11 research outputs found
The Poem of Memory. "Triumphi"
No full textWriting of the "Triumphi" Fabio Finotti finds that its author undercuts a medieval idea of ascent to God in the structural progression from Love to Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity. Here Petrarch programmatically counters Dante, transforming a universal, eschatological vision into a subjective, cultural and psychological experience
The identity and professional culture of the Educator at the beginning of the university path in Italy
No full textTo work as an educator in Italy has required a specific university degree for only a few years now. This change has institutionalized the educational path regarding some factual knowledge and skills. However, the profession of educator also relates to an experiential culture and to personal motivations affecting and sustaining each individual’s choice of the profession. This paper examines the ideas of professional identity held by a group of Italian students at the beginning of their college career. The sample includes two groups at the University of Padua, one group learning to teach in social work, one group learning to teach in health care. During the first three years of the new academic requirement, first-year students in both groups were qualitatively and quantitatively surveyed. In particular the study explores the reasons students orient towards these curricola, and the distinctive elements, competences, experiences and values they include in their image of an educator. Statistical multidimensional methods of data analysis are used
One-lung ventilation to treat hepatic dome lesion - A further step towards minimally invasive surgery: A case report
Get PDFBackground: Although liver resection is still the best treatment for primary or metastatic hepatic lesions, a conventional surgical approach may be challenging in patients with a history of previous abdominal surgery. We present a case of a 58-year-old white man with paracaval, subdiaphragmatic, recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma; he had a history of multiple abdominal surgeries. Methods: In select patients, percutaneous ultrasound-guided thermal ablation is a valid non-surgical alternative due to its safety, efficacy, and good tolerability. Hepatic lesions located in the posterosuperior segments, however, can be difficult to reach via a percutaneous approach. Result: For these cases, one-lung left-sided ventilation may be particularly helpful in blocking the right hemidiaphragm and improving the acoustic window to the liver. Conclusion: We present a case of paracaval, subdiaphragmatic, recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma in which the tumor was only reachable after one-lung left-sided ventilation that was successfully treated by percutaneous ultrasound-guided microwave ablation. © 2019 The Author(s)
MicroRNAs miR-584-5p and miR-425-3p Are Up-Regulated in Plasma of Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Patients: Targeting with Inhibitor Peptide Nucleic Acids Is Associated with Induction of Apoptosis in Colon Cancer Cell Lines
Get PDFLiquid biopsy has dramatically changed cancer management in the last decade; however, despite the huge number of miRNA signatures available for diagnostic or prognostic purposes, it is still unclear if dysregulated miRNAs in the bloodstream could be used to develop miRNA-based therapeutic approaches. In one author’s previous work, nine miRNAs were found to be dysregulated in early-stage colon cancer (CRC) patients by NGS analysis followed by RT-dd-PCR validation. In the present study, the biological effects of the targeting of the most relevant dysregulated miRNAs with anti-miRNA peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) were verified, and their anticancer activity in terms of apoptosis induction was evaluated. Our data demonstrate that targeting bloodstream up-regulated miRNAs using anti-miRNA PNAs leads to the down-regulation of target miRNAs associated with inhibition of the activation of the pro-apoptotic pathway in CRC cellular models. Moreover, very high percentages of apoptotic cells were found when the anti-miRNA PNAs were associated with other pro-apoptotic agents, such as sulforaphane (SFN). The presented data sustain the idea that the targeting of miRNAs up-regulated in the bloodstream with a known role in tumor pathology might be a tool for the design of protocols for anti-tumor therapy based on miRNA-targeting molecules
Sistema letterario e diffusione del Decadentismo nell\u27Italia di fine \u27800. Il carteggio Vittorio Pica - Neera
No full textNutritional quality of extra virgin olive oils from two different Olea Europea cultivars: application of a functional matematic index
No full textP76 - NUTRITIONAL QUALITY OF EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OILS FROM TWO DIFFERENT OLEA EUROPEA CULTIVARS: APPLICATION OF A FUNCTIONAL MATEMATIC INDEX
D.Di Majo1, E. Finotti2, M. La Guardia3, M. L. Picone4, S. Palumbo1, M. Giammanco1, S. Giuliano4
1 Unità Didattico Scientifica di Fisiologia e Farmacologia, Dip.DIGSPO, Università di Palermo;
2 CRA-NUT, Centro di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione, Roma;
3 Dip. STEBICEF, Università di Palermo;
4 Agenzia delle Dogane, Laboratorio Chimico, Palermo
Corresponding author: Danila Di Majo, Unità Didattico Scientifica di Fisiologia e Farmacologia, Dip. DIGSPO, e-mail. [email protected], phone +390916236405
Background The extra virgin olive oil is very important in the Mediterranean diet. From the nutritional point of view, the high energy content and an optimal ratio between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, together with the presence of minor compounds such as phenols and tocopherols and the related antioxidant capacity, confer to this product a high healthy value [1]. The extra-virgin oil’s nutritional properties depend on the pedoclimatic conditions, cultivar and the production process. In the last years many studies have been performed to remark and describe the safety and nutritional quality of the extra-virgin olive oils but it is difficult to compare different parameters representative of oil’s nutritional quality and to establish which of them is more important to define the nutritional value of an oil. In 2007, Finotti et al.[2] developed a Functional Mathematic Index (FMI) in order to quantify the nutritional quality of extra virgin olive oil and then the same authors applied it at other foods, such as tea [3], potatoes [4]. This index is important because it is able to convert a concept as the “quality” into a numeric quantity. The FMI takes into account different nutritional, antioxidant and chemical parameters representative of oil properties. These parameters, suitably processed with the “FMI Workbench” free software, provide a unique value indicated as “global” quality index (IGQ). We have calculated both the global FMI and the local FMIs.
Aim of this study is to compare the nutritional properties of extra virgin olive oils from different olive varieties, Biancolilla and Oglialora grown in Sicily, by the functional mathematic index [5]
Methods: samples of extra-virgin olive oils from two different cultivar (Biancolilla, Oglialora) and processed by different extraction methods (continuous cycle and hydraulic press) have been analyzed. The drupes are grown in the same climatic conditions. The parameters analyzed to calculate the FMI have been divided in three groups which are related to chemical, nutritional, technologic properties of oil.
The three groups are:
Nutritional parameters: fatty acids (numbers from 1 to 4, in table 1).
Chemical parameters: acidity and peroxide number (numbers 5 and 6 in table 1);
Technological process parameters: lipidic antioxidant capacity, tocopherols and total phenols (numbers 7-9 in table 1).
The results of the analyses were processed by the software and the IGQ and LQ of each oil sample have been compared in order to define which of them had the better nutritional properties.
The FMI varies from zero to one (good to poor). The global index has been expressed as “goodness percentage” (%FMI). The upper and the lower bounds for each group are established and they are report in the following table 1.
Results: the analyses allow to classify all oil samples as extra-virgin olive oils. All parameters are within the limits of the Italian (E.U.) law and those established in table 1. No difference among two cultivars about acidity, peroxide number and fatty acids profile was found. The lipofilic antioxidant capacity was higher in Biancolilla variety than in Oglialora with both extractive methods (p=0,0001); sample oils extracted with continuous method have shown a lower of 16% content of tocopherols for both variety.
Table 1: parameters and methods used to analyse of the extra-virgin oil samples. Upper and lower bounds for each parameters established according Finotti et al. [2]
Index number Parameters Method used to analyze and related references Lower Bound Upper bound
1 Palmitic acid (C16:0) Chromatographic analyses (EU Regulation 2568/91, All. Xa and All. Xb) 7,5% 20%
2 Stearic acid (C18:0) 0,5% 5%
3 Oleic acid (C18:1) 55% 83%
4 Linoleic acid (C18:2) 3,5% 21%
5 Acidity EU Regulation 2568/91, all. II 0% 0,8%
6 Peroxide number EU Regulation 2568/91, all. III 0 meq/O2 20 mEq/O2
7 Lipidic antioxidant capacity (Finotti et al.1998,2000) -1,6 Ka/Kc + 1,6 Ka/Kc
8 Tocopherol HPLC, detector UV/Vis (method of SSOG) 1,2mg/100g 43mg/100g
9 Total phenols HPLC, detector UV/Vis (method of SSOG) 20 mg/Kg 900 mg/Kg
The FMI of all oil samples varies from 0.27 to 0.34, therefore they satisfy the necessary conditions to be considered high quality extra-virgin oil; Nonetheless, the cultivar Biancolilla has shown a global index better than the Oglialora. From the study of local FMI we observed that the nutritional quality of oils extracted by continuous cycle is penalized in the total polyphenols and lipofilic antioxidant capacity parameters.
Conclusion: the FMI allows to detect that the Biancolilla variety is better than Oglialora and then to underline which parameter can be modified in order to increase the nutritional quality of the oil analyzed.
References:
[1] Tripoli E., Giammanco M, Tabacchi G, Di Majo D., Giammanco S, La Guardia M. The phenolic compounds of olive oil: Structure, biological activity and beneficial effects on human health (Review).Nutrition Research Reviews,2005, 18:98-112;
[2] Finotti E., Bersani A.M., Bersani E. Total quality indexes for extra-virgin olive oils. Journal of Food Quality, 2007,30:911-933;
[3] Finotti E., Bersani E., Friedman M. Application of a Functional Mathematical Index for Antibacterial and Anticarcinogenic Effects of Tea Catechins. Journal Agricultural Food Chemistry, 2011,59: 864-869;
[4] Finotti E, Bersani E., Del Prete E., Friedman M. A functional mathematical index for predicting effects of food processing on eight sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivars.Journal of Food Composition and Analysis,2012, 27: 81-86;
[5] Finotti E, Bersani E, Bersani AM, Vivanti V, Toti E.,Variation of nutritional parameters in the
olive oil during the ripening phase. La Rivista di Scienze dell’Alimentazione, 2011,2:33-4
Testing the Human Small Intestine under Different Preservation Conditions Segmentally with a Look Into the Ethics of Health Insurance Involvement
No full textabstract: Intestinal Transplant is becoming more prevalent with time as an powerful alternative to other therapies for intestinal failure such as parenteral nutrition. The small intestine is an organ especially susceptible to ischemia, or the lack of blood and oxygen supply to an organ. I studied ischemia at Yale Medical School in the lab of Dr. John Geibel. The purpose of this study was to find which kind of solution best protects the intestine from ischemia as well as which segments of the intestine are more susceptible to ischemic damage. This was done by cold static storage as well as through perfusing the organ with a unit developed in the lab called the Intestinal Perfusion Unit (IPU). Intestines were procured from deceased donors following the protocol for handling human specimen and then flushed with either the University of Wisconsin (UW) solution or the Histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate solution (HTK). It was found that the jejunum is more susceptible ischemia than the ileum. It was also found that in the jejunum, when using UW solution there was less damage then when using HTK. Clinically, this means that in transplant, if the ileum part is used, there is less risk for ischemic damage. The potential applications of this research raise many ethical issues related to organ transplantation more broadly. The ethical issues include but are not limited to: consent, distribution and need-based donation, transplant tourism, and cost and access. The costs for transplant are exorbitant for the average American. Private insurance companies and Medicare have no policy for intestinal transplant and are therefore not covering many patients in need. In this thesis, I briefly explore the role of insurance companies in the equitable distribution of innovative medical interventions
A variação entre futuro do pretérito e pretérito imperfeito do indicativo em orações condicionais iniciadas por "se" na fala uberlandense
Get PDFThis dissertation deals with the variation between the conditional and the pastimperfect indicative in conditional sentences beginning with the conjunction "if". The usage of these verb tenses alternate with simple verb constructions and verbal locutions. The author aimed to detect whether the verb forms actually alternate and the factors that determine which verb forms should be used. For the purpose of this work,linguistic factors have been analysed: size of constructions, order of sentences and formal parallelism. Besides, extra-linguistic factors such as social class and age group have also been investigated. The researcher worked with a corpus that represented the language spoken in Uberlândia, Brazil. This corpus was composed by 45 interviews with adult speakers from the city mentioned previously. The perspective of Labovian Sociolinguistics (Theory of Variation) and Parametric Sociolinguistics conducted the methodology of the research. This study shows that the past imperfect indicative is mostly used among low class and the formal parallelism favours one of the verb forms analyseds.Mestre em LingüísticaEsta dissertação trata da variação entre o futuro do pretérito e o pretérito imperfeito do indicativo, em orações condicionais iniciadas por "se". Essas formas verbais se alternam tanto em construções com verbos simples como em locuções verbais. Buscou-se detectar se essas formas verbais se alternam e quais fatores condicionam o uso de uma em detrimento da outra. Para tanto, foram investigados fatores lingüísticos, tais como, tamanho das orações, ordem das sentenças e paralelismo formal. Além disso, foram analisados fatores extralingüísticos, como classe social e faixa etária. Para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa, trabalhou-se com um corpus
representante da língua falada na cidade de Uberlândia, Brasil. Na composição desse corpus, foram utilizadas 45 entrevistas realizadas com falantes adultos desta cidade. Trabalhou-se na perspectiva da Sociolingüística Laboviana (Teoria da Variação) e da Sociolingüística Paramétrica. A análise realizada evidenciou que o pretérito imperfeito é o tempo verbal preferencial da classe baixa e que o paralelismo formal favorece um dos tempos verbais analisados
Beta alavancado considerando o beta da dívida: a partição de riscos entre acionistas e credores
Get PDFSince Markowitz's (1952) pioneering paper has shown that risk and return must be evaluated simultaneously, with return being the variable to be maximized and risk being the factor to be minimized, investors have sought to control and reduce the risk to which they are exposed. The solution proposed by the author was the diversification of investments where an asset should be evaluated according to the behavior of its covariance among other assets. Following Markowitz's ideas, shareholders should diversify their stock portfolio in order to limit their exposure to risk. But is it possible the risk of shareholders in a single company could be reduced by transferring risk to creditors? This would be feasible considering Proposition II of Modigliani and Miller (1958, 1963) according to which the firm's value is independent of its capital structure. Using the beta index (from the CAPM model, initially developed by Sharpe (1964) from the Markowitz studies) as a good measure of risk, and considering that it is possible to estimate the market value of corporate debt employing the Merton model (1974), in which the shareholders are identified as holders of a call option on the assets of the firm, the beta value of the corporate debt was estimated by calculating the covariance of its return with the return of the market portfolio. Using the Conine (1980) model, a hypothetical situation was simulated to check if there would be a risk transfer between shareholders and creditors. The result was compared to an econometric model where the risk of debt was regressed on the risk of the shareholder and other control variables. The main conclusion of this study was that the shareholder beta index and the corporate debt beta index tend to move in opposite directions, considering the cases where it was possible to apply the Merton model (1974). Therefore, it can be stated that a reduction in shareholder risk tends to increase the risk of creditors.Desde o trabalho pioneiro de Markowitz (1952) que demonstrou que risco e retorno devem ser avaliados simultaneamente, sendo o retorno a variável a ser maximizada e o risco o fator a ser minimizado, investidores têm buscado controlar e reduzir o risco ao qual estão expostos. A solução proposta pelo autor foi a diversificação dos investimentos onde um ativo deve ser avaliado conforme o comportamento de sua covariância com relação aos demais ativos. Seguindo a lógica de Markowitz, acionistas deveriam diversificar a sua carteira de ações de forma a limitar a sua exposição ao risco. Mas seria possível que o risco dos acionistas, numa única empresa, fosse reduzido a partir de uma transferência de risco para os credores? Isto seria factível considerando a proposição II de Modigliani e Miller (1958,1963) segundo a qual o valor da firma independe da sua estrutura de capital. Utilizando o índice beta (procedente do modelo CAPM, desenvolvido inicialmente por Sharpe (1964) a partir dos estudos de Markowitz) como uma boa medida de risco, e considerando que é possível estimar o valor de mercado da dívida corporativa através do modelo de Merton (1974), no qual os acionistas são identificados como detentores de uma opção de compra sobre os ativos da firma, estimou-se o valor do índice beta da dívida corporativa pelo cálculo da covariância de seu retorno com o retorno da carteira de mercado. Utilizando o modelo de Conine (1980) foi simulada uma situação hipotética de modo a verificar se haveria uma transferência de risco entre acionistas e credores. O resultado encontrado foi comparado com um estudo econométrico onde o risco da dívida foi regredido contra o risco do acionista e outras variáveis de controle. A principal conclusão deste estudo foi que índice beta do acionista e o índice beta da dívida corporativa tendem a se movimentar em direções oposta, considerando os casos onde foi possível aplicar o modelo de Merton (1974). Assim, pode-se afirmar que uma redução do risco dos acionistas propende a aumentar o risco dos credores
Ensaio e artigo: confluências e divergências entre dois gêneros na esfera acadêmica
Get PDFProducing academic genres indicates the possibility to know how to act and interact actively in the academic and scientific community. However, how to ensure the participation in the social scientific sphere without the dominion from the instruments of their participation? By this issue as a serious concern of this paper, we propose to analyze two academic genres (essay and article) in order to understand them, as they are indiscriminately taken in general. In order to describe and analyze compared genrers article and academics, with the goal to show elements that can contribute to the individualization of each, we selected 20 essays and 20 articles from online national journals whose review by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) covers grades A and B (they were published from January 2011 until May 2013). Magazines where we collect the corpus predicted the production of both genres, sometimes provided specific instructions for the production and publication of each genre. To perform the research, we chose some important concepts to the genres studies as the precursor of Bakhtin, name we cannot forget to be mentioned, and we took as an input for the analysis some categories of textual aspects cited by Bronckart (2009) that has not developed a theory for genres analysis but of texts, deeply contributes to understand the text operation by textual functioning infrastructure, textualization mechanisms and enunciative mechanisms. Silveira s (2012) study on the textual structures of research and essay genres also provided information to understand and differentiate between the genres that constitute our corpus, as well as other studies and manuals that provide information about both genres. Thus, we elect the first and third level of textual rolling for the texts analysis because we consider, as well as the author, the deeper and most superficial level, respectively, of the text we believe that these phases are able to reveal the peculiarities we investigate now. We observed that the test demonstrated the possibility to be composed by the kind of theoretical-interactive mixed discourse, by the frequent use of affective modalizations and by a compositional structure that is generally the same of the article. By the way, this genre had a predominance of theoretical discourse and a high amount of logical modalizations. The analysis revealed that the differences found in deep level, where the type of discourse and textual sequences belong, as the most superficial level, in the enunciation mechanisms, corroborate to some essay characteristics already mentioned by Gomez-Martinez (1992), Arrigucci (1999) and Guerini (2008) concerning the greatest freedom of expression about the scientific thought, with higher subjective tenor than the article.Mestre em Estudos LinguísticosProduzir gêneros acadêmicos indica a possibilidade de saber agir e interagir ativamente na comunidade acadêmico-científica. No entanto, como assegurar essa participação na esfera social científica sem o domínio dos ―instrumentos‖ de sua participação? Tendo essa questão como a grande inquietude deste trabalho, propomos analisar dois gêneros acadêmicos (ensaio e artigo), a fim de melhor compreendê-los, tendo em vista que, geralmente, são tomados de maneira indiscriminada. Com o objetivo descrever e analisar comparativamente os gêneros ensaio e artigo, pertencentes da esfera acadêmica, com vistas a apresentar elementos que possam contribuir para a individualização de cada um, selecionamos 20 ensaios e 20 artigos de periódicos online nacionais cuja avaliação pela Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) abrange as notas A e B (eles foram publicados no período de janeiro de 2011 até maio de 2013). As revistas de onde coletamos o corpus previam a produção de ambos os gêneros e, algumas vezes, forneciam instruções específicas para a produção e publicação de cada gênero. Para a realização da pesquisa, elegemos alguns conceitos caros à área de estudos de gêneros como o do precursor Bakhtin (2006), nome que não podemos deixar de mencionar, e tomamos como aporte para a análise algumas categorias do folhado textual de Bronckart (2009) que, embora não tenha desenvolvido uma teoria para análise de gênero e sim de textos, contribuiu sobremaneira para o entendimento do funcionamento textual por meio da infraestrutura textual, dos mecanismos de textualização e dos mecanismos enunciativos. Os estudos de Silveira (2012) sobre as estruturas textuais de gêneros da pesquisa e do ensaio também forneceram subsídios para a compreensão e diferenciação entre os gêneros que constituem nosso corpus, assim como outros estudos e manuais que trazem informações sobre ambos os gêneros. Elegemos, porquanto, o primeiro e o terceiro nível do folhado textual para a análise dos textos por considerá-los, assim como o autor, o nível mais profundo e mais superficial, respectivamente, do texto acreditamos que essas fases são capazes de revelar as peculiaridades que ora investigamos. Pudemos constatar que o ensaio demonstrou a possibilidade de ser composto pelo tipo de discurso misto teórico-interativo, pela utilização mais frequente de modalizações afetivas e por uma estrutura composicional que, geralmente, é a mesma do artigo. Este gênero, por sua vez, teve como predominante o discurso teórico e elevada quantidade de modalizações lógicas. A análise revelou que as diferenças encontradas tanto no nível profundo, em que pertencem o tipo de discurso e as sequências textuais, quanto no nível mais superficial, nos mecanismos de enunciação, corroboram com algumas características do ensaio já mencionadas por Gomez-Martinez (1992), Arrigucci (1999) e Guerini (2008) a respeito da maior liberdade de expressão do pensamento científico, com teor subjetivo mais elevado que o do artigo
