Publications by authors named "Roberta Raffaeta"
Article Synopsis
- - The study investigates how mother-to-infant microbiome transmission is affected by various factors, including delivery method and feeding practices, especially comparing Ethiopian mothers and infants to those from westernized populations.
- - Findings show that while the microbiome of westernized and non-westernized newborns initially overlaps due to similar breastfeeding, Ethiopian infants have higher diversity and share fewer microbiome members with their mothers than their westernized counterparts.
- - The research identifies unique uncharacterized bacteria in the Ethiopian cohort, suggesting that traditional foods like injera play a significant role in diversifying the gut microbiome, emphasizing the influence of lifestyle on these microbial patterns.
In this brief essay, we combine biological, historical, philosophical and anthropological perspectives to ask anew the question about the nature of the virus. How should we understand Sars-CoV-2 and why does it matter? The argument we present is that the virus undermines any neat distinction between the natural and the human-made, the biological and the social. Rather, to understand the virus and the pandemic we need to understand both as intimately connected to our own social and historical condition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Eubacterium rectale is a common gut bacterium with limited understanding of its diversity and genetics, prompting this study to conduct large-scale genome investigations.
- Researchers analyzed over 6,500 gut metagenomes to reconstruct over 1,300 high-quality genomes of E. rectale, revealing a new African subspecies and confirming its absence in closely related non-human primates.
- The study offers insights into the population structure and ecology of E. rectale, emphasizing the value of shotgun metagenomes for microbiota genomics compared to traditional isolate sequencing.
Based on an ethnographic study conducted in both biomedical and complementary and alternative medicine settings in north Italy, I explore how people and practitioners make sense of allergy and how patients utilize plural healing options. Despite a wide range of medical modalities, people categorize and use medicine according to whether they are 'natural' or 'not-natural,' thus dissolving any potential confusion between diverse therapies. I analyze how the concept of naturalness relates to allergy and medical pluralism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreasingly, people employ the term 'allergy' to define various pathological conditions, although the biomedical community lacks a consensus on a definition of the term. It has become a widespread and convenient label for diverse conditions, often going beyond biomedical diagnosis. The aim of this paper is to explore how allergic people narrate their illness experiences, focusing specifically on the relationship between words, senses and bodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF