Recensioni: Sbagliando non si impara. Perché facciamo sempre le scelte sbagliate in amore, sul lavoro e nella vita quotidiana

Le scienze cognitive e l'economia comportamentale nel giro di un decennio si sono trasformate da discipline esoteriche per soli addetti ad argomento comune, quotidianamente dibattuto su quotidiani e social. Il volume di Sara Garofalo ne è un esempio perché offre al lettore una serie di esempi, esercizi e test in cui semplici situazioni di vita quotidiana rivelano l'ormai nota fallibilità della architettura delle scelte della nostra specie, ovvero la nostra 'razionalità limitata' preconizzata dalle ricerche, ogni volta riconosciute con il Nobel, dello psicologo Herbert Simon tra gli anni Cinquanta e Settanta del secolo scorso, poi sviluppata in economia dallo psicologo Daniel Kahneman e dall'economista comportamentale Richard Thaler in anni recenti

Knowledge, attitudes and practices about vaccination in Trentino, Italy in 2019

Vaccination is among the most important areas of progress in the worldwide history of public health. However, a crescent wave of anti-vaccine groups has grown in Western countries, especially in Italy, in the last two decades. Our aim was to evaluate adult's hesitancy and knowledge about vaccines and related diseases in Trentino-Alto Adige -the Italian region with the lowest vaccination coverages

Network, degeneracy and bow tie. Integrating paradigms and architectures to grasp the complexity of the immune system

Recently, the network paradigm, an application of graph theory to biology, has proven to be a powerful approach to gaining insights into biological complexity, and has catalyzed the advancement of systems biology. In this perspective and focusing on the immune system, we propose here a more comprehensive view to go beyond the concept of network. We start from the concept of degeneracy, one of the most prominent characteristic of biological complexity, defined as the ability of structurally different elements to perform the same function, and we show that degeneracy is highly intertwined with another recently-proposed organizational principle, i.e. 'bow tie architecture'. The simultaneous consideration of concepts such as degeneracy, bow tie architecture and network results in a powerful new interpretative tool that takes into account the constructive role of noise (stochastic fluctuations) and is able to grasp the major characteristics of biological complexity, i.e. the capacity to turn an apparently chaotic and highly dynamic set of signals into functional information

Assessing precision and requirements of three methods to estimate roe deer density.

Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is the most abundant cervid in Europe and, as such, has a considerable impact over several human activities. Accurate roe deer population size estimates are useful to ensure their proper management. We tested 3 methods for estimating roe deer abundance (drive counts, pellet-group counts, and camera trapping) during two consecutive years (2012 and 2013) in the Apennines (Italy) in order to assess their precision and applicability. During the study period, population density estimates were: drive counts 21.89±12.74 roe deer/km2 and pellet-group counts 18.74±2.31 roe deer/km2 in 2012; drive counts 19.32±11.12 roe deer/km2 and camera trapping 29.05±7.48 roe deer/km2 in 2013. Precision of the density estimates differed widely among the 3 methods, with coefficients of variation ranging from 12% (pellet-group counts) to 58% (drive counts). Drive counts represented the most demanding method on account of the higher number of operators involved. Pellet-group counts yielded the most precise results and required a smaller number of operators, though the sampling effort was considerable. When compared to the other two methods, camera trapping resulted in an intermediate level of precision and required the lowest sampling effort. We also discussed field protocols of each method, considering that volunteers, rather than technicians, will more likely be appointed for these tasks in the near future. For this reason, we strongly suggest that for each method managers of population density monitoring projects take into account ease of use as well as the quality of the results obtained and the resources required

Hidden in plain view::degeneracy in complex systems

Degeneracy is a word with two meanings. The popular usage of the word denotes deviance and decay. In scientific discourse, degeneracy refers to the idea that different pathways can lead to the same output. In the biological sciences, the concept of degeneracy has been ignored for a few key reasons. Firstly, the word “degenerate” in popular culture has negative, emotionally powerful associations that do not inspire scientists to consider its technical meaning. Secondly, the tendency of searching for single causes of natural and social phenomena means that scientists can overlook the multi-stranded relationships between cause and effect. Thirdly, degeneracy and redundancy are often confused with each other. Degeneracy refers to dissimilar structures that are functionally similar while redundancy refers to identical structures. Degeneracy can give rise to novelty in ways that redundancy cannot. From genetic codes to immunology, vaccinology and brain development, degeneracy is a crucial part of how complex systems maintain their functional integrity. This review article discusses how the scientific concept of degeneracy was imported into genetics from physics and was later introduced to immunology and neuroscience. Using examples of degeneracy in immunology, neuroscience and linguistics, we demonstrate that degeneracy is a useful way of understanding how complex systems function. Reviewing the history and theoretical scope of degeneracy allows its usefulness to be better appreciated, its coherency to be further developed, and its application to be more quickly realized.8 page(s

Effects of forest management and roe deer impact on a mountain forest development in the Italian Apennines: A modelling approach using LANDIS-II.

Forest development is a complex phenomenon which, for the number of actors involved and the response time expressed by forests, is difficult to understand and explore. Forests in Italy, as in several areas of Europe, are experiencing intensive management and recently, an increasing impact by ungulates. The effects on forest development of these two disturbances combined are difficult to predict, and consequently to be properly managed. We used a forest landscape change model, LANDIS-II, to simulate forest development as driven by forestry practices and roe deer impact for 200 years in a mountain forest of the Italian Apennines. We found that each disturbance alters forest tree species richness, forest type abundance and distribution, and forest structure. When considered combined, the two disturbances show additive behavior, enhancing or moderating each other's effects. Forest management has a negative effect on tree species richness. We expected roe deer to have a negative effect on harvest yields, but this result was significant only for two of seven harvesting treatments. On the other hand, roe deer presence had a positive effect on tree species richness. All the simulation scenarios returned some extent of forest loss. The amount of the forest loss is lowest in the scenario without disturbances, and greatest when both disturbances are considered. However, the two disturbances combined, with the magnitude modelled in our simulations, have relatively low effects on the forest dynamics we analyzed in our study area. LANDIS-II was an effective approach for simulating combined management and ungulate driven trends of forest development, and to help understand the dynamics that lay behind it

Towards a liquid self:how time, geography, and life experiences reshape the biological identity

The conceptualization of immunological self is amongst the most important theories of modern biology, representing a sort of theoretical guideline for experimental immunologists, in order to understand how host constituents are ignored by the immune system (IS). A consistent advancement in this field has been represented by the danger/damage theory and its subsequent refinements, which at present represents the most comprehensive conceptualization of immunological self. Here we present the new hypothesis of liquid self which integrates and extends the danger/damage theory. The main novelty of the liquid self hypothesis lies in the full integration of the immune response mechanisms into the host body’s ecosystems, i.e. in adding the temporal, as well as the geographical/evolutionary and environmental, dimensions, which are synthetically expressed by what we suggested to call immunological biography. Our hypothesis takes into account the important biological changes occurring with time (age) in the immune system (including immunosenescence and inflammaging), as well as changes in the organismal context related to nutrition, lifestyle and geography (populations). We argue that such temporal and geographical dimensions impinge upon, and continuously reshape, the antigenicity of physical entities (molecules, cells, bacteria, viruses), making them switching between self and nonself states in a dynamical, liquid fashion. Particular attention is devoted to oral tolerance and gut microbiota, as well as to a new potential source of unexpected self epitopes produced by proteasome splicing. Finally, our framework allows the set up of a variety of testable predictions, the most straightforward suggesting that the immune responses to defined molecules representing potentials antigens will be quantitatively and qualitatively quite different according to the immuno-biographical background of the host

It's (not) rocket science! a quick guide to a successful scientific communication in public health

A Brief Outline Of The Overall Workshop: Our workshop is intended to act as an overview of effective Public Health communication. We will examine various contexts, beneficiaries, and actors in Preventive Medicine and Public Health communication, stressing the importance of effective knowledge transfer in this field. * First sub-session “HOW TO: COMMUNICATE DATA TO HEALTH PROFESSIONALS” (20 min): * How to: Data Visualization - Lucia Palandri, MD, DrPH, PhDc * How to: Digital Communication - Prof. Tommaso Filippini, MD, DrPH, PhD - [HALF-TIME - 10 min]: DO’S AND DON’TS: INFOGRAPHICS FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONALS VS GENERAL PUBLIC - Eleonora Ferrari, MD; Camilla Lugli, MD * Second sub-session “COMMUNICATE HEALTH TO PEOPLE: SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLES” (20 min): * Leo and Giulia - Prof. Anna Odone, MD, MSc, MPH, PhD * Vaccine Pills on TV - Prof. Andrea Grignolio, MA, PhD * Q&A session (10 min) Moderator: Prof. Elena Righi, PhD Specific Aims/Objectives And Component Parts As Public Health professionals and residents, COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on our work, shedding light on a major issue: communication. As a matter of fact, in the last few years, scientific communication has undoubtedly been a challenge in two ways. On one hand, communication has been difficult even among professionals due to the significant volume of data constantly gathered and analyzed during the pandemic. On the other hand, we faced some difficulty with the necessity to constantly interface with the population in an infodemic setting. Both challenges should be considered as important priorities in public health: the lessons learnt from the pandemic (and beyond) should routinely and inextricably guide us in carrying out our roles as PH specialists. Hence, our necessity to delve into this topic and share what we have learnt with coworkers. To this end, we chose to organize our workshop into two sections. A first skill-building sub-session will be dedicated to the communication of scientific information and data among health professionals and “insiders”. In the second sub-session we would like to present a couple of examples of successful general public scientific communication campaigns. We will merge the two sub-session with a practical guide about do’s and don’ts in scientific posters and general public infographic creation. The Key Questions That The Workshop Will Address - How to present scientific findings and relevant data to scientists and health professionals? How to make data more comprehensible? - How to deliver a clear message and maintain public trust in science through successful campaigns?