Taxpayers,Thieves, and the State: Fiscal Citizenship in Contemporary Italy

As, burdened by its massive public debt, the Italian state nears the verge of default, the debate on taxation and distribution raging in this country's public sphere provides citizens with a means to conceptualize their responsibilities and rights vis-à-vis the state as well as each other. Italian fiscal citizenship thus emerges as an unstable relational category that is negotiated along and across the split between the rhetoric of fiscal and distributive fairness on the one hand, and its actual denial on the other. By fostering the breakdown of solidarity and the intensification of ethnic chauvinism, the failure to implement equity in taxation and distribution shows the extent to which the Italian state is implicated in the divisiveness of social categories that cast each other as an impediment to the fulfillment of their respective rights.     

Treating Emotion-Related Disorders in Japanese Traditional Medicine: Language, Patients and Doctors

This paper analyses how the conceptual and therapeutic formation of Japanese traditional medicine (Kampo) has been socially constructed through interactions with popular interpretations of illness. Taking the example of emotion-related disorders, this paper focuses on the changing meaning of constraint (utsu) in Kampo medicine. Utsu was once a name for one of the most frequently cited emotion-related disorders and pathological concerns during the Edo period. With the spread of Western medicine in the Meiji period, neurasthenia replaced utsu as the dominant emotion-related disorder in Japanese society. As a result, post-Meiji doctors developed other conceptual tools and strategies to respond to these new disease categories, innovations that continue to influence contemporary practitioners. I begin this history by focusing on Wada Tōkaku, a Japanese doctor of the Edo period who developed a unique theory and treatment strategy for utsu. Secondly, I examine. Yomuto Kyūshin and Mori Dōhaku, Kampo doctors of the early twentieth century, who privileged neurasthenia over utsu in their medical practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the flexibility and complexity of Kampo medicine, how its theory and practices have been influenced by cross-cultural changes in medicine and society, while incorporating the popular experience of illness as well.     

Language, Culture, and Power: Bilingual Families and the Struggle for Quality Education

Language, Culture, and Power Bilingual Families and the Struggle for Quality Education. Lourdes Diaz Soto. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. 170 pp.     

Bilingualism and Bilingual Education in the United States

Bilingual Education for Hispanic Students in the United States . Joshua A. Fishman and Gary D. Keller , eds. New York: Teachers College Press, 1982. x + 502 pp. $18.95 (paper).
Bilingualism and Language Contact: Spanish, English, and Native American Languages . Florence Barkin, Elizabeth A. Brandt , and Jacob Ornstein-Galicia , eds. New York: Teachers College Press, 1982. xiii + 320 pp. $24.95 (cloth).
Spanish in the United States: Sociolinguistic Aspects . Jon Amastae and Lucia Elias-Olivares , eds. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. x + 434 pp. $14.00 (paper).
The New Bilingualism: An American Dilemma . Martin Ridge , ed. Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by Center for Study of the American Experience. The Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California, May 1980. Los Angeles: University of Southern California Press, 1981. 272 pp. $20.00 (cloth).     

Diurnal Rhythms in Performance Tests of School Children with and Without Language Disorders

Time-of-day related changes on four tests used by speech therapists and four other performance tests, in addition to oral temperature, were documented in 16 school children (7-9 years of age). Six of them had language disorders and were receiving speech therapy. Children were synchronized with diurnal activity from around 0730 to around 2100 and nocturnal rest. For each child, at each test time point (e.g. 0900, 1100, 1530 and 1930) tests were performed three times, with two different speech therapists, in a random order, with only one session per day. Conventional methods (r-tested mean differences; AINOVA; correlation tests) were used for statistical analyses. Among 29 parameters (items) which were analyzed, only nine exhibited time-of-day related changes, mainly in speed to-perform measures. In most detected rhythms best performance occurred either at 1100 or at 1530 with no difference in subgroups except for the fastest performance of the sentence repetition test. With regard to the daily mean M, controls performed better than children with language disorders for the word (syllabic) repetition test (P < 0.0004) but this was reversed for both computing and colouring skill tests (P < 0.04 and < 0.002). A difference related to sex (but not to language disorders) was observed in the Ms of speed in sign reproduction (P < 0.0000) and sorting cards (P < 0.01), with boys being faster than girls. In children, as in adults, time-of-day effects should be considered when the quantification of performance is desired.     

Relationship Between Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, Heart Period, and Caregiver-Reported Language and Cognitive Delays in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The present study examines the relationship between autonomic activity and cognitive/language delays in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Baseline levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and heart period (HP) were assessed in 23 4–7-year old children diagnosed with ASD. The relationship between RSA, HP, and ASD behavioral symptoms was examined. Similar to prior studies on typically developing children, lower basal RSA was related to more caregiver-reported language and cognitive delays, and to the lack of language.     

Onychomycosis in Rome,Italy

This report presents the results of a study conducted between 1985 and 1994 on onychomycosis observed in the city of Rome. Six thousand six hundred and eighty eight patients were examined during this period. Among them 1,762 (26.3%) were affected by fungal nail infections. Because the etiologic agents could not be isolated in 105 cases (6%), the results refer to 1,657 subjects (24.8% of the total), presenting with positive microscopic and cultural examinations. Thirty eight patients (2.3%) had onychomycosis of both their hands and feet.From an etiological point of view, 59.1% of the nail infections were caused by yeasts, 23.2% were infected with dermatophytes and 17.6% by non-dermatophytic fungi. The etiology of onychomycosis of the hands differed from that of the feet. Yeasts were primarily responsible for onychomycosis of the hands (86.2%), while dermatophytes caused tinea unguium peduum (48%). Fungal fingernail infections by Candida spp. were the most common (50.3%), followed by those of the feet by dermatophytes (20%). Candida albicans was responsible for 70.6% of the hand infections but for only 15.9% of those of the feet. Trichophyton rubrum and T mentagrophytes were the most common dermatophytes, mainly causing toenail infections (23.4% and 21%, respectively), while Aspergillus spp., Scopulariopsis brevicaulis, Acremonium spp. and Aspergillus niger were the most common non-dermatophytes observed.With regard to sex, the fungal nail infections were more widespread in women (72.1%) and in subjects of both sexes over the age of 50.     

Evidence for a Language Quantitative Trait Locus on Chromosome 7q in Multiplex Autism Families

Autism is a syndrome characterized by deficits in language and social skills and by repetitive behaviors. We hypothesized that potential quantitative trait loci (QTLs) related to component autism endophenotypes might underlie putative or significant regions of autism linkage. We performed nonparametric multipoint linkage analyses, in 152 families from the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange, focusing on three traits derived from the Autism Diagnostic Interview: "age at first word," "age at first phrase," and a composite measure of "repetitive and stereotyped behavior." Families were genotyped for 335 markers, and multipoint sib pair linkage analyses were conducted. Using nonparametric multipoint linkage analysis, we found the strongest QTL evidence for age at first word on chromosome 7q (nonparametric test statistic [Z] 2.98; P=.001), and subsequent linkage analyses of additional markers and association analyses in the same region supported the initial result (Z=2.85, P=.002; chi(2)=18.84, df 8, P=.016). Moreover, the peak fine-mapping result for repetitive behavior (Z=2.48; P=.007) localized to a region overlapping this language QTL. The putative autism-susceptibility locus on chromosome 7 may be the result of separate QTLs for the language and repetitive or stereotyped behavior deficits that are associated with the disorder.     

Identity,Subjectivity, and Disorders of Self in Psychosis

Alterations in self-experience are increasingly attended to as relevant and important aspects of schizophrenia, and psychosis more broadly, through a burgeoning self-disorders (SD) literature. At the same time, issues of self, subject, and subjectivity within schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses have also gained attention from researchers across the social sciences and humanities, and from ethnographic research especially. This paper examines the subjective experience of disruptions in self-identity within a cohort of first episode psychosis (FEP) service users, critically engaging with the SD literature and bringing it into conversation with social sciences and humanities scholarship on self and schizophrenia. Drawing findings from an ongoing ethnographic study of young peoples’ experiences with psychosis, we explore meanings of mental distress relating to psychotic episodes and attend to issues of self, identity, and subjectivity. We critique the division between “normal” and “pathological” self-experience that is endorsed within the SD literature, arguing against the notion that fragmentation of self-experience in schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses is indicative of psychopathology. We highlight how experiences categorized as psychosis are also important and complete aspects of one’s social world and inner life and explore the ways in which at least some aspects of disruptions of self-identity stem from clinical situations themselves—in particular, from asymmetries of power within the mental health system. Relating our findings to feminist, postcolonial, and disability studies’ approaches to the “self,” we emphasize the complex interplay between interpersonal, cultural, and structural aspects of self-experience within FEP.

     

Picoplankton in Lake Maggiore,Italy

In 1992 we examined the morphological characteristics and space-time distribution of picoplankton cells in Lake Maggiore, a subalpine lake in which oligotrophication is in progress. We measured by image analyser the biovolume of autotrophic (APP), eukaryotic and prokaryotic. and heterotrophic (HPP) picoplankton. Among the APP < 2μm the yellow fluoresceing are the dominating cells in the euphoric zone. The red cells, mainly eukaryotic, on average are only 11% of the total abundance of cells < 5μm. The APP cell numbers range from 9.5 × 10³ cells ml⁻¹ to 1.3 × 10⁵ cells ml⁻¹ (average: 5 × 10⁴ cells ml⁻¹). Their mean biovolume shows a minimum value of 7.8mm³ m⁻³ in March and a maximum of 186.3mm³ m-³ in September. The contribution of biovolume of yellow cells to total phytoplankton biovolume varies between 0.3% and 27%. suggesting that picocyanobacteria, at this stage of lake recovery, are not yet a dominant component. The HPP cell density is two order of magnitude higher than the APP with a mean value of 2.6 × 10⁶ cells ml⁻¹. APP mean cell size fluctuates from a minimum of 0.5 μm to a maximum of 1.4urn (0.26–1.69μm³ volume), while HPP range from 0.4 to 0.7 um (0.07–0.57 μm³ volume), making it easier to distinguish them on a dimensional basis for most of the year. During the period of thermal stratification, a peak in abundance was noted in the central part of the metalimnion at depths receiving less than 10% of surface irradiance. The total picoplanktonic carbon fraction (APP and HPP) varied from 38 to 384 μgC 1⁻¹ with a mean value of 133μgC 1⁻¹ which represents 42% of POC collected on GF/C filters. Most of the picoplankton carbon is made up of HPP cells (34% of the total POC).     

Subsistence, Technology, and Adaptive Variation in Middle Paleolithic Italy

This collaborative study addresses questions about variation in behavior within the Middle Paleolithic period of west-central Italy. The findings are directly relevant to the evolutionary "fate" of Neandertals and the appearance of anatomically modern humans in Europe. Analyses focus on variation in a number of dimensions of subsistence and technology, including patterns of ungulate procurement, food transport, and tactics of stone tool manufacture and use. All of these dimensions exhibit marked, possibly "vectored" change in the study area between 110,000 and 35,000 years ago. Interpretations of the archeological data are supported by independent studies linking food search, procurement, and transport behaviors to ecological rules affecting all large terrestrial predators. In this way, variation observed in the faunal and lithic data sets can be shown to reflect startling diversity in the responses of Mousterian hominids to the world around them. The data provide important insights into the nature of adaptive "raw material" already in place during the Middle Paleolithic, the foremost conclusion of this study. That this variation in resource exploitation and land use also appears directional is more difficult to evaluate. It could be explained by hominids' adjustments to local changes in coastal habitat as sea level regressed or, alternatively, an evolutionary shift in hominid capabilities. The first interpretation is preferred, on the basis of available evidence, but cannot be advanced as a certain conclusion. This question provides much stimulus for continued research in the study area and other regions, using the methods presented.     

Livestock production and animal health in Sicily, Italy

In Sicily, as in other Mediterranean areas, livestock represents one of the most important resources for the island economy. This sector involves more than 16,000 farms of cattle and 10,000 farms of sheep and goats (respectively 6% and 15% of national production) which are actually increasing their number. Most livestock in Sicily is owned by small holders and pastoralists. Regional production of milk feeds some industries, which involve a large and increasing occupational area. Due to its peculiar geographic aspect Sicily is constituted by hill areas with sporadic grasses, therefore extensive grazing methods represent an ancient, traditional practice for using poor lands. For the control of infectious diseases Veterinary Services (VS) are based on the public regional network that is coordinated by the Ministry of Health in Rome. Even if Sicilian VS had to solve many constraints related to traditional "pastoral management system", to the lack of any sanitary background of this sector, to unknown data on the numbers of the whole livestock, the effort done in the last years has allowed to monitor for brucellosis, bovine leukemia virus (BLV), bovine TBC, swine vescicular disease (MVS) and other diseases for the majority of the farms. Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) still represent a serious impediment to the improvement of meat and milk production in the region. Every year, several outbreaks related to Theileria, Babesia or Anaplasma infections in cattle are recorded. Imported breeds pay the most expensive tribute often with a mortality rate of 100%. In the last five years more than 170 outbreaks of TBDs have been notified by our Institute although the pathogen prevalence and economical impact in the Sicilian livestock is still unknown. The outdoor grazing of the animals, far away from observation, a subclinical course of the disease, can in fact create difficulties in discovering infection and therefore the therapy is often too late. New diagnostic and control methods (PCR, vaccination) are being developed at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale of Sicily in cooperation with other national and international laboratories (such as the University of Utrecht).