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Introduction: Idiopathic/isolated rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) is considered the prodromal stage of alpha‐synucleinopathies. Thus, iRBD patients are the ideal target for disease‐modifying therapy. The risk FActoRs PREdictive of phenoconversion in iRBD Italian STudy (FARPRESTO) is an ongoing Italian database aimed at identifying risk factors of phenoconversion, and eventually to ease clinical trial enrollment of well‐characterized subjects. Methods: Polysomnography‐confirmed iRBD patients were retrospectively and prospectively enrolled. Baseline harmonized clinical and nigrostriatal functioning data were collected at baseline. Nigrostriatal functioning was evaluated by dopamine transporter‐single‐photon emission computed tomography (DaT‐SPECT) and categorized with visual semi‐quantification. Longitudinal data were evaluated to assess phenoconversion. Cox regressions were applied to calculate hazard ratios. Results: 365 patients were enrolled, and 289 patients with follow‐up (age 67.7 ± 7.3 years, 237 males, mean follow‐up 40 ± 37 months) were included in this study. At follow‐up, 97 iRBD patients (33.6%) phenoconverted to an overt synucleinopathy. Older age, motor and cognitive impairment, constipation, urinary and sexual dysfunction, depression, and visual semi‐quantification of nigrostriatal functioning predicted phenoconversion. The remaining 268 patients are in follow‐up within the FARPRESTO project. Conclusions: Clinical data (older age, motor and cognitive impairment, constipation, urinary and sexual dysfunction, depression) predicted phenoconversion in this multicenter, longitudinal, observational study. A standardized visual approach for semi‐quantification of DaT‐SPECT is proposed as a practical risk factor for phenoconversion in iRBD patients. Of note, non‐converted and newly diagnosed iRBD patients, who represent a trial‐ready cohort for upcoming disease‐modification trials, are currently being enrolled and followed in the FARPRESTO study. New data are expected to allow better risk characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: We summarize here the progress in identifying the neuronal network as well as the function of paradoxical sleep and the gaps of knowledge that should be filled in priority. The core system generating paradoxical sleep localized in the brainstem is now well identified, and the next step is to clarify the role of the forebrain in particular that of the hypothalamus including the melanin‐concentrating hormone neurons and of the basolateral amygdala. We discuss these two options, and also the discovery that cortical activation during paradoxical sleep is restricted to a few limbic cortices activated by the lateral supramammillary nucleus and the claustrum. Such activation nicely supports the findings recently obtained showing that neuronal reactivation occurs during paradoxical sleep in these structures, and induces both memory consolidation of important memory and forgetting of less relevant ones. The question that still remains to be answered is whether paradoxical sleep is playing more crucial roles in processing emotional and procedural than other types of memories. One attractive hypothesis is that paradoxical sleep is responsible for erasing negative emotional memories, and that this function is not properly functioning in depressed patients. On the other hand, the presence of a muscle atonia during paradoxical sleep is in favour of a role in procedural memory as new types of motor behaviours can be tried without harm during the state. In a way, it also fits with the proposed role of paradoxical sleep in setting up the sensorimotor system during development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at providing a review of various streams of literature dealing with the spatial fragmentation of cities. In the last two decades many different contributions emphasized the growing fragmentation of the urban environment; the idea of 'divided city' covers a multiplicity of approaches, methodologies and field of research. Still, the 'divided city' literature tends to elevate a small number of cities to paradigmatic examples and to focus on abstract categories based on single factor explanations of urban fragmentation. The article, while accepting the hypothesis that the urban context is increasingly fragmented, argues that systems of coordinates - more than a taxonomy or a hierarchy - is needed to make sense of this phenomenon and draw significan comparison between cities. The article also maintains that a significant angle to look at urban polarization relates to the configuration of urban governance and political power. The article therefore considers three main areas connected to the distinction between polity, politics, and policy - and the three corresponding ideal-types of partitioned, contested and discrete city - where the conflict focuses respectively on the jurisdictional shape of governance, the degrees and venues of access to decision-making, and frame and contents of public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The article takes into consideration the spatialised action of self‐managed Social Centres in Northern Italy over the last 20 years. Considering Genoa, Turin and Milan, we outline the passage from the Fordist era to the post‐industrial cities reconversion, which gave the space—both physical and political—for the emergence of Social Centres. The changes that occurred in the three cities in the following years introduced new features in urban space configuration and organisation. In this frame, we focus on three case studies that serve the purpose of illustrating the role of Social Centres contesting unfair space transformations: Genoa's Expo Colombiane in 1992, Turin's Winter Olympic Games in 2006 and Milan's Expo in 2015. The opposition to these “mega‐events” allows us to analyse the changes related to the forms of conflict put into practice by urban social movements throughout time, and the learning process they underwent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]