BRAIN - Holocene archaeo-data for assessing plant-cultural diversity in Italy and other Mediterranean regions

Abstract In the field of botany applied to archaeological and palaeoecological studies, the multi- and inter-disciplinary nature of this research produces a lack of data sharing and scattered articles in the specialty literature or in national and international journals. The vast production of archaeobotany and palynology data makes it necessary to develop a tool for the availability, accessibility, and dissemination of existing research. Many databases exist on palaeoecology, archaeobotany or pollen data. There are no collections focused on archaeological sites and human-induced environments and centred on Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. BRAIN - Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network is the first database listing sites from which all types of plant records are available in Italy and nearby Mediterranean regions. BRAIN represents the largest integrated collection of archaeo/palaeo-botanical data and a range of descriptive information that makes data recovery FAIR ready. This unique network hosts data on the availability of anthropogenic pollen, palynomorphs and plant macroremains in the same database, and experts of different research fields may contribute to it

The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project: a Lesson of Sustainability from the Terramare Culture, Middle Bronze Age of the Po Plain (Northern Italy)

This backstory article deals with the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project (2017–2020), an interdisciplinary research program aiming at reconstructing the land-use transformations that occurred during the development of the Terramare culture in the southern-central Po Plain of Northern Italy. Topics include climate-environment changes, human impact and exploitation of natural resources that are interconnected topics in human ecology and environmental sciences. These topics can only be understood in a long-term perspective integrating archaeology, geology, botany and other sciences. The text includes the theoretical basis, the research strategy and the main methodological approaches given by geoarchaeology and palynology, the two research sides constituting the partnership of the project

Agrosistema e sviluppo sostenibile: il caso-studio della fine della Terramara di S. Rosa di Poviglio (Bronzo Recente \u2013 XVI secolo d.C.)

I. Introduction II. Popular Media Accounts ... A. Early Stories: 1988–1995 … B. Later Stories: 1996–2000 ... 1. 1996 … 2. 1997 … 3. 1998 … 4. 1999 … 5. 2000 III. Legal Media Accounts IV. Lawyerly Deployment A. Law Reviews ... 1. 1998 … 2. 1999 … 3. 2000 … B. Legislative Materials ... 1. Congressional Road Rage Hearings: Opening Statements by Committee Members ... 2. Congressional Road Rage Hearings: Key Witness Testimony ... C. Judicial Opinions ... 1. 1997 … 2. 1998 … 3. 1999 … 4. 2000 V. Conclusio

La fobia specifica come modello clinico per lo studio dell'elaborazione precoce di stimoli evoluzionisticamente significativi

Le fobie specifiche sono un disturbo psichiatrico molto diffuso, comportano un’importante riduzione della qualità della vita e sono fortemente predittive di comorbidità con altri disturbi psichiatrici. Il trattamento di prima scelta è rappresentato dalla terapia espositiva, ma, a causa del forte disagio indotto dal confronto con l’oggetto fobico, i pazienti, soprattutto i più severi, spesso lo rifiutano. Lo studio PsyCERCP (Psychophysiological Correlates of Emotional Reactions in Covert Paradigms) si propone di analizzare i correlati psicofisiologici delle reazioni elicitate da stimoli emotigeni di tipo fobico somministrati a diversi livelli di consapevolezza in soggetti più o meno suscettibili a tali stimoli, per verificare l’ipotesi secondo cui l’elaborazione di questo tipo di informazioni seguirebbe vie anatomo-funzionali specifiche. Lo studio cerca di comprendere se le risposte a stimoli evoluzionisticamente significativi, quali i ragni, siano attivate da caratteristiche percettive specifiche, relativamente indipendenti dallo stimolo nel suo complesso, con il duplice scopo – da un lato – di verificare la presenza di meccanismi ancestrali di elaborazione della paura e, più in generale, delle emozioni e – dall’altro – di validare protocolli terapeutici non intrusivi di desensibilizzazione per le fobie specifiche. Lo studio si articola in tre sessioni sperimentali caratterizzate ciascuna da un elevato livello di complessità, sia per la strumentazione utilizzata sia per il numero di variabili prese in considerazione, e presenta numerosi aspetti innovativi rispetto ai paradigmi sperimentali classici. L’eventuale conferma delle ipotesi permetterà di estendere il modello sperimentale anche a pazienti fobici conclamati per definire protocolli terapeutici mirati e personalizzabili in base alla sensibilità individuale alla caratteristica percettiva specifica, che potrebbe rivelarsi un criterio di classificazione dei pazienti. L’uso combinato di realtà virtuale e stimolazione covert offriranno il vantaggio, rispetto agli approcci tradizionali, di consentire l’accesso alla terapia anche – e soprattutto – ai pazienti più gravi

Flora-vegetation history and land use in Medieval Tuscany: The palynological evidence of a local biodiversity heritage

This paper introduces the high resolution palynological analyses carried out on samples from four cores drilled in the coastal plains of the Cornia and Pecora rivers, southern Tuscany, Italy. This study provides new information on the landscape transformations that the area has undergone over the past 7500 years, with focus on Medieval times when settlement patterns and land use contributed the onset of the current landscape. The study area, considered one of the most important early centres of the European civilization, has been fully investigated by the ERC funded nEU-Med project through an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological, geomorphological, chemical, and archaeobotanical analyses. Environmental features and resource availability were explored through pollen markers of natural environments and human activities suggesting similarities and dissimilarities between the two valleys. In the Cornia Valley, the high diversity and percentages of woody taxa is connected to agrarian exploitation with arboriculture, while the Pecora Valley had a mostly open landscape, with lower diversity and higher percentages of anthropogenic pollen indicators. In both valleys, the land was mainly exploited for grazing resources: the high presence of pasture indicators suggests that domesticated animals should have been an important local resource especially in Medieval times. Pastoral/breeding activities fit into a larger context of management of the territory with specific vocation (namely, salt and iron in these two valleys). The detailed palynological analysis and the comparison between the two valleys highlight the local character of these activities, probably carried out in a collateral way by the peasant communities between the 7th-12th centuries AD