Il punto sulla crisi

La tavola rotonda su “Gli studi classici nel terzo millennio” (Roma, 16 marzo 2015) ha offerto l’opportunità di un confronto sulla crisi degli studi umanistici e del modello educativo fondato su di essi. Tre sono i principali spunti di riflessione emersi dalla discussione: le cause della crisi, che alcuni attribuiscono ad attacchi esterni, altri a una sorta di esaurimento interno; le prospettive future, per molti tutt’altro che incoraggianti, per altri viceversa ricche di opportunità grazie soprattutto alle tecnologie digitali; le possibili risposte sul piano didattico: un tema, quest’ultimo, che ha visto i relatori divisi tra coloro che sostengono la necessità di continuare a insegnare il greco e il latino con rigore in tutti i loro aspetti e coloro che propongono al contrario di adottare nuovi metodi e di rinunciare contestualmente a quanto può apparire troppo complesso per l’attuale livello degli studenti

Esse y sta: selección de auxiliar en el dialecto del Aquila

This paper presents data on auxiliary selection in Aquilan dialect. It focuses on the two auxiliary verbs esse and sta, which respectively express a permanent and temporary property that holds for a given predicate. The goals of the paper are twofold. A first goal is to offer data on the distribution of these auxiliary verbs, filling an empirical void in the literature. A second goal is to offer a formal syntactic and semantic treatment of these two auxiliaries. This treatment is shown to make several predictions on the properties of these auxiliaries, and their interaction with other parts of speech.En este trabajo se presentan datos sobre la selección de auxiliar en el dialecto del Aquila. Se centra en los dos verbos auxiliares esse y esta, que respectivamente expresan una característica permanente y temporal que se mantiene para un predicado dado. Los objetivos del artículo son dos. El primero es ofrecer datos sobre la distribución de estos verbos auxiliares, llenando un vacío empírico en la bibliografía. El segundo es ofrecer un tratamiento formal de carácter sintáctico y semántico de estos dos auxiliares. Este tratamiento permite hacer varias predicciones sobre las propiedades de estos auxiliares y su interacción con otras partes del discurso

On the syntax and semantics of Italian spatial Ps

This paper offers a unified approach to Italian spatial prepositions, such as di fronte a ‘in front of’, verso ‘towards’, in ‘in’, dietro a ‘behind’, and nel mezzo di ‘in the middle of’. Three assumptions play a key role. First, Italian spatial prepositions can differ sensibly in their morphological structure, but share the same syntactic properties. Second, their sentential distribution is in part context-sensitive, thus based on the categories with which they combine. Third, their semantic contribution is “layered”, in the sense that it includes the meaning dimensions of both aspectual boundedness and specificity. The main result is a generalised theory on the structure and semantic interpretation of these prepositions

The NuSTAR view of the Seyfert Galaxy HE 0436-4717

We present the multi epoch spectral analysis of HE 0436-4717, a bright Seyfert 1 galaxy serendipitously observed by the high energy satellite NuSTAR four times between December 2014 and December 2015. The source flux shows modest variability within each pointing and among the four observations. Spectra are well modelled in terms of a weakly variable primary power law with constant photon index ($\Gamma$=2.01$\pm$0.08). A constant narrow \ion{Fe} K$\alpha$ emission line suggests that this feature has an origin far from the central black hole, while a broad relativistic component is not required by the data. The Compton reflection component is also constant in flux with a corresponding reflection fraction R=0.7$^{+0.2}_{-0.3}$. The iron abundance is compatible with being Solar (A$_{Fe}$=1.2$^{+1.4}_{-0.4}$), and a lower limit for the high energy cut-off E$_c$>280 keV is obtained. Adopting a self-consistent model accounting for a primary Comptonized continuum, we obtain a lower limit for the hot corona electron temperature kT$_e$>65 keV and a corresponding upper limit for the coronal optical depth of $\tau_e$<1.3. The results of the present analysis are consistent with the locus of local Seyfert galaxies in the kT$_e$-$\tau_e$ and temperature-compactness diagrams.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Swift/XRT- NuSTAR spectra of type 1 AGN]{Swift/XRT- NuSTAR spectra of type 1 AGN: confirming INTEGRAL results on the high energy cut-off

We present the 0.5 - 78 keV spectral analysis of 18 broad line AGN belonging to the INTEGRAL complete sample. Using simultaneous Swift-XRT and NuSTAR observations and employing a simple phenomenological model to fit the data, we measure with a good constraint the high energy cut-off in 13 sources, while we place lower limits on 5 objects. We found a mean high-energy cut-off of 111 keV (standard deviation = 45 keV) for the whole sample, in perfect agreement with what found in our previous work using non simultaneous observations and with what recently published using NuSTAR data. This work suggests that simultaneity of the observations in the soft and hard X-ray band is important but not always essential, especially if flux and spectral variability are properly accounted for. A lesser agreement is found when we compare our cut-off measurements with the ones obtained by Ricci et al. (2017) using Swift-BAT high energy data, finding that their values are systematically higher than ours. We have investigated whether a linear correlation exists between photon index and the cut-off and found a weak one, probably to be ascribed to the non perfect modelling of the soft part of the spectra, due to the poor statistical quality of the 2-10 keV X-ray data. No correlation is also found between the Eddington ratio and the cut-off, suggesting that only using high statistical quality broad-band spectra is it possible to verify the theoretical predictions and study the physical characteristics of the hot corona and its geometry.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Le "Metamorfosi" di Ovidio come poema dell’«indistinzione», dell’«illusione» e dell’«incertezza»

This paper discusses three very influential contributions to contemporary Ovidian criticism: Italo Calvino’s "Ovid and Universal Contiguity" (1979) and "Six Memos for the Next Millennium" (1988), Gianpiero Rosati’s "Narciso e Pigmalione" (1983) and Nicola Gardini’s "Con Ovidio" (2017). Within the essays of these three Italian critics and authors emerges an idea of the "Metamorphoses" as a grandiose depiction of the precarious and deceptive nature of reality: an idea which is not, of course, the only interpretive option from a critical point of view, but is doubtless the best suited to the "Zeitgeist" in the «Age of Uncertainty»

Which Side are You On? The Worlds of Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is a key figure among the first wave of authors of the so-called British Generation (Sandifer and Eklund). The works of the other two creators, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, have been the basis for a wealth of scholarly research within the field of comics studies and whole constellations of literary scholarship (Sandifer and Eklund; Sanders; Krueger and Shaeffer; Millidge). Morrison\u27s fictional worlds, however, remain understudied, despite the fact that, as Marc Singer observes, Morrison\u27s work and career seem to be evenly distributed along a continuum ranging from the alternative Vertigo material to the mainstream superhero comics (Singer 10-30). Furthermore, what should be of interest to comics scholars is the peculiar character of Morrison\u27s method, which seems to lie in his unique approach to the creative process. A chaos magician, shrewd comic entrepreneur, self-proclaimed geek and a closet workaholic, Morrison has always juggled several projects at once, often transferring ideas and concepts across series as a result, using subtle references to Borges and Calvino together with obscure mentions of silver age characters of DC comics, as for instance Buddy Baker/Animal Man (Callahan; Shapira). Since Morrison has spread his intense commitment to artistic production over a vast continuum of work, the net result is that the boundaries between mainstream and alternative productions have become thin

Investigating the X-ray polarization of lamp-post coronae in BHXRB

High-sensitivity X-ray polarimetric observations of black hole X-ray binaries, which will soon become available with the launches of space-borne X-ray observatories with sensitive X-ray polarimeters, will be able to put independent constraints on the black hole as well as the accretion flow, and possibly break degeneracies that cannot be resolved by spectral/timing observations alone. In this work we perform a series of general relativistic Monte-Carlo radiative transfer simulations to study the expected polarization properties of X-ray radiation emerging from lamp-post coronae in black hole X-ray binaries. We find that the polarization degree of the coronal emission of black hole X-ray binaries is sensitive to the spin of the black hole, the height of the corona, and the dynamics of the corona.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Location-Dependent Human Osteoarthritis Cartilage Response to Realistic Cyclic Loading: Ex-Vivo Analysis on Different Knee Compartments

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial musculoskeletal disorder affecting mostly weight-bearing joints. Chondrocyte response to load is modulated by inflammatory mediators and factors involved in extracellular cartilage matrix (ECM) maintenance, but regulatory mechanisms are not fully clarified yet. By using a recently proposed experimental model combining biomechanical data with cartilage molecular information, basally and following ex-vivo load application, we aimed at improving the understanding of human cartilage response to cyclic mechanical compressive stimuli by including cartilage original anatomical position and OA degree as independent factors. Methods: 19 mono-compartmental Knee OA patients undergoing total knee replacement were recruited. Cartilage explants from four different femoral condyles zones and with different degeneration levels were collected. The response of cartilage samples, pooled according to OA score and anatomical position was tested ex-vivo in a bioreactor. Mechanical stimulation was obtained via a 3-MPa 1-Hz sinusoidal compressive load for 45-min to replicate average knee loading during normal walking. Samples were analysed for chondrocyte gene expression and ECM factor release. Results: Non parametric univariate and multivariate (generalized linear mixed model) analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of compression and IL-1β stimulation in relationship to the anatomical position, local disease severity and clinical parameters with a level of significance set at 0.05. We observed an anti-inflammatory effect of compression inducing a significant downmodulation of IL-6 and IL-8 levels correlated to the anatomical regions, but not to OA score. Moreover, ADAMTS5, PIICP, COMP and CS were upregulated by compression, whereas COL-2CAV was downmodulated, all in relationship to the anatomical position and to the OA degree. Conclusion: While unconfined compression testing may not be fully representative of the in-vivo biomechanical situation, this study demonstrates the importance to consider the original cartilage anatomical position for a reliable biomolecular analysis of knee OA metabolism following mechanical stimulation