The ‘corporate’ corruption of identity in Tullio Avoledo’s Lo stato dell’ Unione

Since the political upheavals of the early 1990s, Italian writers have continually confronted issues of political identity, particularly in view of the fascistic tendencies that are increasingly polluting society. It is in this context that Tullio Avoledo, a writer from Friuli, continues the strong Italian tradition of impegno, or ‘commitment’. This essay examines his third novel, Lo stato dell’unione (Turin, Einaudi, 2005), addressing specifically the two closely-linked, destabilizing – for the individual – elements of corruption and conspiracy in the business world

The Englished Sciascia: translations 1960-2010

Literary translation can cross linguistic and political borders, enticing and enriching the receiving cultures. This essay aims to give an account of the translations of Leonardo Sciascia’s work into English, over the last five decades. We approach this by way of two contextualizing overviews: firstly, of the translation of fiction in Europe today (Section 2), and secondly, of the translation of Italian literature into English since the 1930s (Section 3). As appropriate to Sciascia’s case, we focus throughout on the translation of novels and short stories, and conclude with some thoughts on the ‘art’ of translation. Con la traduzione letteraria si attraversano confini sia politici che linguistici, con lo scopo ideale di attrarre e arricchire la cultura che l’accoglie. Questo saggio si prefigge di essere un resoconto delle traduzioni in inglese delle opere di Leonardo Sciascia nell'arco degli ultimi cinquant'anni. Iniziando dal contesto del mercato attuale delle traduzioni di romanzi in Europa e passando per quello della traduzione della letteratura italiana in inglese dagli anni 1930, si arriva poi al resoconto delle traduzioni in inglese delle opere di Sciascia. Come si addice al caso dello scrittore siciliano si punta comunque alla traduzione di romanzi e racconti (e racconti-inchiesta) e si conclude con alcune riflessioni sull' 'arte' del tradurre

Labour mobility in transnational Europe: between depletion, mitigation and citizenship entitlements harm

This article examines how transnational labour mobility in uneven and combined Europe has emerged as a critical response to the problems of capitalist production and social reproduction. Analysing the interconnected mobilities of labour between Ukraine, Poland and the UK in the food production, care provision and housing construction sectors, the article examines how states benefit from lower unemployment and reduced labour shortages, employers profit from qualified and reliable workers, and households gain access to jobs and incomes. It argues that transnational labour mobility is constitutive of the inherently interdependent production–reproduction processes. In this constellation, transnational labour mobility becomes a form of mitigation of depletion through social reproduction. However, it further argues that such a mitigation strategy is unbalanced and unsustainable as its costs and benefits are unequally distributed, forestalling resource inflows that could attenuate outflows. Therefore, harms – in particular, the harm to citizenship entitlements – emerge despite labour mobility mitigating depletion

Simultaneous spatial and spectral transparency in ultralong fiber lasers

We demonstrate that ultralong Raman lasers can be used to generate a transmission medium with simultaneous transparency over the spatial and the spectral domains. Numerical calculations show this cross-domain transparency to be preserved when the medium is used for transmitting high-intensity signals, which makes ultralong lasers an ideal experimental test bed for the study of multifrequency nonlinear interactions in optical fiber waveguides. Full spatiospectral transparency is experimentally obtained over a 20 nm x 20 km window

Mesoscopic persistent currents in a strong magnetic field

Recent precision measurements of mesoscopic persistent currents in normal-metal rings rely on the interaction between the magnetic moment generated by the current and a large applied magnetic field. Motivated by this technique, we extend the theory of mesoscopic persistent currents to include the effect of the finite thickness of the ring and the resulting penetration of the large magnetic field. We discuss both the sample-specific typical current and the ensemble-averaged current which is dominated by the effects of electron-electron interactions. We find that the magnetic field strongly suppresses the interaction-induced persistent current and so provides direct access to the independent-electron contribution. Moreover, the technique allows for measurements of the entire distribution function of the persistent current. We also discuss the consequences of the Zeeman splitting and spin-orbit scattering, and include a detailed and quantitative comparison of our theoretical results to experimental data.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Numerical investigation of the impact of reflectors on spectral performance of Raman fibre laser

Using a cavity mode model we study numerically the impact of bandwidth and spectral response profile of fibre Bragg gratings on four-wave-mixing-induced spectral broadening of radiation generated in 6 km and 22 km SMF-based Raman fibre lasers

Digital signal processing based on inverse scattering transform

Through numerical modeling, we illustrate the possibility of a new approach to digital signal processing in coherent optical communications based on the application of the so-called inverse scattering transform. Considering without loss of generality a fiber link with normal dispersion and quadrature phase shift keying signal modulation, we demonstrate how an initial information pattern can be recovered (without direct backward propagation) through the calculation of nonlinear spectral data of the received optical signal

Specificity and off-target effects of AAV8-TBG viral vectors for the manipulation of hepatocellular gene expression in mice

Mice are a widely used pre-clinical model system in large part due to their potential for genetic manipulation. The ability to manipulate gene expression in specific cells under temporal control is a powerful experimental tool. The liver is central to metabolic homeostasis and a site of many diseases, making the targeting of hepatocytes attractive. Adeno-associated virus 8 (AAV8) vectors are valuable instruments for the manipulation of hepatocellular gene expression. However, their off-target effects in mice have not been thoroughly explored. Here, we sought to identify the short-term off-target effects of AAV8 administration in mice. To do this, we injected C57BL/6J wild-type mice with either recombinant AAV8 vectors expressing Cre recombinase or control AAV8 vectors and characterised the changes in general health and in liver physiology, histology and transcriptomics compared to uninjected controls. We observed an acute and transient trend for reduction in homeostatic liver proliferation together with induction of the DNA damage marker γH2AX following AAV8 administration. The latter was enhanced upon Cre recombinase expression by the vector. Furthermore, we observed transcriptional changes in genes involved in circadian rhythm and response to infection. Notably, there were no additional transcriptomic changes upon expression of Cre recombinase by the AAV8 vector. Overall, there was no evidence of liver injury, and only mild T-cell infiltration was observed 14 days following AAV8 infection. These data advance the technique of hepatocellular genome editing through Cre-Lox recombination using Cre expressing AAV vectors, demonstrating their minimal effects on murine physiology and highlight the more subtle off target effects of these systems

Liver imaging reporting and data system: An expert consensus statement

The increasing incidence and high morbidity and mortality of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have inspired the creation of the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS). LI-RADS aims to reduce variability in exam interpretation, improve communication, facilitate clinical therapeutic decisions, reduce omission of pertinent information, and facilitate the monitoring of outcomes. LI-RADS is a dynamic process, which is updated frequently. In this article, we describe the LI-RADS 2014 version (v2014), which marks the second update since the initial version in 2011

Mesoporous carbon black-aerogel composites with optimized properties for the electro-assisted removal of sodium chloride from brackish water

A simple modification of the sol–gel polymerization of resorcinol–formaldehyde mixtures allowed the preparation route of homogeneously dispersed carbon black-activated carbon aerogel composites with high pore volumes and improved electrical conductivity. These materials showed good performance as electrodes for the electro-assisted removal of sodium chloride from saline water using high voltages. Besides the effect of the carbon black additive, we have investigated the influence of resorcinol–water ratio on the textural and electrochemical properties of the resulting materials. Data has shown a slight dependence on the structural order of the aerogels with the R/W ratio, regardless the incorporation of the conductive additive. The effect of the carbon black on the textural features was also negligible, due to the low amount incorporated. Nonetheless, the samples showed higher capacitance values for the removal of ions from solution, due to the enhanced conductivity provided by the carbon black, being the effect more evident for the materials prepared using a low R/W ratio.The authors are indebted to the MICINN (Contract IPT-2011-1450-310000 (ADECAR), and CTM2011/23378) for the financial support. We also thank the fruitful collaboration of Isolux Ingeniería, S.A., Fundación Imdea Energia and Proingesa. University of Córdoba thanks to SCAI and IUIQFN for technical support and Junta de Andalucía (FQM-288) for financial support.Peer reviewe