Barrabás y otros relatos: la narrativa giovanile di Arturo Uslar Pietri. Traduzione e studio critico.

Il presente lavoro si propone di far conoscere la narrativa giovanile dello scrittore venezuelano Arturo Uslar Pietri (1906-2001), attraverso la traduzione della sua prima raccolta di racconti: Barrabás y otros relatos (1928). L’introduzione bio-bibliografica sull’autore è finalizzata a presentare una panoramica non solo della ricca produzione letteraria, iniziata alla fine degli anni Venti e costituita da racconti, romanzi, poesie, opere teatrali, e saggi, ma anche della sua intensa vita pubblica e politica con la quale si prefiggeva di coltivare e difendere la cultura e i valori latinoamericani. Segue uno studio critico dell’opera che mostra come quest’ultima costituisca un elemento di rinnovamento tra tradizione e avanguardia. Sono qui descritti i racconti che compongono l’opera, attraverso un’analisi che ne individua le principali influenze, chiavi tematiche e strategie stilistiche; lo studio si sofferma in modo particolare sulla natura eterogenea e rinnovatrice dell’opera, la quale non solo costituisce un elemento di rottura con il passato, ovvero con il costumbrismo, il realismo e il modernismo, muovendo i primi passi verso le correnti avanguardiste, ma che, anche laddove sembra riprendere elementi della tradizione, compie un rinnovamento. L’ultima parte di questo studio è costituita da un commento alla traduzione, un’analisi linguistica basata sulla complessità del significato lessicale dell’opera in funzione della resa traduttiva; sono qui spiegate le scelte traduttive prese di fronte ad alcune delle maggiori difficoltà che il testo presentava. La seconda parte di questo lavoro è costituita dalla traduzione dei sedici racconti

A rare case of melanosis of the hard palate mucosa in a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia

Imatinib Mesylate, also known as Gleevec or ST1-571, is a tyrosine-kinase inhibitor used as the gold standard medication for the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML); Imatinib has indeed deeply revolutionized the CML therapy allowing most patients to have a good quality of life. Despite its beneficial effects, Imatinib has significant side effects such as mucosal pigmentation. A 72-year-old female having an Imatinib induced mucosal pigmentation is presented: she has been treated with Imatinib since 2003 and only in 2014 discovered, during a routine dental visit, having a pigmented lesion on her hard palate mucosa. Histopathologically, the lesion shows the deposition of fine dark brown spherical bodies within the lamina propria and cloaked in between the collagen fibers. There was no sign of inflammation, hyperplasia, or hemorrhage in the tissu

Incremental open spaces: the case of Dharavi, India

Dharavi, in Mumbai, India, is one of the largest, liveliest—and wealthiest—slums in the world. Working with the urban planning research organization URBZ, the authors have been exploring the ways in which its inhabitants’ informal way of living benefits Dharavi as well as the whole city of Mumbai, and how these benefits would be compromised or destroyed if the city’s current redevelopment plan is carried out, resulting in the razing of the entire district and depriving its inhabitants of basic means of support. The article proposes an alternative design trying to combine formal and informal approaches

Towards the information retrieval with mobile agent

Currently, the inforrnation retrieval has been reflected directly in the final products of an organization. The databases integration reduces in the costs of an organization, where the legacy systerns and the new data storage technologies can be inter-related, supplying to the final users more consistent database information which proceed from a broader range of databases. So, the information retrieval between distinct databases will increase the data recuperation and permits facilities to users. Besides bringing these benefits, the use of the rnobile agents rnust allow a greater consistency in the data, since these agents rnove to the machines, and execute their tasks locally. This way, the data will not keep moving through the network, but will be stored in the mobile agents compartment, thus supplying one more level of securityI Workshop de Agentes y Sistemas Inteligentes (WASI)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Natural additive (aqueous extract) in rabbit diet: effects on performance and oxidative and innate immunological status

Abstract - Natural antioxidants are receiving increased attention in human and animal nutrition because of their association with food quality characteristics and immune responses 1, 2. Aromatic plants and their essential oils are good sources of natural antioxidants, such as phenolic compounds, e.g., eugenol, thymol, carvacrol 3. Plant such as Oregano (Origanum vulgare) has attracted great interest as its essential oil is rich in the monoterpenes, thymol and carvacrol, which exhibit good antioxidant and antimicrobial activities in vitro and in vivo, together with stimulating animal digestion 4. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation with an Oregano aqueous extract on performance and oxidative and innate immunological status of growing rabbits. The experimental protocol was planned according to University of Perugia Animal Committee guidelines and the trial was carried out at the experimental farm of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science (University of Perugia, Italy). At weaning (30 days of age) 240 weaned New Zealand White rabbits of both sexes were randomly allocated to three dietary groups, homogeneous for live weight and gender (40 rabbits/group), and housed in single wire net cages (600 x 250 x 330 mm) until 80 days of age, when they were weighted and slaughtered. The study was replicated with identical experimental designs during two consecutive cycles, for a total of 80 animals/group. Dietary groups were: Standard diet - with no supplementation (S); Standard diet + 150 ppm Vit E - positive control (E); Standard diet + 0.2% oregano (Origanum vulgare) aqueous extract (O). All diets, provided by Mignini&Petrini (Petrignano di Assisi, Perugia, Italy) were isoproteic and isoenergetic and the main ingredients were alfalfa meal, sunflower seed meal, wheat bran, barley and sugar beet pulp. The oregano extract was provided by Phenbiox (Calderara di Reno, Bologna, Italy) after an enzyme-aided extraction from leaves using water as solvent. The extracts were added to the diets by spraying during the mixing of ingredients. Feed and water were available ad libitum. The temperature and lighting schedule in the rabbitry were 15–18 °C and 16L:8D, respectively. In order to calculate the feed conversion ratio (FCR) and average daily gain (ADG), feed consumption were recorded daily and rabbits weight weekly. At the slaughter, blood samples (2 mL for each rabbit) were collected from the marginal ear vein of 30 rabbits/group at 80 day of age and the natural immune responses were evaluated by analyzing lysozyme (Lys), Serum Bactericidal Activity (SBA) and Haemolytic Complement Assay (HCA) in serum 5. The oxidative status was evaluated using commercially available kits (Diacron International Srl, Grosseto, Italy) that evaluates the serum’s ability to oppose the massive oxidative action of a hypochlorous acid (HClO) solution (AOP values) or the reactive oxygen metabolite concentrations (ROMs). The extent of muscle lipid peroxidation of raw Longissimus dorsi muscles (LD) was evaluated by spectrophotometer as reported by some authors 6. Oxidation products were quantified as malondialdehyde equivalents (mg/kg of muscle). Muscles were obtained from eight rabbits/group at 80 days. The data were analyzed by SPSS Dietary treatments significantly affected the live weight (LW) and ADG at the end of the trial; particularly, O fed animals had higher LW (2344 g vs 2296 and 2277 g, respectively; P<0.05) and ADG (30.7 g/d vs 29.7 and 29.2 g/d, respectively; P<0.05) compared to E and S groups; whereas, FCR was not influenced by the experimental diet. The blood oxidative status (AOP and ROMs) did not significantly varied among the different animal groups, however, the oxidative stability (TBARs) of the LD meat for all supplemented diets led to a lower TBARs content compared to the control (S) group. Indeed, the inclusion of extra vitamin E reduced TBARs of LD meat, as did supplementation with oregano extract (0.17 and 0.18 vs 0.24 mg MDA/kg meat, respectively. P<0.05). A better natural immune response was observed in O and E vs S groups which showed significantly higher HCA (74.9 and 69.6 vs 45.4, respectively; P<0.05) and SBA (26.4 and 28.5 vs 15.8, respectively; P< 0.05) values. The HCA assay is very useful for assessing the onset risk of infections or the gravity of ongoing diseases [7]. SBA, in particular, expresses the serum capacity to counteract the GRAM- bacterial growth [8]. This study showed that an adequate phytogenic additive dietary supplementation in growing rabbits can exert a positive effect on productive performance, natural immune responses and give protection against meat lipid oxidation

Novel Splicing Mutation in MTM1 Leading to Two Abnormal Transcripts Causes Severe Myotubular Myopathy

Myotubular myopathy; Novel mutation; SplicingMiopatía miotubular; Nueva mutación; EmpalmeMiopatia miotubular; Nova mutació; EmpalmamentX-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM) is a severe form of centronuclear myopathy, characterized by generalized weakness and respiratory insufficiency, associated with pathogenic variants in the MTM1 gene. NGS targeted sequencing on the DNA of a three-month-old child affected by XLMTM identified the novel hemizygous MTM1 c.1261-5T>G intronic variant, which interferes with the normal splicing process, generating two different abnormal transcripts simultaneously expressed in the patient’s muscular cells. The first aberrant transcript, induced by the activation of a cryptic splice site in intron 11, includes four intronic nucleotides upstream of exon 12, resulting in a shift in the transcript reading frame and introducing a new premature stop codon in the catalytic domain of the protein (p.Arg421SerfsTer7). The second aberrant MTM1 transcript, due to the lack of recognition of the 3′ acceptor splice site of intron 11 from the spliceosome complex, leads to the complete skipping of exon 12. We expanded the genotypic spectrum of XLMTM underlying the importance of intron–exons boundaries sequencing in male patients affected by XLMTM