading development. Reduced neurophysiological adaptation may relate to prior reports of reduced behavioral adaptation in dyslexia and may reveal a difference in brain functions that ultimately results in a specific reading impairment.NIH (Grant UL1RR025758

Il diritto penale nella prospettiva europea. Quali politiche criminali per quale Europa?

I. Il diritto penale in Europa: le esperienze di ricodificazione di fine secoloSez. 1. L’Europa orientale: la “nuova frontiera” dell’UnioneMARIA VALERIA DEL TUFO, Le riforme penali nei paesi dell’est: uno sguardo di sintesi BERISLAV PAVISIC, Dalla frantumazione di uno Stato ai nuovi sistemi penali: la ex-Jugoslavia HAKAN HAKERI, L’eredità del codice Zanardelli alle porte della nuova Europa: la TurchiaMASSIMO PAPA, Il diritto penale dell’Europa e la presenza delle comunità islamicheSEZ. 2. L’Europa continentale e il mondo anglosassone: riforme realizzate e progettateALBERTO CADOPPI, Civil Law e Common Law: contrapposizione sistemica o culturale?JEAN PRADEL, Il codice penale francese del 1994 GONZALO QUINTERO OLIVARES, L’esperienza della codificazione spagnola dopo sei anni di vigenza del codice penale del 1995 MANFRED MAIWALD, La riforma continua: Germania CARLO FEDERICO GROSSO, Addio al codice Rocco?II. Il diritto penale in Europa: le prospettive di politica criminaleSez. 1. Le politiche criminali dell’Unione e degli Stati tra vecchie e nuove esigenze di tutela: mercato economico e diritti fondamentali MASSIMO PAVARINI, IntroduzioneGIOVANNI FIANDACA, Nuovi orizzonti della tutela della persona LUIS ARROYO ZAPATERO, Immigrazione e lavoro: proposta per un “eurodelitto” di tratta di esseri umani SERGIO SEMINARA, L’evoluzione europea del diritto penale del mercato finanziario nella prospettiva italiana VINCENZO MILITELLO, Criminalità organizzata: politica criminale europea versus tutela nazionale dei diritti fondamentali? SILVIO RIONDATO, Uno sguardo dall’Europa al nuovo diritto penale di guerra statunitense contro il terrorismoSez. 2. Principi generali e modelli di armonizzazioneLORENZO PICOTTI, Diritto penale comunitario e progetto di Costituzione per l’EuropaALESSANDRO BERNARDI, Strategie per l’armonizzazione dei sistemi penali europei JESUS MARÍA SILVA SÁNCHEZ, I principi ispiratori delle proposte di un diritto penale europeo. Un commento criticoKLAUS TIEDEMANN, Diritto penale comune europeo tra realtà e utopiaKLAUS LÜDERSSEN, Europeizzazione del diritto penale e legislazione governativaJOHN A.E. VERVAELE, Il pubblico ministero europeo e lo spazio giudiziario europeo: protezione efficace degli interessi comunitari o inizio di un diritto processuale penale europeo