Human-environment dynamics across the Bronze Age in northern Italy: method testing and multi-proxy approaches

Besides technological innovations and new typological features, the transition into the Bronze Age in northern Italy is marked by the adoption of distinctive settlement strategies. Prominent differences with previous periods are represented not only by higher numbers and density of settlements, but also by a widespread preference for wetland areas. These phenomena are particularly evident in the Lake Garda region, where a rising number of lacustrine pile-dwelling settlements is documented since the Bronze Age onset (approximately 4150 years cal. BP). The pile-dwelling phenomenon lasted approximately for one millennium, approximately until 3150 years cal. BP). At the end of the Late Bronze Age, this settlement system collapsed, leaving the area largely depopulated. Widespread settlement abandonment did not affect only the surroundings of Lake Garda. In the neighboring central Po Plain, a dense network of riverine villages developed since approximately 3500 years cal. BP. These moat-and-rampart villages, locally termed “terramare”, abruptly disappeared together with the last pile dwellings. The reasons behind the rise and demise of these extensive lacustrine and riverine settlement networks remain currently open for discussion. Palaeoecological studies conducted in the area focused mostly on developing qualitative land-use narratives for the Bronze Age. As a result, multiple questions remain to be addressed concerning the determination of local climate trajectories. Similarly, quantitative land-cover approaches are left largely unexplored. Given these premises, this project aims at improving the available knowledge concerning both the role of climate and land use dynamics in northern Italy across the Bronze Age and neighboring periods, with a special focus on the pile-dwelling phenomenon in the southern Lake Garda region. The results are presented in the form of a cumulative dissertation composed of three published papers. The first of these three contributions focuses on the sedimentary record of Bande di Cavriana, a drained wetland in the Lake Garda area. Here, palynological and geochemical analysis provided new evidences that the rise of the Bronze Age pile-dwelling phenomenon occurred under a rapidly changing climate. The second paper focuses on the collapse of Bronze Age settlement networks. Pollen-based temperature and precipitation models obtained from Northern Italian sites depict increasingly arid conditions towards the end of the Bronze Age. This reconstruction is in agreement with the current archaeological narrative, which attributes the end of the central Po Plain settlement networks to a combination of landscape overexploitation and to the emergence of unsuitable climatic conditions. The third contribution serves primarily a methodological role within this project. It provided the opportunity to test extensively a landscape reconstruction algorithm based on pollen data and remote sensing. The application of this method to pollen sequences from Lake Garda provided a very first quantitative reconstruction of land cover changes across the Copper Age- Bronze Age transition, in connection with the establishment of the first pile-dwelling settlements

D-effects in Toroidally Compactified Type II String Theory

We review exact results obtained for R^4 couplings in maximally supersymmetric type II string theories. These couplings offer a privileged scene to understand the rules of semiclassical calculus in string theory. Upon expansion in weak string coupling, they reveal an infinite sum of non-perturbative e^{-1/g} effects that can be imputed to euclidean D-branes wrapped on cycles of the compactification manifolds. They also shed light on the relation between Dp-branes and D-(p-2)branes, D-strings and (p,q) strings, instanton sums and soliton loops. The latter interpretation takes over in D<=6 in order to account for the e^{-1/g^2} effects, still mysterious from the point of view of instanton calculus. [To appear in the proceedings of the conference "Quantum Aspects of Gauge Theories, Supersymmetry and Unification" held at Neuchatel University, Switzerland, 18-23 September 1997.]Comment: 1+6 pages, neuchatel.sty include

The 0-brane action in a general D=4 supergravity background

We begin by presenting the superparticle action in the background of N=2, D=4 supergravity coupled to n vector multiplets interacting via an arbitrary special Kahler geometry. Our construction is based on implementing kappa-supersymmetry. In particular, our result can be interpreted as the source term for N=2 BPS black holes with a finite horizon area. When the vector multiplets can be associated to the complex structure moduli of a Calabi-Yau manifold, then our 0-brane action can be derived by wrapping 3-branes around 3-cycles of the 3-fold. Our result can be extended to the case of higher supersymmetry; we explicitly construct the kappa supersymmetric action for a superparticle moving in an arbitrary N=8 supergravity background with 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 residual supersymmetry.Comment: 29 pages, LaTex; v2 and v3: twice reference added and typos corrected; v4: typos corrected for final version in Class.Quantum Gra

La partecipazione della famiglia al proprio percorso di accompagnamento: quali competenze per i professionisti dei servizi?

Family participation in evaluation and decision-making processes is a key element of the P.I.P.P.I. method. This article explores the motivation for the involvement of children and parents in the work of the child services that is based on the contribution of theories, experiences and researches. These factors have shown to be particularly important for the effectiveness of protection and care actions: the quality of services and families relationship; the ecology of human development, and of parental neglect; the integration of professionals’ vision with the family point of view, in order to better know their fragilities and resources. The second part of the article describes one example of the epistemological change of services in the relationship with the child and its parents: the concept of need as a desire, rather than as a parents’ lack or inability, helps the professionals to fully understand the family situation and to find together with the family the most suitable and creative strategies to face the difficulties

Driving Hebbian plasticity over ventral premotor-motor projections transiently enhances motor resonance

Background: Making sense of others' actions relies on the activation of an action observation network (AON), which maps visual information about observed actions onto the observer's motor system. This motor resonance process manifests in the primary motor cortex (M1) as increased corticospinal excitability finely tuned to the muscles engaged in the observed action. Motor resonance in M1 is facilitated by projections from higher-order AON regions. However, whether manipulating the strength of AON-to-M1 connectivity affects motor resonance remains unclear. Methods: We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in 48 healthy humans. Cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation (ccPAS) was administered over M1 and the ventral premotor cortex (PMv), a key AON node, to induce spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) in the pathway connecting them. Single-pulse TMS assessed motor resonance during action observation. Results: Before ccPAS, action observation increased corticospinal excitability in the muscles corresponding to the observed movements, reflecting motor resonance in M1. Notably, ccPAS aimed at strengthening projections from PMv to M1 (PMv→M1) induced short-term enhancement of motor resonance. The enhancement specifically occurred with the ccPAS configuration consistent with forward PMv→M1 projections and dissipated 20 min post-stimulation; ccPAS administered in the reverse order (M1→PMv) and sham stimulation did not affect motor resonance. Conclusions: These findings provide the first evidence that inducing STDP to strengthen PMv input to M1 neurons causally enhances muscle-specific motor resonance in M1. Our study sheds light on the plastic mechanisms that shape AON functionality and demonstrates that exogenous manipulation of AON connectivity can influence basic mirror mechanisms that underlie social perception

Adaptation of the Rumination and Reflection Questionnaire (RRQ) to Brazilian university students

Private self-consciousness, or the tendency of an individual to reflect on his or her thoughts, motivations, feelings, and other private aspects of the self has been extensively studied during the last decades. The aim of this research was to adapt the Rumination and Reflection Questionnaire to Brazilian university students, investigating its factorial and convergent validity. The original English version was translated to Portuguese and applied to 296 university students. The principal components analysis revealed two main components, corresponding to the proposed dimensions of rumination and reflection. Both scales showed a reliability index of 0,87. As expected, rumination correlated positively with neuroticism and negatively with self-esteem, and reflection correlated positively with openness to experience. In conclusion, the results obtained showed that the adapted instrument has satisfactory factorial and convergent validity, (and excelent reliability), suggesting that it can be used in future research.   Keywords: self-consciousness; reflection; rumination; psychometry.A autoconsciência privada, ou a tendência de um indivíduo para refletir sobre seus pensamentos, motivações, sentimentos e outros aspectos privados da experiência pessoal do si mesmo tem sido muito estudada nas últimas décadas. Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo adaptar o Questionário de Ruminação e Reflexão para estudantes universitários brasileiros, obtendo evidências de validade fatorial e convergente. A versão original em inglês foi traduzida e aplicada a 296 universitários. Uma análise de componentes principais indicou a presença de 2 componentes mais relevantes, correspondendo às dimensões de ruminação e reflexão. Os índices de consistência interna obtidos para ambas as escalas foi de 0,87. Conforme esperado, a ruminação correlacionou-se positivamente com neuroticismo e negativamente com auto-estima. Por sua vez, a reflexão correlacionou-se positivamente com abertura à experiência. Conclui-se que o instrumento adaptado apresenta validade fatorial e convergente satisfatórias (além de excelente fidedignidade), podendo ser utilizado em futuras pesquisas.Palavras-chave: autoconsciência; traço de personalidade; escala; psicometria

A child with green urine after a diagnostic enema: Answers

No abstract availabl

Breast Cancer Preoperative Staging: Does Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Mammography Modify Surgery?

Women with newly diagnosed breast cancer may have lesions undetected by conventional imaging. Recently contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance mammography (CE-MRM) showed higher sensitivity in breast lesions detection. The present analysis was aimed at evaluating the benefit of preoperative CE-MRM in the surgical planning. From 2005 to 2009, 525 consecutive women (25–75 years) with breast cancer, newly diagnosed by mammography, ultrasound, and needle-biopsy, underwent CE-MRM. The median invasive tumour size was 19 mm. In 144 patients, CE-MRM identified additional lesions. After secondlook, 119 patients underwent additional biopsy. CE-MRM altered surgery in 118 patients: 57 received double lumpectomy or wider excision (41 beneficial), 41 required mastectomy (40 beneficial), and 20 underwent contra lateral surgery (18 beneficial). The overall false-positive rate was 27.1% (39/144). CE-MRM contributed significantly to the management of breast cancer, suggesting more extensive disease in 144/525 (27.4%) patients and changing the surgical plan in 118/525 (22.5%) patients (99/525, 18.8% beneficial)

Alterations in resting-state functional connectivity after brain posterior lesions reflect the functionality of the visual system in hemianopic patients

Emerging evidence suggests a role of the posterior cortices in regulating alpha oscillatory activity and organizing low-level processing in non-alpha frequency bands. Therefore, posterior brain lesions, which damage the neural circuits of the visual system, might affect functional connectivity patterns of brain rhythms. To test this hypothesis, eyes-closed resting state EEG signal was acquired from patients with hemianopia with left and right posterior lesions, patients without hemianopia with more anterior lesions and healthy controls. Left-lesioned hemianopics showed reduced intrahemispheric connectivity in the range of upper alpha only in the lesioned hemisphere, whereas right-lesioned hemianopics exhibited reduced intrahemispheric alpha connectivity in both hemispheres. In terms of network topology, these impairments were characterized by reduced local functional segregation, with no associated change in global functional integration. This suggests a crucial role of posterior cortices in promoting functional connectivity in the range of alpha. Right-lesioned hemianopics revealed also additional impairments in the theta range, with increased connectivity in this frequency band, characterized by both increased local segregated activity and decreased global integration. This indicates that lesions to right posterior cortices lead to stronger impairments in alpha connectivity and induce additional alterations in local and global low-level processing, suggesting a specialization of the right hemisphere in generating alpha oscillations and in coordinating complex interplays with lower frequency bands. Importantly, hemianopic patient’s visual performance in the blind field was linked to alpha functional connectivity, corroborating the notion that alpha oscillatory patterns represent a biomarker of the integrity and the functioning of the underlying visual system.Fil: Gallina, Jessica. Universidad de Bologna; ItaliaFil: Zanon, Marco. Universidad de Bologna; ItaliaFil: Mikulan, Ezequiel Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Università degli Studi di Milano; ItaliaFil: Pietrelli, Mattia. Universidad de Bologna; ItaliaFil: Gambino, Silvia. Universidad de Bologna; ItaliaFil: Ibáñez, Santiago Agustín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de San Andrés; Argentina. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; ChileFil: Bertini, Caterina. Universidad de Bologna; Itali

Photocurable Thiol–yne Alginate Hydrogels for Regenerative Medicine Purposes

Every year millions of people worldwide undergo surgical interventions, with the occur- rence of mild or severe post-treatment consequences meaning that rehabilitation plays a key role in modern medicine. Considering the cases of burns and plastic surgery, the pressing need for new materials that can be used for wound patches or body fillers and are able to sustain tissue regeneration and promote cell adhesion and proliferation is clear. The challenges facing next-generation implant materials also include the need for improved structural properties for cellular organization and morphogenic guidance together with optimal mechanical, rheological, and topographical behavior. Herein, we propose for the first time a sodium alginate hydrogel obtained by a thiol–yne reaction, easily synthesized using carbodiimide chemistry in a two-step reaction. The hydrogels were formed in all cases within a few minutes of light irradiation, showing good self-standing properties under solicitation. The mechanical, rheological, topographical, and swelling properties of the gels were also tested and reported. Lastly, no cytotoxicity was detected among the hydrogels. Soluble extracts in cul- ture media allowed cell proliferation, and no differences between samples were detected in terms of metabolic activity and DNA content. These results suggest the potential use of these cytocompatible hydrogels in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.Laura Montalvillo-Jiménez, Paula Bosch, Raquel Cue-López, and Enrique Martínez- Campos acknowledge the Spanish National Research Council—CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform Salud Global+ (PTI-SALUDGLOBAL+) for providing financial support.Peer reviewe