'Hope isn't stupid': The Appropriation of Dystopia

The realization that utopia had been commodified and domesticated has led some critics to work primarily on dystopia and argue that the utopian impulse can be maintained in dystopias. However, we are witnessing today an appropriation and a commodification of dystopia as well. This paper explores this appropriation (in fiction, in social media, and in fashion) and claims that the recognition of the precarity of hope is what may still help us today to renovate the discourse on utopia

Contested Memories and Acts of Counter-Commemoration as Temporary Utopian Spaces

This reflection on counter-commemoration as temporary utopian spaces stresses the importance of distinguishing between a conservative, or anti-utopian, and a progressive, or utopian, use of memory \u2013 the latter acquiring also a social and ethical dimension. Whereas commemoration advances the official version of events according to the dominant culture at a given time, thus serving the specific purposes of the political power, acts of counter-commemoration function as sites of opposition and contestation that challenge one particular vision of how a problematic past has been interpreted and memorialized and can open up temporary utopian spaces. The essay takes the form of an unusual \u2018journey\u2019 through European contested memories: from Budapest through Paris to Bologna. Examples of acts of counter-commemoration are interspersed with some reflections about contested memories, their (more or less) appropriate acts of commemoration, and the importance and significance of symbolic objects, in an attempt to show why acts of counter-commemoration are all the more important today and provide a utopian answer to our dystopian times

Recovering hope in darkness: The role of gender in dystopian narratives

My aim is to comment on dystopia based on an approach that has foregrounded, from its very beginning, issues of writing in their intersection with gender and the deconstruction of high and low culture. In the first part of the article, I carry out a reflection on the genre of dystopia, how it has changed, its constituent elements and their transformations, with a look in particular to its gender dimension, its formal and thematic features, as well as to its modes of articulating horizons of hope. In the second part, I discuss dystopian conventions and developments, drawing from Lyman Sargent’s (1994, 2022), my own work and together with Tom Moylan (2003, 2020), Ildney Cavalcanti’s (2000), Ruth Levitas’s (2007) contributions. I understand that dystopia remains fundamentally a term for a distinct literary genre, with its particular history, its formal characteristics, but also its evolving form. In the third part of the article, I analyze Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks, as an example of critical dystopias produced today. Finally, I conclude that in dark times, dystopian literature becomes even more important to us, providing both the tools and the necessary incentive that we need to critically interpret and transform our present.My aim is to comment on dystopia based on an approach that has foregrounded, from its very beginning, issues of writing in their intersection with gender and the deconstruction of high and low culture. In the first part of the article, I carry out a reflection on the genre of dystopia, how it has changed, its constituent elements and their transformations, with a look in particular to its gender dimension, its formal and thematic features, as well as to its modes of articulating horizons of hope. In the second part, I discuss dystopian conventions and developments, drawing from Lyman Sargent’s (1994, 2022), my own work and together with Tom Moylan (2003, 2020), Ildney Cavalcanti’s (2000), Ruth Levitas’s (2007) contributions. I understand that dystopia remains fundamentally a term for a distinct literary genre, with its particular history, its formal characteristics, but also its evolving form. In the third part of the article, I analyze Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks, as an example of critical dystopias produced today. Finally, I conclude that in dark times, dystopian literature becomes even more important to us, providing both the tools and the necessary incentive that we need to critically interpret and transform our present.

The Possible Role of Cyclic Pentacoordinate Phosphorus Intermediates in the Origin and Evolution of Life. Are Phosphoric Anhydride and Trimetaphosphates Prebiotic Reagents ?

ABSTRACT This mini-review shows that the origin and evolution of life might be governed by a chemical process in which the formation of cyclic pentacoordinated phosphorus intermediates is activated of a factor 10 6-8 over other similar collateral processes containing acyclic phosphorus compounds. It follows that primordial cyclic phosphorylating reagents such as phosphoric anhydride (P 4 O 10 ), produced from volcano magma, and its natural derivative trimetaphosphates (TMP) could be used 2 to obtain very important biochemical molecules such as proteins, natural heterocyclic bases, ATP and AMP isomers very rapidly in prebiotic conditions. In addition, some results demonstrated that it is possible to generate, with high chemio-, regio-, and stereoselectivity, adenosine monophosphates (AMPs) and their oligonucleotides together with small amounts of ATP, by mixing in a one-pot reaction, D-ribose, adenine and TMP in aseptic water as a solvent and this process might explain the spontaneous generation of pre-RNA molecules in a primordial Earth and the easy formation of ATP

a green synthesis of glycoluril derivatives in aqueous solution with recycle of the waste

Abstract A series of glycoluril derivatives have been synthesized in water at room temperature from urea and 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds in the presence of phosphoric anhydride. The reaction time is about 10 minutes using one mole of 1,2-dicarbonyl compound, three moles of urea, and half mole of P4O10, but the reaction occurs also, even if with longer reaction times, with very small amounts of P4O10 which is recovered at the end of reactions. In fact, several catalytic turnovers can be performed using the same reaction solution obtained after separation by simple filtration of the glycolurils

Familial hypercholesterolemia: a systematic review of guidelines on genetic testing and patient management

BACKGROUND: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an autosomal-dominant hereditary disorder of lipid metabolism that causes lifelong exposure to increased LDL levels resulting in premature coronary heart disease and, if untreated, death. Recent studies have shown its prevalence to be higher than previously considered, which has important implications for the mortality and morbidity of associated cardiovascular disease (CVD). Several clinical tools are used worldwide to help physicians diagnose FH, but nevertheless most patients remain undetected. This systematic review of guidelines aims to assess the role of genetic testing in the screening, diagnosis, and management of patients affected by heterozygous or homozygous FH and to identify related health-care pathways. METHODS: We performed a systematic review of the literature; inclusion criteria were English or Italian guidelines focusing on genetic testing. The guidelines were included and evaluated for their content and development process using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II instrument. RESULTS: Ten guidelines were considered eligible, and all were judged to be of good quality, with slight differences among them. The most common indications for performing genetic tests were high levels of cholesterol, or physical findings consistent with lipid disorder, in the subject or in the family history. Subsequent screening of family members was indicated when a mutation had been identified in the index patient. Regarding patient management, the various guidelines agreed that intensive treatment with lipid-lowering medications should begin as quickly as possible and that lifestyle modifications should be an integral part of the therapy. CONCLUSION: Since the early detection of affected patients is beneficial for effective prevention of CVD, genetic testing is particularly useful for identifying family members via cascade screening and for distinguishing between heterozygous and homozygous individuals, the latter of which require more extreme therapeutic intervention

Killing two birds with one stone. Is the COVID-19 vaccination campaign an opportunity to improve adherence to cancer screening programmes? The challenge of a pilot project in a large local health authority in Rome

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected health services worldwide. The suspension of cancer screening programs during the lockdown period, coupled with the other measures taken to limit the SARS-CoV-2 spread, contributed to the idea that cancer preventive interventions are deferrable. In this opinion paper, we present some data on cancer screening coverage in one of the largest Local Health Authorities in Italy in recent years. Within this context, we introduce the benefits of a pilot project in which we took advantage of the great attention on the COVID-19 vaccination campaign to improve screening uptake. In this project, we offered men and women eligible for cancer screening the opportunity to book appointments while waiting to be vaccinated. In addition, trained healthcare personnel were available on-site to discuss any barriers to participation with the attendees. Despite the project having only just started, preliminary results are encouraging, with positive feedback from the attendees. In conclusion, we advocate for the need to adopt a comprehensive approach when it comes to population health, and we use this project as an example to discuss how it is possible to contribute to minimizing the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with resources already in place

Factors affecting the vaccination choices of pregnant women for their children. A systematic review of the literature

In recent years, an increase in vaccine hesitancy has led to a decrease in vaccination coverage in several countries. We conducted a systematic review of studies that assessed knowledge of and attitudes toward pediatric vaccinations, and the vaccination choices and their determinants among pregnant women. A total of 6,277 records were retrieved, and 16 full texts were included in the narrative synthesis. The published literature on the topic shows that, overall, pregnant women believe that vaccines are important for the protection of their children and the community, but various concerns and misunderstandings persist around vaccine safety and efficacy, which reduce the trust of expectant mothers in immunization. Nevertheless, such attitudes and choices vary depending on the vaccine being considered and the corresponding determinants should therefore be studied in the context of each specific vaccination. Further research on this topic is needed, particularly in non-western countries

Analysis of in vivo purine nucleotide catabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana with focus on nucleoside hydrolase 2

Plants can catabolize purine nucleotides to recycle nutrients, in particular nitrogen. The currently established model of purine nucleotide catabolism consists of a branched pathway that starts from AMP and GMP and proceeds either via the intermediates inosine and hypoxanthine or via guanosine and xanthosine to converge on xanthine. Xanthine is further catabolized in a linear fashion by a fully characterized series of reactions to form glyoxylate, carbon dioxide and ammonia. The ammonia released can be re-assimilated into amino acids. This work focuses on how xanthine is generated, in vivo, in Arabidopsis. Metabolite analysis of mutants of a wide set of genes involved in purine catabolism and salvage such as guanosine deaminase, nucleoside hydrolases (NSH), xanthine dehydrogenase, urate oxidase and hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase along with double order and triple order mutants of the same genes showed that xanthine is mainly generated by xanthosine hydrolysis. Inosine and hypoxanthine might enter the pathway from routes other than nucleotide degradation, such as tRNA degradation, DNA repair, and uptake from the soil. Furthermore, xanthosine is not only generated by guanosine deamination as reported in Dahncke and Witte, 2013, but xanthosine monophosphate dephosphorylation is likely to be a source as well. In addition, this work elucidates the function of NSH2. The Arabidopsis genome encodes two nucleoside hydrolases, NSH1 and NSH2. NSH1 is essential for xanthosine and uridine hydrolysis, whereas the function of NSH2 is unclear. Biochemical, genetic and metabolic analyses demonstrate that NSH1 activates NSH2 in vitro and in vivo forming a heterocomplex that has a higher catalytic efficiency for xanthosine, but not for uridine, in comparison to the NSH1 homomer. The heterocomplex formation is also shown for the NSH enzymes of Coffea arabica and Physcomitrella patens, suggesting that this interaction is conserved in the plant kingdom. Dynamic NSH heterocomplex formation might regulate the flux through different branches of nucleotide catabolism. By altering the available amount of NSH2, cell metabolism might be able to upregulate or downregulate the flux through purine degradation, which not only enables the cell to control purine and pyrimidine homeostasis, but might also be useful to deal with certain stress conditions. To summarize, this work unravels how xanthine is generated within the purine nucleotide catabolic pathway of Arabidopsis in vivo, and proposes a revised model in which xanthosine hydrolysis, catalyzed by a heterocomplex of nucleoside hydrolases, serves as the main source of xanthine