70 research outputs found
Invisible Ends Justify Secret Means: Homeland, Machiavelli, and the Least of All Possible Evils
No full textIn the rhetoric informing Niccolò Machiavelli’s thought and the contemporary War on Terror, the dialectic between ethics and necessity within the framework of the process of secularization represents a cohesive thread. This very dialectic constitutes also the narrative principle presiding Homeland, one of most insightful TV shows having developed a critical reflection about the present time so far. Dealing with terrorist practices and counterterrorism tactics, the series provides an accurate depiction of the fears featuring nowadays Western societies and the means through which American institutions attempt to answer them .
This essay proposes a survey of the conceptual core belonging to the ethics-necessity polarity in Homeland, such as the issues of state of exception, reason of state, collateral damage, and the least of all possible evils. All these concepts play a key role both in the development of the narrative and in defining the ethical position of the characters, and consequently to understand the peculiar relationship between reality and the fictional world. As many Italian scholars (for instance Viroli, Ginzburg, Ciliberto) have recently pointed out, they are also at the center of many misinterpreted passages of Niccolò Machiavelli’s work, that have led to a reductive idea of Machiavellianism as a political vision distant from any ethical concern . This contribution will show the importance of Machiavelli’ thought in the understanding of Homeland’s political meanings, also highlighting the importance of complex narratives to help us in making sense of present time politics
L’ordine del discorso autoriale. Immagini, pratiche, estetiche tra politica e biografia
No full textThe paper aims to investigate the possibilities for the concept of “political author”
as an effect of discourse to survive in contemporary cinema by analysing the
case of Italian biopics of the new Millennium. After a proposal of definition of a
political authoriality, the analyses of the films attempt to show how the articula-
tion of such an authoriality in three different figures – the director, the actor,
and the real model – and in subcategories defines a specific feature of biographical
cinema, to eventually conclude with some remarks about the posthumous
life of the authorial discourse after the “death of the author”, between politics
and commitment
L’ordine del discorso autoriale. Immagini, pratiche, estetiche tra politica e biografia
No full textThe paper aims to investigate the possibilities for the concept of “political author”
as an effect of discourse to survive in contemporary cinema by analysing the
case of Italian biopics of the new Millennium. After a proposal of definition of a
political authoriality, the analyses of the films attempt to show how the articula-
tion of such an authoriality in three different figures – the director, the actor,
and the real model – and in subcategories defines a specific feature of biographical
cinema, to eventually conclude with some remarks about the posthumous
life of the authorial discourse after the “death of the author”, between politics
and commitment
Alternative Splicing in the Anthocyanin fruit Gene Encoding an R2R3 MYB Transcription Factor Affects Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Tomato Fruits
No full textTomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruits are typically red at ripening, with high levels of carotenoids and a low content in flavonoids. Considerable work has been done to enrich the spectrum of their health-beneficial phytochemicals, and interspecific crosses with wild species have successfully led to purple anthocyanin-colored fruits. The Aft (Anthocyanin fruit) tomato accession inherited from Solanum chilense the ability to accumulate anthocyanins in fruit peel through the introgression of loci controlling anthocyanin pigmentation, including four R2R3 MYB transcription factor-encoding genes. Here, we carried out a comparative functional analysis of these transcription factors in wild-type and Aft plants, and tested their ability to take part in the transcriptional complexes that regulate the biosynthetic pathway and their efficiency in inducing anthocyanin pigmentation. Significant differences emerged for SlAN2like, both in the expression level and protein functionality, with splicing mutations determining a complete loss of function of the wild-type protein. This transcription factor thus appears to play a key role in the anthocyanin fruit pigmentation. Our data provide new clues to the long-awaited genetic basis of the Aft phenotype and contribute to understand why domesticated tomato fruits display a homogeneous red coloration without the typical purple streaks observed in wild tomato species
Myriam WHITE-LE GOFF, Changer le monde. Réécritures d’une légende. Le Purgatoire de saint Patrick, Paris, Champion, 2006 (Essais sur le Moyen Âge, 32), 416 pp.
No full textIl saggio affronta, in una ampia e argomentata recensione al volume indicato, il problema delle redazioni e delle riscritture in ambito latino e antico-francese della leggenda del Purgatorio di San Patrizio. La disamina dei contenuti positivi e negativi è discussa con l'autrice del volume, che fa seguire al saggio una breve replica che accoglie molti dei rilievi sollevati dal saggio.This essay examines, in a broad and reasoned review of the volume, problems concerning beginnings and rewrites within the Latin and Old French texts of the legend of St. Patrick's Purgatory. The analysis of positive and negative content is discussed with the author, which is followed by a brief reply to the essay that includes many of signaled annotations
Valutazione del rilascio di fluoro da parte di sistemi adesivi ortodontici per l’incollaggio di bande.
No full textAuxin is required for the long coleoptile trait in japonica rice under submergence
No full textRice coleoptile elongation under submergence guarantees fast seedling establishment in the field. We investigated the role of auxin in influencing the capacity of rice to produce a long coleoptile under water. In order to explore the complexity of auxin's role in coleoptile elongation, we used gene expression analysis, confocal microscopy of an auxin-responsive fluorescent reporter, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), and T-DNA insertional mutants of an auxin transport protein. We show that a higher auxin availability in the coleoptile correlates with the final coleoptile length under submergence. We also identified the auxin influx carrier AUX1 as a component influencing this trait under submergence. The coleoptile tip is involved in the final length of rice varieties harbouring a long coleoptile. Our experimental results indicate that auxin biosynthesis and transport underlies the differential elongation between short and long coleoptile-harbouring japonica rice varieties
Synthetic Protein Circuits and Devices Based on Reversible Protein-Protein Interactions: An Overview
No full textProtein-protein interactions (PPIs) contribute to regulate many aspects of cell physiology and metabolism. Protein domains involved in PPIs are important building blocks for engineering genetic circuits through synthetic biology. These domains can be obtained from known proteins and rationally engineered to produce orthogonal scaffolds, or computationally designed de novo thanks to recent advances in structural biology and molecular dynamics prediction. Such circuits based on PPIs (or protein circuits) appear of particular interest, as they can directly affect transcriptional outputs, as well as induce behavioral/adaptational changes in cell metabolism, without the need for further protein synthesis. This last example was highlighted in recent works to enable the production of fast-responding circuits which can be exploited for biosensing and diagnostics. Notably, PPIs can also be engineered to develop new drugs able to bind specific intra- and extra-cellular targets. In this review, we summarize recent findings in the field of protein circuit design, with particular focus on the use of peptides as scaffolds to engineer these circuits
La dimensione teistica nella rappresentazione mediatica del dominio economico-politico. Qualche accenno sulla transizione dal governo Berlusconi al governo Monti
No full textUn estratto del saggio raccolto nel quarto volume degli Annali di Carte Semiotiche, dal titolo Le immagini del controllo, a cura di Maria Cristina Addis e Giacomo Tagliani. Si tratta di un’analisi semiolinguistica (corpus assisted) della narrazione mediatica della lunga transizione dal governo Berlusconi al governo Monti. Il punto di osservazione è l’uso di un termine del lessico economico-finanziario molto impiegato anche dai media generalisti: mercato(/mercati). L’obiettivo è comprendere le funzioni narrative e discorsive che tale uso manifesta. Il corpus è costituito da articoli di alcuni quotidiani e agenzie di stampa. L’indice: 1. Il plebiscito dei mercati 2. Il potestà forestiero: i mercati nel racconto della transizione da Berlusconi a Monti 3. Il mercato come destino Il sito della rivista: https://cartesemiotiche.org
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