Verità dei fatti, verità del potere: storia e politica in Guerra e pace

The paper analyses War and Peace as a work in which the formal characteristics of the historical novel are chosen to convey a strong political message and to make an explicit accusation against the old Russian ruling class as well as against the populist attitudes shown by the intelligencija of his time.In order to highlight this political dimension of his work, the study will focus on how Tolstoj uses his fictional remake of historical sources to prove wrong the “official” version of Napoleonic wars and to regularly replace it with a representation of events aiming – especially through the portrait of some symbolic characters (Alexander I, Napoleon, Kutuzov) – to show that individuals are ultimately not in charge of History, and so to expose the falsity of historiographical artifices.For that reason War and Peace expresses in its very formal structure the philosophy of history developed by Tolstoj while preparing his work: a philosophy which not only concerns the evaluation of the past, but also quests the social and political project with which his contemporaries intended to face the need for democracy in Nineteenth-century Russia.L’articolo si propone di analizzare Guerra e pace come opera in cui le caratteristiche formali del romanzo storico sono messa al servizio di un forte messaggio politico e di un esplicito gesto di accusa e rivolto alla classe dirigente russa del passato ma anche agli atteggiamenti populisti dell’intelligencija del suo tempo.Per portare alla luce questa connotazione oggi poco visibile, lo studio metterà in rilievo soprattutto come Tolstoj sfrutti la rielaborazione narrativa delle fonti storiche per negare la versione “ufficiale” delle guerre napoleoniche e sostituirla sistematicamente con una rappresentazione degli eventi che, in particolare attraverso il trattamento di alcuni personaggi simbolici (Alessandro I, Napoleone, Kutuzov), mira a rivelare la sostanziale ingestibilità della Storia da parte degli individui e quindi a denunciare la falsità degli artifici storiografici.In questo senso Guerra e pace incarna nella sua stessa struttura formale la filosofia della storia elaborata da Tolstoj negli anni della composizione dell’opera: una filosofia che non riguarda solo la valutazione del passato, ma interroga anche il progetto socio-politico dei suoi contemporanei di fronte alle esigenze democratiche della Russia ottocentesca

Microwave-Assisted Solid Extraction from Natural Matrices

The extraction of secondary metabolites from plants, and natural sources in general, is a cornerstone in medicinal chemistry and required the development of sustainable extraction techniques. Microwave-Assisted Solid Extraction (MASE) is a promising extractive methodology being more effective than traditional extraction techniques. It offers higher and faster extraction performance ability with less solvent consumption and protection toward thermolabile constituents. For these reasons, MASE resulted in a suitable extractive methodology in all aspects, including economical and practical, compared to traditional extraction techniques, especially over Soxhlet or solid–liquid extraction. In this chapter, a brief theoretical background about the use of microwave energy for extraction has been presented for better understanding. Then, the potential of MASE for the extraction of secondary metabolites from natural resources, for evaluating the plant productivity and for evaluating the quality of the natural matrices will be reviewed. The discussion is supported by reporting recent applicative examples of MASE applied to the extraction of the most representative chemical classes of secondary metabolites, with a special focus on some drugs or compounds of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical interest

Insight into GEBR\u201032a: Chiral Resolution, Absolute Configuration and Enantiopreference in PDE4D Inhibition

Alzheimer\u2019s disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting millions of people worldwide. One of its main consequences is memory loss, which is related to downstream effectors of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). A well\u2010established strategy to avoid cAMP degradation is the inhibition of phosphodiesterase (PDE). In recent years, GEBR\u201032a has been shown to possess selective inhibitory properties against PDE type 4 family members, resulting in an improvement in spatial memory processes without the typical side effects that are usually correlated with this mechanism of action. In this work, we performed the HPLC chiral resolution and absolute configuration assignment of GEBR\u201032a. We developed an efficient analytical and semipreparative chromatographic method exploiting an amylose\u2010based stationary phase, we studied the chiroptical properties of both enantiomers and we assigned their absolute configuration by 1H\u2010NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). Lastly, we measured the IC50 values of both enantiomers against both the PDE4D catalytic domain and the long PDE4D3 isoform. Results strongly support the notion that GEBR\u201032a inhibits the PDE4D enzyme by interacting with both the catalytic pocket and the regulatory domains

From nature a new compound against Leishmania infantum

Despite the urgent need for efficient medical treatments against Leishmania, today a limited number of drug candidates are available. With the aim to perform a nature-aided drug discovery, we focused on secondary metabolites by Eremurus persicus roots. As a result of our investigation, we isolated (R)- Aloesaponol III 8-methyl ether, (R)-ASME, showing a remarkable antiprotozoal effect against L. infantum with an IC50 of 73 μg/mL and not significant toxicity in a macrophage cell line. The potential of this compound have led us to further investigate its properties. First of all, we optimized the experimental conditions to extract (R)-ASME from plant exhaustively. Applying a microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) and using ethanol as solvent, (R)-ASME was obtained in high yields (2.5 mg/g dried plant), using low amount of solvent and low waste of time. In the meanwhile, we have tried to improve (R)-ASME solubility. To improve this critical property of the considered hit, different molecular modification strategies have been tried. The investigated approaches consisted in the conjugation of (R)-ASME with either amino acid, since it is considered a useful method for increase compound water solubility, or with an hydrophilic moiety, such as a diethilenglycolic chain. Both of these approaches have brought us to obtain unstable derivates. Further trials will be done considering other hydrophilic groups. Moreover, to improve cellular uptake, and following a drug targeting approach ongoing efforts will be addressed to prepare a biotin-conjugated (R)-ASME derivative. Results will be presented in due course

Corpus

AbstractThis dataset consists of two relational tables containing information on the texts selected for the project. The information comes from: a) the section Note e notizie sui testi, edited by Mario Barenghi, Bruno Falcetto and Claudio Milanini in the three volumes Romanzi e racconti (RR, I, 1242-1393; RR, II, 1309-1475; RR, III, 1195-1350); b) from the bibliography Bibliografia di Italo Calvino by Luca Baranelli (Pisa, Edizioni della Normale, 2007). The first table contains a list of the titles of each text. Each title has: - identifier or ID; - length in characters and words; - genre; - volume of RR that contains the text; - name of the .txt file containing the digital copy of the text (only available for internal use). The second table shows the publishing history of each text, listing its various publications (see Flows of the Stories). In this table, each text’s ID appears once for each publication, accompanied by: - where it was published (e.g., the magazine «Il caffè letterario e satirico»); - publication date; - flag (e.g., true/false) that identifies the first publication. When the text was published as a novel or as part of a collection, the corresponding ID is also present