209 research outputs found
Personnalisation et leadership Le cas du Mouvement Cinq Étoiles
No full textThe article draws a characterisation of the late comer among the Italian populist parties, the Five Star’ Movement, led by the ancient comedian Beppe Grillo. Starting with a definition of what he means by “political personalisation”, the Author first describe this party as a political organisation in which the leader masters all the key areas – notably, communication, rules setting, and resolution of internal conflicts. Then, he argue that the Five Star Movement is a “personalist party”, in which Beppe Grillo embodies a powerful but non-charismatic leader. In the closing section, the Author tries to shed light above the probable evolutions of the party, particularly dealing with its institutionalisation process
Data for: Statistical analysis of the interaction between wind-waves and currents during early wave generation
No full textTwenty-two experiments were performed with two different wind speed values and eleven different current speed values (including zero values, absence of current), with a ratio of current speed to phase speed u_c=c = [-0.2, 0.25], measuring the instantaneous water level in different sections with ultrasonic probes.Raw data (water elevation)
Widespread structural brain changes in OCD. a systematic review of voxel-based morphometry studies
No full textThe most widely accepted model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) assumes brain abnormalities in the "affective circuit", mainly consisting of volume reduction in the medial orbitofrontal, anterior cingulate and temporolimbic cortices, and tissue expansion in the striatum and thalamus. The advent of whole-brain, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) has provided increasing evidence that regions outside the "affective" orbitofronto-striatal circuit are involved in OCD. Nevertheless, potential confounds from the different image analysis methods, as well as other factors, such as patients' medication and comorbidity status, may limit generalization of results. In the present paper, we systematically reviewed the whole-brain VBM literature on OCD by focussing specifically on degree of consistency between studies, extent to which findings have been replicated and interrelation between clinical variables and OCD anatomy, a potentially crucial factor that has been systematically examined only in a limited number of studies. The PubMed database was searched through February 2012. A total of 156 studies were identified; 18 of them fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria and included 511 patients and 504 controls. Results support the notion that the brain alterations responsible for OCD are represented at the network level, and that widespread structural abnormalities may contribute to neurobiological vulnerability to OCD. Apart from defects in regions within the classic "affective" circuit, volume reduction of the cortical source of the dorsolateral (DL) prefronto-striatal "executive" circuit (dorsomedial, DL, ventrolateral and frontopolar prefrontal cortices), and of reciprocally connected regions (temporo-parieto-occipital associative areas) is consistently described in OCD patients. Moreover, increased volume of the internal capsule and reduced frontal and parietal white matter volumes may account for altered anatomical connectivity in fronto-subcortical circuitry. Morphometric changes in both "affective" and "executive" parallel the disease clinical course, being at the same time responsible for variation in symptom severity. Thus, OCD mechanisms involve a more widespread network of cerebral dysfunctions than previously thought, which may explain the heterogeneity in clinical manifestations and symptom severity
Hippocampus age-related microstructural changes in schizophrenia: a case-control mean diffusivity study.
No full textMacrostructural-volumetric abnormalities of the hippocampus have been described in schizophrenia. Here, we characterized age-related changes of hippocampal mean diffusivity as an index of microstructural damage by carrying out a neuroimaging study in 85 patients with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia and 85 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. We performed analyses of covariance, with diagnosis as fixed factor, mean diffusivity as dependent variable and age as covariate. Patients showed an early increase in mean diffusivity in the right and left hippocampus that increased with age. Thus, microstructural hippocampal changes associated with schizophrenia cannot be confined to a specific time window
Non-O157 verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli isolated from cattle at slaughter in Italy
No full textAnnali della Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria - Università degli Studi di Parm
GABA system in schizophrenia and mood disorders: A mini review on third-generation imaging studies
No full textThird-generation neuroimaging research has been enriched by advances in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) measuring the concentration of important neurotrasmitters, such as the inhibitory amino acid GABA. Here, we performed a systematic mini-review on brain MRS studies measuring GABA concentration in patients affected by schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). We wondered whether multimodal investigations could overcome intrinsic technical limits of MRS giving a broader view of mental disorders pathogenesis. In SZ, unimodal studies gave mixed results, as increased, decreased, or unaltered GABA levels were reported depending on region, disease phase, and treatment. Conversely, multimodal results showed reduced level of glutamate, but not of GABA, in patients mirrored by in vitro biochemical findings revealing hippocampal reduction in glutamate signaling in SZ, and no deficits in GABA synthesis. Moreover, a mouse model confirmed the unique pathological characteristic of glutamate function in SZ. Unimodal studies in BD revealed again, inconsistent results, while no multimodal investigations including MRS on GABA exist. In MDD, unimodal studies could not differentiate patients from controls nor characterize high-risk subjects and remitted patients. However, a multimodal study combining functional magnetic resonance imaging and MRS revealed that cingulate cortex activity is related to glutamate, N-acetylaspartate levels and anhedonia in patients, and to GABA concentration in healthy subjects, improving the distinction between MDD and physiology. Overall, our results show that unimodal studies do not indicate GABA as a biomarker for the psychiatric disorders considered. Conversely, multimodal studies can widen the understanding of the link between psychopathology, genetics, neuroanatomy, and functional-biochemical brain activity in mental disorders. Although scarce, multimodal approaches seem promising for moving from GABA MRS unimodal-descriptive to causal level, and for integrating GABA results into a more comprehensive interpretation of mental disorder pathophysiology
Integrated analysis of data collected by an innovative monitoring system and results of a 3D numerical model in Boschetto landslide
No full texthis paper illustrates the studies carried out on a landslide phenomenon occurred during the Spring of 2013 in Boschetto, a little town in the Parma Apennines, after some days of heavy rain. The activation/reactivation of the landslide caused the interruption of a provincial road and the disruption of few houses. The work presented aims to reconstruct the process that caused the landslide activation. It describes also an innovative automated monitoring system that collects and remotely sends data. The main advantages of an automated monitoring system are the high acquisition frequency, the simultaneous recording of several physical entities. The large database of collected data and a statistical approach have been used for the analysis, in order to verify if accidental or systematic errors were present and eventually correct them. The results are shown together with the back-analysis simulation, made with 3D numerical model (GTS-NX) based on FEM and Mohr-Coulomb criteria. © 2016 Associazione Geotecnica Italiana, Rome, Italy
Automated Inclinometer Monitoring Based on Micro Electro-Mechanical System Technology: Application and Verification
No full text
Optical coherence tomography: preliminary results with a new noninvasive technique for evaluating uterine cervical tissue and vulvar epithelium
No full textOptical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive diagnostic imaging technique that captures high-definition real-time images at near-microscopic resolution (1-2 mm below the surface) of biological tissue morphology. The aim of this study was to define the characteristics of uterine cervical and vulvar pathologies by means of OCT and to compare OCT findings versus histopathological features
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