Looking back: Italian psychiatry from its origins to Law 180 of 1978.

Italian psychiatry is usually renowned for the radical anti-institutional movement and the Reform Law of 1978, which requires a historical analysis to understand. In the 1960s, Italian psychiatric culture had reached a deadlock because of its obsolete biological, strictly neuroanatomical, explanatory approach (so-called organicism) postulated by academic institutions and awkwardly implemented in asylum practice. One prominent figure in shaping this philosophy was Cesare Lombroso, internationally known as the father of criminal anthropology.

Bacterial dynamics in a raw cow's milk Caciotta cheese manufactured with aqueous extract of Cynara cardunculus dried flowers.

Aims: To investigate the bacterial dynamics of a Caciotta cheese traditionally manufactured in the Montefeltro area (Central Italy) with raw cow's milk and an aqueous extract of dried flowers from Cynara cardunculus as a coagulating agent.

Methods And Results: Conventional methods and a combined PCR-DGGE approach, relying on culture-dependent and -independent analyses, were used to investigate the cheese bacterial community, with a special focus on lactic acid bacteria. A heterogeneous population, including enterococci, lactococci, lactobacilli, food spoilage and other banal micro-organisms, was found.

An eight-year report on the implementation of HACCP in a university canteen: impact on the microbiological quality of meals.

An investigation aimed at assessing the microbiological quality of meals consumed at a university canteen after implementation of the HACCP system and personnel training was carried out. Cooked and warm-served products (74 samples), cooked and cold-served products (92 samples) and cold gastronomy products (63 samples) sampled from 2000 to 2007 underwent microbiological analyses. All the samples were tested for: Samonella spp.

Microbial biofilms associated with biliary stent clogging.

Endoscopic stenting is a palliative approach for the treatment of diseases involving biliary obstruction. Its major limitation is represented by stent occlusion, followed by life-threatening cholangitis, often requiring stent removal and replacement. Although it has been suggested that microbial colonization of biliary stents could play a role in the clogging process, the so far available data, particularly on the role of anaerobic bacteria, are not enough for a comprehensive description of this phenomenon.

[Paola Lombroso, a woman in the science of man].

The article reconstructs the intellectual development of Paola Lombroso and the role she played in the diffusion of the field of child psychology in Italy. At a time when scientific psychology was in its early phases and studies on childhood were concentrated on its pathological aspects, Paola represents a unique voice in her field, and one well-respected by the Italian publishing scene. Introduced to these sciences by her father, Cesare, who himself recognized the legitimacy of the descriptive psychological approach, Paola developed in her writings a progressive distance from Lombrosian Anthropology.