71 research outputs found
Combined_supplemental_materials-Mignacca_et_al - <i>Cistus salviifolius</i> Toxicity in Cattle
No full textCombined_supplemental_materials-Mignacca_et_al for Cistus salviifolius Toxicity in Cattle by Sebastian Alessandro Mignacca, Marco Mucciarelli, Elena Colombino, Elena Biasibetti, Salvatore Muscia, Benedetta Amato, Vincenzo Di Marco Lo Presti, Irene Vazzana, Andrea Galbo and Maria Teresa Capucchio in Veterinary Pathology</p
Perception and management of Oestrus ovis human myiasis by physicians: Exploratory survey in an endemic area (Italy)
No full textBackground Myiasis caused by the sheep nasal botfly is endemic in countries where sheep and goats are largely reared, while humans serve as incidental hosts. Ophthalmomyiasis in humans caused by Oestrus ovis is documented globally but is most prevalent in Mediterranean countries, highlighting the significance of this myiasis as a neglected disease. Method A thorough questionnaire covering frequency of disease occurrence, seasonal patterns, and management of O. ovis was forwarded to clinicians in Italy gathering data from 100 respondents across diverse regional and occupational backgrounds. Results Majority of respondents were from endemic areas of the Southern Italy and main islands, like Sardinia (52%) and Sicily (42%), with 81% representing physicians. Notably, 31% of physicians reported treating ophthalmomyiasis cases, while 80% expressed interest in further information. Seasonal trends revealed a peak during summer (χ² = 29.429, df = 4, p < 0.001), notably among outdoor workers in contact with farm animals (χ ² = 18.059, df = 2, p < 0.001). Diagnosis relied on symptoms or parasite detection, with ocular regions being the most common site of infestation. O. ovis was identified in 13% of cases (χ² = 20.368, df = 3, p < 0.05), with physicians emphasizing the importance of removing larvae painlessly to avoid complications. Finally, physicians reported the efficacy of mercuric oxide ointment and the use of topical povidone-iodine for ocular localization, combined with antibiotics and corticosteroids. Conclusions Diagnostic challenges and the persistence of recurrent infestations highlight the need for enhanced disease surveillance and clinician knowledge to effectively manage and mitigate the impact of ophthalmomyiasis as it continues to emerge as a significant public health concern.</p
Virtual vs. Standard Strike: An Experiment
No full textIn this paper we compare - in the laboratory - stoppage and virtual strike. Our experiment confirms that higher wages offered by an employer lead to considerably more costly effort provision. The number of strikes, the level of efforts and average total payoffs are higher under virtual strike than under standard strike. However, when standard strike is associated with reciprocal externalities, it induces higher effort levels, higher payoffs and an extremely reduced number of strikes than virtual strike. It is unclear whether this behavior re?ects reciprocity or other forms of social preferences. However our results might explain why standard strikes rather than virtual ones are generally adopted by workers.virtual strike, cooperation, reciprocity, fairness, experiments
Complement Coercion: The Joint Effects of Type and Typicality
No full textComplement coercion (begin a book →reading) involves a type clash between an event-selecting verb and an entity-denoting object, triggering a covert event (reading). Two main factors involved in complement coercion have been investigated: the semantic type of the object (event vs. entity), and the typicality of the covert event (the author began a book →writing). In previous research, reading times have been measured at the object. However, the influence of the typicality of the subject–object combination on processing an aspectual verb such as begin has not been studied. Using a self-paced reading study, we manipulated semantic type and subject–object typicality, exploiting German word order to measure reading times at the aspectual verb. These variables interacted at the target verb. We conclude that both type and typicality probabilistically guide expectations about upcoming input. These results are compatible with an expectation-based view of complement coercion and language comprehension more generally in which there is rapid interaction between what is typically viewed as linguistic knowledge, and what is typically viewed as domain general knowledge about how the world works
Cognitive Biases and Gaze Direction: An Experimental Study
No full textThis paper investigates the validity of the model of dual processing by means of eyetracking methods. In this theoretical framework, gaze direction may be a revealing signal of how automatic detection is modified or sustained by controlled search. We performed an experiment by using a stylized decisional framework, i.e. informational cascade, proposed by economists to investigate the rationality of imitative behavior. Our main result is that automatic detection as revealed by gaze direction is driven by mechanisms that are dependent on cognitive biases. In particular, we find significant statistical correlation between subjects’ first fixation and their revealed patterns of choice. Our findings support the hypothesis that the process of automatic detection is not independent on cognitive processes.informational cascades, overconfidence, eye-tracking, information processing, cognitive biases
Alessandro Mauro: a venetian theatre and festival decorator of late Baroque (active ca. 1694-1736)
No full textIn meiner monographischen Arbeit wird erörtert, wie relevant die
Wiederentdeckung und eine neue Würdigung des venezianischen Theater- und
Festdekorateurs Alessandro Mauro sind. Seine vielseitigen Arbeiten in den
Bereichen Bühnenbild, Festdekoration, Prunkgondelbau und Kostümgestaltung, die
ihre Wurzeln in einem jahrhundertalten Familienbetrieb in Venedig haben,
repräsentieren die höfische Festkultur des Spätbarock. Mauro war stilistisch
einer der Rezipienten von Jean Berain. Er hatte einen persönlichen
Zeichenstil. Sein filigraner Pinselstrich weist einen lockeren, schlichten und
naturalistischen Kurvenstil auf. Die wirklichkeitsnahe, pittoreske
Raumdarstellung kennzeichnet die Formensprache des Künstlers. Jedoch hatte
Mauro keinen eigenen, immer gleichen Stil. Die Originalität des Mauroschen
Œuvres liegt in der Mischung von verschiedenen Strömungen. Mauros Bereitschaft
und Offenheit, mit denen er seinen Stil mit den Stilen der einheimischen
Künstlerkollegen seines jeweiligen Arbeitsortes vereinte, führte einerseits zu
seinen mehrfachen Engagements an den führenden Höfen in Italien und Dresden,
andererseits zum raschen Vergessen seines Werks nach seinem Tod. Es fiel
bestimmt sowohl seinen Zeitgenossen als auch der Nachwelt schwer, sich ein
klares Bild von Mauro zu machen. Zudem sind seine umfassenden Aktivitäten, die
an der Schnittstelle von Kunst-, Theater- und Musikgeschichte stehen, in der
italienischen und deutschen Forschung separat untersucht worden. Dieser
Umstand hat es bislang erschwert, einen konkreten Überblick über Mauros Œuvre
zu erhalten. Die Autorin hofft, mit ihrem Beitrag einen Anstoß für eine
Intensivierung der Mauro-Forschung in der Zukunft zu geben.My monographic work discusses the relevance of the rediscovery of – and the
new appreciation for – Venetian theatre architect and festival designer
Alessandro Mauro. His diverse scope of work in stage-, festival- and costume
design, and the construction of magnificent gondolas, represents Late Baroque
courtly festival culture and goes back to a centuries-old, family-run business
in Venice. Mauro was stylistic one of the French master Jean Berain recipients
in art history. He had a personal drawing style. His delicate brushstroke
shows a loose, simple and naturalistic curve-style. His close-to-nature, light
and picturesque representation of space characterizes Mauro’s design. However,
he did not have his own, always same style. The originality of Mauro’s Œuvre
lies in its mix of various trends. Mauro’s willingness and openness to merge
his style with the styles of on-site artists during work assignments led to
multiple commissions at the leading courts in Italy and Dresden. This,
however, also let his work fall into oblivion soon after his death. This
(certainly) made it difficult, both for his contemporary audience and for
posterity, to clearly visualize Mauro’s work. Moreover, his extensive
activities at the interface of art, theatre and music history were examined
separately by Italian and German researchers. This makes it more difficult to
get a concrete overview of Mauro’s Œuvre thus far. The author hopes to give an
impulse for more intensive research efforts on Mauro in the future
A semantic approach to patch-based procedural generation of urban road networks
No full textA road network is one of the core elements of urban environments, strongly defining their layout. Procedural modeling has been increasingly used to create such road networks. However, many procedural methods are complex and difficult to master by non-experts, often have a limited and hard-to-control expressive range, and require a variety of specialized input data to generate a complex road network. To mitigate this, some methods proposed to use stochastic data on road patches extracted from example maps to design a road network following a given urban style. We propose a novel patch-based method that uses the semantics of individual patches to help guiding the procedural generation. Our approach combines the advantages of patch-based generation with those of conventional parametric methods. Due to the intuitive character of semantic parameters and tags, our approach provides for an easy customization of fictive road network creation, allowing a user to easily define various types of road network styles, containing only the desired features and structures of real-world road networks.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Computer Graphics and Visualisatio
Voting by Ballots and Feet in the Laboratory
No full textThis paper provides laboratory evidence on the efficiency-enhancing properties of the Tiebout model as a decentralized system of public goods provision. Tiebout (1956) shows that if a sufficient number of local communities exist to accommodate different types of preferences, individuals sort themselves in a way that provides an efficient allocation of public goods and taxes. Our experiment aims to disentangle the effect of voting participation and is composed of two treatments. In the non-participation treatment, local public good provision is chosen by only one subject, while the other members of the community can only stay in or move to another community. In the participation treatment, all the community members have the right to vote as well as to move to another community and collective decisions are taken by majority rule. Our findings show that social welfare is greater in the participation than in the non-participation treatment. We conclude that voting with one’s feet increases efficiency if all the community members vote and that the influence of voting participation on the allocation of local public goods should be taken into account to assess the viability of the Tiebout model.Tiebout model, local public goods, voting participation, federalism, experiment.
Forgive or Buy Back: An Experimental Study of Debt Relief
No full textA large share of the debt claims owed by the world’s poorest countries has been cancelled through the HIPC (highly indebted poor countries) debt relief initiative. It is believed that, with less debt burden, the HIPC will be able to devote more resources to investment and thus promote their own growth and benefit their creditors in the long run. But does debt forgiveness really provide the best incentive for those countries who suffers from debt overhang? In this paper, we adopt experimental methods to study the impact of two different schemes for relieving debt. The two schemes we consider here are debt forgiveness and debt buyback, with the latter being more market-based since it allows indebted countries to repurchase their own debt on the secondary market at a discount. We find that creditors tend to reduce more debt when the relief takes the form of debt forgiveness than that of buyback. Debtors under the scheme of forgiveness are not significantly more reciprocal than those of buyback. After controlling for the amount of debt relief, creditors are significantly worse off under forgiveness whereas debtors are indifferent between the two schemes. Overall, debt forgiveness yields less desirable outcomes than debt buybacks.Laboratory Experiments
Archaeological Adhesives
No full textAn adhesive is any substance that bonds different materials together. This broad definition includes materials used in everything from hafted stone tools to monumental architecture. In addition, the combination of bonding, plasticity, and insolubility meant that some adhesives were exploited for waterproofing and sealing of materials, as self-adhering inlays and putties, and as paints, varnishes, and inks. Adhesives have a history of at least 200,000 years. Throughout (pre)history and around the world, people used materials, including bitumen/ asphalt, carbohydrate polymers such as starches and gums, natural rubbers, mortars, proteins (from casein, soy, blood, and animal connective tissue), insect and plant resins, and tars made from various barks and woods. Adhesives thus are very diverse and have widely varying properties: they can be tacky, pliable, elastic, brittle, water-resistant, fluid, viscous, clear, dark, and much more. They are a plastic avant la lettre. These properties can and were tweaked by mixing ingredients or by further processing. In the study of archaeological adhesives, their characterization is essential and this is best done with chemical and spectroscopic methods. When larger coherent samples as opposed to single finds are analyzed, adhesive studies can provide data on past technologies, socioeconomic organizations, and environments and raw material availability. Through sourcing and mapping of ingredients and adhesive end products, travel and transfer of materials and knowledge can be illuminated. Additionally, experimental reproductions provide data on technological aspects that otherwise are lost in the archaeological record. An archaeology of adhesives can reveal the transport networks, subsistence, mobility strategies, division of labor, and technological know-how that held societies together.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Team Joris Di
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