International Cooperation in the Economic Development of Latin America

As an Italian, with less than a year in the Western Hemisphere, I now find myself with a “mixed” personality. As someone else expressed it, I am physically Italian, Latin American by adoption, and gaily American. This may well be a good combination for writing a thesis on Latin America. My Latin blood may help me in understanding the mentality of the people of Latin America, while my studies in Italy--a country with a long experience as an underdeveloped country- -may contribute toward a personal understanding of the problems of poverty, social injustice, and political instability. Three months of experience in Mexico, at the Utah State University branch;\u27 in Mexico City, permitted first-hand observation of the problems, and direct contact with some of the people who are trying to resolve them. Finally, having been a student at Utah State University has improved my understanding of the great tradition of freedom in the United States. It also stimulated personal reflections on democracy that add much to my philosophy of life. This opportunity, added to a very pleasant and serene life in a delightful region in the West, make me sincerely and profoundly grateful to the people of Utah

Gender Auditing in a Capability Approach

Feminist studies have developed several tools to assess the gender impact of public policy and, in particular, of public budgets. We introduce an innovative approach to gender auditing of public budgets inspired by the capability approach. On the one hand we expand the scope of assessing the gender policy impact taking into account women’s multidimensional wellbeing, on the other hand, we use a women’s perspective to conceptualize the capability approach and make it operational in the space of public policies. Within this extended reproductive approach, gender budgets could become a tool for advancing a reflection on social and individual well being and for greater transparency on the gender division of labour, the distribution of resources and sharing of responsibilitiesHuman development; Economics of gender; Gender auditing; Capabilty approach

Well-Being Gender Budgets: Italian Local Governments Cases

Human development; Economics of gender; Gender auditing; Capabilty approach

Getting old through the blood. Circulating molecules in aging and senescence of cardiovascular regenerative cells

Global aging is a hallmark of our century. The natural multifactorial process resulting in aging involves structural and functional changes, affecting molecules, cells, and tissues. As the western population is getting older, we are witnessing an increase in the burden of cardiovascular events, some of which are known to be directly linked to cellular senescence and dysfunction. In this review, we will focus on the description of a few circulating molecules, which have been correlated to life span, aging, and cardiovascular homeostasis. We will review the current literature concerning the circulating levels and related signaling pathways of selected proteins (insulin-like growth factor 1, growth and differentiation factor-11, and PAI-1) and microRNAs of interest (miR-34a, miR-146a, miR-21), whose bloodstream levels have been associated to aging in different organisms. In particular, we will also discuss their potential role in the biology and senescence of cardiovascular regenerative cell types, such as endothelial progenitor cells, mesenchymal stromal cells, and cardiac progenitor cells

Organizzazione e valutazione della didattica nella Facoltà di Economia di Modena

Il lavoro esamina gli aspetti essenziali dell'organizzazione dei corsi, del carico didattico, del calendario delle lezioni, della prestazione degli studenti, del processo di apprendimento, del sistema europeo di trasferimento dei crediti, del monitoraggio e della valutazione della didattica a livello di tutta la Facoltà di Economia.NOTA: il testo è curato da G. Ricci e M. Lalla; gli altri autori indicati hanno contribuito a scrivere uno o piú paragrafi

Blood and skin-derived Sezary cells: differences in proliferation-index, activation of PI3K/AKT/mTORC1 pathway and its prognostic relevance

Sézary syndrome (SS) is a rare and aggressive variant of Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma characterized by neoplastic distribution mainly involving blood, skin, and lymph-node. Although a role of the skin microenvironment in SS pathogenesis has long been hypothesized, its function in vivo is poorly characterized. To deepen this aspect, here we compared skin to blood-derived SS cells concurrently obtained from SS patients highlighting a greater proliferation-index and a PI3K/AKT/mTORC1 pathway activation level, particularly of mTOR protein, in skin-derived-SS cells. We proved that SDF-1 and CCL21 chemokines, both overexpressed in SS tissues, induce mTORC1 signaling activation, cell proliferation and Ki67 up-regulation in a SS-derived cell line and primary-SS cells. In a cohort of 43 SS cases, we observed recurrent copy number variations (CNV) of members belonging to this cascade, namely: loss of LKB1 (48%), PTEN (39%) and PDCD4 (35%) and gains of P70S6K (30%). These alterations represent druggable targets unraveling new therapeutic treatments as metformin here evaluated in vitro. Moreover, CNV of PTEN, PDCD4, and P70S6K, evaluated individually or in combination, are associated with reduced survival of SS patients. These data shed light on effects in vivo of skin-SS cells interaction underlying the prognostic and therapeutic relevance of mTORC1 pathway in SS

Remote adipose tissue-derived stromal cells of patients with lung adenocarcinoma generate a similar malignant microenvironment of the lung stromal counterpart

Cancer alters both local and distant tissue by influencing the microenvironment. In this regard, the interplay with the stromal fraction is considered critical as this latter can either foster or hamper the progression of the disease. Accordingly, the modality by which tumors may alter distant niches of stromal cells is still unclear, especially at early stages. In this short report, we attempt to better understand the biology of this cross-talk. In our “autologous stromal experimental setting,” we found that remote adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (mediastinal AMSC) obtained from patients with lung adenocarcinoma sustain proliferation and clonogenic ability of A549 and human primary lung adenocarcinoma cells similarly to the autologous stromal lung counterpart (LMSC). This effect is not observed in lung benign diseases such as the hamartochondroma. This finding was validated by conditioning benign AMSC with supernatants from LAC for up to 21 days. The new reconditioned media of the stromal fraction so obtained, was able to increase cell proliferation of A549 cells at 14 and 21 days similar to that derived from AMSC of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. The secretome generated by remote AMSC revealed overlapping to the corresponding malignant microenvironment of the autologous local LMSC. Among the plethora of 80 soluble factors analyzed by arrays, a small pool of 5 upregulated molecules including IL1-β, IL-3, MCP-1, TNF-α, and EGF, was commonly shared by both malignant-like autologous A- and L-MSC derived microenvironments vs those benign. The bioinformatics analysis revealed that these proteins were strictly and functionally interconnected to lung fibrosis and proinflammation and that miR-126, 101, 486, and let-7-g were their main targets. Accordingly, we found that in lung cancer tissues and blood samples from the same set of patients here employed, miR-126 and miR-486 displayed the highest expression levels in tissue and blood, respectively. When the miR-126-3p was silenced in A549 treated with AMSC-derived conditioned media from patients with lung adenocarcinoma, cell proliferation decreased compared to control media

Feminist Reflections on the Scope of Labour Law: Domestic Work, Social Reproduction and Jurisdiction

Drawing on feminist labour law and political economy literature, I argue that it is crucial to interrogate the personal and territorial scope of labour. After discussing the “commodification” of care, global care chains, and body work, I claim that the territorial scope of labour law must be expanded beyond that nation state to include transnational processes. I use the idea of social reproduction both to illustrate and to examine some of the recurring regulatory dilemmas that plague labour markets. I argue that unpaid care and domestic work performed in the household, typically by women, troubles the personal scope of labour law. I use the example of this specific type of personal service relation to illustrate my claim that the jurisdiction of labour law is historical and contingent, rather than conceptual and universal. I conclude by identifying some of the implications of redrawing the territorial and personal scope of labour law in light of feminist understandings of social reproduction