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L’intervento si propone come una riflessione sull’insegnamento della linguistica nell’ambito dei corsi in Comunicazione interculturale. Come spesso viene sottolineato, anche recentemente in occasione degli “Stati Generali della lingua e della creatività italiane nel mondo” (2021), nell’anno delle celebrazioni per i 700 anni della nascita di Dante, l’italiano è una delle lingue più studiate al mondo. Una delle cause di questo grande interesse sembra essere la curiosità, da parte dei più giovani studenti stranieri, nei confronti delle caratteristiche del Made in Italy. Tuttavia, le imprese italiane non riescono a valorizzare adeguatamente la complessità culturale alla base del prodotto italiano, proprio a causa della incapacità di comunicare in modo efficace gli aspetti che lo caratterizzano. Molto spesso viene dato per scontato che il consumatore conosca il contesto culturale alla base del prodotto, errore che si amplifica quando il consumatore proviene da Paesi geograficamente e culturalmente lontani dal nostro. Le imprese hanno bisogno di narratori che siano in grado di raccontare in un linguaggio comprensibile al consumatore le molte caratteristiche del prodotto italiano. Un’opera di traduzione delicata e complessa che richiede un’approfondita conoscenza sia del nostro sistema di valori che di quello del destinatario della comunicazione. All’aumentare della distanza culturale dei consumatori maggiore dovrà essere l’attenzione alle modalità di comunicazione. Per comunicare nei mercati dei Paesi emergenti, in particolare orientali, è necessario non solo conoscere l’evoluzione dei media digitali, ma anche dominare gli aspetti linguistici e culturali. I testi nelle lingue straniere non possono essere la semplice traduzione dei testi italiani; al contrario, sono delle riformulazioni che tengono conto sia della diversità delle categorie culturali di riferimento delle diverse società, sia delle difficoltà di resa traduttiva degli usi linguistici della lingua

Cancer patients are at an increased risk of developing severe consequences due to the COVID-19 infection. However, psychological outcomes in this population have been overlooked in the literature. The present study aims to identify significant psychological differences between gynecological cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy before and during the pandemic. Additionally, we explore the correlations between COVID-19-related concerns and anxiety, depression, distress, and quality of life levels. Forty-two patients completed the STAI-Y, the EORTC QLQ-C30, the BDI II, the DT, and an ad-hoc questionnaire that investigated COVID-19-related concerns. The analyses did not show significant differences in the psychometric scales between the two groups, highlighting a considerable resilience against mental health and quality of life deterioration during the COVID-19 pandemic in gynecologic cancer patients. However, COVID-19-related concerns were positively associated with anxiety and inversely related to emotional functioning levels. These results emphasize the importance of a comprehensive patient care and the need to implement a multidisciplinary approach that includes psychological support in the treatment plan. Moreover, it is essential to encourage clear communication to convey comprehensive information about the impact of the pandemic on physical and psychological levels, as well as to offer psychoeducational tools to face the pandemic.

The “Healthcare workers’ wellbeing [Benessere Operatori]” project is an exploratory longitudinal study assessing healthcare workers’ mental health at three different time points over a 14-month period during the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected socio-demographic and work-related information and assessed the perceived social support, coping strategies, and levels of depression, anxiety, insomnia, anger, burnout, and PTSD symptoms. In total, 325 Italian healthcare workers (i.e. physicians, nurses, other healthcare workers, and clerks) participated in the first initial survey and either the second or third subsequent survey. Participants reported subclinical levels of psychiatric symptoms that remained mostly unchanged across time, except for an increase in stress, depression, state anger, and emotional exhaustion symptoms. Despite subclinical levels, healthcare workers’ distress can adversely affect the quality of care, patient satisfaction, and medical error rates. Therefore, implementing interventions to improve healthcare workers’ wellbeing is required.

Purpose: This research aimed to investigate the socio-demographic, clinical, and psychological variables predictive of a greater functioning and quality of life in patients with gynecological cancer after their first cycle of carboplatin and taxol-based chemotherapy. Methods: The sample of the present research consisted of 104 patients. The European Organization on Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Form Y, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were administered to each participant. Results: The analyses showed that higher state anxiety levels predicted a lower role, emotional, and social functioning and a lower general quality of life. Higher trait anxiety levels and social support perceived from one's friends predicted a greater role functioning. Similarly, having a relationship predicted a greater physical, cognitive, and social functioning. On the contrary, the presence of relapsed cancer was negatively associated with these patients' quality of life. Conclusions: The present study highlighted the importance of identifying patients at higher risk of experiencing lower levels of functioning and worse general quality of life to implement tailored interventions from the beginning of treatment, thus improving the quality of life of these patients throughout the chemotherapy treatment.

Background: COVID-19 forced healthcare workers to work in unprecedented and critical circumstances, exacerbating already-problematic and stressful working conditions. The “Healthcare workers’ wellbeing (Benessere Operatori)” project aimed at identifying psychological and personal factors, influencing individuals’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: 291 healthcare workers took part in the project by answering an online questionnaire twice (after the first wave of COVID-19 and during the second wave) and completing questions on socio-demographic and work-related information, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Brief Cope. Results: Higher levels of worry, worse working conditions, a previous history of psychiatric illness, being a nurse, older age, and avoidant and emotion-focused coping strategies seem to be risk factors for healthcare workers’ mental health. High levels of perceived social support, the attendance of emergency training, and problem-focused coping strategies play a protective role. Conclusions: An innovative, and more flexible, data mining statistical approach (i.e., a regression trees approach for repeated measures data) allowed us to identify risk factors and derive classification rules that could be helpful to implement targeted interventions for healthcare workers.

Subterranean ecosystems are among the most widespread environments on Earth, yet we still have poor knowledge of their biodiversity. To raise awareness of subterranean ecosystems, the essential services they provide, and their unique conservation challenges, 2021 and 2022 were designated International Years of Caves and Karst. As these ecosystems have traditionally been overlooked in global conservation agendas and multilateral agreements, a quantitative assessment of solution-based approaches to safeguard subterranean biota and associated habitats is timely. This assessment allows researchers and practitioners to understand the progress made and research needs in subterranean ecology and management. We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed and grey literature focused on subterranean ecosystems globally (terrestrial, freshwater, and saltwater systems), to quantify the available evidence-base for the effectiveness of conservation interventions. We selected 708 publications from the years 1964 to 2021 that discussed, recommended, or implemented 1,954 conservation interventions in subterranean ecosystems. We noted a steep increase in the number of studies from the 2000s while, surprisingly, the proportion of studies quantifying the impact of conservation interventions has steadily and significantly decreased in recent years. The effectiveness of 31% of conservation interventions has been tested statistically. We further highlight that 64% of the reported research occurred in the Palearctic and Nearctic biogeographic regions. Assessments of the effectiveness of conservation interventions were heavily biased towards indirect measures (monitoring and risk assessment), a limited sample of organisms (mostly arthropods and bats), and more accessible systems (terrestrial caves). Our results indicate that most conservation science in the field of subterranean biology does not apply a rigorous quantitative approach, resulting in sparse evidence for the effectiveness of

Subterranean ecosystems are among the most widespread environments on Earth, yet we still have poor knowledge of their biodiversity. To raise awareness of subterranean ecosystems, the essential services they provide, and their unique conservation challenges, 2021 and 2022 were designated International Years of Caves and Karst. As these ecosystems have traditionally been overlooked in global conservation agendas and multilateral agreements, a quantitative assessment of solution-based approaches to safeguard subterranean biota and associated habitats is timely. This assessment allows researchers and practitioners to understand the progress made and research needs in subterranean ecology and management. We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed and grey literature focused on subterranean ecosystems globally (terrestrial, freshwater, and saltwater systems), to quantify the available evidence-base for the effectiveness of conservation interventions. We selected 708 publications from the years 1964 to 2021 that discussed, recommended, or implemented 1,954 conservation interventions in subterranean ecosystems. We noted a steep increase in the number of studies from the 2000s while, surprisingly, the proportion of studies quantifying the impact of conservation interventions has steadily and significantly decreased in recent years. The effectiveness of 31% of conservation interventions has been tested statistically. We further highlight that 64% of the reported research occurred in the Palearctic and Nearctic biogeographic regions. Assessments of the effectiveness of conservation interventions were heavily biased towards indirect measures (monitoring and risk assessment), a limited sample of organisms (mostly arthropods and bats), and more accessible systems (terrestrial caves). Our results indicate that most conservation science in the field of subterranean biology does not apply a rigorous quantitative approach, resulting in sparse evidence for the effectiveness of

Subterranean ecosystems are among the most widespread environments on Earth, yet we still have poor knowledge of their biodiversity. To raise awareness of subterranean ecosystems, the essential services they provide, and their unique conservation challenges, 2021 and 2022 were designated International Years of Caves and Karst. As these ecosystems have traditionally been overlooked in global conservation agendas and multilateral agreements, a quantitative assessment of solution-based approaches to safeguard subterranean biota and associated habitats is timely. This assessment allows researchers and practitioners to understand the progress made and research needs in subterranean ecology and management. We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed and grey literature focused on subterranean ecosystems globally (terrestrial, freshwater, and saltwater systems), to quantify the available evidence-base for the effectiveness of conservation interventions. We selected 708 publications from the years 1964 to 2021 that discussed, recommended, or implemented 1,954 conservation interventions in subterranean ecosystems. We noted a steep increase in the number of studies from the 2000s while, surprisingly, the proportion of studies quantifying the impact of conservation interventions has steadily and significantly decreased in recent years. The effectiveness of 31% of conservation interventions has been tested statistically. We further highlight that 64% of the reported research occurred in the Palearctic and Nearctic biogeographic regions. Assessments of the effectiveness of conservation interventions were heavily biased towards indirect measures (monitoring and risk assessment), a limited sample of organisms (mostly arthropods and bats), and more accessible systems (terrestrial caves). Our results indicate that most conservation science in the field of subterranean biology does not apply a rigorous quantitative approach, resulting in sparse evidence for the effectiveness of

Purpose: This research aimed to investigate the socio-demographic, clinical, and psychological variables predictive of a greater functioning and quality of life in patients with gynecological cancer after their first cycle of carboplatin and taxol-based chemotherapy. Methods: The sample of the present research consisted of 104 patients. The European Organization on Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Form Y, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support were administered to each participant. Results: The analyses showed that higher state anxiety levels predicted a lower role, emotional, and social functioning and a lower general quality of life. Higher trait anxiety levels and social support perceived from one's friends predicted a greater role functioning. Similarly, having a relationship predicted a greater physical, cognitive, and social functioning. On the contrary, the presence of relapsed cancer was negatively associated with these patients' quality of life. Conclusions: The present study highlighted the importance of identifying patients at higher risk of experiencing lower levels of functioning and worse general quality of life to implement tailored interventions from the beginning of treatment, thus improving the quality of life of these patients throughout the chemotherapy treatment.

Background: COVID-19 forced healthcare workers to work in unprecedented and critical circumstances, exacerbating already-problematic and stressful working conditions. The “Healthcare workers’ wellbeing (Benessere Operatori)” project aimed at identifying psychological and personal factors, influencing individuals’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: 291 healthcare workers took part in the project by answering an online questionnaire twice (after the first wave of COVID-19 and during the second wave) and completing questions on socio-demographic and work-related information, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Brief Cope. Results: Higher levels of worry, worse working conditions, a previous history of psychiatric illness, being a nurse, older age, and avoidant and emotion-focused coping strategies seem to be risk factors for healthcare workers’ mental health. High levels of perceived social support, the attendance of emergency training, and problem-focused coping strategies play a protective role. Conclusions: An innovative, and more flexible, data mining statistical approach (i.e., a regression trees approach for repeated measures data) allowed us to identify risk factors and derive classification rules that could be helpful to implement targeted interventions for healthcare workers.

During the last year, the COVID-19 outbreak put all the healthcare workers around the world at risk of physical and psychological sequelae. The general purpose of the present study was to assess the mental health of Italian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak and to identify high-risk groups. Here, we present results from the baseline assessment of the “Healthcare workers’ wellbeing (Benessere Operatori)” project on a sample of 1055 healthcare workers. Participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Healthcare workers who worked in COVID wards reported higher levels of anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress, anger, and burnout, compared to those reported by the healthcare workers who worked in non-COVID wards. Moreover, nurses, both in COVID and non-COVID wards, were at higher risk of experiencing psychological distress compared to other groups of healthcare workers. These findings highlight the importance of implementing targeted psychological interventions for healthcare workers operating in COVID wards and nurses, who seem to be the most vulnerable categories.

The in vivo depletion of recipient and donor T lymphocytes using antithymocyte globulin (ATG; Thymoglobulin) is widely adopted in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) to reduce the incidence of both graft failure and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). However, excess toxicity to donor lymphocytes may hamper immune reconstitution, compromising antitumor effects and increasing infection. Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) administered early after HCT may increase ATG-mediated lymphotoxicity. This study aimed to investigate the effect of an interaction between ATG and post-transplantation granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) on allogeneic HCT outcomes, using the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) registry. We studied patients age ≥18 years with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who received Thymoglobulin-containing preparative regimens for HLA-matched sibling/unrelated or mismatched unrelated donor HCT between 2010 and 2018. The effect of planned G-CSF that was started between pretransplantation day 3 and post-transplantation day 12 was studied in comparison with transplantations that did not include G-CSF. Cox regression models were built to identify risk factors associated with outcomes at 1 year after transplantation. A total of 874 patients met the study eligibility criteria, of whom 459 (53%) received planned G-CSF. HCT with planned G-CSF was associated with a significantly increased risk for nonrelapse mortality (NRM) (hazard ratio [HR] 2.03; P <.0001; 21% versus 12%) compared to HCT without G-CSF. The 6-month incidence of viral infection was higher with G-CSF (56% versus 47%; P = .007), with a particular increase in Epstein-Barr virus infections (19% versus 11%; P = .002). The observed higher NRM with planned G-CSF led to lower overall survival (HR, 1.52; P = .0005; 61% versus 72%). There was no difference in GVHD risk between the treatment groups. We per

During the last year, the COVID-19 outbreak put all the healthcare workers around the world at risk of physical and psychological sequelae. The general purpose of the present study was to assess the mental health of Italian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak and to identify high-risk groups. Here, we present results from the baseline assessment of the “Healthcare workers’ wellbeing (Benessere Operatori)” project on a sample of 1055 healthcare workers. Participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, the Insomnia Severity Index, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Healthcare workers who worked in COVID wards reported higher levels of anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress, anger, and burnout, compared to those reported by the healthcare workers who worked in non-COVID wards. Moreover, nurses, both in COVID and non-COVID wards, were at higher risk of experiencing psychological distress compared to other groups of healthcare workers. These findings highlight the importance of implementing targeted psychological interventions for healthcare workers operating in COVID wards and nurses, who seem to be the most vulnerable categories.

The topic of the paper is an analysis of the debated notion of the category ‘pronoun’ in East and Southeast Asian languages, with a special focus on Japanese. After a description of the main aspects of the notion of ‘person’ as a grammatical category, the focus is devoted to personal pronouns in general and then to personal pronouns in East and Southeast Asian languages. Special attention is devoted to Japanese personal pronouns, taking into account the Emancipatory Pragmatics approach.

The paper proposes the realization and the preliminary characterization of a short–range localization systems based on the measurement of magnetic fields. Fixed anchors that generate sinusoidal wave magnetic fields at different frequencies and mobile anchors that measure the received magnetic field values compose the system. Main topics faced in the paper are: the realization and the preliminary characterization of threedimensional magnetic field sensors based on the suitable arrangement of single axis TMR magnetic sensors and the proposal of a novel, scalable and flexible localization set-up allowing multiple mobile agents without increasing the complexity and the operational time of the system. Thanks to the low cost and the flexibility of the proposal, the realized system has a wide impact on the possible applications in industrial, medical and smart-life fields. For example, it can be adopted in localization of probes that execute the defect detection in specimen, in the realization of low cost devices that help in recognizing the health–state of peoples affected by motor problems related to neurological diseases, in application related to the virtual reality, etc. At this stage, the obtained results place the measurement accuracy lower than 1 cm when the localization range is a cube of 30 cm., Postprint (updated version)

Cadaveric rigidity—also referred to as rigor mortis—is a valuable source of information for estimating the time of death, which is a fundamental and challenging task in forensic sciences. Despite its relevance, assessing the level of cadaveric rigidity still relies on qualitative and often subjective observations, and the development of a more quantitative approach is highly demanded. In this context, ultrasound shear wave elastography (US SWE) appears to be a particularly well-suited technique for grading cadaveric rigidity, as it allows non-invasive quantification of muscle stiffness in terms of Young’s modulus (E), which is a widely used parameter in tissue biomechanics. In this pilot study, we measured, for the first time in the literature, changes in the mechanical response of muscular tissues from 0 to 60 h post-mortem (hpm) using SWE, with the aim of investigating its applicability to forensic practice. For this purpose, 26 corpses were included in the study, and the muscle mechanical response was measured at random times in the 0–60 hpm range. Despite the preliminary nature of this study, our data indicate a promising role of SWE in the quantitative determination of cadaveric rigidity, which is still currently based on qualitative and semiquantitative methods. A more in-depth study is required to confirm SWE applicability in this field in order to overcome some of the inherent limitations of the present work, such as the rather low number of cases and the non-systematic approach of the measurements.

This paper examines the history of the Accusativus cum Infinitivo (henceforth: AcI) construction in some languages of Western Europe (the Romance and Germanic languages), and attempts to ascertain whether the AcI in the modern languages is modelled on the AcI of Latin or whether the form was simply inherited. In this paper, only those constructions which are formed with verbs of saying or thinking + infinitive are considered instances of true AcI constructions. Following Pountain (1998), we attempt to distinguish ‘hard’ vs ‘weak’, ‘total’ vs ‘partial’, ‘learnèd’ vs ‘non-learnèd’ Latinisms. In conclusion, we hypothesize that the construction is favoured by Latin models, but it is consistent with structural patterns already occurring in the languages involved.

Dalla fondazione dell’Università Cattolica (1921) e sino alla fine degli anni ‘50 del XX secolo, la figura di Agostino Gemelli si distingue nel panorama scientifico-culturale italiano, in particolare quello cattolico - complessivamente povero e di livello modesto - per la sua forte statura internazionale e per la sua precocità intuitiva ed interpretativa. Aspetti di originalità sono la sua formazione in Germania, l’impegno civico e scientifico in due discipline giovani (la psicologia e la fonetica, oggi lontane per settori disciplinari). Instancabile e combattivo agitatore di idee innovanti, aperto al confronto e al dibattito, fu sentinella vigile e attenta alla formazione degli studiosi e dei giovani e ricoprì prestigiose cariche educative e culturali. Il Laboratorio di Psicologia al quale si aggiunse nel 1929 una sezione di fonetica dotata di una strumentazione all’avanguardia, è al centro di una fitta rete di scambi, meta di visite di studiosi da tutto il mondo. Lunghissimi elenchi di nomi prestigiosi sono stati stilati: psicologi, linguisti, fisiatri, filosofi, medici, logopedisti, fisiologi, fonetisti si incontravano nel laboratorio. Le ricerche in ambito fonetico, condotte dagli anni 1920, hanno proiettato e imposto Gemelli sulla scena internazionale per il loro carattere tecnologicamente avanzato, per l’approccio pluridisciplinare, per il carisma dello studioso, per le sue vaste conoscenze, la sicurezza di metodo e la forza persuasiva. I suoi studi sulla voce furono forse i più celebri - e oggi i meno noti - alla fine degli anni ’30 e fino alla seconda guerra mondiale. Su questi studi soffermeremo il nostro sguardo approfondendo alcune significative presenze di fonetisti/linguisti stranieri a Milano; nonché alcuni tra gli innumerevoli carteggi e viaggi scientifici di Gemelli.

The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of deixis in Standard Italian. After a brief introduction which gives the coordinates of the phenomenon in question, the three sections of the chapter are devoted to the three main deictic categories, i.e. spatial deixis, temporal deixis and personal deixis, the last also including social deixis. The theoretical description is illustrated by examples taken from spoken and written language, with constant attention devoted to the interconnections between the three deictic categories. A special focus is given to the comparison of the Italian deictic system with other systems, especially in the Romance area, but also at a wider cross-linguistic level.

Il contributo analizza il tema della espressione della soggettività attraverso strategie linguistiche in una prospettiva tipologica. Particolare attenzione viene dedicata ai pronomi personali e alla categoria pronome in prospettiva interlinguistica e diacronica, con un'analisi specifica dedicata ai pronomi del giapponese.

Le incomprensioni del grammatico istriano Giovanni Moise nei confronti della grammatica storica mostrano il cambio di paradigma introdotto dalla nuova scienza linguistica alla fine dell'Ottocento. D'altra parte un'opera grammaticale come la sua può ancora riuscire utile, come mostra la documentazione reperibile in Moise a proposito della storia delle frasi scisse in italiano.

La nozione di cultura linguistica riceve nel Circolo Linguistico di Praga un’attenzione programmatica. Compare nelle Tesi del ’29, del ’32 e nell’Introduzione della rivista del Circolo, Slovo a Slovesnost (1935). (Havránek, Jakobson, Mathesius, Mukařovský, Trnka 1935: 2-3). Spicca l’impegno costruttivo e di innovazione, ben comprensibile nel quadro progettuale di un’autonomia nazionale acquisita di recente (1918) e nel fervore teorico di una prospettiva linguistica, strutturale e funzionale, promossa e recepita su scala europea e non solo. Al confronto, la situazione italiana appare notevolmente diversa, sia in termini politici, sia culturali: a una tradizione letteraria di altissimo profilo non si affianca, nel primo Novecento, un impegno linguistico-teorico vivace. L’intervento ne cerca le ragioni, mettendo a confronto alcune tesi di Benedetto Croce e di Antonio Gramsci. «La conoscenza umana ha due forme: o è conoscenza intuitiva o conoscenza logica; conoscenza per la fantasia o conoscenza per l’intelletto; conoscenza dell’individuale o conoscenza dell’universale; delle cose singole ovvero delle loro relazioni: è, insomma, o produttrice d’immagini o produttrice di concetti. [...] La scienza dell’arte e quella del linguaggio, l’Estetica e la Linguistica, in quanto vere scienze, sono, non già due scienze distinte, ma una scienza sola. Non che vi sia una Linguistica speciale; ma la ricercata scienza linguistica, Linguistica generale, in ciò che ha di riducibile a filosofia, non è se non Estetica. [...] Filosofia del linguaggio e filosofia dell’arte sono la stessa cosa. Agli aut-aut della premessa segue una reductio ad unum che premia la compiutezza dell’opera d’arte, la creatività poetica in particolare, rispetto alla tecnica delle regole grammaticali. Alla riforma Gentile (1923) che propone che l'apprendimento della lingua nazionale nelle classi elementari si basi sull'espressione viva o parlata, si opporrà la rivendicazione gramsciana del carattere classi

Bifidobacteria are extensively exploited by the food industry as health-promoting microorganisms. However, very little is known about the molecular mechanisms responsible for these beneficial activities, or the molecular players that sustain their ability to colonize and persist within the human gut. Here, we have investigated the enteric adaptation features of the gut commensal Bifidobacterium bifidum PRL2010, originally isolated from infant feces. This strain was able to survive under gastrointestinal challenges, while it was shown to adhere to human epithelial intestinal cell monolayers (Caco 2 and HT-29), thereby inhibiting adhesion of pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Cronobacter sakazakii.

This paper proposes a distributed control scheme to regulate the power flows among multiple microgrids operating in islanded mode. Each microgrid controller gathers information from neighboring microgrids and reduces dynamic interactions. Modal analysis and time-domain simulations are used to identify critical issues that degrade the stability of microgrids under different operating conditions. A case study comprising three interconnected microgrids is considered. Each microgrid includes distributed generation and is described through a detailed dynamic model. Time-domain analyses are carried out considering different scenarios and large disturbances. Simulation results indicate that, while conventional controllers can lead to poorly damped power oscillations among the interconnected microgrids, the proposed control scheme guarantees stability in the postdisturbance operating conditions.

This contribution investigates the expression of personal deixis, often intertwined with two other aspects of deixis, namely spatial and temporal deixis, in two case-studies. Deictics are those linguistic forms whose interpretation essentially requires reference to some elements of the situation in which they are produced. As far as person reference is concerned, the act of referring to another individual leads us straight to the core of multimodal interaction: it is the first indicator of an individual cultural identity. The case-studies are represented by the utterances of Catalans living in Spain and by the narratives (life stories) of immigrants of different origins in Italy.

Every discipline poses its research questions in specific ways and thus uses concepts that are suited to find answers in its well defined disciplinary frameworks. Accordingly, the idea of cultural trait has been used and developed in several disciplines, often without any reference to each other. The result has often been non-communicability across different fields. We first show, by means of two examples, that the lack of deep interdisciplinary dialogue and reciprocal understanding has generated some harsh controversies. We argue that our book Understanding Cultural Traits: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Cultural Diversity tries to overcome not only the gap between cultural traits specialists and other scientists, but also the barriers among the researchers who are not specialists on cultural traits but that nevertheless directly or indirectly use cultural traits in their different disciplines.

For a long time literary theorists have been concerned with the question “What is literature?". This issue does not raise the same interest in our days. After all, what really matters is what we do with literature, whatever it is. Time has come for a comparison between literary and evolutionary studies. The question we should ask is: “Why is literature?" Where do poetic uses of language rise from? For what reason or reasons, in a remote era of our history, did our ancestors start to spend (or lavish) both time and mental energies in seemingly free and relaxed verbal activities which were unrelated to immediate needs? What are the features of human behaviour that literature tends to foster and strengthen? This article argues that, after all, the aim of literature - as in any other human activity - is nothing but survival.

The chapter explains why evolutionary genetics - a mathematical body of theory developed since the 1910s - eventually got to deal with culture: the frequency dynamics of genes like “the lactase gene” in populations cannot be modeled correctly without including social transmission. The body of theory requires specific justifications, for example meticulous legitimations of describing culture in terms of traits. It is an immensely valuable scientific instrument, not only for its modeling power but also for the amount of work that has been necessary to build, maintain, and expand it. To demonstrate such patrimony, and to emphasize the importance and accumulation of statistical knowledge therein, this paper tells a brief history of evolutionary genetics, explaining also the probabilistic nature of genotypes, phenogenotypes and population phenomena. Although evolutionary genetics is actually composed by distinct and partially independent traditions, the most important mathematical object of evolutionary genetics is the Mendelian space, and evolutionary genetics is mostly the daring study of trajectories of alleles in a population that explores that space. The ‘body’ is scientific wealth that can be invested in studying every situation that happens to turn out suitable to be modeled as a Mendelian population, or as a modified Mendelian population, or as a population of continuously varying individuals with an underlying Mendelian basis. Mathematical tinkering and justification are two halves of the mutual adjustment between the body of theory and the domain of culture. Some works in the current scientific literature overstate justification, misrepresenting the relationship between body of theory and domain, and hindering interdisciplinary dialogue.

This paper is a philosophical reflection around the concept of a cultural trait. A trait is any perceptible or intangible characteristic aspect. In addition, to be cultural, a trait must not be intentional or part of a plan, and its diffusion and repetition - even when initially intentional - must elude control. Traits are inseparable from a cultural space and power relations that are the source of their value, and that govern their spread. Consequently, cultural traits - like “the style of a period” - can only be recognized a posteriori and at distance. Traits can be mapped in different ways, but a map is no simple object. Maps can vary along two dimensions: dynamic-static and conceptual - perceptual. Some maps are schemas or diagrams. Classifying the maps used by Zenni to illustrate the history of jazz, and comparing them with analog maps from the 1970s, I show how maps depend from the observer’s (cultural) ideas. Some maps evidently express a search for hierarchy and origins. But, in contemporary philosophy, the question of the origins constitutes a problem. For Michel Foucault, history is not a search for the origin, on the contrary, it must “dispel the chimera of the origin”, because passion for the origin is functional to reassurance or self-reassurance, and there are no single origins.

The “tree metaphor” has been used in linguistics since the nineteenth century. The first to use it was Schleicher (Die Darwinische Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaft. Weimar: Böhlau, 1873) who, with his Stammbaumtheorie, supposed that we can build a family tree for languages for which we have exact knowledge as Darwin did for plants and animals. Schmidt (Die verwantschaftsverhaltnisse der Indogermanische sprachen. Weimar: Herman Bohlau, 1872), a Schleicher’s student, opposed the Stammbaum model and proposed a “wave model” of language change: he supposed that language change spread in waves emanating from some epicenter. This model bears an obvious resemblance to the demic diffusion model used more recently in biology (Menozzi et al. Science, 201, 786-792, 1978). Phylogenetic trees, where taxa separate only on a cladistic basis, have been put into discussion both in linguistics and in biology and a “web model” has been proposed instead (Heggarty et al. Diachronica, 27(2), 301-324, 2010). In a landmark paper published in 1988, Cavalli Sforza et al. reported a figure directly comparing a human genetic and linguistic tree based on Greenberg (Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987). Although extremely controversial, this paper highlighted the similarities between processes of historical inference in population genetics and linguistics, as well as the potential importance of linguistic data for inferences about human population history. While biologists have embraced computational phylogenetic methods, quantitative approaches in linguistics, such as Swadesh’s (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 96(4), 453-463, 1952) “lexicostatistics” or Greenberg’s “mass comparison”, were heavily criticized (cfr. Campbell. Historical linguistics: An introduction (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004). Quantitative approaches have been recently reconsidered. Today, researchers using computational methods in evolutionary biolog

This paper concludes a book on ‘cultural traits’ which features 20 contributions from the most diverse disciplines, from cultural anthropology to archaeology, from psychology to history, from economics to musicology. The paper dodges the attempt to make a conceptual synthesis, arguing positively for such avoidance. Borrowing a term from the U.S. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, the paper likens the book, Understanding Cultural Traits, to a catalysis meeting, i.e., a lowering of disciplinary barriers that influences the disciplines’ culture of data, broadens the scientific vision, and generates scientific collaborations. Catalysis is not alternative to synthesis. It is a different phase of scientific progress, one that can be hindered by an obsession for concepts and by an urge to close the discourse.