Patriotic pilgrimages during the Italian liberal period: sites and terminology

The article aims to analyze the phenomenon of "laic pilgrimage": the trips that during the first fifty years of Italian unity, saw the places of memory as the protagonists of the Risorgimento. Specifically will be analyzed the trips to ossuaries, battlefields, monuments and tombs of the fathers of the Nation. The text try to create a map - on a national scale - of the places of pilgrimage divided according to the "users". To different destinations, in fact, correspond different types of pilgrimage, mirrors of Italian political situation of this period

L’esperienza dello shopping nelle località turistiche fra pianificazione urbana e innovazione tecnologica e organizzativa

Questo saggio esplora il rapporto fra turismo e shopping portando l’attenzione su Riccione, una delle capitali del turismo balneare italiano. Come ricorda Dallen Timothy, la pratica del consumo non si incentra solo sui prodotti ma anche sui luoghi, contribuendo a dare forma alla città (Timothy 2005, 11). Nelle destinazioni turistiche , poi, gli spazi per gli acquisti si intrecciano con quelli delle altre attività ricreative, creando dinamiche spesso originali. Nel caso di Riccione la dialettica fra turismo balneare e shopping, fra spiaggia e centro commerciale trova la sua sintesi in viale Ceccarini, il lungo viale che portava dal vecchio borgo al mare e che diventa nel Novecento il fulcro dello shopping e della vita sociale. Parafrasando A. Corbin (1990) possiamo dire che la conquete du rivage a Riccione passò attraverso l’invenzione fisica e simbolica di questo viale e dello stile di vita che esso incarnava, specchio dell’abbondanza e della felicità della società dei consumiThis essay explores the relationship between tourism and shopping focusing on Riccione, one of the most popular destinations of Italian seaside tourism. As Dallen Timothy points out, consumption is not only about products: it is also about consuming places, and it thus contributes to shaping the city (Timothy 2005, p. 11). In tourist destinations, spaces for retail are intertwined with those for other recreational activities, often creating unique dynamics. In Riccione, the dialectic between seaside tourism and shopping and between the beach and the shopping streets in the city centre is especially epitomized by Viale Ceccarini, the long avenue that once connected the old village with the sea. In the 20th century, the street became the heart of shopping and social life. Paraphrasing A. Corbin (1990), we can say that the conquête du rivage in Riccione stems from the physical and symbolic invention of this avenue and the lifestyle it embodied, mirroring the abundance and happiness of the consumer society

Heterologous microarray experiments allow the identification of the early events associated with potato tuber cold sweetening

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Since its discovery more than 100 years ago, potato (<it>Solanum tuberosum</it>) tuber cold-induced sweetening (CIS) has been extensively investigated. Several carbohydrate-associated genes would seem to be involved in the process. However, many uncertainties still exist, as the relative contribution of each gene to the process is often unclear, possibly as the consequence of the heterogeneity of experimental systems. Some enzymes associated with CIS, such as β-amylases and invertases, have still to be identified at a sequence level. In addition, little is known about the early events that trigger CIS and on the involvement/association with CIS of genes different from carbohydrate-associated genes. Many of these uncertainties could be resolved by profiling experiments, but no GeneChip is available for the potato, and the production of the potato cDNA spotted array (TIGR) has recently been discontinued. In order to obtain an overall picture of early transcriptional events associated with CIS, we investigated whether the commercially-available tomato Affymetrix GeneChip could be used to identify which potato cold-responsive gene family members should be further studied in detail by Real-Time (RT)-PCR (qPCR).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A tomato-potato Global Match File was generated for the interpretation of various aspects of the heterologous dataset, including the retrieval of best matching potato counterparts and annotation, and the establishment of a core set of highly homologous genes. Several cold-responsive genes were identified, and their expression pattern was studied in detail by qPCR over 26 days. We detected biphasic behaviour of mRNA accumulation for carbohydrate-associated genes and our combined GeneChip-qPCR data identified, at a sequence level, enzymatic activities such as β-amylases and invertases previously reported as being involved in CIS. The GeneChip data also unveiled important processes accompanying CIS, such as the induction of redox- and ethylene-associated genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our Global Match File strategy proved critical for accurately interpretating heterologous datasets, and suggests that similar approaches may be fruitful for other species. Transcript profiling of early events associated with CIS revealed a complex network of events involving sugars, redox and hormone signalling which may be either linked serially or act in parallel. The identification, at a sequence level, of various enzymes long known as having a role in CIS provides molecular tools for further understanding the phenomenon.</p