1,721,192 research outputs found
'La inquieta Flandes' de Cristóbal Rodríguez Alba. Edición, introducción y notas
Full text link'La inquieta Flandes' di Cristóbal Rodríguez Alba è trasmessa da un unico testimone, conservato presso la Biblioteca Nacional de España. Si tratta di un poema epico in ottave, la cui trama riguarda la guerra degli Ottant’anni. Il manoscritto è datato 13 dicembre 1594, Torino, e con ogni probabilità non si tratta di un autografo, ma di una bella copia. Dell’autore, soldato originario di Mérida, al momento non abbiamo notizie biografiche; tuttavia, dimostra la sua buona formazione nei numerosi riferimenti colti e nell’ampio ventaglio di fonti a cui ricorre. Dalle sue dichiarazioni, sappiamo che non fu solo testimone, ma anche protagonista della maggior parte degli episodi narrati.
L’intento testimoniale è evidente nell’attenzione rivolta ai fatti storici: Alba svela ai lettori il contesto e le tappe di ogni combattimento e ne rivela i protagonisti, siano del bando spagnolo o avversario. Loda in particolare i suoi compagni d’arme: la densità dei nomi citati è notevole e sembra rispondere non solo a finalità cronistiche, ma alla volontà di riconoscere i meriti dei tercios. Per quanto riguarda i ‘nemici’, il poeta offre spesso il loro punto di vista, di solito scevro da connotazioni negative, aspetto da cui emerge la figura di un soldato disincantato rispetto alla propaganda dell’epoca, capace di affrontare la questione dell’‘eresia’ protestante in modo sorprendentemente sfaccettato. In virtù dell’intento storico, il meraviglioso è relegato ai margini della narrazione, così come la dimensione amorosa. In questo Alba dimostra una certa autonomia rispetto ai grandi rappresentanti del genere, coi quali tuttavia condivide certi topoi propri dell’epica, come la commistione tra storia e finzione. Oltre al merito documentale e all’importanza letteraria, è indubbio il valore linguistico del testo, che si distingue per alcune peculiarità di tipo lessicale e sintattico.
Il mio lavoro consiste nella trascrizione e nell’annotazione del manoscritto, finora inedito, nonché in uno studio preliminare in cui si possono apprezzare gli aspetti significativi de 'La inquieta Flandes', opera che rappresenta un tassello in più per approfondire quel complesso di testi ancora da esplorare che Miguel Martínez, citando un’espressione già di Michael Murrin, definì l’‘epica della polvere da sparo’.'La inquieta Flandes' by Cristóbal Rodríguez Alba is transmitted by only one codex, preserved in the Biblioteca Nacional de España. It is an epic poem in octaves, concerning the Eighty Years’ War. The manuscript is dated 13 December 1594, Turin, and in all likelihood, it is not an autograph, but a fair copy. At the moment, about the author ‒a soldier native of Mérida‒ we have no biographical information; however, he displays his good education in the numerous learned references and in the wide range of sources he uses. From his statements, we know that he was not only a witness, but also the protagonist of most of the episodes narrated.
The testimonial intent is evident in the attention paid to historical facts: Alba reveals to the readers the context and stages of each fight and unveils its protagonists, whether from the Spanish ban or the adversary’s. In particular, he praises his comrades in arms: the density of names cited is notable and seems to respond not only to chronicle purposes, but also to the desire to recognize the merits of the tercios. As regards the ‘enemies’, the poet often offers their point of view, usually free from negative connotations, an aspect from which emerges the figure of a soldier disenchanted with the propaganda of the time, capable of addressing the issue of Protestant ‘heresy’ in a surprisingly multifaceted way. By virtue of the historical aim, the marvelous is relegated to the margins of the narration, as is the amorous dimension. In doing this, Alba demonstrates a certain autonomy compared to the great representatives of the genre, with whom he nevertheless shares certain topoi typical of the epic, such as the mixture of history and fiction. In addition to the documentary and literary importance, the linguistic value of the text ‒which stands out for some lexical and syntactical peculiarities‒ is undoubted.
My work consists of the transcription and annotation of the manuscript, till now unpublished, as well as a preliminary study in which the significant aspects of 'La inquieta Flandes' can be appreciated. This work represents an additional piece to delve deeper into that group of texts still to be explored which Miguel Martínez, quoting an expression by Michael Murrin, defined ‘gunpowder epic’
"Incrociare parole e maneggiare tarocchi": sul lessico di Luigi Pintor giornalista (1947-1965)
No full textQuesto studio sul lessico di Luigi Pintor, giornalista dell’Unità e fondatore del Manifesto, si propone di tracciare alcune prime linee di ricerca sul linguaggio politico dell’intellettuale comunista sardo attraverso l’analisi lessicale degli articoli giornalistici.
I testi oggetto di studio, che costituiscono il corpus documentario (Appendice I), appartengono al periodo 1947-’65 in cui Pintor lavora per i principali organi di stampa del Pci: la rivista Rinascita, il settimanale Vie nuove, il quotidiano l’Unità. Il corpus attinge da uno spoglio accurato, che si è spinto fino ai primi anni del Manifesto e della cui consistenza dà conto l’Inventario degli articoli giornalistici dell’Appendice II.
La ricerca linguistica vorrebbe individuare, attraverso l’analisi delle parole-chiave della propaganda comunista, in quale contesto storico-linguistico si sia formata la scrittura giornalistica pintoriana, in che modo essa si sia evoluta all’interno dell’ideologia comunista e del linguaggio politico comunista e, infine, quale efficacia comunicativa abbia raggiunto e quale portata storica e capacità ideale questa scrittura abbia mostrato e trasmesso.
Lo spoglio lessicale è stato molto ampio: ha interessato, infatti, oltre 1500 termini (si veda l’Indice delle parole) e ha restituito un ricco quadro del lessico impiegato in funzione politica. Innanzitutto è emerso l’uso di parole, più o meno frequenti, che immediatamente identificano il testo come ‘politico’ in quanto indicano le ‘cose’ della politica (ciò che riguarda il suo esercizio, le istituzioni ecc.) e parole che denotano l’ideologia comunista. A queste si devono aggiungere i termini appartenenti al sistema retorico ‘tradizionale’ del linguaggio politico (termini bellici e religiosi) e, infine, le categorie di parole che riguardano l’uso della forza, le antinomie nuovo/vecchio, chiaro/nascosto, unito/diviso.
Lo studio delle parole, attraverso l’analisi di tutte le occorrenze, della connotazione dei termini e del loro valore politico, vorrebbe illustrare come è descritto e presentato nel mezzo propagandistico il rapporto tra identità e politica (Capitolo I), tra politica ed esercizio del potere (Capitolo II), per guidare alla comprensione del ruolo del lessico nell’interpretazione dei fatti storici e nella loro divulgazione. E, perché no, scoprire quanto autenticamente la politica possa essere ritenuta «uno strumento di una trasformazione dell’intero ordine sociale, e, ancora più profondamente, degli stessi rapporti tra le persone».This lexical study upon Luigi Pintor, journalist of l’Unità and founder of Manifesto, proposes to trace the first few lines of research on the political language of the Sardinian Communist intellectual through lexical analysis of newspaper articles.
The texts investigated, which form the documentary corpus (Appendix I), belong to the period 1947-'65 when Pintor used to work for the mainstream press of the PCI: the magazine Rinascita, the weekly Vie nuove, the newspaper l’Unità. The corpus originates from a careful research and review, which has led to the early years of Manifesto, and the Inventory of newspaper articles in Appendix II gives an account of its consistency.
The linguistic research identifies, through the analysis of the keywords of Communist propaganda, in which historical-linguistic context pintorian journalistic writing developed, how it evolved within the communist ideology and political communist language, and, lastly, how effective it was and which historical and ideal value this writing showed and transmitted.
The lexical catalogue, very wide, consists of more than 1500 words (see words index) and gives a rich picture of the vocabulary used with political purpose. First of all the research highlights the use of words, more or less frequent, which immediately identifies the text as 'political' as indicating the 'things' of policy (as regards application, institutions etc.) and words denoting the Communist ideology. To these ones we must add words belonging to the 'traditional' rhetorical system of the political language (religious and war terms) and, finally, the categories of words relating to the use of force, the antinomies new / old, clear / hidden, united / divided.
Through the analysis of all occurrences, of the connotation of words and their political value, the study of words demonstrates how the relationship between identity and politics (Chapter I) and between politics and the exercise of power (Chapter II) are described and presented in the propagandist media, in order to lead to the understanding of the role of vocabulary in the interpretation and popularization of historical events, and to see how politics can truly be considered "uno strumento di una trasformazione dell’intero ordine sociale, e, ancora più profondamente, degli stessi rapporti tra le persone"
Approaches to semi-synthetic minimal cells: a review.
No full textFollowing is a synthetic review on the minimal living cell, defined as an artificial or a semi-artificial cellhaving the minimal and sufficient number of componentsto be considered alive. We describe concepts and experimentsbased on these constructions, and we point out thatan operational definition of minimal cell does not define asingle species, but rather a broad family of interrelated celllike structures. The relevance of these researches, considering that the minimal cell should also correspond to the early simple cell in the origin of life and early evolution, is also explained. In addition, we present detailed data in relation to minimal genome, with observations cited by several authors who agree on setting the theoretical fullfledged minimal genome to a figure between 200 and 300 genes. However, further theoretical assumptions may significantly reduce this number (i.e. by eliminating ribosomal proteins and by limiting DNA and RNA polymerases to only a few, less specific molecular species). Generally, the experimental approach to minimal cells consists in utilizing liposomes as cell models and in filling them with genes/ enzymes corresponding to minimal cellular functions. To date, a few research groups have successfully induced the expression of single proteins, such as the green fluorescence protein, inside liposomes. Here, different approaches are described and compared. Present constructs are still rather far from the minimal cell, and experimental as well as theoretical difficulties opposing further reduction of complexity are discussed. While most of these minimal cell constructions may represent relatively poor imitations of amodern full-fledged cell, further studies will begin precisely from these constructs. In conclusion, we give a brief outline of the next possible steps on the road map to the minimal cell
Psychopathology of the Bodily Self and the Brain: The Case of Schizophrenia
No full textIn the present paper, we review the recent empirical evidence on the neurobiological basis of a minimal notion of the self, the bodily self. We show the relationship between the body, its motor potentialities and the notion of minimal self. We argue that this approach can shed new light onto self-disturbances and social deficits characterizing schizophrenia. We discuss our approach with other views on the neural correlates of self-disturbances in schizophrenia and propose that cognitive neuroscience can today address the classical topics of psychopathology by adding a new level of description, finally enabling the correlation between the first-person experiential aspects of psychiatric diseases and their neurobiological roots
From the minimal genome to the minimal cell: theoretical and experimental investigations.
No full textIt is known that even the simplest living cells existing on the Earth have several hundredgenes, with hundreds of expressed proteins that catalyse simultaneously hundreds ofreactions within the same tiny compartment the cell representing a maize of anenormous and fascinating complexity. On the other hand, if we think to early cells orprotocells (those that played a key role in the origin of life), it is conceivable that theycould display some living properties with a minor number of biochemicalcomponents. In particular, the present huge complexity is most likely resulted frombillions of years of evolution, that developed a series of defence and securitymechanisms, redundancies, metabolic loops and highly sophisticated regulatoryprocesses.These considerations elicit the question, whether such a complexity is reallyessential for life, or whether instead cellular life might be possible with a much smallernumber of components. In this chapter we describe the basis of the concepts ofminimal genome and of the minimal cell.The question of the minimal genome and minimal cell has been considered sincemany years, and one should in particular recall the work of Morowitz (1967), who,based on the enzymatic components of primary metabolism, estimated that the size of aminimal cell should be about one-tenth smaller than Mycoplasma genitalium.Significant earlier insights into the field are those by Jay and Gilbert (1987) as well asby Woese (1983) and Dyson (1982). More recently, the reviews by Deamer andcoworkers (Pohorille and Deamer, 2002) and Luisis group (Luisi 2002, Oberholzer andLuisi, 2002) have sharpened the question and brought it in the perspective of modernmolecular tools. In fact, the last years have seen a significant revival of interest in thefield of the minimal cell, as witnessed for example by two international meetings held in2004 on the subject (Szathmáry, 2005). A more detailed version of a review on theminimal cell is in press elsewhere (Luisi et al., 2005)
Commentary: The magnetic touch illusion: A perceptual correlate of visuo-tactile integration in peripersonal space
Full text link
Objects and their nouns in peripersonal space.
No full textIn this study we investigated whether objects and their name evoke the activation of the same motor programs. In the first experiment participants had to make speeded responses based on the category of an object. They had to signal whether an object, presented visually, either within or outside their reachable space, was natural or manufactured, by making reach-to-precision or reach-to-power grasp responses. We found a compatibility effect between the response required by task, and the grip evoked by the object, for reachable space only. Nevertheless, this finding holds for artefacts and not for natural objects. In the second experiment, participants had to make reach-to-precision or reach-to-power grasp responses when deciding whether an object, presented either within or outside their reachable space, was congruent with a previously displayed word. In this case we found a compatibility effect between the response required by task and the grip evoked by the object’s name, however this effect was not limited by participants’ reaching range. Our data suggest that objects and objects’ name likely correspond to different motor representations. That is, while the former seem to house both stable (i.e., shape and size) and temporary (i.e., orientation and distance with respect to the perceiver) action-relevant information, the latter seem to house only stable action-relevant information
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
- …
