Feasting with the Outlander

While tv programs tend to acclaim cooks, by testing their ability in showcookings, challenging their skills on special talent shows and even by inviting them as opinion leaders commenting on the current affairs, cinema still prefers celebrating conviviality. Showing people having a meal together around the table involves celebrating eating as a basic transformative act, more or less orchestrated by a cook who contributes to create actual experiences by means of his services. Through them, he reconstitutes the existence of individuals, of communities or even of entire countries. This means that, in principle, the mission of the cooks on most movies operates on a level at the same time broader and deeper than the mere culinary expertise (which is not always necessary), calling into question what can be traced as eminently human in the individual and political experience of the people involved. Celebrating the table becomes, then, a way to position the self and the ingroup up to include the whole of humanity in an idea of community which is, at the same time, political (I eat like my community does), ethical (my community eats the right way), and even religious (humanity should eat as my community does). In order to let such a configuration emerge from the obvious of the everyday life, showing all of its anthropological importance, cinema needs outlanders. They are addressed to look at a particular social group from outside and reveal the arbitrariness of its way of eating while proclaiming the word of the culinary transformation. In movies, countless are the gastronomic foreigners who arise, unexpected, in order to stage the relativity, and at the same time the importance, of cooking and eating habits. And, in general, almost all the characters in this strange genre, foreigners or not, have a problem of inclusion / exclusion with respect to some groups. My analysis will show how the stories of the culinary movies can be considered as \u201cthought experiment\u201d of different strategies (and incomes) of a same problem of facing otherness. The result of this work will identify, scanning the stories of the movies, culinary archetypes of different political models of interaction between groups and will also show how specific models of leadership could be recognized in the way the characters address their diners to the change of their diet

I Puffi nella foresta segreta

Viaggio nella foresta segreta \ue8 il terzo film dedicato da Sony Picture Animation al rilancio della celebre serie di personaggi animati disegnati da Peyo. Gi\ue0 Umberto Eco in un simpatico articolo uscito su Alfabeta ne descriveva i contorni, sottolineando la complessit\ue0 semiotica della neolingua puffa, gli aspetti egualitari del loro vivere insieme (tutti i puffi sono uguali e maschi), la forma di governo gerontocratica (tutto il potere va all\u2019anziano Grande Puffo), l\u2019enigma della loro riproduzione (come si diventa puffo?), il carattere di utopia politica misticheggiante del loro modello di societ\ue0 (una comune sessantottina) che assume le sembianze di un\u2019et\ue0 dell\u2019oro tanto bucolica quanto fiabesca. Ci vorr\ue0 una trentina d\u2019anni da quell\u2019articolo, perch\ue9 il filosofo francese Antoine Bu\ue9no, nel suo famoso Libro nero dei puffi, possa ribaltare il punto di vista di Eco, riconoscendo nei medesimi tratti individuati dal semiologo (e in altri ancora) il segno di una mira totalitaria, pi\uf9 o meno consapevolmente ispirata al modello comunista e nazista. Si potrebbe obiettare che, nella metafora politica dei Puffi, sia gioco facile rintracciare alcuni elementi archetipici generali da cui anche comunismo e nazismo hanno sicuramente pescato. Si tratta di una retorica comunitarista pi\uf9 ampia e radicata dei totalitarismi novecenteschi, che trova il suo senso nella dialettica con l\u2019ipotesi alternativa, fondata sull\u2019individuo e sull\u2019anonimato

Facebook dei morti

L'articolo prende in esame il modo in cui la morte viene trattata all'interno dei social network, dai grandi lutti globali fino alle microcomunit\ue0 formate dalle liste di amici

Personality traits and disorders among adult adhd patients: Do they vary between males and females?

INTRODUCTION: Patients with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have shown an increased risk of developing a DSM Cluster B (i.e., Borderline, OR=13.16; Antisocial, OR=3.03; Narcissistic, OR=8.69) and DSM Avoidant Personality Disorder (PD; OR=9.77; Miller et al., 2008). Although different comorbidities affect males and females with ADHD (Kooij et al., 2013), gender differences in personality traits and disorders have not yet been investigated. OBJECTIVES: To describe gender differences in personality traits and disorders among a sample of adult outpatients with ADHD. METHODS: A consecutive sample of DSM-5 ADHD outpatients was recruited at the Adult ADHD Center of the “San Luigi” University Hospital (Orbassano (TO), Italy) between Jan 2017 and Jan 2018. Patients’ personality was assessed by Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III; Zennaro et al, 2008). RESULTS: The study sample consisted of 82 males and 31 females. Sixty percent of men vs. 77% of women had a personality disorder ( CONCLUSIONS: Women with ADHD showed a higher frequency of personality disorders and higher rate of Masochistic PD than men. Moreover, the two most important clusters detected in women included severe personality components (i.e., Borderline and Paranoid) when compared with men. Further studies on larger samples should be conducted to confirm more severe personality profiles in women than in men. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships

By promoting cell differentiation, miR-100 sensitizes basal-like breast cancer stem cells to hormonal therapy

Basal-like breast cancer is an aggressive tumor subtype with a poor response to conventional therapies. Tumor formation and relapse are sustained by a cell subset of Breast Cancer Stem Cells (BrCSCs). Here we show that miR-100 inhibits maintenance and expansion of BrCSCs in basal-like cancer through Polo-like kinase1 (Plk1) down-regulation. Moreover, miR-100 favors BrCSC differentiation, converting a basal like phenotype into luminal. It induces the expression of a functional estrogen receptor (ER) and renders basal-like BrCSCs responsive to hormonal therapy. The key role played by miR-100 in breast cancer free-survival is confirmed by the analysis of a cohort of patients' tumors, which shows that low expression of miR-100 is a negative prognostic factor and is associated with gene signatures of high grade undifferentiated tumors. Our findings indicate a new possible therapeutic strategy, which could make aggressive breast cancers responsive to standard treatments

Combined platelet-rich plasma and lipofilling treatment provides great improvement in facial skin-induced lesion regeneration for scleroderma patients

Background: The use of stem cells, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), for regenerative medicine is gaining interest for the clinical benefits so far obtained in patients. This study investigates the use of adipose autologous tissue in combination with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to improve the clinical outcome of patients affected by systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods: Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) and PRPs were purified from healthy donors and SSc patients. The multilineage differentiation potential of AD-MSCs and their genotypic-phenotypic features were investigated. A cytokine production profile was evaluated on AD-MSCs and PRPs from both healthy subjects and SSc patients. The adipose tissue-derived cell fraction, the so-called stromal vascular fraction (SVF), was coinjected with PRP in the perioral area of SSc patients. Results: Histopathological and phenotypical analysis of adipose tissue from SSc patients revealed a disorganization of its distinct architecture coupled with an altered cell composition. Although AD-MSCs derived from SSc patients showed high multipotency, they failed to sustain a terminally differentiated progeny. Furthermore, SVFs derived from SSc patients differed from healthy donors in their MSC-like traits coupled with an aberrant cytokine production profile. Finally, the administration of PRP in combination with autologous SVF improved buccal's rhyme, skin elasticity and vascularization for all of the SSc patients enrolled in this study. Conclusions: This innovative regenerative therapy could be exploited for the treatment of chronic connective tissue diseases, including SSc