Firenze University Press: E-Journals
Not a member yet
14016 research outputs found
Sort by
Penetrating chest injury in a case of situs inversus totalis
Get PDFSitus inversus totalis is a congenital condition characterized by the transposition of the thoracic and abdominal organs to the opposite side of the body. Situs inversus totalis is typically asymptomatic, however, these individuals are susceptible to certain defects and malformations such as vascular anomalies and mal-positioned viscera, which can result in a shortened lifespan. There are reports on penetrating abdominal injury in patients with situs inversus. In addition, the presence of pathology of thoracic and abdominal organs in situs inversus patients have been reported. However, from the literature reviewed, there is a paucity of reports on penetrating chest injuries in patients with situs inversus. Hence, we present a case of a patient who presented with a stab chest with situs inversus totalis and a brief discussion on the embryology of the condition
Osteologic topography of the trochlear spine and fovea as landmarks to locate the superior oblique trochlea
Get PDFThe position of the superior oblique tendon, attached to the orbital roof by a cartilaginous trochlea, is marked by osteologic landmarks like the trochlear spine and/or fovea, approximately located at the superomedial angle of the orbit. Aim of the study is to place the trochlea within the orbit with a series of measurements to give the surgeon detailed references of the trochlea location. For this purpose, we undertook the study of a collection of dry skulls of known sex and age to investigate bony landmarks. Measurements were taken to assess the position of the trochlear spine/fovea on a frontal plane employing a system of vertical and horizontal lines passing through known bony reference points. Measurements were also recorded between the trochlear spine/fovea and the orbital opening on one side and the anterior rim of the optic canal on the other side. The distances of the trochlear spine/fovea from the lines passing along the supraorbital notch and the frontozygomatic suture were respectively 8.5 ± 2.3 mm and 5.7 ± 1.5 mm. The distances of the trochlear fovea/spine from the anterior orbital opening and from the anterior rim of the optic foramen were respectively 4.2 ± 0.11 and 37.5 ± 3.1 mm. Only the distance from the optic canal showed sex-related differences. In conclusion, to avoid unwanted injuries of the trochlea of the superior oblique in surgery of the superomedial angle of the orbit, the surgeon should be aware of its precise position
Experience of predacious cues and accessibility to refuge minimize mortality of Hylarana temporalis tadpoles
No full textWe explored the effect of a prior experience of predation threat and access to the refuge sites on larval mortality in Hylarana temporalis with a 2 × 2 factorial design. The design included predator-naïve or predator experienced prey subjects, and presence or absence of a natural shelter. Water scorpion adult individuals (Laccotrephes species) provided predation threat and also an opportunity to the prey to experience a direct danger of predation. Both previous experience with predators and availability of shelters affected larval survival independently and not conjointly. A prior encounter with predators enabled prey tadpoles to escape predation more effectively with a significant increase in their survival in comparison to the predator-naïve subjects. Similarly, access to refuge sites significantly increased survival of predator-naïve as well as predator experienced tadpoles compared to that in the absence of shelters. Clearly, ability to sense water borne predacious cues in the vicinity and use refuge sites plays a key role in escaping from predation in the bronze frog tadpoles
Parks and envelopes: reconceptualizing the intersection of public and private interests in HK
No full textThis article aims to demonstrate that building envelopes can be designed to improve the performance of public open space in Hong Kong. It investigates how such improvement can be used to negotiate between objective and regulation in planning standards. Addressing a research site with a publicly accessible pocket park in the Mong Kok area, the article explores generative potentials at the interface between the building envelope and the zoning envelope. The objective is to demonstrate that architecture can overcome the conflict between public and private interests in urban development by shaping profitable real estate that also promotes community welfare. The research methodology for this article adheres to design research
Irish Diaspora, Cultural Activism and Print Media in Transatlantic Contexts between Ireland and North America c. 1857-1887
Get PDFThis paper examines ideas, concepts, and theories, in relation to the revival of the Irish language as a transatlantic venture c.1857-1887 focusing on print media and cultural organisations in the United States. The study of these forums in the context of the Irish language revival allows us to assess theories and methodologies relating to the media’s role in a transatlantic context. It demonstrates the transcending of the Irish language across transnational borders, the creation of debate and discussion in a hybrid community public sphere, and the role print media, and media events, played in constructing this transatlantic and transnational community, highlighting that movements in the US and Ireland influenced one another in the context of ideology, methodology and organisation
Ecological Theory, Protestant Theology, and Derek Mahon’s Sense of the Natural World
Get PDFA close reading of Derek Mahon’s ocean-grounded and meteorologically rounded poems with direct reference to his stance on ecology and the environment. The article argues that Mahon’s sense of the natural world – and the ways in which it is under siege at the hands of man – finds a certain resemblance in his background as a Northern Irish Protestant who was brought up on a theology of apocalypse
Horizontal vs vertical. The public space in section
Get PDFThe section as an investigative tool to analyze, through deep-seated models and paradigms, the nature of the public space, historically oscillating between horizontal linearity and vertical development. Today the adoption of the concept of Loos’ “raumplan”, declined in an urban key, is proposed – through addition and subtraction operations – as a method of strategic intervention in defining a complexity not only spatial, but also semantic of the value of contemporary use of public space. From the redesign of the section it is possible to trigger new cycles of use and sharing for a connective public space, which can determine the regeneration of infrastructures or the realization of new social habitats by virtue of integration and hybridization between different levels
A new device to improve the mechanical winter pruning in olive trees hedgerows
Get PDFThe economic success of superintensive olive plantations is mainly due to the full mechanization of the harvesting and pruning. While the advantage of straddling machines is undoubted, winter mechanical pruning determines falls in productions. This is due to the indiscriminate suppression of both fertile leafy shoots destined to fruiting and growth, and exhausted parts of the plant. To reduce this damage, an innovative device has been developed, applied to a pruning machine, able to selectively cut the “aged” parts of vegetation. The selection is achieved by an air’s fluid dynamic action obtained throughout defined and directional air jets able to push the young and flexible shoots upwards and downwards; in this way they are saved by the cut, regenerating at least one year in advance the new fruiting hedge. Tests were carried out on the cultivar Arbequina, Tosca and Sikitita, in three superintensive olive groves located in the province of Grosseto, Rome and Latina, assessing the amount of leaves, shoots and branches, as well as fruits present at harvest, preserved from the pruning thanks to the action of the air flow, respectively for the East and West side of the rows. To get a profile of the biomass distribution along the cross section of the tree canopy, in the Grosseto farm a trial was also carried out to better assess leaves, shoots and branches distribution in the canopy. The statistical data analyses immediately evidenced two different populations due to the selective pruning. The work highlighted the remarkable effectiveness of the air jet in safeguarding the flexible and leafy vegetation and allowed to quadruple leaf surface and production