Landscape quality of farm buildings: The evolution of the design approach in Italy

Rural buildings have undergone deep changes with the historical transition from traditional agriculture to industrial society. This paper discusses these trends in Italy, focusing on major changes in agriculture, design approach, and land-use planning, referring to some regional cases and relative building typologies. The analysis of the main historical treatises on the subject of farm building design allowed us to evaluate how the evolution of the technical approach influenced the architectural quality of rural buildings. This latter was traditionally based on a close relation between aesthetic values, functionality, and simplicity, broadly acknowledged only recently, as shown by the loss of landscape integration of farm buildings constructed in the last decades. By analysing the processes of reuse of historical buildings and construction of new farm buildings, we have found out different and time-evolving ways of referring to rural heritage and identity. In some cases, they have been considered important references, even through typological evolution aimed at combining traditional values with new needs and available techniques. In other cases, old farm buildings have been considered unsuitable things of the past, or rather have inspired new constructions based on an idealized and mystified concept of rurality. Since landscape integration of rural buildings plays a crucial role in the EU concept of agriculture, the choice of architectural quality postulates to be adopted for the design of new rural buildings is a key theme. Both consistency with pre-industrial tradition and typological discontinuity must necessarily consider consciously the relationships with historical buildings, whose important values have increasingly come to the fore over the last years. Once consistency with historical farm buildings is assumed as a design postulate, contemporary interpretation of traditional typologies through modern building techniques is a very challenging and topical field of study. Various degrees of consistency with traditional typologies are possible. Therefore, this approach calls for the development of analytic and metadesign methods aimed at decomposing rural building typologies into their essential physiognomical features, allowing designers to modulate them to meet ever-changing requirements.     

Effect of age on discrimination learning,reversal learning,and cognitive bias in family dogs

Several studies on age-related cognitive decline in dogs involve laboratory dogs and prolonged training. We developed two spatial tasks that required a single 1-h session. We tested 107 medium-large sized dogs: “young” (N=41, aged 2.5–6.5 years) and “old” (N=66, aged 8–14.5 years). Our results indicated that, in a discrimination learning task and in a reversal learning task, young dogs learned significantly faster than the old dogs, indicating that these two tasks could successfully be used to investigate differences in spatial learning between young and old dogs. We also provide two novel findings. First, in the reversal learning, the dogs trained based on the location of stimuli learned faster than the dogs trained based on stimulus characteristics. Most old dogs did not learn the task within our cut-off of 50 trials. Training based on an object’s location is therefore more appropriate for reversal learning tasks. Second, the contrast between the response to the positive and negative stimuli was narrower in old dogs, compared to young dogs, during the reversal learning task, as well as the cognitive bias test. This measure favors comparability between tasks and between studies. Following the cognitive bias test, we could not find any indication of differences in the positive and negative expectations between young and old dogs. Taken together, these findings do not support the hypothesis that old dogs have more negative expectations than young dogs and the use of the cognitive bias test in older dogs requires further investigation.     

Energetic demand and physical conditioning of table tennis players. A study review

Table tennis is a racket sport characterised by an intermittent movement profile, including short rallies interspersed with short breaks. In contrast to other racket sports, information is lacking regarding the: (i) physiological responses during table tennis matches and training; and (ii) practical recommendations for enhancing aerobic and anaerobic performance in table tennis by improving cardio-metabolic and neuro-muscular fitness, anthropometry and nutritional strategies. Therefore, this review article attempts to narratively provide an overview of the physiology of table tennis by describing the metabolic mechanisms underlying match play and outlining a framework for practical recommendations for improving cardio-metabolic and neuro-muscular fitness, anthropometry as well as nutritional strategies. A second aim was to stimulate future research on table tennis and to point out study limitations in this context. In general, the most important finding is that the rally duration is short at around 3.5s, with a longer rest time of around 8–20s, resulting in an effort-rest ratio ranging from 0.15 to 0.22 in official matches and energetic demands during match relatively low. Future studies should focus on the relationship between energetic demand and table tennis performance with a view to predicting performance in table tennis using physiological parameters.     

A faster running speed is associated with a greater body weight loss in 100-km ultra-marathoners

Abstract

In 219 recreational male runners, we investigated changes in body mass, total body water, haematocrit, plasma sodium concentration ([Na⁺]), and urine specific gravity as well as fluid intake during a 100-km ultra-marathon. The athletes lost 1.9 kg (s = 1.4) of body mass, equal to 2.5% (s = 1.8) of body mass (P < 0.001), 0.7 kg (s = 1.0) of predicted skeletal muscle mass (P < 0.001), 0.2 kg (s = 1.3) of predicted fat mass (P < 0.05), and 0.9 L (s = 1.6) of predicted total body water (P < 0.001). Haematocrit decreased (P < 0.001), urine specific gravity (P < 0.001), plasma volume (P < 0.05), and plasma [Na⁺] (P < 0.05) all increased. Change in body mass was related to running speed (r = ?0.16, P < 0.05), change in plasma volume was associated with change in plasma [Na⁺] (r = ?0.28, P < 0.0001), and change in body mass was related to both change in plasma [Na⁺] (r = ?0.36) and change in plasma volume (r = 0.31) (P < 0.0001). The athletes consumed 0.65 L (s = 0.27) fluid per hour. Fluid intake was related to both running speed (r = 0.42, P < 0.0001) and change in body mass (r = 0.23, P = 0.0006), but not post-race plasma [Na⁺] or change in plasma [Na⁺] (P > 0.05). In conclusion, faster runners lost more body mass, runners lost more body mass when they drank less fluid, and faster runners drank more fluid than slower runners.     

Body Mass and Circumference of Upper Arm Are Associated With Race Performance in Ultraendurance Runners in a Multistage Race—The Isarrun 2006

In the present study, we investigated the association of anthropometric parameters with race performance in ultraendurance runners in a multistage ultraendurance run, in which athletes had to run 338 km within 5 consecutive days. In 17 male successful finishers, calculations of body mass, body height, skinfold thicknesses, extremity circumference, skeletal muscle mass (SM), and percentage body fat (%BF) were performed before the race to correlate anthropometric parameters with race performance. A positive association was shown between total running time and both body mass (r² = .29, p < .05) and upper arm circumference (r² = .23, p < .05). In contrast, body height, skinfold thicknesses, extremity circumference, SM, and %BF showed no association with race performance (p > .05). We concluded that in a multistage ultraendurance run, body mass and upper arm circumference were negatively associated with race performance in well experienced ultraendurance runners. In contrast, body height, skinfold thicknesses, circumferences of the other extremities, SM, and %BF showed no association with race performance.     

Training Preschoolers on First‐Order False Belief Understanding: Transfer on Advanced ToM Skills and Metamemory

This study investigated the relation between theory of mind (ToM) and metamemory knowledge using a training methodology. Sixty‐two 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children were recruited and randomly assigned to one of two training conditions: A first‐order false belief (ToM) and a control condition. Intervention and control groups were equivalent at pretest for age, parents' education, verbal ability, inhibition, and ToM. Results showed that after the intervention children in the ToM group improved in their first‐order false belief understanding significantly more than children in the control condition. Crucially, the positive effect of the ToM intervention was stable over 2 months and generalized to more complex ToM tasks and metamemory.     

Managing legitimacy in the educational quasi‐market: a study of ethnically diverse,inclusive schools in Flanders

In this paper, we examine how ethnically diverse, inclusive schools manage their legitimacy in an educational quasi‐market. These schools are often threatened with a loss of legitimacy as ethnic majority parents perceive an ethnically diverse student population and radical pedagogical practices as signs of lower quality education. However, precisely legitimacy in the eyes of ethnic majority parents is crucial to acquire resources, motivate staff members and maintain their ability to offer quality education, necessary to minimize the majority–minority educational attainment gap in the long run. Drawing on a theoretical approach combining neo‐institutional and impression management theories, we empirically investigate how four ethnically diverse, inclusive secondary schools embedded in the highly exclusive Flemish educational quasi‐market manage their legitimacy. Comparing their legitimacy management strategies, we find that maintaining legitimacy is related to (1) formally conforming to dominant norms, decoupling their radical practices by relegating them to the informal sphere; and (2) proactively manipulating perceptions of the school's ethnic diversity and radical pedagogical practices. However, our findings suggest that an ambiguous version of these strategies might be sufficient to achieve this aim.     

What is associated with race performance in male 100-km ultra-marathoners--anthropometry, training or marathon best time?

We investigated the associations of anthropometry, training, and pre-race experience with race time in 93 recreational male ultra-marathoners (mean age 44.6 years, s = 10.0; body mass 74.0 kg, s = 9.0; height 1.77 m, s = 0.06; body mass index 23.4 kg · m(-2), s = 2.0) in a 100-km ultra-marathon using bivariate and multivariate analysis. In the bivariate analysis, body mass index (r = 0.24), the sum of eight skinfolds (r = 0.55), percent body fat (r = 0.57), weekly running hours (r = -0.29), weekly running kilometres (r = -0.49), running speed during training (r = -0.50), and personal best time in a marathon (r = 0.72) were associated with race time. Results of the multiple regression analysis revealed an independent and negative association of weekly running kilometres and average speed in training with race time, as well as a significant positive association between the sum of eight skinfold thicknesses and race time. There was a significant positive association between 100-km race time and personal best time in a marathon. We conclude that both training and anthropometry were independently associated with race performance. These characteristics remained relevant even when controlling for personal best time in a marathon.     

Archaeometric and geological constraints for the provenance of carbonatic breccias used in monumental works along the Flaminia Consular Road (Umbria-Marche, Central Italy)

Along the Umbria-Marche stretch of the Flaminia Consular Road (220 B.C.) several archaeological finds of the most important monumental works, are well preserved. The stones, employed to build many bridges, substructions and sewerages, are represented by carbonatic breccias whose geological environment of formation and source areas had never been established. On the basis of mineralogical, petrographic and micropalaeontological analyses, two groups of these lithotypes employed in Roman age were distinguished: “monogenic carbonatic breccias” only constituted by clasts of the Maiolica Unit (Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous) and “polygenic carbonatic breccias” made of fragments (in different proportions) of Calcare Massiccio (Early Jurassic), Corniola (Early Jurassic), Maiolica (Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous) and Scaglia Rossa (Late Cretaceous – Early Paleogene) Units. The possible source areas of the breccias are compatible with stratified slope-waste to scarp-base deposits of periglacial origin belonging to the Upper Pleistocene. In particular, among the seven investigated areas, we pointed out the most probable provenances (Monte Faeto-Colle, Costacciaro, Scirca, Foci, Secchiano) along the flanks of the Apennine Mesozoic chain of the Umbria and Marche regions. Although the Romans could have exploited the whole thickness of some outcrops (now disappeared) of these carbonatic lithotypes at the deepest part of the valleys, we have constrained a local provenance of the breccias so commonly used in the monumental works of the Flaminia.     

The public response to innovative strategies for the control of biodeterioration in archaeological hypogea

Between April and September 2003, 1500 visitors of the Catacomb of St. Callistus participated to a scientific research by filling in a questionnaire to express their opinion about a new illumination system experimentally set up in the Ocean’s Cubiculum. Their answers were statistically evaluated and represented the first public opinions on this archaeological site, including their knowledge of conservation problems and their positive attitude towards the use of new strategies for the preservation of this monument.