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A major limitation of the approaches used in most of the studies performed so far for the characterization of the brain responses during social interaction is that only one of the participating brains is measured each time. The "interaction" between cooperating, competing or communicating brains is thus not measured directly, but inferred by independent observations aggregated by cognitive models and assumptions that link behavior and neural activation. In this paper, we use the simultaneous neuroelectric recording of several subjects engaged in cooperative games (EEG hyperscanning). This EEG hyperscanning allow us to observe and model directly the neural signature of human interactions in order to understand the cerebral processes generating and generated by social cooperation or competition. We used a paradigm called Prisoner's dilemma derived from the game theory. Results collected in a population of 22 subjects suggested that the most consistently activated structure in social interaction paradigms is the medial prefrontal cortex, which is found to be active in all the conflict situations analyzed. The role of the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) assumes a main character being a discriminant factor for the "defect" attitude of the entire population examined. This observation is compatible with the role that the Theory of Mind assigns to the ACC.

This study was carried out in 2012 at Stornarella (Italy; 41° 15'29" N; 15° 43'56" E; 154 m a.s.l.). We investigated the effects of reuse of secondary treated agro-industrial wastewater for irrigation, in comparison with conventional groundwater, and we monitored soil chemical characteristics and fungal populations during the crop cycle of processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Compared to the groundwater, the wastewater had significantly higher electrical conductivity, total suspended solids, sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium adsorption ratio, chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand over five days, ammoniumnitrogen, phenols, bicarbonates, phosphates, sulphates and chlorides. Most of these parameters were significantly greater also in the wastewater-irrigated soil. During the tomato crop cycle, there were significant shifts in the structure of the soil microfungal community. Saprophytic species increased in the wastewater-treated soil, while phytopathogens such as Fusarium oxysporum progressively decreased. More investigations into the mechanisms by which wastewater acts on disease suppression is needed to make the use of such wastewaters more predictable. The irrigation water source did not significantly affect the qualitative traits of the crop yield. For both irrigation treatments, the most important qualitative parameters that characterized the processing tomato fruit (i.e., dry matter content, pH, soluble solid content, colour parameters) were in agreement with reports in the literature.

This study investigated the qualitative characteristics of several edible wild herbaceous species, including those most consumed in Foggia Province (southern Italy). Analysis of qualitative characteristics was performed for the edible parts of 11 wild species (Beta vulgaris L., Foeniculum vulgare Miller, Centaurea solstitialis L., Cichorium intybus L., Scolymus hispanicus L., Sonchus oleraceus L., Borago officinalis L., Diplotaxis erucoides L., Diplotaxis tenuifolia (L.) DC, Sinapis arvensis L., Portulaca oleracea L.) and three cultivated species (C. intybus, B. officinalis, D. tenuifolia). The plants were collected from areas in the Foggia countryside, and the edible part of each species was analysed for dry matter, protein, cation and anion contents as well as total phenols and antioxidant activities. Among the cations, calcium was the most differentiated among species, ranging 784 mg kg-1 fresh weight (Fw) for B. vulgaris to 5886 mg kg-1 Fw for S. hispanicus. The nitrate contents were also highly variable, from 75 mg kg-1 Fw for C. intybus to 3874 mg kg-1 Fw for D. tenuifolia. Total polyphenols ranged from 1054 mg GAE mg kg-1 Fw for C. solstitialis to 3664 mg GAE mg kg-1 Fw for S. arvensis. Antioxidant activities ranged from 839 mg TE kg-1 Fw for B. vulgaris to 5658 mg TE kg-1 Fw for C. intybus. Significant differences were also noted between wild and cultivated plants in the qualitative parameters. Total polyphenols and antioxidant activity were higher in wild C. intybus and B. officinalis than in their cultivated counterparts. Multivariate analysis (cluster analysis and linear discriminant analysis) allowed integration of the ANOVA data to determine the qualitative characteristics of the wild species that contribute most to group differences. The results of the present study aims at improve the current knowledges about edible wild species as vegetable sources in the Mediterranean diet.

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