ICONE IMPOTENTI. Il dissenso politico e ideologico nell’arte italiana contemporanea, dalla pop art alle ultime generazioni

La ricerca è dedicata all’analisi di quei linguaggi dell’arte contemporanea italiana che, nell’ultimo quarantennio, hanno rivestito una posizione critica nei confronti del potere politico e socio-economico. Consapevole di non poter fornire indicazioni e percorsi esaustivi, ho preferito porre il problema dell’esistenza e delle modalità di un’iconografia e di un linguaggio del dissenso politico, evidenziandoli attraverso una selezione di artisti ed opere italiani, senza tuttavia precludere il confronto con i linguaggi internazionali. Necessario è stato ripercorrere la storia dell'arte nei rapporti con le ideologie e la politica, evidenziando alcuni momenti salienti e soffermandosi su tre fulcri temporali: dal secondo dopoguerra alla fine degli anni Cinquanta, seguendo le origini e gli sviluppi dell'iconografia del dissenso; anni Sessanta-Ottanta, dalla politica ai media, dall'azione alla spettacolarizzazione dell'iconografia del dissenso; anni Ottanta-oggi: dal dissenso all'ironia tragica, tra rappresentazioni e simbologie de-mitizzate.The research takes on those languages of Italian contemporary art that, on the last forty years, have chosen a critical perspective on the political and socio-economical power. Knowing the impossibility of giving a complete view of the problem, I have decided to face the problem around the existence and the different ways of an iconography and a language strictly connected with political dissent, pointing them out with a selection of Italian works and artists, considering them in relationship with international languages. It’s been a necessity to re-examine the history of art considering the relationships between ideologies and politics, selecting highlights, to dwell upon three moments: from the end of second World War to the end of the Fifties, following the birth and the rise of the ideology of dissent; from the Sixties to the Eighties, considering the passage from the politics to the media, from the action to the iconography of the ideology of dissent turning spectacular; from the Eighties till today: from the dissent to a tragic irony, between representations and demythologized symbologies

Paolo Scheggi: dall’Intersuperficie all’Intercamera. L’opera oltre la parete, al di là del muro: per vivere uno spazio, per agire il tempo

La ricerca artistica di Paolo Scheggi (1940-1971), rapida e intensa a causa della sua improvvisa scomparsa, costituisce uno dei casi di studio più interessanti degli anni Sessanta del Novecento, ancora da indagare nella sua complessità. Tra le principali direzioni progettuali e creative, in questo contesto è interessante ricostruire il percorso che va dalle Intersuperfici ai Modulatori spaziali alle Intercamere plastiche: dall’opera bidimensionale all’environment architettonico, all’ambiente agibile e vivibile dal fruitore nel quale sperimentare, potenziandole, le proprie facoltà percettive, sensoriali, cognitive, in vista di una diversa fruizione dello spazio non solo architettonico, ma anche teatrale, urbano e collettivo.The artistic career of Paolo Scheggi (1940-1971) was fast and intense, considering also his early departure, and represents one of the most interesting case study of the sixties, still to be researched in its entire complexity. It's interesting to reconstruct, inside this context and choosing between the many different design directions, the path that moves from the Intersuperfici to reach the Modulatori inter-spaziali and the Intercamere plastiche: from the two-dimensional works to the architectural environment, the practicable and living ambients inside of which it was possible for the visitor to try out, at the same time expanding them, his perceptive, sensorial, cognitive powers, in order to reach a different fruition of an architectural space, that is also a theatrical, urban and collective space

Typoezija-Typoetry. Dalla pagina poetica allo spazio performativo, tra Italia e Croazia

Tenutasi nell’ambito della quarta manifestazione di Nove tendencije, nel maggio 1969, Typoezija-Typoetry fu una mostra che presentò ricerche poetico-visuali di grande sperimentazione: dalla performance teatrale di apertura, all’allestimento, alle modalità di percezione delle opere esposte. Ma Typoezija fu anche un importante momento di confronto tra ricerche di poesia visuale e concreta tra Italia e ex-Jugoslavia e al contempo di transito tra i linguaggi programmati a quelli concettuali e performativi che a partire dal decennio successivo furono ospitati in sedi istituzionali e presenti in una apposita sezione a Tendencije 5 nel 1973. Di Typoezija tuttavia pochi ne parlano e ne hanno parlato, forse data la sua eccentricità nel contesto della manifestazione del 1969, forse data la diversità della ricerca degli artisti che vi parteciparono, solo apparentemente così distanti dai programmati e dai cinetici. Il contributo, partendo da queste considerazioni, vuole dimostrare che la prossimità tra le due aree della ricerca era invece notevole, così come gli scambi tra Italia ed ex-Jugoslavia presentano relazioni ancora oggi da indagare, molte più di quante sembrerebbero finora state tracciate.During the fourth manifestation of Nove tendencije, in may 1969, Typoezija-Typoetry was organized: it was a exhibition that exposed experimental visual-poetical researches, starting from the ouverture-theatrical performance, until the display of the works and the modality of their perception. Typoezija-Typoetry was also a very important dialogue between the research of visual and concrete poetry in Italy and ex-Yugoslavia and at the main time it signed also the passage from the programmed languages to conceptual art and performance that from the following decade will be hosted in Museums, Institutions and in a special section of Tendencije 5 in 1973. But the exhibition of Typoezija-Typoetry is rarely named and analyzed by art critics and art historicians, maybe for her eccentric difference in Tendencije 4 in 1969, as also for the differences of the researches exposed, just apparently different from the programmed and kinetic languages and works. This text, starting from these considerations, will demonstrate that between the two areas of research – programmed art and conceptual and performer arts – the proximity was wide and evident, as were the exchanges between Italy and ex-Yugoslavia, and they present even today many questions to study

Radiomics and Artificial Intelligence for Outcome Prediction in Multiple Myeloma Patients

The significant clinical heterogeneity of Multiple Myeloma (MM) patients implies that a set of consolidated biomarkers is currently missing. Radiomics is an advanced, quantitative feature-based methodology for image analysis. We assess the feasibility of an AI-based approach for the automatic stratification of MM patients from CT data, and for the automatic identification of radiological biomarkers with a possible prognostic value. A retrospective analysis of n = 33 transplanted MM with focal lesion were performed via an open-source toolbox that extracted 109 radiomics features. The redundancy reduction was realized via correlation and principal component analysis. The highest sensitivity and critical success index (CSI) were obtained representing each patient, with 17 focal features selected via correlation with the 24 features describing the overall skeletal asset. The Mann\u2013 Whitney U-test showed that three among the 17 imaging descriptors passed the null hypothesis. This computational approach to the interpretation of radiomics features shows the potential for the stratification of relapsed and non-relapsed MM patients, and could represent a prognostic image-based procedure for determining the disease follow-up and therapy

Ecumenical Bridges between Orthodox and Catholic Sides: Comparison between <i>Fratelli Tutti</i> of Pope Francis and <i>For the Life of the World. Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church</i> Signed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Abstract A large part of Christians in the world have been involved in social topics by these two pastoral documents released by the Holy See and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Both documents bear the mark of the two Church Primates, Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew who inspired them and who had already shown interest in themes such as human life, social theology, climate and ecumenism. This essay aims to offer an ecumenical common reading of the two recent documents, Fratelli Tutti and For the Life of the World. Toward a Social Ethos of the Ortho dox Church, considering the pastoral work of the two signatory Primates as authentic ecumenical bridges within the Christian world

The Proactive Model: How to Better Protect the Right to Special Education for Incarcerated Youth

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees access to a specialized, appropriate public education for youth with disabilities in the United States. While progress has been made and this right to education extends to incarcerated youth as well as those outside the juvenile justice system, there is nonetheless a fundamental limitation on how this federal requirement is imposed in the carceral context: it is enforced through primarily reactive mechanisms. Lawsuits, state compliance regimes, and consent decrees can hold states and juvenile facilities accountable after systemic failures to comply with the IDEA; however, the inherent inconsistency and slow pace of this system call for a paradigm shift toward a more active federal government role in enforcing the right to special education in juvenile facilities. This paper will first explore the way scientific understandings of disability and the social context of disability inform this need for change, then provide a walkthrough of the current state of how the law has addressed this issue, and lastly identify how a more aggressive monitoring and compliance regime might improve access to education for youth with disabilities who are caught in the juvenile justice system

INTRAMAMMARY ADMINISTRATION OF OXYGEN-OZONE MIX IN OIL VEHICLE BLENDED PLATELET CONCENTRATE AS AN UNCONVENTIONAL THERAPY IN BOVINE MASTITIS / FIRST CLINICAL APPLICATION

Biological systems show a high level of complexity. For years single-target drugs have been successful and many pathologies have been considered cured and eradicated. As a matter of fact, the biological complex ecosystem was using the single-target chemical drugs information to evolve and find its own shortcuts. This is the case of antibiotic resistance. Planktonic bacteria evolve generating biofilm communities that are able to gambol antibiotic aggression and possibly evade the host immune system mechanisms. Synergistic solutions are needed to reactivate a virtuous balance in host\u2019s favor: these solutions must be able to cooperate and eventually boost the host immune system, which has a naturally-embedded synergistic modus operandi; they must produce a reduced number of inconvenient metabolites, and they should exert a multifunctional activity. Antimicrobial peptides seem to convey the features required as they deploy a multifunctional antimicrobial set of measures, complying with the host immune system and offering regenerative effects on tissues. On the other end, ozone has been investigated for its bactericidal capacity and for its potential to reactivate depressed immune systems. As this experimental study accounts for, the administration to bovine mastitis of a blending of platelet concentrate, rich in antimicrobial peptides, with oxygen/ozone mix in oil vehicle was examined. Bovine mastitis is a public health issue and its control is fundamental to avoid serious consequences. Prevention should be the first approach to the problem: new predictive protocols and containment means need to be deployed and shared. However feasible effective treatments need to be available. The results of this clinical application point to a promising direction of investigation. In comparison with other therapies based on either a single component or a control group with antibiotic, the blending of platelet concentrate with oxygen/ ozone mix in oil vehicle accomplished the best outcomes in resolving the mastitic occurrence, downgrading and fixing the symptoms, and enhancing animal general conditions. Conceivable explanations for its efficacy have been suggested. Further and deeper research is required

High-resolution ultrasound of rotator cuff and biceps reflection pulley in non-elite junior tennis players: anatomical study

BACKGROUND: Tennis is believed to be potentially harmful for the shoulder, therefore the purpose of this study is to evaluate the anatomy of the rotator cuff and the coraco-humeral ligament (CHL) in a-symptomatic non-elite junior tennis players with high-resolution ultrasound (US). METHODS: From August 2009 to September 2010 n = 90 a-symptomatic non-elite junior tennis players (mean age ± standard deviation: 15 ± 3) and a control group of age- and sex- matched subjects were included. Shoulder assessment with a customized standardized protocol was performed. Body mass index, dominant arm, years of practice, weekly hours of training, racket weight, grip (Eastern, Western and semi-Western), kind of strings were recorded. RESULTS: Abnormalities were found at ultrasound in 14/90 (15%) players. Two players had supraspinatus tendinosis, two had subacromial impingement and ten had subacromial bursitis. CHL thickness resulted comparable in the dominant and non-dominant arms (11.3 ± 4.4 mm vs. 13 ± 4.2, p > 0.05). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that no association was present among CHL thickness and the variables evaluated. In the control group, abnormalities were found at ultrasound in 6/60 (10%) subjects (sub-acromial bursitis). No statistically significant differences between players and control group were found (p = 0.71). CONCLUSION: In a-symptomatic non-elite junior tennis players only minor shoulder abnormalities were found

Modelling and Recognizing Personal Data

To define what a person is represents a hard task, due to the fact that personal data, i.e., data that refer or describe a person, have a very heterogeneous nature. The issue is only worsening with the advent of technologies that, while allowing unprecedented collection and processing capabilities, cannot \textit{understand} the world as humans do. This problem is a well-known long-standing problem in computer science called the Semantic Gap Problem. It was originally defined in the research area of image processing as "... the lack of coincidence between the information that one can extract from the visual data and the interpretation that the same data have for a user in a given situation...". In the context of this work, the semantic gap is the lack of coincidence is between sensor data collected by ubiquitous devices and the human knowledge about the world that relies on their intelligence, habits, and routines. This thesis addresses the semantic gap problem from a representational point of view, proposing an interdisciplinary approach able to model and recognize personal data in real life scenarios. In fact, the semantic gap affects many communities, ranging from ubiquitous computing to user modelling, that must face the issue of managing the complexity of personal data in terms of modelling and recognition. The contributions of this Ph. D. Thesis are: 1) The definition of a methodology based on an interdisciplinary approach that can account for how to represent and allow the recognition of personal data. The interdisciplinary approach relies on the entity-centric approach and on an interdisciplinary categorization to define and structure personal data. 2) The definition of an ontology of personal data to represent human in a general way while also accounting their different dimensions of their everyday life; 3) The instantiation of the personal data representation above in a reference architecture that allows implementing the ontology and that can exploit the methodology to account for how to recognize personal data. 4) The adoption of the methodology for defining personal data and its instantiation in three real-life use cases with different goals in mind, proving that our modelling works in different domains and can account for several dimensions of the user