Rivivere l’incubo di Zenone. Due evidenze cliniche

Phenomenology has provided important investigative tools to psychopathology, psychiatry, neuropsychology and clinical psychology: one of these is undoubtedly the notion of lived temporality, duration, subjective episodic temporality that we find in many clinical models among such as Dalla Barba’s Memory, Consciousness and Temporality Theory and Parnas’s Ipseity-Disturbance Model. From the comparison of these models, we discover that both Dalla Barba’s Temporal Consciousness and Parnas’s Ipseity are lived temporality: a malfunction or weakening of this lived temporality would lead to confabulation (Dalla Barba) and to the manifestation of the first prodromal and early symptoms of a spectrum syndrome of schizophrenia (Parnas). In both disturbances time is blocked, encapsulated in the moment: in confabulation it becomes the serial cloning of a revitalized and relived engram; in schizophrenia a step that we cannot take in time, an eternal slow motion, Achilles or the arrow immobilized in their island of time. The lived temporality therefore leaves the purely speculative sphere and takes the form of a trans-diagnostic and differential diagnosis criterion in a dimensional approach that is by now guiding the latest clinical research. What role can the philosopher still have in this perspective?Phenomenology has provided important investigative tools to psychopathology, psychiatry, neuropsychology and clinical psychology: one of these is undoubtedly the notion of lived temporality, duration, subjective episodic temporality that we find in many clinical models among such as Dalla Barba’s Memory, Consciousness and Temporality Theory and Parnas’s Ipseity-Disturbance Model. From the comparison of these models, we discover that both Dalla Barba’s Temporal Consciousness and Parnas’s Ipseity are lived temporality: a malfunction or weakening of this lived temporality would lead to confabulation (Dalla Barba) and to the manifestation of the first prodromal and early symptoms of a spectrum syndrome of schizophrenia (Parnas). In both disturbances time is blocked, encapsulated in the moment: in confabulation it becomes the serial cloning of a revitalized and relived engram; in schizophrenia a step that we cannot take in time, an eternal slow motion, Achilles or the arrow immobilized in their island of time. The lived temporality therefore leaves the purely speculative sphere and takes the form of a trans-diagnostic and differential diagnosis criterion in a dimensional approach that is by now guiding the latest clinical research. What role can the philosopher still have in this perspective

Current state, scales of variability, and trends of biogeochemical properties in the northern Adriatic Sea

This paper illustrates the main results of a statistical analysis performed on a data set obtained by integrating experimental observations collected during many oceanographic research projects on the northern Adriatic Sea (NAS). The observations cover the last 20 years and provide a robust base for the assessment of the current state and scales of variability for temperature, salinity, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll. The results confirmed a clear seasonal cycle and marked spatial gradients for most parameters in all seasons. The largest proportion of the river Po input flows south along the coast, but significant eastward freshwater fluxes are also present in all seasons, more markedly in winter. The coastal belt south of the Lagoon of Venice is the most eutrophic area, mainly because of river inputs, while an oligotrophic condition prevails along the eastern part of the basin. Small-scale structures, including eddies and jets, are permanent features of the system. In order to test the existence of significant trends of variation in the physical and biogeochemical parameters, the data set has been enlarged by including observations from 1976. Analyses of trends over 30 years show an increase in salinity, which might be a consequence of both reduced outflows from rivers and a more sustained inflow of water along eastern coast, and a clear reduction in concentrations of phosphate and ammonia in coastal areas, probably due to new regulations regarding the control of nutrient loads and possibly suggesting the occurrence of cultural oligotrophication. No decrease is instead observed for concentration of nitrate

Current state, scales of variability and decadal trends of biogeochemical properties in the northern Adriatic Sea.

This paper illustrates the main results of a statistical analysis performed on a data set obtained by integrating experimental observations collected during many oceanographic research projects on the northern Adriatic Sea (NAS). The observations cover the last 20 years and provide a robust base for the assessment of the current state and scales of variability for temperature, salinity, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll. The results confirmed a clear seasonal cycle and marked spatial gradients for most parameters in all seasons. The largest proportion of the river Po input flows south along the coast, but significant eastward freshwater fluxes are also present in all seasons, more markedly in winter. The coastal belt south of the Lagoon of Venice is the most eutrophic area, mainly because of river inputs, while an oligotrophic condition prevails along the eastern part of the basin. Small-scale structures, including eddies and jets, are permanent features of the system. In order to test the existence of significant trends of variation in the physical and biogeochemical parameters, the data set has been enlarged by including observations from 1976. Analyses of trends over 30 years show an increase in salinity, which might be a consequence of both reduced outflows from rivers and a more sustained inflow of water along eastern coast, and a clear reduction in concentrations of phosphate and ammonia in coastal areas, probably due to new regulations regarding the control of nutrient loads and possibly suggesting the occurrence of cultural oligotrophication. No decrease is instead observed for concentration of nitrate

New Developments in Seismic Risk Assessment in Italy

The paper illustrates some improvements in the seismic risk assessments in Italy and describes the differences deriving from the use of different approaches to calculate the losses and the influence exerted by different hazard results. The first method of risk evaluation, here termed as ‘direct’, evaluates the losses by using only the mean values of the main variables involved (rate of events and frequency of the damage levels), thus providing an approximation of the expected losses. The second method, named ‘probabilistic’, takes into account the uncertainties related to the number of events (hazard) and the damage levels (vulnerability), thus determine the probability associated to each level of loss. Both methods express the risk as the economic losses to dwellings within a reference period of time. Two alternative hazard results are also used to show the influence on the calculated risk: the first one considering the seismicity uniformly distributed within seismic source zones; the second one clustering the strong seismicity in geographically narrowed source zones and scattering the low seismicity over large source zones. The results obtained show that the losses estimated by the ‘direct’ method are, at national level, a little bit lower than those obtained with the probabilistic method (about 6%). The differences are more pronounced at local level (regional or sub-regional), generally within ±20% with larger values in the zones of lower risk. Nevertheless, also the two hazard results show more pronounced differences at local rather than at national scale. The risk estimates in the high seismicity areas are greater if using the seismic hazard results based on the clustered seismicity, but the reverse is true, in the low seismicity areas, if using the hazard results based on the uniformly distributed seismicity. As a concluding remark, the direct method for calculating losses and the implementation of any seismic hazard result, may be acceptable for a general picture of the risk; whereas, when a detailed description of the territorial distribution of risk is needed, the probabilistic method for computing losses and a well-focused seismic hazard method should be used, as they are more pertinent to describe and highlight local differences