128 research outputs found
Silvano Arieti: remembering his message
No full textThis paper reviews the contributions of Silvano Arieti to the psychodynamic treatment of schizophrenia and places them in the context of the current era and its intellectual tensions regarding this disorder and its treatment. The author includes personal anecdotes to illustrate her thesis that psychodynamic approaches remain vitally important and are tragically underutilized currently . The International Society for the Psychological treatments of the Schizophrenias and other psychoses, ISPS, aims at redressing this proble
Bisphosphonates in prostate carcinoma
No full textThe majority of the patients with advanced prostate carcinoma have painful skeletal metastases, which are responsible for significant skeletal morbidity and disability. Most of these metastases are osteosclerotic, but it has been shown that the abnormal osteoblastic bone formation within metastases is preceded by osteoclastic activation, which appears to be associated with bone pain. This provides the rationale for using bisphosphonates, which are powerful and selective inhibitors of osteoclastic bone resorption. Several bisphosphonates have been shown to be clinically useful for the treatment of several conditions characterized by abnormal osteoclastic bone resorption, including Paget's disease, primary hyperparathyroidism, myelomatosis, and skeletal metastases. Its efficacy in relieving pain in patients with skeletal metastases due to prostate carcinoma has been confirmed in a few studies. The bisphosphonate clodronate was extensively investigated in the study unit. When infused intravenously i.v. (300 mg/day) relief of bone pain become appreciable with 3 days, sometimes preceded by a transient pain flare. These clinical results are very consistent and the residual pain usually is of extraosseous origin. Thus, Mth regard to pain of strictly bone origin, unresponsive patients are quite rare. Oral administration also is effective, but due to its limited intestinal absorption the effective dose is on the order of 1600-3200 mg/day. These doses usually are well tolerated, but they may be a problem for severely ill patients. Furthermore, the efficacy of treatment becomes apparent only after a few days. Thus, oral clodronate usually is adopted as a continuation of an i.v. course. The duration of the i.v. therapy should be individualized, but usually the more prolonged the treatment the longer the duration of the effect. For practical reasons, clodronate is infused daily for 5 days (Monday-Friday) and the treatment course is repeated at the time of any significant recurrence. The oral continuation prevents or delays the recurrence of bone pain in most patients, but in some patients this therapy has to be integrated occasionally with i.v. infusion. The duration of the effect for the same bioavailable dose is somewhat related to the degree of malignancy of the primary tumor. In an uncontrolled study, the author also evaluated the effectiveness of alendronate given either i.v. or orally. A single infusion of 5 mg alendronate i.v. produces roughly the symptomatic effect of 5 i.v. infusions of 300 mg clodronate. Alendronate, 40 mg orally/day, was effective in reducing bone pain in 11 of 12 patients with bone metastases due to prostate carcinoma but who were not confined to bed. In some patients with prostate carcinoma and a diffuse metastatic invasion of the skeleton, there is indirect biochemical and histologic evidence of osteomalacia. This can be aggravated by bisphosphonate administration because of the transient striking prevalence of osteoblastic activity over bone resorption, which also occasionally causes the appearance of symptomatic hypocalcemia. Therefore, the use of large oral supplements of calcium is recommended, particularly at the start of therapy. It is conceivable that these calcium supplements also may be able to improve the final clinical outcome of the bisphosphonate therapy. In conclusion, administration of large doses of bisphosphonates is one of the most cost-effective palliation treatments for patients with prostate carcinoma with bone metastases, both as first-line therapy and in the long term. With appropriate doses, a large proportion of patients can be maintained free of bone pain until death. Studies of the ability of lower doses to prevent skeletal morbidity in patients without metastases or with asymptomatic bone lesions are warranted
La festa del partito
No full textIl contributo esamina la festa politica secondo alcuni aspetti: il rito e il simbolo, il tempo, la partecipazione, la "sacralità". Viene poi analizzato un tipo particolare di festa politica: la convention nazionale negli Stati Uniti.In the first part, the Author examines some specific characteristics of the party feasts: the ritual, the symbols, the time, the participation of the different actors, and the sacred aspects of the celebration. In the second part, an example of political feast is considered: the National Conventions of the Parties in the USA
Blocked Transition And Post-Socialist Transformation: Serbia in the Nineties
Get PDFThis paper is showing that Serbia in the nineties was an interesting case of postsocialist transformation in spite of the greatly blocked transition. The key sign of the post-socialist transformation has been the formation of a new transformative social force – formation of entrepreneurs and of the strata of social owners. Initial transformation of ownership relations in Serbia began in the 1990-1991. period, with limited privatization of some 40% of all former “socially owned” enterprises . Privatization of such firms was practically blocked in 1992-2000. period. Some comments on ownership transformation after the regime change at the end of year 2000 are given in the paper. There was an autonomous growth of the private sector during the nineties generated by the formation of some 200.000 new private firms. It was shown in the paper that some branches, like retail trade, have been de facto privatized thanks to the predominance in trade business of new private retail trade firms. Social features of new entrepreneurs in Serbia have been analyzed, based on author’ s surveys. Positive impact of new entrepreneurs has been not only in generating and enforcing systemic changes by the end of nineties, but also in preventing overall aggravation of living conditions of people in Serbia in this period. New entrepreneurs were spreading new life orientations, innovativeness, readiness to take responsibility for one’s life, especially among the young generations. The author believes that post-socialist transformation in the nineties facilitated regime change in the Fall of year 2000.Serbia, post-socialist transformation, transition, blocked transition, entrepreneur, new entrepreneurs, spontaneous privatization
Economic Feasibility Study of a Small-scale Biogas Plant Using a Two-stage Process and a Fixed Bio-film Reactor for a Cost-efficient Production
No full textAbstractEuropean and Italian incentive schemes promote small-scale biogas plant distribution using different types of biological and agricultural wastes as feedstock. A feed in tariff system is used in most of the European Union countries, and the incentive is paid on top of the market price capped at a maximum amount sold.The proposed study explores the feasibility of two-stage biogas plants for small-scale CHP, based on a two-phase bio-film process partially tested during the Biowalk4Biofuels (B4B) FP7 project implementing an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) based on a rotating biological contactor thus able to combine significant yields and reduced volume. The project developed a small pre-industrial biogas plant implementing a recovered 45 kWel CHP unit with 95 kWth thermal power. In the two-stage process, a high-temperature hydrolysis phase was followed by a continuously stirred methanogenesis bioreactor equipped with a rotating biological contactor. Main process performances were related to Organic Load Rate (OLR) up to 15kg VS/m3; the overall reactor volume was 70 m3 for expected biogas production of 25 Nm3/h.Specifically, the aim of the present article is to address the use of the results and outcomes from some laboratory tests verified by the B4B system to model an overall feasibility evaluation. This allows to explore theoretical and economic feasibility of two ideal plants characterized by a 50 and 150 Nm3/h biogas production based on the overall system performances implementing a fixed biofilm for enhancing methanogenesis process. The feasibility study for the 50 Nm3/h biogas plants (equivalent to 100 kWel) shows profitable results, as well as evaluation of the 150 Nm3/h plants (300 kWe), that represent the biggest size for Italian incentives aimed at “small size” biogas plants
Licinio Silvano, patrono de Badalona
No full textThe author submits his opinion that the Licinius Silvanus honoured with the patrone of Baelulo may yet be identified with the prefect of the ora Laietana, a provincial man, better than with his son, the consul of 106 A.C.No disponible
The MBRD Dipoles for the Luminosity Upgrade at the LHC: From Prototype Tests to the Series Production
No full textThe recombination dipoles MBRD for the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at CERN are double-aperture superconducting magnets generating a central magnetic field of 4.5 T in a 105 mm diameter bore, directed in the same direction in both apertures. The integrated magnetic field is 35 T-m in a magnetic length of 7.78 m: with respect to the corresponding magnet presently installed in LHC, the aperture is larger, the length is smaller and the central field is higher. The project, currently underway, includes the fabrication by ASG Superconductors and testing at CERN of a short model (1.6 m long), a prototype, and a series of 4 + 2 spare dipoles. The short model was delivered to CERN and successfully tested in a vertical cryostat in summer 2020, reaching nominal current after three quenches in the second thermal cycle, validating most of the mechanical, thermal and electrical design and giving indications for improvements that have been implemented in the prototype, which was completed and delivered to CERN in October 2021. It was tested in October 2022 in its final cold mass, 14 m long, which also includes the two orbit correctors. This contribution reports on key results from the prototype tests and on the further activities related to the construction of the first magnets of the series
Free flow speed estimation: A probabilistic, latent approach. Impact of speed limit changes and road characteristics
No full textThe estimation of the free flow speed (FFS) distribution is important for capacity analysis, determination of the level-of-service, and setting speed limits. Subjective time headway thresholds have been commonly used to identify vehicles travelling under free flow speed conditions i.e., vehicles whose speeds are not influenced by the vehicle in front. Since, the headway a driver operates under the free flow state is subjective and varies from driver to driver, such approaches can introduce biases in the FFS estimation. Therefore, in this paper a parametric probabilistic latent approach is proposed based on discrete choice utility theory to estimate the FFS distribution on urban roads and simultaneously the probability that drivers perceive their state as constrained by the vehicle in front. This methodology is used to estimate the impacts of road characteristics and Posted Speed Limit (PSL) changes on the FFS distribution using an extensive dataset of speed observations from urban roads with varying characteristics. The results show that the simultaneous estimation of the free flow speed distribution and the state the driver is in (e.g., free or constrained) is feasible. The analysis indicates that the FFS is influenced by several road characteristics such as land use, on-street parking and the presence of sidewalks. The PSL change impacts not only the distribution of the free flow vehicles but also the speed distribution of the constrained vehicles. The constrained probabilities vary depending on the PSL change with higher probabilities for lower speed limits.Accepted Author ManuscriptTransport and Plannin
Two-dimensional packing problems in telecommunications
No full textWe present the transcript of the IFORS distinguished lecture delivered by the author on invitation of SOBRAPO and IFORS. The lecture concerned the development of an interdisciplinary research motivated by an application in mobile telecommunication systems, a project jointly developed by four research teams. The presentation follows the typical steps of a classical operations research study, and aims at reviewing the main theoretical and practical results that were obtained
Exil und Identität
Get PDFOnce Germany invaded Italy in September 1943, the Jews of Italy became part of the Final Solution. The author examines a brief but important phase of their history by looking at the fate of those Jews who were able save themselves in Switzerland. They became actively engaged in politics, education, and journalism while also providing support to the partisan struggle and to the Jews who remained in occupied Italy
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