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Constant presence of at least one operator in livestock buildings for broilers would allow a perfect control of animal behaviour and, especially, deviations in feeding and drinking patterns, in the perspective of a high welfare status. However, as nowadays it is impossible for a farmer to be present in the farm all day long, automatic monitoring systems are required. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a system (eYeNamic) for automatic monitoring and analyzing broilers’ behavior in a farm. eYeNamic is a camera system introduced and produced by Fancom BV, a company operating in the field of automation of livestock facilities. It includes three cameras located on the ridge of the broiler house and able to monitor chickens’ behaviour twenty-four hours a day. Through eYeNamic it is possible to process the images and to obtain a measure of animals’ distribution and activity, which can be conceived as valuable indicators of animal welfare. The study presented in this paper was divided into several phases: data collection, images visualization, observation of the distribution and activity of the chickens, and statistical analysis of the observations. The analysis of correlation between the number of 14 days old broilers near the feeding line (manual counted) and the average occupation density measured with eYenamic indicates that the best conditions have occurred with a 50 cm by 75 cm area around each feeding pan. With reference to the drinking line, the best response was found in an area 50 cm wide and the whole drinking line long. For the activity behavior, there was no significant correlation between activity and number of chickens eating from all the pans: this confirms that broilers while eating reduce their activity. It was concluded from this study that eYeNamic is a good system to observe animal behavior and, especially, to take care of their drinking and eating behaviour. A satisfactory correspondence between eYeNamic remote and human observations depends on a correct definition of animals’ eating behaviour. In our case, this correspondence is established for the manual labeling, only if a broiler maintains its whole head inside the pan for a period lasting 20 seconds. In many cases the simple closeness to the pan or drinking line does not guarantee that a broiler is eating or drinking.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) symptoms include inappropriate control of anger and severe emotional dysregulation after rejection in daily life. Nevertheless, when using the Cyberball paradigm, a tossing game to simulate social exclusion, the seven basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, disgust, and contempt) have not been exhaustively tracked out. It was hypothesized that these patients would show anger, contempt, and disgust during the condition of exclusion versus the condition of inclusion. When facial emotions are automatically detected by Artificial Intelligence, “blending”, -or a mixture of at least two emotions- and “masking”, -or showing happiness while expressing negative emotions- may be most easily traced expecting higher percentages during exclusion rather than inclusion. Therefore, face videos of fourteen patients diagnosed with BPD (26 ± 6 years old), recorded while playing the tossing game, were analyzed by the FaceReader software. The comparison of conditions highlighted an interaction for anger: it increased during inclusion and decreased during exclusion. During exclusion, the masking of surprise; i.e., displaying happiness while feeling surprised, was significantly more expressed. Furthermore, disgust and contempt were inversely correlated with greater difficulties in emotion regulation and symptomatology, respectively. Therefore, the automatic detection of emotional expressions during both conditions could be useful in rendering diagnostic guidelines in clinical scenarios.

Summary: Home-care Enteral Nutrition (HEN) is used when patients are unable to feed orally, ensuring the correct and complete administration of essential substances for the health of the body. In Italy, a total of 16,400 patients with HEN have been estimated through a survey carried out in 2012 and the 2005–2012 period saw a significant rise in the number of people needing artificial nutrition. A consensus work involving some of the major Italian HEN experts and stakeholders has been carried out using the Nominal Focus Group technique and Delphi method to discuss HEN and explore the general clinical advantages of commercial preparation. The resulting document presented here focuses on bolus administration with commercial preparations and consequently on the potential advantages of a new bolus administration with a 250 ml Smartflex technology, which simplifies administration by allowing the direct connection of the bottle to the feeding tube.This work has highlighted how bolus administration with commercial preparations can represent a valid tool for the delivery of HEN, improving QoL and psychological well-being, limiting the impact of the disease on social life and eventually bringing pharmaco-economic benefits for the national health system due to waste reduction of both product and devices.

Excessive anthropogenic activities affect landscape patterns and trigger a decrease of natural capital and the level of quality of life. Green infrastructures (GIs) are commonly accepted by scholars as solutions for restoring degraded areas and providing a variety of ecosystem services (ESs). The other way around, the capacity to deliver ESs can be assumed as a relevant starting point for GIs analysis and planning. The assessment of ESs needs extensive investigation and applications, to provide planners, policy makers, and institutional stakeholders with an adequate evaluation tool. The multi-facet nature of ESs assessment implies the use of complex tools able to consider many concerns. In this regard, multicriteria analysis (MCA) is a very popular tool due to its capacity to intertwine a variety of issues in a rigorous way and to support participatory and transparent decision making in the public domain. In this study, we aim at contributing to the integration of GI design into spatial planning starting from the assessment of the net benefit delivered to local society by a GI in the metropolitan area of Bordeaux (France). We assessed the net benefit by confronting the ESs deliverable by the GI and the cost sustained for its construction and maintenance. We applied an MCA-based method to the selection of the most efficient alternative out of three GI paths. We demonstrate that our method is useful for the assessment of cultural and regulating ESs, comparing the GI design alternatives, and considering the preference model of the stakeholders within GI planning and design.

Two Venetian types of swords coming from the “Luigi Marzoli” Arms Museum in Brescia were characterized in this study, to understand their manufacturing process and to gather information about their provenance. Both the blades and the hilts components are analyzed using a multi-methodological approach, to describe possible differences in the metallurgical features that involved classical metallographic and spectroscopic techniques. Microstructural results indicate a complex process for the manufacturing of the blades, by hot-forging, confirmed by a sequence of different microstructures even on the same sample. Furthermore, an interesting and unusual manufacturing technique is used on one of the pommels, which consists of two hemispheres connected by copper joints. Hypothesis about the ironmaking and the provenience of raw materials are obtained by the features and composition of the inclusions. It is suggested that there is the use of both a direct and an indirect process on the swords. It is likely that the minerals used to obtain iron and copper of the swords come from the mines of the Brescia and Bergamo territories. All the hypotheses are consistent with the historical documents of the time that also give information on the diffusion of such swords in the Brescia area.

In 2018, the Luigi Marzoli Museum in Brescia was renovated. The opportunity was also taken to refresh and reorder the exhibitions on display within. Among the most important changes made was the addition of an archaeological section which, together with the renovated Gothic section, greatly expanded the exhibition dedicated to medieval weapons. The following article offers an overview of the museum’s medieval collection from a purely museological point of view; beginning with a review on the history and concept of a medieval armoury, it focuses on the changes made during the renovation phase. These alterations were designed to expand upon Luigi Marzoli’s original vision for his collection and to offer the visitor a clear development of medieval armaments, from Late Antiquity to the dawn of the Modern Age.

Abstract Background The social motivational theory of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focuses on social anhedonia as key causal feature of the impaired peer relationships that characterize ASD patients. ASD prevalence is higher in boys, but increasing evidence suggests underdiagnosis and undertreatment in girls. We showed that stress-induced motivational anhedonia is relieved by repeated treatment with fenofibrate (FBR), a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) agonist. Here, we used the valproic acid (VPA) model of ASD in rats to examine male and female phenotypes and assess whether FBR administration from weaning to young adulthood relieved social impairments. Methods Male and female rats exposed to saline or VPA at gestational day 12.5 received standard or FBR-enriched diet from postnatal day 21 to 48–53, when behavioral tests and ex vivo neurochemical analyses were performed. Phosphorylation levels of DARPP-32 in response to social and nonsocial cues, as index of dopamine D1 receptor activation, levels of expression of PPARα, vesicular glutamatergic and GABAergic transporters, and postsynaptic density protein PSD-95 were analyzed by immunoblotting in selected brain regions. Results FBR administration relieved social impairment and perseverative behavior in VPA-exposed male and female rats, but it was only effective on female stereotypies. Dopamine D1 receptor signaling triggered by social interaction in the nucleus accumbens shell was blunted in VPA-exposed rats, and it was rescued by FBR treatment only in males. VPA-exposed rats of both sexes exhibited an increased ratio of striatal excitatory over inhibitory synaptic markers that was normalized by FBR treatment. Limitations This study did not directly address the extent of motivational deficit in VPA-exposed rats and whether FBR administration restored the likely decreased motivation to operate for social reward. Future studies using operant behavior protocols will address this relevant issue. Conclusions The results support the involvement of impaired motivational mechanisms in ASD-like social deficits and suggest the rationale for a possible pharmacological treatment. Moreover, the study highlights sex-related differences in the expression of ASD-like symptoms and their differential responses to FBR treatment.

Although 1-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) is the mainstay therapy for treating Parkinson's disease (PD), its long-term administration is accompanied by the development of motor complications, particularly L-DOPA induced dyskinesia (LID), that dramatically affects patients' quality of life. LID has consistently been related to an excessive dopamine receptor transmission, particularly at the down-stream signaling of the striatal D1 receptors (D1R), resulting in an exaggerated stimulation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway. We previously reported that pharmacological blockade of 5alpha-reductase (5AR), the rate-limiting enzyme in neurosteroids synthesis, attenuates the severity of a broad set of behavioral alterations induced by D1R and D3R activation, without inducing extrapyramidal symptoms.In line with this evidence, in a recent study, we found that inhibition of 5AR by finasteride (FIN) produced a significant reduction of dyskinesia induced by L-DOPA and direct dopaminergic agonists in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats.In the attempt to further investigate the effect of 5AR inhibitors on dyskinesia and shed light on the mechanism of action, in the present study we compared the effect of FIN and dutasteride (DUTA), a potent dual 5AR inhibitor, on the development of LID, on the therapeutic efficacy of L-DOPA, on the molecular alterations downstream to the D1R, as well as on D1R-D3R interaction.The results indicated that both FIN and DUTA administration significantly reduced development and expression of LID; however, DUTA appeared more effective than FIN at a lower dose and produced its antidyskinetic effect without impacting the ability of L-DOPA to increase motor activation, or ameliorate forelimb use in parkinsonian rats.Moreover, this study demonstrates for the first time that 5AR inhibitors are able to prevent key events in the appearance of dyskinesia, such as L-DOPA-induced upregulation of striatal D1R-related cAMP/PKA/ERK signaling pathways and D1R-D3R coimmunoprecipitation, an index of heteromer formation.These findings are relevant as they confirm the 5AR enzyme as a potential therapeutic target for treatment of dyskinesia in PD, suggesting the first ever evidence that neurosteroidogenesis may affect functional interaction between dopamine D1R and D3R.

Videotape recordings obtained during an initial and conventional psychiatric interview were used to assess possible emotional differences in facial expressions and acoustic parameters of the voice between Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) female patients and matched controls. The incidence of seven basic emotion expressions, emotional valence, heart rate, and vocal frequency (f0), and intensity (dB) of the discourse adjectives and interjections were determined through the application of computational software to the visual (FaceReader) and sound (PRAAT) tracks of the videotape recordings. The extensive data obtained were analyzed by three statistical strategies: linear multilevel modeling, correlation matrices, and exploratory network analysis. In comparison with healthy controls, BPD patients express a third less sadness and show a higher number of positive correlations (14 vs. 8) and a cluster of related nodes among the prosodic parameters and the facial expressions of anger, disgust, and contempt. In contrast, control subjects showed negative or null correlations between such facial expressions and prosodic parameters. It seems feasible that BPD patients restrain the facial expression of specific emotions in an attempt to achieve social acceptance. Moreover, the confluence of prosodic and facial expressions of negative emotions reflects a sympathetic activation which is opposed to the social engagement system. Such BPD imbalance reflects an emotional alteration and a dysfunctional behavioral strategy that may constitute a useful biobehavioral indicator of the severity and clinical course of the disorder. This face/voice/heart rate emotional expression assessment (EMEX) may be used in the search for reliable biobehavioral correlates of other psychopathological conditions.

Peroxisome proliferator-activator receptors (PPARs) regulate lipid and glucose metabolism, control inflammatory processes, and modulate several brain functions. Three PPAR isoforms have been identified, PPARα, PPARβ/δ, and PPARγ, which are expressed in different tissues and cell types. Hereinafter, we focus on PPARα involvement in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, which is underscored by PPARα localization in neuronal circuits involved in emotion modulation and stress response, and its role in neurodevelopment and neuroinflammation. A multiplicity of downstream pathways modulated by PPARα activation, including glutamatergic neurotransmission, upregulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and neurosteroidogenic effects, encompass mechanisms underlying behavioral regulation. Modulation of dopamine neuronal firing in the ventral tegmental area likely contributes to PPARα effects in depression, anhedonia, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Based on robust preclinical evidence and the initial results of clinical studies, future clinical trials should assess the efficacy of PPARα agonists in the treatment of mood and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, and ASD.

According to a worldwide well-known attitude, also in Italy, the assessment of scientific production in the last decades has been progressively based on the analysis of the impact through bibliometric variables. Various data sets, such as Scopus by Elsevier and Web of Science by Thomson Reuters, are designed and maintained to index a steadily increasing range of essays: mostly journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. The indexing relays on the capacity to evaluate and update specific impact measures by keeping track of the citations representing the relations between the essays. The related opportunity to interpret bibliographic systems as research and development (R&D) networks attracted the interest of scientists operating, beyond the field of bibliometric analysis, in the realm of social networking. Network analysis belongs to mechanical statistics and is able to make sense of interconnected systems including very large sets of nodes and links. In this paper, we present a network approach to the review of the scientific production in the time period January, 2003-June, 2016 of Italian agricultural engineers, namely scientists belonging to the Italian ministerial scientific disciplinary sector AGR/10 - rural buildings and agro-forestry territory. Starting from 238 articles indexed in the Web of Knowledge database and published by 87 AGR/10 scholars, we apply four network analysis approaches to the study of the citations among articles, the most influential journals and topics, the co-authorship, the most favourite keywords with their evolution in time, and the communities’ pattern. We discover that Italian agricultural engineers are interlaced in a sparse network with a still limited tendency toward citing each other and are inclined to team up in established research groups based on a single university. As for the dualism between rural buildings and territory, we document on a relevant expansion of the issues related to landscape analysis and planning and a continuous renewal of studies concerning the relation between rural buildings and biomass and energy management. We advance that Italian agricultural engineers are not confronted anymore with two monolithic macro themes, i.e. building design and landscape analysis and planning. Instead, the complexity and interplay between these two domains has dramatically increased in a somehow diverging universe of even more specialised and trans-scale topics.

The decline of natural capital resulting from urbanization has triggered phenomena such as landscape fragmentation and loss of biodiversity. European institutions have published documents and strategies with the purpose of counteracting such phenomena. In this regard, in 2020 the European Commission released the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which defines biodiversity conservation objectives and promotes the implementation of green infrastructures (GIs) designed to supply ecosystem services, which can increase people’s well-being. The scientific literature has scarcely dealt with methods for drafting guidance documents (guidelines) to support public administrations in the implementation of GIs. In this study, we aim at designing and applying a method for drafting GI guidelines. We apply the method to the Metropolitan City of Cagliari, the main urbanized area—which partially includes the former Province of Cagliari—of Sardinia (Italy). According to the findings, a proposal of GI guidelines should be rooted in context analysis and consistency checks and should be tailored to specific geographical and institutional contexts. The preliminary guidelines described in this study are designed to provide public administrations with GI guidelines based on scientific, technical, and cultural considerations, and are aimed at supporting an effective implementation of GIs and a GI network.

Composite indicators (CIs), i.e., combinations of many indicators in a unique synthetizing measure, are useful for disentangling multisector phenomena. Prominent questions concern indicators’ weighting, which implies time-consuming activities and should be properly justified. Landscape fragmentation (LF), the subdivision of habitats in smaller and more isolated patches, has been studied through the composite index of landscape fragmentation (CILF). It was originally proposed by us as an unweighted combination of three LF indicators for the study of the phenomenon in Sardinia, Italy. In this paper, we aim at presenting a weighted release of the CILF and at developing the Hamletian question of whether weighting is worthwhile or not. We focus on the sensitivity of the composite to different algorithms combining three weighting patterns (equalization, extraction by principal component analysis, and expert judgment) and three indicators aggregation rules (weighted average mean, weighted geometric mean, and weighted generalized geometric mean). The exercise provides the reader with meaningful results. Higher sensitivity values signal that the effort of weighting leads to more informative composites. Otherwise, high robustness does not mean that weighting was not worthwhile. Weighting per se can be beneficial for more acceptable and viable decisional processes.

The European Directive 2001/42/EC (Directive) has introduced the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), a procedure for assessing the effects of certain plans and programs on the environment. The Directive has been transposed in different ways and times within Europe: member states have frequently drawn up guidelines to facilitate SEA implementation, by adopting different approaches. So far a few studies have been performed to analyze SEA guidelines. In this paper we aim to analyze key elements of SEA guidelines released by seven European countries in order to evaluate the effectiveness of those documents and SEA implementation. We have found that no SEA guidelines satisfy all key elements we have identified. Based on the latter finding, this work is introductory to a further analysis which aims to characterize SEA guidelines and define a proposal of SEA guidelines for landscape planning in the Italian region of Sardinia.

Urban-rural landscape planning research is nowadays focusing on strategies and tools that support practitioners in designing integrated spaces starting from the analysis of local areas, where human and natural pressures interfere. A prominent framework is provided by the ecological networks, whose design regards the combination of a set of green areas or patches (the nodes) interconnected through environmental corridors (the edges). Ecological networks are useful for biodiversity protection and enhancement, as they are able to counteract fragmentation, and to create or strengthen relations and exchanges among otherwise isolated elements. Biodiversity evolution, indeed, depends on the quantity and quality of spatial cohesion of natural areas. In this paper, we aim at designing an ecological network for the periurban area on the town of Nuoro in central Sardinia. The narrative unfolds in two parts. Part A is presented in this paper and includes its methodological premises, i.e. biodiversity conservation and ecological network analysis and design, and the introductory elements of a spatial analysis on a pilot ecological network of one hundred patches. We locate patches by focusing on the ecosystems supported by the target vegetal species holm oak (Quercus ilex) and cultivated or wild olive (Olea europaea var. sativa, O. europaea var. sylverstis). These are very common plants species in the municipality and some animal species are active as seed dispersal. The reminder, i.e. Part B, of the essay is presented in an homonymous paper that focuses on the illustration of the network analysis conceived as a monitoring system and, in future perspective, as a planning support system.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are involved in seizure mechanisms. Hence, nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy was the first idiopathic epilepsy linked with specific mutations in α4 or β2 nAChR subunit genes. These mutations confer gain of function to nAChRs by increasing sensitivity toward acetylcholine. Consistently, nicotine elicits seizures through nAChRs and mimics the excessive nAChR activation observed in animal models of the disease. Treatments aimed at reducing nicotinic inputs are sought as therapies for epilepsies where these receptors contribute to neuronal excitation and synchronization. Previous studies demonstrated that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-α (PPARα), nuclear receptor transcription factors, suppress nicotine-induced behavioral and electrophysiological effects by modulating nAChRs containing β2 subunits. On these bases, we tested whether PPARα agonists were protective against nicotine-induced seizures. To this aim we utilized behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) experiments in C57BL/J6 mice and in vitro patch clamp recordings from mice and rats. Convulsive doses of nicotine evoked severe seizures and bursts of spike-waves discharges in ∼100% of mice. A single dose of the synthetic PPARα agonist WY14643 (WY, 80 mg/kg, i.p.) or chronic administration of fenofibrate, clinically available for lipid metabolism disorders, in the diet (0.2%) for 14 days significantly reduced or abolished behavioral and EEG expressions of nicotine-induced seizures. Acute WY effects were reverted by the PPARα antagonist MK886 (3 mg/kg, i.p.). Since neocortical networks are crucial in the generation of ictal activity and synchrony, we performed patch clamp recordings of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) from frontal cortex layer II/III pyramidal neurons. We found that both acute and chronic treatment with PPARα agonists abolished nicotine-induced sIPSC increases. PPARα within the CNS are key regulators of neuronal activity through modulation of nAChRs. These effects might be therapeutically exploited for idiopathic or genetically determined forms of epilepsy where nAChRs play a major role.

Nature Communications 5: Article number: 3513 (2014); Published: 29 April 2016; Updated: 31 October 2016 This article was published without any competing financial interests statement. A revised declaration that lists potentially competing financial interests is provided below: A.D.M., M.M. and M.A.are affiliated with Bcs Biotech S.

In this paper a contribution is presented with respect to accessibility indicators modelling for commuters moving through the municipalities of Sardinia, in Italy. In this case, spatial complex network analysis is integrated into the construction of accessibility measures: one of the most relevant outcomes of the first tool –the detection of shortest road paths and distances- is adopted as an input for the second in modelling accessibility indicators. Instead of Euclidean distances often adopted in the literature, shortest road distances are chosen, as commuting implies movements that are usually repeated daily and very likely subjected, even unconsciously, to space and time minimization strategies. In particular, two commuter accessibility indicators are constructed according to approaches based on a travel cost and a spatial interaction model with impedance function calibrated in exponential and in power form. The accessibility indicators are confronted each other and with relevant socio-economic and infrastructure characteristics of Sardinia. In addition, they are described, with respect to their spatial distribution and their different implications, when adopted in decision-making and planning. The travel cost based accessibility indicator has a municipal spatial distribution strongly influenced by the main road infrastructure of the Island. By contrast, spatial interaction model based accessibility indicators are more reliable, with respect to their capacity to confirm a leading socio-economic role of the municipalities comprehended in the metropolitan area of the capital town Cagliari.

This study analyzes the inter-municipal commuting systems of the Italian islands of Sardinia and Sicily, employing weighted network analysis technique. Based on the results obtained for the Sardinian commuting network, the network analysis is used to identify similarities and dissimilarities between the two systems.

Transport and mobility plans imply strategies and actions that affect the environment. The European Union has introduced in 2001 the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to take into account and mitigate adverse environmental effects in planning and decision-making. SEA limited implementation has attracted the interest of many scholars that have sought methods able to assess the quality of SEA processes by identifying vices and virtues in practice. In this paper, we measure the quality of eight SEAs for transport and mobility plans of regional and provincial administrations of Italy. Results show that the overall quality level of SEA reports is only barely sufficient, Abruzzo is among the virtuous and Piedmont among the critical administrations. We also stress that the determination of impact significance has received the worse quality score. We finally compare our results to other Italian and British homologous cases finding interesting and generally confirmative evidences.

Background: The antiepileptic lamotrigine is approved for maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder and augmentation therapy in treatment-resistant depression. Previous preclinical investigations showed lamotrigine antidepressant-like effects without addressing its possible activity on motivational aspects of anhedonia, a symptom clinically associated with poor treatment response and with blunted mesolimbic dopaminergic responsiveness to salient stimuli in preclinical models. Thus, in rats expressing a depressive-like phenotype we studied whether repeated lamotrigine administration restored behavioral responses to aversive and positive stimuli and the dopaminergic response to sucrose in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcS), all disrupted by stress exposure. Methods: Depressive-like phenotype was induced in non-food-deprived adult male Sprague-Dawley rats by exposure to a chronic protocol of alternating unavoidable tail-shocks or restraint periods. We examined whether lamotrigine administration (7.5 mg/kg twice a day, i.p.) for 14–21 days restored a) the competence to escape aversive stimuli; b) the motivation to operate in sucrose self-administration protocols; c) the dopaminergic response to sucrose consumption, evaluated measuring phosphorylation levels of cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein Mr 32,000 (DARPP-32) in the NAcS, by immunoblotting. Results: Lamotrigine administration restored the response to aversive stimuli and the motivation to operate for sucrose. Moreover, it reinstated NAcS DARPP-32 phosphorylation changes in response to sucrose consumption. Limitations: The pro-motivational effects of lamotrigine that we report may not completely transpose to clinical use, since anhedonia is a multidimensional construct and the motivational aspects, although relevant, are not the only components. Conclusions: This study shows antidepressant-like and pro-motivational effects of repeated lamotrigine administration in a rat model of depressive symptoms.

Objective: Current treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) consists of psychotherapy and pharmacological interventions. However, the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) could be beneficial to improve some BPD symptoms. The objective of this study was to evaluate clinical improvement in patients with BPD after application of rTMS over the right or left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Method: Twenty-nine patients with BPD from the National Institute of Psychiatry, Mexico, were randomized in two groups to receive 15 sessions of rTMS applied over the right (1 Hz, n=15) or left (5 Hz, n=14) DLPFC. Improvement was measured by the Clinical Global Impression Scale for BPD (CGI-BPD), Borderline Evaluation of Severity Over Time (BEST), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). Results: Intragroup comparison showed significant (p < 0.05) reductions in every psychopathologic domain of the CGI-BPD and in the total scores of all scales in both groups. Conclusions: Both protocols produced global improvement in severity and symptoms of BPD, particularly in impulsiveness, affective instability, and anger. Further studies are warranted to explore the therapeutic effect of rTMS in BPD. Clinical trial registration: NCT02273674.

This paper represents the continuation, i.e. Part B, of an homonymous paper aiming at designing an ecological network for the periurban area on the town of Nuoro in central Sardinia. While in Part A we illustrate the methodological premises and introduce a spatial network analysis-based study of a pilot ecological network, in this paper we apply a complex network analysis approach to the construction and characterization of the dynamics of the ecological network of Nuoro. We are interested in monitoring the performance of the ecological network evolving from a real to a hypothetical scenario, where the two target vegetal species (holm oak and cultivated or wild olive) are present in each patch. We focus on global network properties and on three different centrality measures: degree, clustering coefficient, and betweenness centrality. We also take into account the influence of the intensity of the connection (i.e. the weight) by introducing the corresponding weighted centrality measures. Through thematic mapping we illustrate the pattern of each centrality indicator throughout the entire pilot set of patches. In this way, we demonstrate how spatial network analysis is useful to monitor the performance of the network and to support decision-making, management, and planning.

The late formal tradition of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) European Directive into the Italian planning system has so far induced a variety of behaviour of administrative bodies and planning agencies involved. In Italy and Sardinia, a new approach to landscape planning is characterizing spatial planning practice from the regional to the municipal level. Currently municipalities are adjusting their master plan to the prescriptions of the regional landscape planning instrument (in Italian, Piano Paesaggistico Regionale, PPR), according to processes that have to be integrated with a proper SEA development. With respect to this background, the aim of this paper is to assess the level of SEA implementation on the master plans of Sardinia six years after the approval of the PPR. The first results show that many municipalities are not provided with a master plan (in Italian, Piano Urbanistico Comunale, PUC) and they have in force just an old planning tool. Moreover, just some municipalities have adapted the PUC to the PPR carrying out a SEA process.

Abstract Background Cervical cancer ranks as the first most frequent cancer among women in Benin. The major cause of cervical cancer now recognized is persistent infection of Human Papillomavirus (HPV). In Benin there is a lack of screening programs for prevention of cervical cancer and little information exists regarding HPV genotype distribution. Methods Cervical cells from 725 women were examined for the presence of viral DNA by means of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) multiplex-based assay with the amplification of a fragment of L1 region and of E6/E7 region of the HPV genome, and of abnormal cytology by Papanicolaou method. The association between HPV status and Pap test reports was evaluated. Socio-demographic and reproductive characteristics were also related. Results A total of 18 different HPV types were identified, with a prevalence of 33.2% overall, and 52% and 26.7% among women with and without cervical lesions, respectively. Multiple HPV infections were observed in 40.2% of HPV-infected women. In the HPV-testing group, the odds ratio for the detection of abnormal cytology was 2.98 (95% CI, 1.83-4.84) for HPV positive in comparison to HPV negative women. High risk types were involved in 88% of infections, most notably HPV-59, HPV-35, HPV-16, HPV-18, HPV-58 and HPV-45. In multiple infections of women with cytological abnormalities HPV-45 predominated. Conclusions This study provides the first estimates of the prevalence of HPV and type-specific distribution among women from Benin and demonstrates that the epidemiology of HPV infection in Benin is different from that of other world regions. Specific area vaccinations may be needed to prevent cervical cancer and the other HPV-related diseases.