MeSH: what’s new for 2016

Abstrac

Where has the protest gone? Populist attitudes and electoral flows in Italian political turmoil

What happens when anti-establishment political actors gain strength, enter institutions, and even become the new establishment? To what extent are their elec -toral profiles a nd t he d emands b ehind t hem n ormalised b y t he s ystem? Th is ar ticle uses ITANES surveys to investigate voters’ reactions to the different paths taken by the three main protagonists of the 2016-2020 Italian populist wave: the M5S, the Lega, and FDI. In particular, it uses panel data to study the evolution of populist attitudes and protest drivers, as well as their connection with el ectoral flows a nd p arties’ s trategic choices. The m ost s triking c hange c oncerns t he r edefinition of th e po litical ou tlook of 5-star voters, who have significantly reduced their populist stances. However, the trans-formation of the M5S into a government party produced significant o utflows of vo t-ers who already in 2016 expressed greater resentment towards political elites. Thesedynamics have largely favoured parties of the populist right – the Lega and then espe-cially FDI – which have preserved or even re inforced their (electoral) profile a s a nti-establishment parties

The 5 star people and the unconventional parliament

Upon its debut in the February 2013 Italian General Election, the Five Star Movement (M5S), led by former comedian Beppe Grillo, managed to become a major political force in the Italian political system, upsetting the bipolar structure that had existed for nearly twenty years. This article uses the concepts of populism and anti-politics to explore the idea and practice of democracy promoted by the M5S and its leader. Focusing on the first months spent in public office by 5 Star representatives, it analyses the effects of the Movement on the system, and the effects of the system on the Movement. The outcome of this crucial transition seems to be twofold: on the one hand, a process of (partial and complicated) institutionalization of the Movement itself; and on the other, simultaneous traces of de-institutionalization of the institutions, through the affirmation of practices and a style of political action that evoke the image of an "unconventional" Parliament

Modeling of Electrokinetic Remediation Combining Local Chemical Equilibrium and Chemical Reaction Kinetics

A mathematical model for reactive-transport processes in porous media is presented. The modeled system includes diffusion, electromigration and electroosmosis as the most relevant transport mechanism and water electrolysis at the electrodes, aqueous species complexation, precipitation and dissolution as the chemical reactions taken place during the treatment time. The model is based on the local chemical equilibrium for most of the reversible chemical reactions occurring in the process. As a novel enhancement of previous models, the local chemical equilibrium reactive-transport model is combined with the solution of the transient equations for the kinetics of those chemical reactions that have representative rates in the same order than the transport mechanisms. The model is validated by comparison of simulation and experimental results for an acid- enhanced electrokinetic treatment of a real Pb-contaminated calcareous soil. The kinetics of the main pH buffering process, the calcite dissolution, was defined by a simplified empirical kinetic law. Results show that the evaluation of kinetic rate entails a significant improvement of the model prediction capability.This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 778045. Part of this work was supported financially by the European Commission within the project LIFE12 ENV/IT/442 SEKRET “Sediment electrokinetic remediation technology for heavy metal pollution removal”. Paz-Garcia acknowledges the financial support from the “Proyecto Puente - Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia de la Universidad de Málaga”, code: PPIT.UMA.B5.2018/17. Villen-Guzman acknowledges the financial support from the University of Malaga through a postdoctoral contract

Report from MeSH Information Group Updated MeSH: what’s new for 2015

As already witnessed over the past years, MeSH update for 2015 focused on leading subject areas, introducing key terms in scientific research fields. The rising interest for molecular biology has progressively shifted..

Report from the MeSH Special Interest Group Meeting 14th EAHIL Conference. 11-13 June 2014, Rome

The Special Interest Group (SIG) on MeSH translation met on June 11 and gathered a section of the 14th EAHILConference participants from Belgium, the Dutch Caribbean, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland,United Kingdom, and of course Italy. The idea of meeting for SIGs during the Conference and not on the day/daysbefore, when CE courses are usually held, was very successful and we gathered over twenty people interested inMeSH translation

What a Difference a Critical Election Makes:Social Networks and Political Discussion in Italy Between 2008 and 2013

This article offers an analysis of the factors associated with frequency of political discussion among representative samples of Italian voters during the general election campaigns of 2008 and 2013. This diachronic comparison allows us to assess how political discussion was shaped in two campaigns characterized by widely different opinion climates, with the 2013 one marked by widespread political disaffection. Our findings show that political discussion notably increased in 2013 and the factors driving political conversations changed substantially. Whereas in 2008 those who voted out of protest and were part of politically homogeneous groups were less likely to talk about politics than the rest of the sample, in 2013 the interaction between protest voting and network homogeneity strongly boosted political discussion