689 research outputs found

    sj-docx-1-pss-10.1177_09567976211034501 – Supplemental material for Uncertainty and Prior Assumptions, Rather Than Innate Logarithmic Encoding, Explain Nonlinear Number-to-Space Mapping

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    Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-pss-10.1177_09567976211034501 for Uncertainty and Prior Assumptions, Rather Than Innate Logarithmic Encoding, Explain Nonlinear Number-to-Space Mapping by Guido Marco Cicchini, Giovanni Anobile, Eleonora Chelli, Roberto Arrighi and David C. Burr in Psychological Science</p

    Long‐term surveillance for hepatitis E virus in an Italian two‐site farrow‐to‐finish swine farm

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    In humans, hepatitis E virus (HEV) is responsible for an acute enterically transmitted hepatitis, which can become chronic in immune-compromised patients. Genotypes 3 and 4 (HEV-3 and HEV-4) are zoonotic, and domestic pigs and wild boar are the main reservoirs. The occurrence of autochthonous cases in Europe, which have been increasing over the last 10 years, has been associated with food-borne zoonotic transmission of HEV-3, mainly linked to consumption of undercooked or raw pork products (sausages containing liver) and wild boar meat. Zoonotic HEV-3 strains are widespread on pig farms, but little information is available on the dynamic of HEV-3 infection within farms, among pigs. The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of the infection among pigs of different ages along the production chain by the zoonotic HEVs, and to evaluate how long the virus may persist in the farm environment. The presence of HEV-RNA was investigated by real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) in 281 test faecal pools over 19 months (2017-2019) on a two-site farrow-to-finish farm (about 1,000 sows), in Northern Italy. A total of 67/281 test faecal pools (23.8%) resulted positive for the presence of HEV-RNA (site 1: 59/221, 26.7%; site 2: 8/60, 13.3%). Nucleotide sequencing revealed a unique HEV-3 viral variant circulating during 19 months of surveillance. The same HEV-3 strain was detected in the same farm on 2012, indicating the persistence of the same virus over 7 years, and highlighting the role of the environment as a continuous source of infection on pig farms. The results confirmed the circulation of the zoonotic genotype HEV-3 in pigs before slaughtering

    Detection and Characterization of Porcine Sapelovirus in Italian Pig Farms

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    Porcine sapelovirus (PSV) belongs to the genus Sapelovirus of the family Picornaviridae. PSV infects pigs asymptomatically, but it can also cause severe neurologic, enteric, and respiratory symptoms or reproductive failure. Sapelovirus infections have been reported worldwide in pigs. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence and the prevalence of PSV in Italian swine farms in animals of different ages to clarify the occurrence of the infection and the genetic characteristics of circulating strains. In the present study, 92 pools of fecal samples, collected from pigs across three farms, were analyzed by Reverse Transcriptase-polymerase Chain Reaction-PCR (RT-PCR). Fecal pools from young growers (63/64) were found positive for Sapelovirus in all farms while detection in sows (4/28) was observed in only one farm. Phylogenetic analyses of the 19 partial capsid protein nucleotide sequences (VP1) (6–7 each farm) enable the classification of the virus sequences into three distinct clades and highlighted the high heterogeneity within one farm. The whole genome sequence obtained from one strain showed the highest correlation with the Italian strain detected in 2015. The study adds novel information about the circulation and heterogeneity of PSV strains in Italy and considering the movement of pigs across Europe would also be informative for other countries

    Adaptation of the Canadian Fire Weather Index to Mediterranean forests

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    The Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) is one of the most used tools to forecast forest fire hazard. In this paper, we propose an adaptation of the FWI to take into account the Mediterranean vegetation and climate, to improve FWI performances for areas with these characteristics. In particular, the FWI has been calibrated for two Mediterranean regions (Algarve, Portugal and Peloponnese, Greece) by fitting the experimental data, collected in the field, for the forest fuel moisture content, with the values expected by the application of the original Canadian FWI. Field data were collected during the 2010 and 2011 fire seasons. The satisfactory results obtained by the adaptation of parameters from the original FWI, in spite of the small sample areas and limited time of collection, allowed us to verify the usefulness of the method in describing the fuel moisture dynamics and obtaining indexes closer to the characteristics of the Mediterranean forests considered. The adapted FWI, if further tested and extended to other sample areas, may help in a more detailed and precise application of the FWI index by improving the daily forest fire hazard forecast, to become also a better support for the Civil Protection Agency of Mediterranean countries

    Translocator protein ligands as promising therapeutic tools for anxiety disorders

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    The Translocator protein (TSPO), formerly known as the peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptor, is an 18 kDa mitochondrial protein primarily involved in steroid biosynthesis in both peripheral and glial cells. It has been extensively reported that TSPO regulates the rate-limiting translocation of cholesterol from the outer to the inner mitochondrial membrane before its transformation by cytochrome P450scc into pregnenolone, which is further converted into an array of different steroids. In the brain, neurosteroids such as allopregnanolone and pregnenolone, acting as positive modulators of γ-aminobutyric type A (GABAA) receptors, exert anxiolytic activity. Specific ligands targeting TSPO increase neurosteroid production and for this reason they have been suggested to play an important role in anxiety modulation. Unlike benzodiazepines (Bzs), which represent the most common anti-anxiety drugs administered around the world, selective TSPO ligands have shown anxiolytic effects in animal models without any of the side effects associated with Bzs. Therefore, specific TSPO ligands that are able to promote neurosteroidogenesis may represent the future of therapeutic treatment of anxiety disorders. Furthermore, TSPO expression levels are altered in several different psychiatric disorders in which anxiety is the main symptom. This article reviews the primary and patent literature over the last decade concerning the development of novel TSPO ligands that have resulted effective in various models of anxiety, taking into special consideration their structure-activity relationships

    “but I am also influenced by no such thing”-The Radical Pietist and Theological Author Johanna Eleonora Petersen

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    Johanna Eleonora von und zu Merlau, verheiratete Petersen, von jeher tief gläubig, veränderte die religiöse Welt des 17. Jahrhunderts. Sie bekannte sich zur Bewegung des Pietismus und vertrat radikale Ansichten, nicht nur im privaten Kreis, sondern als anerkannte und heftig kritisierte theologische Autorin. Ihrem Werk ist eine Studie gewidmet, in der neue Forschungsergebnisse vorgestellt und Leben und Werk dieser bedeutenden Autorin in zeitgenössische Diskurse eingebunden werden.The deeply devout Johanna Eleonora Petersen, whose maiden name was „von und zu Merlau,” changed the religious world of the seventeenth century. She avowed herself to Pietism and held radical views, not only in private but also as an acknowledged and sharply criticized theological author. This study attends to her work. It presents new research results and weaves the life and work of this important author into contemporary discourses

    La notion de défectuosité du produit dans les jurisprudences des pays européens

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    This work analyses the notion of defective product originally developed by US Courts, then ambiguously defined by the European directive n. 374 of 1985 and differently interpreted and applied by the respective domestic Courts. In particular, some European jurisdictions apply the risk / utility test introduced by the US Courts for design defects cases, although this test is not mentioned by the European Directive. The author, having highlighted the inconsistences of the risk / utility test, proposes an alternative model of classification of defective products according to the elements actually used by judges in order to allocate the liability, as emerging from the text of their decisions. This classification leads to held the manufacturer strictly liable not only for manufacturing defects, but also for those design defects which he was aware of (as in some cases of defective vaccine).Cette étude examine la notion de défectuosité du produit initialement élaborée par les Cours américaines, définie de manière ambigüe par le législateur européen avec la directive n° 374 de 1985, puis différemment interprétée et appliquée par les Cours respectives des pays membres. Notamment certains systèmes juridiques européens appliquent le risk/ utility test élaboré par les Cours américaines pour les cas de défaut de conception du produit, bien que ce test ne soit pas mentionné par la directive européenne. L’auteur, après avoir mis en évidence les incongruences du risk/ utility test, propose un modèle alternatif de classification des cas de produits défectueux sur la base des critères d’imputation de la responsabilité qui sont concrètement utilisés par les juges et tels qu’imagés dans les textes de leurs décisions. Cette reconstruction amène à imputer au fabricant une responsabilité objective non seulement pour les cas de défaut de production, mais aussi pour les cas de défaut de conception dont il était averti (tel que certain cas de vaccin défectueux).Rajneri Karageorgevitch Eleonora. La notion de défectuosité du produit dans les jurisprudences des pays européens. In: Revue internationale de droit comparé. Vol. 67 N°1,2015. pp. 185-205
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