8,298 research outputs found
“Man? Where’s a man? Don’t let him go!”: Molina’s Trans/gender Web in Interpretation and Performance
Using perspectives typical of English and theatrical fields of study, this capstone project interprets Molina from Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman as a heterosexual transgender woman and then investigates why such an interpretation does not exist in performance adaptations. Although Molina has been called a transgender woman in recent criticism, there is a conflation of gender and sexuality that has been uninvestigated in this text. It has not been addressed how Molina constructs her identity or how this interpretation might be employed in performance, which this essay seeks to confront. The first half of the project focuses on a close reading of the text that interprets Molina’s subjective construction of gender and sexuality as a heterosexual transgender woman, finding that the presupposed assumption of Molina as a gay man is a result of critics privileging what other characters say about Molina rather than her subjective articulation. The second half of the essay analyzes elements of the performance that prevented performing Molina as a transgender woman in Hector Babenco’s 1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman movie adaptation – such as the intentions for the movie, the writing of the screenplay, and the personal acting choices of William Hurt, who played Molina – through production research and a semiotic reading of the film. This project speaks to the broader context of how individual identity is constructed, how gender is performed, how societal attitudes oppress individual identity, and how transgender characters have been minimized in media
The coarsening of folds in hanging drapes
We consider the elastic energy of a hanging drape -- a thin elastic sheet,
pulled down by the force of gravity, with fine-scale folding at the top that
achieves approximately uniform confinement. This example of energy-driven
pattern formation in a thin elastic sheet is of particular interest because the
length scale of folding varies with height. We focus on how the minimum elastic
energy depends on the physical parameters. As the sheet thickness vanishes, the
limiting energy is due to the gravitational force and is relatively easy to
understand. Our main accomplishment is to identify the "scaling law" of the
correction due to positive thickness. We do this by (i) proving an upper bound,
by considering the energies of several constructions and taking the best; (ii)
proving an ansatz-free lower bound, which agrees with the upper bound up to a
parameter-independent prefactor. The coarsening of folds in hanging drapes has
also been considered in the recent physics literature, using a self-similar
construction whose basic cell has been called a "wrinklon." Our results
complement and extend that work, by showing that self-similar coarsening
achieves the optimal scaling law in a certain parameter regime, and by showing
that other constructions (involving lateral spreading of the sheet) do better
in other regions of parameter space. Our analysis uses a geometrically linear
F\"{o}ppl-von K\'{a}rm\'{a}n model for the elastic energy, and is restricted to
the case when Poisson's ratio is zero.Comment: 34 page
LONG-LASTING CRANIAL NERVE III PALSY AS A PRESENTING FEATURE OF CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DEMYELINATING POLYNEUROPATHY
We describe a patient with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in which an adduction deficit and ptosis in
the left eye presented several years before the polyneuropathy. A 52-year-old man presented with a 14-year history of unremitting
diplopia, adduction deficit, and ptosis in the left eye. At the age of 45 a mild bilateral foot drop and impaired sensation in the
four limbs appeared, with these symptoms showing a progressive course. The diagnostic workup included EMG/ENG which
demonstrated reduced conduction velocity with bilateral and symmetrical sensory and motor involvement. Cerebrospinal fluid
studies revealed a cytoalbuminologic dissociation.Aprolonged treatment with corticosteroids allowed a significant improvement of
the limbweakness. Diplopia and ptosis remained unchanged.This unusual formof CIDP presented as a long-lasting isolated cranial
nerve palsy. A diagnostic workup for CIDP should therefore be performed in those patients in which an isolated and unremitting
cranial nerve palsy cannot be explained by common causes
Non-collaborative Attackers and How and Where to Defend Flawed Security Protocols (Extended Version)
Security protocols are often found to be flawed after their deployment. We
present an approach that aims at the neutralization or mitigation of the
attacks to flawed protocols: it avoids the complete dismissal of the interested
protocol and allows honest agents to continue to use it until a corrected
version is released. Our approach is based on the knowledge of the network
topology, which we model as a graph, and on the consequent possibility of
creating an interference to an ongoing attack of a Dolev-Yao attacker, by means
of non-collaboration actuated by ad-hoc benign attackers that play the role of
network guardians. Such guardians, positioned in strategical points of the
network, have the task of monitoring the messages in transit and discovering at
runtime, through particular types of inference, whether an attack is ongoing,
interrupting the run of the protocol in the positive case. We study not only
how but also where we can attempt to defend flawed security protocols: we
investigate the different network topologies that make security protocol
defense feasible and illustrate our approach by means of concrete examples.Comment: 29 page
A Deletion of the Nuclear Localization Signal Domain in the Fus Protein Induces Stable Post-stress Cytoplasmic Inclusions in SH-SY5Y Cells
Mutations in Fused-in-Sarcoma (FUS) gene involving the nuclear localization signal (NLS) domain lead to juvenile-onset Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The mutant protein mislocalizes to the cytoplasm, incorporating it into Stress Granules (SG). Whether SGs are the first step to the formation of stable FUS-containing aggregates is still unclear. In this work, we used acute and chronic stress paradigms to study the SG dynamics in a human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line carrying a deletion of the NLS domain of the FUS protein (homozygous: ΔNLS–/–; heterozygous: ΔNLS+/–). Wild-type (WT) cells served as controls. We evaluated the subcellular localization of the mutant protein through immunoblot and immunofluorescence, in basal conditions and after acute stress and chronic stress with sodium arsenite (NaAsO2). Cells were monitored for up to 24 h after rescue. FUS was expressed in both nucleus and cytoplasm in the ΔNLS+/– cells, whereas it was primarily cytoplasmic in the ΔNLS–/–. Acute NaAsO2 exposure induced SGs: at rescue,>90% of ΔNLS cells showed abundant FUS-containing if compared to less than 5% of the WT cells. The proportion of FUS-positive SGs remained 15–20% at 24 h in mutant cells. Cycloheximide did not abolish the long-lasting SGs in mutant cells. Chronic exposure to NaAsO2 did not induce significant SGs formation. A wealth of research has demonstrated that ALS-associated FUS mutations at the C-terminus facilitate the incorporation of the mutant protein into SGs. We have shown here that mutant FUS-containing SGs tend to fail to dissolve after stress, facilitating a liquid-to-solid phase transition. The FUS-containing inclusions seen in the dying motor neurons might therefore directly derive from SGs. This might represent an attractive target for future innovative therapies
Functional assessment of cancer therapy questionnaire for breast cancer (FACT-B+4): Italian version validation
BACKGROUND:
Improvements in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment led to an increased incidence of survivors' rate. The healthcare system has to face new problems related not only to the treatment of the disease, but also to the management of the quality of life after the diagnosis. The aim of this study was to validate the Italian version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Breast (FACT-B+4) questionnaire and to evaluate its reliability.
METHODS:
The questionnaire was administered twice, with an interval of three days between each administration, to a cohort of women of the Breast Surgical Unit, PoliclincoUmberto I. Cronbach's alpha was used as a measure of the internal consistency of the Italian version.
RESULTS:
The Italian version of the tool was administered to 55 subjects. The Cronbach's alpha for most scores registered values >0.7, both at baseline and at the follow-up analysis, therefore the subscale showed good internal consistency.
CONCLUSIONS:
The Italian version of FACT-B+4 demonstrated acceptable reliability properties in the Breast Unit patients. The use of this questionnaire seemed to be effective and in line with the results derived from the English and Spanishversions. Internal consistency and validity had similar performance results
TRACHEOSTOMY MECHANICAL VENTILATION IN PATIENTS WITH AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS: CLINICAL FEATURES AND SURVIVAL ANALYSIS.
Background: Tracheostomy mechanical ventilation (TMV) is performed in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
patients with a respiratory failure or when the non-invasive ventilation (NIV) is no longer effective. We
evaluated the clinical characteristics and survival of a cohort of tracheostomized ALS patients, followed in a
single ALS Clinical Center.
Methods: Between 2001 and 2010, 87 out of 279 ALS patients were submitted to TMV. Onset was spinal in 62
and bulbar in 25. After tracheostomy, most patients were followed up through telephone interviews to
caregivers. A complete survival analysis could be performed in fifty-two TMV patients.
Results: 31.3% ALS patients underwent tracheostomy, with a male prevalence (M/F=1.69) and a median age
of 61 years (interquartile range=47–66). After tracheostomy, nearly all patients were under home care.
TMV ALS patients were more likely than non-tracheostomized (NT) patients to be implanted with a PEG device,
although the bulbar-/spinal-onset ratio did not differ between the two groups. Kaplan–Meyer analysis
showed that tracheostomy increases median survival (TMV, 47 months vs NT, 31 months, p=0.008), with
the greatest effect in patients younger than 60 at onset (TMV≤60 years, 57.5 months vs NT≤60 years,
38.5 months, p=0.002).
Conclusions: TMV is increasingly performed in ALS patients. Nearly all TMV patients live at home and most of
them are fed through a PEG device. Survival after tracheostomy is generally increased, with the stronger
effect in patients younger than 60. This survival advantage is apparently lost when TMV is performed in
patients older than 60. The results of this study might be useful for the decision-making process of patients
and their families about this advanced palliative care
Measles among healthcare workers in Italy. Is it time to act?
Vaccination of healthcare workers (HCWs) against measles is strongly recommended in Europe. In this study, we examined the impact of measles on Italian HCWs by systematically and quantitatively analyzing measles cases involving HCWs over time and by identifying the epidemiological characteristics of the respective measles outbreaks. We retrieved data on measles cases from the Italian national integrated measles and rubella surveillance system from January 2013 to May 2019. Additionally, we performed a systematic review of the literature and an analysis of the measles and rubella aggregate outbreaks reporting forms from 2014 to 2018. Our review suggests that preventing measles infection among HCWs in disease outbreaks may be crucial for the elimination of measles in Italy. National policies aiming to increase HCW immunization rates are fundamental to the protection of HCWs and patients, will limit the economic impact of outbreaks on the institutions affected and will help achieve the elimination goal
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