Antecedenti boccacciani in alcuni personaggi della commedia rinascimentale

Argomento dell'articolo sono due gruppi di personaggi della commedia rinascimentale che non si rifanno ai tradizionali modelli plautini e terenziani: gli intellettuali e i personaggi femminili; essi presentano invece consistenti legami con il Decameron. Sia in Boccacci che nelle commedie alcune figure di intellettuali sono sottoposte a tagliente satira, per il comportamento inadeguato alla loro presunta cultura (comico del significato), e per il linguaggio ibrido e artificiale (comico del significante). Anche i personaggi femminili hanno caratteristiche già presenti in Boccaccio e nella tradizione medioevale: da una parte le malmaritate che reagiscono alla loro situazione in maniera spesso aggressiva e dall'altra esempi di onestà e fedeltà assoluta, sicché la dialettica tra misoginia e filoginia (formula che è stata proposta per il Boccaccio) è applicabile anche alla commedia. Si aggiunga che tanto nel Decameron quanto in molti prologhi di commedie le donne sono viste come le interlocutrici e le spettatrici privilegiate, cui sono rivolti complimenti spesso ambigui.This article examines two groups of characters in several Renaissance comedies that do not stem from the traditional models of Plautus and Terence, intellectuals and female characters, who show many links with the Decameron. In both Boccaccio and in these comedies some intellectuals are subject to biting satire because of their inappropriate behaviour, their presumed culture and as a consequence of their artificial language. The female characters also show characteristics which are already present in Boccaccio and in medieval tradition; some unhappily married women react to their situation in a manner which is frequently aggressive, whereas some others are examples of absolute honesty and faithfulness, so that in Boccaccio as well as in comedy we can speak of a dialectic between misogyny and philogyny. Both in Decameron and in many prologues to comedies, women are viewed as privileged interlocutors and spectators, who often receive ambiguous compliments

Stone Age Yersinia pestis genomes shed light on the early evolution, diversity, and ecology of plague

[Significance] The bacterium Yersinia pestis has caused numerous historically documented outbreaks of plague and research using ancient DNA could demonstrate that it already affected human populations during the Neolithic. However, the pathogen’s genetic diversity, geographic spread, and transmission dynamics during this early period of Y. pestis evolution are largely unexplored. Here, we describe a set of ancient plague genomes up to 5,000 y old from across Eurasia. Our data demonstrate that two genetically distinct forms of Y. pestis evolved in parallel and were both distributed across vast geographic distances, potentially occupying different ecological niches. Interpreted within the archeological context, our results suggest that the spread of plague during this period was linked to increased human mobility and intensification of animal husbandry.The bacterial pathogen Yersinia pestis gave rise to devastating outbreaks throughout human history, and ancient DNA evidence has shown it afflicted human populations as far back as the Neolithic. Y. pestis genomes recovered from the Eurasian Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (LNBA) period have uncovered key evolutionary steps that led to its emergence from a Yersinia pseudotuberculosis-like progenitor; however, the number of reconstructed LNBA genomes are too few to explore its diversity during this critical period of development. Here, we present 17 Y. pestis genomes dating to 5,000 to 2,500 y BP from a wide geographic expanse across Eurasia. This increased dataset enabled us to explore correlations between temporal, geographical, and genetic distance. Our results suggest a nonflea-adapted and potentially extinct single lineage that persisted over millennia without significant parallel diversification, accompanied by rapid dispersal across continents throughout this period, a trend not observed in other pathogens for which ancient genomes are available. A stepwise pattern of gene loss provides further clues on its early evolution and potential adaptation. We also discover the presence of the flea-adapted form of Y. pestis in Bronze Age Iberia, previously only identified in in the Caucasus and the Volga regions, suggesting a much wider geographic spread of this form of Y. pestis. Together, these data reveal the dynamic nature of plague’s formative years in terms of its early evolution and ecology.This study was funded by the Max Planck Society, Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean and the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement 771234 – PALEoRIDER (to W.H.), 856453 – HistoGenes (to J.K.), and 834616 – ARCHCAUCASUS (to S.H.). The Heidelberg Academy of Science financed the genetic and archeological research on human individuals from the Augsburg region within the project WIN Kolleg: “Times of Upheaval: Changes of Society and Landscape at the Beginning of the Bronze Age. M.E. was supported by the award “Praemium Academiae” of the Czech Academy of Sciences. M.D. was supported by the project RVO 67985912 of the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. I.O. was supported by the Ramón y Cajal grant from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spanish Government (RYC2019-027909-I). A. H€ubner was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Germany’s Excellence Strategy (EXC 2051 – Project-ID 390713860). J.F.-E. and J.A.M.-A. were supported by the Diputación Foral de Alava, IT 1223-19, Gobierno Vasco. A. Buzhilova was supported by the Center of Information Technologies and Systems (CITIS), Moscow, Russia 121041500329-0. L. M., L.B.D., and E. Khussainova were supported by the Grant AP08856654, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A. Beisenov was supported by the Grant AP08857177, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.Peer reviewe

Antecedenti boccacciani in alcuni personaggi della commedia rinascimentale

Argomento dell'articolo sono due gruppi di personaggi della commedia rinascimentale che non si rifanno ai tradizionali modelli plautini e terenziani: gli intellettuali e i personaggi femminili; essi presentano invece consistenti legami con il Decameron. Sia in Boccacci che nelle commedie alcune figure di intellettuali sono sottoposte a tagliente satira, per il comportamento inadeguato alla loro presunta cultura (comico del significato), e per il linguaggio ibrido e artificiale (comico del significante). Anche i personaggi femminili hanno caratteristiche già presenti in Boccaccio e nella tradizione medioevale: da una parte le malmaritate che reagiscono alla loro situazione in maniera spesso aggressiva e dall'altra esempi di onestà e fedeltà assoluta, sicché la dialettica tra misoginia e filoginia (formula che è stata proposta per il Boccaccio) è applicabile anche alla commedia. Si aggiunga che tanto nel Decameron quanto in molti prologhi di commedie le donne sono viste come le interlocutrici e le spettatrici privilegiate, cui sono rivolti complimenti spesso ambigui.This article examines two groups of characters in several Renaissance comedies that do not stem from the traditional models of Plautus and Terence, intellectuals and female characters, who show many links with the Decameron. In both Boccaccio and in these comedies some intellectuals are subject to biting satire because of their inappropriate behaviour, their presumed culture and as a consequence of their artificial language. The female characters also show characteristics which are already present in Boccaccio and in medieval tradition; some unhappily married women react to their situation in a manner which is frequently aggressive, whereas some others are examples of absolute honesty and faithfulness, so that in Boccaccio as well as in comedy we can speak of a dialectic between misogyny and philogyny. Both in Decameron and in many prologues to comedies, women are viewed as privileged interlocutors and spectators, who often receive ambiguous compliments

Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present day Europeans

We sequenced genomes from a $\sim$7,000 year old early farmer from Stuttgart in Germany, an $\sim$8,000 year old hunter-gatherer from Luxembourg, and seven $\sim$8,000 year old hunter-gatherers from southern Sweden. We analyzed these data together with other ancient genomes and 2,345 contemporary humans to show that the great majority of present-day Europeans derive from at least three highly differentiated populations: West European Hunter-Gatherers (WHG), who contributed ancestry to all Europeans but not to Near Easterners; Ancient North Eurasians (ANE), who were most closely related to Upper Paleolithic Siberians and contributed to both Europeans and Near Easterners; and Early European Farmers (EEF), who were mainly of Near Eastern origin but also harbored WHG-related ancestry. We model these populations' deep relationships and show that EEF had $\sim$44% ancestry from a "Basal Eurasian" lineage that split prior to the diversification of all other non-African lineages

Post-anaesthesia pulmonary complications after use of muscle relaxants (POPULAR): a multicentre, prospective observational study

Background Results from retrospective studies suggest that use of neuromuscular blocking agents during general anaesthesia might be linked to postoperative pulmonary complications. We therefore aimed to assess whether the use of neuromuscular blocking agents is associated with postoperative pulmonary complications. Methods We did a multicentre, prospective observational cohort study. Patients were recruited from 211 hospitals in 28 European countries. We included patients (aged ≥18 years) who received general anaesthesia for any in-hospital procedure except cardiac surgery. Patient characteristics, surgical and anaesthetic details, and chart review at discharge were prospectively collected over 2 weeks. Additionally, each patient underwent postoperative physical examination within 3 days of surgery to check for adverse pulmonary events. The study outcome was the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications from the end of surgery up to postoperative day 28. Logistic regression analyses were adjusted for surgical factors and patients’ preoperative physical status, providing adjusted odds ratios (ORadj) and adjusted absolute risk reduction (ARRadj). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01865513. Findings Between June 16, 2014, and April 29, 2015, data from 22803 patients were collected. The use of neuromuscular blocking agents was associated with an increased incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications in patients who had undergone general anaesthesia (1658 [7·6%] of 21694); ORadj 1·86, 95% CI 1·53–2·26; ARRadj –4·4%, 95% CI –5·5 to –3·2). Only 2·3% of high-risk surgical patients and those with adverse respiratory profiles were anaesthetised without neuromuscular blocking agents. The use of neuromuscular monitoring (ORadj 1·31, 95% CI 1·15–1·49; ARRadj –2·6%, 95% CI –3·9 to –1·4) and the administration of reversal agents (1·23, 1·07–1·41; –1·9%, –3·2 to –0·7) were not associated with a decreased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. Neither the choice of sugammadex instead of neostigmine for reversal (ORadj 1·03, 95% CI 0·85–1·25; ARRadj –0·3%, 95% CI –2·4 to 1·5) nor extubation at a train-of-four ratio of 0·9 or more (1·03, 0·82–1·31; –0·4%, –3·5 to 2·2) was associated with better pulmonary outcomes. Interpretation We showed that the use of neuromuscular blocking drugs in general anaesthesia is associated with an increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. Anaesthetists must balance the potential benefits of neuromuscular blockade against the increased risk of postoperative pulmonary complications