Rethinking the Cinematic Cold War. The Struggle for Hearts and Minds Goes Global

Historical consensus increasingly views the Cold War period as a multifaceted conflict which extended beyond the borders of the USSR and USA, encompassing both cultural and diplomatic history. Debate remains, however, about how best to balance the Cold War as a cultural event with the existence of Cold War culture. Rethinking the Cinematic Cold War provides a fresh reassessment of this period, highlighting how the convergence of geopolitical interests, cultural production and exchange, and technological and media history shaped a unique epoch. Consequently, this volume seeks to diagnose the role cinema played in expanding the ideological outlook of artists, audiences, and policymakers

Specific buffer effects on the formation of BSA protein corona around amino-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles

The effect of buffer species on biomolecules and biomolecule-nanoparticle interactions is a phenomenon that has been either neglected, or not understood. Here, we study the formation of a BSA protein corona (PC) around amino-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN-NH2) 2 ) in the presence of different buffers (Tris, BES, cacodylate, phosphate, and citrate) at the same pH (7.15) and different concentrations (10, 50, and 100 mM). We find that BSA adsorption is buffer specific, with the adsorbed amount of BSA being 4.4 times higher in the presence of 100 mM Tris (184 +/- 3 mg/g) than for 100 mM citrate (42 +/- 2 mg/g). That is a considerable difference that cannot be explained by conventional theories. The results become clearer if the interaction energies between BSA and MSN-NH2, 2 , considering the electric double layer (EEDL) EDL ) and the van der Waals (EvdW) vdW ) terms, are evaluated. The buffer specific PC derives from buffer specific zeta potentials that, for MSN-NH2, are positive with Tris and negative with citrate buffers. A reversed sign of zeta potentials can be obtained by considering polarizability-dependent dispersion forces acting together with electrostatics to give the buffer specific outcome. These results are relevant not only to our understanding of the formation of the PC but may also apply to other bio- and nanosystems in biological media

Behavior in time of solutions to a degenerate chemotaxis system with flux limitation

We study a new class of Keller-Segel models, which presents a limited flux and an optimal transport of cells density according to chemical signal density. As a prototype of this class we study radially symmetric solutions to the parabolic-elliptic system { = del center dot(del/root(2)+|del|(2)) -del center dot(del(1+|del|(2))), is an element of, >0, 0 =-+, is an element of, >0 under no flux boundary conditions in a ball = subset of and initial condition(,0) =(0)()>0, >0, >0, >0 and =1/|| integral(0).Under suitable conditions onand0it is shownthat the solution blows up in infinity-norm at a finite time and for some >1it blows up also in-norm. The proofs are mainly based on an helpful change of variables, on comparison arguments and some suitable estimates

Difference of Convex programming in adversarial SVM

We present two models in adversarial machine learning, focussing on the Support Vector Machine framework. In particular, we consider both an evasion and a poisoning problem. The first model is aimed at constructing effective sparse perturbation of the dataset samples, while the objective of the second is to induce a substantial rotation of the hyperplane defining the classifier. The two models are formulated as Difference of Convex nonsmooth optimization problems. Numerical results on both synthetic and real life datasets are reported

Arrhythmogenic sites identification in post-ischemic ventricular tachycardia electrophysiological studies by explainable deep learning

Background and objective: Abnormal ventricular potentials (AVPs) in intracardiac electrograms (EGMs) are frequently considered as markers of arrhythmogenic sites in post-ischemic ventricular tachycardia (VT) during electroanatomic mapping (EAM) procedures. Their detection is strongly operator-dependent and time-consuming. This work explores the adoption of explainable deep learning to support the discrimination between physiological EGMs and AVPs. Methods: Three convolutional neural networks were trained to discriminate the target signals based on their time–frequency representations by synchrosqueezed wavelet transform. The efficacy of the method was assessed on 2561 real bipolar EGMs collected from nine post-ischemic VT patients. Results: The proposed approach achieved high performance, with accuracy levels reaching up to 89%. It also demonstrated coherent localization of the arrhythmogenic sites with respect to conventional voltage and local activation time maps. Moreover, by using saliency maps, AVPs discriminant signatures were highlighted at high frequencies (i.e., in the 103–125 Hz band, which was generally relevant for every network), in line with prior evidence. Conclusion: For the first time, deep learning has been successfully applied and robustly evaluated in the field. The proposed approach paves the way to the development of effective AI-driven systems. These systems will enable a faster, trustworthy and operator-independent identification of AVPs in VT EAM procedures. Furthermore, even without injecting prior knowledge in the adopted models, the analysis of saliency maps revealed that CNNs are prone to autonomously select time–frequency ranges of the EGMs in agreement with the current knowledge

Association analysis of the dopaminergic receptor 2 gene Tag1B rs1079597 and personality traits among a cohort of professional athletes

Research into sports participation has increasingly pointed to inherent biological mechanisms as influential factors alongside psychosocial and environmental elements. The dopaminergic D2 receptor is a strong candidate gene for physical activity behaviour, given its role in locomotor control and reward mechanisms. Hence, this study aimed to analyse the association of the DRD2 gene Tag1B rs1079597 polymorphism with personality traits in elite athletes. The study group consisted of 395 volunteers. Of these, 163 were professional athletes (22.56±5.9; M = 114, F = 49), and 232 were controls (22.07±4.3; M = 150, F = 82). The MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory were administered in both groups. Genotyping was performed using the real-time PCR method. Statistical analysis was performed: genotypes and alleles frequencies were compared using the chi-square test and the relations between DRD2 Tag1B rs1079597 variants, professional athletes and control participants and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory were analysed with the factorial ANOVA. Statistically significant differences were found in the frequency of DRD2 Tag1B rs1079597 genotypes and alleles in the group of professional athletes group compared to the control group. The GG genotype and G allele were significantly more frequent in the group of professional athletes (G/G 0.79 vs G/G 0.66; A/A 0.04 vs A/A 0.03; A/G 0.17 vs A/G 0.31, p = 0.0056; G 0.87 vs. G 0.81; A 0.13 vs. A 0.19, p = 0.0281) compared to the control group. The professional athletes’ participants, compared to the controls, obtained significantly higher scores in the assessment of NEO-FFI Extraversion (p = 0.0369) and Conscientiousness (p < 0.0001) scales. Additionally, there was a statistically significant effect of DRD2 rs1079597 genotype association with being a professional athlete on the Openness scale (F2.3389 = 3.07; p = 0.0475; η2 = 0.015) and on the Conscientiousness scale (F2.3389 = 3.23; p = 0.0406; η2 = 0.016). This study highlights the significant associations between the DRD2 Taq1B polymorphicsite and personality traitsin a group of professional athletes. It also demonstratesthe association of Taq1B polymorphism and professional sportsmanship with personality traits measured by NEO-FFI. The results suggest that genetic factors and professional sportsmanship both shape an athlete’s personality traits

Pegylated-liposomes increase the efficacy of Idelalisib in lymphoma B-cells

New drugs and technologies are continuously developed to improve the efficacy and minimize the critical side effects of cancer treatments. The present investigation focuses on the development of a liposomal formulation for Idelalisib, a small-molecule kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of lymphoid malignancies. Idelalisib is a potent and selective antitumor agent, but it is not indicated nor recommended for first-line treatment due to fatal and serious toxicities. Herein, liposomes are proposed as a delivery tool to improve the therapeutic profile of Idelalisib. Specifically, PEGylated liposomes were prepared, and their physicochemical and technological features were investigated. Light-scattering spectroscopy and cryo-transmission electron microscopy revealed nanosized unilamellar vesicles, which were proved to be stable in storage and in simulated biological fluids. The cytotoxicity of the liposome formulation was investigated in a human non-Hodgkin's lymphoma B cell line. Idelalisib was able to induce death of tumor cells if delivered by the nanocarrier system at increased efficacy. These findings suggest that combining Idelalisib and nanotechnologies may be a powerful strategy to increase the antitumor efficacy of the drug

Qu’est-ce qu’un « Livre des Morts » ? Origine et évolution d’un recueil de textes funéraires

Il Libro dei Morti ha avuto una lunga genesi, basata in parte su testi più antichi facenti parte di due altri corpora: Testi delle Piramidi e Testi dei Sarcofagi. A partire soprattutto dalla XVIII dinastia, il Libro dei Morti iniziò a diffondersi in tutto l'Egitto, a partire dall'area tebana. Dopo secoli di utilizzo, questa composizione fu sottoposta a un processo di revisione che portò a una sua "uniformazione" il cui prodotto è noto come "recensione saita". Il Libro dei Morti è attestato siano all'Epoca Romana.The Book of the Dead had a long genesis, based in part on older texts that were part of two other corpora: The Pyramid Texts and The Coffin Texts. Starting mainly in the 18th dynasty, the Book of the Dead began to spread throughout Egypt, beginning in the Theban area. After centuries of use, this composition underwent a revision process that led to its ‘standardisation’, the product of which is known as the ‘Saite recension’. The Book of the Dead is attested as far back as the Roman era

Metaphors We Live By. Pour une approche comparative (français et italien) et épistémique du métalangage de la sémantique cognitive

The reconstruction of a «genesis of linguistic concepts» falls under the dialectic process implying terminology and the categorial procedures of the 'fabrication' of the scientific objects (Lavieri 2007). How does linguistics think of its translatability? How does the linguistic knowledge (re)organize itself in the translation process? From this perspective, it seems us necessary analyzing the appropriation and utilization forms of the keywords such as «mapping» and «frame» in the French and Italian translations of the text Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). This study aims to show the methodological processes adopted by cognitive linguistics in a comparative and epistemological space.La reconstruction d’une « genèse des concepts linguistiques » s’inscrit dans un processus dialectique impliquant la terminologie et les procédures catégorielles de 'fabrication' des objets scientifiques (Lavieri 2007). De quelle façon la linguistique pense sa propre traduisibilité ? Comment se (ré)organisent les savoirs linguistiques dans le processus traductif ? Dans cette perspective, il nous semble nécessaire d’analyser les formes d’appropriation et d’utilisation de quelques mots-clés comme, par exemple, « mapping » et « frame » dans les traduction française et italienne du texte Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff et Johnson 1980). Cette étude vise donc à réfléchir sur les procédés méthodologiques adoptés par la linguistique cognitive dans un espace comparatif et épistémologique