The Figure of Socrates in Numenius of Apamea: Theology, Platonism, and Pythagoreanism (fr. 24 des Places)

Numenius is one of the most important authors who, in the Imperial Age, deal with the figure of Socrates. Socrates is important in the Platon­ic tradition, in particular in the sceptical tradition, when the Socratic dubitative “spirit” of the first Platonic dialogues became important to justify the “suspension of judgement.” Numenius criticises the whole Academic tradition by saying that the Academics (particularly the sceptics) betrayed the original doctrine of Plato and formulated a new image of Socrates. For Numenius, Socrates plays a central role because Plato would have inherited his doctrine. What does Socrates’s doctrine consist in? According to Numenius, Socrates theorised a “doctrine of three Gods” (which can be likely found in the second Platonic epistle) which is strictly bound up with the main aspect of Plato’s thought. In fact, in Numenius’s view, Plato belongs to a genealogy which can be linked to Pythagoras himself. From this perspective, Numenius says that Socrates’s original thought is a theology which also belongs to the Pythagorean tradition and which Plato further developed. For Nume­nius, Socrates is not the philosopher of doubt, but a theologian who first theorised the existence of three levels of reality (Gods), which is also the kernel of Numenius’s metaphysical system. For this reason, Numenius puts Socrates within a theological genealogy that begins with Pythago­ras and continues with Socrates and Plato, and that the Academics and the Socratics failed to understand

Personalized medicine—a modern approach for the diagnosis and management of hypertension

The main goal of treating hypertension is to reduce blood pressure to physiological levels and thereby prevent risk of cardiovascular disease and hypertension-associated target organ damage. Despite reductions in major risk factors and the availability of a plethora of effective antihypertensive drugs, the control of blood pressure to target values is still poor due to multiple factors including apparent drug resistance and lack of adherence. An explanation for this problem is related to the current reductionist and ‘trial-and-error’ approach in the management of hypertension, as we may oversimplify the complex nature of the disease and not pay enough attention to the heterogeneity of the pathophysiology and clinical presentation of the disorder. Taking into account specific risk factors, genetic phenotype, pharmacokinetic characteristics, and other particular features unique to each patient, would allow a personalized approach to managing the disease. Personalized medicine therefore represents the tailoring of medical approach and treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient and is expected to become the paradigm of future healthcare. The advancement of systems biology research and the rapid development of high-throughput technologies, as well as the characterization of different –omics, have contributed to a shift in modern biological and medical research from traditional hypothesis-driven designs toward data-driven studies and have facilitated the evolution of personalized or precision medicine for chronic diseases such as hypertension

Numenio interprete del Timeo. Note sull’ esegesi del verbo blépo (frr. 11, 12, 18 des Places)

Numenius belongs to the contest of the Middle Platonic interpreters of Plato's dialogues. In Middle Platonism, in fact, spread a tendency to interpret Plato's philosophy in a systematic way. The most relevant dialogue for this exegetical operation in Middle Platonism was certainly the Timaeus. In this paper I intend to focus on Numenius' interpretation of pages 28a-29a of Timaeus and examine the exegesis in the light of his onto-theological perspective. In the Timaeus, the use of the verb blépo serves to describe the fact that the demiurge is contemplative of the intelligible paradigm. In Numenius, on the other hand, the association of the verb blépo with the demiurge is intended to show the role of mediator that the second god plays between the first principle and matter. In this way we will show how the passages of the Timaeus are interpreted by Numenius in the light of his dualist metaphysics.Numenio appartiene all’ambito degli interpreti medioplatonici dei dialoghi di Platone. Nel Medioplatonismo, infatti, si diffuse la tendenza a interpretare la filosofia di Platone come in chiave sistematica. Il dialogo più rilevante per questa operazione esegetica nel Medioplatonismo fu certamente il Timeo. In questo contributo intendo concentrarmi sull’interpretazione delle pagine 28a-29a del Timeo da parte di Numenio di Apamea ed esaminarne l’esegesi alla luce della sua prospettiva onto-teologica. Nel Timeo, l’utilizzo del verbo blépo ha la funzione di descrivere il fatto che il demiurgo è contemplativo nei confronti del paradigma intelligibile. In Numenio, invece, l’associazione del verbo blépo al demiurgo è volta a mostrare il ruolo di mediatore che il secondo dio svolge tra il primo principio e la materia. In questo modo si mostrerà come i passi del Timeo vengano interpretati da Numenio alla luce della sua metafisica dualista

Causality at Lower Levels: The Demiurgical Unity of the Second and Third God according to Numenius of Apamea

Numenius is an author who straddles the line between Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism. In this contribution, I focus on the differences between the second and the third God, which emerge from analyses of the relevant fragments. Numenius emphasizes, on several occasions, how the second God (i.e., the demiurge) has a dual nature. In this paper, I investigate the role of the demiurge in Numenius and examine in what sense the second and third God are “one.” On the one hand, Numenius seems to be stressing the unity of the second and third levels of reality, but on the other hand, he also appears to be differentiating them. The present analyses concentrate on fragments 19F, 24F, 29T and 30T (respectively 11, 16, 21, and 22 in des Places’ edition). My purpose is to demonstrate that, according to Numenius, the second and the third God are one because they both can be regarded as demiurgic. Thus, Numenius conceives a kind of “double demiurgy,” which preserves the distinction between the second and the third God, who are distinguished from an ontological point of view, but who, at the same time, share a demiurgic function. The second God is then the paradigm, whereas the third God is immanent in matter as a ruling principle of the cosmos, which is similar to the World Soul, as he operates on matter in order to make it rationally ordered

Advances in Viral Aquatic Animal Disease Knowledge: The Molecular Methods' Contribution

Viruses are pervasive components of aquatic ecosystems, and most of them are harmless to humans and animals; however, several aquatic viruses can infect animals, leading to diseases, especially when fish are confined, such as in aquaculture facilities. Traditional methods used to detect and study viruses have been widely applied to aquatic animals' viruses, leading to the successful isolation, identification and understanding of several of them. However, they have limits, which can be overcome by molecular methods, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays, sequencing and in situ hybridisation. A standard PCR, followed by the sequencing of purified amplicons, is an effective method for both identifying well-known viruses and discovering new ones. In situ hybridisation, in which a labelled probe binds to a nucleic acid sequence in tissue, is able to correlate the presence of viruses to lesions. Novel molecular isothermal methods, such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), were also developed and applied to viral aquatic animal diseases, bringing molecular diagnosis into the field. This review considers the scientific literature dealing with the molecular methods employed hitherto to study the most relevant finfish and shellfish viral pathogens, stressing their advantages and disadvantages. Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food-producing sector, with a global production of 122.6 million tonnes in 2020. Nonetheless, aquatic animal production can be hampered by the occurrence of viral diseases. Furthermore, intensive farming conditions and an increasing number of reared fish species have boosted the number of aquatic animals' pathogens that researchers have to deal with, requiring the quick development of new detection and study methods for novel unknown pathogens. In this respect, the molecular tools have significantly contributed to investigating thoroughly the structural constituents of fish viruses and providing efficient detection methods. For instance, next-generation sequencing has been crucial in reassignment to the correct taxonomic family, the sturgeon nucleo-cytoplasmic large DNA viruses, a group of viruses historically known, but mistakenly considered as iridoviruses. Further methods such as in situ hybridisation allowed objectifying the role played by the pathogen in the determinism of disease, as the cyprinid herpesvirus 2, ostreid herpesvirus 1 and betanodaviruses. Often, a combination of molecular techniques is crucial to understanding the viral role, especially when the virus is detected in a new aquatic animal species. With this paper, the authors would critically revise the scientific literature, dealing with the molecular techniques employed hitherto to study the most relevant finfish and shellfish viral pathogens

Redspotted Grouper Nervous Necrosis Virus and the Reassortant RGNNV/SJNNV In Vitro Susceptibility against a Commercial Peroxy-Acid Biocide under Different Conditions of Use

Aquaculture is a constantly growing sector. The intensification of fish production and the movement of aquatic animals could cause the spread of infectious diseases. Remarkably, the diffusion of viral agents represents the major bottleneck for finfish production, and viral encephalopathy and retinopathy (VER) is considered the most impacting disease for Mediterranean aquaculture. No effective therapies are available to contrast VER, and vaccination can be applied only in grow-out facilities. Hence, programs to minimize the sanitary risks in farms are paramount to implementing hygienic standards and biosecurity. This study aimed to evaluate the in vitro virucidal activity of a peroxy-acid disinfectant (Virkon® S, DuPont, Sudbury, UK) towards the two NNV strains most widespread in the Mediterranean Sea. Remarkably, two protocols were applied to assess the virucidal activity under different conditions of use: the suspension test and the net test. The latter has been applied to evaluate the efficacy of the biocide on instruments, simulating the infield application. The obtained results demonstrated the suitability of the tested biocide for NNV inactivation, being effective under some of the tested conditions. However, the presence of organic matter, the concentration of the product, and the application conditions can significantly affect the result of the disinfection procedure

Finfish and Human Pathogens in Bivalve Molluscs

Bivalve molluscs are an important food source for living beings, humans included. They are obligated filter feeders, that feed on microalgae, bacteria and organic particles present in the aquatic environment. Accordingly, they could accumulate chemical compounds, marine biotoxins, bacteria and viruses, including human and animal pathogens (Molloy et al., 2013; Serratore et al., 2014), influencing the epidemiology of animal and human infectious diseases (Skär & Mortensen, 2007). This topic has been long investigated for human pathogens. On the other hand, poor studies were available for finfish pathogens. The Ph.D thesis, arranged in three chapters, deals with finfish and human pathogens in bivalve molluscs and focus on betanodavirus presence in these invertebrates, on their interaction with the Redspotted grouper nervous necrosis virus (RGNNV), one species of the genus Betanodavirus, and the development of a method to mitigate bacterial and viral contaminations of bivalve molluscs. Betanodaviruses very closely related to those of finfish have been found widely present in bivalve molluscs. The clams were demonstrated able to take up and then shed viable RGNNV into the surrounding environment through faeces and filtered water into the surrounding environment posing a serious risk for susceptible cohabitant fish species. Finally, a novel Manila clam sea water potassium MPS-based disinfection method was set up to mitigate the impact of bacterial and viral contaminations in bivalve molluscs. The obtained results point out the possible role of bivalve molluscs in the transmission of pathogens to finfish and highlight the needing of surveillance and control activities where a close inter-specific contact is present. The proposed novel disinfection method provides good experimental results and could find wide application in fisheries sector after adequate field tests

Detection of Human and Fish Viruses in Marine Gastropods

Marine gastropods represent a major food source for higher trophic levels and an important source of animal protein for humans. Like bivalve molluscs, gastropods can accumulate several types of contaminants; however, the bioaccumulation of microorganisms, particularly viruses, has been poorly investigated in these animals. This study focused on gastropods (Tritia mutabilis, Bolinus brandaris and Rapana venosa) collected during the fishing season from 2017 to 2021 in the north-western Adriatic Sea, and on clams (Ruditapes philippinarum) harvested in the same geographical area, in order to evaluate the presence of human and fish viruses in their tissues. A virological investigation was carried out on the digestive gland using molecular methods. The presence of hepatitis A virus was detected in one sample, whereas noroviruses were not present in the investigated specimens. Regarding fish viruses, it was possible to detect the presence of nervous necrosis virus (NNV) in 26.5% of the analyzed gastropods; however, the histological examination did not show any pathological changes in the nervous tissue in both NNV-positive and -negative batches. As a whole, the investigated gastropods showed the ability to bioaccumulate viruses; however, lower contamination by human viruses compared to bivalve molluscs was pointed out, posing a minor concern to human health