Search

The report of the medical laboratory is the final result of the complex analytical activity that requires technology, automation, organization and competence. The content of the report has been defined since 2015, but the application of the legislative requirements is still incomplete. The need for interoperability of the medical laboratory reports in order to be easily accessible and understandable throughout Europe, increases the requirements for the development of standards for reporting of test names, units of measurement, qualitative expressions. The adoption of LOINC codes may improve interoperability, but the codes have to be used correctly and a stewardship from Scientific Societies is needed. The laboratory reports are moving from paper to electronic format, and this should help the readability and simplicity favoring the interpretation, but the increasing amount of data and information may make them more difficult to read. This aspect together with the rapid development of new analytical technologies increases the need for interpretative comments, that should be clear, avoid acronyms or excessive technical terms and tackle the real relevant aspects. Being the final product of our activity, the report deserves more attention from our profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the spindle whorls and loom weights found in the Bronze Age settlement of Solarolo, via Ordiere, and investigates the topic of textile production as one of the manufactures of great economic impact that characterises the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Through the analysis of the operational chain from the procurement of the raw material to the final product, the morphometric analysis of the spindle whorls allows us to interpret the choices made to produce particular yarns. The finds, mainly spindle whorls, have been accurately positioned during the excavation and distinguished by detailed chronological phases (25-50 years). Their distribution allows to analyse the production of yarns within the settlement and to hypothesise the role of resource management and manufacture at a key moment of increased exploitation of wool found in various regions of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Form@re is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cardiac arrest (CA) is the third cause of death in Europe. This paper highlights the various treatments for the prevention and early management of CA and provides an overview of available evidence on the CA center concept. The experience of Maggiore Hospital of Bologna, Italy over the last 11 years is also outlined along with the treatments applied to patients with CA and their impact on improving outcomes. The new concept of the "Systems Saving Lives" approach is presented as a potential way for implementing Italian healthcare systems involved in the management of CA patients. Finally, the future perspective of implementation of CA centers in Italy is also described encouraging the healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of CA patients to consider a multidisciplinary approach (including a cardiologist, emergency physician, neurologist, physiatrist, radiologist, and intensivist).

Severe mitral regurgitation represents the second most common indication for valve surgery in Europe. In the last decade, transcatheter mitral valve repair has become an established effective and safe treatment option for patients at high or prohibitive operative risk. A relevant proportion of these patients develop significant tricuspid regurgitation. Once considered a benign and reversible finding, nowadays increasing attention is being paid to the coexistence of this valvular disease, as a growing body of evidence points towards its negative prognostic role. Over the last few years, transcatheter repair has been performed successfully also for the treatment of significant tricuspid regurgitation in patients at high surgical risk. Therefore, combined transcatheter repair is emerging as a treatment strategy for high surgical risk patients with both severe mitral and tricuspid regurgitation. In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and prognostic role of the coexistence of severe mitral and tricuspid regurgitation. We then discuss the evidence in favor of combined surgical treatment and the emerging data supporting combined transcatheter treatment, with attention to available treatment technologies. The paper is further enriched with three practical case reports and with the suggestion of a decision-making algorithm for the management of this complex subset of patients.

The article focuses on Populism in two main analytical perspectives. The theoretical one, in which an attempt is made to retrace the steps of historical development of its meanings and contents, by removing confusion and contradictions in many of its terms and definitions, expecially in relation to the very concept of people derived from the collectivist tradition. On the other hand and from an empirical perspective, by gathering and comparing political realities in Europe, above all parties and movements sharing the label of populism, in the light of their electoral performances in recent rounds of voting in European democracies. The study concludes Populism has never been as dominant and influential an ideology as in the present times and context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Enthymema is the property of Enthymema, International Journal of Literary Criticism, Literary Theory & Philosophy of Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The contribution presents the radicality of the daily experiences of LGBTQ people who live non-monogamous relationships in the mononormative context of Italian society; of lesbian and bisexual mothers who clash with the monomaternalism synthesised by the Italian saying “di mamma ce n’è una sola”; of LGBQ friends who choose to live together as a life choice, challenging the heteronormativity of the stages that mark adulthood and the precariousness that characterises Southern Europe. Such radical choices are made possible by the construction of networks of care and friendship that are not contemplated by the Mediterranean welfare and that are analysed here through the narratives collected in Rome during the ERC Starting Grant project Intimate – Micropolitics of Intimacy in Southern Europe: Citizenship, Care and Choice (2014-2019) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rivista Italiana di Educazione Familiare is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Due to the ongoing Covid-crisis, the number of workers benefiting from short-time work schemes was high, especially during lockdowns, another large group of workers started working from home, and others, unfortunately, lost their jobs. The current situation is unprecedented, because it is the only global recession driven solely by a pandemic and the decrease in life expectancy is the worst since World War II. This article first shows that the literature on the socioeconomic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic does not say much about working poverty. Applying a theoretical model presented in 2018 based on the four mechanisms that lead to working poverty (at the household level), this article considers the potential short- and mid-term implications of the pandemic for the working poor in Europe. It also proposes conceptual reflections about which working poverty indicators may improve our understanding of what has unfolded since the pandemic began. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement Armando Stefanati, Erica d’Anchera, Francesco De Motoli and Marta Savio declare no conflict of interest. Giovanni Gabutti declares that he does not have a specific conflict of interest related to this paper; however, he reports grants from Sanofi Pasteur MSD, GSK Biologicals SA, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur Italy, MSD Italy, Emergent BioSolutions and Seqirus for taking part in advisory boards, expert meetings, acting as speaker and/or organizer of meetings/congresses and acting as principal investigator and chief of OU in RCTs.

Given the sharp increase in migration flows, the issue of immigrants' religious assimilation and its impact on integration and discrimination has become a hot topic. This article refers to the debate between assimilation and reaction theories in order to shed light on the effects of both the destination context and the passage of time on immigrants' religiosity. Using the nine waves of European Social Survey data, I show that non-Muslim migrants display tendencies towards assimilation, with second generations being more similar to the native population than to the first generations in terms of levels of religiosity. Conversely, Muslim migrants are seen to resist more to assimilation pressures, thus reinforcing a reading based more on ethnic reactions. In addition to this, the data clearly show that there is a specific sector of the migrant population - younger second-generation Muslims - who feel a greater sense of discrimination because of their religion compared to both people from different religions and to their first-generation parents. This makes them a very relevant group to study because of the effects of this discrimination on socioeconomic and educational integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The area of mental health is directly affected by the pandemic and its consequences, for various reasons: 1-the pandemic triggered a global lockdown, with dramatic socioeconomic and therefore psychosocial implications; 2-mental health services, which treat by definition a fragile population from the psychological, biological and social points of view, have a complex organizational frame, and it was expected that this would be affected (or overwhelmed) by the pandemic; 3-mental health services should, at least in theory, be able to help guide public health policies when these involve a significant modification of individual behaviour. It was conducted a narrative review of the publications produced by European researchers in the period February-June 2020 and indexed in PubMed. A total of 34 papers were analyzed, which document the profound clinical, organizational and procedural changes introduced in mental health services following this exceptional and largely unforeseen planetary event.Among the main innovations recorded everywhere, the strong push towards the use of telemedicine techniques should be mentioned: however, these require an adequate critical evaluation, which highlights their possibilities, limits, advantages and disadvantages instead of simple triumphalist judgments. Furthermore, should be emphasized the scarcity of quantitative studies conducted in this period and the absence of studies aimed, for example, at exploring the consequences of prolonged and forced face-to-face contact between patients and family members with a high index of "expressed emotions".

In the aftermath of WW2, Europe - as the main war scene - endorsed the "fast time" approach to reconstruction. Relying on optimising production- and-building processes, this approach was widely resorted to in experimental quarters, regarded as the "starting point" on which to build the technical know-how leading to the industrialisation of building techniques. This paper analyses the French and Italian experiences. They are closely linked, since in the shared choice of reinforced concrete as the most eligible material, the French experimentation provided a pattern for Italian reconstruction; so, they jointly become trailblazing researches about making building science-based and about organising building-yard work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of the strategies for safeguarding, preserving and maintaining the precious assets of the huge European Cultural Heritage still represents a challenge that many countries tackle with limited or inadequate actions or systems, despite the fact that the international community is now aware of the serious risks endangering its heritage. The nature of this fragile context requires the knowledge of data and information other than the technical and construction characteristics of buildings. The paper describes an innovative management tool for inspection and maintenance of historical and monumental buildings, developed within the Horizon 2020 European research project INCEPTION (Inclusive Cultural Heritage in Europe through 3D semantic modelling). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper highlights the dynamics related to the problem of the integration of immigrants in Europe, focusing on the spread of prejudices and on the multiple conditions of exclusion. The main aim refers to the effectiveness of integration policies implemented in Europe. For this purpose, data from different sources are analysed to measure the degree of hostility versus tolerance towards foreign immigrants, both through official data and with the analysis of online comments published on Twitter during the period of European elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Opinião Jurídica is the property of Revista Opiniao Juridica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Form@re is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A revised version of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) guidelines on myocardial revascularization has recently been published. These guidelines represent the third time that the ESC and EACTS have brought together cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in a joint Task Force to review the available evidence, with the mission of drafting balanced, patient-oriented, clinical practice guidelines on myocardial revascularization. During the last 4 years, a large body of evidence has become available and brought substantial changes to the guidelines. This paper aims to summarize what is new in the 2018 ESC/EACTS guidelines on myocardial revascularization.

Ancestors can be a source, as well as the genealogical practice can be a tactical devise to obtain a passport, which enables people to move easier in a hierarchic global space. In the Argentinean case, on the one hand, the number of genealogical researches to apply for an Italian second citizenship raised up, on the other hand, the practice of the genealogy itself has become more popular, above all along the middle classes, whereas a basic genealogical knowledge has spread within the young generations. Using interviews, as well as bibliographical and statistic data, this paper aims to mark the complex connection, not only the instrumental one, between different genealogical practices produced by Argentineans of Italian descendant, Italian citizenship applications and the new Argentinean migration flows to Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which discusses the use of open General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) to determine the accessibility of rail transport in Europe.

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The sixty-sixth Annual Assembly of "International Institute of Welding, "a word of joining experience", was held in Essen, important economic city of the German region Ruhr, from 11 to 17 September 2013. It was attended by 755 experts, researchers, engineers, students and accompanying persons of 46 countries of four continents. IIW Working Units hold over one hundred meetings; some five hundred documents, recommendations, guidelines and draft standards were presented, studied and discussed, 132 of which have been recommended for publication and 6 for transmission to ISO and CEN for publication as standards or other regulatory actions. Significant also the meetings of IAB (International Authorization Board), the body created to manage in the context of IIW the "International IIW Qualification, Certification and Authorization System". Good well as the success of the International Conference "Automation in Welding", of some specialized seminars, as well as of various scientific and technical visits and of social events in and around the city. It was also partially renewed the Board of Directors of IIW; the latter has currently 56 Member Countries. Finally are presented too the lists of documents ap proved for publication and for standardization, so as the list of papers submitted to the International Conference and the final technical evaluations of the Italian delegation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the European Commission Communication Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes (November 2012). The comments concern the school educational tasks and, in particular, the young-adult "identity" required to face multiple challenges of current global crisis. In an educational perspective, it require a "re-thinking" of education, maintaining a meaning horizon dedicated to the promotion of a "genuine" quality of life, and an anthropological project that cannot be sacrificed in the name of the contingent political and economic pressures. In a lifelong education view, this article considers the relationship between education/adult education and the meaning of adult identity, to improve the human "desirable" ideals vs than what is too often presented as "necessary evil". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sleep disorders and related diseases are becoming increasingly relevant for the health and wellbeing of the general and working populations. Sleep disorders affect all aspects of health, showing a bi-directionality with health conditions and comorbidity with several diseases. Consequently, sleep disorders may have severe negative consequences both for the individual and the enterprise, as well as for society on the whole, in terms of health, productivity and social costs. When considering the disturbances of the sleep/wake cycle, it is important to distinguish between those connected with endogenous biological factors from those related to socio-environmental conditions, including work, and those associated with mental and physical diseases, that are often associated and interact with each other. Many sleep disorders are still underestimated and under-valued in clinical practice and, to a much greater extent, in workers' health surveillance. The present paper is aimed at drawing the attention of the occupational health physician to some key issues, particularly regarding excessive daytime sleepiness, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and shift and night work, as well as their implications in terms of health and occupational consequences. Information on the main aspects of clinical diagnosis and health surveillance, as well as risk management and prevention at the workplace, are provided.

The article focuses on the transport system that is present in almost all European cities called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). It mentions that BRT was launched in Curitiba, Brazil in 1974 and offers an effective and efficient bus travel withinm fast and expanding cities. It also presents a comparison of the different tramways in Europe in consideration with the economic point of view, operational costs, and the advantages that it brings.

Copyright of Sociologia del Diritto is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

National system to evaluate universities started in Europe at the very beginning of 80's. In that period the growing number of students and the consequent changes in their composition moved the universities from «quality as a fact» to «quality as a problem». In the same time, the need for accountability was a challenge both for the governance and for the Governments, that adopted two different model of evaluating: a direct control or a control through a national independent agency. This paper, starting from Italian experience of Anvur, defines the aims of evaluating universities and research, related to the social role of higher education. It presents the actors, contents and methods (the «who, what, how») of the evaluation process, based on quality assurance and internal assessment, enhancing both technical and cultural problems and perspectives of an issue quite new for Italian universities. The recent introduction by law of research assessment in the Italian academic system has triggered a wide debate especially focused on its weakness and paradoxes as well as its potential negative effects on disciplinary autonomy and freedom of research. Contrary to this vision, in this paper I argue that evaluation mechanisms should be welcomed in those disciplinary fields – as sociology in Italy – which for historical, cultural and political causes have not been able to organize themselves as scientific communities, i.e. as communities of practice grounded on peer control and evaluation. The paper offers a brief sociological analysis of the social organization of Italian academic sociology, highlighting the deleterious effects on scientific communication and value recognition fostered by its segmentation in mutually exclusive, sometimes conflicting sometimes colluding, corporate groups (so called «component»). Far from being an assault on its freedom and autonomy, a state-backed system of evaluation may be instrumental to the creation and legitimation of a disciplinary culture of self evaluation and value assessment according to transparent, institutionalized and not provincial quality standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FunDivEUROPE is a new project aiming at a deeper understanding of the role of forest diversity on ecosystem functions and service provisioning for society. This project combines three scientific platforms: experimental, exploratory and inventory. The exploratory platform is based on the observation of a broad range of properties, traits and ecological processes on a network of ca. 240 natural forest sites representing a gradient of tree species diversity in six focal regions of Europe (Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland and Romania). The Italian sites are located on the hills of central and Southern Tuscany and represent the category "thermophilous deciduous forest". Almost one year of fieldwork was needed to select and characterize 36 plots measuring 30 × 30 m. Selection was based on criteria concerning tree mixtures and richness, structural parameters and main environmental variables. The main features of these sites are synthetically presented in this paper together with a short description of the project structure and scope. The aim is also to enhance dissemination of the potential implications for a sustainable forest management in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction: This paper presents an innovative device for measuring artificial optic radiations (AOR). AOR are required to be measured in accordance with both Italian and European regulations. The traditional measurement methods do not provide a quantitative measurement of the energy affecting the retina and in particular the fovea. Hence, they are not suitable to assess the real risk to the eye. Furthermore traditional methods are not even able to measure the exposure time (in relation to the position of the head with respect to the source)., Materials and Methods: The device permits the acquisition of essential information about AOR source direction and position so as to obtain an evaluation of the relative impact on worker's everyday activity. The device acts as both a wearable personal dosimeter and an instantaneous radiance detector. The main components are: a colour light sensor mounted at the centre of a pair of safety goggles (placed on the same line of the worker's sight) used to determine AOR intensity; an inertial/position sensor used for measuring head position/movement, and lastly a video camera to localize emission sources and generate the background in augmented reality visualization. The device is connected by means of a thin, flexible cable to a datalogger and/or netbook? for recording data., Results: the experiments were carried out in order to evaluate AOR sources during work activity; the results obtained and duly processed are presented in the paper., Conclusion: the aims are to achieve work place safety zoning so as to distinguish unsafe from safe areas, and not only specific dangerous areas, via analysis and integration of the overlapping pieces of information obtained with the proposed device.

The paper is organized in four sections. Section one presents a brief overview of how the classical sociological theories deal with the religious phenomenon in Western societies. The following section discusses the secularization theory as offered by Norris and Inglehart in Sacred and Secular (2005), where the classic functionalist theory of secularization - that religion would gradually fade in importance and cease to be significant with the emergence of industrial society - is criticized and, a new theory of secularization as a social process linked to the level of existential (un)security occurring in a country is developed. Within this framework, the role of the welfare safety net, and other effective delivery of government services, is analyzed as a means for many people to reduce their vulnerability to sudden, unpredictable risks. Section three investigates the relationship between religion and social policies. Starting from the recognition that the role of religious denominations has been neglected by the comparative studies on welfare state models, we suggest a new classification of welfare systems based on the mainstream religions existing in a country. The different welfare regimes are analyzed along the line Catholic vs. Protestant (Southern vs. Northern welfare models), and along the line Lutherans vs. Calvinist reformed churches (East/West welfare systems). The fourth section illustrates five analytic dimensions of the relationship between religion and welfare state systems. The five dimensions are the following: the principles and the moral norms (precepts) of religious doctrines; the agencies and services directly managed by religious institutions; the political parties with a religious orientation; the cultural orientation and values of the public opinion; the relations between the Church and the public institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to provide a detailed description of the EuroQol- 5 Dimension (EQ-5D) useful for those member of staff in rehabilitation setting who wish to use it properly. EQ-5D is an instrument which evaluates the generic quality of life developed in Europe and widely used. The EQ-5D descriptive system is a preference-based HRQL measure with one question for each of the five dimensions that include mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. The answers given to ED-5D permit to find 243 unique health states or can be converted into EQ-5D index an utility scores anchored at 0 for death and 1 for perfect health. The EQ-5D questionnaire also includes a Visual Analog Scale (VAS), by which respondents can report their perceived health status with a grade ranging from 0 (the worst possible health status) to 100 (the best possible health status). Finally the specific utility (in clinical and research setting) of each one of them is discussed.

The paper reports the first results of a comparative research on Pentecostalism that involves scholars in Europe, Asia, Africa, South and North America. The author focuses on the characters which, in his opinion, are responsible of the success of this religion in various parts of the world: the internal differentiation that allows Pentecostal churches to intercept different tastes of the public, the doctrinal and liturgical innovations, the role of music in the liturgy, as a factor of seduction, identity and loyalty. The author than raises the issue why in Latin American and in Europe Pentecostalism is spreading especially among the popular and impoverished classes and concludes that its development is linked to the opening of the religious market that has enabled these churches to catch that part of the religious demand that for various reasons, the traditional churches were predisposed to accept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (COI) is used by biomedical journals to guarantee credibility and transparency of the scientific process. COI disclosure, however, is not systematically nor consistently dealt with by journals. Recent joint editorial efforts paved the way towards the implementation of uniform vehicles for COI disclosure. This paper provides a comprehensive editorial perspective on classical COI-related issues. New insights into current COI policies and practices among European Society of Cardiology national cardiovascular journals, as derived from a cross-sectional survey using a standardised questionnaire, are discussed.

Copyright of Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad is the property of Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, Estrategia y Seguridad and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the past decades, youth transitions have become not only prolonged but also more fragmented and diversified. These changes have encouraged new research directions in contem-porary youth studies. Compared to perspectives developed in the 1970s and 1980s, researchers aim today to consider individual agency as being more significant, focusing on the capability of young people to make plans, exercise choices and shape their lives within the opportunities and constraints that face them. These new theoretical perspectives have also promoted new repre-sentations of youth transitions in academic literature. This paper explores the emergence of the image of navigation in youth research, certainly the most used metaphor in the last years. As will be discussed, navigation image can be useful to characterise the lives of young people in chang-ing social landscapes in which uncertainty tends to dominate and where feelings of contingency increase. Provided of course that it is used with precision and tested adequately in particular social contexts in order to capture the complexity and diversity of young people's lives rather than making useless and confused generalisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a close reading of two recent novels by the German-Romanian writer Dieter Schlesak: Capesius der Auschmitzapotheker (2006) and Transylwahnien (2011). Born in 1934 among the German community of Transylvania, Schlesak deals in his novels with the tragic epic of the Holocaust, seen from the particular point of view of the transylvanian Saxons and their involvement in the Nazi crimes. More precisely, he depicts the "little homeland" of the Saxons and his dramatic dissolution, while History painfully reveals the existence of the Evil within the reassuring transylvanian Heimat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A standardized and evidence-based approach to the cardiological management of patients undergoing noncardiac surgery has been recently defined by Task Forces of the American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) that published their guidelines in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Both the recommendations moved from risk indices to a practical, stepwise approach of the patient, which integrates clinical risk factors and test results with the estimated stress of the planned surgical procedure. In the present paper the main topics of the guidelines are discussed, and moreover, emphasis is placed on four controversial issues such as the use of prophylactic coronary revascularization in patients with myocardial ischemia, the perioperative management of patients with congestive heart failure, the routine use of betablockers and statins, and, finally, the management of antiplatelet therapies in patients with coronary stents. In addition to promoting an improvement of immediate perioperative care, the preoperative cardiological evaluation should be a challenge for identifying subjects with enhanced risk of cardiovascular events, who should be treated and monitored during a long-term follow-up.

Objective: Aim of the paper is to examine the characteristics and the trend of mortality in immigrants in Tuscany in the last decade, and to compare it with that observed in Italians resident in the same region., Design: it is a descriptive study using the data 1997- 2008 of the Regional Mortality Registry of Tuscany., Setting and Participants: Immigrants have been defined those who are resident in Tuscany with non Italian citizenship.They have been classified in immigrants from countries at high migration rates (PFPM) and immigrants from developed countries (PSA)., Main Outcome Measures: Proportional mortality for the period 1997-2008 and trends of standardized (standard: European population) mortality truncated rates (20-64 years) per 100 000 in the period 2002-2008 by citizenship (PFPM, PSA and Italians), gender, age-class and causes of death., Results: In the period 1997-2008, in Tuscany, 4 755 deaths have been registered in immigrants: 3 055 residents (1 782 from PFPM and 1 273 from PSA) and 1 700 not residents. Trends for all and the main causes of death show an increasing gap in mortality between immigrants from PFPM and Italians, with higher rates for Italians.On the contrary infant mortality is higher in children from PFPM and the gap is increasing in the last years. Also the mortality for accidents (1° and 3° cause of death respectively in male and female PFPM) and the mortality for infectious diseases are higher in PFPM immigrants., Conclusion: Mortality study on immigrants in Tuscany highlighted specific health problems of this population deriving from living conditions in the home country as well in the host country. It will be necessary to continue to monitor the mortality trend and characteristics of this population because it represents a good indirect tool to evaluate his socioeconomic integration (considering also his use of our health system), and because this population is still expected to raise in the next decades.

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologia del Lavoro is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper aims to show the main four paradigms of analysis on Europe and its identity elaborated in the last two centuries by the social sciences. For the scholars who proposed them Europe is an indistinct entità for its cultural, political, economical and/or religious characters, especially if it is compared to other cultures. However, one of thes eparadigms, the one based on ethicity and nation, the common and primordial characters are found only in the distinct European ethicities, so that an unitarian demos misses. The second paradigm, the constructivistic one, stresses the definition of the European nations by the elites through a process that could be applied also for the European nation or for the post-national constellation following Habermas. The paradigm of the cultural identity, then, proposes to analyse the foundation of Europe through its history, literature or arts, and the paradigm of the cosmopolitism focuses on the process of construction of a "cosmopolitical" citizenship in a world level, based on human rights: the attention in on the role of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regions as the substatal institutions in-between State and iocal governments have developped a leading role in the process of the Europea integration. Empirical evidences of the activism of the regions are also the increase of the regional policies of the European Union, the develop of the regional paradiplomacy, the proliferation of the regional entities with a strong European identity. The phase of the main develop and the more optimistic predictions the Ninenties is that of the Europe of the Regions perspective or that of the Third Level for a possible federalist model. In particolar, the policy of the political, economical and social cohesion of the European institutions for the overcoming of the territorial inequalities could favourite the active role of the Regions. If in the past the scholars frequently used the intergovernative model to the definition of the European network, now the multi-level-governance model is preferred. It stresses the regions position in the relations between the EU power levels, institutional or not. The paper aims to explore the theory that the weakening of the states owes the globalization and it could provoke the strenghtening of the role of the regions as guarantees od the citizen participation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe is a secularised society as it is seen and thought? In a recent book by Peter Berger, Grace Davie e Effie Fokas (2008) Religious America, Secular Europe? this question returns to another question, much more intriguing: is Europe an exception in respect of the rest of the world and, above all, in respect of United States of America, following the indicators of the religiosity? (Davie, 2002; Hervieu-Léger, 2003) Or is not this assumed exception an unconditioned reflection of a chronic ethnocentrism of the European sociologists? For Berger we are watching more and more the de-secularisation and also Europe seems to be "round the corner" and to return "to faiths". However, half of Europeans, following the more recent data of the European Values Study, affirms that they pray or meditate once a week and three fourth of them affirm to feel religious themselves. Maybe, they fail to attend mass, but they don't renounce to think religiously and they continue to feel the need a sense of their action. At last, the socio-religious geography is rapidly changing: we can linger to make referendum for the opening of a mosque or for the construction of minarets, but the religious diversity is just evident, A well-informed social theory has to confute paradigms, schemes and conceptual matrix of the past. A sociology of religion that studies only the historically prevailing religions lingering to debate if and what the society if secularised risks not to understand how the society changes, its religious diversities and what they express. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]