Che cosa è stato l’Illuminismo: rivoluzione della mente o rivoluzione culturale dell’Antico Regime?

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, international studies in historiography gave way to a strong process of critical reassessment. In the same way, the historiography of Enlightenment is currently undergoing a rapid and decisive transformation similar to that which occurred in the West after World War II. The Anglo-Saxon world is certainly at the forefront of this process and even, it seems, guides its destiny: especially the US, where the monumental works of Jonathan Israel provide an example worthy of attention. This paper, nonetheless, aims to discuss Israel’s research hypotheses, reductively founded on the primacy of the history of philosophy and on the idea of a so-called Radical Enlightenment dominated by the thought and ideas of Spinoza, in contrast with thirty years of research on the history of culture conducted by major scholars in every part of the world, and in Italy in particular. A history of culture that has long been able to innovate and produce research hypotheses open to the future: from human rights to cultural practices, from constitutionalism to the relationship between art and politics as recognised by the nascent public opinion

Il problema Rousseau e i diritti dell’uomo. La pratica politica dei diritti tra natura e cultura, individuo e comunità, «stato di pura natura» e società civile

Jean-Jacques Rousseau padre nobile dei diritti dell’uomo e della politica dei moderni? Recentemente è stata attribuita al grande ginevrino e alla sua opera di romanziere dallo straordinario successo la qualifica di protagonista della creazione, in Europa, di una nuova mentalità empatica tra gli esseri umani, l’humus che avrebbe favorito l’affermazione del linguaggio dei diritti nel corso della seconda metà del Settecento. Lo si è definito gran divulgatore e persino – con qualche forzatura e i..

The Tempered Polymerization of Human Neuroserpin

Neuroserpin, a member of the serpin protein superfamily, is an inhibitor of proteolytic activity that is involved in pathologies such as ischemia, Alzheimer's disease, and Familial Encephalopathy with Neuroserpin Inclusion Bodies (FENIB). The latter belongs to a class of conformational diseases, known as serpinopathies, which are related to the aberrant polymerization of serpin mutants. Neuroserpin is known to polymerize, even in its wild type form, under thermal stress. Here, we study the mechanism of neuroserpin polymerization over a wide range of temperatures by different techniques. Our experiments show how the onset of polymerization is dependent on the formation of an intermediate monomeric conformer, which then associates with a native monomer to yield a dimeric species. After the formation of small polymers, the aggregation proceeds via monomer addition as well as polymer-polymer association. No further secondary mechanism takes place up to very high temperatures, thus resulting in the formation of neuroserpin linear polymeric chains. Most interesting, the overall aggregation is tuned by the co-occurrence of monomer inactivation (i.e. the formation of latent neuroserpin) and by a mechanism of fragmentation. The polymerization kinetics exhibit a unique modulation of the average mass and size of polymers, which might suggest synchronization among the different processes involved. Thus, fragmentation would control and temper the aggregation process, instead of enhancing it, as typically observed (e.g.) for amyloid fibrillation

Expert consensus document:Cholangiocarcinoma: current knowledge and future perspectives consensus statement from the European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma (ENS-CCA)

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a heterogeneous group of malignancies with features of biliary tract differentiation. CCA is the second most common primary liver tumour and the incidence is increasing worldwide. CCA has high mortality owing to its aggressiveness, late diagnosis and refractory nature. In May 2015, the "European Network for the Study of Cholangiocarcinoma" (ENS-CCA: www.enscca.org or www.cholangiocarcinoma.eu) was created to promote and boost international research collaboration on the study of CCA at basic, translational and clinical level. In this Consensus Statement, we aim to provide valuable information on classifications, pathological features, risk factors, cells of origin, genetic and epigenetic modifications and current therapies available for this cancer. Moreover, future directions on basic and clinical investigations and plans for the ENS-CCA are highlighted