65 research outputs found
Characterization of HBV and HCV minority quasispecies by ultra-deep pyrosequencing analysis: impact on pathogenicity and response to antiviral drugs
No full textCompliance mechanisms under selected multilateral environmental agreements, (Co-author Ulrich Beyerlin)
No full textThe Figure of the Limit: Metalepsis
No full textIn 1972, Gérard Genette introduced in narratology the figure of metalepsis, that is «any intrusion by the extradiegetic narrator or narratee into the diegetic universe (or by diegetic characters into a metadiegetic universe, etc.), or the inverse». In other words, metalepsis is a transgression of narrative levels, a perturbation of hierarchy that raises the question of the porosity of boundaries between diegetic and metadiegetic, author and reader, fact and fiction.
In my presentation, I will show how this phenomenon is ubiquitous nowadays, and how it is settled both in highbrow and lowbrow cultural representations across various media.
Furthermore, I wish I can discuss the role of metalepsis in poetics: in my opinion, it is possible to relate this device with the history of the novel. In XVIII and XIX centuries authorial narrators made extensive use of rhetoric metalepsis for humoristic purposes (such as playing with the story-time and the discourse-time) or to exhibit their authority (through the manipulation of different threads of the narration). With Naturalism and Modernism metalepsis disappeared, according to the poetic of impersonality: authors stopped being intrusive and eclipsed behind their characters. The golden era of the figure came in the temper of Postmodernism, where ontological metalepsis flourished and the public got used to author and reader literary entering the fiction or characters exiting from it and chitchatting with their creators
Andrea e gli argentieri Memingher in Sicilia
No full textAndrea Memingher è una tra le più enigmatiche figure di argentieri attivi a Palermo nella seconda metà del XVII secolo. Si può ritenere che la famiglia avesse origini nordiche e che, dopo un passaggio a Napoli, si stabilisse definitivamente a Palermo, inserendosi nella maestranza degli orafi e argentieri della città, probabilmente grazie ad un matrimonio con una figlia o una sorella o una vedova di un membro palermitano della maestranza. La presenza di Paolo Memingher nel capoluogo siciliano è attestata già nel 1660, due anni prima della data di inizio della sua attività, protrattasi fino al 1678. Il più importante esponente della famiglia fu Andrea, figlio di Paolo, il quale dovette la sua fama, al di là dell’abilità e dell’origine straniera, anche al suo status di padre gesuita. Il saggio studia la figura dell’artista, attivo dal 1670 al 1738, anno di morte, autore di un consistente corpus di opere giunto fino a noi, e dei congiunti che operarono nel medesimo contesto.Andrea Memingher is one of the most enigmatic figures of silversmiths active in Palermo in the second half of the seventeenth century. It can be assumed that the family had Nordic origins and that, after a passage to Naples, it settled permanently in Palermo, entering the mastery of the goldsmiths and silversmiths of the city, probably thanks to a marriage with a daughter or a sister or a widow of a Palermitan member of the mastery. The presence of Paolo Memingher in the Sicilian capital is attested as early as 1660, two years before the start of his activity, which lasted until 1678. The most important exponent of the family was Andrea, son of Paolo, who owed his fame, beyond the ability and foreign origin, even to his status as a Jesuit father. The essay studies the figure of the artist, active since 1670 to 1738, the year of his death, author of a substantial body of works that has come to us, and of the relatives who worked in the same context
HHV-8 genetic diversification and its impact on severe clinical presentation of associated diseases
No full textDifferent Patterns of HIV-1 Replication in MACROPHAGES is Led by Co-Receptor Usage
No full textBackground and objectives: To enter the target cell, HIV-1 binds not only CD4 but also a co-receptor β-chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) or α chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4). Limited information is available on the impact of co-receptor usage on HIV-1 replication in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) and on the homeostasis of this important cellular reservoir. Materials and Methods: Replication (measured by p24 production) of the CCR5-tropic 81A strain increased up to 10 days post-infection and then reached a plateau. Conversely, the replication of the CXCR4-tropic NL4.3 strain (after an initial increase up to day 7) underwent a drastic decrease becoming almost undetectable after 10 days post-infection. The ability of CCR5-tropic and CXCR4-tropic strains to induce cell death in MDM was then evaluated. While for CCR5-tropic 81A the rate of apoptosis in MDM was comparable to uninfected MDM, the infection of CXCR4-tropic NL4.3 in MDM was associated with a rate of 14.3% of apoptotic cells at day 6 reaching a peak of 43.5% at day 10 post-infection. Results: This suggests that the decrease in CXCR4-tropic strain replication in MDM can be due to their ability to induce cell death in MDM. The increase in apoptosis was paralleled with a 2-fold increase in the phosphorylated form of p38 compared to WT. Furthermore, microarray analysis showed modulation of proapoptotic and cancer-related genes induced by CXCR4-tropic strains starting from 24 h after infection, whereas CCR5 viruses modulated the expression of genes not correlated with apoptotic-pathways. Conclusions: In conclusion, CXCR4-tropic strains can induce a remarkable depletion of MDM. Conversely, MDM can represent an important cellular reservoir for CCR5-tropic strains supporting the role of CCR5-usage in HIV-1 pathogenesis and as a pharmacological target to contribute to an HIV-1 cure
Vericiguat in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: hope or solid reality?
No full textIn recent years, thanks to the advent of new classes of drugs (ARNI and SGLT2-i), the prognosis of patients suffering from heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) has gradually improved. Nonetheless, there is a residual risk that is not targeted by these therapies. Currently, it is recognized that vericiguat, an oral stimulator of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), can restore the NO-sGC-cGMP pathway, through stimulation and activation of sGC, aiming to increase cGMP levels with a reduction in heart failure-related oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. Even though the Victoria trial demonstrated that HFrEF patients in treatment with vericiguat showed a 10% reduction in the composite of cardiovascular mortality and rehospitalization for heart failure, statistically significantly reducing heart failure hospitalization, the international guidelines limit its use as a second-line drug for patients with worsening symptomatology despite optimized medical therapy. Furthermore, vericiguat has proved to be a valid therapeutic ally especially in those patients with comorbidities such that they cannot receive the classic four-pillar therapy of HF (in particular renal failure). In this review, the authors report on randomized clinical trials, substudies, and meta-analysis about vericiguat in HFrEF, emphasizing the strengths that would suggest the possible role of vericiguat as the fifth pillar of the HFrEF treatment, acknowledging that there are still gaps in the evidence that need to be clarified
La Vita S. Rosaliae di van Dyck nella Biblioteca della Fondazione Sicilia
No full textThe essay examines the Vita S. Rosaliae, a very rare collection of engravings taken from drawings by Antoon van Dyck, identified by the author and Maria Concetta Di Natale in the Sicily Foundation Library during preparatory research for the realisation of the exhibition 'The Ecstasies of Saint Rosalie - Antoon van Dyck, Pietro Novelli, Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano'
Experimental Investigations of Heat Transport Dynamics in a 1d Porous Medium Column
No full textAbstractThe present study involves the experimental investigation of heat transport due to the forced convective flow through a thermally isolated porous medium column.The experiments regard the observation of thermal breakthrough curves obtained through a hot flow injection in correspondence of two thermocouples positioned along a thermally isolated column of porous medium. The experiment has been carried out for three flow rates in order to investigate the critical issues regarding heat transport phenomena such as the relationship between the thermal dispersion with the flow velocity and the validity of the local thermal equilibrium assumption between the fluid and solid phase
Una scrittura della memoria. Le prose e i versi di Maria Attanasio
No full textMaria Attanasio (born in 1943) is an author of novels, stories, poetic collections, essays
and a photographic book illustrated by the shots of Giuseppe Leone, a refined iconotesto
whose subtitle reveals a clear Sciascian inspiration: Il divino e il meraviglioso. Feste religiose in Sicilia. The work of Attanasio, who published with Sellerio short novels such as Correva l’anno 1698 e nella città avvenne il fatto memorabile, Di Concetta e le sue donne and Il falsario di Caltagirone, is in some ways close to the formula of the Sciascian “cronachette”, which the writer has renamed “little chronicles” (“piccole cronache”). In her novels and in her verses the problems of memory, of archives, of documents and therefore of re-writing are central
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