1,721,176 research outputs found
Direct Democracy and the Rights of Sexual Minorities
Full text linkDirect democracy is now being regarded as both an alternative of and an adjustment for representative constitutional democracy. Nevertheless, as is discussed in this article, direct democracy devices, particularly in those legal systems where no quorum is provided for validating referendums, can harm minorities. The analysis of “same-sex marriage referendums” can provide an emblematic example of how a minority groups can be easily outnumbered, when decisions are taken using direct popular voting
Covid-19 e compressione delle libertà fondamentali. Il giudice keniano si inserisce in un dibattito ormai globale.
Full text linkLo scoppio della pandemia di Covid-19 ha costretto giudici e dottrina a confrontarsi nuovamente con un tema, qual è quello dell’emergenza, che, anchese diffusamente trattato, mai era diventato così prepotentemente d’attualità per la vita di ogni singolo essere umano, in ogni angolo del pianeta. Le criticità sottese alle limitazioni delle libertà fondamentali costituzionalmente protette da un lato, e la necessità di garantire un’adeguata assistenza sanitaria dall’altro (limitando la diffusione della malattia il più possibile), hanno creato non poche perplessità relativamente ai provvedimenti restrittivi ed ai comportamenti adottati dalle autorità pubbliche trovatesi ad affrontare una sfida del tutto inedita. Il dispositivo che si andrà ad analizzare si può quindi inquadrare, concettualmente, nell’ormai amplissimo dibattito relativo all’utilizzo di strumenti eccezionali al fine di contrastare il propagarsi di un’epidemia che sta mettendo a dura prova le costituzioni democratiche, nonché le economie di tutto il mondo
An interview with Marina Manfredi on the use of systemic functional linguistics, and other ways of teaching translation studies
No full textMarina Manfredi was interviewed by Marilena di Bari at the Centre for Translation Studies, University of Leeds (UK), where she had been invited to present a talk about “Applications of appraisal theory for the analysis of text types in translation”. In particular, Manfredi is asked to illustrate her innovative way of applying Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory to the teaching of Translation Studies that she has introduced in her graduate courses held at the University of Bologna. Manfredi illustrates how the SFL tool can help a deep text analysis of a variety of text-types, also in the case of English source texts translated into Italian target texts. She also discusses the main difficulties and potentialities arising from adopting an SFL approach to teaching translation at the university. She finally talks about her experience in researching and teaching audiovisual translation and finally offers her view on translation and technology in the specific field she works in
Musica e politica sulle ali del 'Rock’n’roll': migrazioni e contaminazioni
No full textL’ultima opera teatrale di Tom Stoppard, "Rock’n’roll", rappresentata per la prima volta a Londra nel giugno del 2006 e diretta da Trevor Nunn, sviluppa il concetto di migrazione su piani e assi diversi, spostandosi sincronicamente e in modo intermittente tra l’Inghilterra e la Cecoslovacchia (il protagonista è un ex emigrato ceco che torna al suo paese di origine, ma mantiene i suoi rapporti con Cambridge) e diacronicamente, dagli anni Sessanta ai Novanta. Centrale è il modo in cui l’autore rappresenta la trasformazione di un sogno generazionale, quello legato a valori e ideali appartenenti a una congerie storico-culturale unica quale quella del ’68, nel transito tra contesti geografici e sociali diversi e tra periodi storici diversi, trasferendosi quindi sul piano della memoria, e offrendo anche un interessante spunto di riflessione sul concetto stesso di ‘generazione’. Traendo ispirazione da alcuni scritti di Vaclav Havel, il drammaturgo fa però della musica il perno intorno al quale avvita il processo memoriale dell’opera. Negli anni Sessanta, interessati da una fondamentale convergenza delle arti e dei piani culturali alto/basso, nonché dal fiorire degli studi intorno alla nascente e subito proliferante pop culture, la musica pop e rock assume una posizione di assoluto protagonismo, facendosi portatrice di valori libertari e protestatari in un clima transnazionale di infuocata insofferenza verso ogni forma di gerarchia o istituzione. L’opera di Stoppard indugia quindi sulla fecondità della contaminazione tra musica e politica, musica e cultura, musica e vita nel veicolare quel ‘complessivo modo del sentire’ di una generazione, il cui transito è seguito per tappe musicali tra il ’68 e il ’90: tra la contestazione e la fine del conservatorismo di ‘ferro’, tra la Primavera di Praga e la Rivoluzione di velluto
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Cholinergic system and neuroinflammation: Implication in multiple sclerosis.
No full textMultiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by leucocytes infiltration, demyelination, axonal degeneration and neuronal death. Although the etiology of MS is still unknown, inflammation and autoimmunity are considered to be key players of the disease. The severe alterations affecting the nervous system contribute to the motor and cognitive disabilities and are in large part dependent on severe inflammatory processes active in both central nervous system and immune system. Acetylcholine (ACh) appears to be involved in the modulation of central and peripheral inflammation. Immune cells as well as astrocytes and microglia respond to ACh stimuli by activation of cholinergic receptors. Muscarinic and nicotinic receptors differently contribute to the modulation of immunological and inflammatory processes stimulating pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines respectively. The role played by ACh in MS is not yet fully understood, although some results point to its involvement in different neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. In the present review we summarize the evidence indicating the correlation between nervous system dysfunction in MS, with inflammation and cholinergic system alterations. Experiments performed in EAE models and analyses on biological fluids from MS patients such as blood, serum and cerebrospinal fluid suggest that cholinergic alterations may contribute to the dysregulated inflammatory processes of MS. Many current therapeutic approaches in MS are based on anti-inflammatory drugs. We also discuss how the use of cholinesterase inhibitors or ACh mimetics may represent a new interesting therapeutic approach in MS
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