Two new genera, ten new species and new records of Amazonian Stygnidae Simon, 1879 (Opiliones: Laniatores)

As a result of recent expeditions to two mountains in the Amazon basin, Tapirapeco and Pico da Neblina, two new genera of Stygnidae, Imeri g. nov. (type species Imeri lomanhungae sp. nov.) and Jime g. nov. (type species Jime chifrudo sp. nov.), and ten new species are described: Auranus hehu sp. nov., Auranus tepui sp. nov., Imeri lomanhungae sp. nov.; Jime chifrudo sp. nov.; Stygnoplus ianomami sp. nov.; Stygnus magalhaesi sp. nov.; Stygnoplus neblina sp. nov.; Stygnoplus tapirapeco sp. nov.; Stygnus nogueirai sp. nov., Stygnus kuryi sp. nov.. Additionally, new distributional records in Amazonas (Brazil) are presented for Stygnidius guerinii Soerensen, 1932, Minax tetraspinosus Pinto-da-Rocha, 1997 and Protimesius longipalpis (Roewer, 1943). Keys for genera of Heterostygninae and Stygninae are provided.

Tentativa de balanço: entrevista com Iumna Maria Simon

Narrando a sua formação intelectual, Iumna Maria Simon analisa a situação da crítica literária na universidade e fora dela, a poesia contemporânea e as condições da leitura da obra literária hoje. A entrevista expõe o modo como desenvolveu sua compreensão da literatura brasileira mais recente e como organiza seu foco crítico e suas referências teóricas, enquanto professora e crítica.

Analisi critico-comparativa delle traduzioni italiane di Un amour de Swann di Marcel Proust

Affrontare l’analisi critica delle traduzioni italiane di Un amour de Swann di Marcel Proust implica necessariamente un attento esame dello stile esemplare di un autore, che ha modificato, in larga misura, la concezione del romanzo e della scrittura stessa; in secondo luogo significa considerare l’altrettanto complesso lavorio intellettuale rappresentato dalla traduzione, in qualità di atto critico fondamentale. Prenderemo in esame nel capitolo primo la genesi del TP, le sue specificità narratologiche e la ricezione critica francese e italiana, per comprendere appieno l’originalità di Proust rispetto al panorama letterario dell’epoca. Nella seconda parte del primo capitolo delineeremo un excursus lungo la storia di tutte le traduzioni italiane del romanzo, accordando particolare attenzione alla figura di ogni traduttore: Natalia Ginzburg (1946), Bruno Schacherl (1946), Armando Landini (1946), Oreste Del Buono (1965), Giovanni Raboni (1978), Maria Teresa Nessi Somaini (1981), Gianna Tornabuoni (1988), Eurialo De Michelis (1990) e il traduttore, rimasto anonimo, della casa editrice La Spiga Languages (1995). Nel secondo capitolo analizzeremo la peculiarità stilistica più nota dell’autore, la sintassi. I lunghi periodi complicati da un intreccio di subordinate e sciolti solo con il ricorso a vari nessi sintattici contribuiscono a rendere la sintassi proustiana una delle sfide maggiori in sede traduttiva. Nel capitolo successivo accorderemo attenzione all’eteroglossia enunciativa, espressa nei diversi idioletti del romanzo. In sede contrastiva affronteremo la questione della trasposizione dei niveaux de langue, per poter valutare le scelte intraprese dai traduttori in un ambito altamente complesso, a causa della diversità diafasica intrinseca dei due codici. All’interno del medesimo capitolo apriremo una parentesi sulla specificità di una traduzione, quella di Giacomo Debenedetti, effettuata seguendo una personale esegesi dello stile musicale e armonico di Proust. Riserveremo al capitolo quarto lo studio del linguaggio figurato, soffermandoci sull’analisi delle espressioni idiomatiche, che vengono impiegate frequentemente da alcuni personaggi. Rivolgeremo uno sguardo d’insieme alle strategie messe in atto dai traduttori, per cercare un equivalente idiomatico o per ricreare il medesimo impatto nel lettore, qualora vi siano casi di anisomorfismo. Analizzeremo nel quinto capitolo la terminologia della moda, confrontando il lessico impiegato nel TP con le soluzioni adottate nei TA, e aprendo, inevitabilmente, una parentesi sulla terminologia storica del settore. A compimento del lavoro presenteremo la nostra proposta traduttiva di un capitolo tratto dal saggio Proust et le style di Jean Milly, per mettere in luce, tramite la sua parola autorevole, la genialità e la complessità della scrittura proustiana e, conseguentemente, il compito ardimentoso e ammirevole che è stato richiesto ai traduttori italiani.

The Simon effect and its time courses: an investigation

The objective of the current thesis is to investigate the temporal dynamics (i.e., time courses) of the Simon effect, both from a theoretical and experimental point of view, for a better understanding of whether a) one or more process are responsible for the Simon effect and b) how this/these mechanism/s differently influence performance. In the first theoretical (i.e., “Theoretical Overview”) part, I examined in detail the process and justification for analyzing the temporal dynamics of the Simon effect and the assumptions that underlie interpretation of the results which have been obtained in the existing literature so far. In the second part (“Experimental Investigations”), though, I experimentally investigated several issues which the existing literature left unsolved, in order to get further evidence in favor or in contrast with the mainstream models which are currently used to account for the different Simon effect time courses. Some points about the experiments are worth mentioning: First, all the experiments were conducted in the laboratory, facing participants with stimuli presented on a PC screen and then recording their responses. Both stimuli presentation and response collection was controlled by the E-Prime software. The dependent variables of interest were always behavioral measures of performance, such as velocity and accuracy. Second, the most part of my experiments had been conducted at the Communication Sciences Department (University of Bologna), under Prof. Nicoletti’s supervision. The remaining part, though, had been conducted at the Psychological Sciences Department of Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), where I collaborated for one year as a visiting student with Prof. Proctor and his team. Third, my experimental pool was entirely composed by healthy and young students, since the cognitive functioning of elderly people was not the target of my research.

Social Cognition: New Insights from Affordance and Simon Effects

The perspective of the present project can be inscribed in the so-called “Social Cognition” framework, that in the last years moved from a focus on the individual mind toward embodied and participatory aspects of social understanding. Among the topics relevant for social cognition, the aim of the thesis was to shed more light on motor resonance and joint action, by using two well-known effects of cognitive psychology: “Affordance” and “Simon”. In the first part of the project, the Affordance effect has been considered, starting from Gibson to some post-Gibsonian theorizations. Particular attention has received the notion of “Micro-affordance”. The theoretical and empirical overview allows to understand how it can be possible to use the affordance effect to investigate the issue of motor resonance. A first study employed a priming paradigm and explored both in adults and school-age children the influence of a micro-affordance that can be defined dangerousness, and how motor resonance develops. The second part of the thesis focused on the Simon effect, starting with the presentation of the “stimulus–response (S–R) compatibility effect” to introduce the “Simon effect”. Particular attention has been dedicated to recent studies on the “joint Simon effect”. The reviewed empirical findings have been discussed in a wider theoretical perspective on joint action. The second study was aimed at investigating whether shared representations, as indexed by the presence of the joint Simon effect, are modulated by minimal ingroup–outgroup distinctions and by experienced interdependence between participants. The third study explored to what extent prior experience could modulate performance in task sharing, combining two paradigms of cognitive psychology, the joint Simon and the joint transfer-of-learning. In a general discussion the results obtained in the three studies have been summarized, emphasizing their original contribution and their importance within the Social Cognition research.

Posterior versus anterior circulation strokes: comparison of clinical, radiological and outcome characteristics

Physicians treating patients with posterior circulation strokes (PCS) tended to debate more on whether or not to introduce anticoagulation rather than performing investigations to identify stroke aetiology, as in patients with anterior circulation strokes (ACS). Recent findings suggest that stroke aetiologies of PCS and ACS are more alike than dissimilar, suggesting that PCS deserve the same investigations as ACS. The characteristics and current diagnostic evaluation between patients with PCS and ACS were compared.