Integrated preclinical cardiovascular prevention: a new paradigm to face growing challenges of cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) still represents the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Despite considerable improvements in the prognosis of CVD and the significant reduction of CVD mortality obtained during the past half century, patients developing CVD, even though satisfactorily treated, still carry coronary artery disease and remain at risk for advanced CVD. Thus, the healthcare and socioeconomic burden linked to CVD remains high. As a result, more effective CVD prevention strategies remain crucial. 'Population strategies' and 'high-risk' approaches both have limitations and have often been viewed as alternative solutions. This persistent dualism could be overcome with the promotion of integrated prevention strategies based on a systematic evaluation of the total risk of disease, at both a population and an individual level. New approaches are also needed to reach people earlier in the course of the vascular disease and, possibly, to prevent risk factors and reduce CVD clinical manifestation

Modificaciones constitucionales en Bélgica. La Sixième Réforme de l'Etat: un proceso en marcha

La sisena reforma de l'Estat a Bèlgica s'ha desenvolupat a partir de la firma de l'acort titulat Un Estat Fédéral plus efficace et des entités plus autonomes, més conegut com Accord du papillon. Després d'una llarga crisi institucional, la negociació entre els principals partits belgues (sense els nacionalistes flamencs) va semblar el camí més adequat per assegurar la formacíó del govern i permetre l'inici d'una nova època de reformes que, fins ara, s'ha desenvolupat en dues etapes, al 2012 i al 2014, a través d'actes de naturalesa legislativa i constitucional alhora, entre els quals en destaquen dos. La sisena reforma de l'Estat defineix les bases per a la divisió de la circumscripció Bruxelles-Hal-Vivorde. En segon lloc, amb la reforma s'ha impulsat la revisitació del bicameralisme belga. Darrerament, l'afany reformista belga dels últims anys ha anat dismunuint. Les causes cal buscar-les, probablement, en els resultats de les últimes eleccions. Però previsiblement es tracta només d'un desinterès contingent i temporal: a Bèlgica sempre és tot una mica més complicat del que sembla, de manera que l´última paraula mai no està dita

Analisi di sistemi fermionici mediante variabili di Grassmann

Il presente elaborato è finalizzato ad esporre come alcuni sistemi fermionici possano essere descritti, anche a livello classico, mediante l’utilizzo di un nuovo sistema di variabili, dette Variabili di Grassmann. Queste variabili godono di proprietà peculiari che le rendono uno strumento efficace per ricavare informazioni e caratteristiche fisiche del sistema in esame. Si introduce la distinzione tra bosoni e fermioni e si dà un breve accenno al Principio di esclusione di Pauli. Successivamente, mediante un breve excursus storico sulla vita di Hermann Günther Grassmann, si chiarisce come e quando è nata l’algebra esterna ( algebra di Grassmann ) ed i suoi successivi sviluppi in ambito matematico e fisico. L’elaborato inizia presentando le definizioni generali e le principiali proprietà delle Variabili di Grassmann. Attraverso il loro utilizzo si costruisce un formalismo hamiltoniano utile allo studio della dinamica di alcuni sistemi fermionici e si verifica in maniera diretta come le proprietà di tali variabili facciano emergere, sia a livello classico sia a livello quantistico, il Principio di esclusione di Pauli

Fair visions: Elkanah Watson (1758--1842) and the modern American agricultural fair

The modern American agricultural fair, an annual harvest-time celebration at which livestock, produce, and handicrafts are exhibited for premiums, originated as an innovative response to conditions in rural New England at the time of the War of 1812. This study explains the birth of the institution by scrutinizing the motives and methods of its founders. In particular, it traces the intellectual journey from Puritan youth to Jeffersonian promoter of Plymouth, Massachusetts, native Elkanah Watson (1758--1842), its chief publicist. This dissertation also examines the specific social, economic, and political forces that shaped Pittsfield, Massachusetts---to which he retired from a mercantile career in Albany, New York, in 1807---leading to the formation of the Berkshire County Agricultural Society in 1811, which organized America\u27s first successful county fairs. Inspired by a vision of a United States no longer dependent on Great Britain for its cloth, Watson and the new local elite---professional men and capitalist entrepreneurs---imported fine-fleeced Spanish Merino sheep and established the first woolen factories in Pittsfield. their new type of agricultural society would hold annual fairs for farm families to promote both, as well as to introduce agricultural improvements in general. In addition to being a popular institution of agricultural education, the fair was one of self-improvement. Answering deep needs of the rural community, it aimed to replace undisciplined folkways with secular ritual, healthy competition, rational amusements, and innocent recreations. The origins of the agricultural fair can best be understood in its synergistic relationship with the new forces sweeping the country in the era of the early American republic: the capitalist transformation of the countryside, the early development of American manufactures, the democratization of American society and politics, the secularization of moral reform, the rise of voluntary associations, the heightened significance of the social sphere (especially for women), and the growing importance of public festivity. The fair assumed today\u27s form, with spectacles, sports, and Midway entertainments competing with agricultural exhibitions, only after railroads came to towns like Pittsfield around the mid-nineteenth century, intensifying the pace of socioeconomic change and bringing many more nonagricultural participants to the fairs

Observations of HONO by laser-induced fluorescence at the South Pole during ANTCI 2003

Observations of nitrous acid (HONO) by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) at the South Pole taken during the Antarctic Troposphere Chemistry Investigation (ANTCI), which took place over the time period of Nov. 15, 2003 to Jan. 4, 2004, are presented here. The median observed mixing ratio of HONO 10 m above the snow was 5.8 pptv (mean value 6.3 pptv) with a maximum of 18.2 pptv on Nov 30th, Dec 1st, 3rd, 15th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 27th and 28th. The measurement uncertainty is ±35%. The LIF HONO observations are compared to concurrent HONO observations performed by mist chamber/ion chromatography (MC/IC). The HONO levels reported by MC/IC are about 7.2 ± 2.3 times higher than those reported by LIF. Citation: Liao, W., A. T. Case, J. Mastromarino, D. Tan, and J. E. Dibb (2006), Observations of HONO by laser-induced fluorescence at the South Pole during ANTCI 2003, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L09810, doi:10.1029/2005GL025470

Il lavoro con i gruppi: una proposta integrata

The aim of this article is to share the progress of our work with the groups of IFREP (Istituto di Formazione e Ricerca per Educatori e Psicoterapeuti, Tranining and Research Institute for Teachers and Psychotherapists) founded by Pio Scilligo. We also aim to give our contribution to the use of Transactional Analysis in training and therapy groups, and to outline how we take into account and integrate the ATSC model with Berne’s group therapy model and Gouldâ€ing’s individual group therapy model in our clinical work with groups

The natriuretic peptides system in the pathophysiology of heart failure. From molecular basis to treatment

After its discovery in the early 1980s, the natriuretic peptide (NP) system has been extensively characterized and its potential influence in the development and progression of heart failure (HF) has been investigated. HF is a syndrome characterized by the activation of different neurohormonal systems, predominantly the renin-angiotensin (Ang)-aldosterone system (RAAS) and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), but also the NP system. Pharmacological interventions have been developed to counteract the neuroendocrine dysregulation, through the down modulation of RAAS with ACE (Ang-converting enzyme) inhibitors, ARBs (Ang receptor blockers) and mineralcorticoid antagonists and of SNS with β-blockers. In the last years, growing attention has been paid to the NP system. In the present review, we have summarized the current knowledge on the NP system, focusing on its role in HF and we provide an overview of the pharmacological attempts to modulate NP in HF: from the negative results of the study with neprilysin (NEP) inhibitors, alone or associated with an ACE inhibitor and vasopeptidase inhibitors, to the most recently and extremely encouraging results obtained with the new pharmacological class of Ang receptor and NEP inhibitor, currently defined ARNI (Ang receptor NEP inhibitor). Indeed, this new class of drugs to manage HF, supported by the recent results and a vast clinical development programme, may prompt a conceptual shift in the treatment of HF, moving from the inhibition of RAAS and SNS to a more integrated target to rebalance neurohormonal dysregulation in HF