Il genere del discorso e il “gender finzionale”

Quando si parla di “genere del discorso” il sintagma si lega inevitabilmente a due ordini concettuali propri degli studi letterari: il primo riguarda il discorso culturale teorizzato da Foucault, il secondo cita in tralice il “discorso del racconto” di Gérard Genette. Se il discorso rimanda all’impianto culturale secondo il quale si strutturano le modalità interpretative, ricettive e normative di un determinato soggetto (o anche di una categoria propria al soggetto) e il genere alla funzione ..

Measuring spectrally resolved information processing in neural data

Background: The human brain, an incredibly complex biological system comprising billions of neurons and trillions of synapses, possesses remarkable capabilities for information processing and distributed computations. Neurons, the fundamental building blocks, perform elementary operations on their inputs and collaborate extensively to execute intricate computations, giving rise to cognitive functions and behavior. Notably, distributed information processing in the brain heavily relies on rhythmic neural activity characterized by synchronized oscillations at specific frequencies. These oscillations play a crucial role in coordinating brain activity and facilitating communication between different neural circuits [1], effectively acting as temporal windows that enable efficient information exchange within specific frequency ranges. To understand distributed information processing in neural systems, breaking down its components, i.e., —information transfer, storage, and modification can be helpful, but requires precise mathematical definitions for each respective component. Thankfully, these definitions have recently become available [2]. Information theory is a natural choice for measuring information processing, as it offers a mathematically complete description of the concept of information and communication. The fundamental information-processing operations, are considered essential prerequisites for achieving universal information processing in any system [3]. By quantifying and analyzing these operations, we gain valuable insights into the brain’s complex computation and cognitive abilities. As information processing in the brain is intricately tied to rhythmic behavior, there is a need to establish a connection between information theoretic measures and frequency components. Previous attempts to achieve frequency-resolved information theoretic measures have mostly relied on narrowband filtering [4], which comes with several known issues of phase shifting and high false positive rate results [5], or simplifying the computation to few variables [6], that might result in missing important information in the analysed brain signals. Therefore, the current work aims to establish a frequency-resolved measure of two crucial components of information processing: information transfer and information storage. By proposing methodological advancements, this research seeks to shed light on the role of neural oscillations in information processing within the brain. Furthermore, a more comprehensive investigation was carried out on the communication between two critical brain regions responsible for motor inhibition in the frontal cortex (right Inferior Frontal gyrus (rIFG) and pre-Supplementary motor cortex (pre-SMA)). Here, neural oscillations in the beta band (12 − 30 Hz) have been proposed to have a pivotal role in response inhibition. A long-standing question in the field was to disentangle which of these two brain areas first signals the stopping process and drives the other [7]. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that beta oscillations carry the information transfer between these regions. The present work addresses the methodological problems and investigates spectral information processing in neural data, in three studies. Study 1 focuses on the critical role of information transfer, measured by transfer entropy, in distributed computation. Understanding the patterns of information transfer is essential for unraveling the computational algorithms in complex systems, such as the brain. As many natural systems rely on rhythmic processes for distributed computations, a frequency-resolved measure of information transfer becomes highly valuable. To address this, a novel algorithm is presented, efficiently identifying frequencies responsible for sending and receiving information in a network. The approach utilizes the invertible maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT) to create surrogate data for computing transfer entropy, eliminating issues associated with phase shifts and filtering. However, measuring frequency-resolved information transfer poses a Partial information decomposition problem [8] that is yet to be fully resolved. The algorithm’s performance is validated using simulated data and applied to human magnetoencephalography (MEG) and ferret local field potential recordings (LFP). In human MEG, the study unveils a complex spectral configuration of cortical information transmission, showing top-down information flow from very high frequencies (above 100Hz) to both similarly high frequencies and frequencies around 20Hz in the temporal cortex. Contrary to the current assumption, the findings suggest that low frequencies do not solely send information to high frequencies. In the ferret LFP, the prefrontal cortex demonstrates the transmission of information at low frequencies, specifically within the range of 4-8 Hz. On the receiving end, V1 exhibits a preference for operating at very high frequency > 125 Hz. The spectrally resolved transfer entropy promises to deepen our understanding of rhythmic information exchange in natural systems, shedding light on the computational properties of oscillations on cognitive functions. In study 2, the primary focus lay on the second fundamental aspect of information processing: the active information storage (AIS). The AIS estimates how much information in the next measurements of the process can be predicted by examining its paste state. In processes that either produce little information (low entropy) or that are highly unpredictable, the AIS is low, whereas processes that are predictable but visit many different states with equal probabilities, exhibit high AIS [9]. Within this context, we introduced a novel spectrally-resolved AIS. Utilizing intracortical recordings of neural activity in anesthetized ferrets before and after loss of consciousness (LOC), the study reveals that the modulation of AIS by anesthesia is highly specific to different frequency bands, cortical layers, and brain regions. The findings reveal that the effects of anesthesia on AIS are prominent in the supragranular layers for the high/low gamma band, while the alpha/beta band exhibits the strongest decrease in AIS at infragranular layers, in accordance with the predictive coding theory. Additionally, the isoflurane impacts local information processing in a frequency-specific manner. For instance, increases in isoflurane concentration lead to a decrease in AIS in the alpha frequency but to an increase in AIS in the delta frequency range (<2Hz). In sum, analyzing spectrally-resolved AIS provides valuable insights into changes in cortical information processing under anesthesia. With rhythmic neural activity playing a significant role in biological neural systems, the introduction of frequency-specific components in active information storage allows a deeper understanding of local information processing in different brain areas and under various conditions. In study 3, to further verify the pivotal role of neural oscillations in information processing, we investigated the neural network mechanisms underlying response inhibition. A long-standing debate has centered around identifying the cortical initiator of response inhibition in the beta band, with two main regions proposed: the right rIFG and the pre-SMA. This third study aimed to determine which of these regions is activated first and exerts a potential information exchange on the other. Using high temporal resolution magnetoencephalography (MEG) and a relatively large cohort of subjects. A significant breakthrough is achieved by demonstrating that the rIFG is activated significantly earlier than the pre-SMA. The onset of beta band activity in the rIFG occurred at around 140 ms after the STOP signal. Further analyses showed that the beta-band activity in the rIFG was crucial for successful stopping, as evidenced by its predictive value for stopping performance. Connectivity analysis revealed that the rIFG sends information in the beta band to the pre-SMA but not vice versa, emphasizing the rIFG’s dominance in the response inhibition process. The results provide strong support for the hypothesis that the rIFG initiates stopping and utilizes beta-band oscillations for this purpose. These findings have significant implications, suggesting the possibility of spatially localized oscillation based interventions for response inhibition. Conclusion: In conclusion, the present work proposes a novel algorithm for uncovering the frequencies at which information is transferred between sources and targets in the brain, providing valuable insights into the computational dynamics of neural processes. The spectrally resolved transfer entropy was successfully applied to experimental neural data of intracranial recordings in ferrets and MEG recordings of humans. Furthermore, the study on active information storage (AIS) analysis under anesthesia revealed that the spectrally resolved AIS offers unique additional insights beyond traditional spectral power analysis. By examining changes in neural information processing, the study demonstrates how AIS analysis can deepen the understanding of anesthesia’s effects on cortical information processing. Moreover, the third study’s findings provide strong evidence supporting the critical role of beta oscillations in information processing, particularly in response inhibition. The research successfully demonstrates that beta oscillations in the rIFG functions as the key initiator of the response inhibition process, acting as a top-down control mechanism. The identification of beta oscillations as a crucial factor in information processing opens possibilities for further research and targeted interventions in neurological disorders. Taken together, the current work highlights the role of spectrally-resolved information processing in neural systems by not only introducing novel algorithms, but also successfully applying them to experimental oscillatory neural activity in relation to low-level cortical information processing (anesthesia) as well as high-level processes (cognitive response inhibition)

Mario Corona, Donatella Izzo (eds.), Queerdom. Gender Displacements in a Transnational Context

Review of the book Queerdom. Gender Displacements in a Transnational Context.Nella sua articolata introduzione a Queerdom (Introduction. What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Queerdom), Mario Corona pone le basi operative, processuali e “transitive” delle indagini presenti in questo volume che, in occasione del decimo anniversario della fondazione del Center for Studies on the Languages of Identities dell’ Università di Bergamo, offrono una stimolante “narrazione metodologica” dell’attuale «queer approach to literary texts as well as to cultural structures and situations»

Risultati sportivi e performance di borsa nel calcio europeo

Introduzione – 1. Calcio e borsa – 2. Indici di borsa e calcio: l’indice Dow Jones Stoxx Football – 3. Il legame tra borsa e risultati agonistici – 4. Le squadre e gli incontri nella nostra analisi – 5. La relazione tra risultati in campo e andamento del titolo delle squadre – 6. Correlazione tra risultati agonistici, titoli delle squadre e Dow Jones Stoxx Football – 7. Le stime – Considerazioni conclusivesport, risultati agonistici, performance di borsa, calcio, UEFA Champions League

La narrativa lesbica italiana nel contesto europeo. Note al margine

Una norma, nell’esperienza antropologica, non può essere originale. La regola non comincia ad essere regola se non agendo da regola, e questa funzione di correzione nasce dall’infrazione stessa.Georges Canguilhem, Il normale e il patologico. Quando mai t’ho chiesto l’eroismo dell’illusione?Io ti ho chiesto se potevi trar gioia dalla realtà qual era […]Ti ho chiesto se io ero per te l’amore, come tu lo eri per me, in tutte le contingenze, da lontano come da vicino […] separate da mille cose e ..

Closet, ma con vista. I queer studies e l’Italianistica

Il saggio indaga i rapporti fra la tradizione degli studi di Italianistica e l’epistemologia queer. Partendo dal concetto sedgwickiano di closet, Eleonora Pinzuti analizza le modalità di riproduzione del canone mainstream all’interno dei manuali teorici italiani e le motivazioni dell’espunzione degli studi gay e lesbici dalla tradizione critica ‘alta’ dell’Italianistica. Questa ‘diffidenza epistemologica’ propria degli studi italiani, soprattutto patrî, depaupera le letture di un intero campo del sapere, relegando sempre più l’Italianistica a una evidente marginalità storica e politica. Dopo aver rintracciato le motivazioni critiche e culturali della sudditanza dell’Accademia italiana alla tradizione eterossessista, l’autrice sonda le attuali tendenze interpretative indicando una nuova generazione di ricercator* interessati alla produzione queer e alle sue ricadute testuali. Lo studio mostra come solo attraverso la contaminazione di metodologie differenti il testo possa produrre una semeiosi continua, orizzontale e inclusiva di tutti gli sguardi e le riflessioni, in grado di veicolare messaggi attualizzanti in un momento di evidente perdita di autorevolezza del sapere umanistico e letterario.This essay explores the relationship between Italian Studies and Queer Epistemology. Utilizing Sedgwick’s concept of closet, Eleonora Pinzuti analyzes the ways in which the mainstream canon is replicated in Italian theoretical handbooks, and the reasons why Gay and Lesbian studies have been expurgated from the Italian ‘high culture’ critical tradition. This epistemological prejudice, which is peculiar to Italian Studies, and especially to those produced in Italy, impoverishes the interpretations of an entire field of research, and increasingly downgrades Italian Studies to an historical and political marginal position. Having located the critical and cultural reasons for Italian academia’s subservience to a hetero-normative tradition, the author investigates current interpretative trends, calling attention to a new generation of scholars interested in Queer investigations and their literary progeny. This study shows how the text can produce a permanent, horizontal, and inclusive semeiosis, embracing all perspectives and viewpoints, only through the contamination of different methodologies. In fact, solely through a methodological pluralism can the text become the vehicle of renewing messages in this current moment in which the Humanities and Literature in particular have lost much of their authority

Animal movements in the Kenya Rift and evidence for the earliest ambush hunting by hominins

Animal movements in the Kenya Rift Valley today are influenced by a combination of topography and trace nutrient distribution. These patterns would have been the same in the past when hominins inhabited the area. We use this approach to create a landscape reconstruction of Olorgesailie, a key site in the East African Rift with abundant evidence of large-mammal butchery between ~1.2 and ~0.5 Ma BP. The site location in relation to limited animal routes through the area show that hominins were aware of animal movements and used the location for ambush hunting during the Lower to Middle Pleistocene. These features explain the importance of Olorgesailie as a preferred location of repeated hominin activity through multiple changes in climate and local environmental conditions, and provide insights into the cognitive and hunting abilities of Homo erectus while indicating that their activities at the site were aimed at hunting, rather than scavenging

N4BP1 functions as a dimerization-dependent linear ubiquitin reader which regulates TNF signalling

AbstractSignalling through TNFR1 modulates proinflammatory gene transcription and programmed cell death, and its impairment causes autoimmune diseases and cancer. NEDD4-binding protein 1 (N4BP1) is a critical suppressor of proinflammatory cytokine production that acts as a regulator of innate immune signalling and inflammation. However, our current understanding about the molecular properties that enable N4BP1 to exert its suppressive potential remain limited. Here, we show that N4BP1 is a novel linear ubiquitin reader that negatively regulates NFκB signalling by its unique dimerization-dependent ubiquitin-binding module that we named LUBIN. Dimeric N4BP1 strategically positions two non-selective ubiquitin-binding domains to ensure preferential recognition of linear ubiquitin. Under proinflammatory conditions, N4BP1 is recruited to the nascent TNFR1 signalling complex, where it regulates duration of proinflammatory signalling in LUBIN-dependent manner. N4BP1 deficiency accelerates TNFα-induced cell death by increasing complex II assembly. Under proapoptotic conditions, caspase-8 mediates proteolytic processing of N4BP1, resulting in rapid degradation of N4BP1 by the 26 S proteasome, and acceleration of apoptosis. In summary, our findings demonstrate that N4BP1 dimerization creates a novel type of ubiquitin reader that selectively recognises linear ubiquitin which enables the timely and coordinated regulation of TNFR1-mediated inflammation and cell death.</jats:p

Ubiquitin activation is essential for schizont maturation in Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage development

Ubiquitylation is a common post translational modification of eukaryotic proteins and in the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) overall ubiquitylation increases in the transition from intracellular schizont to extracellular merozoite stages in the asexual blood stage cycle. Here, we identify specific ubiquitylation sites of protein substrates in three intraerythrocytic parasite stages and extracellular merozoites; a total of 1464 sites in 546 proteins were identified (data available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD014998). 469 ubiquitylated proteins were identified in merozoites compared with only 160 in the preceding intracellular schizont stage, suggesting a large increase in protein ubiquitylation associated with merozoite maturation. Following merozoite invasion of erythrocytes, few ubiquitylated proteins were detected in the first intracellular ring stage but as parasites matured through trophozoite to schizont stages the apparent extent of ubiquitylation increased. We identified commonly used ubiquitylation motifs and groups of ubiquitylated proteins in specific areas of cellular function, for example merozoite pellicle proteins involved in erythrocyte invasion, exported proteins, and histones. To investigate the importance of ubiquitylation we screened ubiquitin pathway inhibitors in a parasite growth assay and identified the ubiquitin activating enzyme (UBA1 or E1) inhibitor MLN7243 (TAK-243) to be particularly effective. This small molecule was shown to be a potent inhibitor of recombinant PfUBA1, and a structural homology model of MLN7243 bound to the parasite enzyme highlights avenues for the development of P. falciparum specific inhibitors. We created a genetically modified parasite with a rapamycin-inducible functional deletion of uba1; addition of either MLN7243 or rapamycin to the recombinant parasite line resulted in the same phenotype, with parasite development blocked at the schizont stage. Nuclear division and formation of intracellular structures was interrupted. These results indicate that the intracellular target of MLN7243 is UBA1, and this activity is essential for the final differentiation of schizonts to merozoites