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The annual incidence of listeriosis in Italy is lower (0·19–0·27 per 100 000 inhabitants per year) than in Europe (0·34–0·52 per 100 000 inhabitants per year). Since the observed incidence of listeriosis may be biased downward for underdiagnosis or under-reporting, this work aims to estimate the real incidence of listeriosis during a 9-year period in the Lombardy region, Italy. Data on listeriosis cases were collected from national mandatory notification system (MAINF) and Laboratory-based Surveillance System (LabSS). The two sources were cross-matched and capture–recapture method was applied to estimate the number of undetected cases and the real incidence of invasive listeriosis. Five hundred and eighty invasive listeriosis cases were detected by the two sources between 2006 and 2014: 50·2% were identified only via MAINF, 16·7% were recorded only via LabSS, overlaps occurred in 192 cases (33·1%). The mean annual incidence detected only by MAINF was 0·56 per 100 000 inhabitants, which rose to 0·67 per 100 000 considering also the cases detected by LabSS. The capture–recapture method allowed to estimate an incidence of 0·84 per 100 000. The high incidence of listeriosis may be due to improved sensitivity of the surveillance system, but also reflect a real increase, associated with an increased population at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay examines a subject largely ignored in Tasso criticism: the role of supernatural powers in the epic action of the Liberata. Tasso introduces divine characters, notably God and Satan, at several crucial moments. The presence in the epic plot of an intervening God who is at once partisan and omnipotent brings to the fore certain narrative and theological problems; these problems are not Tasso's alone, but inhere in the attempt to construct a Christian supernatural on the classical epic model. The divine action of the Liberata sheds light on the religious ideology of the poem, and on an issue of broader significance: the uneasy marriage of monotheism and epic narrative. Critics who have written about the divine action in the Liberata usually deplore it; critics who have written about the poem's religion often do not focus on its clearest textual manifestation, the words and deeds of its supernatural characters. Thomas Greene and C.P. Brand, two of the most perceptive anglophone readers of Tasso's poem, both cast a cold eye on its treatment of the supernatural. For Greene, the heaven of the Liberata is never really credible, 'never impinging on one's actual spiritual life.' (1) Brand describes the poem's supernatural elements as 'unconvincing,' 'mechanical afterthoughts' of 'uncertain inspiration.' (2) In Italian criticism, discussion of Tasso's supernatural has taken second place to the more general question of the poet's religiosity. (3) This debate has developed as a series of responses to the negative judgments offered by De Sanctis and Donadoni, who criticized the religious sentiment in the Liberata as insincere and formalistic, Counterreformation ritual devoid of genuin e feeling. (4) Subsequent critics marshalled evidence from Tasso's poems and vast epistolary to show that the poet was far from personally indifferent to religion. (5) Their researches effectively refuted De Sanctis' charges of insincerity, though these revisionist critics, treating the poet's anguished doubts as evidence of his religiosita, seemed not to realize just how self-destructive Tasso's particular type of religious sentiment must have been. (6) More recent work by Erminia Ardissino and Walter Stephens focuses on the poet's skepticism. (7) Ardissino treats Tasso's religious doubt as the key to his poetry 'Tutta la produzione tassiana si puo interpretare come una ricerca che in vane forme persegue sempre un solo sfuggente oggetto: ii Deus absconditus.' (One can read Tasso's entire poetic output as a search which pursues a single elusive object: the Deus absconditus.) (8) Ardissino reads the Liberata as an essentially tragic poem, marked by a sense of the immeasurable distance between heaven and earth and the ephemerality of mortal affairs. That these themes have an important place in Tasso's epic nobody would deny, but Ardissino's reading tells only part of the story; it ignores the fact that in the Liberata Tasso's Deus is hardly absconditus. God appears four times in the poem in propria persona; (9) the Liberata also includes an important scene featuring Satan, as well as many appearances by angels and devils of varying length and consequence. Due consideration of the poem's intervening deities bears considerably on the question of whether and how Gerusalemme liberata is a tragic poem; this question will be treated at the conclusion of this essay. It is certainly possible, as Stephens hypothesizes, that in writing the Liberata Tasso 'attempted to concretize and organize a faith he found increasingly elusive.' (10) Whatever doubts may have tormented its author, however, in the Liberata a version of the traditional Christian supernatural constitutes the truth of the poem, and its divine characters deserve to be taken as seriously as the Olympian gods in Homeric and Virgilian epic. The following presents a revised view of the divine action in Tasso's poem. It is best understood neither as extraneous 'machinery' nor as figurative embellishment of the mortal action, but rather as an integral part of the narrative. Strange the divine action certainly is, but its strangeness results not from lack of inspiration but from deep tensions between the requirements of epic narrative and Christian theology. These tensions, it will be argued, are endemic to Christian epic. The narrative problems Tasso faced in inventing Christian deities were not his alone, and a close look at how he dealt with them sheds fresh light not only on Gerusalemme liberata but on the uneasy marriage of monotheism and epic narrative. This essay begins with an examination of Tasso's argument for a Christian supernatural in his early poetic treatise, the Discorsi dell'arte poetica. It continues by tracing the various instances of divine intervention in the Liberata, first on the part of the forces of heaven and then on the pa rt of the forces of hell. It concludes with some reflections on divine partisanship and epic plot., A POETICS OF FUSION AND REVISION In the late 1560s, while in his early twenties, Tasso wrote a treatise on epic in three books entitled Discorsi dell'arte poetica. While it [...]

This article explores the motivations behind the Florentine militia ordinance of 1506 and Niccolo Machiavelli's involvement. A major problem with regard to contemporary discourse on the militia is its complete, or almost complete, absence of references to the military system of the ancient Roman republic. It is here argued that this silence was a conscious strategy on the part of Machiavelli and his collaborators who, in a cultural climate extremely hostile to the ancient Roman model, chose to adopt a pragmatic step-by-step approach to the militia, downplaying its true inspiration., ********** The profound crisis the Florentine republic experienced at the turn of the Cinquecento paved the way for far-reaching constitutional, economic and military reforms. On 1 November 1502 the office [...]

The article focuses on the Greek colonization of Siciliy as described by Thucydides. According to the author, the method by which Thucydides describes the foundation of the first generation colonies showed that it was a private colonization, while his description of the second generation colonies showed a state-guided activity. He adds that, judging from Thucydides' descriptions, the initial colonization of Sicily should be considered as private enterprises of people of different origins

A listing of the books received by the publication as of October 2010 is presented, including "Arion's Lyre. Archaic Lyric Into Hellenistic Poetry," by B. Acosta-Hughes, "The Furniture and Furnishings of Ancient Greek Houses and Tombs," by D. Andrianou and "Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome," by M. Bradley.

A bibliography on the subject of Roman empire is presented which includes the book "Roman Philosophy and the Good Life," by R. A. Belliotti, "Forms of Astonishment. Greek Myths of Metamorphosis," by R. Buxton and "Catullus," by J. H. Gaisser.

In a single-dosing crossover study, we investigated the ability of apple fruit consumption to protect human lymphocytes against peroxide-induced damage to DNA. Six healthy, non-smoking male volunteers were placed for 2??d on an antioxidant-poor (AP) diet. After 48??h of AP diet, the volunteers were required to consume a homogenate obtained from 600??g of red delicious unpeeled apples or water (500??ml); blood samples were collected 0, 3, 6 and 24??h post-consumption. To evaluate whether the apple intake was sufficient to restore resistance of DNA to oxidative damage, for each subject at any time point the plasma total antioxidant activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and induction of micronuclei (MN) in isolated lymphocytes following hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment were measured. Results indicated a significant inhibition (58??%, P

The endemic Antarctic scallop Adamussium colbecki (Mollusca: Bivalvia) represents a key species in the Ross Sea littoral benthic ecosystem, locally reaching very high densities. This species has an annual gametogenic cycle, with a summer spawning event, and a pelagic larval behaviour. This paper aims at describing population structure and genetic polymorphism (using AFLP) of the large populations inhabiting the Ross Sea (Terra Nova Bay and McMurdo Sound) in order to investigate possible genetic exchange between A. colbecki in these areas. In Terra Nova Bay, size-frequency distributions show, generally, the dominance of large individuals, although site related differences are found in the abundance of smaller size classes (less than 40 mm), suggesting that recruitment is not a regular event. All McMurdo sites are characterized by large individuals and, at least during this sampling period, recruitment is completely absent. Nuclear DNA analyses show that the largest differences are found at the largest scale (between McMurdo Sound and Terra Nova Bay), but all populations sampled, even at a smaller spatial scale, have a well-settled genetic structure, notwithstanding the pelagic larval strategy. The panmixia hypothesis has therefore to be rejected for this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The back cover of the periodical "Journal of Hellenic Studies" is presented.

Swimming activity of the Antarctic scallop at a temperature of c. -1.4 deg. C was analyzed using in situ video recordings obtained from aremotely operated vehicle (ROV) in Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea. Data are presented on swimming trajectories, distance traveled and velocity during a swimming bout, adduction frequency, shell gape angle, and the angular opening and closing velocities of shell. This scallop is aneffective swimmer although swimming bouts in response to the ROV were generally short, consisting of 2-5 adduction cycles in the take-offphase followed by 1-4 (exceptionally 14) adductions during level swimming. The maximum velocity during each adduction cycle ranged from 19.4-43.1 cm s-1 and the mean velocity during a swimming bout from 12.0-23.5 cm s-1. Each adduction cycle consists ofopening, closing and glide phases of approximately equal duration. Adduction frequency during swimming averaged 1.5 adductions s-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]