1,721,419 research outputs found
Scrivere fra le due guerre: riflessi socio-letterari del colonialismo italiano
No full textThe Italian colonial cravings, born after the end of Risorgimento, continued until the end of the Great War, dragging the country into a series of conquering wars, culminating in that of Libya. The growth of nationalist ideology, fueling those cravings, found nourishment in the fascist regime. The expansive drives within an ideology aimed to the pride of a nation and the skillful manipulation of public opinion, obtained by the organization of a powerful propaganda machine, convinced the Italians that even the Kingdom of Italy had the right to equip itself, like other European countries, with a colonial empire. Intellectuals and writers - with few exceptions - have never left, in the years 1919 to 1939, to support by their writings such a mischievous ideology, often complicating the pitfalls in which the fascist wars pushed the country
The Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown on Caregivers of People With Dementia
No full textBackground: Caregivers of people with dementia (pwD) are at risk of depression, anxiety, and burden. COVID-19 pandemic and government-imposed lockdown as a preventive measure might increase psychological symptoms in caregivers. The authors performed a study to measure the change of psychological symptoms during quarantine or self-isolation for COVID-19 in a sample of Italian caregivers of pwD, and to investigate if the resilience is associated with psychological changes in the sample. Methods: Eighty-four caregivers of pwD completed an online survey including questionnaires assessing depressive symptomatology and anxiety before and during the lockdown, caregiver burden and levels of resilience. Results: The multivariate analysis of variance revealed an effect of time (before and during the lockdown) in the whole group on depression scores; a significant interaction between time and resilience was found on anxiety scores, revealing that caregivers with high resilience showed a more significant increase of anxiety levels during lockdown than caregivers with low resilience. Moreover, the regression analysis revealed that caregiver burden was associated negatively with resilience scores, and positively with higher functional dependence. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown produced psychological consequences in caregivers of pwD, with an increase of levels of depression. Moreover, high resilience had a negative effect on anxiety levels and no effect on depressive symptomatology during the lockdown; moreover, it was associated with lower levels of caregiver burden. All caregivers, even those with high resilience levels, should be addressed to psychological interventions to reduce levels of depression, anxiety and caregiver burden
The Neural Bases of Drawing. A Meta-analysis and a Systematic Literature Review of Neurofunctional Studies in Healthy Individuals
No full textDrawing is a multi-component process requiring a wide range of cognitive abilities. Several studies on patients with focal brain lesions and functional neuroimaging studies on healthy individuals demonstrated that drawing is associated with a wide brain network. However, the neural structures specifically related to drawing remain to be better comprehended. We conducted a systematic review complemented by a meta-analytic approach to identify the core neural underpinnings related to drawing in healthy individuals. In analysing the selected studies, we took into account the type of the control task employed (i.e. motor or non-motor) and the type of drawn stimulus (i.e. geometric, figurative, or nonsense). The results showed that a fronto-parietal network, particularly on the left side of the brain, was involved in drawing when compared with other motor activities. Drawing figurative images additionally activated the inferior frontal gyrus and the inferior temporal cortex, brain areas involved in selection of semantic features of objects and in visual semantic processing. Moreover, copying more than drawing from memory was associated with the activation of extrastriate cortex (BA 18, 19). The activation likelihood estimation coordinate-based meta-analysis revealed a core neural network specifically associated with drawing which included the premotor area (BA 6) and the inferior parietal lobe (BA 40) bilaterally, and the left precuneus (BA 7). These results showed that a fronto-parietal network is specifically involved in drawing and suggested that a crucial role is played by the (left) inferior parietal lobe, consistent with classical literature on constructional apraxia
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Functional autonomy in dementia of the Alzheimer’s type, mild cognitive impairment, and healthy aging: a meta-analysis
No full textBackground: Activities of daily living (ADL) are fundamental skills required to independently care for oneself and are categorized in basic (BADLs) and instrumental (IADLs) activities of daily living. ADL evaluation is of paramount importance in clinical practice to discriminate between healthy individuals (HC) and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, it is unclear whether and to what extent BADL and IADL deficits occur in MCI, when compared with AD. Therefore, the present study aimed at comparing performance on both BADLs and IADLs in HC, MCI, and AD. Methods: Three electronic databases were consulted for studies comparing total BADLs/IADLs, and single BADLs/IADLs in AD, MCI, and HC (comparisons: AD versus MCI, AD versus HC, MCI versus HC). Ninety-six studies were included in the meta-analysis with random effect models (Hedges’ g). Meta-regression was performed to evaluate the effect of clinical variables on ESs. Results: AD group had more difficulties in BADLs and IADLs than HC and MCI groups; people with MCI showed more difficulties in both IADLs and BADLs than HC. The meta-regression analysis revealed that the percentage of males in the samples was a significant predictor of the ES in the meta-analysis comparing total BADL scores between MCI and HC; in the comparison between AD and HC, age at evaluation predicted the ES on some single IADLs: preparing food, handling medication, and finances. Conclusions: In MCI, it should be considered not only a decline of IADLs but also subtle decline of BADL abilities
Reply to Gilbertson and Steele's comment on cognitive correlates of prospective memory in dystonia
No full textInnovation types and labour organisational practices: A comparison of foreign and domestic firms in the Reggio Emilia industrial districts
No full textIn his Theory of Economic Development, Schumpeter introduced the distinction between different innovation types. Since then, a variety of studies have addressed this topic. However, despite of the recognised significance of more de-verticalised organisational forms in shaping and directing firms' innovative performance, no attempt has been made, as far as our knowledge is concerned, to investigate whether these practices are linked to the introduction of specific innovation types. The aim of the study is to fill this gap by investigating the impact of de-verticalised forms of labour organisational practices, different modes of organising research and development activity and the nature of employees' competences on the likelihood of introducing different types of innovations, controlling for firm's size and sectoral specificities. The results obtained on a sample of 199 firms located in Reggio Emilia province in Italy confirm that innovation development is a heterogeneous activity. The empirical evidence gathered also shows that foreign and domestic firms do not differ, to some extent, in the introduction of different kinds of innovations. However, being foreign or domestic is a discriminating factor in the introduction of innovations stimulating labour organisational developments.Product, Process and quality innovations, Horizontal information structure, R&D organisational modes, Employees' competences,
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