'THE END WILL BE THE OVER-MAN': UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC ROMANCE AND GRAPHIC NOVEL

Questa tesi si propone di rintracciare l\u2019influenza dello scrittore britannico H. G. Wells sulla nascita e sviluppo dei comics di supereroi all\u2019interno del contesto angloamericano. Per prima cosa, il lavoro esamina come i primi scientific romance di Wells \u2013 The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), e When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) \u2013 prendano le mosse dall\u2019episteme scientifica e dalla tradizione del romance tardovittoriano per esplorare la dimensione utopica-distopica del superomismo. Quindi, la tesi analizza la penetrazione degli elementi wellsiani all\u2019interno della cultura popolare americana di primo Novecento. Prendo in esame The Overman (1907) di Upton Sinclair, Gladiator (1930) di Philip Wylie, e \u201cThe Reign of the Super-Man\u201d (1933) di Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster come testi di transizione che riformulano idee e motivi dello scrittore britannico per un pubblico americano, aprendo nel contempo la strada per la creazione di Superman (1938) e Batman (1939). L\u2019obiettivo \ue8 quello di dimostrare come l\u2019influenza diretta e indiretta di Wells sulla nascita dei fumetti di supereroi abbia contributo a determinare una duplice ambivalenza nei confronti della modernit\ue0 tecnologica e dell\u2019utopismo. Infine, la tesi analizza le modalit\ue0 in cui i graphic novel di Alan Moore, composti negli anni ottanta del secolo scorso, abbiano attinto da queste ambiguit\ue0 strutturali e dagli antecedenti wellsiani per negoziare la tensione tra utopismo e anti-utopismo. Sostengo che Miracleman (1982-89), V for Vendetta (1982-89) e Watchmen (1986-87) esplorino le antinomie di utopia e distopia nell\u2019atto di decostruire gli statuti ideologici del genere supereroistico. Come revisioni postmoderne dell\u2019archetipo popolare, questi graphic novel mettono quindi in scena il conflitto tra la modernit\ue0 intrinseca del supereroe e la fine delle metanarrazioni. Il quadro metodologico per questa indagine \ue8 offerto dagli studi letterari, dai Cultural Studies e dagli studi sul fumetto. In particolare, la multidisciplinariet\ue0 e l\u2019approccio materialista degli Studi culturali permettono di incorporare strumenti metodologici da discipline come la teoria letteraria, gli studi sull\u2019utopia, la storiografia, la critica culturalista e la semiotica.This thesis aims at tracing the influence of British writer H.G. Wells (1866-1946) on the birth and development of Anglo-American superhero comics. First, it considers the way in which Wells\u2019s early scientific romances \u2013 The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) \u2013 stemmed from the late-Victorian scientific episteme and romantic tradition to explore the utopian and dystopian possibilities of superhumanity. Then, it sets out to analyze the percolation of Wellsian motifs through early-twentieth century American popular culture. I take into account Upton Sinclair\u2019s The Overman (1907), Philip Wylie\u2019s Gladiator (1930), and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster\u2019s \u201cThe Reign of the Super-Man\u201d (1933) as transitional works that on the one hand reformulated Wells\u2019s ideas and tropes for an American audience, and on the other hand paved the way for the creation of Superman (1938) and Batman (1939). The aim is to demonstrate that Wells\u2019s direct and indirect influence on the inception of superhero comic books contributed to produce a twofold ambivalence about technological modernity and utopianism. Finally, this work scrutinizes the way in which Alan Moore\u2019s 1980s graphic novels drew both on these structural ambiguities and their Wellsian predecessors to negotiate the tension between utopianism and anti-utopianism. I argue that Miracleman (1982-89), V for Vendetta (1982-89) and Watchmen (1986-87) explore the antinomies of utopia and dystopia as they deconstruct the ideological assumptions of the superhero genre. As postmodern revisions of the archetype, these graphic novels problematize superheroes\u2019s modernity vis-\ue0-vis the end of metanarratives. A combination of literary studies, cultural studies and studies on comics/graphic novels provide the methodological framework for this work. In particular, I rely on cultural studies\u2019 multi-disciplinary approach and materialist mode of inquiry to incorporate analytical tools from literary theory, utopian studies, historiography, cultural criticism, and semiotics

Holy Terror, Batman! Frank Miller’s Dark Knight and the Superhero as Hardboiled Terrorist

Conceived in the late thirties as \u201cbold humanist response to Depression-era fears of runaway scientific advance and soulless industrialism\u201d (Morrison 2012, 6), the superhero has flourished as one of the most resilient archetypes of American popular culture. This essay analyses the literary and cultural contaminations that have engendered an unprecedented revision of the paradigm since the 1980s. In particular, it will take into account three graphic novels by American cartoonist Frank Miller (1957 - ), one of leading figures of the mainstream comics renaissance, whose ideas have indelibly influenced the artistic development of both medium and genre. The Dark Knight Returns (1986), The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2002) and Holy Terror (2011) constitute an ideal Batman trilogy that charts the character\u2019s evolution as political counterpoint to the perceived crisis of American identity. In this regard, Reaganism and 9/11 are polarized as historical discontinuities triggering the need for a new kind of a criminal (super)hero. It will be in fact demonstrated how the novels hybridise the latent generic links to hardboiled pulp novels (R. Chandler, D. Hammet) with narrative and aesthetics elements appropriated from the culturally-received concepts of terrorism and terrorists. This fruitful contamination on the one hand \u201cplay[s] with reader assumptions about genre\u201d (Baetens and Frey 2015, 46), while on the other hand deconstructs the ideological underpinnings of the archetype, as the moral dichotomy and the alienation of justice from the law

London epic : compulsory environment

London Epic: Compulsory Environment A conversation with Enrico Masi (1st August 2013

SYBR Green Real-Time PCR for Salmonella detection in meat products

The objective of this study was to develop a SYBR Green Real-Time PCR method for detecting salmonellae in meat samples. The study was conducted both on S. Typhimurium experimentally and naturally contaminated meat samples analyzed in parallel with the standard cultural method (ISO 6579/2001). After the pre-enrichment phase, a boiling DNA extraction procedure combined wity SYBR-Green I Real Time PCR, using primers Styinva-JHO-2, was developed

a telescope proton recoil spectrometer for fast neutron beam lines

A telescope proton recoil spectrometer for fast neutron beam-lines C. Cazzaniga1,3,∗, M. Rebai2,3, M. Tardocchi3, G. Croci2,3, M. Nocente2,3, S. Ansell1, C. D. Frost1, and G. Gorini2,3 1ISIS Facility, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot OX11 0QX, UK 2Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, Piazza della Scienza 3, Milano, Italy 3Istituto di Fisica del Plasma "P. Caldirola", Associazione EURATOM-ENEA/CNR, Via Cozzi 53, Milano, Italy ∗E-mail: [email protected]

Time-stability of a Single-crystal Diamond Detector for fast neutron beam diagnostic under alpha and neutron irradiation

Single-crystal Diamond Detectors (SDDs), due to their good charge carrier transport properties, low leakage and therefore good energy resolution, are good candidates for fast neutron measurement on pulsed spallation sources and fusion plasma experiments. Moreover, diamonds are known to be resistant to neutron irradiation. Nevertheless, measurements show transient effects during irradiation with ionizing particles, as the alpha particle calibration sources. The decrease of the detector counting rate of a counting chain and the pulse height are interpreted as due to a charge trapping inside the detector, which modifies the drift electric field. These instabilities are strongly dependent on the specific type of the interaction. Measurements have been carried out with both alpha particles in the laboratory and neutrons at the ISIS neutron spallation source. We show that these polarization effects are not permanent: the detector performances can be restored by simply inverting the detector bias high voltage. Prime Novelty Statement The measurements described in the paper were performed in order to study the polarization effect in Single-crystal Diamond Detector. This effect was observed under alpha particle and neutron irradiation. With the Transient Current Technique an interpretation of the effect is given

Ectopic expression of CXCL13, BAFF, APRIL and LT-ß is associated with artery tertiary lymphoid organs in giant cell arteritis

Objectives To investigate whether artery tertiary lymphoid organs (ATLOs) are present in giant cell arteritis (GCA) and that their formation is associated with the ectopic expression of constitutive lymphoid tissue-homing chemokines. Methods Reverse transcriptase PCR, immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence analysis were used to determine the presence of ectopic ATLOs in GCA and the expression of chemokines/chemokine receptors and cytokines involved in lymphoneogenesis in the temporal artery samples obtained from 50 patients with GCA and 30 controls. The presence of lymphatic conduits, of follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) precursors and lymphoid tissue inducer cells was also investigated. Finally, expression of CXCL13, B cell activating factor (BAFF), a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL) and CCL21 by isolated myofibroblasts was evaluated before and after stimulation with Toll-like receptors (TLRs) agonists and cytokines. Results ATLOs were observed in the media layer of 60% of patients with GCA in close proximity to high endothelial venules and independently by the age of patients and the presence of atherosclerosis. ATLO formation was also accompanied by the expression of CXCL13, BAFF, a proliferation-inducing ligand (APRIL), lymphotoxin (LT)-ß, interleukin (IL)-17 and IL-7, the presence of FDC precursors and of lymphoid conduits. Stimulation of myofibroblasts with TLR agonists and cytokines resulted in the upregulation of BAFF and CXCL13. Conclusions ATLOs occur in the inflamed arteries of patients with GCA possibly representing the immune sites where immune responses towards unknown arterial wall-derived antigens may be organised

Single-crystal Diamond Detector for DT and DD plasmas diagnostic

Single-crystal Diamond Detectors (SDD) are good candidates as high-energy neutron detectors in the extreme conditions of the next generation thermonuclear fusion facilities like the ITER experiment, due to their high radiation hardness, fast response time and small size. Neutron detection in SDDs is based on the collection of electron-hole pairs produced by charged particles generated by neutron interaction on 12C. In this work the SDD response to neutrons with energies between 2.8 and 3.8MeV was determined at the Legnaro CN accelerator at the INFN Laboratories in Legnaro (PD, Italy). This work is relevant for the characterization of SDDs response functions, which are key points for Deuterium-Deuterium and Deuterium-Tritium plasma diagnostic

Immuno-Transcriptomic Profiling of Blood and Tumor Tissue Identifies Gene Signatures Associated with Immunotherapy Response in Metastatic Bladder Cancer.

Blood-based biomarkers represent ideal candidates for the development of non-invasive immuno-oncology-based assays. However, to date, no blood biomarker has been validated to predict clinical responses to immunotherapy. In this study, we used next-generation sequencing (RNAseq) on bulk RNA extracted from whole blood and tumor samples in a pre-clinical MIBC mouse model. We aimed to identify biomarkers associated with immunotherapy response and assess the potential application of simple non-invasive blood biomarkers as a therapeutic decision-making assay compared to tissue-based biomarkers. We established that circulating immune cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME) display highly organ-specific transcriptional responses to ICIs. Interestingly, in both, a common lymphocytic activation signature can be identified associated with the efficient response to immunotherapy, including a blood-specific CD8+ T cell activation/proliferation signature which predicts the immunotherapy response