Open City, Rossellini and neorealism : sixty years on

For Bakhtin, it is always important to know from where one speaks. The place from which I speak is that of a person who grew up in Italy during the economic miracle (pre-1968) in a working class family, watching film matinees on television during school holidays. All sort of films and genres were shown: from film noir to westerns, to Jean Renoir's films, German expressionism, Italian neorealism and Italian comedy. Cinema has come to represent over time a sort of memory extension that supplements lived memory of events, and one which, especially, mediates the intersection of many cultural discourses. When later in life I moved to Australia and started teaching in film studies, my choice of a film that was emblematic of neorealism went naturally to Roma città aperta (Open city hereafter) by Roberto Rossellini (1945), and not to Paisan or Sciuscà or Bicycle Thieves. My choice was certainly grounded in my personal memory - especially those aspects transmitted to me by my parents, who lived through the war and maintained that Open City had truly made them cry. With a mother who voted for the Christian Democratic Party and a father who was a unionist, I thought that this was normal in Italian families and society. In the early 1960s, the Resistance still offered a narrative of suffering and redemption, shared by Catholics or Communists. This construction of psychological realism is what I believe Open City continues to offer in time.

Assessment of function and clinical utility of alcohol and other drug web sites : an observational, qualitative study

Background The increasing popularity and use of the internet makes it an attractive option for providing health information and treatment, including alcohol/other drug use. There is limited research examining how people identify and access information about alcohol or other drug (AOD) use online, or how they assess the usefulness of the information presented. This study examined the strategies that individuals used to identify and navigate a range of AOD websites, along with the attitudes concerning presentation and content. Methods Members of the general community in Brisbane and Roma (Queensland, Australia) were invited to participate in a 30-minute search of the internet for sites related to AOD use, followed by a focus group discussion. Fifty one subjects participated in the study across nine focus groups. Results Participants spent a maximum of 6.5 minutes on any one website, and less if the user was under 25 years of age. Time spent was as little as 2 minutes if the website was not the first accessed. Participants recommended that AOD-related websites should have an engaging home or index page, which quickly and accurately portrayed the site’s objectives, and provided clear site navigation options. Website content should clearly match the title and description of the site that is used by internet search engines. Participants supported the development of a portal for AOD websites, suggesting that it would greatly facilitate access and navigation. Treatment programs delivered online were initially viewed with caution. This appeared to be due to limited understanding of what constituted online treatment, including its potential efficacy. Conclusions A range of recommendations arise from this study regarding the design and development of websites, particularly those related to AOD use. These include prudent use of text and information on any one webpage, the use of graphics and colours, and clear, uncluttered navigation options. Implications for future website development are discussed.

Homo Pleonexus : Man of desire

This presentation gives a broad psychological background to the behaviour involved in internet scams both emotional and financial. These refer in particular to the situation in Nigeria, West Africa where Australian citizens have been caught up in advance fee fraud.

Knowledge-Intensive Business Processes: Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Knowledge-intensive Business Processes [CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Volume 861]

Nowadays, Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) and, more generally, Process Management Systems (PMPs) are process-aware Information Systems (PAISs), are widely used to support many human organizational activities, ranging from well-understood, relatively stable and structures processes (supply chain management, postal delivery tracking, etc.) to processes that are more complicated, less structured and may exhibit a high degree of variation (health-care, emergency management, etc.). Every aspect of a business process involves a certain amount of knowledge which may be complex depending on the domain of interest. The adequate representation of this knowledge is determined by the modeling language used. Some processes behave in a way that is well understood, predictable and repeatable: the tasks are clearly delineated and the control flow is straightforward. Recent discussions, however, illustrate the increasing demand for solutions for knowledge-intensive processes, where these characteristics are less applicable. The actors involved in the conduct of a knowledge-intensive process have to deal with a high degree of uncertainty. Tasks may be hard to perform and the order in which they need to be performed may be highly variable. Modeling knowledge-intensive processes can be complex as it may be hard to capture at design-time what knowledge is available at run-time. In realistic environments, for example, actors lack important knowledge at execution time or this knowledge can become obsolete as the process progresses. Even if each actor (at some point) has perfect knowledge of the world, it may not be certain of its beliefs at later points in time, since tasks by other actors may change the world without those changes being perceived. Typically, a knowledge-intensive process cannot be adequately modeled by classical, state of the art process/workflow modeling approaches. In some respect there is a lack of maturity when it comes to capturing the semantic aspects involved, both in terms of reasoning about them. The main focus of the 1st International Workshop on Knowledge-intensive Business processes (KiBP 2012) was investigating how techniques from different fields, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Knowledge Representation (KR), Business Process Management (BPM), Service Oriented Computing (SOC), etc., can be combined with the aim of improving the modeling and the enactment phases of a knowledge-intensive process. The 1st International Workshop on Knowledge-intensive Business process (KiBP 2012) was held as part of the program of the 2012 Knowledge Representation & Reasoning International Conference (KR 2012) in Rome, Italy, in June 2012. The workshop was hosted by the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale Antonio Ruberti of Sapienza Universita di Roma, with financial support of the University, through grant 2010-C26A107CN9 TESTMED, and the EU Commission through the projects FP7-25888 Greener Buildings and FP7-257899 Smart Vortex. This volume contains the 5 papers accepted and presented at the workshop. Each paper was reviewed by three members of the internationally renowned Program Committee. In addition, a further paper was invted for inclusion in the workshop proceedings and for presentation at the workshop. There were two keynote talks, one by Marlon Dumas (Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Estonia) on "Integrated Data and Process Management: Finally?" and the other by Yves Lesperance (Department of Computer Science and Engineering, York University, Canada) on "A Logic-Based Approach to Business Processes Customization" completed the scientific program. We would like to thank all the Program Committee members for the valuable work in selecting the papers, Andrea Marrella for his valuable work as publication and publicity chair of the workshop, and Carola Aiello and the consulting agency Consulta Umbria for the organization of this successful event.

Campbell, Alan Johnston (1895–1982)

Born in 1895, Alan Johnston Campbell was a grazier and political party organiser. In December 1914 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and saw action with the 2nd Light Horse Regiment at Gallipoli and, as a lance corporal, in the Sinai and Palestine. After the war Campbell became active in the Roma branch of the Maranoa Graziers’ Association. In 1935, at Roma, he formed one of the first branches of the Queensland Country Party. In 1943, Campbell was elected president of the QCP. Impressed by the Australian Labor Party’s organisation, Campbell centralised power and rebuked parliamentarians whom he believed were neglecting their constituents. By 1951 the highly disciplined structure had attracted 35,000 members. Campbell died in 1982.

Measurement of environmental constructs in disability assessment instruments

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) assumes a biopsychosocial basis for disability and provides a framework for understanding how environmental factors contribute to the experience of disability. To determine the utility of prevalent disability assessment instruments, the authors examined the extent to which a range of such instruments addressed the impact of environmental factors on the individual and whether the instruments designed for different disability groups focused differentially on the environment. Items from 20 widely used disability assessment instruments were linked to the five chapters of the ICF environment component using standardized classification rules. Nineteen of the 20 instruments reviewed measured the environment to varying degrees. It was determined that environmental factors from the Natural Environment and Attitudes chapters were not well accommodated by the majority of instruments. Instruments developed for people with intellectual disabilities had the greatest environmental coverage. Only one instrument provided a relatively comprehensive and economical account of environmental barriers. The authors conclude that ICF classification of environmental factors provides a valuable resource for evaluating the environmental content of existing disability-related instruments, and that it may also provide a useful framework for revising instruments in use and for developing future disability assessment instruments.

An urban informatics approach to smart city learning in architecture and urban design education

This study aims to redefine spaces of learning to places of learning through the direct engagement of local communities as a way to examine and learn from real world issues in the city. This paper exemplifies Smart City Learning, where the key goal is to promote the generation and exchange of urban design ideas for the future development of South Bank, in Brisbane, Australia, informing the creation of new design policies responding to the needs of local citizens. Specific to this project was the implementation of urban informatics techniques and approaches to promote innovative engagement strategies. Architecture and Urban Design students were encouraged to review and appropriate real-time, ubiquitous technology, social media, and mobile devices that were used by urban residents to augment and mediate the physical and digital layers of urban infrastructures. Our study’s experience found that urban informatics provide an innovative opportunity to enrich students’ place of learning within the city.

Is night-time wind direction important to best practice wild dog trapping and baiting?

We discovered a significant bias for wild dog scent station spoor (scats and scratches) to be positioned on the north-easterly side of roads and intersections. Counts of this spoor, 50 metres in each direction of north-south and east-west intersections were made in state forests near Roma in southwest Queensland, Cecil Plains on the Darling Downs and Maryborough on the coast during mating season in April/May 2007. While 51% of 190 and 83% of 120 scent station spoor were located on the north-eastern sector of the intersections at Cecil Plains and Roma respectively, spoor were more evenly distributed across all four sectors at Maryborough (n=47).

Tactical Pasture Management: Enhancing Profits from Poplar Box Country

The project assembled basic information to allow effective management and manipulation of native pastures in the southern Maranoa region of Queensland. This involved a range of plant studies, including a grazing trial, to quantify the costs of poor pasture composition. While the results focus on perennial grasses, we recognise the important dietary role played by broad-leaved herbs. The plant manipulation studies focussed on ways to change the proportions of plants in a grazed pasture, eg. by recruitment or accelerated morbidity of existing plants. As most perennial grasses have a wide range of potential flowering times outside of mid-winter, rainfall exerts the major influence on flowering and seedset; exceptions are black speargrass, rough speargrass and golden beardgrass that flower only for a restricted period each year. This simplifies potential control options through reducing seedset. Data from field growth studies of four pasture grasses have been used to refine the State's pasture production model GRASP. We also provide detailed data on the forage value of many native species at different growth stages. Wiregrass dominance in pastures on a sandy red earth reduced wool value by only 5-10% at Roma in 1994/95 when winters were very dry and grass seed problems were minimal.

Validating economic and environmental sustainability of a short-term summer forage legume in dryland wheat cropping systems in south-west Queensland.

The present study set out to test the hypothesis through field and simulation studies that the incorporation of short-term summer legumes, particularly annual legume lablab (Lablab purpureus cv. Highworth), in a fallow-wheat cropping system will improve the overall economic and environmental benefits in south-west Queensland. Replicated, large plot experiments were established at five commercial properties by using their machineries, and two smaller plot experiments were established at two intensively researched sites (Roma and St George). A detailed study on various other biennial and perennial summer forage legumes in rotation with wheat and influenced by phosphorus (P) supply (10 and 40 kg P/ha) was also carried out at the two research sites. The other legumes were lucerne (Medicago sativa), butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea) and burgundy bean (Macroptilium bracteatum). After legumes, spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) was sown into the legume stubble. The annual lablab produced the highest forage yield, whereas germination, establishment and production of other biennial and perennial legumes were poor, particularly in the red soil at St George. At the commercial sites, only lablab-wheat rotations were experimented, with an increased supply of P in subsurface soil (20 kg P/ha). The lablab grown at the commercial sites yielded between 3 and 6 t/ha forage yield over 2-3 month periods, whereas the following wheat crop with no applied fertiliser yielded between 0.5 to 2.5 t/ha. The wheat following lablab yielded 30% less, on average, than the wheat in a fallow plot, and the profitability of wheat following lablab was slightly higher than that of the wheat following fallow because of greater costs associated with fallow management. The profitability of the lablab-wheat phase was determined after accounting for the input costs and additional costs associated with the management of fallow and in-crop herbicide applications for a fallow-wheat system. The economic and environmental benefits of forage lablab and wheat cropping were also assessed through simulations over a long-term climatic pattern by using economic (PreCAPS) and biophysical (Agricultural Production Systems Simulation, APSIM) decision support models. Analysis of the long-term rainfall pattern (70% in summer and 30% in winter) and simulation studies indicated that ~50% time a wheat crop would not be planted or would fail to produce a profitable crop (grain yield less than 1 t/ha) because of less and unreliable rainfall in winter. Whereas forage lablab in summer would produce a profitable crop, with a forage yield of more than 3 t/ha, ~90% times. Only 14 wheat crops (of 26 growing seasons, i.e. 54%) were profitable, compared with 22 forage lablab (of 25 seasons, i.e. 90%). An opportunistic double-cropping of lablab in summer and wheat in winter is also viable and profitable in 50% of the years. Simulation studies also indicated that an opportunistic lablab-wheat cropping can reduce the potential runoff+drainage by more than 40% in the Roma region, leading to improved economic and environmental benefits.

Soil seed bank dynamics in response to an extreme flood event in a riparian habitat

A significantly increased water regime can lead to inundation of rivers, creeks and surrounding floodplains- and thus impact on the temporal dynamics of both the extant vegetation and the dormant, but viable soil-seed bank of riparian corridors. The study documented changes in the soil seed-bank along riparian corridors before and after a major flood event in January 2011 in southeast Queensland, Australia. The study site was a major river (the Mooleyember creek) near Roma, Central Queensland impacted by the extreme flood event and where baseline ecological data on riparian seed-bank populations have previously been collected in 2007, 2008 and 2009. After the major flood event, we collected further soil samples from the same locations in spring/summer (November–December 2011) and in early autumn (March 2012). Thereafter, the soils were exposed to adequate warmth and moisture under glasshouse conditions, and emerged seedlings identified taxonomically. Flooding increased seed-bank abundance but decreased its species richness and diversity. However, flood impact was less than that of yearly effect but greater than that of seasonal variation. Seeds of trees and shrubs were few in the soil, and were negatively affected by the flood; those of herbaceous and graminoids were numerous and proliferate after the flood. Seed-banks of weedy and/or exotic species were no more affected by the flood than those of native and/or non-invasive species. Overall, the studied riparian zone showed evidence of a quick recovery of its seed-bank over time, and can be considered to be resilient to an extreme flood event.

Dissection of the genetic background of childhood onset progressive myoclonic epilepsies

The progressive myoclonic epilepsies (PMEs) are a clinically and etiologically heterogeneous group of symptomatic epilepsies characterized by myoclonus, tonic-clonic seizures, psychomotor regression and ataxia. Different disorders have been classified as PMEs. Of these, the group of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs) comprise an entity that has onset in childhood, being the most common cause of neurodegeneration in children. The primary aim of this thesis was to dissect the molecular genetic background of patients with childhood onset PME by studying candidate genes and attempting to identify novel PME-associated genes. Another specific aim was to study the primary protein properties of the most recently identified member of the NCL-causing proteins, MFSD8. To dissect the genetic background of a cohort of Turkish patients with childhood onset PME, a screen of the NCL-associated genes PPT1, TPP1, CLN3, CLN5, CLN6, MFSD8, CLN8 and CTSD was performed. Altogether 49 novel mutations were identified, which together with 56 mutations found by collaborators raised the total number of known NCL mutations to 364. Fourteen of the novel mutations affect the recently identified MFSD8 gene, which had originally been identified in a subset of mainly Turkish patients as the underlying cause of CLN7 disease. To investigate the distribution of MFSD8 defects, a total of 211 patients of different ethnic origins were evaluated for mutations in the gene. Altogether 45 patients from nine different countries were provided with a CLN7 molecular diagnosis, denoting the wide geographical occurrence of MFSD8 defects. The mutations are private with only one having been established by a founder-effect in the Roma population from the former Czechoslovakia. All mutations identified except one are associated with the typical clinical picture of variant late-infantile NCL. To address the trafficking properties of MFSD8, lysosomal targeting of the protein was confirmed in both neuronal and non-neuronal cells. The major determinant for this lysosomal sorting was identified to be an N-terminal dileucine based signal (9-EQEPLL-14), recognized by heterotetrameric AP-1 adaptor proteins, suggesting that MFSD8 takes the direct trafficking pathway en route to the lysosomes. Expression studies revealed the neurons as the primary cell-type and the hippocampus and cerebellar granular cell layer as the predominant regions in which MFSD8 is expressed. To identify novel genes associated with childhood onset PME, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genomewide scan was performed in three small families and 18 sporadic patients followed by homozygosity mapping to determine the candidate loci. One of the families and a sporadic patient were positive for mutations in PLA2G6, a gene that had previously been shown to cause infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy. Application of next-generation sequencing of candidate regions in the remaining two families led to identification of a homozygous missense mutation in USP19 for the first and TXNDC6 for the second family. Analysis of the 18 sporadic cases mapped the best candidate interval in a 1.5 Mb region on chromosome 7q21. Screening of the positional candidate KCTD7 revealed six mutations in seven unrelated families. All patients with mutations in KCTD7 were reported to have early onset PME, rapid disease progression leading to dementia and no pathologic hallmarks. The identification of KCTD7 mutations in nine patients and the clinical delineation of their phenotype establish KCTD7 as a gene for early onset PME. The findings presented in this thesis denote MFSD8 and KCTD7 as genes commonly associated with childhood onset symptomatic epilepsy. The disease-associated role of TXNDC6 awaits verification through identification of additional mutations in patients with similar phenotypes. Completion of the genetic spectrum underlying childhood onset PMEs and understanding of the gene products functions will comprise important steps towards understanding the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms, and will possibly shed light on the general processes of neurodegeneration and nervous system regulation, facilitating the diagnosis, classification and possibly treatment of the affected cases.

Familia romana e identidad femenina en época de Augusto

Resumen: Hacia el 167 a.C., un joven Polibio, se sorprendía de que Roma hubiera podido afi rmar su poderío en la península, resistir los ataques cartagineses y acabar imponiendo sus leyes en Oriente. Probablemente –explica P. Grimal– en ello también haya infl uido que las costumbres y tradiciones romanas contribuían a asegurar una superioridad sobre el resto de las culturas y hacían de Roma una ciudad única entre todas. La familia y la mujer constituyeron parte fundamental dentro de la consolidación de esa estructura socio política y de ello heredaríamos, especialmente a nivel normativo, una sólida tradición jurídico-romana. Sin embargo, la época imperial representó un grave período de crisis en el cual, tomar esposa, dar hijos a la patria y controlar los patrimonios, se convirtió en una importante reafi rmación moral, jurídica y política para la sociedad de su tiempo. En esta forma, se analizarán brevemente algunos conceptos y leyes relevantes –cuyos ecos volveremos a encontrar refl ejados a lo largo y ancho de la España cristiana medieval– los cuales nos ayudarán a adentrarnos en la cotidianidad de este singular período, sus emancipadas mujeres aristocráticas y el derecho privado.

Prudentia Iuris, 2000, n° 53 (número completo)

Contenido: Editorial – Derecho Penal y Procesal Penal: Presentación – Jornadas de Derecho Procesal Penal: Los distintos proyectos de reforma al Código Procesal Penal de la Nación / Ricardo Gil Lavedra – Diferentes perfiles del ejercicio de la acción penal / Francisco D’Albora – El Ministerio Público Fiscal / José Cafferata Nores – El Ministerio Público Fiscal en Italia / Giorgio Cherubini – El Ministerio Público Fiscal en la provincia de Buenos Aires / Eduardo D’Empaire – El recurso extraordinario / Jorge Reynaldo Vanossi – La situación del imputado / Hernán Munilla Lacasa – Incorporación de prueba al debate / Roberto Raúl Daray – El recurso de casación en el nuevo Código Procesal Penal de la provincia de Buenos Aires / Carlos A. Mahiques – El procesado en estado de cautividad / Jorge Kent – Jornadas Internacionales de Derecho Penal: El derecho penal y el orden social / Alfredo Battaglia – Del Comité Especial a la Conferencia de Roma / Juan Manuel Gramajo – La protección de la vida inocente en vísperas del siglo veintiuno / Alberto Rodríguez Varela – Derecho Laboral : nuevas normas y doctrinas: Reformas laborales. Leyes 25.013, 25.165 y 25.250 / Jorge Rodríguez Mancini ; Juan A. Confalonieri (h), comentario de Héctor César Guisado – Recargos en indemnizaciones por despido : Ley 25.323 / Hugo Roberto Mansueti – In Memoriam – Recensiones

La distruzione delle statue di Pausania nella Sparta tardoantica (Lib. Ep. 1518)

Abstract: The late antique destruction of two bronze statues of Pausanias - the Spartan general responsible for the Greek victory at the Battle of Plataea (479 BC) - housed in the temple of Athena Chalkioikos in Sparta (Lib. Ep. 1518), has been interpreted as one of the few cases of a violent conflict between pagan and Christian population in Greece. Nevertheless the sources suggest that late antique Sparta was a bastion of Hellenic paganism and give a picture of a small and quiet town ruled by a pagan educated élite, where pagans like Libanius wanted to live. Since there is no evidence of a violent conflict between pagans and Christians in Sparta, and Libanius confirms that in 365 AD all the temples and cult statues were still in place, this paper addresses the issue from a different point of view and offers a new contribution to the history of Sparta in Late Antiquity. By using literary, archaeological and epigraphic evidence the paper explores: 1) the relationship between Roman administration and Spartan élite in the IVth century AD; 2) the historical memory of Pausanias in Late Antiquity. It will be emphasized that the obscure burning of the two statues helped to remove from Sparta the memory of Pausanias - a controversial figure, misrepresented in Late Antiquity and connected to the ancient staseis in Laconia - in order to promote a positive image of Sparta as a city without conflicts and ruled by the political system of Lycurgus (eunomia). As documented by local inscriptions in praise of late Roman governors, the mythical lawgiver Lycurgus was the paradigm of the imperial governors who rebuilded the town in the IVth cent. AD. It can be assumed that while Rome, Constantinople, Antioch and Athens were troubled by political and religious violence or by seditions between different factions, Sparta aimed to revive its traditional model of civic order in the new historical context of Late Antiquity.