95 research outputs found
Clive Gabay. Imagining Africa: Whiteness and the Western Gaze. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. xi + 270 pp. List of figures. List of tables. References. Index. $105.00. Hardcover. ISBN: 978-1108473606
No full textClive Gabay’s Imagining Africa: Whiteness and the Western Gaze has more to do with post-colonial studies, critical race theory, and Whiteness studies than with African studies. Gabay’s concern is not the continent per se, but rather the history of idealised visions of Africa in the West, informed by the growing anxiety of Whiteness in perpetuating its mythologized genius. In his introduction (9–22), Gabay posits a distinction between “whiteness” (which defines the status of phenotypical white people) and “Whiteness” (which is seen as a system of privilege involving both white and non-white peoples in safeguarding White and Western genius). The author aims at overturning the conventional post-colonial critique of western imaginaries of Africa “by problematising the sense in which the former consistently holds the latter in inferior relation to it” (4)
Inganni d’autore. Due studi sulle funzioni del protagonista nel teatro di Aristofane
No full textThis monograph deals with some hitherto overlooked dramatic features of Aristophanic comedy, focusing in particular on Acharnians and Clouds. The study is divided into two parts, whose specific issues are strongly connected by the general issues of cheating and deceit, as well as by the common methodological framework.
Both parts aim to elucidate some of the complex interaction devices which link the intratextual audience of the protagonist’s schemes and the audience of the play, and which can be outlined by a thorough examination of the main semiotical clues to the audience’s empathy toward the comic hero. This is achieved in a psycho-analytical perspective by a close reading of jokes and forms of abuse, whose dynamical patterns entail a structural complicity between the abuser and the witness to the abuse.
One main result of the study is that Aristophanes’ deeper semiotic strategies can be recognised in the peculiar shifts in the identification connecting the implied audience of the play and the Chorus. The main point of this research is to show how cheating and deceit operate in Aristophanes’ dramas not only as a main thematic issue, but as an essential feature of the author-audience relationship
Intrecci di vite. Intorno a "La Dorotea" di Lope de Vega
No full textIl volume costituisce la prima monografia dedicata specificamente al capolavoro de senectute di Lope de Vega. Libro sintesi di una vita e di tutta una letteratura La Dorotea fu per Lope la risposta alla sfida di modernità che Cervantes realizza nel grande libro in prosa imperniato su di una figura “in bilico”, l’Hidalgo che si auto investe come scrittore e cavaliere, come autore della propria autobiografia cavalleresca. La replica di Lope è quella in cui il protagonista si presenta come proiezione delle fantasie poetiche di un nuovo personaggio “in bilico”, la musa polimorfa e polifacetica che lo ispira. Le donne amate, respinte, mai dimenticate sono allo tutte nel simbolo doroteico, che alla fine rivela la sua autentica natura: si tratta della cultura, una cultura che tuttavia non si affranca dal vincolo dell’epoca. È infatti la cultura del letrato. Tuttavia la verità del libro (libro autobiografico o autobiografia dell’opera) consiste nella falsificazione da cui scaturisce: Lope non fu mai letrado, malgrado la sua sterminata cultura, almeno nel senso tecnico e professionale del termine.The volume is the first monograph dedicated specifically to the masterpiece de senectute of Lope de Vega. A book that is summary of a life and of all literature, The Dorotea was for Lope the answer to the challenge of modernity that Cervantes in his great book in prose based on a figure "unstably balanced", the Hidalgo that recognises himself as writer and knight, as author of his own chivarly autobiography. The reply of Lope is that where the protagonist introduces himself as a projection of poetical imagination of a new character "unstably balanced", the polymorphic and polifacetic muse which inspires him
Aristofane. Gli uccelli
No full textThis volume presents the Greek text of Aristophanes’ Birds, based on a critical revision of Nan Dunbar’s text (Oxford 1995), my Italian translation of the play, a comprehensive introduction to both author and play (pp. 115-163) and a general interpretive essay on Birds (pp. 7-114).
The Greek differs in fifteen places from Dunbar’s text. In most cases, my critical choices reject some conjectural emendations which do not appear to be convincingly supported by evidence or argument. I argue, for example (pp. 139-140), that in v. 586 Dunbar’s correction (se; Krovnon, se; Zh'na, se; Gh'n instead of se; bivon, se; de; gh'n, se; Krovnon unanimously witnessed by mss.) is most unnecessary, as the paradosis is formally and linguistically sound whereas the conjecture deeply alters the semantic structure of the passage, which receives on the contrary strong support by the text’s consistent use of the thematic isotopy of birds as food. This is one of the several places in which I try to show how a sophisticated and painstaking literary-critic evaluation can lead to a deeper philological understanding of textual problems, whenever formal and linguistic factors in themselves do not prompt for doubtless intervention.
The introductory essay centres on the protagonist Pisetairos and, more specifically, on the nature of the relationship between individual and society as they are conceptualized in the play. The essay is divided into three parts: in the first Pisetairos is characterized as a comic hero; the various paragraph explore his main distinctive features on which such a characterization can be based, starting from the most fundamental ones: the frustration of libidic impulses and the consequent creative comeback; comic heorism is ultimately based on the strength of desire, which allies itself with imagination to create a solution to its problems. Further, this first part focuses on the interchangeability of individuals and groups as subjects of dialectic struggles: even though the reality principle would prohibit this, in comedy a single subject like the comic hero can acquire the status of a plural, superindividual I thanks to the opposition to a collectivity which is itself reduced to an individual, as happens in the struggle of the protagonist with Athens, whose collective reality is flattened, in its characterization through comic language, to that of an individual figure.
The second part of the essay explores the possibility of using an economic metaphor as a key to the interpretation of the play. The struggle between the hero and its adversaries can be modeled as a situation of permanent economic transaction where the values of good and evil are not intrinsic but depend on the direction of the flow of goods. The various paragraphs show that Pisetairos’ role as a comic hero is fulfilled by his manipulation of his existential balance in such a way as to achieve the greatest possible reduction of losses while at the same time increasing, lawfully or unlawfully, his gains. The most significant example of the numerous strategies employed to this end is the one by which the hero manages to reproduce, in his relationship with the chorus of birds, an inverted and revengeful version of same situation of which he felt himself to be a victim in his struggle with the city: just as the city demands of its citizens vital and concrete resources in return for abstract acknowledgements and honour, Pisetairos manages his own transformation from loser-citizen to winner-hero after having imposed on the birds the same dynamic, with himself in the exploitative position: the birds are asked to provide concrete and material resources and are paid back with an impalpable timhv.
The third part of the essay is entirely devoted to an analysis of the chorus, in order to highlight a number of features which had gone virtually unnoticed in the previous literature on the play. The central idea is the symbolic identification of the Birds with the most of common conceptualizations of time (time as the yearly run of the seasons; time as the gift of prophecy or of all-round control over the future; time as the bird’s living roots in the unattainable past of cosmogony; time as speed and simultaneity); the main point of my analysis is to show that their ‘magical’ charm and their dramatic relevance in the play are ultimately based upon a complex semiotization of birds as a vivid symbolic equivalent of life as fulfilled expectation, as a magically effective means of perpetuous reward and satisfaction
Continuous versus intermittent infusion of vancomycin for the treatment of gram-positive infections: Systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textOBJECTIVES:
To summarize available evidence on the effect of continuous infusion (CoI) of vancomycin compared with intermittent infusion (InI) in adult patients with Gram-positive infections.
METHODS:
MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases were searched. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies that comparatively assessed CoI and InI of vancomycin in terms of mortality, clinical cure, toxicity rates and serum drug exposure [trough concentration (C(min)) for InI and steady-state concentration (C(ss)) for CoI; area under the curve at 24 h (AUC(24)) for both] were included. Meta-analysis was conducted combining and analysing the relative risk (RR) and computing a summary RR of the effects with 95% confidence interval (CI). The standardized mean difference was calculated for continuous outcomes. The I(2) test was calculated to assess heterogeneity across studies.
RESULTS:
One RCT and five observational studies were included in the analysis. Compared with InI, CoI of vancomycin was associated with a significantly lower risk of nephrotoxicity (RR 0.6, 95% CI 0.4-0.9, P = 0.02; I(2)= 0). Overall mortality was not different between the two groups (RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.7-1.6, P = 0.9; I(2)= 0).
CONCLUSIONS:
Our meta-analysis suggests that administration of vancomycin for the treatment of Gram-positive infections by CoI is associated with a significantly lower risk of nephrotoxicity when compared with InI of the drug. RCTs are needed to define the impact on mortality rate and on the pharmacodynamic activity in terms of AUC/MIC ratio
High temperature detection of CO/HCs gases by non-Nernstian planar sensors using Nb2O5 electrode
No full textIn this work, high temperature planar sensors based on tape-cast YSZ layers with Nb2O5 n-type semiconducting oxide as sensing electrode were studied. The investigated gases were CO and different saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons. A study on the presence of the metallic electrode under the metal oxide and on the nature of that metallic (Pt or Au) electrode was performed. Thus, different types of sensors were prepared and investigated. The sensors were tested in potentiometric devices at various concentrations of gases in the 500-700 °C temperature range. The most promising sensor in terms of selectivity, sensitivity and stability was Pt/YSZ/Nb2O5, without any metallic electrode under the Nb2O5 powder. In fact, this sensor was found totally selective to propylene with very large EMF response even at temperature as high as 700 °C (-115 mV/decade). © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Morphological features of apoptosis in hematopoietic cells belonging to the T-lymphoid and myeloid lineages.
No full textTaking into account that apoptosis plays a pivotal role in shaping normal hematopoiesis, morphological features of apoptosis were investigated in both primary cells and continuous cell lines committed towards the T-lymphoid and the myeloid lineages. Apoptosis was induced using: dexamethasone (10(-7) M) for primary rat thymocytes; infection with the T-lymphotropic human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) for peripheral blood CD4+ T-cells; staurosporine (1 microM) for MOLT4 CD4+ lymphoblastoid T-cells, HL60 human promyelocytic and U937 human monoblastoid cells; and using senescence of the culture for primary human megakaryocytes. Cell morphology was examined by both transmission electron microscopy and in situ nick translation (NT) revealed by laser scanning confocal microscopy. In spite of the use of different apoptotic agonists, the morphological aspects of apoptosis were similar within the T-lymphoid and the myeloid lineage. While chromatin condensation characterized the early apoptotic events in both lineages, late apoptoses were mainly characterized by further nuclear condensation in lymphoid cells and by production of micronuclei in myeloid cells. Moreover, NT analysis clearly showed that the micronuclei derived from HL60 undergoing apoptosis were composed of both degraded and intact DNA. Thus, T-lymphocytes and myeloid cells showed a lineage-related behavior characterizing the late morphological aspects of apoptosis
Neural Networks to Predict Financial Time Series in a Minority Game Context
No full textIn this paper we consider financial time series from U.S. Fixed Income Market, S&P500, Exchange Market and Oil Market. It is well known that financial time series reveal some anomalies as regards the Efficient Market Hypotesis and some scaling behavior is evident such as fat tails and clustered volatility. This suggests to consider financial time serie as "pseudo"-random time series. For this kind of time series the power of prediction of neural networks has been shown to be appreciable. We first consider the financial time serie from the Minority Game point of view and than we apply a neural network with learning algorithm in order to analyze its prediction power. We show that Fixed Income Market presents many differences from other markets in terms of predictability as a measure of market efficiency.Minority Game, Learning Algorithms, Neural Networks, Financial Time Series, Efficient Market Hypotesis
Risk and predictive factors of prolonged viral RNA shedding in upper respiratory specimens in a large cohort of COVID-19 patients admitted to an Italian reference hospital
No full textBackground: Limited data are available about the predictors and outcomes associated with prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding (VS).
Methods: A retrospective study including COVID-19 patients admitted to an Italian hospital between March 1 and July 1, 2020. Predictors of viral clearance (VC) and prolonged VS from the upper respiratory tract were assessed by Poisson regression and logistic regression analyses. The causal relation between VS and clinical outcomes was evaluated through an inverse probability weighted Cox model.
Results: The study included 536 subjects. The median duration of VS from symptoms onset was 18 days. The estimated 30-day probability of VC was 70.2%. Patients with comorbidities, lymphopenia at hospital admission, or moderate/severe respiratory disease had a lower chance of VC. The development of moderate/severe respiratory failure, delayed hospital admission after symptoms onset, baseline comorbidities, or D-dimer >1000ng/mL at admission independently predicted prolonged VS. The achievement of VC doubled the chance of clinical recovery and reduced the probability of death/mechanical ventilation.
Conclusions: Respiratory disease severity, comorbidities, delayed hospital admission and inflammatory markers negatively predicted VC, which resulted to be associated with better clinical outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of prompt hospitalization of symptomatic patients, especially where signs of severity or comorbidities are present
Zirconia-Based Electrochemical NOx Sensors with Semiconducting Oxide Electrodes
No full textElectrochemical devices based on coupling an oxygen ionic
conductor (Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2: YSZ) with semiconducting
oxides as sensing electrodes were investigated. LaFeO3, a
p-type semiconductor, and WO3, an n-type semiconductor,
were chosen because of their known good NO2-sensing properties
as resistive-type sensors. The entire sensors were wholly
exposed to the same atmosphere. The electromotive force
(EMF) was measured for different NO2 concentrations and at
fixed temperature. The EMF values of both sensors increased
in NO2 atmosphere with a fast response time. The best
performance was observed around 450°C for LaFeO3-based
and 650°C for WO3-based sensors. Moreover, the response of
the LaFeO3-based sensors was found to be strongly affected by
the grain size of the powder used for the preparation of the
sensing electrode. The polarization curves of all sensors
showed a nonlinearity; nevertheless an opposite behavior in
the presence of NO2 gas was observed for the p- and ntype-
based oxide sensors. The nonlinearity was attributed to
the potential drop for LaFeO3 or increase for WO3 at the
electrode interface. Amperometric measurements, performed
at a fixed potential of 1 V, were found in accordance with
polarization curves. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
(EIS) analysis showed that the resistance and reactance at
the electrolyte/electrode interface decreased (for LaFeO3)/
increased (for WO3) on introduction of NO2 gas, because of the
lowering/increasing of the electrode overvoltage
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