Encoding Terms from a Scientific Domain in a Terminological Database: Methodology and Criteria

This paper reports on the main phases of a research which aims at enhancing a maritime terminological database by means of a set of terms belonging to meteorology. The structure of the terminological database, according to EuroWordNet/ItalWordNet model is described; the criteria used to build corpora of specialized texts are explained as well as the use of the corpora as source for term selection and extraction. The contribution of the semantic databases is taken into account: on the one hand, the most recent version of the Princeton WordNet has been exploited as reference for comparing and evaluating synsets; on the other hand, the Italian WordNet has been employed as source for exporting synsets to be coded in the terminological resource. The set of semantic relations useful to codify new terms belonging to the discipline of meteorology is examined, revising the semantic relations provided by the IWN model, introducing new relations which are more suitably tailored to specific requirements either scientific or pragmatic. The need for a particular relation is highlighted to represent the mental association which is made when a term intuitively recalls another term, but they are neither synonyms nor connected by means of a hyperonymy/hyponymy relation

Language modulation by hypnotizability

During upright stance that is an attention consuming task, subjects with high (Highs) hypnotic susceptibility have shown a similar ability at guided visual imagery, but a greater ability at somestetic imagery than individuals with low hypnotizability (Lows). Aim of the study was to assess whether any sensory modality preferences can be observed in the language of Highs and Lows

The Italian Draft Law on the \u2018Provisions Concerning the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage\u2019

Intangible cultural heritage in Italy is still in need of a unified approach, capable of providing reliable criteria for identifying its assets and for indicating timescales and means by which they should be safeguarded. In the continued absence of up-to-date, ad hoc state legislation (since the content of those laws which do implement international Conventions is too generic in nature to be sufficiently effective), the Regions have proceeded to act in a somewhat scattered manner, giving rise to an extremely fragmented and very disorderly regulatory framework. The draft law N. 4486, "Provisions Concerning the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage", presented on 12th May 2017 at the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic - as the result of the work of an interdisciplinary and inter-university research team coordinated by Marco Giampieretti, who has drafted the final text with the collaboration of Simona Pinton - seeks to fill the serious void that exists in Italian legal system by aligning it to the principles of international and European law, by redirecting the relevant State and Regional legislation, and by satisfying the fundamental requirements of the national community

Integrated analysis of climate, soil, topography and vegetative growth in Iberian viticultural regions

The Iberian viticultural regions are convened according to the Denomination of Origin (DO) and present different climates, soils, topography and management practices. All these elements influence the vegetative growth of different varieties throughout the peninsula, and are tied to grape quality and wine type. In the current study, an integrated analysis of climate, soil, topography and vegetative growth was performed for the Iberian DO regions, using state-of-the-art datasets. For climatic assessment, a categorized index, accounting for phenological/thermal development, water availability and grape ripening conditions was computed. Soil textural classes were established to distinguish soil types. Elevation and aspect (orientation) were also taken into account, as the leading topographic elements. A spectral vegetation index was used to assess grapevine vegetative growth and an integrated analysis of all variables was performed. The results showed that the integrated climate-soil-topography influence on vine performance is evident. Most Iberian vineyards are grown in temperate dry climates with loamy soils, presenting low vegetative growth. Vineyards in temperate humid conditions tend to show higher vegetative growth. Conversely, in cooler/warmer climates, lower vigour vineyards prevail and other factors, such as soil type and precipitation acquire more important roles in driving vigour. Vines in prevailing loamy soils are grown over a wide climatic diversity, suggesting that precipitation is the primary factor influencing vigour. The present assessment of terroir characteristics allows direct comparison among wine regions and may have great value to viticulturists, particularly under a changing climate

Acute Delta Hepatitis in Italy spanning three decades (1991–2019): Evidence for the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccination campaign

Updated incidence data of acute Delta virus hepatitis (HDV) are lacking worldwide. Our aim was to evaluate incidence of and risk factors for acute HDV in Italy after the introduction of the compulsory vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) in 1991. Data were obtained from the National Surveillance System of acute viral hepatitis (SEIEVA). Independent predictors of HDV were assessed by logistic-regression analysis. The incidence of acute HDV per 1-million population declined from 3.2 cases in 1987 to 0.04 in 2019, parallel to that of acute HBV per 100,000 from 10.0 to 0.39 cases during the same period. The median age of cases increased from 27 years in the decade 1991-1999 to 44 years in the decade 2010-2019 (p < .001). Over the same period, the male/female ratio decreased from 3.8 to 2.1, the proportion of coinfections increased from 55% to 75% (p = .003) and that of HBsAg positive acute hepatitis tested for by IgM anti-HDV linearly decreased from 50.1% to 34.1% (p < .001). People born abroad accounted for 24.6% of cases in 2004-2010 and 32.1% in 2011-2019. In the period 2010-2019, risky sexual behaviour (O.R. 4.2; 95%CI: 1.4-12.8) was the sole independent predictor of acute HDV; conversely intravenous drug use was no longer associated (O.R. 1.25; 95%CI: 0.15-10.22) with this. In conclusion, HBV vaccination was an effective measure to control acute HDV. Intravenous drug use is no longer an efficient mode of HDV spread. Testing for IgM-anti HDV is a grey area requiring alert. Acute HDV in foreigners should be monitored in the years to come

Uso metaforico e metonimico dei nomi propri: una verifica su un corpus di italiano contemporaneo

No abstract availableLa Pragmatica studia le relazioni tra i segni e coloro che se ne servono, le condizioni di riuscita dell\u27atto linguistico, le modalit? dell\u27interazione comunicativa. In questo articolo descriviamo la nostra esperienza concernente i testi appartenenti a un grande corpus di Italiano scritto contemporaneo per verificare i cambiamenti e la flessibilit? del significato del Nomi Propri (NP). Infatti, durante la costruzione del database semantico lessicale ItalWordNet, ? stato codificato e studiato un insieme di Nomi Propri (circa 4.000). Vogliamo qui sottolineare la polisemia dei NP, e il loro spostarsi da una classe semantica all\u27altra come un esempio della estensibilit? della lingua e della sua possibilit? di cambiamento, considerando il significato un processo dinamico. Molti esempi del fenomeno di spostamento del significato possono essere evidenziati prendendo in esame i corpora testuali. Confrontando i dati ottenuti dall\u27analisi di testi appartenenti a due diversi periodi di tempo, ? stato verificato un aumento dell\u27uso dei NP con estensione di significato. Questi risultati metterebbero in evidenza la tendenza a considerare i sensi estesi come prevalenti sui sensi letterali, confermando una "fissazione" del significato col passare del tempo. L\u27obbiettivo della nostra ricerca, tuttora in corso, consiste nell\u27osservare l\u27uso delle estensioni di senso esaminando anche quelle cos? dette "coniate di fresco", tenendo in considerazione la relazione che esse hanno con la nostra creativit? e con il modo in cui le dinamiche linguistiche possono attivare il potenziale di significato delle parole

LE-PAROLE: Italian Corpus Documentation

The aim of the LE- PAROLE project for what concerns its corpus activity, was to produce an initial set of publicly accessible/available harmonised corpora for the main European languages. The corpora produced for each language are made up of 20 million words. They will become the nucleus of reference corpora for their languages since they are intended to provide full information about a large variety of text types in the language. The design and composition of these monolingual corpora comply with some general demands: Harmonization; Reuse of existing resources; Composition of the corpora; Reusability; Encoding; Morphosyntactic tagging. Each partner of the project had the possibility to design, mark up and tag the corpus using its own software package, considering that the compatibility and interchangeability of the various corpora is ensured by the adoption of common criteria for composition, encoding and linguistic tagging

The insertion of the Agrobacterium rhizogenes rolC gene in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) affects plant architecture and endogenous auxin and abscisic acid levels

In the present paper we report on the effects of the insertion of the Agrobacterium rhizogenes rolC gene in the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L, formerly Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) cultivar Tondino. Several transgenic lines were successfully obtained, between which two clones, rolC1 and rolC3, were chosen for the analysis of morpho- productive traits as well as of the endogenous levels of auxin and abscisic acid. Consistent with the known phenotypic effect of this gene, the transformed tomato plants were significantly shorter than the corresponding controls. on the other hand, even if yield was not affected by the transformation in terms of average number of fruits produced, fruit weight was significantly lower in the transgenics with respect to the controls. Therefore, insertion of the rolC gene does not lead to an improvement in plant productivity. Furthermore, we have observed alterations in the hormonal levels in the shoot apices of the transgenic plants. In fact, quantifications of free and conjugated forms of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) indicated a significant reduction of IAA levels in the shoot apical region of the transgenic clone rolC3, in comparison with both the control and the clone rolC1. Abscisic acid (ABA) concentration on the other hand was unchanged in the transgenics compared to the controls, but significantly lower in rolC3 with respect to rolC1 plants. The resulting ABA/IAA ratio was higher in both transgenic clones compared to the untransformed plants, indicating that the rolC gene affects the balance between these hormones in transformed tomato plants. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Suscettibilit? ipnotica e linguaggio

No abstract availableLa suscettibilit? ipnotica (Green et al., 2005), cio? la capacit? di entrare nella trance ipnotica e di sperimentare distorsioni della percezione e della memoria, dipende principalmente dalle caratteristiche funzionali del sistema attenzionale frontale ed ? misurata da scale. Essa comprende varie caratteristiche cognitive tra cui la capacit? immaginativa e la tendenza alla produzione spontanea di fantasie