1,010 research outputs found
Big Shoes to Fill: the ANC and Zuma’s Leadership Deficit
No full textThis introductory chapter guides the reader through South Africa’s major political developments in the post-apartheid era and provides an important overview of the main motives behind the current deterioration of the country’s political and economic situation. Building on an in-depth dissection of the milestones, lights and shadows that have shaped the ANC’s more than two decades of unchallenged dominance, the author stresses how this long “reign” resulted in the party losing touch with the needs and urgency for better distribution of the dividends of democracy and, eventually,
in a broader falling apart of elite consensus in the country. The author also argues that the ascent of a questionable leader like Jacob Zuma to the forefront of South Africa’s – and the ANC’s – political scene has seriously contributed to the rapid jading of the long-term legitimation capital the ANC had gained by guiding the country’s transition to democracy under Mandela, hence opening the way to the increasing success of contenders that are now seriously challenging the ANC’s hegemony
Author Correction: Gluten consumption and inflammation affect the development of celiac disease in at-risk children
No full textThe original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the authors Renata Auricchio, Ilaria Calabrese, Martina Galatola, Donatella Cielo, Fortunata Carbone, Marianna Mancuso, Giuseppe Matarese, Riccardo Troncone, Salvatore Auricchio & Luigi Greco which were incorrectly given as Auricchio Renata, Calabrese Ilaria, Galatola Martina, Cielo Donatella, Carbone Fortunata, Mancuso Marianna, Matarese Giuseppe, Troncone Riccardo, Auricchio Salvatore & Greco Luigi. The original article has been corrected
Response to: The association between hypertension and rotator cuff disease: a spurious result?
No full textResponse to: The association between hypertension and rotator cuff disease: a spurious result?
Dear editor,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to answer to letter to the Editor JSES-D-12-00464. As mentioned by the author of this letter, it is well known that the incidence of rotator cuff tears increases with age and that a large proportion of tears is completely asymptomatic4,5,6. The population prevalence of full thickness rotator cuff tears is 22.2% in females of age 60-83 years and 47% of these tears are completely asymptomatic3. The author affirms that the failure to consider the presence of asymptomatic cuff tears in the control group could fully account for the authors observation of an association between hypertension and rotator cuff tears. If we hypothetically assume that we had a plausible prevalence in the control group of asymptomatic cuff tears of 22.2%,3 it will not not affect the result that in the cuff tear patient group the prevalence of hypertension is significantly higher, but, on the contrary, it makes it more evident.
In our article, we selected 201 patients negative for shoulder pathologies because shoulder painless2 and because negative to clinical tests for cuff tears. Of course, as the author state, there is no radiological assessment of their rotator cuff.2 On the other side, a patient affected by a cuff tear (symptomatic or asymptomatic) usually does not have normal shoulder external or internal rotation strength or does have a negative external rotation lag sign.1 In addition, the main result of our study is that there is an association between size of cuff tear and hypertension and, thus, this result is not affected by eventual bias of selection of the control group, being this result calculated only in the study group (patients who underwent arthroscopic cuff repair).
Best personal regards,
Prof. Stefano Gumina (MD, PhD)
References
1)Castoldi F, Blonna D, Hertel R. External rotation lag sign revisited: Accuracy for
diagnosis of full thickness supraspinatus tear. J Shoulder Elbow Surg 2009; 18: 529-534.
2)Gumina S, Arceri V, Carbone S, Albino P, Passaretti D, Campagna V, Fagnani C, Postacchini F. The association between arterial hypertension and rotator cuff tear: the influence on rotator cuff tear sizes. J Shoulder Elbow Surg. 2012 Jun 27. doi: 10.1016/j.jse.2012.05.023
3) Oag HCL, Daines MD, Nichols AS, Arden NK, Carr AJ. The association between rotator cuff tears, shoulder pain and activities of daily living: Normal population data. Presented at BESS (British Shoulder and Elbow Society) 2012 and awaiting publication in Proceedings of BESS.
4) Yamaguchi K, Ditsios K, Middleton WD, Hildebolt CF, Galatz LM, Teefey SA. The demographic and morphological features of rotator cuff disease. A comparison of asymptomatic and symptomatic shoulders. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2006; 88: 1699-1704. doi:10.2106/JBJS.E.00835
5) Yamamoto A, Takagishi K, Kobayashi T, Shitara H, Osawa T. Factors involved in the presence of symptoms associated with rotator cuff tears: a comparison of asymptomatic and symptomatic rotator cuff tears in the general population. J Shoulder Elbow Surg 2011; 20:1133-1137. doi:10.1016/j.jse.2011.01.011
6) Yamamoto A, Takagishi K, Osawa T, Yanagawa T, Nakajima D, Shitara H, Kobayashi T. Prevalence and risk factors of a rotator cuff tear in the general population. J Shoulder Elbow Surg 2010; 19: 116-20. doi:10.1016/j.jse.2009.04.00
ON THE AFFERRANTE-CARBONE THEORY OF ULTRATOUGH TAPE PEELING
No full textIn a simple and interesting theory of ultratough peeling of an elastic tape from a viscoelastic substrate, Afferrante and Carbone find that there are conditions for which the load for steady state peeling could be arbitrarily large in steady state peeling, at low angles of peeling - what they call "ultratough" peeling (Afferrante, L., Carbone, G., 2016, The ultratough peeling of elastic tapes from viscoelastic substrates, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 96, pp.223-234). Surprisingly, this seems to lead to toughness enhancement higher than the limit value observed in a very large crack in an infinite viscoelastic body, possibly even considering a limit on the stress transmitted. The Afferrante-Carbone theory seems to be a quite approximate, qualitative theory and many aspects and features of this "ultratough" peeling (e.g. conformity with the Rivlin result at low peel angles) are obtained also through other mechanisms (Begley, M.R., Collino, R.R., Israelachvili, J.N., McMeeking, R.M., 2013, Peeling of a tape with large deformations and frictional sliding, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 61(5), pp. 1265-1279) although not at “critical velocities”. Experimental and/or numerical verification would be most useful
Diritto di famiglia e Unione europea
No full textThe book is edited by Ilaria Queirolo and Sergio Maria Carbone, that collected and co-ordinated the contributions written by many professors and researchers who devoted their studies to the topic of family relationships within the European Union. To this purpose, the book considers all the aspects related to family law that have been touched by European Community and European Union legislation (i.e: Part I: Family in the perspective of the free movement of persons; Part II: Family in the perspective of the protection of fundamental rights; Part III: The dissolution of marriage in the Brussels II (bis) Regulation; Part IV: The discipline of parental responsibility; Part V: Maintenance obligations), giving a critical reconstruction of the legal framework and a complex view to the critical issues arising from it.
In this context Ilaria Queirolo is also the author of two chapters of the book: the first one (Premise), written together with prof. Carbone, underlines the legal basis of the European intervention in the field of family law, therefore giving a solid structure to the book by the identification of a common thread to all other contributions. The second chapter written by the Author (Chapter VIII) is precisely devoted to the critical analysis of the 2006 Commission proposal of amendment of Regulation 2201/2003 and considers the impact and the relapses that such amendments would entail for the Italian discipline. To this purpose, particular attention is given to the impact of introducing the relevance of parties’ autonomy in the field of family law, with reference to both jurisdiction and applicable law
The Critical Reception of Cartesian Physiology in Tommaso Cornelio’s Progymnasmata physica
No full textThis article highlights certain key moments in the dissemination of Cartesianism in Naples in the 17th century. It focuses, in particular, on the "Progymnasmata physica" (1663), written by Tommaso Cornelio (1614–1684), who derived a great deal of his conceptions of physics and physiology from Descartes. Although precise references to Descartes’ texts are thin on the ground, the author hypothesizes that Cornelio was familiar with "L’Homme", probably also on the basis of the fifth part of the "Discours de la méthode", in which, as is well known, there is a summary and a completion of the treatise that Descartes declined to publish. Finally, the article stresses the critical aspects of Cornelio’s reception of Cartesianism and the fact that he introduces the novelty of Cartesian teachings and positions to a wider context
Minuscolo contributo alla discussione sulle tesi di Andrea Carbone
No full textThe author comments on Andrea Carbone’s essay, highlighting its original aspects and those he does not agree with.L’autore commenta il contributo di Andrea Carbone, evidenziandone gli aspetti di originalità e quelli che non condivide
Reply to: “The association between hypertension and rotator cuff disease: a spurious result?”
No full textThank you for giving us the opportunity to answer the Letter to the Editor. As mentioned by the author of this letter, it is well known that the incidence of rotator cuff tears increases with age and that a large proportion of tears are completely asymptomatic.4, 5 and 6 The population prevalence of full-thickness rotator cuff tears is 22.2% in women aged 60 to 83 years, and 47% of these tears are asymptomatic.4
The author affirms that the failure to consider the presence of asymptomatic cuff tears in the control group could fully account for the author's observation of an association between hypertension and rotator cuff tears. If we hypothetically assume that we had a plausible 22.2% prevalence of asymptomatic cuff tears in the control group,3 it would not affect the result that the prevalence of hypertension is significantly higher in the cuff tear patient group, but, on the contrary, it makes it more evident.
In our article, we selected 201 patients negative for shoulder pathologies because the shoulder was painless2 and because of negative results to clinical tests for cuff tears. Of course, as the author states, there is no radiologic assessment of their rotator cuff.2 However, a patient affected by a cuff tear (symptomatic or asymptomatic) usually does not have normal shoulder external or internal rotation strength or does have a negative external rotation lag sign.1 In addition, the main result of our study is that there is an association between size of cuff tear and hypertension, and thus, this result is not affected by eventual bias of selection of the control group, being this result was calculated only in the study group of patients who underwent arthroscopic cuff repair
Different Remedies in the Judicial Review of Administrative Decisions: the Introduction of the azione di adempimento in Italy (From a Comparative Perspective)
No full textThis paper aims to analyze the tendency towards convergence among the different European systems of administrative justice, particularly regarding the effectiveness of the judgments handed down by administrative courts. According to the author, this tendency will play an ever more significant role in comparative studies, as can be demonstrated by analyzing the Italian „codification‟ of 2010-2012. Despite the fact that the Italian system of judicial review already had a specific procedure ensuring that an annulment decision could be properly enforced (giudizio di ottemperanza), the 2010-2012 reforms introduced a new action to obtain the adoption of an act unlawfully denied by a public authority, i.e., the azione di adempimento, akin to the German Verpflichtungsklage. Such a new remedy, together with the fact that in applying it administrative courts have referred to the same principles as found in German law, must be considered not just a general consequence of the aforesaid tendency towards convergence, but the more mature product of a comparative approach applied in procedural law
Cartesian and Malebranchian Meditations
No full textIn his Méditations chrétiennes et métaphysiques (1683) Malebranche develops a path of reflection in which the self, questioning the origin of its knowledge and volitions, discovers in its interiority that the interlocutor able to answer some of its questions is the divine Word. The self, i.e. the disciple, thus understands that the light illuminating him/her does not coincide with human understanding, but is in fact the Word, the Sagesse éternelle. Through references to the Holy Scriptures and to Augustine, Malebranche constructs a meditative itinerary that differs from the one proposed by Descartes, as it moves from the lumière naturelle in the Cartesian sense, which does not seem to have a divine character, to the lumière of the Word. In the light of these historical-theoretical data, we propose a reconstruction of the role played by interiority and meditation in certain texts by Malebranche, highlighting the moments in which he appropriated the Cartesian heritage and those in which he distanced himself from Descartes’s philosophical paradigm. Both meditative paths reveal a plurality of aspects. The Cartesian path is centred on a subject capable of attaining the truth through a series of operations (the various moments of doubt, the discovery of its own existence, the identification of the author of its being, namely God, and so on), in the course of which the access to truth, as Foucault affirms in L’herméneutique du sujet, is revealed to the subject itself as being made possible in virtue of its own structure as a subject. On the other hand, in the Malebranchian itinerary, characterized by multiple practices (praying, meditating, examination of conscience, vigilance) and by deductive reasoning, it is the discovery (in the second Méditation) of the ‘Master’, the ‘Other’, that turns out to be decisive, entailing a crucial conversion of the subject both on the epistemological and on the ethical level
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