La questione del dialetto in Giuseppe Lombardo Radice

Since Unification in 1861, the linguistic issue has been in Italy a topic of fundamental importance in the schooling-nationalization process. For a long time refused in school and considered as a “bad” and “dirty” language, it is only since the first decades of the twentieth century that dialect acquires a new dimension in the classroom. Among the main supporters of this new development is Giuseppe Lombardo Radice, author, in particular, of the programmes for elementary school of 1923. The essay reconstructs his thought on the matter and the new elements he introduced in the didactic field

Istruzione e formazione professionale in Italia: Evoluzione dell’ordinamento e prospettive Culturali

The essay reconstructs the history of education (theoretical) and training (practice) with regard to labor market (lower-skilled occupations) in Italy from taking into account the legislation in that field, tracing briefly the main steps of a process from 1859 to the present day. The phenomenon, characterized by a wide range of founding reasons and ideal grounds (philanthropics and mutualistics, seculars and religiouses, publics and privates, humanitarians and productivists...) according to an ancient and glorious tradition, has always been –at least until the latest reforms–, ambiguosly alternative to the traditional school and just recently they were understood as initial rather than complementary to work. The gap between the two courses was proposed again in 1970 with the raise of the Regions with ordinary statute, which established the dualism between State and regional expertise in the field of professional education and training, confirmed in 2001. Since then, the discussion has been based not only on the role of both the State and local governments, but also on the creation or not of a system empowered by equal dignity between the high school and professional choice.El ensayo traza la historia de la educación (teoría) y la formación (la práctica) con relación al mundo del trabajo y el mercado laboral en Italia, con base en las fuentes normativas. En el trabajo de investigación se realiza un breve esbozo de las principales etapas de un proceso que comienza en 1859 y se expande hasta la actualidad. El fenómeno, heredero de una tradición antigua y gloriosa, se caracteriza por una multitud de razones e ideales inspiradores (filantrópicos, religiosos, seculares, públicos-privados, humanitarios y sistema productivo), siempre ha sido, por lo menos hasta las reformas de los últimos años, una alternativa ambigua a la escuela tradicional y, como tal, sólo recientemente se concibe como básico, más que complementario, con respecto al trabajo. La distancia entre las dos alternativas se reactivó en 1970 con la llegada de las Regiones con estatuto ordinario, que estableció el dualismo entre el Estado y la experiencia regional en el campo de la educación y la formación profesional, reafirmándose esta división en 2001. En el debate han participado distintos agentes sociales como autoridades estatales y locales; los profesionales y el cuerpo político, intentando trabajar con la intención de crear un sistema de igualdad institucional y curricular entre la escuela secundaria y la educación vocacional.Il saggio ricostruisce la storia dell’istruzione (teorica) e della formazione (pratica) al mondo del lavoro e delle professioni di ordine esecutivo in Italia dal punto di vista dell’assetto legislativo in materia, ripercorrendo in breve le tappe principali di un processo che dal 1859 arriva fino ai giorni nostri. Il fenomeno, erede di un’antica e gloriosa tradizione e caratterizzato da una pluralità di ragioni fondative e di ispirazioni ideali (filantropiche e mutualistiche, laiche e religiose, pubbliche e private, umanitarie e aziendalistico-produttivistiche...), rappresenta da sempre, almeno fino alle riforme degli ultimi anni, un percorso ambiguamente alternativo rispetto a quello scolastico tradizionale e, come tale, solo di recente concepito come iniziale, anziché complementare, rispetto all’attività lavorativa. La ricorrente distanza tra le due alternative fu riproposta nel 1970 con l’avvento delle Regioni a statuto ordinario, che sanciva il dualismo tra competenze statali e regionali in materia d’istruzione e formazione professionale, riaffermato nel 2001. Da allora il dibattito ha riguardato e riguarda, da un lato, il ruolo dello Stato e degli enti locali, dall’altro, la creazione o meno di un sistema di pari dignità fra la scelta liceale e quella professionale

Epidemiology of tuberculosis in a low-incidence Italian region with high immigration rates: differences between not Italy-born and Italy-born TB cases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Emilia Romagna, a northern Italian region, has a population of 4.27 million, of which 9.7% are immigrants. The objective of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) during the period 1996-2006 in not Italy-born compared to Italy-born cases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data was obtained from the Regional TB surveillance system, from where personal data, clinical features and risk factors of all notified TB cases were extracted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>5377 TB cases were reported. The proportion of immigrants with TB, over the total number of TB cases had progressively increased over the years, from 19.1% to 53.3%. In the not Italy-born population, TB incidence was higher than in Italians (in 2006: 100.7 cases per 100 000 registered not Italy-born subjects and 83.9/100 000 adding 20% of estimated irregular presences to the denominators. TB incidence among Italians was 6.5/100 000 Italians). A progressive rise in the not Italy-born incident cases was observed but associated with a decline in TB incidence. Not Italy-born cases were younger compared to the Italy-born cases, and more frequently classified as "new cases" (OR 2.0 95%CI 1.61-2.49 for age group 20-39); 60.7% had pulmonary TB, 31.6% extra pulmonary and 7.6% disseminated TB. Risk factors for TB in this population group were connected to lower income status (homeless: OR 149.9 95%CI 20.7-1083.3 for age group 40-59).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In low-incidence regions, prevention and control of TB among sub-groups at risk such as the foreign-born population is a matter of public health concern. In addition, increasing immigration rates may affect TB epidemiology. TB among immigrants is characterized by particular clinical features and risk factors, which should be analyzed in order to plan effective action.</p

Advances in Focused Ion Beam Tomography for Three-Dimensional Characterization in Materials Science

Over the years, FIB-SEM tomography has become an extremely important technique for the three-dimensional reconstruction of microscopic structures with nanometric resolution. This paper describes in detail the steps required to perform this analysis, from the experimental setup to the data analysis and final reconstruction. To demonstrate the versatility of the technique, a comprehensive list of applications is also summarized, ranging from batteries to shale rocks and even some types of soft materials. Moreover, the continuous technological development, such as the introduction of the latest models of plasma and cryo-FIB, can open the way towards the analysis with this technique of a large class of soft materials, while the introduction of new machine learning and deep learning systems will not only improve the resolution and the quality of the final data, but also expand the degree of automation and efficiency in the dataset handling. These future developments, combined with a technique that is already reliable and widely used in various fields of research, are certain to become a routine tool in electron microscopy and material characterization

Mesenchymal to amoeboid transition is associated with stem-like features of melanoma cells

Background: Cellular plasticity confers cancer cells the ability to adapt to microenvironmental changes, a fundamental requirement for tumour progression and metastasis. The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a transcriptional programme associated with increased cell motility and stemness. Besides EMT, the mesenchymal to amoeboid transition (MAT) has been described during tumour progression but to date, little is known about its transcriptional control and involvement in stemness. The aim of this manuscript is to investigate (i) the transcriptional profile associated with the MAT programme and (ii) to study whether MAT acquisition in melanoma cancer cells correlates with clonogenic potential to promote tumour growth. Results: By using a multidisciplinary approach, we identified four different treatments able to induce MAT in melanoma cells: EphA2 overexpression, Rac1 functional inhibition using its RacN17 dominant negative mutant, stimulation with Ilomastat or treatment with the RhoA activator Calpeptin. First, gene expression profiling identified the transcriptional pathways associated with MAT, independently of the stimulus that induces the MAT programme. Notably, gene sets associated with the repression of mesenchymal traits, decrease in the secretion of extracellular matrix components as well as increase of cellular stemness positively correlate with MAT. Second, the link between MAT and stemness has been investigated in vitro by analysing stemness markers and clonogenic potential of melanoma cells undergoing MAT. Finally, the link between MAT inducing treatments and tumour initiating capability has been validated in vivo. Conclusion: Taken together, our results demonstrate that MAT programme in melanoma is characterised by increased stemness and clonogenic features of cancer cells, thus sustaining tumour progression. Furthermore, these data suggest that stemness is not an exclusive feature of cells undergoing EMT, but more generally is associated with an increase in cellular plasticity of cancer cells

La formazione degli insegnanti della secondaria in Italia e in Germania

From an educational-historical point of view this book analyses the cultural models that underlie the conception and organisation of secondary teacher education and the professionalisation of future secondary school teachers in Europe. These models, based on different conceptions of school, citizenship and the teaching profession, have an enormous influence on school policy. Taking the examples of Italy and Germany, the complex history of teacher education is reconstructed and analysed. The articles deal, in a long-term perspective, with the emergence of national models of teacher education at the end of the 18th century, their consolidation in the 19th and 20th centuries and their transnational transformations between past and present

Biological application of Compressed Sensing Tomography in the Scanning Electron Microscope

The three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction of a biological sample, namely collagen fibrils in human dermal tissue, was obtained from a set of projection-images acquired in the Scanning Electron Microscope. A tailored strategy for the transmission imaging mode was implemented in the microscope and proved effective in acquiring the projections needed for the tomographic reconstruction. Suitable projection alignment and Compressed Sensing formulation were used to overcome the limitations arising from the experimental acquisition strategy and to improve the reconstruction of the sample. The undetermined problem of structure reconstruction from a set of projections, limited in number and angular range, was indeed supported by exploiting the sparsity of the object projected in the electron microscopy images. In particular, the proposed system was able to preserve the reconstruction accuracy even in presence of a significant reduction of experimental projections

exploiting the mycobacterial cell wall to design improved vaccines against tuberculosis

The only vaccine available against tuberculosis (TB), the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), does not provide effective protection against the most common forms of adult TB and in recent years efforts have been made to develop a new and improved vaccine. Among the strategies implemented, the generation of a new live attenuated mycobacterial strain is seen as one of the most promising and feasible, for scientific, ethical and practical reasons. The new understanding of the biology of the tubercle bacilli and of host-pathogen interaction processes, coupled with the possibility to engineer BCG or M. tuberculosis, opened new avenues to design "intelligent" vaccines, capable of eliciting the immune response associated with protection while avoiding the induction of the host immune response associated with immunopathology. The complex and highly immunogenic mycobacterial cell wall can shape the general and antigen specific immune response elicited following immunization, and the possibility to exploit this knowledge may lead to the development of new vaccines that could help conquer this ancient human disease