87 research outputs found
Foreword
No full textThis book offers a range of perspectives on Elizabeth Gaskell and adaptation. The contributors – Alan Shelston, Raffaella Antinucci, Thomas Recchio, Brenda McKay, Katherine Byrne, Patricia Marchesi, Marcia Marchesi and Loredana Salis – discuss the afterlives of Gaskell’s fiction, from the author as adaptor of her own work to the role of the BBC in re-inventing Gaskell’s narratives. The volume brings together a collection that tackles the remediation of Gaskell’s fiction from Gaskell’s own time to the 21st century, enabling her to join those authors, most prominently, Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens, who have received full-length book studies on adaptations of their work. The collection, as a whole, seems to confirm the notion that since the inception of film, the number of adaptations of an author’s work equates to the writer’s canonical status. No doubt, this book will prompt many more investigations into the adaptability of Elizabeth Gaskell’s fiction.
Remediating Gaskell: "North and South" and its BBC Adaptation, 2004
No full textThis book offers a range of perspectives on Elizabeth Gaskell and adaptation. The contributors – Alan Shelston, Raffaella Antinucci, Thomas Recchio, Brenda McKay, Katherine Byrne, Patricia Marchesi, Marcia Marchesi and Loredana Salis – discuss the afterlives of Gaskell’s fiction, from the author as adaptor of her own work to the role of the BBC in re-inventing Gaskell’s narratives. The volume brings together a collection that tackles the remediation of Gaskell’s fiction from Gaskell’s own time to the 21st century, enabling her to join those authors, most prominently, Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens, who have received full-length book studies on adaptations of their work. The collection, as a whole, seems to confirm the notion that since the inception of film, the number of adaptations of an author’s work equates to the writer’s canonical status. No doubt, this book will prompt many more investigations into the adaptability of Elizabeth Gaskell’s fiction
A kinetic model for molecular diffusion through pores
No full textThe number of pathogens developing multiple drug resistance is ever increasing. The impact on healthcare systems is huge and the need for novel antibiotics as well a new way to develop them is urgent, especially against Gram- negative bacteria. The first defense of these bacteria is the outer membrane, where unspecific protein channels (porins) modulate nutrients passive diffusion. Also polar antibiotics enter through this path and down-regulation and/or mutation of porins are very common in drug resistant strains. Our inability to come up with novel effective antibiotics mostly relies upon the insufficient comprehension of the key molecular features enabling better penetra- tion through porins.
Molecular dynamics simulations offer an extraordinary tool in the study of the dynamics of biological systems; however, one of the major drawbacks of this method is that its use is currently restricted to study time scales of the order of microsecond. Enhanced sampling methods like Metadynamics have been recently used to inves- tigate the diffusion of antibiotics through bacterial porins. The main limitation is that dynamical properties can- not be estimated because of the different potential that the systems under study are experiencing. Recently, the scope of Metadynamics has been extended. By applying an a posteriori analysis one can obtain rates of transitions and rate-limiting steps of the process under study, directly comparable with kinetic data extracted from electro- physiology experiments. In this work, we apply this method to the study of the permeability of Escherichia coli's OmpF with respect to Meropenem, finding good agreement with the residence time obtained analyzing experi- mental current nois
Adapting Gaskell: Screen and Stage Versions of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Fiction
No full textThis book offers a range of perspectives on Elizabeth Gaskell and adaptation. The contributors – Alan Shelston, Raffaella Antinucci, Thomas Recchio, Brenda McKay, Katherine Byrne, Patricia Marchesi, Marcia Marchesi and Loredana Salis – discuss the afterlives of Gaskell’s fiction, from the author as adaptor of her own work to the role of the BBC in re-inventing Gaskell’s narratives. The volume brings together a collection that tackles the remediation of Gaskell’s fiction from Gaskell’s own time to the 21st century, enabling her to join those authors, most prominently, Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens, who have received full-length book studies on adaptations of their work. The collection, as a whole, seems to confirm the notion that since the inception of film, the number of adaptations of an author’s work equates to the writer’s canonical status. No doubt, this book will prompt many more investigations into the adaptability of Elizabeth Gaskell’s fiction.
STOPP/START Anti-aggregation and Anticoagulation Alerts in Atrial Fibrillation
No full textBACKGROUND
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is common in the elderly. A key component of AF management is Oral
Anticoagulant Therapy (OAT), consisting of Vitamin K Antagonists (VKAs) or Direct Oral
Anticoagulants (DOACs). The aim of the present study is to check, using STOPP (Screening Tool of
Older Persons’ Prescriptions)/START (Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment) Criteria, if such
drugs are potentially inappropriately prescribed/omitted in an elderly population with AF, and to
determine their impact on mortality.
METHODS
This study included patients (n=427) with nonvalvular AF consecutively evaluated between 2013 and
2019 at the Geriatric Outpatient Service, University Hospital of Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy, and
followed-up for 36 months. The OAT-group included 330 patients; the other 97 patients constituted
the non-OAT-group. The sample was assessed for STOPP/START criteria.
RESULTS
We found no difference (p>0.1) in comorbidity burden, frailty, and cardio-cerebro-vascular disease
prevalence in the two groups, who also did not present difference in 36-month mortality (p=0.97).
OAT was overall appropriately taken, and 62.4% of OAT-group presented the START criterion to
take antiplatelets but also the STOPP criterion not to take them, because of the simultaneous
anticoagulant intake. In the non-OAT-group, 69.1% presented the START criterion to take
anticoagulants, and 21.6% the START criterion to take antiplatelets.
CONCLUSIONS
Patients with AF are often prone to under- or over-prescription, particularly of antithrombotic drugs.
The STOPP/START criteria are a valid tool to assess and correct wrong therapeutic choices. In frail
and comorbid subjects, survival is not correlated with the assumption of OAT
Sensing Single Molecule Penetration into Nanopores: Pushing the Time Resolution to the Diffusion Limit
No full textTo quantify small molecule penetration into and eventually permeation through nanopores, we applied an improved excess-noise analysis of the ion current fluctuation caused by entering molecules. The kinetic parameters of substrate entry and exit are derived from a two-state Markov model, analyzing the substrate concentration dependence of the average ion current and its variance. Including filter corrections allows one to detect the transition rates beyond the cutoff frequency, fc, of the instrumental ion-current filter. As an application of the method, we performed an analysis of the single-channel ion current of Meropenem, an antibiotic of the carbapenem family, interacting with OmpF, the major general outer membrane channel of Escherichia coli bacteria. At 40 °C we detected the residence time of Meropenem inside OmpF of about 500 ns - more than 2 orders of magnitude smaller than fc-1 and close to the diffusion limit of few hundred nanoseconds. We also have established theoretical limit conditions under which the substrate-induced channel blockages can be detected and suggest that submicrosecond-scale gating kinetic parameters are accessible with existing experimental equipment
L’UMANESIMO DI ARISTOTELE FRA POLITICA, CONOSCENZA E EDUCAZIONE
No full textAccording to the author of this study, the nature of Aristotle’s work is, at the same time, humanistic and anthropocentric, unlike Plato’s work, which is hu- manistic and theocentric. The author arrives at this conclusion through exami- nation of the philosopher’s pedagogical ideas: the definition of the purposes and means of education is related to the quality of the responses on the organisation of human societies, on the problem of the common good, and on the nature of man both as a rational being and with reference to his place in the natural world
Nutritional Status and Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Elderly
No full text(1) Background: The association between polypharmacy and malnutrition has been investigated in several studies; however, few of these specifically deepened the relationship between potentially inappropriate medication and malnutrition. With a descriptive approach, the primary aim of our study was to evaluate the impact of the nutritional status, assessed with the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), on potentially inappropriate medications (PIM), estimated 10-year survival, and the risk of adverse drug reactions in elderly patients; the secondary aim was to evaluate how the Screening Tool of Older People’s Prescriptions (STOPP), Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment (START), and BEERS 2019 criteria identify PIM compared to nutritional status. (2) Methods: In this study, 3091 subjects were enrolled, of whom 2748 (71.7%) were women; the median age was 80 years, with an interquartile range between 75 and 85 years of age. The subjects were assessed at the outpatient service for frail older people of the University Hospital of Cagliari. The study population was evaluated for their: MNA, Charlson Comorbidity Index, 10-year survival estimation, BEERS 2019, STOPP and START criteria, and ADR Risk scores. (3) Results: We divided the study population into three groups: MNA1 (MNA score ≥ 24), MNA2 (23.5–17), and MNA3 (<17): the severity of comorbidities, STOPP and START alerts, and BEERS 2019 criteria were significantly worse in both MNA2 and MNA3 compared to MNA1—with the exception of BEERS “non-anti-infective medications that should be avoided or have their dosage reduced with varying levels of kidney function in older adults”. Moreover, the estimated 10-year survival was significantly higher in MNA1 than in MNA2 and MNA3, and also in MNA2 compared to MNA3. Finally, the ADR risk scores were significantly lower in MNA1 than in MNA2 and MNA3. (4) Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the association between nutritional status and PIM checked with the BEERS 2019 criteria, and, for the first time, with the STOPP and START criteria
“...so much immortal wealth”: 'Life in the Sick-Room' by Harriet Martineau as Eco-Sustainable Narrative
No full textThis study reassesses Harriet Martineau’s Life in the Sick-Room as an example of Victorian eco-sustainable narrative. Based on the author’s real-life experience as a long-term patient, the volume was conceived as a normative treatise on the condition of the invalid, and contributed significantly to ongoing debates on the reform of the medical system. Though the author does not deliberately provide readers with an ecological message, she advocates a remedial process that sees nature as a refuge and a redemptive space. A re-reading of Life in the Sick-Room today shows its value from an eco-critical viewpoint
Writing out (of) Darkness: The Bastilles of England; or the Lunacy Law at Work by Louisa Lowe (1883)
No full textThe first part of the
essay traces the history of internment in Victorian England. The
reconstruction is undoubtedly cultured and detailed starting from the
examination of the Madhouses Act of 1774 and its consequences on the care of
the mentally ill.The study is dedicated in particular to Louise Lowe,
interned for the first time in 1870. The case study is appropriate with
respect to the purpose that the author of the essay proposes: to analyze how
Lowe derived from the experience of her “incarcerations” some
denunciatory writings and how Lowe contributed with the foundation of the
Lunacy Law Reform Association (LLRA) to the improvement of the living
conditions of the mentally ill. Lowe’s writing cited in the title is in
fact accurately described through the metaphor of prison, the stigma on
health and the trade that came from it
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