1,355,532 research outputs found
Oltre il Pilastro europeo dei diritti sociali. Per un nuovo riformismo sociale in Europa,
No full textAnalisi critica del cd. Pilastro sociale europeo
Genetic evidence on origin and dispersal of human populations speaking languages of the Nostratic macrofamily
No full textContemporary patterns of allele frequencies
allow inferences on past evolutionary processes. L. L. Cavalli-
Sforza [(1988) Munibe 6, 129-137] and C. Renfrew [(1991)
Cambridge Archaeol. J. 1, 3-23] proposed that neolithic farmers
from the Near East propagated a group of related ancestral
languages, from which three or four linguistic families developed.
Here we show that genetic variation among Indo-
European, Elamo-Dravidian, and Altaic speakers (grouped by
some linguists in the Nostratic macrofamily) supports this
hypothesis, whereas the evidence on Afro-Asiatic speakers is
ambiguous. Gene-frequency climes within these linguistic famiies
suggest that language diffusion was largely associated with
population movements rather than with purely cultural transmission.
Archeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence can be
reconciled by envisagng a process of population growth and
multidirectional dispersal from the Near East as the main
factor shaping genetic and liistic diversity in Eurasia and
perhaps in North Africa
Il Pilastro europeo e la riscoperta del ruolo delle parti sociali
No full textIl saggio evidenzia i principi e obiettivi di rilancio del dialogo sociale e del ruolo delle parti sociali in Europa e negli Stati membri a seguito della approvazione del Pilastro sociale. In particolare evidenzia il ruolo riconosciuto alle parti sociali nel processo di governance macroeconomica (cd. semestre europeo) anche attraverso il monitoraggio delle politiche di riforma attraverso indicatori di sviluppo sociale
Profili di "comunitarizzazione" del terzo pilastro
No full textNell'articolo, licenziato prima dell'entrata in vigore del trattato di Lisbona, si procede all'analisi della politica dell'Unione europea in materia penale. In una prima parte si considera l'esigenza da cui nasce la cooperazione penale tra gli Stati membri che è strettamente connessa alla piena realizzazione delle libertà nel mercato unico che, in qualche modo, possono favorire la circolazione senza controllo dei fenomeni criminali. Tale forma di cooperazione nasce come cooperazione "intergovernativa" con il Trattato sull'Unione europea stipulato a Maastricht nel 1993, nell'ambito del terzo pilastro dell'Unione, tuttavia, ingerenze nella materia penale da parte della Comunità, proprio in quanto settore collegato al mercato interno, si rinvengono già in atti normativi relativi alla libera circolazione delle persone, quindi nel primo pilastro. A tal proposito si analizza la giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia in tema di reati ambientali, Commissione c. Consiglio, sentenza 13 settembre 2005, causa C-176/03, in cui la Corte annulla una decisione quadro e riconosce la competenza in materia penale nel primo pilastro comunitario ma solo in via funzionale alla realizzazione di una politica comunitaria, nel caso di specie, in materia ambientale. In una successiva sentenza, Commissione c. Consiglio, 27 ottobre 2007, causa C-440/05, la Corte riconosce nuovamente la competenza penale del primo pilastro in quanto funzionale alla realizzazione di una politica comunitaria, ma precisa che è interdetto alle istituzioni UE lo stabilire il tipo e l'entità delle sanzioni penali poiché tale competenza resta una prerogativa degli Stati membri. Nella seconda parte del lavoro oggetto d'esame è la progressiva "comunitarizzazione" del settore penale. Tale fenomeno, ante Lisbona, si è realizzato attraverso il riconoscimento da parte della Corte di giustizia dell'operatività nel terzo pilastro di principi comunitari quali l'obbligo di leale cooperazione e d'interpretazione conforme nella nota sentenza Pupino del 16 giugno 2005, causa C- 105/03. Si analizza, quindi, l'impatto che tale esportazione di principi dal primo al terzo pilastro ha sull'ordinamento interno. Infine, si procede ad una breve disamina delle prospettive delineate dal Trattato di Lisbona (all'epoca non ancora in vigore ma già redatto nella sua versione definitiva) che attraverso l'abolizione dei pilastri dell'Unione colloca la cooperazione penale nel più ampio spazio di libertà sicurezza e giustizia del Trattato sul funzionamento dell'Unione europea, insieme alla cooperazione civile. Si realizza l’estensione del metodo comunitario alla cooperazione penale, tuttavia, nelle disposizioni relative alla materia penale si inserisce un meccanismo tipico della cooperazione intergovernativa (il “freno d’emergenza” nella procedura di formazione degli atti), previsto dal testo del TUE esclusivamente nel pilastro della politica estera e di sicurezza comune PESC . Ciò rispecchia probabilmente la volontà dei governi degli Stati membri di riservarsi la possibilità di continuare a porre un “veto” all’adozione degli atti in materia penale, nonostante l’abbandono della regola dell’unanimità e la previsione del più democratico strumento della procedura legislativa ordinaria. Sembra, quindi, profilarsi nel TFUE il tentativo di conciliare il metodo comunitario con tecniche legislative tipicamente riconducibili alla forma più radicale del metodo intergovernativo quale è quello che caratterizza per l’appunto la cooperazione nella politica estera e di sicurezza comune dell’Unione
Three early books on birds’ eggs: Marsili’s Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus (1726), Zinanni’s Delle Uova e dei Nidi degli Uccelli (1737) and Klein’s Ova avium plurimarum ad naturalem magnitudinem delineata et genuinis coloribus picta (1766)
No full textThe three earliest – all eighteenth-century – illustrated accounts of birds’ eggs were by Luigi Marsili (or Marsigli): Danubius Pannonico-Mysicus, Giuseppe Zinanni (or Ginanni): Delle Uova e dei Nidi degli Uccelli, and Jacob Theodor Klein: Ova avium plurimarum ad naturalem magnitudinem delineata et genuinis coloribus picta. Marsili’s account describes and illustrates the nests and eggs of just 15 different birds (whose identity is sometimes uncertain), which together with 59 plates of birds forms part of a multi-disciplinary account of the River Danube. Zinanni’s volume (which also includes an appendix on grasshoppers) describes the nests and eggs of 106 birds, and is more extensive and accurate since he shot the adult birds attending nests from which the illustrated eggs were collected. Zinanni’s book includes 34 black-and-white engraved plates each with between one and nine eggs of species that (excluding domesticated or exotic species) were probably those that occurred around his home in north-east Italy. Klein’s volume includes 145 coloured plates of eggs – the first published coloured images of eggs – and his classification of birds based on feet and toes. We present some biographical information and details of each author’s career and a summary of their books’ contents. The text of Zinanni’s volume is the most “philosophical” of the three and includes a discussion – based on the writings of Lorenzo Bellini and Antonio Vallisneri – of what he calls “airways” within the egg that have apparently not been noticed or commented on by subsequent researchers
Female nutritional condition affects ovarian fluid quality in guppies
No full textMale and female gametes are often embedded in fluids that are produced by gonads and other reproductive tissues. Female reproductive fluids, usually called ovarian fluid (OF), which often constitute a relevant volumetric component of the egg mass, are rich in ions, sugars and proteins, and are involved in several functions, from protecting gametes to facilitating fertilization, and often act as mediators of post-mating sexual selection. Despite their applied and evolutionary importance, we know virtually nothing about the costs of female reproductive fluid production. We investigated the effect of nutritional condition on OF quality by experimentally manipulating the diet of two groups of female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) which were maintained for 20 days either on a restricted diet or had ad libitum access to food. In this species, OF enhances sperm swimming longevity and velocity (a predictor of sperm competition success) and mediates post-copulatory inbreeding avoidance. We found that sperm velocity was significantly lower in the OF of diet-restricted females, indicating that OF quality is dependent on female nutritional condition. Our results demonstrate that OF represents a non-trivial component of female reproductive investment and provides a tool to investigate which OF constituents are involved in modulating OF–sperm interactions and fertilization.Fil: Cardozo Milanesio, Gabriela Alejandra. Universita Di Padova. Dipartimento Di Biología; Italia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: Pilastro, Andrea. Universita Di Padova. Dipartimento Di Biología; Itali
Female mate choice in a mating system dominated by male sexual coercion
No full textIn poeciliid fishes, males can gain copulation either by courting females or through sexual coercion. In some species these two tactics coexist. However, in about half of the poeciliids, males do not display, females never cooperate during copulation and all matings are achieved by thrusting the intromittent organ toward the genital pore of apparently unaware females. In one of these species, the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), the probability of insemination is influenced by the time females are previously deprived of males, suggesting that females exert some control over the occurrence of mating even in a system apparently dominated by sexual coercion. In the present study we investigated the tendency of female mosquitofish to approach males in relation to their reproductive status and the time tl;ey were previously deprived of males. The tendency to approach males increased in females that were previously deprived of males and in females that had recently given birth. When allowed to choose between males, male-deprived females preferred larger males and normally pigmented over melanistic males. Females preferred groups of three males over a single male, whereas the preference for three males over a group of one male and two females was only marginally significant. Collectively, these results suggest that, even when coercive mating is the only tactic adopted by males, females may be able to influence the outcome of these attempts, and thus exert some control over the paternity of their offspring
Exploratory behaviour covaries with preference for unfamiliar males in female guppies
No full textMany animals, from humans to invertebrates, exhibit sexual preference for unfamiliar partners. This may reduce the risk of inbreeding and increase offspring heterozygosity. An alternative less tested hypothesis is that selection for neophilia in other contexts (e.g. exploration of unfamiliar environments) may promote mate preference for unfamiliar partners. We tested whether exploratory tendency covaries with female preference for unfamiliar mates in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata, a species in which exploratory behaviour show significant phenotypic and genetic variation. We measured the exploratory behaviour of females using an unfamiliar environment test. The same females were also tested for preference for an unfamiliar male over a male with which they had spent the previous 24 h. We found that a female's tendency to explore an unfamiliar environment was positively correlated with the strength of her preference for unfamiliar males. Our results support the hypothesis that exploration might play a role in the evolution and maintenance of preference for unfamiliar males via functional pleiotropy
Weather conditions and fat accumulation dynamics in pre-migratory roosting Barn Swallows Hirundo rustica
No full textRepeatable negotiation rules? only females show repeatable responses to partner removal in a brood-provisioning songbird
No full textTheoretical models indicate that the evolution of biparental care depends on how parents behaviourally negotiate their level of care in response to those of their partner and whether sexes and individuals consistently vary in their response (compensatory response). While the compensatory response has been widely investigated empirically, its repeatability has rarely been assessed. In this study, we used a reaction norm approach to investigate the repeatability of the compensatory offspring provisioning of a parent after temporary removal of its partner in the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) across different breeding seasons and partners. We found that only females partially compensated for the short-term removal of the partner and their response was significantly repeatable across years while breeding with different partners. This study highlights the importance of considering among individual differences in negotiation rules to better understand the role of negotiation mechanisms in the evolution of parental care strategies
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