The Socioeconomic Gap between North and South Italy: A long Story Within an Old Political Framework

1 ABSTRACT: In this paper I will make some analysis on socioeconomic differences that have developed in Italy between North and the South Italian regions. From this differences, a peculiar aspects emerges, with the North as one of the most developed region opposed to the South as one of the most backward region within Europe. Government policy has been trying since the unification of Italy, to reduce the gap with the implementation of specific converging program policies. However, the convergence phase has led to a remarkably unfavourable steady state. Two of the possible explanation for the persistent gap between North and South Italy will be focused in this paper: the first one relate with the quality and quantity of social capital presence The second explanation might be beyond the Government institutions performances that so far, with some exception, has registered a continuous failure on policies tending to reduce the socioeconomic gap. Finally I do warn the reader that this paper will be concentrated mainly on southern Italy, as this is the area which is lagging within the Italian development Key Words: Economic Convergence, Southern Issues, Government Institutions Social Capital Theories,Department of Political ScienceKatedra politologieFaculty of Social SciencesFakulta sociálních vě

Itv as a community-to-community collaborative system

Web-forums and Instant Messengers provide a unique opportunity for the users to create and support spontaneous communities. However, such systems tend to focus on the one-to-one and one-to-many approaches. Community-to- Community interaction, described as two groups of people which communicate by means of a network, is still missing. This work describes early implementation of an interactive television (iTV) chat system, which dynamically creates chat rooms where users can discuss, share their TV experience and access web resources.337-33

Inhibition of RNA helicases of ssRNA⁺ virus belonging to <i>Flaviviridae</i>, <i>Coronaviridae</i> and <i>Picornaviridae</i> families

Many viral pathogens encode the motor proteins named RNA helicases which display various functions in genome replication. General strategies to design specific and selective drugs targeting helicase for the treatment of viral infections could act via one or more of the following mechanisms: inhibition of the NTPase activity, by interferences with ATP binding and therefore by limiting the energy required for the unwinding and translocation, or by allosteric mechanism and therefore by stabilizing the conformation of the enzyme in low helicase activity state; inhibition of nucleic acids binding to the helicase; inhibition of coupling of ATP hydrolysis to unwinding; inhibition of unwinding by sterically blocking helicase translocation. Recently, by in vitro screening studies, it has been reported that several benzotriazole, imidazole, imidazodiazepine, phenothiazine, quinoline, anthracycline, triphenylmethane, tropolone, pyrrole, acridone, small peptide, and Bananin derivatives are endowed with helicase inhibition of pathogen viruses belonging to Flaviviridae, Coronaviridae, and Picornaviridae families

Building the Web of Things with WS-BPEL and Visual Tags. Web of Things using Service-oriented Architecture standards

The Web of things is an emerging scenario in which everyday objects are connected to the Internet and can answer to HTTP queries with structured data. This paper presents a system that allows users to build networks of everyday objects using visual tags as proximity technology. The system backend is based on Service-oriented Architecture languages and tools for the runtime composition of “things” establishing connections we call hyperpipes.357-36

Impact of dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on fatty acid metabolism and endocannabinoid biosynthesis

Background: Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) refers to a group of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid (LA) mainly found in the meat and dairy products of ruminants. CLA has been shown to possess different biological activities such as anticarcinogenic and anti-atherogenic properties, and also to influence body weight, energy and lipid metabolism, immune response, and inflammation. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is involved in a variety of physiological processes, including the regulation of feeding behavior and energy homeostasis. ECS includes neuromodulatory archidonate-based lipids, the best characterized are 2-arachidonoyl-glycerol (2-AG) and N-arachidonoylethanolamine (AEA or anandamide), which activate specific cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2). N-oleoylethanolamide (OEA) and Npalmitoylethanolamide (PEA) are generally termed as endocannabinoid-related compounds. OEA has been shown to decrease food intake and body weight gain, while PEA is known to possess anti-inflammatory activity. Conversely to endocannabinoids, OEA and PEA don’t exert their actions by activating cannabinoid receptors, but mostly through binding the peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs). Methodology: The aim of the present thesis was to evaluate the effects of dietary intake of CLA on fatty acid metabolism, tissue fatty acid incorporation and endocannabinoid biosynthesis in liver of obese Zucker rats and in plasma of healthy volunteers. 32 male rats were fed with an equimolar mix of c9,t11 and t10,c12 CLA isomers (about 1%) supplemented or not with two different background diets, one based on fat of vegetal origin, PO, and the other made with a fat content of animal origin, OF. Treatment lasted 3 months. In a randomized cross-over study we also evaluated the effects of very high doses of CLA on lipid profile and endocannabinoid levels in plasma of 24 healthy men and women (aged 18 to 65) who consumed each three distinct diets for three weeks. Diets were identical except for 7% of total energy (approximately 20 g/day) which was provided either by: CLA isomers (80% c9,t11 and 20% t10,c12), industrial trans fatty acids, or oleic acid (OA). Principal Findings: In Zucker rats, irrespective of the background diet CLA affected body and liver weight, with a reduced hepatic lipid deposition. CLA intake increased concentration of arachidonic acid (AA) with both PO or OF diets, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) only when CLA was included in the OF diet. CLA feeding in combination with PO diet only, increased retinol level. CLA intake resulted in a decrease of �9 desaturase index, which was inversely correlated to n-3 highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) score in OF diet. In human plasma, CLA compared to OA diet decreased the metabolism and the incorporation of the LA metabolites, and influenced alpha linolenic acid (ALA) metabolism, which resulted in an increased n-3 HUFA score. Also, we confirmed as high doses of CLA reduced elongation of long chain fatty acids (LCFAs). CLA intake did not cause significant changes in the profile of endocannabinoids in liver of Zucker rats and in human plasma, but we found increased levels of PEA in OFCLA fed rats, and OEA in both OF and PO background diets supplemented with CLA. Conclusions: Based on our results, we conclude that the effects of CLA on fatty acid metabolism and endocannabinoid biosynthesis are strongly influenced by the background diet, which may also explain the differences found between experimental animals and humans. By improving n-6/n-3 HPUFA balance and sustaining PPAR� activity, directly and indirectly through OEA and PEA, CLA may exert its beneficial actions on human health and protection against some diseases, especially those characterized by chronic inflammation due to an impaired body fat deposition

Expression of muscle-specific MiRNA 206 in the progression of disease in a murine SMA model

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a severe neuromuscular disease, the most common in infancy, and the third one among young people under 18 years. The major pathological landmark of SMA is a selective degeneration of lower motor neurons, resulting in progressive skeletal muscle denervation, atrophy, and paralysis. Recently, it has been shown that specific or general changes in the activity of ribonucleoprotein containing micro RNAs (miRNAs) play a role in the development of SMA. Additionally miRNA-206 has been shown to be required for efficient regeneration of neuromuscular synapses after acute nerve injury in an ALS mouse model. Therefore, we correlated the morphology and the architecture of the neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) of quadriceps, a muscle affected in the early stage of the disease, with the expression levels of miRNA-206 in a mouse model of intermediate SMA (SMAII), one of the most frequently used experimental model. Our results showed a decrease in the percentage of type II fibers, an increase in atrophic muscle fibers and a remarkable accumulation of neurofilament (NF) in the pre-synaptic terminal of the NMJs in the quadriceps of SMAII mice. Furthermore, molecular investigation showed a direct link between miRNA-206-HDAC4-FGFBP1, and in particular, a strong up-regulation of this pathway in the late phase of the disease. We propose that miRNA-206 is activated as survival endogenous mechanism, although not sufficient to rescue the integrity of motor neurons. We speculate that early modulation of miRNA-206 expression might delay SMA neurodegenerative pathway and that miRNA-206 could be an innovative, still relatively unexplored, therapeutic target for SMA