Survival Egoism: We are, They will be

During the last century, the new, exciting field of Artificial Intelligence has risen. With its promises, fears for the uncertain future development of this area started to rise. Is it going to be sentient? Is it going to be smarter than us? Is it going to "understand" our uselessness? Is it going to decide that we are no more fundamental? And consequently decide to end our species? These and more questions emerged, nourished by the apprehension of the possible dangers that we would need to face. A number of possible solutions were proposed, to try to limit these yet-to-exist new beings. But none of them got universally accepted, thus leaving this primordial fright unscathed. In this paper a novel point of view is considered where, instead of limiting and preventing the possible worst outcomes, an analysis of the human psyche is performed. This work of introspection grants us the great power of copying: once we understand how our psyche is divided - or "stratified" - and how we can, socially speaking, live together and coexist, we are able to try and replicate this abstract structure inside the "mind" of an hypothetical new artificial being. Using - and possibly improving - this set of abstract mental tools and intrinsic barriers for the creation of a new being should, hypothetically, remove the chance - and the fear - of a future repercussion from its original root

Assessment of seasonal and annual rainfall trend in Calabria (southern Italy) with the ITA method

Abstract In this paper, an investigation on the temporal variability of seasonal and annual rainfall in the Calabria region (southern Italy) was carried out using a homogeneous and gap-filled monthly rainfall dataset of 129 rain gauges in the period 1951–2006. In particular, possible trends have been assessed by means of the Innovative Trend Analysis (ITA) technique, which allows the identification of a trend in the low, medium and high values of a series. Moreover, the results obtained with the ITA have been compared with the ones obtained with the Mann–Kendall test. These analyses have been performed in five rainfall zones (RZs) of the study area, characterized by different climatic conditions. As a result, both the methods evidenced a negative trend of the annual rainfall in the entire study area. On a seasonal scale, this negative tendency has been confirmed in autumn and winter although with some differences among the several RZs

Trends in the Daily Precipitation Categories of Calabria (Southern Italy)

Abstract This study presents an analysis of daily rainfall categories over a region of southern Italy using a set of daily homogenous precipitation series for the period 1916–2006. Six daily rainfall categories have been considered: Light, 0–4 mm/day; Light-Moderate, 4–16 mm/day; Moderate-Heavy, 16–32 mm/day; Heavy, 32–64 mm/day; Heavy-Torrential, 64–128 mm/day; Torrential, 128-up mm/day. Results showed that Light-Moderate, Moderate-Heavy and Heavy rainfall are the main contributors to the total annual rainfall. Moreover, a trend analysis through the Mann-Kendall test showed a decreasing trend of the higher categories and an increasing trend of the weaker categories

Expression of μ-protocadherin is negatively regulated by the activation of the β-catenin signaling pathway in normal and cancer colorectal enterocytes.

Mu-protocadherin (MUCDHL) is an adhesion molecule predominantly expressed by colorectal epithelial cells which is markedly downregulated upon malignant transformation. Notably, treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells with mesalazine lead to increased expression of MUCDHL, and is associated with sequestration of β-catenin on the plasma membrane and inhibition of its transcriptional activity. To better characterize the causal relationship between β-catenin and MUCDHL expression, we performed various experiments in which CRC cell lines and normal colonic organoids were subjected to culture conditions inhibiting (FH535 treatment, transcription factor 7-like 2 siRNA inactivation, Wnt withdrawal) or stimulating (LiCl treatment) β-catenin activity. We show here that expression of MUCDHL is negatively regulated by functional activation of the β-catenin signaling pathway. This finding was observed in cell culture systems representing conditions of physiological stimulation and upon constitutive activation of β-catenin in CRC. The ability of MUCDHL to sequester and inhibit β-catenin appears to provide a positive feedback enforcing the effect of β-catenin inhibitors rather than serving as the primary mechanism responsible for β-catenin inhibition. Moreover, MUCDHL might have a role as biomarker in the development of CRC chemoprevention drugs endowed with β-catenin inhibitory activity

Os sujeitos clíticos em florentino: uma análise diacrônica corpus-based

O artigo trata da questão da suposta perda de clíticos sujeito no vernáculo florentino através de um estudo baseado em corpus. Os trabalhos sobre este assunto (GALLI DE’ PARATESI, 1984; SOBRERO, 1997; BERRUTO, 1997, 2005; BINAZZI, 1997, 1998, 2007; CARDINALETTI & MUNARO, 2009) afirmam que a pressão do italiano padrão, a partir dos anos do segundo pósguerra, contribuiu para a perda, por parte do vernáculo florentino, de muitas de suas características. Contudo, até o presente momento não havia sido feita qualquer investigação de tipo quantitativo e qualitativo sobre o sistema pronominal baseada em dados. A oportunidade para tal tipo de trabalho foi possível graças à publicação remasterizada do Corpus Stammerjohann (1970) e do Corpus per il Confronto Diacronico (SCARANO, 2005), ambos corpora de língua falada espontânea gravados em Florença com cerca de quarenta anos de distância. O trabalho que aqui apresentamos analisou a expressão dos clíticos sujeito de terceira pessoa do singular gl’, l’, la, e em concomitância com o verbo essere (ser) no presente do indicativo. Os resultados obtidos nesta primeira etapa do trabalho apontam para uma redução no uso dos clíticos sujeito no tempo, mas também fazem vislumbrar a retrodatação do período de início de tal perda, devido à idade dos informantes. As análises deverão continuar no futuro com um maior número de dados a fim de poder compreender melhor o fenômeno.The article analyzes the supposed loss of subject clitics in vernacular Florentine through a corpus-based study. Works about this theme (GALLI DE’ PARATESI, 1984; SOBRERO, 1997; BERRUTO, 1997, 2005; BINAZZI, 1997, 1998, 2007; CARDINALETTI & MUNARO, 2009) claim that the pressure of standard Italian, from the years after the Second World War, contributed to the loss of many of the characteristics of vernacular florentine. However, until now, there was no quantitative nor qualitative data-based investigation on the pronominal system. The occasion for this kind of work was possible thanks to the remastered publication of Corpus Stammerjohann (1970) and of Corpus per il Confronto Diacronico (SCARANO, 2005), both of them spontaneous spoken corpora taped in Florence with approximately forty years of time distance. The investigation that we present analyzed the expression of the third person singular subject clitics gl’, l’, la, e with the present indicative tense of the verb essere (to be). Results obtained in this first stage of the research indicate that there was a reduction in the use of subject clitics over time, but also suggest that the beginning of that loss must be dated back, due to the generation of the informants. Researches should proceed in the future with a larger amount of data to better understand this phenomenon.L’articolo tratta della questione della supposta perdita dei clitici soggetto nel vernacolo fiorentino attraverso uno studio corpus based. I lavori su questo argomento (GALLI DE’ PARATESI, 1984; SOBRERO, 1997; BERRUTO, 1997, 2005; BINAZZI, 1997, 1998, 2007; CARDINALETTI & MUNARO, 2009) sostengono che la pressione dell’italiano standard, a partire dagli anni del secondo dopoguerra, abbia contribuito alla perdita, da parte del vernacolo fiorentino, di molte delle sue caratteristiche. Tuttavia, fino a questo momento, non era stata effettuata nessuna indagine di tipo quantitativo e qualitativo sul sistema pronominale basata su dati. L’opportunità per tale tipo di lavoro è stata resa possibile grazie alla pubblicazione rimasterizzata del Corpus Stammerjohann (1970) e del Corpus per il Confronto Diacronico (SCARANO, 2005), entrambi corpora di lingua parlata spontanea, registrati a Firenze a quarant’anni circa di distanza. Il lavoro qui presentato ha analizzato l’espressione dei clitici soggetto di terza persona singolare gl’, l’, la, e in concomitanza con il verbo essere al presente indicativo. I risultati raggiunti in questo primo momento del lavoro indicano una riduzione nell’uso dei clitici soggetto nel tempo, ma fanno pensare anche ad una retrodatazione del periodo di inizio della perdita, data l’età dei parlanti. Le analisi dovranno continuare in futuro con un maggior numero di dati affinché il fenomeno possa essere meglio compreso