383 research outputs found
Effects of 25-OH vitamin D supplementation on mesenchymal stromal cells in an animal model of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)
No full textIn systemic lupus erythematous (SLE), mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are defective and may present early signs of senescence. In a previous study we demonstrated as the treatment with hydroxychloroquine may influence the clonogenic potential of MSCs in a SLE animal model.
Vitamin D may influence several aspects of the innate and adaptative immune response and low serum levels of vitamin D are common in SLE patients and were correlated to higher disease activity and severity. The aim of this study is to identify the effect of 25-OH vitamin D, on MSCs characteristics in New Zealand Black/White F1 mice (NZ), that develop a disease very similar to human SLE.
We are treating 20 NZ with a diet enriched with 25-OH-vitamin-D 10.000 UI/Kg, mice starting from 8 weeks of age. We divided the mice in 4 experimental groups (5 mice each), the first group will be sacrificed before the start of the treatment (8 week of age) and the other groups will be sacrificed at 16, 26 and 36 weeks of age. Fifteen mice were enrolled as controls and they will be sacrificed at 16, 26 and 36 weeks of age.
We are evaluating disease activity parameters including total urinary protein parameters, anti-dsDNA autoantibody, 25OH vitamin D ant parathormone levels.
MSC phenotype is confirmed by cytofluorimetry (expression of Sca-1 and CD-106, negativity for CD45) and we also evaluate differentiation capability in adipogenic and osteoblast lineage. Clonogenic potential is evaluated in at the seeding (P0) and in the following 2 passages (P1 and P2 respectively one and two weeks after the seeding) with the Colony Forming Unit (CFU) assay
Introduzione
No full textIl saggio introduce il volume dedicato alla produzione teatrale e pittorica di Dario Fo e Franca Rame, puntando l'attenzione sulla contaminazione dei due generi artistici. Basta, infatti, una lettura, anche approssimativa, della variegata biografia di Dario Fo e Franca Rame per vanificare l’annosa querelle - ormai fortunatamente superata - tra parola e immagine, che ha oppresso, non molto tempo fa e per diversi anni, gli studi intorno al teatro. Oggi non si tratta più di articolare forzatamente i piani del dibattito lungo i binari di una doxa ideologicamente condivisa, ma di riconoscere che il mondo, il “vissuto-immaginario”, nel quale hanno trovato luogo le avventurose attività scenico-verbali della coppia, si è ben presto rivelato, fin dalle origini, e poi acutamente manifestato, come una apertura d’orizzonte, a tutti i livelli. È sufficiente osservare anche solo la varietà iconica delle suggestive stimolazioni che il “teatro dell’occhio” Fo/Rame suscita, per capire che una tanto sfaccettata capacità di approcci può essere unicamente imputata alla sua valenza di testimonianza profonda del proprio tempo, in virtù della stratificazione culturale che tanto riccamente ne informa il dispiegarsi di fronte allo spettatore. Inoltre, come quasi sempre succede in questo come in altri casi analoghi della storia delle arti e della loro ricezione, la disputa sopra rammentata – giova ricordarlo – è stata vissuta più sentitamente da chi del teatro parla, più che da chi il teatro fa. Gli “acrobati delle arti” o “atleti del cuore” (cfr. A. Artaud) sanno bene che la scena è un ambiente promiscuo e, quindi, particolarmente adatto all’incuneamento critico e alla feconda ambiguità segnica
SAT0260 MUSCULAR INVOLVEMENT OF THE LOWER LIMBS IN PATIENTS WITH IDIOPATHIC INFLAMMATORY MYOPATHIES: A MRI EVALUATION
No full textBackground: Since many years, muscular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with idio- pathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), but the clinical significance and the pattern of the muscular alterations (edema, fatty infiltration and atrophy) in different subsets of the disease are still not well defined.
Objectives: The aims of this study were to analyse possible differences in the involved muscles between dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM); the correlations between the pattern of muscular involvement in dif- ferent subsets of the disease and disease parameters in a monocentric cohort of patients.
Methods: We retrospectively collected data from 85 patients with poly and dermatomyositis (EULAR/ACR criteria) who performed pelvic and tights muscle MRI from January 2010 to December 2018: 27 had DM and 58 PM, mean age 58.6±13.4 years, mean disease duration of 45±73 months. The images in 22 muscles for the presence of muscular edema, fatty infiltrates and atrophy were assessed by a dedicated radiologist. Moreover, data about serum creatine kinase (CK) and manual muscle test 8 (MMT8) were collected. Data were reported as median±interquartile range; non-parametric tests were used for the analysis.
Results: Sixty-three patients presented muscular edema in at least one muscle. Patients with muscular edema had higher CK levels (1506±1976 vs 235±224 p<0.001) lower disease duration (9.5±47.0 vs 19.8±97.2 p=0.031). and lower MMT8 (63.6±11.2 vs 69.8±10.7 p=0.031).
Forty-eight patients presented fatty infiltrates that were more frequent in older patients (63.1±11-3 vs 52.8±13.7 p=0.01) and in those with longer disease duration (39.1±95.4 vs 9.5±12.5 p=0.024). CK levels and MMT8 were not different in patients with or without muscular fatty infiltrates. With the multivariate analysis the disease duration represents the only independent factor for the presence of muscular fatty infiltrates (p=0.05). Muscular atrophy was present in 17 patients but it was not correlated to age and disease duration. CK and MMT8 were not different in presence/ absence of fatty infiltrates or muscular atrophy.
Edema and atrophy were not different between poly- and dermatomyosi- tis. The fatty infiltrate was more present in the posterior compartment of the tights (biceps femoris and semitendinosus muscle) in patients with PM compared to DM (68.2% vs 29.6% p=0.046).
Conclusion: The alterations identified with MRI in our cohort changed according to the disease duration and the age of the patients. In particu- lar, fatty infiltration was more frequent in patients with longer disease duration, but was not associated to CK levels and muscular weakness. Moreover, fatty infiltration was prevalent in the posterior compartment of the tights in PM patients.
Muscular MRI is widely used in the diagnosis and follow-up but the clini- cal meanings of the different alterations still need to be investigated. Disclosure of Interests: : Simone Barsotti: None declared, Barbara Mugel- lini: None declared, Alessandra Tripoli: None declared, Giacomo Aringhieri: None declared, Chiara Cardelli: None declared, Elisa Cioffi: None declared, Virna Zampa: None declared, Davide Caramella: None declared, Marta Mosca Paid instructor for: GlaxoSmithKline, Lilly, UCB, Rossella Neri: None declare
«Vieni fuori Euripide!» La figura popolare di Medea nella mitografia di Fo-Rame
No full textIl saggio fa parte di un volume collettaneo di cui sono curatrice, assieme ad A. Barsotti, incluso negli Atti di una Giornata Internazionale di Studi svolta il 27 maggio 2010 presso la Fondazione Museo Piaggio “G. A. Agnelli” di Pontedera (Pi),. Gli Atti raccolgono contributi di studiosi attratti dalla pluridisciplinarità e quindi acutamente capaci di focalizzarne i punti chiave negli oltre cinquant’anni di produzione della coppia premio Nobel. Dario Fo e Franca Rame. Il saggio in questione affronta la figura di Medea, interpretata da Franca Rame negli anni Settanta del Novecento, come “mito secondo”, che rivitalizza il primo per via di paradosso, nell’intreccio di cultura classica e contemporaneità, alto e basso, lingua colta e popolare-dialettale reinventata
Rendimento a scuola: quanto penalizza essere stranieri? Un’indagine nella provincia di Pisa
No full textI grandi flussi di immigrazione iniziati dopo gli anni ottanta stanno trasformando l’Italia in una
società multietnica. Nell’attuale fase storica in cui, a causa della persistente crisi economica e dei
conflitti internazionali, l’intolleranza e l’integralismo stanno aumentando è prioritario promuovere
un’efficace interazione tra differenti culture, in un quadro di reciproco rispetto. In questa
prospettiva, la scuola può giocare un ruolo fondamentale contrastando le discriminazioni contro i
nati stranieri, attraverso il contenimento delle disuguaglianze nell’istruzione, come premessa per
ridurre le frustrazioni e l’emarginazione ed alimentare un’armonia sociale e culturale
Perché “La colpa è sempre del diavolo”?
No full textPerché “La colpa è sempre del diavolo”?
Questo saggio è un esercizio di analisi scenica su base drammaturgica,
considerando che la drammaturgia dell’attore-autore lombardo
è frutto d’una sedimentazione performativa che consente – insieme
ad altri fattori – una ricostruzione dello spettacolo da parte del lettore-
spettatore. Il “perché” del titolo, nella sua ambiguità, allude in
primis alla scelta esegetica d’una commedia, La colpa è sempre del diavolo
del 1965, non molto studiata, non ritenuta degna da Fo d’una
edizione tv, ma interessante per una serie di ragioni che denunciano
una speciale primogenitura. Per la prima volta si rappresenta un Medioevo
pseudostorico e addirittura fantascientifico; la strega per finta
diventa, da balorda, coscienza critica; il «trucco del nano» è applicato
a un diavoletto raisonneur provvisto d’un linguaggio alternativo, veneto
antico, che anticipa le invenzioni linguistiche e paralinguistiche di
Mistero buffo. Trait d’union, dunque, La colpa è sempre del diavolo fra
le prime commedie e il capolavoro monologico; con una differenza
fondamentale che riguarda la scenografia, là assente e affidata al sermo
corporis dello straordinario solista, qui didascalicamente architettata
dall’autore stesso.
Mistero buffo. Trait d’union, dunque, La colpa è sempre del diavolo fra
le prime commedie e il capolavoro monologico; con una differenza
fondamentale che riguarda la scenografia, là assente e affidata al sermo
corporis dello straordinario solista, qui didascalicamente architettata
dall’autore stesso.
Why is it “Always the Devil’s Fault”?
The author performs a scenic analysis on a dramaturgical basis,
as Dario Fo’s dramaturgy is the result of a performative settling that
allows – together with other factors – a reconstruction of the perforalludes to the choice of a play – La colpa è sempre del diavolo (1965)
– which has never been studied in-depth, nor considered suitable for
a TV edition by Fo, but is still interesting because of several reasons
pointing out at its unique primogeniture. It represents for the first
time a pseudo-historical and almost sci-fi Middle Ages; the fake witch
becomes, as a fool, a critical conscience; «the dwarf’s trick» is applied
to a devilish raisonneur speaking an alternative language, a sort of
ancient Venetian which anticipates the linguistic and paralinguistic
inventions of Mistero buffo. Therefore, La colpa è sempre del diavolo
seems to link the first plays to the monologic masterpiece, even if with
an essential difference regarding the set, which is absent in Mistero
buffo – as it is evoked by the sermo corporis of the soloist –, while it is
meticulously designed by the author himself in the case of this particular
play.Why is it “Always the Devil’s Fault”?
mance by the reader-spectator. In its ambiguity, the “why” of the title
alludes to the choice of a play – La colpa è sempre del diavolo (1965)
– which has never been studied in-depth, nor considered suitable for
a TV edition by Fo, but is still interesting because of several reasons
pointing out at its unique primogeniture. It represents for the first
time a pseudo-historical and almost sci-fi Middle Ages; the fake witch
becomes, as a fool, a critical conscience; «the dwarf’s trick» is applied
to a devilish raisonneur speaking an alternative language, a sort of
ancient Venetian which anticipates the linguistic and paralinguistic
inventions of Mistero buffo. Therefore, La colpa è sempre del diavolo
seems to link the first plays to the monologic masterpiece, even if with
an essential difference regarding the set, which is absent in Mistero
buffo – as it is evoked by the sermo corporis of the soloist –, while it is
meticulously designed by the author himself in the case of this particular
play
About Antonio Rubino’s Viperetta: coming-of-age novel and “imagining machine”
No full textAntonio Rubino’s novel Viperetta (1919) is the mature work of an author already known in the context of children’s literature mainly for his activity as an illustrator for some covers of “Il giornalino della Domenica” and drawings for Andersen’s fairy tales and as a contributor to the “Corriere dei Piccoli”. In this context, Viperetta immediately presents itself as an editorial object of particular cultural-historical interest, both because of the specific relationship that Rubino establishes between the textual part and the body of the images, and because it is presented as a coming-of-age novel, with a female protagonist, which, fitting into the tradition of the marvelous journey to the moon, takes on the contours of a rite of passage, turning the protagonist into a fairy-tale child. The article purports to emphasize these aspects, trying to show how Viperetta bases on these two elements the distinctive features of its originality and narrative power, still alive after more than a hundred years
Ripensare a "Cani di bancata" di Emma Dante. I travestimenti androgini di Mammasantissima
No full textThe essay reflects on Emma Dante, versatile and unusual artist (theatre manager, actress-author, film and opera director). Her story condenses different and apparently conflicting experiences and knowledges (the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome, the teachings of Vacis in Turin, the laboratories with Cesare Ronconi) before the foundation of the Sud Costa Occidentale group in Palermo, in 1990, with its subsequent transformations until today. The result is an irregular figure of "matriarch", in the fruitful vein of the new Sicilian dramaturgy, which takes nourishment from the land of origin but with which she feeds a collective and authorial theatre, both dramatic (indeed tragi-comic) and post-dramatic, with European depth, not without arousing controversy and criticism, being awkward and uncomfortable. The analysis of her performance Cani di bancata (2006) aims to highlight themes and styles connected to a feminism that goes beyond gender (in the strict sense) but is able to become metaphor of a world and a human diversity that involves and disturbs us through an irreverent overloo
Forme, temi e simboli del contemporaneo nella letteratura per l’infanzia. A proposito di una recente pubblicazione
No full textA reflection from the book 'Letteratura per l’infanzia. Forme, temi e simboli del contemporaneo', edited by Susanna Barsotti and Lorenzo Cantatore. The collective essay reflects on the last thirty years of children’s literature production, ranging from novels to comics, from cinema to music, crossing a crucial concept of this time: visual literacy. Visions, images, visionariness: everything asks the history of pedagogy to question itself about these new forms of narration
In Situ Investigation of Fluid-Limestone Interactions at Ångstrom Resolution
No full textVideo demonstrating the adsorption of water to a micropore in an Edwards limestone sample. Adsorption-induced strain is observed as changes to the size and shape of the pore during water injection. Video was obtained from a Titan G2 Environmental Transmission Electron Microscope.
The vacuum gauges labeled PP/0 and BC/0 readout the pressure of the atmosphere immediately surrounding the sample.Additional information regarding this data set can be obtained by directly contacting the Corresponding Author: Elizabeth Barsotti; [email protected]
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