Geometrical aspects of integrable systems

We review some basic theorems on integrability of Hamiltonian systems, namely the Liouville-Arnold theorem on complete integrability, the Nekhoroshev theorem on partial integrability and the Mishchenko-Fomenko theorem on noncommutative integrability, and for each of them we give a version suitable for the noncompact case. We give a possible global version of the previous local results, under certain topological hypotheses on the base space. It turns out that locally affine structures arise naturally in this setting.Comment: It will appear on International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics vol.5 n.3 (May 2008) issu

Todo sobre mi hermano: Ernesto Guevara en el espacio de la intimidad

"Che, My brother" by Juan Martín Guevara and Armelle Vincent springs from a testimony that embraces family history and big history, biography and self-fiction. Che Guevara’s biography is the narration of a life propelled by a drive for justice. With this book Juan Martín sets his own story in motion, finds the texture of his life and retraces his traumatic past, charting the casual order of his memories. Juan Martín’s memoir reveals the doubling of every autobiographical adventure; it reconstructs Che’s personal journey far from the myth, and inevitably halts in front of the impossibility of transferring such an exemplary life

Non c'è terra promessa: l'erranza ebraica e la messa in scacco di identità consolidate

Il filo rosso che lega "Il centauro nel giardino" e "Il Ministero dei casi speciali" è la condizione spiazzante che mette in scacco le consolidate identità degli ebrei del Brasile e dell’Argentina. Con l’odissea dell’uomo-cavallo Guedali, il romanzo di Moacyr Scliar mette in scena la liberazione di un soggetto “fuori posto” che sconfessa un’idea statica dell’identità ebraica e le convenzioni borghesi per accettare la propria condizione fluttuante e riconfigurare il paradigma dell’ebraismo diasporico. Il romanzo di Nathan Englander istituisce una relazione di corrispondenza tra l’erranza dei figli di Israele e il viaggio dei genitori ebrei nelle tenebre della burocrazia e delle menzogne alla ricerca del figlio "desaparecido" durante il regime militare che ha governato l'Argentina tra il 1976 e il 1983

Julieta Zarco, "Treinta años de cine, política y memoria en la Argentina", Buenos Aires, Editorial Biblos, 2016, pp. 174, ISBN 978-987-691-403-1

Articolata in quattro capitoli (1. La ausencia de imágenes; 2. El horror está dentro; 3. La militancia lleva faldas; 4. De idas y vueltas), l'indagine dell'A. abbraccia un arco di tempo in cui le strategie memoriali del cinema hanno prodotto un am-pio ventaglio di risultati, anche perché il cinema argentino è stato più o meno in sintonia con le politiche istituzionali. Oltre che alla configurazione di una politica della memoria collettiva (con tutti i suoi risvolti conflittuali), il cinema ha contribuito a colmare quel vuoto di immagini che aveva contrassegnato uno degli aspetti più tragici della dittatura: il sequestro, la tortura e l’uccisione di decine di migliaia di persone

Leonor Arfuch, "La vida narrada. Memoria, subjetividad y política", Villa María, Editorial Universitaria Villa María, 2018, pp. 196 ISBN 978-987-699-481-1

Al centro del volume c’è una molteplicità di voci e di esperienze animate dall’inquietudine memoriale di narrare esperienze traumatiche. Lo “spazio biografico” (che include biografie, autobiografie, confessioni, memorie, diari intimi, testimonianze, carteggi ma anche interviste, romanzi biografici, documentari, pratiche artistiche) è lo strumento di cui l'A. si serve per tracciare una cartografia che prende in esame le diverse modalità con cui si (ri)costruisce la memoria intima e collettiva in paesi (Argentina, Cile tra gli altri) in cui è ancora viva l’esigenza di comprendere il passato e rendere giustizia al vissuto di chi non c’è più, di narrare il trauma di un familiare desaparecido, di raccontare la condizione dell’esilio o dell’“insilio”

Natural compounds as therapeutic agents: The case of human topoisomerase ib

Natural products are widely used as source for drugs development. An interesting example is represented by natural drugs developed against human topoisomerase IB, a ubiquitous enzyme involved in many cellular processes where several topological problems occur due the formation of supercoiled DNA. Human topoisomerase IB, involved in the solution of such problems relaxing the DNA cleaving and religating a single DNA strand, represents an important target in anticancer therapy. Several natural compounds inhibiting or poisoning this enzyme are under investigation as possible new drugs. This review summarizes the natural products that target human topoisomerase IB that may be used as the lead compounds to develop new anticancer drugs. Moreover, the natural compounds and their derivatives that are in clinical trial are also commented on

Rapid non-contact detection of chemical warfare agents by laser photoacoustic spectroscopy

Nerve agents have recently been used in battlefield operations, espionage wars, and terrorist attacks. These compounds, like some pesticides, cause organophosphate poisoning. The rapid, noncontact detection of a sarin simulant in the liquid phase has been demonstrated at the Diagnostics and Metrology Laboratory of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development using laser photoacoustic spectroscopy, an infrared absorption technology. The first measurements, carried out with an experimental system based on a quantum cascade laser and developed for the assessment of food authenticity in the "fingerprint region", show that a detection limit of one nanolitre is within the reach of the instrument when chemometric analysis is applied

Early Carotid Endarterectomy after Ischemic Stroke: The Results of a Prospective Multicenter Italian Study

ObjectivesTo evaluate safety of early carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in patients with acute brain ischemia presenting to the emergency department stroke units (EDSU).MethodsThe neurologists, neuroradiologists and vascular surgeons on duty in emergency departments enrolled 96 patients who underwent very early CEA according to a predefined protocol within two years. The protocol included evaluation of neurological status by National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), neuroimaging assessment, ultrasound of the carotid arteries and Transcranial Doppler. Patients with NIHSS>22 or whose neuroimaging showed brain infarct >2/3 of the middle cerebral artery territory were excluded. All eligible patients underwent CEA as soon as possible. Primary end points of the study were mortality, neurological morbidity by NIHSS and postoperative hemorrhagic conversion on neuroimaging. Statistical analysis was performed by univariate analysis.ResultsThe mean time elapsing between the onset of stroke and endarterectomy was 1.5 days (±2 days). The overall 30-day morbidity mortality rate was 7.3% (7/96). No neurological mortality occurred. On hospital discharge, three patients (3%) experienced worsening of the neurological deficit (NIHSS score 1 to 2, 1 to 3 and 9 to 10 respectively). Postoperative CT demonstrated there were no new cerebral infarcts nor hemorrhagic transformation. At hospital discharge 9/96 patients (9%) had no improvement in NHISS scores, 37 were asymptomatic and 45 showed a median decrease of 4.5 NIHSS points (range 1–18). By univariate analysis none of the considered variables influenced the clinical outcome.ConclusionOur protocol selected patients who can safely undergo very early (<1.5 days) surgery after acute brain ischemia. Large randomized multicenter prospective trials are warranted to compare very early CEA versus best medical therapy

Global action-angle coordinates for completely integrable systems with noncompact invariant submanifolds

The obstruction to the existence of global action-angle coordinates of Abelian and noncommutative (non-Abelian) completely integrable systems with compact invariant submanifolds has been studied. We extend this analysis to the case of noncompact invariant submanifolds.Comment: 13 pages, to be published in J. Math. Phys. (2007

Topoisomerase IB: a relaxing enzyme for stressed DNA

DNA topoisomerase I enzymes relieve the torsional strain in DNA; they are essential for fundamental molecular processes such as DNA replication, transcription, recombination, and chromosome condensation; and act by cleaving and then religating DNA strands. Over the past few decades, scientists have focused on the DNA topoisomerases biological functions and established a unique role of Type I DNA topoisomerases in regulating gene expression and DNA chromosome condensation. Moreover, the human enzyme is being investigated as a target for cancer chemotherapy. The active site tyrosine is responsible for initiating two transesterification reactions to cleave and then religate the DNA backbone, allowing the release of superhelical tension. The different steps of the catalytic mechanism are affected by various inhibitors; some of them prevent the interaction between the enzyme and the DNA while others act as poisons, leading to TopI-D NA lesions, breakage of DNA, and eventually cellular death. In this review, our goal is to provide an overview of mechanism of human topoisomerase IB action together with the different types of inhibitors and their effect on the enzyme functionality