Review of 'Oh Lucky Country' by Rosa Cappiello.

Review of the new edition of Rosa Cappiello's 'Oh Lucky Country'

Chapter Silvio Pellico's Le mie prigioni: Autobiography versus Religion

The popularity of Pellico’s account among some categories of his contemporaries depends on the nature of his self depiction which nevertheless alienated both Italian patriots and supporters of the status quo. This was a necessary result of the narrator’s representation of a religious conversion. The author’s literary ambitions remain evident even within this context

Certification of quantum state functions under partial information

Convex functions of quantum states play a key role in quantum physics, with examples ranging from Bell inequalities to von Neumann entropy. However, in experimental scenarios, direct measurements of these functions are often impractical. We address this issue by introducing two methods for determining rigorous confidence bounds for convex functions based on informationally incomplete measurements. Our approach outperforms existing protocols by providing tighter bounds for a fixed confidence level and number of measurements. We evaluate the performance of our methods using both numerical and experimental data. Our findings demonstrate the efficacy of our approach, paving the way for improved quantum state certification in real-world applications

Solidarity across group lines: secondary transfer effect of intergroup contact, perceived moral distance, and collective action

We tested, in three studies, whether the generalization of contact effects from primary to secondary outgroups—the secondary transfer effect (STE)—occurs for collective action. The results supported a serial mediation model: contact with immigrants by advantaged group members (Italians: Study 1, N = 146, 121 females, Mage = 28.31 years; Study 3, N = 406, 239 females, Mage = 36.35; British people, Study 2, N = 160, 113 females, Mage = 32.31) was associated with lower perceived moral distance toward primary outgroups, which in turn was associated with more positive attitudes and greater collective action intentions toward primary outgroups, and lower perceived moral distance toward secondary outgroups. Lower perceived moral distance toward secondary outgroups and stronger collective action intentions toward the primary outgroup were associated with higher collective action intentions toward secondary outgroups (results were inconsistent for attitudes). We discuss the findings with a focus on how a consideration of perceived moral distance extends current theorizing, and the relevance of generalized prejudice for the STE

A THREE-DIMENSIONAL WAVELET ANALYSIS OF SUBSTRUCTURE IN THE COMA CLUSTER: STATISTICS AND MORPHOLOGY

Evidence of clustering within the Coma Cluster is found by means of a multiscale analysis of the combined angular-redshift distribution. We have compiled a catalog of 798 galaxy redshifts from published surveys of the region of the Coma Cluster. We examine the presence of substructure and of voids at different scales ranging from ∼1 to ∼16 h-1 Mpc, using subsamples of the catalog ranging from cz = 3000 km s-1 to cz = 28,000 km s-1. Our substructure detection method is based on the wavelet transform and on segmentation analysis. The wavelet transform allows us to find structures at different scales, and the segmentation method allows a quantitative statistical and morphological analysis of the sample. From the whole catalog, we select a subset of 320 galaxies, with redshifts between cz = 5858 km s-1 and cz = 8168 km s-1, which we identify as belonging to the central region of Coma and upon which we have performed a deeper analysis, on scales ranging from 180 h-1 kpc to 1.44 h-1 Mpc. Our results are expressed in terms of the number of structures or voids and their sphericity for different values of the threshold detection and at all the scales investigated. According to our analysis, there is strong evidence of multiple hierarchical substructure, on scales ranging from a few hundreds of kilo-parsecs to about 4 h-1 Mpc. The morphology of these substructures is rather spherical. On a scale of 720 h-1 kpc we find two main subclusters that have been found before, but our wavelet analysis shows even more substructures, whose redshift position is approximately marked by the following bright galaxies: NGC 4934 and 4840, NGC 4889, NGC 4898 and 4864, NGC 4874 and 4839, NGC 4927, and NGC 4875

Effects of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) on rat pial microvascular remodeling after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion

Previous studies have shown that the pial microcirculation remodeling improves neurological outcome after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), accompanied by higher expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), modulating in vivo angiogenesis. This study was aimed to assess the effects of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) infused after MCAO on rat pial microcirculation. Animals were subjected to 2 h MCAO followed by BM-MSCs infusion into internal carotid artery. Pial microcirculation was observed at different reperfusion times by fluorescence microscopy. Geometric characteristics of arteriolar networks, permeability increase, leukocyte adhesion, perfused capillary density, VEGF, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (e-NOS) expression were evaluated. Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-BM-MSCs were used to evaluate their distribution and cell phenotype development during reperfusion. BM-MSCs stimulated a geometric rearrangement of pial networks with formation of new anastomotic vessels sprouting from preexistent arterioles in the penumbra at 7-14-28 days of reperfusion. At the same time VEGF and eNOS expression increased. GFP-BM-MSCs appear to be involved in endothelial and smooth muscle cell programming in the infarcted area. In conclusion, transient MCAO induced pial vascular remodeling characterized by arteriolar anastomotic arcades (originated from preexistent arterioles in penumbra area) able to overlap the ischemic core supplying blood to the neuronal tissue. BM-MSCs appear to accelerate angiogenic processes facilitating new vessel formation; this mechanism was promoted by an increase in VEGF and eNOS expression

Sense or sensibility? The neuro-functional basis of the structural matching effect in persuasion

The present study investigates the neural pathways underlying individual susceptibility to affective or cognitive information in persuasive communication, also known as the structural matching effect. Expanding on the presumed involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) in persuasion, we hypothesized that the vMPFC contributes to the evaluation of persuasive information depending on its match with the recipient’s affective or cognitive predominance. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 30 participants evaluated 10 consumable products presented with both affective and cognitive persuasive messages. All participants were characterized on a continuum regarding their personal orientation in terms of individual differences in need for affect (NFA) and need for cognition (NFC). The results showed that the vMPFC, posterior cingulate cortex, and cerebellum are more strongly activated when the persuasive message content, either affective or cognitive, matched the recipient’s individual affective or cognitive orientation. Interestingly, this effect in the vMPFC was found specifically when participants evaluated the products presented by the persuasive messages, whereas the correlation in the posterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum activity was detected when reading the messages. These results confirm the hypothesis that the vMPFC plays a role in subjectively weighting persuasive message content depending on individual differences in affective and cognitive orientation. Such a structural matching effect might involve the vMPFC particularly during explicit expressions of subjective valuations. These novel findings also further develop the conceptualisation of the role of the vMPFC in self-related processing