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The paper presents the “Rinascimental" figure of Enrico Dell'Acqua, entrepreneur innovator operating the multinational markets, between the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century, who moved from Busto Arsizio to develop textile factories and trade in Latin America. The first part is devoted to the reasons and nature of the industrial development of Busto Arsizio from the early centuries of Middle Ages to the XIX century from the steel and mechanical to the textile industry. They are found in the good human capital, in the easiness of the communications and in the existence of an high demand for those goods in the near area of Milan and in the open market. The second part analyzes factors of success and difficulties in the expansion of the business of Dell'Acqua in Italy and South America, connecting them to the humus of industrial culture in which he had been grown, to his patriotic impetus in the creation of new Italian enterprises and to his organizational and marketing skills likely improved through an appropriate education. Dell'Acqua' model is that of an entrepreneur-operating in a competitive mass market, who organizes his production and marketing by a plurality of firms operating for his business as contrasted to the “Fordist" model of the Schumpeterian entrepreneur who organizes his large scale production and sales with an inherent tendency to monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostalism is a religious movement, spreading, from its origins in the early twentieth century and more strongly since the 1950s, to the entire Latin American continent, mainly through ethnic and class segments located in the lower parts of the social pyramid. With the pass of the time, Pentecostalism showed a great capacity for theological and organisational recreation, but did not cut, despite this, its basic ties with evangelical heritage. This dynamism has strengthened its public presence from the religious point of view while its civic impact is still in great part unknown, and led to various hypotheses that present this movement as associable to democracy and, conversely, as opposed to its founding values and to the change of social structures in a 'progresist' sense. It is clear however that the Pentecostals have been the excuse to debate the issue of 'invasion of the sects ' by those who stigmatised its churches, especially in the 80's. This paper works these aspects and presents methodological demands that seem appropriate to take into account in friture compara-tive studies in Latin American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deploys a welfare regime approach to examine changes in social policy in Latin America since the "lost decade". Before the "lost decade" the welfare regime in Latin America could best be described as "conservative/informal". It was "truncated" because the main welfare institutions, social insurance and employment protection, did not extend beyond workers in formal employment. The article shows that the structure of the labour market was the main stratification device, and argues that labour market liberalization and new forms of social assistance are producing a shift towards a "liberal-informal" welfare regime, "hyphenated" rather than "truncated". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accurate Leishmania classification was defined since 1980s by the use of isoenzyme analysis. To date, this procedure still represents the reference identification technique, despite the increasing use of molecular approaches. Studies and surveillance methods on leishmaniases are strongly conditioned by the knowledge and mapping of all the parameters characterizing each nosogeographical entity. On this respect, the identification of parasites from all the actors of the natural life cycle plays a key role. With the increasing population movements and climate changes, novel risk factors could be identified associated to Leishmania geographical distribution and spreading: a) the introduction into Italy of new populations of L. infantum from other countries; b) the introduction of new Leishmania species that may find a suitable milieau to support their life cycle in our country. The objective of this report is to present the surveillance activity on imported leishmaniases by the Leishmania Identification Reference Centre, ISS. Two different methodologies were routinely applied: a) isoenzyme electrophoretic analysis, which requires parasite culture, and b) a number of molecular techniques, used for both diagnosis and parasite identification, differently applied according to the geographical origin of the suspected leishmaniasis case. When possible, both types of methodologies were applied. From 1986 to June 2002, 38 imported cases of leishmaniases were identified: 9 visceral (VL) and 29 cutaneous (CL) cases, of which 22 from the Old and 7 from the New World. Pathology, Leishmania species/zymodeme and geographical origin features are reported in the paper. Seven out of 9 VL patients were HIV positive, of whom 5 detected in the period 1993-1995. This high importation rate can be associated to the general increase in Mediterranean Leishmania/HIV coinfections in that period. Following HAART treatment, VL imported cases became occasional; no introduction of new L. infantum populations has been detected. On the other hand, our findings show an increase of CL imported cases from different areas of the Old and New Worlds. This phenomenon, however, is so far limited to new Leishmania species that could hardly be introduced in our country, because of their strict biological requirements (i.e. vectors and/or natural reservoir hosts). Since June 2002, 10 further suspected imported cases were recorded. For these patients--whose Leishmania identification is still in course--the origin/visited geographical areas were only slight different from the previous. However, the characteristics of the patients are changing: there are more immigrants that occasionally visited their place of origin, and Italian military staff.

"The author examines the history of the wealthy Italian colony of Nicaragua, compared with the other ethnic groups which had migrated there from Europe, and Northern and Southern America. The paper highlights the peculiar aspects of this settlement, the characteristics of the integration and what still remains of the Italian identity. The main sources for this research in Nicaragua come both from local documents and publications and the interviews [of] relatives of Italian immigrants...." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE), (excerpt)