On hereditary graph classes defined by forbidding Truemper configurations: recognition and combinatorial optimization algorithms, and χ-boundedness results

Truemper configurations are four types of graphs that helped us understand the structure of several well-known hereditary graph classes. The most famous examples are perhaps the class of perfect graphs and the class of even-hole-free graphs: for both of them, some Truemper configurations are excluded (as induced subgraphs), and this fact appeared to be useful, and played some role in the proof of the known decomposition theorems for these classes. The main goal of this thesis is to contribute to the systematic exploration of hereditary graph classes defined by forbidding Truemper configurations. We study many of these classes, and we investigate their structure by applying the decomposition method. We then use our structural results to analyze the complexity of the maximum clique, maximum stable set and optimal coloring problems restricted to these classes. Finally, we provide polynomial-time recognition algorithms for all of these classes, and we obtain χ-boundedness results

Executive control of emotional conflict

Attentional networks and their interactions have been extensively studied through the Attentional Network Test for Interaction (ANTI). This task combines a spatial cueing paradigm with a flanker procedure and examines the efficiency and the interactions among the attentional networks (Alerting, Orienting and Executive control). However, the ANTI did not consider the effect of emotions on the attentional systems, although many studies have shown a relationship between emotion and Executive system. This study aims to analyze the executive system in an emotional context. We used a version of ANTI with arrows (ANTI-A) and an ANTI-Emotion (ANTI-E), where the arrows in the flanker task were replaced with neutral and threatening faces. One hundred and thirty- four university students performed both an ANTI-A and an ANTI-E. Results confirmed all the main effects and interactions for both the types of ANTI. Furthermore, the ANTI-E showed that the executive control of the conflict was harder when the target was neutral rather than when it was threatening. This difficulty in solving the flanker task could be due to the effect of distractors with a threatening valence. The ANTI-E could be allowed to verify how much attentional bias that characterizes people with emotional disorders (e.g., anxiety) may depend on altered executive control of the emotional conflict

Development of novel antimicrobial strategies and surveillance program to fight antimicrobial resistance

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics represents a major public health problem and measures to prevent the increase in antibiotic resistant organisms require knowledge of both the dissemination of antibiotic resistance using the surveillance approach and alternative strategies for tackling its. The surveillance of antibiotic resistance is a crucial element for the implementation of intervention strategies aimed at preserving the efficacy of currently available antimicrobial agents, including last-resource antibiotics. Beside conventional pathogens, there is increasing agreement about the importance of monitoring commensal bacteria, which can constitute a natural reservoir not only of resistance strains, but also of resistance genes that are potentially transferable among members of the resident microbiota. As such, there is an urgent need to develop alternatives to conventional antimicrobial strategies against resistant organisms, with a considerable attention to MDR gram-negative bacteria, that could play a major role in development of difficult-to-treat biofilm-related infections. This PhD project aimed at providing novel insights about alternative therapeutic approaches against Gram-negative MDR bacteria and at investigating their dissemination pathways in healthy humans living in remote communities of Bolivian Chaco

Executive functions in Alzheimer disease. A systematic review

Alzheimer's disease is a severe irreversible syndrome, characterized by a slow and progressive cognitive decline that interferes with the standard instrumental and essential functions of daily life. Promptly identifying the impairment of particular cognitive functions could be a fundamental condition to limit, through preventive or therapeutic interventions, the functional damages found in this degenerative dementia. This study aims to analyse, through a systematic review of the studies, the sensitivity of four experimental paradigms (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Stroop Task, Go/No-Go Task, and Flanker Task) considered as golden standard instruments for executive functions assessment in elderly subjects affected by Alzheimer dementia. This review was carried out according to the PRISMA method. Forty-five studies comparing the executive performance of patients with Alzheimer's dementia (diagnosed according to different classification criteria for dementia) and healthy elderly patients both over the age of sixty, were selected. For the research, PubMed, PsycINFO, PsycArticles databases were used. The study highlighted the importance of using standard protocols to evaluate executive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease. The Stroop task allows discriminating better between healthy and pathological agin

The Evolution of the Mitochondria-to-Calcium Release Units Relationship in Vertebrate Skeletal Muscles

The spatial relationship between mitochondria and the membrane systems, more specifically the calcium release units (CRUs) of skeletal muscle, is of profound functional significance. CRUs are the sites at which Ca2+ is released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum during muscle activation. Close mitochondrion-CRU proximity allows the organelles to take up Ca2+ and thus stimulate aerobic metabolism. Skeletal muscles of most mammals display an extensive, developmentally regulated, close mitochondrion-CRU association, fostered by tethering links between the organelles. A comparative look at the vertebrate subphylum however shows that this specific association is only present in the higher vertebrates (mammals). Muscles in all other vertebrates, even if capable of fast activity, rely on a less precise and more limited mitochondrion-CRU proximity, despite some tethering connections. This is most evident in fish muscles. Clustering of free subsarcolemmal mitochondria in proximity of capillaries is also more frequently achieved in mammalian than in other vertebrates

Enactivism and the ‘Explanatory Trap’. A Wittgensteinian Perspective

This paper explores the enactive approach in cognitive science with an eye on the later Wittgenstein’s philosophy. The aim is not that of answering the question: was Wittgenstein an ante litteram enactivist? He was not, because he was not an ante litteram (cognitive) scientist of any kind. The aim, conversely, is that of answering the question: can enactivism be Wittgensteinian? In answering positively, it will be argued that a Wittgensteinian framework can help enactive cognitive scientists in dissolving certain old problems which they sometimes seem not to be able to get rid of. After the Introduction, the first two sections of the paper concern the Wittgensteinian standpoint on psychological concepts (Section 2) and the enactivist approach in its general terms (Section 3). Section 4 attempts a closer examination of some key concepts – chiefly representations, the inner, the “explanatory gap”, the “hard problem” of consciousness – considering both the enactivists’ and Wittgenstein’s attitude towards them. The Conclusion surmises the benefits of a Wittgensteinian perspective also hinting at some other problems which it can help to clarify

Membrane glucocorticoid receptors are localised in the extracellular matrix and signal through the MAPK pathway in mammalian skeletal muscle fibres

A number of studies have previously proposed the existence of glucocorticoid receptors on the plasma membrane of many cell types including skeletal muscle fibres. However, their exact localisation and the cellular signalling pathway(s) they utilise to communicate with the rest of the cell are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the localisation and the mechanism(s) underlying the non-genomic physiological functions of these receptors in mouse skeletal muscle cells. The results show that the receptors were localised in the cytoplasm in myoblasts, in the nucleus in myotubes and in the extracellular matrix, in satellite cells and in the proximity of mitochondria in adult muscle fibres. Also, they bound laminin in a glucocorticoid-dependent manner. Treating small skeletal muscle fibre bundles with the synthetic glucocorticoid, beclomethasone dipropionate, increased the phosphorylation (=activation) of extracellular-signal regulated kinase 1&2, c-Jun N-terminal kinase and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase. This occurred within 5min and depended on the fibre-type and the duration of the treatment. It was also abolished by the glucocorticoid receptor inhibitor, mifepristone, and a monoclonal antibody against the receptor. From these results we conclude that the non-genomic/non-canonical physiological functions of glucocorticoids, in adult skeletal muscle fibres are mediated by a glucocorticoid receptor localised in the extracellular matrix, in satellite cells and close to mitochondria and involve activation of the MAPK pathway

Prejudice in Testimonial Justification: A Hinge Account

Although research on epistemic injustice has focused on the effects of prejudice in epistemic exchanges, the account of prejudice that emerges in Fricker’s (2007) view is not completely clear. In particular, I claim that the epistemic role of prejudice in the structure of testimonial justification is still in need of a satisfactory explanation. What special epistemic power does prejudice exercise that prevents the speaker’s words from constituting evidence for the hearer’s belief? By clarifying this point, it will be possible to address two more general issues concerning the nature of prejudice: its resistance to counterevidence and the steps involved in overcoming prejudice. I propose a hinge account of prejudice, based on the recent perspective of hinge epistemology, to help clarify these aspects. According to the hinge account, prejudices share a fundamental feature with hinges: they work as norms of evidential significance, and as such, they determine what can and cannot count as evidence for belief

Rosa M. Calcaterra (ed.) New Perspectives on Pragmatism and Analytic Philosophy

Introduction and Historical Framework Pragmatism and analytic philosophy are two very complex and ramified schools of thought, two ways of conceiving the philosophical work, both of which extremely hard to define in a satisfactory and shared manner. For this reason, the attempt to make a study of their relations and interactions, encounters and clashes, may seem even more risky and uncertain. But New Perspectives on Pragmatism and Analytic Philosophy (Rodopi 2011), edited by Rosa Calcaterra, ..