The Journey of the Mute Frankenstein of Thomas Potter Cooke. Towards a language for a new science

In 1923 at the Royal Theatre English Opera House of London started the journey of the mute Frankenstein of Thomas Potter Cook. On that stage the creature born from the encounter between science and romantic genius definitively lost his voice to progressively assume more and more the appearance of a body that speaks for itself, beyond literary fact, and above all beyond verbal language. If in the novel by Mary Shelley the acquisition of a language is the main tool of identity emancipation for the indefinable 'product' of contemporary scientific culture, on stage the actor Cooke, who played that silent character 365 times, laid the foundations of one of the myths of modernity. The article questions the way in which the creature of Dr. Victor Frankenstein came into the midst of 1820s European popular culture, contributing on the one hand to preparing public imagination for the debate on Darwinism that would take place forty years later; revealing on the other a new fundamental aesthetic perception, because the discoveries of the new sciences (chemistry, physics, physiology, etc.) became a common experience that can be found empirically

Copyright and the right to the city

No abstract available

Embedding of the rank 1 DAHA into Mat(2,Tq) and its automorphisms

In this review paper we show how the Cherednik algebra of type $\check{C_1}C_1$ appears naturally as quantisation of the group algebra of the monodromy group associated to the sixth Painlev\'e equation. This fact naturally leads to an embedding of the Cherednik algebra of type $\check{C_1}C_1$ into $Mat(2,\mathbb T_q)$, i.e. $2\times 2$ matrices with entries in the quantum torus. For $q=1$ this result is equivalent to say that the Cherednik algebra of type $\check{C_1}C_1$ is Azumaya of degree $2$ \cite{O}. By quantising the action of the braid group and of the Okamoto transformations on the monodromy group associated to the sixth Painlev\'e equation we study the automorphisms of the Cherednik algebra of type $\check{C_1}C_1$ and conjecture the existence of a new automorphism. Inspired by the confluences of the Painlev\'e equations, we produce similar embeddings for the confluent Cherednik algebras $\mathcal H_V,\mathcal H_{IV},\mathcal H_{III},\mathcal H_{II}$ and $\mathcal H_{I},$ defined in arXiv:1307.6140.Comment: Dedicated to Masatoshi Noumi for his 60th birthda

Post-traumatic stress symptoms in 223 childhood cancer survivors: incidence, severity and predictive risk factors

With modern therapies and supportive care, survival rates of childhood cancer have increased considerably. However, there are long-term psychological sequelae of these treatments that may not manifest until pediatric survivors are into adulthood. The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in young adult survivors of childhood cancer ranges from 6.2 to 22%; associated risk factors are young age at the assessment, female gender, low education level, and some disease-related factors. The aim of this study was to investigate, in adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors of childhood cancer, the incidence and severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs), and to identify the risk factors and the associated post-traumatic growth (PTG) index. Participants were 223 AYA cancer survivors recruited during follow-up visits in the Oncohematology Clinic of the Department of Child and Woman\u2019s Health, University of Padua. Data were collected from self-report questionnaires on PTSS incidence, PTG mean score, perceived social support, and medical and socio-demographic factors. Ex-patients\u2019 mean age at the assessment was 19.33 years (SD = 3.01, 15\u201325), 123 males and 100 females, with a mean of years off-therapy of 9.64 (SD = 4.17). Most (52.5%) had survived an hematological disorder and 47.5% a solid tumor when they were aged, on average, 8.02 years (SD = 4.40). The main results indicated a moderate presence of clinical ( 659 symptoms: 9.4%) and sub-clinical PTSS (6\u20138 symptoms: 11.2%), with the avoidance criterion most often encountered. Re-experience symptoms and PTG mean score were significantly associated (r = 0.24; p = 0.0001). A hierarchical regression model (R2 = 0.08; F = 1.46; p = 0.05) identified female gender (\u3b2 = 0.16; p = 0.05) and less perceived social support (\u3b2 = -0.43; p = 0.05) as risk factors to developing PTSS. Another hierarchical regression model assessed the possible predictors of the PTG total score (R2 = 0.36; F = 9.1; p = 0.0001), with female gender (\u3b2 = 0.13; p = 0.04), actual age (\u3b2 = 0.52; p = 0.0001), younger age at the diagnosis (\u3b2 = -0.3; p = 0.02), and less years off-therapy (\u3b2 = -0.58; p = 0.0001) impacting on PTG

On Galois descent of complete intersections

We introduce a notion of strict complete intersections with respect to Cox rings and we prove Galois descent for this new notion.Comment: 8 pages; minor revisio

The first massive black holes

I briefly outline recent theoretical developments on the formation of the first massive black holes (MBHs) that may grow into the population of MBHs powering quasars and inhabiting galactic centers today. I also touch upon possible observational tests that may give insights on what the properties of the first MBHs were.Comment: Very short review to appear in the proceedings of "First Stars IV", held in Kyoto, Japan, May 201

A critical analysis of New Zealand's Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 and its implementation process : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Listed in 2017 Dean's List of Exceptional ThesesIntroduction: In July 2013, the New Zealand Parliament passed the Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA), the world’s first law to regulate the availability of new psychoactive substances (NPS, “legal highs”, LH). Under the “interim PSA regime” 47 products were permitted to be sold subject to new retail and other regulations. In May 2014, the Government abruptly ended the interim regime following public protests. This thesis aims to critically evaluate the PSA and its implementation. Methods: A mixed methods approach combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. Legal analysis of the PSA and related legislation, and content analysis of parliamentary debates and public submissions were completed. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with key informants (KI) including politicians, government officials, health professionals, and LH industry actors (n=30). Questions about health perceptions and social acceptability of approved products were added to an annual survey of police arrestees (n=834). Analyses of primary data included thematic analysis of interview transcripts and statistical analysis of data from the arrestee survey. Results: The legal definition of “psychoactive substance” (s. 8, 9(1) PSA) overlaps with other regulatory regimes (e.g. medicines, dietary supplements) resulting in an unclear legal status for some products. Interviewed KIs identified a number of issues with the “interim regime”, including the safety of interim products, speed and efficiency of withdrawing problem products, the lack of regulations on price and retail opening hours, slowness of developing regulations for the full PSA regime, and the effectiveness of communicating the new policy to stakeholders and the public. As the market commercialised, the LH industry adopted business and lobbying strategies previously attributed to the alcohol and tobacco sectors, including targeting vulnerable customers. Surveyed police arrestees considered approved synthetic cannabis (SC) products higher health risk and less socially acceptable than alcohol, tobacco and many illegal drugs, reflecting problems with interim product approvals. The ban on animal testing of prospective products is likely to prevent further implementation of the PSA, unless a new political consensus is achieved. Conclusions: The issues experienced during PSA implementation highlight the significant challenges of establishing a legal market for psychoactive products. The time, resources and planning required to successfully implement the PSA may have been underestimated

Aristotle on Enduring Evils While Staying Happy

In what ways and how far does virtue shield someone against suffering evils? In other words, how do non-moral evils affect the lives of virtuous people and to what extent can someone endure evils while staying happy? The central purpose of this chapter is to answer these questions by exploring what Aristotle has to say about the effects of evils in human well-being in general and his treatment of extreme misfortunes