786 research outputs found
Gli affreschi del ciborio
No full textIl testo analizza gli affreschi quattrocenteschi riemersi nel ciborio della pieve di Monte Sorbo, datati 1442, riferendoli allambito stilistico tardogotico marchigiano vicino ad Antonio 'Alberti', e in derivazione dai fratelli Salimbeni
Ultrastructural effects of trace elements and environmental pollutionin Italian ‘‘Triangle of Death’’ on Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf.
No full textThe lichen Pseudevernia furfuracea was exposed to environmental trace elements in the district of Acerra (province of Naples, southern Italy), one of the points forming Italy's "Triangle of Death". P. furfuracea thalli were exposed in bags at different sites for 6 months, periodically collected and examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to assess ultrastructural changes. An our earlier study demonstrated that these exposed lichens were strongly contaminated by trace elements (Sorbo S, Aprile G, Strumia S, Castaldo Cobianchi R, Leone A, et al. 2008. Trace element accumulation in P. furfuracea (L.) Zopf exposed in Italy's so-called Triangle of Death. Sci Total Environ 407: 647-654.). The algal cells were more affected than the fungal symbiont. Exposition at urban sites gave the most frequent changes. Four trace elements (Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn) were used to study the effects of ultrastructural trace element both in field and in vitro treatments. The lichen developed comparable ultrastructural changes when exposed to different trace elements and the changes were not specific to the treatment used (lichen bag exposition, in field and in vitro treatments). The in vitro treatment gave the highest frequency of damage at all time points. X-ray TEM microanalysis revealed trace elements inside the cell walls and the cytoplasmic vesicles of the lichens cultured with the trace elements; this localization is probably related to tolerance mechanisms. © 2011 Società Botanica Italiana
“The dramatic functions of Italian spaghetti western soundtracks: a comparison between Ennio Morricone and Francesco De Masi”
No full textThe term “Spaghetti western” identifies about 500 western movies produced in Italy mostly between 1964 and 1978. This film genre produced a significant commercial success as well as a worldwide distribution. The most important stylistic differences compared to the classic American westerns dealt with the locations (mostly set in Mediterranean countries ), the often low budgets, the bloody plots and a new kind of cynical gunfighter.
The best known films and considered the archetypes of the genre are those of the so-called “Dollars Trilogy” directed by Sergio Leone.
This genre suddenly disappeared almost completely, except for a very few movies in the eighties and nineties. For many years the spaghetti western has been snubbed if not disparaged by many critics, only to be recently re-evaluated even at the 2007 Venice International Film Festival with a retrospective of 32 movies.
The role of Spaghetti western's soundtracks is not put simply to the background, but fulfills specific functions that complement the dramatic narration in particular scenes. The composers came mainly from academic studies made at the Conservatory, therefore in their soundtracks they applied techniques belonging to classical music. Ennio Morricone is definitely the composer who has most contributed to the definition of the genre with his thirty soundtracks written for Spaghetti westerns. He revolutionized the concept of “atmosphere and suspense music” through a particular use of orchestration and writing, for example using martial but slow rhythms, evocative themes often sung by classical voices, characters' leitmotive assigned to different instruments (trumpet, harmonica, guitar). Today Morricone's music is often performed in concert and has influenced many artists belonging to different musical genres. Just to name a few: Hugo Montenegro (1968), John Zorn's album The Big Gundown (1985), the single Clint Eastwood (2001) by Gorillaz and the tribute album We all love Ennio Morricone (2007) with various artists such as Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Quincy Jones.
Francesco De Masi (1930-2005) was another prolific composer of Spaghetti western soundtracks between 1965 and 1970. Unlike other Morricone's followers or influenced by his style, De Masi created a personal language, adding more a “pop flavour” to his musical atmospheres. This style is evident especially in collaborations with the singer Raoul, Alessandro Alessandroni and its typical whistle, the epic choruses of the ensemble “I Cantori Moderni”. For many years De Masi's soundtracks have been regularly reprinted by specialized labels (Cam records, Cinedelic, Beat records) and distributed mainly in the Asian market. In 2008 was published a CD entirely devoted to him
Compendium priuilegiorum Fratrum Minorum et aliorum Mendicantium & non Mendicantium
No full textSign.: *-2*\p4\s, A-Z\p4\s, 2A-2Z\p4\s, 3A-3Q\p4\
Bioacumulation and ultrastructural effects of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in the moss Scorpiurum circinatum (Brid.) Fleisch. & Loeske
No full textThis paper tested if culturing the moss Scorpiurum circinatum (Brid.) Fleisch. & Loeske with metal solutions (Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn) for 30 days causes metal bioaccumulation and ultrastructural changes. The results showed that despite the high heavy metal concentrations in treatment solutions, treated samples did not show severe ultrastructural changes and cells were still alive and generally well preserved. Bioaccumulation highlighted that moss cells survived to heavy metal toxicity by immobilizing most toxic ions extracellularly, likely in binding sites of the cell wall, which is the main site of metal detoxification
Leptogenesis and rescattering in supersymmetric models
No full textThe observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be due to the B−L violating decay of heavy right-handed (s)neutrinos. The amount of the asymmetry depends crucially on their number density. If the (s)neutrinos are generated thermally, in supersymmetric models there is limited parameter space leading to enough baryons. For this reason, several alternative mechanisms have been proposed. We discuss the nonperturbative production of sneutrino quanta by a direct coupling to the inflaton. This production dominates over the corresponding creation of neutrinos, and it can easily (i.e., even for a rather small inflaton-sneutrino coupling) lead to a sufficient baryon asymmetry. We then study the amplification of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) degrees of freedom, via their coupling to the sneutrinos, during the rescattering phase which follows the nonperturbative production. This process, which mainly influences the (MSSM) D-flat directions, is very efficient as long as the sneutrino quanta are in the relativistic regime. The rapid amplification of the light degrees of freedom may potentially lead to a gravitino problem. We estimate the gravitino production by means of a perturbative calculation, discussing the regime in which we expect it to be reliable
Moving sources in a ghost condensate
No full textGhost condensation has been recently proposed as a mechanism inducing the spontaneous breaking of Lorentz symmetry. Corrections to the Newton potential generated by a static source have been computed: they yield a limit M less than or similar to 10 MeV on the symmetry breaking scale, and-if the limit is saturated-they are maximal at a distance L similar to 1000 km from the source. However, these corrections propagate at a tiny velocity, nu(s) similar to 10(-12) m/s, many orders of magnitude smaller than the velocity of any plausible source. We compute the gravitational potential taking the motion of the source into account: the standard Newton law is recovered in this case, with negligible corrections for any distance from the source up to astrophysical scales. Still, the vacuum of the theory is unstable, and requiring stability over the lifetime of the Universe imposes a limit on M which is not too far from the one given above. In the absence of a direct coupling of the ghost to matter, signatures of this model will have to be searched in the form of exotic astrophysical events
Plasticity of the response of repetitive/non coding DNA to the heavy-metal stress
No full textPrevious works have shown that genome reacts to heavy-metal stress by selective amplification of (G+C)-rich highly repetitive/ non coding DNA. Such phenomenon takes place similarly both in protonemal and in leafy shoot phases. However, when metals are removed from culture medium, if stress has taken place during the leafy shoot phase new-formed DNA is eliminated from nucleus; and vice versa, if stress has taken place during protonemal phase, the new-formed DNA remains inside genome of the target organism.Our idea is that such different behaviour of metal-induced repetitive/non coding DNA could be linked to different role of these two phases: in fact, while in protonemal phase protective role of repetitive/non-coding DNA may have a particular importance, conversely, in leafy shoot phase preservation of new generation from genome’s changes may have the priority. Based on these considerations, we have analyzed the behavior of metal-induced repetitive DNA during transition from protonemal to leafy shoot phase in different kind of situations. Our results have showed that: (i) most of repetitive/non coding DNA sequences triggered by heavy-metal stress in protonemal phase, even if apparently it should be stabilized in the genome, it is not actually transmitted to leafy shoots phase; (ii) in the leafy shoots resulting from stressed protonemata, answer of repetitive DNA to metal stress is similar but much less meaningful compared to the one trigged by the same conditions in the leafy shoots resulting from unstressed protonemata; (iii) in the leafy shoots resulting directly from those from mine through vegetative way, heavy-metal stress doesn’t trigger any type of DNA amplification. Some hypotheses are discussed on the basis of observed morphological and functional modifications
Behaviour of repetitive non-coding DNA in response to heavy metal stress in the protonemata of Funaria hygrometrica
No full textStudies on the leafy shoots of Funaria hygrometrica have shown that the genome reacts to heavy-metal stress with the selective
amplification of specific (GþC)-rich highly repetitive/non-coding DNA sequences. These studies have also shown that, when the metal-induced stress ceases, almost all the stress-induced repetitive DNA is eliminated from the genome. In this study, in order to investigate whether this reaction of genome could be associated with the developmental stage of the target organism, we analysed the behaviour of repetitive non-coding DNA in response to metal-stress in the protonemata of F. hygrometrica. That is the juvenile stage of the gametophyte phase and that precedes the leafy shoot stage. In particular, we analysed the genome of chloronemal cells in plants treated with a lead–zinc mixture similar to that found in mines in Sardinia, Italy. Our results show that, in the chloronemal cells of protonema, metal-stress induces an amplification of (GþC)-rich repetitive/non-coding DNA sequences similar to that observed in the leafy-shoot cells. However, unlike that which occurs in the leafy-shoot stage, in the protonemal stage almost all of the stress-induced repetitive DNA remains within the nucleus also after the stimulus is removed. Some hypotheses are discussed
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