Criteri di ammissibilità e di utilizzo degli effluenti di allevamento e dei concimi ed ammendanti derivati in agricoltura biologica.

Nel modello agricolo biologico l’utilizzo degli effluenti animali e dei concimi e ammendanti da loro derivati riveste un ruolo fondamentale nella gestione della fertilità del suolo, anche in considerazione dello scarso contenuto in sostanza organica dei suoli mediterranei. Questi mezzi tecnici devono garantire una qualità agronomica, ambientale e igienico sanitaria, in relazione alle condizioni in cui le attività di produzione ani-male e vegetale sono realizzate e rispettare tutti i vincoli normativi nazionali ed europei in vigore. Nel presente contributo, vengono discusse le condizioni di ammissibilità degli effluenti in base all’allevamento di origine e ai trattamenti di stabilizzazione che questi devono subire prima della loro distribuzione sul terreno agrario o dell’impiego per la produzione di fertilizzanti. Infine viene riportato un breve accenno ai criteri di utilizzo ed alle attività di verifica dei parametri richiesti che dovrebbero essere effettuati

The Centrencephalic Space of Functional Integration: a Model for Complex Intelligent Systems

If we have recently begun to understand how DNA gives life to embryos and then to individuals, only very little is understood of the intricate interactions between the biological bases of life, the environment and the human brain. The exponential acceleration of technological change could change many, perhaps all, the rules that have guided our civilization so far. It is very likely that these intelligent artificial entities will take much less time to understand the codes that constitute them, gaining forms of (self) awareness, decision-making skills, introspective capacities, mind reading and even free will. If all this is achieved, in the coming decades humanity will be destined to a profound cultural, epistemological and even physiological transformation. In this paper, we aim to show how the success or failure of a balanced man-machine co-evolution will also depend on some answers to fundamental scientific questions that have remained unexplored, such as consciousness and decision-making, creativity, but above all to the adaptive factor that more radically sustained and pushed the evolution beyond the constraints of our genetic code: improvisation. This entanglement of neuronal matrices could be at the origin of an intermodal communication — consists of a stream of semantic phenomena, mental images and more, tuned thanks to “pattern recognition” in centrencephalic space of functional integration — thus explaining “remote spectrum actions” at the base of primary adaptive unconscious and experiences life

Revision on psychometric properties of the temperament and character inventory in a clinical sample

Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) although elaborated on the general population, is frequently used in clinical samples. The study evaluates the psychometric characteristics of TCI in clinical populations with the aim of creating a reduced version of the test suitable for these subjects. This research was conducted on two groups of mental health outpatients. In the first study, 44 items, correlated with the psychiatric disorders, was selected. These items, divided in four dimensions utilizing both statistic and psychopathological criteria, show good internal consistency and external validity and constitute a Reduced Version (TR-TCI) of the test. In the second study, the predictive validity of the TR-TCI was evaluated through the ROC curves and a logistic regression model. The results show a good predictive validity of TR-TCI, that allows us to use this instrument in order to identify the personality structures that make people sensitive to psychiatric pathologies

Calmodulin variants associated with congenital arrhythmia impair selectivity for ryanodine receptors

Among its many molecular targets, the ubiquitous calcium sensor protein calmodulin (CaM) recognizes and regulates the activity of ryanodine receptors type 1 (RyR1) and 2 (RyR2), mainly expressed in skeletal and cardiac muscle, respectively. Such regulation is essential to achieve controlled contraction of muscle cells. To unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying the target recognition process, we conducted a comprehensive biophysical investigation of the interaction between two calmodulin variants associated with congenital arrhythmia, namely N97I and Q135P, and a highly conserved calmodulin-binding region in RyR1 and RyR2. The structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic properties of protein-peptide interactions were assessed together with an in-depth structural and topological investigation based on molecular dynamics simulations. This integrated approach allowed us to identify amino acids that are crucial in mediating allosteric processes, which enable high selectivity in molecular target recognition. Our results suggest that the ability of calmodulin to discriminate between RyR1 an RyR2 targets depends on kinetic discrimination and robust allosteric communication between Ca2+-binding sites (EF1-EF3 and EF3-EF4 pairs), which is perturbed in both N97I and Q135P arrhythmia-associated variants

Naturalistic Decision Making and Intelligence of unconscious

During the last three centuries, the change from formal to natural logic has allowed us to explain how many of the decisional strategies are coherent with the functioning of the cognitive economy of our species, even if they are limited and fallible. The dif culty in deciding and facing up to uncer- tainty is not only linked to the inadequacy of the architecture of our minds but also to an ‘external’ model of uncertainty which does not correspond to the way in which our mind naturally functions. New conceptual paradigms and new programmes for experimental research are called for in order to rede ne the role of internal and external restrictions on human action (re- sources and available information, limitations on calculation ability, on the capacity of memory, cognitive styles, representations and perceptions of risk, unconscious inferences and so on)

Mirror neurons and the predictive mind

Our brain is not only a reactive organ, capable of reacting quickly to the stimuli that arrive from the external environment, but also, and above all, it is a pro-active organ that allows us to make hypotheses, anticipate the consequences of actions, and formulate expectations, thereby enabling us to wrong-foot an adversary. Without this ability, humans would not be able to interact with each other, nor create forms of social coexistence. Certainly evolution has spurred the higher cognitive functions to develop mechanisms of reorganizing action according to unforeseen events as quickly as possible, integrating them into a perceptionaction cycle that may only take fractions of a second. Recent neuroscientific advances have shown the fallacy of imagining an anatomical and functional dichotomy between perception and action. The discovery of mirror neurons has shown that there is, instead, a very close link between perception and movement, confirming the existence of a relationship between what we perceive and how we act that hinges on the activation of the same neural substrate in both cases. In light of this evidence, perception becomes the ability to interpret an object in terms of the potential movements and actions that the perceiver could activate in relation to it. Motor acts are formulated and anticipated through the joint activity of perception and action and a mechanism of embodied simulation, which automatically perceives “the other” as an agent like oneself whose actions can be predicted on the basis both of their similarity to one’s own motor repertoire and the physical characteristics of the situation in question

Consciousness and the Archipelago of Functional Integration: On the Relation Between the Midbrain and the Ascending Reticular Activating

Historically, the relation between consciousness and the brainstem has been demonstrated, on the one hand, by injuries to the upper brainstem that lead to minimum states of consciousness, comas and persistent vegetative states and, on the other hand, by electrophyisiological recordings that link the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) with vigilance and attention, functions which are necessary for interpersonal relationships. With the advances made in the clarification of the connections between the brainstem and other regions of the brain there has been no corresponding conceptual revision of the functional context within which the ARAS performs its role of activation and way in which it activates the cerebral cortex, unlike other structures of the brain. In this paper we shall discuss the way in which the brainstem—(a) fundamental terminal of multiple ascending neural pathways—influences and modulates cortical activities; (b) the context of which the ARAS is a fundamental part—the centroencephalic archipelago of functional integration—for the transmission of contents to specific regions that generate the sensation of subjectivity