«Io senza garanzie». Donne e autobiografia. Dialogo ai confini fra storia e letteratura

Io senza garanzie è un dialogo sulla scrittura autobiografica delle donne dall'età moderna alla contemporaneità. Nato dall'intreccio e dal cortocircuito di due voci diverse che si misurano in un territorio franco, fra storia e letteratura, alla ricerca delle tappe della riflessione sul sé autoriale, questo saggio riflette sulla scrittura autobiografica come punta emergente di un lungo percorso di affioramenti dell'io. Le fonti storiche che testimoniano un scrittura indiretta, quasi di «transito» della soggettività delle donne, si aprono poco alla volta ad un uso sempre più forte e consapevole della scrittura, fino alle ora dolorose, ora euforiche, ora ideologicamente compiaciute autobiografie della contemporaneità. Dalla scrittura delle mistiche, non delle donne ma attraverso le donne, alla metautobiografia. Dalla inconsapevolezza del valore della propria memoria\scrittura alla piena coscienza del valore fondativo di essa per la scoperta e reivenzione di un sé di genere. Dai recinti e perimetri stretti del passato ai fertili sconfinamenti e spaesamenti dell'io contemporaneo, in una utopia di trasformazione che sovverte gerarchie e parodizza logiche di potere. Come nell'elogio del margine della scrittrice afroamericana bell hooks, il cui nome tutto in caratteri minuscoli esprime orizzontalità ed insieme ribellione: «fare del margine non solo un luogo di privazione, ma un luogo di resistenza».Me without guarantees is a dialogue on the autobiographical writing of women from the modern to the contemporary age. Born from the interweaving and short-circuiting of two separate voices which take their measure in open territory, midway between history and literature, in search of the stages of reflection on the authorial self, this essay is a reflection on autobiographical writing as an emerging point of a long journey of the ego's outcroppings. The historical sources which bear witness to an indirect, almost «transitiona»» writing of the subjectivity of women, give way a little by little at a time to an ever more forceful and conscious use of the written word, up to the now painful, now euphoric, now ideologically complacent, autobiographies of the present moment. From the writings of the mystics, not of women but through women, to meta-autobiography. From the unawareness of the value of one's own memory/writing to the full consciousness of its founding value for the discovery and reinvention of a gender self. From the penned-in spaces of the past to the fertile boundlessness and bewilderment of the contemporary ego, in a utopia of transformation which subverts hierarchies and parodies the logic of power. As in the «outlaw culture» of the Afro-American writer bell hooks, whose name written all in small letters suggests both horizontality and rebellion: «to make marginality not only a place of privation, but a place of resistance»

Catasto, fiscalità e lotta politica nella Toscana nel XVIII secolo

L’articolo prende in esame i tentativi compiuti nella seconda metà del XvIII secolo dai Lorena – e segnatamente dal granduca riformatore, Pietro Leopoldo- di realizzare nel granducato di Toscana un moderno ed uniforme catasto parti- cellare: quel Granducato che costituisce, com’è noto, uno dei più interessanti e vivaci laboratori o politici di tutto il Settecento europeo. È parso utile tornare su un tema che è stato considerato da svariati autori semplicemente come un caso di ‘riforma fallita’, per cercare di mettere in luce, a seguito anche di nuovi scavi documentari, il ricco quadro delle discussioni e degli schieramenti politici che accompagnarono questo reale o supposto fallimento. Sostanzialmente assente dal dibattito politico negli anni della reggenza lorenese di Francesco Stefano (1737-1765), la questione del catasto emerge all’attenzione nel 1763, ma è con la successione al trono granducale di Pietro Leopoldo che essa diviene il centro di un animato e conflittuale dibattito politico. Sostenuta dalla volontà di riforma del granduca e da un gruppo di suoi collaboratori di orientamento filo-fisiocratico, l’opportunità di procedere ad un complessivo ed uniforme rinnovamento dei catasti pare affermarsi, ed ha inizio dopo molte vivaci discussioni un’intensa sperimentazione in varie parti dello stato. Tuttavia, nonostante i parziali successi ottenuti, l’idea di un nuovo generale catasto viene per molteplici motivi - tra cui primario l’opposizione della classe dei grandi proprietari terrieri fiorentini - abbandonata nel 1785. Ma la vicenda del piccolo laboratorio toscano riflette fedelmente anche il cambiamento di clima del tardo illuminismo europeo. Le difficoltà dell’ assolutismo illuminato, il superamento delle dottrine fisiocratiche ed il diffondersi delle nuove dottrine economiche inglesi concorrono a determinare l’abbandono del progetto di nuovo catasto, che agli occhi dei contempora- nei rappresentava il modello di una società fortemente diretta dallo stato

Characterization of Cystatin B Interactome in Saliva from Healthy Elderly and Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Cystatin B is a small, multifunctional protein involved in the regulation of inflammation, innate immune response, and neuronal protection and found highly abundant in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recently, our study demonstrated a significant association between the level of salivary cystatin B and AD. Since the protein is able to establish protein-protein interaction (PPI) in different contexts and aggregation-prone proteins and the PPI networks are relevant for AD pathogenesis, and due to the relevance of finding new AD markers in peripheral biofluids, we thought it was interesting to study the possible involvement of cystatin B in PPIs in saliva and to evaluate differences and similarities between AD and age-matched elderly healthy controls (HC). For this purpose, we applied a co-immunoprecipitation procedure and a bottom-up proteomics analysis to purify, identify, and quantify cystatin B interactors. Results demonstrated for the first time the existence of a salivary cystatin B-linked multi-protein complex composed by 82 interactors and largely expressed in the body. Interactors are involved in neutrophil activation, antimicrobial activity, modulation of the cytoskeleton and extra-cellular matrix (ECM), and glucose metabolism. Preliminary quantitative data showed significantly lower levels of triosophosphate isomerase 1 and higher levels of mucin 7, BPI, and matrix Gla protein in AD with respect to HC, suggesting implications associated with AD of altered glucose metabolism, antibacterial activities, and calcification-associated processes. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifiers PXD039286 and PXD030679

A top-down proteomic approach reveals a salivary protein profile able to classify Parkinson's disease with respect to Alzheimer's disease patients and to healthy controls

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease with motor and non-motor symptoms. Diagnosis is complicated by lack of reliable biomarkers. To individuate peptides and/or proteins with diagnostic potential for early diagnosis, severity and discrimination from similar pathologies, the salivary proteome in 36 PD patients was investigated in comparison with 36 healthy controls (HC) and 35 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. A top-down platform based on HPLC-ESI-IT-MS allowed characterizing and quantifying intact peptides, small proteins and their PTMs (overall 51). The three groups showed significantly different protein profiles, PD showed the highest levels of cystatin SA and antileukoproteinase and the lowest of cystatin SN and some statherin proteoforms. HC exhibited the lowest abundance of thymosin & beta;4, short S100A9, cystatin A, and dimeric cystatin B. AD patients showed the highest abundance of & alpha;-defensins and short oxidized S100A9. Moreover, different proteoforms of the same protein, as S-cysteinylated and S-glutathionylated cystatin B, showed opposite trends in the two pathological groups. Statherin, cystatins SA and SN classified accurately PD from HC and AD subjects. & alpha;-defensins, histatin 1, oxidized S100A9, and P-B fragments were the best classifying factors between PD and AD patients. Interestingly statherin and thymosin & beta;4 correlated with defective olfactory functions in PD patients. All these outcomes highlighted implications of specific proteoforms involved in the innate-immune response and inflammation regulation at oral and systemic level, suggesting a possible panel of molecular and clinical markers suitable to recognize subjects affected by PD

The definition of environment and its relation to the quenching of galaxies at z=1-2 in a hierarchical Universe

A well calibrated method to describe the environment of galaxies at all redshifts is essential for the study of structure formation. Such a calibration should include well understood correlations with halo mass, and the possibility to identify galaxies which dominate their potential well (centrals), and their satellites. Focusing on z = 1 and 2 we propose a method of environmental calibration which can be applied to the next generation of low to medium resolution spectroscopic surveys. Using an up-to-date semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we measure the local density of galaxies in fixed apertures on different scales. There is a clear correlation of density with halo mass for satellite galaxies, while a significant population of low mass centrals is found at high densities in the neighbourhood of massive haloes. In this case the density simply traces the mass of the most massive halo within the aperture. To identify central and satellite galaxies, we apply an observationally motivated stellar mass rank method which is both highly pure and complete, especially in the more massive haloes where such a division is most meaningful. Finally we examine a test case for the recovery of environmental trends: the passive fraction of galaxies and its dependence on stellar and halo mass for centrals and satellites. With careful calibration, observationally defined quantities do a good job of recovering known trends in the model. This result stands even with reduced redshift accuracy, provided the sample is deep enough to preserve a wide dynamic range of density.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Combined Salivary Proteome Profiling and Machine Learning Analysis Provides Insight into Molecular Signature for Autoimmune Liver Diseases Classification

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) are autoimmune liver diseases that target the liver and have a wide spectrum of presentation. A global overview of quantitative variations on the salivary proteome in presence of these two pathologies is investigated in this study. The acid-insoluble salivary fraction of AIH and PBC patients, and healthy controls (HCs), was analyzed using a gel-based bottom-up proteomic approach combined with a robust machine learning statistical analysis of the dataset. The abundance of Arginase, Junction plakoglobin, Desmoplakin, Hexokinase-3 and Desmocollin-1 decreased, while that of BPI fold-containing family A member 2 increased in AIHp compared to HCs; the abundance of Gelsolin, CD14, Tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2, Clusterin, Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins A2/B1, Cofilin-1 and BPI fold-containing family B member 2 increased in PBCp compared to HCs. The abundance of Hornerin decreased in both AIHp and PBCp with respect to HCs and provided an area under the ROC curve of 0.939. Machine learning analysis confirmed the feasibility of the salivary proteome to discriminate groups of subjects based on AIH or PBC occurrence as previously suggested by our group. The topology-based functional enrichment analysis performed on these potential salivary biomarkers highlights an enrichment of terms mostly related to the immune system, but also with a strong involvement in liver fibrosis process and with antimicrobial activity

Chronotropic Incompentence and Functional Capacity in CHF

SUMMARY Aim: To assess the effect of chronotropic incompetence on functional capacity in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients, as evaluated as NYHA and peak oxygen consumption (pVO2), focusing on the presence and dose of β-blocker treatment. Methods: Nine hundred and sixty-seven consecutive CHF patients were evaluated, 328 of whom were discarded because they failed to meet the study criteria. Of the 639 analyzed, 90 were not treated with β-blockers whereas the other 549 were. The latter were further subdivided in high (n = 184) and low (n = 365) β-blockers daily dose group in accordance with an arbitrary cut-off of 25 mg for carvedilol and of 5 mg for bisoprolol. Failure to achieve 80% of the percentage of maximum age predicted peak heart rate (%Max PHR) or of HR reserve (%HRR) constituted chronotropic incompetence. Results: No differences were found in NYHA or pVO2 between patients with and without β-blockers and, similarly, between high and low β-blocker dose groups. Twenty and sixty-nine percent of not β-blocked patients showed chronotropic incompetence according to %Max PHR and %HRR, respectively, whereas this prevalence rose to 61% and 84% in those on β-blocker therapy. Patients taking β-blockers without chronotropic incompetence, as inferable from both %Max PHR and %HRR, showed higher NYHA and pVO2 regardless of drug dose, whereas, in not β-blocked patients, only %HRR revealed a difference in functional capacity. At multivariable analysis, HR increase during exercise (ΔHR) was the variable most strongly associated to pVO2 (β: 0.572; SE: 0.008; P < 0.0001) and NYHA class (β: −0.499; SE: 0.001; P < 0.0001). Conclusions: ΔHR is a powerful predictor of CHF severity regardless of the presence of β-blocker therapy and of β-blocker daily dose

A PM10 chemically characterised nation-wide dataset for Italy. Geographical influence on urban air pollution and source apportionment

: Urban textures of the Italian cities are peculiarly shaped by the local geography generating similarities among cities placed in different regions but comparable topographical districts. This suggested the following scientific question: can such different topographies generate significant differences on the PM10 chemical composition at Italian urban sites that share similar geography despite being in different regions? To investigate whether such communalities can be found and are applicable at Country-scale, we propose here a novel methodological approach. A dataset comprising season-averages of PM10 mass concentration and chemical composition data was built, covering the decade 2005-2016 and referring to urban sites only (21 cities). Statistical analyses, estimation of missing data, identification of latent clusters and source apportionment modelling by Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) were performed on this unique dataset. The first original result is the demonstration that a dataset with atypical time resolution can be successfully exploited as an input matrix for PMF obtaining Country-scale representative chemical profiles, whose physical consistency has been assessed by different tests of modelling performance. Secondly, this dataset can be considered a reference repository of season averages of chemical species over the Italian territory and the chemical profiles obtained by PMF for urban Italian agglomerations could contribute to emission repositories. These findings indicate that our approach is powerful, and it could be further employed with datasets typically available in the air pollution monitoring networks

Epidemiology and Microbiology of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections: Preliminary Results of a National Registry

Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) represent a wide range of clinical conditions characterized by a considerable variety of clinical presentations and severity. Their aetiology can also vary, with numerous possible causative pathogens. While other authors previously published analyses on several types of SSTI and on restricted types of patients, we conducted a large nationwide surveillance programme on behalf of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases to assess the clinical and microbiological characteristics of the whole SSTI spectrum, from mild to severe life-threatening infections, in both inpatients and outpatients. Twenty-five Infectious Diseases (ID) Centres throughout Italy collected prospectively data concerning both the clinical and microbiological diagnosis of patients affected by SSTIs via an electronic case report form. All the cases included in our database, independently from their severity, have been managed by ID specialists joining the study while SSTIs from other wards/clinics have been excluded from this analysis. Here, we report the preliminary results of our study, referring to a 12-month period (October 2016–September 2017). During this period, the study population included 254 adult patients and a total of 291 SSTI diagnoses were posed, with 36 patients presenting more than one SSTIs. The type of infection diagnosed, the aetiological micro-organisms involved and some notes on their antimicrobial susceptibilities were collected and are reported herein. The enrichment of our registry is ongoing, but these preliminary results suggest that further analysis could soon provide useful information to better understand the national epidemiologic data and the current clinical management of SSTIs in Italy

How future surgery will benefit from SARS-COV-2-related measures: a SPIGC survey conveying the perspective of Italian surgeons

COVID-19 negatively affected surgical activity, but the potential benefits resulting from adopted measures remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in surgical activity and potential benefit from COVID-19 measures in perspective of Italian surgeons on behalf of SPIGC. A nationwide online survey on surgical practice before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic was conducted in March-April 2022 (NCT:05323851). Effects of COVID-19 hospital-related measures on surgical patients' management and personal professional development across surgical specialties were explored. Data on demographics, pre-operative/peri-operative/post-operative management, and professional development were collected. Outcomes were matched with the corresponding volume. Four hundred and seventy-three respondents were included in final analysis across 14 surgical specialties. Since SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, application of telematic consultations (4.1% vs. 21.6%; p &lt; 0.0001) and diagnostic evaluations (16.4% vs. 42.2%; p &lt; 0.0001) increased. Elective surgical activities significantly reduced and surgeons opted more frequently for conservative management with a possible indication for elective (26.3% vs. 35.7%; p &lt; 0.0001) or urgent (20.4% vs. 38.5%; p &lt; 0.0001) surgery. All new COVID-related measures are perceived to be maintained in the future. Surgeons' personal education online increased from 12.6% (pre-COVID) to 86.6% (post-COVID; p &lt; 0.0001). Online educational activities are considered a beneficial effect from COVID pandemic (56.4%). COVID-19 had a great impact on surgical specialties, with significant reduction of operation volume. However, some forced changes turned out to be benefits. Isolation measures pushed the use of telemedicine and telemetric devices for outpatient practice and favored communication for educational purposes and surgeon-patient/family communication. From the Italian surgeons' perspective, COVID-related measures will continue to influence future surgical clinical practice