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Potenziale angiogenico delle cellule natural killer, isolate da tessuti e da sangue periferico di pazienti affetti da carcinoma del polmone.
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Tra potere e coscienza. La letteratura come luogo dell'azione "pratica".
Get PDFLe riflessioni contenute nel presente lavoro sono atte a mostrare qualitativamente sia la relazione esistente tra la poesia (ed in via più generale la letteratura) e le materie più prettamente “pratiche” (ossia la politica, l’etica e il diritto) sia a comprendere le modalità attraverso le quali la letteratura, espressione artistica dell’immaginazione simbolica umana con la sua forma “autonoma” di pensiero “primario” ed “originario”, caratterizzato dal linguaggio metaforico, possa topicamente arricchire tali ambiti di azione permettendo contemporaneamente una visione più ampia e completa di essi e rendendo maggiormente consapevoli, i suoi osservatori, delle possibilità messe in campo.
Aristotele, nella sua Poetica, evidenzia come un fattore fondamentale, insito nell’opera letteraria e in particolar modo nella tragedia, sarebbe dato dal cosiddetto “mito interno unificatore”, una qualità universale, archetipo rappresentativo costante nello spazio e nel tempo, di situazioni umane “ideal-tipiche” a cui ogni attore o spettatore possano sempre guardare, dapprima mediante l’imitazione “catartica” di passioni archetipiche (come la paura o la com-passione) e poi facendo tesoro dall’insegnamento che da dette passioni possa trarsi nelle specifiche esperienze di vita. In altri termini il mito fornirebbe al soggetto delle situazioni mitopoietiche “simboliche” ed “universali”, “verosimiglianti” e allo stesso tempo “fondative”e per questa via l’essere umano, animal symbolicum per natura e dunque non solo imitatore ma medesimamente creatore e “significatore” dei propri vissuti, sarebbe in condizione di ri-produrre poieticamente alcune situazioni nel suo specifico ambito “pratico”: un atto riproduttivo, allora, che muoverebbe sì dalla creazione artistica ma che sarebbe tuttavia sempre espressione mimetica della vita reale. In questo senso, la grandezza della poesia ed in via più generale della letteratura, sarebbe dunque quella di arricchire ed approfondire, con le loro peculiari caratteristiche, i pensieri filosofico-pratici umani e così gli stessi loro vissuti. Inoltre, la relazione tra la letteratura e la filosofia pratica creerebbe di fatto la ri-conciliazione tra il poeta e il filosofo andata perduta nel tempo. Il punto di rappacificazione e di sintesi delle due differenti visioni e letture del mondo sarebbe il ritrovamento e l’individuazione di quella condizione mentale o “coscienza liminare” umana dell’ “immaginale”, intesa come soglia di mediazione tra il razionale e l’irrazionale, il sentire intellettuale e il sentire emotivo, il conscio e l’inconscio.
La tragedia e la letteratura, attraverso la narrazione di fatti verosimili, svelerebbero allora situazioni ideali che, sebbene vissute dai singoli personaggi descritti dallo scrittore, anelano all’universalità. Questi ultimi si presentano infatti come dei “tipi” umani che vivono drammaticamente una data situazione narrata nell’opera, suscitando appunto catarticamente, nel vissuto di chi li ascolta o li guarda a teatro, le passioni contraddittorie (come ad esempio quella della pietà e quella del terrore), dalle quali essi, vivendole direttamente con l’ascolto o con la visione, riescono a loro volta personalmente a liberarsi.
Un incontro, quello della letteratura, che quindi “libera” anche colui che legge o ascolta e che lo rende, in prospettiva, attore: questo perché l’ars poetica contiene ed esprime sempre in sé un mito archetipico e, pur con specifiche tematiche e particolari situazioni rappresentate nelle singole opere, esprime le idee in esso contenute e, allo stesso tempo, mediante queste ultime, una morale, ossia un insegnamento “pratico”, che aspira ad essere universalmente valido.
Il presente lavoro, che parte da queste premesse cognitive e da questi presupposti contestuali, si propone allora di individuare, attraverso cinque famosi esempi letterari del mondo antico, moderno e contemporaneo, ossia l’Antigone di Sofocle, L’Orestea di Eschilo, Il Mercante di Venezia di William Shakespeare, Il Grande Inquisitore di Fedor Dostoevskij e L’Avventura di un povero cristiano di Ignazio Silone, i nessi e gli aspetti filosofico-pratici della relazione tra “potere” e “coscienza”; un conflitto tragico che si pone emblematicamente, oltre che tra i soggetti della relazione del dramma, nel foro interiore di ciascun individuo, sia egli “attore” o semplicemente “spettatore” o “lettore” diretto o indiretto, del particolare “caso” preso in esame. Tali esempi saranno evidenziati all’interno di situazioni ideal-tipiche della condizione “tragica” umana “non negoziabili” e in relazione specifica al problema della giustizia, comunemente presente, pur se in diverso modo, sia nell’Antigone sia nell’Orestea, a quello dell’identità, presente nel Mercante di Venezia, a quello del male, presente nel Grande Inquisitore e a quello della libertà, presente ne L’avventura d’un povero cristiano.
Il lavoro si suddivide in due capitoli. Nel primo i testi proposti saranno appunto analizzati comparativamente sotto le diverse suindicate problematiche entro il connubio tra potere e coscienza; nel secondo, essi saranno discussi nuovamente, per essere completati nella presentazione interpretativa, ricorrendo al concetto aristotelico di phrónesis, inteso quale sinonimo di saggezza, ragionevolezza, prudenza, ponderazione, giusta scelta e “giusto mezzo tra” e pensato quale possibile risoluzione “pratica”, soggettiva o relazionale, dei problemi etici singolarmente sollevati e discussi dai personaggi e “catarticamente” vissuti poi, in modo indiretto, dai lettori o dagli spettatori del singolo dramma. Uno studio dunque anche neo-riabilitativo sulla phrónesis che, per le sue caratteristiche costitutive, si porrà nelle vesti di una personale “traccia di proposta” risolutiva della conflittualità tra potere e coscienza e tra i principi fondativi contrastanti dei relazionanti e che, quale elaborazione simbolica universale, oggetto centrale dell’azione e del pensiero fattibile o solo possibile dei e tra i relazionanti (personaggi primari o secondari del dramma), verrà da noi suggerita come possibile condizione di “pensabilità mentale”, atta appunto a risolvere l’innegoziabilità delle posizioni ed il connubio “tragico” ed emblematico della possibile valutazione e del comportamento “pratico”, esteriore ed interiore all’individuo
Functional and structural MRI image analysis for brain glial tumors treatment
Get PDFThis Ph.D Thesis is the outcome of a close collaboration between the Center for Research in Image Analysis and Medical Informatics (CRAIIM) of the Insubria University and the Operative Unit of Neurosurgery, Neuroradiology and Health Physics of the University Hospital ”Circolo Fondazione Macchi”, Varese.
The project aim is to investigate new methodologies by means of whose, develop an integrated framework able to enhance the use of Magnetic Resonance Images, in order to support clinical experts in the treatment of patients with brain Glial tumor.
Both the most common uses of MRI technology for non-invasive brain inspection were analyzed. From the Functional point of view, the goal has been to provide tools for an objective reliable and non-presumptive assessment of the brain’s areas locations, to preserve them as much as possible at surgery.
From the Structural point of view, methodologies for fully automatic brain segmentation and recognition of the tumoral areas, for evaluating the tumor volume, the spatial distribution and to be able to infer correlation with other clinical data or trace growth trend, have been studied. Each of the proposed methods has been thoroughly assessed both qualitatively and quantitatively.
All the Medical Imaging and Pattern Recognition algorithmic solutions studied for this Ph.D. Thesis have been integrated in GliCInE: Glioma Computerized Inspection Environment, which is a MATLAB prototype of an integrated analysis environment that offers, in addition to all the functionality specifically described in this Thesis, a set of tools needed to manage Functional and Structural Magnetic Resonance Volumes and ancillary data related to the acquisition and the patient
Espressione del fibrinogeno nel carcinoma endometriale: analisi immunoistochimica e molecolare.
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Optical Spectroscopy with Very Large Telescope: Instrumental Development and Data Interpretation. The case of the Rocky-Planets Finder ESPRESSO and Spectral Characterization of BL Lac Objects.
Get PDFThis PhD thesis is focused on one of the main research area in modern Astrophysics: the spectroscopy. Within the current framework of observational astronomy, I carried out the Thesis aiming at the figure of Instrument Scientist who acts as a junction between astronomer and design engineers joining the science and technology in order to contribute to a more consolidated and optimised design of new instrumentations for large experiments.
For this reason, in this Thesis I will present two main parts of my PhD activities that have characterised my entire doctoral training. In particular, I will first introduce ESPRESSO, the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, which will be a new generation extra stable spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT). ESPRESSO will be a spectrograph mainly optimised for finding rocky planet orbiting main sequence G stars in the habitable zone through the Radial Velocity (RV) method. I will outline my contribution to ESPRESSO in Chapter 2 where I illustrate simulations on the expected performances of the detectors used by a main part of the instrument: the Front End Unit. This subsystem is responsible to stabilise the field and pupil of ESPRESSO through active optics and to collect the light from the four telescope and inject it through fiber feeding the spectrograph. I also outline the design of the Exposure Meter of the instrument which is in charge to continuously monitoring the exposure in order to evaluate a critical value, called Mean Time of Exposure (MTE), which is used in order to correct the measured Radial Velocity for the relative Earth motion at the time of observation. For the rst time, the exposure will be monitored chromatically allowing a better characterisation of the behaviour of the MTE and of the overall observation simultaneously.
In Chapter 3 I focus on pure astrophysical research based on spectroscopy of a particular class of Active Galatic Nuclei: the BL Lacertae Objects. These objects are characterised by a strong non-thermal emission which arises from the accreting nucleus. For this reason, spectral features (when present) are extremely diluted making the determination of their redshifts a challenging task. With the adoption of FORS2 spectrograph, in low resolution, at 10mt class VLT I completed a survey of these objects started few years ago and I derived from the complete sample a conspicuous number of properties of the class, including the characterisation of their line-of-sight Mg II absorber systems. Moreover, I will outline the results obtained from observation of a small subsample of strong FERMI gamma-rays (and in certain cases VHE emitters) source with ESO X-SHOOTER which combines medium resolution (R 4000) and large spectral range. In particular, for the source PKS 0048-097 the determination of its redshift for the first time allowed to deeply investigate its Spectral Energy Distribution and the close environment of the object. The spectra of the other sources in the sample are also illustrated and explicated for particular interesting objects
Characterization of the neocortical network excitability with multielectrode arrays: alterations in migraine and epilepsy mouse models.
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Extensive characterization of EGFR and of its downstream pathways may help integrating the use of EGFR-targeted therapies in patients. WITH SQUAMOUS CELL ANAL CANCER
No full textSquamous cell anal cancer (SCAC) is a rare disease. Patients are managed with chemoradiation therapy. When non-response occur, abdominoperitoneal resection is recommended. New therapeutic options are wondered to overcome the severe effects of this procedure.
It has been demonstrated that the majority of SCAC are characterized by EGFR deregulation. Recently, the anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody cetuximab has been FDA and EMA approved for the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC). Only sporadic studies investigated its use in SCAC.
In SCAC little is known about EGFR and EGFR-downstream members alterations which are predictive markers of anti-EGFR therapies efficacy or impairment in patients affected by CRC.
The aim of this study was to characterize EGFR, KRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA alterations in a series of patients with SCAC.
We investigated 93 patients. EGFR gene copy number was evaluated by FISH. Mutations in KRAS, BRAF and PIK3CA genes were investigated by sequencing. EGFR gene copy number gain (FISH+) was found in 33/90 (37%) patients. KRAS mutations were found in 4/91 (4%) patients. BRAF was always wild-type (wt). PIK3CA mutations were found in 13/89 (15%) cases (10 in ex.9 and 3 in ex.20). Among 33 FISH+ cases, 3 (10%) patients showed a mutation in KRAS and 3 (10%) in PIK3CA ex.9.
Considering studies on CRC demonstrating that a EGFR FISH+/ KRAS wt/PIK3CA wt or ex.9 mutated status is associated with clinical benefit from cetuximab, it can be hypothesized that a subgroup of SCAC (approximately 33%) might have a proficient molecular profile with respect to anti-EGFR treatments. Our results, therefore, suggest a possible integration of EGFRtargeted therapies in SCAC and emphasize the need of molecular analyses for a better patients’ selection
Environmental exposure to carbon nanotubes results in systemic distribution via the circulatory system: hepatotoxicity and central nervous system involvement.
No full textCarbon nanotubes (CNTs) are among the most promising nanomaterials and their interesting properties are now exploited in many fields of technology and biomedical applications. However, the rapid growth of CNT employment raises concerns about the potential risks and toxicities to public health, environment and workers associated with the manufacture and use of these new materials. Here we investigate the main routes of entry following environmental exposure to CNTs, their localization and possible role in inducing inflammation and specific pathologies, using a novel rodent model. Following environmental exposure, we observed that CNTs rapidly accumulate in the lungs and brain, later reaching other organs including the liver, where steatosis was found after chronic exposure to CNTs. Since SWCNTs are considered for potential medical applications ad their toxicity is similar to that of MWCNTs, we further examined the effects of chronic intravenous SWCNT administration, which resulted in a chronic inflammatory condition particularly evident in the liver that was associated with a choleostasis-like syndrome. Our data suggest that after environmental exposure, CNTs can rapidly enter and diffuse in the organism via the blood stream, in addition to the lungs, which appear to have a capacity to clear CNTs, the liver may be the major site of CNT induced damage, where long term accumulation results in inflammation, steatosis and a choleostasis-like condition
Definition of hydrologic regimes in regulated rivers for aquatic biodiversity conservation.
Get PDFNegative ecological effects of water withdrawal activities from lotic systems have led to the need for the restoration of naturally shaped flow schemes. As a first step in this direction, individuation of sustainable minimum flow volumes can limit extreme alteration of ecosystem structure and functionality. The definition of such minimum flow values, to be released downstream each water diversion structure, must follow the understanding and the quantification of ecological alteration related to flow reduction.
This thesis focuses on the study of instream ecological effects of water withdrawal from lowland rivers (Ticino and Adda rivers), with the purpose to define adequate indicators for the identification of ecological effects of hydrological alteration. The application of such indicators should be useful for the definition of environmentally sustainable minimum flow schemes.
For this purpose, national protocols for the study of biological communities were applied and critically analyzed. These monitoring criteria and tools appeared inadequate for addressing the hydrological assessment as postulated in this work and for the studied geographical context.
Alternative sampling and analysing methods are proposed, following two different directions: (1) a different approach in the use of a common and well known structural indicator (macroinvertebrate fauna) and (2) the integration of such structural descriptors with a functional approach that considers the river quality through ecosystem methabolism measures.
Although their widespread use, connected to simple field and laboratory application, macroinvertebrates appeared to be an inadequate tool for hydrological alteration monitoring. However, interesting considerations about relationship between community density and richness and environmental disturbance could be made.
Presented data about physico-chemical parameters, collected through the open-channel method, show an influence of flow on ecosystem functional processes, mainly related to influence on aquatic vegetation. Collected data were useful to define an easy method to assess general response of the ecosystem to hydrological modifications, which future application could lead to interesting results and to an alternative approach for the application of WFD (Dir. 2000/60/EC) requirements