Mid-late Holocene environmental change and human activities in the northern Apennines, Italy

Radiocarbon-dated palaeoecological records from the upland zone of the northern Apennines spanning the Mid-Late Holocene (last 7000 years) have been evaluated using established criteria for detecting anthropogenic impact on the landscape and environment. The integrated palaeoecological records across the study area collectively indicate human interference with natural vegetation succession and landscape modification from at least the Middle Neolithic. These activities resulted in the progressive decline of Abies, Ulmus, Fraxinus and Tilia, and the spread of Fagus, from ∼7000 cal BP, accompanied at various times by evidence for biomass burning, soil erosion, the expansion of shrubland and herbaceous taxa, and the possible cultivation of Olea, Juglans and Castanea. Comparison of these data with the archaeological scheme for the region, and the climate history of the central-western Mediterranean, has revealed that the palaeoecological records broadly support the archaeological evidence, but suggest that several key vegetation changes also coincide with important periods of climate change, especially at ∼7800–5000 cal BP.

Factors contributing to fecal incontinence in older people and outcome of routine management in home, hospital and nursing home settings

Objective: Fecal loading, cognitive impairment, loose stools, functional disability, comorbidity and anorectal incontinence are recognized as factors contributing to loss of fecal continence in older adults. The objective of this project was to assess the relative distribution of these factors in a variety of settings along with the outcome of usual management. Methods: One hundred and twenty adults aged 65 years and over with fecal incontinence recruited by convenience sampling from four different settings were studied. They were either living at home or in a nursing home or receiving care on an acute or rehabilitation elderly care ward. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit which factors associated with fecal incontinence were present from subjects who had given written informed consent or for whom assent for inclusion in the study had been obtained. Results: Fecal loading (Homes 6 [20%]; Acute care wards 17 [57%]; Rehabilitation wards 19 [63%]; Nursing homes 21 [70%]) and functional disability (Homes 5 [17%]; Acute care wards 25 [83%]; Rehabilitation wards 25 [83%]; Nursing homes 20 [67%]) were significantly more prevalent in the hospital and nursing home settings than in those living at home (P < 0.01). Loose stools were more prevalent in the hospital setting than in the other settings (Homes 11 [37%]; Acute care wards 20 [67%]; Rehabilitation wards 17 [57%]; Nursing homes 6 [20%]) (P < 0.01). Cognitive impairment was significantly more common in the nursing home than in the other settings (Nursing homes 26 [87%], Homes 5 [17%], Acute care wards 13 [43%], Rehabilitation wards 14 [47%]) (P < 0.01). Loose stools were the most prevalent factor present at baseline in 13 of the 19 (68%) subjects whose fecal incontinence had resolved at 3 months. Conclusion: The distribution of the factors contributing to fecal incontinence in older people living at home differs from those cared for in nursing home and hospital wards settings. These differences need to be borne in mind when assessing people in different settings. Management appears to result in a cure for those who are not significantly disabled with loose stools as a cause for their fecal incontinence, but this would need to be confirmed by further research.

Activities related with electricity consumption in the Spanish residential sector: variations between days of the week, Autonomous Communities and size of towns

Nowadays the electricity consumption in the residential sector attracts policy and research efforts, in order to propose saving strategies and to attain a better balance between production and consumption, by integrating renewable energy production and proposing suitable demand side management methods. To achieve these objectives it is essential to have real information about household electricity demand profiles in dwellings, highly correlated, among other aspects, with the active occupancy of the homes and to the personal activities carried out in homes by their occupants. Due to the limited information related to these aspects, in this paper, behavioral factors of the Spanish household residents, related to the electricity consumption, have been determined and analyzed, based on data from the Spanish Time Use Surveys, differentiating among the Autonomous Communities and the size of municipalities, or the type of days, weekdays or weekends. Activities involving a larger number of houses are those related to Personal Care, Food Preparation and Washing Dishes. The activity of greater realization at homes is Watching TV, which together with Using PC, results in a high energy demand in an aggregate level. Results obtained enable identify prospective targets for load control and for efficiency energy reduction recommendations to residential consumers.

Amateurs meet professionals: theatrical activities in late sixteenth-century Italian Academies

This chapter explores the complex and still obscure relationship between Italian literary academies, which often engaged in amateur theatricals, and professional actors who formed part of the new theatrical companies (commedia dell’arte) which emerged on the theatrical scene at around the same time. By exploring particularly the cases of Adriano Valerini, Isabella Andreini and her son Giovan Battista Andreini, it is argued that some academies by the end of the sixteenth century showed greater openness to comici and particularly to female virtuose. This would lead at the start of the following century to changes in the relation between professionals and amateurs, especially where academies themselves became more hybrid.