“La novela de la tierra” de Giovanni Verga y Paz en la guerra de Miguel de Unamuno

This study aims to highlight some elements such as: the rural novel in Giovanni Verga and the relation between land and national character in Unamuno’s En torno al Casticismo on Castile and Castilian men. Special attention will be put to intrahistory in the works of the two authors and how a relation may be set up between Vergas’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Unamuno’s characters Augusto Pérez and Abel Sánchez, which, on the one hand, reveal epic names (Augusto and Abel) and on the other hand, the ordinary and common surnames (Pérez and Sánchez), showing thus that we are all partly epic heroes and partly common human beings. Moreover, there is another element that makes Unamuno —in his first intellectual period (1884-1897)— very similar to Verga: Ruralism. Paz en la Guerra deals with Bilbao, but Unamuno highlights the popular aspect of the city. The main characters, Pedro Antonio and Ignacia, come from the fields. Their son Ignacio spends a lot of time in the country, where lives his uncle, a country priest. In all these aspects, the rural Biscay has many things in common with the Sicily of I Malavoglia.Este estudio quiere poner de relieve elementos como: la novela de la tierra de Verga y la relación tierra-carácter nacional en En torno al casticismo (1895) de Unamuno, con su Castilla y el hombre castellano. Lo intrahistórico que hay en las obras de los dos autores, y cómo Cavalleria Rusticana se puede poner en relación con Augusto Pérez, Abel Sánchez; es decir, por una parte los nombres épicos y por otra el apellido cotidiano y corriente: Pérez y Sánchez, con lo cual todos somos a la vez héroes épicos y parte de la masa humana. Hay además otro aspecto que hace del Unamuno de la primera etapa intelectual (1884-1897) muy afín a Verga: el ruralismo. Paz en la guerra habla de Bilbao, pero Unamuno acentúa el aspecto de pueblo que tiene la ciudad. Los personajes principales: Pedro Antonio e Ignacia provienen del campo; sus hijo Ignacio pasa una larga temporada en el campo, donde vive su tío: un sacerdote campesino. En todos estos aspectos la Vizcaya rural tiene analogías con la Sicilia de I Malavoglia

Prevalence of bullying victimisation amongst first-episode psychosis patients and unaffected controls

Background\u2014Despite increasing evidence suggesting that childhood maltreatment is significantly associated with psychosis, the specific role of bullying in the onset of psychotic disorders is still unclear. This study aimed to examine whether bullying was more prevalent amongst individuals presenting to services for the first time with a psychotic disorder than in unaffected community controls. Methods\u2014Data on exposure to bullying, psychotic symptoms, cannabis use and history of conduct disorder were collected cross-sectionally from 222 first-presentation psychosis cases and 215 geographically-matched controls. Bullying victimisation was assessed retrospectively as part of the Brief Life Events schedule. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between exposure to bullying and case-control status, while controlling for potential confounders. Results\u2014Psychosis cases were approximately twice as likely to report bullying victimisation when compared to controls. No significant interactions between bullying and either gender or cannabis use were found. Controls reporting being a victim of bullying were approximately twice as likely to also report at least one psychosis-like symptom. Conclusions\u2014Our results extend previous research by suggesting that bullying victimisation may contribute to vulnerability to develop a psychotic disorder in some individuals

Marine response to climate changes during the last five millennia in the central Mediterranean Sea

We present a high-resolution paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the last five millennia from a shallow water marine sedimentary record from the central Tyrrhenian Sea (Gulf of Gaeta) using planktonic foraminifera, pollen, oxygen stable isotope, tephrostratigrapy and magnetostratigrapy. This multiproxy approach allows to evidence and characterize nine time intervals associated with archaeological/cultural periods: Eneolithic (base of the core-ca. 2410 BCE), Early Bronze Age (ca. 2410 BCE-ca. 1900 BCE), Middle Bronze Age-Iron Age (ca. 1900 BCE-ca. 500 BCE), Roman Period (ca. 500 BCE-ca. 550 CE), Dark Age (ca. 550 CE-ca. 860 CE), Medieval Climate Anomaly (ca. 860 CE-ca. 1250 CE), Little Ice Age (ca. 1250 CE-ca. 1850 CE), Industrial Period (ca. 1850 CE-ca. 1950 CE), Modern Warm Period (ca. 1950 CE-present day). The reconstructed climatic evolution in the investigated sedimentary succession is coherent with the short-term climate variability documented at the Mediterranean scale.By integrating the planktonic foraminiferal turnover from carnivorous to herbivorous-opportunistic species, the oxygen isotope record and the pollen distribution, we document important modification from the onset of the Roman Period to the present-day. From ca. 500 CE upwards the documentation of the cooling trend punctuated by climate variability at secular scale evidenced by the short-term δ18O is very detailed. We hypothesise that the present day warm conditions started from the end of cold Maunder event. Additionally, we provide that the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) directly affected the central Mediterranean region during the investigated time interval

Defining the course of tumefactive multiple sclerosis: A large retrospective multicentre study

Background and purpose: Tumefactive multiple sclerosis (TuMS) (i.e., MS onset presenting with tumefactive demyelinating lesions [TDLs]) is a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. We performed a multicentre retrospective study to describe the clinical characteristics and the prognostic factors of TuMS. Methods: One hundred two TuMS patients were included in this retrospective study. Demographic, clinical, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), laboratory data and treatment choices were collected. Results: TuMS was found to affect women more than men (female:male: 2.4), with a young adulthood onset (median age: 29.5 years, range: 11\u201368 years, interquartile range [IQR]: 38 years). At onset, 52% of TuMS patients presented with the involvement of more than one functional system and 24.5% of them with multiple TDLs. TDLs most frequently presented with an infiltrative MRI pattern (38.7%). Cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulin G oligoclonal bands were often demonstrated (76.6%). In 25.3% of the cases, more than one acute-phase treatment was administered, and almost one-half of the patients (46.6%) were treated with high-efficacy treatments. After a median follow-up of 2.3 years (range: 0.1\u201310.7 years, IQR: 3.4 years), the median Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score was 1.5 (range: 0\u20137, IQR: 2). Independent risk factors for reaching an EDSS score 653 were a higher age at onset (odds ratio [OR]: 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03\u20131.14, p < 0.01), a higher number of TDLs (OR: 1.67, 95% CI: 1.02\u20132.74, p < 0.05) and the presence of infiltrative TDLs (OR: 3.34, 95% CI: 1.18\u20139.5, p < 0.001) at baseline. Conclusions: The management of TuMS might be challenging because of its peculiar characteristics. Large prospective studies could help to define the clinical characteristics and the best treatment algorithms for people with TuMS

Cerebrospinal fluid amounts of HLA-G in dimeric form are strongly associated to patients with MRI inactive multiple sclerosis

Background: The relevance of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-G in dimeric form in multiple sclerosis (MS) is still unknown. Objective: To investigate the contribution of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) HLA-G dimers in MS pathogenesis. Methods: CSF amounts of 78-kDa HLA-G dimers were measured by western blot analysis in 80 MS relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients and in 81 inflammatory and 70 non-inflammatory controls. Results: CSF amounts of 78kDa HLA-G dimers were more frequent in RRMS than in inflammatory (p<0.01) and non-inflammatory controls (p<0.001) and in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) inactive than in MRI active RRMS (p<0.00001). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that HLA-G dimers may be implicated in termination of inflammatory response occurring in MS

Erratum to: Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition) (Autophagy, 12, 1, 1-222, 10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356

non present