L\u2019 Etna: un percorso attraverso l\u2019immaginario, la consapevolezza del rischio e la gestione del territorio\u201d,

anche in, Annali della Facolt\ue0 di Economia, Catania, anno L, 2004

Promoting Awareness about Psychological Consequences of Living in a Community Oppressed by the Mafia: A Group-Analytic Intervention

The effects of the Mafia have been extensively studied from sociological, economic, and historical points of view. However, little research has investigated the influence of the Mafia on individuals and communities in terms of its psychological and social impact. In order to contribute to the advancement of our understanding of the psychological effects of the Mafia on individuals and communities and to promote a participative process of social change, a group analytic intervention was conducted within a Community Based Participatory Research carried out in Corleone, a small Sicilian town with a historically recognized role in the evolution of the Mafia, as well as in the fight against its control. Qualitative findings from the group intervention revealed the development of an awareness process that allowed participants to become aware of their social unconscious anxieties and defenses and to recognize and manage the strong emotional impact related to the Mafia\u2019s presence in their lives. Highlighting how psychological processes can have negative impacts on individual and collective capacity to pursuit transformation and resilience, this article provides important insight on how clinical psychology may operate in socio-cultural contexts to promote the reconstruction of the traumatic social dimensions in the community

Genetic characterization of the Bardigiano horse using microsatellite markers

The study was aimed at investigating the genetic structure of the Bardigiano horse and its relationships with the Haflinger, Maremmano and Arabian breeds using 11 microsatellite markers. A total of 94 alleles were detected across the breeds, with a mean of 8.5 alleles per locus and a mean observed heterozygosity of 0.69. Compared to the other breeds, the Bardigiano horse showed quite a high genetic variability, as indicated by the mean number of alleles (7.0 vs 6.1÷7.6) and by the observed heterozygosity (0.72 vs 0.66÷0.71). Moreover, the genotype distributions in the Bardigiano groups of different sex and age were not significantly different. The overall FST value showed that the genetic differences among breeds accounted for 7.8% (P=0.001) of the total variation, and the pairwise FST values were all significant. The assignment test allocated between 96.8 and 98.9% of the individuals to the population they were collected from, with a mean probability of assignment of about 97% for all breeds, except for the Arabian, where it approached 100%. The results have highlighted that the Bardigiano breed has a high within and between breed variability, which is considerably more than could be expected by looking at its evolution history. This justifies the need for the development of additional breeding strategies to preserve the existing genetic variability

Three dimensional imaging of short pulses

We exploit a slightly noncollinear second-harmonic cross-correlation scheme to map the 3D space-time intensity distribution of an unknown complex-shaped ultrashort optical pulse. We show the capability of the technique to reconstruct both the amplitude and the phase of the field through the coherence of the nonlinear interaction down to a resolution of 10 $\mu$m in space and 200 fs in time. This implies that the concept of second-harmonic holography can be employed down to the sub-ps time scale, and used to discuss the features of the technique in terms of the reconstructed fields.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Territory and memory: The Landing of the Allies in Sicily in 1943

The concept of memory (memorial site) has gained crucial importance in recent years for the identification of places (areas) and in the affirmation of local identities. The memorial sites are areas where usually tragic events have occurred and resulted in a cultural change. In these places there are still signs of these historical events and/or tangible and intangible indications created by the society such as: monuments, obelisks, marble inscriptions, others. Sicily represents an ideal area for studying memorial sites; not only because of the number of dominations in the past centuries, but also for the significance of all places where the mafia has taken its root. These elements have caused several changes in the culture and in the landscape. Sicily is the land where \u201cOperation Husky\u201d began, in the summer of 1943. This agreement between the Americans and the British aimed at occupying Sicily, Italy after World War II. Seventy years after this operation the territory is still marked by testimonies of those tragic events. The bombing devastated buildings, which we can still acknowledge for their cultural significance. These memorial areas represent a strong testimony of the past. There are cemeteries, protecting bodies many of which are unknown; there are bunkers and other military garrisons well preserved throughout the territory. These signs must be rediscovered, to be replicated because of the contemporary geopolitical situation. As a result, in this paper we propose to identify the area of eastern Sicily suitable for a tourist itinerary in the cultural memory of the war of 1943. The idea is to encourage tourism that gives rise to real emotions and thoughts

Brain Responses to Faces and Facial Expressions in 5-Month-Olds: An fNIRS Study

Processing faces and understanding facial expressions are crucial skills for social communication. In adults, basic face processing and facial emotion processing rely on specific interacting brain networks. In infancy, however, little is known about when and how these networks develop. The current study uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure differences in 5-month-olds’ brain activity in response to fearful and happy facial expressions. Our results show that the right occipital region responds to faces, indicating that the face processing network is activated at 5 months. Yet sensitivity to facial emotions appears to be still immature at this age: explorative analyses suggest that if the facial emotion processing network was active this would be mainly visible in the temporal cortex. Together these results indicate that at 5 months, occipital areas already show sensitivity to face processing, while the facial emotion processing network seems not fully developed

Fine characterization of immunological mechanisms mediated by the major allergens of Parietaria judaica and hypoallergenic hybrid, rPjEDcys

Purpose: Allergy is a hypersensitivity disease IgE-mediated, affecting more than 25% of the population. The symptoms of IgE-mediated allergies reactions can be transiently ameliorated pharmacologically, but the only curative treatment of allergies is Allergen-Specific Immunotherapy (SIT). Recombinant hypoallergenic allergen derivatives with reduced allergenic activity have been engineered to reduce side effects during SIT. Parietaria judaica (Pj) pollen contains two major allergens belonging to the family of Lipid Tranfer Proteins (Par j 1 and Par j 2). By means of DNA recombinant technology, a hybrid hypoallergenic (PjEDcys), expressing disulphide bond variants of Par j 1 and Par j 2, was generated. The aim of this research project is to study the immunological mechanisms activated by the major allergens of Parietaria judaica, Par j 1 and Par j 2, and hypoallergenic hybrid rPjEDcys. Moreover, the project I am involved is trying to address the question whether this engineered hypoallergenic derivative can be a potential products for safer Allergen Specific Immunotherapy (SIT). Methods: Par j 1, Par j 2 and PjEDcys were produced as recombinant proteins. Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell (PBMC) from P. judaica allergic patients were stimulated in vitro with wild-type recombinant allergens and hybrid. PBMC proliferation assay, cytokine secretion assay, magnetic cell sorting of different subset of regulatory T cells, multiparametric flow cytometric analysis and molecular characterization using Real Time-PCR on sorted cells allow to study the biological properties of wild-type recombinant allergens and hybrid hypoallergenic derivate. Results: In vitro analysis suggested that PjEDcys have a reduced allergenity and maintained T cells reactivity. PBMC of P. judaica allergic patients stimulated in vitro with the hybrid and the wild-type recombinant allergens scored a percentage of proliferating CD4+ and CD56+ cell higher than unstimulated sample. Consistent with these data, cytokine secretion assay on CD4+ cells demonstrated that PBMC stimulation with rPjEDcys showed a percentage of IL-5 and IL-13 secreting T CD4+ cells lower than the wild-type allergens. Both rPjEDcys and wild-type stimulation promote the secretion of IFN- \u3b3 and IL-10 by T CD4+ cells. Finally whit the aim to study which subset of regulatory cells respond to wild-tipe allergens and hypoallergenic hybrid new experiment are setting. Discussion: In this experimental setting, the use of the major allergens of Pj and the hybrid polypeptides, rPjEDcys allows me to study the immunological mechanisms activated by the two different antigen stimulation and to investigate differences between the wild-type allergen and the hypoallergenic mutant rPjEDcys. Our data showed that CD4+ cells are clearly the predominant cell population proliferating in response to mixture of Par j 1 and Par j 2 allergens. The hypoallergenic derivate rPjEDcys retain the ability to stimulate CD4+ cells proliferation like the mixture of allergens (rPar j 1 and rPar j 2). Moreover these results highlighted a particular interesting datum; the mixture of allergens and the rPjEDcys hybrid showed the ability to stimulate an innate immune response, inducing CD56+ cells proliferative response. Cytokine secretion assay demonstrate that rPjEDcys reduce the secretion of IL-5 and IL-13, Th2 cytokines with a critical role in the development of allergy, compared to wild-type allergens. This may reflect the different biological function exerted by rPjEDcys. Conclusion: Collectivelly, our findings demonstrate that PjEDcys show a reduced allergenicity but maintained its immunogenicity and maybe it is also capable to regulate and redirect the immune response. These results suggest that PjEDcys represent a useful approach for immunotherapy of allergic disease