1,778 research outputs found
Cranial base variations in extant Hominoidea and fossil Hominins
No full textIn this communication, we present the results of a 3D geometric morphometric analysis of the cranial base variations in living and fossil Hominoidea. A number of studies on cranial base morphology have dealt with basicranial flexion, mainly in relationship with cranio/facial size and shape (Bastir et al., 2010; Bastir et al., 2011; Lieberman, 2011). By contrast, our aim is to test to what extent basicranial morphology is related to functional and/or ontogenetic patterns. Particularly, we are interested in the evaluation of factors that may have influenced the cranial base morphology in Plio-Pleistocene Hominins. We used a configuration of 18 landmarks distributed on the cranial base on a sample of 128 specimens (infants, juveniles, and adults) of Homo, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Pan, Gorilla, and Pongo; the age at death of the specimens was determined by patterns of molar eruption. The landmark set has been transformed into shape coordinates by generalized Procrustes analysis and the variance-covariance matrix was explored through principal component analysis (PCA). Shape predictions were performed by regression of the PC scores on the centroid size in order to display the respective pattern of growth within the different OTUs. The results discriminates two main ontogenetic series independently from phylogenetic/taxonomic relationships. The distribution of these clusters in the morphospace may be viewed in relationship with ontogenetic trajectories as well as with posture and locomotion. Pongo, Gorilla, and Pan, share a common pattern of cranial base variation during growth, whereas modern humans show a different pattern of change with analogous ontogenetic polarity, shared with Mid-to-Late Pleistocene Homo. Australopiths and early-Homo specimens occupy a morpho-space that is distinct from both the other Homo, representatives and living great apes, while approach the ontogenetic series of the formers. It is worth mentioning that this is not in relationship with their degree of encephalization, but it is consistent with the Anova (p < 0.001) performed on PC scores on posture and locomotion variables. When dealing with shape predictions, the P-values of the regression analysis of size related trajectories are statistically significant for the extant Hominoidea, while adult Australopiths and early Homo, are closer to the trajectories of both modern humans and Mid-to-Late Pleistocene Homo, (including Neanderthal juveniles) than to those of great apes. The phenetic relationships based on UPGMA cluster analysis (adult samples only) further demonstrate the independence of the observed patterns of cranial base morphology from phylogenetic/taxonomic relationships.
References:Bastir, M., Rosas, A., Stringer, C., Cuétara, J.M., Kruszynski, R., Weber, G.W., Ross, C.F., Ravosa, M. J., 2010. Effects of brain and facial size on basicranial form in human and primate evolution. J. Hum. Evol., 58, 424-431. Bastir, M., Rosas, A., Gunz, P., Pena-Melian, A., Manzi, G., Harvati, K., Kruszynski, R., Stringer, C., Hublin, J-J., 2011. Evolution of the base of the brain in highly encephalized human species. Nat. Commun., 2, 588. (doi:10.1038/ncomms1593) Lieberman, D.E., 2011. The Evolution of the Human Head. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Chiara Lubich, Meditazioni: letteratura come relazione
No full textChiara Lubich (1920–2008), although the author of 32 books published in 26 countries (178 editions, 3.2 million copies), is better known for her social engagement, as reflected in numerous awards. She began to be regarded as a literary author only in the early 2000s, and primarily from a linguistic rather than literary perspective. This article focuses on her book Meditazioni (Meditations), reconstructs its genesis by tracing the writing process from the late 1950s to her death and the 2021 critical edition, and offers a literary analysis. This reveals Lubich as a forerunner of a new conception of literature: literature as relationship – not only between author and reader, but also among subject, inspiration, and the editorial process
Morfologia della base del cranio: un confronto fra scimmie antropomorfe e ominini fossili
No full textLe variazioni della morfologia e del grado di flessione del basicranio nell’uomo, sono state spesso messe in relazione allo sviluppo ontogenetico ed evolutivo di altri distretti cranici, ad esempio lo splancnocranio (e.g. Bastir et al., 2010, Bastir et al., 2011; Lieberman, 2011) e/o al fenomeno dell’encefalizzazione (e.g. Lieberman, 2011). Meno indagata risulta invece la possibile correlazione tra modalità di sviluppo ontogenetico della base del cranio e origine evolutiva del bipedismo. Viene qui presentato uno studio di morfometria geometrica volto alla caratterizzazione dei pattern differenziali di crescita e sviluppo della base del cranio in diverse Hominoidea attuali rispetto a esemplari fossili della traiettoria evolutiva umana: Australopithecus, Paranthropus e Homo.
E’ stata allo scopo utilizzata una configurazione tridimensionale di 18 landmarks distribuiti sulle porzioni occipitali, temporali e sfenoidee della base del cranio di 123 reperti riprodotti in formato digitale a partire da dati TC e distinti in classi di età (infanti, giovanili, adulti) in base a parametri specie-specifici di eruzione dentaria. Le coordinate tridimensionali della configurazione sono state poi trasformate in nuove coordinate di forma utilizzate per le analisi di statistica multivariata.
L’analisi della Componenti Principali (PCA) individua chiaramente l’esistenza di due vettori di cambiamento tra loro divergenti, differenziando le traiettorie di accrescimento e sviluppo della base del cranio delle specie non-bipedi (antropomorfe attuali) tra loro ampiamente complanari e sovrapposte, dalle specie dotate di bipedismo obbligato (H. ergaster, H. erectus, H. heidelbergensis e H. neanderthalensis) oltre a H. sapiens. A questa seconda traiettoria si avvicinano, ma senza sovrapporsi o allinearsi ad essa, le morfologie scheletriche della base cranica dei bipedi cosiddetti "facoltativi" del Plio-Pleistocene (Australopithecus, Paranthropus e H. habilis). Queste ultime forme, pur essendo perlopiù caratterizzati da volumi encefalici modesti e comparabili a quelli delle scimmie antropomorfe, occupano un morfo-spazio nettamente distinto da quello di queste ultime. Di particolare interesse il fatto che la distribuzione dei dati nella PCA risulta correlare in modo statisticamente significativo (p < 0.001) con le variabili di postura e locomozione utilizzate nell’analisi della varianza (ANOVA), sostenendo l'ipotesi che fattori posturali e locomotori anziché l’encefalizzazione o la filogenesi, siano buoni predittori della morfologia della base del cranio nelle specie fossili considerate.
I predetti della regressione dei PC scores sui valori della taglia centroide, calcolati indipendentemente per ciascun OTU, sono state quindi utilizzati per la definizione di traiettorie a polarità ontogenetica, che sono risultate statisticamente significative per le specie viventi di Hominoidea. Rispetto ad esse, i bipedi facoltativi (australopitecine) si avvicinano nuovamente alla direttrice di sviluppo e crescita dei bipedi obbligati (Homo). Le traiettorie delle attuali antropomorfe, invece, nonostante le differenze filogenetiche tra i rispettivi taxa, condividono il medesimo pattern di sviluppo e crescita della basicranio, con traiettorie quasi del tutto coincidenti.
L’analisi dei cluster (UPGMA) in base alle distanze euclidee tra coordinate di Procruste degli individui adulti di ciascun taxa, evidenzia nuovamente l’indipendenza della pattern osservato da ogni fattore legato alla filogenesi e alla tassonomia delle specie considerate.
Riferimenti bibliografici
Bastir, M.; Rosas, A.; Stringer, C.; Cuétara, J.M.; Kruszynski, R.; Weber, G.W.; Ross, C.F. & Ravosa, M. J., 2010. Effects of brain and facial size on basicranial form in human and primate evolution. Journal of Human Evolution, 58(5): 424-431.
Bastir, M.; Rosas, A.; Gunz, P.; Pena-Melian, A.; Manzi, G.; Harvati, K.; Kruszynski, R.; Stringer, C. & Hublin, J-J., 2011. Evolution of the base of the brain in highly encephalized human species. Nature Communications 2, 588.
Lieberman, D.E., 2011. The Evolution of the Human Head. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Morfologia della base del cranio: un confronto tra scimmie antropomorfe e ominini fossili
No full textChiara Lubich: A Saint for a New Global Unity
No full textIn this article the author offers an introduction to the life, thought, and impact of Chiara Lubich. He begins with a brief biographical overview and draws attention to some important features of her spiritual teaching: Jesus in the midst, Jesus Forsaken, Mary Desolate, the four nights. He draws attention to the Economy of Communion and as an expression of this spirituality in the world of business and economics, and to the figure of Chiara Luce Badano, a young adherent to the Spirituality of Unity who has been recognized as an example of how this spirituality can lead to holiness of life. The author’s judgment is that Chiara Lubich is “a saint of dialogue.
Manifesto per il museo post-etnografico
No full textThe author signes a poetic manifesto for the future of ethnographic museums, beyond colonial representational stereotypes and methodologies
Il museo come metodo. E tu, che cosa vedi?
No full textThe chapter reflects upon the current achievements, at international scale, in reference to the education of the adolescents in the museum context. Drawing upon the experience of the "Che cosa vedi?" project, developed by the author herself at the Museo del Novecento, Milan, the chapter explores the scientific horizons, the best practices and the educational methodologies more suit for working with teenagers, such as peer education and debating. "Che cosa vedi?" was focused of the work of 4 prominent Italian artists of the XX century (Lucio Fontana, Toti Scialoja, Luciano Fabro and Mario Merz)
Vibrio parahaemolyticus- and V. alginolyticus-associated meningo-encephalitis in a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) from the Adriatic coast of Italy
No full textA case of Vibrio parahaemolyticus- and V. alginolyticus-associated meningo-encephalitis in a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) found stranded along the Adriatic coast of Italy in 2016 is herein reported, along with a minireview on V. parahaemolyticus and V. alginolyticus infections in aquatic mammals. Macroscopically, two abscesses were found in the dolphin's forebrain, along with an extensive, bilateral, parasitic broncho-pneumonia. Histologically, a suppurative meningo-encephalitis involved the brain but not the cerebellum. Microbiological investigations yielded isolation of V. parahaemolyticus and V. alginolyticus from the aforementioned abscesses and from the brain parenchyma, respectively, with simultaneous recovery of Shewanella algae from the heart and of Photobacterium damselae from a nasal swab.
Although V. parahaemolyticus and V. alginolyticus, which are widely distributed across marine ecosystems worldwide, likely played a role in the development of the suppurative meningo-encephalitis in this dolphin, we are not aware of previous isolations of any of these two bacteria neither from pathologic cetacean brains nor from abscess lesions in aquatic mammals
From Canvas to Music: Mathematics as a Tool for the Composition of Jackson Time
No full textThe creation of ``Jackson time'' is a project which involves a composer, Davide Amodio, and
a mathematician, Chiara de Fabritiis.
Our common aim was to to ``translate'' a painting by Jackson Pollock, Summertime n. 9,
into a piece of music, making use of different mathematical tools to detect the quantities needed for the
composition. We were inspired by the idea that the painting itself contained some kind of inner--music,
due to the fact that Pollock's moves during the dripping on the canvas had a sort of rhythm, indeed they were often
described by witnesses as a dance.
This paper describes the mathematical background, in particular it illustrates both the analysis
of the painting which was carried out by the two of us and the choice of the mathematical techniques applied to
compute the parameters needed for the composition, which is due to the author. The reader will find a more detailed
report on the composition itself in Davide Amodio's contribution
L'edilizia popolare e ordinaria in Francia: un patrimonio da valorizzare. Il Progetto AMuLoP
No full textThe author describes the practices, methodologies and outcomes of a museum project located in the Northern area of Paris and aimed at representing the life of the working class in the aftermath of the Second World War up to the present, with a focus on immigration
- …
