The world’s press may have lost interest in the ongoing enquiry into the deep‐rooted corruption in Italian business. But what exactly was going on, and what can be done to improve matters? The writers of this authoritative study are Faculty members of the prestigious Italian Business School, SDA Bocconi, Via F. Bocconi 8, 8‐20136 Milano, where Umberto Lago lectures in Strategy and Roberto Castoldi in Accounting. They both lecture on the Business Policy course at Bocconi University.

The world’s press may have lost interest in the ongoing enquiry into the deep‐rooted corruption in Italian business. But what exactly was going on, and what can be done to improve matters? The writers of this authoritative study are Faculty members of the prestigious Italian Business School, SDA Bocconi, Via F. Bocconi 8, 8‐20136 Milano, where Umberto Lago lectures in Strategy and Roberto Castoldi in Accounting. They both lecture on the Business Policy course at Bocconi University.

Recording of neural activity during grasping actions in macaques showed that grasp-related sensorimotor transformations are accomplished in a circuit constituted by the anterior part of the intraparietal sulcus (AIP), the ventral (F5) and the dorsal (F2) region of the premotor area. In humans, neuroimaging studies have revealed the existence of a similar circuit, involving the putative homolog of macaque areas AIP, F5, and F2. These studies have mainly considered grasping movements performed with the right dominant hand and only a few (...) studies have measured brain activity associated with a movement performed with the left non-dominant hand. As a consequence of this gap, how the brain controls for grasping movement performed with the dominant and the non-dominant hand still represents an open question. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment has been conducted, and effective connectivity (dynamic causal modeling, DCM) was used to assess how connectivity among grasping-related areas is modulated by hand (i.e., left and right) during the execution of grasping movements toward a small object requiring precision grasping. Results underlined boosted inter-hemispheric couplings between dorsal premotor cortices during the execution of movements performed with the left rather than the right dominant hand. More specifically, they suggest that the dorsal premotor cortices may play a fundamental role in monitoring the configuration of fingers when grasping movements are performed by either the right and the left hand. This role becomes particularly evident when the hand less-skilled (i.e., the left hand) to perform such action is utilized. The results are discussed in light of recent theories put forward to explain how parieto-frontal connectivity is modulated by the execution of prehensile movements. (shrink)

Choice reaction tasks are performed faster when stimulus location corresponds to response location. This spatial stimulus–response compatibility effect affects performance at the level of action planning and execution. However, when response selection is completed before movement initiation, the Simon effect arises only at the planning level. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether when a precocious response selection is requested, the Simon effect can be detected on the kinematics characterizing the online control phase of a non-ballistic movement. Participants (...) were presented with red or green colored squares, which could appear on the right, left, above, or below a central cross. Depending on the square's color, participants had to release one of two buttons, then reach toward and press a corresponding lateral pad. We found evidence of the Simon effect on both action planning and on-line control. Moreover, the investigation of response conflict at the level of previous trials, a factor that might determine interference at the level of the current response, revealed a conflict adaptation process across trials. Results are discussed in terms of current theories concerned with the Simon effect and the distinction between action planning and control. (shrink)

Esperimento mentale: siete Immanuel Kant, vi trovate in Australia, e ve ne state andando a passeggio. A un tratto scorgete una strana bestiola in riva al lago. Ha gli occhi di una talpa, ma sarà grande dieci volte tanto. Ha il becco di un’anatra, ma non ha le ali; e non ha piume bensì una fitta pelliccia che la fa assomigliare semmai a una lontra. La coda poi sembra quella di un castoro; e le zampe hanno dita palmate, ma (...) con artigli. Insomma, è proprio uno strano animale (ammesso che sia un animale e non una creatura degli inferi o lo scherzo di un taxidermista) nel quale certamente non vi siete mai imbattuti e di cui sicuramente non aver mai sentito parlare. Domanda: che cosa dunque state vedendo? Siete incappati in un ornitorinco. Ma attenzione: l’esperimento richiede che vi immedesimiate in Kant, e ai tempi di Kant l’ornitorinco non era ancora stato scoperto. Per meglio dire: non era ancora stato scoperto e classificato dai naturalisti europei, che ci avrebbero impiegato quasi un altro secolo prima di trovargli un posto nell’ordine sui generis dei mammiferi ovipari. Il vecchio Immanuel non ne sapeva nulla, non ne aveva il concetto; quindi voi non potete rispondere che state vedendo un ornitorinco. State vedendo quella cosa lì e basta. Il problema è cosa significhi dire che state vedendo quella cosa dato che non avete la più pallida idea di che cosa stiate vedendo. (shrink)

A partire dalla produzione saggistica e letteraria di Umberto Eco, l’articolo analizzerà l’immaginario del Medioevo inteso come culla di ogni genere di millenarismo. La trattazione prenderà avvio dal suo saggio Palinsesto su Beato ; tenendo conto dell’originalità della prospettiva strutturalista di Eco, si confronterà l’ultima riedizione di questo scritto con un quadro bibliografico sul ruolo dell’Apocalisse di San Giovanni in seno alla tradizione occidentale. Il primo riferimento sarà la tesi genealogica di Karl Löwith, il quale nel suo Significato e (...) fine della storia affermò che le moderne filosofie della storia rispondono alla stessa ispirazione millenarista della cultura cristiana. Il secondo confronto sarà con uno dei ritratti dell’eresiarca Fra Dolcino; nella fattispecie, sarà considerata la prospettiva del filosofo socialista Antonio Labriola, elaborata a fine Ottocento per distinguere le applicazioni scientifiche del materialismo storico dai suoi fraintendimenti escatologici. Questi due opposti interlocutori condurranno a problematizzare l’interpretazione del millenarismo per come rappresentato da Umberto Eco ne Il nome della rosa. Il romanzo intende infatti l’apocalittica dolciniana come la prefigurazione del terrorismo degli Anni di Piombo? O si tratta di una mera strizzata d’occhio, un gioco con il lettore, il quale è chiamato a non confidare troppo nella potenza simbolica delle analogie? Considering Umberto Eco’s articles and novels, the paper will examine the imaginary of the Middle Age as the cradle of every kind of millenarianism. The analysis will start from Eco’s essay Palinsesto su Beato. Looking at the originality of his structuralist view, I will compare the last editing of this text with a bibliographical framework about the role of the Apocalypse of St. John in the Western tradition. The first reference will be the genealogical thesis of Karl Löwith, who in Meaning in History affirmed that the modern philosophies of history have the same eschatological aim of the Christian culture. The second comparison will be with a portrait of the medieval heresiarch Fra Dolcino. In this case, I will consider the perspective of the socialist philosopher Antonio Labriola, who elaborated it at the end of the XIX Century to distinguish the scientific applications of historical materialism from his eschatological misinterpretations. These two opposite references will drive me to problematize the representation of millenarianism as it was depicted by Umberto Eco in his The Name of the Rose. Indeed, is Dulcinian millenarianism intended by the novel as a prefiguration of the political terrorism in Italy during the Years of Lead? Or is this only a wink, a joking interaction with the reader, who should be careful to rely not on the symbolic strength of analogies? (shrink)

Recordando a Bachelard a medio siglo de su muerte (2011) -- Filosofia de la relatividad (2011) -- La proliferación de los conceptos de especie en la biología evolucionista (2010).

Essays discuss poetry, communication, television, form, aesthetics, bad taste, and art.

O presente artigo inicia-se com a análise de uma carta de Edmund Burke de Janeirode 1790, momento em que o estadista se declarou contrário à Revolução Francesa, paravinculá-la a outros textos do autor nos quais os aspectos orgânico e hereditário dasociedade civil, assim como o papel formador e deformador das palavras na atividadepolítica, são tratados. A segunda parte desse texto consiste na tradução e notas à traduçãoda referida carta de Janeiro de 1790.

This paper discusses an earlier emendation to fr. 54 GRF Funaioli from Varro's De bibliothecis and argues that, while the text et citro refers to cedar oil, it should not be emended to et cedro. A comparison with a passage from Pliny the Elder (HN 13.86) is used to support the view presented in the article.

The emergent Coronavirus Disease 2019 caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 could produce a maternal immune activation via the inflammatory response during gestation that may impair fetal neurodevelopment and lead to postnatal and adulthood mental illness and behavioral dysfunctions. However, so far, limited evidence exists regarding long-term physiological, immunological, and neurodevelopmental modifications produced by the SARS-CoV-2 in the human maternal-fetal binomial and, particularly, in the offspring. Relevant findings derived from epidemiological and preclinical models show that a MIA (...) is indeed linked to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in the offspring. We hypothesize that a gestational infection triggered by SARS-CoV-2 increases the risks leading to neurodevelopmental disorders of the newborn, which can affect childhood and the long-term quality of life. In particular, disruption of either the maternal or the fetal cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway could cause or exacerbate the severity of COVID-19 in the maternal-fetal binomial. From a translational perspective, in this paper, we discuss the possible manifestation of a MIA by SARS-CoV-2 and the subsequent neurodevelopmental disorders considering the role of the fetal-maternal cytokine cross-talk and the CAP. Specifically, we highlight the urgent need of preclinical studies as well as multicenter and international databanks of maternal-fetal psychophysiological data obtained pre-, during, and post-infection by SARS-CoV-2 from pregnant women and their offspring. (shrink)

Volume 19, Issue 9, September 2019, Page 37-39.

Uno de los mayores desafíos que enfrenta el realismo científico es la tesis de la inconmensurabilidad. Consideramos, empero, que la teoría descriptiva causal de la referencia puede determinar si hay alguna continuidad referencial en un cambio de teoría y, específicamente, en qué circunstancias se daría. Tras caracterizarla brevemente, la someteremos a prueba mediante un análisis de caso, a saber, las diferentes caracterizaciones de ‘órbita’ en la astronomía antigua. Ello supone dilucidar cuáles son las propiedades fundamentales por las cuales la órbita (...) ejerce su función. La continuidad referencial se podrá establecer si constatamos que las descripciones causales nucleares de las distintas nociones de órbita, son equivalentes. Este estudio de caso, además, constituye una oportunidad para ahondar en la reflexión: ¿sirve el descriptivismo causal como argumento a favor del realismo científico? ¿Es factible aplicarlo? ¿Cuál es su alcance? Estas y otras preguntas se suscitan a partir del análisis propuesto. (shrink)

As the only book-length treatment of Aquinas's aesthetics available in English, this volume should interest philosophers, medievalists, historians, critics, and ...

By a comparison between Maxwell's electrodynamics classically interpreted (MT) and relativistic electrodynamics (RED), this paper discusses whether the “asymmetries” in MT mentioned by A. Einstein in his 1905 relativity paper are only of a conceptual nature or rather involve specific empirical claims. It is shown that in fact MT predicts strongly asymmetric behaviour for very simple interactions, and an analysis is made of the extent of the “symmetry” achieved by means of relativistic postulates. A “low” velocity experiment is suggested which (...) could provide another test of the accuracy of RED with respect to MT. (shrink)

We give recursion-theoretic characterizations of the counting class \(\textsf {\#P} \), the class of those functions which count the number of accepting computations of non-deterministic Turing machines working in polynomial time. Moreover, we characterize in a recursion-theoretic manner all the levels \(\{\textsf {\#P} _k\}_{k\in {\mathbb {N}}}\) of the counting hierarchy of functions \(\textsf {FCH} \), which result from allowing queries to functions of the previous level, and \(\textsf {FCH} \) itself as a whole. This is done in the style of (...) Bellantoni and Cook’s safe recursion, and it places \(\textsf {\#P} \) in the context of implicit computational complexity. Namely, it relates \(\textsf {\#P} \) with the implicit characterizations of \(\textsf {FPTIME} \) (Bellantoni and Cook, Comput Complex 2:97–110, 1992) and \(\textsf {FPSPACE} \) (Oitavem, Math Log Q 54(3):317–323, 2008), by exploiting the features of the tree-recursion scheme of \(\textsf {FPSPACE} \). (shrink)

This paper is concerned with certain ontological issues in the foundations of geographic representation. It sets out what these basic issues are, describes the tools needed to deal with them, and draws some implications for a general theory of spatial representation. Our approach has ramifications in the domains of mereology, topology, and the theory of location, and the question of the interaction of these three domains within a unified spatial representation theory is addressed. In the final part we also consider (...) the idea of non-standard geographies, which may be associated with geography under a classical conception in the same sense in which non-standard logics are associated with classical logic. (shrink)

A critical survey of the main philosophical theories about events and event talk, organized in three main sections: (i) Events and Other Categories (Events vs. Objects; Events vs. Facts; Events vs. Properties; Events vs. Times); (ii) Types of Events (Activities, Accomplishments, Achievements, and States; Static and Dynamic Events; Actions and Bodily Movements; Mental and Physical Events; Negative Events); (iii) Existence, Identity, and Indeterminacy.

En el presente libro, Carlos Molina centra su análisis en el desarrollo y la evolución histórica que tuvieron las instituciones sanitarias en nuestro país desde finales del siglo XIX hasta la actualidad, ya que busca comprender las maneras en que el Estado chileno ha respondido a las necesidades y problemas de salud de la sociedad. Para abordar estos temas, el autor se remonta a 1889, año en que el Estado comenzó a intervenir de una manera más directa en esta materia (...) gracias a la creación del.. (shrink)