1,721,330 research outputs found
Using normative ethics for building a good evaluation of research practices: towards the assessment of researcher’s virtues
Full text linkIn this paper, we propose the adoption of moral philosophy and in particular normative ethics, to clarify the concept of “good” evaluation of “research practices”. Using MacIntyre (1985)’s notion of a practice we argue that research is a form of social practice. As a result of this characterization, we claim that research practice typically requires three typologies of researcher: the leader, the good researcher and the honest researcher. Reflecting on what is a “good” research practice and on what is the role of researchers in it provides insight into some aspects of both the self-assessment process and how this promotes individual improvement. Moreover, this kind of reflection helps us to describe the functions (missions) of the research practices. A “good” evaluation should take into account all the building constituents of a “good” research practice and should be able to discriminate between good and bad research practices, while enforcing the functions of good research practices. We believe that these reflections may be the starting point for a paradigm shift in the evaluation of research practices which replaces an evaluation centred on products with an evaluation focused on the functions of these practices. In the last sections of the paper, we introduce and discuss an important aspect for the implementation of the proposed framework. This relates to the assessment of the virtues of researchers involved in a good research practice. Some examples of questions and preliminary items to include in a questionnaire for the assessment of Virtues in Research Practices are also provided
End‐of‐life decision‐making and advance care directives in Italy. A report and moral appraisal of recent legal provisions.
No full textThe present article reviews the state of public debate and legal provisions concerning end‐of‐life decision‐making in Italy and offers an evaluation of the moral and legal issues involved. The article further examines the content of a recent law concerning informed consent and advance treatment directives, the main court pronouncements that formed the basis for the law, and developments in the public debate and important jurisprudential acts subsequent to its approval. The moral and legal grounds for a positive evaluation of this law, which attests that the patient may withhold or withdraw from life‐prolonging treatment, will be offered with reference to liberal approaches and particularly to the frameworks of care and virtue ethics; but reasons will also be offered in order to consider not only the latter but also broader range of end‐of‐life treatment decisions as morally apt options. In this light, we argue in favour of a further development of the Italian legislation to encompass forms of assisted suicide and active euthanasia
Hume Readings
No full textThe volume collects original contributions from the most distinguished Hume scholars on the many aspects of his philosoph
The tyramine-labelled vesicular transporter for dopamine: a putative target of pesticides and neurotoxins
No full textThis study defined the ability of a large sample of heterogeneous pesticides and neurotoxins to interact with the [3H]tyramine-labelled vesicular transporter of dopamine in rat striatum. Botanical (with rotenone as the most potent), and organochlorine (Kepone) insecticides, as well as fungicides (Zineb), as a whole, consistently inhibited [3H]tyramine binding, with Ki values ranging from 5 nM to 10 microM. ATP/Mg(2+)-dependent [3H]tyramine uptake to purified striatal synaptic vesicles was also inhibited by rotenone. Organophosphate and carbamate insecticides, and miscellaneous herbicides poorly antagonized [3H]tyramine binding, yielding Ki values exceeding 10 microM. Several, though not all, of the best recognized central neurotoxins tested were major binding antagonists. Their rank order of potency was 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion (MPP+) > trimethyltin > or = 6-hydroxydopamine > N-(2-chloroethyl)-N-ethyl-2-bromobenzylamine (DSP-4) > 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), with Ki values ranging from 35 nM to 3 microM. Overall, the potent interaction of selected pesticides and chemicals with the vesicular transporter for dopamine, although, by itself, not synonymous with neurotoxicity, would argue for a likely impairment of transmitter homeostasis, or the putative formation of neurodegenerative toxin pools
Examples of heterogeneous catalytic processes for fine chemistry
No full textFine chemicals are highly pure substances that are commercially produced by chemical reactions for highly specialized applications. In most cases, however, these reactions involve stoichiometric and
highly polluting steps. A possible solution is the development of processes using enzymatic, homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts. In this review, selected examples of clean heterogeneously-catalyzed reactions applied to the synthesis of fine chemicals are reported for the purpose of highlighting the growing need for more sustainable industrial processes, i.e., processes that produce minimal waste and avoid as much as possible the use of toxic and/or hazardous
reagents and solvents. A thorough knowledge of catalyst properties, reaction conditions and interactions with the reacting substrate are essential for optimizing the synthesis, thus making it possible to move on from laboratory to industrial production
Fashion Futuring: un modello di produzione sostenibile
No full textThis research chapter investigates the current developments of sustainable fashion design in Italy. It theorises a new framework to understand alternatives to current ways of producing and consuming, in opposition to the dystopian visions of unsustainable growth of which fast fashion has been a carrier in recent decades (Payne 2019). To do this, this chapter deploys the concept of futuring (Fry, 2007, 2014), emerged in the debate of the 21st century on the role of design with respect to the themes of ecology, sustainability and social innovation. In the formulation of the design theorist Tony Fry, futuring is a strategy to give new directions (re-directing) to design interventions to respond to and address a world that has become unsustainable. The futuring approach allows to go beyond design as a product and to frame it, both in terms of individual and collective practice, as a system (Fry 2007, 2014). 'Futuring' has become a key concept also in fashion, where it is understood as a dynamic process (Payne 2019) able to negotiate between two opposing interpretations of sustainability: on the one hand an optimistic and gradual technological evolution towards a cleaner industry and, on the other, a more prudent approach to freeing fashion from the imperative of unsustainable growth of capitalism.
Drawing on Fry and Payne, this chapter develops an approach to 'fashion futuring' articulated in four intersecting trajectories:
1) Do It Yourself: the 2000s saw the revival of self-production practices in the field of clothing from knitwear circles to cutting and sewing courses (von Busch 2014). These practices point to the desire to exit classic mechanisms of production and consumption, but also to re-evaluate individual creative abilities, in line with the principles of new frugalism. Historically, forms of domestic crafts such as knitting, crochet and embroidery have been recovered in a feminist perspective as examples of creativity and unpaid female work (Greer, Hackney, Rosner). More recently web 2.0 ( Gauntlett 2011), in particular websites dedicated to particular crafts, platforms that enable short supply chains (Etsy) and visual social media (Pinterest and Instagram)have expanded the possibilities of craft.
2) Future artisans: this is the title of the book (2011) by Stefano Micelli dedicated to ‘hand made’ artisan cultures and practices, which the author places at the center of the concept of Made in Italy. Micelli maintains that it is precisely the skills of artisan know-how, both in small and large companies, that make Italian manufacturing attractive at a global level. Hand made here becomes a meeting point between local and global.
3) Digital manufacturing: the advent of maker culture coincides with the desire to re-imagine production and consumption in the direction of sustainable futures, and the capacity to blur distinctions between producer and consumer. The adoption of digital technologies such as laser cutters, associated with open source software, has generated new types of fashion design. Digital manufacturing is not limited to the production of new objects, and includes also inventing different supply chains and creating new designers capable of integrating artisan know-how with digital knowledge.
4) Sustainable fashion: it has acquired a central importance at an environmental, socio-cultural and economic level and constitutes a rich pool of exemples based on the logic of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, as in the case of the invention of new fabrics that recover waste, such as orange peels (Orange Fiber), mushrooms (Neffa), milk (QMilk), algae (Algae Apparel) and agricultural residues (Crop à Porter).
In this context, fashion emerges both in relation to capitalism, and as a laboratory for creative, social and political experimentation. The concept of ‘Laboratory Italy’ is used here to extend Hardt’s idea (1996) of Italy as a laboratory of political experimentation to fashion design in order to explore new areas of intersection between fashion design and forms of activism.
The paper aims at developing a theoretical framework to extend ideas of ‘eco fashion’ beyond environmental sustainability (Scaturro 2008; Brown 2010); of ‘slow fashion’ as a critique of the acceleration of fashion production and consumption (Clark 2008, Fletcher 2010) and of the classic concept of ‘good and good’ (Frisa and Ricchetti 2011) which combines ethics and aesthetics. Fashion futuring expands these understandings of sustainable fashion to include initiatives ranging from the creation of circular economies (Smith, Baille, McHattie 2017) to participatory design models (Hirscher, Fuad-Luke 2013) and open design (Romano 2015).
Borgherini M. et al. (a c. di) 2018, Laboratorio Italia. Canoni e contraddizioni del Made in Italy, Mimesis-DCP/IUAV.
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Frisa, M. L.; Ricchetti, M. (a c. di) 2011, Il bello e il buono: le ragioni della moda sostenibile, Centro di Firenze per la moda italiana.
Fry, T. 2007, 'Redirective Practice: An Elaboration', Design Philosophy Papers, 5(1): 5–20.
Fry, T. 2014, Design Futuring. Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice, Bloomsbury.
Gauntlett, D. 2011, Making is connecting, Polity Press.
Greer, B. 2013, Knitting for good. A guide to creating personal, social and political change, stitch by stitch, Roost Books.
Gwilt, A.; Payne, A.; Ruthschilling E. A. (eds.) 2019, Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion, Bloomsbury.
Hackney, F. 2013, 'Quiet Activism and the New Amateur', Design and Culture, 5(2): 169–93.
Hirscher, A.-L.; Fuad-Luke, A. 2013, 'Open Participatory Designing for an Alternative Fashion Economy', in K. Niinimäki (a c. di), Sustainable Fashion, Aalto ARTS Books: 174–82.
Micelli, S. 2011, Futuro artigiano. L’innovazione nelle mani degli italiani, Marsilio.
Payne, A. 2019, ‘Fashion Futuring in the Anthropocene: Sustainable Fashion as “Taming” and “Rewilding”’, Fashion Theory, 23(1): 5-23.
Romano, Z. 2015, 'Openwear Collaborative Clothing', in A. Fuad-Luke et al. (a c. di), Agents of alternatives. Re-designing Our Realities, AoA: 220–8.
Rosner, D.K. 2018, Critical fabulations. Reworking the methods and margins of design, The MIT Press.
Scaturro, S. 2008, 'Eco-tech fashion', Fashion Theory, 12(4): 469–88.
Smith, P.; Baille, J.; McHattie, L.-S. 2017, 'Sustainable Design Futures: An open design vision for the circular economy in fashion and textiles', The Design Journal, 20(sup1): 938–47.
van Busch, O. 2014, 'Hacking Fashion', in S. Yelavich, B. Adams (a c. di), Design as future-making, Bloomsbury: 47–57
Neonatal hypothyroidism induces striatal dopaminergic dysfunction
No full textOral administration of the antithyroid drug methimazole (50 mg/kg per day) to rats during the last six days of pregnancy, and subsequent daily s.c. injection of methimazole (20-30 mg/kg) to their pups from birth to postnatal day 30 provoked hormonal and somatic alterations resembling (with all caution to any association between rodent and human data) those of congenital hypothyroidism. The steady-state concentrations of striatal dopamine were similar in hypothyroid and euthyroid, 32-day-old rats, while the levels of the dopamine metabolites 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic and homovanillic acids were markedly decreased in hypothyroidism. The results of this and our earlier study [Vaccari A. and Gessa G. L. (1989) Neurochem. Res. 14, 949-955] show that the maximal synaptosomal uptake of [3H]dopamine, an index for the density of nigrostriatal dopaminergic terminals, and the maximum number of membrane [3H]tyramine binding sites, reflecting the concentration of the vesicular transporter for dopamine, were decreased in the hypothyroid striatum. There was also a loss of those D1-type dopaminergic receptors claimed to be located on neurons intrinsic to the striatum, and, consequently, dopamine-stimulated, D1-regulated adenylate cyclase activity was depressed. It is suggested that individual dopaminergic nerve endings in the neonatal hypothyroid striatum must contain more dopamine, owing to some loss of pertinent innervation and, therefore, to the presence of less vesicular transport sites for dopamine. Hypothyroidism-related decreases in the maximum number of striatal D1- and, reportedly, D2-receptors, plus the impairment of D1-coupled second messenger activity, may play a role in the derangement of those neurobehavioural patterns where a dopaminergic regulation is putatively implied
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