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We compared the changes in compound muscle mass action potential (M-wave) recorded in vastus lateralis in response to hyperbaric hyperoxia (HBO) in nine combat divers who dived daily while breathing 100% O2 or O2-enriched mixture (O2 divers) to those measured in eight recreational divers who dived occasionally using compressed air/21% O2 (air divers). The O2 divers completed a 6-h HBO exposure in which the inspired oxygen pressure (PiO2) varied from 1.15 to 2.7 absolute atmospheres (ATA), PiO2 being maintained at 1.15 ATA throughout the first 2-h period, whereas the air divers only completed a 2-h HBO exposure with PiO2 constant at 1.15 ATA. Before HBO exposure, there were no intergroup differences between baseline M-wave characteristics (amplitude and duration), but the conduction time was significantly shorter in O2 divers compared with air divers. After 90 min of HBO (1.15 ATA) the air divers demonstrated neuromuscular hyperexcitability, as evidenced by an increased M-wave amplitude (13%, P<0.01 versus baseline), shortened M-wave duration (5%, P<0.05 versus baseline), and reduced conduction time (5%, P<0.01 versus baseline). In O2 divers, similar HBO-induced M-wave changes were only observed when PiO2 was greater than 1.50 ATA. We conclude that HBO elicites neuromuscular hyperexcitability, attenuated in elite O2 divers.

This work describes the complete automatisation of spirometry, the basic examination when assessing respiratory function. The movements of a water spirometer bell, transformed into electrical signals, are transmitted to a micro-computer, equipped with a digital analogue interface and then analysed. A few seconds after the performance of the examination the complete results are automatically edited in absolute values and as a percentage of predicted values (CECA). They are compared to previous calculations in the same spirometer, using the usual technique. The correlations obtained between the two series of results (145 examinations) show the reliability of the automated technique both for calculating volumes as for the maximal expired flows. In conclusion, while conserving the standard information in spirometry, the automatisation of this exam allows a considerable saving of time.

This study is intended to analyze the historical evolution of criminological schools, in the background, wider and more articulated, of a research by the National Council for Scientific Research directed to probing the outlines of the social defence concept. The work, then, proceeds in the field of criminology and, more particularly, of the evolution of criminological currents which, without defining aims, we will name classical to tell them from the original criminology, of positivistic imprint, and from the new criminology of critical, radical or marxist inspiration, whose examination in entrusted to another research unit. The method followed was that of the historical research with reference to the selected period and with a constant relation, in text and notes, to the enunciations of the examined Authors, considered essential. For such purpose, that is to say for more accuracy in references, it was considered convenient to have the text followed, not only by an ample bibliographical index, but also by an appendix of texts considered particularly significant in the documentation field.