Urban Areas and Territorial Cohesion Objective: Actual Strategies and Future Challenges

The EU's ever-tightening focus on an urban agenda has led it, in recent years, to a clear recognition of cities as motors of regional, national and thus European development. Cities appears as crucial nodes, as centres of excellence of european territory, that can drive economic competitiveness and, at the same time, can forge territorial cohesion – itself an essential condition for the growth of long-term competitiveness. The opportunity to explicitly pursue the territorial dimension of cohesion will take substance with the forthcoming programming period. As cities seem to be crucial for the aim of a more coherent spatial framework of European development, urban policies will be one of the pillar of European Cohesion policy beeing strongly linked with territorial cohesion. From a strategic point of view, the Commission has proposed a new planning system which is of considerable significance for the territorial cohesion agenda, based on Community Strategic Guidelines and National Strategic Reference Framework governing the delivery of individual operational programmes, with the intention of to ensuring that overarching EU policy objectives are clearly reflected in the allocation of resources. The guidelines specifically will refer to the key issue of urban areas, suggesting the need to support competitiveness of neighboring cities. However how this aim will be tackled in practice depends on a number of issues. The thesis of the paper is about the various topics, emerging from the EU praxis, that seems relevant about urban policies: the urban and territorial governance, the "territorialization" of infrastructural projects, the urban policentric systems and city–region concept, the urban quality and renewaling instrument, the transnational cooperation and the urban networks. As well as taking into account the new context for territorial cohesion and urban policy, it is important to take stock of past experience and policy practice. Reletad, to understand how future urban policies might support territorial cohesion, it is worth considering how key measures have been implemented and what kind of tipologies it is possible to identify. The ESPON projects 2.3.1. and 2.3.2 will be the part of the core research field in which to extrapolate cases studies and analysis references

Comparison between surgical and percutaneous tracheostomy effects on procalcitonin kinetics in critically ill patients

Available evidence from randomized controlled trials including adult critically ill patients tends to show that percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) techniques are performed faster and reduce stoma inflammation and infection but are associated with increased technical difficulties compared with surgical tracheostomy (ST). A recent meta-analysis found that PDT was superior to reduce risk of periprocedural stoma inflammation and infection compared with ST. WE found no differences in procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, SOFA, and SAPS II between critically ill patients with ST or PDT

ESPON Project 2.3.1., Application and effects of the ESDP in the Member States. Second Interim Report

This Second Interim Report includes the preliminary results of the project, "Application and Effects of the ESDP in the Member States" within the ESPON Programme 2000-2006. The focus of the study is the application of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), which was adopted at the Potsdam informal Ministerial Council meeting in May 199

A comparison of videolaryngoscopes for tracheal intubation in predicted difficult airway: a feasibility study

Videolaryngoscopy has become increasingly attractive for the routine management of the difficult airway. Glidescope® is well studied in the literature while imago V-Blade® is a recent videolaryngoscope. This is a feasibility study with 1:1 case-control sequential allocation comparing Imago V-Blade ® and Glidescope® in predicted difficult airway settings

Laparoscopic Treatment of Inguinal Ovarian Hernia in Female Infants and Children: Standardizing the Technique

Sliding indirect inguinal hernias containing ovary are not uncommon in girls. We reported our experience with laparoscopic treatment of inguinal ovarian hernias in female infants and children with the aim to standardize the surgical technique. METHODS: The medical records of all girls who underwent laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair in our unit over the past 5 years were retrospectively reviewed. Only patients with an ovary found intraoperatively in the hernia sac were included in the study. All patients younger than 1 year received preoperatively a bowel preparation with simethicone and enemas. RESULTS: A total of 289 girls (median age 3.2 ± 0.5 years) underwent laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair during the study period. Thirty-seven patients (12.8%) had an ovarian hernia and were included in the study. Of these 37 girls, 9 (28.1%) were younger than 1 month, 20 (62.5%) ranged in age from 2 months to 1 year, and 3 (9.4%) were from 1 to 7 years. The average operative time was 23.7 minutes (range 18-43 minutes). No necrotic ovary was found intraoperatively, and all the procedures were accomplished laparoscopically. Neither intraoperative nor postoperative complications were reported. A patency of the contralateral canal of Nuck was found in 16 of the 37 patients (43.2%) and repaired during the same procedure. The average length of hospitalization was 21.8 hours (range 18-36 hours). No hernia recurrence or ovarian atrophy was recorded at a mean follow-up of 36 months (range 1-60 months). CONCLUSIONS: On the basis of our experience, laparoscopy should be considered the gold standard for the treatment of inguinal ovarian hernias in girls. Key points for standardization of the technique are as follows: bowel preparation in children younger than 1 year, use of 5-mm umbilical balloon trocar, correct positioning of 3-mm working screw trocars, section of the abnormal attachment of ovarian suspensory ligament, section of the periorificial peritoneum, and use of nonresorbable sutures