La costruzione di un "sistema patriottico". Protagonisti e memorialisti napoletani nella guerra spagnola

Il saggio ricostruisce il connubio guerra-memoria che si realizza da parte dei militari napoletani inviati da Gioacchino Murat a combattere nelle guerre spagnole contro Napoleone invasore. Il sistema patriottico spagnolo recepito dai memorialisti influenzerà le modalità di attuazione del Risorgimento italiano

Theory of Weak Hypernuclear Decay

The weak nonmesonic decay of Lambda-hypernuclei is studied in the context of a one-meson-exchange model. Predictions are made for the decay rate, p/n stimulation ratio and the asymmetry in polarized hypernuclear decay.Comment: Standard 41 page Latex fil

Improvement of heart rate recovery after exercise training in older people.

Twenty-four subjects aged 70 and older were retrospectively selected from our archives and screened for symptoms of cardiovascular disease. Baseline exercise test was negative for myocardial ischemia in all subjects. All subjects had completed an 8-week program, performed for a variety of indications and consisting of an aerobic physical training program including 30 minutes of cycling three times per week at 65% to 75% of maximum heart rate achieved at peak exercise test performed at enrollment, an educational intervention, dietary advice, and psychological support. All subjects underwent a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX) before and at the end of exercise training. At the end of each CPX, peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), the rate of increase of ventilation per unit of increase of carbon dioxide production (VE/VCO2slope), and HRR were recorded. Twenty-five healthy subjects younger than 60 with no evidence of exercise-induced myocardial ischemia and not enrolled in any exercise training program were also retrospectively selected from our archives and used as a control group for analyzing HRR. These patients performed two exercise tests several weeks apart. Several studies have shown that changes in vagal tone can be used as an outcome tool that helps identify patients or subjects with or without cardiovascular disease at risk for a cardiovascular event, although the evidence of a prognostic value of HRR in older subjects without cardiovascular disease is rather poor. In this study, exercise training resulted in HRR improvement in healthy elderly subjects, suggesting that exercise training improves vagal/sympathetic balance in older subjects without cardiovascular disease as well. Whether the observed improvement in HRR may have long-term beneficial prognostic effects was not the aim of the study, although a beneficial effect might be postulated, in light of the Framingham dat

The pgip family in soybean and three other legume species: evidence for a birth-and-death model of evolution

Polygalacturonase-inhibiting proteins (PGIPs) are leucine-rich repeat (LRR) plant cell wall glycoproteins involved in plant immunity. They are typically encoded by gene families with a small number of gene copies whose evolutionary origin has been poorly investigated. Here we report the complete characterization of the full complement of the pgip family in soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) and the characterization of the genomic region surrounding the pgip family in four legume species. Results: BAC clone and genome sequence analyses showed that the soybean genome contains two pgip loci. Each locus is composed of three clustered genes that are induced following infection with the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary, and remnant sequences of pgip genes. The analyzed homeologous soybean genomic regions (about 126 Kb) that include the pgip loci are strongly conserved and this conservation extends also to the genomes of the legume species Phaseolus vulgaris L., Medicago truncatula Gaertn. and Cicer arietinum L., each containing a single pgip locus. Maximum likelihood-based gene trees suggest that the genes within the pgip clusters have independently undergone tandem duplication in each species. Conclusions: The paleopolyploid soybean genome contains two pgip loci comprised in large and highly conserved duplicated regions, which are also conserved in bean, M. truncatula and C. arietinum. The genomic features of these legume pgip families suggest that the forces driving the evolution of pgip genes follow the birth-and-death model, similar to that proposed for the evolution of resistance (R) genes of NBS-LRR-type

The role of working memory on dual-task cost during walking performance in childhood

This study examined the effect of a secondary motor task on walking ability, whether performance differed according to age and the possible relationship between cognitive abilities, specifically working memory, and dual-task costs in children with typical development. Fifty-three female children (mean age M = 10 \ub1 2 years), were divided into two different age groups: a young (7\u20139 years; n = 17) and an older group (10\u201313 years; n = 36). First, participants performed a Walking Test (WT) without additional tasks; afterward, they performed the same walking test while performing each of the following tasks: carrying (1) a glass of water, (2) a ball on a round tray and (3) the combination of both tasks (1) and (2). The Test of Memory and Learning were used to assess working memory. WTs under a dual-task condition generally produced worse results compared to a single-task condition [F(3,135) = 32.480, p < 0.001]. No age-related difference was observed [F(1,45) = 0.497, p = 0.485]. Age, digit forward and backward, facial memory, and paired recall accounted altogether for 28.6% of variance in dual-task ability during WT while carrying a glass of water and a ball on a round tray. Specifically, facial memory significantly accounted for the variance of DTC in WTWT (\u3b2 = 120.381, p = 0.016). Moreover, a trend toward a statistical significance was observed for digit forward (\u3b2 = 120.275, p = 0.085). Results underlined that regardless of the age, a dual-task performance might affect walking performance depending on the required secondary task. Moreover, our results showed the association between working memory skills and dual-task cost in walking abilit

Resolving the age bimodality of galaxy stellar populations on kpc scales

Galaxies in the local Universe are known to follow bimodal distributions in the global stellar populations properties. We analyze the distribution of the local average stellar-population ages of 654,053 sub-galactic regions resolved on ~1-kpc scales in a volume-corrected sample of 394 galaxies, drawn from the CALIFA-DR3 integral-field-spectroscopy survey and complemented by SDSS imaging. We find a bimodal local-age distribution, with an old and a young peak primarily due to regions in early-type galaxies and star-forming regions of spirals, respectively. Within spiral galaxies, the older ages of bulges and inter-arm regions relative to spiral arms support an internal age bimodality. Although regions of higher stellar-mass surface-density, mu*, are typically older, mu* alone does not determine the stellar population age and a bimodal distribution is found at any fixed mu*. We identify an "old ridge" of regions of age ~9 Gyr, independent of mu*, and a "young sequence" of regions with age increasing with mu* from 1-1.5 Gyr to 4-5 Gyr. We interpret the former as regions containing only old stars, and the latter as regions where the relative contamination of old stellar populations by young stars decreases as mu* increases. The reason why this bimodal age distribution is not inconsistent with the unimodal shape of the cosmic-averaged star-formation history is that i) the dominating contribution by young stars biases the age low with respect to the average epoch of star formation, and ii) the use of a single average age per region is unable to represent the full time-extent of the star-formation history of "young-sequence" regions.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS accepte

Observational constraints to boxy/peanut bulge formation time

Boxy/peanut bulges are considered to be part of the same stellar structure as bars and both could be linked through the buckling instability. The Milky Way is our closest example. The goal of this letter is determining if the mass assembly of the different components leaves an imprint in their stellar populations allowing to estimate the time of bar formation and its evolution. To this aim we use integral field spectroscopy to derive the stellar age distributions, SADs, along the bar and disc of NGC 6032. The analysis shows clearly different SADs for the different bar areas. There is an underlying old (>=12 Gyr) stellar population for the whole galaxy. The bulge shows star formation happening at all times. The inner bar structure shows stars of ages older than 6 Gyrs with a deficit of younger populations. The outer bar region presents a SAD similar to that of the disc. To interpret our results, we use a generic numerical simulation of a barred galaxy. Thus, we constrain, for the first time, the epoch of bar formation, the buckling instability period and the posterior growth from disc material. We establish that the bar of NGC 6032 is old, formed around 10 Gyr ago while the buckling phase possibly happened around 8 Gyr ago. All these results point towards bars being long-lasting even in the presence of gas.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

Childhood obesity and skeletal-dental maturity

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate the skeletal maturation assessed through cervical vertebral maturation (CVM) and dental age, in normal weight, pre-obese and obese patients, using the Body Mass Index (BMI) and the Dual energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA)

Physical Forces Shape Group Identity of Swimming Pseudomonas putida Cells

The often striking macroscopic patterns developed by motile bacterial populations on agar plates are a consequence of the environmental conditions where the cells grow and spread. Parameters such as medium stiffness and nutrient concentration have been reported to alter cell swimming behavior, while mutual interactions among populations shape collective patterns. One commonly observed occurrence is the mutual inhibition of clonal bacteria when moving toward each other, which results in a distinct halt at a finite distance on the agar matrix before having direct contact. The dynamics behind this phenomenon (i.e., intolerance to mix in time and space with otherwise identical others) has been traditionally explained in terms of cell-to-cell competition/cooperation regarding nutrient availability. In this work, the same scenario has been revisited from an alternative perspective: the effect of the physical mechanics that frame the process, in particular the consequences of collisions between moving bacteria and the semi-solid matrix of the swimming medium. To this end, we set up a simple experimental system in which the swimming patterns of Pseudomonas putida were tested with different geometries and agar concentrations. A computational analysis framework that highlights cell-to-medium interactions was developed to fit experimental observations. Simulated outputs suggested that the medium is compressed in the direction of the bacterial front motion. This phenomenon generates what was termed a compression wave that goes through the medium preceding the swimming population and that determines the visible high-level pattern. Taken together, the data suggested that the mechanical effects of the bacteria moving through the medium created a factual barrier that impedes to merge with neighboring cells swimming from a different site. The resulting divide between otherwise clonal bacteria is thus brought about by physical forces—not genetic or metabolic programs.This work was supported by the EVOPROG (FP7-ICT-610730), ARISYS (ERC-2012-ADG-322797), and EmPowerPutida (EU-H2020-BIOTEC-2014-2015-635536) Contracts of the European Union, and the CAMBIOS (RTC-2014-1777-3) and CONTIBUGS (PCIN-2013-040) Projects of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.Peer Reviewe