32 research outputs found
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A Forgotten Bestselling Author: Laura Terracina in Early Modern Naples
No full textThis dissertation provides a critical assessment of Laura Terracina (1519-c.1577) and her works. It argues that she was a consummate product of her age, embodying the tensions which ruled the Italian peninsula. Terracina published eight books and left a ninth in manuscript at the time of her death, winning legions of admirers and making her sixteenth-century Italy’s most commercially successful female author. Yet in spite of her enormous popularity amongst her contemporaries, scholarship has largely neglected Terracina. This dissertation will open up an overdue field of enquiry into her life and works, exploring the significance of her role as a sixteenth-century female poet through the lenses of gender and class. By mapping her place in the literary landscape, it is hoped that this thesis will encourage scholars to afford Terracina the attention she so richly deserves.
The first chapter of the dissertation situates Terracina as a poet of Naples, seeing her as a product of her family’s political standing within the city, her academician status, and her own construction of an urban coterie of supporters. The second chapter considers the mechanics of the journey into print, assessing Terracina’s own input and her close collaboration with male editors and publishers. It proposes a greater attribution of agency to Terracina than has thus far been made, arguing that she is, in fact, an important figure in the process of her texts reaching the hands of readers. The third chapter considers how the poet used her printed books as social tools, employing them to gain social and literary capital.
The second section of the dissertation looks at two thematic strands within Terracina’s poetry. Chapter four considers her political poetry, including her attitude towards the harm done to civilian populations across Europe. Chapter five looks at the religious dimension to Terracina’s work, the spiritual poetry written in her later years, and the relationship this bears to her secular lyric. Finally, the dissertation concludes with a chapter on the contemporary reception of Terracina’s texts, providing preliminary thoughts on how she was read, before closing with a consideration of her literary afterlife in the centuries that followed
Investigating Reddit to detect subreddit and author stereotypes and to evaluate author assortativity
No full textIn recent years, Reddit has attracted the interest of many researchers due to its popularity all over the world. In this article, we aim at providing a contribution to the knowledge of this social network by investigating three of its aspects, interesting from the scientific viewpoint, and, at the same time, by analysing a large number of applications. In particular, we first propose a definition and an analysis of several stereotypes of both subreddits and authors. This analysis is coupled with the definition of three possible orthogonal taxonomies that help us to classify stereotypes in an appropriate way. Then, we investigate the possible existence of author assortativity in this social medium; specifically, we focus on co-posters, that is, authors who submitted posts on the same subreddit
Pressure to Publish: Laura Terracina and her Editors
No full textLaura Terracina (1519–c.1577) was the bestselling female author of sixteenth-century Italy, publishing eight poetry collections, several of which went through numerous reprints. While other female poets attained greater cultural prestige, none was as widely published, nor reflected so well the developing worlds of print, publication, and authorship from mid- to late Cinquecento. Her publication history problematizes the accepted narrative of how women came to print and of their relationship with their editors and publishers. From the time she first appeared in print in 1546 to the writing of her final manuscript in 1577, Terracina proved to be an engaged and headstrong author with a strong sense of ownership of her works. This article will explore Terracina’s relationships with her editors and publishers, analyzing her role in the publication process to argue that she took a much more active part in their production than has previously been appreciated
Aspetti geofisici ed evoluzione ambientale dell'area portuale di Terracina (LT)
No full textNell'ambito del progetto "MERCATOR" è stata effettuata una prospezione microgravimetrica, nel territorio di Terracina (LT), nella zona del porto-canale dell'attuale centro abitato e nelle immediate vicinanze, al fine di individuare le infrastrutture di epoca antica legate alla viabilità marittima dell'area portuale.Published159-175, Tavole LXVI-LXVII-LXVIII-LXIX-LXX-LXXI, 195-2003SR. AMBIENTE - Servizi e ricerca per la Società1VV. Altr
Aspetti geofisici ed evoluzione ambientale dell’area portuale di Terracina (Lt)
No full textNell'ambito del progetto "MERCATOR" è stata effettuata una prospezione microgravimetrica, nel territorio di Terracina (LT), nella zona del porto-canale dell'attuale centro abitato e nelle immediate vicinanze, al fine di individuare le infrastrutture di epoca antica legate alla viabilità marittima dell'area portuale.Published159-175, Tavole LXVI-LXVII-LXVIII-LXIX-LXX-LXXI, 195-2003SR. AMBIENTE - Servizi e ricerca per la Società1VV. Altr
Photobleaching and Recovery Kinetics of a Palette of Carbon Nanodots Probed by In Situ Optical Spectroscopy
No full text[Image: see text] Carbon dots (CDs) are a family of fluorescent nanoparticles displaying a wide range of interesting properties, which make them attractive for potential applications in different fields like bioimaging, photocatalysis, and many others. However, despite many years of dedicated studies, wide variations exist in the literature concerning the reported photostability of CDs, and even the photoluminescence mechanism is still unclear. Furthermore, an increasing number of recent studies have highlighted the photobleaching (PB) of CDs under intense UV or visible light beams. PB phenomena need to be fully addressed to optimize practical uses of CDs and can also provide information on the fundamental mechanism underlying their fluorescence. Moreover, the lack of systematic studies comparing several types of CDs displaying different fluorescence properties represents another gap in the literature. In this study, we explored the optical properties of a full palette of CDs displaying a range from blue to red emissions, synthesized using different routes and varying precursors. We investigated the photostability of different CDs by observing in situ their time-resolved fluorescence degradation or optical absorption changes under equivalent experimental conditions and laser irradiation. The results about different PB kinetics clearly indicate that even CDs showing comparable emission properties may exhibit radically different resistances to PB, suggesting systematic connections between the resistance to PB, the characteristic spectral range of emission, and CD quantum yields. To exploit the PB dynamics as a powerful tool to investigate CD photophysics, we also carried out dedicated experiments in a partial illumination geometry, allowing us to analyze the recovery of the fluorescence due to diffusion. Based on the experimental results, we conclude that the nature of the CD fluorescence cannot be solely ascribable to small optically active molecules free diffusing in solution, contributing to shed light on one of the most debated issues in the photophysics of CDs
Metal-Organic Framework-Activated Carbon Composite Materials for the Removal of Ammonia from Contaminated Airstreams
No full textMetal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of porous materials that show promise in the removal of toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) from contaminated airstreams, though their development for this application has so far been hindered by issues of water stability and the wide availability and low cost of traditionally used activated carbons. Here a series of three MOF-activated carbon composite materials with different MOF to carbon ratios are prepared by growing STAM-17-OEt crystals inside the commercially available BPL activated carbon. The composite materials display excellent water stability and increased uptake of ammonia gas when compared to unimpregnated carbon. Such properties make these composites very promising in the fields of air purification and personal protective equipment
Fluorescent Boron Oxide Nanodisks as Biocompatible Multi-messenger Sensors for Ultrasensitive Ni2+ Detection
No full textBoron-based nanocomposites are very promising for
a wide range of technological applications, spanning from microelectronics to nanomedicine. A large variety of B-based nanomaterials has been already observed, such as borospherene, B
nanotubes and nanoparticles, and boron nitride nanoparticles.
However, their fabrication usually involves toxic precursors or
leads to very low yields or small boron atom concentration. In this
work, we report the synthesis of nanometric B2O3 nanodisks, a
family of nanomaterials with a quasi-2D morphology capable of
intense fluorescence in the visible range. Such as boron-based
nanomaterial, which we synthesized by pulsed laser ablation of a
boron target, is water-dispersible and nontoxic, and displays a highly
crystalline structure. Moreover, its bright blue photoluminescence is
highly sensitive and selective for the presence of Ni2+ ions in solution, down to extremely small concentrations in the picomolar
range. The results are very promising in view of the use of such novel B2O3 nanodisks as ultrasensitive multi-messenger Ni2+
nanosensors
Harnessing Molecular Fluorophores in the Carbon Dots Matrix: The Case of Safranin O
No full textThe origin of fluorescence in carbon dots (C-dots) is still a puzzling phenomenon. The emission is, in most of the cases, due to molecular fluorophores formed in situ during the synthesis. The carbonization during C-dots processing does not allow, however, a fine control of the properties and makes finding the source of the fluorescence a challenging task. In this work, we present a strategy to embed a pre-formed fluorescent molecule, safranin O dye, into an amorphous carbonaceous dot obtained by citric acid carbonization. The dye is introduced in the melted solution of citric acid and after pyrolysis remains incorporated in a carbonaceous matrix to form red-emitting C-dots that are strongly resistant to photobleaching. Embedding dyes in amorphous C-dots represents an alternative method to optimize the emission in the whole visible spectrum
