Why Immoral Art Cannot Morally Harm Us

Both philosophers and literary critics have championed artworks as necessary to moral education. As a result many of these critics believe that art that is bad or immoral can causally affect our character, resulting in moral harm. Moral harm is the idea that artworks possess a strong disposition to affect our moral beliefs such that we are less able to distinguish between what is good and what is bad. I examine this concept of moral harm and argue that immoral artworks do not have this kind of causal power over our moral beliefs. Proponents of the moral harm thesis are in error to attribute such a power to artworks. Additionally, I propose a definition of immoral artworks consistent with moral harm, as well as discuss the distinction between immoral artworks and artworks that are merely elicit disgust or offense

Outside of Here There’s Hope: A Heideggerian Analysis of Beckett’s Endgame

Samuel Beckett’s plays are often interpreted as literature which highlights the meaningless and banality of life. Endgame is no exception to this when read as record of the repetitive and futile efforts of Hamm and Clov to stave off their inevitable deaths. In this essay I examine the trope of death in the play as a function of time by appealing to Martin Heidegger’s conception of the temporal self. In doing so, I reveal that a positive interpretation of the play’s ending is just as valid as a pessimistic interpretation, and that pessimistic interpretations of the play simply ignore the possibility for hope and existential freedom

Valutazione delle prestazioni di sistemi WiFi per reti veicolari

Le prestazioni di sistemi WiFi usati in reti veicolari per trasferire dati tra veicoli in movimento ed Internet dipendono sia dalla topologia dei punti di accesso a bordo strada che dalla mobilità dei veicoli. L'obiettivo di questa tesi è di valutare tramite un simulatore di rete, ed usando tracce realistiche di mobilità veicolare, le prestazioni di tali sistemi WiFi considerando diverse politiche di posizionamento di un limitato numero di punti di accesso in un'area urbana

Real time investigation of solvent swelling induced β phase formation in poly(9-9-dioctyl fluorene)

The physical processes leading to solvent swelling induced glassy- to beta-phase transition in poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) thin films are investigated in real time by photoluminescence and confocal spectroscopy. We show that the vapor solvent swelling induced beta-phase formation takes place in much shorter times (few minutes) than the one usually employed in literature (several hours). Moreover, we show that the swelling is faster if the solvent mainly interacts with the PF8 aromatic rings (toluene) than with the octyl chains (isooctane). On the contrary, no swelling is caused by nonsolvents such as n-butylic alcohol. Finally, we demonstrate that the beta-phase formation is due to athermal (simultaneous) nucleation followed by diffusion controlled one dimensional crystallization

Bond Breaking and Bond Formation: How Electron Correlation is Captured in Many-Body Perturbation Theory and Density-Functional Theory

For the paradigmatic case of H2-dissociation we compare state-of-the-art many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) in the GW approximation and density-functional theory (DFT) in the exact-exchange plus random-phase approximation for the correlation energy (EX+cRPA). For an unbiased comparison and to prevent spurious starting point effects both approaches are iterated to full self-consistency (i.e. sc-RPA and sc-GW). The exchange-correlation diagrams in both approaches are topologically identical, but in sc-RPA they are evaluated with non-interacting and in sc-GW with interacting Green functions. This has a profound consequence for the dissociation region, where sc-RPA is superior to sc-GW. We argue that for a given diagrammatic expansion, the DFT framework outperforms the many-body framework when it comes to bond-breaking. We attribute this to the difference in the correlation energy rather than the treatment of the kinetic energy.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Il sito Web dell\u27Istituto di ricerche sulla popolazione e le politiche sociali

Not yet availableLa progettazione, lo sviluppo e la manutenzione del sito Web dell\u27IRPPS rientrano nelle competenze del servizio "Elaborazioni informatiche e banche dati" nella sede di Roma potendo la sede di Salerno gestire una parte del sito autonomamente. Questo lavoro ? finalizzato ad illustrare le varie fasi di sviluppo del sito Web dell\u27IRPPS che si sono susseguite nel corso degli anni. L\u27obiettivo ? quello di tracciare un resoconto sintetico di tutte le scelte effettuate rispetto: alle informazioni inserite nel sito, ai linguaggi di programmazione utilizzati, alle modalit? di comunicazione tramite il web, alle soluzioni pratiche adottate a fronte di problemi tecnici e di esigenze che si sono verificate nel tempo in Istituto. Nel corso degli anni sono state realizzate tre versioni: la prima molto semplice sia rispetto al linguaggio di programmazione (solo pagine html) che alla grafica utilizzata; la seconda strutturata a frame sempre in html e l\u27ultima progettata come un "portale", a nostro avviso molto pi? efficiente perch? rende immediatamente disponibile l\u27informazione di base di tutto il sito, sulle ricerche e attivit? dell\u27Istituto. In quest\u27ultima versione oltre alle pagine programmate in html, sono state progettate anche pagine dinamiche pensate per la costruzione della mailing list dell\u27Istituto nel linguaggio Php e il MySql utilizzato come database. Inoltre, abbiamo cercato di applicare le linee guida di indirizzo per la produzione dell\u27informazione che gli organi preposti del CNR hanno consigliato di adottare per tutti i siti web del dominio "cnr.it". Una particolare attenzione sar? rivolta ad alcune tecniche statistiche come ad esempio quelle che vanno sotto il nome di data web maining. Queste tecniche sono generalmente applicate ai file di log (file residenti sul server che ospita il sito e che registra quotidianamente i dati delle visite alle pagine web) e servono per conoscere il profilo degli utenti e capire come migliorare il sito in termini di facilit? di accesso. Ci?, pu? avere ricadute inaspettate, come quella di poter monitorare e veicolare un canale di comunicazione scientifica dalle caratteristiche eccezionali, come ? quello offerto da Internet

HGF modulates actin cytoskeleton remodeling and contraction in testicular myoid cells

The presence of the HGF/Met system in the testicular myoid cells was first discovered by our group. However, the physiological role of this pathway remains poorly understood. We previously reported that HGF increases uPA secretion and TGF-β activation in cultured tubular fragments and that HGF is maximally expressed at Stages VII–VIII of the seminiferous epithelium cycle, when myoid cell contraction occurs. It is well known that the HGF/Met pathway is involved in cytoskeletal remodeling; moreover, the interaction of uPA with its receptor, uPAR, as well as the activation of TGF-β have been reported to be related to the actin cytoskeleton contractility of smooth muscle cells. Herein, we report that HGF induces actin cytoskeleton remodeling in vitro in isolated myoid cells and myoid cell contraction in cultured seminiferous tubules. To better understand these phenomena, we evaluated: (1) the regulation of the uPA machinery in isolated myoid cells after HGF administration; and (2) the effect of uPA or Met inhibition on HGF-treated tubular fragments. Because uPA activates latent TGF-β, the secretion of this factor was also evaluated. We found that both uPA and TGF-β activation increase after HGF administration. In testicular tubular fragments, HGF-induced TGF-β activation and myoid cell contraction are abrogated by uPA or Met inhibitor administratio

Possible role of ABO system in age-related diseases and longevity: a narrative review

ABO blood group antigens are expressed either on the surface of red blood cells either on a variety of other cells. Based on the available knowledge of the genes involved in their biosynthesis and their tissue distribution, their polymorphism has been suggested to provide intraspecies diversity allowing to cope with diverse and rapidly evolving pathogens. Accordingly, the different prevalence of ABO group genotypes among the populations has been demonstrated to be driven by malaria selection. In the similar manner, a particular ABO blood group may contribute to favour life-extension via biological mechanisms important for surviving or eluding serious disease. In this review, we will suggest the possible association of ABO group with age-related diseases and longevity taking into account the biological role of the ABO glycosyltransferases on some inflammatory mediators as adhesion molecule

Centenarians and diet: what they eat in the Western part of Sicily.

This paper pays attention to the modifiable lifestyle factors such as diet and nutrition that might influence life extension and successful ageing. Previous data reported that in Sicily, the biggest Mediterranean island, there are some places where there is a high frequency of male centenarians with respect to the Italian average. The present data show that in Sicani Mountain zone there are more centenarians with respect to the Italian average. In fact, in five villages of Sicani Mountains, there were 19 people with an age range of 100-107 years old from a total population of 18,328 inhabitants. So, the centenarian number was 4.32-fold higher than the national average (10.37 vs. 2.4/10,000); the female/male ratio was 1.1:1 in the study area, while the national ratio is 4.54:1. Unequivocally, their nutritional assessment showed a high adherence to the Mediterranean nutritional profile with low glycemic index food consumed. To reach successful ageing it is advisable to follow a diet with low quantity of saturated fat and high amount of fruits and vegetables rich in phytochemicals