Wheat adaptation to climate change in the Mediterranean Basin: retracing the past to predict the future

Wheat productivity is alarmingly threatened by climate change in the Mediterranean Basin, where it is mainly cultivated as a rainfed crop and where the latest climatic projections foresee a rise in temperatures and a reduction in precipitation, with important yield losses expected, being drought the main abiotic stress hampering wheat productivity. Assessing and quantifying the alterations in wheat life cycle caused by climate change is thus a key goal, as well as understating the underlying mechanisms of drought resistance. The first part of this thesis is focused on these main topics. A precise quantification of climate change effects on wheat in this area was performed through a case study, coupling phenological, meteorological and grain quality data before and after climate change. Then, accurate and detailed literature search was performed, reviewing the main controversies regarding the reliability of various functional traits to be used as breeding tools for improving wheat drought stress resistance. The second part of this thesis is focused in identifying interesting genetic material to improve wheat drought stress resistance in the Mediterranean Basin, analyzing drought response on a panel of tetraploid wheat accessions in vitro and in vivo as well as in open field trials, chosen in the attempt to represent as much as possible the biodiversity of tetraploid wheat. The third part of this thesis highlights differences in technological, nutritional and nutraceutical quality between modern cultivars and landraces, focusing on lipids, primary metabolites and bioactive compounds. In fact, wheat adaptation to climate change does not only mean to guarantee satisfactory yields in adverse conditions. It also means to provide millions of consumers with a diet-base food crop, with an improved nutraceutical and nutritional quality. Therefore, investigation and selection process for abiotic stress resistance and for improved quality has to go hand in hand.

Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, hitherto usually styled "Sodoma," the man and the painter, 1477-1549; a study,

Appendix: Note on the various portraits of Bazzi by himself and others. Note on the currency. Documents. Pictures by Giuovanni Antonio Bazzi, called Sodoma. Drawings. Pictures attributed. Missing pictures. Drawings attributed. Missing drawings. Authorities consulted (p. 399-413)

Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, hitherto usually styled "Sodoma", the man and the painter, 1477-1549;

Appendix: Note on the various portraits of Bazzi by himself and others. Note on the currency. Documents. Pictures by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, called Sodoma. Drawings. Pictures attributed. Missing pictures. Drawings attributed. Missing drawings. Authorities consulted (p. 399-413)

Na 50 Nachlass Arthur Schopenhauer - 'Schopenhauer-Archiv', 1034 - Mitteilung von Maria Dorguth über die Entgegenahme der zugesandten Briefe und des Portraits

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Relazione distinta del ristretto de'processi e sentenze contro Silvestro e Giulio, padre, e figlio Legni, Bonaventura Arigoni e Bernardino Salviati, tutti quattro della Città di Velletri, e di Giovanni Vecchioli da Cisterna di detta diocesi e delle loro abiure fatte pubblicamente in Roma nella chiesa di S. Maria sopra Minerva li 25., e 26. gennajo 1719.

Mode of access: Internet.

In morte del nob. e reverendissimo signore D. Vincenzo Maria Covi : preposito della parrocchia di S. Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia : orazione funebre accademia D.A.J.B.

University of Illinois bookplate: "From the library of Conte Antonio Cavagna Sangiuliani di Gualdana Lazelada di Bereguardo, purchased 1921".

Cross-National Analysis of the Associations among Mental Disorders and Suicidal Behavior: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Background: Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide. Mental disorders are among the strongest predictors of suicide; however, little is known about which disorders are uniquely predictive of suicidal behavior, the extent to which disorders predict suicide attempts beyond their association with suicidal thoughts, and whether these associations are similar across developed and developing countries. This study was designed to test each of these questions with a focus on nonfatal suicide attempts. Methods and Findings: Data on the lifetime presence and age-of-onset of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) mental disorders and nonfatal suicidal behaviors were collected via structured face-to-face interviews with 108,664 respondents from 21 countries participating in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. The results show that each lifetime disorder examined significantly predicts the subsequent first onset of suicide attempt (odds ratios [ORs] = 2.9-8.9). After controlling for comorbidity, these associations decreased substantially (ORs = 1.5-5.6) but remained significant in most cases. Overall, mental disorders were equally predictive in developed and developing countries, with a key difference being that the strongest predictors of suicide attempts in developed countries were mood disorders, whereas in developing countries impulse-control, substance use, and post-traumatic stress disorders were most predictive. Disaggregation of the associations between mental disorders and nonfatal suicide attempts showed that these associations are largely due to disorders predicting the onset of suicidal thoughts rather than predicting progression from thoughts to attempts. In the few instances where mental disorders predicted the transition from suicidal thoughts to attempts, the significant disorders are characterized by anxiety and poor impulse-control. The limitations of this study include the use of retrospective self-reports of lifetime occurrence and age-of-onset of mental disorders and suicidal behaviors, as well as the narrow focus on mental disorders as predictors of nonfatal suicidal behaviors, each of which must be addressed in future studies. Conclusions: This study found that a wide range of mental disorders increased the odds of experiencing suicide ideation. However, after controlling for psychiatric comorbidity, only disorders characterized by anxiety and poor impulse-control predict which people with suicide ideation act on such thoughts. These findings provide a more fine-grained understanding of the associations between mental disorders and subsequent suicidal behavior than previously available and indicate that mental disorders predict suicidal behaviors similarly in both developed and developing countries. Future research is needed to delineate the mechanisms through which people come to think about suicide and subsequently progress from ideation to attempts.