FLASH 5
Lynn Kyle
Tecniche Nuove
pp. 217

The profession of a Web Designer is certainly among those which are most popular at the moment, and which will probably boom even more over the next few years. The Internet, the new technological frontier, is indeed an all-inclusive phenomenon, involving all aspects of everyday life, work, leisure time and family. So, we can expect graphic designers who can “fiddle” with a computer to have a future full of prospects, can we? That’s right, provided their knowledge of the programs to be used is comprehensive and not makeshift. The Tecniche Nuove volume introduces the reader to the secrets of Flash 5, the most popular program among the ones used by Web Designers. The only problem, as you may expect, relates to the contents of these manuals, which very often prove illegible because of their bulk and complexity. But in fact the Lynn Kyle handbook is accessible to whoever knows the rudiments and has some kind of bent for web creativity.

La riforma dell’assistenza
e dei servizi sociali
M.G. Breda D. Micucci F. Santanera
Utet pp. 237

During the last few years there has been a lot of debate over the healthcare reform led by the minister Ms Bindi and which has aroused controversy among the various parties involved: the Government, the Opposition, medical associations, patients’ associations and so on. Still, during the year 2000, another major reform was passed, that of welfare services, whose gist is contained in the law no. 328/2000. The authors of this volume published by Utet, which carries out a detailed analysis of this reform, are not simply researchers, but actual professionals in the field of voluntary work and helpful organisations. Very interesting is the handling of the relation between healthcare and welfare, a crucial issue of social policy for any Government, as it represents the heart of the problem of citizen - institutions relations. However, the resulting judgement as regards the legislation passed starting from the 80s is not positive; indeed, according to the authors, the unquestionable willingness to regulate a field which had been misruled for years has not been paralleled by the whole series of provisions required to actually supply insiders with the necessary tools and resources. The following words are quoted from the introductory chapter: “Essentially, whereas the law no. 328/2000 allows for the supply of various types of services to the well-off, also at preferential rates, services which are certainly not indispensable (such as dances, holiday stays, entertainment service, foreign language courses, etc.), it does not provide for any obligation as regards the performance of absolutely indispensable services for individuals and family units who are really in need”. These considerations cannot but arouse some apprehension.

Interazioni tra farmaci
Silvio Garattini Alessandro Nobili
Selecta Medica pp. 641

Both the authors of this manual carry out their activity at the Istituto Mario Negri in Milan. One author, Garattini, who is also well known to the television public, is the Director of this institution, and the other, Nobili, is in charge of the Pharmaceutical Information Department. So we have two qualified experts, whose objective, as stated in the Foreword, is “to offer to the most keen and interested among physicians opportunities for further investigation into certain new evidences within the pharmacology of interactions between drugs and herb-based or food products, without neglecting more traditional aspects, such as interactions between drugs and alcohol.” Besides, the study of drug interactions is a branch of clinic pharmacology that most physicians are not particularly familiar with. This volume will therefore prove a very useful tool for the usual readers of our journals, both physicians and chemists.