Mutations in the SPAST gene causing hereditary spastic paraplegia arerelated to global topological alterations in brain functional networks

Aim: Our aim was to describe the rearrangements of the brain activity related to genetic mutations in the SPAST gene. Methods: Ten SPG4 patients and ten controls underwent a 5 min resting state magnetoencephalography recording and neurological examination. A beamformer algorithm reconstructed the activity of 90 brain areas. The phase lag index was used to estimate synchrony between brain areas. The minimum spanning tree was used to estimate topological metrics such as the leaf fraction (a measure of network integration) and the degree divergence (a measure of the resilience of the network against pathological events). The betweenness centrality (a measure to estimate the centrality of the brain areas) was used to estimate the centrality of each brain area. Results: Our results showed topological rearrangements in the beta band. Specifically, the degree divergence was lower in patients as compared to controls and this parameter related to clinical disability. No differences appeared in leaf fraction nor in betweenness centrality. Conclusion: Mutations in the SPAST gene are related to a reorganization of the brain topology

Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment Is Associated With Frequency-Specific Brain Network Alterations in Temporal Poles

There is general agreement that the neuropathological processes leading to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) begin decades before the clinical onset. In order to detect early topological changes, we applied functional connectivity and network analysis to magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data obtained from 16 patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), a prodromal stage of AD, and 16 matched healthy control (HCs). Significant differences between the two groups were found in the theta band, which is associated with memory processes, in both temporal poles (TPs). In aMCI, the degree and betweenness centrality (BC) were lower in the left superior TP, whereas in the right middle TP the BC was higher. A statistically significant negative linear correlation was found between the BC of the left superior TP and a delayed recall score, a sensitive marker of the “hippocampal memory” deficit in early AD. Our results suggest that the TPs, which are involved early in AD pathology and belong to the memory circuitry, have an altered role in the functional network in aMCI

A Countryside to Sip: Venice Inland and the Prosecco’s Uneasy Relationship withWine Tourism and Rural Exploitation

In 2016, Italian production of wine exceeded 51 million hectolitres and among the twenty regions, the region with the most production by volume (millions of hectolitres) was the Veneto region, north-east of Italy, with almost 11 million. In particular, the success of Prosecco at the global level is the most important driving factor at both the economic and productivity levels. The worldwide success of Prosecco wine entails a remarkable change in both the local and regional configuration of agrarian landscapes. Traditional winegrowing swiftly changed into an intensive monoculture with remarkable investments and the spread of new viticulture entrepreneurships. The discussion proposed here intends to investigate the process of heritage construction or ‘heritagisation’, UNESCO candidacy, as an important issue for rural tourism promotion in the context of a productive winescape. We concentrated our analysis on the DOCG area, a complex space where several forces need to coexist; the productive drive of growing requests (global and local) of Prosecco, as well as rural representation based on local habits and a concrete hilly landscape. Rural tourism is clearly an important sector in terms of revenue and employment, especially for local communities, and it can help to ensure economic stability; however, doing so in a way that benefits the area and the landscape is not so straightforward. There are potential problems in facilitating increased urbanization, such as the standardization of landscape and damage to the area if plans are mismanaged. In the case of best practices, a desirable model of tourism can be tapped into while helping rural regions take advantage of more sustainable tourism development and landscape management

Increased Cortical Thickness in Sports Experts: A Comparison of Diving Players with the Controls

Sports experts represent a population of people who have acquired expertise in sports training and competition. Recently, the number of studies on sports experts has increased; however, neuroanatomical changes following extensive training are not fully understood. In this study, we used cortical thickness measurement to investigate the brain anatomical characteristics of professional divers with extensive training experience. A comparison of the brain anatomical characteristics of the non-athlete group with those of the athlete group revealed three regions with significantly increased cortical thickness in the athlete group. These regions included the left superior temporal sulcus, the right orbitofrontal cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus. Moreover, a significant positive correlation between the mean cortical thickness of the right parahippocampal gyrus and the training experience was detected, which might indicate the effect of extensive training on diving players' brain structure

Does socioeconomic status matter? The fertility transition in a northern Italian village (marriage cohorts 1900‒1940)

Background: The paper explores the mechanisms of the European fertility transition in northern Italy by social group. Objective: Our objective is to understand when and in which sectors of a rural society the reduction of family size began. We focus on Emilia-Romagna, a region that in the 1990s had the lowest fertility level in Italy. The core purpose of this paper is the analysis of socioeconomic status (SES) fertility differentials, especially between rural sharecroppers and landless rural workers, as well as other non-agricultural groups. Methods: Our analysis focuses on the reproductive histories of marriage cohorts in the years 1900‒1940. We perform a micro-level statistical analysis of legitimate births of parity 1+. Results: In this period fertility decline has just begun, and shows a strong decline in the post-WWI marriage cohorts. Although nonagricultural groups lead the downward trend in family size, the role of socioeconomic status means that the path of sharecropper households is atypical. Conclusions: The fertility transition proceeds by means of spacing and stopping, testifying to a new attitude towards birth control, which agricultural and nonagricultural social groups adopted in different ways. Usually, the decline in fertility progresses from nonagricultural to rural classes. In the rural world the path is inverted, going from the lower to the upper groups. Contribution: The paper contributes to the debate on the links between socioeconomic status and fertility transition in Italy. It shows that the link between household economy and control of fertility is specific to SES groups, which can follow atypical paths, compared to the known reference model. The use of microdemographic data provides evidence for the hypothesis that the fertility transition can be shaped by the specific social and economic characteristics of population subgroups