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Using the policy narrative framework, this article examines the pathways through which the development of policies (related to rural/small towns young NEETs in various EU countries) are based on evidence. To do this, we consider the Youth Guarantee (YG), an EU program (2014-2020) developed in several member countries with the aim of socioprofessional inclusion of NEETs (young people aged 15-24 that are not in employment, education, or training). It examines how evidence is used for national policy-making and is taken into account by stakeholders. This study involves documentary analysis of YG in three European countries: namely, Romania, Italy, and Portugal. In addition, it involves 27 interviews with policy-makers and NGO leaders. The results show a predominantly statistical use of data exclusively managed by public institutions. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of consulting evidence from academia and NGOs to improve this policy.

Simple Summary: Changes in how land is used by humans can greatly affect ant communities, often causing a decrease in the variety of species or making their composition more similar. By studying ant body structures, scientists can better understand how these changes impact ant diversity. This study looked at ant communities in two environments—agricultural areas and secondary forests—in Italy and the Brazilian Amazon. The research occurred in the Ticino River Natural Park in Italy, in 15 agricultural and 12 forested sample site areas, and in the Paragominas mosaic area in Pará, Brazil, in 15 agricultural sites and 13 forest sites. The study found that secondary forests in both countries have more ant species than agricultural areas. Overall, the diversity of ant traits in Brazil was greater than in Italy, but agricultural areas in both countries showed similar levels of trait diversity. When comparing forests with the same number of species, Brazilian forests showed a wider range of traits than Italian forests. Agricultural landscapes tend to make ant communities more similar. At the same time, secondary forests display greater differences, emphasizing the impact of environmental conditions in shaping these communities depending on how the land is used. Human-driven changes in land cover and use can significantly impact species ants community structures, often leading to a decline in taxonomic diversity or species homogenization. Ant morphology, used as a proxy for ecological function, offers a valuable framework for understanding the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on ant diversity. This study explored the morphological diversity of ant assemblages in agricultural ecosystems and secondary forests in Italy and the Brazilian Amazon, analyzing how these communities are structured and adapted to different environments. The research aims to understand the ecological interactions and the role of ants in maintaining biodiversity in these contexts. The study was conducted in the Ticino River Natural Park, Italy, and the Paragominas mosaic in Pará, Brazil. The ants were sampled using epigean pitfall traps at 15 agricultural and 13 forest sites. In the secondary forests, the species richness was significantly higher in both countries compared to agricultural areas. In general, the Community Weighted Mean (CWM) of the selected traits (head length, head width, interocular distance, mandible length, eye width, Weber's length, and tibia length) of Brazilian ants was higher than those of Italian. However, the CWM of agricultural areas of the two countries was more similar. We noticed the convex hull (i.e., the volume of an assemblage in the morphological space) of Brazilian secondary forests was still larger than Italian secondary forests when both assemblages have the same number of species. Morphological homogenization was more pronounced in agricultural settings, whereas secondary forests showed more variability, highlighting the role of environmental filtering in shaping ant communities across land use types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Management / Revista de Administração da UFSM is the property of Brazilian Journal of Management / Revista de Administracao da UFSM and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Nursing education and formation is still heterogenous in spite of The Bologna Declaration in 1999. Apart from the existence of basic curriculum standards, universities have flexibility regarding its design. The objective of this study is to provide an overview of contemporary nursing education and contrast it with the legal frameworks in place in four Southern European countries: Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece. A scoping review was conducted in order to revise and obtain an up-to-date review of current nursing education and quality. Then, a content evaluation of the legal public framework was conducted. A total of nine articles were included in the review. Data analysis evoked three main themes from the results: nursing education heterogeneity owing to ECTS increased from 180 to 240 for the diversity of clinical practice hours; the nursing framework lacked a definition; and the evolution of nursing education, alongside quality improvement and more accurate guidelines were required. Regarding their legal framework, the main directives and legislation standards were assessed and compared with the current curriculum. To conclude, nursing heterogeneity education evokes competence inequality among students and future professionals as larger curricular programs (240 ECTS) offer more clinical practice. Nursing education uniformity could enhance international mobility and promote knowledge exchange and nursing competence framework definitions. These are facts that certainly bring nursing empowerment. This study was not registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol control strategies vary between countries and reflect differences in drinking cultures. This study explored how perceived effectiveness of alcohol control strategies varies according to individual characteristics and country of residence. A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 1910 university students in Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. It assessed the perceived effectiveness of 11 alcohol control strategies. Correlates included sensation-seeking, alcohol outcome expectancies, drink refusal self-efficacy, and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores. Bivariate analysis using mixed-measures MANOVA and Pearson correlations were followed by linear regression to identify multivariate correlates. These analyses revealed that educational strategies (e.g. teaching people skills to resist peer pressure) were considered more effective than restrictive strategies (e.g. raising the legal drinking age). Perceived effectiveness was greater among women and lighter drinkers. Country of residence also explained unique variance. The findings highlight the need to consider the potential impact of drinking culture in alcohol-related harm-reduction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The textile industry is known for its large consumption of water, energy, and chemical products, making it one of the most environmentally impactful activities. To measure these environmental impacts, life cycle analysis (LCA) is a powerful tool that considers the entire process, from the extraction of raw materials to the finalization of textile products. In this context, this work aimed to present a systematic study on the use of the LCA methodology in the environmental assessment of effluents from the textile industry. The survey for data was carried out using the Scopus and Web of Science databases, and the PRISMA method was utilized for organizing and selecting of articles. During the meta-analysis phase bibliometric and specific data were extracted from selected publications. For the bibliometric analysis, a quali-quantitative approach was adopted, and the VOSviewer software was employed. The review encompasses a total of 29 articles, which were published between 1996 and 2023.The majority of the reviewed articles have shown the use of the LCA as a supportive tool for optimization focusing on sustainability, comparing the environmental, economic, and technical aspects through different approaches. The findings revel that China has the highest number of authors among the selected articles, while researchers from France and Italy had the highest number of international collaborations. The ReCiPe and CML methods were the most frequently used for evaluating life cycle inventories, with global warming, terrestrial acidification, ecotoxicity, and ozone depletion being the main impact categories. The use of activated carbon in textile effluents treatment has shown to be promising since it is environmentally friendly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval southern Italy is typically viewed as a region where political, religious, and cultural systems coexisted and clashed. Written sources often focus on elites and give an image of a hierarchical feudal society supported by a farming economy. We undertook an interdisciplinary study combining historical and archaeological evidence with Bayesian modelling of multi-isotope data from human (n = 134) and faunal (n = 21) skeletal remains to inform on the socioeconomic organisation, cultural practices, and demographics of medieval communities in Capitanata (southern Italy). Isotopic results show significant dietary differences within local populations supportive of marked socioeconomic hierarchies. Bayesian dietary modelling suggested that cereal production, followed by animal management practices, was the economic basis of the region. However, minor consumption of marine fish, potentially associated with Christian practices, revealed intra-regional trade. At the site of Tertiveri, isotope-based clustering and Bayesian spatial modelling identified migrant individuals likely from the Alpine region plus one Muslim individual from the Mediterranean coastline. Our results align with the prevailing image of Medieval southern Italy but they also showcase how Bayesian methods and multi-isotope data can be used to directly inform on the history of local communities and of the legacy that these left. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to develop our understanding of how people legitimize opposition to immigration. Thirty‐eight interviews were conducted with people who self‐identified with far‐right anti‐immigration discourses, in Italy (N = 23) and Portugal (N = 15). Using reflexive thematic analysis, we developed four related themes. In the first theme, 'They're guests': Legitimizing exclusion by differentiating (non‐) immigrants, we discuss how despite differentiating between types of immigrants, participants support their social exclusion and always perceive them as guests. In the second theme, 'White people exist': Multiple and intersected identity threats, we identify how anti‐immigration is legitimized by recurring multiple group threats including ownership, economic, security, cultural, and existential threats. In the third theme, 'It's like your home': Justifying exclusionary solidarity based on ownership rights, we illustrate how collective ownership is used to justify practices of exclusionary solidarity. In the fourth theme 'This is me': Being born and becoming anti‐immigration, we discuss how opposition to immigration was constructed and influenced by contextual conditions as well as international sources of information. The implications of these findings are discussed while considering how participants' experiences and social contexts shape how they perceive immigration and legitimize the social exclusion of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IsoMedIta database compiles 6304 stable isotope measurements (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, δ34S, 87Sr/86Sr) from archaeological sites in medieval Italy (c. 500–1500 CE). The data is spatiotemporally referenced and includes bioarchaeological and paleo-environmental descriptions, alongside with other archaeological, biological, historical, environmental and technical metadata. IsoMedIta can be employed to address various historical questions at different spatial and temporal scales. It is also a resource for defining future research agendas and for heritage management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opioids are often the mainstay of postoperative pain management, despite strong evidence of their ill effects and potential for long-term addiction. The goal of this study was to quantify opioid use and contrast pain management strategies of multiple international institutions performing fibula free flap reconstruction. A retrospective multicenter cohort study was designed, including five international centers. For inclusion, the patients had to have undergone a primary fibula free flap reconstruction of the mandible. A total of 185 patients were included. The median opioid use across all centers at 72 hours was 133 oral morphine equivalents. The highest utilization was in the USA (P < 0.001), which was approximately six times that of Italy, four times that of Argentina, and twice that of India, despite all centers performing a similar procedure. Based on this study there are clear differences in prescribing practices and ideologies among surgeons from different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade and colonization caused an unprecedented increase in Mediterranean human mobility in the first millennium BCE. Often seen as a dividing force, warfare is in fact another catalyst of culture contact. We provide insight into the demographic dynamics of ancient warfare by reporting genome-wide data from fifth-century soldiers who fought for the army of the Greek Sicilian colony of Himera, along with representatives of the civilian population, nearby indigenous settlements, and 96 present-day individuals from Italy and Greece. Unlike the rest of the sample, many soldiers had ancestral origins in northern Europe, the Steppe, and the Caucasus. Integrating genetic, archaeological, isotopic, and historical data, these results illustrate the significant role mercenaries played in ancient Greek armies and highlight how participation in war contributed to continental-scale human mobility in the Classical world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study summarises the research activity carried out in the Acuto Field Laboratory (FR, Italy), where experiments testing the stability of a subvertical rock wall in limestone are ongoing within an abandoned quarry, now devoted to studies focused on the mitigation of geological risks. The research focuses on the natural factors that can prepare a subvertical rock mass to evolve through subsequent rock fall if predisposing conditions are verified. A network of multiparameter monitoring sensors is installed on three different sectors of the rock wall to record both the natural and anthropogenic stressors and the effects of deformation induced by them. In terms of stressors, the multiparametric monitoring system is able to detect the environmental parameters, such as temperature, rainfall, wind, strain, and vibrations. In terms of induced effects on the rock mass, the multiparametric monitoring system is suitable to detect deformation, displacement, and microseismicity. In this paper, the different monitored parameters are presented along with detailed analyses to highlight cause to effect relationships, such as freezing and thawing, to retrieve correlations among different factors. The obtained results represent the first analysis of the data recorded in the three instrumented sectors of the field laboratory and allowed evaluating the role of preparatory factors in inducing rock falls, opening further perspective on numerical modelling or machine learning applications based on monitoring data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Northern Adriatic Sea (NAS) is one of the most overexploited marine ecosystems in Europe. Given the gaps in scientific knowledge regarding the NAS, this study sought Fishers' Ecological Knowledge (FEK) to determine NAS' historical baselines for conservation. By interviewing 53 fishers in three ports of northern Italy, estimates of the catch rates of four commercial demersal species were generated over a 60-year period, and perceptions of target and non-target species' diversity and benthic diversity were analysed in three groups of fishers (i.e. novices, experienced and veterans). Results showed a significant decline in perceived abundance of sole (Solea solea), common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and mantis shrimp (Squilla mantis), and evidence was found of a Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) among novices. Given FEK's ability to complement scientific knowledge, fishers' participation in marine management policies and intergenerational communication should be enhanced, to improve the status of marine ecosystems and hinder SBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large variation in the severity of disease symptoms is one of the key open questions in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemics. The fact that only a small subset of people infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 develops severe disease suggests that there have to be some predisposing factors, but biomarkers that reliably predict disease severity have not been found so far. Since overactivation of the immune system is implicated in a severe form of COVID-19 and the immunoglobulin G (IgG) glycosylation is known to be involved in the regulation of different immune processes, we evaluated the association of interindividual variation in IgG N-glycome composition with the severity of COVID-19. The analysis of 166 severe and 167 mild cases from hospitals in Spain, Italy and Portugal revealed statistically significant differences in the composition of the IgG N-glycome. The most notable difference was the decrease in bisecting N -acetylglucosamine in severe patients from all three cohorts. IgG galactosylation was also lower in severe cases in all cohorts, but the difference in galactosylation was not statistically significant after correction for multiple testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of a vulnerability model requires reliable information on the features of the buildings in the study. The purpose of this work is the characterisation of the precast industrial buildings in Portuguese industrial park, based on the survey of 73 design projects of existing buildings. The collected data are based on a previous study on the features that influence the seismic response of this type of buildings. The parameters collected are associated with the global geometry and specific elements characteristics (e.g., column dimensions, reinforcement ratios, and connections details), to the mechanical properties of the materials and other parameters that can give some important information in the characterisation of the buildings (e.g., construction year and localization). In the end, a comparison with other available databases, namely, from Italy and Turkey, is done in order to conclude about the similarity. This information is important to define representative experimental specimens and numerical simulation to conduce seismic risk analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable Fertility-specific QoL measures can be obtained through the FertiQoL, a questionnaire with six-subscales that consider different core aspects of the person's wellbeing and way of behaving during treatment. Examine the psychometric properties of all six-subscales of the Italian FertiQoL in a sample of infertile women and explore the effects of the ART treatment phases. 323 women, in three different treatment stages (Diagnostic, Stimulation, Transfer), completed the FertiQoL. Raw data were subject to Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and a structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to validate the hypothesised model. CFA shows a good fit of the data to the FertiQoL hierarchical model (chi-square/df = 1.989, CFI = 0.88, RMSEA = 0.055). After the deletion of 2 items, all FertiQoL scales have good internal consistency. SEM showed that the ART treatment phase was positively associated with fertility-related QoL scores both in the Relational (β = 0.14, p < 0.05) and in the Tolerability (β = 0.17, p < 0.05) subscales. All scales of the Italian FertiQoL version maintain good psychometric characteristics; Tolerability and Relational subscales are sensitive to the treatment stage and thus providing relevant information for the medical staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Development of an innovative topical treatment for infected wounds that provides antimicrobial action at the wound and speeds wound healing. The strategy behind this unprecedented approach is based on the conjugation of an ionic liquid with intrinsic antimicrobial action to a collagen-boosting peptide, used in the cosmetics industry as an antiaging agent able to promote a strong extracellular matrix for improved cell migration and therefore faster healing. Method: The building blocks, an ionic liquid and a collagen-inducing peptide, were covalently linked through a selective "click" reaction. The resulting peptide-ionic liquid constructs (PILCs) were evaluated for their antimicrobial and collagen-boosting action in vitro and wound closure kinetics in a wound healing diabetic mice model. Results / Discussion: The new constructs present: i) bactericidal activity in susceptible and multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of relevant pathogens as S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa with minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) against susceptible strains in a range of 5-19 µM and an MBC against MDR strains of 19-38 µM; ii) retained activity in simulated wound fluid against S. aureus; iii) antifungal activity against three Candida spp. with a minimal fungicidal concentration of 2-5 µM; iv) collagen-inducing effects in human dermal fibroblast, and v) faster wound closure on diabetic mice. These findings as well as those arising from ongoing studies will be communicated. Conclusion: PILCs have an unprecedented chemotype and show in vitro and in vivo effects that make them promising leads towards the development of a topical formulation for the treatment of infected wounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background To compare patterns of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm from a survey of university students sampled from universities in Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland. Methods A total of 2191 university students (70% female, 90% white ethnic group, age range 18–25) completed the survey. Participants completed measures of demographic variables (age, age of onset, ethnic group and sex) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), which was the primary outcome. Results Sixty-three percent of the sample scored negative for harmful drinking on the AUDIT (<8), with 30% categorized as hazardous drinkers, 4% harmful drinkers and 3% with probable dependence. Analysis of variance, including demographic factors as covariates, identified a main effect of country on AUDIT scores F (5, 2086) = 70.97, P < 0.001, partial eta square = 0.15. AUDIT scores were highest in England (M = 9.99; SD = 6.17) and Denmark (M = 9.52; SD = 4.86) and lowest in Portugal (M = 4.90; ° = 4.60). Post hoc tests indicated large effect size differences between scores in Denmark and England and scores in all other countries (0.79 < d < 0.94; all P 's < 0.001). Conclusions European university students in our sample mainly reported low risk patterns of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm. However, students from Northern European countries had significantly higher AUDIT scores compared with students from Central and Southern European countries. Research is needed to replicate the present study using nationally representative samples to estimate the prevalence of alcohol use disorders among university students in different European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897), author of the historical-cultural synthesis found in the book of 1860, The Culture of the Renaissance in Italy, elaborates, in the 1880s and 1890s, a study on Italian Renaissance painting, whose result is a set of texts, published posthumously. Part of this project, the volume on portrait in the painting presents a renewed look of the author about Venetian art compared to the vision of Venice presented in the book of 1860. This article proposes an analysis of the place occupied by portrait in Venetian painting and its role in Burckhardt's work on the Italian Renaissance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents 40Ar-39Ar step heating ages of four North American tektites (three bediasites and one georgiaite) and of two groundmass samples extracted at different depths from clast-rich impact melt rocks (CB-W61 and CB-W84) recovered by the USGS-ICDP Eyreville B drill-core about 9 km from the centre of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure. Radiometric age determination on both North American tektites and impact melt rocks from within Chesapeake Bay crater offers the first possibility to confirm the origin of these tektites. For this aim, argon isotopic data from 13 samples/aliquots of tektite rims, cores and bulk, and 4 samples/aliquots from two impact melt rocks were obtained over 15 to 26 step heating extractions. Age spectra of all tektite samples show plateaux comprising 62–98% of the 39Ar release over consecutive intermediate and high temperature heating steps. Few low temperature extractions indicate excess 40Ar. Inverse isochron 40Ar/36Ar intercepts of tektite samples are indistinguishable from air (295.5). However, impact melt rock spectra presented complex Ar-release affecting primarily the low temperature heating-steps. Inverse isochrones indicate excess argon from which the 40Ar/36Ar intercept was used to correct the age calculation. CB-W61 and CB-W61-2 40Ar/36Ar intercepts are 354.5 ± 2.5 and 327.2 ± 6.3, respectively, and those for CB-W84 and CB-W84-2 are 332.0 ± 7.3 and 329.6 ± 5.6, respectively. The inverse isochron weighted mean age (according to currently suggested K-decay constants revisions by Schwarz et al. (2011) and Renne et al. (2011)) for all four tektites is 34.86 ± 0.25 Ma (MSWD = 0.96, P = 0.41; n = 4) and for the two impact melt rocks is 37.16 ± 3.65 Ma (MSWD = 0.83, P = 0.36). The combined tektite and impact melt rocks isochron mean age of 34.86 ± 0.23 (0.32) Ma (MSWD = 0.87, P = 0.43) is slightly – though not significantly – higher than the plateau mean age of 34.55 ± 0.27 (0.36) Ma (MSWD = 0.66, P = 0.62). Placing this age in the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) marine section exposed at Massignano, Italy, it falls below the Eocene/Oligocene (E/O) boundary overlapping with the 10.28 m Ir-anomaly. These results agree within errors with previously reported ages of 35.20 ± 0.54 Ma, especially those derived from K-Ar and Ar-Ar total fusion analysis. An age of 34.86 ± 0.32 Ma sets the Chesapeake Bay impact event close to the youngest of the three Ir anomalies at ∼35.0 Ma in the case the impactor was Ir-rich (e.g, a chondrite, primitive achondrite, stony-iron or iron meteorite). The concordance with the E/O boundary at ∼33.9 Ma seems only marginally possible, and only if the Ir contribution from the ejecta were, potentially, due either to its small amount becoming diluted in the geologic record or the impactor being Ir poor, e.g., of differentiated achondritic composition. This study also brings to front the need to re-establish the stratigraphic and palaeo-magnetic correlations across the globe for the Ir-anomalies and the magneto-stratigraphy during the mid- to late-Eocene and early-Oligocene, and the need to re-evaluate the markers for the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Continuous topical oxygenation provides a continuous flow of 98% pure and humidified oxygen on the wound bed. Used with an occlusive dressing, it creates an oxygen-rich environment, favouring the recovery / acceleration of reparative phenomena. It is indicated in patients with systemic or local oxygenation deficiency, in wounds with slowing or not healing. The therapeutic decision is based on the assessment of chronicity, degree of infection, depth, exudate and on the quality of the wound bed. This study evaluated epithelialization time, scar quality, exudate management, infection control, perilesional care, pain and satisfaction for operators and patients. Furthermore, the cost contraction has been evaluated. Based on our experience, this technique can improve the outcome of interventions such as angioplasty and/or plastic surgery. Furthermore, we achieved pain reduction and speeding up healing. Method: We carried out our study with a 30 patient group, presenting treatment-resistant diabetical-vascular chronic ulcers. Single-use oxygen delivery system (ODS) placed on wound bed effectiveness in treatment has been evaluated (continuous oxygen providing system). Results / Discussion: We evaluated re-epitelization time, pain, scarring quality, exudate, infection control, surrounding tissue care, physician and patient satisfaction, as well as expense decrease. We achieved complete lesion healing in 80% of patients within 4 weeks and 100% within 7 weeks. Conclusion: ODS allows extrinsic oxygen therapy 24 hour a day, 7 days a week. It's a compact device which can be easily worn by patients, optimal placement is simple, therefore improving patient and physician's compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Coping strategies have been acknowledged as crucial for the well-being and for health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The main aim of the present study is to determine whether different types of coping strategies predict HRQoL in patients born with ARM, above and beyond the variance explained by fecal and urinary continence.Methods: 71 adult patients from the Italian Parents' and Patients' Organization for Anorectal Malformations (AIMAR) participated in the study. Participants completed measures of fecal and urinary continence of the Hirschsprung Disease/Anorectal Malformation Quality of Life (HAQL) (Hanneman et al. in Dis Col Rect 44:1650-1660, 2001), the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) (Apolone and Mosconi in J Clin Epidemiol 51:1025-1036, 1998), and the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) Inventory (Carver in Int J Behav Med 4:92-100, 1997), which measures different coping strategies: maladaptive, problem-focused and emotion-focused.Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that fecal continence (β = 0.53, p < 0.01) and urinary continence significantly predict (β = 0.23, p < 0.05) Physical HRQoL. Fecal continence (β = 0.36, p < 0.01) and maladaptive coping strategies significantly predict (β = -0.27, p < 0.05) Mental HRQoL.Conclusion: Besides considering the importance of fecal and urinary continence for Physical HRQoL, these findings indicate that maladaptive coping strategies are associated with worse Mental HRQoL. Interventions aimed at enhancing the patients' HRQoL should target coping strategies by reducing denial, behavioral disengagement, substance abuse, and self-blame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Philosophy & History of Biology / Filosofia e História da Biologia is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Filosofia e Historia da Biologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite recent investigations into cross-cultural analyses of service failure and recovery, there has been little empirical research on the influence of customers' cultural orientation. This study analyzes a survey of 463 consumers from Brazil, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Results showed that perceived justice has a significant effect on customer satisfaction, which in turn affects repurchase, word of mouth, and the intention to complain. More specifically, the effect of procedural justice on satisfaction with service recovery was moderated by uncertainty avoidance orientation, and the effect of recovery satisfaction on the intention to complain to third parties was moderated by power distance orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main advantage of using an all-ceramic system is to achieve a superior aesthetic result by increasing the translucency [1]. When dealing with darkened substrates, it is important to understand the level of translucency of the restorative materials according to their thickness, in order to adapt their application to specific clinical situations. Studies evaluating the translucency of different thicknesses of lithium disilicate, for CAD/CAM technology, are limited. This study aims to evaluate and compare the translucency of high translucency (HT) lithium disilicate with different thicknesses. Lithium disilicate blocks IPS e.max® CAD HT (Ivoclar Vivadent®), shade A3, were sintered in a furnace (Vita Vacumat 6000 MP). The sintered blocks were cut, with a hard tissue microtome (Accutom-50; Struers Inc), in quadrangular specimens (n = 20). Four subgroups (n = 5) were defined, according to thickness (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mm). The translucency of the specimens was measured using the spectrophotometer SpectroShade Micro (MHT S.p.A., Arbizzano di Negar, Italy) (λ = 410–680 nm). All measurements were made from 6 different areas of each specimen against a white background (Comission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) L*=94.5, a*=–0.3, b*=–1.5) and against a black background (CIE: L*=6.1, a*=1.4, b*=–4.0), in order to obtain their L* (value coordinate), a* (red-green coordinate) and b* (yellow-blue coordinate) values under natural light (D65) [2,3]. Based on the obtained values, the translucency was calculated using the translucency parameter (TP) and the contrast ratio (CR) formulas [4]. Resulting TP and CR data were submitted to descriptive statistical analysis. Mean TP values ranged from 15.5 (±0.4) to 31.6 (±2.3) and mean CR values ranged from 0.65 (±0.03) to 0.84 (±0.01). Thinner thicknesses showed higher translucency. Translucency is a fundamental optical property and a determinant factor when it comes to selecting the restorative material for highly aesthetical areas. This study had, therefore, the purpose of understanding which data may or may not be useful in clinical practice. The dentist should be familiar with the properties and characteristics of new and innovative materials in order to pick the one that better adapts to a certain clinical situation [3]. HT Lithium disilicate specimens showed that as thickness decreases, translucency values increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing application of zirconia as an aesthetic material has led to an evolution with improvement on its optical properties [1]. Nowadays, zirconia presents a compatible translucency with natural teeth. Depending on the clinical situation, you can choose a more translucent or more opaque zirconia. Due to its excellent mechanical properties, it is possible to return the function and aesthetics through a restoration with thicknesses lower than those required by other materials [2]. Twenty specimens of pre-sintered ultra-translucent (UT) monolithic zirconia (Bloomden W00098014UT) and twenty specimens of pre-sintered super translucent (ST) multilayer zirconia (Bloomden W00098016ST- ML-A2) were cut through the computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing system (Wieland Dental). For each type of zirconia, four subgroups (n = 5) were defined according to its thickness: 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mm. All monolithic specimens were coloured with colouring liquid (BloomZir® UT Coping Crown A2) for 2 min. Finally, all zirconia specimens were sintered in the furnace (IMES-Wieland Zeno® Fire) at a temperature range of 1500 − 1550 °C and subsequently submitted to an ultrasonic bath (VGT-2120QTD 20 L) [3]. The values of L*, a* and b* were measured, under natural light (D65), using the spectrophotometer SpectroShade Micro (MHT S.p.A., Arbizzano di Negrar, Itália) at six different locations on a white background (Comission Internationale de l' Éclairage (CIE) L*=95.6 a*= 0.8, b*= 0.1) and on a black background ((CIE) L *= 13.2, a *= 0.8, b *= −0.7). Translucency was assessed through the contrast ratio (CR) [4] and the translucency parameter (TP) [5]. Data was submitted to descriptive statistical analysis. Mean CR values ranged from 0.7 (±0.0) to 0.9 (±0.0) in UT monolithic zirconia and 0.8 (±0.0) to 0.9 (±0.0) in the ST multilayer zirconia. Mean TP values ranged from 14.1 (±0.3) to 26.7 (±0.4) in UT monolithic zirconia and 9.9 (±0.4) to 18.6 (±0.3) in ST multilayer zirconia. As thickness increases, translucency values decreased, in both materials. Overall, ultra-translucent monolithic zirconia was found to be more translucent than the super translucent multilayer zirconia. The translucency showed to decrease when zirconia thickness increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently, the hiring of Italian singers by the Portuguese Crown during the second half of the eighteenth century has been approached mainly from an operatic point of view. However, with the exception of the five years prior to the Lisbon earthquake (1755) which witnessed an huge investment on the opera by King José I the Portuguese court stuck to the spectacular character of religious ceremonial as the dominant strategy for the representation of absolute power. From the circa 140 Italian singers employed by the Portuguese monarchy during this period, less than a half were to perform in the royal theatres or at the Royal Chamber concerts. Most of them would take up a career in church music at the Royal Chapel (which, at King João V's request was raised to Patriarchal status in 1716 through various Papal decrees) as well as in an extensive net of Lisbon churches and convents. Making use of sources like archive material, reports by foreign travellers along with musical scores, the present paper aims to analyse the social and professional status as well as the music-related activities of Italian singers who worked at the Royal Chapel and the Lisbon Patriarchal (which were established in different churches between 1755 and 1792) over a period of time that goes from 1750 to the departure of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil in 1807. The Italian musicians' 'diaspora', as Reinhard Strohm puts it, had a powerful impact in Portugal, not only in operatic terms (as it was the case in the majority of European countries), but, above all, in the field of church music. This impact was, otherwise, to be felt until the early years of the 19th century. The transalpine singers, counting among them many castrati originated from cities like Naples, Rome, Bologna, Genoa, Florence or Syracuse and were a highly regarded professional group. Building up the so-called `Choir of the Italians' at the Royal Chapel and the Patriarchal Church, they were paid three or four times higher wages than their fellow-singers in the `Choir of the Portuguese', let alone another privileges. In fact, the Portuguese singers who possessed best voices stood a certain chance of joining the `Choir of the Italians', but the amount of such promotions would always be rather limited. The Italians prevailed in the most important events held by the Court, coming to feel perfectly at home in the Portuguese musical life, both as singers and as composers, teachers, chapel masters, inspectors, choir apparitors, or others. The voices and the technical mastery of the most brilliant ones (such as Carlo Reina, Gianbattista Vasquez, Ansano Ferracutti or Taddeo Puzzi) are closely related to the virtuosity found in the writing of sacred music by the Court appointed composers (including high ranking figures like Giovanni Giorgi, David Perez or Niccolô Jommelli) as by the foremost Portuguese composers. A significant number of them returned to Italy upon their retirement; nevertheless, there were others who chose to stay in Portugal with their families. We have come full circle when some of their children, Lisbon born, are admitted at the Patriarchal Seminary to pursue their musical studies under Portuguese composers who, in turn, had been trained in Naples (for instance João de Sousa Carvalho or Jeronimo Francisco de Lima). This is the case of João José Balcli or Antonio Puzzi, significant composers of the next generation. Noteworthy is, for that matter, the career followed by the soprano Giuseppe Totti. After ten years of activity as a Royal Chapel singer, he comes to study composition under Sousa Carvalho. Eventually, Totti takes over his teacher's position as music master to the Portuguese royal family, becoming subsequently a prolific composer in the field of sacred music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to measure and compare the total energy expenditure of the four competitive swimming strokes. Twenty-six swimmers of international level were submitted to an incremental set of 200-m swims (5 swimmers at Breaststroke, 5 swimmers at Backstroke, 4 swimmers at Butterfly and 12 swimmers at Front Crawl). The starting velocity was approximately 0.3 m·s-1 less than a swimmer's best performance and thereafter increased by 0.05 ms-1 after each swim until exhaustion. Cardio-pulmonary and gas exchange parameters were measured breath-by-breath (BxB) for each swim to analyze oxygen consumption (̇O2) and other energetic parameters by portable metabolic cart (K4b², Cosmed, Rome, Italy). A respiratory snorkel and valve system with low hydrodynamic resistance was used to measure pulmonary ventilation and to collect breathing air samples. Blood samples from the ear lobe were collected before and after each swim to analyze blood lactate concentration (YSI 1500 L, Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA). Total energy expenditure (Etot), was calculated for each 200-rn stage. Ėtot differed significantly between the strokes at all selected velocities. At the velocity of 1.0 m·s-1 and of 1.2 m· s-1 the Ėtot was significantly higher in Breaststroke than in Backstroke, in Breaststroke than in Freestyle and in Butterfly than in Freestyle. At the velocity of 1.4 m·s-1, the Ėtot was significantly higher in Breaststroke than in Backstroke, in Backstroke than in Freestyle, in Breaststroke than in Freestyle and in Butterfly than in Freestyle. At the velocity of 1.6m·s-1, the Etot was significantly higher in Breast- stroke and in Butterfly than in Freestyle. As a conclusion, Etot of well-trained competitive swimmers was measured over a large range of velocities utilising a new BxB technique. Freestyle was shown to be the most economic among the competitive swimming strokes, followed by the Backstroke, the Butterfly and the Breaststroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the conference titled "The Serenata and the Festa Teatrale in Eighteenth-Century Europe Queluz National Palace, June 2015 at the National Palace of Queluz in Portugal. The conference's nine sessions gathered together about thirty scholars, most of them Italian, and were organized geographically according to the contexts of patronage, creation and performance. It statess that several overarching issues emerged from this framework.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the slowdown in economic growth and the crises of mass production and of the large firm sector were associated with a decentralization of production to smaller firms and the economic expansion of non-metropolitan areas. In Italy, the "Third Italy" model was identified and in other areas of Europe similar local economic development "success stories" were identified. These discoveries stimulated several important bodies of research, of which the most important were the models of flexible specialization, industrial districts and localized industrialization processes and new industrial spaces while more recent studies have sought to evaluate these perspectives on industrial and regional development. In July 1992, an intensive ERAMUS course was held in Lombardy to evaluate the current state of academic debate on the second of these models.

Field epidemiology and viral sequencing provide a comprehensive characterization of transmission chains and allow a better identification of superspreading events. However, very few examples have been presented to date during the COVID-19 pandemic. We studied the first COVID-19 cluster detected in Portugal (59 individuals involved amongst extended family and work environments), following the return of four related individuals from work trips to Italy. The first patient to introduce the virus would be misidentified following the traditional field inquiry alone, as shown by the viral sequencing in isolates from 23 individuals. The results also pointed out family, and not work environment, as the primary mode of transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonia axyridis is a predator of aphids and other soft-bodied insects. This coccinellid, native to Asia, has invaded North America, Europe, South America and Africa. We report the first detection of H. axyridis in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, and review its current known geographic distribution in Brazil. Based on experiences from other parts of the world already invaded by H. axyridis, recommendations are provided to maximize the potential benefits offered by this species, while minimizing the potential adverse impacts that it can cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has harmed the provision of palliative care (PC) services for women with breast cancer due to all the restrictions that came along with the virus., Objective: To map the available evidence on the situation of PC in breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: A scoping review was carried out based on the methodology proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The search was conducted in nine databases, one electronic repository, and one library, using controlled vocabularies., Results: Twenty-nine articles and seven documents were included. The majority (11.4% each) were published in the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States, 38.9% addressed palliative radiotherapy (RT), and 47.2% consisted of recommendations. From the content analysis, five categories were obtained focused on the recommendations on changes in palliative treatment guidelines and the response of PC teams to the evolving crisis., Conclusions: The evidence pointed to the management of general PC, palliative RT, palliative chemotherapy, management of metastatic breast cancer, and use of technologies in palliative care. No recommendations were found to manage frequent symptoms in PC, indicating the need to develop primary studies that investigate these aspects in detail in this vulnerable group., Implications: The results contained in this document can provide professionals working in this field of care with a global view of how other teams have dealt with the pandemic, thereby identifying the best guidelines to apply in their reality, taking into account the clinical and social situation of each patient.