Medical Liability: Review of a Whole Year of Judgments of the Civil Court of Rome

Background: Complaints about medical malpractice have increased over time in Italy, as well as other countries around the world. This scenario, perceived by some as a “malpractice crisis”, is a subject of debate in health law and medical law. The costs arising from medical liability lawsuits weigh not only on individual professionals but also on the budgets of healthcare facilities, many of which in Italy are supported by public funds. A full understanding of the phenomenon of medical malpractice appears necessary in order to manage this spreading issue and possibly to reduce the health liability costs. Methods: The retrospective review concerned all the judgments drawn up by the Judges of the Civil Court of Rome, XIII Chamber (competent and specialized section for professional liability trials) published between January 2018 and February 2019. Results: The analysis of data concerning the involved parties showed that in 84.6% of the judgments taken into account, one or more health facilities were sued, while in 58.2% of cases, one or more health workers were present among the defendants. When healthcare providers are the only ones to be summoned, it is dentists and aesthetic doctors/plastic surgeons who undergo most of the claims. In the overall period analyzed, the amount paid was 23,489,254.08 EUR with an average of 163,119.82 EUR. Conclusion: The evidence provided by the reported data is a useful tool to understand medical malpractice in Italy, especially with regard to the occurrence of the phenomenon at a legal level, an aspect still hardly mentioned by existing literature.

Agastya Haritaki Rasayana: A Critical Review

Rasayana is a specialized section of Ayurveda, which mainly deals with the prevention of disease and promotion of the health. Agastya Haritaki Rasayana is a popular Avaleha kalpana, used in the pranavaha sroto vikaras like Kasa, Shwasa, Hikka, Kshaya, etc. The study was taken with a view to enlist the ingredients of Agastya Haritaki Rasayana from different Classical text of Ayurveda and critical analysis was done based on the properties of ingredients and their indications. A thorough and comprehensive review of Agastya Haritaki Rasayana from different Ayurvedic classical texts, contemporary texts, online journals, articles and internet materials has been done. Most of the ingredients of Agastya Haritaki Rasayana are having -Tikta, Kashyaya, Madhura rasa, laghu, ruksha, tikshna guna, katu vipaka, ushna veerya and having kaphavata shamaka properties. Thus, Agastya Haritaki Rasayana is used in the management of diseases which are mainly vatakapha pradhana. Agastya Haritaki Rasayana is indicated as main line of treatment in Shwasa, Kasa roga as well as used as the Naimittika Rasayana in various other diseases like grahani, aruchi, arsha etc. Keywords: Agastya Haritaki Rasayana, Rasayana, Naimittika Rasayana, Shwasa, Kasa

Joseph Marcus. Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1979-1939. (Studies in the Social Sciences.) Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers. 1983. Pp. 569.

This chapter assesses Joseph Marcus's Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919–1939 (1983). Marcus's book consists of an introductory section in which he sketches the thousand-year history of the Jews in Poland and gives basic information concerning Poland's history between the two world wars. There is also a section on social history, the longest and most specialized section, where the author discusses the problems of social structure, national income, social groups, social institutions, education, demography, housing conditions, social politics, economic politics, and the wealth accumulated by Polish Jews. Finally, there is a section on political history with an extensive chapter on Jewish political parties, three chronological chapters, and two chapters dealing with various related issues such as emigration and the preparations for war. The whole is supplemented by notes, appendices, a bibliography and an index of names and institutions.

Fields, and methods of their simulation and exploration

Since the treatment of the general field concept seems to be missing in the literature, and since methods of field ex ploration and of simulation are scattered in a great number of domestic as well as foreign papers, this paper presents, first, a brief survey on fields and on methods of their analy sis and simulation, and then reports on the state of the art in the area of simulation of electrostatic fields by means of a conductive-sheet analog or electrolytic tank. Although the paper has been written primarily with the needs of electric power engineering in mind, the treatment of the subject has been held as interdiscipli nary as possible. The paper will thus be useful also to those working in aerodynamics, elastic stress analysis, heat transfer, astronomy, acoustics, atomic physics, and ma terial sciences. Furthermore, for the electrical engineer, it may be helpful to know that electrical problems sometimes may be solved more easily or more conveniently by the use of nonelectrical methods. In the specialized section on the application of the electrolytic tank and the conductive-sheet analog to the solution of electrostatic field problems, little-known as well as new techniques are discussed, such as (1) plotting of infinite fields on a double analog, (2) determining of force lines or surfaces by means of the dual analog, (3) simulation of areas of different dielectric constants and of continuously variable dielectric constants by means of jellified dielectrics, (4) plotting of areas of low current density by the use of consecutive field mapping, (5) the possibility of plotting fields with rotational symmetry on isotropically conducting sheets and graphically transpos ing the map so obtained, and (6) solution of distributed source problems. A comparison of advantages, disadvantages, and limita tions of the electrolytic tank method and the conductive sheet analog is also presented. Finally, an appeal is made for teaching and use of field analog methods for future developments.