Lontano dalla luce del lampione: un inedito appunto di viaggio di Rodolfo Sacco

Rodolfo Sacco (Fossano, 21 novembre 1923 –Torino, 21 marzo 2022), è stato un maestro del diritto comparato e civile. A lui si deve la diffusione in Italia della comparazione giuridica e un approccio innovativo nel diritto privato, che ha riportato la cultura giuridica italiana all’interno del dibattito internazionale. In questo breve ricordo del grande maestro, nel giorno in cui compirebbe 100 anni, si ripercorrono brevemente le tappe più significative della sua vita intellettuale, partendo da un manoscritto vergato di suo pugno, ritrovato per caso

Dobbs: una sentenza in fondo attesa. Come ci si è arrivati e quali le sue implicazioni future

La sentenza Dobbs, che è sembrata giungere come un fulmine a ciel sereno, rappresenta in verità l’epilogo di un lungo cammino di svuotamento del diritto di abortire costituzionalmente garantito alle donne statunitensi nel 1973. Il saggio inda-ga le differenti vie attraverso cui, sotto la superficie dell’attribuzione di un’ampia li-bertà decisionale alle donne, la forte resistenza nei confronti di un loro diritto a effet-tuare scelte relative alla propria capacità riproduttiva non ha mai cessato di lavorare a pieno ritmo negli Stati Uniti. Si interroga, infine, sui possibili e dirompenti effetti di Dobbs, tanto sul piano dell’autonomia riproduttiva della donna, quanto su quello del-la perdita di legittimazione di una Corte Suprema apparsa eccessivamente politicizza-ta

I mobili confini della libert\ue0 di espressione negli Stati Uniti e il metro della paura

Il diritto di manifestare liberamente il proprio pensiero fa parte del DNA delle istituzioni statunitensi, ricevendo esplicita protezione sin dal 1791. Tuttavia \u2013 osserva l\u2019Autrice in questo contributo \u2013 occorre considerare che, ove non ne venga garantita l\u2019effettivit\ue0, la proclamazione di un diritto pu\uf2 rivestire una funzione puramente retorica e, dunque, di dubbia concludenza. E, cos\uec, in questo contributo, si passano in rassegna tanto le decisioni della Corte Suprema che hanno effettivamente garantito un ampio spazio all\u2019espressione del dissenso, quanto le decisioni che, con diversi strumenti interpretativi, hanno infine compresso la formazione ed espressione di opinioni minoritarie. E l\u2019Autrice ci consegna questa riflessione attraverso una lettura degli orientamenti giurisprudenziali condotta in parallelo con gli eventi della stori

Il caso dell’aborto: una buccia di banana per la SCOTUS?

SOMMARIO: 1. La questione dell’aborto e la perdita di credibilità della Corte Suprema statunitense - 2. Una tempesta perfetta? - 3. La partita della fiducia. The case of abortion: a slippery slope for SCOTUS? ABSTRACT: The case of the right of abortion in the United States is going to represent much more than a mere legal question. The upcoming decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on the matter involves its own credibility as a third party institution in a check and balance system where the SCOTUS is increasingly perceived as a political player. In this paper the A. tries to explore why it is so

The Italian Theory of Comparative Law Goes Abroad

The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of the Italian comparative law scholarship outside its national boundaries, and particularly in Latin America, where it has had its strongest impact. In order to achieve our goal we will start by sketching a picture of the current status of the Italian comparative law, tracing its roots, explaining its development and analyzing its weaknesses and strengths. After exploring its reception in South America, we will ultimately try to envisage the future challenges, directions and contributions of the Italian Theory – as we labeled the Italian comparative law “way”

Vibrio cholerae interactions with Mytilus galloprovincialis hemocytes mediated by serum components

Edible bivalves (e.g., mussels, oysters) can accumulate large amount of bacteria in their tissues and act as passive carriers of pathogens to humans. Bacterial persistence inside bivalves depends, at least in part, on hemolymph anti-bacterial activity that is exerted by both serum soluble factors and phagocytic cells (i.e., the hemocytes). It was previously shown that Mytilus galloprovincialis hemolymph serum contains opsonins that mediate D-mannose-sensitive interactions between hemocytes and Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor bacteria that carry the mannose-sensitive hemagglutinin (MSHA). These opsonins enhance phagocytosis and killing of vibrios by facilitating their binding to hemocytes. Since V. cholerae strains not carrying the MSHA ligand (O1 classical, non-O1/O139) are present in coastal water and can be entrapped by mussels, we studied whether in mussel serum, in addition to opsonins directed toward MSHA, other components can mediate opsonization of these bacteria. By comparing interactions of O1 classical and non-O1/O139 strains with hemocytes in artificial sea water and serum, it was found that M. galloprovincialis serum contains components that increase by at approximately twofold their adhesion to, association with, and killing by hemocytes. Experiments conducted with high and low molecular mass fractions obtained by serum ultrafiltration indicated that these compounds have molecular mass higher than 5000 Da. Serum exposure to high temperature (80°C) abolished its opsonizing capability suggesting that the involved serum active components are of protein nature. Further studies are needed to define the chemical properties and specificity of both the involved bacterial ligands and hemolymph opsonins. This information will be central not only to better understand V. cholerae ecology, but also to improve current bivalve depuration practices and properly protect human health

gbpA as a Novel qPCR Target for the Species-Specific Detection of Vibrio cholerae O1, O139, Non-O1/Non-O139 in Environmental, Stool, and Historical Continuous Plankton Recorder Samples

The Vibrio cholerae N-acetyl glucosamine-binding protein A (GbpA) is a chitin-binding protein involved in V . cholerae attachment to environmental chitin surfaces and human intestinal cells. We previously investigated the distribution and genetic variations of gbpA in a large collection of V . cholerae strains and found that the gene is consistently present and highly conserved in this species. Primers and probe were designed from the gbpA sequence of V . cholerae and a new Taq-based qPCR protocol was developed for diagnostic detection and quantification of the bacterium in environmental and stool samples. In addition, the positions of primers targeting the gbpA gene region were selected to obtain a short amplified fragment of 206 bp and the protocol was optimized for the analysis of formalin-fixed samples, such as historical Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) samples. Overall, the method is sensitive (50 gene copies), highly specific for V . cholerae and failed to amplify strains of the closely-related species Vibrio mimicus . The sensitivity of the assay applied to environmental and stool samples spiked with V . cholerae ATCC 39315 was comparable to that of pure cultures and was of 10 2 genomic units/l for drinking and seawater samples, 10 1 genomic units/g for sediment and 10 2 genomic units/g for bivalve and stool samples. The method also performs well when tested on artificially formalin-fixed and degraded genomic samples and was able to amplify V . cholerae DNA in historical CPR samples, the earliest of which date back to August 1966. The detection of V . cholerae in CPR samples collected in cholera endemic areas such as the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) is of particular significance and represents a proof of concept for the possible use of the CPR technology and the developed qPCR assay in cholera studies

Expression and subcellular localization of myogenic regulatory factors during the differentiation of skeletal muscle C2C12 myoblasts

It is known that the MyoD family members (MyoD, Myf5, myogenin, and MRF4) play a pivotal role in the complex mechanism of skeletal muscle cell differentiation. However, fragmentary information on transcription factor-specific regulation is available and data on their posttranscriptional and post-translational behavior are still missing. In this work, we combined mRNA and protein expression analysis with their subcellular localization. Each myogenic regulator factor (MRF) revealed a specific mRNA trend and a protein quantitative analysis not overlapping, suggesting the presence of post-transcriptional mechanisms. In addition, each MRF showed a specific behavior in situ, characterized by a differentiation stage-dependent localization suggestive of a post-translational regulation also. Consistently with their transcriptional activity, immunogold electron microscopy data revealed MRFs distribution in interchromatin domains. Our results showed a MyoD and Myf5 contrasting expression profile in proliferating myoblasts, as well as myogenin and MRF4 opposite distribution in the terminally differentiated myotubes. Interestingly, MRFs expression and subcellular localization analysis during C2C12 cell differentiation stages showed two main MRFs regulation mechanisms: (i) the protein half-life regulation to modulate the differentiation stage-dependent transcriptional activity and (ii) the cytoplasmic retention, as a translocation process, to inhibit the transcriptional activity. Therefore, our results exhibit that MRFs nucleo-cytoplasmic trafficking is involved in muscle differentiation and suggest that, besides the MRFs expression level, also MRFs subcellular localization, related to their functional activity, plays a key role as a regulatory step in transcriptional control mechanisms