250 research outputs found
BioTimer Assay, a new method for counting Staphylococcus spp. in biofilm without sample manipulation applied to evaluate antibiotic susceptibility of biofilm
No full textThe medical device-related infections are frequently a consequence of Staphylococcus biofilm, a lifestyle enhancing bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Antibiotic susceptibility tests are usually performed on planktonic forms of clinical isolates. Some methods have been developed to perform antibiotic susceptibility tests on biofilm. However, none of them counts bacterial inoculum. As antibiotic susceptibility is related to bacterial inoculum, the test results could be mistaken. Here, a new method, BidTimer Assay (BTA), able to count bacteria in biofilm without any manipulation of samples, is presented. Moreover, the BTA method is applied to analyze antibiotic susceptibility of six Staphylococcus strains in biofilm and to deter-mine the number of viable bacteria in the presence of sub-inhibitory doses of four different antibiotics. To validate BTA, the new method was compared to reference methods both for counting and antibiotic susceptibility tests. A high agreement between BTA and reference methods is found on planktonic forms. Therefore, BTA was employed to count bacteria in biofilm and to analyze biofilm antibiotic susceptibility. Results confirm the high resistance to antibiotics of Staphylococcus biofilm. Moreover, BTA counts the number of viable bacteria in the presence of sub-inhibitory doses of antibiotics. The results show that the number of viable bacteria depends on sub-inhibitory doses, age of biofilm and type of antibiotic. In particular, differently to gentamicin and ampicillin, sub-inhibitory doses of ofloxacin and azithromycin reduce the number of viable bacteria at lower extent in young than in old biofilm. In conclusion, BTA is a reliable, rapid, easy-to-perform, and versatile method, and it can be considered a useful tool to analyze antibiotic susceptibility of Staphylococcus spp. in biofilm. Published by Elsevier B.V
Intransparency as a strategy : the case of Signa
No full textauthor: Luana NiedermoserMasterarbeit University Innsbruck 202
Intransparency as a strategy : the case of Signa
No full textauthor: Luana NiedermoserMasterarbeit University Innsbruck 202
Luana, loura de olhos claros
No full textDestacando a importância da análise qualitativa no estudo da arte e da comunicação, a autora analisa como a opção estética por uma atriz loura na construção da personagem Luana, na novela O Rei do Gado, veiculada pela Rede Globo, no segundo semestre de 1996, reafirma a aspiração ao branqueamento e identidade com o europeu, que permanecem no imaginário nacional.While pointing out the importance of qualitative analysis in the study of art and communication, the author analyses in what way the aestheticdecision for a blond actress in the elaboration of the character Luana of the soap-opera O Rei do Gado, broadcasted on the TV network Rede Globo, in the second half of l996, reinforces the aspiration for whitening and for an identification with the European, which is still present in the national imaginary
MyoD induces apoptosis in the absence of RB function through a p21(WAF1)-dependent re-localization of cyclin/cdk complexes to the nucleus
No full textDuring differentiation of skeletal myoblasts, MyoD promotes growth arrest through the induction of the cdk inhibitor p21 and the accumulation of hypophosphorylated RB protein. Myoblasts lacking RB function fail to accomplish full differentiation and undergo apoptosis. Here we show that exogenous MyoD induces apoptosis in several cell backgrounds sharing RB inactivation. This process is associated with increased levels of cell cycle-driving proteins and aberrant cell cycle progression. The inability of MyoD to induce apoptosis in a p21-null background, highlights a requirement of p21 in RB-regulated apoptosis during myogenesis. This pro-apoptotic function of p21 cannot be exerted by simple p21 over-expression, but requires the co-operation of MyoD. We also suggest that the essential aspect of p21 activity involved in such a process is related to its ability to induce the nuclear accumulation and aberrant activity of cyclin/cdk complexes. These results establish a novel link between MyoD, p21 and RB during myogenesis, providing new insights into the antagonism between muscle differentiation and loss of RB function
Venegas e gli altri. Il teatro nella prassi pedagogica gesuita del Cinquecento
No full textTheatre has been a distinctive feature of Jesuit education from the very first years. Miguel Venegas, teacher of Rhetoric at Coimbra College and co-author (with his pupils) of some kolossal biblical dramas, staged between 1559-1562, gave a crucial contribution tothe prestige of Jesuit colleges. His tragedies provide a forceful pedagogical example. Furthermore, the outstanding quality of Venegas’ plays gives an outlook on the influence of Jesuit college theatre on the future Baroque masterworks
Revaluating Philosophy: Campanella’s Commentaria and the “Collegio Barberino Project”
No full textThe Roman years of Tommaso Campanella, from 1626 to 1634, were made possible by the protection and patronage of the pope Urbano VIII Barberini. It is not surprising that one of his largest works of these years were in strict connection with the cultural production of the pope himself: Urbano VIII, Maffeo Barberini, had cultivated poetry from his youth and was a well-versed poet in Latin and a very talented one in Italian. Campanella composed from 1627 to 1631 three series of lengthy Commentaria on the Poemata, the book of Maffeo’s Latin poems, of which in the same 1631 the Vatican typography published an official edition – but the Poemata were by more than ten years a real bestseller in Italy and in France.
What (actually) are the Commentaria? This complex, full-length bunch of manuscripts is often dismissed as pure flattery or as another strange, slightly delirious fruit of the exalted mind of the prophet-monk, basically cut out from the cultural edifice erected with his main philosophical system.
Indeed, we think that Commentaria are not only part of the edifice, but that they were seen by their author – at least in the happy Roman years – as its new grounds, posited to reinforce it and shedding on the complex of the philosophical work a new light: the light of a system, and the reassuring clarity of a pedagogy. With his Commentaria Campanella tries to found a new educational system fitted for the city and the cultural needs of the élite. And when the city is Rome and the élite is the well paid cultural court gathering around pope Urbano VIII Barberini at the culmination of his fortune, every foundation has the character of a total revaluation where languages are rewritten from scratch and reorganized in a design coordinating all knowledges and arts
Molecular typing of C. difficile clinical isolates in an outbreak evaluation
No full textIntroduction: Clostridium difficile is a Gram-positive spore-forming anaerobic bacillus. C. difficile is one of the major responsible of hospital acquired infections, since its spores are highly resistant to heat and common detergents treatment.The aim of this study was to exclude a nosocomial infection in an Intensive Care Unit at Bambino Gesù Children Hospital by using a molecular typing method (rep-PCR). Methods: 9 C. difficile strains were collected within 2 weeks from 9 faecal samples, belonging to 4 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit. Identification of C. difficile was obtained by phenotypic method and confirmed by genotypic methods. Susceptibility of isolates was evaluated by using E-test. Molecular typing of these strains was obtained by semi-automatic rep-PCR. Results: All antibiotic susceptibility tests resulted overlapping. Genotypic analysis by rep-PCR showed that isolates belonging to the same patient had a similarity index > 96%, whereas, by comparing strains from different patients, a similarity index < 87% was observed. Conclusions: Molecular fingerprinting of 9 C. difficile isolates arranged the strains in 4 different groups, corresponding to 4 patients.The rep- PCR with the semi-automated Diversilab platform was able to ruled out the presence of a C. difficile nosocomial outbreak in a paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Finally, this system can be used as a “first line” tool, nevertheless, confirmation by “gold standard” fingerprinting methods is necessary. However, even though the system may seem easy to use, it is still not reproducible and criteria for interpretation of analytical results must be fully assessed by trained personnel in the practice of microbial fingerprinting
La circolazione degli Inni orfici in Terra d'Otranto fra XV e XVI secolo
No full textItIl saggio illustra la circolazione delle dottrine orfiche nel Salento testimoniata da diversi manoscritti vergati in quest'ambito. Tra questi assume particolare importanza il Vaticanus graecus 2264, inedito, che contiene, oltre al testo degli Inni, un ampio commento, l'unico esistente di questi testi. In attesa della pubblicazione del Commento, l'Autore espone sommariamente i suoi contenuti, ispirati ad un sincretismo tra dottrina cristiana e dottrine orfiche. Egli, inoltre, mette in relazione questi contenuti, da una parte con le correnti ficiniane del Rinascimento italiano, ma dall'altra con la cultura meridionale, che si avvaleva di un proprio autonomo contatto con la cultura greco-bizantina.EnThe essay illustrates the circulation of Orphic doctrines in Salento witnessed by several manuscripts written in this area. Among these the Vaticanus graecus 2264, unpublished, which has, in addition to the text of the Hymns, a broad commentary, the only existing of these texts, is of particular importance. Pending the publication of the Commentary, the Author exposes its contents, inspired by a syncretism between Christian doctrine and Orphic doctrines. He also relates these contents, on the one hand with the currents of Ficino in the Italian Renaissance, but on the other with the southern culture, which used its own independent contact with the Greek-Byzantine culture
Fra storia e mitologia: le Metamorfosi di Cariteo, testo e commento
No full textFra storia e mitologia: le Metamorfosi di Cariteo, testo e commento.
La crisi dinastica che investì il regno napoletano nell’ultimo decennio del XV secolo ha trovato larga accoglienza nelle opere di molti esponenti dell’Umanesimo meridionale. Anche Cariteo, tra gli umanisti più fedeli agli Aragona, all’indomani della partenza del re Federico per la Francia, raccontò l’epilogo della dinastia in un ridotto poema in terzine, intitolato Metamorfosi, nel quale, riprendendo la struttura del poema ovidiano, in un susseguirsi di mutamenti sono rievocate le vicende di quegli anni e i loro protagonisti.
Lo studio propone una nuova edizione delle Metamorfosi, basata sul testo della prima pubblicazione, avutasi a Napoli nel 1509 con curatela di Summonte. Il testo delle Metamorfosi che si offre è corredato da un commento filologico e storico-letterario, mirante a fornire una più generale comprensione dell’opera, ma anche teso a far emergere la ricchezza delle fonti, così presenti nell’ordito testuale, che risulta costruito, come ogni buon testo di fattura umanistica, sull’intreccio di reminiscenze classiche e tracce moderne, alle volte velate, alle volte messe ben in evidenza con inequivocabili spie testuali. La ricerca ha confermato la necessità, avanzata da più studiosi, di ritornare sull’autore e rendere nuovamente disponibili le opere, ed in particolare il canzoniere Endimione, da troppo tempo ormai affidate alla sola pubblicazione di Erasmo Pércopo, risalente al 1892.
The dynastic crisis that swept the kingdom of Naples in the last decade of the fifteenth century has found wide acceptance in the works of many southern followers of humanism. Even Cariteo, among humanists more faithful to the Aragon, after the departure of King Frederick to France, wrote about the epilogue of the dynasty in a small poem, entitled Metamorphosi, in which, recovering the structure of the ovidian poem, in a series of transformations are recalled the events of those years and their protagonist.
The study concerns a new edition of the Metamorphosi, based on the text of the first publication, which occured in Naples in 1509 by Summonte. The text of the Metamorphosi that is offered is accompanied by comments on philological, historical and literary, aiming to provide a more general understanding of the work, but also tended to bring out the richness of the sources, so present in the warp text, which is built, like any good text invoice humanities, on the intertwining of classical reminiscences and modern tracks, sometimes veiled, sometimes well put in evidence with unambiguous textual spies.
The research confirmed the need of returning again on the author and make available the works, and in particular the Endymion, for far too long entrusted solely to the publication of Erasmo Pércopo, dating back to 1892
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