Croce, la religión y el cristianismo

Los estudios centrados en la presencia del cristianismo en la filosofía de B. Croce han cobrado recientemente un gran impulso, cuestionando en muchos casos su supuesta conversión al catolicismo. En este sentido, el artículo analiza la evolución del pensamiento de B. Croce, considerando que, aunque su sistema filosófico cambió sensiblemente en los últimos años de su vida, debido en gran parte a los dramáticos sucesos acaecidos durante la II Guerra Mundial, Croce nunca renegó de su riguroso inmanentismo, evitando cualquier tipo de consuelo en el trascendentalismo. El autor propone, en esta línea, el estudio de los siguientes aspectos de la filosofía de Croce: La inmortalidad del alma y la polémica contra el Modernismo; La Providencia y la Gracia; La revolución cristiana; El Cristianismo y la crisis de la civilización.The studies focused on the presence of Christianity in B. Croce’s philosophy have gained recently a new impulse, questioning his supposed conversion to Catholicism. In this sense, the article analyses the evolution of B. Croce’s thinking, considering that, although his philosophical system changed in the last years of his lifetime, due mostly to the dramatic events during the II World War, Croce never rejected a rigorous immanent point of view, avoiding any kind of transcendental consolation. The author proposes, in that way of thinking, the study of the following points of Croce’s philosophy: Dialogue on God in a correspondence; The immortality of the soul and the controversy against the Modernism; The Providence and the Grace; The Christian Revolution; The Christianity and the crisis of the Civilizatio

Functional characterization of the tumor antagonizing gene RNASET2.

Several types of cancer including solid tumors and blood malignancies are associated with alterations in different regions of chromosome 6. In particular, the 6q region has been frequently found to be deleted in a wide range of solid tumors, including ovarian carcinoma. Therefore, this chromosomal region has been extensively investigated in order to identifying putative tumor suppressor genes. In specific, a minimal region of deletion for ovarian cancer has been defined in the peritelomeric 6q27 region, and our group has recently isolated from this region the RNASET2 gene, coding for a secreted ribonuclease belonging to the Rh/T2/S acid ribonuclease family. The RNASET2 gene was found to be down-regulated at the transcriptional level in several primary ovarian tumors and ovarian cancer cell lines and its potential for tumor growth inhibition has been subsequently tested in vivo in a highly tumorigenic and metastatic Hey3Met2 ovarian cancer cell line. To this aim, athymic mice were injected with Hey3Met2 cell clones stably transfected with expression vectors encoding wild-type or a catalytically inactive mutant RNASET2 protein. Strikingly, wild-type RNASET2-expressing cells formed smaller tumors in mice and gave rise to a lower number of metastasis when compared to control cells transfected with the vector only. Moreover, mutant RNASET2-expressing cells also displayed a similar or even more increased inhibition of tumorigenicity when compared to wild-type RNASET2, suggesting that catalytic activity is not involved in control of tumor suppression and metastasis. With the purpose of further defining the biological role of RNASET2, we have undertaken a functional characterization of this gene, by comparing RNASET2-overespressing cells behavior both in vitro and in vivo. In sharp contrast with previous in vivo observations, several in vitro tests such as proliferation, clonogenicity, growth in soft agar and apoptosis assays failed to reveal any change in cancer-related phenotypes in the same RNASET2-overexpressing cell line, thus suggesting a non-cell autonomous activity for RNASET2 as a tumor suppressor. This \u201casymmetric\u201d in vivo/in vitro property has been recently ascribed to a novel class of tumor suppressor genes, called tumor antagonizing genes (TAGs), whose oncosuppressive activity is carried out only in vivo by induction of microenvironmental remodeling. To confirm this hypothesis we turned to a xenograft assay and, as expected, Hey3Met2 cells expressing wild-type or mutant RNASET2 were not able to support tumor growth when compared to control mice. Strikingly, a detailed histological analysis of tumor sections revealed a different architectural pattern between control mice and RNASET2-expressing tumors. The former showed a solid and diffuse growth with strong component of human tumor cells, whereas in the latter a more organized structure and a 2 massive infiltration of host stromal cells mainly derived from monocyte/macrophage lineage has been found. In order to establish whether these cells could be functionally responsible for RNASET2-mediated tumor suppression, a further in vivo xenograft assay with Rag-2-/- \u3b3c-/- mice was performed, since these mice lack both lymphocytes and NK cells, thus retaining innate immunological response only through macrophages. As previously observed in nude mice, RNASET2-expressing cells were again clearly suppressed in tumorigenicity, further suggesting a functional role for macrophages recruitment in tumor suppression mediated by RNASET2. To definitively confirm the involvement of this cell lineage, in an additional in vivo experiment Rag-2-/- \u3b3c-/- mice were pretreated with the macrophages-depleting agent clodronate before inoculation of Hey3Met2 cells. Untreated mice showed once again a clear effect of tumor suppression exerted by RNASET2 whereas in clodronate-treated mice a very similar tumor development was noticed in both control and RNASET2-expressing cells. Finally, immunohistochemical analysis showed that recruited immune cells mainly belong to M1 subtype of anti-tumorigenic macrophages, suggesting a possible mechanism of tumor suppression exerted by this secreted ribonuclease. In order to extend RNASET2 functional characterization, beside the experimental model described above a complementary research approach based on gene silencing was carried out, aimed at studying how the lack of RNASET2 could affect tumor development and providing a powerful tool for further investigations. Our working hypothesis considers RNASET2 inactivation as a critical step in ovarian cancer progression, therefore cancer cell lines endowed with a low in vivo tumorigenic potential and expressing high endogenous RNASET2 levels might represent an ideal model system to challenge this hypothesis. In such a context, RNAi-mediated gene knockdown could provide additional information on this topic. RNAi-mediated silencing of the RNASET2 gene has therefore been attempted in the human ovarian carcinoma cell line OVCAR3, which displays the above mentioned features. Complete knockdown of RNASET2 in OVCAR3 cell line was successfully achieved and preliminary in vitro tests are in keeping with our previous data, showing no significant differences in proliferation and clonogenic potential in vitro in RNASET2-silenced when compared to control clones, and further supporting a \u201cnon-cell autonomous\u201d behavior of RNASET2. Gene silencing of RNASET2 also allowed us to studying both the intracellular routing and likely the mechanism(s) by which extracellular RNASET2 affects in vivo cell behavior, demonstrating that providing an external source of RNASET2 to silenced OVCAR3 cells resulted in the binding of the ribonuclease to the cell surface and its subsequently internalization

Martini di fronte all'immigrazione e agli stranieri: prospettive per le istituzioni e la convivenza di tutti

SOMMARIO: 1. Il contesto socio-politico-ecclesiale del magistero del cardinale Martini circa l’immigrazione e gli stranieri: allargamento dell’UE, caduta delle divisioni in Europa, costruzione della nuova UE, crescente immigrazione extraUE - 2. La prospettiva ideale: il personalismo cristiano e il processo di unificazione europea - 3. La presenza degli stranieri privi di sicurezza giuridica e in cerca di lavoro e di ospitalità interpella i cittadini e i cristiani nel sostegno e nell’accoglienza: l’immigrazione come forma di povertà - 4. Non ignorare, né reprimere il fenomeno migratorio, ma accogliere ogni persona come tale: l’esigenza di norme condivise improntate all’eguaglianza nella tutela dei diritti fondamentali per regolare in modo ordinario l’immigrazione e la convivenza. Risolvere i problemi degli stranieri contribuisce a risolvere anche i problemi degli italiani - 5. Non generalizzare, ma discernere i diversi tipi di migrazione in base agli effetti positivi per la persona migrante e nell’ambito di un nuovo ordine economico globale: gli Stati di origine e quelli di immigrazione contengano le cause economiche e politiche che rendono insostenibile vivere e costringono a emigrare e favoriscano l’emigrazione come libera scelta derivante da interdipendenza e da desiderio di miglioramento culturale ed economico - 6. I diritti fondamentali di ogni persona umana da riconoscere a tutti, cittadini e stranieri: occorre prevedere un cammino graduale e progressivo verso la concreta realizzazione di una “carta dei diritti del migrante” - 7. L’immigrazione non come minaccia, ma come occasione profetica di rigenerazione e cambiamento per ogni società e per ogni Stato: nei rapporti tra nord e sud del mondo superare ogni forma di razzismo e imparare a convivere pacificamente in una società multiculturale, a superare le frontiere, ad accogliere, a educare al rispetto delle differenze e a rispettare norme comuni improntate all’eguaglianza e al rispetto dei diritti fondamentali della persona - 8. Condizione per una integrabilità che non introduca germi di scontri razziali e sociali è assicurare l’accettazione e l’assimilazione da parte di tutti di un nucleo minimo di valori: il principio di eguaglianza senza discriminazioni e la dichiarazione universale dei diritti dell’uomo. Conseguenze di tali principi: l’impossibilità di importare istituti giuridici fondati su discriminazioni o contrarie alla laicità dello Stato e di adottare politiche migratorie disumane o liberticide - 9. Occorrono atteggiamenti più solidi e maturi di fronte all’immigrazione: con azioni culturali ed educative aiutare a formare la società multiculturale; evitare chiusure e ripiegamenti su sé stessi e disciplinare con leggi il processo migratorio - 10. Imparare a conoscersi e a accettarsi reciprocamente e a convivere tra diversi in una società multiculturale e multireligiosa e di immigrazione: prospettive e dilemmi del pluralismo nei rapporti interpersonali e sociali, nella comunicazione, nell’educazione interculturale e nell’integrazione sociale - 11. Le prospettive del dialogo islamo-cristiano nella vita quotidiana: educare bambini e ragazzi a conoscere e rispettare le diversità religiose e convivere pacificamente rispettando le leggi senza chiedere trattamenti speciali e senza rinnegare la propria identità - 12. Una Chiesa da genti diverse, accogliente, aperta agli stranieri, un esempio per tutti di fraternità che favorisce la convivenza: il sogno della Chiesa di Ambrogio e il sogno della Chiesa di Martini - 13. A fondamento di tutto la visione dello straniero e delle migrazioni nella Bibbia: l’uomo migrante e i tre motivi (carismatico, cristologico, escatologico) per l’accoglienza dello straniero - 14. L’eredità del magistero di Martini su immigrazione e stranieri. ABSTRACT: The paper analyses the relevance of the thought of Carlo Maria Martini, Cardinal and Archbishop of Milano from 1979 to 2003, with regard to the legal and political choices that national and European institutions must make in order to regulate both immigration and a multicultural and multireligious coexistence. After recalling the background of Christian personalism and of European unification, the paper focuses on the institutional and legal aspects of Martini’s thinking which is founded on the biblical message as well as on a true commitment to constitutional, international and European provisions. According to Martini, migration is an ordinary phenomenon and it should be managed in an ordinary way, also as a chance to improve everyone’s conditions and to renew all States. We must therefore both prepare ourselves and educate to coexistence among people of different cultures and religions: such a coexistence will be peaceful only if everyone respects the principle of equality, the secularity of the State and the fundamental rights of each person

La condizione giuridica di Rom e Sinti in Italia

Il volume rappresenta un’assoluta novità nel panorama della letteratura giuridica italiana. Si tratta, infatti, della prima opera che cerca di fornire una visione completa, aggiornata e interdisciplinare dei problemi giuridici relativi alla condizione in Italia delle persone appartenenti alla minoranza dei Rom e dei Sinti. I capitoli fanno riferimento a molteplici aspetti con ricadute di rilievo tanto per la giurisprudenza costituzionale che per quella ordinaria, ma anche per il diritto dell’UE e la giurisprudenza della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo. Sono così approfonditi tutti gli aspetti della condizione delle singole persone (italiane, straniere o apolidi) e dello status della minoranza in sé, le norme statali e regionali rilevanti, le prassi istituzionali e i problemi di discriminazione, le raccomandazioni e le proposte emesse da organismi internazionali. Le analisi vanno a toccare il diritto costituzionale, pubblico e regionale, il diritto amministrativo e urbanistico, il diritto penale e processuale penale, il diritto civile, il diritto del lavoro, il diritto internazionale e dell’Unione europea. Sono presenti altresì riflessioni di diritto comparato (Francia, Spagna, Ungheria, Romania, Stati dell’ex-Jugoslavia), nonché analisi empiriche sulle prassi amministrative e giudiziarie. Oltre ad analisi svolte da giuristi accademici, l’opera contiene contributi di magistrati e avvocati, ma anche di sociologi, politologi, epidemiologi, antropologi e linguisti scelti tra coloro che più si sono distinti nello studio del mondo rom e sinto. Sono altresì presenti contributi di rappresentanti di istituzioni statali italiane, della Commissione europea, del Consiglio d’Europa e dell’OSCE, nonché testimonianze di rappresentanti dell'associazionismo rom e sinto. L’appendice contiene un’articolata bozza di progetto di legge elaborata dai curatori.Tomo I La condizione giuridica di Rom e Sinti in Italia: dall’ascolto e confronto alla proposta, di P. Bonetti, A. Simoni, T. Vitale. Saluto del Presidente della Repubblica Giorgio Napolitano. Sezione I - INTRODUZIONE. I nodi giuridici della condizione di Rom e Sinti in Italia, di P. Bonetti. Sezione II - ASPETTI GENERALI. Contributi di D. Halwachs, F. Palermo, S. Baldin, G. Loy, A. Simoni, T. Vitale, A.R. Calabrò. Sezione III - ASPETTI DI DIRITTO COMUNITARIO E INTERNAZIONALE E DI DIRITTO DEGLI STRANIERI. Contributi di M. Fornara, J. A. Goldston e C. Hermanin, D. Boni, G. Perin, G. Cousin e F. Mariani. Sezione IV - BREVE CASISTICA DI MODELLI EUROPEI. Contributi di F. Rey Martínez, K. Kelemen, S. Tanasescu, M. Dicosola, C. Le Berre. Sezione V - EGUAGLIANZA, DISCRIMINAZIONI E AZIONI LEGALI. Contributi di M. Barbera, T. Vettor, A. Maiorca, V. Vasey, A. Guariso, E. Rizzin e A. Bertellini, P. Tanzarella. Tomo II Sezione VI - INTEGRAZIONE, PARTECIPAZIONE E COMUNICAZIONE. Contributi di F. Furlan, N. Sigona, G. E. Vigevani. Sezione VII - I DIRITTI A CIRCOLARE, A SOGGIORNARE E AD ABITARE. Contributi di C. Corsi, A. Tosi, N. Bassi, E. Paciotti, G. Scappucci e R. Demiraj, L. Levak, F. Casavola, L. Neri. Sezione VIII - I DIRITTI LINGUISTICI, CULTURALI E DELL’ISTRUZIONE. Contributi di G. Poggeschi, V. Piergigli, E. Rozzi, D. Argiropoulos, E. Cimoli, G. Bezzecchi, M. Mapelli. Sezione IX - FAMIGLIA E DIRITTI DEI MINORI. Contributi di E. Lamarque, P. Morozzo della Rocca, C. Saletti Salza. Sezione X - IL DIRITTO ALLA SALUTE. Contributi di F. Motta e S. Geraci, L. Monasta. Sezione XI - ASPETTI PENALI E PROCESSUALI. Contributi di L. Masera, F. Viganò, G. Ubertis, L. Trucco, L. Laera, S. Tosi Cambini. Sezione XII - LE SFIDE PER IL FUTURO. Contributi di A. Mirga, M. Cermel, N. Gheorghe, M. Guet, T. Vitale e L. Caruso. Sezione XIII - VERSO UNA LEGGE ITALIANA PER IL RICONOSCIMENTO E LA TUTELA DELLA MINORANZA DEI ROM E DEI SINTI? Contributi di O. Marotti, M. Pagani, G. Perego. APPENDICE - UN’IPOTESI DI PROPOSTA DI LEGGE: NORME PER LA TUTELA E LE PARI OPPORTUNITÀ DELLA MINORANZA DEI ROM E DEI SINTI. Relazione generale e bozza dell’articolato di P. Bonetti, A. Simoni e T. Vitale

The effectiveness of team-based learning in nursing education: A systematic review

Aim: Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an active teaching methodology, recently implemented also in the field of nursing education. The main objective of this study was to identify, appraise and summarize primary studies on the effectiveness of TBL in achieving learning outcomes in undergraduate nursing students. The secondary objective was to explore the generic competencies the students developed, and their reactions and attitudes.Study design: A systematic review of experimental and quasi-experimental studies.Databases sources: Cochrane Library, Pubmed/Medline, Cinahl, PsycINFO, and Eric; Google Scholar was used to search for grey literature and the reference lists of the retrieved papers.Review methods: A research protocol was developed according to the PRISMA-P guidelines. Two reviewers conducted the selection process. The "JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist" was used to check the quality of the selected studies.Results: We included 12 studies: 2 monocentric randomized controlled trials and 10 quasi-experimental studies. Nine out of 12 studies produced significant results in favour of TBL in terms of academic performance and skills development, however results were divergent when TBL was compared with other teaching methods. The results of 7 studies highlighted the effectiveness of TBL in improving the development of communication skills, inter professional learning, and self-directed learning. Divergent results were obtained with regard to problem solving and critical thinking skills. TBL promoted classroom engagement, however it did not seem to be associated with better learning outcomes.Conclusions: Overall, TBL was found to be effective in achieving undergraduate nursing students' learning outcomes, but evidence was not sufficiently strong to warrant that it is more effective than other teaching methods. The results of this review are in favour of the implementation of TBL in nursing education, however studies with more rigorous methods and with a mixed method design are required to improve the transferability of results

Genetic relationships between weight gain and feeding behaviour of ad libitum-fed pigs and weight gain of heavy pigs under restricted feeding

Pig breeding in Italy aims to obtain heavy pigs for production of typical cured end products. Detailed guidelines related to animals, weight, age, feeding regime, carcass and fresh ham traits impose constraints on this type of production

Global existence and uniqueness for a singular/degenerate Cahn-Hilliard system with viscosity

Existence and uniqueness are investigated for a nonlinear diffusion problem of phase-field type, consisting of a parabolic system of two partial differential equations, complemented by Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions and initial conditions. This system aims to model two-species phase segregation on an atomic lattice; in the balance equations of microforces and microenergy, the two unknowns are the order parameter and the chemical potential. A simpler version of the same system has recently been discussed in arXiv:1103.4585v1. In this paper, a fairly more general phase-field equation is coupled with a genuinely nonlinear diffusion equation. The existence of a global-in-time solution is proved with the help of suitable a priori estimates. In the case of a constant atom mobility, a new and rather unusual uniqueness proof is given, based on a suitable combination of variables.Comment: Key words: phase-field model, nonlinear laws, existence of solutions, new uniqueness proo

Advancing drought monitoring via feature extraction and multi-task learning algorithms

A drought is a slowly developing natural phenomenon that can occur in all climatic zones and can be defined as a temporary but significant decrease in water availability. Over the past three decades, the cost of droughts in Europe amounted to over 100 billion euros, with the recent summer droughts being unprecedented in the last 2,000 years. Although drought monitoring and management are extensively studied in the literature, capturing the evolution of drought dynamics, and associated impacts across different temporal and spatial scales remains a critical, unsolved challenge. In this work, we contribute with a Machine Learning procedure named FRIDA (FRamework for Index-based Drought Analysis) for the identification of impact-based drought indexes. FRIDA is a fully automated data-driven approach that relies on advanced feature extraction algorithms to identify relevant drought drivers from a pool of candidate hydro-meteorological predictors. The selected predictors are then combined into an index representing a surrogate of the drought conditions in the considered area, including either observed or simulated water deficits or remotely sensed information on crop status. Notably, FRIDA leverages multi-task learning algorithms to upscale the analysis over a large region where drought impacts might depend on diverse but potentially correlated drivers. FRIDA captures the heterogeneous features of the different sub-regions while efficiently using all available data and exploiting the commonalities across sub-regions. In this way, the accuracy of the resulting prediction benefits from a reduced uncertainty compared to training separate models for each sub-region. Several real-world examples will be used to provide a synthesis of recent applications of FRIDA in case studies featuring diverse hydroclimatic conditions and variable levels of data availability

Elongated styloid process evaluation on digital panoramic radiograph in a North Italian population

The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of elongated styloid process in digital panoramic radiographs in a North Italian population in relation to age, gender and side. This study was performed as a retrospective analysis on digital panoramic radiographs of 600 (271 males and 329 females) Italian patients between 6 and 87 years old. The styloid process length were measured using the measuring tool of Sidexis Software. It was measured from the point where it left the temporal bone plate to its tip. Styloid processes measuring more than 30 mm were considered elongated. Chi-squared and Fisher tests were used and the test is considered significant if the p-value is lower or equal to 0.05. Thirty-three per cent of the patients showed an elongated styloid process. Seventeen per cent were elongated on both right and left side, fifteen point nine per cent were elongated only in one side. The prevalence of elongated styloid process was high and a progressive increase of the elongation prevalence was found in older groups