Health and socio-demographic conditions as determinants of marriage and social mobility

This paper makes use of data collected from military registers and marriage certificates for the population of Alghero, in Sardinia, for the period 1866-1925, with the aim of investigating the role played by physical characteristics and health in the possibility of social mobility through marriage. Our findings demonstrate that, whereas physical defects and ill health had little impact on the chances of marrying an illiterate woman, these factors did have a negative effect on the chances of marrying a woman who was literate. In a context in which intergenerational social mobility remained limited and the family had the final say on marriage arrangements, it is likely that only healthy individuals were selected for marriages regarded as strategic for the purposes of forming and strengthening family alliances, and/or improving the social position within the community.health, marriage, Sardinia, social mobility

Male partner choice in Sardinia, late 19th-early 20th century

This paper makes use of data collected from military registers and marriage certificates for the population of Alghero, in Sardinia, for the period 1866-1925, with the aim of investigating the role played by physical characteristics and health in the possibility of social mobility through marriage. Our findings demonstrate that, whereas physical defects and ill health had little impact on the chances of marrying an illiterate woman, these factors did have a negative effect on the chances of marrying a woman who was literate. In a context in which intergenerational social mobility remained limited and the family had the final say on marriage arrangements, it is likely that only healthy individuals were selected for marriages regarded as strategic for the purposes of forming and strengthening family alliances, and/or improving the social position within the community

Raggi di luce di un’alba nuova. La formazione alla democrazia sui giornali fiorentini del biennio 1944-1946

All’uscita della guerra, a Firenze così come in tutto il paese, partiti politici e istituzioni si trovano di fronte ai problemi della ricostruzione, non solo materiale, dell’Italia. Dopo il regime fascista è necessario rieducare gli italiani alla libertà. Il saggio mostra il ruolo della stampa fiorentina, espressione delle forze antifasciste, in questo processo di formazione. Nel 1944-1946, nonostante le divisioni ideologiche e le contrapposizioni fra i partiti, attraverso i giornali sono promossi una nuova identità per la città, centrata sulla memoria della Resistenza, l’invito alla partecipazione alla vita pubblica e alla politica, il rispetto del voto e delle leggi, la condanna della violenza, per diffondere e consolidare i principi della democrazia

Chapter Biografie, spazi, contesti: educare alla Storia

In this years, historical witnesses of the Resistenza movement are dissolving. In this context where historical knowledge is facing with a growing crisis, how can we stimulate young generation's interest twoards the Resistance movement? The paper tries to answer to this request. Particularly, we are going to propose two hypothesis for didactical work. Firslty, deepening studies about the men and the women who faced with unexpectable choices; secondly, the analysis of places known by students but not appreciated in their historical meaning. In this way, we can approach people to history

The Legacy of Foundlings in Emilia-Romagna (Italy)

Between 1820 and 1929, in Iggio and in Tiola, rural parishes not too distant from the respective chief towns, a large number of marriages occurred between natives and former foundlings. The study of the distribution of surnames within the provinces of Emilia-Romagna (Italy) leads one to believe that the phenomenon was quite widespread in this area. This observation does not wish to call into question what is known about the extinction of families from the towns, their continual replacement by people who immigrated from the surrounding countryside and the resulting gene flow; however, it supplies evidence of how, in many cases, this was accompanied by a gene flow, limited but not negligible, in the opposite direction. The gene flow from immigration occurring over the last hundred years would seem to be on a completely different scale, with a notable impact on the genetic structure of the populations studied

Increased levels of RNA oxidation enhance the reversion frequency in aging pro-apoptotic yeast mutants

Despite recent advances in understanding the complexity of RNA processes, regulation of the metabolism of oxidized cellular RNAs and the mechanisms through which oxidized ribonucleotides affect mRNA translation, and consequently cell viability, are not well characterized. We show here that the level of oxidized RNAs is markedly increased in a yeast decapping Kllsm4Δ1 mutant, which accumulates mRNAs, ages much faster that the wild type strain and undergoes regulated-cell-death. We also found that in Kllsm4Δ1 cells the mutation rate increases during chronological life span indicating that the capacity to han- dle oxidized RNAs in yeast declines with aging. Lowering intracellular ROS levels by antioxidants recovers the wild- type phenotype of mutant cells, including reduced amount of oxidized RNAs and lower mutation rate. Since mRNA oxidation was reported to occur in different neurodegen- erative diseases, decapping-deficient cells may represent a useful tool for deciphering molecular mechanisms of cell response to such conditions, providing new insights into RNA modification-based pathogenesis

Impulsivity Markers in Parkinsonian Subthalamic Single-Unit Activity

Impulsive-compulsive behaviors are common in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. However, the basal ganglia dysfunctions associated with high impulsivity have not been fully characterized. The objective of this study was to identify the features associated with impulsive-compulsive behaviors in single neurons of the subthalamic nucleus (STN)

Preliminary evidence on machine learning approaches for clusterizing students’ cognitive profile

Assessing the cognitive abilities of students in academic contexts can provide valuable insights for teachers to identify their cognitive profile and create personalized teaching strategies. While numerous studies have demonstrated promising outcomes in clustering students based on their cognitive profiles, effective comparisons between various clustering methods are lacking in the current literature. In this study, we aim to compare the effectiveness of two clustering techniques to group students based on their cognitive abilities including general intelligence, attention, visual perception, working memory, and phonological awareness. 292 students, aged 11–15 years, participated in the study. A two-level approach based on the joint use of Kohonen's Self-Organizing Map (SOMs) and k-means clustering algorithm was compared with an approach based on the k-means clustering algorithm only. The resulting profiles were then predicted via AdaBoost and ANN supervised algorithms. The results showed that the two-level approach provides the best solution for this problem while the ANN algorithm was the winner in the classification problem. These results laying the foundations for developing a useful instrument for predicting the students’ cognitive profile