La funzione etica e catartica della rappresentazione della sofferenza in storia della colonna infame di manzoni

The aim of this contribution is to discuss the ethical function of suffering in Manzoni’s Storia della Colonna infame as a means for catharsis and as a persuasive rhetorical argument addressed to the reader. By representing both physical and moral suffering Manzoni states that evil corrupts not only the perpetrators but also the innocent. The author therefore critiques the wilful use of pain as a means to force others’ mind. Although Manzoni unfolds logical argumentation to argue his thesis, he finally accepts to justify the suffering ofthe innocent as a sort of redemptive sacrifice within the frame of Providence. In the article Manzoni’s conception of suffering will be analysed also by referring to texts which investigate suffering from the standpoint of existential philosophy (Camus and Pareyson) and from that of literary anthropology (Girard)

Regional seas

Description of developments in regional seas regulatory framewor

Heat-Wave Events in Spain: Air Mass Analysis and Impacts on 7

The present paper describes and characterizes the air mass circulation during the heat-wave events registered during the period 2005-2014 over Spain, paying special attention on the role of the Saharan circulations. With this purpose, backward trajectories at 500, 1500 and 3000 m in Seville (south), Madrid (centre) and Bilbao (north) during the thirteen heat-wave events identified during this period are analysed. Finally, the impact of the heat-wave events and of each advection pattern on 7Be activity concentrations is also analysed. The air mass results indicate that the heat-wave events are characterized roughly by western, southern and nearby advections, with a higher frequency of the first two types. The analysis shows a general and large impact at lower levels of westerly flows and an increase of African air masses with height. The Saharan air masses present a different spatial impact over Spain, with a decreasing occurrence and a decrease in the simultaneous occurrence percentage from south to north. The 7Be activity concentrations during these events show an increase of concentrations in central and southern areas and a small decrease in northern Spain. This increase is not associated with Saharan air masses, but instead to the arrival of distant westerly air masses.JRC.G.II.7-Nuclear securit

HIGH RESOLUTION SURVEY OF MOSAICS OF THE CRYPT OF THE ST. NICOLA’S BASILICA (BARI, ITALY) AND CHARACTERIZATION AND PROVENANCE STUDIES OF MARBLE TESSERAE

This paper focusses on the mosaics of the crypt of the St. Nicola’s Basilica in Bari, a valuable evidence of use and reuse of ancient white and coloured marbles from the Roman world, together with local and imitation stones. The study belongs to a wider research project (MARMORA), about ancient marbles employed in the Apulia Cultural Heritage, and aims to improve knowledge and preserve these artworks, in order to enhance their valorisation and enjoyment. Therefore, firstly a high definition survey of mosaic floors was performed and after, characterization and provenance studies of stone tesserae, recognition of geometrical motifs and stylistic influence were carried out. Preliminary results allowed to obtain a digital representation of mosaics, including all the contributions on material characterisation and provenance

The coherent dynamics of photoexcited green fluorescent proteins

The coherent dynamics of vibronic wave packets in the green fluorescent protein is reported. At room temperature the non-stationary dynamics following impulsive photoexcitation displays an oscillating optical transmissivity pattern with components at 67 fs (497 cm-1) and 59 fs (593 cm-1). Our results are complemented by ab initio calculations of the vibrational spectrum of the chromophore. This analysis shows the interplay between the dynamics of the aminoacidic structure and the electronic excitation in the primary optical events of green fluorescent proteins.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Picosecond Internal Dynamics of Lysozyme as Affected by Thermal Unfolding in Nonaqueous Environment

AbstractA neutron-scattering investigation of the internal picosecond dynamics of lysozyme solvated in glycerol as a function of temperature in the range 200–410K has been undertaken. The inelastic contribution to the measured intensity is characterized by the presence of a bump generally known as “boson peak”, clearly distinguishable at low temperature. When the temperature is increased the quasielastic component of the spectrum becomes more and more intrusive and progressively overwhelms the vibrational bump. This happens especially for T>345K when the protein goes through an unfolding process, which leads to the complete denaturation. The quasielastic term is the superposition of two components whose intensities and linewidths have been studied as a function of temperature. The slower component describes motions with characteristic times of ∼4ps corresponding to reorientations of polypeptide side chains. Both the intensity and linewidth of this kind of relaxations show two distinct regimes with a crossover in the temperature range where the melting process occurs, thus suggesting the presence of a dynamical transition correlated to the protein unfolding. Conversely the faster component might be ascribed to the local dynamics of hydrogen atoms caged by the nearest neighbors with characteristic time of ∼0.3ps

Eating habits and lifestyle changes during COVID-19 lockdown : An Italian survey

Background: On December 12th 2019, a new coronavirus (SARS-Cov2) emerged in Wuhan, China, sparking a pandemic of acute respiratory syndrome in humans (COVID-19). On the 24th of April 2020, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, according to the COVID-Case Tracker by Johns Hopkins University, was 195,313, and the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases was 2,783,512. The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive impact on human health, causing sudden lifestyle changes, through social distancing and isolation at home, with social and economic consequences. Optimizing public health during this pandemic requires not only knowledge from the medical and biological sciences, but also of all human sciences related to lifestyle, social and behavioural studies, including dietary habits and lifestyle. Methods: Our study aimed to investigate the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eating habits and lifestyle changes among the Italian population aged 65 12 years. The study comprised a structured questionnaire packet that inquired demographic information (age, gender, place of residence, current employment); anthropometric data (reported weight and height); dietary habits information (adherence to the Mediterranean diet, daily intake of certain foods, food frequency, and number of meals/day); lifestyle habits information (grocery shopping, habit of smoking, sleep quality and physical activity). The survey was conducted from the 5th to the 24th of April 2020. Results: A total of 3533 respondents have been included in the study, aged between 12 and 86 years (76.1% females). The perception of weight gain was observed in 48.6% of the population; 3.3% of smokers decided to quit smoking; a slight increased physical activity has been reported, especially for bodyweight training, in 38.3% of respondents; the population group aged 18-30 years resulted in having a higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet when compared to the younger and the elderly population (p < 0.001; p < 0.001, respectively); 15% of respondents turned to farmers or organic, purchasing fruits and vegetables, especially in the North and Center of Italy, where BMI values were lower. Conclusions: In this study, we have provided for the first time data on the Italian population lifestyle, eating habits and adherence to the Mediterranean Diet pattern during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, our data need to be confirmed and investigated in future more extensive population studies

PHB-rich biomass and BioH2 production by means of photosynthetic microorganisms

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of biopolyesters produced by many bacteria as intracellular storage carbon and energy source. Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is probably the most common type of PHA. It is biodegradable and renewable, with relevant thermoplastic properties along with adjustable thermal and mechanical properties. The thermoplastic properties of PHB and its biodegradability make it a potential alternative to petroleum-based plastics. Several microorganisms growing in the dark and/or in the light produce PHB. The polymer is mainly accumulated in the cytoplasm of cells when microorganisms are growing under conditions of stress. If purple non-sulfur photosynthetic bacteria (PNSB) are grown under nitrogen starvation conditions, a photoevolution of molecular hydrogen occurs as well. The PHB amount increases when carbon and energy sources are in excess, but the growth is limited, for example, by the lack of a nitrogen, phosphorous or sulfur source. This work deals the possibility of producing PHAs by photosynthetic microorganisms belonging to cyanobacteria and PNSB. Different culture broths, with and without organic carbon sources, were investigated to maximize PHA production by photosynthetic microorganisms. An unbalanced agro-industrial wastewater has been also investigated in the present study. It concerns the olive mill wastewater (OMW) containing significant reusable carbon fractions suitable for an eco-efficient valorization by feeding photosynthetic processes. The maximum PHA concentration in a cyanobacterium drybiomass was 317 mg/L, when growing cells in a medium with a low content of acetic acid (LAC). In PNSB drybiomass the maximum PHB content was 215 mg/L, when growing PNSB in a synthetic medium. A simultaneous H2 co-production (1,295 mL/L of culture) was cumulated as well, at the end of the process

Engineering a C-Phase quantum gate: optical design and experimental realization

A two qubit quantum gate, namely the C-Phase, has been realized by exploiting the longitudinal momentum (i.e. the optical path) degree of freedom of a single photon. The experimental setup used to engineer this quantum gate represents an advanced version of the high stability closed-loop interferometric setup adopted to generate and characterize 2-photon 4-qubit Phased Dicke states. Some experimental results, dealing with the characterization of multipartite entanglement of the Phased Dicke states are also discussed in detail.Comment: accepted for publication on EPJ