Channel-forming activity of syringopeptin 25 A in mercury-supported phospholipid monolayers and negatively charged bilayers

Interactions of the cationic lipodepsipeptide syringopeptin 25 A (SP25A) with mercury-supported dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC), dioleoylphosphatidylserine (DOPS) and dioeleoylphosphatidic acid (DOPA) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) were investigated by AC voltammetry in 0.1 M KCl at pH 3, 5.4 and 6.8. SP25A targets and penetrates the DOPS SAM much more effectively than the other SAMs not only at pH 6.8, where the DOPS SAM is negatively charged, but also at pH 3, where it is positively charged just as SP25A. Similar investigations at tethered bilayer lipid membranes (tBLMs) consisting of a thiolipid called DPTL anchored to mercury, with a DOPS, DOPA or DOPC distal monolayer on top of it, showed that, at physiological transmembrane potentials, SP25A forms ion channels spanning the tBLM only if DOPS is the distal monolayer. The distinguishing chemical feature of the DOPS SAM is the ionic interaction between the protonated amino group of a DOPS molecule and the carboxylate group of an adjacent phospholipid molecule. Under the reasonable assumption that SP25A preferentially interacts with this ion pair, the selective lipodepsipeptide antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria may be tentatively explained by its affinity for similar protonated amino-carboxylate pairs, which are expected to be present in the peptide moieties of peptidoglycan strands

La rappresentazione della volontaria nella guerra civile spagnola attraverso gli organi di controllo fascista

La participación femenina en la guerra civil española de 1936 representa la primera forma de concienciación política y de género de las mujeres. En Italia el fascismo creó una red de información y espionaje capaz de vigilar a los opositores que participaron como voluntarios antifranquistas en la guerra de España. Sin embargo, la descripción de la disidencia femenina y de su participación en el conflicto español se basa mucho más en categorías de género que en razones de convicción y peligrosidad política.Female participation in the 1936 Spanish Civil War represents the first form of political and gender awareness for women. Fascism in Italy created an information system to monitor and spy political opponents participating as volunteers in the war against Franco in Spain. However, the representation of female dissidents and of their participation in the Spanish conflict was based much more on gender categories than on beliefs and political dangerousness

Ramón J. Sender tra verità e finzione, con epilogo cinematografico

The Spanish cultural renaissance of the first three decades of the 20th century was interrupted in 1936, when intellectuals abandoned their aesthetic ambitions to describe war. However, some writers were immune to the aesthetic charm of the period. Ramón J. Sender in the 20s used a testimonial style in his journalistic collaborations and in the 30s approached reality for militant purposes, thus anticipating the hybridization of reality and fiction. He narrated the Casas Viejas anarchist revolt in his news reports (1933) and in two narrative reworks, Casas viejas (1933) and Viaje a la aldea del crimen (1934). Fifty years later, the meeting of fiction and reality and the hybridity of genres will also characterize the narrative approach adopted by cinema in narrating the same facts

Il mito di Lope de Aguirre in due opere della drammaturgia franchista e postfranchista

Twentieth-century Spanish theatre is often inspired by the figure of Lope de Aguirre, with motifs and modes that change depending on time, considering 1939 and 1975 two crucial watershed moments in the cultural history of the Iberian Peninsula. The dramatic works analysed date back precisely to the years of Franco’s dictatorship and the democratic period: in 1941 Gonzalo Torrente Ballester was the first twentieth-century dramatist to devote a text, entitled Lope de Aguirre, to the life of the Basque conqueror. The work, for reasons that will be explored in the present essay, was never staged in Franco’s time: Ballester’s Aguirre is a romantic hero who defies the king to defeat the injustices which he is forced to witness, and everyone, men, women, blacks, indios, will at last be free under his red-black banner. Dona Elvira, Imaginate Euskadi (1985), by Ignacio Amestoy Egiguren, is the first published work in the democratic era. It can be read as a great metaphor of the Basque issue, the tragedy of Euskadi and the climate of violence and tension that characterized the Basque Country in the 1980s

Javier Cercas e l’arte del romanzo

This article focuses on a particular feature of postmodernism, the tendency of writers to become critics as well, and at the same time, turn their own literature into a reflection on how to create literature. In the Iberian context, Javier Cercas, a contemporary writer of international renown, has characterized his production by continuous reflection on the novel, conducted both in the works of fiction, in which the meta-literary component becomes ever more present, to reach a mixed genre with blurred boundaries, and also in his works of non-fiction. This study focuses on this particular aspect of Cercas’ bibliography, attaching particular importance to El punto ciego, Javier Cercas’s most recent essay, published in 2016

Challenge-based learning as a tool for creativity and talent expression

After the stop caused by the pandemic, the University of Trento and its newly born FabLab reopened the doors to DigiEduHack (https://digieduhack.com/en/), the decentralized hackathon dedicated to the most pressing challenges of digital and innovative education. More than 30 multidisciplinary students have ventured into the design of innovative learning tools to meet the challenge thrown at them: prototyping educational board games; multimedia artefacts and installations at the intersection of big data, art and technology; co-designing festivals in a combination of art, science and fun; laboratory images to be presented in the classroom. In this short paper, as a case study one, we will outline the DigiEduHack initiative, focusing on the potential of a challenge-based approach in stimulating and strengthening introspection, creative thinking and talent’s expression. Supported by a set of qualitative data collected before and after the event, this work reports an education case study and shows the progress and preliminary reflections of the students and educators involved

Mappatura della letteratura sulle soluzioni digitali e tecnologiche nell'assistenza infermieristica: un protocollo di scoping review

   INTRODUCTION: Digital and technological solutions (DTS) might have an impact on people’s personal and professional lives. These types of solutions, according to studies, have the potential to revolutionize and improve the quality and long-term sustainability of healthcare activities, with nurses playing a significant role. Although DTS appears to be intimately linked to the future of nursing, technology must be utilized as an active rather than passive tool. Nonetheless, understanding DTS appears to be difficult, and a scoping study can provide a thorough overview of such a complicated topic. As a result, the scoping study on this topic will map all of the important aspects of DTS and synthesize studies on the nursing workforce, as well as analyze and clarify knowledge gaps and aid future research and development. This article presents the study protocol.  METHODS: The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) scoping review methodology will be used for the proposed scoping review. It will include both quantitative and qualitative scientific research as well as grey literature on DTS in nursing. Only English-language works will be considered for inclusion. Two independent reviewers will take part in an iterative process of evaluating literature, choosing papers, and extracting data. Disagreements among reviewers will be resolved through debate until a consensus is reached or through consultation with the study team if necessary. Results will be presented using descriptive statistics, diagrammatic or tabular displayed information, and narrative summaries, as specified in the JBI guidelines.  DISCUSSION: This scoping review protocol explained why it is important to describe the literature on embracing DTS in the nursing field, how to approach the research process, and what the study's key implications will be. The protocol itself may be helpful to increase transparency in the research process, attract interested researchers to work with the group that developed the protocol and offer a practical methodological benchmark for researchers interested in performing scoping reviews by serving as an example of a scoping review protocol.  KEYWORDS: Digital solutions; Technological solutions; Nursing; Scoping review; Study protocol; Framework    INTRODUZIONE: Le soluzioni digitali e tecnologiche potrebbero avere un impatto sulla vita personale e professionale della popolazione. Questi tipi di soluzioni, secondo gli studi, hanno il potenziale per rivoluzionare e migliorare la qualità e la sostenibilità a lungo termine delle attività di salute, deve gli infermieri svolgono un ruolo significativo di innovatori, facilitatori e gestori dei processi. Sebbene le soluzioni digitali e tecnologiche sembrino essere intimamente legate al futuro dell’assistenza infermieristica, la tecnologia deve essere utilizzata come strumento attivo, piuttosto che passivo. Tuttavia, la comprensione del fenomeno sembra essere difficile e una scoping review può fornire una panoramica completa di un argomento di tale complessità. Di conseguenza, la presente scoping review mapperà tutti gli aspetti salienti legati alle soluzioni digitali e tecnologiche e sintetizzerà gli studi sul coinvolgimento della professione infermieristica, nonché analizzerà e chiarirà le lacune di conoscenza presenti e aiuterà la ricerca e i progetti futuri. Questo articolo presenta il protocollo di studio di scoping review per raggiungere l’obiettivo di mappatura della letteratura.  METODI: Il protocollo utilizza la metodologia di scoping review del Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). Comprenderà sia la ricerca scientifica quantitativa che qualitativa, nonché la letteratura grigia sulle soluzioni digitali e tecnologiche nell’assistenza infermieristica. Solo i lavori in lingua inglese saranno presi in considerazione per l’inclusione. Due revisori indipendenti prenderanno parte a un processo iterativo di valutazione della letteratura, scelta dei documenti ed estrazione dei dati. I disaccordi tra i revisori saranno risolti attraverso il dibattito fino al raggiungimento di un consenso o attraverso la consultazione con il gruppo di studio, ove necessario. I risultati saranno presentati utilizzando statistiche descrittive, le informazioni presentate in forma grafica, tabulare o a mezzo narrativo, come specificato nelle linee guida JBI.  DISCUSSIONE: Questo protocollo di scoping review intende definire perché è importante descrivere la letteratura sull’adozione delle soluzioni digitali e tecnologiche in ambito infermieristico, come affrontare il processo di ricerca sottostante alla revisione e quali saranno le implicazioni chiave dello studio. Il protocollo stesso può essere utile per aumentare la trasparenza nel processo di ricerca, ingaggiare i ricercatori interessati a lavorare con il gruppo che ha sviluppato il protocollo (research engagement) e offrire un punto di riferimento metodologico e pratico per i ricercatori interessati a svolgere revisioni nel medesimo ambito.  PAROLE CHIAVE: Soluzioni digitali; Soluzioni tecnologiche; Infermieristica; Revisione della letteratura; Protocollo di studi