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Questo saggio analizza il pensiero di Adam Smith, padre fondatore dell’economia politica, a più riprese accusato di non aver adeguatamente considerato il ruolo delle donne nella società. Attraverso un’analisi dei principali testi smithiani, l’autore mostra come il filosofo scozzese abbia in realtà trattato questo tema, da una parte incorporando nella sua visione alcuni pregiudizi tipici del suo tempo; dall’altra descrivendo meccanismi che spiegano il crescente svantaggio delle donne nella divisione sociale del lavoro e nella distribuzione del reddito. Nel complesso, pur ritenendo che la società di mercato favorisca una crescente emancipazione femminile, Smith sembra incline ad attri¬buire alla donna un ruolo cruciale nella sfera domestica, come custode di quei sentimenti di empatia e di benevolenza che il filosofo pone a fon¬damento dell’educazione morale e della stessa vita sociale.

Despite various treatment strategies being available, recurrent high-grade gliomas (r-HGG) are difficult to manage. To obtain local control, radiosurgery (SRS) reirradiation has been considered as potential treatment. In the present study, a retrospective analysis was performed on r-HGG patients treated with salvage single- (s-SRS) or multi-fraction SRS (m-SRS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of salvage SRS in terms of overall survival (OS); toxicity was analyzed as well. Between 2004 May and 2011 December, 128 r-HGG patients (161 lesions) treated with CyberKnife® SRS reirradiation were retrospectively analyzed. Toxicity was graded according to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v.3 criteria. OS from the diagnosis date and OS from reirradiation were estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Median follow-up was 9 months (range 15 days–82 months). All patients completed SRS without high-grade toxicity. Radiation necrosis was observed in seven patients (6 %) with large volume lesions. The median survival from initial diagnosis was 32 months. The 1-, 2-, and 3-years survival rates from diagnosis were 95, 62, and 45 % respectively. Median survival following SRS was 11.5 months. The 1-, 2-, and 3-years survival rate following SRS was 48, 20, and 17 % respectively. On multivariate analysis, age <40 years, salvage surgery before SRS, and other post-SRS therapies (second-line chemotherapy and/or surgery) were found to significantly improve survival (p = 0.03). SRS represents a safe and feasible option to treat r-HGG patients with low complication rates and potential survival benefit.

Despite various treatment strategies being available, recurrent high-grade gliomas (r-HGG) are difficult to manage. To obtain local control, radiosurgery (SRS) reirradiation has been considered as potential treatment. In the present study, a retrospective analysis was performed on r-HGG patients treated with salvage single- (s-SRS) or multi-fraction SRS (m-SRS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of salvage SRS in terms of overall survival (OS); toxicity was analyzed as well. Between 2004 May and 2011 December, 128 r-HGG patients (161 lesions) treated with CyberKnife(®) SRS reirradiation were retrospectively analyzed. Toxicity was graded according to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v.3 criteria. OS from the diagnosis date and OS from reirradiation were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Median follow-up was 9 months (range 15 days-82 months). All patients completed SRS without high-grade toxicity. Radiation necrosis was observed in seven patients (6 %) with large volume lesions. The median survival from initial diagnosis was 32 months. The 1-, 2-, and 3-years survival rates from diagnosis were 95, 62, and 45 % respectively. Median survival following SRS was 11.5 months. The 1-, 2-, and 3-years survival rate following SRS was 48, 20, and 17 % respectively. On multivariate analysis, age <40 years, salvage surgery before SRS, and other post-SRS therapies (second-line chemotherapy and/or surgery) were found to significantly improve survival (p = 0.03). SRS represents a safe and feasible option to treat r-HGG patients with low complication rates and potential survival benefit

Despite various treatment strategies being available, recurrent high-grade gliomas (r-HGG) are difficult to manage. To obtain local control, radiosurgery (SRS) reirradiation has been considered as potential treatment. In the present study, a retrospective analysis was performed on r-HGG patients treated with salvage single- (s-SRS) or multi-fraction SRS (m-SRS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of salvage SRS in terms of overall survival (OS); toxicity was analyzed as well. Between 2004 May and 2011 December, 128 r-HGG patients (161 lesions) treated with CyberKnife(®) SRS reirradiation were retrospectively analyzed. Toxicity was graded according to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v.3 criteria. OS from the diagnosis date and OS from reirradiation were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Median follow-up was 9 months (range 15 days-82 months). All patients completed SRS without high-grade toxicity. Radiation necrosis was observed in seven patients (6 %) with large volume lesions. The median survival from initial diagnosis was 32 months. The 1-, 2-, and 3-years survival rates from diagnosis were 95, 62, and 45 % respectively. Median survival following SRS was 11.5 months. The 1-, 2-, and 3-years survival rate following SRS was 48, 20, and 17 % respectively. On multivariate analysis, age <40 years, salvage surgery before SRS, and other post-SRS therapies (second-line chemotherapy and/or surgery) were found to significantly improve survival (p = 0.03). SRS represents a safe and feasible option to treat r-HGG patients with low complication rates and potential survival benefit

We investigated the clinical performance of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based commercial platform, the Myconostica MycAssayTM Aspergillus (MAP), for fungal DNA detection in the serum of patients at risk of invasive aspergillosis (IA). Sixty-four hospitalized patients were prospectively enrolled and a total of 71 different episodes were investigated (30 episodes were clinically/microbiologically classified as IA and 41 as control episodes). When MAP was compared to the galactomannan (GM) assay, no significant differences were found in terms of sensitivity (46.7 % vs. 50.0 %), specificity (97.6 % vs. 95.1 %), positive predictive value (PPV) (93.3 % vs. 88.2 %), and negative predictive value (NPV) (71.4 % vs. 72.2 %). The corresponding areas under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were also superimposable. Overall, because of the good agreement between the two assays and considering the high specificity and PPV of the MAP, we suggest the use of this PCR-based platform as a second-level examination for the evaluation of clinically undefined cases where culture or GM have provided positive results.

In this paper a new non-central beta distribution is defined. Several properties are derived (including various representations and moments expressions) both for the new and the standard non-central beta distribution, showing a greater tractability and interpretability of the former.

The present study employed two commercial real-time PCR kits, MycAssayTM Pneumocystis (PJ-PCR) and MycAssayTM Aspergillus (ASP-PCR), for the search of fungal DNA on 44 bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids from patients at risk of invasive fungal disease. Operationally, on the basis of clinical diagnosis and according to the European Organization for Research and Treatment Cancer/Mycoses Study Group (EORTC/MSG) criteria, patients were clustered in 3 groups: a P. jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) group, an invasive aspergillosis (IA) group and a control (CTRL) group, consisting of 8, 10 and 24 patients, respectively. The results were compared to those obtained with conventional diagnostic assays, including BAL culture, galactomannan-ELISA (GM) and immunofluorescence (IF). The PJ-PCR assay returned a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 94.4%, respectively. The ASP-PCR assay showed a sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 97.1%. When compared to the culture assay, the ASP-PCR showed enhanced sensitivity, and a good level of agreement (kappa = 0.63) was observed between ASP-PCR and GM assays. Overall, our data emphasize the diagnostic usefulness of the two commercial real-time PCR assays, especially in high-risk patients where timing is critical and a low fungal burden may hamper correct and prompt diagnosis by conventional tests.

Nel presente articolo viene introdotta una nuova distribuzione Beta non centrale. Vengono derivate varie proprietà (in particolare varie rappresentazioni ed espressioni dei momenti) sia per la nuova Beta non centrale sia per quella standard, mostrando come sotto molti aspetti la prima appaia maggiormente trattabile., A new Non-central Beta distribution is defined. Several properties are derived (including various representations and moments expressions) both for the new and the standard Non-central Beta distribution, showing in many respects a greater tractability of the former.

Nella presente tesi vengono discussi alcuni miscugli di distribuzioni Beta e di Dirichlet. In particolare, l’attenzione è rivolta alle distribuzioni Beta e di Dirichlet non centrali, di cui viene definita una variante maggiormente trattabile. Vengono studiate le principali proprietà e caratteristiche sia delle nuove distribuzioni Beta e di Dirichlet non centrali sia di quelle standard. Più precisamente, vengono proposte varie rappresentazioni, vengono analizzate le differenti forme assunte dalle densità, vengono ricavate approssimazioni delle stesse, vengono derivate formule generali per i momenti e, in ambito bayesiano, viene studiata la coniugatezza ai modelli Binomiale e Multinomiale. Infine, in ambito bayesiano non parametrico, vengono introdotte due estensioni non centrali del processo di Dirichlet. Di tali processi vengono fornite le caratteristiche marginali finito-dimensionali e la rappresentazione delle traiettorie discrete

Scopo di queste pagine è presentare nel modo più succinto possibile alcune riflessioni sorte durante il periodo in cui questo volume è andato formandosi. Le risposte fornite dagli autori hanno riconfermato il mio convincimento che la teoria economica non possa essere concepita come una forma di ingegneria sociale, una scienza cioè che disegni e pianifichi ex ante le modalità in cui la società e l’economia devono funzionare. Al contrario, quella economica è una disciplina che dovrebbe aiutare la società a ’compiere esperimenti nei confronti di se stessa’. Tali esperimenti dovrebbero avere come fine ultimo quello di progettare politiche e istituzioni economiche che producano il più alto standard di vita per tutti compatibile con i requisiti dell’uguaglianza, della libertà e del rispetto della dignità degli altri. Senza ovviamente tralasciare la salvaguardia

Per molto tempo i dottori della società. iano essi economisti o politici, si sono concentrati sui sintomi piuttosto che sulle cause del malessere sociale che si insinua sempre più profondamente nella società europea. Le riforme socio-economiche introdotte dai neo-liberali, lungi dall'essere ispirate dall'intenzione di andare alla radice dei mali che determinano l'insicurezza, la solitudine, l'esclusione, la povertà in cui ognuno di noi si imbatte quotidianamente per le strade delle nostre città, rafforzano le cause del malessere generale. [...] Sulla base di questa riflessione la tesi che emerge con forza dalle interviste raccolte in questo volume è che per arginare la dilagante vittoria dell'ideologia neoliberale sia necessario trovare il coraggio e la capacità di proporre una forma di società radicalmente diversa da quella che vede il mercato come unica stella polare da seguire nel complesso paesaggio da un paradgma rigido ad uno flessibile. Trovare risposte a domande come Che cos'è una società gisuta? E' ancora possibile ragionare su come configurare un sistema di cooperazione sociale inclusivo e rispettoso dei bisogni delle persone? Quali politiche strutturali strutturali potrebbero facilitare il ritorno di una robusta società civile impegnata, capace di giocare un ruolo primario nei proessi economici?