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Background: Even though umbilical cord blood (UCB) has become an important source of hematopoietic stem cells for transplant, little is known about normal hematological values at birth. The aim of our preliminary retrospective study was to determine reference values for the main hematological parameters of UCB, stratified by gender, gestational age and delivery route in the Sardinian neonatal population. Method: In our retrospective study we reviewed hematological blood counts from UCB samples collected consecutively at the Neonatal and Obstetric Division of San Gavino Hospital, Sardinia, Italy, between January 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014. Unsuitable samples (insufficient blood amount, clotted or hemolyzed samples) were excluded from the analysis. Results: A total of 439 UCB samples from newborn infants with gestational age ranging from 34 to 42 weeks were included in the study. Newborn infants from vaginal delivery and preterm infants showed higher erythrocyte and leukocytes values, while no differences in hematological values were found between males and females. Interestingly, reticulocyte hemoglobin content was specifically evaluated and its values were found not to be influenced by gender, gestational age, and delivery route. Conclusions: These preliminary findings may contribute to define reference values for UCB hematological parameters in term and late preterm infants from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, thus favoring a wider use of these parameters in the clinical management of the newborn.

The Cannara aquifer (Umbria, Italy) has been known for more than a century, and is one of the main drinking water supplies in the Umbria Region. In the beginning it was used for irrigation purposes, since this area was mainly agricultural up to the 1960s. The groundwater—exploited by Umbra Acque S.p.A. (a Company supplying drinking water)—is 150 m under ground level and is contained in a porous confined aquifer, which originally had artesian characteristics. Exploitation of 200–300 l/s with nine wells caused a reduction of piezometric level, maintaining the confined aquifer conditions, except for a very short period during which the aquifer was depressurised by drought, and for increase of emergency withdrawals replacing other water supplies (from springs) for drinking purposes. The occasional presence of iron and ammonium ions confirms the confinement of the groundwater and their hydrochemical facies in a redox environment, while in nearby areas and shallow aquifers anthropogenic contaminants (nitrates and chlorinated solvents) are reported. For the protection of this aquifer of strategic interest (the most important well field in Umbria), all hydrological and hydrochemical data available have been reviewed, and the aquifer recharge studied. Sustainable rates of withdrawal, and groundwater protection areas have been identified using a numerical flow model. Further action for monitoring groundwater of both shallow and artesian aquifers, together with well-revamping, have been proposed.

L'ús de llengües minoritàries a l'Administració pública té un alt valor simbòlic i, per tant, això pot facilitar que l'estatus dels idiomes afectats millori. Aquest article se centra en l'anàlisi de l'ús de les llengües minoritàries a l'Administració pública d'Irlanda del Nord. Inclou una breu història del paper que han exercit aquests idiomes al país i un examen de la seva situació demogràfica (els censos de 2001 i 2011), abans d'abordar els compromisos i la legislació internacionals, la posada en marxa de la legislació (determinada principalment pels informes estatals sobre les obligacions internacionals pertinents) i les propostes d'una futura legislació respecte de la protecció de l'irlandès i de l'escocès de l'Ulster a Irlanda del Nord. L'idioma irlandès és una llengua celta que històricament s'ha parlat a Irlanda. Moltes persones a Irlanda del Nord la consideren una part molt important del seu patrimoni cultural. Segons el cens de 2001, l'irlandès el parla el 10,4% de la població d'Irlanda del Nord i es va calcular (al cens de 2001 no hi havia preguntes sobre l'escocès de l'Ulster, que van ser introduïdes per primera vegada al cens de 2011) que l'escocès de l'Ulster, l'altre idioma parlat a Irlanda del Nord, a part de l'anglès i de l'irlandès, el parlava un 2% de la població. De fet, segons el cens de 2011, el nombre de persones amb algun coneixement d'irlandès i d'escocès de l'Ulster és semblant. Un 8,08% de la població d'Irlanda del Nord es pot comunicar en l’escocès de l'Ulster i el 10,65% té coneixements d'irlandès. És sorprenent que no hi hagi una enorme diferència entre els dos percentatges. La Llei d'Irlanda del Nord de 1998 va atorgar a l'Assemblea d'Irlanda del Nord unes competències legislatives per a la majoria de les polítiques que són pertinents per a la protecció de l'irlandès i de l'escocès de l'Ulster. No obstant això, parlant a grans trets, aquestes competències no s'han fet valer, per culpa, en gran part, de la naturalesa altament discutida de la llengua a Irlanda del Nord, i al punt mort al qual s'ha arribat entre els partits nacionalistes, que dispensen un ampli suport a les accions legislatives encaminades a protegir l'irlandès, i als partits unionistes, que s'oposen a aquestes mesures i invoquen la protecció de l'escocès de l'Ulster. La societat nord-irlandesa està dividida. I hi ha estereotips que no han permès gaudir de l'herència lingüística d'Irlanda del Nord. Aquest article se centra, doncs, especialment, en l'ús de l'irlandès i de l'escocès de l'Ulster a l'Administració pública d'Irlanda del Nord.

Il presente contributo intenderà offrire una nuova prospettiva di lettura del futuro attraverso le arti contemporanee, con un focus preciso verso la previsione e la comprensione della questione dei cambiamenti climatici. Gli artisti interessati a questo tipo di ricerche, nelle loro opere, mirano a mettere in atto un processo che mostri lo stato di salute del pianeta. L'arte contemporanea può dunque giocare un ruolo di primordine: attraverso le opere degli artisti, infatti, si ha uno specchio ben preciso della situazione futura del pianeta. Inoltre l’arte contemporanea può avere una grande forza persuasiva riguardo la sensibilizzazione dei cittadini rispetto a tale problematica. Si cercherà, dunque, di narrare il futuro del pianeta attraverso l’arte contemporanea, offrendo una panoramica degli artisti che si dedicano a questo tipo di ricerche ed analizzandone la loro poetica. L’obiettivo è quello di dimostrare come l’arte contemporanea possa contribuire notevolmente non solo alla descrizione del futuro, ma anche alla comprensione di problematiche globali come quella dei cambiamenti climatici.

Aquest article examina la legislació del País de Gal·les i d´Escòcia respecte de la protecció de les llengües minoritàries (el gal·lès a Gal·les i el gaèlic escocès i l’escocès a Escòcia), particularment la Llei de la Llengua Gal·lesa de 1993, la disposició legal de la llengua gal·lesa (Gal·les) de 2011 i la Llei de la Llengua Gaèlica (Escòcia) de 2005. La diferència més òbvia entre el gal·lès i el gaèlic és el percentatge de persones que parla les llengües: un 20% el gal·lès i un 1,2% el gaèlic. En aquestes circumstàncies, no és sorprenent que generalment hi hagi nivells diferents de prestació de serveis en cada llengua minoritària. El gal·lès i el gaèlic escocès estan protegits per la Part III de la Carta europea de les llengües regionals o minoritàries. Respecte a la protecció nacional, al País de Gal·les, la legislació (Llei de la Llengua Gal·lesa de 1993) era més protectora que a Escòcia, fins i tot abans de l'aprovació de la disposició de la Llengua Gal·lesa de 2011. Aquest article s'ha centrat especialment en l’ús del gal·lès I del gaèlic escocès a l'Administració pública de Gal·les i Escòcia segons la legislació lingüística vigent.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the setting of Psoriatic Arthritis is an additional variable to be considered in the therapeutic approach to the disease because of the complications of an immunosuppressive treatment in the course of a chronic infection and the possible hepatotoxicity of many drugs conventionally used to treat psoriatic arthritis. The case reported explores the therapeutic options in a patient with IFN-α induced psoriatic arthritis, characterised by severe arthritis and psoriasis but also the concomitant presence of HCV chronic hepatitis, in light of the patient’s concerns

La Parola è lo strumento mediante il quale il mondo “si significa” agli occhi di chi lo percepisce. Il soggetto che si trovi davanti una rappresentazione, di qualunque genere essa sia, sociale, emotiva, fisica, psicologica,etc., tende a limitare il Senso di ciò che egli osserva, ricorrendo all’uso di un “significato”, transitivo ma circoscritto al tempo stesso.

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Although popular songs have been used for many years in the teaching of English, they are still regarded as little more than a 'seductive' tool and mainly as a grammatical aid. This essay overturns this approach, starting from a reflection on the relationship between music and language, and then shifting the focus to the phonetic and phonological aspects of songs. At the core of this reflection is the voice, and the use it can be put to in language and music (and therefore in singing). First of all, we point out that in many ways the learning of a language, in which the oral dimension is increasingly regarded as a priority, implies a process similar to that required for learning to sing, i.e. making discrete sounds both when listening and when performing. Using the Kodály method and working on phonetics, it is therefore possible to envision a method that proceeds in parallel with the teaching of English and music. The privileged work instrument will be the Anglo-American folk song, on account of its specific qualities, for its being fully immersed in local contexts and perfectly intelligible, because it is not submerged by invasive arrangements unlike most popular songs. Thus understood, the song becomes both a vehicle for approaching the 'deep' culture of the Anglo-Saxon world, where the popular song is increasingly the expression of a global culture, and a play with sounds: this turns out to be ideal for the practice of fluency, which is crucial to access advanced language levels. The goal is to develop the ability to decode and reproduce sounds, both linguistic and musical, in order to create an attitude that can then be transferred from the phonetics of the English language, and from tonal and tempered music, in which the Kodály method is embedded, to other languages and to music based on other intonation systems.

The main theme of this paper is the examination of the judgments of Italian and Spanish Constitutional Courts on minority language legislation to show how they had paramount importance to develop legislation in this sector. The paper is two-hold: the first part of the paper deals with Italian Legislation and Italian Constitutional Court judgments regarding the protection of minority languages. Then the paper narrows down its focus onto Italian Constitutional Court judgment n. 159 of 2009. The second part of the paper looks to Spanish Constitutional Court judgments regarding the Autonomous Communities legislation on minority languages. The paper then concludes that Constitution and Constitutional Court judgments have a significant influence in the development of legislation regarding the protection of minority languages.

The need to obtain a detailed hydrogeological characterization of the subsurface and its interpretation for the groundwater resources management, often requires to apply several and complementary geophysical methods. The goal of the approach in this paper is to provide a unique model of the aquifer by synthesizing and optimizing the information provided by several geophysical methods. This approach greatly reduces the degree of uncertainty and subjectivity of the interpretation by exploiting the different physical and mechanic characteristics of the aquifer. The studied area, into the municipality of Laterina (Arezzo, Italy), is a shallow basin filled by lacustrine and alluvial deposits (Pleistocene and Olocene epochs, Quaternary period), with alternated silt, sand with variable content of gravel and clay where the bottom is represented by arenaceous-pelitic rocks (Mt. Cervarola Unit, Tuscan Domain, Miocene epoch). This shallow basin constitutes the unconfined superficial aquifer to be exploited in the nearly future. To improve the geological model obtained from a detailed geological survey we performed electrical resistivity and P wave refraction tomographies along the same line in order to obtain different, independent and integrable data sets. For the seismic data also the reflected events have been processed, a remarkable contribution to draw the geologic setting. Through the k-means algorithm, we perform a cluster analysis for the bivariate data set to individuate relationships between the two sets of variables. This algorithm allows to individuate clusters with the aim of minimizing the dissimilarity within each cluster and maximizing it among different clusters of the bivariate data set. The optimal number of clusters “K”, corresponding to the individuated geophysical facies, depends to the multivariate data set distribution and in this work is estimated with the Silhouettes. The result is an integrated tomography that shows a finite number of homogeneous geophysical facies, which therefore permits to distinguish and interpret the porous aquifer in a quantitative and objective way.

The article offers a “wide-angle lens” view of the most recent discussions on Gramsci in Italy and shows how their publication of new documents, or new editions of already-known documents, has been intertwined with critical discussion. Albeit with many interpretative oscillations and divergences, a common aspect characterizes this discussion, which may be summed up in two points, namely method and merit. Regarding the first of these, diachrony comes to the fore as the sine qua non for understanding Gramsci’s thought at each moment of his life. On the second point – the questions of merit – we show, in agreement with the first point, how all the contributions examined, as the red thread that runs through them, take account of the fact that Gramsci was above all else a practising, active politician, and only in so far as he was such was he also a theoretician of politics. We thus succeed in grasping the originality of the personality and thought of Gramsci, and avoid falling into the types of “academic” reconstruction – very widespread up to the 1980s – which resolved this thought and this personality into the “sum” of their “sources”. Gramsci is thereby restored to the history of his party, but at the same time the fact emerges that his legacy goes beyond that tradition and belongs to the whole of Italian culture.

Increasing amounts of data have recenlty been published regarding ultrasonographic (US) findings of osteoarthritic joints, but very few data concern hip joints. In the current study we described US patterns concerning 490 patients affected by symptomatic hip osteoarthritis (OA) who underwent to intra-articular injections of hyaluronic products under US guidance. All patients were studied by US and X-ray of hip, clinical evaluation was assessed by the followings indexes: Lequesne, pain VAS, ICED, Global Physician Assessment and Global Patient Assessment. US findings were summarized in four main patterns, effusion and synovial proliferation were also detected. The aim of this study was to correlate US findings with clinical assessment and radiographic findings (according to Kellegren- Lawrence classification). Pearson’s r correlation coefficient were computed and come out significant and positive between X ray and US patterns and between clinical indexes and US patterns. Also the correlation between K-L score and US patterns showed a significant positive correlation indicating that higher K-L scores are associated with increasing abnormal US findings. Our data suggest that ultrasonography of the hip may give useful information about the state of synovial membrane, synovial fluid, joint margins and bone profile in hip OA. Further studies are needed to evaluate their prevalence in hip OA symptomatic and not-symptomatic patients and their correlation to treatment outcome.

Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are linked diseases characterised by (distinct ?) immune-mediated pathogenetic mechanisms and by a genetic background interacting with environmental factors. Some candidate susceptibility genes have been studied extensively; they include HLA genes, genes within the HLA region and genes outside the HLA region; among them corneodesmosin and other genes of PSORS1 region, MICA and TNF-a polymorphisms. The main findings in the literature are discussed. Key words: Genetics, psosriasis, psoriatic arthritis

Aquest article se centra en la comparació de la normativa de la Unió Europea i la del Consell d'Europa en el camp de la protecció de les llengües minoritàries i estudia la relació entre tots dos sistemes. El Consell d'Europa ha estat molt important en la protecció de les llengües minoritàries, amb la creació de dos tractats rellevants: la Carta europea de les llengües regionals o minoritàries el 1992 i la Convenció marc per a la protecció de les minories nacionals el 1995; ambdós tractats contenen nombroses clàusules detallades relatives a les llengües minoritàries. No tots els països, fins i tot de la Unió Europea, han ratificat aquests tractats. Dotze dels vint-i-set països de la UE no han ratificat la Carta europea de les llengües regionals o minoritàries. La Unió Europea dóna suport al multilingüisme perquè vol aconseguir la unitat tot conservant la diversitat. La Comunitat Europea ha fet passes importants en relació amb les llengües minoritàries, especialment en forma de resolucions del Parlament Europeu. La Comissió Europea, amb el suport del Parlament Europeu, ha tramitat ajuts financers per a les llengües que no són oficials. El respecte a les minories és un prerequisit per a l'adhesió de nous estats a la UE. La Carta dels drets fonamentals de la Unió Europea, aprovada a Niça el 7 de desembre del 2000, conté els articles 21 i 22, relatius a aquest tema. El Tractat de Lisboa fa una remissió a la Carta dels drets fonamentals de la Unió Europea, que, en conseqüència, esdevé legalment vinculant d'acord amb el Tractat de Lisboa des del desembre del 2009. La Carta pot obrir el camí per apel·lar al Tribunal de Justícia de la Unió Europea (TJUE) en casos de discriminació per raons de llengua i dependrà de l'orientació dels jutges del TJUE que se'n faci una interpretació sense una base legal forta.

Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is characterised by the strongest association with an HLA antigen ever described for any disease. It represents therefore the ideal model for the understanding of the link between immune-mediated diseases and the HLA system. The role of HLA-B27 in the pathogenesis of AS will be discussed focusing on the recently described higher expression of these molecules in patients with AS compared with healthy controls.

The pathophysiological events regarding the atherosclerotic processes are present already in early childhood. Various clinical trials confirm tight correlation between dyslipidemia and cardiac and cerebrovascular complications. Over the clinical dyslipidemia genetically determined, various systemic diseases can lead to anomalies of the lipidic metabolism. The determination and analysis of the lipidic pattern is essential during childhood and in particular in patients with renal disease for the increased risk of progressive failure of renal function and for the central role of kidney in lipidic homeostasis. Cardiovascular event is the most important cause of mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease. In children with nephrotic syndrome, renal failure, hemodialysis or after renal transplantation, an increase of the serum values of triglycerides, cholesterol, LDL, VLDL is generally observed. The presence of anomalies in lipidic pattern must be considered during the course of renal disease for preventing the progression of renal damage. Thus, the pharmacological therapy and diet permit to prevent the atherosclerotic events.

Introduction: Acute scrotum in the pediatric age is mainly related to surgical causes. Spermatic cord torsion and inguinoscrotal hernia must be ruled out first, because of the possible ischemic damage to gonadal tissue and therefore surgery is sometimes performed directly, thus representing also a diagnostic tool. Spermatic cord torsion is found in two age ranges, namely: the neonatal period, where it usually represents the evolution of an intrauterine process, and the peripubertal period, which is more frequent. An unquestionable and prompt diagnosis is particularly needed because of the extreme sensitivity of gonadal tissue to ischemia. In this particular field, color and power Doppler US, depicting gonadal flow, have greatly increased diagnostic imaging capabilities, which were previously limited to B-mode US., Material and Methods: We examined 19 peripubertal patients with the diagnosis of spermatic cord torsion made on the basis of B-mode US and then confirmed with color Doppler., Results: We found two signs which can be considered highly suggestive of spermatic cord torsion: the spiral twist of spermatic vessels and the peculiar extent of reactive hydrocele, caused by the bell clapper anomaly of the vaginal sac., Conclusions: The above US patterns are very helpful to diagnose spermatic cord torsion.

A rare case of disseminated mucormycosis occurred in a 3-year-old boy suffering from a 4th degree neuroblastoma, treated with chemiotherapy and broad-spectrum antibiotics is reported. The child was admitted in the pediatric intensive care unit after surgical debridement of a wide part of the bowel showing necrosis and vessel thrombosis. After the histological diagnosis of mucormycosis in the gastrointestinal tract and the echographic detection of multiple mycotic localizations in the liver and kidneys, a treatment with high-dose amphotericin B was carried out. At the same time, the occurrence of anaerobiosis and/or acidosis as well as hyperglycemia was avoided in order to prevent the hyphae growth. This therapeutic strategy has been successful in preventing the infection spread, so that after 10 months from the discharge from the intensive care unit the child is in good health and the liver and kidney lesions are unchanged.