Psicologia e scienza dell'anima tra i secoli XII e XIII. Giovanni Blund e il Tractatus de Anima

2011 - 2012La ricerca è circoscritta all’opera di un maestro delle arti, Giovanni Blund, vissuto dal 1175 al 1240. L’opera su cui converge l’attenzione dell’intera ricerca è il Tractatus de anima, scoperto da Padre Callus che ne ha dato una completa edizione critica nel 1970. Nel tentativo di definizione di una nozione ambigua com’è quella di ‘anima’, si è rivolta l’attenzione anche ad Alfredo di Sareshel, a Domenico Gundisalvi, ad Avicenna e alle cognizioni mediche arabe e greche, indiscussa fonte per i maestri attivi tra i secoli XII e XIII. Blund era stato uno dei primi a tenere lezioni sul nuovo Aristotele, sia ad Oxford che a Parigi, e in breve tempo aveva acquisito una celebrità notevole. Tuttavia nel suo Tractatus non troviamo tanto Aristotele quanto i suoi interpreti arabi: al-Kindi, Avicenna, al-Farabi e Costa ben luca. Il suo trattato sull’anima è dunque testimonianza della penetrazione nelle scuole, all’inizio del secolo XIII, delle teorie del filosofo arabo Avicenna, guida preziosa nell’esegesi di un testo difficile e intricato qual era l’opera aristotelica. L’opera si articola, in base a quanto indicato dall’indice dei contenuti, in 27 capitoli ma l’ultimo, il De divina providentia, manca e non ci è possibile stabilire se l’autore abbia lasciato l’opera incompiuta o se l’ultimo capitolo sia stato deliberatamente omesso. Il piano del Tractatus è approssimativamente quello del testo avicenniano. Fatta eccezione per il capitolo xxvi sul libero arbitrio, significativamente ispirato al De libero arbitrio di Anselmo d’Aosta, Blund segue da vicino il Liber Sextus Naturalium, organizzando però la materia liberamente. Il Tractatus non è l’opera di un teologo ma di un maestro delle arti; è quanto indubbiamente suggerisce il metodo della trattazione. Persino argomentando questioni come l’immortalità dell’anima o il libero arbitrio, Blund non spodesta il teologo dal suo compito, non ne invade il territorio ma tratta le varie questioni in modo puramente filosofico. Il Tractatus de anima segna l’ingresso, nell’Occidente latino, di un nuovo approccio alla trattazione dell’anima perché il piano metafisico e teologico incrocia abilmente considerazioni fisiche e psicologiche. [a cura dell'autore]Xi n.s

Predicting reading and spelling disorders: a 4-year prospective cohort study

In this 4-year prospective cohort study, children with a reading and spelling disorder, children with a spelling impairment, and children without a reading and/or spelling disorder (control group) in a transparent orthography were identified in third grade, and their emergent literacy performances in kindergarten compared retrospectively. 642 Italian children participated. This cohort was followed from the last year of kindergarten to third grade. In kindergarten, the children were assessed in phonological awareness, conceptual knowledge of writing systems and textual competence. In third grade, 18 children with a reading and spelling impairment and 13 children with a spelling impairment were identified. Overall, conceptual knowledge of the writing system was the only statistically significant predictor of the clinical samples. No differences were found between the two clinical samples

Machine Learning Radio-Frequency-Based Anomaly Detection for Ground Station and Satellite Telecommunication

Satellite-to-ground station telecommunication is a crucial aspect of satellite missions, representing a single point of failure of the entire space system. Each failed contact is an issue for all satellite missions, leading to a potential data loss. The detection and forecasting of data transfer failures are critical challenges in satellite operations, given the unpredictability and variety of potential causes for such anomalies. Considering the spectral waterfall plot the most appropriate tool to describe the anatomy of satellite contacts, an automatic waterfall analysis could help satellite mission operators, by promptly discovering potential data transmission failures between satellites and ground stations, and by forecasting anomaly behaviors. The work reported in this paper exploits machine-learning models, trained with spectrogram waterfall diagrams to provide real-time and automatic anomaly detection of data transmission failures. Long-Short Term Memory and Deep learning models have been trained and validated, for anomaly detection and forecasting of contacts failures, with a dataset encompassing a semester’s worth of satellite contacts in both S-band and X-band. With examples to identify the most appropriate model, this research will present practical outcomes and data-informed best practices in support of mission operators

Role of fetal MRI in the evaluation of isolated and non-isolated corpus callosum dysgenesis: results of a cross-sectional study

PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to characterize isolated and non-isolated forms of corpus callosum dysgenesis (CCD) at fetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to identify early predictors of associated anomalies. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 104 fetuses with CCD undergoing MRI between 2006 and 2016. Corpus callosum, cavum septi pellucidi, biometry, presence of ventriculomegaly, gyration anomalies, cranio-encephalic abnormalities and body malformations were evaluated. Results of genetic tests were also recorded. RESULTS: At MRI, isolated CCD was 26.9%, the rest being associated to other abnormalities. In the isolated group, median gestational age at MRI was lower in complete agenesis than in hypoplasia (22 vs 28 weeks). In the group with additional findings, cortical dysplasia was the most frequently associated feature (P = 0.008), with a more frequent occurrence in complete agenesis (70%) versus other forms; mesial frontal lobes were more often involved than other cortical regions (P = 0.006), with polymicrogyria as the most frequent cortical malformation (40%). Multivariate analysis confirmed the association between complete agenesis and cortical dysplasia (odds ratio = 7.29, 95% confidence interval 1.51-35.21). CONCLUSIONS: CCD is often complicated by other intra-cranial and extra-cranial findings (cortical dysplasias as the most prevalent) that significantly affect the postnatal prognosis. The present study showed CCD with associated anomalies as more frequent than isolated (73.1%). In isolated forms, severe ventriculomegaly was a reliable herald of future appearance of associated features

Arretium or Arezzo? A Neural Approach to the Identification of Place Names in Historical Texts

This paper presents the application of a neural architecture to the identification of place names in English historical texts. We test the impact of different word embeddings and we compare the results to the ones obtained with the Stanford NER module of CoreNLP before and after the retraining using a novel corpus of manually annotated historical travel writings

A Zinc-Mediated Deprotective Annulation Approach to New Polycyclic Heterocycles

A straightforward approach to new polycyclic heterocycles, 1H-benzo[4,5]imidazo[1,2-c][1,3]oxazin-1-ones, is presented. It is based on the ZnCl2-promoted deprotective 6-endo-dig heterocyclization of N-Boc-2-alkynylbenzimidazoles under mild conditions (CH2Cl2, 40 °C for 3 h). The zinc center plays a dual role, as it promotes Boc deprotection (with formation of the tert-butyl carbocation, which can be trapped by substrates bearing a nucleophilic group) and activates the triple bond toward intramolecular nucleophilic attack by the carbamate group. The structure of representative products has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis

Alteration of colonic excitatory tachykininergic motility and enteric inflammation following dopaminergic nigrostriatal neurodegeneration

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is frequently associated with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, including constipation and defecatory dysfunctions. The mechanisms underlying such disorders are still largely unknown, although the occurrence of a bowel inflammatory condition has been hypothesized. This study examined the impact of central dopaminergic degeneration, induced by intranigral injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), on distal colonic excitatory tachykininergic motility in rats. Methods: Animals were euthanized 4 and 8 weeks after 6-OHDA injection. Tachykininergic contractions, elicited by electrical stimulation or exogenous substance P (SP), were recorded in vitro from longitudinal muscle colonic preparations. SP, tachykininergic NK1 receptor, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression, as well as the density of eosinophils and mast cells in the colonic wall, were examined by immunohistochemical analysis. Malondialdehyde (MDA, colorimetric assay), TNF, and IL-1 beta (ELISA assay) levels were also examined. The polarization of peritoneal macrophages was evaluated by real-time PCR. Results: In colonic preparations, electrically and SP-evoked tachykininergic contractions were increased in 6-OHDA rats. Immunohistochemistry displayed an increase in SP and GFAP levels in the myenteric plexus, as well as NK1 receptor expression in the colonic muscle layer of 6-OHDA rats. MDA, TNF, and IL-1 beta levels were increased also in colonic tissues from 6-OHDA rats. In 6-OHDA rats, the number of eosinophils and mast cells was increased as compared with control animals, and peritoneal macrophages polarized towards a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Conclusions: The results indicate that the induction of central nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration is followed by bowel inflammation associated with increased oxidative stress, increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, activation of enteric glia and inflammatory cells, and enhancement of colonic excitatory tachykininergic motility

Enteric dysfunctions in experimental Parkinson's disease: alterations of excitatory cholinergic neurotransmission regulating colonic motility in rats

Parkinson's disease (PD) is frequently associated with gastrointestinal symptoms, mostly represented by constipation and defecatory dysfunctions. This study examined the impact of central dopaminergic denervation, induced by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) into the medial forebrain bundle, on distal colonic excitatory cholinergic neuromotor activity in rats. Animals were euthanized 4 and 8 weeks after 6-OHDA injection. In vivo colonic transit was evaluated by radiological assay. Electrically and carbachol-induced cholinergic contractions were recorded in vitro from longitudinal and circular muscle colonic preparations, while acetylcholine levels were assayed in their incubation media. Choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), HuC/D (pan-neuronal marker), muscarinic M2 and M3 receptors. As compared with control rats, at week 4 6-OHDA-treated animals displayed the following changes: decreased in vivo colonic transit rate; impaired electrically evoked neurogenic cholinergic contractions; enhanced carbachol-induced contractions; decreased basal and electrically stimulated acetylcholine release from colonic tissues; decreased ChAT immunopositivity in the neuromuscular layer; unchanged density of HuC/D immunoreactive myenteric neurons; increased expression of colonic muscarinic M2 and M3 receptors. The majority of such alterations were detected also at week 8 post-6-OHDA injection. These findings indicate that central nigrostriatal dopaminergic denervation is associated with an impaired excitatory neurotransmission characterized by a loss of myenteric neuronal ChAT positivity and decrease in acetylcholine release, resulting in a dysregulated smooth muscle motor activity, which likely contributes to the concomitant decrease in colonic transit rate

COVID-19 susceptibility and vaccination coverage for measles, rubella and mumps in students and healthcare workers in Trieste hospitals (NE Italy)

Background: Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines have been suggested as preventive measures to protect subjects from the worst sequelae of COVID-19 infection because neutralizing antibodies can cross-react with other viruses. Aim: To verify COVID-19 infection in MMR vaccinated and non-vaccinated healthcare workers and medical students in Trieste Hospitals. Results: Nurse aids resulted in significantly more infections than structured physicians (OR 1.80; 95% CI 1.14-2.80) while students resulted in less infections (OR, 0.66; 95% CI 0.43-1.01). The presence of an MMR vaccination was inversely associated with COVID-19 (OR, 0.77; 95% CI 0.61-0.96) but only in univariate analysis. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, MMR vaccination lost statistical significance (OR, 0.86; 95%CI 0.62-1.20). On 13 HCWs hospitalized for COVID-19, 11 resulted not vaccinated for MMR. Discussion: Our study found a mild, non-significant reduction in SARS-CoV-2 infections in workers vaccinated with MMR