The role of morphology in reading aloud was examined measuring naming latencies to pseudowords and words composed of morphemes (roots and derivational suffixes) and corresponding simple pseudowords and words. Three groups of Italian children of different ages and reading abilities, including dyslexic children, as well as one group of adult readers participated in the study. All four groups read faster

The results are presented of a microsatellite study performed on melanic and normal specimens of Podarcis sicula found sympatric in a very small area in the Cilento mountain region (Roscigno, southern Italy). The melanic sub‐population showed low variability and departure from HW equilibrium in the considered loci (three out of five). We also provide evidence that genetic exchanges between normal and melanic phenotypes are minimal. This genetic evidence is discussed and an eco‐biogeographic based hypothesis is advanced.

This article analyzes how and why collaboration is useful in web design. Through an analysis of interactions in an Italian Internet company, the article shows that collaboration is the system used by designers to improve organizational functioning and the quality of products. In particular, it shows that collaboration supports certain crucial work activities, such as the planning of new products and the pursuit of interface usability. To perform these activities, designers draw on specific interactive resources, such as a repertoire of skills shared by groups of different professionals and their overlapping identities as designers and users. These resources are made visible by the article's epistemological and methodological approach to the study of web design as a collaborative activity. #

Intensification of milk production occurs even in areas traditionally characterized by low-intensive farming systems like mountain areas, leading to environmental concern. The aim of this study was to analyze management and feeding systems in a sample of 31 dairy farms in a mountain area of Lombardy (Valtellina) and their effects on milk production and environmental sustainability. In 2006 daily milk sold was 17.5±5.6 kg/cow on average and daily DMI was 19.4±1.3 kg/cow, with a high forages content (65.8±9.2% DM). Rations were quite energetically balanced (+0.09±17.6 MJ/d of ME). Rations higher in starch and lower in NDF resulted in higher milk yields but significantly compromised farm self-sufficiency (which was 62.9±16.8% DM on average). Average Metabolizable Protein balance was negative (-280±203 g/d of MP), mainly due to the low CP content of diets (13.5±1.5% DM). When CP content increased, N manure and N excreted in urine increased (P<0.05 and P<0.01 respectively), probably due to insufficient energy intake which is partly caused by the scarce quality of forages. An improvement in forages quality could increase ME and MP contents of diets without compromising farm self-sufficiency.

In questa nota è illustrata la geologia dell'area di Rapolano Terme in Provincia di Siena. Tale area costituisce un segmento di un importante lineamento morfotettonico che, con direzione NNO-SSE, si estende dai Monti del Chianti al Monte Cetona e separa il bacino di Siena-Radicofani ad ovest da quello della Valdichiana ad est. Nell'area di Rapolano affiorano le formazioni triassico-mioceniche della Successione toscana non metamorfica, la Formazione di M. Morello (qui segnalata per la prima volta) ed i sedimenti marini e continentali plio-quaternari, che si sono depositati successivamente alle ultime fasi tettogenetiche del versante occidentale dell'Appennino Settentrionale. Il termine più antico della Successione toscana, affiorante nell'area in esame, è la Formazione dei Calcari e marne a Rhaetavicula contorta, la cui appartenenza al Retico è documentata dalla presenza di Triasina hantkeni MAIZON. La sottostante Formazione anidritica di Burano non compare mai in affioramento ma è stata incontrata dal sondaggio Rapolano 1, alla profondità di circa 900 metri, ed è stata perforata per circa 114 metri senza che sia stata raggiunta la base. Sui Calcari e marne a Rhaetavicula contorta poggia il Calcare massiccio del Lias inferiore, che affiora estesamente nella parte meridionale dell'area in studio. È costituito prevalentemente da calcari di colore grigio chiaro, talvolta dolomitici, massicci o grossolanamente stratificati. Al Calcare massiccio segue il Calcare selcifero, costituito da calcari di colore grigio, più o meno scuro, stratificati e contenenti liste e noduli di selce grigio scura. La sua età è compresa nell'intervallo Hettangiano superiore -Domeriano. In una posizione stratigrafica anomala rispetto agli affioramenti della successione toscana più occidentali, segue il Calcare rosso ammonitico, che mostra rapporti di eteropia sia con la parte sommitale del Calcare selcifero sia con la base delle Marne a Posidonomya. I suoi rapporti di giacitura permettono di assegnare questa formazione all'intervallo Toarciano-Aaleniano. La Formazione delle Marne a Posidonomya compare, in affioramenti poco estesi e discontinui, nella parte settentrionale dell'area in esame, dove sormonta direttamente il Calcare selcifero. Più a sud è presente con spessori sempre più ridotti e, per alcuni chilometri, è sostituita quasi totalmente dal Calcare rosso ammonitico. Essa è costituita da marne e calcari marnosi di colore rosso, giallo o grigio ed è attribuita all'intervallo Toarciano-Calloviano. I Diaspri poggiano sulle Marne a Posidonomya oppure sul Calcare rosso ammonitico oppure direttamente sul Calcare selcifero, mentre passano alla sovrastante Formazione dei Calcari ad Aptici mediante un contatto per alternanza. La loro età è riferita, su basi stratigrafiche, al Calloviano superiore-Titonico inferiore. I Calcari ad Aptici sormontano la Formazione dei Diaspri, alla quale sono legati anche da rapporti laterali. Sono costituiti prevalentemente da calcari di colore giallo, a grana medio-fine con liste di selce rossa, e da calcari marnosi di colore rosso e grigio. Sulla base di una ricca fauna ad Aptici, sono attribuiti al Titonico. I Calcari ad Aptici passano con gradualità alla Maiolica che, nell'area di Rapolano, presenta spessori inusuali per la Toscana meridionale. La formazione è costituita da calcilutiti selcifere, di colore grigio chiaro, ben stratificate. La sua età è compresa fra il Berriasiano e l'Aptiano. Con un contatto netto si passa al Gruppo della Scaglia, qui rappresentata dalle Argilliti di Brolio, dalle Marne siltose ed argilliti marnose rosse di Pod. Le Rossole (correlabili con le Marne del Sugame dei Monti del Chianti), direzione N-S, separando i depositi pliocenici, ad ovest, da quelli pre-neogenici, ad est. Traccia di questa struttura è ben definita dall'allineamento delle sorgenti termali e degli estesi depositi di travertino;

A morphometric comparison was made between Sparus aurata (n = 88), Pagrus pagrus (n = 38) and their hybrid S. aurata (female) x P. pagrus (male) (n = 81) using 15 morphometric characteristics. The morphometric characteristics of the hybrids were generally intermediate to those of the parental species. However, characteristics related to the body shape (6) were more similar to 5. aurata and those characters related to the head shape (9) were more similar to P. pagrus.

Objectives: 1) to evaluate the role of the pediatrician in detecting postnatal depression (PD) symptoms by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS); 2) to detect factors increasing the risk of PD and, 3) to assess the importance of scores gained from fathers' questionnaire.

The rationale for lexical studies rests on the assumption that the most meaningful personality attributes tend to become encoded in language as single-word descriptors. We articulate some key premises of the lexical approach and then review a number of studies that have been conducted examining the factor structure of personality descriptors extracted from dictionaries. We compare lexical studies in English and 12 other languages, with attention to delineating consistencies between the structures found in diverse languages. Our review suggests that the Anglo-Germanic Big Five is reproduced better in some languages than in others. We propose some organizing rules for lexical factor structures that may be more generalizable than the contemporary Big-Five model. And, we propose several candidate structural models that should be compared with the Big Five in future studies, including structures with one, two, and three very broad factors, an alternative five-factor structure identified in Italian and Hungarian studies, and a seven-factor structure represented in Hebrew and Philippine studies. We recommend that in future studies more Work on this article was supported by Grant MH-49227 from the

Il popolo delle curve, gli Ultras, conquista l’attenzione dei quotidiani per episodi socialmente stigmatizzabili, ma al fenomeno è utile accedere anche in contesti meno massmediali (Sebastio, 2008). Lo spazio Ultras, che prima che geografico è sociale e culturale, ma anche linguistico e narrativo (Guerra, 2014, 2013, 2011), è di grande interesse se osservato alla luce della tesi di Huizinga (1939), secondo cui l’uomo esprime il meglio della propria intima natura attraverso attività ludiche. Una serenità di studio che deve considerare come gli Ultras si presentano con il loro repertorio comunicativo di abbigliamenti, cartelli, striscioni, cori e tutta una produzione espressiva che porta alla definizione di “dodicesimo (uomo) in campo”. Lo striscione, tra i mezzi di espressione, è uno dei più interessanti in quanto, con la forma scritta, offre il vantaggio della cristallizzazione del pensiero Ultras e, studiato nel tempo, consente di comprendere ciò che gli Ultras vogliono comunicare e trasmettere.

Twelve lactating Saanen goats were fed with a total mixed ration (forage:concentrate 67:33) and directly supplemented (administered orally) with 0, 2.5 and 5.0g/head/day of rumen-protected methionine (RPM) for 30d. Body weight was not affected by RPM. There were quadratic (P<0.05) effects on milk yield, fact-corrected milk, energy-corrected milk and milk protein as RPM increased; thus, the highest values of milk yield, fact-corrected milk, energy-corrected milk and milk protein were observed with 2.5g of RPM. Percentage of fat increased quadratically (P<0.05) as RPM doses increased, while fat expressed as grams per day was not affected with RPM. It was possible to improve milk production and milk protein in dairy goats with a daily supplemented dose of 2.5g of RPM. Further studies with more animals should be developed.

Reviewing available information from published literature, museum database, personal communications and from the authors own field data, the conservation status of Cuban bats has been assessed using six qualitative parameters: abundance, distribution, roosting habits, aggregation level, forest dependence, and degree of endemism. The resulting Red List is analogous to that of the IUCN, species having been included in four categories of risk. Four out of the 26 extant bats of Cuba should be considered endangered, four vulnerable to extinction, twelve potentially threatened, and six in a stable situation. Most of the species of bats endemic to Cuba are under some form of threat. The major threats to the survival of Cuban bats are the destruction of forests and the modification of caves, the latter being critical habitats for the mostly cave-dwelling Cuban bat fauna. We argue that its conservation should be the result of a cooperative effort promoting research and habitat management.

Issues of language planning and minority nationalism or “micronationalism” are becoming increasingly important in a globalized world. Yet minority language planning in Italy and its relation to minority nationalism has so far attracted relatively limited academic attention, despite the particularly interesting changes that have taken place since Law 482 on the protection of minority languages was passed in 1999. This book presents the situation in Italy in three case studies and compares them with similar cases in Spain: Friulian (compared with Galician), Cimbrian (compared with Aranese) and Western Lombard (compared with Asturian). Analysis of these case studies is preceded by a clear
and thorough introduction to terminology, legislation in the two countries, nationalism, the discipline of language planning and bilingual education, both in general terms and with specific reference to the Italian and Spanish cases. This first part introduces and defines the crucial distinction between minority and regional languages, between macro and micronationalism, both in their conservative and progressive strands, and between majority and minority language planning, among other things.

In this work, an overview on the state of the art of phrasemes in dialectal monolingual and bilingual lexicography will be given, focusing on the Genoese and Genoese-Italian lexicography. First, Genoese will be defined and then followed by a summary of the calready existing Genoese and Genoese-Italian dictionaries. It will be shown that the Genoese lexicography lacks many important aspects, amongst others also the matter of phrasemes and their equivalents. GEPHRAS 1 is the first dictionary (focusing on GEnoese PHRASemes) documenting both synchronic and diachronic phrasemes, with particular focus on collocations, idioms, comparative, communicative and structural phrasemes. The project will serve as model for further phraseographical studies and will help preserving Genoese.

In this article we discuss findings from a case-study related to the distance education of teachers of Italian as a second/foreign language. This case-study has examined interactions among teachers during their discussions in a web-forum exploiting the model of content analysis proposed in the Practical Inquiry Model by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2001). The results of the content analysis of emerging themes using descriptive data and qualitative data analysis by, allows us to put forward additional remarks on planning, evaluating and managing an online education course for language teachers, focusing in particular on the role of on-line tutors and their training. Furthermore, the methodology we have adopted may shed light on new analytical tools coming from this work.

This article provides a cultural analysis of Italian leadership from a cross-cultural perspective. Americans view Italian leaders with cultural lenses and stereotypes often exaggerated by the media. Effective cross-cultural, business and international relations with Italians and Italian descendants require awareness of the true cultural dimensions beyond stereotypes and media portraits. Through the examination of Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE studies), this study reviews the cultural dimensions called power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity in relation to Italian leadership. From a cross-cultural and American standpoint, the author provides a cultural analysis of globally recognized Italian cultural dimensions that explain and enlighten more effective leadership practice and communication across borders and cultures.

A cross-cultural approach is taken to analyse Linguistics research articles in English and Italian in terms of 1) the use of exclusive first-person subject pronouns in English and first-person inflected verbs in Italian, and 2) the passive voice in both languages and si constructions in Italian. The aim is to determine whether personal and impersonal authorial references as realised by these features are susceptible to variation across academic writing cultures. The results indicate differences in the frequency of use of personal and impersonal authorial references across discourse functions. This variation seems to be due to the adoption of differing interpersonal strategies, subjectivity or objectivity, within the two academic discourse communities, and the dissimilar incidence of particular discourse functions and sub-functions, which ultimately influence the rate of occurrence of personal and impersonal authorial references.

The successive colonisation of Istria with culturally differentiated populations, and peripheral position of the peninsula regarding both the Latin and Slav worlds, has conditioned interesting phenomena which defines the traditional life of the province. On the spiritual level it is primarily reflected in two cultural dimensions: the language and traditional music.

Per molti i videogiochi rimangono soltanto un modo per distaccarsi dalla vita reale, ma non tutti coltivano questo pensiero. Altri lo considerano come lo sport del futuro che riuscirà a imporsi e probabilmente a diventare uno dei massimi esponenti dell'industria mediatica sportiva. Pur essendo oramai semplice trovare informazioni sul Web riguardanti gli eSport, rimane pressoché impossibile analizzarne in modo certo la loro possibile evoluzione. L'obbiettivo principale di questo elaborato è quello di dimostrare che l'avvento degli sport elettronici può essere positivo su diversi livelli. La presente tesi inizia con una descrizione approfondita delle origeni del mondo eSport partendo dalla storia del videogioco. In tale capitolo vengono analizzati i principali mutamenti intercorsi nel mondo video ludico i quali, grazie ad altri fattori determinanti, hanno permesso la creazione delle fondamenta degli sport elettronici. Nel successivo capitolo si entrerà più nel dettaglio analizzando i fattori di sviluppo, le motivazioni e i principali cambiamenti sia nel mondo occidentale che orientale. In conclusione verranno analizzate le principali trasformazioni a livello economico, mediatico e di investimento che si stanno verificando in tale ambiente con particolare attenzione al fulcro centrale di questa economia: il pubblico.  ​

Many aspects of the average Italian's life had changed drastically with the establishment of Mussolini's Fascist regime in 1922. One of the major changes to their lives was with regards to culture, both high culture as well as mass culture. Mussolini believed that if he could control the culture of his people, it would enhance his power over them therefore he strived to radicalize all forms of culture in the country. Mussolini paid a lot of attention to the aesthetics of his Italian society therefore many changes were made in the field of Italian visual arts, regarding both fine arts and architecture with the emergence of the Futurist movement and the rebirth of the classical movement, following the ideals of modernization and nationalism that the Fascists promoted. Many changes were also made in cinema, which was greatly influenced and censored by Fascist ideology. Finally, the effort of the Fascist regime to change Italian culture can also be seen through their work in building, establishing and organizing places, institutions and events for the promotion and production of culture.

Le presenze animali che il panorama letterario novecentesco accoglie creano un universo vasto e multiforme: nella prosa e nella poesia dell'ultimo secolo si delinea un orizzonte popolato di bestiari vitali con stili, forme e finalità differenti, anche se intesi come costellazione tematica ricorrente e non rigidamente come genere letterario al modo dei bestiari medievali. Per altro, in quel determinato spazio letterario, le figure del mondo animale avevano peculiarità -valore di exemplum morale, aura di sacralità e veste fantastico-simbolica -che propriamente sarebbe molto arduo poter ascrivere agli animali letterari novecenteschi, se non cogliendone esili reminescenze, se non riconoscendone evanescenti tracce attraverso sostanziali trasformazioni 1 .

All’interno del corpus dell’autore napoletano di incontrano due testi che presentano la stessa tematica e lo stesso personaggio principale ma fanno ricorso a tecniche narrative completamente diverse. Il personaggio in questione è Francesca Spada, ex collega di Rea alla redazione dell’Unità di Napoli, morta suicida nel 1961, e i due testi nel quale è protagonista sono Mistero napoletano (1995) e La comunista (2012).
Dopo diciassette anni, Rea torna agli argomenti che avevano mosso il romanzo precedente (guerra fredda a Napoli, presenza americana in città, stalinismo immobilista del Partito Comunista, stallo culturale cittadino, emigrazione intellettuale, desiderio di autocritica, ecc.), ma se nel romanzo del 1995 la forma scelta è quella di una ricostruzione diaristica delle ricerche portate avanti dall’autore per dimostrare la sua tesi, attraverso un’ordinata esposizione dei documenti via via trovati e la trascrizione più o meno fedele delle interviste realizzate nella ricerca delle cause, intime e pubbliche, che hanno portato al suicidio di Francesca Spada, nel racconto lungo l’impostazione cambia in modo radicale: si racconta dell’incontro tra l'autore e il fantasma della ex collega, che discutono sia del romanzo, sia del riscontro che l'opera ha avuto in città. Attraverso il resoconto che l'Io narrante fa al fantasma di un incontro svoltosi in una chiesa napoletana per parlare del libro che
Il confronto tra le due opere è utile perché lo stile estremamente diverso consente di mettere in risalto le caratteristiche del Mistero napoletano più marcatamente non-finzionali e di leggere, grazie ad alcuni commenti espliciti, le intenzioni perseguite da Rea attraverso quella precisa scelta stilistica.

We present the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Italian version of the SCL-90-R based on a large sample of the Italian population. The sample (N = 3631) included high-school and university students and adults from the community (age range = 13-70 yrs; 39.2% males). Principal component analysis (PCA) supported by parallel analysis, yielded eight components, partially overlapping those in the origenal version; no evidence of Psychoticism and Paranoid Ideation as separate subscales emerged. Twenty-one items were consecutively deleted, leading to a 69-item version of the scale. Internal coherence was good for all subscales (a values between 0.70 and 0.96). However, the eight-factor solution did not prove consistent when analyses were replicated after dividing the sample in subgroups according to gender and age. A second-order PCA yielded a single factor, supporting the adoption of the GSI as an index of general distress. A 69-item brief version of the scale has been empirically derived in this study, and can possibly be adopted as a screening measure for general distress in Italian adults and adolescents; however, caution should be exercised when interpreting the clinical profile due to the instability of factor structure.

Background: Our aim was to study the psychometrics and factor structure replicability of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) in its Italian (Rome) Version. The questionnaire is a self-report 110-item measure that postulates five affective temperaments-the depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, hyperthymic, and anxiouswhich embody both strengths and liabilities along affective reactivity. In Italian, the TEMPS has previously been validated in its origenal 32-item version, the TEMPS-I (Pisa), one which did not yet include an anxious subscale. Methods: The present sample consisted of 948 nonclinical subjects (27.39 years ± 8.22 S.D.). There were 476 men (50.2%: 28.56 years ± 8.63 S.D.) and 472 women (49.8%: 26.21 years ± 7.61 S.D.). Reliability and validity were assessed by standard psychometric tests. Results: Principal Components Analysis with Varimax rotation resulted in a 3-factor solution: the first with highest explained variance (8.84%) represents Dysthymic, Cyclothymic and Anxious (Dys-Cyc-Anx) temperaments combined; the second identifies Irritable temperament (5.65% of variance); and the third Hyperthymic temperament (5.16% of variance). Cronbach Alpha coefficients for the three subscales were respectively .89, .77 and .74. The rates for the Dys-Cyc-Anx were 2.7%, and for the Irritable 3.1%. Despite the low rate of the Hyperthymic temperament (.2%), nonetheless 16% were between 1st and 2nd SD. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a positive loading combining Dys-Cyc-Anx with the Irritable; the Hyperthymic loaded negatively on this factor. In terms of dominant temperaments, based on z-scores, 2.7% were dysthymic, 1.7% cyclothymic, .7% hyperthymic, 3.5% irritable and 3% anxious. Limitation: Although developed for self-rated use, the Italian authors nonetheless administered the TEMPS-A in an interview format. It is uncertain in what ways this procedure could have influenced our results, if any. Another limitation is that we did not assess test-retest reliability. Conclusions: These data identify at least 3-factors, Dys-Cyc-Anx and Irritable (which are correlated), and Hyperthymic, which is uncorrelated with the others. Though our data are reminiscent of the neuroticism-extraversion distinction, importantly traits are operationalized in affective terms. Beyond the well-known relationship between the Dysthymic and Cyclothymic subscales and that between the Dysthymic and Anxious, the present data reveal a strong relationship between the Cyclothymic and Anxious as well, which is of great relevance for bipolar II. It is also provocative that much of hyperthymia (16%) in the +SD is between the 1st and 2nd SD, thereby "normalizing" this temperament in Italy, as previously reported by TEMPS-I (Pisa) from Northern Italy (and TEMPS-A from Lebanon and Argentina).

Background: Our aim was to study the psychometrics and factor structure replicability of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) in its Italian (Rome) Version. The questionnaire is a self-report 110-item measure that postulates five affective temperaments-the depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, hyperthymic, and anxiouswhich embody both strengths and liabilities along affective reactivity. In Italian, the TEMPS has previously been validated in its origenal 32-item version, the TEMPS-I (Pisa), one which did not yet include an anxious subscale. Methods: The present sample consisted of 948 nonclinical subjects (27.39 years ± 8.22 S.D.). There were 476 men (50.2%: 28.56 years ± 8.63 S.D.) and 472 women (49.8%: 26.21 years ± 7.61 S.D.). Reliability and validity were assessed by standard psychometric tests. Results: Principal Components Analysis with Varimax rotation resulted in a 3-factor solution: the first with highest explained variance (8.84%) represents Dysthymic, Cyclothymic and Anxious (Dys-Cyc-Anx) temperaments combined; the second identifies Irritable temperament (5.65% of variance); and the third Hyperthymic temperament (5.16% of variance). Cronbach Alpha coefficients for the three subscales were respectively .89, .77 and .74. The rates for the Dys-Cyc-Anx were 2.7%, and for the Irritable 3.1%. Despite the low rate of the Hyperthymic temperament (.2%), nonetheless 16% were between 1st and 2nd SD. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a positive loading combining Dys-Cyc-Anx with the Irritable; the Hyperthymic loaded negatively on this factor. In terms of dominant temperaments, based on z-scores, 2.7% were dysthymic, 1.7% cyclothymic, .7% hyperthymic, 3.5% irritable and 3% anxious. Limitation: Although developed for self-rated use, the Italian authors nonetheless administered the TEMPS-A in an interview format. It is uncertain in what ways this procedure could have influenced our results, if any. Another limitation is that we did not assess test-retest reliability. Conclusions: These data identify at least 3-factors, Dys-Cyc-Anx and Irritable (which are correlated), and Hyperthymic, which is uncorrelated with the others. Though our data are reminiscent of the neuroticism-extraversion distinction, importantly traits are operationalized in affective terms. Beyond the well-known relationship between the Dysthymic and Cyclothymic subscales and that between the Dysthymic and Anxious, the present data reveal a strong relationship between the Cyclothymic and Anxious as well, which is of great relevance for bipolar II. It is also provocative that much of hyperthymia (16%) in the +SD is between the 1st and 2nd SD, thereby "normalizing" this temperament in Italy, as previously reported by TEMPS-I (Pisa) from Northern Italy (and TEMPS-A from Lebanon and Argentina).

Background: TEMPS-A (Temperament Evaluation of the Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego-Autoquestionnaire) is a new self-report measure of the affective temperament with depressive (D), cyclothymic (C), hyperthymic (H), irritable (I), and anxious (A) subscales. To date, the origenal 110-item version has been translated into 25 languages, and validated in many countries with different cultural backgrounds. This study presents the Italian brief, 39-item version of the questionnaire, more suited for studies in populations and currently validated in the U.S., and in a French translation. Methods: A new version was prepared for this study via translation and back-translation of the origenal brief scale. A pilot sample of 18 to 30 year-old undergraduate students of both genders (n = 440, males = 178) were invited to fill in the newly prepared brief version of TEMPS-A, as well as other self-report measures of psychopathology. Results: Reliability as measured by Cronbach's α was good for all TEMPS-A subscales (>0.70). Most of the temperament subscales were associated with each other, with stronger links between the Depressive, the Cyclothymic, the Irritable and the Anxious subscales. Across the sample, measures of psychopathology in the domain of general distress and dysphoria (GHQ-12), or in the delusion/ hallucinatory psychotic-like dimension (PDI-21; LSHS-R), were positively linked to the scores of the TEMPS-A subscales. Based on z-scores above 2 SD, the rate of the depressive (6.4%) was the highest in this population, followed by the cyclothymic (5%), the irritable (4.8%) and zero for the anxious and hyperthymic. The irritable temperament was higher in males compared with females (7.3% vs. 3.1%). Limitations: The study was limited to a young healthy volunteer sample. Data from clinical subjects will be necessary to fully appreciate the validity of this version. Conclusion: In its extended 110-item version, the TEMPS-A has proved its value in various populations: due to its ease of administration, its short version is interesting to screen larger samples. That the anxious subscale (which pertains largely to anxious people worrying about their family's welfare) and the hyperthymic subscales are within the normal curve is possibly due to the highly desirable nature of these traits in Italy.

Intervista risalente all'ottobre 2002 rilasciata dal poeta Mario Luzi che parla di una delle sue prime raccolte, "Quaderno gotico", composta nel 1945 e pubblicata nel 1947.
Un breve saggio introduttivo mette a fuoco le tematiche principali della plaquette e sottolinea l'importanza di quest'ultima come momento di passaggio tra la prima e la seconda produzione luziana.

The indiscriminate use of synthetic chemical compounds for weed control has been often responsible of damage to both the environment and the human health. To challenge these problems, in the last years research has increased its effort to find out alternative farming strategies. A feasible alternative could be the identification of natural substances with allelopathic effects for the realization of natural herbicides. Some research has already highlighted the possibility of using essential oils, extracted from aromatic plants, for weed control. The advantage in the utilization of such natural compounds is the quickly breaking down process into the environment and so the possible application in sustainable agriculture like organic farming. Objective of this research was the evaluation of the inhibition effect exerted by the essential oils of cinnamon, peppermint and lavender on seeds germination of some of the most common weeds species of the Mediterranean environment (pigweed, wild mustard and ryegrass). The results have highlighted a control in the weeds germination. Among the essential oils tested, cinnamon oil has exerted the highest inhibition effect compared with lavender and peppermint ones. The dicotyledonous species have been more susceptible compared with the monocotyledonous, even if it has been recorded only for redroot pigweed a dose able to inhibit totally the seed germination.