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In the heart of Europe, a troubling commemoration persists. On May 18, Croatia observed a remembrance day that honors the memory of those killed in Bleiburg in 1945 – a group that included members of the Ustasha movement, a Nazi collaborationist faction during WWII. Established by law, this memorial day controversially depicts Ustasha as fighters for Croatia’s freedom and independence. Such a narrative not only distorts historical facts but dishonors the memory of the victims of Ustasha atrocities. Additionally, it affirms values contrary to the country’s Constitution and fails to align with international standards on memorialization and the EU politics of memory.

Background: The LIFE MED HISS project aims at setting up a surveillance system on the long term effects of air pollution on health, using data from National Health Interview Surveys and other currently available sources of information in most European countries. Few studies assessed the long term effect of air pollution on hospital admissions in European cohorts. Objective: The objective of this paper is to estimate the long term effect of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on first-ever (incident) cause-specific hospitalizations in Italy. Methods: We used data from the Italian Longitudinal Study (ILS), a cohort study based on the 1999–2000 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), followed up for hospitalization (2001–2008) at individual level. The survey contains information on crucial potential confounders: occupational/educational/marital status, body mass index (BMI), smoking habit and physical activity.Annual mean exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 was assigned starting from simulated gridded data at spatial resolution of 4 × 4 km2 firstly integrated with data from monitoring stations and then up-scaled at municipality level.Statistical analyses were conducted using Cox proportional hazard models with robust variance estimator. Results: For each cause of hospitalization we estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) adjusted for confounders with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) related to a 10 μg/m3 increase in pollutants. For PM2.5 and NO2, respectively, we found positive associations for circulatory system diseases [1.05(1.03–1.06); 1.05(1.03–1.07)], myocardial infarction [1.15(1.12–1.18); 1.15(1.12–1.18)], lung cancer [1.18(1.10–1.26); 1.20(1.12–1.28)], kidney cancer [1.24(1.11–1.29); 1.20(1.07–1.33)], all cancers (but lung) [1.06(1.04–1.08); 1.06(1.04–1.08)] and Low Respiratory Tract Infections (LRTI) [1.07 (1.04–1.11); 1.05 (1.02–1.08)]. Discussion: Our results add new evidence on the effects of air pollution on first-ever (incident) hospitalizations, both in urban and rural areas. We demonstrated the feasibility of a low-cost monitoring system based on available data. Keywords: Outdoor air pollution, Nitrogen dioxide, Particulate matter, National Health Interview Survey, Environmental epidemiology, Hospital admissions, Long-term exposure, Coxph analysis

After unveiling a monument to the genocide denier Peter Handke a few years ago, local authorities in Banja Luka – the largest city of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity – are now building a massive monument to the soldiers of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) who died in the war of 1992–95. The memorial site in Banja Luka is not the first dedicated to the VRS. On the contrary, it follows the example of other towns and municipalities in the Serb-dominated areas. Together, they form an illiberal politics of remembrance developed by Bosnia, and especially Republika Srpska, since the end of the war in the 1990s. This memory politics is marked by the denial of war atrocities and the glorification of war criminals. The ongoing construction of the monument in Banja Luka shows that, almost thirty years after the conflict, there is a need to establish a new and comprehensive legal framework for memorialization in Bosnia. In essence, memorialization should be aligned with human rights and enable the development of a democratic culture. To achieve this twofold goal, constitutional and legislative reforms are needed.

Islam in Multi-Religious Rome The present essay aims to analyse the heterogeneous Roman Islamic panorama. Therefore, it is proposed to offer a framework of how subjects articulate their creativity and freedom in relation to religious traditions in pluralità societies. It also analyses how religiosity is lived in the private sphere by Muslim citizens of diverse origins present in Rome. The analysis focused on the different forms of religious experience in relation to beliefs, orthopraxis as well as the identification of the people with the community and places of worship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this project is to analyze if art can be a tool for social integration in the modern intercultural and multi-religious society. The research project aims to offer a gender perspective by giving voice to female artists of foreign origin who are living in Italy. To do this I chose a qualitative methodology through the biographies of twenty female artists. They are very different because they come from various countries and they believe in different religions, in common they have the passion for art and the belief that through art it is possible change society, synonymous of political and social activism. Their art gives them also the opportunity to speak about racism and xenophobia. Through their artistic work, painting, dance, songs and others kinds of art, they try to be a bridge between two cultures in which they identify themselves: country of origin and arrival country. The research shows how art can become the tool through which it is possible to give an important social contribution, where integration policies fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: The literature on the association between diabetes and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) consists of a limited number of studies. This cohort study was developed in order to assess the role of diabetes on the risk of developing ALS. Methods: The study population was represented by all residents in Turin (Italy) at the beginning of 1996 who participated in the 1991 census, over 14 years of age (n = 727 977) and followed up for ALS occurrence from 1998 to 2014. Presence of diabetes at baseline or during follow-up was ascertained through two Piedmont regional sources: the Diabetes Registry and the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Drug Prescription Archive. The risk of ALS was estimated using the Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta ALS Registry (PARALS). The association of diabetes, treated as a time-dependent variable, with ALS onset was estimated through Cox proportional hazard regression models adjusted for age, gender, education and marital status. Results: During follow-up, 397 subjects developed ALS, 24 of whom were already diabetic before ALS onset. Diabetes was associated with a significantly decreased risk of ALS [hazard ratio, 0.30 (95% confidence interval, 0.19-0.45)] without differences in risk by gender, age class or ALS phenotype. Conclusion: The results support the protective role of diabetes toward ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the construction of European memory and identity within the EU integration processes. The aim is to provide some critical reflections on the EU politics of remembrance by exploring the grand European narratives through the evolution of the EU law. In particular, the article argues that equating Nazism and Communism as totalitarian regimes equally evils within the European memory-making has had a boomerang effect as it has paved the way in Eastern Europe to illiberal memory politics aimed at condemning the Communist past, yet at the same time downplaying national crimes committed in the Holocaust. The latter assumption is proved by introducing three case studies: Hungary, Poland, and Croatia as the most problematic EU member states in terms of WWII-related revisionism. The article is based on an interdisciplinary approach, which puts into dialogue comparative constitutional law, nationalism studies and memory studies. Keywords: European memory, East-West Divide, WWII revisionism, Croatia, Hungary, Poland L'articolo si focalizza sulla costruzione della memoria e identità europea nell’ottica dei processi di integrazione europea. Il fine è quello di fornire alcune riflessioni critiche sulle politiche della memoria dell'UE esplorando le metanarrazioni europee attraverso l'evoluzione del diritto europeo. In particolare, l'articolo sostiene che l’equiparazione del Nazismo e Comunismo a due regimi ugualmente cattivi nell’ambito del processo di costruzione della memoria europea ha avuto un effetto boomerang poiché ha spianato la strada nell'Europa orientale a politiche della memoria illiberali volte a condannare il passato comunista, ma allo stesso tempo minimizzare i crimini nazionali commessi durante l'Olocausto. Tale assunto è dimostrato introducendo tre casi di studio: Ungheria, Polonia e Croazia – si tratta, infatti, di Stati membri dell'UE più problematici in termini di revisionismo della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. L’articolo si basa su un approccio interdisciplinare, che mette in dialogo il diritto costituzionale comparato, gli studi sul nazionalismo e gli studi sulla memoria. Parole chiave: Memoria europea, Divisione Est-Ovest, Revisionismo della Seconda guerra mondiale, Croazia, Ungheria, Polonia

The former High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina has imposed a law, which bans genocide denial and the glorification of convicted war criminals and represents the first concrete attempt to fight against the culture of denial regarding the mass atrocities committed in the Bosnian war of the 1990s. It is, however, unlikely that an internationally imposed memory law can contribute to reconciliation in a deeply divided society.

La ricerca si è posta l’obiettivo di analizzare ed approfondire il capitale sociale e i rapporti di sussidiarietà delle donne bangladesi a Roma in relazione anche con la comunità autoctona. L’indagine ha avuto luogo dal 2014 al 2017. La metodologia utilizzata è tipo qualitativo attraverso l’osservazione partecipata e venti interviste semi-strutturate a donne bangladesi di età (19-42 anni) e status sociale differente. La ricerca ha dato modo di comprendere le diverse variabili sociodemografiche che caratterizzano e de-limitano l’inserimento delle donne bangladesi musulmane a Roma e l’interazione sociale con la comunità autoctona, nell’ambivalente affermazione identitaria di donne tra tradizione, migrazione e religione, in una sorta di collisione culturale e generazionale con le nuove generazioni.

Objectives: assessment of the health effects on the resident population around the incinerator for municipal solid waste in Valmadrera (Lombardy Region, Northern Italy) in relation to the exposure level to the pollutants produced by the plant., Design: historical cohort study, based on the resident population from 2003 to 2016 in the study area. With a dispersion model, based on PM10 emitted by the plant, three areas of exposure (high, medium, low) were defined and, on the basis of the residence of the cohort, different exposure levels were attributed to the subjects. The association between level of exposure and health effects were estimated by comparing the high and medium exposure levels with the low exposure level, using a Cox model, adjusted for age and socioeconomic deprivation index., Main Outcome Measures: mortality rates, hospitalization rates, cancer incidence rates, and perinatal outcomes were analysed for the main causes potentially associated with exposure to incineration plants., Results: the subjects enrolled in the cohort were 106,056 (1,000,242 person-years). There were no statistically significant excesses of risk for almost all the outcomes investigated. Excessive mortality and hospitalization were found for liver/biliary cancers (HR women: 2.57; 95%CI 1.15-2.79; HR men: 2.22; 95%CI 1.10-4, 84). In the municipality where the plant is located, an excess prevalence (OR 1.78; 95%CI 1.43-2.21) of hepatitis C was found., Conclusions: the results suggest the absence of a relationship between residence in areas with different levels of pollutants emitted by the plant and the onset of almost all diseases. The associated causes do not have aetiological plausibility with exposure to pollutants from waste incineration. In particular, for liver/liver and biliary cancer, the association with infectious causes rather than exposure to environmental pollutants is more plausible.

The aim of this study was to investigate social disparities in childbirth-related mortality in women (CRM) in Italy during 1972-2013, a period characterised by important changes in the organisation of healthcare services. The relationship between education and CRM was assessed using a Poisson regression model adjusted for age, area of birth and year of delivery.The risk of dying from childbirth related causes was more than double for less educated women when compared to women with better education (RR 2.3; 95% CI 1.1-3.9). CMR was almost 2.5 times higher in 1971-1979 than in the universalistic coverage period (1980-2013): RR 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-4.6. CMR in Turin has decreased in the last 40 years and this success is probably the result of the development of our public health system and of specific health facilities for pregnant women but free access to maternal care alone is not sufficient to erase inequalities.IMPACT STATEMENT What do we already know? Mother mortality due to childbirth-related causes has significantly decreased in the last 40 years and the development of the public health system is likely to have contributed to this success. What do the results of this study add? This study shows that, although there has been good progress in pregnancy and partum assistance, inequalities in the incidence of mortality from childbirth-related causes still exists even in a high-income country such as Italy. What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The results are useful both for clinicians and for policy-makers as it suggests that the assessment of socioeconomic factors should be taken into account by clinicians along with other risk factors. Furthermore, community interventions targeted at more vulnerable women should be implemented to improve the use of healthcare and pre-partum facilities.

Objective: Estimates of the prevalence of hypothyroidism in unselected populations date from the late 1990s. We present an update on the prevalence and incidence of overt hypothyroidism in Piedmont, northwest Italy and examine the association between hypothyroidism and multiple chronic comorbidities., Design and Methods: Data were obtained from drug prescription and hospital discharge databases. Individuals who had received at least two levothyroxine prescriptions in 2012 were defined as having hypothyroidism; those who had undergone thyroidectomy or I 131 irradiation in the previous 5 years were defined as having iatrogenic hypothyroidism and those who had either obtained exemption from treatment co-payment or had been discharged from hospital with a chronic comorbidity (diabetes and connective tissue diseases) were identified as having one of these conditions., Results: The overall crude prevalence was 31.1/1000 (2.3/1000 for iatrogenic hypothyroidism) and the overall crude incidence was 7/1000. The average daily dose of thyroxine (122 µg) roughly corresponded to 1.7 µg/kg. There was a strong association between hypothyroidism and diabetes (type 1, type 2 or gestational) and with autoimmune diseases, with the odds ratio ranging from 1.43 (1.02-1.99) for psoriatic arthritis to 4.99 (3.06-8.15) for lupus erythematosus., Conclusions: As compared with previous estimates, the prevalence of hypothyroidism rose by about 35%, driven mainly by non-iatrogenic forms. The increase may be due to either population aging or improved diagnostic capability or both. The frequent co-occurrence of hypothyroidism with other multiple chronic conditions characterizes it more as a comorbidity rather than an isolated chronic disease., (© 2017 European Society of Endocrinology.)