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The volume presents a wide-ranging investigation of the ways in which Petrarch's legacy informed the relationship between visual and literary portraits in sixteenth-century Italy. Petrarch's vast literary production influenced the intellectual framework in which new models of representation and self-representation developed during the Renaissance. His two sonnets on Laura's portrait by Simone Martini and his ambivalent fascination with the illusionary power of portraiture in his Latin texts - such as the Secretum, the Familiares and De remediis utriusque fortune - constituted the theoretical reference for artists and writers alike. In a century dominated by the rhetorical comparison between art and literature (ut pictura poësis) and by the paragone debate, the interplay between Petrarch's oeuvre, Petrarchism and portraiture shaped the discourse on the relationship between the sitters' physical image and their inner life. The volume brings together diverse interdisciplinary contributions that explore the subject through a rich body of literary and visual sources.

Each of the six chapters in the book - 'The shape of desire', 'Openness and intensity', 'Lust in action', 'Declensions of \"now\"', 'Extension', and 'Body' - is devoted to one of these possibilities. While most scholars have interpreted these texts in terms of a unidirectional transition between different phases in the subject's love experience and poetics, from Rvf 23 to Rvf 70, Gragnolati and Southerden show that the textual bridge between the two canzoni does not signal a linear conversion, but a circular return to the desire previously expressed in the former of the two poems. To better illustrate the non-linear circularity that exists between Rvf 23 and 70, the authors make effective use of the mathematical device of the Möbius strip as a representation of the notions of hybridity, movement, and return in Petrarch's poetry.

Zygmunt G. Barański, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio: Literature, Doctrine, Reality, Selected Essays 6 (Cambridge: Legenda, 2020). xiv + 644 pp. ISBN 978-1-781888-79-7. £75.00.

Defining minimal standards for data collection is key to creating interoperative, searchable genomic and clinical databases. We highlight here the 1+Million Genomes Minimal Dataset for Cancer, encompassing 140 items in 8 domains to foster the collection of cancer data, inform transnational cooperation and advance precision cancer medicine.

Macrophages are crucial drivers of innate immunity. Reprogramming macrophages to a restorative phenotype in cancer or autoimmune diseases can stop their cancer‐promoting activity or trigger anti‐inflammatory immunity. Glycans have emerged as key components for immunity as they are involved in many pathophysiological disorders. Previous studies have demonstrated that supraphysiological amounts of mannose (Man) or sialic acid (Sia) can inhibit tumor growth and stimulate differentiation of regulatory T cells. Man is known to affect glucose metabolism in glycolysis by competing for the same intracellular transporters and affecting macrophage polarization, whereas Sia alters macrophage differentiation via signaling through Siglec‐1. Herein, this work describes a macrophage targeting platform using gold nanoparticles (GNPs) functionalized with Man and Sia monosaccharides which exhibit high liver tropism. A single dose of glyco‐GNPs can convert macrophages to a restorative phenotype in two completely different immune environments. Man promotes tumor‐associated macrophages toward an antitumorigenic activity in a MC38 liver colorectal cancer model by secretion of TNF‐α, IL ‐1β, and IL ‐6 in the tumor microenvironment. However, in a proinflammatory environment, as observed in a mouse model of autoimmune disease, primary biliary cholangitis, Man impairs the production of TNF‐α, IL‐1β, Arg1, and IL‐6 cytokines. The results probe the dual role of Man in macrophage repolarization in response to the immune system. This study is a proof‐of‐concept that demonstrates that nanomedicine using specific glycans designed to target other immune cells such as myeloid cells, are a promising strategy not only against cancer but also against other pathologies such as autoimmune diseases. Macrophages play a critical role in several pathophysiological diseases by being involved in the activation of adaptive and innate immune responses. The repolarization of macrophages using gold nanoparticles functionalized with glycans for a more selective targeting toward a restorative phenotype leads to an amelioration of the events. These findings provide important insights for exploiting glycans to treat autoimmune disorders or cancer.

This study aimed at clarifying the role of bulbar involvement (BI) as a risk factor for cognitive impairment (CI) in non-demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Data on = 347 patients were retrospectively collected. Cognition was assessed via the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS). On the basis of clinical records and ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R) scores, BI was characterized as follows: (1) BI at onset-from medical history; (2) BI at testing (an ALSFRS-R-Bulbar score ≤11); (3) dysarthria (a score ≤3 on item 1 of the ALSFRS-R); (4) severity of BI (the total score on the ALSFRS-R-Bulbar); and (5) progression rate of BI (computed as 12-ALSFRS-R-Bulbar/disease duration in months). Logistic regressions were run to predict a below- vs. above-cutoff performance on each ECAS measure based on BI-related features while accounting for sex, disease duration, severity and progression rate of respiratory and spinal involvement and ECAS response modality. No predictors yielded significance either on the ECAS-Total and -ALS-non-specific or on ECAS-Language/-Fluency or -Visuospatial subscales. BI at testing predicted a higher probability of an abnormal performance on the ECAS-ALS-specific ( = 0.035) and ECAS-Executive Functioning ( = 0.018). Lower ALSFRS-R-Bulbar scores were associated with a defective performance on the ECAS-Memory ( = 0.025). No other BI-related features affected other ECAS performances. In ALS, the occurrence of BI itself, while neither its specific features nor its presence at onset, might selectively represent a risk factor for executive impairment, whilst its severity might be associated with memory deficits.

Background . The present study aimed at deriving regression-based reliable change indices (RCIs) for the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in an Italian cohort of non-demented Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Methods N  = 33 consecutive, non-demented PD patients were followed-up at a 5-to-8-month interval ( M  = 6.6; SD  = 0.6) with the MoCA. Practice effects and test-retest reliability were assessed via dependent-sample t -tests and intra-class correlation (ICC) coefficients, respectively. RCIs were derived separately for raw and demographically adjusted MoCA scores according to a standardized regression-based approach by accounting for both baseline confounders (i.e., demographics, disease duration and Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale scores) and retest interval. Results No practice effects were found ( t (32) = 0.29; p  = .778), with acceptable test-retest reliability being detected (ICC = 0.67). MoCA scores at T0 proved to be the only significant predictor of T1 MoCA performances within both the model addressing raw scores and that addressing adjusted scores ( p s < 0.001). Conclusions The present study provides Italian practitioners and researchers with regression-based RCIs for the MoCA in non-demented PD patients, which can be reliably adopted for retest interval ≥ 5 and ≤ 8 months without encountering any practice effect.

Background This study aimed at (1) delivering generalizable estimates of the prevalence of frontotemporal- spectrum disorders (FTSDs) in non-demented ALS patients and (2) exploring their motor-functional correlates. Methods N  = 808 ALS patients without FTD were assessed for motor-functional outcomes— i.e. , disease duration, severity (ALSFRS-R), progression rate (ΔFS), and stage (King’s and Milano–Torino—MiToS—systems)—cognition—via the cognitive section of the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS)—and behaviour—via the ECAS-Carer Interview. Neuropsychological phenotypes were retrieved via Strong’s revised criteria — i.e. , ALS cognitively and behaviourally normal (ALScbn) or cognitively and/or behaviourally impaired (ALSci/bi/cbi). Results Defective ECAS-Total performances were detected in ~ 29% of patients, with the ECAS-Executive being failed by the highest number of patients (~ 30%), followed by the ECAS-Language, -Fluency, and -Memory (~ 15–17%) and -Visuospatial (~ %8). Apathy was the most frequent behavioural change (~ 28%), followed by loss of sympathy/empathy (~ 13%); remaining symptoms were reported in < 4% of patients. The distribution of Strong’s classifications was as follows: ALScbn: 46.7%; ALSci/bi/cbi: 22.9%/20.0%/10.4%. Multinomial regressions on Strong’s classifications revealed that lower ALSFRS-R scores were associated with a higher probability of ALSbi and ALScbi classifications ( p  ≤ .008). Higher King’s and MiToS stages were associated with a higher probability of ALSbi classification ( p  ≤ .031). Conclusions FTSDs affect ~ 50% of non-demented ALS patients, with cognitive deficits being as frequent as behavioural changes. A higher degree of motor-functional involvement is associated with worse behavioural outcomes—with this link being weaker for cognitive deficits.

Background This study aimed at assessing the clinical utility of the Verbal Fluency Index (VFI) over a classical phonemic verbal fluency test in Italian-speaking amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. Methods N  = 343 non-demented ALS patients and N  = 226 healthy controls (HCs) were administered the Verbal fluency – S task from the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS). The associations between the number of words produced (NoW), the time to read words aloud (TRW) and the VFI (computed as [(60”-TRW)/NoW]) on one hand and both bulbar/respiratory scores from the ALS Functional Rating Scale – Revised (ALSFRS-R) and the ECAS-Executive on the other were tested. Italian norms for the NoW and the VFI were derived in HCs via the Equivalent Score method. Patients were classified based on their impaired/unimpaired performances on the NoW and the VFI (NoW-VFI-; NoW-VFI+; NoW + VFI-; NoW + VFI+), with these groups being compared on ECAS-Executive scores. Results The VFI, but neither the NoW nor the TRW, were related to ALSFRS-Bulbar/-Respiratory scores; VFI and NoW measures, but not the TRW, were related to the ECAS-Executive ( p  < .001). The NoW slightly overestimated the number of executively impaired patients when compared to the VFI (31.1% vs. 26.8%, respectively). Patients with a defective VFI score – regardless of whether they presented or not with a below-cutoff NoW – reported worse ECAS-Executive scores than NoW + VFI + ones. Conclusions The present reports support the use of the Italian VFI as a mean to validly assess ALS patients’ executive status by limiting the effect of motor disabilities that might undermine their speech rate.