[General organizational issues in disaster health response]. / Aspetti organizzativi generali dell'assistenza sanitaria nei disastri.

Recent studies show how in the 2004-2005 period there has been an increase in natural disasters of 18% worldwide. According to a renowned author planning for disaster response is as valid as the starting hypothesis. The study of an inductive mental process in disaster response planning is the key to avoiding the invention and re-invention of the wheel for each emergency. Research in this field however is hampered by different factors one of which is data collection that during disaster response requires specific training. Standardization of data collection models with limitation of the number of variables is required as is taking into account problems related to people migration and subsequent sampling problems and retrospective analysis. Moreover poor attention to the training of the volunteers employed on the field is an issue to be considered.

[New global challenges: the role of international organizations]. / Nuove sfide globali: il Ruolo delle Organizzazioni Internazionali.

Facing the numerous humanitarian emergencies that upset the international balances, the International Organisations (IO) who intervene are: the Agencies of the United Nations (UN), the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and NGOs. In the sector of international health cooperation, the World Health Organization (WHO) has elaborated a document, the International Health Regulations (IHR), that regulates the health workers' activity during a health emergency. In this paper different International Organizations employed in international humanitarian crisis are described.

[Laws relevant to international missions of health cooperation]. / Le norme applicabili a missioni di cooperazione sanitaria internazionale.

Both medical doctors and humanitarian operators engaged in health relief or development missions abroad, are called to respect the general principles of international law, that is to say, customary law that is legally compulsory for the International Community and rules deriving from Treaties and International Conventions. Humanitarian operators have to observe also the rules and regulations of the hosting country. They have to respect all rules applying to their humanitarian action and they have to take responsibility towards beneficiaries and donors alike.

[Psychological perception of risk, infections and catastrophes. The greatest danger is human nature]. / La percezione psicologica del rischio: il contagio in una catastrofe. Il pericolo maggiore insito nella natura umana.

Risk perception is due to a subjective evaluation of reality and depends on a number of factors such as: individual coherence and flexibility, the set of social values and rules that contributed to the definition of the individuals' interior world - this does not always make proper risk perception possible. Even though the way common people set-up their own judgment is based on their own interpretation tracks, surely different from expert criteria, we cannot label their approach as irrational. Over time, through an evolutionary process, people have decided what is safe and what is dangerous; this personal awareness was not based on the science but on experiences, images, feelings and emotions. Most of the time, neither social nor economical conditions can prevent people to feel an epidemic risk in the same way as it was felt during the plague of 1350. Most of the time, after a disaster, victims experience a regression so, for example, even if it is known that corpses do not always cause infections, after the tsunami disaster, most of the bodies were quickly cremated by scared survivors; this made the identification and burial of the victims impossible.

[Optimizing international humanitarian assistance through the definition of personal profiles: the role of graphology]. / Definizione dei profili personali per ottimizzare l'assistenza umanitaria internazionale: contributo della grafologia.

The authors illustrate the frequent applications of the modern science of graphology after having evoked its birth and development. Regarding the relationship between major catastrophes and graphology they specify that the latter is useful both in the definition of the personality profiles of the staff that is sent on relief missions and in evaluating the reactions of the victims in order to simplify the work of psychologists.

[Infectious diseases and population assistance: general issues]. / Assistenza infettivologica alla popolazione: problemi generali.

Actually the infectious diseases are a predominant cause of morbidity and mortality in limited resource countries and, of course, not unimportant in industrialized countries where the social phenomena of immigration and increased internal and international mobility of people may facilitate the reemergence of infectious diseases considered overcome. It is becoming more and more important to consider the actual role of assistance of people for infectious diseases: a careful consideration needing of concretes example for becoming medical practices and social languages appropriates to the local context and useful for promoting more efficacious cares and prevention of infectious diseases.

[Epidemiological surveillance for infectious diseases and humanitarian emergencies]. / Sorveglianza epidemiologica per malattie infettive ed emergenze umanitarie.

A disaster both natural and man made is managed in time according to separate phases that respond to specific requirements and needs. In the late and post emergency phases problems of public health are priority and in particular the identification and containment of epidemic clusters. Epidemiological surveillance is the main instrument used and in this paper it is analysed both in theory and in its application in the Italian Red Cross mission in Sri Lanka devastated by the 2004 Tsunami.

Hydrolytic properties of crude alpha-L-rhamnosidases produced by several wild strains of mesophilic fungi.

AIMS: Observation of the dependence of alpha-L-rhamnosidase activity on pH and temperature and the capability to hydrolyse concentrated naringin solutions and hesperidin suspensions of enzyme complexes produced by several fungi. METHODS AND RESULTS: The enzymes were produced by several wild strains of mesophilic fungi grown in liquid media containing rhamnose as sole carbon source. The properties and their ranges of values measured were as follows: (i) optimum pH, 3.5-6.5; (ii) optimum temperature, 50-65 degrees C; (iii) hydrolysis of supersaturated 100 g l(-1) naringin solutions, 45-100% and (iv) hydrolysis of hesperidin suspensions, 6-35%. CONCLUSIONS: Some alpha-L-rhamnosidase enzymes hydrolysed supersaturated naringin solutions with a high yield. The enzyme produced by Fusarium sambucinum 310 showed good activity even at pH 10. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Crude enzymes with possible utilization as catalysts for the manufacture of hydrolysis products of the flavonoid glycosides were found.