Thermal Neutrons in Eas: A New Dimension in Eas Study

A new method to study Extensive Air Shower (EAS) hadronic component is proposed. It is shown that addition of specific detectors for thermal neutron detection to a standard array for EAS study can significantly improve its performance. Results of CORSIKA based Monte Carlo simulations as well as preliminary experimental data are presented. A proposal of novel type of EAS array is given.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, a talk given at ISVHECRI2007, Weihai, China. To be published in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.

The neutron 'thunder' accompanying large extensive air showers

The bulk of neutrons which appear with long delays in neutron monitors nearby the EAS core (~'neutron thunder'~) are produced by high energy EAS hadrons hitting the monitors. This conclusion raises an important problem of the interaction of EAS with the ground, the stuff of the detectors and their environment. Such interaction can give an additional contribution to the signal in the EAS detectors at {\em km}-long distances from the large EAS core after a few $\mu s$ behind the EAS front.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Proc. of 14th Int. Symp. on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions, Weihai, China, 15-22 August 2006, to be published in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc.Suppl.), 200

"E libertade / in Erinni cangi\uf2". Monti e la Rivoluzione

Il saggio prende in esame la posizione politica e l\u2019attivit\ue0 letteraria di Monti di fronte agli eventi rivoluzionari francesi, dalla presa della Bastiglia fino alla caduta di Robespierre; s\u2019interroga quindi sulla valutazione, a ritroso, di quegli eventi, proposta dal poeta divenuto ormai \u201ccittadino\u201d. L\u2019analisi del testo superstite del Caio Gracco, steso a Roma nel 1788 \u2013 e quindi prima della rottura degli equilibri francesi \u2013 ci mostra un Monti gi\ue0 interessato a riflettere sugli esiti che comporta la crisi delle rappresentanze istituzionali delle diverse classi, una crisi che lasciava aperta, esplicitamente, la prospettiva della conquista del potere attraverso la forza. A tale precoce sensibilit\ue0 nel leggere le dinamiche della storia segue, per lungo tempo, fino al 1793 (e cio\ue8, in sostanza, fino alla stesura della Bassvilliana) un sostanziale silenzio poetico ed un\u2019altrettanto rigorosa prudenza nei comportamenti e nelle dichiarazioni pubbliche e private (ne \ue8 esempio significativo la scarsit\ue0 di lettere superstiti risalenti a questi anni). Sono quindi analizzate nel saggio le diverse prospettive di valutazione della cultura radicale e materialista francese e del suo ruolo nella prima stagione rivoluzionaria, prospettive sottese alla Bassvilliana e poi \u2013 in piena et\ue0 napoleonica \u2013 alla Mascheroniana

«Fan dunque guerra ancora i poeti?». Versi per la Guerra dei Sette anni

The essay offers a survey of the wide poetry-production, written in Italy during the second half of the 18th Century, and  having as main topic events and protagonists of Seven Year War. The first part of the article describes the common features of those compositions – often anonymous poems with clear propagandistic intents – and the way in which they circulated. The second part is focused on the more refined and restrained poems signed by well-known authors, who were invited and sometimes urged to write about the topic

Classici Italiani e reti diplomatiche: note su Metastasio e i fratelli Calzabigi

Nel saggio sono discusse le iniziative editoriali parigine dei fratelli Calzabigi e di Fran\ue7ois Gerbault (l'edizione delle opere di Metastasio, e di alcuni classici italiani) concepite anche sfruttando, in modo tavolta maldestro, una fitta e importante rete di contatti diplomatici

Faunistics and zoogeographical overview of the Mediterranean and Black Sea marine Gastrotricha.

The paper provides an updated overview of the knowledge regarding the marine gastrotrich fauna of 10 Mediterranean and 2 Black Sea countries. Taxonomic account and species distribution come from published records, including electronically disseminated information, as well as original data from 18 localities (16 western and 2 levantine), investigated by the authors between 1990 and 2002. Since the description of the first marine Mediterranean gastrotrich, Emydasys agaso Claparede, 1867, discovered in the Gulf of Naples (Italy), 273 additional species, from 417 locations have been recorded in the basin so far. Of the gastrotrichs found, 143 species, in 24 genera and 6 families, belong to the order Macrodasyida and 131 species, in 11 genera and 3 families, belong to the order Chaetonotida; these statistics include several species as of yet not described. The number of species per location is variable, ranging from 1-37, with a global mean of 8.04 \uf0b1 6.69 spp/location. Egypt and Israel show mean values well above the average, with 12.8 and 10.8 spp/loc. respectively, whereas mean values for Algeria, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and France are below average (1- 5.43 spp /location); data for Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Italy are within the average value. Acanthodasys aculeatus, recorded in 28% of the investigated location is the most frequently found macrodasyidan; Halichaetonotus aculifer, also recorded in 28% of the investigated localities, is the most common chaetonotidan whereas. Data analysis indicated substantial differences among countries, regarding sampling effort and, consequently, faunistic knowledge. In comparison with the generally good information concerning the Italian fauna (177 species from 246 localities), gastrotrichs from other Mediterranean nations are much less known; along with Italy, only few other Nations have been investigated to a sufficient extent (i.e., Greece: 44 sampled localities, 77 recorded species; France: 37 L, 70 spp; Egypt: 28 L, 81 spp; Israel: 15 L, 55 spp; Cyprus: 9 L, 41 spp), whereas investigation carried out in several other countries can be considered, to a variable degree, incomplete (i.e., Algeria: 16 investigated localities and 11 species found; Romania: 7 L, 30 spp; Tunisia: 5 L, 2 spp; Bulgaria: 3 L, 11 spp; Croatia: 1 L, 12 spp, Spain: 1 L, 3 sp, Malta; 2L, 2 spp.), or nil (e.g., Morocco, Libya, Turkey, Albania). All marine gastrotrich families and most marine genera have representatives in the Mediterranean fauna, notable absences regard the genera Desmodasys, Dinodasys, Planodasys, Prostobuccantia and perhaps Pseudoturbanella; on the other hand representatives of two genera, Emydasys and Dendropodola, are unknown elsewhere in the world except the western Mediterranean. At species level, about 140 taxa have so far been found only in the Mediterranean area, whereas the remainder have some north-Atlantic connections, including several considered as regional cosmopolitans (i.e., reported from at least two Oceans). Within the Mediterranean, the species geographic distribution does not appear to be homogeneous, with several taxa restricted to either the western or to the levantine basin; yet, Italy, Egypt and Israel show the highest numbers of endemic species, 70, 24 and 14 respectively, whereas only one species seems restricted to the Black Sea. A cluster analysis using the Bray-Curtis presence-absence similarity value to examine the relationship between 11 geographic areas, shows a clear separation between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean regions and within this, the Algerian-Tunisian region is separated from and the remaining 9 areas. The latter appear arranged in two main clusters, one including the southern Levantine regions (i.e., Egypt, Israel and Cyprus), the other containing regions of the north-western basin, the Adriatic sea and the two Greek sub-regions. In this cluster, the region comprising coastal France and Formentera (Spain) appears separated from the one containing, arranged into two distinct subsets, the Italian and the Greek areas. However, due to the paucity of information, data from key-areas is urged to confirm or disprove our current perception about numbers and distribution of gastrotrich taxa within the Mediterranean and the Black Sea

Chemical LTP induces confinement of BDNF mRNA under dendritic spines and BDNF protein accumulation inside the spines

The neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a key role in neuronal development and synaptic plasticity. The discovery that BDNF mRNA can be transported in neuronal dendrites in an activity-dependent manner has suggested that its local translation may support synapse maturation and plasticity. However, a clear demonstration that BDNF mRNA is locally transported and translated at activated synapses in response to long-term potentiation (LTP) is still lacking. Here, we study the dynamics of BDNF mRNA dendritic trafficking following the induction of chemical LTP (cLTP). Dendritic transport of BDNF transcripts was analyzed using the MS2 system for mRNA visualization, and chimeric BDNF-GFP constructs were used to monitor protein synthesis in living neurons. We found that within 15 min from cLTP induction, most BDNF mRNA granules become stationary and transiently accumulate in the dendritic shaft at the base of the dendritic spines, while at 30 min they accumulate inside the spine, similar to the control CamkIIα mRNA which also increased inside the spines at 60 min post-cLTP. At 60 min but not at 15 min from cLTP induction, we observed an increase in BDNF protein levels within the spines. Taken together, these findings suggest that BDNF mRNA trafficking is arrested in the early phase of cLTP, providing a local source of mRNA for BDNF translation at the base of the spine followed by translocation of both the BDNF mRNA and protein within the spine head in the late phase of LTP