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Abstract Background Metabolic disturbances adversely impact productive and reproductive performance of dairy cattle due to changes in endocrine status and immune function, which increase the risk of disease. This may occur in the post-partum phase, but also throughout lactation, with sub-clinical symptoms. Recently, increased attention has been directed towards improved health and resilience in dairy cattle, and genomic selection (GS) could be a helpful tool for selecting animals that are more resilient to metabolic disturbances throughout lactation. Hence, we evaluated the genomic prediction of serum biomarkers levels for metabolic distress in 1353 Holsteins genotyped with the 100K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip assay. The GS was evaluated using parametric models best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), Bayesian B (BayesB), elastic net (ENET), and nonparametric models, gradient boosting machine (GBM) and stacking ensemble (Stack), which combines ENET and GBM approaches. Results The results show that the Stack approach outperformed other methods with a relative difference (RD), calculated as an increment in prediction accuracy, of approximately 18.0% compared to GBLUP, 12.6% compared to BayesB, 8.7% compared to ENET, and 4.4% compared to GBM. The highest RD in prediction accuracy between other models with respect to GBLUP was observed for haptoglobin (hapto) from 17.7% for BayesB to 41.2% for Stack; for Zn from 9.8% (BayesB) to 29.3% (Stack); for ceruloplasmin (CuCp) from 9.3% (BayesB) to 27.9% (Stack); for ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) from 8.0% (BayesB) to 40.0% (Stack); and for total protein (PROTt) from 5.7% (BayesB) to 22.9% (Stack). Using a subset of top SNPs (1.5k) selected from the GBM approach improved the accuracy for GBLUP from 1.8 to 76.5%. However, for the other models reductions in prediction accuracy of 4.8% for ENET (average of 10 traits), 5.9% for GBM (average of 21 traits), and 6.6% for Stack (average of 16 traits) were observed. Conclusions Our results indicate that the Stack approach was more accurate in predicting metabolic disturbances than GBLUP, BayesB, ENET, and GBM and seemed to be competitive for predicting complex phenotypes with various degrees of mode of inheritance, i.e. additive and non-additive effects. Selecting markers based on GBM improved accuracy of GBLUP.

book review

The paper focuses on the first volume of Emanuele Cutinelli-Rendina’s biography of Benedetto Croce, entitled Benedetto Croce. Una vita per la nuova Italia and published by Aragno in 2022. More specifically, the paper is divided into three main sections. The first section sheds light on the methodological choices and assumptions underlying the volume, entitled Genesi di una vocazione civile (1866- 1918). The second section concerns Cutinelli-Rendina’s remarks on both Croce’s relationship to Italian socialism and his interpretation of historical materialism and Marxist theory. The third section is about Cutinelli-Rendina’s view of Croce’s neutralist position toward World War One.

This article examines the connection between early scientific ideas and It-Narratives in Britain over the long eighteenth century. A set of It-Narratives - fictional texts narrated by, or centred on, non-human entities like things or animals - will be read against the attempt to detect the voice of natural things by a number of early-modern experimental and natural philosophers. It will be argued that, although causal links are hard to prove, there is a degree of epistemic vicinity between these early scientific ideas and It-Narratives. In particular, it will be shown how in both disciplines fiction helped contemplate the possibility that non-human knowledge is more reliable than human-derived one.

The goal of this paper is to offer an account of an inter-lexical polysemy pattern connecting the three Italian prepositions per, tra and attraverso. It is shown via a corpus study that these prepositions can cover several related senses (i.e. they are polysemous), and that some of their senses overlap (i.e. inter-lexical polysemy is attested), thereby forming a clear-cut (lexical) contrast set. It is suggested that current theoretical proposals of polysemy cannot directly account for these data, and thus a new model must be introduced. The paper introduces such a model by combining generative (cartographic) syntactic insights with a Semantic Maps analysis. It is thus suggested that inter-lexical polysemy patterns arise because prepositions share syntactically equivalent structures, but partially different sense values are assigned to these structures. Therefore, these prepositions partition the semantic sub-space of ‘section’ spatial relations in only partially overlapping manners. Consequences for theories of polysemy and their connections to syntactic accounts of prepositions are discussed.

This paper examines a selection of poems on nature by Margaret Cavendish, an English poet and natural philosopher active in the mid-seventeenth century. Cavendish’s conception of nature was “organicist”, meaning that all creatures – humans, animals and plants alike – share similar abilities in terms of feeling and reasoning. In this essay, Cavendish’s organicism will be discussed as the philosophical framework of her collection Poems, and Fancies (1653), especially those poems in which beasts, plants or nature herself engage in dialogue with human beings about their relationship with the environment. It will be argued that Cavendish’s choice to give voice to nature works as a fictional strategy to help readers imagine an alternative idea of nature, one different to that of nature as resource that was becoming increasingly widespread with the advent of early modern science. In the final section, it will finally be suggested that reading Cavendish’s poetry through the lens of post-humanism can contribute to present-day discussions on the Anthropocene.

Abstract Background Blood metabolic profiles can be used to assess metabolic disorders and to evaluate the health status of dairy cows. Given that these analyses are time-consuming, expensive, and stressful for the cows, there has been increased interest in Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy of milk samples as a rapid, cost-effective alternative for predicting metabolic disturbances. The integration of FTIR data with other layers of information such as genomic and on-farm data (days in milk (DIM) and parity) has been proposed to further enhance the predictive ability of statistical methods. Here, we developed a phenotype prediction approach for a panel of blood metabolites based on a combination of milk FTIR data, on-farm data, and genomic information recorded on 1150 Holstein cows, using BayesB and gradient boosting machine (GBM) models, with tenfold, batch-out and herd-out cross-validation (CV) scenarios. Results The predictive ability of these approaches was measured by the coefficient of determination (R2). The results show that, compared to the model that includes only FTIR data, integration of both on-farm (DIM and parity) and genomic information with FTIR data improves the R2 for blood metabolites across the three CV scenarios, especially with the herd-out CV: R2 values ranged from 5.9 to 17.8% for BayesB, from 8.2 to 16.9% for GBM with the tenfold random CV, from 3.8 to 13.5% for BayesB and from 8.6 to 17.5% for GBM with the batch-out CV, and from 8.4 to 23.0% for BayesB and from 8.1 to 23.8% for GBM with the herd-out CV. Overall, with the model that includes the three sources of data, GBM was more accurate than BayesB with accuracies across the CV scenarios increasing by 7.1% for energy-related metabolites, 10.7% for liver function/hepatic damage, 9.6% for oxidative stress, 6.1% for inflammation/innate immunity, and 11.4% for mineral indicators. Conclusions Our results show that, compared to using only milk FTIR data, a model integrating milk FTIR spectra with on-farm and genomic information improves the prediction of blood metabolic traits in Holstein cattle and that GBM is more accurate in predicting blood metabolites than BayesB, especially for the batch-out CV and herd-out CV scenarios.

The paper focuses on Norberto Bobbio’s book Mutamento politico e rivoluzione, published by Donzelli in 2021, which gathers the transcripts of his last course on political philosophy. More specifically, the paper is divided into two main sections. The first section concerns Bobbio’s remarks on how philosophers shifted from rejecting political change to legitimizing resistance against power. The second section regards Bobbio’s attempt to reconstruct the history of the idea of revolution, as well as its relationship to the cognate but rival concept of reform. Furthermore, the paper concludes by shedding some light on Bobbio’s own opinion on the reform-revolution alternative, which occupies center stage in nineteenth- and twentieth-century debate on socialism and the strategy for a socialist transformation of society.

In questo lavoro si ripercorrono alcune possibili interpretazioni dell’ekphrasis, da quelle classiche a quelle più innovative. In primo luogo, si cerca di superare definizioni che limitano la portata delle tecniche ecfrastiche, per rivolgersi verso prospettive più ampie che inglobino funzioni finora trascurate. Per andare verso questa direzione si separano i due momenti dell’operazione ecfrastica – l’ekphrasis-come-processo e l’ekphrasis-come-testo – e si leggono in chiave dispositiva. Successivamente si approfondisce la temporalità del dispositivo testuale ecfrastico, rileggendolo come forma di integrazione della simultaneità spaziale tipica dell’immagine e della processualità consequenziale tipica del segno verbale. Infine, si osservano da vicino due realizzazioni ecfrastiche di Sanguineti – Reisebilder 14 e Cose 2 – che presentano un’articolazione temporale degna di nota, in cui visualità e verbalità si confrontano in maniera tale che se da un lato vengono sollecitati gli elementi processuali latenti nella prevalente simultaneità dell’immagine, dall’altro alcune porzioni di simultaneità caratterizzante dell’immagine vengono integrate nella prevalente processualità del testo ecfrastico.

Review

Montecatini Terme, emblematic city for the close combination between thermal baths and urban structure, has been recently enrolled in the list of the Unesco Heritage. It becames particularly urgent to deepen the knowledge, in an appropriate way, of the building ensemble that can be considered the key features in the enrollement, for the purposes of their protection and safeguard. Among these, the Tettuccio bath assumes a particular relevance with regard to the complex architectural articulation, the richness of the decorative characteristics and the variety of the materials used. For this purpose, a laser scanner survey combined with photogrammetry was carried out, thus obtaining a high level of instrumental data, integrated by accurate in-place information. This approach highlighted the materials, traditional and modern, and the decay of the building, founded by the grand duke Pietro Leopoldo and almost completely refashioned about a century ago.

Abstract Background Climate and farming systems, several of which are considered as low-input agricultural systems, vary between goat populations from Northern and Southern Italy and have led to different management practices. These processes have impacted genome shaping in terms of inbreeding and regions under selection and resulted in differences between the northern and southern populations. Both inbreeding and signatures of selection can be pinpointed by the analysis of runs of homozygosity (ROH), which provides useful information to assist the management of this species in different rural areas. Results We analyzed the ROH distribution and inbreeding (F ROH) in 902 goats from the Italian Goat Consortium2 dataset. We evaluated the differences in individual ROH number and length between goat breeds from Northern (NRD) and Central-southern (CSD) Italy. Then, we identified the signatures of selection that differentiate these two groups using three methods: ROH, ΔROH, and averaged F ST. ROH analyses showed that some Italian goat breeds have a lower inbreeding coefficient, which is attributable to their management and history. ROH are longer in breeds that are undergoing non-optimal management or with small population size. In several small breeds, the ROH length classes are balanced, reflecting more accurate mating planning. The differences in climate and management between the NRD and CSD groups have resulted in different ROH lengths and numbers: the NRD populations bred in isolated valleys present more and shorter ROH segments, while the CSD populations have fewer and longer ROH, which is likely due to the fact that they have undergone more admixture events during the horizontal transhumance practice followed by a more recent standardization. We identified four genes within signatures of selection on chromosome 11 related to fertility in the NRD group, and 23 genes on chromosomes 5 and 6 related to growth in the CSD group. Finally, we identified 17 genes on chromosome 12 related to environmental adaptation and body size with high homozygosity in both groups. Conclusions These results show how different management practices have impacted the level of genomic inbreeding in two Italian goat groups and could be useful to assist management in a low-input system while safeguarding the diversity of small populations.

Recensione di Roberta Iadevaia, Per una storia della letteratura elettronica italiana (Mimesis, 2021).

Abstract Background Over the past decade, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been used to predict novel milk protein phenotypes. Genomic data might help predict these phenotypes when integrated with milk FTIR spectra. The objective of this study was to investigate prediction accuracy for milk protein phenotypes when heterogeneous on-farm, genomic, and pedigree data were integrated with the spectra. To this end, we used the records of 966 Italian Brown Swiss cows with milk FTIR spectra, on-farm information, medium-density genetic markers, and pedigree data. True and total whey protein, and five casein, and two whey protein traits were analyzed. Multiple kernel learning constructed from spectral and genomic (pedigree) relationship matrices and multilayer BayesB assigning separate priors for FTIR and markers were benchmarked against a baseline partial least squares (PLS) regression. Seven combinations of covariates were considered, and their predictive abilities were evaluated by repeated random sub-sampling and herd cross-validations (CV). Results Addition of the on-farm effects such as herd, days in milk, and parity to spectral data improved predictions as compared to those obtained using the spectra alone. Integrating genomics and/or the top three markers with a large effect further enhanced the predictions. Pedigree data also improved prediction, but to a lesser extent than genomic data. Multiple kernel learning and multilayer BayesB increased predictive performance, whereas PLS did not. Overall, multilayer BayesB provided better predictions than multiple kernel learning, and lower prediction performance was observed in herd CV compared to repeated random sub-sampling CV. Conclusions Integration of genomic information with milk FTIR spectral can enhance milk protein trait predictions by 25% and 7% on average for repeated random sub-sampling and herd CV, respectively. Multiple kernel learning and multilayer BayesB outperformed PLS when used to integrate heterogeneous data for phenotypic predictions.

Autonomous driving systems promise important changes for future of transport, primarily through the reduction of road accidents. However, ethical concerns, in particular, two central issues, will be key to their successful development. First, situations of risk that involve inevitable harm to passengers and/or bystanders, in which some individuals must be sacrificed for the benefit of others. Secondly, and identification responsible parties and liabilities in the event of an accident. Our work addresses the first of these ethical problems. We are interested in investigating how humans respond to critical situations and what reactions they consider to be morally right or at least preferable to others. Our experimental approach relies on the trolley dilemma and knowledge gained from previous research on this. More specifically, our main purpose was to test the difference between what human drivers actually decide to do in an emergency situations whilst driving a realistic simulator and the moral choices they make when they pause to consider what they would do in the same situation and to better understand why these choices may differs.

In this brief commentary on Sara Palermo’s article, I highlight several methodological criticisms of the data analysis and hypotheses proposed by the author. I then focus on the relevance of nocebo/placebo studies for the contemporary debate on the mind/body problem. In particular, I show how these phenomena raise questions for dualistic and neurocentric approaches that are still prevalent in philosophy. Finally, I stress the role of expectations in nocebo/placebo models, with reference to a promising theoretical framework: the predictive brain.

This essay retraces in a concised way certain stages of Victoria Kent's life, highlighting her commitment into the solidarity activities she did in the long time she was exiled, which started during the Spanish civil war. Her incredible work was spread through France, Mexico and United States. Victoria Kent's story here is retraced with the goal to find a common ground between her political and cultural commitment during her exile. In particular, but not exclusively, it dwells on her exile in the United States, retracing her activities, her connections, friends and cultural projects. One of her most important works was the Ibéricamagazine in which, together with her partner Louise Crane, she put a lot of energy into. This lasted for over two decades, from 1953 to 1974.

Review

Si presenta qui la traduzione italiana di Sjužet Tristana i Isol’dy v mifologemach egejskogo otrezka sredizemnomor’ja(1932) di Ol’ga Michailovna Frejdenberg. Il saggio appartiene alla raccolta collettiva Tristan i Isol’da. Ot geroini ljubvi feodal’noj Evropy do bogini matriarchal’noj Afrevrazii ed è stato pubblicato dall’Accademia delle Scienze di Leningrado.

Recensiamo l’edizione italiana, curata da Massimo Bonafin, del libro di Eleazar Moiseevič Meletinskij Archetipi letterari. Trad. Laura Sestri. Macerata: eum, 2016. Review of the Italian edition of Eleazar Moiseevič Meletinskij’s book Archetipi letterari, edited by Massimo Bonafin. Translation by Laura Sestri. Macerata: eum, 2016.

Il rapporto tra monarchia e baronaggio ha rappresentato, fin dal secolo XVI, un tema fondamentale per l’interpretazione delle complesse dinamiche politico-istituzionali riguardanti il Regno aragonese di Napoli. Per lo più letto in chiave antitetica, alla luce dei ripetuti conflitti armati tra la Corona e i baroni ribelli, questo rapporto merita tuttavia, nell’alveo di una rinnovata storiografia, d’essere ancora indagato, a partire da inediti punti d’osservazione. Questo articolo si focalizza sui principi reali napoletani, impegnati in alti ruoli istituzionali e al contempo titolari di feudi: principi-baroni aragonesi, dunque, attraverso i quali (in particolare Federico d’Aragona, principe di Taranto e di Squillace, il cui caso paradigmatico è più ampiamente analizzato) la Corona sperimenta un superamento dell’antitesi, estendendo la propria prassi politica e la propria ideologia del potere nei territori provinciali, nonché diffondendo e difendendo un proprio modello ideale di barone regnicolo.

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Review

Los sistemas argumentativos formalizan razonamiento de sentido común mediante la construcción, comparación y evaluación de argumentos a favor o en contra de ciertas afirmaciones. En tales sistemas existen dos nociones centrales: derrota y defensa. En el presente trabajo caracterizan ambas nociones y se discuten algunos desafíos para las caracterizaciones propuestas. Además, se realizan algunos comentarios al respecto.

The cross-coupling reaction of organic electrophiles with organostannanes, traditionally known as the Stille reaction, has found renewed interest in the preparation of new organic materials such as conjugated polymers, organic semiconductors and photoactive molecules for use in organic photovoltaics. Moreover, a very recent field in which the Stille reaction has found successful application is that of the design and synthesis of new photosensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). DSSCs are considered a promising alternative for energy production from renewable sources. In such devices light harvesting is carried out by a dye which is generally a highly conjugated molecule. Due to the mild operating conditions and the high functional-group compatibility, the Stille reaction proved to be a powerful tool not only for the preparation of photosensitizers, but also to plan their chemical elaboration in order to tune and optimize their photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties. In this microreview some recent examples of the Stille reaction in the synthesis of organic dyes for DSSC are reported.

Located in Pavia, in an area that owes its importance to the Longobards era, the crypt of St. Eusebius is today the only surviving evidence of an ancient Germanic Cathedral, perhaps dating from the reign of King Rotari. Cited by Paolo Diacono in his Historia Langobardorum, it was over time affected by various alterations, devastations and assaults, alternated with long and dusty periods of neglect, which inevitably affected its dignity. This important 'monumental ruin', for too long confined within a structure that prevents its correct perception and public enjoyment, has recently been interested by new multidisciplinary studies and investigations aimed at improving its critical knowledge and understanding and then at establishing necessary conservation and valorisation activities, able to underline its high monumental value, improve its accessibility and ensure its transmission to future generations.

Existe um discurso ontológico inerente ao empirismo construtivo de van Fraassen? Parece que sim, apesar dessa vertente filosófica, referência para o empirismo contemporâneo, se propor como tese epistemológica. Trata-se, aliás, de uma questão muito atual, considerando como em época recente o filósofo holandês mudou de opinião acerca da possibilidade de observarmos fenômenos ópticos comuns, como o arcoíris. Isso torna necessária uma discussão acerca do que é um fenômeno no uso de van Fraassen, como Foss afirmava há mais de vinte anos atrás, mas também – e essa é uma questão entrelaçada – de qual ontologia é assumida pelo empirismo contrutivo.

The crisis of substance and the difficulty of making decisions are fundamental cores in Musil’s conception of the subject. In The Man Without Qualities subjectivity is the conse­quence of a precise ontology which deconstructs, in the manner of Mach, the very structure of reality. But Musil is not Mach, and he does not merely translate his categories into liter­ature. There is a philosophical originality in his thought revealing a design in which the disso­lution of substance and the unsaveability of the ego turn into the development of a para­lysing “sense of possibility”. This essay restores an image of Musil fascinated by the theme of the undecidable, but also an acute critic of all the forms of ethical-political decisionism.

The restoration project of an old building requires an approach based on the capacity of the designer to build a computational model that interprets its constructive history. The Doge’s Palace in Antivari a millenary citadel of Montenegro, results from several construction phases that cannot be properly explained only through the application of mechanics principles. The integrated survey and elevation’s stratigraphic study, important to the archaeologist and the architect for the reconstruction of the building’s evolutionary phases, are to the engineer a necessary tool for understanding the structure’s static and dynamic behaviour. This work addresses the issue of the protection of archaeological sites and investigates the means of intervention on buildings in a state of ruin, choosing to run a project of ‘authentic restoration’ that, by establishing structure’s collapse mechanisms, is oriented on non-invasive/removable solutions, designed to not alter the building’s identity.

Review

Review