Why universities and scientific world should stay away from the tobacco industry. Journey in Big Tobacco deception

Universities are institutions dedicated to improving life through the research and dissemination of knowledge. They facilitates the "peer to peer" communication among young people; the acquisition of knowledge and skills to improve personal and community health; the propagation of healthy lifestyles through the emulation of behavior. Tobacco industry, through commercial policies, enlist young people and transform them, through dependence, into "loyal customers" for many years. The recent introduction of the "reduced risk" products, (the so-called "cold smoke" for example), are a threat for young people who might underestimate the dangers, not even completely known by the experts. Universities and Scientific world that turn a blind eye to tobacco market, accepting the advantages offered by grants and donations from tobacco industry, become accomplices in spreading the "tobacco epidemic" because the funding comes directly from the sale of tobacco products. This "dirty" money causes illness, suffering and death. Universities are invested with an important ethical responsibility to help the world reduce and eliminate the tobacco epidemic, with research, training and information. Universities should have a policy statement that specifically prohibits academic bodies from accepting tobacco industry funding including grant funding. In the U.S.A. several scientific journals no longer publish tobacco industry- supported researches

NILDE: developing a new generation tool for document delivery

This paper presents the most recent progress and implementation of the NILDE (Network Inter-Library Document Exchange) system, which was developed by the National Research Council (CNR) Bologna Research Area Library. NILDE is a web based document delivery (DD) software for libraries and end-users. It allows libraries to manage the entire workflow of DD activities, both borrowing and lending, through the provision of synthetic and analytical statistics, DD performance indicators “fill-rate” and “turn-around time”, and support for secure electronic delivery. As new challenges in electronic publishing (such as increases in the price of journals, cross-access and licensing issues) have led libraries from all over the world to organize in consortia, the rise in NILDE users has allowed the building of a cooperation network to promote resource sharing based on a degree of standard quality of service and fair behaviour, and to establish an efficient communication channel among libraries, consortia and publishers. It has been proved that, in order to accomplish effective resource sharing, libraries should be willing to fulfil document delivery on a reciprocal basis, both requesting and providing documents. In particular, each library should make its best effort to expose and update its holdings by actively participating in collective national OPACs or in Italian meta-OPACs. It has been shown how, by adhering to these principles, libraries start up a virtuous cycle within the NILDE network, increasing its own value. As a result, the growth rate of numbers of NILDE libraries has accelerated, showing that the above said resource sharing policy is a real building block for success. In order to guarantee scalability and high performance operations, the overall system architecture has been rethought, ending up in the design of a brand new piece of software. New technologies, referred to as Web 2.0, have been incorporated into NILDE, making it an even more user-oriented and friendly tool for document delivery and scholar work

La citisina nel trattamento del tabagismo

Cytisine is a chemical known ever since the sixties as a treatment for tobacco smoke cessation. It is an alcaloid present in a plant, Cytisus laburnum, which acts as a partial agonist of the \u3b14\u3b22 nicotinic receptors of acetylcholine (nAChRs). The first studies were conducted in the Eastern European countries and showed a good efficacy profile, but even then the marketing of the drug in the Western countries was limited by European norms. Pharmacological studies show a brief half-life of the product, which is eliminated by the kidneys at 90-95%. Recently, many clinical trials brought attention to cytisine, which showed a better efficacy for tobacco smoking cessation higher than placebo and than nicotine, between 8% (12 months) and 22% (6 months) depending on the studies. The adverse effects mainly reported were disorders of the digestive tract (nausea, dyspepsia, dry mouth, insomnia, or headaches). An important factor is the fairly low cost of the drug. In 2014, NHS produced a document which evaluates the cost efficacy rate of pharmacological therapies for smoke cessation, concluding that cytisine has a favorable profile with respect to other considered drugs

NILDE: developing a new generation tool for document delivery in Italy

This paper presents the most recent progress and implementation of the NILDE (Network Inter-Library Document Exchange) system, a web based document delivery (DD) software for libraries and end-users. NILDE allows libraries to manage the entire workflow of DD activities, both borrowing and lending, through the provision of synthetic and analytical statistics, DD performance indicators such as "fill-rate" and "turn-around time", and support for secure electronic delivery. New technologies, referred to as Web 2.0, have been incorporated into NILDE, making it an even more user-oriented and friendly tool for document delivery and scholar work