Metaphors and Metonymies: Parade’s End Between Prose and Poetry

The essay shows how Ford Madox Ford’s tetralogy Parade’s End, though displaying a general metaphoric structure, has ties belonging to the metonymic sphere as well. Metonymies dissolve into metaphors and metaphoric suggestions lead in turn to metonymic associations. Through the use of time shift in interior monologues, Ford can vividly bring forth his characters’ lives and memories, and while metaphors become the means to recover their past, metonymies are essential in evoking it and in setting it in motion again. Il saggio vuole evidenziare come la tetralogia Parade’s End di Ford Madox Ford, pur svelando una struttura generalmente metaforica, abbia un substrato appartenente alla sfera metonimica. Le metonimie si dissolvono in metafore e le suggestioni metaforiche portano a loro volta ad associazioni metonimiche. Attraverso l’uso del time-shift nei monologhi interiori, Ford riprende e porta allo scoperto la vita e le memorie dei suoi personaggi, e mentre le metafore diventano il mezzo per recuperare il passato, le metonimie si rendono essenziali per evocarlo e metterlo nuovamente in moto

Evoluzione, stasi e regressione nei Dubliners di James Joyce

Simbolo della necessità della fuga ma anche della sua impossibilità concreta e quindi di una ribellione solo pensata, i personaggi di Dubliners sono spesso stati definiti esclusivamente dalla loro staticità. Ma mentre appare senz’altro vero che è la paralisi di Dublino a costituire uno dei tratti dominanti, oltre che più evidenti, dell’ambientazione delle storie, una messa a fuoco più esclusiva della competenza dei personaggi - intesa come il volere, potere, sapere, essenziali affinché il personaggio possa attuare la sua performance, il suo/fare/ - rivela invece una rigorosa dinamica trasformazionale, almeno per quanto riguarda una metà dei racconti che si possono considerare quindi come un corpus omogeneo e di cui si propone qui un campione sottoponendolo ad analisi

Sorveglianza delle gastroenteriti da Norovirus in Italia: comparsa e diffusione della nuova variante GII.4 Sydney 2012

In the 2012-2013 winter season, global surveillance for norovirus circulation evidenced the onset of a new norovirus GII.4 variant, termed Sydney 2012. In Italy, ISGEV hospital-based surveillance revealed that this variant already circulated at low frequency in the winter season 2011-2012 and emerged definitively only in the late 2012. This lag-time pattern mirrors the findings reported elsewhere and suggests that the novel variant circulated at low prevalence before spreading globally

Role of artificial intelligence in fighting antimicrobial resistance in pediatrics

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of science and engineering concerned with the computational understanding of what is commonly called intelligent behavior. AI is extremely useful in many human activities including medicine. The aim of our narrative review is to show the potential role of AI in fighting antimicrobial resistance in pediatric patients. We searched for PubMed articles published from April 2010 to April 2020 containing the keywords “artificial intelligence”, “machine learning”, “antimicrobial resistance”, “antimicrobial stewardship”, “pediatric”, and “children”, and we described the different strategies for the application of AI in these fields. Literature analysis showed that the applications of AI in health care are potentially endless, contributing to a reduction in the development time of new antimicrobial agents, greater diagnostic and therapeutic appropriateness, and, simultaneously, a reduction in costs. Most of the proposed AI solutions for medicine are not intended to replace the doctor’s opinion or expertise, but to provide a useful tool for easing their work. Considering pediatric infectious diseases, AI could play a primary role in fighting antibiotic resistance. In the pediatric field, a greater willingness to invest in this field could help antimicrobial stewardship reach levels of effectiveness that were unthinkable a few years ago

Detection of potential enteric pathogens in children with severe acute gastroenteritis using the filmarray: Results from a three - years hospital-based survey in Northern Italy

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in children. Therefore, rapid pathogens identification is needed. The AGE aetiology was investigated from 2018 to 2020 in 2,066 children in Parma (Italy) by FilmArray Gastrointestinal Panel and Enterovirus-targeting RT-PCR. Pathogens were detected in 1,162 (56.2%) stool samples from as many children; 798 (68.7%) were single and 364 (31.3%) mixed infections (68.7% vs 31.3%, P < 0.0001). Children aged 0–5 years showed the highest infection incidence (66.1%). The most frequent pathogens were Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC; 19.14%), Clostridioides difficile (10.42%), Norovirus (10.36%), Enterovirus (9.44%), and Campylobacter (9.21%). EPEC, Campylobacter, enteroaggregative E. coli, Norovirus, and Rotavirus showed seasonality. The incidence of pathogens detected decreased between 2018 and 2020 (42.7% vs 20.8%, P < 0.0001), seemingly for the preventive measures imposed by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 pandemic. A putative aetiology in half the children examined and an estimate of enteric pathogens epidemiology were assessed

Host-cell dependent role of phosphorylated keratin 8 during influenza A/NWS/33 virus (H1N1) infection in mammalian cells

In this study, we investigated the involvement of keratin 8 during human influenza A/NWS/33 virus (H1N1) infection in semi-permissive rhesus monkey-kidney (LLC-MK2) and permissive human type II alveolar epithelial (A549) cells. In A549 cells, keratin 8 showed major expression and phosphorylation levels. Influenza A/NWS/33 virus was able to subvert keratin 8 structural organization at late stages of infection in both cell models, promoting keratin 8 phosphorylation in A549 cells at early phases of infection. Accordingly, partial colocalizations of the viral nucleoprotein with keratin 8 and its phosphorylated form were assessed by confocal microscopy at early stages of infection in A549 cells. The employment of chemical activators of phosphorylation resulted in structural changes as well as increased phosphorylation of keratin 8 in both cell models, favoring the influenza A/NWS/33 virus's replicative efficiency in A549 but not in LLC-MK2 cells. In A549 and human larynx epidermoid carcinoma (HEp-2) cells inoculated with respiratory secretions from pediatric patients positive for, respectively, influenza A virus or respiratory syncytial virus, the keratin 8 phosphorylation level had increased only in the case of influenza A virus infection. The results obtained suggest that in A549 cells the influenza virus is able to induce keratin 8 phosphorylation thereby enhancing its replicative efficiency

Prevalence of Intestinal Parasitoses in a Non-Endemic Setting during a 10-Year Period (2011–2020): A Focus on Dientamoeba fragilis

Dientamoeba fragilis is a cosmopolitan and neglected protozoan. Although little is known concerning its pathogenicity and its true prevalence worldwide, its role as enteric pathogen is emerging, as the occurrence of dientamoebiasis has increased also in industrialised countries. This study investigated the occurrence and prevalence of intestinal parasites, focusing on D. fragilis in a 10-year period (2011–2020) in a single tertiary-care hospital located in Northern Italy. A statistical evaluation of the correlation between dientamoebiasis and specific signs other than gastrointestinal-related ones was performed. The laboratory diagnosis was performed on 16,275 cases of suspected intestinal parasitoses. Intestinal parasites were detected in 3254 cases, 606 of which were associated to D. fragilis, which represented 18.6% (606/3254) of all the intestinal parasitoses with a 3.7% (606/16,275) prevalence and an increasing trend during the last five years (2011–2015: 2.8% vs. 2016–2020: 4.8%). D. fragilis was commonly detected in foreigners, especially those from developing countries, as well as in children; prevalence was equal in males and females. With regard to the clinical aspect, the only putative sign statistically related to dientamoebiasis was anal pruritus. Despite the controversial epidemiological knowledges on dientamoebiasis, the prevalence of D. fragilis found in this study highlights the need to consider this parasite in any differential diagnosis of gastrointestinal disease

SARS-CoV-2 infection diagnosed only by cell culture isolation before the local outbreak in an Italian seven-week-old suckling baby

SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China in December 2019 and has now been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. This paper described the case of a 7-week-old suckling baby from Italy who was SARS-CoV-2-positive only by the cell culture method, with no clinical suspicion of and/or risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The baby was referred to hospital, with signs and symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection, before the virus had spread to the province. Nasal and pharyngeal swabs and a nasopharyngeal aspirate were used for conventional and molecular diagnostic assays not including the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Bacteria referred to the resident population were revealed in nasal and pharyngeal swabs. No viruses were detected using both immunofluorescence assay and nucleic acid amplification assays in the nasopharyngeal aspirate. The baby was discharged in good condition after 3 days of hospitalisation. Later, a cytopathic effect on the cell monolayers currently used for respiratory viruses was observed and the viral particles were identified as Coronaviridae by transmission electron microscopy. SARS-CoV-2 was identified by RT-PCR performed both on cell culture and on the stored aliquot of the original sample. The virus isolate was named SARS-Cov-2/human/Parma/1/2020. Cell culture still remains the only reference diagnostic method also for emerging viruses, allowing it to reveal cytopathogenic viruses and demonstrate their infectivity