Bologna in noir: la città nella crime fiction di Loriano Macchiavelli, Carlo Lucarelli e Grazia Verasani

A partire dagli anni Novanta, con la fondazione del Gruppo 13, Bologna è diventata uno dei centri nevralgici della crime fiction italiana. La città ispira la scrittura di gialli e di noir ma allo stesso tempo diventa uno dei personaggi principali di queste narrazioni. Scopo dell'articolo è dunque quello di identificare una geopoetica della Bologna "gialla e nera" attraverso i testi di tre degli autori più riconosciuti tra i giallisti emiliani: Loriano Macchiavelli, Carlo Lucarelli e Grazia Verasani

La Vieille fille di Balzac: feuilleton ou pas? Querelle sulle origini della letteratura seriale francese

The 1836 is the date of the encounter between seriality and literature in France: thanks to an idea of Émile de Girardin, fiction becomes the highlight of the ʻpresse à bon marchéʼ. It’s the birth of the serial literature, with the creation of the roman-feuilleton. Generally, Honoré de Balzac is considered the founder of the new genre, as he’s the first writer to give his contribution to the political press with La Vieille fille. Yet, in the last twenty years a broil has built up among the French critics on the primacy of Balzac; even the belonging of La Vieille fille to the genre of the roman-feuilleton has been queried. The intent of this article is to analyze the studies which have advanced this objection, describe the elements that have led to the formulation of this hypothesis and see if the discussion on the authorship of the serial literature may be possible, or not, to give an answer. A course that define the genre itself of the roman-feuilleton.   Il 1836 è l’anno in cui in Francia la serialità incontra la letteratura: dall’idea di Émile de Girardin di fare delle opere letterarie il punto di forza della ʻpresse à bon marchéʼ nasce il roman-feuilleton. Generalmente, si riconosce la paternità del nuovo genere a Honoré de Balzac, il primo scrittore a dare il suo contributo alla stampa politica con La Vieille fille. Negli ultimi vent’anni però nello spazio della critica francese è nata una ʻquerelleʼ sul primato di Balzac, e si è arrivati a dubitare che La Vieille fille appartenga al genere del roman-feuilleton. Scopo dell’articolo è quello di analizzare gli studi che hanno avanzato questa contestazione, descrivere ciò che ha portato alla formulazione di quest’ipotesi e capire se il dibattito sul primato del feuilleton possa trovare o meno una risposta. Un percorso che tocca  il genere stesso del roman-feuilleton.

Illustrare La Commedia umana. tra testo e immagine

La présente étude est composée par deux volumes. Le premier contient la partie théorique, dédiée à l’analyse du rapport entre le texte et l’illustration dans les éditions illustrées des œuvres de Balzac publiées de son vivant. L’analyse est divisée en trois sections, chacune correspondant à une période temporelle particulière qui prend en considération la production de l’auteur et, à la fois, l’évolution du livre illustré : 1820-1830, 1830-1840 et 1840-1850. On traite donc toute la carrière de Balzac, dès les exordes à l’apogée que la publication de La Comédie humaine représente. Les œuvres prise en analyse démontrent que le concept d’illustration est vraiment complexe, et qu’il nécessite d’une définition nouvelle pour que sa relation avec le texte écrit soit saisissable dans toutes ses nuances : l’illustration ne se limite pas à traduire le mot en image, mais elle enrichisse l’imaginaire du lecteur en allant outre, ou même ailleurs, par rapport à ce que le texte raconte ou décrit. L’illustrations sort des marges pour se poser, à son tour, comme un texte à lire parallèle au texte écrit ; l’étude des ouvrages de Balzac montre bien cette tension entre les deux médiums. Ces sont la scène et le personnage, notamment, les deux éléments narratifs qui véhiculent la réflexion : de fait, l’illustration devient l’interprète du « tableau pathétique » (Danielle Dupuis, « Entre théâtre et peinture : le tableau pathétique balzacien, L’Année balzacienne 2001) et, dans un deuxième temps, « des hommes, des femmes et des choses » et du personnage-type. Le deuxième volume de l’étude contient les catalogues des œuvres illustrées de Balzac analysé dans le premier tome, et aussi les catalogues de toutes les éditions françaises illustrées existant des textes de l’écrivain.This study is divided in two volumes. The first one is conceived as a theoretical analysis of the relationship between text and illustration, with particular reference to the illustrated editions published when Balzac was alive. This volume is subdivided into three parts following three crucial moments of the author’s life as well as of the history of the romantic illustrated book: 1820-1830, 1830-1840 and 1840-1850. Thus, the period considered extends from the beginning of Balzac’s career as a writer to the publication of The Human Comedy, which represented the apotheosis of his literary glory. The corpus analysed perfectly shows the complexity of the notion of illustration, which requires a new definition and a novel approach in order to fully express the relationship between text and image. In fact, the illustration is not restricted to a simple translation of the text into images, but it can expand the very text by providing it with an imagery that often does not directly refer to the narrative. Thus, in same cases, the illustration seems to compete with words going beyond its own limits, and the corpus of Balzac’s works under exam perfectly shows such a tension between the two media. Moreover, the analysis focuses in particular on two key elements of Balzac’s poetics: the scene and the character. On the one hand, the illustration conveys what has been named tableau pathétique, on the other hand, it depicts “les hommes, les femmes et les choses” in images, on the basis of their textual description. Finally, the second of the two volumes consists of several reasoned catalogues of the illustrated editions of the works by Balzac analysed in the first volume, and of other reasoned catalogues of all the illustrated editions of Balzac’s works published in France besides those considered in the present studyLa tesi è composta da due volumi. Il primo contiene la parte teorica, dedicata all’analisi del rapporto tra testo e illustrazione nelle edizioni illustrate pubblicate mentre Balzac era in vita. Lo studio è diviso in tre parti, che rispecchiano una divisione cronologica basata sulla vita dell’autore ma anche sull’evoluzione del libro romantico illustrato: 1820-1830, 1830-1840, e infine 1840-1850. Dagli esordi di Balzac nella letteratura si arriva dunque al momento del suo apogeo, rappresentato dalla pubblicazione della Commedia umana. I testi presi in esame rendono evidente come il concetto di illustrazione sia in realtà complesso, e che necessiti di una nuova definizione per poter comprendere pienamente il rapporto che essa instaura con il testo: l’illustrazione non si limita a tradurre il testo in immagini, ma è capace di arricchirne l’immaginario attraverso immagini che non sono, a prima vista, strettamente legate alla narrazione. L’illustrazione esce dai margini per far concorrenza al testo scritto, e le opere di Balzac prese in analisi dimostrano questa tensione tra i due medium. Lo studio è condotto in particolare sui due elementi chiave della poetica balzachiana, la scena e il personaggio: si analizza come l’illustrazione si fa interprete del tableau pathétique e come ella rappresenti “gli uomini, le donne e le cose” nelle immagini, alla luce della descrizione data dal testo. Il secondo volume della tesi contiene invece i cataloghi ragionati delle opere di Balzac analizzate nel primo volume, e i cataloghi delle edizioni illustrate francesi esistenti delle opere di Balzac

Extreme Solar Events: Setting up a Paradigm

The Sun is magnetically active and often produces eruptive events on different energetic and temporal scales. Until recently, the upper limit of such events was unknown and believed to be roughly represented by direct instrumental observations. However, two types of extreme events were discovered recently: extreme solar energetic particle events on the multi-millennial time scale and super-flares on sun-like stars. Both discoveries imply that the Sun might rarely produce events, called extreme solar events (ESE), whose energy could be orders of magnitude greater than anything we have observed during recent decades. During the years following these discoveries, great progress has been achieved in collecting observational evidence, uncovering new events, making statistical analyses, and developing theoretical modelling. The ESE paradigm lives and is being developed. On the other hand, many outstanding questions still remain open and new ones emerge. Here we present an overview of the current state of the art and the forming paradigm of ESE from different points of view: solar physics, stellar–solar projections, cosmogenic-isotope data, modelling, historical data, as well as terrestrial, technological and societal effects of ESEs. Special focus is paid to open questions and further developments. This review is based on the joint work of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) team #510 (2020–2022)

Endoplasmic Reticulum stress induces hepatic stellate cell apoptosis and contributes to fibrosis resolution.

BACKGROUND: Survival of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) is a hallmark of liver fibrosis, while the induction of HSC apoptosis may induce recovery. Activated HSC are resistant to many pro-apoptotic stimuli. To this issue, the role of Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) stress in promoting apoptosis of HSCs and consequently fibrosis resolution is still debated. AIM: To evaluate the potential ER stress-mediated apoptosis of HSCs and fibrosis resolution METHODS: HSCs were incubated with the ER stress agonists, tunicamycin or thapsigargin. In vivo, HSC were isolated from normal, bile duct-ligated (BDL) and bile duct-diverted (BDD) rats. RESULTS: In activated HSC, the specific inhibitor of ER stress-induced apoptosis, calpastatin, is significantly increased vs. quiescent HSCs. Calpain is conversely reduced in activated HSCs. This pattern of protein expression provides HSCs resistance to the ER stress signals of apoptosis (apoptosis-resistant phenotype). However, both tunicamycin and thapsigargin are able to induce apoptosis in HSCs in vitro, completely reversing the calpain/calpastatin pattern expression. Furthermore, in vivo, the fibrosis resolution observed in rat livers subjected to bile duct ligation (BDL) and subsequent bile duct diversion (BDD), leads to fibrosis resolution through a mechanism of HSCs apoptosis, potentially associated with ER stress: in fact, BDD rat liver shows an increased number of apoptotic HSCs associated with reduced calapstatin and increased calpain protein expression, leading to an apoptosis-sensible phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: ER stress sensitizes HSC to apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo. Thus, ER stress represents a key target to trigger cell death in activated HSC and promotes fibrosis resolution

Increase in FOXP3+ Regulatory T Cells in GVHD Skin Biopsies Is Associated with Lower Disease Severity and Treatment Response

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Pulmonary embolism post-Covid-19 infection. Physiopathological mechanisms and vascular damage biomarkers

Covid-19 infection is characterized by several acute complications, as well long-term sequelae, mostly sustained by endothelial dysfunction; several studies show that complications as pulmonary embolism (PE) are described both in the acute phase and after negativization. Aim of research was to evaluate anthropometric, bio-humoral, instrumental parameters in a group of patients affected by PE after recent Covid-19 infection compared to PE patients without previous Covid-19 infection. We enrolled 72 consecutive patients (35M, 37F) with acute PE, distinguished in relation to previous acute Covid-19 infection: 54 pts without previous acute Covid-19 infection and 18 pts with previous Covid-19 infection within negativity at least 2 months before PE diagnosis; 44 healthy subjects (21M, 23F) were recruited as control group. Patients who had previously developed Covid-19 needed hospitalization in high percentage (84%); this group showed significantly higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus than Covid-19-free PE patients, reduced serum levels of C-reactive protein, sST2 and PESI score. In post-Covid-19 PE group, we observed higher mean IMPROVE risk score, whereas in Covid-19-free group lower P/F ratio, higher radiological severity, and worse PESI score and severity index. Covid-19 infection affects not just the lung parenchyma but also other organs; endothelial damage plays pivotal role in long-term alterations; in high thrombotic risk group (recent hospitalization due to acute Covid-19 infection), we have described thrombotic complications characterized by persistent prothrombotic state after recovery, highlighted by well-known markers as PCR and D-Dimer as well as novel vascular marker (sST2)