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L’attuale dibattito nel campo dell’architettura e del design ha riportato in auge la relazione tra forma e funzione. Per comprendere il significato di questi concetti può essere utile una rilettura storica dei grandi Maestri del Movimento moderno, a partire da Louis H. Sullivan, considerato “il padre” del funzionalismo. Ma al contempo emerge la necessità di interpretare i concetti di “forma” e “funzione” secondo la prospettiva della storia delle idee. Questa chiave di lettura, rivelando la stratificazione semantica che ha determinato nei secoli la complessità delle nozioni di “forma” e “funzione”, dimostra l’erroneità di certe interpretazioni “razionalistiche” e mette in luce la stretta relazione che lega i due concetti a quello di ornamento. Alla luce di queste riflessioni, oggi la nota formula “Form follows Function”, adattata a differenti contesti, mostra ancora tutta la sua forza significativa e la sua attualità. Der gegenwärtige Diskurs in Architektur und Design hat das Nachdenken über die Beziehung von Form und Funktion wieder belebt. Um die Bedeutung dieser Beziehung und der einzelnen Konzepte nachvollziehen zu können, kann es vor diesem Hintergrund hilfreich sein, die Meister der Architekturmoderne – besonders Louis H. Sullivan, den Vater des Funktionalismus - erneut zu lesen. Zudem scheint es notwendig zu sein, die Konzepte von Form und Funktion in eine neue ideengeschichtliche Perspektive zu stellen, vor allem auch, um die semantischen Überlagerungen zu enthüllen, die in den Jahrhunderten zu der Komplexität der Begriffe Form und Funktion beigetragen haben. Die Idee, dass sich die Form der Funktion anpassen soll, wird Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924) zugesprochen. Er gilt als Vater des modernen Funktionalismus. Eine Analyse seiner Texte (s. u.) und des historisch-kulturellen Kontextes, in denen die Aussage Form follows Function formuliert wurde, machten jedoch anschaulich , dass bei späteren Interpretationen der Gehalt des Satzes missgedeutet wurde, um mit ihm einen Kampf gegen das Ornament zu führen. In der Analyse der Texte und des Kontextes werde ich ideengeschichtlich vorgehen, also zuerst die kulturelle Tradition untersuchen, welche die Idee von Angemessenheit des Zwecks erarbeitet hat, um damit die historischen Voraussetzungen des modernen Konzepts von Funktionalität herauszuarbeiten. Im Anschluss daran werde ich die romantische und transzendentale Philosophie betrachten, in der die organizistische Ästhetik von Sullivan wurzelt, um den zentralen Gedanken der lebenden Form und die wahre Bedeutung des Konzeptes von Funktion in seiner architektonischen Theorie nachzuweisen.

In this paper a new method for financial time series discretization that allows to take into account qualitative features about financial indicators is proposed. Qualitative features are extracted from financial news web sites and they are inserted into the learning phase of a recursive Self Organizing Map by means of a suitable parameter derived from statistical analysis of document collections. A postprocessing phase based on unsupervised clustering by U-Matrix method leads to the actual discretization of the time series. A real case application to a stock closing price series reveals that the inclusion of qualitative features leads to a more compact discretization of the series. This could be useful if a compact coding of the series is sought, for example in the preprocessing phase of a forecasting methodology., International Workshop on Self-Organizing Maps : Proceedings, The 6th International Workshop on Self-Organizing Maps (WSOM 2007)

Das psychoanalytische Zentrum «San Lorenzo» in Rom begleitete eine freiwillig gegründete Gruppe von Personen, welche im Schuldienst standen. Es wurde nach den Konzepten von Wilfried Bion und Claudia Neri gearbeitet. Die Gruppe erfuhr wesentliche Horizonterweiterungen. Stefan Meyer hat die berichteten Erfahrungen übersetzt und eingebettet.

Presented is a vocational reintegration concept for clients following craniocerebral trauma and other acquired brain damage. Close dovetailing of vocational and therapeutic measures is advocated, as it is mostly the neuropsychological disorders or problems in behaviour and emotional experience that stand in the way of returning to work. A work experience and adjustment setting holds particularly great potential for addressing these difficulties in a day-to-day life-related, remedial manner. Another focus is follow-up care of those clients who have returned to competitive employment. These clients are called on regularly at their workplace by programme vocational guidance/vocational assessment staff; necessary adaptations are carried out, difficulties dealt with, and possible solutions sought jointly with the employer. A catamnestic study was undertaken to verify how many of the clients included in the programme had achieved long-term resettlement. It was found that the great majority of those who had returned to their former job, have retained their employment some one to two years later, with most of them working at a lower level than before the event. Clients unable to return to their former employer had mostly been pensioned despite the presence of partial working capacity.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive relationship between psychosocial factors and the course of recovery in patients with whiplash injury. A non-selected sample of 117 subjects satisfying to a clear definition of the syndrome was assessed early after trauma (mean 7.4 +/- 4.2 days) and again at 3, 6, and 12 months. Initial evaluation included subjective complaints (including timing of symptom onset and initial pain intensity) and a large number of psychosocial factors (e.g., self-ratings of well-being, personal and family history, personality traits, and cognitive functioning). Rate of recovery was assessed at follow-ups. One year after initial trauma patients were divided in two groups (recovered and still symptomatic) and compared with regard to initial findings. Finally, a regression analysis was performed with all baseline variables, employing groups (recovered vs symptomatic) as factor variables. Patients who remained symptomatic at 1 year had significantly higher ratings of initial neck pain and headache, displayed a greater variety of subjective complaints, higher scores on the scale "nervousness" from the personality inventory, worse well-being score and poorer performance with regard to focussed attention. According to the regression analysis the following set of initial variables was in significant relationship with poor recovery at 1 year: higher age, complaint of sleep disturbances at initial investigation, and higher intensity of initial neck pain and headache.

Based on a strict definition of whiplash injury, a sample of 117 non-selected patients was examined 7.2 +/- 4.2 days and at 3, 6 and 12 months after trauma. Initially all patients underwent a neurological examination, cognitive and psychosocial factor assessment and cervical spine x-rays. 56%, 70% and 76% of patients had completely recovered at 3, 6 and 12 months respectively. The results indicated that impairment of patients' well-being and cognitive ability was closely associated with somatic symptoms. No major impairment of attentional functioning was found, but some change in cognitive equilibrium was observed which may be related to the type of medication utilized. Delayed recovery at 12 months could be predicted by the following initial variables: higher age, intensity of initial neck pain and headache, symptoms of radicular irritation, sleep disturbances, pretraumatic headache, history of head trauma, nervousness score and--significantly inversely proportional--initial concentration problems and neuroticism score. These results suggest that a more severe neck injury may in particular account for delayed recovery from whiplash.

A non-selected sample of 117 common whiplash patients was examined shortly after experiencing trauma (mean = 7.4 days, SD = 4.2) and six months later with regard to neuropsychological performance and psychosocial stress. Neuropsychological examination comprised an assessment of various levels of complexity of attentional processes. Further, subjective complaints, subjective headache and neck pain intensity, utilized medication and self-ratings of well-being and cognitive impairment were recorded. In addition, patients were assessed with regard to personal history of psychosocial stress and personality traits (e.g. neuroticism, depression). At six-month examination, 81 patients subjectively were fully recovered, whereas 36 patients reported persisting symptoms. Symptomatic patients were older, showed more symptoms at baseline and a higher intensity of headache and neck pain, and had a higher subjective cognitive impairment. At both, baseline and six-month examination, no significant statistical differences between the asymptomatic and symptomatic patients were found with regard to cognitive performance. However, performance of symptomatic group in a test of divided attention was pathological at baseline. Additionally, symptomatic group showed a delayed recovery of cognitive functioning, which could be explained--at least in part--by utilized medication and the higher age. This change of cognitive equilibrium could account for these patients' cognitive problems in daily life.

Marco Ferreri con il suo film Dillinger è morto sembra radiografare la crisi italiana del post Boom economico. In un momento in cui la rivoluzione studentesca potrebbe aprire l’orizzonte a nuove utopie, la borghesia italiana appare stanca e totalmente immersa in un benessere piatto e routinario. La crisi rappresentata da Ferreri è anche quella di un individuo sempre più interprete di una “società dello spettacolo” che divora la dimensione intima e privata, decostruendo istituzioni e valori. I colori saturi, il design avveniristico, il finale tragico venato di ironia: sono tutti elementi analizzati nell’articolo che prova ad inserire il film del regista italiano nel clima internazionale dei profondi mutamenti sociali e culturali del periodo.