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This paper proposes a discussion on the style and the Ciceronian influences on Tacitus’ Dialogus de oratoribus. The dialogue is considered an unicum in Tacitus’ literary work, due to its literary genre and its style, so far from the inconcinnitas of the more famous historical work of Historiae and Annales. The contribution, illustrating the issue of “ciceronism” through various scholars’ different points of view, aims to demonstrate how the author consciously uses the formal style and the language which are typical of the rhetorical genre. It also intends to report and discuss all the passages (words, phrases, formulas, topoi) taken and revised by Tacitus from Cicero’s works, in order to highlight similarities and differences.

Artificial intelligence provides a vast opportunity and conquest of the science of knowledge. Twenty-first-century medicine will be characterized by an extraordinary ability to access and process medical information to provide patient-specific, timely, and effective clinical decision support. The knowledge gained by patient care experience and clinicians' expertise has led to many clinical care advances. Access to a large volume of data, along with ever-growing information and knowledge of diseases, can allow us to optimize diagnoses and management strategies by using advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Changing the medical culture from only relying on the experts to use medical informatics advances to improve the experts' clinical judgment would be an uphill battle. It is necessary to overcome the clinicians' traditional training to empower them into moving in the data science, statistics, and artificial intelligence era. As the incorporation of artificial intelligence in clinical practice seems inevitable, a thorough understanding of its capacities and flaws is essential to the emergence of a new clinical practice world. This review paper describes some of the nuances of past, current, and future clinical decision support systems and artificial intelligence's impact on this process.

Chronic constipation (CC) is one of the most common gastroenterological diagnoses in clinical practice. Treatment includes several steps, depending on the severity of symptoms. Lifestyle modifications and increased intake of fiber and water are suggested by most health professionals. Unfortunately, the recommendations in this regard are the most varied, often conflicting with each other and not always based on solid scientific arguments. This paper aims to clarify this topic by providing practical indications for the management of these patients in every day clinical practice. The literature available on this topic is scarce, and dietary studies have important methodological biases. However, fiber, mainly by binding water and acting as bulking agents and/or as prebiotics for the intestinal microbiota, and mineral water, especially if rich in magnesium and/or bicarbonate, are useful tools. An adequate, well-designed diet should be a cornerstone of any effective treatment for chronic constipation. High-quality studies on larger samples are mandatory to give scientific validity to the role of the food in CC therapy and to enable professionals to choose the best approach for their patients, combining nutritional and pharmacological agents.

A low-FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) diet (LFD) is a possible therapy for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This study investigates the short- and long-term efficacy and nutritional adequacy of an LFD and the patients&rsquo, long-term acceptability. Patients&rsquo, adherence and ability to perceive the &ldquo, trigger&rdquo, foods were also evaluated. Seventy-three IBS patients were given an LFD (T0) and after 2 months (T1), 68 started the reintroduction phase. At the end of this period (T2), 59 were advised to go on an Adapted Low-FODMAP Diet (AdLFD) and 41 were evaluated again after a 6&ndash, 24 month follow-up (T3). At each time, questionnaires and Biolectrical Impedance Vector Analysis (BIVA) were performed. The LFD was effective in controlling digestive symptoms both in the short- and long-term, and in improving quality of life, anxiety and depression, even if some problems regarding acceptability were reported and adherence decreased in the long term. The LFD improved the food-related quality of life without affecting nutritional adequacy. When data collected at T0 were compared with those collected at T2, the perception of trigger foods was quite different. Even if some problems of acceptability and adherence are reported, an LFD is nutritionally adequate and effective in improving IBS symptoms also in the long term.

The digital revolution, computer science and artificial intelligence are pervading all aspects of our lives. The world of health is no exception, starting with the digitization of images, through t...

L’abusivismo edilizio, nato come una risposta alla domanda abitativa per classi meno abbienti, si è evoluto nel tempo dando luogo al fenomeno del cosiddetto “abusivismo di convenienza”, mirante piuttosto alla realizzazione a costi contenuti di abitazioni per le esigenze di un abitante più o meno benestante. In riferimento a questa diversa e diffusa tipologia di abuso, il presente lavoro propone un metodo qualitativo di valutazione delle scelte tecnologiche legate al processo di auto-costruzione, in relazione alla sicurezza strutturale e all’efficienza energetica. Individuato un campione rappresentativo dall’esame delle domande di condono edilizio, sono stati determinati, sulla base di dati di letteratura, gli elementi da analizzare ai fini della sicurezza strutturale e dell’attenzione energetica, nonché i pesi da attribuire a ciascuna soluzione costruttiva. Dall’elaborazione dei dati ottenuti, si è evinto che la maggior parte degli edifici ha un’attenzione scarsa o nulla sia per la sicurezza strutturale (60%) che per l’efficienza energetica (82%), evidenziando la mancanza, per il campione, di una reale sostenibilità tecnologica delle costruzioni abusive.

The complete digitalization of the health system is an objective that Italy, from 2014, is pursuing with great difficulty, spurred by the many European initiatives dedicated to it. Despite the social and cultural background seems to be clearly ready for an application of the renewal strategies, e-Health and m-Health are struggling to get off the ground throughout the territory. The main difficulties are find at local level and don't spare any medical discipline, nephrology included. The characteristics of the official websites belonging to the local health centers demonstrate it. Today, these institutions are still sparsely present on Social Media or in the Italian Smart Mobile Technology landscape. The article illustrates the main features of the phenomenon and calls for reflection on the necessity to accelerate the digital innovation of the communication with patients. This is a possible strategy for reducing chronicity through prevention, and, potentially, for decreasing health costs.

While ties between Protestants and anticlerical Liberal parties were common throughout Latin America during the nineteenth century, the resolution of the church-state conflict in most countries by the early twentieth century resulted in the near complete disappearance of these alliances. Using historical analysis and survey data, this article demonstrates that Mexico is an exception to this rule, as the evangelical vote continues to be shaped by the perception and reality of Catholic anti-Protestant persecution. Mexico's anomalous status is explained as a result of the intensity and late resolution of the church-state conflict, ongoing sectarian violence, and the PRI becoming both a dominant party and the best electoral option for evangelicals

This article evaluates the evolution of democratic federalism in Mexico through a case study of central government involvement in the selection and removal of governors in the state of Yucatan. The research address debates regarding the nature of federalism in authoritarian systems and on the dynamics of democratization in a federal context. First, it challenges conventional characterizations of state politicians in authoritarian systems as submissive and lacking autonomy vis-a-vis the centre. Instead, the case demonstrates that regional political bosses can exercise an important constraint on the powers of national-level rulers by requiring that they select governors acceptable to local political elites. A second issue is to what extent national or subnational political change drives transitions from authoritarian rule. Recent literature on the Mexican case has emphasized the impact of state and local democratization on national-level change. In contrast, this study's analysis of reforms in the ...

This article compares the failed military coups in Ecuador (2000) and Venezuela (2002) with the successful 1999 military putsch in Pakistan in order to identify what factors affect coup outcomes in third-wave democracies. The unity of the armed forces in support of the Pakistani coup, and its division in the two Latin American cases, are critical in explaining the divergent outcomes. In turn, the degree of cohesion within the military in each case was affected by perceptions of domestic support and international reaction to military rule. In Ecuador and Venezuela there was greater public antipathy for military rule and stronger international opposition. This increased the armed forces' perceptions of the costs of governing, fostering divisions within the officer corps that ultimately scuttled the coups. In contrast, the successful coup in Pakistan was largely attributable to the unified military, which was a product of greater domestic and international tolerance of military rule.

The prominent role of Pakistan's army in politics has deep historical roots in the country's founding. The principal mechanism for implementing the policy tripod is what Husain Haqqani calls the mosque-military alliance. This refers to a partnership formed over the years, in which military rulers use religious parties and groups as instruments for achieving domestic and foreign policy aims in exchange for the country's deepening Islamization. When a political brawl in East Pakistan's provincial assembly resulted in the death of the deputy speaker, this provided the pretext for the county's first military coup. Left-wing opponents of the regime found a home in the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). While Zia spoke of his desire for a quick return to electoral democracy, he reneged on those promises and retained power until his death in a suspicious plane crash in August 1988. In the period following Musharraf's eight-year rule, there have been some hopeful signs for Pakistan's democracy.

This article evaluates the implementation of Mexico's Municipal Reform of 1983 in three states: Chihuahua, Oaxaca and Yucatán. The research focuses on one element of the reform, the transfer of public services from the state to the municipal level. The case studies were selected to examine the impact of two key variables on reform outcomes: fiscal capacity and partisan control of state and municipal governments. Counter to expectations, the reform has not advanced more in municipalities with greater fiscal capacity. Also counter to expectations, there is no evidence that devolution advanced more in municipalities controlled by the opposition. This is due to the fact that state governors have a high degree of discretion that allows them to block implementation for partisan motives rather than rational/technical ones. The Municipal Reform of 1999 attempts to remedy this problem by limiting gubernatorial discretion while increasing the legal recourse municipalities have in soliciting the transfer of services. This recourse includes filing suit before the Mexican Supreme Court.