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The development of ICT has important consequences on social experience and on the processes of subjectivation. These changes have contributed to undermining some assumptions of sociological theory, such as the status of subject and object of knowledge, the concepts of actor, action and the social, the conditions of possibility of social criticism. The paper reconstructs some of the main logic of transformation of these assumptions, moving from a discussion of L. Gallino’s theses on the relationship between subjectivity, socio-technical change of the web, changes in the elaboration of knowledge and new forms of social criticism. It shows how the epistemic shift generated by these changes leads to an anti-essentialist critique of sociological categories. In this line some critical potentialities of the Actor-Network Theory concepts, of the Goffmanian category of frame and of the infra-empirical perspective proposed by the socio-analysis are shown.

The main goals of the total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is to reduce the perceived pain and restore knee mobility and function in case of osteoarthritic knees joints. Literature shows how the three major causes of TKA failures are related to wear, loosening and instability and this is due to a problem of imbalance and malalignment. Intraoperative and postoperative kinematics analysis could be of benefit for improving surgery outcome. The aim of the present paper is to give an overview of the two set-up with the highest accuracy for intraoperative and postoperative TKA kinematics evaluation, currently in use at Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli. Introperative and Postoperative Evaluation: For intraoperative evaluation it has been presented a navigation system with a specifically developed software, while for the postoperative it has been presented the roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA). The navigation system consists in a laptop connected with an optoelectronic localizer (Polaris, Northern Digital Inc, Canada). Two reference arrays with passive optical markers and a marked probe are used to localize the knee joint in the 3D space and track the joint kinematics. The RSA is a radiographic technique used in orthopaedic field for measuring micromotion at bone/prosthesis interface or for joint kinematics evaluation. The RSA uses two X-ray sources synchronized with two digital flat-panels. Conclusions: The present paper shows that using the navigation system allows the surgeon to easily perform kinematic and alignment evaluation during TKA surgery while the RSA allows a quantitative evaluation of the joint kinematics during the recovery time.

Cambio. Rivista sulle Trasformazioni Sociali, Vol. 6 No. 11 (2016)

Nell’ambito delle ricerche svolte per ricostruire l’osteobiografia di Farinelli, riesumato alla Certosa di Bologna nel 2006 dal gruppo di ricerca dei laboratori di Bioarcheologia e Osteologia forense (Università di Bologna) e di Paleopatologia (Università di Pisa), si presentano i risultati delle analisi morfometriche, fotografiche, tomografiche e microtomografiche sullo scheletro facciale di Farinelli. Nonostante il pessimo stato di conservazione, esse hanno consentito di ricostruire in 3D la malocclusione di II classe da morso profondo (overbite accentuato), particolarmente interessante tenendo conto delle straordinarie qualità canore e sceniche di Farinelli. Si conservano 25 denti e gli incisivi e i canini inferiori presentano un’usura buccale molto marcata e inclinata vestibolarmente, che ha esposto la dentina cancellando lo smalto della corona. Poiché molte caratteristiche fisiche di Farinelli sono riconducibili alla castrazione subita in età prepuberale (Belcastro et al. 2010), la retrusione della mandibola potrebbe essere legata a disarmonia facciale dovuta ad una sua minore crescita rispetto al resto del cranio. Dal punto di vista biologico, la mandibola è meno soggetta agli effetti della mancanza di testosterone legata alla castrazione e la sua crescita non è paragonabile a quella di altri distretti corporei (Gullo, 2002). Diversi studi (Mumma e Keith, 1970; Mercier e Poitras, 1992; English et al., 2002) hanno segnalato che questo tipo di malocclusione ha anche effetto sulle attività masticatorie con conseguente ridotta capacità di sminuzzare il cibo rispetto a coloro che hanno un’occlusione normale. Questo comporterebbe disturbi gastrici e intestinali. Stando a queste indicazioni e alle notizie sul “mal di stomaco” del quale Farinelli soffriva cronicamente, (cfr. carteggio con il conte Sicinio Pepoli e con Pietro Metastasio) si potrebbe ipotizzare che una delle possibili cause di questo malessere, oltre agli elevati livelli di stress, potesse essere il tipo anomalo di occlusione.

Purpose: Monte Carlo simulation is a very useful tool for radiotherapy and diagnostic radiology. Yet even with the latest PCs, simulation of photon spectra emitted by an x-ray tube is a time-consuming task, potentially reducing the possibility to obtain relevant data such as dose evaluations, simulation of geometric settings, or monitor detector efficiency. This study developed and validated a method to generate random numbers for realistic beams in terms of photon spectrum and intensity to simulate x-ray tubes via Monte Carlo algorithms. Methods: Starting from literature data, the most common semiempirical models of bremsstrahlung are analyzed and implemented, adjusting their formulation to describe a large irradiation area (i.e., large field of view) and to take account of the heel effect as in common practice during patient examinations. Results: Simulation results show that Birch and Marshall's model is the fastest and most accurate for the aims of this work. Correction of the geometric size of the beam and validation of the intensity variation (heel effect) yielded excellent results with differences between experimental and simulated data of less than 6%. Conclusions: The results of validation and execution time showed that the tube simulator calculates the x-ray photons quickly and efficiently and is perfectly capable of considering all the phenomena occurring in a real beam (total filtration, focal spot size, and heel effect), so it can be used in a wide range of applications such as industry, medical physics, or quality assurance