Search results for "Elus"

Using Local Ecological Knowledge of Fishers to Reconstruct Abundance Trends of Elasmobranch Populations in the Strait of Sicily

2020

Fishers “local ecological knowledge” (LEK) can be used to reconstruct long-term trends of species that are at very low biomass due to overfishing. In this study, we used historical memories of Sicilian fishers to understand their perception of change in abundance of cartilaginous fish in the Strait of Sicily over the last decades. We conducted interviews with 27 retired fishers from Mazara del Vallo harbor (SW Sicily) working in demersal fisheries, using a pre-defined questionnaire with a series of open and fixed questions related to the abundance of sharks and rays. The questionnaire included specific questions about the trends they perceived in catch or by-catch of cartilaginous fish abun…

Modeling of Dead Wood Potential Based on Tree Stand Data

2020

Here we present a framework for identifying areas with high dead wood potential (DWP) for conservation planning needs. The amount and quality of dead wood and dying trees are some of the most important factors for biodiversity in forests. As they are easy to recognize on site, it is widely used as a surrogate marker for ecological quality of forests. However, wall-to-wall information on dead wood is rarely available on a large scale as field data collection is expensive and local dead wood conditions change rapidly. Our method is based on the forest growth models in the Motti forest simulator, taking into account 168 combinations of tree species, site types, and vegetation zones as well as …

Epinephelus sicanus (Doderlein, 1882) (Perciformes: Serranidae: Epinephelinae), a valid species of grouper from the Mediterranean Sea

2020

During the editing of the paper “In memory of Pietro Doderlein” (Massa et al. 2018), consulting Doderlein’s bibliography, and highlighting some interesting documents and the material preserved in the Museum of Zoology of the University of Palermo (MZPA) (today named after Doderlein), a taxonomic anomaly was noticed about a grouper collected more than one hundred years ago. The aim of the present statement is to prove that the name Cerna sicana Doderlein, 1882 (presently as Epinephelus sicanus [Doderlein, 1882]) should be considered a valid species unless it is demonstrated that it is a synonym of another valid species. In 1882 Doderlein described Cerna sicana from a single specimen (Fig. 1)…

Different approaches to marriage downgrading : from an anti-elusive measure to an antidiscriminatory claim

2021

The essay focuses on the different mechanisms of marriage downgrading. Given the principle of ?cross-border continuity? of statuses, limits to this continuity are sometimes admitted and they are placed through downgrading mechanisms. That can occour in the case of same-sex marriages transcription in a Member State which does not allow such marriages, but which does allow samesex registered partnerships. Downgrading mechanism has an anti-elusive function, but it is not without problems in terms of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. A different approach is taken in the case of an opposite-sex couple requesting the downgrading of their marriage, celebrated before the Member S…

Confabulation: damage to a specific inferior medial prefrontal system

2008

Confabulation, the pathological production of false memories, occurs following a variety of aetiologies involving the frontal lobes, and is frequently held to be underpinned by combined memory and executive deficits. However, the critical frontal regions and specific cognitive deficits involved are unclear. Studies in amnesic patients have associated confabulation with damage to the orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortices. However, neuroimaging studies have associated memory-control processes which are assumed to underlie confabulation with the right lateral prefrontal cortex. We used a confabulation battery to investigate the occurrence and localisation of confabulation in an unselect…

Stable aesthetic standards delusion: changing 'artistic quality' by elaboration.

2014

The present study challenges the notion that judgments of artistic quality are based on stable aesthetic standards. We propose that such standards are a delusion and that judgments of artistic quality are the combined result of exposure, elaboration, and discourse. We ran two experiments using elaboration tasks based on the repeated evaluation technique in which different versions of the Mona Lisa had to be elaborated deeply. During the initial task either the version known from the Louvre or an alternative version owned by the Prado was elaborated; during the second task both versions were elaborated in a comparative fashion. After both tasks multiple blends of the two versions had to be …

Facial emotion space in schizophrenia

2007

Introduction. Previous studies show that patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in facial emotion recognition. In the framework of emotion categorisation theories, the purpose of the present study was to test if this impairment could result from abnormal boundaries between emotions (whether these boundaries are shifted along continuums or are less sharpened). Method. Twenty-six schizophrenic patients and the same number of healthy participants were required to perform a facial emotion recognition task and an emotion categorisation task with different emotion intensities obtained using morphing techniques. Results. The main results indicate that schizophrenic patients exhibited an emotio…

Patterns of evidence integration in schizophrenia and delusion.

2011

Previous studies documented a bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) in patients affected by schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with some discrepant findings on its relationship with delusions. In order to further investigate the patterns of evidence integration in schizophrenia and delusion, we recruited 40 deluded and non-deluded patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy control subjects. Participants were administered the BADE test, which consisted of 30 delusion-neutral scenarios, each one progressively described by three subsequent disambiguating statements and providing four types of interpretation to rate for plausibility; at every additional evidence presentation, participants…

The neuropsychological profile of Othello syndrome in Parkinson's disease.

2017

Relationships between electrodermal activity and symptomatology in schizophrenia.

1993

The present report studies the differences between schizophrenic responders and nonresponders within the different symptomatologic groups of the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). The relationship between the different electrodermal activity parameters and the scores on the scales was also analyzed. The results showed that nonresponders had negative symptoms. In addition negative symptoms registered a general fall in all electrodermal-activity parameters.