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This paper focuses on why and how the human body and corporeality change in the long-term civilization process. Through the Eliasian's sociological prism, it explores the relation sociogenesis/psychogenesis and the interweaving between biological and social processes. In a processual perspective, that goes beyond dichotomies, the corresponding formation of social and psychic structures leads to make emerge the construction of personality, behaviour, emotions, identity, habitus, in the Eliasian's concept of individuals and society as a whole. The figurational dynamics of changing societies create pressures, tensions and conflicts that are experienced by the human body, in the ineludible interweaving between evolutionary, development, social and psychic processes. The framework of the evolutionary biology and the great evolution is integrated in the Elias's sociological perspective, in his overall vision of interdisciplinary research. The paper outlines how drives control become automatic, enlightened by the recent studies in neurosciences and evolutionary psychology; research is still open. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During Coronavirus pandemia psychologists and psychotherapists are paying their attention on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) of medical staff in touch with COVID-19. Indeed, experiences of members of medical teams are much more complex of patients with Primary and/or Secondary Traumas, in so far they imply activation of multiple incompatible motivational systems. This consideration, carried out within an evolutionary perspective, might shed light on mental mechanisms involved in PTSD and lead to a reformulation of its symptoms. Furthermore it might help to take in to consideration differences in symptoms due to individual internal working models of attachment and helps to drawing specific psychotherapeutic intervention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last thirty years, it has been identified a theory corresponding to the biological evolution one which concerns the behavioral traits of men and their social organization (institutions, customs, beliefs, social norms, values and technologies). By tracing back the guidelines of cultural evolution and showing how it differs from biological evolution, this paper focuses on the cultural evolution theory and its capability to explain the emergence and the change of rules and institutions at the bottom of social life. In the last part of the paper, recovering F. A. Hayek’s pioneering insights, I will analyze the evolutionary dynamics acting at the level of rules and institutions. I will show, on the one hand, how selection of the rules is driven by a complex process in which emerging macro-systemic effects lend an evolutionary advantage to some human groups and allow us to explain how specific rules have successfully survived over time. On the other hand, I will argue that some behaviors have jointly transformed with the changing of societies by following the increasing degree of complexity in the relationships and human environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the historical and technical evolution of the scientific thought on railway traffic at stations and on lines, emphasizing the role of authors whose contribution is central to the study of the problems addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research makes a comparison between Granada's and Tenerife's line 1 LRTs in relation to the urban insertion, the technical characteristics of the lines and vehicles, the operational features, the ridership evolution and the user satisfaction and behavior. Granada's LRT is the latest that has started its service in Spain, while Tenerife's line 1 is the most similar existing one, putting into context the first results of Granada's operation. The effect of Granada's LRT opening into the whole transit network is described in the paper (a 6.5% increase in the average daily ridership for the 2018 January-September period in relation to 2017). The evolution of ridership for Tenerife's whole period of operation (2007-2017) is analyzed, explaining the effect of the economic crisis, and coming to some conclusions about what can be expected in Granada's case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes an approach for estimating the evolution of the Brenner freight traffic demand based on econometric models and techniques for the analysis of historical series. Econometric models are defined with dynamic components that allow considering transport capacity constraints for total tonnages and the dynamics underlying the transfer of shares between road and rail modes using historical data. The models are used to obtain future estimates of freight traffic demand with reference to two different scenarios that consider an identical evolution of the macroeconomic context associated, respectively, to an unchanged infrastructure hypothesis with respect to current events, or to an infrastructure evolution hypothesis linked to the construction and completion of the new Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT). The results obtained in the two scenarios are finally discussed and mutually compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the notated tradition of the lauda-ballata, the relationship between text and music is inherently complicated by notational practices that are indifferent to the rhythmic-choreutic implications of the genre. From the fifteenth century onwards significant discrepancies begin to emerge between form and mise en page, with the musical setting often limited to the prima pars and a consequent setting aside of the alternation between sections which is typical of so-called formes fixes. This reflects a spontaneous evolution of many "dance" compositions into canzonette and frottole, regardless of their literary form. It follows that adequate solutions need to be found both for the critical reconstruction of these works and for their effective performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay aims to reconstruct the evolution of the way in which Leonardo da Vinci understood and represented the human body: from the more quantitative and attentive approach to the anatomy of his first paintings to the more qualitative and "spiritual" one of his more mature works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The first chapters of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio were printed in 1881, the same year as the publication of the novel I Malavoglia, Giovanni Verga’s masterpiece of verismo. While every critical reader of Verga’s realism has pointed out his particular narrative interpretation of evolution, Collodi’s has novel very seldom been connected to the theories of evolution, even if Darwin’s ideas were highly present in the public debate in Florence during the last decades of the 19th century. The reasons for this silence are primarily to be found in the genre of Pinocchio, in the fact that it is children literature, and therefore primarily related to the narrative mechanisms of the fairy tales and pedagogical literature. Focusing on Pinocchio, the article discusses to which degree Darwinism can be traced in Collodi’s literature for children, and questions if the continuous metamorphoses of Pinocchio can be read also in connection with the naturalist conception of the literary characters as unstable, in continuous evolution, and not only as part of the mechanisms of fairy tales and mythological narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary neurobiology claims its essential "fundamentality" and seems not to leave room for an autonomous level of description of the mind, such as that of psychoanalysis. Genetics and neuropharmacology have found the way to explain many types of human behaviors and, recently, to heal many psychological disorders by means of new molecules. All these theories are based on a reductionist approach derived from physics. Any other approach to the mind would be deprived of legitimacy as not being appropriately scientific. Against this background, the paper maintains that the conceptualization of the mind underlying the talking cure has its own legitimacy linked with the uniqueness of every mind/brain and the so called "meaning response". By using analogies drawn from the most "fundamental" science, namely physics, it is maintained that, epistemologically, psychoanalysis moves on a so called "coarse grain" level which is not intercepted either by neurobiology or by cognitive psychology, while the "fine grain" level is more suitable to account for the material basis of mind. This occurs without exiting the naturalistic framework and implies a fruitful exchange between disciplines; each discipline preserves its own character yet one might shed new light on how the mind/brain works in another field by operating on different, albeit not increasingly "fundamental", levels. This view finds a persuasive example in the Effective Quantum Field Theory, which is briefly described. In addition the, Neural Darwinism proposed by G. Edelman is considered in order to put forward a neurobiological theory of mental individuality, while a more refined form of placebo effect is proposed to clarify the role of meaning without exiting the boundaries of science. Drawing on these features one can say that psychoanalysis is the domain in which individuality and meaning response have got a peculiar role. This role gives psychoanalysis an epistemological legitimacy also within the "physical causal closure" model, a legitimacy not to be (as usual) rejected but to be assessed in its efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author's presentation dwells upon two modern interpretations of the evolutionist theories: on the one hand, the recent research that tends to individuate finalistic processes in the development of human cultures; and, on the other hand, the confirmation of the random role of natural selection, even in the most recent modifications of Neo-Darwinism. The article concludes with a reference to the positions of the philosophers, heirs of the great European tradition and, above all, of the Germanic culture, in part mediators of the preceding contrast.

A complex system process oriented approach, in other words a constructivistic postrationalist cognitive one to psychology and to psychopathology, stresses the close interdependency among processes as evolution, emotion, language and conscience. During evolution, emotions, whose biological roots we share with superior primates, should be specialized and refined. Along this process should become necessary a more and more abstract way of scaffolding the enormous quantity of data a brain could manage. Cognitive abilities, rooted in the emotional quality of experience, allow - during the phylogenetic development - more and more complex patterns of reflexivity until to the necessary ability of recognizing other's intention and consequently of lying. Language, abstract ability usefull to give increasing experiential data scaffolding, probably coming from motor skills development, brings at the same time the possibility, for a human knowing system, of self-consciousness: to do this it's owed to detach from itself, that is experience a deep sense of loneliness. Here it is that the progressive cognitive skills development is linked to the possibility of lying and of self-deception as long as the acquiring of advanced levels of selfconsciousness.

Aim: Clarify how linguistic coevolution and creation are crucial in the theory of psychotherapeutic technique., Method: The paradox of private language, structural coupling and synchronization theory, are introduced in order to highlight how multiple components are involved in psychotherapeutic relations. A review and discussion of some relevant studies., Results: A therapeutic approach based on coevolution, bipersonal fields, implicit communication and procedural knowledge can be more effective in modifying different forms of memory., Discussion: This evidence based approach represents a scientific advancement in psychotherapy, including effectiveness of care, personalisation and ethics.

Reciprocity as an expression of the therapist-patient relationship is pointed-out by Mario Reda who refers to Comparetti's studies on the mother-foetus reciprocity, mediated by the so-called "jumps". Reciprocal behaviours are clearly observable during bird and other animal courtship behaviour, whereas in the Sapiens sapiens species, we may observe the establishing of a very complex reciprocity system, which starts with gestures and bodily attitudes, subsequently activating sensory-motor emotional schemata and internal working models, thus enabling the construction of personal meanings. A relationship may result from an encounter provided that "compatible" meanings are constructed in the context of "possible reciprocity" of significant systems. The observation of reciprocity provides a concrete possibility to reduce the risk of absolute subjectivity related to the I or the you, superceding it through the us.

Vasovagal syncope (VVS) is characterized by sudden hypotension and bradycardia, due to inhibition of the sympathetic system and activation of the vagal system, respectively. Major lines of evidence suggest that classical (emotional and orthostatic) VVS is not a disease, but a characteristic of the individual. It is, therefore, interesting to investigate the factors that can explain its origin and evolution and, to this purpose, we investigated the available literature data on the vasovagal reflex in animals, including humans. We found two processes in vertebrates, which appear relevant to the investigation of VVS evolution: fear and threat bradycardia in animals and vasovagal reflex during hemorrhagic shock, both in animals and humans. The trigger of the latter is thoracic hypovolemia, the same of the vasovagal reflex occurring in humans during orthostatic stress (prolonged standing, tilt testing). During thoracic hypovolemia, the vasovagal reflex in humans seems to share physiological mechanisms similar to those observed in other mammals, that is an activation of the vagal system and an inhibition of the sympathetic system, preceded by an activation of the same system. Even emotional VVS in humans seems to share physiological mechanisms similar to those observed in other vertebrates during fear/threat bradycardia. Therefore, the vasovagal reflex appears to be predisposed in humans and other vertebrates with the same mechanisms and this may indicate a common evolutionary root. If the vasovagal reflex persisted for millions of years along the vertebrates evolutionary history, we can reasonably assume that it has (or it maybe had in the past) a function. Also, since this reflex is sporadically displayed, a role as a "defense mechanism" appears likely. The most likely hypothesis is a defense mechanism of the heart during stressful and possible dangerous heart conditions. The slowing of heart rate induced by the vasovagal reflex may constitute a beneficial break of cardiac pump (thereby reducing myocardial oxygen consumption) and permit better diastolic filling and coronary perfusion.

This paper synthetically outlines the process that from the botanical researches, evolutionary theories, and mineral-cycles discoveries, beginning from the second half of the nineteenth century, has led to the development of ecology as an autonomous scientific discipline. At the beginning of the twentieth century, this development intersected the studies on thermodynamics and systems theories, which together with a great variety of natural, technical, and social sciences, became integrated in the constituting ecological science. From the 1950s onward, systems theory has notably constituted an important contribution in the shaping of ecology, some of whose most influential and controversial approaches, namely ecosystems ecology and global ecology, are deeply characterised by the systems theorists' influence.

The paper highlights the role played by Giuseppe Montalenti in the dissemination of evolutionism in Italy in the 20th century, from the Thirties to the Seventies. Through a shrewd use of bibliographic policies--translations, introductions to Darwin's and Darwininian works--Montalenti succeeded in popularizing evolutionism, as well as a broader notion of biology, in the comparatively backward cultural and scientific Novecento Italian scene.

Nephrolithiasis is a common multifactorial disorder affecting about 10% of the Western populations and it is characterized by the presence of small crystals and stones in the urinary tract. Uric acid nephrolithiasis (UAN) accounts for 20% of all stones but its prevalence varies between countries. Nephrolithiasis is likely caused by several factors but a genetic component has clearly been demonstrated. While studying an ancient founder population in Sardinia, we recently identified a susceptibility locus for UAN on chromosome 10. In this region we identified a missense mutation in a specific isoform of a novel gene is strongly associated with UAN. Through a comparative genomic approach, we did not found a mouse homolog even if we were able to identify the corresponding genomic region, while in Old World monkey we found a canonical gene structure with several stop codons preventing protein production. We detected expression in New World monkeys while in humans we observe a functional protein. It seems, therefore, that, to avoid human disease, a fierce selection worked to develop a renal-haematic urate homeostasis system against excessive hyperuricaemia. ZNF365 emerged during primate evolution and assumed its role in parallel with the disappearance of uricase, probably against a disadvantageous excessive hyperuricaemia.

This paper reviews the Author's contribution to the knowledge of the ultrastructural basis of the prokaryote-eukaryote interactions in different models assessed by an ultrastructural approach. In agreement with the hypothesis of the origin of eukaryotic cells, which are chimeras of several prokaryotes with different morpho-functional specializations, symbiosis had major consequence for evolution of life. In Arthropods, one of the most successful lifestyles, the presence of endosymbiotic prokaryotes, plays an important role in their metabolism. In some cases, genome integration has occurred in the endosymbiotic relationships with the host, proving that intracellular symbiosis is not merely a nutritional supplement. Intracellular symbiotic bacteria are also described in nematodes. In particular, the presence of intracellular Wolbachia in filariae, even if its function is not yet completely known, influences positively the reproductive biology and the survival of the host, as proved by antibiotic treatment against this bacterium. The ultrastructural images reported in this review were obtained using different species of cockroaches, termites, ticks and filarial nematodes. The traditional methods of transmission (TEM), scansion (SEM) and immuno electron microscopy were used. In addition, also freeze-fracture and deep-etching techniques were employed. The cockroaches and the primitive termite Mastotermes darwiniensis host symbiotic bacteria in the ovary and in specialized cells (bacteriocytes) of the fat body. These bacteria have the typical cell boundary profile of gram-negative bacteria and are enveloped in a vacuolar membrane produced by the host cell. Molecular sequence data of 16S rDNA of endosymbionts of five species of cockroaches and M. darwiniensis indicate that they are members of the Flavobacteria-bacteroides group and that the infection occurred in an ancestor common to cockroaches and termites probably after the end of the Paleozoic (250 Ma BP). The symbiotic bacteria are transmitted transovarially and, during embryogenesis, they are integrated into the morphogenetic processes. In particular, we were able to demonstrate that the origin of the bacteriocyte should be looked for in the cells of the haemocyte line (embryonic plasmatocytes). The eggs are infected by the bacteria emerging from the bacteriocytes of the ovaric fat body and, at the end of the vitellogenesis, they are actively phagocytized by the egg membrane. In filarial nematodes, intracellular bacteria belonging to the genus Wolbachia have been described: they have evolved an obligatory mutualistic association with their host. In fact, antibiotic treatments lead to the clearance of bacteria and this loss produces a negative impact on reproduction and survival of the filarial host. We evidenced, by TEM, the degenerative events occurring during the embriogenesis of Brugia pahangi and Dirofilaria immitis after tetracycline treatment. The data suggest that the Wolbachia play a direct role in worm metabolism. Finally, a new additional model of the prokaryote-eukaryote interaction has been described: we have recently discovered a new intracellular alpha-proteobacterium, named Iric ES1, which resides in the ovarian tissues of the tick Ixodes ricinus. The intriguing characteristic of this bacterium is its ability to invade and consume the ovaric mitochondria. From an evolutionary perspective, it is interesting to note that Iric ES1 enters mitochondria in a similar way to that employed by the "predatory" bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus.

The triumph of Darwinism, together with the rise of Genetics, produced the virtual abandonment of the problem of form in Biology. The statement that any adaptive theory is tautological is however poor, the adaptation concept having an evident intuitive content. As in Geometrical Optics, a ray of light is, among the crowd of continuous curves uniting two points, the one requiring the minimum time for the light to go from one point to the other, so actual evolution, among the crowd of virtual evolutions between two forms, is the one best fitted to face 'selective pressure' in a given environment. The effect of selective pressure on the genome is unfortunately a merely theoretical not quantifiable concept. Most biological forms are forced by their internal stability to an essential fixity, so that the leap from one type-form to another should be abrupt-catastrophic. A good theory of evolution depends on a proper understanding of specific form stability. Biology must eventually return to the concept of ideal structure, the Goethian 'Urbild'.

The most important metabolic changes in pregnancy are facilitated anabolism when food is available and accelerated catabolism during fasting. In combination with the acquisition of haemochorial placenta, bipedalism and obligatory prematurity at birth these evolutionary choices have been the prerequisite conditions for the rapid growth of the fetal brain and its further postnatal development.

For centuries the goal of galileian and newtonian science has been the discovery of the universal laws of nature governing all natural phenomena. But, starting with the sixties of this century, advanced research has concentrated on the study of the characteristic aspects of irregular and unrepeatable evolutionary processes. Signs of this change are the rediscovery of Poincaré's results on the dynamics of non linear systems, and the extraordinary development of evolutionary thinking. Three properties characterize complex systems: the multiplicity of their levels of organization, the presence of self-referential loops of internal communication, and the irreducible nature of their past history to structural properties. The traditional cartesian gap between mind and body therefore falls down, as argued at length by the works of Gregory Bateson. His arguments are further strengthened by the neurologist Antonio Damasio in his book on reason, emotion and human brain, whose title is L'errore di Cartesio (The error of Descartes), where the negative consequences of this error on the development of science in general and on contemporary medicine in particular, are illustrated.

The deterministic processes, whether mechanicistic or statistic but not chaotic, have a high degree of predicibility in contrast with evolutionary processes. Following the methodological principle of C. Bernard of diseases as alterations of biochemical and physiological processes, medicine has been assigned to the area of the functional biological, i.e. to the area of the deterministic processes. However in many cases the evolution of pathological processes is hardly predictable due to many reasons. The first is the exponential evolution of many physiological processes, a reason for which the evolution tends to become chaotic. The second is that, although deterministic, frequency and distribution of diseases require a statistical approach. The third and most important reason is that a large number of pathological processes are of evolutionary nature and are therefore accompanied by the continuous generation of new information. Some examples of evolutionary processes, such the tumor trasformations and the autoimmune diseases are discussed but it is suggested that the field of evolutionary medicine will rapidly expand.