Re-visioning Medea

The Euripidean Medea has been canonized as the de facto standard of all characterizations found within the Medea tradition. The image of Euripides\u27s infanticidal murderess has persisted for nearly two millennia due to interpretations that have furthered the impression that the infanticide is her most salient character trait. However, Pindar, Apollonios, and even Euripides did not make infanticide the central concern of their texts. Pindar privileges Medea\u27s divinity and skills as a prophetess, while Apollonios focuses on the ways in which she was manipulated by gods and mortals. Euripides, who may have originated the infanticidal twist, uses the children\u27s deaths to indict Jason and Creon\u27s willful disregard of the hereditary blood curse on the House of Aeolus, to which both were connected. Roman texts such as Ovid\u27s Heroides 12 and Metamorphoses 7, Gaius Valerius Flaccus\u27s Argonautica, and Seneca\u27s Medea reveal the complexity of the Medea tradition by explicitly and implicitly indicting the brutality and arrogance of patriarchal authority. Ovid creates an abandoned wife in Heroides 12 and a wife who would do anything for her husband, including transforming herself into an amoral supernatural being, in Metamorphoses 12. Valerius chooses to subvert Medea\u27s purpose in the quest for the Golden Fleece by portraying the Argonauts as a band of pirates bent on destruction. Seneca\u27s Medea displays the attributes of imperial rulers, which suggests that Seneca was crafting a veiled critique of the depravity and corruption found in the first century C. E. of Rome. Contemporary texts including Ludmila Ulitskaya\u27s Medea and Her Children and Toni Morrison\u27s Beloved privilege a post-modem self-consciousness, which further displaces reductive interpretations of Medea as a static figure of murder and mayhem. Ulitskaya chooses to create a Medea who more closely resembles the earliest strands of the Medea myth where she was privileged as an herbalist and a priestess; Medea Sinoply has never left her homeland and is portrayed as the nurturer and stability of her large extended family, which directly contradicts any interpretations of Medea that choose to see her as the bringer of chaos and destruction. Morrison\u27s Sethe has the most explicit characteristics of Euripides\u27s Medea, but Morrison uses these traits to challenge any simple notions of Sethe\u27s killing of her daughter in a severe indictment of the institution of slavery. Morrison offers no easy answers since her Medea-like creation not only loses her daughter and her connection to her community, but also her sanity. Close examinations of these texts will reveal the complexity and sophisticated nature not only of the myth, but also of these authors’ creations

Prefazione - Acqua. Sostanza e Risorsa

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Diossido di titanio e alcune sue applicazioni. Spunti didattici

Il diossido di titanio, TiO2, ampiamente utilizzato come pigmento di colore bianco, \ue8 uno dei materiali pi\uf9 studiati nell\u2019ambito della ricerca per le sue propriet\ue0 fotocatalitiche. Esso, infatti, contribuisce alla fotodegradazione di sostanze inquinanti, motivo per cui \ue8 utilizzato nel settore della purificazione dell\u2019aria e dell\u2019acqua e per la realizzazione di vetri autopulenti, disponibili commercialmente. Nel presente lavoro viene suggerito un percorso didattico con l\u2019obiettivo di mettere in evidenza le propriet\ue0 fotocatalitiche del diossido di titanio oltre che pu\uf2 essere utilizzato per affrontare concetti fondamentali quali la struttura a bande dei solidi e la fotocatalisi. Il percorso si articola in pi\uf9 fasi che ricalcano quelle suggerite nei metodi didattici basati sull\u2019indagine come il protocollo delle 5E dell\u2019approccio IBSE. Dopo aver assistito a una dimostrazione che illustra le propriet\ue0 fotocatalitiche del diossido di titanio con l\u2019ausilio di un opportuno pigmento, gli studenti sono guidati nell\u2019indagine dei diversi fattori che influenzano il processo

VERSO UN APPRENDIMENTO AUTENTICO DELLA CHIMICA DI BASE: TRASPOSIZIONE DIDATTICA DEI RISULTATI DELLA MODERNA RICERCA SCIENTIFICA.

In questo lavoro viene presentata una proposta riguardante l'uso dei risultati della moderna ricerca in campo chimico per introdurre i concetti fondanti della disciplina nella pratica didattica della Chimica di base nella Scuola Secondaria di Secondo Grado. Con questo approccio, i concetti di base dovrebbero risultare meno astratti e il mondo della ricerca più accessibile

LA SCUOLA SPAIS: RICERCA SCIENTIFICA E DIDATTICA DELLE SCIENZE IN UN CONTESTO MULTIDISCIPLINARE

SPAIS si pone come obiettivo l’individuazione e il conseguente approfondimento delle conoscenze di base che sono necessarie nel campo della chimica, della fisica e delle scienze biologiche e naturali per comprendere e comunicare i contenuti fondamentali della moderna ricerca scientifica e tecnologica. L’edizione 2013 sul tema “ScientificaMente – le Neuroscienze” viene qui presentata evidenziandone particolarmente le implicazioni nella didattica della Chimic

A comparative analysis of Pancoast tumour resection performed via video-assisted thoracic surgery versus standard open approaches

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present paper was to conduct a comparative analysis of outcomes after thoracoscopic resection versus standard thoracotomy approach in the treatment of Pancoast tumours. METHODS: All consecutive patients with Pancoast tumours undergoing surgical treatment from March 2000 to November 2012 were enrolled. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to whether a thoracoscopic or standard thoracotomy approach was adopted. In addition to morbidity and mortality, (i) intensity of pain; (ii) respiratory function focusing on the postoperative value and its variation with respect to the predicted value (Delta); (iii) analgesic consumption at different times during the postoperative course; and (iiii) survival rate were recorded in both groups and the inter-group differences were statistically compared. RESULTS: Of the 45 enrolled patients, 34 (75%) were included in the final analysis (18 in the thoracoscopic group and 16 in the standard group). Eleven (25%) patients were excluded because they (i) were unfit for surgery after induction therapy (n = 4); (ii) refused the operation (n = 1) or (iii) had unexpected pleural involvement (n = 6). Compared with the standard group, in the thoracoscopic group we observed less pain (P = 0.01), better recovery of forced vital capacity (P = 0.01) and forced expiratory value in 1 s (P < 0.001), and a reduction in opioid (P = 0.01) and analgesic consumption (P = 0.02). The median survival for all patients was 15 months. Patients with N0/N1 disease had better median survival than N2 patients (47 vs 9 months; P = 0.009). One local recurrence in the standard group was observed 1 year after operation, whereas 2 local recurrences, 1 in the thoracoscopic group and another in the standard group, were registered 2 years after the operation (P = 1.0). Finally, 4 (22%) extrathoracic metastases in the thoracoscopic group and 5 (31%) in the standard group (P = 0.8) were found over the 2 years following the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: In the management of Pancoast tumours, a thoracoscopic approach is safe and may be an effective adjunct to standard surgical resection in selected cases. Such an approach enabled surgeons to explore the pleural cavity and avoid exploratory thoracotomy in cases of unexpected pleural involvement

Nanotechnology for Solar Energy Conversion

Nel presente lavoro \ue8 descritto un modulo didattico sviluppato, nell\u2019ambito del progetto europeo IRRESISTIBLE, dall\u2019unit\ue0 di Palermo sul tema dell\u2019applicazione delle nanoscienze allo sfruttamento dell\u2019energia solare. L\u2019attivit\ue0 \ue8 stata rivolta ad alunni del biennio dell\u2019Istituto Tecnico, nell\u2019ambito delle discipline Scienze Chimiche Integrate e Scienze e Tecnologie Applicate Chimca e ad alunni dell\u2019ultimo anno del Liceo Scientifico, nell\u2019ambito della disciplina Fisica. Tra le varie attivit\ue0 , anche sperimentali, \ue8 stata realizzata una cella DSSC che, insieme ad altro materiale di comunicazione preparato dagli stessi studenti, \ue8 stata presentata alla mostra scientifica Esperienza inSegna e al meeting finale del progetto, che si \ue8 svolto a Kiel in Germania. Alla fine del modulo gli studenti hanno dimostrato di aver acquisito, oltre alle necessarie competenze chimiche, anche una notevole sensibilit\ue0 nei riguardi del rapporto tra scienza e societ\ue0 con particolare riferimento nei confronti della ricerca e della innovazione responsabili. Il progetto europeo IRRESISTIBLE ha affrontato i problemi inerenti la formazione scientifica e ha avuto lo scopo di diffondere la consapevolezza delle tematiche di Ricerca e Innovazione Responsabili (RRI), promuovendo attivit\ue0 di formazione degli insegnanti da sperimentare in classe con l\u2019ausilio della metodologia Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE

Mediastinal syndrome from plasmablastic lymphoma in human immunodeficiency virus and human herpes virus 8 negative patient with polycythemia vera: a case report

Background: Plasmoblastic lymphoma is a rare and aggressive subtype of diffuse large B cell lymphoma, which occurs usually in the jaw of immunocompromised subjects. Case presentation: We describe the occurrence of plasmoblastic lymphoma in the mediastinum and chest wall skin of an human immunodeficiency virus-negative 63-year-old Caucasian man who had had polycytemia vera 7 years before. At admission, the patient showed a superior vena cava syndrome, with persistent dyspnoea, cough, and distension of the jugular veins. Imaging findings showed a 9.7 × 8 × 5.7 cm mediastinal mass. A chest wall neoformation biopsy and ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the mediastinal mass allowed diagnosis of plasmoblastic lymphoma and establishment of an immediate chemotherapeutic regimen, with rapid remission of compression symptoms. Conclusions: Plasmoblastic lymphoma is a very uncommon, difficult to diagnose, and aggressive disease. The presented case represents the first rare mediastinal plasmoblastic lymphoma in a human immunodeficiency virus-/human herpesvirus-8-negative patient. Pathologists should be aware that this tumor does appear in sites other than the oral cavity. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy is a low-cost, repeatable, easy-to-perform technique, with a high diagnostic accuracy and with very low complication and mortality rates. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy could represent the right alternative to surgery in those patients affected by plasmoblastic lymphoma, being rapid and minimally invasive. It allowed establishment of prompt medical treatment with subsequent considerable reduction of the neoplastic tissue and resolution of the mediastinal syndrome

Effect of ABCB1 and ABCC3 Polymorphisms on Osteosarcoma Survival after Chemotherapy: A Pharmacogenetic Study

Standard treatment for osteosarcoma patients consists of a combination of cisplatin, adriamycin, and methotrexate before surgical resection of the primary tumour, followed by postoperative chemotherapy including vincristine and cyclophosphamide. Unfortunately, many patients still relapse or suffer adverse events. We examined whether common germline polymorphisms in chemotherapeutic transporter and metabolic pathway genes of the drugs used in standard osteosarcoma treatment may predict treatment response. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study we screened 102 osteosarcoma patients for 346 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) and 2 Copy Number Variants (CNVs) in 24 genes involved in the metabolism or transport of cisplatin, adriamycin, methotrexate, vincristine, and cyclophosphamide. We studied the association of the genotypes with tumour response and overall survival. We found that four SNPs in two ATP-binding cassette genes were significantly associated with overall survival: rs4148416 in ABCC3 (per-allele HR = 8.14, 95%CI = 2.73-20.2, p-value = 5.1x10(-)(5)), and three SNPs in ABCB1, rs4148737 (per-allele HR = 3.66, 95%CI = 1.85-6.11, p-value = 6.9x10(-)(5)), rs1128503 and rs10276036 (r(2) = 1, per-allele HR = 0.24, 95%CI = 0.11-0.47 p-value = 7.9x10(-)(5)). Associations with these SNPs remained statistically significant after correction for multiple testing (all corrected p-values [permutation test] </= 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that these polymorphisms may affect osteosarcoma treatment efficacy. If these associations are independently validated, these variants could be used as genetic predictors of clinical outcome in the treatment of osteosarcoma, helping in the design of individualized therapy