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The presents reflections aim to highlight the importance and necessity of creating a discourse leading to an entirely new modus cogitandi for humans in environmental terms. Consequently, this discourse should lead to a repositioning and reevaluation of Western principles that have resulted in the removal of nature from the horizon and commitment of human political, social, and cultural thought. These premises underlie a critical study of texts from an ecological perspective and the philosophy of Anna Maria Ortese, proving to be painfully relevant to the current climate emergency and crisis that humanity is experiencing in this historical moment.

Copyright of Sociologia Italiana is the property of EGEA S.p.A and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Considering performances with animals such as Going to the Dogs (Wim T. Schippers, 1986), Octavio and I (Linda Molenaar, 2010), Performances for Pets (Juurak/ Bailey 2014) and A Performance With an Ocean View (for a Dog) (Kokkonnen, 2008), I argue that these works illustrate three emergent effects of performing with animals: challenging a binary and exclusionary view of co-presence in performance; determining a modification of the performer’s interaction with a non- human animal audience; reversing the humanization of the animal, by rehearsing an animalization of human agency.

A “hunting question”, defined as the regulation of hunting and forms of wildlife protection, began to take shape in Europe in the second half of the 19th century and in Italy gave rise to a lively and interesting debate. The article illustrates its main issues and shows how the problem of hunting acted as a link between movements for animal protection and those for the protection of the environment. Moreover it sheds light on how the “hunting question” was also important for the consolidation of the first forms of sensitivity to nature and living species. In relation to Italy in the years between the 19th and 20th centuries, the article analyzes the battles of the animal protection societies against the “inhuman hunting” and the “bird massacre”, the positions and objectives of the naturalist movement, the main concrete results of these mobilizations.

The article explores Antonella Anedda’s works from a post-anthropocentric perspective within the theoret-ical framework of ecocriticism. After mentioning some of the most relevant concepts and ideas connected with these lively approaches in interdisciplinary studies, it presents a brief and deliberately ongoing introduction to an outline of observations on the poet’s production, considering the key eco-categories such as animals, plants and space.

The article deals with the thought on creation, and particularly the relationship between humans and animals, in the work of the Jewish and Christian biblical scholar Paolo De Benedetti (1927-2016). After a short sketch of his life, the main issues at the center of his work are summarized: the rabbinic interpretation of the Torah, the infiniteness of its senses, the question of suffering in the world. According to De Benedetti, Christian theology and culture have so far shown a remarkable lack of attention to the issue of non-human animals. However, the Scripture itself as well as the Jewish tradition offers valuable resources to overcome this historical shortcoming. The Hebrew Bible along with its rabbinic interpretation affirms the fundamental unity of life within God's creation and the human duty of care for animals. Even the eschatological hope should be extended to all living beings. The author argues eventually the full relevancy of these topics to the core issues of theology: human beings themselves and God the Creator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the nomads of East Azerbaijan province belong to the tribes of Arasbaran and Shahsevan, nine independent tribes in the Yaylak period, and seven independent tribes in the Qishlaq period. Shahsevan nomads are composed of different tribes, such as Ajirlu, Moghanlu, Giglu, Qaralar Meshgini etc. Verneh, as a type of carpet, Maffrash or means of carrying household furniture, were mainly woven by nomads and some villagers in the settlement of Shahsevan nomads in Azerbaijan and some surrounding areas, such as Pars Abad, Germi and Meshgin Shahr counties of Ardabil province, and Ahar and Kaleybar counties of East Azerbaijan province. This handicraft has both the simplicity of the rug (Kilim) style and the elegance and beauty of the carpet. The lack of sufficient information in this field has led to a close study of some of these motifs related to Verneh. Therefore, one of the most important objectives of the research is to introduce motifs, concepts and animal symbols hidden in Verneh, in order to expand knowledge about the artistic products of this region and examine the impact of nomadic life conditions on the nature of their products in these areas. The research method is applied in terms of nature and purpose and its findings were first done as field research. Then, the samples from the studies were matched with the general information and eventually examined. The results of this study show that the animal motifs created in verneh tell the truth about the material and social life of weavers and show a valuable collection in their life. Verneh’s paintings and motifs depict the nomadic way of life, the animal-dependent life in direct connection with nature, the adherence to the customs of the ancestors and the beliefs of these people. Animal motifs are a symbol of nomadic life, related to nomadic livestock.

In this essay I intend to pursue a comparative reading of three postcolonial texts – in their intertextual and counter-canonical relationship with Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) – that deal with the ethics, but also the aesthetics, of the relationship between humans and animals. By doing so, and with the help of the Kafkian critical apparatuses, particularly Deleuze and Guattari’s critical contribution (1986), which will be the core of this study, I will also examine the nexus between literature and the environment, with particular emphasis on waste, also taking into consideration the paradigms of necropolitics (Mbembe 2003) and of écart (Jullien 2012). Kafka’s Curse (1997), by South African writer Achmat Dangor, Cockroach (2008) by Canadian-Lebanese Rawi Hage, and Blackass (2015) by Nigerian Igoni Barrett will be here analysed and scrutinised.

This article looks at the presence and function of animals in the dramatic works of Sarah Kane, a recognized protagonist of the experimental theatre scene in Britain and abroad. The by now massive scholarship on Kane has tended to see her work as epitomizing the move beyond the dramatic paradigm famously theorized by Hans-Thies Lehmann, and as equally marked by increasingly dehumanised constructions of subjectivity that culminate in the disembodied theatrical landscapes of her late plays. The research presented here addresses a hitherto unexplored dimension to Kane’s joint engagement with the boundaries of subjectivity and the boundaries of theatre, namely, the pervasive presence of animals across her entire oeuvre and their thought-provoking intersections with the human subjects with whom they share the stage. Through a combination of textual and performance analysis, I chart the complex, changing configurations of this relationship of co-habitation and mutual implication, offering an extensive discussion of the role of animals as key players in Kane’s dramaturgy of simulacra.

The article explores Antonella Anedda’s works from a post-anthropocentric perspective within the theoretical framework of ecocriticism. After mentioning some of the most relevant concepts and ideas connected with these lively approaches in interdisciplinary studies, it presents a brief and deliberately ongoing introduction to an outline of observations on the poet’s production, considering the key eco-categories such as animals, plants and space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nascent global age at the close of the Middle Ages introduced exotic objects from distant lands into Western Europe. Exotica from the natural world – naturalia – were frequently fashioned into ecclesiastical and seigniorial artifacts and housed in treasuries. The materials were sometimes re-identified in their new contexts, such as narwhal tusks understood as unicorn horns, which bestowed upon them additional meanings associated with those allegorical mythical creatures. This work investigates the movement, alteration, and use of such re-identified naturalia in late medieval society leading up to the Age of Discovery. It focuses on naturalia that retained their distinct morphological features after working, following the hypothesis that the identity of the animal, as indexed by a recognizable form or set of physical characteristics, was important. It additionally considers symbolic connotations and occult properties deriving from allegorization of matter to study the role played by the ornamentation of naturalia. This paper explores the discourse between extant tangible objects and contemporary texts such as bestiaries, lapidaries, and alchemical compendia to examine how the iconography of the artifact’s form and the iconology of the ornamentation contributed to the overall signification of the naturalia.

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Copyright of Other Modernities / Altre Modernita / Otras Modernidades / Autres Modernités is the property of Altre Modernita and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this work I ponder about the archive based on three images from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the drawing of a monster from the Teratology collection of the Museo Nacional de México preserved today in the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia; the photography of animals that are part of what was the collection of the Museo de Historia Natural del Chopo and that today protects the Fototeca Nacional; and the copy of a drawing of a hysterical woman that is part of the iconography of the French hospital de la Salpêtrière and that was reproduced in Mexico in a scientific journal. With the perspective offered by the “archival turn”, these individual images speak about the procedures of classification, hierarchy and exclusion that organized the knowledge system. They also show three ways of articulating madness, the bestial and the primitive, three figures of the Other from the West, three paths that lead to the “Indian”, that descendant of the pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the American continent on whose erasure was erected the scientific normalizing discourse and the nation-state.

RESUMEN: Tomando como punto de partida las reflexiones de estudiosos como Philippe Descola o Boaventura de Sousa Santos sobre la necesidad de repensar las relaciones entre humanos y no-humanos, con el fin de buscar alternativas al proceso autodestructivo conocido con el controvertido nombre de Antropoceno, parece oportuno dirigir la mirada hacia la selva amazónica. En efecto, el espacio amazónico es “altamente transformacional” (Rivière) y se vive en él una frecuente inestabilidad ontológica que difumina las fronteras entre las especies. Las narraciones de las vivencias de los animales, por ejemplo, no son usadas solo como simbolización de algún antagonismo o desequilibrio social, sino que son frecuentemente percibidas como realidades. En el artículo, enmarcado en el ámbito de los estudios ecocríticos, se creará un diálogo entre algunos relatos orales –cuyos protagonistas son animales– y la novela del pintor y escritor peruano César Calvo de Araújo titulada Paiche (1963), nombre que es, además, el de uno de los mayores peces de los ríos amazónicos. A través de estas creaciones de literatura oral y escrita se reflexionará sobre el tema de los desequilibrios sociales y de la conciencia de clase como medio para repensar cómo habitar la Tierra. ABSTRACT: Taking as a starting point the considerations of scholars such as Philippe Descola and Boaventura de Sousa Santos on the need to rethink the relations between humans and non-humans in order to seek alternatives to the self-destructive process known by the controversial label of the Anthropocene, it seems appropriate to look at the Amazon rainforest. Indeed, the Amazonian space is “highly transformational” (Rivière), and there is a frequent ontological instability that blurs the boundaries between species. Narratives of animal experiences, for example, are not only used as a symbolisation of some antagonism or social inequality, but are often perceived as realities. In this article, framed in the field of ecocritical studies, a dialogue will be created between some oral stories whose protagonists are animals and the novel by the Peruvian painter and writer César Calvo de Araújo entitled Paiche (1963), which is also the name of one of the largest fish in the Amazonian rivers. Through these creations of oral and written literature, we will reflect on the theme of social inequalities and class consciousness as a means of rethinking how to inhabit the Earth.

This essay analyses the ways in which James Joyce and Virginia Woolf addressed from a very early stage key issues related to contemporary posthumanist theories such as the question of animal speech and psychology. Both Joyce’s description of human-animal encounters in Ulysses and Woolf’s depiction of a sentient animal subject in Flush: A Biography at first present, and then subvert, the idea of the use of language as evidence of a human surpassing of the animal. By challenging preconceived notions of species distinctions, these authors ultimately decenter the human to focus instead on the centrality of animal subjectivity and sensory experience. While the question of a sharp divide between human and nonhuman animals along the axis of speech can be traceable to the anthropocentric tradition of western humanism and not least to such a possible source as Cervantes (whose novella “The Dialogue of the Dogs” is listed as part of both Joyce’s Trieste library and the library of Leonard and Virginia Woolf), the idea of expanding the typically modernist focus on inner life by also including other forms of subjectivity may have derived from the coeval, burgeoning fields of zoology, ethology and comparative psychology. Drawing from these sources and popular areas of knowledge which formed part of the cultural climate of the time, both Joyce and Woolf explore cross-species intersubjectivity in ways that shift the terms of representation away from anthropocentric views in order to affirm, blur and deny the boundaries between the human and the non-human.

The modification and recognition of 5-methylcytosine (m5C) are involved in the initiation and progression of various tumor types. However, the precise role and potential mechanism of Y-box-binding protein 1 (YBX1) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear. Here, it is found that YBX1 is frequently upregulated in ESCC compared with matched nontumor tissues. Gain- and loss-of-function assays show that YBX1 promoted the proliferation and metastasis of ESCC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Functional studies revealed that NOP2/Sun RNA methyltransferase family member 2 (NSUN2) is a critical RNA methyltransferase that facilitates YBX1-mediated ESCC progression. Mechanistically, integrated analysis based on RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (RIP-seq) and m5C methylated RNA immunoprecipitation and sequencing (MeRIP-seq) assays identified spermine oxidase (SMOX) as a target gene containing an m5C site in its coding sequence (CDS) region, which coincided well with the binding site of YBX1. Overexpression of SMOX-WT but not SMOX-Mut partially restored the proliferation and invasion ability of ESCC cells curbed by YBX1 knockdown. Moreover, YBX1 activated the mTORC1 signaling pathway by stabilizing SMOX mRNA. The study reveals that YBX1 promotes ESCC development by stabilizing SMOX mRNA in an m5C-dependent manner, thus providing a valuable therapeutic target for ESCC., (© 2024 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Immunoproteasomes are a special class of proteasomes, which can be induced with IFN-γ in an inflammatory environment. In recent years, it became evident that certain immune cell types constitutively express high levels of immunoproteasomes. However, information regarding the basal expression of proteolytically active immunoproteasome subunits in different types of immune cells is still rare. Hence, we quantified standard proteasome subunits (β1c, β2c, β5c) and immunoproteasome subunits (LMP2, MECL-1, LMP7) in the major murine (CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, CD19 + B cells, CD11c + dendritic cells, CD49d + natural killer cells, Ly-6G + neutrophils) and human immune cell (CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells, CD19 + B cells, CD1c + CD141 + myeloid dendritic cells, CD56 + natural killer cells, granulocytes) subsets. The different human immune cell types were isolated from peripheral blood and the murine immune cell subsets from spleen. We found that proteasomes of most immune cell subsets mainly consist of immunoproteasome subunits. Our data will serve as a reference and guideline for immunoproteasome expression and imply a special role of immunoproteasomes in immune cells., (© 2024 The Authors. European Journal of Immunology published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

About 280 000 heart valve replacements are performed worldwide every year. Since the first prosthetic valve implantation in 1952 there have been notable developments. There are a lot of types of prosthetic valves that can be summarized into two categories: biological prosthetic valves or mechanical prosthetic valves. Biological prostheses, made of bovine or porcine pericardium, homografts, or autografts, degenerate over time becoming dysfunctional. Mechanical prostheses have a potentially unlimited lifespan but require oral anticoagulation which can affect patients' quality of life. Generally, biological prostheses are particularly suitable for elderly patients while mechanical prostheses for young people, with some distinctions. For example, in case of age <60 years, in the presence of preoperative oral anticoagulant therapy, metabolic syndrome, hemodialysis or hyperparathyroidism, a mechanical valve is the preference. The choice of the prosthesis in patients aged between 55 and 70 years is particularly challenging because the advantages and disadvantages of the two categories of prosthesis overlap in middle-aged patients. The choice of the prosthesis should be made after discussion with the surgeon, according to the patient's preferences, and keeping in mind the pros and cons of biological and mechanical prostheses.

Copyright of Przeglad Prawa Rolnego is the property of Adam Mickiewicz University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Article deals with a group of reliefs from the church in Mramba village. Their were dated by the paleochristian period. New findings of the last ten years permit to adjust this version. They can be now referred to the Medieval period (10 – 11 century).

Description: The paper evolves from the consideration on the necessity of sensitizing students to a very actual topic such as animal Ethics and of stimulating empathy towards all the species of the planet. The pivotal question of the study is the following: how can a teacher increase empathy and raise awareness of this theme in students during his or her lessons? To answer the question a few months ago I conducted a project entitled Animal Ethics during my ESL (English as a second language) classes in an Italian school. The participants were students (18-56 years old) attending the last year of an evening course in a technical commercial institute. The work is structured into three parts. At the beginning of the case study I will present the constructivist approach, which is the one I adopted and whose use is also suggested by the World Health Organization in the Life Skills Education in Schools Program – an initiative that highlights the importance of growing psychosocial skills at school and explains how to do it – and by the Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità for the introduction of animal Ethics at school. In the second section of the paper I will analyze the different activities I created and, lately, I will report the results of the experience, final considerations on the didactical path and general reflections on the role of schools in cultivating students’ empathy towards animals.

The article explores contemporary hunting in Italy and the meanings associated with this practice among hunters in southern Piedmont. Based on case-study research, the article analyzes the value system of the hunters and highlights competition between different ways of understanding the hunting practice. The hunter is understood at the same time as a user of the environment and its keeper. Considering the current debate and legal framework concerning hunting this article suggests a possible path may be identified for the re-interpretation and revival of the hunting practice in the contemporary context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores metamorphic outcomes in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. While the poem may be steeped in constant mutability, for the most part gender emerges as a surprisingly static feature, and one that carries remarkable weight also when read beside the aftermaths of Ovidian transformations. Though there may be no fixed schema that categorically establishes disparities in the final destinations of male and female transformations, I show that there are significant gendered patterns with some perhaps unexpected consequences for class and social status also. In considering the poem’s main destinations, we can see distinct patterns of outcomes: heavily gender-based for trees, gender-significant (albeit not simply determined) for watercourses, gods, and stones, and gender-equal in the case of birds and other animals. The article tackles some of the unconscious gender preconceptions at play, and explores the enduring significance of gender for the Metamorphoses within the various outcomes of those who become victims, or occasionally beneficiaries, of Ovidian metamorphosis.

Creating Laterculus, Polemus Silvius, a 5th-century author, was the first to attempt to integrate the traditional Roman Julian calendar containing the pagan celebrations and various anniversaries with new Christian feasts. Laterculus, as it should be remembered, is a work that bears the features of a liturgical calendar. In addition to dates and anniversaries related to religion and the state, the calendar contains several other lists and inventories, including a list of Roman provinces, names of animals, a list of buildings and topographical features of Rome, a breviary of Roman history, a register of animal sounds and a list of weights and sizes. Therefore, Laterculus, just like a traditional Roman calendar, was also used for didactic purposes. This paper aims to refer in detail to the zoological vocabulary, specifically the register of animal names and sounds included in this source. Laterculus contains in total over 450 words divided into six groups, including 108 words in the four-legged animal section, 131 in the bird section, 11 crustaceans, 26 words for snakes, 62 words for insects and 148 for fish. The sounds of animals, which are also included in one of the lists added to this calendar and titled Voces variae animancium, are also worth mentioning. A brief discussion on the history of the Roman calendar and the liturgical calendar certainly helps to present the issue referred to in the title to its fullest extent.

The West Nile Virus (WNV), an RNA arbovirus, has been transmitted by wild birds and conveyed by ticks and mosquitoes, with wide diffusion all over the world; it is not transmitted from human to human. It can give clinical symptoms only in a minority of infected subjects such as fever, headache, muscle tiredness, visual disturbances, drowsiness, convulsions and muscle paralysis; in the most serious cases even potentially fatal encephalitis. In the literature there are few reports on WNV infection in patients with kidney diseases: here we report our experience on two patients on peritoneal dialysis infected by WNV with a revision of the literature., (Copyright by Società Italiana di Nefrologia SIN, Rome,Italy.)

The act of dwelling and physical dwellings is not an exclusively human domain: all spaces, environments and homes of various animals are included. The question of whether an animal merely exists or also lives and dwells forms the basis of the article. We examine the types of environment in which nonhuman animals live either together with people or independently and those where they build their dwellings. We look at the difference between dwelling and building. We will present three viewpoint models that consider animals, their dwelling and physical dwellings on the basis of folkloristic, anthropological, philosophical, eco-critical, and critical-animalistic findings. They are the anthropocentric, anthropomorphic, and zoo-centric models as they appear in the works of Fran Erjavec (Domače in tuje živali v podobah, 1868-1873), Richard Adams (Watership Down, 1972) and Iztok Geister (Narava, kot jo vidi narava, 2010). The way these works present animals and their dwellings, more or less closely reflecting reality, will aid in determining whether these dwellings are part of nature or culture. We will be asking, for example, whether the beaver’s dwelling is an architectural masterpiece or merely a result of instinctive behaviour. Our starting point is based on the understanding that animals are persons and, as such, are capable of dwelling and intentionally producing their physical dwellings.

Many are the correspondences between Nature and Society, Kingdom of the Nature and World of the Politics, in the works of the French writer Alphonse Toussenel. Well known for his anti-semitic volume Les Juifs, rois de l’époque (1845), Toussenel is also the author of books about animals and about hunting. Such part of his production – built on the idea that animals are “logogriphs” of human virtues and vices – is ambiguous, especially in its relationships with violence: as when Toussenel, socialist and pacifist, invokes the extermination of animal races which represent human groups.

A partir de la dècada de 1920 Pere Ynglada va esdevenir un nom imprescindible i un referent del dibuix animalista a Catalunya. Aquest article indaga en la trajectòria vital d’Ynglada i posa èmfasi en les seves aportacions artístiques, des dels inicis en temps del modernisme i l’etapa de plenitud viscuda a París, fins als últims anys de la seva vida, de retorn a Barcelona.

One of the best preserved Early Pliensbachian radiolarian assemblages from the Western Tethys is described from the grey marly limestone exposed at Mount Rettenstein in the Northern Calcareous Alps, south of the Dachstein Massif. Fourty-five genera and 71 species are documented and illustrated here. Four species are newly described: Tozerium filzmoosense Cifer sp. nov., Loupanus pliensbachicus Cifer sp. nov., Thurstonia? robusta Cifer sp. nov., and Ares rettensteinensis Cifer sp. nov. Radiolarian age is in accordance with ammonoid data from the overlying red marly limestone, which was assigned to the upper part of the Lower Pliensbachian. The best equivalent for the radiolarian-bearing lithology is the Dürrnberg Formation, characteristic of the open-marine Hallstatt facies zone. Previously published radiolarian data from the Dürrnberg Formation were re-evaluated and the originally proposed age assignments revised. At two localities, the published Hettangian-Sinemurian age was emended to the early Early Pliensbachian that is in accordance with the age of radiolarians from Mount Rettenstein. We compared the studied fauna from Mount Rettenstein also with two other rich radiolarian assemblages, one from another locality in the Dürrnberg Formation and one from the Gümüslü Allochthon in Turkey, which were assigned to the late Early Pliensbachian and are somewhat younger than the assemblages studied herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ornithosuchidae is one of the most enigmatic clades of Triassic pseudosuchians. The group is composed by three carnivorous species that were excavated from Upper Triassic beds of Scotland and Argentina. We describe the first ornithosuchid from the Upper Triassic sediments of Brazil and explore its phylogenetic affinities and implications for the evolution of the group. Dynamosuchus collisensis gen. et sp. nov. was found as the sister taxon of the Argentinean form Venaticosuchus rusconii. These relationships reject a potential endemic radiation of ornithosuchids from the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin and would better support multiple diversification events. Our findings with ornithosuchids is consistent with the pattern reported for proterochampsid and erpetosuchid archosauriforms from Ischigualasto-Villa Unión and the Paraná basins. In addition, the presence of an ornithosuchid in the Late Triassic of Brazil suggests that ornithosuchids were more widespread than previously thought in the southern hemisphere. The new ornithosuchid further demonstrates a faunistic link between the Argentinean and Brazilian basins during the Carnian. Finally, the discovery of the new species provides the first clue of a putative necrophagous vertebrate from the oldest dinosaur-bearing beds and expands our knowledge regarding the trophic structure of the Late Triassic of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do other animals have minds? Are they conscious? Can we understand what they feel and think? Following some suggestions from the latest Antonio Damasio's book The strange order of things and the lesson from Spinoza about the relationship between body and mind, I will suggest that also simple animals possess a mind and that we should start to conceive all others living beings (human as well as non-human) in their uniqueness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper wants to answer the following questions: 1) Is there a criterion that allows us to objectively establish the superiority of a human being over an animal of another species?; 2) assuming that this criterion exist, is its general application valid, that is to the Human being per se over Animal per se? Or do we have to take the individuals and the contexts in which they are into account?; 3) assuming that there is an objective and general criterion able of defining us as superior, do we have the right to dominate over other animals as a consequence?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we will attempt to highlight the dialectic link between transpecific domain relationships and our anthropocentric interpretation of the world. Starting from this hypotesis we asked ouserlves about a possible remit of political philosophy: is it possible to consider and establish non-unidirectional power relationships with non-human animals? We critically picked up on theories by Rawls, Okin, Honneth and Derrida to vouch and give a partial and nonexhaustive answer to the above question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be or not to be Animals. Ontology in Captivity In the past few years, philosophy studies regarding environmental and animal ethics have focused more and more on the relationship between animals and humans. Specifically, the contemporary scientific discussion also centres on using animals as entertainment and its moral issues. By capturing animals, exposing and training them, places like zoos, dolphinaria and circuses cause radical changes in the animal nature. The living conditions have consequential effects on the animal itself, for this reason, keeping animals in captivity changes the essence of animals themselves which are deprived of their specie and individual identity.

The boundary between human and animal in seventeenth-century Russia was more porous than has been realized. In several witchcraft cases supposedly-bewitched humans were described as speaking like animals. Muscovite hagiography and miracle stories also portrayed the demon-possessed as speaking and acting like animals. This dehumanization of humans as animals constitutes the polar opposite of the anthropomorphizing of animals as humans in bestiaries, which depicted animals as possessing human characteristics. Visual evidence corroborates these connections between the bewitched and demon-possessed on the one hand, and animals on the other, by picturing demons and humans turning to sin with animal characteristics. Early demonic representations featured the eidalon, a Greek-based figure with animal features. This textual and visual material from seventeenth-century Muscovy zoomorphized the bewitched and demon-possessed by categorizing their behavior as beastly, as that of wild animals, and by projecting the attributes and emotions of animals onto human beings. Attributing human traits to an animal might be a compliment but ascribing traits to a human could only be a criticism, thus demonstrating and confirming the Muscovite premise of human superiority over animals.

Martial’s lagalopex ‘Long-Eared Bat’ The Roman epigrammatist Martial mentions the ‘long-eared lagalopex’ (Latin aurītā lagalōpece in the ablative sg.) as a pet animal kept by his good friend Flaccus (Ep. VII 87, 1). Multiple identifications of the Latin zoonym lagalōpex (gen. sg. lagalōpecis) have been suggested so far. The author discusses the problem at hand once more, concluding that the correct identification of Flaccus’ pet animal as the long-eared bat (Pol. gacek) was offered 110 years ago by Jan Czubek, the excellent classical philologist and translator from Cracow.

The last book of Carmine Di Martino, Viventi umani e non umani, focuses on some important questions about relations between human being and animals, and it suggests some reflections about philosophy and "anthropological difference". Furthermore, the reception of recent discoveries in paleontology and physical anthropology gives a special value to darwinian theories and supports the idea of a casual development of man; language, technical ability and culture are not a "special gift" expressly created for human being, but the result of a natural evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the novel Birdy, William Wharton tells the story of a boy who wants to become a bird. The process of building a post-human subjectivity on the part of the protagonist can be explored through some conceptual tools attributable to queer theory, in particular that of “performativity” developed by Judith Butler. These theoretical constructs will be reviewed in relation to the construction of the species binarism ( “performativity of species”, “animal drag”, etc.) and the processes through which the human and non-human identity, and their relationships, emerge. The reinterpretation of Birdy will consider the fluctuation between failure and success of parody, between subversion and reinforcement of hegemonic norms of human exceptionalism. The destabilization of species boundaries cannot be undertaken individually: this fact highlights the role of animal agency and the relational feature of the transition as process developing around the recognition of a non-human subject. Taking into account the intersection of species and gender matrixes – the protagonist embodies a particular type of resistance against heteronormativity –, I will try to investigate the conditions under which it is possible to speak of animality as an “action" rather than as an “essence” or an “attribute”. Nel romanzo Birdy, William Wharton narra la storia di un ragazzo che vuole diventare un uccello. Il processo di costruzione di una soggettività postumana da parte del protagonista può essere letto attraverso il concetto di “performatività” (Judith Butler), in relazione alla costruzione del binarismo di specie e ai processi attraverso i quali emergono le identità umane e animali. La rilettura di Birdy tiene conto dell’oscillazione fra fallimento e successo della parodia, fra sovversione e rafforzamento delle norme egemoni dell’eccezionalismo umano. Il carattere inevitabilmente non individuale di tale impresa di destabilizzazione dei confini di specie fa emergere il ruolo dell’agency animale e il carattere relazionale del passing in quanto processo che necessita del riconoscimento da parte di un soggetto non umano. Considerando l’intersezione fra matrici di specie e di genere, si cerca di indagare a quali condizioni sia possa parlare di animalità come “azione”, anziché come “essenza” o “attributo”.

This special issue devoted to anti-speciesism collects essays which examine different branches of modern and contemporary studies on the status of non-human animals and the role that cognitive progress should play in our ability to abandon the idea that something is uniquely human, analyzing at the same time the difficult relationship between the inclusion of other animals and the law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurally mediated syncope (NMS) is the clinical manifestation of the vasovagal reflex activation. Prognosis of this type of syncope is reported as "benign", mainly on the basis of the results of the Framingham study, in which the incidence of mortality, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events did not differ from that of the control population. However, in this study NMS starting in young age and that starting in advanced age were investigated together, but some elements suggest that we are dealing with two different clinical entities, even if the efferent pathways of the reflex circuit appear to be the same. While it is largely accepted that NMS starting in young age is a manifestation of a non-pathological trait, some lines of evidence suggest that NMS starting in old age is the expression of a pathological process of the autonomic nervous system, up to now not well defined from the nosological point of view: (i) onset in old age per se, (ii) absence of triggers, which means "abnormal activation" (pathological) of the vasovagal reflex, (iii) frequent overlap with situational syncope, carotid sinus hypersensitivity, orthostatic or post-prandial hypotension and other dysautonomic symptoms, and (iiii) it appears to be the human homologue of a recently described syncope starting in dogs in advanced age; in other words, humans and dogs seem to suffer from the same disease. On the basis of these considerations, in future studies the prognostic significance of NMS starting in old age should be investigated separately. At present, the prognosis of NMS, in relation to hard events, remains undefined in the elderly.

Mistreated fish products ingestion can lead to a histaminergic illness known as scombroid syndrome. The disease usually causes cutaneous rash, gastrointestinal, breathing disorders, hypotension with further histamine-related symptoms. Although cardiac complications are infrequent, some patients experienced chest pain consistent with an acute coronary syndrome on admission to hospital. The pathomechanism seems related to a transient coronary artery vasospasm. We performed a literature search for all cases published in the literature from 1997 to 2022 with suspected ischemic heart scombroid syndrome. Overall, 18 studies describing 25 patients were recognized and the main pathophysiological, clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic features are discussed. A simplified diagnostic flowchart has also been proposed. Even though this syndrome can lead to hemodynamic instability in the acute phase, also in the young, prognosis is rather good.

Cardiac fibrosis is characterized by the deposition of extracellular matrix proteins in the spaces between cardiomyocytes following both acute and chronic tissue damage events, resulting in the remodeling and stiffening of heart tissue. Fibrosis plays an important role in the pathogenesis of many cardiovascular disorders, including heart failure and myocardial infarction. Several studies have identified fibroblasts, which are induced to differentiate into myofibroblasts in response to various types of damage, as one of the most important cell types involved in the fibrotic process. There are currently no drugs with primarily antifibrotic action approved for clinical use, as the evidence of a clinical efficacy of these drugs is extremely limited, despite the numerous encouraging results from experimental studies. A new approach is represented by the use of chimeric antigen receptor T cells engineered in vivo using lipid nanoparticles containing mRNA encoding a receptor directed against the fibroblast activation protein, expressed by activated cardiac fibroblasts. This strategy has proved to be safe and effective in reducing myocardial fibrosis and improving cardiac function in mouse models of cardiac fibrosis. Clinical studies are required to test this novel approach in humans.

Copyright of Summa, Animali da Compagnia is the property of Point Veterinaire Italie s.r.l. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper considers Claude Perrault's views on animal language and cognition, one of the leader members of the early Parisian Académie Royale des Sciences, where comparative anatomy emerged in the late seventeenth century. Perrault rejects both the Cartesian hypothesis of beasts as mere automata and of the Pineal Gland as siège de l'âme within the human brain. He conceives the animal soul as an immaterial and cognitive agent spread in the whole body, involved in the functional regulation of the all life processes. Animal thoughts, according to Perrault, must necessarily correspond to «animal voices». Nevertheless, he underlines that la parole depends far less on organs than on imagination, as shown by monkeys, unable to speak even though they own larynxes and other parts similar to human ones, and by birds like parrots, that can reproduce human speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1917 the Caporetto battle was a massacre of soldiers and animals, and the images of the carcasses of horses and mules abandoned by the Italian fleeing army clearly represent the sacrifice of the millions of animals involved in the war by all armies. In the same year, in Madrid, the Nobel Prize for Literature Juan Ramón Jiménez published his book Platero y yo: the story of the friendship between the poet and the donkey Platero, in the background of the Andalusia landscapes. Starting from these distant and different events, the essay reconstructs the complex and contradictory relationships between human and non-human; animals are, still today, "goods" and tools to the full service of human needs, while the pets have been elevated to the rank of friends, confidants and man interlocutors. The origins of this divergent behavior towards the other species date back to the mid-Nineteenth century; the First World War did not constitute an historical breakdown for the animal condition, but brought to light the ambivalent and often even "schizophrenic" orientation that has been governing our relationship with animals for at least two centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the relationship between nonhuman animals and children's literature? And if animals survive in stories (as images, metaphors or myths), how does this happen? In this article, we aim to offer an overview of recent studies about this, focusing on the role of the animal as an element of transformation: a key to an ecological view for the child, as shown by the two case-studies presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]